is I've thought all day long how, last night and today, how I could get back at you and I have not been successful. So I surrender, I yield. You win. But this general assembly is not over. I may arrive at something by tomorrow evening. Thank you, one and all. I know we've had a long day. I noticed last night in the preaching, there were some that were going like this, and one brother, whose name I will not call, but whose first initial begins with Jason Montgomery, informed me that he was not nodding, but he was praying for me. What reassurance that was. as he was going like this. So, I hope you have prayed for me, but not tonight, okay? Oh, that worries me. I know it has been a long day and I don't want to keep you excessively long, but I do want to do what has been assigned to me, and if you would take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter one. The book of Colossians chapter one. And the task that was assigned to me is to deal with our confession, chapter 26, paragraph 10, in which we find these words. the work of pastors being constantly to attend to the service of Christ in his churches in the ministry of the word and prayer with watching for their souls as they that must give an account to him. The rest then deals with the responsibility of the churches to the pastor. Having said that, last night we looked at the first point that was assigned to me, the ministry of the word. Tonight, I want us to look at the ministry of prayer from Colossians chapter one. Begin reading with me, if you would please, with verse nine, as we hear the word of the living God. For this reason also, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of sins. And may the Lord bless the reading of his word and the proclamation of it. Give us ears to hear, minds to comprehend, hearts to receive, and wills to obey. Let's pray. Our immeasurable God and Father, we bow before you tonight. We confess that you are God and you are God alone. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, you are the Lord and beside you there is none other. We thank you that you are also Lord of the scriptures. You gave us your word, and we bless you that we're not left to grope about in darkness to try to discern by our sensory elements to find you, to seek you, to know you, to love you, adore you, and to serve you. But you have given us the revelation of yourself in the holy scriptures. As I have read them tonight and as I seek to expound them, I ask for the aid and the assistance of the Holy Spirit. I pray that you will make your word effectual in each mind and heart here this evening to the glory and praise of Jesus Christ, to the edification of your people, especially those who have the internal call of Christ, and to the end that souls, precious souls, elect souls for whom Jesus died might be brought to him who is life eternal. Amen. The Vice Chancellor of Oxford and chaplain to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell wrote these words. A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more. Here are the words of one of the most brilliant theologians from Calvin's time to ours. Here he esteems the matter of prayer. I'll deal with this at the end of this message, but our forefathers did not pen the words and prayer in our confession just to fill up space. There was a particular reason they understood the ordinary means of grace. And though we don't think of that prayer as ordinary, it is in the truest sense of the word. It is the hardest work that you will ever do. I don't know about you, but I used to receive parcels that would come across my desk and they would be filled with books that would have advertisements in them. And I remember a couple of books that came across my desk. One was Soul Winning Made Easy. I didn't even open it up, I just dropped it in file 13. And then another, prayer made easy. I didn't even, when I just saw that, I didn't even take it out of the packet, I just dropped it in the trash can. Prayer is not easy, my friends. It is some of the hardest work that we will do. And yet it is part of our pastoral ministry. Here in this passage of scripture, as I was thinking about what I would bring to you men, this kept coming back to my mind and soul, this passage here in Colossians. Colossians, as you may know, is one of Paul's prison epistles. It was probably written from Rome. There are debates as to whether it was from Caesarea or some other place, but most conservative scholars will give the consensus that he is writing this from Rome. Paul, whether you realize it or not, had never been to Colossae. He had never preached the gospel there. He did not found the church in Colossae. Epaphras did. We know this in verses 7 and 8 where Paul says, because of the hope that was laid for you, which has come to you as it also in all the world, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the spirit. And this is not, is it not what we are discussing and prayerfully considering here? We want to see churches that will preach the gospel and as a result, other churches be planted and they keep replicating themselves over and over. This is the fruit of Paul's ministry. Epaphras was converted under Paul's ministry. And he goes to the Lycus Valley where there are three churches. Colossae, Aeropolis, and Laodicea in close association with each other. He commands with apostolic authority that this epistle, at the very end in chapter four, be read to the churches in Laodicea and Aeropolis, all in close proximity in the Lycus Valley. So he had never been there, as far as we know. He did not preach the gospel there, he did not found the church there, Epaphras did. Yet, when the apostle heard it, notice what he says in verse 9, for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, heard what? What did he hear? He heard a pathos report of what God and Christ had done in the city of Colossae, how that he had saved sinners, how did he call them out of darkness into his marvelous light, and how the end result of that was the founding of a visible church. They covenanted together for the worship of God, for the edification of the body within itself, and for the evangelization of the lost. And when he hears this, notice what he says, for this reason also since the day we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you. He prays for them. And what we find in verses 9 through 14, and I believe a pericope of the Greek New Testament will bear this out, what we find is an apostolic and pastoral pattern of what John Eady calls praying and asking. And the title of my sermon tonight is an apostolic and pastoral pattern of prayer. And I would commend to you, pastors, to you ministers, to you elders, John Eady's wonderful commentary, a commentary on the Greek text of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians. Matter of fact, I would commend to you all of his commentaries. They are brilliant and, at the same time, very soul-stirring. There are three things I would like to draw from this passage tonight. First of all is the duration regulating prayer. Secondly, I want us to see the details of his prayer. And then I want us to see finally the doxology that just explodes within him at the end of this prayer. First of all, the duration regulating this prayer. For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. He'd never seen them, he'd never met them. He probably, highly probable, he did not know one of the people in the church. All he had heard was the report that Epaphras brought to him. And yet he says, we do not since the day we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you. It was not a single impulse of praying one time for them. Lord bless the church at Colossae. And he goes about his apostolic pastoral ministries. Indeed, from the moment he heard Epaphras report down to the time of the writing of this epistle, he could say, we cease not, I cease not praying for you. He did not see preaching as an ancillary task to his pastoral, or praying as an ancillary task to his pastoral ministry. He saw it as integral. And how easy it is for many of us, and I am not sitting, standing here as your master today. I am sitting here, or standing here culpable. How easy it is for us as pastors to go into our studies, and I knew that my wife loved me within the first month of our marriage because books were scattered all over the place. our bedroom, our kitchen table, our living room, even the bathroom. And I've yet to hear one word of complaint about books being all over the place. How easy it is for us to take our books and read and learn and bury ourselves in these things. How easy it is for us to prepare sermons. Not that sermon preparation is easy. to write, to talk on the phone, visit folks, fellowship, and yet spend so little time in earnest prayer for our flock, much less the flocks of others. One of the great benefits of this association is that we are getting you, that our members are getting to know one another intimately. When you go back, it is incumbent upon you not only to pray for your flock, but for the flocks of others. I think this is the apostolic example given to us here in this passage. It is the apostolic pattern that was set for us in the Book of Acts, where when the church was growing and there was the need for deacons, the apostle said, it is not good for us to wait on tables. It was not that it was above, it was beneath their dignity and they were above that. But it was because, as they said in Acts 6, 4, and our forefathers put this as a proof text in our confession, Acts 6, 4, we will give ourselves continually to what? And our confession has it a little backward. The apostle said prayer and ministry of the word, serving the word. A vital part of our labor as pastors is to pray. And Paul followed that apostolic pattern, as E.D. again says, of praying and asking. Notice, we do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may, et cetera. So it wasn't a one-time thing. Oh, I've salved my conscience so many times, someone will say, pray for me, and I know they're in dire need. And I say, yes, I'll pray for you. And I go and I'll say, Lord bless so and so or such and such, or Lord bless this church. And I salve my conscience, and it's seldom if ever I pray for them again. I know none of you are guilty of that. but I have been so many times. So we see, first of all, the duration regulating prayer. He continued. I don't have time. I thought about this next section beginning with the latter part of verse nine. It's such beautiful language, beautiful wording in the Greek. It's filled with participles. I don't know about you, but I didn't like participles as far as studying them. So difficult to grasp. Did anybody find participles easy? If you did, I want to give you a shot of some moonshine out here back after the service. Something's wrong with you. It's filled with participles. Not going to give you a lecture on Greek morphology. It's this beautiful language that Paul uses in this entire section. But I want us to see the details of his prayer. Notice he did not say, Lord, bless them. Lord, be with them now. Lord, watch over them. How many times have we prayed things such as this? I want you to see the seven specifics from this passage, that he prays for these believers in Colossae, whom he probably had never seen or met. And before we look at these seven specifics, I want you to see several aspects of this prayer. It was spiritual and not physical. It was heavenly, not earthly. It was inward for the soul instead of outward catering to the body. It was eternal and not temporal. How anemic today's Christianity appears. You watch these, I remember when I was recovering from my last neck surgery, and I'm sitting there, and on the Sabbath I can't get to the church, and as my practice, I would read scripture, and I had given to me very early on in the ministry, 63 volumes of Spurgeon sermons, and I would say to my sweetheart, bring me a volume, which one, just randomly pick one. read a couple of sermons, and then I did something very stupid and foolish. I turned on the TV and sought to find some Christian preaching. What a grief and what a waste. And if you heard any of them pray, their prayers were like milk toast. But this prayer, Paul, contains some heaviness about it. Let's look at these specifics that he gives to us. First of all, he says, I do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The first request he prays for them is that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will. Now, what is this will spoken of here? So quickly, when we read things like this, and how many times as pastors have you had people to come up to you and say, oh, pastor, I just don't know what the will of God is for me. You know what I'm talking about. I said, well, I can tell you very clearly one thing that is the will of God for you. 1 Thessalonians 4, this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification. And we often think of it in a personal, practical way, but I don't think that's what Paul means here. Many people consider the will here to be the decorative will of God coming out of his decree, or the regulative or practical will of a believer worked out on a daily basis. Although I believe both of these are included in it, I don't think that is what he is praying for them when he says that he prayed that they may be filled with the knowledge of his will. I think Chrysostom and the early Greek fathers were right in their exegesis of this. They believed that the The being filled with the knowledge of His will was to be filled with the knowledge of God's plan of redemption, His will in saving people in and by Christ. And Chrysostom's exegesis, and by the way, I trust him a lot more than I do many modern exegetes, because he was speaking with the, he was reading the scriptures and exegeting from the Greek, the Attic Greek. And he says, what Paul is speaking of here is that these believers in the church might understand that they're saved in the will of God. It was not by accident. It was not by luck, but that God had a purpose. And it was going all the way back to before the foundation of the world. There's a church sign up the ways. We often hear that little song, Jesus loves me, this I know. And on the front of this church sign it had, Jesus knows me, this I love. And before time ever began, before there was a beginning as we know the beginning, In the eternal covenant of redemption, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit sat there, our names were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And you were not an accident. You were not born where you were born by luck or chance. You were born by design. And in the fullness of time, someone asked the old Southern Baptist, Evangelist Ralph Barnard, when he was saved and he said, when it pleased God. When the Lord brought you to a saving knowledge of his son, he didn't scratch his head and say, hey, Gabe, who is this? Instead, he says, welcome home, my child. Been waiting for you for a long time. We need to know the knowledge. He wanted them, these believers in Colossae, to be filled with the knowledge of his will. We're born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And I think these early Greek fathers were right in their understanding of this. It is worked out its mode of acquisition is labeled here for us as he says that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that's how we acquire this this is the mode of acquisition with wisdom and spiritual understanding now i believe that that can be worked out in the everyday life of a Christian. What is the will of God for me in particular? But it all starts with the foundation of everything, the will of God in saving you. The second thing that he prays for, and I've got to hasten through these. I could take a sermon for each one of these points, but I will not. I will spare you. you all in the back there to start praying for me. Verse 10, what is the second specific of his prayer? That you may walk worthy. And I'm thinking, oh my soul, how daunting is that? Contemplate it for a minute, to walk worthy of the Lord? To walk worthy of the Lord is in one sense the highest and the greatest aim of the Christian life. Yet, how impossible. We are sinners. On the best of days, our brother brought out in the first morning devotional, we are simultaneously just and a sinner. How can we poor sons and daughters of Adam who have tasted of the heavenly gift and have tasted of Christ, how can we walk worthy of the Lord? What does this mean? To walk worthy is not to make God more worthy. He cannot be more worthy than what he is. And it's not to make the gospel more worthy. The gospel doesn't need enhancing. All it needs is proclaiming. There is resident and within the gospel and ancient power that will accomplish God's own purpose in sending it out. And so to walk worthy is not to make God more worthy or to make the gospel more worthy and This cannot be done, but indeed it is to walk in a manner that reflects the majesty, the dignity, and the glory of God and the power of the gospel. I can remember I was sharing with someone the other day, growing up as a little boy in the mountains two and a half hours north of here, and I can remember my uncle having a country store, and these mountain folk would come in, and when certain ones would come in, the language would change, the attitude of the people would grow all of a sudden more sanctified, and then when the person would leave, it would resume its normalcy, and you would hear someone say, That man fears God. That woman fears the Lord. They were walking in a manner that reflected the majesty and the dignity and the glory of God. And this is what Paul is praying for these believers, these baptized covenantal members of the Church of Colossae. It is to walk Christ-like. It is to walk in a manner that reflects His glory and the power of His gospel, that the gospel has changed us. Thirdly, I must first note, thirdly, Paul prays, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. What does he mean by that? I think what Solomon said in Proverbs 16, 7. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, that whether I'm absent from you or present with you, I make this my one aim. to be always well-pleasing to Him. We're living in a world that hates Christianity. It's easy for Christians to become intimidated, especially in the marketplace. We often fear the face of men rather than we fear the face of God. Paul said in Galatians 110, for am I now seeking the approval of men or of God? or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, then I would not be a servant of Christ. The moment we start pleasing men, women, the public, we cease being the servants of Christ. And Paul's prayer for these believers, as he puts it here, and I don't have time to parse and decline all of these wonderful words here, but he says, fully pleasing him. Let me hasten on. Well, it's really being diligent and choosing those things that God esteems. What did Solomon pray for? He asked for one thing, Lord, give me wisdom. God said, because you asked for this one thing, this pleases me. I'm gonna give you wisdom and riches like you've never known. The fourth thing, Paul prays that not only would they be fully pleasing to him, but being fruitful in every good work. What is a good work? The Heidelberg Catechism question 91, I think, gives us one of the most biblical answers. You know, we were saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves. But even it, the faith, is the gift of God. And we were saved unto good works, which God before ordained that we should walk in them. What are good works? Is it feeding your neighbor's dog while they're away? I mean, we often think on this plane. The Heidelberg Catechism, I think, gives us one of the most excellent answers as to the question, but what are good works? Question 91 answer, only those which are done out of true faith in accordance with the law of God and to his glory and not those based on our own opinions or precepts of men. Paul prayed. that they would not only do good works, but he adds this wonderful phraseology here, fruitful in good works. And I need to hasten on. It is the Lord God Almighty who determines what is a good work. And it is thus incumbent upon us to be fruitful in those particulars. The fifth thing he prays for in this same verse, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Again, I must ask the question, what is he speaking of here? Well, I would say, first of all, it's not a saving knowledge of God. In regeneration and conversion, there is a saving knowledge of God as Christ prayed in John 17, two and three. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life. I like when God is so specific and particular in describing things. And this is eternal life. that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So when he says he prays for them to increase in the knowledge of God, it is not a saving knowledge. They already possess that. But instead, it is growing in a theological and an experiential knowledge of God. And how do we do that? Well, His Word. In His Word, through His ways and His works. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've sang Psalm 150, much less the times I've read it. But what are we to praise Him for as David gives us their praise him for his wonderful works, for his mighty acts. I remember as a little boy up in the mountains, some of you heard me tell this, I'd hear these old mountain preachers talking about the mighty acts of God. And I got scared, I thought God had an axe. It wasn't until I got into my teen years that I understood the difference between an A-X-E and an A-C-T-X. Praise him for his mighty axe, I thought, man, I love, I don't want to praise him for a mighty axe. But when we come to scripture and we see these great redemptive acts, We increase in the knowledge of God. I think of that wonderful last hymn we sang, Be Still My Soul. The winds and waves still know the voice of him who ruled them while here below. The whole world is filled with his glory. His mighty acts throughout redemptive history are there to help us to increase our knowledge of God. And it is, it's what, well, it's we understand His knowledge, we increase in His knowledge through His word, through His ways and His providence and through His works. Herbert Carson says, the Colossians must not, however, be misled into thinking their goal is a barren orthodoxy. Hellenistic Judaism may content itself with an intellectual growth in religious knowledge divorced from life, but the knowledge of God to which Christians aspire will reveal itself in the transformation of character. This is what Paul meant when after being in Christ over 20 years, he writes in Philippians, over 20 years since the road of Damascus, and he writes in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. This is what Peter means as he ends his last epistle, 2 Peter 3.18, his final imperative. But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. And Paul prayed for these believers in Colossae that they would increase in the knowledge of God sixthly. strengthened with all might. And here is some of the, it's just beautiful Greek. Paul has an interesting play on words here in this verse. To be strengthened, Paul uses the Greek form of the word dunamis, meaning power, which is the same word used in Romans 1.16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, am I, for it is the power of God unto salvation, et cetera. But for power, he says here, strengthen with all might according to his glorious power. He doesn't use the standard word dunamis. He uses instead the word krato, which has this full meaning, supernatural strength. Furthermore, he uses according to the power or according to, as it says here, according to his glorious power. As John Eady comments, this is the might which is characteristic of his glory. Beautiful language here, that these believers would be strengthened, strengthened in their walk, strengthened in their minds, strengthened in their souls, strengthened in their vocations, strengthened in their warfares, strengthened in their marriages, strengthened with their children. And to what end does he pray that they be strengthened? Look at these three words. The first one I told you last night, I do not like. patience. How many times have we dealt with sheep in our congregations? And they're frustrated, they've prayed for this, they've prayed for that, they've wanted to do this, they've wanted to do that, and it seems that the heavens are brass, and they're frustrated because they're impatient. And we say, wait on the Lord, and as they say, it's easier for you to say than to do, right? But thank God he has his timing for all things. And he prays that they might be strengthened with the glorious might of his power for patience. I don't like that. And longsuffering, it's like he's heaping on top of other things. Be longsuffering, suffer long with joy. That's the three-fold purpose that he prayed for their being strengthened. And then the seventh and final thing, and I'm trying to spare you tonight. Notice, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patients and long-suffering with joy. And we often forget this, he says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of life. There are certain members of our churches that we really are thankful for, right? There are others, and I'll just put it mildly, we're less thankful. I can see by the nodding of your heads and the grins on your face, you know what I'm talking about. They don't pour the oil of gladness over your head, do they? Oh no, here comes brother so-and-so again. Oh no, here comes sister so-and-so again. And yet Paul says, he gave thanks. All things give thanks were commanded. But he is thanking God for these saints. And he's had a number of bad experiences in his apostolic ministry, being betrayed, abandoned, forsaken, and yet he could thank God. And we need to learn in our praying to thank God even for those brothers and sisters that cause us a lot of anguish. because they are even being used to conform us more to the image of Christ, the very image to which we have been ultimately predestinated. Well, here are the particulars. I'll leave it to you to work these out, flesh these out more fully. And then the third thing I want to leave with, and I'm just going to barely touch on this, is the doxology that ends this prayer. verses 12 through 14, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Four things he talks about. He has qualified them, qualified us. I don't feel qualified in so many ways, but Paul says they're qualified. Secondly, he has delivered them delivered them from the power of darkness. He has conveyed them. He has translated them. He has transferred them into the kingdom of the son of his lover, the kingdom of his dear son. He has redeemed and forgiven them. And as Paul is writing this, I believe that Paul could not contain himself, but he broke out into a doxology. The report that Epaphras brought to him filled his soul with delight. He begins praying for them and he does not cease praying for them up even until the time of the writing of this epistle. And he lays out, he just doesn't say, I pray for you or the Lord bless you or the Lord be with you. He prays specifically for them with thanksgiving. And as he, I can just see it mounting up into a crescendo. He, as we'd say up in the mountains, he bust out into a doxology. and I'm not gonna develop that wonderful Christological work here. Let me close with just a few points of application and uses. The first thing I want us to see is that this prayer gives us a pattern for our own prayers for our flocks. Here is an apostle. And he wasn't just a hireling, he was a tent maker as well, laboring for his own necessities with his hands. And I remember one time I counted up the three missionary journeys that Paul took. I don't think any of us in this room are physically fit to do what he did in those three missionary journeys. And yet in all of this, If we're to believe the word of God and believe that it's true, we do not cease praying for you. Here is a pattern for us as pastors on how we're to pray for our flocks. The second point I would apply to us tonight is that as pastors and ministers of the word, We cannot divorce prayer from the primary work of preaching. I don't know about you, but in my years of ministry, I found it easier to prepare sermons, though at times it was arduous work. I found it easier to prepare sermons than it was to pray for my people. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus as he begins in chapter six, verse 10, describing the whole armor of God, and he gets down to verse 19, and he says, pray for me. The old King James uses the word utterance. We don't use that word much anymore, but I like it. It's the word parousia, not parousia, the coming, but it is from the word fullness. Pray for me that there might be the fullness of the word of God in me that I may speak the word boldly as I ought. Charles Bridges in his quintessential marvelous work, The Christian Ministry, and if you don't have that, you need to get it. And if you have it and you've never read it, shame on you. Charles Bridges in his book, The Christian Ministry, says this, parousia, that flowing unction of grace which gives life and power to our preaching and unties our stammering tongues to speak boldly as we ought to speak. It is the indefinable in preaching which makes it preaching. It is that which distinguishes and separates preaching from all mere human addresses. It is the divine in preaching. It makes preaching sharp to those who need sharpness. It distills as the dew to those who need to be refreshed. It is heaven's distillation in answer to prayer. It is heaven's knighthood given to those chosen true and brave ones who have sought this appointed honor through many an hour of tearful wrestling prayer. You know, I've been asked over the years, many times, questions. How are you doing in your life? Are you watching this? Are you watching that? Are you covetous? You know, are you guarding your eyes with the computer and pornography? And I said, you know, you're asking me the wrong questions. If you want to bring me under conviction, ask me how much have I prayed for my flock? On Mondays, they go into a work-a-day world. I can go into my study and take care of administrative matters. They're going into a hostile environment. We need that blessing of God upon our preaching that comes through prayer. Let me ask you, how do you pray for your flock? Is it that simple little, Lord bless them, Lord be with them, Lord watch over them, keep them today? Right here are seven specifics that instruct us how we should pray for those over whom Christ has made us overseers. Do you pray for your flock? Are you taken up with their physical needs or their spiritual developments, as listed in this passage. And I close with this. Our 17th century Baptist forefathers did not see prayer simply as a confessional dictum to be inserted into our confession. Instead, they saw it as a genuine means of grace for a blessed and prosperous pastoral ministry. May Christ grant us grace that we follow in their train. Let's pray. Immeasurable God, our Father, we bless you tonight for your word. It has been easier for me to preach this than it is to put it into practice. I know it's easier for some to hear this than to put it into practice. May we not just be hearers of your word, but doers also. May we realize, as we shall see tomorrow, that you have entrusted to us a divine stewardship of a flock And one day we will have to stand before you and give an account. May we know our sheep by name. May we know the struggles, the tensions, the anxieties, the stresses, the victories, the joys, the delights of those in our flock. Oh, Father, we confess how miserably we have failed, I have failed, in being a man of prayer. but make it so with each one of us here, especially these men who have been trusted with flocks that you have loved with an everlasting love. Seal these truths to our hearts and cause them to bring forth fruit that remain, not just 30-fold or 60-fold, but 100-fold, to the glory and praise of your dear son.