So they can walk out with Mrs. Shore. The rest of us, please, can open up our Bibles to Psalm 86. Psalm 86. And I've shared in the last few years, I've been reading, enjoying reading some old memoirs, some old diaries. It's a great name of God. There are books that you can get that have been printed with this information. And so one of those recently was David Raynard that I read this past year. And I started it before and I think I kind of stopped it. It depressed me a little bit. He's a heavy thinker and he is, if you read it, it is well worth reading. He's very critical of himself and drives himself to his knees to seek God and there's there's In a good way and in a great way God uses them. I'm glad I kept reading Because as he gets into his life he begins to just see the power of God see God do some amazing things and among the American Indians in the United States. Revival really, it definitely is what took place through this ministry. So he's got this journal that he's keeping and you're reading it. I love that because you get to know the man. You kind of feel like you know a bit about him. You're reading their writing, what they're thinking about their life and everything like that. But at the end of his life, he becomes too ill. He died young, similar to Robert Ray McShane. He died at 29. I think David Raynard was very close to that age as well when he passed away. And Jonathan Edwards, who would have probably been his father-in-law, because he was in love with his daughter, but sadly never to be married. But on the 29th of September, 1747, Jonathan Edwards recorded this about David Brainerd. He would, by the way, die about 10 days later. It says, we sing a part of the 102nd Psalm. This seemed much to refresh and revive him. gave him new strength so that before, though before he could scarcely speak at all, now he proceeded with some freedom of speech to give his dying counsels to two young gentlemen related to the preparation for and prosecution of that great work in the ministry they were designed for. In particular, earnestly recommended to them frequent secret fasting and prayer, and enforced his counsel with regard to this from his own experience of the great comfort and benefit of it, Which said he, I should not mention it were it not that I'm a dying person. And we understand prayer is private. The Bible says that we're not supposed to be like the pharisees who pray in the street corners so people can see us. We pray, and so in deference to that, he said, I wouldn't even say this except the fact that I'm a dying man. But as he looked at Julia and then called to the ministry that were there by his bedside, he challenged them and said, hey, I saw God do great things in my life, but it was with regard to this. It was secret prayer and fasting. I told you as well that I recently read about Andrew Bonner. He pastored just about six miles north of Perth, and you could go to, If you're familiar with the Church of Scotland history, the Free Church of Scotland came out in 1843 over issues of church and state and controls of finance and specifically putting in ungodly ministers into pulpits outwith the consent of the congregation. Because of that, the Free Church came out. He was a part of that. So we've been there to Colas and seen his church. I'm talking about the buildings that they built there. But in 1890, Andrew Bonner was 80 years old, and he said this, May 30th, yesterday, I finished my 80 years. I have today begun my 81st year. Oh, that like Moses, this new period of my life may be full of the Lord's interviews with me. And if you don't know the story of Moses, Moses was 80 when God did the burning bush and took him back to enter into his most significant ministry. And he said, and perhaps some were blessing to the church through me just because I am the worm. And he's just quoting scripture. I am a worm and no man, just a humble servant of God's wondrous grace thus to spare me. Increasingly solemn to know how near I am advancing to eternity. Okay, then later in that, or actually earlier in that year, 1890, he wrote this. A calm day amid a great many meetings, but the stream of life flows on, and I seem worn down to the ocean without very much concern. Holy Spirit, fill me. He's saying, I'm not burdened like I should be. I'm getting ready to go into eternity. I needn't be more burdened about eternal things. More carefully than ever, I hope this year to give two hours before going out every day to meditate on the word in prayer. And in this way, there should go out of me heavenward rivers of living water that will bring down refreshing rain showers. In his 80th year as well, he speaks about reading David Brainerd's biography, and I think I shared this before, that like me, he sensed that there in Brainerd's life, and his reflection on that was, oh, that Brainerd had more fully seen the sufficiency of the blood of Christ, you know, to help him with that. But I say that to say, if you read about somebody 100 years later, reading the biography of somebody 100 years before, and like me or like us, reading about somebody 100 years before us, it's like the Bible speaks about James. They were men subject to like passions, as we are, but they prayed earnestly." And so, in other words, I look back at this great man of God and I see that they were just men. Just like we studied in Huger's, we looked at Huger's 11, we stopped calling it the Hall of Fame, but we spoke about it being the record of what fame can accomplish, because what it is, it's a testimony to the power of faith to do God's work. And so these were not exceptionally great men of God. But I think you could say they were exceptionally great in their prayer. There were many women that knew how to pray. And by the way, prayer is not only for men and not only for ministers. You might think, well, I'm not a minister. And so why do I personally need to spend a significant amount of time in prayer, a significant amount of good time in prayer? But understand this tonight, in church history, there's been a lot of mighty prayer warriors, and I would say, in many cases, I don't know if I could say most cases, but they would not have been people in ministry. They were people behind the scenes that had a powerful walk with God. My grandma, I've spoken about her before, my grandma Schwartz, you know, she was a dairy farmer's wife, a man that was a faithful man, hard worker. Grandma had the dairy. He also worked for the county as a driver for them. You know, just a dairy farmer's wife, but she had a powerful prayer life. My grandma would go out in the woods by the house I've spoken about how the prayers of my grandma, weeping in prayer for her grandkids, deeply impacted my life. She was not a minister, she was not a man, but she had a powerful walk with God. And so tonight, I want us to think about that. I want to think about our prayer life. And I remember this past year, we visited the church where I got saved. And it's just a wee church with a bell tower there. And as I look at that bell tower, I remember as a child, people picking me up and helping me ring the bell, you know, and yank it hard enough to get it to go down. If prayer was a ladder, these people that we're speaking about tonight, we ought to go up that ladder and ring the bell together. And that's really what I want to consider with us tonight, is that we need men and women that, by the grace of God, will climb that prayer letter and ring that bell for the Lord. And so Psalm 86 is our text in verse one. It begins with a simple statement, and it says, a prayer of David. You've already read it. You know it's a prayer. It's a beautiful prayer, a powerful prayer. And tonight, I want to look at this prayer of David are we getting up that and bringing the belt uphill. Let's pray. Father, we praise you that we have the privilege tonight of focusing on prayer. Father, I pray that it would be like Jacob's Ladder for us tonight. Father, we see the angels of God ascending and descending. Father, we look at that ladder and say, there is a pathway to glory, let's take it. Father, we talked about on our study of Hebrews that Christ shed his blood, his flesh was broken, so that we can enter into the holy of holies in glory. Father, we understand our privileged night as priests of the Most High God, we often avail ourselves of that holy place. Father, as we consider such a precious topic, dear to the heart of God, because what this means tonight is I'm encouraging our people to visit with you and spend time with you. Father, I know that would delight your heart. There is somebody we need to visit tonight, and it's God. Father, I pray that we can get into that place. Father, you're the answer. You're the answer to our family problems. You're our answer to our community problems, our church problems. Father, the need for the power of God, for the gospel. Father, I just, I pray tonight, we need some enlightening men and women of prayer. Now, I have no idea where our church is in regard to praying. But Father, we all need more in this area. So I pray, challenge each one of us, help us to examine our prayer life in light of the truth that we're gonna consider tonight. Father, I can't speak without your enablement, and I readily acknowledge that anytime I speak, it's only by the grace of God. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would enable me. I pray the Holy Spirit of God would guide me. I pray that you'd give me liberty tonight and love for our congregation. And Father, I pray that we just take in the truth of the Word of God this evening. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, and so the challenge again, get to the top of the prayer ladder and ring the bell of heaven. And you know what rungs are on ladder? Do the kids know what rungs are? That's the steps on ladder. So when I say rung, it's speaking about that thing that's there that you step up on as you go up onto a ladder. And so the first thing tonight is get on the rung of helplessness. Okay, we're gonna talk about first step on that ladder, get on the run of helplessness. Notice what it says in verse 1 as he begins to pray. He says, Bow down, my ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Wait a second, this is King David. He is rich and powerful. That's a fact. So what's he saying when he says, I am poor and needy, it's this. So David had a position in life that we look at and say he's rich and powerful. When it came to prayer, David understood his position before God. And that was one of utter poverty and utter dependence upon God. He says this in Psalm 34, verse 6. He said, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. out of all his troubles. So when David came to God, David didn't come as a demanding rich person that could have anything that he desired. David came in humility and in complete poverty and utter dependence upon God. You know, when you think about a beggar, a beggar is poor and needy, are they not? They can't complain if the service isn't good. You know, if they're not getting exactly what they need. And, Jane, if you need to move, you're welcome to move. The sun kind of adjusts. I can see it in your face here tonight. He can't complain, right? If he's at a restaurant, he can't be the one saying, you gotta give me what I deserve. He can't afford anything. He can't buy anything. He can't purchase anything. He's completely dependent upon the kindness of strangers to supply his need. You know, tonight, as you think about it, you get on the run with helplessness, you're not there before God with any rights. There's nothing that you possess. What can you offer to God tonight? Say, God, you've got to answer my prayer because I've got this, and I understand our claim to Christ, and I understand our claim for Christ, but even that is the mercy of God. There is nothing of ourselves tonight that we can say to God, God, you've got to meet my need because of me. You know, I, I am poor and needy and listen, don't despise the things that make you understand your place. Don't despise the things that break you. Don't despise the things. that get you on that first rung, that rung of helplessness. Why? Because that's a sure place to have God listen to you. Isaiah 66 verse two says, for all those things that mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this hand will I look, even to him that's poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 41-17 When the poor and needy seek water in their tongue, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. It's a great thing tonight if I understand my poverty when I go to God. I've got nothing but dependence upon God. I've got no purchasing power except by the grace and the mercy of God. That's a great thing because God is ready to listen to me. You think about it, you know, it takes a lot of humility to be a beggar. I've sat down with a beggar on a street and fight in Krakati, and as I sat by them, I entered into their position. You know what I found? To be very humble. to have people come up and put something in that. So it's this, it takes extreme circumstances to get a person to that point where they will beg and say, I've got to have help, please help me. Listen, it's a great thing again tonight that God has finally got us into that position where we can't go day after day after day without praying, or week after week without praying, where we sense our need to go to God. Why? Because we're getting on the prayer ladder. It's putting us there. That rung of helplessness, we've got it. And that's a place where we all need to step down and say, I'm gonna get into this place, this position of helplessness before God. So get on the rung of helplessness first. Secondly, get on the rung of hopefulness. Hopefulness. It says in verse two, preserve my soul, for I am holy. David understood that he just had a complete need, but he also understood that God completely had it, that God was gonna take care of it, that God was gonna meet his need. When we look back at the children of Israel and their exodus out of Egypt as they're coming out, they get to a position of helplessness, but they don't move to a position of hopefulness. It says in Exodus 14 verse 10, And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted their eyes. And behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And you know, they're there probably in the Gulf of Aqaba. They're in that dry river bed that came down to the Red Sea. They have the Red Sea in front of them. They've got the cliffs on the side of them. They've got the army of Egypt behind them. They're in a place of helplessness. And they cried unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? And so they're helpless, but they're not hopeful. They could have at this point cast their dependence upon God, but they, instead, they just stay focused upon their need. Verse 12, it's not just the word that we can tell me in Egypt saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. So they're burdened about it. They feel their helplessness, but they have no faith in God to meet their need. And that could be us tonight. We could step in that place of helplessness, but rather than cry out to God, we despair. The next rung. The rung is helplessness. The next rung is hopefulness, saying God's got this. God's gonna take care of this. God's gonna be by my means. Israel should have gone there. Why? Because verse 13 says, Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. What do we understand about Israel? Israel had every reason to go from hopelessness to step up to the next rung of hopefulness. And so as we look at this text tonight, what is there about this text that would encourage us in this story of hopefulness that God is able to meet my needs? Well, here it is. First of all, God is omnipotent. Okay, get on the rung of hopefulness. Why? Because God is omnipotent. Look at verse eight. It says, among the gods, there is none like unto thee, O Lord. Neither are there any Hey, only God is like this. Only God can do this. All these other kings and idols, they're public kings of Satan. I mean, they're nothing in comparison to who God is. You know, can they do the things that God does? You see that again in that verse, it asks that question, or statement, neither are there any works like unto thy works. I was saying to our friends from Glasgow, foggy, misty mornings. Well, one of those foggy, misty mornings, I looked out and I saw a cobweb. And what intrigued me is all the droplets of water that were on it. And after church, I asked them, I'd love to show you on my phone, I went out and I took a picture of that cobweb. And as you zoom in, like if I showed you the picture, you look at it and say, it's beautiful, what is it? And if I told you it's a cobweb with water droplets on it, you'd think, I was making it up. It is gorgeous. Who did that? God. Listen, it provides food for the spider. It's incredibly intricate, the way that it's made. It's strong. It holds up the water, the dew that connects with it. I mean, it's amazing to look at. God is a God of minutia, and God is a God of grandeur. Go look at the North Sea. Look at the hills of Scotland, look at the sky, see the stars, and understand tonight that God is the God of every little detail in life, and God is the God of the big things. And so tonight, you know, is there a reason why we can't step up to hopefulness? You know, God is the God of the big things, God is the God of the little things, and surely our faith is very small tonight if we don't understand this about God, that God is omnipotent. Get on the run with hopefulness. Secondly, get on the rung of hopefulness because God is sovereign. He's sovereign. Verse nine, it says, all nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee. O Lord, and shall glorify thy name. At our house, in our upstairs bathroom, we've got a sign that has to do with brushing your teeth. It says this, you don't have to brush all your teeth, just the one. all your teeth, right? You want to keep all your teeth. The hint in this verse when it says, all nations who thou hast made will bow before him, the hint is this, all nations shall bow before him. Why? Because he's the maker of them all. Again, tonight, we don't have to despair and worry about it. This world is seeking to find their identity outside of truth. We live in a woke culture that's casting off truth and denying truth and trying to change truth. It doesn't matter. Why? Because God is sovereign. So we don't have to hit the panic button tonight and get into unbelief. We can stand on the rung of hopefulness. Why? Because God is sovereign. And then third, under this point tonight, get on the road of hopefulness because God is awesome. God is awesome. Verse 10 says, for thou art great and doest wondrous things. Thou art God alone. Times change, don't they? We're seeing that things are happening. My dad's generation, they had things that they carried in their pocket that our generation doesn't carry. They would carry a handkerchief or a hanky, all right? They would carry a comb back in that day. That was a comb and a hanky. That was kind of basic stuff you would study in your pocket. You know, in my generation growing up as a child, a comb. I would have a comb in my pocket. In our day, none of the above except for a mask. You know, I find that the new thing I've got in my pocket is a mask. My grandpa would have all sorts of things. He was an upholsterer. He always had a tape measure, you know, to measure something. But the thing is, you keep in your pocket what is necessary and keep it convenient so that as you need it, you can pull it out and you can use it. Well, you know what? Tonight, what we've got in this verse is a great verse to keep in your back pocket. It's something that we ought to often pull out in a great verse to memorize tonight. For thou art great and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone. See, as far as hopefulness tonight, doesn't that solve it? You are great, you do anything. You are God alone. My grandpa also, he would take me out fishing, and there in the boat, we'd have a line with a lead weight on the end of it, and some arms on it, and it was our anchor. And if it was breezy out, we'd put that out on the boat, and that would anchor us in that place, so we got grip. You know, tonight, God's given you an anchor for hopefulness. It's the fact that God is awesome. I mean, why do I need to be bothered? Why do I need to be anxious? Why do I need to be worried? Why can't I step from helplessness to hopefulness when I serve an omnipotent, sovereign, awesome God? And so the first run tonight was helplessness, and you got off that. I trust that the second run was hopefulness and God's ability to help us. And then the third thing tonight is get on the run of persistence. Get on the run of persistence. You know, Mac is hoping to go camping. We kind of talked about it a little bit. It's been a while since we set up our tent. The other garden that we had four years ago, we could actually set up our tent in our back garden. We've gone camping since then. He has these vague memories, probably, of camping. But of course, last year, we weren't able to go with COVID and everything and our furlough. And so he's very interested in camping. So you know what? He was asked to be constant, persistent. And finally, I said to Mac, I said, tell you what, I said, Mom and I will decide about camping, and whatever we decide, we'll let you know. All right? Because he's just constantly coming to us and asking, I don't know how it's going to work out yet. We'll see how that works out for Mac. But you know, why has he been so persistent? Because Mac really wants to go camping. You know, if it's something that we really desire for God, it ought to be something that we go to God with continually and say, God, I'm burdened about this, and I want to continue to pray about this. And so in verse three, it says, be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Be merciful unto me, Lord, I'm coming to you with persistence and continually. In fact, David didn't just pray once a day. In the Bible, David is quoted in Psalms as saying they prayed three times a day, similar to what Daniel did. In Psalm 55, 17, he said, evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. I wanna encourage you tonight to pray every day, and maybe many times a day, but to definitely say, by the grace of God, I'm gonna spend time with God every day in prayer, but then to do what David did, not just pray daily, but notice what it says in that verse, he prayed out loud, it says, I cry unto thee. It says in the verse we just read, cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. It says in verse six, if you look down in the passage, give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplication. I've been encouraging my kids recently in our devotional time, encouraging them, get a personal prayer time where you are personally praying out loud to God. Remember Jesus said, enter into thy closet. So there's privacy, so that you can actually express yourself to God. We pray a lot as a church out loud. Why? Because we need to cry out to God. Can we pray internally? Yes, there's scripture that speaks about it. Nehemiah in the presence of the king, he prayed internally to God. So I prayed to the God of heaven, right? We might have to do that at times, but it's a great thing for us. I was walking and praying this morning out loud. Cyclist came up behind me. He's passing me before I know it. I said, hey, I'm a Baptist minister, and I'm just praying. I didn't want him to think I'm nuts or something. He's going past me. I said, you going to church today? And he said, I think no. I said, look, you need to go to church. Jesus Christ died for you as he drove off into the sunset or sunrise. But anyway, so things like that might happen, but it's OK. It's okay, it's not crazy to pray. It's a great thing to spend that time with God out loud, daily. And so what can we pray about? When we go to that daily prayer time, what can be some things that we can pray about? Well, again, from our text tonight. Pray daily for victory. It says in verse 14, O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set battle that's taking place and David feels that he feels the proud wicked and so historically this is just David recording this in the song historically David understood that there was a battle the proud that were against God were against him as well prophetically this is a messianic song and speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the proud Pharisees and the proud chief priests and the proud Jews that would rise up against Jesus in the battle that was taking place there. Obviously, certainly it applies to the church, and history records the proud violence that's taken place against God's people in the past. It's certainly something that we ought to pray about. You know, have you noticed that the world does not like Christians? We've got some new believers in our church, and we need to pray for them as they begin to understand that the world is absolutely dead set against Christ, and against our faith in following the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible says in 1 John 3, verse 13, it says this, marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We ought not be surprised tonight that, you know, Pastor, it's the weirdest thing, you know, I told somebody about Jesus and the act as if, like, I'm the enemy. Marvel not. Marvel not that the world hate you, Jesus said. You know what, it could also say this, marvel that the world doesn't hate you. Why? Because if it hated Christ, it's gonna hate us. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Beyond that, just the world, we all face the spiritual battle daily, read it in the scriptures this morning before the men's prayer time. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers in the darkness of this world daily. We ought to pray to God and say, God, give me victory today. Pray daily for victory. Secondly, pray daily for strength, and this has to do with persistence. Persistently pray for victory. Persistently pray for strength. Verse 16 says, return unto me and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant. Save the son of thy handmaid. Give thy strength, and I read the crucifixion story this past week in my devotions, and you see Jesus pleading, if it be possible, passed from me nevertheless and he was coming and Jesus continually put himself in a position of dependence upon God the Father for God's enablement to do the work Jesus How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing miracles, for God was with Him. And we understand tonight that Jesus Christ is God, but Jesus Christ lived as a man. Independence upon the power of God for strength. And in that prayer time, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says this, in Luke 22, verse 43, and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven. Strengthening him. Tonight, if you think, well, I've got it, pastor. I've got the strength to read my Bible, to be a godly Christian, to be this and that, and be faithful to God, but I don't need to pray, I don't need to be in dependence upon God for that. I can do it. The answer is, categorically, will fail emotionally, mentally, spiritually, will fail in every area because God is our strength. Without Him, we can do nothing. There's not a single thing tonight that we can accomplish without deep dependence upon God. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28. It says, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, he fainteth not, neither is weary. There's no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord. How do you wait on the Lord? shall renew their strength, they shall not have wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. You know, if we're fainting tonight, a good thing is to go to God and say, God, I need strength, and I'm gonna begin to daily pray, God, be my strength. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch hath never fruited itself, except through the bite of a vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. Jesus is our strength. We gotta consistently go to God persistently and ask for that strength. And then pray daily for blessing. Verse 17, for blessing. It says, show me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou, Lord, hast opened me. You know, I like this prayer. David basically looks at his life and said, they say you don't like me. God, will you please do something really good that they look at and they can't deny the fact that you've done something good for me because they despise me. God, just show them by your grace that your hand is upon them. It's like the story of the lame man that was healed by Peter. In Jesus' name, remember that story? Peter and John are going into the temple, the lame man's there, they heal him, the Sanhedrin gets upset, calls the man who afforded them, but the Bible says in Acts 4 verse 13, that beholding the man which was healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against him. They wanted to criticize, they wanted to condemn, but they couldn't say anything. Why? Because the token for good had been seen in their lives. Praise God for this token for good. If you think about Bible stories, you got David and Goliath. Nobody would doubt the hand of God unto David as David steps out there in obedience to God because God slew the giant. You got Daniel and the lion's den. Again, as Daniel is cast into the den of lions, God shows him a token for good. Those lions are fasting that day and he don't disturb or bother Daniel. What is that again? It's a token for good. You got the three Hebrew children cast into the fire and the fire does not consume them. consume them again. What is it? It's a token for good. We ought to be praying tonight and say, God, here we are as a church, here we are as a family, here we are as an individual. I love you, I'm serving you. God, in your mercy, show me a token for good. What are you asking God for here? Asking God for his blessing. God, make it evident that I've got the good hand of God upon me. And so tonight, how far up the ladder are you? You've got the run of helplessness. the rung of hopefulness, trusting God, and then the rung of persistence. That's, I'm continually praying, out loud, seeking God's blessing in these areas of victory, strength, and blessing. And then fourth, and I get on the rung of dependence, okay? Get on the rung of dependence. Verse four. It says, rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. You know, David wasn't his own man as he comes before God. He comes to God and says, hey, God, I'm your servant. It's not about me, God, it's about you. It's about your will, it's about your plan, it's about your desires. I am nothing but a servant. You know, James, that gave us the Book of James there, James was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he wrote his letter, he could have said, James, you know, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but instead, he says in James 1, verse 1, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. He says, I'm just a servant of a woman, my half-brother. I'm a servant of his, I'm a servant of God's. And servanthood is a great place to be in prayer, why? Because if you're a servant, again, you're not praying about your will, you're praying about God's will. Even as the Savior taught in the model prayer, in Luke 11, verse two, where he said unto them, when ye pray a saint, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. And so the lung of dependence, it's me standing there, I'm not coming to God saying, this is all about me, but tonight I stand here as your servant. And so as we pray that we, tonight, how do we pray with that kind of dependence? Well, pray about your master's commands. Pray about your master's commands. It says in verse 11, Teach me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Okay, so he's praying to God. He says, God, your way, your truth, your fear. Tonight, again, it's good to do a prayer. Can you pray that way? We sometimes find ourselves singing hymns that could potentially make us a liar because of the truth they contain. One of those is I surrender all. all to him I freely give. Right? I mean, it's a promise. It's just saying, God, I am not seeking my own. God, I am seeking yours. Again, tonight, if you're standing on that prayer letter, can you honestly say to God, I'm not standing here independently, but I'm standing here as a servant of God, so I'm saying to God, God, not my will, but thy will. God, command of me in thy truth, give me understanding of your commands. And then secondly, pray to your master's praise, to his praise. Look at verse 12, it says, I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forevermore. Again, it's his master, so he's lifting up his voice to praise God and say, God, I praise your name. You know, if I ever get a chance to meet the leadership of the Bill Rice Branch, I know some of their names, but I haven't actually met them. But if I were to stand in their presence, I would shake their hand. I said, I want to just thank you for giving my teens such a great summer that my daughter and my son have just loved to hear. It's been such a blessing to them. I would give them praise if I were to stand in their presence because they're worthy of praise. We think about it again tonight in this period of prayer as we go to God, that he is worthy of praise and that it's our privilege to stand before him and begin to praise his name and just give glory to God as his servant by saying we desire this for your praise. God, this is for your praise. And God, I praise your name for how you're answering and how you're working in these areas. for his glory. It says in verse 13, for great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. David's given his testimony, saying, God, to your glory, I have nobody. It's by the grace of God that he's a king, and not only that, but God has saved him, God has delivered him from the lowest hell. I want to ask us tonight, as we think about this position of a glorifying God, have you recently shared your testimony with somebody and said to them, I just like to glorify God. I just want you to know what God's done in my life. God has saved me and given me his gift of everlasting life. When is the last time in prayer you bowed your head and said, God, I just want to thank you. Now, I'm not on my way to hell, but by the grace of God, you've given me your gift of everlasting life. It's so familiar to us that we could go days, we could go weeks without remembering the grace of God and saying, God, I just wanna say thank you again. Thank you again. Again, if we talk about this run, it's a run of dependence, and that dependence is this. I am a servant of God's. I want your commands, I want this for your praise, I want this for your glory. Again, what a solid stepping stone in this area of prayer to stand on that rung of dependence and servanthood. Your confidence is the basis of faith. As you sit here tonight, you're confident. You're not thinking about it, but you're confident. You're confident that that chair is gonna hold you up. It's that understanding, that knowledge that you have that makes it so secure for you to sit down in faith upon that chair. What is, again, tonight, our confidence in God? Let me just give you some things from this song about our confidence in God, primarily from verse five. And it's first of all confidence in the goodness of God. David prays and he says, for thou, Lord, art good. Do you know, there's a lot of people in this world that are not good. There have been, sadly, very sadly, parents that aren't good. There are certainly politicians that aren't good. There are friends or neighbors that aren't good. You just feel like if you went to them, they're just not good, and they're not gonna meet the need. But the Bible says tonight about God that God is good, and that we can trust God to meet our needs. And Jesus said, in Matthew 7, verse 9, he said, what man is there of you whom if his son has spread, He's got an audience there in front of him. He's asking him, will you give us stone? But if he asks a fish, will he give her a serpent? If ye then be able to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Listen, if my kids come to me tonight, know this, my kids are there with the chicken box, and if they call me right now and they have a real need, I do this service, I go over there, and I meet their need. Why? Because I'm a loving Father. How much more tonight will we have a need before God, and we're burdened about it, and we're praying about it and we're saying, God, this is my need. Why would we stop tonight and think God isn't good? God is absolutely good. There's no need for bitterness in our hearts tonight. There's no need for a complaining against God. If we've got a little legitimate need tonight, we can go to God and say, God, I'm asking you to meet my need tonight because God, you are good. Confidence in the goodness of God. The confidence in the forgiveness of God. Confidence in the forgiveness of God. It says, and ready. You know, if you get in an argument with somebody and you get burdened about getting right with them, you might go to them and say, hey, will you please forgive me? And they might say something like this, I'm not ready to forgive you yet. Now they shouldn't say it. They shouldn't say it, but they're saying basically, no, but the Bible says here about God, that God is what? He is ready to forgive. Satan says things like this when it comes to prayer. God's not going to forgive you. You've got no relationship with God. If you regard me in your heart, the Lord will not hear you. That's true. It separates you. But 1 John 1, 9 is true. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Satan will lie, say, stay away from God because God is unforgiving. It's absolutely categorically untrue. Sin is horrible. Sin separates us from God with the blood of Jesus Christ, his son. God's gonna forgive me. He tells us, forgive 70 times seven. Listen, the God that tells me to forgive somebody unlimitless times has limitless forgiveness for me. That's God's mercy. And I praise God for his forgiveness. And then more specifically, it is God's mercy. And so that is the third thing, confidence in the mercy of God. It says in verse five, Look at verse 15. It says, but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. You know, some houses have well water. Our first house that we had was a farmhouse. They had well water. The well ran dry. We started getting gravel and some other things coming up. They had to punch her down again. But guess what? If you can't get water, you might have to move the house. I praise God tonight that we don't have to move from God. God has an unlimited supply of mercy. If you desire the mercy of God, the mercies of God are new every morning. You can't exhaust the mercy of God again. It's that idea of the forgiveness of God. If you've had it, you can have it again, you can have it again, you can have it again, you can have it again. Why? Because God is ever merciful. And listen, as sinners, that's what we need. Why? Because we sin. And so we go to God, we say, God, I'm sorry, and we expect God to forgive us. That's confidence in this area of prayer. Then, as well, confidence in the availability of God. It says in verse five, unto all them that what? Call upon me. And the thing is this tonight, it's available, but you gotta ask for it. We've gotta pray about it. The only condition is for, back in the day, if you were to make a call, you know, forget the person, the person that puts a call through, you know, that plugs it through. You say, like, dial up A, and you gave letters, and you gave numbers, and they dialed it up. You know, for us tonight, it's dial up Romans 10, 13, and that's this, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Okay, we go through the operator, the Lord Jesus Christ, directly to God the Father, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. It's the same for us in every area of prayer. God is there, God is listening, and that's the last point tonight. Confidence in the accessibility of God, verse seven says this. In the day of my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou will answer me. You know, a lot of times I'll have my phone on vibrate, it is tonight, in case somebody calls when I'm speaking. But if I'm vibrating in my pocket, generally I get my phone calls. I did miss one from Margaret this morning, I'm not sure how that happened, but generally I get my calls. But my wife, she'll put her phone on vibrate and she'll put it in her purse. Well, I get pretty desperate, you know, she's at Costco and I want to carry it, you know, and that's kind of, that's humorous, but what if it was serious? What if I really needed to get ahold of her and I can't? I mean, that would be very troubling to me. You know, I praise God tonight that God is there and that as soon as I call, he's gonna pick up the phone. For thou will answer me. Understand this tonight, if God doesn't answer, there's no reason to call. But because God answers, there's every reason to call. And so we've got men in the past, Andrew Bonner, a great man of prayer that God mightily used. We've got David Brainerd, a great man of God, a man of prayer whom God mightily used. We've got men and women in the past that knew how to pray. And by the way, we still do, and I praise God for that. But every single person in our congregation ought to look at their life and say, by the grace of God, I may not be able to do anything else for God or for God's glory, but one thing will be true about my life. I will be a man or woman of prayer. Because anybody can go up this ladder. It's a ladder that's there to come out in the word of God for us tonight. We get on the rung of helplessness or a need, independence upon God. The rung of hopefulness, God, you've got this. I know that you've got this. of dependence, God, I'm a servant, you're what we've done about this. In the rug of confidence, I'm gonna get up here, the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the forgiveness of God, the mercy of God, the availability, the accessibility of God to God, I know that you've heard me. The Bible says this, if we know that he hears whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. There's no reason to think that we should be a church that doesn't often Let's pray. Father, pray that the Holy Spirit would work the truth of this message into our hearts tonight. Psalm 86, a prayer letter. Father, we need to ring the bell of heaven. This world is on its way to hell. Our friends are on their way to hell. Our neighbors are on their way to hell. And Father, it's not happening. 11 years our church has been here. I praise God we've seen six people saved in about the last six months. Father, there's thousands of people that have been perishing in Christless eternity for whom Christ died. Father, we need power. A prayer is a place of power. Father, we need it. I pray swear to God that everybody would take on board, not their neighbor, not their pastor, but Father, what they need to do to be a man or woman of prayer. And that means this. This week, setting aside time to seek the face of God out loud somewhere. Maybe getting up early. Lord Jesus, you set the example, rising a great while before day. Savior, you pray and we can pray. Men of God in the past, you pray and we can pray. Hebrews 11, great men and women of faith, we can be great men and women of faith as well. Faith is a vehicle we can get into. Father, if we're not men and women of prayer, we're making an excuse, we're saying it's for others to do, we're not seeing it as a privilege. Father, something is disconnected and I pray spirit of God, connect it. And so Father, would you speak to our hearts tonight, help us make real decisions about doing this ministry of prayer. It's in Christ, in my prayer, amen. Let's stand, please, and we'll sing a hymn of imitation here tonight. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. 400 in your hymnal, 400. And once you've found that, please, let's stand and we'll sing. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.