If you would, please, to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, we're going to take a break this morning from Philemon. We'll be back there, Lord willing, next week. I want to speak to you about what God's been speaking to me about out of a particular verse of Scripture here recently. When you come to Jeremiah chapter 33, Jeremiah's in a difficult place. He's been imprisoned by King Zedekiah. He's imprisoned there because he's preaching God's message to the people. Instead of receiving what the prophet of God had to say, they rejected it. As a result of that, he's been imprisoned, he's been cast into the dungeon, he's up to his armpits in slime. They're throwing his food down to him. It's no doubt meager amounts of bread, meager amounts of probably stale food, because the Babylonians have besieged the city of Jerusalem for over a year. And the city's on the verge of collapse. At any moment, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar will break through. They'll breach the walls of Jerusalem. The army will be defeated. The armies of Judah, which has been emaciated over this last year and a half, they will capitulate. They will be routed by the Babylonians. Zedekiah will be captured. His eyes will be put out. All of this is getting ready to happen. And there's Jeremiah in this dungeon. And there's nowhere to go. Captivity was imminent for the people of God. He's closed in on every side. The situation is hopeless. The outlook is bleak. He's there in that dungeon no doubt feels alone. He feels abandoned by his own countrymen. He feels no doubt let down. He's here in this situation, and as he begins to probably look around him, he didn't have a whole lot of hope. Maybe you've been there. Maybe life has placed you, so to speak, in a figurative dungeon at times. Sometimes they're dungeons of our own making. Did you know that? Other times life places us in those dungeons and we feel alone, we feel abandoned, we feel hemmed in on every side, we look around us and we don't see any answer, we don't see a way out, we wonder how we're going to get through this particular situation in life. And it's at that moment, that moment, that my favorite verse on prayer was given to Jeremiah. It's at that moment that God comes to him in that dark dungeon and says, Jeremiah, I'm here. Call unto me. Look at verse 3 of chapter 33. Call unto me and say these next words with me, would you church? And I will answer thee. Wow. and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. A few weeks ago, several Wednesdays ago, I answered a question that was given to me through the Ask the Pastor series. It was a very good question. It's a question that no doubt is on many people's minds during very difficult times, and we feel like that we just don't have much hope, and we get fatalistic. Can I remind you as Christians, we don't live by fate, we live by faith. And there's a difference. It's not what will be, will be. But this person, I believe, was bearing their heart. And I in no way am saying this to chasten them, because I believe it's on many people's hearts at times. If God knows the outcome, if God knows the answer, if God knows everything and already knows what He's going to do, then why pray? And I gave several reasons of why we should pray that night. But then God spoke to me afresh in my own life. You see, even as pastors, there's times that we face struggle. There's times that we feel like that we're in dungeons. Sometimes they're dungeons of our own making. Sometimes there's dungeons that we feel overwhelmed, we feel hemmed in, we experience these different areas of life. You see, we're fellow strugglers. It's not like that I stand up on some kind of mountaintop and never have a problem, never have a struggle, never have an issue. If you ever get that idea, it's just not true. We all have those times. And God began to remind me afresh. God began to speak to me afresh as I meditated upon these verses, and I want to share it with you because I believe this simple verse is one of the most profound statements on prayer found anywhere in Scripture. It is a comprehensive theology of the most powerful force in the universe, and it's called the power of prayer. And I normally don't give you points. You know why I don't? The number of them? Because you're counting them down wondering when you get to go to lunch. And it scares you when I say, I'm going to give you seven reasons. And you're like, oh my, I'll never eat. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you three reasons why you ought to pray. And I'm going to give them to you right out of the text. And I'm going to share with you what God shared with me over the last little while. And hopefully, we get it together. Amen? I want you to notice with me, first of all, if there is a reason to pray, number one, it's because God invites us to pray. If there's no other reason, if I never had an issue, if I never had a problem, if I never found myself in life's dungeon, if I never found myself in a struggle, I should pray simply because God invites me into His presence. Can you imagine that? That God has invited you and me to pray. It's an invitation that you and I dare not refuse. It's an invitation that no parent should refuse for their child. It is an invitation that no spouse should refuse for their marriage, that no person should refuse for their family, no saint dare refuse for their church and their nation. I just want to say, Christian, if you don't stand in the gap for America, for your nation, pray tell me who will. It is an invitation that no unsaved person should ever refuse for their own soul. Because I'm glad there's another verse where God says that I can call, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that wonderful? When I call out to Him in saving faith, God saves us from our sins. God says, call unto Me. I want you to think about that for a moment. The sovereign God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the God who is the sovereign, listen, watch this, who is sovereign and over everything, the great and mighty potentate of the universe, the invisible God, the King of kings invites you to step into His presence. I promise you, you'll never get that invite to Buckingham Palace. You're never going to be invited, and you and I will probably never even be invited into the presence of an earthly king. But do you realize time and time and time again, God is inviting you into the presence of a heavenly king. That you and I can come into the very presence, the very throne room of God Himself. And watch this, we never have to leave. You can remain there as long as you want to. But He's also my Father. And He wants me to commune with Him and talk to Him and fellowship with Him. Christian, I want you to get this. Your spiritual life will never rise above your prayer life. Your spiritual life will never rise above your prayer life. You see, God commands us to pray. He invites us to pray. The word call in our text, call unto me, in the Hebrew language is a divine imperative. God's not requesting, He's not suggesting, He's not saying, I think it would be a good idea. No, He is commanding us to pray. It's an invitation in the form of a command. He's saying to Jeremiah, you need me, Jeremiah. You need me. Call unto me. Listen, there's nowhere else to turn. There's nowhere else to go. There's no one else to look to. I'm here, Jeremiah. Call unto me. A.J. Gordon said, You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Sometimes we feel like that when we pray, we're somehow doing less. But the reality is we can't do more until we have done what we think is less, and that is pray. Because prayer fuels our spiritual life. And may I remind you, Christian, that prayerlessness is not just a shame, it's a sin. Samuel, as he was leaving the judgeship and handing the nation over to King Saul, his life was changed in that moment as he is no longer overseeing the nation. He's sort of, what I would say, backing away in some areas of the ministry that God had given him because they had called a king. They had chosen themselves a king as a nation. and you're wondering, okay Samuel, what are you going to do? And here's what Samuel said, let me tell you what I'm going to do. He said, moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you. I may not judge you anymore, I may not guide the nation anymore, I may not be a civil leader anymore, I may not do the things that I used to do, but here's one thing I'm not going to stop doing, I'm not going to stop praying. And Christian, there may come a time in your life that you can't knock on a door, you can't do the things you used to do in teaching a class, singing in the choir, or standing and doing a special, or playing an instrument, or whatever it may be that you do for God. I'm here to tell you, there'll never come a time that you can't pray. Brother Johnson, who has a thriving nursing home ministry and represents our church in that area, and he many times goes into places along with our, we have a nursing home ministry that goes on Wednesdays, he has one that just expands and enlarges our coast, and he was out there and we were talking, he goes into some units where the people there have Alzheimer's and they have dementia, and they don't know their name and they don't know your name, but it's amazing how often we were rejoicing in this. They know Jesus' name. And I've watched dementia-ridden minds call out to God in prayer. It's amazing. They may forget everything else, but they never forget Him. Isn't that something? Charles Spurgeon, writing on prayer, said, Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. He said, Some scarcely stir the bell, For they pray so languidly or lazily. Others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with heaven is the man, the woman who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might. Can I tell you, God desires that we pray. He demands that we pray. But do you know there's times that life drives us to pray? You find that this call to Jeremiah, this invitation, didn't come at the best times of life, but in the worst of times. You remember, he's in prison. Look at verse 1 of our text. Moreover, the word of the Lord came. See, God spoke to him unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the Maker thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it. The Lord is his name. Call unto me. Did you see that? The armies of Nebuchadnezzar besieging the city. The envoy to Egypt has been sent to gain an alliance and they're helped, but they've already been defeated by the Babylonians. God had sent a message through Jeremiah to Zedekiah for him to surrender that God had already delivered the nation into the hands of the Babylonians. They had reached a point of no return. I wonder sometimes at what point a miracle will reach the point of no return. I pray that day doesn't come in my lifetime, but yet I fear it may already be here. Jeremiah the prophet's been accused of treason, thrown into a prison, and there in that dark, dirty dungeon, God says, Jeremiah, life has hemmed you in. You're in a dark and a difficult place. You've been driven to your knees. Now call unto me. It was in that moment that Jeremiah would sense a greater dependence upon the God of heaven. And it's during those times of life when we're hemmed in, when we don't think we have anywhere else to go and nowhere else to turn and we're beyond human help. It's in those times that life drives us to our knees with a greater dependence upon the God who can. Abraham Lincoln said in the throes of the Civil War, he said many a time, I've been driven to my knees because I had nowhere else to go. Aren't you glad that we always have someone we can go to? Notice he says, call unto me, and when we pray, we speak directly with God. If you were to call the President of the United States, I don't know that I would want to, but if you did, or maybe you called the governor, or maybe you called another high official, high-ranking official, or person of prominence in America, you probably wouldn't get to speak with him. That's just reality. You probably wouldn't even get their top assistant. You'd probably get an answering machine. That's normally what I get. You know, and I leave my little message and then you wonder if anybody ever listens to it. I think the probably assistant just walks in and hits the erase button and they're all gone. You know what I'm saying? I remember I was in Kurdistan, Iraq preaching in house churches. We have national missionaries there that are members of our church that serve house churches there. And I remember in Kurdistan, as I was going through checkpoints, it was 2011, we had won the war there. liberated the country and I was going through checkpoints there in northern Iraq and I can remember every time I'd go through a checkpoint the soldiers see my American passport and first of all they'd start thanking me and I'd say listen I'm a preacher not a soldier I didn't do anything but I want to tell you if you have served in those countries in the Middle East and you were part of liberating Iraq and some of these other countries I want you to know the people there were very thankful for your sacrifice For whatever you think of it, there were people there that think to me time and time and time again that they were free from that dictatorship. And they were meeting in house churches, they were underground, not because of the government, but because of the Muslim culture. And they would say to me like this, like I had his phone number, his cell, like it was on speed dial. Now listen, when you get back to America, you tell George Bush, thank you, You tell the president, thank you, like I knew him personally, you know, and I could just go up to the White House and knock on the door and say, hey George, I got a message from the folks there in Kurdistan. That's not reality. But can I tell you when you pray, you don't talk to an assistant. I don't have to go through an angel. I don't have to go through a priest, a pope, a preacher. I don't have to go through Mary. I don't have to go through anybody. You see, we have a direct line to God individually. We never get an answering machine and we never get a busy signal. I know that dates all of us because you don't get busy signals today, but you used to, you know? You used to. I remember back in my day when you wanted to, you know, when I was courting my wife and we talked on the phone, my mom had a business and she had call waiting. I hated that thing. You see, I'd rather the people on the other end when I was talking to Lori get the busy signal. Okay, that way they quit bothering me. All right. And the call waiting would click in. And the rule was living in my mom's home at that time. If somebody calls and you hear the whatever the signal was that somebody was trying, you get it because my business is dependent on it. I can promise more than once I ignored that. We had important business going on. You know the cord, anybody remember the cord? Or the antenna on the... Y'all know that stuff? Anybody still remember that? Y'all still with me? Okay, good, good. I didn't want to be the only one. But God's always... Listen, watch this. You have instant access to your Heavenly Father all the time. His eye is upon the righteous and His ear is open to their cry. Psalm 65 verse 2, O thou that answerest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come. It's amazing. We have a problem. We talk to everybody but God. He's our last resort, not our first resource. God doesn't place restrictions on our prayers. He doesn't place limitations on our prayers. He says, call unto me and I will answer thee. He didn't say call me if it's serious. He didn't say call me if it's too hard for you. He didn't say, call me if you can't figure it out. No, we can come to God at any time, any place, about anything. You see, here's the truth today. We need God. Jeremiah needed God. I need God. You need God. I'm reminded of Ron Hamilton's song, Lord, I need you when the sea of life is calm. Maybe the seas of your life is calm. Maybe right now it's smooth sailing for you. Thank God for it. But can I tell you, you need God. He says, O Lord, I need you when the winds are blowing strong. Whether trials come or cease, keep me always on my knees. Lord, I need you. God was inviting Jeremiah into His presence. He was saying, Jeremiah, at this point, you need me. And church, I want to just say something to us this morning. We need Him. We need God. Why should I pray, number one, because God invites me to pray? Number two, I want you to get this, because prayer brings God into the equation. Prayer brings God into the equation. I want you to look at our text again. Call unto me, and here's the words we read together, and I will answer thee. He didn't say I might, didn't say I may, didn't say I could. He said I will. God always answers prayer. You say, preacher, is that true? Does God always answer prayer? Well, the only prayer that God never answers is the prayer not prayed. You have not because you ask not. Sometimes I feel ashamed in asking. Do you? Do you ever feel ashamed in asking? Maybe somebody else is facing a greater trial than you are at that moment, and you know that trial is raging in your life, but you know someone else you're praying for that has an even greater trial, and you almost feel ashamed to bring your trial to God. Can I help you to understand that no matter what's going on in your life, your Heavenly Father wants to hear you. He wants to hear you share with Him what's going on in your life. Listen, He wants you to ask, because God answers. John R. Rice wrote an entire book boiling prayer down to this, asking and receiving. Call unto me, and I will answer thee. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7, 7 and 8. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened unto you. God answers prayer, but there's a complexity to it. And Aaron Judson said, a great Baptist missionary to Burma, he said, I've never prayed sincerely for anything, but it came at some time, somehow, in some shape, it came. Now let me tell you how God answers prayer. I'm going to give you a few ways. Are you ready? Sometimes God says yes. Aren't you glad when God says yes? Isaiah 65 verse 24, And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Do you know there's times that the answer is on the way before you even pray? Isn't that amazing? God's already dispatched whatever it is that needs to take place in your life, and it's already on the way. There's other times that God says no. I don't like it when God says no, but you know what? I've found that it's probably best when God says no. Whenever I've went around God's nose, that's when I've got in the greatest trouble in my life spiritually. You ever notice that? Or maybe financially or whatever decision that it was. You know, children don't always understand why we say no as parents. I know when I was a kid and I would lay out my case to my parents, I never understood why they would want to say no because I thought I had really brought a good reason why they should say yes. And then they would say no. And you feel like we're being deprived, and somehow mom and dad's holding out on us, and they don't love us, and they don't care, and they've just abandoned me to my misery because they said no. Everybody else gets to do it, but not me. Isn't that the way it goes? The reality is that sometimes the best answer that we can give our children is no. And you know what? The same is true of our Heavenly Father. And then there's sometimes that God says, not now. Not now. There are times when God's answer is not yes, it's not no, but I want you to wait. You're not ready yet. Just remember that God's delays are not always God's denials, and waiting time is not wasted time. God is at work. It's just not now. He will answer. There's where you go back to Jeremiah 33. And that's what God began to impress upon my heart in my own personal prayer life. As I was bringing things to God in prayer, that were burdens in my own life, and I was getting discouraged because I wasn't seeing an answer to that. And that's when God reminded me, calling to me, and I will answer thee and show thee. You know, God didn't tell me when the timetable would be between the calling and the answering. He just said, I'm going to answer you. But He always answers us in His time. And then there's a fourth way that God answers. And this is where many times we miss the answer to prayer. That next part of what we're preaching on, calling me, I will answer thee. God always answers prayer. But here's how we miss it. Because God says yes, God says no, God says not now. And sometimes God says not your way, but mine. And that's where we miss it. Because we're looking for the answer that we figured out, or the answer that we want, or how we think it should be, rather than allowing God and His wisdom to work in our lives, to know what's best for us, and to understand that it's not our will, but His, it's not our way, but His. Listen, God doesn't always give us what we want, but He always gives us what is best. I've said this before, I'll say it again, Bella Graham's wife, Ruth Bell Graham, she said, if God had always answered my prayer, I would have married the wrong man three times. I'm thankful for the prayers I prayed that God hadn't answered. You know, Moses and Elijah and Jonah, in times of discouragement, despondency, despair and depression, asked God to kill them. I bet after that was over with and they got through that little time of trial right there, I bet they was glad God didn't answer that prayer. Well, no, God, cancel that request. Somebody put it this way, I asked for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked God for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked God for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might fill the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered, and I am among all men most richly blessed. Preacher, why should I pray? Number one, because God invites you into His presence. Number two, because prayer brings God into the equation. God is greater than you are. When you can't figure it out, you can't handle it. It's bigger than you are. It's not bigger than God. It brings Him. And God answers prayer. Amen? Number three. Here's the last one. Are you ready? Because prayer always makes a difference. It's been wisely said, prayer doesn't always change things, but it always changes me. Prayer is a spiritual exercise. That's why we never rise in our spiritual lives above our prayer life. You'll never grow spiritually where you want to be until you develop your prayer life. If we're honest, that's probably, if I were to take a survey and I were to ask you an area of your spiritual life you're most dissatisfied with, probably without fail, 90 some percent of the congregation would raise their hand, it's in the area of my prayer life. For others, it might be witnessing. For others, it might be they don't read their Bible like they should or maybe another. But probably for the majority, it would be that right there, our prayer life. Can you ever really pray enough? Not really. I want you to look at the last part of verse 3. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. You know, if I'd been writing that verse, I would have taken that word show and made it give, because that's what I want. Call unto me and I will answer thee, and give thee, that's what I want. But God said, no, I'm going to show you great and mighty things. The primary purpose of prayer is not to It's not to release God's treasure, it's to reveal God's truth, someone wrote. Prayer is not to be used for the things that God can give us as much as it is for the truths that God can teach us, to show, to make manifest, to expose, to unveil, to help us to realize in our lives. See, here's Jeremiah. Think with me for a moment. He's in this dungeon, and you know what he needed to see? He needed to see God. He had lost sight of God. He had lost sight of what God was doing. Things didn't make sense to him. It was beyond his understanding. He couldn't figure it out. Why am I in this dungeon? And all of these things going on in his life. And see, when you and I get into the dungeons of life, then what we need is greater clarity because we lose sight of God in the fogginess of life. We forget who He is. We forget what He wants from our lives. We forget what He can do in our lives. We forget His love, His mercy, His goodness. Somehow, when the answers are coming, the struggles of life seems to go on and on and on, and we're thinking we're abandoned, we're alone, not even God cares about me. We've lost sight of God at that moment. And when we begin to call to God, when we begin to bring it to Him, when we begin to commune with God, then God becomes real in our lives again, and we begin to see Him for who He is. Let's show you great and mighty things. The second thing that He shows us is ourselves. Because see, here's what God wants you and I to understand. One of the purposes of prayer is to teach us a dependence upon God, that we need Him. You see, and I'm going to come back to this, you and I, we're weak. We can't. Life's beyond us. We all run into things we can't fix. We like to fix. We like to reason it out. We like to use our own way and wisdom and wit to get through life. And you know what? I'm just going to tell you, it might work for a while, but somewhere, sometime, something in life is going to come along and you're going to find it's bigger than you are and you need God. And then here's the third area that he shows us something, and he shows us something about life itself. That life was never intended to be handled alone. Much of the stress and tension in our lives comes from living life on our terms, and trying to handle it our way. And when you do that, the weight of trials, the weight of life is more than you can handle on your own. It's greater than you are. You may bend, but somewhere along the line, if you don't find dependence upon God, it will break you. Because life wasn't intended to be lived in our strength, our ability, our power, our wisdom, our wits. It was designed to be lived in concert as we walk with God. Look at our text again as we hasten. Show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. There it is, preacher. There's the power of prayer. Well, let me just talk to you a minute about these two verses and I may be done. Or about these two words here, show and mighty. All right? This word show is an agricultural term. And here's the idea, that it means to clip. It's used of fruit that's higher than we are, taller than we are. Now when you're like me, vertically challenged, it don't take much to get fruit higher than you are, okay? And it has somebody that goes up on a ladder and clips it, and they hand it down to you. The word mighty, we think of the power of prayer, and it is, but that's not really what this word means. It's mighty things. It's inaccessible things. They're mighty. He's going to show you great and mighty things, things that are beyond us, but yet it becomes the power of prayer when God takes that that's mighty against us and makes it for us. When God takes that that's inaccessible and brings it down to us. When God takes that that's beyond our reach and puts it in our grasp. That's when it becomes mighty. Prayer is more than a privilege. It's an opportunity to see God at work in our lives. I'm going to ask you a question and I'm going to get ready to give an invitation. What is beyond your reach this morning? What in your life is greater than you? What mighty thing, inaccessible thing do you need God to be mighty in prayer And the conquest and the power of prayer that's beyond your reach bring down to you to where it's accessible. That God takes something and shows Himself strong in your behalf. What is beyond you that you need God for? You see, we all face that in life. There was a little boy out in his yard and he was trying to move an old heavy stove. He was grunting and groaning, struggling and straining, sighing and trying, but he couldn't budge that stove. He was in a way where he wanted to play and where he wanted to make his little fort. And all the while, his father was leaned up against the shed, amused as his son tried with no success to move that old stove. And after a while, the little boy dejectedly just slumped down beside that old stove, totally exhausted, aggravated, frustrated. And the father came up to him. He said, son, can you not move that old stove? And he said, no, sir. And the little boy, he said, well, son, he said, have you used all your strength? And he said, yes, sir. He said, dad, I've given everything I've got and I can't move it. And he said, you haven't used all your strength, son. You haven't asked me yet. And there's Christians sitting in this room and you're sighing and trying and struggling. And you haven't asked Him yet. You haven't really prayed. You hadn't brought it all to God and laid it all on the altar. Oh, you may have spent a little time throwing it out there, but you hadn't really got serious. You hadn't really called unto Him so that He could answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not. The only thing that lies outside the reach of prayer is that which lies outside the will of God. I want you to notice that it looked bleak, but notice what God's getting ready to tell Jeremiah. Look at verse 6. He said, Behold... He's talking about the nation. He talks about in verses 4 and 5 that the city's going to be decimated, the army defeated, there's going to be slain in the streets. But then he comes to verse 6 and he says, what you can't see, Jeremiah, is what I'm going to do in the future. Behold, I will bring it. Talking about Jerusalem, health and cure. And I will cure them and will reveal, show unto them the abundance of peace and truth. Right now they're facing my wrath, but they're going to get my mercy. Look at verse 7. I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return. I'm going to send them away, but I'm going to bring them back. I'm going to cleanse them, verse 8. I'm going to pardon them, verse 9. And it shall be to me a name of joy, of praise, and honor before all nations of the earth. Look down at verse number 14. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised in the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. And in those days and at that time will I cause the branch, that's the Lord Jesus, of righteousness to grow up into David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness. You can't see it now, Jeremiah, but you're just calling to me because there's good days ahead. I'm just going to tell you, Christian, there's a better day coming. And maybe you can't see it right now. And maybe the fog of life has caused you to lose sight of your Father. And it's discouraged you. And you're saying, what's the use? Why even go on? What's the point? This serving God hadn't paid out like I thought it would. Because see, when you and I are in the midst of a trial, we can't see things for what they are. And the devil begins to lie to us. And if we're not careful, we begin to believe his lies. And we just get ready to give up. And we get ready to quit on God. Because we feel like God's quit on us. And I'm going to tell you today, God hadn't quit on you. You've just lost sight of Him. And God's coming to you in your dungeon. He's saying, call unto me, call unto me, call unto me and I will answer thee in my time, in my place, when it's right, because I know what's best. Trust me. I'm going to show you the great and the mighty thing, which you don't even know. You can't even see it right now. Thank God for what's on the horizon. Amen. And you know what? For sometimes that may be heaven that we realize everything, but that's okay because we're going to be there a whole lot longer than we are here. Amen. We live by faith and not by sight. Why should I pray preacher? Because he invites you into his presence. No other reason. That's why you ought to pray because prayer, prayer brings God into the inquiry. It brings heaven's power to bear on your life situation. And thirdly, thirdly, and I like this one, I really do. It's such a blessing. Prayer always makes a difference. It always makes a difference. If it may not make a difference out there, it always makes a difference in me. Because I begin to sense God's presence. I begin to sense His hand. He begins to encourage me and help me and give me the strength to go on. And I want to tell you, there's no situation too big for your God. There's no problem too hard for your God. There's no person so far gone that God can't save them. And there's no Christian that strayed too far that God can't bring them back. Friend, can I tell you, we have a God that there's nothing too hard for the Lord. Prayer can do anything God can do. Now church, listen to me. Let's call unto Him. Let's bow our heads in prayer.