chapter four, Colossians four. We're gonna start in the verse two tonight. We come to Paul's final instruction here in this section that we have been going through about putting on the new man. And so let's look at Colossians chapter four, verse two through six. This is the next section, the next and final section. regarding putting on the new man. Colossians 4 verse 2 says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how ye ought to answer every man." So we come to this final instruction here this evening regarding putting on the new man. Now if you remember the book of Colossians, Paul was writing the book of Colossians to defend the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, to defend his preeminence against the false teachers of that day. The false teachers had come into the city of Colossae and they were trying to deny and convince the people that Christ wasn't sufficient, that he wasn't preeminent. They were trying to deny that all you needed was Jesus Christ. And they were saying, no, you need Christ plus human philosophy. You need Christ plus the law, Christ plus mystical relationships with angels, Christ plus a life of self-denial. And so ultimately they were really denying the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in a rebuttal to that, Paul, in really two of the great climactic passages in the book of Colossians, states one in the first chapter, he discusses the sufficiency of Christ and he makes a declaration. He makes a statement about Christ and he says, who is the image of the invisible God? Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is that direct image. And then he goes on to say that by him were all things created. and by him and for him were all things created, that he is the head of the body, that is Jesus Christ, and that in all things he might have the preeminence. So there's this first climactic statement about Jesus Christ by Paul that drives right at the heart of the false teachers and what they were saying. The second great climactic statement is found in chapter two in verse 10, where Paul says, and ye are complete in him. And so Paul in the first chapter makes this great declaration about the sufficiency of Christ, about the preeminence of Christ. And then in chapter two, he says, because of him, you are complete. You are complete in him. So the argument of the book then is that in spite of the false teaching and the false teachers of the day, Christ is indeed sufficient. He is enough. He is all that we need to have satisfaction and to have completeness. Christ is all we need and Paul establishes that and he affirms that in the first two chapters. He makes that statement, that declaration. Now having established that Christ is sufficient, he begins then in chapter three to show what it means or what it looks like in our life if Christ is truly Sufficient, what it means to have that sufficiency in Christ. And so if Christ is sufficient enough to redeem me, if he's sufficient enough to reconcile us unto himself, if he's sufficient enough to forgive us of our sins, if he has given us a new life, if he's given us eternal life, what does that mean to us? What does that mean to me? Well, Paul says that that new life demands, it demands a new lifestyle. a new way of living. And so Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 discuss this new lifestyle of the new man in Christ. And we've been looking at that ever since we started Chapter 3, the beginning of Chapter 3. Now, as we move into Chapter 4, Chapter 4 continues to discuss this new lifestyle of the new man in Christ. We've seen, going back to the beginning of this section, the dress of the new man, that's what we're to put on, the putting on and putting off, the home of the new man, the workplace of the new man, and now, and finally, the speech of the new man. How is the new man supposed to speak? Christ told the Pharisees in Matthew 12, verses 34 and 35, O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. So Christ here in this passage, speaking to the Pharisees, establishes a very important spiritual principle. And that principle is that your speech reflects who you are on the inside. Who you are on the inside is going to come out in what you say and how you speak. But James tells us that the tongue can no man tame. It's untameable. We offend with our tongue and word, and the one who doesn't offend with his tongue, James says, the same also is a perfect man. We know we're not perfect, and so we know that we all will offend with our tongue. So because the tongue can speak so easily, and as James says, is very difficult to control, difficult to bridle, a person's speech then becomes the truest indicator of what is going on on the inside. And so people will judge you by the word you say. And rightly so, because God does the same. The Bible has so much to say about the speech of the believer. And it also has a lot to say about what the speech of the unbeliever is going to look like. And so I'm gonna go through some different characteristics about both the speech of the believer and speech of the unbeliever and some characteristics of each. First of all, let's look at the unbeliever's speech. And this is all introduction, by the way. The unbeliever's speech is characterized in Proverbs chapter five and verse three as being immoral. Proverbs five verse three says, for the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil. And so there's this immoral kind of speech that comes from the unbeliever. In Proverbs chapter 11, verse 11, The unbeliever's speech is destructive. Proverbs 11, 11 says, by the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. In Proverbs 12, verse 22, very familiar verse, lying lips are abomination to the Lord. The unbeliever's speech is characterized by lying. The unbeliever's speech is also characterized in Proverbs chapter 15 and verse two by foolishness. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. And so the characteristic language and speech of the unbeliever is that it pours out, it gushes out foolishness. In Proverbs 15, verse 28, it's characterized as evil. The heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. It's also characterized in the book of Psalms, chapter 10, verse seven, as full of cursing and deceit, mischief and vanity. In Psalm 109, verses two through three, it's characterized by hatred. For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are open against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. Proverbs 26 says that the words of the unbelievers are gossip. The words of a tale bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Flattery, in Proverbs 26, verse 28. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Boasting, in Romans chapter one, in verse 30, that passage that speaks of the wickedness and the rebellion against God, the hardening of the heart. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters. Boasters. The mouth of the unbeliever is boastful. And then, and this is the final one in my list, and it could be many more, but the mouth of the unbeliever spews out false teaching. Titus 1 verse 11 says, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things that they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So we see many different characteristics of the unbeliever's mouth. But in stark contrast to the unbeliever, we have the believer's speech, characterized in scripture in many different places. And the believer's speech is characterized by taking as its model the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who did have perfect speech, the one who did have a perfect tongue, the one who was able to control and bridle his tongue, Jesus Christ himself. And so we see in Matthew chapter five in verse two, that Jesus used his mouth for instruction and he opened his mouth and taught them. That was Jesus Christ. His speech was gracious in Luke 4.22, and all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? His words were also blameless. Luke 11, 54 says that they were laying weight for him, seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. So they tried to lay weight for him because they knew they couldn't catch him in anything because he was blameless. His speech was completely pure. And in 1 Peter 2, verse 21 and 22, it was without deceit. For even here unto where ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Proverbs chapter 15, verse one, characterizes the believer's speech as gentle. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. In Proverbs 31, speaking of the virtuous woman, the virtuous woman's speech is characterized by wisdom and kindness. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, not foolishness, not pouring out foolishness, but pouring out wisdom. And in her tongue is the law of kindness. And then in 1 Peter 3 9, the believer's speech is characterized by blessing their enemies. 1 Peter 3, 9, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing that ye are there unto called that you should inherit a blessing. In Hebrews 13, 15, a characterization of the believer's speech is praise to God. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto his name. 1 John 1, 9, it's characterized by confession of sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. A confession of Christ, Romans 10, 9 and 10, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And then there's a continual life of confession, and in Matthew 10 it talks about this, that him who will confess me before men, the same will I confess before my Father which is in heaven." And then finally, in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, the believer's words are characterized by edifying words, words that edify, words that lift up. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. So a believer isn't to allow corrupt communication to come out of their mouth. But what are they supposed to allow to come out? That which is good to the use of edifying. Why? So that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So what we can see here in scripture is that there is a very clear and definitive contrast between the unbeliever's speech, the way that the unbeliever speaks, and the way that the believer speaks, or the way that the believer ought to speak. Having this in mind, we must recognize that our sufficiency in Christ must also transform this area of our life. It will certainly transform all areas of life, but that must include our speech as well. We can't argue that we've changed everything but this one area. Our sufficiency in Christ will include our mouth, our speech. The reality is that the new man has a new tongue. which produces a new kind of speaking. And that new kind of speaking is characterized in this passage in three different areas. And we're gonna only get to the first one tonight. The new man speaks to God. The new man speaks the gospel. And the new man speaks graciously. Okay, tonight we're gonna look at the first, and that is related to the new man and how he speaks to God. The new man speaks to God, and this is done, as we're gonna see in our passage here, verse two tonight, through a persistent and consistent life of prayer. The new man is going to pray. And they should, they ought to be devoted to a life of prayer. And our verse tonight teaches that. Let's look at verse two. This is back in Colossians chapter four and verse two. We have a command. We have a participle here, and then we have an attitude. The command is in the beginning here, continue in prayer. Continue in prayer. This is the command. And we all really understand the idea of continue. If I tell you to continue doing something until I tell you to stop, we all get that, to keep on going, to persist. Don't stop doing it. And so what is Paul saying here? Keep on praying. Keep on talking to God. As a believer, we should be characterized by a continual life of prayer to God. The Greek word here for continue means to persist, to busy oneself with, to be busily engaged in, to persevere in, or to be devoted to. So it sounds very important, this continue. And so as a new man in Christ, Paul is saying that we must be persistent in prayer. We must busy ourselves with prayer. We must be busily engaged in prayer. We have to persevere in it. We have to keep doing it. We must be devoted, committed to a lifestyle of prayer. So I ask you, are you committed? Are you devoted to a life of prayer? This sounds a lot like what the Apostle Paul says in many of his letters that he sends to the churches. It's really Paul's starting point here when it comes to the new man's speech, and it's really fittingly so, because prayer is probably one of the most important uses of the Christian's mouth. It's talking to God, praying to God. And we see in many different of Paul's passages, some of the things and some of the ways that prayer helps a believer. In Ephesians 6, in verse 18, through prayer, believers defeat Satan and his evil forces. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And that's in the context of putting on the armor of God and defeating Satan. In 1 John 1, 9, we've quoted this verse once already, but it has the idea of confession, talks about confessing our sins. And so through prayer, we're able to confess our sins. In Hebrews 4, 15 and 16, we see that believers are able to call on their sympathetic high priest for help and for assistance in time of need. And in Hebrews 13, we can offer praise to God. And in Ephesians 6, 18, in 1 Timothy 2, verses one and two, believers can intercede on other brethren's behalf. So Paul starts and begins with this speaking of the new man, this speech of the new man with prayer. But so often as Christians, for many different reasons, we can become lax in our prayer life. We can wane in our prayer life. Maybe we even stop praying, or we rarely pray, or maybe we only pray at certain times that we know we're supposed to, like before we eat. Whether it be because we're distracted by the world. Maybe there's some distraction out there that's taking away your time to pray. Or maybe you're in some kind of sin and you don't want to give that sin up. And you know that if you're praying that the Bible says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Maybe we've become reliant on our own self or our own strength to just get the job done. I can do it in my own strength. I don't need him. Whatever it may be, we must remember that persistence in prayer is a required quality for a God-honoring prayer life. 1 Thessalonians 5.17 says, we've memorized this recently, pray without ceasing. Don't stop. In Luke 18 verse one, Jesus spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And the believers in the book of Acts, chapter one, said that those believers all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. They all continued in this. In Romans, chapter 12, in verse 12, it says, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Continuing instant in prayer. There's actually a double emphasis there. Continuing instant. The word instant in Romans chapter 12 verse 12 is actually the same Greek word that's translated in Colossians 4 as continue. So you have like this emphasis on continuing. Continue continuing in prayer. And in Colossians 1.3, and Colossians 1.9, and Colossians 4.12, in our book, Paul cites his own prayer life. He cites how he had already been praying for the Colossian people. And so Paul doesn't ask of the people and he doesn't ask of us anything that he wasn't already doing himself. The question is, does a persistent, devoted life of prayer, does that sound like your prayer life? Does that sound like our prayer life, a continual life of prayer? Many of us may pray only occasionally. Or only when we feel like, or maybe when there's a problem. You see this in the world a lot. The people that you look at and you think, oh, that person is not religious at all. And then suddenly, they're praying because they want something to happen. Could be something meaningless, right? It could just be like, oh, please, I want my team to win. So there's a prayer. You see the players praying on the sidelines. It could be for whatever whatever superficial reason we see it happening But we can be that way too as Christians Where we get caught up in I'll pray to God when I need to but we need to pray to God all the time We must continue in it Pray without ceasing, that's God's command to us. Now, this does not mean that we have to walk around constantly reciting prayers. It doesn't mean that we have to pray nonstop every minute of every single day without break, that would be impossible. Rather, it means that we should be constantly in fellowship with God so that prayer is a normal routine, that it happens, it keeps occurring again and again and again. This is also not to suggest that God is reluctant to answer our prayers and that we have to somehow wear him out by just continually requesting and praying. Quite the opposite is true. I believe that God enjoys hearing our prayers. I believe that God enjoys answering our prayers, but sometimes he might delay the answer. Sometime the answer may not come in the time that we want it to. And he does this to increase our faith, to increase our devotion, to increase our reliance on him. Or maybe it's just as simple as he wants to accomplish his purpose in his time. So don't stop praying. Keep praying. If it's in the will of God, keep praying. One commentator stated it this way, God's delays are not always God's denials. In other words, if he's not answering your prayer right away, it doesn't mean he's gonna deny that request. It just means that it might not be his time. So as we continue in prayer, our hearts are prepared for the answer God will give. And we find ourselves then growing in grace and growing really in our trust in Him, in our reliance on Him. And that's really what prayer life says. You have a person who's devoted to prayer. They're committed to prayer. They pray every day, morning, noon, and night. You look at the book of Daniel and you see Daniel in his prayer life. What that says about that person is that person is trusting and relying on God for everything. The person who prays every now and then or not at all, that person's relying on themselves and their own strength to accomplish whatever it is that they're set out to do. I can do it. I don't need to read my Bible. I don't need to pray. I can get through the day. I can get through the temptation. I can get through the situations at work. I can get through whatever it is on my own strength. I'm good enough. I'm strong enough. No, we must be that person who's prayerful, full of prayer, consistent in it, continuing in it. and shows our reliance on God. So what does this mean? Well, it means that you ought to pray often. And you ought to pray regularly. You should establish a consistent and regular pattern of prayer in your life. Prayer is not to be infrequent. And prayer is not to be hit or miss. Make it a routine. Establish a routine and stick with it. And if you mess up and you skip, there's nothing wrong with getting right back on track. Continuing in prayer also means that you're not casual about it. You're not forgetful about it. It means that you take steps to see that it is a part of your regular life. The same way that sleeping is, the same way that eating is, prayer should be a part of your regular life. Why? Because this is a vital part of a believer's spiritual health. And because it is, it has to be one of our top priorities. Now, Paul goes on to say that while we must continue in a life of prayer, continue in prayer, we must also at the same time be sure that we are watchful in our prayers. It says continue in prayer and watch in the same. This is a participle. This is an action that should be occurring at the same time that we're continuing in this life of prayer. One thing that you can't do, is pray without watching. The word for watching here literally means to keep awake. Stay awake. That's the literal meaning of it. You can't pray when you're asleep. Now, maybe you've been in a prayer meeting before, and someone has fallen asleep. I've been in those. I've never been the person that's fallen asleep in a prayer meeting, I'm just going to say. No, I have. We've probably all been there, right? You're tired, you're praying, someone's really going. You're 45 minutes in. You know, and you're tired, okay? But you can't pray if you're not awake. Now, that's the literal meaning here. And really, Matthew chapter 26, verses 36 through 45, give us a good illustration of that with the disciples and Jesus. You guys, you remember the story? Jesus took them up into the mountain to pray, and he left them, and he went, and he prayed, and he came back, and they were asleep, and he woke them up, and he says, what, could you not watch, watch with me for one hour? He goes back and he prays again and he comes back and he finds him sleeping again. This time he doesn't wake him up. He lets him sleep. And then he goes back and then he prays some more. And he comes back and he finds him sleeping again and he wakes him up and says, you know, the story there where Judas comes and the betrayal happens. You can't pray if you're not watching. So literally, it means to stay awake. So we shouldn't miss that. Stay awake. Put yourself in a position to pray where you can be awake. Like, I'm going to go to bed. I'm going to go to sleep tonight. But before I go to sleep, I'm going to lay on my head on my pillow. I'm going to do my praying there. There's nothing wrong with praying with your head on your pillow, OK? But that probably shouldn't be like your normal pattern of prayer is praying with your head on your pillow, because you're probably going to fall asleep. But the thought here is broader than that. It just isn't just staying awake. Now that's obvious, but when he says watch in the same, it means more than just stay awake. It means to stay alert, to stay vigilant while you're praying. Keeping alert means that you work against distractions while praying. You work against hindrances to prayer, whatever those might be. You put yourself in a situation where you're gonna be easily distracted during prayer, Satan doesn't want you praying. And so he can, there can be distractions that can come in that can cause your prayer life to be cut short or you to be distracted. So work on keeping distraction and hindrances away. Do what you can, do what you have to do to stay awake and to stay to the task of prayer. And when you're praying or when you're in a setting where there's group prayer, don't let your mind wander. Don't think about other things. Be focused on your conversation and on the conversation and speaking with God. We must be on guard against anything that might weaken our effectiveness in prayer. And this includes routine and repetitious prayers. Okay, if we're to be watchful and we're to be on guard, our prayers are not to be routine and repetitious. And the prayer before the meal is the easiest example. We can get into a routine where we just say the same prayers, we say the same few words, because that food is there, and it smells so good, and the tummy's ready for it, and so we just pray the quick ditty. We did it, we thank God for our food, and then we get to eating. We have to make sure that our prayers are serious, that they're not repetitious, they're not rote. They're not routine. If we knew that a dangerous animal was roaming the streets of El Sobrante, a lion, let's say, and the authorities had last seen it right down here on Apian Way, when we all left the auditorium tonight, we'd all be pretty watchful when we left the building. We probably wouldn't be casual, we probably wouldn't be routine like we normally are when we walk to and from our car. But a dangerous lion is on the loose. There is a dangerous lion on the loose, and he's not just loose in El Sobrante, he's loose everywhere. Not just on Sunday mornings, but all the time. And he's out there seeking to devour more souls than he can. And so as believers, we must take this prayer seriously because we already saw in Ephesians 6 that it's one way that we are able to have the strength that we need and the wisdom that we need to defeat that roaring lion, the devil. That's how we stay on the alert against this unseen but dangerous spiritual enemy. So keep doing it. Continue in it. Be watchful. But Paul continues and he describes what the proper attitude in prayer ought to be. And we see that there at the end of verse two, and it says that we're to continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Our prayers ought to be full of thanksgiving. Thankfulness requires that we humble ourselves and recognize our dependence on God for everything. As we recognize that, as it says in James chapter one, every good and perfect gift cometh from above. And so gratitude to God, thankfulness to God is an essential and fundamental part, fundamental element of all of our prayer. Just in this book alone in Colossians, Paul is thankful himself, or he tells us to be thankful for many different things. In chapter one, you can turn over and look at these. Chapter one, verses three and four, Paul says, we give thanks to God. This is speaking of him and Timothy and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he have to all the saints. So Paul here is saying that he is thankful for the love and faithfulness of the brethren. By the way, all of these things that we're gonna look at here in the next, I have five specific in our book of Colossians, and then I have three general from other passages of scripture. These are all things that you could put on your prayer list and thank God for when you pray. The love and faithfulness of the brethren. Chapter one in verse 12. giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. There we have salvation. We can be thankful for our salvation in chapter two, verse five through seven. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So here, Paul is thankful for spiritual growth. And then peaceful fellowship with Christ and other believers, chapter three, verse 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. And then in chapter three, verse 17, opportunities for service. This is another thing that we can be thankful for. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. So we have five mentions of things just in our book that we could be thankful for. But in other places in scripture, we can see some other general things to which we can thank God for. Go to Psalm chapter 75, verse one. Here we can be thankful for God's presence and his closeness. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks. Unto thee do we give thanks. This is repeated, okay? That's emphasis. Why? For that thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare. In Acts chapter 27 in verse 35, we can be thankful for God's provision. We won't turn there, but you can turn to Romans 6, verses 17 and 18. thankful for God's presence, his closeness, his provision. And then Romans 6, chapter 17 and 18, we can be thankful for deliverance from sin. Aren't you thankful you can be delivered from sin? Romans 6, 17 says, But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Okay, so we have many things that we could be thankful for. And this is just a small sampling of the things in scripture that we can see. But thanksgiving is to be an important ingredient, an important part of a successful prayer life. In Philippians chapter four and verse six, Paul tells the Philippian church that they're to be careful in nothing, for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. So our prayers should contain an attitude of thanksgiving, and then let your requests be made known unto God. And so if all we do is just ask and ask and ask and ask, and we don't thank God for all that He's already given to us, then we become selfish. And so as we pray, as we develop a life of prayer, we must set aside our natural selfishness, our fleshliness that would tend towards selfishness, which would quickly result in maybe even demanding from God or being disappointed or upset or angry because we didn't get what we wanted. which can be an all too common response of people, one who are unsaved, right? I prayed and God didn't answer my prayer for my football team, okay? He's not, must not be real, okay? Or it can be, even Christians can struggle with this. A life of thankfulness stems from submitting your life to His sovereign hand, what He wants. What is in His will? And what does He want for you? And we step back, we pray, we ask God, we thank Him for what He's done, and we leave it in His hands. Paul says then in Philippians 2, verses 14 and 15, That if you do all things without murmurings, that's complaining, and disputings, that's arguments, that you will stand out as lights in this complaining, grumbling, arguing world. And that really is what's going on out there. This world is full of complaints. It's full of grumbling and moaning and complaining about all the different horrible things that are going on in this world. And if you as a believer don't do that, you don't complain, you don't argue, you're gonna stand out. That verse says you'll stand out in the world as a light. And really complaining and grumbling and arguing, that's the opposite of being thankful. You think about the children of Israel in the wilderness, and God gave them manna. Were they thankful? No. Okay, what'd they do? They complained, they murmured, they spoke against the man of God. The very opposite thing of what they should have been doing, which was thanking God for this provision, So if you begin your day with thankful prayer, and then you manifest that thankful attitude throughout the day to those who are around you, maybe even to an unbeliever, you may notice and it may even open up a door for an opportunity to be a verbal witness for Christ. And when we recall that Paul wrote these books of the Bible, many of them, while he was in prison, It even makes these statements and these emphasis about Thanksgiving even more wonderful. So develop a life of prayer. The new man has a new mouth, and that new mouth produces a new kind of speech. The first characteristic of that new speech is a life of continuous, watchful, and thankful prayer. So let me ask you, as a church, and I'm including myself in this, are we faithful as a congregation, as a people in prayer? Are we faithful to that? Are we as a church committed to, devoted to a life of prayer? This is a question that we must all ask ourselves. How devoted am I? How committed am I to personal prayer. How watchful am I? How alert, how vigilant am I in my prayers? How thankful are we in our prayers? Prayer is a subject that can really stir up tremendous guilt and shame when we think about what our prayer life could be. But today, we can all find cleansing and forgiveness at the cross for our prayerlessness. And so I believe God's will for you and for us as a church is that if we're struggling in this area, we can all start afresh and start anew in our prayer life right here, right tonight. The easiest thing to do is just give up and just say, I've already blew it. I blew it already, so what's it matter? That's the easy thing to do. But the pleasing thing to do in God's sight is not to give up, but to get back on the right track. Get back to where you ought to be. Commit yourself to a life of prayer by His grace. Let's pray. Father, thankful for your goodness to us. We're thankful for just the so many blessings and even just Scripture, how it speaks to us and how it works in our life. We ask, Father, that you would give us strength in our church, strength in our homes, strength in our families to If we've slipped in this area to just to be living lives full of prayer and reliance on you and not allow ourselves to go out into this world and try to do things on our own strength and in our own power, we ask for your goodness to us, we ask for A blessing even for the rest of this time together as we fellowship with one another, and that you'd strengthen our lives spiritually, that we would grow spiritually, that we would grow in this area, that we do our best for you. In Jesus' name.