Okay, let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter five. 1 Thessalonians chapter five. Had a great meal. Thank the Grants for that tonight. And I was thinking, you know, I ate so much I might fall asleep while I'm preaching. So, hopefully not though, right? Uh, you know, Lord, um, just praying about what, what to preach tonight. And the Lord just kept bringing back, um, preach on praying for missionaries as well. That's great. I don't have a message like that with me on that. So this afternoon, I, I found something to do this afternoon and, uh, we're going to preach on, uh, Title of the message is partners in prayer, partners in prayer. I hope it'll be a help and a blessing and let's pray and begin. Father, thank you for the time that you've given us. I pray that you'll help me to say what needs to be said and give me your power to do so. Help each one Lord to have ears to hear and Lord, I want it to be an encouragement. Help it to come out the right way. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. I've almost forgot, I need to tell a snake story, right kids? All right, whew, all right, and big kids. All right, so which one am I gonna tell tonight? Okay, so it was just before going into the evening service, and I was sitting at my desk, had a desk in our bedroom, and I was just tidying, finishing something up. You know, I got my white shirt on, I don't have my tie and all that ready to go yet, but I'm sitting there finishing something up, I hear the dogs barking, and that's not a good sign. And we had these two black labs. They're a cross between Black Lab and Rottweiler. And so they're nice dogs, and everyone was afraid of them, and that's why we had them. And so they're barking and barking over by the sisal bushes. Sisal is kind of like, I don't know how to describe it. This has long points on it and you don't want to fall into it because you're going to get hurt. And so they're barking over by the sisal bushes. And then my daughter comes around the corner. She was my youngest. She comes around the corner to see what's going on. I look out the window. And about the same time as I'm looking out the window, my daughter's screaming. And I can see the dog, one of the dogs, go in under the bushes and come out with a very big puff adder. You say, what's a puff adder? It kind of looks like a rattlesnake on steroids. It is a very mean looking snake and it can kill you. So Zach, the dogs from Zeke and Zach, so Zach got it, and I just see him shaking this around, and my daughter's screaming. And all in one motion, I'm up running for the 12 gauge. I get outside, and by that time, the snake had already bit Zach in the chest and just kind of hung on for a little bit and pumped its venom in him. And I thought, this is not going to be good. I got the snake. He was a goner. And unfortunately, so was Zach. He died a pretty slow, miserable death. And, you know, as much as we hated seeing Zach go, I was glad it wasn't my daughter. So, Lord took care of us in that way. So, all sorts of things happened on the mission field. That was a sad day right before we go to church. He hadn't quite passed away then. Long story. There's more to that story, but I have to tell what the Bible says tonight. So let's get on with it. First Thessalonians chapter five, verse number 25. Real short verse, pretty easy to remember this one. This is the apostle Paul who was a missionary, okay? And he says this, brethren, Pray for us. Brethren, you save people. Pray for us. Last night, I challenged you to just ask God to help you with different areas, maybe some things you're struggling with, deficiencies, just ask him to give you some things. Tonight, I would like to challenge you to pray, not for yourself, but for your missionaries. And the first point is simply this. I want to talk about the plea for prayer. Paul was a missionary, and we see him asking for prayer. You know, we tend to look at missionaries sometimes as these spiritual giants, right? They do this, and they do that. How did they get through all this, and how do they live this way, and how do they see all these things happen? But you know, even the greatest of men, like the apostle Paul, were men of like passions. He faced what everybody else, he faced temptations, he had weaknesses, and there's one thing that Paul knew, Paul knew he needed prayer. Now, you got a bunch of letters hanging on the back wall back there, what do we call those letters? We call them prayer letters. Those are modern day appeals for prayer. Those letters back there are from your missionaries that you support that came through here at some point and you said, hey, we'll partner with you and praise the Lord, people sacrifice and give and a check is sent to them on a routine basis and they get that. But you know what they want more than the money? They want prayer. And they usually ask for prayer. We're here, we want to raise prayer support. We went to a church on deputation, and I like to look at prayer letters. I went back to the back wall. I think the newest prayer letter was eight months out of date, and there were some that hadn't been updated in a year. And it wasn't that the missionaries, because I knew some of the missionaries, but it wasn't that the missionaries weren't sending prayer letters. It was that the church didn't post them. You know what that told me? They're not praying for their missionaries. I called the church on a furlough one time. I called, came back and I was, you know, sometimes you go, Hey, I'm going to be in the area. Didn't know if you wanted me to stop in and it's another church, so-and-so. And if you, if you want, no big deal if you don't, but if you want, I could come. But I remember calling in and then the person I talked to on the phone said, Oh, we're not taking on any, new missionaries, and I said, okay, just, I am your missionary. And I thought, hmm, I wonder how much they've prayed for us these past few years while we're on the field. A missionary I know, recently, I got a, anyway, an email, and He keeps track, he sends his prayer letters out through email, through MailChimp or something like, one of those email services. And he mentioned that over half of those emails that are sent out are never even opened. So if they're not opened, they're certainly not prayed for. And a prayer letter, is a plea for prayer. I might ask you, and I'm not saying this to shame anybody, I'm just asking you, do you pray for the requests of your missionaries? Did you agree to partner with them when they came through? It's exciting to say, oh, I sent you a burden. Oh, yes, brother, we'll help get you on the way. And then they're on the way, out of sight, out of mind. I will just challenge you. Would you pray? Would you pray for your missionaries? When you see the letter, a new letter come in, I don't know how you do. Every church does it a little differently. Sometimes some churches will get up and they'll highlight maybe one during the midweek service. Every week they'll do a different one. I know a church that photocopies one of the letters and puts it on the back of their Sunday bulletin. They have to reduce a little bit, but there's different ways that people get it out there. And when you pass by the wall, I know we get busy. And if we're the last one in and the first one out, sometimes we don't even stop. But maybe just pass by there. And if nothing else, when you read it, pause right there and pray for that need. And if there's something really, really big, jot it down. Jot it down and keep it in prayer. Because people need your prayer. If the Apostle Paul needed prayer, don't you think these people back here who would say, I'm nowhere near the Apostle Paul, don't you think they would say, I need prayer? If we've made a commitment to partner with those missionaries, let's see what we can do about praying for them. Let me move on from the plea for prayer, and I want you to see the passion for prayer. I mentioned, last night in the sermon. And this is the point that made me really think about putting this message together. In Romans 10, one, remember I said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And so here's the passion. Paul had a passion. He was praying for those people. And I think sometimes we lack that same passion when it's not our ministry. But we need to have the same kind of passion for somebody else who's out there doing the work especially if we've decided to partner with them because we tend to pray for what's important. Would you please turn with me back to Matthew chapter number nine. I still want to see you to see the passion for prayer. And we saw the apostle Paul's and I want you to see here that Jesus also had a passion for prayer but he had a passion that more people would hear the gospel now. If the Lord came to you tonight and said, Hey, I have a prayer request. Would you pray for that? I mean, if Jesus stood here tonight and said, I have a prayer request, would it be important if he brought it up? Would you be inclined to pray for it? Well, he does have a prayer request and he recorded it in scripture. In fact, if you look through the life of Christ, there are very few things that he says to pray for, but this is one of them. We find it, we'll pick it up here in Matthew chapter number nine and verse number, let's see, we'll start in verse 36. But when he saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, his sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. So there's this great harvest and few laborers. He said, oh, what's the next word in verse number 38? Pray ye. What's ye? Ye is you in the plural. So he's saying you, all of you, including me, pray. Pray ye that the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. So this is one of the very few prayer requests that Jesus ever made. Do you pray for laborers? Do you pray for laborers for this church? For different ministries, you know, pastor's sharing the burden of two more bus routes. I was like, do you have the, you know, he was telling me about it before we even got here. He was telling me about, we're going to get two more buses and we're going to start around here. We're going to start around there. Do you have the workers for that? He said, well, we're, we're, we're, you know, one, yeah. And we're the one where, you know, you know, you know what the church needs in these laborers. And there's other, other people in the States here that need the gospel. Need laborers. You got church planters that are the Stevens or, or, uh, we'll be here again tomorrow. Right? So, and, and they need prayer. They need prayer. There's, there's, there's people over, you know, I go visiting missionaries and just about every single one of them will tell me, oh, I need help. I can't do it all. I can't do it all. I need help. You know, they, they've got a couple of young guys that want to train that they're, they're already running the church full time and they need a Bible Institute. And it's hard to run a Bible Institute full time and run a church full time and all the other things and all the outreach ministries. And, and sometimes just surviving on the, on the foreign field can be a challenge. Everything takes so much more time. I don't know how many times I'd go to a store to find something. Go to an auto parts store. And an auto parts store there is not anything like an auto parts store here. I'm just telling you. And you'll go to one, and it's like, no, we don't have that. And you go to another one, no, we don't have that. And you go to another one, no, we don't have that. And you could go to seven, and they're like little hole in the wall. They're not real auto parts stores. Seven or eight. And you don't even find it. And then you might have one guy and say, yeah, Come back next week. I'll have it. And you, you're all promising. And after a while you realize he's not going to have it next week. So you told me to come back. Yes. Well, and then you find out, well, they're just telling you that because that's what you want to hear. That doesn't help me. I don't want to hear that. Oh, I'm telling you, we, We need people to pray. And we need people to pray for more labors. Because missionaries, they just can't get it all done. You know, it's interesting. In the biblical times, you see Paul almost all the time, he was traveling with another missionary. We don't do too much in team missions. You say, why is that? Well, maybe part of it is because sometimes Baptist preachers don't get along. I don't know. But I think the bigger part is we don't have many people to send. We just don't have people going. And that's why we don't have teams going. So do you pray for more labors? We need to be passionate about praying for others to hear the gospel. Lord, would you send forth more laborers to our church? Would you send forth more laborers? I got to go back to Zambia. My wife and I went back to Zambia a year ago, a year ago right now-ish. No, we would have been back by now. But right around a year ago, we were in Zambia. And we were looking at it and saying, oh, here's this church, this town that still needs a church. And here's these other towns that have a church, but they don't have a pastor. And they need someone to go and train some young men to be the pastors. And then there's this church town over here that needs, and it's like, oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. There's a need. Would you pray for laborers? Thirdly, I want you to see the perseverance in prayer. The fourth point, that's the third point. The fourth point is my real sermon. These other ones are just preliminary, okay? In 1 Corinthians 15, 58, pretty familiar verse. The Bible says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain, Sometimes we get tired of doing the same things over and over again. Sometimes we get tired of praying for the missionaries and you wonder, is it doing any good? Is it doing any good? What does the Bible say? Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding. That means continue to do it and not do it just a little bit. Keep doing it more. Why? Knowing that your labor is not what? It's not in vain. It's not empty. It's not useless. You say, I'm not there in the Philippines. I can't see what brother Hardecker is doing. God can. And you get some of these prayer letters and he's got that list. You pray for this, pray for this, pray that. Okay, Lord, would you help? Would you help? Would you help? And then you get that next prayer letter. Oh, there's a new prayer letter. And you walk up and say, Did it happen? And isn't it a blessing when you see an answer to prayer in one of those prayer letters and you prayed for it? God used you and God's people from other places lifting up prayer and God hears those prayers and he says, I'm going to move. You know, prayer changes and it moves the heart of God. It moves the hand of God. And we need, you know, can I say this? It's a lot easier to give than it is to pray. You can write the checkout, you can drop some cash in the offering plate. And those are all good things to do because missions that you can't do missions without money. I get it. But if you ask any missionary what he'd rather have, if he's worth his salt, He knows. He knows what he needs. He wants prayer. He wants prayer. Now I want you to see fourthly, the real sermon here. The particulars of prayer. And I'll try not to get bogged down too much. And I know I will, but not too much. So we've seen that we need to pray. So what do we pray about? How do you pray for your missionaries? You know, I think it's pretty common, but a lot of people, and I don't mean to make fun of it, I think sometimes just that's what people do, is like, okay, and Lord, be with all the missionaries. Ever heard that kind of prayer? Don't tell me if you did pray those prayers. But it kinda happens, isn't it? Lord, be with all the missionaries. Well, if they're saved, God's already with them. So you don't even have to pray that. But they have a whole lot of other things that they need. And there are some other things that we could pray for. And I wanna give you a couple areas to consider. The first one, if you would turn with me to Colossians chapter number four, Colossians chapter number four, pray for souls. pray for souls. You know, it's interesting. Many prayer letters will mention certain names on their prayer list. I'm witnessing to so-and-so. And in some of those countries, you're reading those like, I have no idea what that name is. I couldn't pronounce it for anything. And you're like, okay, God knows how to pronounce it. You can do your best. And if you don't even remember it, Lord, there was like three neighbors of missionary. So-and-so he's praying for, will you help him? What about that mechanic? Yeah, there's a mechanic. I don't know the guy's name, but there's a mechanic he's working on. Please work in that man's heart. And we can, we can have a part in praying for the souls of those people. And we find that in Colossians chapter four, verse number three, Paul speaking, he says, with all praying also for us. So you're praying, please continue praying 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. He was in jail. And he's asking God, he wasn't sitting around feeling sorry for himself. He's asking God, would you please give me some opportunities, open up some doors for me to witness to somebody. Chances are some of those people are going to be some of the prison guards that don't really necessarily want to hear anything from a prisoner. And maybe some other fellow prisoners, but he was like, Lord, please give me, open the door. And he's asking these people to pray that he'd have opportunities to witness and to see people saved. There are some, I know missionaries in China and it's illegal to have a church in China and they're there in China with churches. In fact, I know one missionary that was had to leave because he was arrested. And, uh, and we, we have one missionary from our church sent out to China and it's illegal. And you can't just go out passing out tracks. And anytime you T you start to witness to somebody. It is possible that they will turn you into the government and you will be in trouble, either deported or arrested or whatever and raid the church and collect all the names and information of everybody, put some in jail and follow up everybody else and wow. And so they need real wisdom to know, okay, how far do I go with this person? They have to really be sensitive to the Holy Spirit about who they're going to witness to, how they're going to witness, and just take those steps of faith sometime. Hey, this could put me in jail. Pray that God would give them those open doors. Not just souls, I want you to turn with me to 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter number three. I want you to see the importance of praying for safety. Now some of these points I could give a lot of stories and that's where I don't want to get bogged down. But 2 Thessalonians chapter number three, Verses one and two he says finally brethren Paul again pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. So same idea, pray that the word of God would go forth, pray that souls would get saved, that God will use us. But then secondly, we're seeing this idea of safety. Look at verse number two. And so we're still saying, please pray for us and pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. There are some wicked evil people out there. I just heard about a missionary who he's way up in one of the in northern Alaska and someone came to his house drunk and was trying to kick down the door and was telling him all the wicked things he was going to do to his wife. And he's got his gun. He knows if he has to shoot this guy. His ministry there is done. He'd have to leave the village. And the wife and kids are sitting on the couch, scared to death, wondering what's going to happen next. The kids are hearing all this wicked stuff. Who's doing all this? It's the devil working. The devil doesn't like God's work going forth. People need safety. There's evil people out there. If you turn with me back to 2 Corinthians chapter number one, 2 Corinthians chapter number one. Yeah, I just, in that snake story was telling you about the danger of my daughter. But there was another time when my son was running across the yard and actually stepped on a baby puff adder. And you say, well, it's just a baby. Oh, yeah. Don't forget, just a baby snake has less venom. But you know what it has? It has more potent venom because it has to make up for the fact it doesn't have much. And he just happened to step on one by accident. Looked like a stick. You know, typical kid. Hey, there's a stick. And if there's a stick in the middle of the yard, what do you do? You step on it. And then he realized that wasn't just a stick. He was out there one day, he was weed-whacking. And snakes do pretty good at hiding, right? And so he's weed-whacking and he... And all of a sudden, my wife heard... She's like, what is he doing? She looks out there and she's like, what are you doing? And then he's killing a snake. That was a real puff adder, not just a baby. Get it before it gets you, right? Wow. But safety, safety. And second Corinthians chapter number one, look with me in verse number eight. Here's Paul again, missionary Paul. He says, for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, pressed out. He says above strength read between the lines. I didn't have any more strength. I couldn't go on. In so much that we despaired even of life, we thought we were dead. Then next verse, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves. that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the dead." Look at verse number 10, who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver us in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. You say, why do some missionaries Stay where they are. Why do they do what they do? Because Paul had realized that God had delivered him. He says, he doth, that means he does deliver us. And he says, we trust that he will yet deliver us. That's why they continue on because they say, we're just gonna trust God. But they're also trusting that people back home are praying for them. I would not be alive today if people weren't praying. I just, I would not be standing here. I mean, I have, yeah, I've had dysentery multiple times. I, yeah, had African tick bite fever. Yeah, that one time. I remember having that and I had a whole bunch of other problems, but. They didn't know what was going on, so I flew down to South Africa from Zambia. And I was in bad shape. And I checked into the hospital, and he did a bunch of tests. And the doctor said, well, you've been to all sorts of places. By that time, I had been to Mayo Clinic when I had on a furlough. I'd been to all sorts of really top-notch places. And he said, listen. He said, I've checked out. He says, he said, You just have big psychological problems. That's what's going on. I'm like, there's something off here. This is a neurologist. So I went and found another doctor. I checked myself out of the hospital. He drugged me up. And then I got up and my wife came down and she met me there and I said, we're getting out of here. She says, why? I said, we're getting out of here. I went to the front desk. I said, I'm checking out. She says, you can't do that because I wasn't released. I says, I'm leaving. I said, he's going to tell me I have psychological problems. I said, there's a problem and I don't know what it is. I found another doctor in another town over. And he looked, he says, oh, you've got a bullseye here on your leg. He says, I think you've got African tick bite fever. And you know what? A farmer back in Zambia, when we had told one of our church members, they had said, oh, yeah, one of the farmers just died of that because it went undiagnosed. And here, this doctor was going to send me back to Zambia saying I had big psychological problems and I had tick bite fever and I was in bad shape. But praise the Lord, got the medicine that I needed and I lived. It wasn't just that, there were other times. I almost died in the hospital from the dysentery and I could just go on and on and on and on, but I'm not going to go on and on and on. Threats, we've been threatened by government officials, disease, we've had malaria, we've all the sorts of, you know, missionaries are targeted. Sometimes they're targeted just because they're Americans. And people say, well, I don't like Americans. In some parts of the world, people hate Americans. And sometimes they're targeted because they're Americans, because they have more money than everybody else, so now you're a target of the thieves. And you're definitely a target of the devil, because the devil doesn't like what you're doing there. I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter number six, Ephesians chapter number six. I know it's a little bit heavy of a message, but I think it's important for us to understand people are, you know, these missionaries, they have needs. We need to be praying for souls, we need to be praying for safety, we need to be praying for sureness or boldness. You know, we talked about that last night for us, but our missionaries need boldness. That's the idea of confidence. In chapter six of Ephesians, verse 18, this again, Paul, the Apostle Paul, I mean the great Apostle Paul, he's saying, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplications for all saints." And he says, and for me. He said, I got a request for you. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds. So here he is. He said, oh yeah, that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. This apostle Paul, of course he's gonna speak boldly. You know why he was speaking boldly? Because he had people back home praying that he would speak boldly. I'll go back to my friend in China. He's putting his neck on the line every time he witnesses. He needs boldness. You think you and I chicken out sometimes when we have no skin in the game. We gotta be praying for our missionaries. There's another missionary that I know that I've tried to help through. In fact, I helped train him in Bible college. He's in Muslim speaking country right now. And he has to be cautious, but he's serving the Lord. And he needs wisdom, and he needs help, and he needs guidance. And we need to be praying that our missionaries will have the boldness that they need. And I want you to see that they also need strength. If you turn with me to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 7. 2 Corinthians, chapter number 7. They need strength. 2 Corinthians, chapter number 7. Look with me in verse number 5. Here again, we see Paul, again, we get this idea that Paul, the apostle, he can do anything. He's the spiritual giant, right? In verse number five, he says, for when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings. Within were what? Fears. You mean the Apostle Paul had fear? Yes. The Apostle Paul had fear. He said we had no rest. They were troubled. They had problems without. They had problems within. They just had problems everywhere. Can I tell you, missionaries get discouraged. Just like you and me, they get discouraged. And you know the difference between you and me? When they go to church, They don't have a bunch of like-minded people that they can talk to. They have first-generation Christians and some are just barely growing. They can't get counsel from them. Anybody who goes through a problem here, you can find someone around who's been through something similar, at least. You got a pastor that can help you through. But missionaries, who do they have? Nobody. I know they have the Lord and we're not going to sell that short, but they get discouraged. I know a missionary in a Buddhist country, it's a very, very hard country, spiritually dark. I've been there and visited there and worked over a decade in that church and the most influential man in the church, Left the church got filled with pride left the church and took people with him and are still attacking the church. And here this man has put so much over a decade put into his into this ministry and it's like his heart was just ripped out and I could tell just talking with him. He was down. He was discouraged. And you say, well, he's not a really strong Christian. No. He is actually a really strong Christian. But he's a man. And he needed prayer and help and encouragement. Weak? No. You know what he was? Wounded. Wounded. You guys, there's a lot of hurts. You know, if those missionaries wrote everything that really happened in their prayer letters, they can't. They can't tell you everything. But they've been through some battles, and some of them you don't even know the battles they're going through, but you can pray, Lord, help them. Sometimes you can read between the lines a little bit. You can read right between those lines. This one's really struggling with something. I mean, at times, people need strength. There are times when, Zambia, I could feel the oppression, feel the demonic oppression. I've been around demon-possessed people. We've had spiritual attacks. I want you to turn with me to Revelation chapter number three. Revelation chapter number three. You gotta see some of this. In Revelation 3, verse 7, it says, you'll catch up to me. Actually, I want you to see, let's go to chapter 2. Go to chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 13. He says, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. How would you like to live? next to the devil, next to a stronghold. He says, and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith, even in those days where an antipas, my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. There are parts of this world where the devil has such a stronghold, and a missionary goes in, the gospel's not there, and he goes in, and I'll tell you, the devil doesn't like it. Within six months of being in Zambia, I got sick, very badly sick. Now, I might look, oh, you look fine, you just don't know what's going on. I praise God. He gives me strength to preach. You don't know the battles. I'm not going to tell you all of them. We've seen the devil at work. And he can afflict people even physically. Would you turn with me to Luke chapter number 13? Luke chapter number 13. We had some thieves break into our property and steal some stuff. I did some investigation, found out who it was and turned them into the police and we had a case against them. It was pretty interesting that one of the young men, he's dead now, but his father was known in the community for putting curses on people. And it was interesting, it was shortly after we had brought the case against that young man that all my health problems started coming on. And I've had some people say, well, that was the devil put the curse on you. And you know what? It may have been. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, even if it did, God allows that at times. And he wouldn't allow it if it wasn't for his glory. Amen? So I want you to see in verse number 11, and behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of an infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. Now drop down to verse number 16. He healed, Jesus healed this lady and ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these 18 years. Be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day. She was bound for 18 years. Who bound her? The devil. The devil has real power. We took a medical missions course, my wife and I, a crash course. It was a short course, but it was packed on how to diagnose and treat tropical diseases. And they gave us all these different protocols, go through this, go through this, go through this, go through this. And then at the end, if none of those scenarios are feasible, consider one more option. Demonism. That somewhere along the line, It might not have been that someone was demon possessed. It might have been that they were oppressed. It might have been the devil put some kind of curse on them. And that is something we, there's a young lady in one of our churches that very much that's what was involved with her. And she died. She got sick. Well, I'm going to tell the whole story, but it's in my book on adventures in Africa. You can read about it sometime. I don't have time. I have to finish up. Let me give you one more passage. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 12. I'll just read it to you. This is the apostle Paul. We know that he had this thorn in the flesh. Let me read it to you. It says, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. People say, well, what was it? What was it? Was it his eyesight? I'll tell you what it was. It says right here. Now, I don't know what the physical malady is, but I'll tell you what the thorn was. It's right here. The messenger of Satan to buffet me. You know what Paul had? He had a demon that followed him around, afflicting him. And God allowed it. And God used it for his glory. Missionaries have a big target on them. It's easy to drop some money on an offering plate. It's difficult to faithfully pray for them. Brethren, pray for us. A couple months ago, my pastor and I took a missionary out to lunch. He was coming through and he was embarking on a huge translation project for the most commonly spoken language in Africa. And he was under a lot of serious attacks. I won't even get into it. And I could tell the guy was just, he's been through it. And he came into our church and he told us, he says, thank you that you guys have been praying for me. He said, People came up and said, you've been praying for that translation. And he had sent us a copy. You know what we did with that copy? We put it out for our people to see. And he, with tears streaming down his eyes, he said, thank you for praying for us. He said, you'll never know what that means to us, what we've been going through. I'm glad I have been praying for him. There's a lot of hurt out there. They're on the front lines. Let's hold the ropes.