Thanks for watching! there is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word. Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey, Scott Pawley leads us in a brief study of Scripture. Today, on The Weekend Pulpit, we are happy to share a full-length Bible message given through Scott's pulpit ministry. These messages were recorded live in a local church or gospel event in recent days. It is our prayer that the message will be a help to you today. Where in the Bible do you want to go tonight? I'm going to let you pick. What book of the Bible? Alright, well let's go to Mark then. And what chapter in Mark would you like to go to? Well, then let's go to Mark chapter 1 if that's where you want to go. If you're just joining us this evening, we've been living in Mark chapter 1 for the last three days. And what a thrill it is just to camp in a portion of Scripture. I think sometimes we get in such a, excuse me, an all-fire hurry about getting through something on to the next thing that we miss what is right in front of us. As a matter of fact, this is not the sermon. This one's extra, all right? I would recommend that when you come to the Word of God, even for your devotional reading of the Scripture, that you slow down. Do not measure your Bible reading in length. Measure it in depth. Be honest, how many of you ever read several chapters in the Bible only to finish and not be able to remember one blessed thing you read? How many of you ever had that happen before? Sure. How many of you know one word from the Word of God can absolutely transform you? And I think sometimes just our meditation of Scripture, even we preachers are guilty of this. You get up and we're so excited about what we have to say, so we open the Bible and we take off reading, and we read like it's a machine gun, and we read so fast people aren't even thinking about the Scriptures. We all ought to just hit the Sela button and pause a little bit and say, Lord, we're going to let this sink in and soak in our souls a little bit. And I hope you'll do that in the days ahead in Mark chapter 1, because I'll tell you right now, we have only touched the hem of the garment. Last evening, we left off with an amazing verse, verse 17, where Jesus said to those first disciples, come ye after me. I love this. And I will make you to become fishers of men. Aren't you glad the Lord can make you what you can never make yourself? And by the way, we are all still in the process of becoming. If you think you got it figured out, I told somebody the other day, I've hit a season in life where I've started to realize that about the time you think you've figured out parenting, your children are grown. Isn't that right? And about the time you figure out the Christian life, you die and go to be with Jesus, you know. But the reality is you never really apprehend. You're always, as Paul said, following after. We're being made all the time. We are coming and we are becoming. In fact, Mark is the one who's writing this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he was a very close friend with the apostle Peter. In fact, 1 Peter chapter 5 verse number 13, Peter was writing and he actually mentioned Marcus, my son. It's the exact same John Mark who was with him at that time. And some people have even called the gospel according to Mark, the gospel according to Peter, because we believe that Mark was so impacted by what Peter had seen firsthand. Well, let me just tell you something. If anybody knew what it was to be one thing and then be made another thing, I can guarantee you it was Simon Peter because Jesus turned his world upside down. And Mark, what about Mark? Some people believe Mark was that young man in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember the young man with the sheet around him in the middle of the night and then he fled? And some people believe that that was Mark seeing himself in that story. But now, look, he's got a pen in his hand and the Holy Ghost is using him to write a gospel record. Aren't you glad the Lord takes just ordinary common folks and does something wonderful with them when they yield themselves to him? And so we are becoming. Tonight, I bring you to one verse, only one verse out of all 45 verses in the chapter, one verse tonight. And it is an amazing verse. It is verse 35. The Bible says, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place. and they're prayed. Would you read the verse out loud with me? And by the way, we all, I think, understand this, but this is Jesus. This is not just any man. This is not just any prayer. This is going into the prayer closet with Jesus. Would you like to go into the prayer closet with Jesus? By the way, look here just a moment before we read it. Do you understand that every time you pray, you actually join a prayer meeting that is already in progress? Because at this moment, at the throne of God, Jesus is praying for you. The Bible says that he ever liveth making intercession for us, which means when we say Father in Jesus' name at that moment, isn't this wonderful? You actually enter in to the communion that the beloved only begotten Son has with the heavenly Father. Somebody said, I wish I could pray with Jesus. You can every day. Read the verse out loud with me, would you? Mark chapter 1 and verse number 35. Ready? And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. Now, Mark chapter 1 has been called Christ's busy day at Capernaum. As a matter of fact, Bible teachers through the years have used this chapter to show how much could be crammed into one day in the life and ministry of Jesus. How many of you had a busy day today? Come on now, how many of you had a busy day? How many of you are a little tired? Be honest now, you're a little tired tonight, all right. And we all have this rat race we're in, and it's different for everybody, but we've got things to get done. You do understand nobody was busier than Jesus. Wished you not that I must be about my father's... Did anybody have more to get done than Jesus did? No one. And yet, the irony is that when you read the gospel records, though Jesus was busy, it seems he was never in a hurry. We get busy, we put our head down. We get busy, we get distracted. We get busy, we get irritable. We get busy, we miss people. We get busy, we ignore prayer. Jesus was busy, and look at the priority of his prayer life. In fact, the context of the text matters. We're just going to study one verse together tonight, but back up just a minute. Would you please just look at one day. This is one day in the life of Jesus. You start in verse number, oh, verse 14, verse 15. He starts by preaching. So he's on a preaching campaign that day, and he's preaching repent and believe the gospel. Verse 16, he comes along by the Sea of Galilee, and he calls Simon Peter and Andrew's brother to follow him. On the heels of that, in verse number 19 and verse number 20, he comes to James and John and calls them. In verse 21, he enters in and he's teaching here in the synagogue. Now, there's a series of days, we're leading to the busiest day now. When you come to verse number 23 in the synagogue, he heals a demon-possessed man. One of the men here told me, he'd been reading Mark chapter 1 this week, and it jumped out at him that the demon-possessed man was in the synagogue. And I said, yeah, they don't hang out just in cemeteries. They're in churches too, you know. the devil shows up everywhere like wall to pop his head up everywhere and you have to be ready for that and then you come down to verse verse number twenty nine and he leaves the synagogue and he goes into a house where simon peter's mother-in-law is sick and dying in that tells you that peter was the first pope he's got a real problem here because he's got a mother-in-law and everybody knows it'd be the height of ignorance have a mother-in-law not have a wife and every with me on that So he's got a mother-in-law, and she's sick, and Peter says, Master, would you come to the house? Jesus comes and heals her. Now, pay attention. Verse 32, and at even. This is one huge day of ministry, and you come to the evening hours, and you go, good, we can relax now. Oh, no. Not if you're Jesus. At even, when the sun did set, They brought unto him all that were diseased, and then that were possessed with devils, and all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers' diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him." Don't you have the idea that this must have gone into the night? The whole city showed up. Now, Pastor, I got to tell you, it's a wonderful crowd here on Tuesday evening, but, you know, this is every preacher's dream. The whole city's beating your door down. And everybody wants to get right with God and everybody wants to know Jesus. But let's just be real for a moment. If we had that kind of day and it went late into the night, most of us would say, phew, I need a day off. And the next day, at least the next morning, surely, would be given to our own interest just to kind of, you know, catch our breath. And look at our verse, verse 35. The Bible says, and in the morning. Would you mark in verse 32, at even, and in verse 35, in the morning. Do you see the end of one very busy day and the beginning of another day? And notice how Jesus starts the next day. The Bible says in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. Let me ask you a question. Do you think that took some discipline, yes or no? Sure, Jesus was all man, just like he was all God, all man enough to thirst on the cross, all man enough to ask for water at the well, all man enough to be weary and sit on the well, all man enough to lay down and take a nap in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, all man enough to, after a great day of ministry, need some rest. But notice what our Lord thought most important. And by the way, may I just say, if Jesus needed to pray, you better believe we need to pray. Jesus rises up, goes out into a quiet place all by himself, gets on his face and begins to talk to the Father. And on the heels of that, look what follows, verse 36, and Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee. That sounds a little rude to interrupt his prayer meeting, don't you think? But they're pulling on him. Do you see the press of people and the busyness of life? And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also. For therefore came I forth. So sandwiched between one great day of busyness and burden and just before another day of busyness and burden, what is the one thing that Jesus said? Must have my attention. I I must not neglect this what was the one thing the Bible says he prayed Laman Strauss, great Bible teacher, used to tell the story of a friend of his that every time he met him on the street, would meet him this way. This was his greeting. It wasn't, hey, my friend, how are you? Have you had a good day? How are things? How's the family? His greeting was always this. And Strauss said it was most convicting. He said, every time I bumped into him, he would look at me and say, do I meet you praying? May I ask you a question tonight? Do I meet you praying? I'm not asking do you believe in prayer. Have you ever prayed? Have you gotten answers to prayer? I'm not asking did you bow your head today over a meal and say, Lord, bless the food and help us. I'm asking this day, in my life and yours, how much attention we have truly given to prayer. We believe in preaching. I'm a preacher. I'm glad you came tonight. It's called a preaching meeting. You get a pretty good crowd, usually, in most strong churches. You call a prayer meeting, and a handful of people show up. I wonder why that is. You let a miracle take place, you better believe the whole city shows up. You call a prayer meeting, you find yourself alone in the garden. Why is that? Can I say to you that the great churches are not the big churches? They may be, if that's not what makes them great. The great churches are not the churches with lots of programs and resources. The great churches are not the churches with dynamic pulpiteers. The great churches are praying churches. The families that know the blessing of the Lord, they're not blessed because of luck and chance and a flip of the coin and a nod of the head. They're blessed because somewhere, somebody in that family knows how to get a hold of God. You see a life blessed, it's not blessed because of what they are in public, what people see, and it certainly is not because of what they put on social media, I can guarantee you that. It is because of what they are in the prayer calls i bring you this one verse tonight in the last meeting that we have together because as wonderful as the last few days have been as thrilling as it is to see people getting saved like we had this weekend and good things happening for the glory of god i want to tell you tonight on the floor of the word of god that if the ministry and and the miraculous power of god and the advancement of gospel is going to continue if If you're going to get to the next thing like Jesus did, you're going to have to do it the way Jesus did it, and that is going to have to be by prayer. The only way this church, your church, any church, can move forward is it has to move forward on its knees. And so for a moment, I want to zero in on verse number 35, and I'd like to give you four little principles about prayer that you can take home with you tonight. to your place of prayer, and they all come from the ultimate example of the Lord Jesus. Dear God, help us to follow in His steps. Here's the first. Let's start with the first word. What's the first word of verse 35? Would you say it, please? You do understand every word in the Bible's there on purpose. You people do believe every word of Scripture here, right? So nothing is incidental and nothing's just informational. No, no. Excuse me, kids, for using a dirty word in church, but even the conjunction matters. because the conjunction is a revelation you see the conjunction is a little hinge that is a connector it connection to what happened previously so notice the first great principle don't miss this number one write them down which is number one i want you to write down that christ prayed after that's what the word and means after the preaching and after the miracle in the synagogue and after the healing of the woman after the city came together why is that significant Because you can tell most about how spiritual people are by what they do after. Great battles come and the Lord gives the victory. Aren't you glad the Lord gives the victory? Can I just be very transparent with you tonight and tell you that I have discovered in my own experience that even greater battles often come on the heels of the greatest victories. So you have a great meeting, you see people saved, good things happening, isn't God good? Oh, this is so wonderful. Well, don't be shocked if the devil pokes his ugly head up. Because it's just the way it works. Everything God ordains, Satan opposes. If you think the hounds of hell are happy that the church is moving forward, you're going to be very disappointed. And I'll tell you what Jesus did on the heels of great victory. He didn't just live and bask in the fame. What did he do? He goes to a quiet place and begins to pray. Was he tired? Most certainly he was tired. Here's what's so interesting to me. Jesus is showing us that the greatest rest doesn't come through physical reprieve. It comes through spiritual communion with Almighty God. Do you understand? There is a refreshing that comes only from the presence of the Lord. Look, there's a time and place for a nap, not during church, but there's a time and place for a nap. But there is a rest that only the presence of Almighty God can give you. When you get alone with the Lord, there is a wind from heaven that blows in your soul and invigorates the inner man, and only God can do that for you. And here is Jesus, perhaps even physically exhausted from the labor of the previous day. What does he do? He runs into the presence of the Heavenly Father. Oh, church, hear me with your heart. We must be most guarded after the blessing. If ever there was a time to pray, it's not after you start to see answers. You're just on the cusp of the blessing. You're just on the hem of the garment. You're just at the beginning of what God wants to do. This is not the time to let up and sit down and go back. This is the time to press into the presence of God in prayer. And what does Jesus do? He prays. And the Bible says, with a little word, and he prays after. It's not all. Keep reading. And in the morning, rising up a great while before. So mark that word. Not only did Christ pray after, he prayed ahead. Ahead of a new day, ahead of new demands, the pull of people. This is powerful. He prays before he preaches. He sees the face of the Father before he sees any man. He's alone before he is in public. This is the priority of his life. The older I get, the more I love mornings. Now, I never thought there'd be a day I would say that. because i was a night person and the night owls are out there with me and i don't see a and i mean look at night owls they don't get going good about eleven o'clock at night and they really kick in and have you morning people are out there are you people that just love mornings would you raise your hand the rest of us don't like you people we want you to know that have your neither would you raise your hand you know these people have two good hours the middle of the day that's all they get The older I get, the more I love the morning hours, the quiet of it. Coffee helps that too. Can I get a witness there? Yes. But I think it's a beautiful thing that here is Jesus somewhere in a quiet place just talking to his father. Peter's in a hurry. Peter was always in a hurry. Jesus is not in a hurry. By the way, you'll get more done, excuse me, God will get more done in a few moments of your life given to Him than a whole life spent running in your own energy and your own labor. You enter the presence of God in the morning and God will order your thoughts and order your words and order your day and make divine appointments for you. I'm telling you, the Lord has a way of putting things together. You can put together a thousand lifetimes, but it must begin ahead of everything else with us turning our eyes heavenward. Read the Psalms and hear the Psalms talk about in the morning when I lift my prayer unto thee and I'll look up. Too many of us reach for our mobile devices first thing in the morning to see what's going on in the world. You don't need to know what's going on in the world first. You need to get to the throne of God first. In fact, let me just read you a couple things. I came across the other day and they ministered to me. Do you know the name Oswald Chambers? Chambers is a man who wrote some tremendous things. Chambers said this, specific times and places in communion with God go together. It is by no haphazard chance that in every age men have risen early to pray. The first thing that marks decline in spiritual life is our relationship to the early morning. When we are in touch with the earnestness of things, we begin soon. It is difficult to get into communion with God in the hurly-burly of the day, he wrote. It is not simply that it is easier to get in the early morning, it is a profound revelation that that is the time when direction comes. Charles Spurgeon, that great prince of preachers, said it this way, the morning is the gate of the day and must be well grounded with prayer. He who would rush from the bed to the business is like he who has not washed or dressed. Now look, let's just get real for a minute. We wouldn't think of rushing out the door without at least looking at least once at the mirror and most of us multiple times just to make sure it's all together. Isn't that right? And if you didn't have enough time, then you're looking at the mirror in the car and you're turning your phone around just to make sure it's all still together. Come on now. But do you know the mirror we ought to be looking at every morning? In Bounds, Mr. Spurgeon said there was a man in Washington, Georgia, who prayed a hole in heaven. That was Bounds. I'm rereading all of Bounds' works right now in prayer, and they're reading me. Somebody said, how are you coming through that? I said, not very fast. You read two or three pages and get under such conviction, you've got to get on your knees. Bowne said it this way, the men who have done the most for God have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway in seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day. Should you pray after? Sure you should. I mean, it's like after everything, Jesus went to prayer. In fact, I was noticing the other day, you preachers will think this is interesting. Did you know that when you read the prayers of Jesus, it seems that much of his praying was concentrated after his messages? That's really interesting to me. So you got John 14, 15, 16. I mean, that all of the discourse, that's some rich stuff. And on the heels of it, you got the great high priestly prayer, the true Lord's prayer of Jesus in John chapter number 17. Father, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. It was almost like there was an intensification of the prayer after the preaching of the word. Now, you preachers, I don't think I'm alone on this. When do we do most of our praying? Sure we do. and you gotta wonder sometimes why that is maybe maybe it's because our real motive way down deep is dear jesus please help me not to make a fool out of myself tonight Lord, help me get this out. Help me get through this." And then we get through the... We got through that service. We got that message delivered. No, that's the very moment when the fowls come and try to snatch the seed away. That's the very moment when the seed of the Word must be watered with the tears of our prayers. And after it, we must enter into the throne room of Almighty God. Jesus didn't just pray after, Jesus prayed ahead. Do you know that if the Lord Jesus needed the communion with the Father and needed the strength and the sustenance, the nourishing of the inner man that would grow out of that fellowship, you can be very sure that those of us who are nowhere near like our Master, like we ought to be, desperately need that too. I've been thinking on this a little bit. Why did Jesus pray? He had no sins to confess. And when I go to prayer, first thing I got to do is get myself right with God. That sure takes a while. Well, he didn't have that to do. He lived in abiding oneness with the Father. That's how he could be given a parable and stop right in the middle of it and say, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. And they thought he was crazy, but he wasn't crazy. He was having two conversations at the same time. I and my Father are what? One. So he's got no sin to confess. He's got no lack because we believe in the sufficiency of Christ. I'll tell you what I believe. I think the great motive of his seasons of prayer was not to get something. It was to be with his father. Do you understand that before he ever left the splendor of heaven and took on a body and eternally passed, The eternal son had always been the side of the father, and there had never been a moment when they had not been in perfect oneness and communion and perfect love. I'll tell you what I think. I think the son, just every day, just he couldn't help himself. He had to be with the father. And I gotta tell you, that convicts me. Because even when we start talking about prayer, we're usually thinking about, I've got to get something from God. Boy, I really need some help today. Yeah, I know Peter's going to come around in a minute. And I know the people are looking for me. And I know there's people out there that need the gospel. And there's things that get done. And dear Lord, I need this, this, this. And we come to God like he's Mr. Fix-It and bring our alphabetized Christmas list and lay it out before God. Can I tell you the real essence of prayer is not getting something from him. It's getting to him. And when you get to him, you'll get from him what you need. But don't you think every now and then it might be good if we went to God, not simply to ask for something, though there's nothing wrong with asking, but every now and then just to tell him, I love you. I was in a hotel room a few years ago. Oldest daughter Morgan, she's 24 now and has our first granddaughter. She was probably 18, 19 at the time. She was away at college. I was by myself, and the phone rang. I looked down, and it was Morgan. And you parents will appreciate this, but when your kids are away at college like that, and they call, something either just happened, or they need money fast. Isn't that right? And I thought, like dads will, wonder what she needs. And I answered the phone, and we chit-chatted. She talked and talked and talked, telling me stuff, and asked me where I was. And I don't know, three or four, maybe five minutes went by. And finally, at a pause in the conversation, I said to her, well, Morgan, what did you need? And it was quiet on the other end. And after a moment, she said, Daddy, I didn't need anything. I was just thinking about you. I just want to call and tell you I love you. Now, from a dad, that was good. But when we said our goodbyes, I sat on the edge of the bed. I remember that moment the Holy Spirit said to me, I wonder if your Heavenly Father would ever like that. I wonder when the last time it was, not as a preacher needing direction for something, not as a husband needing resources to pay a bill, not as a man needing physical health, but just as a child of God, I came to the Father and said, Father, I just want to tell you, I sure do love you. And thank you for loving me first. See, if you're going to pray with Jesus, you've got to pray after, and you've got to pray ahead. There's a third one. Look at our verse again. The Bible says, in the morning, rising up a great while before day, And by the way, some people believe that refers to the fourth watch of the night. That'd be between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. That's really interesting to me. So this is not just like, you know, he set his alarm and got up a few minutes early. The idea here is he was going to make sure he had plenty of time for this. Rising up a great while before day. Here's the third one. He went out. Would you mark the word out in your Bible? You can't go in if you won't go out. he was i'd like to live in the presence of god well then you have to learn the out if you want to get the in here's the third principle christ not only prayed after and ahead but he prayed apart the idea here is to be away from distraction we live in a noisy world don't we and also phones ring in messages and demands, and some of you, you've not had supper, you came straight from work, and you know, a few of you had to get the kids and just barely got here, and you're thinking, phew, we're spent with it all, and run, run, run, and we'll collapse at night, and we breathe a prayer to God, and Lord, help me get through another day tomorrow, and we're gonna get up tomorrow morning and do it all over again. Can I tell you what will bring great joy and blessing and strength into your life and labors? If somewhere in the rush of every day, you go out and you find a place where there's no noise. See, God speaks best in quiet places. The still, small voice of God. And every now and then, you got to turn the TV off and lay the mobile device down. and just go out. And maybe you need to go take a walk. Maybe you need to go sit in a car by yourself. Maybe you need to drive someplace and sit where nobody can find you for a few moments, but the Lord knows where you'll be. But there's an open secret here to the prayer life of Jesus in that he was willing to leave people and things behind for a little bit so he could concentrate on communion with the Heavenly Father. I think this is what Jesus meant when he gave the little parable and the teaching to his early disciples and said this, when you pray, enter into your closet. Everybody remember that? And then he said this, don't miss this, when you've entered in your closet, oh, this is hard, shut the door. Did you know that's the hardest part of prayer? Prayer is not hard. Prove it to you. How many of you know how to talk? Would you raise your hand, please? All right, then you know how to pray. You qualify. Because prayer is just talking to God. The hard part is not praying. The hard part is shutting the door. And sometimes it's not external noise. How many of you know sometimes it's internal noise? And your mind's running 100 miles an hour, and fear's well up inside of you? This is crazy. I can do any other thing and concentrate. I get down to pray, and immediately I'll think of five things I forgot to do. Did you know the devil hates praying people? Because he remembers something most of us have forgotten, and that is this, God hears and answers prayer. You know one thing that helps me to get out and to get in? I use a prayer book. Somebody said, a prayer book? That's a liturgical kind of thing. Oh, no, look up here. This is our prayer book. It's the greatest prayer book in the world. Several years ago, I don't remember exactly how it all came to be, but somebody planted in my mind, suggested to me that a great thing to do every day would be take a portion of Scripture and don't read it, just pray through it. I started the first time with a book of Proverbs. I still remember because I thought, well, I know Proverbs. I didn't know Proverbs. I started praying my way through the Proverbs. Two things happened. Number one, the Bible opened up to me, as never before. And number two, my prayer life took on new substance. How many of you find that sometimes in our prayers we're just going through the motions saying the same words again and again? And it's dull and it's dead. That's why you're bored to death with it. And don't act pious like you don't get bored with it. We all get bored with it. That's why we stop doing it. Let me tell you what brings life and adventure back into the prayer. Why don't you make it a conversation with the author of the Word? And instead of just talking to God about what you want to talk about, talk to God about what God wants to talk about. Take a portion of Scripture and turn it to prayer. Psalms is easy to do that, but you can do that in any portion of Scripture. I haven't told my wife this, it sounds strange, but I was somewhere the other day traveling by myself and my Bible reading, I came to that passage where Abraham and Sarah got into their older years. And after Isaac comes along and all of that and then Sarah dies and Abraham honors her And on and on, all the way through. And honestly, I'm reading that passage, and I just paused for a little while, and I thanked God for my wife, and I prayed that if God would be kind enough to let us live to be an old man, an old woman, and I'd prefer Jesus come before then, but if he lets us do that, that I would honor her, and that we would be what we ought to be, and a testimony of faith. I'm telling you, you can pray any part of the Bible in connection to your life. You can pray the Word for those you love. And here's what I've discovered. When you do that, suddenly the Word gets your mind out of down here and lifts your mind into up there. And now you're thinking God's thoughts after Him and you're praying in the will of God because you're praying the Word of God. And suddenly you're not living in base emotions. You set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth. And I believe this with all my heart, but if God's people are going to learn to pray, we're going to have to go out. One more. Look at verse 35. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place. And they're prayed. Would you mark the word solitary in your Bible? Here's the fourth one. Christ not only prayed after and ahead and apart, but he prayed alone. That's what the word solitary means. There are three types of solitude. There's a solitude of time, where you're alone for a space. Most of us don't get too much of that. There's a solitude of place where you can go out and walk on a beach by yourself or walk through a field by yourself or get lost in the woods somewhere by yourself. But there's a greater solitude than the solitude of time or the solitude of place. It's a solitude of spirit. And here's what that means. It means, look up here just a moment, that in the inner man, you get to a place where you can get in tune with God, even if there happen to be people around. But you can just ignore them for a little while, because you're having a conversation with somebody else. Jesus did that. I know that because in Luke chapter number 9 and verse number 18, the Bible says that Jesus was alone praying, and the next phrase says his disciples were with him. Well, wait a minute. Was he alone or were his disciples with him? Yes. Yes. It means he was away from the masses. He was away from the multitude. He was away from the mayhem. He's alone. He's there to pray and talk to the Father, but he's got a group of people with him. I think that's a beautiful thing. And by the way, we need to train another generation of people how to pray. There's some young women that need to learn from an older saint of God how to get a hold of God. Some young men who need to learn from some daddies and granddaddies what it means to lay hold on heaven and really get a hold of the Lord. And I believe Jesus was teaching them by example as well as by exhortation. They were in the prayer closet. You ever wonder how Judas knew where Jesus would be? The Bible tells us. He left the upper room before they left the upper room, so how did he know exactly where to lead him to? The Bible says that Judas also knew the place because Jesus oftentimes resorted thither with his disciples. I don't think the Garden of Gethsemane is just where he prayed on the hardest night of his life. I think Gethsemane was Christ's regular prayer closet. For the record, if you want to get your prayers answered on your hardest night, pray every night. Don't wait until it all falls apart. Live in communion with a heavenly father every day of your life. And here is Jesus in the solitary place, not just a quiet place and a quiet time, but a quiet heart. Lord, help me get a quiet heart. Do you understand that maybe the very thing you're trying to get rid of right now is God's gift to you? You know that thing that nags at you and gnaws at you when you go to bed at night and you stare at the ceiling and you wish you could fix it and trying to figure out how to change it and wondering how it's going to turn out and you think, I'll tell you one thing, if I could just get that fixed and get that straightened out, then I could really give attention to some of these other spiritual errors of my life. No, that thing that you're thinking about was never intended to be a wedge between you and God. It was supposed to be a prod to get you nearer to God. That person, that thing, that situation was actually the Holy Ghost way of nudging you to bring that to Almighty God. Everything and everyone in every place can become a subject of prayer that brings you to the throne. And here is our Lord Jesus knowing what's ahead of Him as well as what's behind Him. And what does He do? Look at the last two words. There, pray. Do you know what Mark is? Mark is the gospel of action. In fact, one of the good men here said, I like Mark because, man, it's just like a fast-moving drama. It's action. It is. You know what's really interesting? Three times in Mark, God calls our attention to Jesus praying alone. Once at the beginning of his ministry, here we are, Mark chapter 1, verse number 35. A second time at the midway point of his ministry, Mark chapter 6, verse number 46, after the feeding of the 5,000, he sends the multitudes away, he goes up into the mountain to pray. And a third time at the end of his ministry, on the night of the Garden of Gethsemane, when he leaves the disciples, takes Peter, James, and John, then goes a little further. falls on his face and begins to pray. You know what I think? I think Jesus' life from start to finish was a life of prayer. In meetings like this, people want guys like me to come in and give them five ways to be better Christians and seven steps to have a better home and, you know, ten good ideas and nonsense. I have one thing to tell you tonight, and it is this. If we would learn to pray like Jesus prayed, we would have every other thing we need. Somebody said, I wish I knew the Bible better. Well, to pray well is to study well, Luther said. Somebody said, yeah, but I'm having a hard time over here. Don't you think God knows about that? God can take care of it. God's given you a straight, direct line to heaven. It's called prayer. Many of you, a host of you last night in this altar committed a witness to people. I'm not going to put you on the spot and ask you if you talked to somebody today or not, but do you know where the boldness to witness comes from? You don't muster that up in the morning and say, okay, we're going to witness today. You can't work that up. God's got to put that in. You know where that comes from? Being in the presence of Almighty God. You become a man and woman of prayer, you'll be a man and woman of gospel witness. It's just the way it works. And I'm saying to you, we're in Mark chapter 1. If you want the rest of what Jesus wants to do, you've got to learn to pray. Last week, a great uncle of mine who lives here in the great state of Alabama turned 93. I haven't had contact with him in several years now. Hadn't thought much about him until the other night when you asked me about some of our family, picking him up at the airport. His name is Eustace. His wife, Miss Jody, she's gone to heaven now. Eustace was a great preacher. He was a raw-bone, leather-lung, peel-the-paint-off-the-walls preacher. You know what I'm talking about? He was a great Bible preacher. I was a very young man. Tim and I had just gotten married, and I happened to be preaching a youth camp in the northern part of this state. I think it was a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, and I was up speaking when the back door of the assembly room opened, and Uncle Eustace and Jody walked in, sat in the back, smiled, nodded their head all through my message. When it was done, they said, we came over to the camp. We wanted to take you to lunch and show you the old home place. And Tammy and I went, had a nice meal with them, and they drove us out in the country, had a little sandy road. Jody and Tammy, they went in and looked at pictures and sat in the living room. And Uncle Eustace wanted to walk me around the farm. We walked through the fruit trees that he had and around the garden. He was proud of it. And then he said, there's one more place I want to show you. And he took me inside the house and up a set of rickety old stairs to a little landing. We turned right through a little door into one of the smallest little bedrooms I've ever been in in my life. There was a twin bed and a rocking chair on the other side of the bed next to the window. And there were books and Bibles spread out everywhere. And I knew it was his place. She had not cleaned it. That was obvious. And he sat down on the rocking chair, and I sat on the edge of the bed for about an hour. He encouraged a young preacher. This has been 25 years ago. And I can see it like it was yesterday. Finally, I said to him, Eustace, I've got to go. I've got to be back at the camp in a little while. And I stood up, and he stood up, and he said, well, Scott, before you go, let's pray together. And I said, oh, sure, sure. And I got down on one side of the bed, and he got down on the other side of the bed. And he said, I tell you what, you open the prayer, and then I'll close it. I said, all right. And I respected him. I respected him. You know, Uncle James has influenced me and mentored you. Uncle Eustace would have been that to my Uncle James. He was that kind of man. I wanted to impress him, I really did. So I launched into the most beautiful prayer you've ever heard in your life. I wish you could have been there, it was really a nice prayer. I mean, I prayed in glowing tones and terms and prayed for every spiritual thing I knew. But I finally stopped. It was so quiet in the room, I thought the old man had left. I really did. I opened my eyes to see. And he hadn't left. His head was bowed down over the bed. I could see him, tears dripping off his chin. He was perfectly still. And after a few moments, he opened his mouth, said one word. I'll never forget it. He just said, Father, I'm not trying to be spooky. But it was like I was a million miles away and Eustace and the Lord were the only two in the room. I'd never heard a man pray like that before. There was no arrogance in it. There was no self in it. There was no trying to impress me in it. He prayed for me. And the longer he prayed, the smaller my prayer got. I gotta be honest with you, I got under such conviction, I wanted to crawl out of the room. When he finally said amen, we stood up, he hugged me. I left, went downstairs, got Tammy, we went out, got in the car. I still remember our conversation, because we pulled out on that road, just the two of us, and we drove along in silence for a little bit. She was telling me something Jody had showed her and said, and I hadn't said much, and finally she looked at me and she said, something happen to you back there? And I said, yes. She said, what? I said, I don't know. But I know one thing. Whatever that old man has. I want that. I'm going to tell you what he had, what he still has. He knew how to pray. Maybe we ought to start with the disciples' first prayers, the prayer that leads to all the other prayers. Lord, teach us to pray. Maybe that'd be a good place to start at the end of our meeting. Maybe the prayer meeting tomorrow night would be a different kind of prayer meeting if God's people really get a hold of God. Maybe the prayers won't end when the final amen is said to the meeting. That'll just be the launching point of everything God wants to do if we really learn what it means to pray. And I'm telling you tonight, as surely as Jesus prayed in Mark chapter 1, Jesus is praying for you tonight. And as surely as the disciples need to learn it in Mark chapter 1, the disciples of Jesus need to learn it today. And if you'll really come to pray and mean it from your heart, you can join Jesus at the throne of grace. And the Lord will set in motion everything in the next town He wants to do. so If this Bible message has been used of God in your life, or we can pray for you in some definite way, please contact us at enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible messages, please visit Dr. Scott Pauly's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is the Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful to attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday. Thank you for listening to The Weekend Pulpit, and don't miss Enjoying the Journey daily devotional podcast each Monday through Friday.