Is this your coffee, bro? You probably want to drink that. I might likely put you all to sleep. Actually, that's not my intention. Morning, brethren. Well, I'm excited to be here and to bring the message today to you that I feel like the Lord would have me to bring. Brothers and sisters, I know that in those days when I was traveling here on a regular basis. There was a season where I would come every Thursday, lead the prayer meeting here. And then I would come, I forget, maybe once a month on Sunday or once every... I forget what it was, but I would come and preach here. Our church planted the church here. And so even though a lot of your faces are new, what I mean is you weren't You weren't here in the earliest days when we were meeting over, it was just over here, wasn't it? Yeah, we were meeting in a storefront. But I say that because of this. I feel like whenever we plan a church, it's almost like a father with a child. We invested a lot in the church here. Time and energy and money, and we still are. And I have a concern for the church. I want there to be a church in Austin that is aggressively evangelistic, that is a light that is shining and burning, that God is using, a church that is thriving, that has life. And I am not somebody to beat around the bush. I don't like vagaries. I like to be direct. And so you're going to get me being direct to you today. Let me ask you this. There are things that you as a church ought to want. Things you ought to desire. Let me ask you a question. We had a hand come up back here. Is your husband on the same page? Um... Brethren, you know when we started our church? I think I told you last week. We had 12 members when we came out of Community Baptist Church, which is about 20 miles south of San Antonio. Very shortly thereafter, we lost two. We were down to 10. We had about 10 people for the first 16 months of our church before the Lord began to add. From the very first days, I began to pray, God, raise up labors in this church. that'll be able to go to the mission field. Give us missionaries. I would ask you all this question. What would it take for you all to have your own missionary? You answer that. What would it take? Okay, you're going to be bashful. I'll tell you what it'll take. You would want, one, God to give you individuals who have the gift and the character to be able to be fruitful on the foreign mission field. Did you catch that? You need God to give you that. Have you ever read in Scripture? You need to be praying that God would raise up labors. You need labors. Guess what you need then? You don't just need somebody to send out there. You need a church behind them that prays for them. So you need God to give you people who really believe that laying hold on God in prayer is necessary. You need a praying church. I'll tell you what else you need. You need a giving church. If you're going to send people and you're going to get involved in this great commission, and you're going to seek to make disciples among the nations, and you're going to send individuals there, that doesn't come at a cheap price. Now listen, I said, I don't like vagaries. You know what? Every single year at our financial meeting, We put up on a big screen just like this. We put where all of our money went to. Guess one of the places our money goes to every year? To this guy right here. $1,900 a year. Guess what? Again, I'm straight with you. You guys are never going to send missionaries to the foreign mission field when you can't even support your own pastor. Now listen, I'm not here to club you folks over the head. to encourage you is this. I'm talking about what God has to give. What does God have to give? I'm wanting you to think about what should this church want to be? What should this church desire? What is it that you need from God? if you're going to really be a shining light, if you're going to be involved in the Great Commission for decades to come. You're not just a flash in the pan, we tried to plant a church, you had a group of people, and next thing you know... Brethren, what happens if suddenly our money goes away? Does your pastor have to go back to work and now he's not able to involve himself? You know what you need? You know what? We just put a third elder on the payroll. But you know what? In order to be able to do that, you need God to give you something. You need God to give you people who are giving. You need God to give the men in the church jobs that can support this kind of thing. Or you need God to increase the number of people that are in the church. These are the things that you need. Listen, I heard a list of names from UT campus. You want God to save those people. What do you need? What do you need? There was a time in our church we prayed for evangelists. And guess what? God brought Sanguinetti, God brought James Jennings, He brought What were some of the others? Oh, Eric Diaz. I remember these guys coming, they were bringing people. I remember watching Diaz drive up his little car, the doors would open, and people just kept coming out of it. Pray for evangelists. Listen, it's good to know the Gospel, but you want people that God actually uses to save people. You want to see these people over there? I'm not saying that all of you shouldn't go out. You should. But you need God to take your words and make them alive. It's not just enough to have a list of names on a cell phone. You need God Almighty to come. What else do you need as a church? I tell you, you need faith. You should be praying, God, give us full prayer meetings. God, give us faith. Lord, increase the church. Raise up labors. Give us the kind of church behind them that's going to pray for them and support them. Give us the ability to support our own pastor. Give us these things that we need. I'll tell you what else you need. This place is not good. You don't have visibility in your community. The acoustics here are terrible. Any place with carpeting and soft chairs just absorbs the sound. But the other thing is, these chairs, they're way too comfortable for a church that's militant. And I'm serious about that. You guys ought to be praying. You say, well, we don't have money even to support our own pastor. Again, this comes back not to you. It comes back to what do you need from God? What do you need Him to give you? And that's why I'm here today. I want to encourage you, brethren. Like I say, I didn't come here to bang you on the head. I came here to encourage you. Listen. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you remember, they came to, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Well, he was a good one to ask. To teach. Because if there was ever a man of prayer and there was ever a man they knew who was out under the stars letting the dew, accumulate on his brow. It was him. I mean, how many times do they wake up in the middle of the night and Jesus' place over there is empty. Where is he? Well, he's out there praying. He prayed. He prayed. They asked him, Lord, teach us to pray. And you know what he said? He said, I'll tell you this, you can go to your friend at midnight, and his whole house is all locked up and secure, and he's in bed, and he's got the kids in there with him, and his feet are washed, and he's got his nightclothes on, and he doesn't want to get up and let his neighbor have bread at midnight. And what the Lord is teaching us about is His Father. And it's an interesting little parable or a little illustration Why because it almost makes it sound like obviously he's talking about prayer. They're asking teach us to pray. He says importunity persistence Impudence, that's what it takes It's almost like what are you saying that God is reluctant to give The issue is that He tells the story to show you that if you approach God right, He is not reluctant to give. That's the whole point. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. This church needs some things. And I just want to encourage you to not give God rest. Just like Jesus said there. Persistence. I want you to be persistent. You can't be hit and miss. You can't be just, well, you know, This next Wednesday, you get together and you pray for these things, and a month from now, you've all forgotten. You really need to be thinking as a church, what do we need? Listen, there is such a thing in Scripture. He gave gifts to men. There's apostles, there's prophets, there's evangelists, there's pastors and teachers. Well, you know what? Pastors are men who shepherd the flock. Evangelists are people that Jesus Christ is specifically gifted to be able to communicate the Gospel and to see people born again. You know what? You want to be a church not just made up of people who have moved here from other places. You want to be able to look at that brother, that sister, that brother, that sister, and say, yes, they came in here, they came out of the neighborhood, they were lost, they came unto the Gospel, or our team was out there, somebody went to their door, they got met in a Starbucks somewhere by one of you, and you were sharing the truth, and God came, and God is building the church. That's what you want to see. Oh yeah, there are plenty of Christians that are in Austin who might migrate from one church to the other. You know what you've done with the Kingdom of God then? You've just shuffled it. What you want to see is the devil give way before you. You want to see him give up those possessions that he's so greedy to keep. You want to see one stronger than the strong man come and bind him up and take his goods away and seat him right here in your midst. Listen, if you're going to be a church that reaches the world, you need God to give you sacrificial individuals. Because I'll tell you, all the things out there, all the outreaches and the sending men forth, and if God ever opens a door for you to church plant somewhere else, you send missionaries out to some foreign country, like I say, those things take Sacrifice. They take sacrifices of prayer and sacrifices of giving. And I'm not just pressing you with what you need to be. I'm pressing you with what you need God to give you. You need God to give you evangelists. You need God to make you evangelistic. powerful. The gospel you speak being the power of God unto salvation. You need God to show you that He is indeed the God that does exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think. But you need to be asking big things. It's almost like that promise right there. The bigger things you ask, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, He still goes beyond. So why keep it small? I mean, you're not coming to a little deity here. You're coming to a God who sends His Son and says, ask in His name, and I'll give you what you ask for. So, brethren, when I was first saved, I, Craig Musselman, many of you know him, he and I were saved about the same time up in Michigan. We had another friend, Rod, and we caught wind that there were these used Christian bookstores up in Grand Rapids, which is about 40 miles north of where we lived down in Kalamazoo area. And so we'd pack up in a car, and we'd go up there on occasion. They had Kriegel used bookstore and Baker bookstore. And the thing about Baker used bookstore is Baker Publishing was up there. And sometimes they would bring some of their new books and put them in this store. And I remember going up there one time. There's a little book. Charles Spurgeon. Well, I didn't know a whole lot about Spurgeon in those days, but it was 12 sermons on prayer, and I bought it. I'll tell you what, that little book still sits on my shelf, and it's all marked up. They come out with a hardcover that has a lot more than 12, and Mona has been bringing that to the conference these last couple of years, so I bought me one of those. But I still go back to the little one, because it's got all my little marks and asterisks and underlinings. I'll tell you, there is a sermon in there. that Charles Spurgeon preached in the summer of 1866, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and it is called Order and Argument in Prayer. Order and Argument in Prayer. And that sermon has impacted me for these 30 years. Still, when I think of praying, that sermon hits me right between the eyes. And I basically have created my own rendition of that sermon. I'm not here to preach you his sermon today. I'll just tell you a little bit about it before I launch in. 130 years later, he still speaks. At least in here he does, and I hope he'll speak to you today too. You know the text he drew from? Job. I want you to turn there. Job chapter 23. What do you want as a church? That's my question to you. When we started the church, I wanted young people. I wanted people from our very community to be in the church. I wanted racial diversity. I wanted missionaries. I wanted to see God save people. I wanted to see that kind of thing. Buildings, that wasn't the issue. But you should have buildings that definitely lend themselves to the Gospel. You should have visibility. For you to have a place where you've got a sign out front and people in your community know you're there and they know where to go. The problem with meeting here is they don't know where you are, they don't know where to go. But I'll tell you this, if you're in a neighborhood, and you're going around to all the homes, and you let them know you're there, and you seek to bring the truth to them, when people are in need, when people are in some kind of spiritual need, they may come find you. But right now, you're kind of hidden. That's another thing you can ask the Lord for. God, give us visibility. Lord, do these things for us. Well, here's the text. Job chapter 23, verse 3. Hey, you know the situation with Job. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. Now listen to this. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. The King James Version, from which Spurgeon was preaching says this, I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments. You can see where Spurgeon got his title, order and argument in prayer. Here's Job. You know Job. He lost his children. He lost his possessions. He lost his property. He lost his health. This is a man under affliction. And you know what's interesting? He's not praying to be healed. He's not even praying to have his children restored. You know what he says? Oh, that I might find him. He's looking for him. He doesn't know where he is. And why does he want to find him? What's he going to do when he finds the Lord? What's his desire? He's going to make his case. That's what he wants to do. What case? Well, if you're there in Job, look at verse 7. You see what he wants? He wants to be acquitted. What does it mean to be acquitted in a court of law? What's acquittal mean? Didn't our president just get acquitted? What does it mean? Not guilty. Charge is dropped. Why would he be saying that about God? What case? What is it he wants acquittal from? Well, you know what it feels like to him? It feels like to him that God is treating him as though he is guilty of a crime. And he's saying, I'm not! That's what he's telling his friends. They're accusing him, well, certainly there's some unrighteousness in your life, Job, or God wouldn't be treating you this way. He's saying, look, if I can find God, I'll lay my case. The case he wants to make is, Lord, I'm a righteous man. Which, by the way, that is what God said to the devil at the very beginning. He is a righteous man. He wasn't wrong in that. But Spurgeon emphasized that Job's approach to God ought to be ours as well. That we If we're going to have powerful, prevailing prayer, it can't be done without care and without effort in presenting our case. And listen, all you have to do is start looking through the Scriptures. I'll tell you, one of the most devotional portions of Scripture is the Psalms. You go look in those Psalms and you see if the psalmist isn't making a case and arguing his case. giving reasons to God as to why He should have what He wants. You look around in Scripture, you're going to find that the saints of old prayed that way. They weren't slappy in prayer. They didn't just flippantly come to God. Now, Spurgeon said this, some utter whatever sentences come rushing into their minds, like a herd of swine or a pack of hounds with little attention to what is said. You've got to like Spurgeon. Just a herd of swine. Somebody just prays. This church should come into its prayer meetings with forethought. Nobody rushes into a court of law and presents a case before a jury, before a judge, without preparing their case. Listen, do you really believe that this church needs God to raise up labors? Do you really need that? or believe that God needs to give the church a spirit of prayer, increase of faith, that God needs to give you what you need, every single thing, everything you need to be effective in this dark world, you have to get from Him. And how well you prepare the case shows how serious you are about this. How you really are committed to this reality shows how much you're really desiring that God would do this. That's the issue. come into these prayer meetings having prepared, actually thinking. As you're reading the Bible, if you come across promises that have to do with you, which by the way, this whole book is given for our sake. I mean, the things in the Old Testament are for our teaching. They're for us to learn about God and how God's people deal with God and how God deals with His people. This is for our instruction. As you're reading Scripture, There should be application, like, oh, here's a reason. Here's something that I can bring before God and give us a reason why He ought to give us what we want, what we're asking for. You don't want to be a picture of this that Spurgeon is describing here. Should we argue with the Lord? You know what an oral argument is. You know what closing arguments... We're talking about a court case. We're not talking about being contentious and argumentative with God in an ugly way, in a backward way. That's not the idea here. It's not quarreling. It's not disagreement. This is what a person does when they want to convince the judge and the jury that what they're presenting... Why would somebody argue a case? Well, because you're being accused of being guilty, like our president just was, and you argue the case that I'm not guilty. Or, you know, if you go to civil court, it's like, well, my neighbor put his fence on my property. And so you come into the court and you're wanting to present such evidence so that the judge will rule in your favor. He'll see that the claims that you're making are valid. That's what it means to argue. It's, Lord, here are the reasons why you ought to give us a building, why you ought to give us missionaries, why you ought to give us a church that can support our own pastor, and above that, support missionaries. Support missions. Lord, here are the reasons why you ought to do that. And I'll tell you, there's reasons. And you ought to be multiplying them. Every time you're reading Scripture and you come in, hey, there's another reason why we ought to have our own building. And I'm not talking about having this place with great curb appeal. I'm talking about just having God's people out there in the community where they're visible. That's all I'm talking. And to have a place where you can meet where it's not conducive to sleep. And that's real. These chairs, if there's no other reason, you ought to say, Lord, please give us our own building because these chairs are too comfortable. You say, well, that sounds foolish. No, that's not. That's not. It is not foolish to not want people to be tired and sleepy when the Word of God is being preached. I know you don't gather here for prayer, but there are reasons. There are reasons. Lord, put us out in the neighborhoods. And you know what? Sometimes it's just a matter of the Mueller reason. Lord, you know Mueller got involved in children, orphans, orphanages, because he wanted to show the world how faithful God is. That's a good reason. Lord, give us a building because you can and we're needy and so we can boast and you can build our confidence and build our faith. Brethren, this is Spurgeon recognized that Job, as well as all these ancient saints, they prayed in a certain way, they approached God in this manner. And Spurgeon believed that for Christians not to pray this way was sloppy. It was a sloppy approach. This was like rolling out of bed and praying the first thing that comes to your mind. You know, you waltz into a prayer meeting, the church gets together, and you haven't really thought about what you're going to pray for. And so, you know, you kind of just go into church mode. Well, you know, we pray for God bless this, God bless that, God bless the other thing. I hate that. I hate that. I hate when I hear corporate prayer meetings and people are just saying, bless this, bless that, bless this, bless that. Yes, bless is a biblical word, but that's not how the saints in Scripture pray. Bless this, bless that, bless the other thing. They were far more specific than that. We don't want to just... Anyway, we're going to... I know that there are times we want to run before the Lord because there's immediate need, there's some desperation. We ought to feel free to run to our Father whenever there's need. But as a rule, listen to, I love this. Spurgeon said, see yonder priest. He's just talking about how the priest, by the way, we are New Testament priests. He said, you see those priests in the Old Testament? He said, he has a sacrifice to offer, but he does not rush into the court of the priest and hack at the bullock with the first poleaxe upon which he can lay his hand. But when he rises, he washes his feet at the brazen laver, he puts on his garments, he adorns himself with his priestly vestments, Then he comes to the altar with his victim, properly divided according to the law, is careful to do according to the command. He takes the blood in a bowl, he pours it in an appropriate place at the foot of the altar, not throwing it just as it may to occur to him. He kindles the fire, not with common flame, but with the sacred fire from off the altar. Our spiritual sacrifices should be offered with holy carefulness. God forbid that our prayer should be a mere leaping out of one's bed and kneeling down and saying anything that comes to hand. On the contrary, may we wait upon the Lord with holy fear and sacred awe. Now, listen. Years ago, it's been almost ten years ago, when I first thought, hey, I want to take Spurgeon's sermon and preach my own version of that, I had a picture in my mind. I had a picture of my eldest daughter wanting a cell phone. But I'm going to change that. I'm going to change it to Tawfiq and Grace. What do you want? A horse! I stayed with them last week. So I have a picture in my mind of their property, their house. I can see you've all been there. You can imagine. Tawfiq, Michelle, they're talking in the kitchen. There goes Grace. She just runs past. She doesn't even make eye contact. She just runs past, halfway mumbles, and then on her way she goes. She doesn't wait for an answer. That's the way a lot of people pray. There's no expectation. There's no clarity. There's just kind of a mumbling, That is an example of not using order and argument. The request is made. It's made carelessly. It's made without energy, without fervency, without expectancy. Brethren, I would ask you this. You should be encouraged when you come together. You should be encouraged, one, if you're coming to the prayer meetings, then praise the Lord. Encourage one another to pray for the things you have a burden about. Sometimes you get people in a prayer meeting who pray about things they probably never pray about. They only pray about it because they're in a prayer meeting and other people are listening. They have no burden for it, and you can tell it by the tone, the monotonous way that they just go on and on, and it just kills everybody. Don't do that. You know what? If there's one thing you have a passion for, pray for it. If these folks right here, their main passion was Haiti, it sounds like they have a passion for the campus over here, but if they come back every single time, don't fault them. If at every meeting, they're praying for Haiti, and they're doing it with passion, and they're doing it with some level of fervency, don't despise that. That's exactly the kind of thing that God hears. No order, just very sloppily done. And you can imagine, Grace runs by, and nothing, and she just goes on. That's just going to be weird, and it's not going to get anything. Or think about this. The laundry list approach. You ever hear Christians where they're like, Lord give us this, Lord give us that, Lord give us this, this, this, this, this, this, this. It's just one thing after another. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. We need this, we need this. I know we're very needy people, but it's like the laundry list is done. I mean, if she just came in, if she just came in, now she does make eye contact, but she just steps in the kitchen doorway and she looks at dad and she says, dad, I want a cat. Dad, I want a dog. Dad, I want a horse. Dad, I want my own bedroom. Dad, I want money. Dad, I want candy. Dad, I want the... No reason why she should have any of it. Again, that's a laundry list approach. Asking every conceivable thing we have wanted, might want, but no case is made. Or, have you ever heard the people that pray, maybe this is you, don't pray like this, where in every sentence of their prayer, They use God's name 15 times. You ever heard that? They say, Lord God. Father God. Father, we desire, Lord, that you would please God. Can you imagine if you talked to one another like that? Tafi, I mean, here his daughter comes in. Daddy, I, daddy, would like daddy to have daddy, a horse daddy. I mean, that's how some people pray. It's like, enough, enough. That is a person that isn't serious. They've got too much time on their hands. I've heard a preacher before say, you know, when God gets a hold of a preacher, it's like every word has to get out of the way for the next word. Because you are going somewhere. Guys that are full of mm's and thinking and lol's because they don't know exactly what they're saying, I mean, it's the same thing in prayer. It's like if you've got a burden for something, yes, you can approach Him, Father, but listen, You don't typically need to say somebody's name more than once. And everybody listening knows exactly who you're praying to. I mean, it's one thing if for effect, you're praying like those in Acts 4. Sovereign Lord. But you notice they didn't say that over and over and over. They said it once. People pray like that. And you know full well, if you heard Grace talking to her daddy like that, you'd say, what's with that? And yet, people pray like that all the time. And I don't know if it's thought to be reverential, or how about the unnatural approach? Oh, brethren, when I was a young Christian, I rubbed shoulders with these guys in the Reformed Baptist circles. And it's like you talk to a guy whose normal tone of voice is such and such, but when he would go to pray, Oh, Holy Father, you know, that kind of thing. Can you imagine that? If Grace talks to her, she just comes to the doorway of the kitchen, she says, Oh, daddy, I want a horse. It's like, what's that? Some people, do you know, somebody went over to the UK Ah, I know the guy. He pastored the First Baptist Church in New York City. He's the guy that did the funeral for Spurgeon, and he wrote a biography of Mueller, and his name escapes me right off. But this guy said he got an opportunity to travel to the UK, and he said, I got to hear Mueller pray, and I got to hear Spurgeon preach. Wow! But you know what he said about Mueller praying? He said it was so natural. It was like he was talking to his best friend. There was no alteration of voice. He didn't talk to him in some odd, weird way, use his name repetitively off the page. He said it was so childlike that it was unimpressive. You've got to like something about that. Or, brethren, I'll tell you this, when a man stands and prays, or a woman, and they're using tones that aren't normal, it speaks more of hypocrisy than it speaks of something else. And then, you know, too many ifs. You get these people, and I know the Lord prayed one time, if it be your will." But that is not the normal way that he prayed. And sometimes you get way too many ifs. Oh Father, if it be your will. If you desire this. I know we need to be resigned. But those ifs. Ifs tend to speak far more of unbelief. That doesn't mean we don't need to be subject to him. You remember Jacob when he's wrestling with the angel? I'm not letting you go unless you bless me. Yes, I know there's the word bless, but you read the whole thing. He doesn't use it repetitively without end. It's like, I want this, Lord. There's no if there. You remember how it was with Abraham. He goes to the Lord and he says, I want you to lay your hand for good, your blessing on Ishmael. There it is. He was very clear. There's no ifs, there's no excepts. You know, Mule said this, in my younger years, I had a good many ifs, but those are all gone. I know that the Lord has the means at His command to answer all my prayers if I come believing, asking in the name of Christ. And that's right. And then you get some people, there's like a roundabout approach. I mean, can you imagine if Tawfiq's daughter comes and she says, Daddy, I'd like to come into your presence. I'd like to ask you to consider showing me certain favor, certain blessing. I want you to give me such mercies as I now petition thee for. It's like, get to the point, girl! What are you after? I remember Spurgeon actually, he had a young man in his pulpit. He started praying that way and Spurgeon went up on the stage and he laid his hand on the young man's shoulder and he said, brother, just ask the Lord for something. That's it. Be distinct. Daddy, I want that kind of horse right there. I got a picture of it. Here, look. I mean, when it was my daughter and we were talking phones, it's like, Daddy, I want the iPhone 10. That's what I want. Be specific. Lord, give us a building where we have high visibility. We don't need the most nice, most comfortable, the greatest curb appeal. We don't need that. We made our little video about our church. No Starbucks in the foyer. We don't even have a foyer. You don't need a foyer! You certainly don't need a Starbucks up the hallway. What you need is a place that's conducive to you to meet together, to give you visibility to the inner city somewhere. People know you're there. Some place where there's... Some place where... There's the presence of God. It doesn't need to be fancy. But be specific. Lord, whatever it is that we need, do we need to be more sacrificial to support our own pastor? Or do we need better jobs? Or do we need more people? Or does Tawfiq need to go to work? Well, I mean, you could praise the Lord and say, praise the Lord. God has provided up to this point. And you do need to do that. But for you to pray this way, because it's only right you take care of your own pastor. Pastors, plural, when God gives you more. And missionaries. Lord, please, raise up laborers. Give us evangelists. Give us souls. Lord, please, give us these things. Be exact. Be specific. Go to God. You want a good argument for your daddy? Daddy? A. We have enough property out there. And you know that zoysia grass, it really grows and we've got sprinkler systems so we can water it all the time. And that will give the horse food. We won't have to go buy hay. He can eat right here. Daddy, I know how much you love me and it would make me so happy. You know, there is a place that says that you should pray that your joy may be full. For you to pray that way is not wrong. Use the name of Mommy if you can get it in there. I mean, we use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Use that. That's powerful. And that name would be powerful with Tawfiq, Mommy. Mommy wants me to have one. I don't know if she does or not, but... I mean, you can just lay all these reasons out there. You know, Daddy, a horse will keep the coyotes away. And a horse will... I mean, you probably have other reasons. But that's how it is to order an argument You lay out the ideas. Now, let me give you a biblical example. You all remember. You remember back in the Pentateuch. Moses is a tremendous example of this. And listen, again, this is for you. This is for the needs in your own family. What do you guys need? You need to grow in grace. You need to grow in love. You need to grow in sanctification. You need to grow in Christ-likeness. You need to grow in fruitfulness. You need to grow in faith. You need to grow in prayer. You need to grow in fasting. You need to grow in your marriages. You need to grow in your parenting. You need to grow, brethren. Grow in your knowledge of the gospel. Knowledge of scripture. You need growth. You need help. You need it desperately. You need these things. So, this biblical example I'm giving to you is for your sake. It's for your prayer life. How do you approach the Lord? Remember Moses? Moses, he came down from Mount Sinai, and they had thrown all their gold in the fire, so said Aaron, and out popped a calf. Do you remember what happened? Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? And the Levites girded their swords and they put to death 3,000. And I'll tell you, God said, I'm done with them Moses. Your people. Your people who you brought out of Egypt. That's how God spoke to Moses. He said, I'm done with them. I'm going to kill them all. I'm going to raise up a great nation out of you. You guys all know that's true. That's what happened. And you know what's interesting? When Moses addressed the Lord, he said, Lord, they're Your people. Do you remember what it says there in Romans 9? It's repeated out of Hosea. Those who were not your people, he says, I'm going to call my people. You know who that is? That's us. That's us Gentiles. That's key. You know how Moses pleaded? Lord, we are your people. Make a difference between us, who are your people, and everyone else. Make a difference. Do you know one way you want to pray? Lord, there's a lot of bad churches in town. We know it. Places where there's none of your people, they're false brethren. And there's false teachers. Well, there's other places where there's true brethren, but you know this as well as I do. You've got Catholic churches, and you've got Mormon churches, and you've got Jehovah's Witness Kingdom halls, and you know what? They are apostate to the core, but guess what? They've got buildings. Lord, we're Your people. They're not your people and you've given them buildings. We're your people, make a difference. You made a difference between your people in Goshen and the Egyptians. There was light where your people were, it was darkness over here. There was hail there, there wasn't over here. But you've always made a difference between your people and other people. And Moses did not. And it's so interesting. Your people, Moses. He said, no, your people. And that's how you all... Lord, we're your people. We weren't called your people, but now we are your people. You've bought us with the blood of Christ. We're your people, Lord. Please make a distinction. We can't pay our own pastor. And you tell us in your word not to muzzle the ox. And we can't pay him. Lord, give us what we need to be able to do that. Lord, please, you told us to pray for laborers because the fields are white for harvest. Lord, give us laborers. Raise up missionaries. Listen, it doesn't matter how small you are, little churches can turn the world upside down if God but starts giving you the things that you need to carry out the turning of the world upside down. Lord, we need these things. Plead that way. Your people. I've never forgotten a prayer of Spurgeon's. He said, when I was wracked some months ago with pain, to an extreme degree so that I could no longer bear it without crying out. I asked all to go from the room and leave me alone. And then I had nothing I could say to God but this, thou art my father and I am thy child. And he said, father, if I had it in my control to relieve the suffering of my own child, If they had pain like I have, he said, I do that. And I'm your child. And you know what? God took the pain away and Spurgeon was convinced he would never have pain to that degree the rest of his days. I don't know the rest of the story, but I'm assuming because he preached that reality that it came to pass. You know what Moses also did? He didn't just say, they're your people. He goes on and he says, they're your people who you brought out of Egypt. Ah, that's good. Lord, you know what that is? That's a picture of salvation. Lord, you saved us. Lord, you, you know what? Pleading the past. You ever sing this one? Oh God, our help in ages past. Pleading the past. Why? Well, because there's weight with it. Listen to how David pled with the Lord in Psalm 27. He said, hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Oh, you who have been my help, cast me not off. You've been my help. You know how he's pleading here? This is much to say, Lord, have you helped me this far? only to abandon me? You see, that's what the people out there in the wilderness should have recognized. God isn't going to do all these miracles and bring you out and put you in this wilderness and not still be with you. God doesn't do that. God finishes what He starts. Now I know they're wicked unbelief. They ended up dying out in that wilderness. But it's because they repeatedly stiffened their neck and they rebelled against Him rather than trusting Him. But I would say this, trust. Look at your past. Has God been faithful to you thus far? Then what a thing for you to lay hold on and to say, Lord, Lord, why would you do this if you intend to leave me now? Have you brought us to this place? Why have you brought me through so many dangers, toils and snares? We have a song like that, don't we? Have you shown me such things and been so kind to me in the past? And lavished all this love on me only to forsake me now? You know what Scripture says? God is the lifter of our head. Wasn't that Psalm 3, right? Scripture says if you trust Him, you'll not be put to shame. Lord, we're your people. I mean, you've got these people over here who serve the devil, and they've got all their lavish buildings and everything, and you guys walk out of a hotel with a pastor that you can't support, with no missionaries yet, with a long list of names that you're praying for at the UTSA campus that aren't saved yet. I mean, there's all these things that you don't have that you should be pressing God. The neighbor at midnight. The friend at midnight. Lord, you want to be banging on, giving him reasons why to get up out of that bed and give him bread. You want to be persistent with this. Persistent in pressing him. Then you know what he says. Lord, what will the Egyptians say? Do you know what God says in Malachi? He says, My name is going to be great among the nations. You can pin your hopes on that reality, brethren. Lord, what will the Egyptians say? You know you have people watching you? You have lost family members watching you. Lost parents in some cases. Lost aunts. Lost uncles. Lost neighbors. Lost co-workers. And you know what they're watching? They're watching how it goes with God's people. And it's like, Lord, What are the Egyptians going to say? Moses is saying, if you kill all these people, the Egyptians are going to say, you brought them out here and you let them die out here because you weren't able. This is a reflection on your name, Father. Listen, did Jesus Christ tell you to make disciples? Okay. And if you go forward and try to do it, guess whose name is at stake? His is. Did He say, pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up labors? He did. Is He the one that said, don't muzzle the ox? He is. You see, if He's told you these things in His Word, it's ultimately going to be Him that this is going to be reflected on. Think about it. Think about if Tawfiq's children walk out of the house to go to church and they're dressed in rags, and they're all dirty, and their toes are sticking out of their shoes. Do you know if the neighbors are driving by and they see that, they're not going to say, oh, what wretched children. You know where their eyes are going to go? Mom and dad. What kind of parents do they have? And that's what Moses recognized. Lord, if this people is struck down by you, if people are watching, and God knows they're watching. You know Jesus said in what? John 17. He said there, that the world may know. The world's watching. The people here in this hotel are watching. People are watching all around. And they're watching to see. And you want to call on God. Lord, You're the God above all gods. You're the King above all kings. You're the Lord above all lords. And we're Your children. Don't let us go around in rags. And Lord, we're not praying for a place that is lavish way up on the north by Georgetown. We're not praying for that. We're just praying that You'd give us a building, plain, where Your people could have a presence in a community somewhere. We're not needing to pay our pastor 200 grand a year. We just want him to be able to make his mortgage. Lord, please, we're Your people. And Lord, You said for our joy. When we look down at Laredo and we see You gave them a building, We look over at Louisville at Ryan Fullerton's church, five million dollar building, and God gave that to them. When we hear the story in San Antonio that they didn't have any money, and they went and bought it, two hundred and something thousand, that's what we paid for it. The Lord gave us a great deal. But that money came in that offering box in three weeks. Brethren, we're made up of people just like you. But when you hear that, you can say, I mean, we don't have a God that has Cinderella children, or stepchildren. It's, Lord, are you going to deal with us as though we're stepchildren? Will you give these things to others? Will you make all these promises in the Word and not give them to us? But you see, you don't want to give them any rest until you get the bread. If you come to this next prayer meeting and you pray that way, but then there's no burden, there's no fervency, there's no expectancy, and you just lay low then, don't be surprised if you don't receive. You want to ask, and you want to seek, and you want to knock, and you want to keep knocking until that door opens. And He tells you it will! That's what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying not that God isn't going to answer you, but if you go and there's persistence, you're going to get what you came for. That's what that parable's all about. Plead it. Just plead God's promises. You know what else Moses said? Remember the promise you made to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob. And you have a lot of promises. And look, you can find promises everywhere. You can find promises in commandments. If God says, Be holy as I am holy, and we can do nothing without Christ, we'll put one and one together. What does that equal? Well, if I'm going to be holy, it's going to be because Christ infuses His grace into me, and I'm going to be like a branch connected to the vine, and I'm going to draw. If He says, go and make disciples, I can't change hearts. Lord, how am I going to make disciples unless you cause men and women to be born again? But you see, you go trusting that He's going to do His part. But you can find promises all over the Scripture. And they don't even have to be promises given to you! Have you ever remembered what happened in the book of Hebrews, chapter 13? God says this. God says, I'll never leave you or forsake you. The writer of Hebrews gives that promise to every one of us. And yet, you know where it was spoken? It was spoken several times in the Old Testament. One of them very specifically in Joshua chapter 1. Here's a promise given to Joshua. I will not leave you or forsake you. Wait, that was given to him. It wasn't given to me. And yet the author of Hebrews says, ah, that's for all of us. You know, if you can basically go into God's Word and find a promise that's good. You know what Scripture says? All the promises of God are yes in Him. You find it in Scripture. Do you remember how Jacob took God's own word? You remember what happened? Here comes Esau, and he's got 400 men. Jacob is out there under the stars, and he says, you promised to do me good. He's already heard. Esau's coming, 400 men. He's afraid. You know where he appeals? To what God has said. God has said. God has said many things in His Word. You know, you want some promises to lay hold on? How about this one? How about this promise from John chapter 14? Jesus says, whoever believes in Me, whoever believes, not just if you're an apostle. He says, whoever believes in Me, the works I do, you will do. And greater works you will do. Take that one to the bank. Or how about this? Back in Luke 11 again. He says, If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them than ask? When you come in this place, you should be asking. Lord, we want to do greater works than Christ did, because you promised that. Greater, I would say this way. Not greater in miracle, but greater in expanse, of the spread of the Gospel, he was pretty refined in his ministry. Right there in the land of Canaan, you're called to go to all the nations. Greater works than these you will do. Even if you don't fully understand that, that's a promise. That's your promise. Take it. Take it. You should be pleading, Lord, use our church to do greater works than Christ Himself did. Give us the fullness of that. Maybe we don't understand all of it, Certainly doesn't mean you're going to raise more debt, but I think it means that you may possibly raise more debt as to human instrumentation when it comes to spiritual life. The expanse of the gospel. Lord, you told us to pray for laborers. Please give us laborers. Lord, provide for what we need. I found this. And I'm going to look right at the deacon. Do not let the checkbook ledger indicate what this church does. Let God's promises indicate what this church does. I guarantee you this. I will guarantee you, when you seek to step forward to be obedient to what God says in His Word, He's going to see to it that you have what you need to carry it out. You may not get it until the 1130 hour, But don't let that dissuade you. We have seen it for almost 20 years. God has been there when we've had the need. And listen, we go on supporting your pastor for $1,900 a month. even sometimes when we don't know how the bills are going to get paid. You may imagine us, oh, they're a bigger church in San Antonio. They've got lots of resources. Don't let that fool you. There are times when I'm holding my breath because I don't know how all the commitments are going to get paid for, including your own pastor. Yeah, there's other times when there is a surplus, but there's a lot of times when there hasn't been a surplus. Our faith is not in what the bank accounts say. Your faith has to be in God. I'll guarantee you, out in that wilderness, there were not full bank accounts. Out in that wilderness, they needed everything. They needed water, they needed food, they needed the basic things. God dropped down quail, He dropped down manna from heaven and He caused water to come out of a rock and He can do it today. Those things are given to us for our instruction. Brethren, pray that way. Come and lay your case before the Lord. If you brought rock water to the people then, then do it now. That's for our instruction. Those are not just nice little stories to line the kids up here and tell them as though it's like some fairy story. And I know that's not what you're doing. You're seeking to instill truth in these children. But these are not just children's stories. Noah's Ark and Jonah in the bellies of the whale. I mean, these are for us. These are for us to trust the Lord. These are for us to cling to and look at. and hang on. We have a God who means to turn the left side down. You want to hasten the day of His coming? You talk about the second coming. How do you hasten the day? Well, the way you hasten the day is to get everyone in the elect converted. Because after the last one, God has a certain number of people, and when the last one is brought in, you can be certain of this, the end is at hand. That's the real end is going to be very soon, as soon as that last one is converted. How do you hasten the day? You hasten the day by making disciples. You hasten the day by... He said, He's got this flock, and He's got others, not of that flock, but of another one. And He's got specific people, and He knew you before the... Foundations of the world. And He knows all of them. And there's a specific number. And they're being gathered in. But guess how they're being gathered in? They'll never believe on a Christ that they don't hear in. They're never going to call upon Him if they don't believe in Him. They're never going to believe in Him unless somebody is there telling them about Him. And nobody is going to tell them unless they're sent. You've got to be sending people out to the nations. You saw that map of India. Don't let that be just some pie in the sky, like fairy tale, like the rest of these Old Testament stories. Don't let that be that. You ought to have an expectation. God is going to send people from our church. Don't be content just to hear about Bess down in Nicaragua, somebody else's missionary, and throw some money at it. You know what that's good? If you can do that. That's how we did it in the beginning before we had our own missionaries. You've got to get involved in other people's missionary programs, but you shouldn't be content in that. You should be asking, Lord, let it be like Antioch. Antioch. Why would you give us an example of Antioch where there's a church and there's five elders and two of them go off to the mission field? Why would you give us that example? And then only have us barely have one pastor and no other pastors after that? No other missionaries after that? That should not be your expectation. Lord, we read in Your Word that the early churches had multiple elders. Jerusalem had multiple elders. Ephesus had multiple elders. We know that Antioch had multiple elders. Take the examples of Scripture and plead them again. Lord, don't make us stepchildren. Don't let us come one whit behind the other people. Lord, if you do that, then it looks like you've forsaken us. And the Egyptians are watching. And then we hang our heads and we walk around in shame, discouraged, because our God helps His people in other places, but He doesn't help us. And look, I'm not saying God hasn't helped you here. God has brought you from where you were to this point. And it's encouraging. I mean, the church is growing from my perspective over these years. But you should want more. Don't be content in this. And I'm not just talking about have big numbers so that you can have a bigger religious kingdom in this world. That's not what it's all about. You should be praying, God, make us a missionary sending base. Allow us to send evangelists out of here. Church planters out of here. Missionaries. Allow us, Lord. Look at all these! Don't just be content. Yes, we did this kind of thing as an early church too. We talked about the different places around the world and we were looking out there, but don't let it be just a dream. Let these things come to fruition at some point. Have an expectation. How can we do this? Have your eyes open to who God's bringing and raising up in the church. Don't let money keep you back. All the silver and gold are His. He is not bound by financial resources. Don't let this church ever be bound by that. And brethren, you can plead God's character. Moses also pleaded with that. Lord, according to the greatness of your steadfast love." Don't wipe these people out. He pleaded promises. Plead his character. Lord, you're good. I mean, you sent your Son in the beginning, and if you didn't spare your Son, you promised that you wouldn't spare anything else that's good for us. Lord, don't give us an example like you gave us in the book of Acts and not let us be able to live up to that. Don't give us these examples of churches in the Bible. Don't let us look out across the land at our sister churches and see where they're doing this and that and the other thing and not allow us to have... Do you know Christ said to a little church? You remember Philadelphia? You remember Smyrna? You guys just read through those verses in your Bible reading. They were small, but they kept His Word. They seemed poor, but He said they were rich. And He said, I'm the one that opens doors. I open doors that no one can shut. You may be small just like they were, just like Smyrna, just like Philadelphia. You may be little, but you have a great God. If He opens a door, nobody can close it. If He opens a door, it's open. And you need to pray that. I don't know what your thing is. I don't know where God's taking you. I don't know if God will take any of you folks to Nepal or give you ministry like I'll Be Honest. I don't know that. But He's got a reason for this church to exist. There are things He has ahead of you. But approach it in faith. And approach it on your knees. Persistent. Lord, open to us. We need bread. Open. Open. Order an argument. Lay your case. Argue his promises. Argue the past. Tell him the Egyptians are watching. Tell him, Lord, so that our joy may be full. Tell him. Plead with him his character. Oh, and don't forget to plead the name of his son. A wife has full rights to the name of her husband. You want to demand money from her? She can point to her husband. Jesus said this, You haven't asked anything yet in my name. You ask in my name. And he says this, I'm not saying that I'm going to need to ask in your behalf because your father loves you. But he said, ask in my name and father will do it. He said, ask in my name and I will do it. Both of those promises come at us in that, you know, John 14, 15, 16 portion of scripture. Plead his name. Bring that name. We've been bought by His blood. Be specific. Be real. You don't have to ask for every possible thing. Church, say what you mean. You know, we have a grace group. We break up into small groups every other, well, first and third Wednesdays of every month. And in our grace group, You know, when it would come time to pray, we have a number of singles in our church that attend My Grace Group that I know desperately want to be married. There was one guy that attended, and he was not bashful. He prayed on a regular basis, God give me a wife. The others, they wanted it just as bad, but they were silent. Guess who got the wife first? And he got a good one. And I brought that up in the grace group. Guess what happened? That grace group, everybody prayed for a husband or wife that wanted one. Because they saw the reality. You know, people can be bashful. I say this, be bold. Be bold. Don't we sing, maybe you don't sing it, but large petitions with thee bring. Why? You're coming to a king. He says, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. What is that? What is that? That means if you want a horse, yell it out! Don't just mumble it with lips that are this wide open. He says, if you open your mouth wide, Lord, arise! Lord, save! Lord, your name is at stake. Lord, you want your name to be exalted among the nations and all the Egyptians and all the nations are watching. Lord, should it be? that the false religions out here have more than us? At least when it comes to material things? Listen, you don't want to be asking things just to consume it upon your own lust. But when you're asking for it for the sake of His name, and you're asking for it for the sake of the spread of the Gospel, for the sake of the honoring of Jesus Christ, brethren, be bold. And get rid of the ifs. If it be your will. It is God's will to raise up laborers. It is God's will to give you what you need missionary in this world. It is! Yes, our attitude in our prayer meeting should be one of humbling ourselves to what God will bring. But be bold and ask. Plead these things. Brethren, don't be sloppy in prayer. You have to remember this. There is a throne of grace. That's what we're told. And you're promised that if you go there, you'll find help. You'll find mercy in time of need. You need help. I mean, we all, as God's people, we are absolutely dependent on Him. You can do nothing without Him. You need His help. And I would just plead with him, Lord, deal with our church in such a way that when people look, this is what you really want. You want people to look at your church and say, whoa, there's no explanation for what we're seeing other than God. That's what you want. Not, oh, well, we expect that from them because of the amount of money they make and because of the gifts that they have and because of the personalities in the church. You don't want it to be that. You want people to look at your church and say, there is no explanation for that other than the fact that God is with them. That's what you want people to say. I want people to look at this and say, they are a ragtag little motley crew of people. How can they do this? How can that happen? How could they have a missionary endeavor to India? India is a closed country. How can a little church do that? They don't have any money. They don't have any resources. They don't have a bunch of doctors and lawyers in their midst. How can they do that? Don't ever believe that you have to be a big church, and you have to be somewhere else, and you have to have this, that, or the other. Don't believe that. You just remember who your God is. That is the primary thing. And you lay hold of Him. You lay hold of Him, and you give Him no rest. You know, there's a promise. There's a promise. This is found in Isaiah. And he says this, I put watchmen on the wall. In other words, I put these praying men on the wall and I expect them to give me no rest. And he says it to his people, give me no rest. Until what? Until Israel comes into remembrance. Something like that. Don't give Him any rest. He doesn't want it. You're not being presumptuous when you keep going to God and you have this great expectation that He is going to do things. Are you single? Ask Him for a spouse. If you don't feel like He's giving you the gift of singleness, ask Him. Don't be ashamed and ask Him to give you the best one possible. Maybe not the most beautiful, maybe not the most handsome, but the best that He knows for you. Ask Him. You need a better job because you want to support these endeavors? Ask Him. Ask Him for the things that you need. Ask Him to save your children. You need Him to save your children. Nobody else is going to save them. Ask Him to save these college students. Every one of those college students you just listed off, they're deceived. Do you hear that? People are deceived. You are the little remnant of God's people who have the light and have the truth that God has put out here in the world to accomplish the evangelization of the world and hasten the day of His coming. And He says, I'm not going to leave you or forsake you. And His Son comes into this world, and when His own disciples ask Him, teach us to pray, He says this, I'll teach you to pray. You go like a man goes to his friend's house and you keep beating on that door until you get the bread. Nothing in that says give up, fall asleep, be lazy, lackadaisical, none of that. You keep persistent until God gives you the things you need. And that will not be fulfilled until the day you breathe your last. May God help you to be a church of prayer that is going to order your arguments. Make a case and give God no rest. I'll tell you this, you don't have to make a case because He's a reluctant giver. We need to make cases because it emboldens our faith. Because it gives us these reasons why God should do it. And it makes us more fervent, and more earnest, and God wants that. If you're the kind of father that just gives everything to your children, you give everything under the sun to them that they want, without them making any sort of case for it, you know what rich kids are like. The ones that are spoiled, rotten, and they just get anything and everything. God doesn't want us like that. God wants us to appreciate what we get. He wants us to love the giver more than the gift. He wants us to know where it comes from. He wants us to have our reasons. He wants us to plead. And I'll tell you what, when you approach God like that and you get what you ask for, it creates a great thankfulness. You ever see spoiled kids? Are they thankful? Spoiled kids are not thankful. They're not grateful. God is not slow in giving because He can't give fast. He's not slow in giving because He's reluctant to give. He just would have us be persistent for the sake of our self most of the time. That's not to say that you can't pray like the psalmist prays. Lord, speedily arise! Everything you ask for, I would ask God to bring quickly. If He chooses to bring it slowly, okay. That's His prerogative. But I'd ask for it all quickly. Lord, give us a building now. Give us the ability to support our pastor now. Lord, give us missionaries out of this church soon. Lord, do this, do this, do this, do this, and make your petitions big. Amaze each other by the things you ask for. But don't do it just for the sake of others that are hearing. Do it because you really want God to show Himself that He is this God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what you ask or think, so that when you sit with your lost mother, your lost father, your lost grandparents, your lost aunts and uncles and co-workers and fellow students, you can say, let me tell you what our God has done. Do you know the joy it is when I'm able to stand up before the church and say, Church, it's been almost 20 years and God has not failed us when it comes to financial provision for our commitments once. Not once has He failed us. He has been faithful 100% of the time. And He has raised up labors. I remember when James Jennings came to the church, he said, why is John Sytsma always praying about labors? Because John would pray, like every single prayer meeting, God, raise up labors. Why? Because that's what Jesus said to pray for. And guess what? God has been consistently raising up labors. We have a bunch. We've been able to send guys out to other places just like this guy. And they've gone forth from us in different directions. Oh, I want more! My prayer is God will give us... I heard about a church up in Canada where the guy tried to go to the mission field and God sent him home. He tried to go again, God sent him home. I think he might have tried a third time, God sent him home. He said, God wants me to not go there. He wants me to plant a church. He planted a church in Canada. And he had this missionary zeal. But God wouldn't let him go to the foreign mission field. But he planted a church and God raised up at least a hundred missionaries from that church. That's what you get when you have a pastor with a missionary passion. You should want those things. Pray. You know what was said of the Corinthian church? You come behind in no gift. That was said in 1 Corinthians 1. That's how the KJV says it. You come behind in no gift. That's how you should pray. Lord, may we come behind in no gift. If all the churches in the Bible have a plurality of elders, give us that. If we see that the churches in Scripture are sending forth labors to take the Gospel forth, give us that. If you see that churches in the Bible are being built up by conversion, not just people moving around, Lord, give us that. Build the church by converting our children and converting the neighbors and converting the college students. Lord, please. You are the God who sent your son into this world to seek and save sinners. Will you please use our church to save these Austinians. Egyptians are watching. The mockers are watching. The unbelievers are watching. Your name is going to be great among the nations. Make it great among your people. You have it? Order, argument, and prayer. We all on the same page? God, please take these over-comfortable chairs away. I mean, just in the two weeks I've been here, I've seen more yawns here than I ever see at home. And I think there's a connection. I really do. There's something about keeping the building cold and having it not so comfortable. Even have metal chairs. I know we used to have those. But brethren, whatever it is, Have an expectancy. Have a fervency. And don't stop being on the door until you die. Don't stop. What is it you want? What's the future? Where do you want to be in three years? Five years? Where do you want to be as a church? What do you want to see? Give God no rest for it now. Father, I pray, for the brethren here, I pray Lord, may they make their case like Job of old wanted to, like Moses did before you, pleading. Lord, we know the Egyptians are watching, other churches are watching. Lord, it is such an encouragement to your people when you arise, and you answer prayers, and you use weak vessels. We sing that song, little is much, when God is in it. When you do great things with little means, with little people, Lord, we have seen so much of what you've done, and I just desire that the mighty works of God would abound in this place and among these people. Lord, please arise. Arise, you are the God of Grace Church Austin. They're your people and have been bought by the blood of your son. They're your people, they're your children. Lord, I pray for them. Make them earnest. Make them importune, persistent. Give them an expectancy. Give them a view, a manifestation of your greatness. Let them see you as Christians in this world can see you. Grant them to behold the glory of the Lord in working through His church. I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.