Although there are a few long prayers mentioned in the Bible, most of the prayers that are recorded in Scripture are very brief, they're very simple, and they are very much to the point. For example, the prayer of the tax collector that Jesus spoke of in Luke chapter 18. In contrast to the self-righteous Pharisee who gave the Lord just a list of all of his pious deeds, this man, This tax collector simply prayed, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all. And there was nothing long or wordy about the prayer of the dying thief on the cross. This man got right to the point in saying to the Lord, he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Wasn't anything lengthy, nothing wordy about that. As I mentioned to you last week, Peter's cry as he was sinking in the Sea of Galilee, Lord save me, is extremely brief. In fact, it is so brief it is considered the shortest prayer in all the Bible. See, one thing that all these short prayers have in common is there is a sense of urgency with each of them. These are the prayers of desperate individuals, men who didn't have the luxury of time to just sit down and compose a well-thought-out prayer. The tax collector knew how precarious his situation was because he knew he was a guilty sinner, therefore he knew that he deserved God's wrath, and that at any moment he knew the Almighty could end his life, cast him into hell, and so he cried out, For what he needed most, that was God's mercy. Be merciful to me, a sinner. And the thief on the cross certainly knew his time was running out because he was in the midst of being executed by crucifixion for his crime. And he wanted to be right with God before he died, and then it was too late. And Peter obviously was a desperate man because he was sinking beneath the blustery waves of the Sea of Galilee and fearful that he might be going under for the last time, never to rise again. So he prayed, Lord, save me. See, these prayers get right to the point. They don't beat around the bush. They're simple. They're terse. There's just an economy of words in these prayers. And that's the way it should be, because when you are in a desperate situation, you don't have time to come up with a flowery speech to the Lord. You have to get right to the point. To illustrate the importance of praying to the point, one man I read said the following. Now, I know I've given you this quote before, not too long ago, but it is worth repeating, and it is very appropriate for what we're studying today. He said, if a man who can't swim falls into a river and sees a man on the bank, the drowning man has no use for flowery language. He doesn't say, I say there, my friend, I wonder if I could persuade you to divest yourself of your garments and plunge into the swiftly flowing river and save me from a watery grave. I shall be forever obliged to you for your kindness and consideration. I'm about to be inundated by these waters. Please come to my aid. Now, obviously, Obviously no one speaks like that when they're drowning. And no one should pray long prayers when their world is collapsing or seeming to collapse. Just get to the point. Tell God what's on your mind, what's on your heart. That's exactly what we see the writer of Psalm 119 doing in verses 145 to 152, which I just read to you, as he tells us how very succinct, very concise, very simple his praying was as he cried out to God for his help. Now, last week we began to look at these verses, and we discovered that the point of this particular stanza is to teach us how the Word of God should affect our prayer life. That's the point. That's the theme. See, while this entire psalm is one long prayer, actually one of the few lengthy prayers recorded in Scripture, I said there are a few. This is one of them. This particular paragraph, this particular stanza, that we find ourselves in, it emphasizes, as I've been saying, the brevity, the earnestness, the urgency of the psalmist praying as he cries out to God to rescue him from his enemies who, he tells us, are persecuting him. And you can easily see this for yourself. Just a casual reading of these verses tells you that. For example, he tells us in verse 145 that he cried to the Lord, he says, with all of my heart, That's an earnestness. In verse 146, he tells us what specifically he cried to the Lord about, meaning the content of his prayers. He cried out to God to save him from his enemies, to rescue him, to deliver him. In verse 147, he says that there was such an urgency to his praying for God to rescue him that he daily woke up early before the sun. was up and he cried out for God's help. And folks, that's really the substance of his prayer. Help me. Rescue me. You just can't get a whole lot more succinct than that. Listen, the Bible makes it clear that God doesn't hear us for our many words. John MacArthur has put it this way, he said, Verbiage and windbaggery, I like that word, windbaggery, are badges of insincerity, especially in prayer. And there's a reason the psalmist's prayers were so free from windbaggery, long-windedness. He was in the midst of tremendous suffering, and that's why we see this great sense of urgency to his prayers. And so, in speaking to God, he says exactly what's on his mind, and he says it quickly. So, at this point, as students of the Bible, we need to ask ourselves this important question. Why is this man telling us about his praying? Why does he make a point of revealing how he prayed during this crisis? in his life? And the answer is that, like every other section in this psalm, this man is using his own experience to teach us something about the Word of God and how it ministers to us, how it affects our lives. That's really been his whole theme and point of Psalm 119. I remind you that each of the 22 paragraphs in Psalm 119 has a unique theme. A unique theme that's devoted to telling us something about Scripture. Specifically, the place of Scripture in the life of a suffering believer. That's really the theme, the message of this psalm. And sometimes the psalmist tells us about how the Word of God comforts us. Sometimes he stresses the truthfulness of Scripture. Sometimes his message has to do with God's Word and our sanctification, and issues that are very similar to those. And the distinct theme, the distinct message of the present stanza we're studying is how the Word affects, impacts our prayer life, especially when we are hurting and we are in pain. How does it impact us? How does it affect us? How does it influence the way that we pray? And specifically, what he teaches us about prayer in this paragraph is that our praying is directly tied to the Bible. It's directly tied to the Word of God. It's linked and connected to Scripture in such a way that the two cannot be separated and must not be. And so, in order to teach us how prayer and the Word are united and then separately joined together, the psalmist, using himself as the example for us to follow, He gives us three ways that his praying was tied to the Word of God. Last Sunday we focused on the first two ways his praying was tied to Scripture. Number one, he tells us his praying was tied to his obedience to God's Word. Notice verses 145 and 146 again. Answer me, O Lord, I will observe your statutes. I cry to you, save me, and I shall keep your testimonies." Notice that in both of these verses, the psalmist is essentially saying the same thing. There's not a whole lot of difference in these two verses. He says that he cried to the Lord for deliverance, and his prayer was accompanied by a promise to observe God's Word. And as I pointed out to you last Sunday in promising to observe and obey the Word, he's not bargaining with God. He's not making a deal. If only you'll save me this one time, then I'll promise to obey you all the days of my life. He's not doing that. What he is saying is that his sole reason for wanting to be delivered from his life-threatening circumstances isn't to escape an uncomfortable situation. It's not even to escape the pain of death. It's so that he can go on observing the commands of the Bible. In other words, regardless of how things turn out, he is resolved to obey Scripture. This is how committed he was to obeying the Word of God. It was his passion. The reason he mentions his prayer, along with his obedience, is not for his sake. He already knows this. It's for our sake. It's to teach us that if we want God to answer our prayers, then we have to have the same kind of commitment to observing the Word. Not perfect obedience, not sinlessness, but certainly the attitude of desiring to obey God's Word. regardless of our circumstances, and certainly a willingness to repent immediately of any sin that we see in our lives so that we don't regard or hold on to any wickedness in our lives. Because if that's the case, and the Bible says that the Lord will not answer our prayers if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So I trust that if you are truly converted, then yours is a heart that is committed to obeying Scripture, no matter what the Lord brings into your life. Whether it be sorrow, or happy times, happy days, happiness, trials, whatever. Obedience to Scripture is indispensable to our prayers. Secondly, he tells us that his praying was tied not only to his obedience to the Word, but to his faith in God's Word. Verses 147 through 149 read this way. I rise before dawn and cry for help. I wait for your words. My eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on your word. Hear my voice according to your loving kindness. Revive me, O Lord, according to your ordinances. Now, in these verses, the psalmist tells us not only when he cried out to the Lord early in the morning, but that His early morning praying was inseparably linked to his faith in God's Word. Before sunrise, when he prayed for help, he says that he waited for God's Word. Meaning that he waited for God to fulfill his Word, to intervene and to help him, just as he promised in his covenant with his people Israel. In other words, he believed what God said in terms of ministering comfort and grace and help to his people. And so in faith, he's waiting for God to fulfill that promise. He is a Jewish man, part of the covenant that God made with Israel. He is a true believer, and he believes that what God said about helping his people, he'll do that. And, notice he tells us that throughout the evening he meditated on the Word of God, letting the Word grip his heart, letting it strengthen his faith. And in addition, he says that in his prayers he appealed to God's loving kindness, believing that God, out of His heart of love and mercy and kindness, would hear him and answer him. See, this man not only prayed, but he prayed with great faith. in God's Word. He prayed also in accordance with God's Word, not his own desires, believing that what God said in his Word was true, and therefore he anticipated God answering his cries for help. And so his message to us is to trust the Word of God. Believe what you say you believe. God's promises They're true. Bank on them. Count on them. Pray them back to the Lord. And anticipate God in His own perfect timing and way answering you. Because God does keep His Word. Now, as we resume our study this morning of these verses, we see a third way that the psalmist tells us that his praying was tied to the Word of God. It was tied not only by his obedience and by his faith. Now he tells us that his praying was tied to the unchanging nature of God's Word. Notice the beginning of verse 150. Those who follow after wickedness draw near. Having already told us that he cries out for God to save him from his enemies, now he tells us why he does this, why his cries have such an urgency about them. It's because he tells us his adversaries, his enemies, are closing in on him. They're drawing close to him. They're getting near to him. They are physically getting closer and closer to Him. And He knows that their intentions are only wicked, because He says that they follow after wickedness. Now, I want us to stop here for a few minutes and just consider this thought, because this had to be a very frightening time for this man. I mean, put yourself in his place. The reason that we know that this was a frightening thing for him is because He has previously, in this psalm, told us about these men and how malicious they were and their wicked attacks directed at him. In verses 22 and 23, he tells us these men hate him, they have contempt for him, they talk against him, they despise him. And their hatred of him apparently stems from his faith in the God of Israel, because as I've told you many times, most likely these are Babylonian princes, chieftains, who hate him and who talk against him, and they believe in the false gods of their heathen religion, and hate the God of Israel, and hate those who hold to the Scriptures. But in their contemptuous talk, They move on because it eventually turns into contemptuous action. Notice what we read in verse 61. He says, the cords of the wicked have encircled me, but I've not forgotten your law. He says that they have bound him with cords of rope. He's speaking in figurative language. They didn't actually circle him and put cords around him. He's speaking in figurative language. What he means by this is that these wicked men have oppressed him. They have created certain situations for him that made his life difficult. It's as if they have tied him up in knots. That's how we would put it. Just kind of a way of putting this. They've tied him up in knots. Apparently, they came up with some ways to try to trap him so that He would be forced to deny his faith, to disobey God. Now, he doesn't tell us what these snares were, what these knots, these ropes were. Perhaps they had to do with trying to get him to be sexually immoral. Or perhaps it had to do with trying to get him to violate Jewish dietary laws. We don't know what these cords of wickedness were, because he just doesn't expand on this. But we do know that these traps didn't work. We know that. because he tells us, but I have not forgotten your law, he refused to fall in his faith. Whatever wicked behavior they try to tempt him with, he refused to give in because he tells us he did not forget God's word. He remembered it, meaning he obeyed it. But these men were tenacious. They were unrelenting in their wickedness because in Verse 69 and then verse 78, he says that they came up with lies about him. And in verse 95, he says that they actually waited for him, hoping to put him to death. Now, when we put all of this together, you can see how frightening this had to be for this man. It would appear that what the psalmist is telling us about these men is that when they failed to get him to forsake his faith in the Scriptures, they reverted to lying about him, hoping that these lies would just pressure him into falling into their pagan religious ways, into abandoning his faith in the Scriptures, he just would cave under the pressure. When that failed, then in their frustration they try to murder him, put him to death. No wonder this man is now frightened. No wonder he gets up early every day to cry out to God for his help and rescue. It's because these wicked men who have been trying unsuccessfully to lure him into sin, even threatening his life, they're coming back for him and they're getting close. They're near, he says. Now, whether they are coming back to once again try to pressure him into forsaking The Lord, or they're coming back with the intention of trying to murder Him again, we don't know, simply because He doesn't tell us. However, what He does tell us is the reason these men were so determined to try to destroy Him and His faith. Notice the rest of verse 150. It says, they, these wicked men, they are far from your law. While these men were getting close to Him, He tells us that they were far from God's law. Close to Him, but far from God's law. And folks, that is why they hated Him so much. This is what drove them to pursue Him and to try to destroy His faith. It was because they were far from the Word of God. Now, this is something important for us to understand. See, their hatred of this man, it wasn't personal. It wasn't like he had a bad personality. It wasn't that he did anything sinful towards them to arouse their animosity. Not at all. These wicked men were coming after him because they were actually enemies of God. Having rejected him, and rejected his word. They were far from the Lord, far from his word. They were unbelievers. And in doing that, they then directed their hostility, they felt for God, towards the psalmist. That's it. See, the Scriptures teach that behind all persecution of believers, regardless of what form that persecution takes, it could take many forms, it does. It might be physical violence, it might be verbal abuse, it might be attacks at work where you don't get a job promotion. It could be any number of things. But behind all of it is this animosity, hostility towards God. I say that because of many verses in Scripture, but none so direct as Romans 8, verse 7. Paul says, the mind set on the flesh, he's talking about unbelievers, is hostile towards God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, it's not even able to do so. So when you hear a non-Christian saying, I've always loved God, that's not true. They may have always loved a God they created in their own minds, But they have not always loved the true God, the one true God, the God of Scripture. In fact, just the opposite. Hostility towards God. Unregenerate individuals hate God. And before we were converted, we were all in that camp. They despise Him because they reject His authority. over them. They reject His right to command them about how they should live. They disdain His condemnation of their sins and His right to reign and to rule over them. This is exactly what Jesus said about man's hatred of Him in John chapter 3. Notice in verses 19 and 20, our Lord said, this is the judgment that the light, He's the light, the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. He went on to say, for everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Jesus is saying that He is the light of the world, and it's the light that people hate because they walk in darkness, their deeds are evil, and they have no interest in changing the way they live. They are determined to continue doing their evil. living in the darkness of their rebellious behavior, and so they stay away from the light, they stay away from Christ, because they don't want their deeds exposed. They're not interested in repentance. They're not interested in change. They don't want Christ in their lives, nor do they want anyone in their life who represents Christ. They hate Christ, everything He stands for, holiness, purity, righteousness, repentance from sin, submission to God's authority. Folks, this is just what the psalmist is saying. These wicked men are coming after him. They're drawing near to him because they are far from God's law and God himself. But rather than just not caring about God's law, rather than saying, we don't believe it, but who cares? Rather than that, in their hatred against God, they lash out against his followers. They lash out, they strike out. They hate Christ, they hate those who follow Christ. Now going back to Psalm 119, notice what the psalmist says just a few verses later in verse 161. We haven't gotten there in our study, but this is what he will say in just a few verses. Princes persecute me without cause. The psalmist recognizes that these Gentile princes, probably as I said, chieftains, Their persecution of Him had absolutely nothing to do with Him. It wasn't because He had done anything wrong to Him and they're just retaliating. Not at all, no. Their persecution stemmed back to the fact that they had rejected the Lord and His law, and the psalmist was being targeted because he was a man of God who loved the Lord and kept His law. Listen to what Jesus told his disciples about the persecution that they could expect after his departure and his return to the Father. It gives us some great insight into the reason that unbelievers persecute Christians. Now remember when our Lord is saying, this is John chapter 15, this is his farewell address to his followers, sometimes known as the upper room discourse. He will be arrested that night, He will be put on a really a silly trial that was stacked against him, because the Jewish leaders knew they wanted to murder him and turn him over to the Romans to be executed. It's in that context that he is telling his disciples, after I go, after I leave, after I return to the Father, the persecution that I received It's going to be coming back to you. Because physically he'll be gone. So who are they going to persecute? They're going to persecute my followers. Notice what he says. Starting in verse 18. And this word often translated if should be since. It's not if as if there's a question. It's since. This will happen. So let me read it that way. Since the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me." Now, in these statements, Jesus makes it very clear that the persecution of his followers that we experience is persecution that is actually directed at him. But what I want you to notice is verse 19, because Jesus makes an incredibly profound statement about the reason why unbelievers hate believers. He tells us that if he had not chosen us, if we were still in our sins, unbelievers, fitting nicely into society, then our fellow unbelievers would love us. They would love us. And they would love us because we would agree with them. We would reinforce their core values. Values that are in direct opposition to the standards, the holy standards of Scripture. If you were of the world, Jesus said, the world would love you, because the world loves its own. But because the Lord has saved us, and He has transformed our very nature, our character, inwardly, so that we no longer go along with the old values that we used to love and embrace. The world, Jesus said, now hates us. They hate you. And they hate you because everything you stand for is in opposition to what they believe and how they live. In other words, our lives are a rebuke to unbelievers. We oppose their values. We represent Christ's light to them. And since they love darkness and hate the light, they hate us. And their persecution of us is an attempt to just snuff out the light. This is why the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.12, he said, All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. This is a very significant statement. See, it's not the half-hearted carnal living believer who is persecuted. It's not the Christian who lives like he's a non-Christian who's persecuted. Because frankly, the way he lives isn't a whole lot different than the way that an unbeliever lives. So he's no threat to anyone. He's not going to be persecuted. No unbeliever is threatened by his ungodly conduct. In fact, they would rather enjoy it. But if you live for Christ, if you pursue godliness, if you're serious about obeying Him, you will be persecuted, Paul said. Because the world can't stand to hear the truths of God or see them lived out in anyone since they are in absolute rebellion to them. I want to show you one example of how this hostility against God and His Word is driven by an agenda that results in persecution. I want you to see 2 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4. Now, in the overall context of 2 Peter, it's really about false teachers and how we have to be careful about being seduced by false teachers and their false teaching. But notice what he says in 2 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4. He said, know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. Now I must tell you that the last days have already begun. In the Bible, the last days are the days from Messiah's first coming until He comes again. We are in the last days. So don't think he's talking about something in the future, it's now. The kind of persecution that Peter is referring to in these verses is the mocking and ridiculing and the scoffing that unbelievers direct against Christians for believing, as we do, in the literal second coming of Jesus Christ. They mock us for believing that he's coming back because so many years have transpired Since he said he would return, he's not back yet. And as they would point out to us, all things continue as they always have, so they believe. So they ridicule and they deride us for believing such a fanciful notion. Their attitude is how gullible and naive can you get? Yes, maybe I believed that when I was, you know, very young and in Sunday school class, but I've grown up. No one believes that anymore. So they mock us. But notice what Peter says is behind their mocking, and this is what I want you to see. The end of verse 3, he says this very important few words. He says, following after their own lusts. Now what does Peter mean by this? Why does he include this? See, the reason these scoffers reject the thought of Christ's second coming is because they have certain sinful lusts, and they are determined to live by these sinful lusts. but for them to admit that Christ might be returning is to admit that He would be returning in order to judge them for their many sinful lusts. And so they choose to reject and they laugh at the teaching, the doctrine of Christ's return, because they don't want to entertain the thought that they will be held accountable and judged by God for the way they live. See, they have an agenda. They are driven by their own sinfulness. They are driven by the darkness of their deeds. Persecution always stems from man's wicked rebellion against God. And that's exactly the predicament the psalmist found himself in. He was a godly man. He was being persecuted for his faith by those who rejected his faith and his Lord. And they're now closing in on him, ready for another round of persecution. So, what is he going to do? As I told you, this is a scary thought. Put yourself in his place. What's he going to do? Well, he says in verse 150, his enemies are drawing near to him. They're closing in. He's not going to panic, though. The reason he's not going to panic is because he knows something that gives him great comfort, and it ought to give you great comfort as well. Notice what he says in verse 151. He says, you are near, O Lord. and all your commandments are truth. As close as the enemy might be, the psalmist knows that God is close. He says, he's near to him. You're near. And what he means by this is that God is near him to protect him. To protect him from these wicked men. God is not aloof. God is not distant from him. He hasn't forsaken him. He hasn't abandoned him to his enemies. He's near. He's close. In fact, our Lord told us that today, in this era, this what we call the church age, believers today have Him indwelling us by the Holy Spirit. That's how close He is to us. Can't get any closer than that. He lives in us by the Holy Spirit. We are one with Christ. Our bodies are a temple where he dwells. As I said, you can't get any closer than that. But it isn't merely God's nearness that comforts the psalmist. It is the fact that the God who is near is the one who speaks truth. It wouldn't help him if God was near but lied to him. Wouldn't help anybody. Notice what he says right after stating that God is near. He says, and all your commandments are truth. I love that. All your commandments are truth. In other words, God's Word is reliable. Because it is completely true. And the wicked men persecute the psalmist for his faith in the Word. He will continue to build his life on that truthful Word. Because it is truth. It's God's truth. Listen, if you are determined to follow Jesus Christ, then you can expect opposition to your faith. It's as simple as that. That's just the way it is. But you can take great comfort in the fact that God is always with you whether you feel Him or not. He's there. You can trust His Word regardless of how mocked or persecuted you are for it. It is true no matter what people say about it or how they react to it. It is true. It is truth. And note this, you can rest your life and your complete future on God's Word because it is not only true, it is truth that will never, ever, ever change. It is eternal, forever, truth. He closes by telling us this in verse 152. Of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. Let me read that again. of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. This is a fascinating statement by the psalmist because when he says of old I have known from your testimonies, what he means by this is that from long ago he learned something from God's word that brought him comfort even now. It brings him comfort during this very difficult time in his life. Now, I say this is fascinating. You may not think it's fascinating, but once I tell you this, I think you'll agree with me. It's fascinating because if the psalmist says that he learned something long ago, it must mean that he learned this particular lesson many years ago. It's something he learned a long time ago, he said. And if that's the case, and that is what he's telling us, then it would indicate that when this man wrote Psalm 119, he was not a young man, but he's an older man with many years of life behind him. See, back in verse 9, at the very beginning of this psalm, the psalmist asked this question, how can a young man keep his way pure, He answers, by keeping it according to your word. And many have concluded from this, pretty much this one statement, that the psalmist must have been a young man when he wrote Psalm 119. And the reason they think he's asking about a young man's issue of maintaining his moral purity is for his own sake. But you know what, the text doesn't say that. It doesn't say that the author was a young man. It just says that he's asking how a young man can keep his way pure. Probably because he knows many of his readers are young and they need to know this. And now, many verses later, in verse 152, he tells us that he wasn't, he just comes right out and says that he wasn't a young man when he authored this psalm. Because long ago, many years prior to this, when he was young, he learned an important lesson that has served him well over the years. And what was that lesson? Well, look at verse 152 again. Of old I have known from your testimonies. This is what he knew. This is what he learned back then, and he still knows it, that you have founded them forever. The lesson that he learned early in life is that God's Word stands forever. Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but not my words. God's Word stands forever. It will never be changed. His promises will never be revoked. His commandments will never be altered. In other words, this man learned that God's Word can always be counted on, even when his enemies are getting closer, because God's Word is forever, it's changeless. It was true when he was young, it's true now, and it will be true in the future. The psalmist is telling us not only that he knows from Scripture that God never changes, but also he knows experientially that God's Word will never change, because he has been proving the reliability of God's Word over and over and over again, experientially. Ever since he was young, he has seen God time and again keep His Word, and he knows that God will continue to keep His Word in which He promises to help him, even as these wicked men are getting closer to Him. Why? Because the Word of God is changeless. Listen, this is a tremendous encouragement for learning God's Word when you are young. Young people, I exhort you, listen closely to the lessons you're learning about the Word of God now. They will help you in life. And it's also a tremendous encouragement for parents to be training and teaching your children. You are the primary ones to teach them the Word of God. It's you. It's your responsibility to train up a child in the way he should go. It's also a reminder for us as a church to never underestimate the importance of our ministry to our young people. Children's church ministry, which is always asking for people to serve. This is your encouragement to serve. Awana ministry, youth ministry, the ministry of Lakeside Christian School, which trains hundreds of students every day of the week. How critical it is that our young people learn the Word of God when they are young, so that they are equipped for the trials that will come to them later in life. So if you're looking for a ministry to do here at Lakeside, if you wonder what can I possibly do, then I would encourage you to prayerfully consider investing your life in a ministry to our children and to our youth. So what does all this have to do with the psalmist praying? It has everything to do with it. Based on what he knows about God's Word, that it is true, that it stands forever, the psalmist knows that his prayers for God to rescue him and help him will be answered. They'll be answered in God's own perfect time, in God's own perfect way, but they will be answered. Why? Because God never changes the ground rules. Once He tells us something, it continues. Never changes the rules. What He said He would do for His people, He will do. And He will never change His mind about what He has promised. It was Charles Spurgeon who so wonderfully captured the sentiments of the psalmist. He said this, it is sweet to plead immutable, means changeless, promises from an immutable God. A man cannot have much expectation from a changing friend, but he may well have confidence in a God who cannot change. It was because of this that he delighted in being near the Lord, for it is a most blessed thing to keep up close interaction with a friend who never varies." It's wonderful. What the psalmist is telling us is that no matter how dangerous his situation got, no matter how close his enemies were, He was confident that his prayers would be answered by God, because God's Word is true. It never changes. It can be relied on all the time, and for all time. Now, you may find yourself in tough situations, in a tough situation these days, where you're tempted to be afraid, you're tempted to be worried, you don't know what the future holds. But if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you don't have to worry. He holds the future. You don't have to worry. You can pray to Him with confidence that He hears you, that He's near to you, in fact, He dwells in you, and that He will answer your prayers if your prayers are based on His Word, because His Word is forever. It never changes. But you must pray with obedience to His Word, and you must pray with faith in His Word, and with confidence that He is truthful and that He can be trusted. So I urge you to do that. Learn from the psalmist. Get to the point in your prayers. Be urgent. Be earnest. Tell him what's on your mind. Don't beat around the bush. Ask for his help. He'll give it to you. He's promised that. Now, if Christ is not your Savior, then you need to recognize your rebellion against Him. You are a rebel, and you need to repent of that. The Lord has every right to tell you what to do, how to live. He is your creator. He is the Lord of the universe. So, humble yourself, submit to Him. How do you do that? You do it by confessing that you're a sinner, that you deserve judgment, that you're a sinner, and then trust His death on the cross. which was the payment, it was judgment. Trust Christ's death on the cross for your own personal salvation, Christ alone, nothing else, and be saved, and be transformed, and get to know this God, who once you hated, now you can love. Let's bow for prayer. Lord, we thank you. We thank you that you guided and inspired this man to write these words. These are words that came from you to him to us, and we thank you for the example that his suffering and his attitude and his actions were so that we can be helped and guided. Lord, I pray that you'll help our praying to be so tied to obedience. I pray that every believer here will examine their hearts, make sure that there's no sin that they're aware of and not repenting of. And I pray that you'll help us, each one who knows you, to pray in faith, believing what your word says. And if we are weak in faith, Lord, then help us to cry out, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And Lord, may we pray with confidence in you because your word never changes. And I pray for our young people, Lord, as they are learning the word. I pray that every parent in this church will take that responsibility seriously to teach their children and not leave it just to Sunday school teachers in the church or Christian school to do that, but that they'll see that they are the first ones to do this. And I pray that you'll raise up competent teachers for our children's ministry and Awana ministry and the youth ministry and Lakeside Christian School. And I pray that our young people will have the best teachers, Lord, and that the lessons they learn now will help them all of their lives. And that they'll have ears to hear, that they'll grow up learning these truths and following you all the days of their lives. Lord, we pray for any here without Christ. May they see their sinfulness, not other people's sins, but their own. And may they, like that tax collector, cry out, be merciful to me, Lord, the sinner. May they cry out for salvation, for your mercy, which is found only in Christ. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.