Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what seems good to him. This is the word of the Lord, and he will most certainly add his abundant, gracious, and magnified blessing to the reading of his holy truth, and let us pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for the blessed truth that is before us, and that we might glean the things that are most needful for us today. that Christ will be exalted, the Heavenly Father, that you'll be glorified this Father's Day, and that the Holy Spirit will minister unto us, especially in the places where your servant, the pastor of this church, is lacking. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that we can worship you in spirit and in truth, and ask you to be glorified in your people today, in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. A parallel passage is from 2 Samuel 10 to this chapter 19. And we covered the very first part of it, but let's just jump right into it. The background of our chapter, as we see it unfolding in 1 Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles 17, which we looked at two weeks ago, David now being the king settled in Jerusalem, previous, King Saul is long gone and he's now in Jerusalem, having reigned for over seven years. And Hebron, he is king over all of Israel and he's in Jerusalem. He desires that, now I have a palace, let me build a house for the Lord. But the Lord comes back through Nathan the prophet and said, no, you just sit back, David. I'll build you a house. I'm going to raise up the Messiah, the Christ, through you, through your loins. There will come one who is the son of God. And so there is chapter 17. And as God has promised, I'm going to build you a house. David doesn't rest on his laurels. He goes forth in chapter 18 and he goes to war because he's a he's a He is a pingly prophet, but he is also a man of war, as we have seen in 2 Samuel. Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands. He was a man that was set for war. He is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who in the spiritual realm that when Jesus Christ went to the cross he went to war with satan and was victorious in his substitutionary atoning death upon calvary's tree so the warfare of david in the lord in first chronicles chapter 18 and we glean lessons from that from the whole chapter as we saw that one of the warfares that we have is the prey uh that it it puts us in the prayer and that we By prayer and by living our lives in Christ, we are actually gathering materials for the mansion that he's building for us in eternity, but also as a church, as believers in Christ, that we may be an encouragement one to another. And so we saw that last week in chapter 18. So this week we see the chapter, chapter 19, these 19 verses divided up almost halfway into two different parts, the wickedness against David and the Lord in verses one through nine, and the war of the Ammonites against Israel in verses 10 through 19. And in this, the wickedness against David and the Lord, this is stuff that you and I have to deal with. We see a spiritual parallel. that if we're saved by God's grace, there's wickedness around us. When we attempt to do good, like David did when Nachash, the king of the Ammonites died, that David sent messengers and they were sent back shamefully. And then when they realized what they did, that we've shamed this warrior king, David, Then they wanna go to war with him, because how do we fix this problem? Well, let's go and defeat him, which was a big mistake. And so we saw that, it's on sermon audio, you could listen to the message in 2 Samuel 10, and we focused on that. But this time we're focusing on the warfare, the war of the Ammonites against Israel in chapter 19, verses 10 through 19. There was first, in verses 10 through 15, the strategy of Joab. He's the cousin of David, as we know, through the sister, one of the sisters, her name is Zariah, and she had three sons, Joab, Abishai, and Asael. Asael is long dead. He died through Abner, the captain of Saul's army. and Joab and Abishai are the ones that are left. Joab is the general, the captain over all of Israel's army. And his brother Abishai is a mighty warrior of God as well, which we've read in Chronicles. So he has Abishai, he says, this group of men here, you're going to fight on one front. And I'm going to take this group here and I'm going to fight on another front. As the Syrians now have been joined to the Ammonites. ask for help from the Syrians. And this is also, and I'll just throw this in here, this is also a very interesting parallel spiritually, because as the Syrians represent the wickedness that is out there, they've been defeated by David, they come back for more as if, well, maybe, See, in chapter 18, remember that they joined forces with Hatterasser, the king of Zoba in chapter 18, and were miserably defeated and said, okay, we give up, we'll serve you, David. But now, well, maybe the Ammonites are... Maybe they're a little bit more robust. Maybe they're more valiant warriors. We'll join with them to defeat David. And that's what sometimes the wickedness that surrounds us does, is that we've prayed and we've sought answers in the truth of God's word and victories, and as soon as we get one, the same thing comes back to us. Why is that? Well, I believe it's because the Lord wants to keep you praying. as you will see in just a moment, that this, as I mentioned last week, is the battle. The Assyrians are defeated by David in verses 16 through 19, as we see in our chapter, but that brings us to the heart of the message. You see that we have, as far as the blessings and application from our text, from the entire chapter, there are lessons, but there's just too much there. And though our focus is on prayer, I provide another key verse for us today. From James 5, verse 16, I have it in your handout in the Old King James Version. It says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. And then it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. But effectual fervent in that verse, it comes from one Greek word, henergeho. Young people, can you say that? Henergeho. Now see, in Greek, if it begins with a vowel, like an A or an E, this begins with an E, epsilon, it has a H sound in front of it. Imagine, okay, take the H off, Energeo, what does it sound like? Energy, that's where we get the title of the message. The Energetic Prayer of Christ's People. And here we have an open secret today as far as for the title. It says the precious, prudent, and powerful spiritual warfare. And since we're talking about prayer, there's no way I can cover every aspect of prayer. But today, I want to give you a secret concerning prayer, and that we will be known in the Kenai Peninsula as a prayerful church. Personally, I think that we are. And hopefully, this'll bring you some blessings here. Keep your place in 1 Chronicles 19. Turn to the New Testament, to the book of Ephesians 6. Now, we looked at it last week. as we cover this first point, preparing for gospel warfare. And there is a preparation for it. I'm gonna wait for the young people. The young people are turning there, folks. And young people, when you get there, say amen. Amen. If you need more time, say amen. Amen. Okay, I'll wait for you. The older folks are in no hurry because it takes us that long to get up in the morning. Amen. And me, it takes me, I'll tell you what. Verse 10 says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes, or in the old King James Version, the wiles, the devil. Verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil, in the heavenly places. Stop at verse 12 for a second. Because everything in the Old Testament, though it actually happened, though it's history, as I tell you time and again, it speaks in some reference of the gospel, especially of Christ. But in application, it brings us a spiritual truth always. for our lives. The battles that are being fought by Joab and Abishai, they are spiritual battles, even in the actual battle, because even in their words, as we see in the verse, let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. The spiritual battle reflects the spiritual battles that we have, and there's an unseen realm around us In the things that we do, in the people that we are, there is that spiritual battle. So there's a warfare that goes on if you've given your life to Christ. And so we prepare for the battle as we know that there's a spiritual battle going on. Verse 13, it says, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, verse 14, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. We see the truth of the gospel there. That's preparation. We read the scriptures. We know it speaks of Christ. And because he was righteous, fulfilling all righteousness that we possibly can't, that's why God became a man and walked on earth fully God and fully man. living the righteous life that we can't. So we put on the breastplate upon, as if armor here, we put on the truth of His righteousness based upon His word, the belt of truth, gird around our waist so that we're centered. Verse 15, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness, or in the old King James Version, the preparation, the readiness given by the gospel of peace, we stand upon the truth of the gospel. That's our preparation as well. Verse 16, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith. with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The helmet that is upon our head that protects our minds from those things that would attempt to capture our thoughts. We put on the truth of the gospel as well. And I know I'm going pretty quickly over this and it's not, this isn't an exhaustive portion. Verse 18, now praying, at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all saints, just like Abishai and Joab going to war, that though they go into war and knowing that God will give them the victory and protect them and so forth, They also go strategically, and in this case, even more strategically. I'll be on this front, you be on this front, and if they overcome me, I'll help you. If they overcome me, you help me. If they overcome you, I'll help you, and so forth. And so there's those strategies going on, making all perseverance, making supplication for all saints, verse 19. And also for me, the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. And especially you young people, you know, if you, Mom, Dad, I don't know what to pray for. If you pray for your pastor, You've done a great service to this church because the greatest gift that anyone could ever give me is to pray for me. And I know that Eric prays for me daily and I'm blessed and I know so many of you here pray for your pastor daily. If it weren't not for your prayers upholding me. I may not get through the week because the Lord is using you through the Spirit to help me. And some days I find that I'm somewhat energized when I feel so miserable and all of a sudden I open up the Word or I go into prayer and I am just energized to minister the Word that I'm serving you today. And so as we see this, we recognize there's a spiritual warfare. I mentioned that last week. In 2 Corinthians 10, verses three through five, I'm not gonna ask you to turn there, but I mentioned it last week. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are of divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Because Christ was obedient, we take it captive to the truth that he was obedient. And then the English Standard Version, it says, we take every thought captive to obey Christ. But because Christ was obedient, a supernatural work takes place in our lives that when we think of the truth of the cross, that Christ was obedient to go to the cross and suffer and die in my place, in your place, then it helps, it encourages me to be obedient to God's word as well as a sinner saved by grace can. Because even the best that we do according to God's Word is still full of so much sin. It needs all of Christ's precious shed blood. It needs all of Christ's sufferings and all of Christ's righteousness. And that is the blessing that we have in salvation. But that's preparation for the battle. As I mentioned last week again, Oswald Chambers said that prayer is not preparation for battle. Prayer is the battle, end quote. Oswald Chambers said that, which brings us to the energetic battle in James 5.16. Energeo, hence the title, the energetic prayer of Christ's people. Precious, prudent, and powerful spiritual warfare. The subtitle is from our verse, 1 Chronicles chapter 19 and verse 13. And so I suggest to you that what I mentioned last week, again, from the prayer portion, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. I'm supposed to stop and pray? Because we get an image of prayer as just being on our knees or our hands folded or our eyes are closed. But last week, I mentioned that there is much to pray about. We give thanks, brother Mike and I, you know, and I mentioned it last week. He says, he says, praise the Lord or praise God. And I said, well, thank you, Jesus. And both of us interacting like that every time I hear him say praise the Lord or praise God, it reminds me how thankful I am for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving, we have plenty to be thankful for. Petitions, I mentioned were formal requests. Now that's oversimplified, but of course, because what's the difference between petitions or supplications? Because both of them are requests. Supplications, I believe, are humble requests. They're requests that come, some of them are where it's not, clearly defined in the word, but it's something that is upon your heart and a burden that is there. Maybe the Lord had put it there. Maybe it's from your flesh. But as you pray for it, you're humbly asking a request of the Lord. The formal request, the petition, is something that you know is God's will. We pray that the Lord Jesus come and that he come quickly. That's in the scriptures. Well, there's a formal request. Lord, come quickly. And how often do we pray that prayer? I'll tell you, I pray it often. Every time I see something ridiculous in the news, Lord, come quickly. Intercessions, praying for someone else, praying for believers, praying for unbelievers, Confessions, we have much to confess, because the best of our righteousness is as filthy rags and the best that we do just actually truly needs repentance from in the best that we do, because it's so filled with sometimes I do the right thing with the wrong motives. And I'm not asking you to raise your hands, but I know that you do as well. The Bible declares that. Well, what makes prayer precious? From 1 Chronicles 19 verse 13, our verse there, I have on your handout, it says, for our people and for the cities of our God. Intercessory prayer, this is what makes it precious. When we pray for someone else, our mind is not on ourselves. It takes the focus away from us and places it somewhere else. And God is glorified, we pray on behalf of others. wonderful point about this is for our people, as Joab tells Abishai, we're fighting for our people and for the cities of our God. And so we see two things here. We see there's many things we could talk about on it, but two simple things are first union with God's people. And the second thing we see is being united with God's kingdom. In other words, the advancement of the gospel. And the key here is in a scripture where the Lord Jesus himself prays. In John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer in verse 21, Jesus prays that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Now in the first part of that, that they may be one, that they may be united, this union with one another. It's a blessed truth here, this unity, to be one, to commune with one another spiritually. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 26, Paul says this of the people of God. He says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Why? Because the church made up of many members with differing functions in the body, are so tied in, that in our suffering, if one is suffering, then another is suffering, because anyone here, especially you men, have ever hit the wrong nail with a hammer? Bam. I've done it on both hands, because I'm ambidextrous. I have hit the wrong nail too many times. And doesn't that, does that pain just end there? No. It goes through the whole body, because yeah, I put some force behind that. hammer swing. But when I look at the members of the body, if it's affecting me, it's affecting some other members of the body as well. And when I think of this, that Christ Jesus went to Calvary's cross and he died for you, not just died for me, but he died for you, then you must be precious in his sight. Men, we have wives that remind us of that every day. That though she is my wife, she is my sister in Christ, and God the Son shed his blood for her. That if I am not treating her as Christ treats the church, I am in big, big trouble. Well, brother, what if somebody wronged me? And somebody in church wronged me, and they slighted me, and they sinned against me? Well, you could go to them, as the scriptures say in Matthew 18, but here's something that Mr. Spurgeon brings up in a sermon that he preached on May 5, 1872. He says this, quote, if some brother has crushed your spirit and wounded you so that to think of him causes you pain, never mind, because the best cure for the wound is to go to God in prayer and pour out your soul for him. Ask the Lord to give him a great blessing and to make him a better Christian, to fill him full of divine love. And then when you see him improved, you will either come to think that you made a mistake in judging what he said and took wrongly what he meant to do to do you good, or else you will find that he will come to you and will say, I was wrong, my brother. And if he does not confess that in words, he will, by extra kindness, to your acknowledgement in his deeds, end quote. So when we're praying for someone who we believe has wronged us, we'll either be corrected, no, they didn't wrong you. We serve a sovereign God. We just misunderstood it so that I could be in prayer. I'm blessed when someone says, I hope I'm not bothering you. No, you're not bothering me. Apparently the Lord has called you to call me so that I could be praying for you. And that's what you need is a praying pastor, but we should be a praying church. So we have those two aspects, God's people and the union that we have with Christ's gospel kingdom and the unity that it brings. Next we have what it means to be prudent in prayer or wise in prayer. That's union with Christ. In the verse it says, and let us use our strength. Remember Ephesians 6, verse 10, the Christian's only strength is Christ Jesus. Ephesians 6, verse 10, remember it says, finally, brethren, put on the strength of the Lord and the power of his might. We put on his strength. Wisdom, this prudent prayer, the wisdom is understanding that you and I have no strength in and of ourselves. Jesus said this when he was praying the night that he was betrayed before he went to the cross in Matthew 26 and verse 41 he tells Peter who he singles out Peter which is interesting because Peter James and John were there with him close to pray along with him because he's going to now suffer the wrath of God. He is going to be brutalized and he knows the scriptures and the scriptures say that he's going to be physically at his weakest point because he's going to be ravaged beyond human recognition by the scourging, by the beatings, the pulling his beard completely out of his face, according to Isaiah 50 verse six that we read yesterday. And so Jesus said, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You don't feel like praying, because I've been there. Sometimes I just don't feel like I wanna pray. But Mr. Spurgeon has, Jesus is watch and pray. They fell into temptation, they were falling asleep. That was when they were weak and so forth, and they'd been up all night too. But the Lord says, watch and pray. But sometimes when we're not at our weakest and we haven't been up all night, like the disciples along with Jesus, and I just don't feel like praying. I feel like going out fishing. And Spurgeon says this, not to pray because you do not feel fit to pray is like saying, I will not take medicine because I'm too ill. Pray for prayer. Pray yourself, by the Spirit's assistance, into a praying frame, end quote. Second, wisdom in prayer is understanding that the purpose of prayer is to unite you and me with Christ. I want to say that again. The purpose of prayer is not to get your grocery list done or to get these things accomplished in the kingdom. The purpose of prayer, and this is what advances the kingdom, I'm telling you because I'm excited about this, this is a great truth. The purpose of prayer is when you go into prayer, it unites you and me with Christ. God has given us a grace, this great open secret that allows us to have fellowship with Christ. And the presence of Christ is what empowers us to either endure the struggle that we're going through or rejoice in the work that he is doing and using us to accomplish it. Oh, it's so, oh my goodness, it's so wonderful because get this, John 15 verse five says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in you, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do, all things? Nothing, nothing. Apart from me you can do nothing. Apart from me you can do nothing. Someone says, well I don't have time to pray, Brother John. Too much to do, and my answer is you don't have time not to pray, because without union with Christ, all your best efforts are worse than worthless. If it's not built upon faith in Christ and trusting Him for who He is, and then joining Him in the work He's accomplishing to build His church, it's worse than worthless. Powerful prayer. Here's how prayer is powerful. Now, in the text it says, be strong and may the Lord do what seems good to him. Now, we just realize that we have no strength apart from Christ. We have no sufficiency unless it is in the gospel truth of Christ. We read this passage of scripture just Wednesday, the 15th, just this past Wednesday in a Robert Murray McShane reading plan, which on the back of your handout, you know, it has the weekly readings, four portions, so you can get through the Bible through the whole year, through the Psalms and New Testament twice, actually, in the year. In Deuteronomy chapter 20, verses one through four, it says, when you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priests shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them. For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you The victory. The Christian's only sufficiency is that God goes with us. The Christian's only sufficiency is Christ Jesus. Paul mentions this in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. He says, Jesus said to him, or he says, Jesus said to me, because he's writing the letter, quote, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. The fact that we pray shows that we are weak and that Christ alone is strong, that Christ alone is sufficient. Prayer is the grace of God and this is the power. Prayer unites us with the Prince of Peace. Prayer unites us with God's people. And prayer unites us with God's gospel plans and purposes. And when we have that perspective, we will pray powerfully, no matter how weak your prayer seems to be. Lord, here I am. I submit myself to you. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing plenty of it, Lord. Guide me, help me, do what you will with me. See, therefore, see, if this is powerful prayer, it unites us with Christ. It unites us with Christ's people, and it unites us with Christ's gospel. Therefore, the most powerful prayer can be found in this truth. I quoted John 15, verse five earlier. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Verse seven says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish. and it will be done for you. Now, if you're abiding in Christ and abiding in his word, then you really don't wanna pray what is contrary to his word because we're abiding in him. And so whatever we wish, we find that the more that we pray and the more that we're in his presence, the more we start praying, lining up with what's in here for our lives and for the lives of others. You see, if you're abiding in Christ and united to Him, communing with Him, our prayer will truly be, in the Old King James Version, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. But unfortunately, sometimes our prayers are, my kingdom come, my will be done, in Jesus' name. I've done that too many times in the last 37 years as a Christian. Well, Lord, I'm praying in your name. I'm being formulaic here. You said to pray in your name, but if I'm praying in his name and carrying his name, I have to do something to honor that name. And whatever honors his name is in the book you have in your hands, the book I'm holding here. The young people sang a song today, Worthy of Worship, on page 28, for a Father's Day hymn, which is about worshiping the Father and glorifying the Heavenly Father. They sang in that chorus, You are worthy, Savior, Sustainer, You are worthy, worthy and wonderful, worthy of worship and praise. They sang it so beautifully, I was really just moved to nearly tears. thanking you young people saying a truth that is so important. We were created for worship as 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31 says that, I know many of you young people have memorized, therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all unto the glory of God. We are made to worship God and the greatest, the greatest act of worship that we can give is prayer that unites us with Christ. That is the greatest act. I mean, our singing is worship. Certainly everything is worship. Our eating and drinking and whatever we do. But the greatest is prayer. The greatest is praying to the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you saved today? If you're not saved today, there are elements of this portion that are for you. But for the saved especially, don't let the seed of this word fall to the ground, fall to the wayside. Take it to heart, abide in Christ, who is worthy of all praise. And you'll find powerful prayer as you grow upon the limb of your life as effortlessly as fruit from the branch. Because you never saw one of these fruit trees out here just struggling to go, oh, avocado. or, oh, peach, or whatever it happens to be. You don't see that, and I know many of you ladies garden out here. You don't have a plant going, oh yeah, well this leaf has got a flower on it, but it just won't come out. But if we're abiding, all the limb has to do is abide. Prayer should be an excitement to be with Christ. I'm gonna use my puppies as an illustration instead of my wife for this one. I got these two puppies, a mix of mutts that ever walked the planet Earth. These Labrador Shepherd Border Collie I think is much more of the mix. Jump in all the time, but I realize, and they're only puppies, what are they, nine months old? They want to be with Lisa and I so badly. that they will jump over the highest fence or crawl under the ditch to be with us and then just hang out. And there are surely annoying and I still got a scar here from where Helev or Sadie, which one, I don't remember, just scratched the daylights out of me after I trimmed its nails. And it's still dug deep. And that's a lesson to me every time I think of it, and I feel badly when I think that they're being disobedient or something, because we're disobedient too. We're like those puppies. But where we're not like those puppies so much is wanting to be with the Lord. They want to be with me. And they'll get as near as they can, even with the door closed, and they'll sit up on that deck, and they want to be there. And how come we're not like that? That we're just jumping, and tongues hanging out, and just happy to be with the Lord in prayer. We bring ourselves miserably to prayer. Oh, Father, here I am today, and oh my goodness, I've got to pray. We come to prayer and I wanna tell you folks, the Heavenly Father is not annoyed when you come. He's not annoyed like I am annoyed sometimes with my puppies. You come excited or you come miserably when He comes. He is not annoyed whatsoever and He embraces you. The Son, Jesus Christ, is not inconvenienced by your prayers. So much so that God became a man, the second person of the Trinity, and walked the righteous life that you and I can't, and went willingly to a tree after he was ravaged, beaten, scourged, beyond human recognition, as Isaiah 52 and verse 14 says. And so at his weakest point, he suffered God's wrath for sins that you and I have committed. And then his blood was shed. His side pierced, water and blood came out separately, and he died physically as a man, spiritually as the Son of God, and he did that. So he has been the most inconvenienced person in all the universe, and he's not inconvenienced by your prayers. How grudgingly you might even bring them to him. He is like the father in the parable of Luke whose prodigal son has returned. Jesus is the everlasting father who reaches out and grabs that son and kills the fatted calf to have a party. The Holy Spirit is not put out by your coming to prayer. However, your prayerlessness grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches the Spirit. Are you unsaved? received the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior today. Now, believers, if you're a believer today, there are elements here that are also fitting for you. I say believe on Christ to the saving of your soul as the first prayer of powerful import. Most important to you is this first prayer that you'll pray. And I don't have to lead you in what they call, quote unquote, the sinner's prayer. If the Lord is ministering unto you, especially you young people that haven't made a confession of faith, if the Lord has ministered unto you, he will give you the words through the spirit to be able to pray to him, to commune with him, because prayer is coming into the presence of Christ. I had a fellow one time tell me, he says, well, because I think he was thinking of the sinner's prayer, well, I didn't need a prayer to save me. If you're saved, you will pray. If you're saved, you will have communion with Christ and thank him for saving you at the very least. But if you think prayer is separate from your salvation, then you're sadly mistaken about prayer and you're sadly mistaken about salvation. Even though I don't, to cause somebody to come up some sawdust road. If Christ is working upon you, He'll work upon you right where you're sitting. Yield your soul to His cleansing. Yield your life to His kingdom. For God sent Him as Savior, so receive Him as the wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the, for Father's Day, Aviad, in Hebrew, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. That is the truth of the gospel that I just proclaimed unto those who are saved. That same gospel of that cross applies here, receive him. And Ephesians 6, verse 12, where it says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against, in the King James Version, against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places and the rulers of darkness of this age. They are the forces of the unseen realm that want to blind you from seeing Christ. And not only that, Galatians 5 and verse 17 says that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary to one to another to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. You have mighty forces working against you, but Christ is greater than that. Christ is greater than that. The corruptions of your flesh want to bind you from believing Christ. And the unseen realm of the spiritual forces want to blind you from seeing Christ. Yet, as the verse says, be strong and may the Lord do what seems good to him. Cast yourself upon him. in the Robert Murray McShane reading plan for today, it was Isaiah 51, and the very end of it, verses 21 to 23 says, therefore, hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine, reeling because of sin, reeling because of not having a place with Christ. Verse 22 says, thus says the Lord, the Lord your God, who pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of my wrath. You shall drink no more. That's what God promises through the prophet Isaiah to anyone who doesn't believe. And verse 23, he says, and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, those unseen forces, and even the flesh, which will be destroyed in that day when this corruptible puts on incorruption. To the tormentors who have said to you, bow down that we may pass over and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over. God says he had another Passover where his only son has been given and the tormentors of the spiritual forces and even the flesh the Lord will put down mightily when you say yes to Christ with that very first prayer. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for His sake, we thank you, Lord, for the blessed truth of who Christ is and what He has done. Heavenly Father, what mighty prayers there are before us in seeking that one great truth that we just want to be with Christ, to be with Him, Heavenly Father, make that prayer, the prayer that is answered of your people today, and that we will be a force of prayer because we got our priorities from your word, and we got them straight from you. We love you, Lord, and thank you. In Jesus' name, for his sake and all God's people said, amen.