Got it? Good deal. Alright, amen. Well, it feels like a big spiritual buffet at camp. We've already heard so much, and Lord willing, we'll hear much more. So my plan tonight is to give you not four entree-sized points about prayer, but four appetizer points, okay? There's so much to say. Let's jump into Luke 3. Luke 3. today and the whole theme is, Lord, teach us to pray. And so the first thing I want to note this evening is that Jesus teaches us to pray by example. Jesus teaches us to pray by example. I am preaching at home through the Gospel of Luke, and one of the themes that we find in the Gospel of Luke is the emphasis that Jesus put upon prayer, both in his teaching, but also in his example. We are saved by a man, the God-man, but by a man who prayed. We are saved by a man who prayed. In Luke 3, we find that Jesus is baptized. Luke 3.21 says, Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened. and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. So we know on this occasion, a very important and significant occasion when Jesus was beginning his public ministry, when he was coming out in public, he was bringing the message of God, he was healing the sick, he was revealing the character of God in the most full way that would ever be revealed here on earth, and ultimately the end of his mission would be culminated in his death on the cross for sinners and his resurrection from the dead. But it all started, the public part started with his baptism. So in his baptism, Jesus was identifying with the mission that God the Father had given to him. Aren't you thankful that Jesus was baptized? That he was saying, I am come to die and to be raised up for the salvation of sinners. And so Jesus did not shirk back from the mission that God gave him, but he went forward and he embraced it, but he did so in prayer. as if at this occasion, this inauguration of His ministry, if you will, that Jesus was consecrating His ministry to the Father, saying, Father, here it is. It is for You. I am here to do Your will. This is for Your glory. This is for Your honor. So Jesus had a posture of prayer of consecrating Himself and His work to the glory of His Father. May we learn from that. Amen? May we learn to say, Father, in prayer, I want to consecrate myself. consecrate my life, consecrate my gifts, consecrate my time, all that I have to you for your glory." But also Jesus no doubt was praying, seeking the blessing of the Father upon Him, because what do we find happening in the next verse? The Holy Spirit. in the form of a dove, descends like a dove, in bodily shape, like a dove upon Jesus and the Father's voice of approval saying, you, thou art my beloved Son, in thee I'm well pleased. Then in Luke 4, verse 1, what do we find? We find Jesus is full of what? Of the Holy Ghost, because He's been praying. He's anointed by the Father. He's full of the Holy Ghost. He returns from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted, being 40 days tempted of the devil. So in those 40 days of testing, where Jesus has identified with his public mission, with his mission of life and death and resurrection for the salvation of sinners, the enemy comes and throws everything he has at Jesus. So this 40 days of weakness as a man, this 40 days of fasting, this 40 days of enduring temptation, but Jesus went into it, how? Full of the Holy Spirit, because he sought the help and the blessing of the Father in prayer. What do we find at the end of the 40 days when Jesus was faithful? Jesus returned after the 40 days in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went a fame of Him through all the region round about. Jesus Christ, as God, did not need any help. Amen? He did not need any help. But our Savior, our Lord, so humbled Himself that he would prove his faithfulness as a human being. And so he took on the limitations of humanity, and as a man, he needed the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to engage his mission faithfully and fully to the glory of God. And we're saved by the God-man who prayed. Now, if the Lord Jesus, who had no sin, if Jesus, who had no sin to repent of, if He, as a man, needed to seek the Father's help in prayer so that the Spirit would fuel Him and empower Him and strengthen Him for the work that He was called to do, how much more do you and I, who are not the God-man, who do have sin to confess and repent of, how much more do we need to seek the power of God through His Spirit in prayer? Now, it takes the Spirit of the Lord to be faithful, doesn't it? It takes the Spirit of the Lord to grow in grace. It takes the Spirit of the Lord to endure through testings and through trials faithfully. It takes the Spirit of God to submit ourselves to the will of God. And we could name a long list. All those things that we know that we're called to do, and supposed to do, and want to do, and yet find ourselves weak in doing. So prayer is urgent. Jesus teaches us that. He teaches us to pray by example, to seek the power of the spirit in prayer. We find Jesus in Luke chapter five. We find him praying here after a very busy day, one of those days when Jesus is healing and there are hordes of people coming to him. And I think it's probably a day kind of like camp. There's tons of interruptions and tons of activity and Jesus is hot and tired and sweaty. and he's had 150 requests that day, and he's poured himself here, and poured himself there, and he's ministered over here, and ministered over there, and dealt with this person and that person, and then what does he do in Luke 5.16? And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. He withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. Now, why would Jesus do that? Why would Jesus put such a priority on prayer? We already said he has no sin to confess. And probably a good portion of our prayers, at least ought to be, has to include confession of sin. Jesus had no sin to confess. We've already seen he's seeking the Father's strength through the Spirit in prayer as a man. But I believe this also, that Jesus would withdraw himself from the important work, would withdraw himself from the busyness of the day to invest himself in prayer because of this, that Jesus desired to be in the presence of his Father. Jesus desired to be in the presence of his Father. He saw it necessary to pull himself, and important, to pull himself away from the crowds, away even from the work, to invest himself in prayer. Listen, if we're going to be followers of Jesus, we've got to follow this example, don't we? There is a time and there is a place, and it's probably more frequent than what some of us do, to pull ourselves away. To pull ourselves away from the busyness, to pull ourselves away from even the important work and the good work that must be done. We talked about this in our Bible study class today. To pull ourselves away even from the important work that needs to be done and immerse ourselves in the presence of our Father. I think it was Spurgeon who said that prayer is like breathing heaven's air. And it is true, isn't it, that we live in a world that is full of spiritual pollutants and toxins, isn't it? And so we're breathing in just nasty air all the time in a spiritual sense. And we ourselves get infected with that. And we must, it's essential for us to pull ourselves away and take some big gulps of heaven's atmosphere. in confessing our sins to the Lord, in recalling the mercies of God, in giving thanks to Him for His goodness, in begging Him for His strength and His power and His help. So, we must follow the example of Christ. Jesus saw it as essential to pull Himself away and give Himself to prayer. Jesus prayed on regular occasions. We find Him, times like this, just pulling away on a regular routine to pray. And then we find Jesus praying on special occasions. So the night that Jesus, the day that Jesus is going to call out 12 men to be his apostles, who would be foundation stones in his church, Jesus spends all night in prayer to God. As it were, dedicating, immersing this important occasion and this calling with prayer, seeking the blessing of God. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he's beginning to feel the weight as a man more and more. It's as if the pressure is beginning to more and more squeeze in on Jesus as he is about to go to the cross and be crushed by the wrath of the Holy Judge, God the Father. And we find here in Luke, I won't turn there, but he goes and he falls on his face to prayer there in the Garden of Gethsemane. You remember the occasion. His sweat is pouring out of him, as it were, great drops of blood pouring out of Jesus. And he's immersing this occasion in prayer, Father, if there's some other way, let this cup pass from me. But then what do we have? We find Jesus submitting to the Father. Father, not my will, but thine be done. We are saved by a Jesus who submitted himself to God in prayer. We can go to the cross. On the cross, as the wicked people have rejected Jesus, have mocked Him, have preferred something else to Jesus, and they have taunted Him, and they have stripped Him naked, and they have made fun of Him, and said, hey, if you're the Savior, come on down and prove it to us. Show us by your actions. And what does Jesus pray? Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do." We are saved by a Jesus who prayed prayers full of forgiving grace. Do you ever need to pray like that? Father, would you forgive so-and-so who's wronged me and help me to forgive them? Jesus would pray in His dying breath on the cross, as He Himself is in anguish, and He would commit Himself back to God, and say, Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit. So, Father, it started with me at my baptism, committing myself to You, consecrating this mission to You, and now it's come full circle, Lord, and I've shed my blood, and I'm commending my spirit back to You. We're saved by a Savior who prayed as a man. So Jesus teaches us to pray by example, consecrating himself to the Father, seeking the presence of the Father, seeking the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer, and giving himself to prayer both in special occasions, but also in a routine, habitual way. That's number one. Appetizer number two. The one who teaches us to pray, is the one who has earned our access to God in prayer. See, we need to treasure the incredible gift of prayer. You know why? Because prayer is an expensive gift. Prayer is an expensive gift. For the Bobby who just prayed for us, has preached for us at Collierville, and over the years, many, many times he's said these words. And get this, get this, it comes from Scripture that prayer is a blood-bought privilege. Prayer is not something cheap, okay? God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Don't look at prayer that way. Don't look at it as a trite, nothingness, a vagary, but rather access to the Holy God of heaven and earth only comes through the blood of Jesus. This One who suffered on the cross, this One who was in agony at Gethsemane, pouring out His sweat and anguish, knowing He's about to look at the Father with wrath, the Father's wrath upon Him, that one of the benefits that comes to us as believers through that is the precious gift to approach to God in prayer. Let's look at a couple of passages to illustrate that. I'll just quote this one, 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. So what was the cost? The cost was the sufferings of Jesus. Why was the suffering necessary? Because there is a holy God who has no stain or spot of sin. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And so on one level, if you see, don't do this, but if you see someone praying, you could come to them and say, what right do you have to pray to God? Now don't do that, okay? Don't try that. But it could be asked legitimately, what right do you defiled, corrupted, rebellious, transgressor, what right do you have to come and talk to the holy God who made you and gives you breath and you've rebelled against Him, what right do you have to talk to Him? And as if you would ask for things from Him. No right at all. No right at all. And listen, there are some who pray and say prayers, and God says it's an abomination to Him. Because if someone tries to approach to God in any other way than in complete reliance upon Jesus, it's abomination to God. But here it says, the cost to make rebellious sinners be able to come before God and be accepted and be welcomed was the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Because on the cross, Christ removed our defilement and removed our guilt. And so now those who've been brought to faith in Christ have every right and every privilege through grace to approach unto God. So Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Now think about the wonder of this, okay? That expression, to bring us to God, it literally means to give an entrance to someone, to give admission, to lead them into someone's presence. To lead them into someone's presence. The summers I was 16 and 17 years old, I had a dream job that didn't pay me a cent, but it was a dream job, okay? I got to be a volunteer for the broadcast team for the Memphis Redbirds, and that was awesome, okay? And guess what I got? I got this, I got to wear it around my neck, and it was a pass, it said, media. it said Timothy guess and so I would go to the stadium I love doing I'd go to the stadium and all the people who bought tickets are waiting in line to get into the stadium and guess what I do I don't get in line I walk right past them media and they let me ride on in that never got old okay so what do I get to do I get to go in without paying I get to go in without waiting. I get to take the elevator, get to go up to the press box, go in where all the sports writers are and all that, eat the press box food for free, and then go in and do my very easy job while I'm watching a baseball game. That was a dream job, okay? Silly story, but what's the point? That little card that said media and had my name, it had my name, that card got me places that most of the people couldn't get to. Tonight, if you're in Christ, it's as if you have a card, and it has your name on it, and it gets you places. It gets you to the best of places. It gets you into the presence of a merciful God, of the Holy One of heaven and earth. And you get to come to Him and approach to Him and say, it's me. It's me, Lord. Here's my card. And it's not about me, it's about Jesus, blood that was shed. And so because of that, I get to come before you. And God, it's not cheap. It's not God is great, God is good. It's wow, I, a sinner, get to come before the Holy One and call Him Father and have every assurance that I'm welcomed into His presence and He'll never kick me out of the family. So never, listen, we do it, but quit it. Let's quit it, okay? Let's repent of cheapening prayer. Of cheapening prayer. It's a privilege that's been bought with blood by the God-Man Himself, Jesus Christ. Tonight, there may be somebody who wonders, do I have access? Because after all, I believe that He's pretty holy. and I'm pretty defiled. I want to tell you about the way of access. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. Here's what it says about Jesus in Hebrews chapter seven. Here's what it says, guilty sinner. Okay, transgressor, one who's rebelled, one who's far off. Here's what it says. But this man, Jesus, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Simple terms, a priest is somebody who gets you access to God. Okay? In this context. Wherefore he, this Jesus, is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for him. So there is a way of access center where you can have a guarantee that God will receive you, and it's found in Jesus. And so the call of the gospel is run to Jesus, throw yourself upon His mercy, come to Him, guilty one, and be forgiven. Come to Him, dirty one, and be cleansed. And guess what? He brings you near to God. Near to God. So, treasure the gift of prayer. Number one, Jesus teaches us to pray by example. Number two, the one who teaches us to pray is the one who gives us access to God in prayer. So we treasure this blood-bought privilege. Let me get one more on this before we move on. Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9. Sometimes you may, often perhaps, you don't believe or you don't feel like praying. or you feel too dirty to pray, or you feel not as good as Brother Bobby's prayers. And so you say, I don't really know if I can pray, or I've struggled today, I've been weak today, I don't feel qualified to pray. Well, we're not, but Jesus is, and so we come to God through Him. But look at what it says in Hebrews 9, verse 24. What a powerful thought that this is right here. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God." What does the rest of it say? Read it. For us. Jesus appears, and this word in the presence of God has the idea of before the very face of God. on our behalf, before the very face of God for us. And so we don't come to God on the basis of how holy that we feel in the moment. We don't come to God on the basis of how strong spiritually we feel right now. We come to God bearing the name of Jesus, having great consolation that, oh yes, the one who died for me is right now appearing before God's face representing me. representing me. So, listen kids, when we pray our prayers and we pray in Jesus' name, amen, that's not just supposed to be a good way to close the thing out, although it is, but what we're doing is, what we should be doing, we're saying, God, I'm asking you to receive this because of Jesus, for his sake, because he's there representing me before you. My dad has a way to get deals with cars and tires and all this. And there's a guy that used to have a car lot near his house named Danny Bugs, had a place called Bugs Buggies. And so dad found out that Danny was a really nice guy because daddy had thrown so much business his way that Danny started to tell, look, Mr. Guest, when you go to this place to get your tires done, just ask for the Danny Bugs discount. Cash for the Danny Buggs price, and they'll give it to you. So daddy would go in and he would tell me, hey, go tell him Danny Buggs. Randy Buggs, Danny Buggs, I'm not sure who this guy is. Another silly story. But seriously though, listen. Who are we coming to God? We get to pray in the name of someone prestigious. We get to pray in the name of someone who has clout with the Father. And his name is Jesus. That'll transform your prayers. That'll transform your prayers. So we come to God, the one who teaches us to pray, number one, is the one, number two, who brings us into the Father's presence by way of access. Let's move along here. Number three, prayer, if you'll turn to Matthew chapter six, prayer is part of an honest, personal relationship with God. That's what it's supposed to be about. Prayer is part of an honest, personal relationship with God. Jesus is going to teach us to pray here in Matthew 6 verse 5 with these words, Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like to them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him." So part of what Jesus is teaching us here, he's using really the religious models of the day and saying, don't do like these guys do. So the Pharisees of the day had a great outward appearance of holiness and godliness and consecration to God. Jesus says don't follow their example in prayer. Because they would love to pray while they're standing in the street corner. And Jesus here is not giving a blanket prohibition for public prayer. I don't think I need to prove that tonight, but needless to say, He's not prohibiting public prayer, but He's prohibiting the spirit and the motive behind their prayer. So they're going out at rush hour, as it were. and they're perhaps lifting their eyes up to heaven. Oh, Lord God of Israel. And what's the whole goal? The goal is that I wonder how many people passed by and said, wow, that guy is close to God. Watch out for Mr. Pharisee. He is holy. Wow. And you know what? These are chilling words that Jesus said. He said, let me tell you the truth. They have what they're looking for. They get what they want. They have their reward. They get people talking about how holy that they are. What's the reward that you're seeking in prayer? What's the goal of what you're ultimately seeking in prayer? I submit to you, here's what it ought to be. They get more praise of men. The humble, the genuine who seek God in prayer, guess what they get? They get more of the Father. They get more of God. They get more of His grace, more of His blessings. He even blesses them outwardly. This is all secret prayer, but your Father who sees in secret, He's even going to reward you openly where others will see, not for your glory, but for His. Others will see the effect of His grace in your life as you spent time seeking His face in prayer. They'll see how you're being more molded and shaped into the image of Christ. But I love this. That's the negative. They have their reward, more of the praise of men. But you, when you pray, go into your closet, shut your door. What's the goal? I just want to be with God. I just want to seek Him. Isn't that astounding? That each believer can come before God and have their own personal audience with the Almighty, with their Father. And they don't have to use vain repetitions and try to, you know, repeat the same thing over and over, talk a little louder, talk with a little more holy tone of voice. and say, maybe that'll get you the Father. Maybe that'll get him. Educate him on the need. The Father, I know it's complicated, but he said this and she did. He knows, he knows. Your Father knows what you have need of even before that you ask him. Part of what Jesus is teaching us here in prayer is that prayer is about drawing near to God in honest, open transparency for the purpose of having more communion with the Father. I love Psalm 62 in verse 8. It's one of my favorite verses that I go back to a lot. Because what it does is it speaks to us of something of the heart of prayer and the heart of believers' relationship with God. Psalm 62 8 says this, Trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us, Selah. I love that expression, pour out your heart. What's he saying? If we can say it this way, spill your guts before the Lord. God, here's my burden. You find David doing it all the time in the Psalms. Lord, people are trying to kill me and I'm scared to death. Translation, some of the Psalms, right? Fear is all around me, God. I'm afraid of this. And I'm worried about this. And I have a guilty conscience about this. And would you please help me to do this? Poor, and God, here's another one. I don't even know exactly how to verbalize it, but I want to try to pour it out to you anyway. Listen, God has adopted his people into his family. And he says that in prayer, it's as if we're crying out, Abba, Father. We're talking to our Father, and He understands our little kids speak. And so we don't have to put on airs before God. We come with reverence, yes. We come with humility. We come knowing, as Abraham of old said, Lord, I'm just dust and ashes before you. But we can come to God with a familiarity and with a confidence. Meredith has a lady that she knows that has a very, very difficult life. She loved her father dearly, and he passed away. And her mother's still living, has health problems, she takes care of her mother, and her mother is awful. Her mother does things purposefully just to hurt her and make her life miserable. So I don't really recommend praying this way. But I love the heart behind it. The other day, Meredith was talking to this lady, and she was having a really hard day, because it was around Father's Day. She said, yeah, she said, I was talking to God today. I said, God, what are you doing up in heaven today? What are you doing? Now, I don't recommend praying that way, okay? But what's the heart behind it? Here's somebody who just needs to talk to the Father. Because my life down here is full of burden. God, what are you doing? God, would you remind me you love me? Father, would you give me strength I don't have? Father, would you let me just cast all my worries and all my fears on you? Father, would you do that? Pour out your heart before the Lord. Pour out your heart. God has really, really big shoulders. Huge shoulders. 1 Peter tells us, cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. The image is this burden on your shoulder that's weighing you down. And you get it and you're chunking it on the Father. So 465 people ate here last night. 465 people's worth of burdens and cares and needs and help and direction and wisdom. Can God handle all that? Well, do we have a small God? Or a medium-sized God? Or the everlasting God? Right? We have Hezekiah's God, don't we? The Lord of hosts. The God who has abundant resources that we can't even see all the time. So we can throw all these cares upon our Father because we know that He cares for us. And part of this is an expression of trust. Because the first part of the verse says, trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart before Him. It's an expression of trust. So prayer, true prayer is teaching us to sink our faith roots more deeply into our great God. Let me just, can you trust God? Is he trustworthy? Is he worthy of your confidence? So let's just use this, another silly example. Mine are silly, but do the best I can. I'm not like Thomas who has the great illustrations. Okay. Let's just say I have a thousand dollars. in cash, can't put it in the bank, can't keep it in my house for whatever reason, where am I going to put this $1,000 safely? What am I going to do with this? I think I know what I would do. I think I would take it to my mom. That's what I think I would do. Because my mom, she has her faults, but gambling and thievery, I don't think you're among them, okay? So I'm pretty sure she's got good character. She has trustworthy character and mama knows how to take care of stuff. You moms know how to, she knows how to take care of stuff. And mama's responsible. She doesn't lose stuff. She's got, she's got it all together. So I feel like I'm safe in trusting that a thousand to my mom. Now, I would honestly, I would feel fine with doing that tonight. Like mom, here's the thousand, just take it and no interest or anything. I'll get it later. But there's still, and I would have full confidence, I tell you, I would have full confidence to trust my mom with $1,000, I would. But, what if, I mean, there might be things out of her control. Maybe there's a house fire, maybe it gets burned up. Maybe somebody breaks in and steals it. Out of mom's control, nothing she can do about that. Can you trust God with things that are more valuable than $1,000? Now isn't that something? I can trust my mom with $1,000, but sometimes I don't trust God with things that are more valuable. And God cannot have a surprise house fire. And God can't get robbed. Because God's in control of everything. You can't touch God. He's immortal. He's almighty. He's all-powerful. So part of growing in prayer is learning to trust in Him, to entrust that which is valuable and precious to us, even more valuable than a thousand dollars, that which is more valuable, that which is precious to us, to entrust it to one who loves us, knows us, has all power, can take care of us, and take care of those things which are so close and dear to our hearts. So prayer is part of an honest, personal relationship with God. I'll go over number four quickly. And I want to encourage you with this. Listen, brothers and sisters, God does not need our prayers, okay? God does not need our prayers. But God is determined and God is committed to work through the prayers of His people. He doesn't need our prayers. Don't we believe in the sovereignty of God around here? Don't we believe that God can do as He pleases, always as He pleases, and only as He pleases? And God doesn't need us. He doesn't need me. He does not need me. He doesn't need your prayers. But, but, God would not have us so look at His sovereignty that he would have us ignore the reality that this sovereign God is purposed to do some things only through the prayers of his people. Now, I don't have the brain width, and you don't have the mental energy or the physical energy to stay up and talk about the sovereignty of God in prayer, okay? All we know is, at least for me tonight, God's sovereign over everything, and along with that, there's some things that he said you don't have, because you're not asking. And there's some things that God says, I'm gonna do this through your prayer. Back in Jeremiah 29, that's the best example of that, when God had promised after the 70 years of captivity to bring the captives back to Jerusalem, and He had determined it. And so when God determines something to happen, it's gonna happen, because He's sovereign. He decreed it, Jeremiah, it's prophecy, 70 years. Well, Jeremiah, he's reading this, In verse 10, thus says the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word to you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken to you. And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity." What's God saying? I'm going to rescue you guys after 70 years, but I'm going to do it through stirring you up to pray in accordance with My promises. But listen, that ought to encourage us. Matthew Henry was quoted earlier, as John did a great job from John 5, 16, from James 5, 16. Matthew Henry also said this, prayer is like fetching blessings out of heaven. We come boldly to the throne of grace to do what? To obtain, okay? We do it to obtain. We need mercy and we need grace to help in time of need. So brothers and sisters, pray. Pray faithfully. Learn to pray. Come humbly before God and pray. And know this, that prayer is one of the means through which God is determined to work. So do it, so pray. So pray for the salvation of sinners. So pray for God to raise up ministers of the gospel. So pray that there would be not hardness of heart, but a fervent spirit of love and devotion toward the Lord and toward another. So pray for revival. So, pray for our children. All of these things. God is determined, He doesn't need our prayers, but be encouraged, God is determined to work through prayer to accomplish His purposes. Praise the Lord, He's not limited to our prayers. I'm thankful for that. He's too mighty for that. He's not limited to our prayers, but He's determined to work through the prayers of His people. So Jesus teaches us to pray by example. The one who saved us prayed. Jesus is the way of access to come before God. Treasure the gift of prayer because it's blood-bought. Thirdly, prayer is part of a personal, transparent, honest relationship with our Father. And remember, finally, that God is determined. He doesn't need prayer, but He's determined to work through the means of prayer. God, teach us to pray. Yeah. Let's pray. Father, it's true that we are but dust and ashes before You, and that we need to be humble before You, God. If we were to see You tonight in all of Your holiness, Lord, or even just a little bit more than what we see now, we would see more of our depravity and our wretchedness. But, oh God, we praise You for the good news of Your Son. and we thank you there's a way of access to come into your presence. And oh, Father, we pray, we ask that you would hallow your name, that you would so work, even in people here who do not yet know you, that you would so work in them that your name, that Jesus' name would be precious to them. We pray for us all that you would strengthen us, that you would humble us, that you would teach us to trust you, Father, we pray for the advance of your kingdom. We pray for the advance of your gospel. We pray for the strengthening of faithful churches. We pray, Father, that you would bless these children, these young people, to know you, to love you, to serve you all their days. Father, we need you to protect us. Lord, please don't let us be swallowed up by temptation. Please deliver us from the evil one. We are all susceptible to falling. Father, renew us, revive us, encourage us, strengthen us. Lord, do it all for Your glory. And Father, we have a great name to ask all of this of You. It is in the name of Your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen.