Welcome to the Rest Podcast. The Rest Conference is designed to refresh, encourage, strengthen, and train the Lord's servants. The messages and lessons you will hear have been taken from the past Rest Conferences. It is our prayer that God will use this episode to encourage you in His work. I'm gonna give you three passages of Scripture tonight. I want you to go with me there. So out of reverence of the Lord God, please keep your seat. And reverence it while you're sitting there. By the way, when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, it's while they were sitting. You ever notice that? While they were sitting, you know? They were at rest, you might say. How's that? We should name a conference after that. You ever thought about that? By the way, that was a great message, Scott. That was wonderful. Doesn't he have a nice voice? Really does. And what a head of hair, huh? Lovely. Vance Havner said there's four stages of hair growth for a man. Bald fuzz is was. Yeah. Yeah. I remember I started letting my hair grow out. I tried to let my hair grow out when I was a teenager, and of course my parents would send me to the barbershop. I'll never forget what my mother said. She said, if you don't quit trying to grow that hair long, God's gonna strike you bald. But anyway, and my brother, my older brother maintained all of his hair into his 60s. Yeah, it's really, it's one of those things, you know. Okay, has nothing to do with the message. Genesis 5, we're gonna go from Genesis 5, and then we're gonna go to Psalm 55, and this is why I want you to stay seated, because we're gonna kinda go back and forth here. I want you to go to Genesis 5, then we're gonna go to Psalm 55, then we're gonna come back to Genesis 3, okay? All right, Genesis 5, Psalm 55, and then Genesis 3. Good to see you all. This is a great, unique conference. I praise the Lord for this. And boy, do we ever need this. I wanna say, Brother Hooks, thank you so much, sir, for letting me stand here in this place where you pastor. And I saw Brother Scott over here, and I said, this is the Scott Conference, man, I'm telling you. Great, Scott, but anyway. Notice what it says here in Genesis 5, verses 1 and 2. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them. and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. And for what it's worth, if you ever wonder how come the man and the wife get married and she carries his name, this is the root for that. And God made them Adam and Eve, but he called their name Adam, Mr. and Mrs. Adam, there we go. All right, and it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Okay, notice what it says in Psalm 55, Psalm 55. Notice verse 17. evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice." Now whenever I think of that verse I think about brother Roloff. As you're turning to Genesis 3, let me tell you why I think about Brother Roloff, because I often heard him sing. Evening, morning, and at noon, will I pray? Will I pray and cry aloud? Then he shall hear, he shall hear my voice. Evening, morning, and at noon, So we see in Genesis chapter 3 verse number 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll do our best to get right on with this message. Heavenly Father, thank you for the great message that we heard already from Brother Scott Pauley. Personally speaking, I felt like I needed it as much as anybody in this room, so we're thankful for the ministry of the Word of God. So powerful, so true. Thank you for the good music that we heard a while ago, dear God. Thank you for that. And thank you for the good meal I heard that was already enjoyed by so many. And I thank you for the fellowship that is so sweet. Even as we entered into this place tonight, Lord, we sense very strongly that the fellowship was like what the psalmist talked about, the oil on Aaron's head that fell down upon his beard and skirt. And the sweet smell of the fellowship of the priest of the Lord was so strong they could hear it from the bottom of Zion's hill. They could smell it. They could hear the fellowship, but they could smell the fellowship as a great anointing was upon them. And Lord, we need that fresh anointing upon us tonight. We need that help from above tonight. Already we've been helped. Help us to continue in that vein tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. This evening, I'd like to speak to you on the subject, made to pray. Made to pray. So we see that God made Adam and Eve, and then we saw in chapter three of the book of Genesis, that God came walking in the cool of the day. That's in the evening. So for the Jewish person, even to this day, they begin their day in the evening. The Sabbath begins at six o'clock. When our Lord was crucified, they wanted to get him buried before the new day began at six o'clock. So that's when it begins, on the evening. I'm not convinced that that's still not the best way, rather than as soon as you get up. Now, as soon as you get up is good because Job chapter seven talks about God visiting us in the morning. You ever thought about that? What is man that thou remindest of him, that thou visitest him every morning? So as you're waking up, he that keepeth Israel neither slumber nor sleepeth. He's hovering, as he did in the Genesis when he created, he hovers like a mother dove. He's hovering over you, waiting to communicate with you. As soon as you wake up, I've told our people before, as soon as you wake up, don't move. Because at that very moment, God's about to say something to you. And that's good. But when you think about when the day really began for the Jew, and as we see in the book of Genesis here, it appears that's where God liked to start the day with Adam and Eve, in the evening, in the cool of the day. He's meeting with them. By the way, I don't think it's any accident that a lot of people, even in the Lord's work, when they refer to Saturday night, they often call that the devil's night. You ever notice how much havoc happens on the night before the Lord's day? Oh, that we all might be like John who said, and I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Even though he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos, he remembered as the early church would meet together, it was in the Lord's day on Sunday, the first day of the week. So it's no wonder that the devil fights very strongly on your Saturday night. It's very important not to stay up too late on Saturday night. lest you go into the land of Nod in the Sunday morning sermon. Yeah. The devil would love for you not to hear the preaching or not to be involved in the service itself, to have your mind somewhere else. So when I see this, I see that God made Adam and Eve to fellowship with him. So he came with them to fellowship with them in the cool of the day, and I love what it says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, walking. There's a leisurely thing to it. Enoch walked with God and was not. I heard B.R. Lakin say many years ago, Enoch walked with God. He walked with God every day. And one day the Lord came to him and said, Enoch, I love the way that you're spending the day with me. Why don't you come up to heaven and spend the day with me? And so he did. And that's the reason he never came back. There's no night there. He's still spending the day with God. Amen. Makes for good preaching anyway, yeah. He walked with God, so God came walking. It's interesting, God can move faster than the speed of light, can he? Matter of fact, when he raptures us out of here, we're moving at the speed of light. Not the blinking of an eye, the twinkling of an eye. You ever thought about that? A lot of people say, in the blink of an eye, we'll be gone. That's not what the Bible says. We're moving in the twinkling of an eye. That's the speed of light. So those of you that are afraid of heights, don't worry, you'll be in glory before you know it, because you'll be moving at 186,000 miles per second. Yeah, that's probably moving out of here, isn't it? Even so, come Lord Jesus, then you're gone, you know. Not even that, I was too late. James 5.16 says, Oh, that we might get into that effectual prayer, that fervent prayer of a righteous man. But here's what a lot of times we say, well, that was Elijah. He's God's patriarch. But in that same context, it says he was a man of what kind of? Like passions. He's as human as you and I are. As human as you and I are. but all the difference that it makes when we really become intense in prayer. I don't even hear this term anymore. We used to hear the term, have you prayed through? You don't hear that much anymore, do you? And a lot of us don't. I think about that point by Robert Frost. He talked about taking that road less traveled by, and that makes all the difference. And I really believe that prayer is that road less traveled by, and it's a shame because that's really what will make the difference. I heard Raven say this, he wrote it in his book years ago, prayer is the preacher's power, prayer is the penitent's plea, prayer is the orphan's refuge, and a person and a preacher is not a praying preacher, it's a playing preacher. It's power in prayer, prayer changes things, prayer changes people, prayer changes me, prayer changes you. He's made us to fellowship with him, he's made us to pray. Here you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? Number one, I would submit to you that we should pray without substitution. Nothing can substitute for prayer. There's a great old saying, some of you are familiar with it by Samuel Chadwick, Satan dreads nothing but prayer. The church has lost her presence of Christ, but it's full of all good works. Activities are multiplied that meditation may be ousted and organizations are increased that prayer may have no chance, no chance. Souls may be lost in good works as well as in evil ways. The one concern the devil is to keep saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless study, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. I heard they said this one time, Shalmer said, the devil fears the prayers of the weakest saint. He fears the prayer of the weakest saint. When I'm weak, he is strong. The devil knows the power of prayer. Or as Guy King, wonderful commentator of yesteryear, he said, no one's a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil. Not that he practices it, but that he suffers from it. But that he suffers from it. There's no substitution for prayer. I think about 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse number 23. It houses my wife's favorite verse. through the years. Sometimes she'll sign Bibles every now and then I saw, oh, he's like her verse better. 1 Samuel 12, 23, moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease in the pray for you, but I will teach you the good and right way. And this is my wife's life verse. I love it. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he has done for you. But there are two phrases I want to bring together. It says, pray for you and serve him. Pray for you and serve him. Prayer is not the opposite of service. Prayer is very much a part of service. That's why Jesus said, pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he might send forth laborers into the field. I'm convinced that one reason some of our so many methods fail is because we're full of methodology, but not full of God. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. In other words, be controlled by the Spirit. You know, because when you think about it, when you're doing the witnessing or when you're doing the preaching, you want Him to be controlling your tongue. I was thinking of this a moment ago when Brother Paulie and I were talking about that great verse of Scripture where the Lord says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing the captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's an interesting word, casting down imaginations, logikos. That's interesting. Now it goes back to logos and stuff, but also that's the same word that is translated imagination. Casting down our imaginations, bringing those imaginations. Holy imaginations can birth great vision or great dreams for God, but if we're not contemplating, if we're not giving everything over to the Lord with our heart fully surrendered to him, then our thinking process really gets a little bit jaded and weird. So he says, moreover, as for me, God forbid, that I should sin in ceasing to praise for you. So if we don't pray for the people that we minister to, it's a sin. It's a sin. Psalm 57, two, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. So here we see that there is absolutely no substitution for prayer. God made us to pray, God made us to have fellowship with him, and that's really what prayer's all about. Nicholas of Cusha said this hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and what, Lord, more is my life, save the embrace wherein thy delights and sweetness doth so lovingly unfold me. Prayer is living in the embrace of God. Prayer is living in the embrace of God. And the things of this world will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. There's something about prayer that's transformative. One of the verses that Brother Paulie gave, See, not just glory there, but glory here. Glory here. There's an old, old story I heard years ago of a little boy that saw a chrysalis fall off of the tree, the little cocoon. And he saw that the butterfly was trying to get its freedom, and it was struggling. And you could see one little chip of the cocoon come off, another little chip. And the little boy got so interested, and he got a sharp little tiny stick, and he flipped off the rest of the cocoon off of the caterpillar that was being transformed into a viceroy. And the butterfly came out, it pushed its wings out, but there was no color. And it began to walk up the sidewalk and turned around and came back and collapsed and died. No more strength at all. And the boy started crying and the dad walked over to him and said, son, you thought you were helping the butterfly, weren't you? He said, don't cry son, but you've learned a valuable lesson. God was using the struggle to bring him from the bug to the butterfly. And the prayer life that we have, if you think about it, if it's gonna be effectual and fervent, it's a bit of a struggle. Like Jacob, God empowereth men, need to learn to wrestle in prayer. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. When you think about the very reason God gave us deacons, Acts chapter six, is so that we might give ourselves continually to the ministry of the word and prayer. Or you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? As ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is our job, to minister in the word and to pray the price, to pray the price that makes the difference, to travail in prayer. And in this, There is no substitution. There's no methodology, there's no conference that you can go to ever substitute for your own personal prayer life with the Lord. I've known great CEO type preachers that have fallen. I've known great elocutionists that have fallen, eloquent preachers that can just paint a picture as wordsmiths in the pulpit, but have fallen. I've known great didactic preachers that could dissect verses and words, decline them, show you them, that have fallen. But I will tell you, being reared up in a preacher's home, being in church all my life, And as a young preacher, especially being with older preachers and being with middle-aged preachers and young preachers, I've never known a man of prayer that was truly a man of prayer that fell. And I'm not saying that it's not a possibility, but I'm saying it's not a probability. You can't live in the holy place and live an unholy life. And there's absolutely no substitution for it. My favorite story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon has to be the story of the American businessman who came over to England, but before he left, his pastor said, whatever you do, listen, the Charles Haddon Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he is the prince of preachers. And he went to England, he got to the Metropolitan Tabernacle early, but every seat was taken. Every seat was taken. And if you've ever seen pictures of the old tabernacle, there were different doors. and he was going through every door he could find, but every seat was taken. He got earlier the second Sunday, still every seat was taken. He got there really, really early the third Sunday, every seat was taken. And he was coming down the steps, and one of the deacons saw him, and he went over to him and said, sir, you look a little downcast, is there a problem? He said, well, this is the third and last Sunday I'll be here, and my pastor said to hear Spurgeon, he was the prince of preachers, and now I'll not be able to hear him. He said, I tell you what I'll do, I'll give you my ticket. So so many people came, they had to have tickets to get a seat. They didn't cost anything, but you needed a ticket, parenthetically. Isn't it amazing? While they were building the 5,000 to 6,000 seat auditorium called the Metropolitan Tabernacle, they met at Surrey Music Hall while they were building it. It seats 10,000, and they filled it up. They filled up a 10,000-seat auditorium while they were waiting to build the 5,000-seat auditorium. What a ministry, huh? I have no idea what that would be like. It's beyond me. But anyway, so he said, I'll give you this ticket and I want you to take my seat on one condition that you'll tell me what you think about our pastor when you come out. And I love this story. So he's coming out of the church and the deacon said, what did you think of our pastor? He said, well, to be honest with you, when he came out onto the platform, I was really surprised at how robust and plump and fat he was. I thought that was unbecoming of a minister to be that fat. Boy, you look at Moody, I mean, really, similar thing. I don't know, there's something about that, yeah. That ought to encourage some of y'all, right? He said, and then, and then, and then, and then, when he, you know, they didn't, a lot of the songs were just a cappella. That's the way they did it. They didn't have, and Spurgeon himself led the music. And then he said, as your pastor was leading the music, I really thought he should get somebody else to do that. And then he started preaching. I mean, so far, strike two, now it looks like strike three. He says, and when he started preaching, I thought to myself, I'm not hearing anything that I haven't heard back in America. What in the world's going on, I thought. Well, wait a minute, sir, wait a minute. He said, somewhere about midways of the sermon, Mr. Spurgeon disappeared, and all I saw was Jesus. What we all with open face beholding is the glass, the glory of the Lord. We're transformed into that image from glory to glory. There is no substitution for prayer. There's not a preacher here that would not raise his hand and say, it is true. Luke 6, 38, given it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto your bosoms, right? Give and it shall be given unto you. God bless us giving. What you would not disagree with me about, not one of you would, I know, even not any preacher's wife, not any layman or any layman's wife, you cannot give God. If you give God a percentage of your income, he will do more with what's left of it than if you kept it for yourself, and you know that's true. If that's true of money, do you think it would be true of time? John Wesley said, I don't have time not to pray. Martin Luther said, on my busiest days, I'd spend more time in prayer. Wow. God economizes our time when we give a portion of our time to him. How's your prayer life? You know, a lot of times we pray and we, and sometimes on our church, we have a group of men that have prayed faithfully for an hour a day for almost 40 years. Every one of us go through this exasperation and frustration sometime. We'll pray for every missionary in the foreign field, we pray for our wife, we pray for you ladies, pray for your husband, and you pray for your mom and dad, or grandpa and grandma, or if you're older like me, it's your kids and your grandkids, and you pray for the choir, you pray for the choir director, and you pray for your preacher friends, and you pray for the situation in America with the political situation, and you pray for everything you can think of, and you look at your watch and two and a half minutes went by. There's not a one of us that have been there, have not been there rather. Don't get anxious. Don't get hot and bothered when you're praying. The devil will tell you that you're wasting time. And there are times when, and we've taught prayer at our church, and there's never a substitution for it, but what happens often is that prayer, when you begin to learn how to pray, it's drudgery. And then it's duty, but if you hang in there long enough, it'll become delight. And did you know this? When you're praying, you don't have to keep running your mouth. Sometimes we have to do what David said. David sat before the Lord. Sometimes that's praying, meditation. Praying is always with all prayer and supplication, supplicating sometimes. And if you think about this, there in Exodus 32, you know, let me go, we've done this before, but I wanna say, I haven't done this for a while. So for those of you that ever heard me preach on prayer, you've heard me do this, but I want you to see this in Exodus 32 for a moment. Exodus 32, it says in verse number 30, it says, and it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go unto the Lord, Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. Now, I'm gonna do something real quick here, and I want you to do this, okay? Go to 106 Psalm and put your church bulletin or the brochure at 106 Psalm, okay? Because I wanna show you something here. As we get to verse number 31, Exodus 32. So we're gonna go to Exodus 32, 31, and 32, then quickly we're gonna go to Psalm 106. Psalm, or rather, Exodus 32, 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, O this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou would forgive their sin, and look at that, there's a dash there. And that's the Masioric text. That dash is supposed to be there. There's some modern translations that have left the dash out. That's incorrect. The dash is supposed to be there. And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Moses has now developed the heart of God. He was ready to do away with them. And this was a test for Moses. God has said to Moses, tell you what we're gonna do, we're gonna take Israel off the map, we're gonna start all over with you. And Moses prays for him not to do that, And if not, and there's a blot, Moses is praying and then he stops talking. I don't know what it looked like, I don't know what it sounded like, I've imagined. And if not, and God says to Gabriel, put a line there. What's that mean, God? Don't worry about it, I heard that, put a line there. Wanna see how powerful that dash is? When he ran out of words asking God to have mercy on Israel, I believe at this time, someone said it was between two to four million in population. I believe it was closer to four million people. Four million people. And he prays for God not to destroy four million people. Psalm 106, verse number 23, therefore he, that's God, said he, God, would not destroy them. Israel had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. Doesn't that remind you of what Ezekiel says? God said, I look for a man among them that would stand in the gap. make up that gap, that I would not destroy the land, but I found none." God was looking for some gaptist. We're sometimes more important baptist. We need to be better gaptist. To get in the gap, get in the secret place. Moses prayed the price and four million people were saved. I didn't say it, God said it. I would have destroyed him if he hadn't of gotten the gap, if he hadn't gotten the breach, if he hadn't gotten to that place. Meditating on that reminds me of what Ian Bowne said. Better to have prayer without words than words without prayer. Prayer is many times an attitude of a heart. God, I can't, but you can. God, I won't, but you will. Help me, Jesus. It's showing your frailty. It's showing your humanity. God is willing to let, and by the way, what happens in prayer is that you become, as Peter said, a partaker of the divine nature. Now, there he was talking about the promises of the word of God. Couple the promises of the word of God, 2 Corinthians 3, 18 together, prayer and the word of God, and you begin to develop the divine nature. No wonder they call the Puritans the divines. When I was a young preacher, you probably heard this. Now don't be so heavenly minded, you're of no earthly good. I was convinced then, I'm more convinced now, 54 years later. Many of us are so earthly minded, we're of no heavenly good. What this world needs is something transcendent, something different than what we have. Something about that young man today, he's just such a stranger to the grace of God. And just in an opening conversation about my wife, he's sitting there more or less saying, I want that. And for a couple hours I'm saying, you can't have it unless you got Jesus. It's gotta be Jesus. Everything is there. And so the secret place. So when we get in that secret place, He arranges our schedule. The serendipity becomes providence. And when we pray that price and we don't let anything and anyone, anyone separate us from that prayer time, Put things away, put all your tablets in a new other room, and if there's emergency, give it to your wife or your secretary and say, just answer this for me. But we become slaves to the little beeps on our computers, slaves to our texts, slaves to our email. It's time we get our faces in the book instead of Facebook and get our hearts into prayer, not twittering around. which reminds me of something. Pray without interruption. Elizabeth Browning said, Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, and only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck back berries. Oh Lord, help us. Sitting on the stool of do-nothing and whittling upon the stick of do-less, Because without prayer, service unto the Lord becomes unfruitful. Without the all of the Spirit of God keeping you going, you're gonna be making a lot of noise. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I'm not cheering. Sounding brass, tinkling cymbals. You know, I love to hear what great men of God think of other great men of God, don't you? Especially in time past. So I came across this in The Purpose of Prayer, Ian Bound's book, his comment about Spurgeon. And I think this is also insightful in that this is why the American pastor saw Spurgeon do a disappearing act. I think it's related to this right here. So E. M. Bounds said this, contemporary of Spurgeon, it was said of the late C. H. Spurgeon that he glided from laughter to prayer with a naturalness of one who lived in both elements. Wow. With him the habit of prayer was free and unfettered. His life was not divided into compartments. the one shut off from the other with a rigid exclusiveness that barred all intercommunication. He lived in constant fellowship with his Father in heaven. He was ever in touch with God and thus it was as natural for him to pray as it was for him to breathe." Wow. He's quoting Spurgeon now. What a fine time we have had. Let us thank God for it, he said to a friend on one occasion, when out under the blue sky and wrapped in glorious sunshine, they had enjoyed a holiday with the unfettered enthusiasm of schoolboys. Prayers sprang as spontaneously to his lips. as did ordinary speech, and never was there the slightest incongruity in his approach to the divine throne, straight from any scene in which he might be taking part. Philippians 4, 6. In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to the God. And the result, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Show me a man or a woman of prayer, and I'll show you people that may have a burden, but they don't worry. But they don't worry. But they don't worry. Be careful, which means be worried for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. Why worry when you can pray? It's as though some of us are saying, why pray when you can worry? And I'm telling you, that's a battle that we must fight. The devil is a tricky thing. We have to be careful, but not full of care when we pray, not to get in that secret place. And the very burden that we're praying for becomes a worry time. Many times I've been in prayer and I've prayed about someone that I have a burden for and I start worrying about it. You know, I pray some sentences and then I pause and then I say, and if they don't do this, and then I wonder, and I just say, oops, sorry, Lord. I will believe in you and I will trust in thee. Lean not to thine own understanding. and all thy ways acknowledge him. I'm sorry, Lord, I didn't, I'm talking to a great big God here. You know, when we have a big God, the giants are pretty small, aren't they? I like what David said about Goliath. He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? And the Bible says just before, in the verse before it, that the Israelis were sore afraid And David says, who is this uncircumcised for listening? That he should divide the armies of the living God. He said, they have gods that have eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, mouths that cannot talk, hands that cannot help. Our God is alive, he's real, and I'm telling you, if we have a big God, the giant is a pipsqueak. Just give me a rock, that's all we need. If God's in it, little knows much. Praying. Brother, there's no, absolutely no substitution, but let there be no interruption in our prayer life. Have that time when we have a secret place with God in the course of the day. And I would suggest to you, at the beginning of your day, whether your beginning is an evening, morning, or at noon. Morning, I know some guys have night shifts and stuff, and so their morning might be at two o'clock in the afternoon. I don't know, but begin your day with God. and then you'll find yourself be praying continually, praying without ceasing throughout the course of the day. Number three, pray with fervent intercession. You know, there's two verses, actually it's three verses that I wanna bring to your mind. Ephesians 6, 18 and 19, Colossians 4, 3. I think that most of you would agree with me that probably Paul was the one he was talking about when he said he knew a man. a man that went to heaven, saw things that he can't even communicate. I knew a man. Paul wrote much of the New Testament. If a guy's been able to be translated to heaven and brought back, dies in Lystra, goes to heaven, and God says, go back, and he has this great relationship with the Lord, he is the spearhead of the church. And he said three verses, Ephesians 6, 18 and 19, in Colossians 4, 3. Now I want you to see what it says here. With all, praying also for us, that God would open a door of utterance. I'm sorry, I'm reading Colossians 4, 3. Let me start out with Ephesians 6, 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching therein too, with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And then he says, And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Wow. Then Colossians 4.3, with all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I also am in binds. Do you know what Paul was saying? He was saying, that his ability to communicate the word of God with authority and with power and with results is directly correlated to people praying for him. Pray noise with all prayer and supplication and for me that utterance may be given. And then praying that I'll have utterance given to me. That I may open my mouth boldly, that I may know the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, praying with intercession. More things, Tennyson said, are wrought by prayer than this world e'er dreams of. Brother Keith and Beth Troutman went to Israel with you. And you know, Keith, I love him. When he was an eight-year-old boy, I was preaching the Tent Revival when he got saved, and he's in our church now, and one of the greatest business minds I've ever known in my life. But he's one of our finest deacons, and every deacons meeting, one of the deacons does the devotion. And he did devotion one night, and it really touched my heart. And as soon as I got home, I wrote down to the best of my ability, word for word, what he said in his personal devotion. Keith spoke that night on praying the hedge of protection for our children. And you know, one child he's really prayed for. He's still alive. I got this right here. We pray for Kevin with the crown, and now he's needed another liver transplant, but I think his mother's prayers kept him alive. Here's what Keith said. I can imagine a dialogue, something like this going on between God and Satan. Satan says, what about those Troutman kids? The Lord says, you can't have them. The dad may hit and miss, but the mom prays to me every morning, and she is going to have her prayer answered for the hedge about her children. You can't have them." I've seen my mother go 21 days without putting a bit of solid food in her mouth, fasting and praying for my brother, a Southern Baptist pastor. She must have prayed more for me. I'm an independent fundamentalist, amen. Jesus said to Peter, Satan will desire to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fell not. When thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. I believe that deep prayer life is the conversion point that Peter learned when he got that divine nature. Pray with intercession. How about this? Look with me, if you will, to Mark chapter 10 for just a moment. I've been around this thing off, and I'm gonna share something with you that recently just grabbed hold of me, and it's in a book, and it's nothing new under the sun, but this is really good. But I want you to see this right now. In chapter 10 of Mark, Verse number 13, and they brought young children to him that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children that come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verse 16 says, and he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus loves the kids. Boy, he rebuked those disciples. You let these kids come in. Come here, kids. Such is the kingdom of God. Such is the kingdom of God. You know, for over half a century, much of my preaching's to teenagers and to college kids. And many of them, because I'm not their pastor, they'll come up to me, and some of them, preachers' kids, deacons' kids, never miss church, and they look at me and they say, I'm doubting my salvation. I'm doubting belief in God. Can we talk about it? And we talk, we talk. You want to know something interesting. I remember one kid, this broke my heart. I said to a young man, tell me about your personal experience. You've been saved? Yeah. He said, I've been baptized nine times. Are you kidding me? He said, no. I said, you're full of doubt, aren't you? Yeah. In all of my life and all of my ministry, I've never had an elementary age child doubt their salvation. Never. I've never known a kid that doubted his salvation, a child. You have to learn how to doubt. Think about that for a moment. You have to learn how to doubt. Guinness' book on doubt, he changed the name of it. They changed the name, but it has something to do with darkness. If you like, I'll try to get the name of it. But it's a great book on doubt. It's not an easy read, but it's really, really good. And it covers a lot of, every time the word doubt is ever used there in the New Testament, it's really, really interesting. One thing that can cure doubt is to learn how to pray like a kid. And I could give you some illustrations of my own that I think I've seen and I know about. But I came across this, and it's one of these things that, came across it years ago by Tim Haggard. He was a great friend of mine. He's a captain and a chaplain in the Army. Just a great guy, and he sent me this. It was in a book, and I was talking to Keith Smith about it. I mean, yeah, Keith Smith, and he was familiar with it. This is a true story of a medical missionary doctor in Africa. And this is one of those stories, and I hope I don't lose your attention. I'm just expecting, and I'm talking to some mature people, that if I read to you, you can keep the attention, okay? All right? I hope I'm not like your school teacher that reads to you as you go to sleep, okay? Or your mother that read a book to you, okay? This is a testimony written by a doctor working in Africa, the true story. One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward, but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive as we had no incubator. We had no electricity to even run an incubator, if we did have an incubator. We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. In other words, to keep it warm. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. And it is our last hot water bottle, she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk. So in Central Africa, it might be considered no good crying over burst hot water bottles. They do not grow in trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. All right, I said, put the baby as near the fire as you safely can and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm. The following noon, As I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who choose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister crying because her mother had died. During prayer time, one 10-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of her African children. Please, God, she prayed, send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon. While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, and while you're about it, would you please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know you really love her? As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say amen? I just did not believe God could do this. Oh, yes, I know he knew everything, the Bible says so, but there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I'd been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I'd never, ever received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put a hot water bottle in? I lived on the equator. Halfway through the afternoon while I was teaching in the nurse's training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone. But there on the veranda was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears. pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some 30 or 40 pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored knitted jerseys. I sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients. And the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and zutanas that would make a bunch of buns for the weekend. Then as I put in my hand again, I felt the, could it be? Could it really be? I grasped it. Pulled it out, yes, a brand new rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I did not ask God to send it. I did not truly believe that he could. Ruth was in the front row with the children. She rushed forward crying out, if God has sent the bottle, he must have sent the dolly too. Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone. She had never doubted Looking up at me, she asks, can I go over with you and give this dolly to the little girl so she'll know that Jesus really loves her? Of course, I replied. Parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child five months before in answer to the believing prayer of a 10-year-old to bring it that afternoon. Isaiah 65, 24, you know what it says, before they call, I shall answer. God answers prayer. We need to pray without substitution, without interruption, with intercession, but we need to pray with childlike expectations. Expectations. Expect God to answer your prayer. What would happen? if we really prayed like a 10-year-old African girl and bring it this afternoon. Tomorrow's too late. Thank you for listening. The Rest Conference takes place around Labor Day each year on the campus of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Hickory, North Carolina. 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