Luke chapter 11. We'll be looking at a subject that I think many of us know about, and there was a handout. I see somebody's passing them out. So, there's a handout with an outline if you want to follow along with that. Some fill in the blanks. Help you keep awake this morning. All right? So, in Luke chapter 11, and we're going to read verses 1 through 13. Luke 11, and verses one through 13. Appreciate the opportunity to come, and wanted to mention also, we have that hand open. A lot of you guys, we've been here a few times, but we have a new prayer card, and it's on the back there. So we appreciate people praying for us as we travel, and the work in the seminary. So if you wanna grab one of those, and just continue to be with us in prayer, we appreciate it. So, Luke chapter 11 and verse 1, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth, Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves? For a friend of mine is in his journey, is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Many years ago, a poet named Helen Steiner Rice wrote this. Life without purpose is barren indeed. There can't be a harvest unless you plant the seed. There can't be attainment unless there's a goal, and a man's but a robot unless there's a soul. If we send no ships out, no ships will come in, and unless there's a contest, nobody can win. For games can't be won unless they are played, and prayers can't be answered. unless they are prayed. So whatever is wrong with your life today, you'll find a solution if you'll kneel down and pray. Not just for pleasure, enjoyment, and health. Not just for honors, prestige, or wealth. But pray for a purpose to make life worth living and pray for the joy of unselfish giving. For great is your gladness and richer reward when you make your life's purpose the choice of the Lord. Let's open in prayer this morning. We're going to look at the idea that the disciples ask Christ. Teach us to pray. We're going to ask and dive into this passage and maybe ask ourselves, can God teach us this morning more on prayer? I think all of us, if there's one thing that we would say, if somebody sat down with me and said, hey, do you pray enough? Or do you know enough about it? I'd probably, maybe arrogantly, we would say, yeah, I got it. But most of us would say, I always need to learn more about prayer. I always need more time to pray. I need more things. There's things that I need to pray about. But I'd like us to look at what Christ said here in this passage in Luke chapter 11 about prayer. Let's pray as we begin. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us wisdom, guidance. We thank you, Lord, that we can come to the precious Word of God. Lord, that we know that it's been preserved for us down through the generations and now as we meet together this morning as a group of believers, I pray that you would be in our midst. I pray it would be very evident that you met with us. Lord, I ask for you to do that which I cannot do, and that is speak to hearts. We ask and claim your power in Jesus' name. Amen. This passage is interesting. You'll probably notice, if you're a student of Scripture, you'll probably notice some similarities, some things that might have come out to you. For instance, in verses 2, 3, and 4, some of that phraseology, it sounds very similar to Matthew 6 and 7. In Matthew 6-7, you can turn there if you want, but I'm going to just flip back there. But in Matthew 6, that is called the Sermon on the Mount. And in the Sermon on the Mount, you have Jesus talking about prayer. Notice what it says in Matthew 6, 8. Be not ye therefore alike unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask them after this manner. Therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven. And so, it seems like it's almost the exact same passage. Now, I don't believe. There's some people that believe that this is the same passage. I believe that the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 6 and 7 and Luke chapter 11 are different instances. I believe this one is a teaching, a special, an additional teaching to His disciples. Matthew 6 and 7 is called the Sermon on the Mount. Some authors or commentators have entitled this passage in Luke chapter 11, the Sermon on the Plane, all right? And that's not flying, all right? It was just an open plane. And so you have both of them, but remember in teaching, you know, there are some teachers here if you've studied teaching, what the Bible emphasizes, or those that have studied teaching have said, re-emphasizing something. is one of the greatest ways to learn. So you'll notice sometimes that Jesus did that when he was here on this earth. What he did is he would say something and then he would re-emphasize it. Well, what is he trying to do? He's trying to stress the importance. He's trying to drive home some of the teaching that he's done. A couple of commentators have made comments about this passage. And this is one, Alexander McLaren said, do our prayers, listen to what he says, do our prayers move anyone to taste the devotion and joy which breathe through them? You'll notice in Luke chapter 11 in verse 1, and it came to pass that as he was praying, so who's the he in the context? That's Jesus. So notice as the disciples saw Jesus praying, what did it initiate? What did it spark within the disciples? I want to know how to do that. Now think about that as far as our testimonies as Christians. If you're saved here this morning, has anybody come to you after you got done praying maybe for a meal or maybe your kids that they've watched you pray and they're like, Dad, I've got to know how to pray. Most of us, sadly, it's probably not happened. But when the disciples heard Jesus, they paused and said, we want to learn how to do that. And so what greater person could we go to to learn about prayer than Jesus Christ, our Savior? And so Jesus paused, and this is what is really awesome as far as the Scriptures. Not only did He just pause and teach His disciples, but God has preserved it through His Holy Word so that we also can learn what the disciples learned, and that is how to pray. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. And so I have three points, pretty simple points, if you want to fill them out on the outline there. The first one is the plan for prayer. The plan, hopefully the blanks match. If not, I'll blame somebody. It's common in today's society to blame somebody else, so I'll blame the computer. So the plan for the prayer. Secondly, you have the privilege. You could also, it wouldn't fit, but you could say the power, but the privilege of prayer. And then thirdly, the persistence. So that's our three main points. The plan for prayer. The power or the privilege of prayer. and the persistence in prayer. So, let's first look at the plan. So, this one, it's Sunday morning. I know we already had Sunday school, and I'm sorry for this. We're going back to school on the plan, all right? So, you know, this will be nap two for some of you. You'll just go straight into sleep. You'll be well rested. You only have to do your Sunday afternoon nap. All right? So, the plan for prayer. Now, as we start into the idea of the plan for prayer, this is my thought. When we think of prayer, I believe that prayer, the plan for prayer, should be something that is done often and done early. Often and early. The average Christian, I don't believe, relies on prayer until they are in a critical state. For instance, prayer is kind of like a fire extinguisher. Prayer is like a parachute. It's when things are disastrous, then all of a sudden I'm crying out to the Lord. But when you study prayer and scriptures, God wants to have a relationship with us, and the way that we have a relationship is a twofold. So, we have God speaking to us. So, how does God speak to us? There's a couple ways. We can be in church, and He can speak to us. Literally, He can speak to us in church. He can speak to us through the Word of God. He can speak to us through the Holy Spirit. So, those are ways that God speaks to us. So, how do I speak to God then? Prayer. And so then that is a conversation, isn't it? Have you ever been with somebody, and this can happen a lot when your kids are smaller, especially dads, all right, I've been there, and the kids just talk, and a lot of times it's one way because you are just zoned out. You had a long day at work, or you're just tired or whatever, and they're there, and they're like, and all of a sudden they say something, you're like, what did you just say? Because it's just there. Well, that's a one-way conversation. Sadly, in our lives, many times with God, it's a one-way conversation. God wants to have fellowship, and fellowship means that God is speaking to us, and those tools are there, the Word of God in church and the Holy Spirit. There's ways that God speaks to us, but then God wants us to speak to Him. And so, the plan. Another poem, I enjoy poems, another poem that was written about prayer is called The Morning Watch. What a precious hour is the morning watch before the day's hard tasks begin. A time when you're alone with God gathering the forces to help you win. What sweet communion with your Lord as you unfold to him your every plan and bear your secret soul's desire as you strive to build a better man. O morning watch. Thou blessed hour, a time of silence with your Lord, a time to gather strength and power, a time to glory in his word. It fits me for my daily task. It floods with joy the soul of mine. It gives a greater love for men talking face to face with Christ divine. Without this glorious morning watch, I'll lose my battles one by one. No glorious crown shall never possess without the strength of his eternal son. So let's think about this idea of having the plan for prayer, and it sounds repetitive, but I have two points under having a plan. First of all, have a plan. So the plan is have one. Do you know some people say that, hey, I'm going to do this, but they never do it? Why? Because you have to have a plan. So I'm going to, in this passage, you're giving a plan, but I'm going to give you two simple, and this is like going to school, all right? So pay attention. So I'm going to give you two just simple ideas, and I didn't come up with them. One is right in the passage. It's God's idea. It's Jesus. I believe that verse two, three, and four are a model prayer. It's a plan. And so some people follow that. We'll talk about that secondly. So the first thing is have a plan. So there's two plans. The other plan that someone came up with decades ago is a simple acronym. And I may have it down there. It's A-C-T-S. So, I have followed both systems for years now. Sometimes I do the Luke 11, 2, 3, and 4, and sometimes I do ACTS. So, what is ACTS? It's an acronym for what the Bible describes as prayer. Sometimes We look at prayer, and prayer is basically this. I come to God, and I have a list, and it's like, God, I need $1,000. God, I need another $1,000. God, I need a million dollars. And it's all the things you want. That, if you study prayer, is not all that prayer is. So that, thus, the acronym. So what is A? A simply is adoration. Adoration. So what is adoration? All right, let me give you just a couple of passages that help us understand what adoration is. Adoration is simply praising God. A great book to study is what book do you think if you want to study about adoring God? The book of Psalms. Psalms is there. There's other things, but you can go, and guess what adoration means? It means that I'm pausing and I'm thinking about God. Another way that I have found that helps me in adoring God is the studying, and there's books on it, but actually you can simply look this up. Study the names of God. The names of God. Do you know that just the names of God, there's, so the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, the original language, and the New Testament is Greek, and so that's basically, if you go and you're studying, that's called etymology. So, if you go and you study words. So, one of the studies that I really, really enjoyed many, many years ago was studying the names of Christ, and that is Jehovah. There's all kinds of Jehovah names in the Old Testament. All right, for instance, there's one called Jehovah Nissi. A famous one that many of us know the story is when Abraham took his son Isaac up into the mount. Remember that? He had to take Isaac up and he was supposed to sacrifice him and then God provided a lamb. Afterwards, do you know what the name of Jehovah was there? It was called Jehovah Jireh. That means the Lord will supply. Okay, another one I love is found in Exodus chapter 15. In Exodus chapter 15, the children of Israel come out of the land of Egypt, they cross the Red Sea, and then guess what happens? There's no water. So typical of the Israelites, guess what they do? Start crabbing and complaining. Ah, you took us out of here to die. All right, and they're crabbing and they're complaining. So God uses Moses to provide water in the wilderness. Okay, and then there were some diseases that basically came, and then the Lord healed them of those diseases. And guess what? There's a name right there in Exodus 15. Jehovah Rapha. That's a favorite name of mine. Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha. And Jehovah Rapha means God is the Lord that heals. He's the Lord that healeth. So, when I want to adore God, so before I start praying, before I start, like, my official list, you know what I mean? The Bible says, guess what? I should enter into His presence with thanksgiving, yes, but I should adore Him. Now, what is adoration? It means worshiping God. It means finding out who God is and acknowledging that. Do you know that God is an amazing God? He's the creator of the universe. He's the one that has made everything. So, I need to pause before I do anything and think about this. I know some guys or some folks that what they do also is, as they start praying, they have a hymn book next to them. And guess what they start doing? They look through some of the hymns. Think of the song, O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. Then what does it sing? Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee. What is He? How great Thou art. You see, that's adoration, isn't it? So, that's part of prayer. So, that's the A. So, then C. So, what would C be? A is adoration. C is confession. Now, the beauty is, I'm a Baptist. All right, so I don't have to go. There are people, oh, they confess all the time. All right, but I'm glad I'm not a Catholic. I'm telling you, I'd be lying like a dog to that guy. All right, I'd be like, I ain't telling you nothing. All right, I'm coming there. I was really good today. Really good. Really good this week, this month. I'm like, I ain't telling you nothing. You tell me. You tell me what you did wrong, and then I'll tell you. All right, because guess what? According to the Bible, I don't have to go to man. Now, if I did him wrong, yes, all right, that's in the Bible. But guess what? This is, you know, sometimes as Baptists, I don't confess to a priest. But guess what we never do? We never confess our sins to God. And is it in the Bible? Yes, you find this. After salvation, I still need to, every day, I need to say, God, I did this wrong and this wrong. The Bible is clear about that. Psalm 32 is a great passage. It says this in Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. The Bible says this, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. So the Bible is telling me that I need to come to God and I need to clean my heart up. So before I start into my laundry list, I'm adoration. I'm confessing, confessing. All right, so A, adoration. C, confession. T, thanksgiving. Then I start thanking God. I start thanking God. You're like, wow, that's all part of prayer. It is. If you study prayer and scripture, all of that is part of prayer. And you'll see in just a moment, you'll see it in the model prayer too. So I'm thanking the Lord. I'm thanking the Lord. You know, many times we're very self-centered in our prayers. Then, letter S in that plan is supplication. And so, I believe, as Christians, we should have lists. The first list is, I'm praying for others. Supplication, so there's a word in the Bible, it's called intercession. So, I should intercede for others, and that should be your family, and then it should be your church family. More than anybody else in the world, your church family should count on you in lifting each other up before God. We should care about our church family, be lifting each other up. And so that's intercession, intercessory prayer, that's supplication. So that's our list. And you think about it, if I do all of that, let me ask you, so basically four minutes, do it? I don't think so. And really, if I'm going to have communion or a fellowship with God, it's probably going to take a little time, won't it? And how many of us then, we say that we have a relationship with God. We say that, man, I just love the Lord. So how much time have you spent talking with Him and Him talking to you this past week? I've mentioned that the average Christian, I'm not just talking to here, you know, basically half of America, like, I'm saved. I'm saved. All right, so when have you been in church? Oh, I'm saved. You're like, oh, so when have you prayed? I'm saved. All right, they just ignore the question. Like, wait a minute. You know, if you love the Lord, wouldn't you do those things that God commands in Scripture, like talk to Him, read His Word, have fellowship? All of that is part. So, have a plan. Remember, the first plan was ACTS. So, notice in our text here, in Luke chapter 11, look at verse 2, 3, and 4. When ye pray, so what's the model prayer say? Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. What does that sound like? Adoration, doesn't it? Hallowed be thy name. So there's the adoration. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. So what you're asking for today, God, today, help me to do your will. Help me to submit. You know, that's a little bit different than what we normally are praying, isn't it? We usually are saying, hey God, I have all this that I want you to do for me. No, it's saying, God, you have a will, help me to be somebody that helps you accomplish your will, not just in heaven, but also on earth. Notice what it says in verse three, give us day by day our daily bread. So that is supplication. But then in verse four, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. So what does that sound like? Confession, doesn't it? So, here in the Bible, Jesus is giving us components of scripture, I mean, of prayer, isn't he? He's saying, here, this is a part, Hollywood be thy name. So, adore, make sure that, so I know of pastor friends, I know of some personal friends, what they do is they take this model prayer and they don't repeat it like Catholics, they just say, give us this day our daily bread." And they pause and they say, God, today that's where they start listing out, Lord, I need your help today. I need your help in supplying for my family. I need your help in meeting the needs here and here and here. Then confession of sins. Lord, I need forgiveness today. I need forgiveness and sometimes also I need to extend forgiveness to other people. Sometimes we don't do that. So here is Our first point, and that is have a plan. So the first thing is have a plan. The second point under the plan for prayer is have a place. If you look through scripture, what you'll find is that people many times went to a place for prayer. have a place that, you know, it could be, I enjoy walking and praying. So a lot of times in the morning, if I can, I just, it helps me stay awake, but also I just, I like walking and praying. So, have a place. It may be a different place sometimes, but have a place. So the first point is, First point we have is the plan for prayer. So let's go to point number two, and that is the privilege of prayer. So there's a couple things, so let's move down in our text here. Let's go to verse five. Which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves. So here is a story that Christ gives to his disciples, but what is the context? It's all about prayer. So it's still relating to prayer, but it's talking about the privilege. Notice what it's saying, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. In your outline, I put in there under the privilege that there's a person for help. You know what amazes me, and I just paused there a little bit to help us to understand. It amazes me when I read this story is, here this man, he's helpless to help his friend, but he had a friend that had a lot. That kind of reminds me of somebody. Does it to you? You know, I have a friend. What a friend I have in Jesus. All my All right, what's that? All my what? All my griefs and sorrows bear. I can bring them all to Jesus. So, guess what? Sometimes I may have somebody that has a need and I seem like, man, I can't help them. But guess what? I know somebody that can. That's what it reminds me. And don't we have somebody that intercedes? He's there at the right hand of the Father according to Hebrews chapter 2. He sits there on the right hand of the Father and he intercedes all the time for us. That's Jesus. Timothy tells us that too. So here in the privilege of prayer, we see the person for help, but then notice the power available in our prayers. Notice what it says, and he from within shall answer and say, and this is funny because it almost seems like here, I'm not saying that Jesus is talking about himself, but he's using a fictional story, and here's this guy, he's asleep, he's sound asleep, his family's asleep, and somebody's beating down his door, it's not even for him it's for his friend and what is he he's like a leave me alone trouble me not leave me alone but notice what it says he's not gonna rise notice though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend Yeah, because of his importunity. So that word, importunity, literally, if you take it and you study, remember, study of words is etymology, so you break down that word. Within that word has the idea of shame. or shamelessness. So there's commentators debate on who it's referring to. Is it referring to the shame of the owner of the house or the shame of the guy knocking? I leaned in some ways to the guy knocking. What it's saying is he has zero shame. He is knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking and pestering, pestering, pestering, knocking and saying, you're going to help me. You're going to help me. You're going to. Have you had like a three year old do that? Like, all right. You're like, leave me alone. Leave me alone. All right, so here we are. Guess what? We are coming to God and God, all right, guess what? I need to humbly and without shame, guess what I'm doing? I'm coming to God saying, I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't manage it sometimes. You know many times as I would say this is something that is kind of promoted especially in America. It's become stronger and stronger and that is you know I as an American I can do this. But you know what in scripture what I find is I can't. I just my flesh weak the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak the Bible says and so the the Bible is trying to help us to understand that many times if I come to that place and I humbly and shamelessly come to God and say you know what I have a need guess what the man says you know what it's not because you're my friend it's because you came shamelessly And what does it say in the text? Because he is his friend, not because he's his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So under that privilege of prayer, you see the person. And that reminds me of the person that we can go to, but also it reminds me of the power available. Do you know that in this text, and there's debate, there's debate on this text, but it, We're sitting here reading it. Christ is talking about what? I'm not pulling this out of context. It's all about what? Prayer. So what is the context saying that we, as human beings, can move God? I don't understand all that. I'm telling you, it's a conundrum. Man, it throws the Calvinists in a spin, all right? Because for them, sovereignty is everything, which, by the way, is not in Scripture. I just wanted to throw that out there. That word sovereign is never found in Scripture. All right, I understand that God ruleth, but the word sovereign is never, they love that term. I'm like, yeah, read your Bible, all right? But I understand that God is big and God is mighty. I understand all that. But what it says to us as individuals is that we can come to God and God wants to help us. He wants to meet our needs. It's about prayer. That is the privilege that you and I have in coming to God in prayer. So, we said there's a plan. We said there's a privilege. But notice thirdly, and then it gives us A little instruction, it says that there's a persistence. Notice in verse 9 and 10, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. So that's verse 9, right? So what do you think Jesus is trying to get across there? So if we didn't get it, read verse 10. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh fineth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. I think in verse 9 he's like, hey, just so you know, disciples, what you need to get through your head, your thick skull, is that you need to be persistent, and you need to ask, and you need to seek, and you need to knock. And the disciples were probably like some of us, like, And so he said, in verse 10, he's like, hey, just so you know, I'm not sure you understand how persistent you need to be, but let me tell you again, you need to ask, you need to seek, and you need to knock. Verse 9 and 10 are kind of like the same verse. Did you catch that? So what is he trying to use again? He's using an educational tool, repetition, to drive home to the disciples that you need to be persistent. So how persistent are you when it comes to prayer? Is it like one week? Two weeks? Three weeks? All right, what about a year? What about two years? You know, I have known of some people And in my ministry, I've known of some people that have prayed 20 years, 25 years, 30 plus years for someone to be saved. I'm glad they didn't stop. I think many times what we do is like, well, God's got to answer now. And what he's saying is be persistent, be persistent. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. The Bible is trying to help us to be persistent. The idea is, alright, so when you see that, the idea, the tense of it is, it's in the present. So it's keep on asking. Keep on asking. Knocking. Alright, keep on seeking and keep on doing this. You never stop doing this. Why? Because I need to learn to be persistent in my prayers. Now, I understand there are some things that are clearly delineated or delineated as wrong in Scripture. I'm not saying you pray for things that are wrong. But there are some things that are clear in Scripture. You know, the Bible says that we should pray for leaders. I may not like everything about the leadership. I may not like everything about my government. But guess what the Bible says? It says pray for them. So you know what? God convicted me a few years ago about that. I love crapping about it. It's like fun. I mean, it's really fun. I mean, God was like, so how much have you prayed about it? I hate when God also has scripture to back it up. You know, just like, yeah, so you got to pray. What about praying for lost? What about even the missionaries? You know that missionaries, some of them, and even in America, are we praying that the gospel has free reign to go out? Remember when I was pastoring, we'd have times that we'd meet as a church, and we'd go out door-knocking, and there were some folks that were getting up in years, and they couldn't walk. They couldn't go out. And so we would sit and talk, and I said, you know what? Why don't you still come in? And I got one of our older men to sit there, and while we were going out, guess what? There was a group of them. that sat there and they prayed for a while for all of those going up. You know what? That gave me a lot more confidence. Because guess what? I may not be able to go out and do all of the door knocking and things like that that I used to do, but guess what I can do? I can be persistent in praying that the gospel has free course, that the gospel can go out and reach this lost and dying world. I mean, do you think that there might be a few unsaved people in Wilmington? Well, you need to pray for them. Are there a few unsaved people in Delaware? Yeah, we need to pray for them. What about around the world? Yes, we need to pray for them. This morning, while we're speaking, and some of them are already done, if they're on the other side of the world, I saw some of the missionaries there in China, and missionaries in New Guinea, and things like that. Guess what? Their services are ending up. We need to be praying. Last week, I think it was last, either, yeah, early Sunday morning, I got a email from a missionary. Missionary from the Far East, and guess what happened? He said, the last Sunday of the week before, their service was raided, and the pastor was asking prayer for his son, who, at that time, all right, at that time, there was the leadership of the church, and this man's son was taken to jail. Praise the Lord the next day at least the Sun was allowed to be released But the leadership they said we're gonna keep them for five days You know that happens around the world They need prayer We need to be persistent about praying see God is telling us and even in this passage if you study scripture and You'll see that even in this passage, when Christ would talk of himself coming to the Father, he would talk of, it was a different relationship. If you study, so there's tenses and there's nuances that are there in the language. So Jesus, when he was talking about himself coming to the Father, it's a different relationship, Jesus. But guess what the Bible says here, when we come, it used a different term. So when I come to the Father, it's of an inferior coming to a superior. You know what that shows me? I come humbly to God. It tells me to come boldly into the throne of grace, but the Bible says, I come humbly, and I also come, not just humbly, but I also come with intensity or fervency. Remember in James, the book of James, it talks about Elijah, and what does it say? The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, what does it do? It availeth much. So, I ask you then as we close this morning, there's a couple of applications. One application is to maybe someone that's here and you do not know Christ as your Savior. So the prayer that you need to do is what we would call the sinner's prayer. It's coming to a place that you understand that, you know what, I thought I was good. I thought I could get to heaven on my own. You know, I was confirmed or I was baptized when I was a baby. That's not gonna get you to heaven. You got wet, all right? Maybe you were dirty and you needed that bath, all right? But it's not gonna get you to heaven. So the Bible tells me that if I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So this morning, The first prayer we need to commit to God is that, God, I am unworthy. I need Christ as my Savior. Have you done that? But then the second application is to believers here this morning. If you're saved, so what about your prayer life? How is it? What is your fellowship with God? It may be that you need to remove some things. You know what the Bible tells me? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Maybe there's some things that are in the way. You know, we sing that song, nothing between my soul and the Savior. Why do we sing that? Because sometimes there are some things that are between my soul and the Savior. One man wrote this. He said, when we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do. When we rely upon education, we get what education can do. When we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. So think about that. I'm not saying organization is great. Should we be organized in our life? Yes. Man, I'm in charge of a seminary. I'm all about studying. But guess what, when we rely upon that, our eloquence and all those things, those things will eventually be empty. But listen to this, when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do. That's what's awesome. See, I want to be somebody that isn't relying upon me. Because you know what I've found? In man, you're always going to be left, in some ways we have a phrase holding the bag, you're always going to be left empty. But with God, never. When we learn to be a people, not just of the book. Remember, way back in our Baptist heritage, in our Baptist history, we were called people of the book. Another phrase that should be tied to it is people of prayer, or people on their knees. We should be people that not only believe this book, but we also fellowship with the God of this book. So then, my challenge to you today, have you learned how to pray? And if not, let God teach you again. Let God renew that fervor and that desire to have a life of prayer.