I want to go a little different direction than what's printed in your bulletin this morning. I need a little extra time, first of all, with that sermon. It's been a little strange week with the storm, and I've wanted to share this sermon with you since youth camp. Anyway, I'd like you to take your Bibles and to turn with me to the book of first Kings again first Kings 18 So before we look at this in Sunday school, we'll go ahead and deal with some of the things now The sermon title is The Extraordinary Results of Humble Prayer. Looking at some of the life of Elijah in 1 Kings 18. I'll read the first couple of verses and then we'll skip. 1 Kings 18, we're told that after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. If you'll then skip down to verse 17, We're told, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel, gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him." The people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets, or 450 men, Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it. You call upon the name of your God, I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, He is God. And all the people answered, it is well spoken. Then Eliza said to the prophets of Baal, Choose for yourselves one bull, and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. They took the bull that was given them, they prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice, and no one answered, and they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. They cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation. But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. And all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that they had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two seas of gold, I mean of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. They did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God. that you have turned their hearts back. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and lift up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. They seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the rushing of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. He bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, And looked and said, there's nothing. And he said, go again, seven times. And at the seventh time he said, behold, a little cloud, like a man's hand, is rising from the sea. And he said, go up. Say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. And a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode and went to Jezreel and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he gathered up his garment and ran up, ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. This is the word of the Lord. Let us hear it and heed it. I think this sermon is very appropriate for us this week, very relevant to us to see that God is the God of the storm and God that controls the wind and the rain and all of these things. But this morning what I want to talk with you is I want to talk with you about prayer. And I specifically want to talk with you about prayer as a means of God's grace, as an ordinary means of the grace of God. When I say that prayer is one of those ordinary means of grace, I mean that prayer is one of those God-ordained, Spirit-empowered channels by which we as believers are filled with Jesus Christ and made more like Him. Now normally, we probably think of prayer as a duty that we perform. We probably think of prayer as a religious activity that we do, rather than something that God does in us. And normally, I think many of us as Christians have this kind of overwhelming sense of guilt when we consider the subject of prayer. because we know the prayerlessness of our own hearts. And we have this sense of dread over our own failures in prayer and get down on ourselves because we know that we don't pray enough, that we don't pray like we should or as much as we ought. Well, I don't want to deny that prayer is certainly a responsibility and something that we can improve upon. It is a discipline. It is a Christian duty. What I want to do is reshape our minds in the way that we think about prayer. I want you to see prayer as the amazing gift that it is that God has given to us through which He works in us to make us more like Himself. Something that God is doing in us more than something that we are doing for God and to God. I want you to see that God has given us this gift to be a blessing in our lives. Like the other ordinary means of grace, prayer is an avenue whereby God channels His abundant grace to us as Christians. Prayer is the means through which we receive the Holy Spirit, for the Bible tells us the Lord will give His Holy Spirit to those who ask. And prayer is also the means by which the Holy Spirit molds us and makes us into the image of His blessed Son who reflects the glory of the Father. So then in order to illustrate the power and the grace of God in our prayers. I want to look at one of my favorite stories of the Bible, and if you know me well, you know this is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It comes from the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, chapter 18. The story starts, appropriately enough, with a king in Israel. The king's name was Ahab. King Ahab was a wicked king. In fact, the Bible tells us in chapter 16 and verse 30 that he did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. What's more, not only was King Ahab a wicked king, he married a Sidonian princess who was as bad or worse than he was. In fact, her name has become synonymous with that of a sinful woman. She was called Jezebel. Now what made this king and his queen so evil was not only their hatred of Yahweh, His Word and His people, but also their love for a false god by the name of Baal. Now the god Baal is usually paired with a female goddess by the name of Asherah, and the two were worshipped together. There was a long history of Baal worship in the land of Canaan. People were worshiping the Baals long before God ever brought Israel out of the land of Egypt to come into Canaan. So Baal worship had tradition in the land of Canaan on its side. Baal and Asherah were supposed to be fertility gods. Baal was the god of rain, of wind, of fertility. Asherah was the fertility goddess of motherhood. People worshiped them because they believed that these gods had relevance for their everyday lives. The promise of Baal worship was that if you kept Baal happy, then your crops would produce, your cattle herd would grow big and grow fat, your cradles would be filled with children, your kitchen cabinets would be stocked with food. People liked that and so people wanted those things and so they agreed to worship Baal as a result. As fertility gods, Baal worship included lots of sex. People seemed to like that too, so again, they worshipped the Baals because of that. And on top of all of this, Baal worship was being promoted by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in Israel. They not only served and worshipped the Baals themselves, but they tore down the altars that were dedicated to Yahweh. They executed most of the prophets of Yahweh. They replaced them with temples and altars to Baal. They filled these temples with priests and prophets of Baal. People that wanted to have the powerful favor of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, they worshipped the Baals. Why do I say all this? Well, because Baal worship isn't really around anymore, is it? And I don't think any of us know someone that's struggling with the temptation to join the cult of Baal. And in this group, you probably know enough Bible that you know Baal worship is bad, and you're not really looking for an opportunity to jump into the worship of Baal. But what you do understand is you do understand the temptation to follow something just because it has a strong tradition in your area. You do face the temptation of going after those beliefs that promise health and wealth and general prosperity simply by performing some religious rituals and doing a few good works. You are tempted to engage in sexual activities that are contrary to the will of God. You face the pressure to believe those things and to celebrate that, which will keep you in favor with those who are powerful. So before we write off all of the bell worshipers as those people who are completely unlike us, Let's stop and consider how often we have been tempted or have given in to the same sorts of temptations that they have. Now the actions of King Ahab in the promotion of Baal worship provoked Yahweh, the one true God, to anger. So God sent to the king a prophet, and the prophet's name was Elijah, and Elijah was a faithful man of God. And what the Lord God told Elijah to go and tell King Ahab is that there would be three years without any rain in Israel, well at least that there would not be any rain in Israel until God sent word again to King Ahab through Elijah the prophet. They didn't know how long it would be at first. Now given what you know about Baal, do you understand why God told Ahab that there wouldn't be any rain? Baal, again, is supposed to be the god of rain and the god of fertility. Baal is supposed to be the one who sends the storms. If there is no rain, then there's no water for people or livestock to drink. There's no rain and the grass that the animals eat and the crops that the people eat don't produce. There's no fruitfulness. There's no flourishing. There's no food. There's only famine. God wants to show that Baal is utterly impotent. That he's weak. That he's helpless. And most important of all, that Baal isn't even real. Baal doesn't exist. The Lord God knows that Baal doesn't control the rain. He does. We know that too, don't we? And that He's angry that the people of Israel have refused to worship Him alone and have turned and served Baal instead. So in punishment, God has cut off the rain to humiliate Baal in the eyes of the people and to punish them for worshiping Baal. And just as God promised, not a drop of rain fell in Israel for three and a half years. Now you and I, when we go to the grocery store, we expect, at least we did up until a few years ago, we expect to find the shelves full. when we go there. It's only been recently since the pandemic that we as Americans knew what it was like to go to the store and find lots of empty shelves. But listen, if we didn't get rain for three and a half years, there'd be a lot of empty shelves. And not just empty shelves, there would be empty stomachs, there'd be empty pantries, there'd be a lot of full cemeteries. So because his life was in danger, Elijah the prophet hid from Ahab and from his minions for three years. But after three and a half years, God's word came once again to Elijah the prophet and he was told again to go and face King Ahab. God decided that it was time to once again give the people reign. Now God couldn't though just give the people reign without proving that he was the one who sent it. The people might start to think that Baal had finally gotten out of his funk and that they would start right back again worshipping Baal where they had left off. So Elijah tells King Ab to assemble the whole nation of Israel at a place called Mount Carmel. And He told them to make sure that the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah were there also. There's going to be a showdown between the Lord God, Yahweh, and Baal. Now maybe you've been all engrossed in the story thus far, and you're starting to realize, what has any of this got to do with prayer? Well, I'm going to tell you. As this story works out, God sends rain to the people. It develops in two episodes. We see in these two episodes, God worked powerfully and graciously in answers to prayer. We see in the first episode, God does an extraordinary thing in answer to prayer. And then in the second episode, we will see God do an ordinary thing in answer to prayer. So firstly, By answering the simple prayer of his prophet, God proves his godness. By answering the simple prayer of his prophet, God proves his godness. Earlier I mentioned there's going to be a showdown between God and Baal. Elijah the prophet is the one calling the shots. He's representing Yahweh. He's gathered everyone on top of Mount Carmel. Now Mount Carmel is a purposeful location. Mount Carmel is a mountain that is right on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest corner of Israel. It juts out into the sea. and it had a long history of Baal worship in that area. In fact, there was a nickname for Mount Carmel that loosely translates into Baal's Bluff. So this is supposed to be a home game for Baal, as it were. But you and I know that the whole world is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And that's precisely the point that Yahweh is trying to make. that there's no such thing as an away game for Yahweh. Baal's house is God's home court, and he's about to serve notice there on Mount Carmel. The Lord is tired of his people being double-minded and straddling the fence. Elijah refers to it as limping between two different opinions. He said, if Baal is God, then follow after Baal, but if Yahweh is God, then follow after him. You and I know, as Jesus said, that no one can serve two masters. You can't get in the boat and stay on the dock at the same time. The Lord's Godship demands followship, and that this is one of the first principles of prayer. James tells us in chapter one that if any of you lacks wisdom, Let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. That person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So Elijah is exhorting the people to put away their doubting and their double-mindedness and to wholeheartedly follow whichever God shows up that day. He proposes a contest to prove who the real God is. He says, here's what we're going to do. We'll make two altars here on the mountain. We'll cut and we'll stack the wood on the altar. We'll get two bulls and sacrifice them. We'll cut them up, arrange them as offering, one on each on top of the altars, but we won't light the sacrifice, and that's where the contest comes in. Once the altars and the sacrifices are all cut, they're stacked and prepared, but not lit, Then the prophets of Baal will call on their God, and Elijah will call on his God, and whichever God answers with fire from heaven, then that's the true God who is worthy of worship and obedience. So there are 450 prophets of Baal. There's only one prophet of Yahweh, that's Elijah. Yet Elijah tells the prophets of Baal that they can go first. They start early in the morning. calling out to Bell in unison, saying, Oh, Bell, answer us. Oh, Bell, answer us. We're told that they start limping around the altar, gyrating and marching, doing a sort of rain dance around there. They're essentially trying to get Bell's attention. They did this from morning all the way until lunchtime, but we're told there was no voice. No one answered. Now Elijah hasn't done anything yet. He's been patiently letting them have their turn. At midday though, he starts mocking these false prophets. He says, cry aloud for he is a god. Either he is musing or he is relieving himself or he is on a journey or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. What's Elijah saying? He's pointing out their foolishness by suggesting maybe you ought to yell a little louder. Make some more noise or something, he says. You know how these man-made gods are. Maybe Baal's like one of us. Maybe he's just zoned out and lost in his own thoughts. Maybe he's on the john. Or even better, maybe Baal's not home because he's gone on vacation. If you remember your Baal mythology, then you'll remember that Baal's sister Anat comes to visit his house and he's gone out hunting. Maybe that's what's happened. Or maybe Baal's had a hard night and he's slept in. It's tiring work being a god, after all. Maybe if you guys yell louder, then you can wake him up. You know what the prophets of Baal did? They listened to Elijah. They yelled louder. Not only did they start crying out louder, but they also started cutting themselves with spears and lances. Blood started gushing from them as they're dancing and they're crying out to Baal, O Baal, answer us. Now remember, they started doing this early in the morning. At the time of the morning sacrifice, they kept on doing this all the way past midday, all the way until twilight, the time of the evening sacrifice. Over and over again, oh bell, answer us. But again, we're told. But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Now I want to stop for a second. I want to make a couple of points about these prophets of Baal. I want you to first of all observe in them that there is no lack of religious fervor with regard to them. There is no lack of sincerity. There is no lack of devotion. They are willing to spill their own blood for the sake of their God. No one can doubt their fervor. Secondly, I want you to observe what is in essence it is that they are doing. That they are praying. This is a pagan sort of prayer. And from this pagan sort of prayer, we can learn two things about how we shouldn't pray like they do. The first is this, and it's quite obvious. When you're praying, It is of utmost importance to whom you are praying." No one answered. There was no voice. No one paid attention to their prayer because they were praying to no one. Baal doesn't even exist. At best, they're calling out to demonic spirits that work under the name of Baal. But even these demonic spirits are subject to the will and the power of God. So when we speak of the power of prayer, we must remember that all sorts of people that believe all sorts of different things about God offer up prayers of various kinds. Praying to Baal is as pointless and useless as sending out warm thoughts and positive vibes a person's way. It accomplishes nothing. Our prayers need to be distinctively Christian prayers. Let us pray to our Heavenly Father in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and in the power of His Holy Spirit. Or let us not pray at all. Secondly, our prayers are not intended to try to get God's attention or to manipulate God into doing something for us. Prayers are not a negotiation with God. If we do this, or if we promise that, then you do that and promise this. If we, then you. We don't need to harm our bodies in order to get God's attention. Our prayers are not like the annoying sound of the alarm clock in the morning. Eh, eh, eh, trying to get our attention. We serve a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps. He's always awake. He's always there. He's always good. He's always aware. Jesus told us, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard by their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. And as our kind and generous Heavenly Father, we serve a God who longs to give good gifts to His children. He doesn't have to be cajoled into giving us something that He doesn't want to give. Brethren, God's a far better father than you or I could ever think about being. He's never distracted because he's on his phone. He's always has time for us. He's back to our story in Elijah. Elijah has given the prophets of Baal first dibs. He's allowed them all day to pray. But no one answered. Nothing ever happened. Now it's his turn to pray to Yahweh. But before he does that, Elijah wants to up the ante on the contest. He tells them to dig a little trench all the way around Yahweh's altar that He built. He put twelve stones on the altar to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. He then tells them to take four jugs of water to fill them to the brim. Pour them all over the sacrifice. The wood and the altar. Now I don't have to explain to you that wood and fire and water don't mix, necessarily. Wood, when it's wet, doesn't light well. But they poured the four jugs of water over Yahweh's rebuilt altar anyway. Then he told them to do it again. And then he told them to do it one more time. Twelve full jugs of water were poured over Yahweh's altar. It was so wet that the water flowed down the wood, filled up the trench like a moat around the altar. Then we're told that Elijah prayed. And when Elijah prayed, he simply said, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, that I am Your servant, that I have done all these things at Your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God and that You have turned their hearts back. And as soon as Elijah got these words out of his mouth, the Bible says, then the fire of the Lord fell, consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Elijah didn't take all day repeating the same phrase over and over. He didn't have to yell out in order for God to hear him. He didn't have to cut himself in order for God to be assured of his devotion. Elijah simply prayed and God sent fire from heaven. I want you to see that God does extraordinary things through ordinary prayers. God does extraordinary things through ordinary prayers. Notice that what Elijah knows to be true about God and who he is affects how it is that Elijah prays to God. Proper prayer is driven by sound theology. So by answering the simple prayer of his prophet, God proves his Godness. In fact, when the people saw the fire consume the sacrifice and the altar, we're told that they fell on their faces and they exclaimed, Yahweh, He is God. Yahweh, He is God. But if that's the case, then Yahweh deserves to be worshipped and He deserves to be followed and obeyed exclusively. Dale Davis comments, Neither Israel nor we are allowed to read this story and to say something like, well, now we know that Yahweh, He is God. What do you want to watch tonight on TV? No, this fact must impact us. It's got to change us. It's got to move us. As great and exciting as that part of the story is, however, It was just the first act. It was just the first episode, the first example of prayer. Do you remember how all of this started? It all started with God sending Elijah to King Ahab because he had decided to once again give reign to his people after three and a half years of drought. So secondly, I want you to see, by answering the simple prayer of his prophet, God provides His goodness. God provides His goodness. Elijah turned to Ahab and he told King Ahab, you go eat, I'm going to pray. Get ready because there's already the sound of the rushing of rain. Again, we're given a picture of Elijah on the summit of Mount Carmel. He bows himself low to the earth and puts his face between his knees. While he is praying, Elijah tells his servant to go and look towards the Mediterranean to see if it looks like any weather is moving in. Elijah prays and the servant looks. He comes back and he reports there is nothing. So Elijah prays again and the servant looks again and there is nothing. They do this seven times. And finally, when the servant goes and looks, he comes back and he tells Elijah, I see a little cloud about the size of a man's hand off in the distance, rising from the sea. Elijah knows that that's it. He gets up. He tells Ahab, we better head out or we're going to get stuck in the mud. Ahab rode down to the valley of Jezreel in his chariot. Elijah was given special strength to run before the chariot all the way down the mountain, 17 miles to the valley of Jezreel. I guess they made profits a little different back then. Earlier we're told that Ahab ate while Elijah prayed. Now we see Ahab riding while Elijah is running. It's quite the contrast. Behind them we are told the heavens grew black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain. This time I want to say that the Lord used ordinary prayer to do an ordinary thing. He sent rain. But this ordinary thing was no less a work of God and no less given by means of prayer. God is both the God of the spectacular as well as the God of the routine. He gives us both fires and food. He gives us both holiness and the harvest. Both answered prayers are good gifts from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. And again, I want to point out several things about prayer here. Firstly, I want you to notice Elijah's own helplessness. Despite my comment a while ago about him running, we're tempted to think that Elijah is some kind of superman prophet who did all of this. But he isn't, is he? Elijah can't send any fire from heaven. Elijah can't make it rain. Only God can do these things. Elijah is weak and he's helpless in this regard. Elijah can pray, however. Let us never think that when all we can do is pray, that we're doing nothing. Prayer is the means by which God often uses to channel and unleash His unlimited power. James tells us in chapter 5 that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. That Elijah was a man with a nature like ours that he prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. James is telling us that Elijah just prayed, that Elijah is just the same as you and me. that if we'll pray, then God can answer our prayers in the same way that he answered Elijah's. So we're helpless in ourselves, but our prayers are powerful and effective through our almighty God. Secondly, I want you to notice Elijah's confidence in prayer. Elijah told Ahab it was going to rain before he ever started praying. Even when the sermon came back those first six times and said, there is nothing, Elijah never doubted that the rain was coming. How could Elijah be so confident? Can we be just as confident in our own prayer life? I want you to see that Elijah's confidence comes from God's promise. Elijah had God's Word that he was about to send rain. Elijah could be certain, even when the answer wasn't forthcoming, because he trusted the Word of God. This teaches us that God often accomplishes things He's already promised and decreed through various means, including prayer. What does Jesus tell us in the book of Revelation? Jesus says at the end, Behold, I am coming soon. And how does the church answer that? Amen. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. The fact that God has already promised something is not an excuse not to pray for it. It ought to be a great encouragement for us to pray for something. We know it will be answered because we know it is prayed in accordance with the will of God. Oftentimes when the Lord wants to accomplish something that He has promised, then He will stir up His people to pray for that thing. God often accomplishes His promises through the ordinary means of people's prayers. Again, Dale Davis says, what an honor God confers on us. Not as robots, but as servants who should have no higher ambition than to pray down His will. Thirdly, I want you to know there's quite a bit of difference in the two prayers in the two episodes. In the first episode, Elijah prays a simple prayer before the people. He prays it once and God answers immediately. In the second episode, Elijah takes a very earnest and agonizing posture, bowing prostrate with his head between his knees. And God doesn't answer immediately. Elijah has to deal with the stress and with the anxiety of the silence. He prays again and again. He knows God has promised. Why is God not yet answering? Why is it different, this go-around, than it was last go-around? And the answer to that is, I don't know. But that is part of the mystery of prayer. Sometimes prayer is easy, and God answers almost immediately. Other times prayer is agonizing, and God may not bring the thing for which we pray for many years. It's a reminder to us that God is sovereign, that God is God, and that we are not. Lastly, I want us to consider how we should respond when we pray fervently, when we pray persistently for something to happen and we never receive the answer from God that we're praying for. It's actually in those times that I think that God best uses prayer as a means of grace to mold us by His Spirit towards sanctification. I want to give you two examples. Two examples of these kinds of prayers from the Bible itself. One's from the life of Jesus, and one is from Paul. Do you remember Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was crucified? This wasn't one of those easy and effortless prayers, was it? We're told that it was so agonizing that the Lord sweat, as it were, drops of blood there in the garden as He wrestles with God. Jesus' prayer went like this, Father, if it be your will, remove this cup from me, but nevertheless, not what I will, but thine be done. He prays this several times, coming and dealing with the sleepiness of the disciples in the meantime. Now, we know that Jesus was sinless. Jesus always did that which pleased the Father. We see even in His prayer, the absolute submission that He has to the Father's will and everything. But we also see his human abhorrence and desire to avoid, if possible, what he knows is waiting for him at the cross. The forsakenness, the wrath, the abandonment. But it seems that through prayer, Christ is given the firm resolve and guidance that the cross is the only way forward. that the cross is God's plan and God's will for him, that he has decided then to drink the cup that God has for him and to drink it to its very dregs. The second example comes from the life of Paul. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 that he was allowed by God to be called up into the third heaven itself. Because he was given this unique blessing, God also gave him what he calls a thorn in the flesh, some kind of messenger from Satan. We don't know exactly what this thorn in the flesh is or was or who it was, but what we do know is its purpose. And Paul tells us it was given to keep him humble. It was given to him to make sure that he didn't become prideful and become conceited. So that he would not boast about the things that he experienced and the things that he'd seen. And we're told by Paul that three distinct times he pleaded with the Lord that this thorn in the flesh would be removed from him. God would take it away. But that God refused to answer Paul's prayer. Instead, what did God give Paul? We're told in 2 Corinthians 12 9 that he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I want you to see that through prayer, Paul didn't receive the answer that he wanted, but he did receive the grace that he needed. God didn't change Paul's circumstances, but God did change Paul to be content amidst his circumstances. Through ordinary prayer, God answered Paul with extraordinary grace. Grace that was sufficient for him. So I want us to change the way that we think about prayer. I want us to change us to see the power in humble prayer to the one true and omnipotent God. I want you to see prayer as this gift of God's grace to us that God is using to mold us and to shape us to make us more like Him. I want to encourage you to pray for it is through prayer that God is working in your life and around you for your good and for your grace. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.