Prayer is vital to our disciple-making efforts, a truth that is clearly seen in the life of the Apostle Paul. In this session, Gary Powers will show how Paul repeatedly prayed for God to increase his ministry of making disciples. Not only did Paul pray this way, but he also asked others to pray for him in very specific ways. If we can do nothing without Christ and the apostles needed prayer, and asked for prayer, how much more do we to be effective in our own disciple making! 

Good morning. Thank you for coming. If you have a Bible, would you open this morning to Ephesians chapter 6. Let's stand, we'll read it together. My notes are in the New King James this morning and the Bible that I brought is the legacy standard.

Hopefully it won't get twisted. Hopefully I don't get twisted. Verse 10, Ephesians chapter 6. This is a glorious letter that Paul has written. Proclaiming the glories of the Gospel and the calling forth of the saints.

And he comes to these couple of chapters of application. And then we come to the end of this letter. Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains so that in proclaiming I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Would you just pray with me a moment?

Oh Father, we come to you needy, helpless apart from you. Father, would you feed these dear saints this morning? Father would you and your good pleasure equip them today for every good work in Christ Jesus? And it's in His name that we pray and give thanks Amen, you may be seated. It was about 2003.

Patty and I and our family, we had become very disillusioned a few years earlier with the charismatic movement. We weren't really charismatic in a way of prosperity, but we were deeper life kinds of people. And God was beginning to show us something else. And we began to see the effects of the youth group movement on churches and our own children. And we were longing for something more and we began to understand and hear about family integrated churches.

And there was a city that we had left where I had been an elder a couple of years before that, about ten years earlier, and some various Saints that were there and they were beginning to see the same things and were disillusioned with way the church was going and when we had left that city we Patty and I had declared that we were never going back there. Oh, don't ever say that to God. And I kind of began to breach the subject. What do you think about going back to Lake Geneva? She said, you know, it's kind of funny.

The Lord's been putting that on my heart as well. To make a long story short, we believe that we found ourselves in a little small Baptist church and we were, We knew we weren't to be there for a long time, but we were there for a season of healing. And we began to really pray in earnest about going back to Lake Geneva to plant the church. And once we knew that that's what we were to do and we had submitted it to the elders in that church because we wanted to be sent out, we were not going to go on our own accord. We needed to be sent out, we needed to be under the covering.

And as soon as that call was clear, and we were to go, I got really sick. This is a guy that's never been depressed a day in his life and I was overwhelmed. I was, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't pray, I was, I didn't want to be around people but I didn't want to be alone and it was, it was a dark night of the soul. I felt as if all hell had come against me. And in fact, I think it did.

And God was preparing me. There were times In the past when brothers would say, I just can't pray. And I would say to them, what do you mean you can't pray? Until God took me through that season and I understood. And when somebody says I need prayer, I will pray for them because I understand.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 9, for a great and effective door has been opened for me." He wanted to go, he wanted to move on, but a door was opened and he couldn't, he had to stay in Ephesus. And a door was opened and there are many adversaries. And don't forget that, And when God opens a door for discipleship, whether it's in preaching the gospel, whether it's from the pulpit, whether it's discipling your children or your neighbors or in the marketplace, wherever it is, this is a spiritual war. This is a spiritual battle. You can't do it in the flesh.

I can't do it in the flesh. In fact, Jesus said, unless you abide in the vine without me apart from me you can do nothing zero not one thing I think it if God hadn't called me and saved me 40 years ago I might My career probably would have been as a motivational speaker. I have no issue getting up and public speaking. And I recall the first time somebody asked me to lead a Bible study. Pretty cocky.

Just open the Bible, I'm gonna teach. I could barely get a word out. God so humbled me. When you proclaim the Word of God, it's a war. And we can't forget that.

I wanna hone in on a couple of verses this morning from Ephesians 6. The battle. Paul says, finally, finally be strong. And I want you to understand this morning that Satan does not easily give up those that he holds captive. The God of this world, he has blinded some.

And we're at war. And we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. Remember this, we heard last night that he's God's devil. God uses him as he will. God is much greater, much mightier.

He's been defeated. The authority has been given to Christ. He's a chain devil. But there's a battle. There's a war.

And to remind us this morning that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God till the pulling down of strongholds. And we are called to make disciples but not alone, not without God. See only God, only the Holy Spirit can produce life and the only life that you and I can bring forth in a disciple is what comes from God. We're just an instrument in the Master's hands. Think about the Apostles, all the time that they'd spent with Christ, and that He told them to go and to wait.

Wait until you be endued with power from on high, that you can go and be my witnesses. If they had to wait for God, how much more you and I? You and I. You see the offensive weapon in the armor of God, it's the sword of the Word of God and prayer. My main point, if you don't take anything away this morning but this, is that no matter who God calls you to disciple, You cannot do it alone.

You cannot do it in the flesh. H.B. Charles said, You can't do it without God speaking of prayer, and God will not do it without you. What it means. He works through broken, fallen men and women.

And we're commanded to pray. Pray for opportunities. Pray for open doors. I always marvel at the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. I think, Lord, what an opportunity.

But the angel came and spoke to him, and he got up. And I can't help but think that he was on his knees in prayer. Get up and go. And what an opportunity. He's sitting in the chariot, he's reading Isaiah, and he gets stuck, and Philip shows up and he just finishes the text.

And what forbids me to be baptized? He takes him down and baptizes him. That's an open door. That's an opportunity. You know, I'm a bivocational pastor and we run a large company And I had great need of somebody to run our operations, and we were failing.

And recently I just stepped back into running it. I hadn't been running this business for 17 years. And by providence, you could somewhat call it a coincidence or luck, I don't believe in that. It was the providence of God, an old friend. We reached out to him, my wife's friend, and just happened to see if he was available.

We needed a big person. This fellow came in and he'd been running, he had 40 manufacturing plants underneath him globally. And he said, They've offered me a buyout and they want me to stay but I'm just I'm tired of going to China, I'm tired of travel, I want to be home. I want a smaller Opportunity where I can be with Christians and I can make a difference and when we hired him He said my wife and I have we've prayed so much about this we believe God has called us here and In six months he's in six weeks. It's been six months.

It's been a couple of months, he's turned things around. Opportunities, open doors. We pray for real conversions and works of grace. We pray for fruit in the lives of those that God has allowed us to minister to. That they will walk in good works that God has preordained for them.

We pray for growth and sanctification in believers, that their life isn't the same as it was last year, last month, last week. That they're growing in grace. They're growing in the knowledge of Him. We pray for workers. We pray for boldness.

Listen to Paul's prayer. We see it in this text. He's not asking to get me out of jail. He said, I'm Christ's ambassador in chains. But he's praying for boldness.

He's praying for utterance. Opportunity. I want you to see something in this text. And this is, Scott called me, he says, do you have anything that you'd like to share? And I said, I'm just not sure.

But last year I had memorized the book of Ephesians and I was at the end when it when he had called and I'm in I've been daily meditating on the armor. And I saw something at the end of this. We typically end the armor of God with verse 17. He says, also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God." And I noticed in the New King James there was a semicolon there. Huh.

It keeps going. And prayer. I think prayer is the crowning part of the armor. It's connected. And Bill Mounts is a Greek scholar.

He said the NIV actually causes us to start a brand new paragraph, not only a new sentence, a new paragraph completely separating it from the context of the armor of God. So you know if we look at this, we go back, we have three imperatives. We're to put on the whole armor, we're to take the whole armor up, the second imperative, the third one is we're to stand, and then it's followed by a list of participles. And Mounce says this, he thinks that prayer is connected as I do, and he says it's an instrumental participle. It's an admonition to pray in that As we put on the armor, every part of the armor is to be put on with prayer and alertness, a watching, a looking, but prayerfully putting it on.

We put on the belt of truth. We put on the breastplate of righteousness. We're clothed with Christ's righteousness, not our own. And in taking up the shield of faith, to wield the sword of the Word, the Spirit of the Word of God to do it with great skill. Everything covered in prayer.

MacArthur says this is this this verse 18 of there's a four alls of prayer We're going to talk about four alls. This is the crown of this great text of Ephesians. This glorious text. This is the crown. It's a wrap-it-all, like saran wrap in prayer.

If we have key points, there's the four alls. The first is praying always. The New American Standard says, with all prayer. It's a present tense verb. This is a frequency.

How often? Always. For all things, in all circumstances, at all times, without intermission. Pray without ceasing. In season, out of season.

That means there's no other season. Always praying. Not just when trouble comes. You pray when you're at the top, on the top of the mountain. The Christian life is like that.

There's seasons when we're on the mountain, we're on the top of the mountain singing the praises of God and we're in the valleys sometimes in the depths of trial in every situation Think about the early church in Acts 2. They continued steadfastly in prayer, and elders are called to devote themselves to the Word of God and prayer. It's an idea that the Lord is always with us. He's always before us. No matter where we are, our eyes are always fixed upon Him, looking to Him.

A continual awareness of His presence. John Wesley said this, his heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this he's never hindered, much less interrupted by any person or anything. You can be ministering to a child, teaching in your home school. You can be in the boardroom leading, and in between every word, every sentence you can be quietly before the Lord or give me wisdom.

Help me to speak clearly. Lord help, help. You are an ever present help in trouble. Oh, you are with me. If you've never read the book by the old He's a monk, Brother Lawrence practiced the presence of God, washing dishes, always praying, unbroken fellowship.

Here's a point of application. John Piper says, you should meet with God every day. One of the things, if I'm discipling somebody, I'm going to tell them, where will you meet with God? Determine that. Every day.

What time? We have a small group that meets in our home Sunday nights. Once or twice a month we'll meet and we're going through a book. And the Saints love the fellowship and but when it's nine o'clock just lock the door on your way out, okay? Because I'm going up to bed, because I have a very important meeting tomorrow morning at four o'clock.

I'm going to meet with the King of kings. Regular time, regular place. I've been doing that for forty years. More recently though, I think it's just always... You know, there's always something as a church leader we have ten children grandchildren you know we have some children that are not saved there's always something on your heart always always praying you know what I'm talking about But there's regular times too where you meet with the Lord.

It's important to have that cadence, to have a regular place and regular time to meet with the Lord. We're to pray always, Jesus said, and not lose heart. Keep praying, keep believing. The second point is that we're to pray with all prayer and supplication. Here's the second all.

It's a variety prayer, all kinds of prayer. Prayer literally means it's a general request and supplication. It's a specific request. Confession, thanksgiving, adoration, intercession, Profession, supplication. Prayer is communion and it's conversation and fellowship with God.

Prayer changes us. And there's many different types of prayer. We were to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. I love to walk in the early morning through our home. I love it when it's dark and even before the sun's coming up to just walk and pray.

And to just praise God for His worthiness. He's worthy. He's to be exalted. He's to be magnified. We come with adoration.

We come with praises. We come into His presence that way. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for life. Thank you for breath.

Thank you for sleep or no sleep. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for yesterday's provision. Thank you for daily bread yesterday. Thank you, Father.

Blessed be our God and Father. Bless him. Bless him. Blessed be his Son. We begin there in praising and adoration, and we'll end up interceding.

And we confess our sins before Him. Paul tells the Philippians in Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing. There's so much in our world that's, these are difficult times. It's easy to be filled with anxiousness and anxiety, to fret. We'll go to Psalm 37, right, we fret.

He says fret not. Don't be anxious for anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, prayer and supplication should always come forth from our heart, with a heart filled with gratefulness and thankfulness. In everything give thanks. An old pastor used to always say I'd be complaining about something and he'd say brother have you given thanks I knew he was gonna say that because in everything give thanks for why this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you whatever you're standing in right now I'm sure you're standing in something right now that you're wrestling with.

Give thanks. That trial that just came your way, thank you Lord. Thank you. I know you're gonna work it for your glory and for my good. I know that.

Because I know how you are. I know who you are. This Greek word supplication, it's this idea of coming as one who's needy. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. It's we're indigent.

We have nothing to bring to God but our sin and I guess our praise, our gratefulness, but it's coming as one in great need and great want. It's a statement of our trust in God, our complete total dependence upon Him. It's our abiding in Him because we're making disciples. We have nothing to offer anybody, anything except what comes from Him. We're just the vessel in which he pours himself through.

The Lord, I had to replace a president who was running our business. And he's advising, and I had called him a few weeks ago to ask him his advice about something. And right away, he just took charge. And I'm like, You're not in that position anymore. But it wasn't about him.

It was the Lord was showing. Gary, that's how you come before me in prayer. You're telling me what to do. I'm like, oh. It's like, you know what I'm saying?

When the Holy Spirit just convicts you, it's like, oh, who am I to command the living God? Lord, if it be your will, Father, be gracious. Not coming like a spoiled child demanding. He's on the throne, not you and I. And he says, that utterance be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly.

Here's how Paul's asking to be prayed for. This is how he needs prayer, that utterance would be given to him. You know what that word, the Greek word for utterance is? It's logos. Huh.

Now it could be just speech, it could be just a word, but it's also the word. Think about that. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. But in prayer, that utterance would be given. That it would come forth, the Word, the right Word.

From the throne of grace it would come as you're ministering, as you're discipling. That God would put his words in your mouth. Oh, because the Word is so powerful. It's living, it's alive, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts, it divides, it's able to wound, it's able to heal.

It's supernatural. It's able to divide a sunder between soul and spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It can pierce somebody to the point where they cry out and say, what must I do to be saved? Utterance be given to me.

Jesus rebuked some of them. And in John 5.30, he said, but you, you do not have the word abiding in you, because whom he sent, him you do not believe. But see that's not true of you and I. We have the Word in us. He is the Word, right?

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. But children, and even I'll speak to your parents this morning, put the discipline of hiding the Word of God in your heart. Memorize whole books. I'm an old guy and I can still do it and I still do it. I can't do as many verses a week as I used to be able to do.

I have to take breaks because I try to remember it and hang on to it. It will change your life. It will change the way that you think. There's a promise of success twice in Joshua 1-8 and Psalm 1. If you meditate upon my law day and night whatever you do will prosper.

We read that and we go, oh that's a prosperity gospel. Really? Do it. Hide it in your heart. Hide the Word of God in your heart.

Memorize it, meditate on it, and I'll tell you how that works. Many times, there's many books that I've I'm not talking about me, forgive me, but things that I've hidden in my heart. And I couldn't quote that chapter anymore to you, but if I'm witnessing to somebody or I'm discipling somebody, and that word just starts coming. This is where the Holy Spirit, the Word of God that we have hidden in our heart, and I think this is what he's talking about, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, with prayer, that utterance be given, and that Word just comes. And sometimes I just stand astounded at how, how did you do that?

Paul says in Colossians 3, 16, let the word of God, the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let it dwell in you richly. How big is your arsenal are you like you know Barney Fife in the old days you have one bullet in his pocket or you you got a whole thing of bullets saying and on on, you know, have a big arsenal that the Lord can use. When we open our mouth, He fills it. Because here's why, as we make disciples.

In 1 Corinthians 2.13 Paul says this, these things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can we know them because they are spiritually discerned. This is a spiritual warfare. You're wrestling not with flesh and blood and the word, this is why prayer is so important, the Word of God comes and it cuts through that. But the Holy Spirit has to change the heart, regenerate the heart so that they can hear it.

It's like one of those stereograms. You know those pictures that you look at and it just looks like a bunch of 3D things, but when you stare at it with both eyes, all of a sudden an image just pops out. See, something has to be revealed in the inner man. It has to be opened by the Holy Spirit. Remember when Jesus was with the disciples and He said, who do men say that I am?

Well, some say you're Elijah, some say you're this prophet, but then Jesus, and I think he looked at Peter, and he looked right through him with his eyes. He said, but Peter, Who do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus' response to him was, Peter, my Father, which is in heaven, has revealed this to you. You didn't come up with this on your own. As we make disciples, God has to reveal it to them.

Or it will be a work of wood, hay, stubble. Paul said again in that same chapter in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 4, he said, in my speech, in my preaching, we're not with persuasive words of human wisdom. You're not going to talk somebody into it. You know, their own flesh is in the world. It's drawing them away.

The devil, these are the enemies of God. But his words were in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God with prayer. What a combination. It's a boldness.

Paul asked for boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel. It's a mystery. It has to be revealed. Again in Colossians 4, 2 he says continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word.

We need a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I also am in chains. God has to open the door for the Word to come in. Some of your children, they may not believe yet. It's not their season yet. We continue steadfastly in prayer for God to open that door where all of a sudden they see a prayer constantly for children in our church and we've had some glorious conversions recently.

We had a young man, godly home, and He came to meet with the elders because he wanted to be baptized. And he said, I didn't believe God existed. How could you even come to that conclusion with the way you've been raised? I didn't believe the Bible was God's Word. And my mom told me to just ask God to show himself to me.

And he did. And He's like 17 years old and a complete transformation. He used to work on our farm. And he came to my brother-in-law who was his boss and he asked him to forgive him for a whole bunch of things. See there's fruit following true conversion, but God opened that door and a mama's prayer for him and his dad's prayer for him.

Which brings us to our third point is the third all, all perseverance and supplication. Don't quit, keep praying. And we have the parable in Luke 18 of a corrupt judge who didn't fear God. He was corrupt, but this woman who had no power, no authority, she had an adversary pursuing her. And we have this example, and how is God even like this unjust judge?

He's a just judge. They're alike in this one way that they both have great authority to impact, to make a difference. And the idea of keep coming and finally he just gives her what she wants so she'll go away. We keep praying. George Mueller prayed 50 years for two men.

One was saved gloriously before he died, one after he died, right after he died. Kent Hughes said he prayed 30 years for his brother And they were together one day and his brother came to him and said, tell me what I need to do to be saved. Think about a mother, Monica, praying for Augustine, how long she prayed for this wicked man. You know, Hudson Taylor, He noticed that one of their outposts had just glorious fruit, abundant conversions and people going deeper into faith continually. He always wondered, it was so much different than all of the other outposts.

One day he was in London and a man came up to him and he asked him how so-and-so was and Hudson Taylor said I wondered why he he seemed to know a bunch of people in that area in that outpost And I asked him about that. He said, well that missionary, he and I were college roommates, and he writes me, and he gives me lists, and I pray every day for every name on that list. I like to pray for when I'm going to preach tomorrow in our church, I only get to preach once a month now or twice a month. I like to pray for every and it's getting along to be a long list of every person that's going to be there tomorrow morning. That God would prepare their heart to receive the engrafted Word which is able to save them, to deliver them.

Keep praying. Our application, pray without ceasing. Don't quit. Remember God changes us as we pray, as we wait. How often did Paul pray?

His letter to the Romans, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, to Timothy, and others that I'm sure I didn't list. He says, ever since the day I heard of your faith and your love in Christ Jesus, I cease not to pray for you, to give thanks for you." Listen to how he prays for the Ephesians. In Ephesians 1.16, he says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory here's how you pray for making disciples he may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that he may give the exact knowledge epigenoscule he may give you the exact knowledge of him, of revelation, of the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling in the saints, learn of the riches of His glory, as with Paul's praying for these saints. Listen now, we praise for the Colossians, for this reason also, since the day we heard it we do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord.

If you're an elder or a pastor in a church, they would walk worthy of the Lord. Of all of His glories that they would walk worthy, that they would live a life that reflects the life that reflects the glory of God. Fully pleasing, fruitful in every good work. God make them fruitful. God bless them.

Bless the work of their hands. Cause them to bear incredible fruit. Cause it to bear so much fruit that the branches begin to break. Strengthen them with all might according to your glorious power. For patience and long suffering that is their suffering, is their waiting, that they would do it joyfully.

Paul tells Timothy pray for all that earn authority. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks. And then he wraps up this section he says, in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit. And because we don't know how to pray, the Spirit leads us.

And we wait for the Holy Spirit to lead us as we bow in prayer. God brings someone to our heart and to our mind, we pray for them. It's awaiting before the Lord in silence for the Lord to lead us. It's a being with Christ. It's being in His presence.

Everything to God in prayer. Bunyan said it's a sincere pouring out of the soul to God. It's a praying with the Spirit. And The spirit also helps in our weaknesses. He says we don't know in Romans 8, we don't know how we ought to pray.

The spirit himself makes intercession for us. The old saints say they knew how to lay hold of God. I remember my wife and I were at the, she was helping at the birth of a child who was a couple's first baby and you know she was in trouble and Patty says to her husband, young husband, pray and he just it was just just little you know he didn't know how to pray. He knew mentally, but to be able to in those situations to be able to lay hold of God. There's oil in your lamp, you know how to lay hold of God.

Young people learn to develop that kind of relationship with God, where you can step into His presence in a moment and pray and know. Aswald Sanders who was at one time the director of the overseas missionary fellowship that was one time called the China Inland Mission. He said the very fact that God lays a burden of prayer on our hearts and keeps us praying is prima facie evidence that He purposes to answer. We pray with the helmet of salvation on because we are assaulted. You get to your knees and you start thinking about this I got to do this today I got to do that today what about this and and we have a think session on our knees that's you don't want that you would that's why we have to take every thought captive because the prince of the power of the air could throw thoughts our way and distract us.

Paul commands prayer and we watch and we wait. And think about our Lord Jesus. To Peter, Satan's asked permission to sift you, but I prayed for you. I love that. When you're converted, strengthen your brothers.

Yeah. Strengthen your brothers. Yeah. Did Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us? And how often he withdrew from the crowds to pray, to be with the Father.

He called the disciples but it was after prayer. I often wonder when he comes along and he and Zacchaeus is up in the tree. Oh there's the one. That's the one father that you showed me this morning. You come down I'm gonna buy it at your house today.

This is the one thing the disciples asked the Lord to teach them. Lord teach us to pray. Prayer's hard. It's hard. But it's glorious.

And there were some that the, Jesus said these don't come out by prayer and fasting. Well let me wrap up with a couple of points of application. I gave you a few but let me repeat them. So first is build a habit of daily prayer, of meeting with God. See Daniel, remember Daniel?

It was his custom, was to pray morning, noon, and night. Secondly, pray the Word of God. Memorize the Psalms and you'll begin to pray. You'll find them working their way into your prayer life. And by the way, as you memorize Scripture, you'll begin to pray as you ought to pray.

The third is to pray for the kingdom of God. Pray for the kingdom, the rule of God first in you. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added. That is that Christ would be King, enthroned in your heart, that He rules and reigns you, and that His Kingdom would expand. And so often, even our own Sunday night prayer meetings, which are well attended, but so often we're praying for sickness.

Everybody's sick. Pray for the sick. We should be praying for the kingdom to go. We pray for the missionaries. We pray for the work of God, for opportunities, for boldness, for utterance.

That's how we ought to be praying. Pray in faith, believing that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Fifth is to pray persistently. Keep praying. Keep asking.

Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Seek as if to find. I remember one time we were at a picnic and my dad had locked the keys in the car. This is in the 60s.

And I remember my dad tearing that car apart. He ripped the back seat out of the car to try and find those keys. Because guess what? We weren't going home until he found those keys that's seeking to find until you lay hold of God and then lastly pray to know God Paul said I want to be I want to know Christ. I want to intimately know Him.

Let me leave you with this in Ephesians 3 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we think or ask according to the power that work within us. Exceeding abundantly more than we ask. Let me close with a story. I'm in a dietary supplement business and during COVID sales just exploded.

Everybody wanted vitamin D, everybody wanted zinc, everybody wanted an acetyl cysteine. We couldn't find lids for bottles and we need like, we buy them in millions, and our purchasing people, I'd gone to our manufacturing facility, Can't find them. Can't find black lids. Did you try this place? Yeah, I tried that.

Well, how about this place? Tried that. How about these guys? How about if we just put white lids on all over the island? Can't find white lids.

They're all gone. There's none. Our factory is five or three hours from where we live. I came in, or I'd been in a hotel room the night before. I came in early the next morning.

As people began to filter in, there's a couple of brothers, just three brothers, saints that work. And I called those guys into my office. I said, guys, let's pray. Let's pray. And I just heard a sermon or read it somewhere.

It was like The Lord was rebuking him. He said, you went down to Egypt. Why didn't you ask me? If you would have asked me, I would have given to you. I would have provided for you.

And I shared that with him and we prayed for about 10 minutes. End of the day, I'm getting ready to leave. Another purchasing agent comes in. She's an unbeliever. She said to me, thank you for praying.

I'm like, how did she even know we prayed? I said, what do you mean? She goes, didn't you hear? About nine o'clock this morning we got a call. One of our vendors said we don't even know how this happened.

Well we got five million caps headed your way and with another five million next week. Thank you. God answers prayer. Father, thank you for your kindness. Oh that we can come to you that you care for us.

Bless these saints, strengthen them, encourage them, build up their prayer life, Lord. I give you thanks and praise In Christ's name, amen.