In the sermon 'Pray Always - Part 2', Douglas Campbell explores the concept of praying without ceasing as instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. He clarifies that this does not mean constant, uninterrupted prayer, but rather cultivating a lifestyle of prayer where God is central, guiding our lives. Campbell emphasizes that prayer is essential for applying God's Word, as it bridges the gap between knowing about God and truly knowing Him. He argues that the Word of God is the foundation for understanding God, and prayer is the means by which believers internalize and live out this understanding. The sermon also addresses the struggle with the flesh, noting that prayer is often resisted because it offers nothing to the flesh and must be pursued with discipline. Campbell highlights prayer as both a privilege and proof of belief, explaining that it is a gift granted to those who are in Christ, allowing them to communicate with God and seek His guidance, mercy, and grace. He concludes by urging believers to draw near to God in prayer, stressing its importance in their spiritual growth and relationship with the Divine.

If you would turn with me this morning to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. Again this morning, I'd like to read verses 5 through 22. Again, looking specifically at verse 17. 1st Thessalonians 5, starting at verse 12. The word of God says, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you and the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you do not quench the spirit do not despise prophecies but Test everything, hold fast what is good, and abstain from every form of evil. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you this day for your love and your mercy and your patience and your kindness and your grace and your justice. Father, thank you. Father, thank you.

As this morning I pondered, Christ sent Christ in your word saying he knew what lies within men's hearts. He knew what was in there. And that verse rings true of my heart, in our hearts, apart from Christ, that apart from you, we are totally depraved. We are totally due your wrath. We are totally due hell immediately for all of eternity.

And yet, Father, You demonstrate Your love, You demonstrate Your patience, You demonstrate Your mercy and Your kindness and Your grace by redeeming wicked men, by changing our hearts, by paying the price, by your son paying the price, going willfully to the cross to take the punishment on our behalf, the punishment for our sins. The nails piercing through his hands and feet, the crown of thorns, the wrestling the wrestling for breath as his bones push against iron to strive to breathe. And yet, Father, this is but minor to the wrath that you were pleased to pour out upon your Son, to demonstrate to the world that you are a God of grace, that your kindness is immeasurable. Because you, Father, your Son died for His enemies. And Father, this morning we continue to reside in an unexplainable grace as we come to Your Word, that You would then choose to reveal Yourself to us.

Father, this morning as we come to Your Word, we know that apart from You we won't understand it. Apart from You, Father, I am just One who is prone to all kinds of error. So Father, this morning I pray that you would give me strength. Father, your name would be glorified in the proclamation of Your Word. Father, You would give us wisdom, You would give us understanding.

And Father, that You would change us, that we might have application, that we might glorify you. It's our cry this morning. We ask this in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Let's look again this morning at verse 17, a very short verse, not the shortest verse in the Bible, but very close to that.

Essentially, or what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 17, is to pray without ceasing. Last week we went fairly, we examined what this meant. It doesn't mean that we're praying 24-7, that we have to go retire ourselves to a monastery and just pray all the time, but what it does mean is that it is a lifestyle of prayer, that we come often and regularly, and it is part of who we are that we recognize that God is with us, and that He is not our co-pilot, but He actually should be the pilot of our life. He is driving the car. He is driving the vehicle of us.

And understanding that He is sovereign, we must pray, always pray without ceasing. The first point that we went into last week, and it's the only point we got to, but it was that God uses prayer to apply His Word. In John 17, 3, if you don't have this verse memorized, I would encourage you to memorize this verse. It says, this is Jesus talking, in John 17 3 it says, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Let me read it again. This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

This is very contrary to mainstream Christian theology that would say, if you want eternal life, then do something. Come forward and pray a prayer, or get baptized, or do this or this or this, or whatever it is. It's essentially Jesus in a nutshell tells you the answer to the, I think it was Nicodemus that came to him and said, what must I do to have eternal life? One verse in The Bible tells you how this is accomplished. This is eternal life that they know you.

That you know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. How do we know God? By the study of His Word. He has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ. And then, through history, God has written His Word that we might come to His Word and know Him.

The problem is, is there's a difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. I was blessed this week to hear a message by Joel Beeke where he addressed this. What is the difference between knowing God and knowing about God? For one, we can't know God unless we know about Him, right? If I don't know what this says, I don't know God.

It doesn't matter how many feelings I have, doesn't matter how many angels appeared to me in my dreams, doesn't matter all these things that people claim of how they know God. In my time I've heard all kinds of things that people have said. They'll say, well, I know God because when I'm doing dishes sometimes I just get that feeling. I think Brother Ethan calls that the liver shivers or liver. I just get that feeling and so I know God.

Brothers and sisters, that's not how we know God. That's not how we know about God. In fact, that is the postmodern culture. Whatever you believe is true for you. Is that true?

Absolutely not. What did Jesus say? I am the way, the truth. There is truth. The culture that says whatever is true for you is true for you, and whatever is true for me is true for me, directly contradicts the words of Jesus Christ.

Because He says that He is truth. Not just for Him and not just for me, but for you and for everyone, and for the neighbor across the street, and the guy living on the other side of the world. He is truth. And so how might I know this truth? Through the Word of God.

It was recorded for us. I oftentimes think of how much of a blessing it would have been to walk with Christ. And yet, when we think of it, I believe that many of the apostles would have looked forward and they would have said, I can't comprehend what a blessing it would have been to not just know Christ and to walk with him, but to know him, but to put these pieces together as God has done in Scripture, to know the writings of Paul, and to have time to not just remember what Christ said as I read the Old Testament, but to actually be able to go back to it, record it, that I might get a true picture of God and study it and look into it intently. And that's not to minimize the blessing they had to walk on the earth with our Savior. But brothers and sisters, you have an immense blessing.

You can study to your heart's content. It is an endless well, and one of the things that when I was young especially, one of the things that really drew me to the Word of God, was that it was a stable well. It didn't change. For a time I started to study personal training and fitness and nutrition and things like that. And we have a doctor in the house that could attest to this, I'm sure.

The nutrition industry constantly changes. It almost, at times, can seem futile to even study it. Right? Today they say eat lots and lots and lots of eggs, or don't eat eggs because they're so terrible for you. They they give you cholesterol and you're gonna die at 18 if you keep eating these eggs.

Then today you should eat lots of eggs. They're the perfect source of protein. Right? It changes and I don't want to go too deep into this, but do you know what doesn't change? The Word of God.

It doesn't change. And not only does it not change, It is an endless well. You can study this every hour for the rest of your life and you won't even scratch the surface of knowing God. It's endless. It's never that I'm going to say, I've mastered this.

And to even carry that forward, and I don't want to take a lot of time on this first point, because we talked a whole week last week on it but to carry this forward do you know even when we're in heaven a million years from now when we're in heaven God is so amazing we will still be learning about how amazing He is. 10 billion years from now, we will still be learning the depth of how amazing He is. Brothers and sisters, if you're not studying this, you're missing out. You can't know God apart from it. You can know Him on a small level.

You can look at creation, And the Bible says you can see creation, and you can know that there's a God. You can look at the trees and the birds and all these things, and you can know that there's a God. But that was never enough knowledge to bring you to a saving relationship. Never enough knowledge to bring you to a relationship with Him, that He would redeem you. And yet, the Word of God does.

The Word of God is how we know about God. And so, back to the quote by Joel Beeke or how he explained this, he said, we must know about God to know God. But the Word of God, just as we have read, and this is eternal life, that they know you. Not just know about, but that they know you. And so what's the difference between knowing about and knowing God?

It's very simple. It's fruit. Is there fruit? It's one thing to be a theologian. It's one thing to be, as we looked at in Sunday school, look at Eli's sons, who knew very much about God.

They grew up with Eli, the priest. They worked in the temple. They knew lots of facts, but do you know what it starts with saying? They didn't know God. And friends, you can know all kinds of facts, and you should, and I encourage you to keep learning facts.

But if that's where it ends, you don't know God at all. You must come to know Him. It must begin to produce fruit. In fact, I think it was John Owen that wrote on the assurance of faith, and he lists, I can't remember how many things, that you might be assured in your faith. And then it ends with, and to summarize them all up into one thing to know if you're genuinely in the faith or not, it's, do you desire to know God?

And it's within that culture that we reside in, that there are many people who will gather together, but they have no real desire to know God. Brothers and sisters, friends, do you desire to know God? Because if this is just a Sunday thing and a morning devotion thing to get on about your life, the great men of old wouldn't have thought you knew him at all. They wouldn't have thought you were on your way to heaven at all. And in fact, the Bible doesn't teach you're on your way to heaven apart from knowing God.

Do you desire to know Him? Now how does this transition? You're not looking at your watch, Dave. I'm still on point one that we went over last week. But how does this transition from knowing about God and knowing God?

It's God uses prayer to apply His Word. Friends, if you want to know God, read His Word and pray. Read His word and pray. The words of Todd Friel, pray like it's nobody's business. Read His word like it's nobody's business.

Do you want to know God? Do you want to come to know Him? Do you want to come to know Him? Do you want to come to live with Him, to be redeemed, to come to know Christ in such a way that He has paid for your sin? And that one day, when you take your last breath, you will stand before God.

Not a good person, but a person who was redeemed by Christ. A person who knows Him. A person who doesn't come to Him and say, Lord, Lord, look what we did. We prophesied. We did this.

We did that. And he replies, what's the Bible say? Depart from me. I never knew you. Do you know him?

Friends, we must be about the word of God, and we must be praying. Our culture, even within mainstream Christianity, is very apathetic towards this, and I can demonstrate it in this way. There are two things that I, if I went to speak at another church, and maybe some of you secretly, if I spoke at this church, if I begin to come against false teachers, there are many who would get upset. And yet, how do we come to know God? We know the truth about God.

How do we derail? And obviously God is sovereign over all of this. But how do we derail? We teach people lies. That's why all through the Old Testament we're warned over and over and over about false teachers.

And we're called to publicly rebuke them. It's the Word of God. It tells us to do this. But do you know what will upset most mainstream Christians? If we publicly name and rebuke.

Do you know what else will upset them? If this is the meaning of life, and it is, this is life that we know Him. This is not just life, but this is eternal life. This is more than, when somebody says, get a life, that's just like 80 years worth. I'm being silly.

This is eternal life. This is everything. This is important. To know the Word of God. And yet, Our mainstream Christian culture would be offended if I called out falsehood, and also they'd be offended if I went way over too long teaching.

It's symptoms of something wrong. It's symptoms of a check engine light. No one gets upset when the football game goes into overtime. But the world gets upset if the preacher goes into overtime. Their pot roast is burning, preacher.

But it's a symptom of we don't desire to know Him. We desire to get this done and get on with things. How do we fix it? How as a pastor, how do I? This is something that I've wrestled with, how do I fix this?

And the answer again, and that's why I'm preaching through this, I'm learning as much as you are. If I'm not praying, I think that I can change things and I can't. And I'll be honest, my flesh hates that. Maybe partially because I worked in the secular world for a time, and in the secular world, if you work really hard, You get rewarded, you become the best, you get promoted, all these things happen. In the Christian world, if you try to work and try to work really hard to change people, you will soon find out that won't work.

Doesn't matter how hard you try. Partially, I mean wholeheartedly, all is to teach us we have nothing apart from Christ. We have nothing. I have nothing. When you come to me with your problems, I have nothing but the Word of God.

And all I can do is show it to you and read it to you and explain it to you. And then, what's the next step, Brody? To pray like it's nobody's business, because I can't change you, but I know the man who, Jesus the man, I know a God who does and who can. Amen? So point number one, God uses prayer to apply His Word.

Doesn't mean that we neglect His Word. It means that we fill our cups full of it. But it has to go beyond that. We have to then pray and draw near to God that He might apply it to our hearts. Secondly, prayer is contrary to the flesh.

We see this demonstrated in Matthew 26, 36-46. And for those of you who identified with me, and I remember, especially when I was young, in tears pleading with God, that I just don't understand, why couldn't I be born when Jesus was on the earth? Why couldn't I walk with Him? This would be so much easier if I could have just walked with Christ. And yet, let's look at the men who did.

It says, Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.

Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? You see that brothers and sisters? It was just an hour. I pointed at Peter, but just as the adage our teacher in school used to teach us, when you're pointing at somebody, you've got the three fingers pointing right at you.

It was only an hour. So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again for the second time he went away and prayed, My father if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.' And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy.

So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest later on. See the hours at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See my betrayer is at hand." I would ask you this morning, if Peter wrestled with his flesh to pray, how much more do you think you and I wrestle with our flesh to pray?

See I found, I believe it was Paul Washer who said this as well, I found that as a pastor, that, and this can be applied to all of us, that our flesh also doesn't like to study the Bible all the time. Now, I do, I enjoy studying. My personality is just that a little bit, but there are lots of times where I don't feel like studying. There are times when the fish are biting, and there's times when it's nice out, and there are times like that. There are times where I really have to wrestle with my flesh and know now is the time to study and we don't need to go crazy into this, but there is a part of studying that our flesh doesn't hate as much as praying.

You know why that is? Because if I study really hard, you guys will all think I'm smart. There's even pride in studying. And so you will find Our flesh, although we do have to wrestle with it to study as we should, it's not as hard of a wrestle as it is to pray. Do you know why?

Prayer is that one thing, That one discipline that we are called to, that if we do it as the Bible has called us to do it in secret, there is nothing in it for our flesh. And our flesh hates it. And brothers and sisters, that's why you and I struggle so hard to pray. It's why Peter struggled so hard to keep his eyes open. And yet, if we believe the Word of God, we must pray.

If you believe that it's God who calls, if it's God who calls your children to salvation, If it's God who calls your neighbors to salvation. If it's God who ultimately is the one who gives you knowledge of Him, it's absurd not to pray. It actually goes against our belief. We don't really believe it. If I believe that it's God who is going to save my daughter, and that I, although I take her to the Word and I read it with her and I show it to her and I explain it to her over and over and over again in her life.

Ultimately, it's the same problem that I run into as a pastor. I still can't change your heart. We can, what's the old saying? You can lead a horse to water. And brothers and sisters, you better lead your horse to water all the time.

But you're not going to make it drink. Only God does this. Only the Holy Spirit does this. Not only in your children, and in your neighbors, but also in yourself. You're not going to be sanctified if you're not praying.

If you're not coming to the Word of God and praying, God, give me understanding. Father, make me like Christ. Father, help me in this. Father, change my heart. If these aren't our pleas as we come to the Word of God, we will simply accumulate facts that have no change in us.

And if the Word of God doesn't change us, God isn't glorified in us. Amen. It seems that that's where we are in our culture of today. That those who claim Christ, They may know some facts about him, but it's not being applied. In the Reformation, we took an amazing, and by God's grace, we took a giant turn out of the ditch of works.

And yet, that carried on into this modern day where a majority of mainstream Christianity is so far into the other ditch that if you think they should read their Bible, they think you're a legalist. That is way in the other ditch. Now you're not going to get saved by reading your Bible, but God uses that. You're not going to get saved by learning about God, but if you are saved, you're certainly going to want to. And if you don't want to, it's evidence that you don't know him at all.

It's like finding... My son searches, does the metal detecting, and a couple years ago in our yard he found a two cent piece. I'm like, whoa, that's interesting. Now did I say that's interesting and I just carried on about my day? If I really thought it was interesting, what did I do?

Can I see it? And I began to peer at it and change it and look at it with different light and look at the other side and see if I could make out the writing. Why? Because it was interesting. Friends, God is the ultimate of interesting.

If you come to know him, he is captivating. He will become everything to you, and in fact He is. I find it interesting also in Luke 11.1. It says, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. I think it's interesting that in...

I think if I would hope if I was in their place I'd be asking the same question. But I think it's interesting that the disciples went, they traveled with Jesus, they saw the miraculous, they saw people healed, They saw the loaves, the fish in the loaves multiplied. They saw Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount. If you ask me, is there any sermon by any person that you would ever want to hear, like, what's the greatest sermon? I'd be like, I would like to hear Jesus preach a sermon on the Mount.

The disciples heard the greatest preacher deliver one of the greatest, probably the greatest sermon in all of eternity. And do you know what the disciples asked Jesus to teach them? To pray. Brothers and sisters, are you praying in such a way that People would ask you to teach them to pray. Your children hear you pray and say, would you teach me to pray?

It is the greatest battle of your flesh to pray. I love, a few weeks ago I listened to a Paul Washer sermon where he said, there are no great men of God. There are only feeble and weak men whom God has redeemed and chosen to use. And his application was, is that when we go to the Puritans and the great men, or the men whom God has used greatly for His work. And I read of how they prayed, and prayed for hours.

And I think it was, I can't remember who it was, if it was Martin Lloyd Jones or if it was, I can't remember, but one of these great men was late to a meeting and I think an hour or two late and the meeting was about over and they said, where have you been? You were supposed to speak and he said, this morning I had a far superior appointment. I got lost in prayer. Now I look at him and I say, I wish I could be like him. And yet the point what Paul Washer was bringing out was is Martin Lloyd Jones, or I'm probably misquoting the person, he also wrestled his flesh.

Prayer is work. Our culture says everything's got to be easy, or we're not going to do it. Prayer is not easy. Prayer is work. These great men or these men didn't have a special calling.

They were just men who were devoted to seeking Christ, to seeking God. Thirdly, prayer is our great privilege and proof of belief. Hear me again this morning, brothers and sisters, prayer is our great privilege. Look at Romans 10, 14 through 17. How then will they call on Him whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe on Him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear unless someone is preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us.

So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Now, when we look at this text, we can see a pattern of how those come to know Christ. And in the text, it's actually listed in reverse order. So if we go backwards through it, we find that there is someone who has sent, and that person preaches, and what do they preach? A motivational speech, they preach the Word of God.

Amen. Thirdly, the person hears. Fourthly, the person believes. Notice the order again, The belief is before call. They believe, and because they believe, they then call.

They then pray to the Lord. They then call upon Him. And This morning, understand, brother or sister, what is typically normal for the one who is redeemed by Christ. One of your first calls to action after you believe on the name of Christ, after you repent and trust Him, After He has changed your heart, what is the first thing that we see that you do? Is you call upon Christ.

Your first action is almost always, after belief, is to pray. Now this morning I would suggest to you, after you come to a saving faith in Christ, this calling is the first calling that God hears positively. We find in John 931 it says, we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Proverbs 28, 9 it says, If one turns away his ear from the hearing of the law, even his prayer is an abomination. We live in a world that you post your problems to social media, and you have whole lists of people saying, I will pray for you.

Most of which don't know Christ at all. And can I tell you what all of those prayers are? They are abominations to the Lord. And young man or young woman or anyone in here, if you don't know Christ, your prayers are offensive to Him. What do they say in schools?

There will always be prayer in schools as long as there's tests. It's a hill of manure. I don't know why, if you don't know Christ, it does you no good. In fact, you're offending God right before you take a test. Because you want Him to help you with something and you won't even repent and come to Him in repentance and faith.

You want to treat Him as if He is your genie in the bottle. God, I have a test today. Help me with this so I can get back to whatever it is I'm doing. But Hear this, brothers and sisters. When you and I were born into this world, when you and I were in the position of where when Christ said, He knew what was in the heart of man.

He knew it. When you were living with a heart of depravity. When you hated God. When you were His enemy. When you willfully sinned against Him.

When you accumulated sin after sin after sin after sin. And you loved your sin. When you shook your fist at God and you said, I will be sovereign over my life, I will decide what I do with my life. I'm not going to be told by anyone what I will do. God sent His Son who did live a perfect life, who did walk in obedience, who did keep the law perfectly, who never lied, who never stole, who never coveted, who never took the Lord's name in vain, whom never put himself above God, whom always submitted to him, whom always put him first, whom never bowed before an idol, whom never put anything else above God that He was of ultimate importance, whom never dishonored His mother or His father.

Think of that, parents. Think of how convicting your child would be if they never sinned against you. I'd have to say they're not like their dad. Something's wrong. Christ never did any of this.

And when I counsel with people, and they have whatever their problem is, it's almost always I go to this place, because This is actually what is ultimate. It is our relationship with Christ, and understanding what He has done for us. And you know what I do? I write down the Ten Commandments, and I go to each one of them, And I explain it, and I say, this is what it means to keep this, and this is what it means to break this. How many times do you think you've broken this commandment?

Let's just take an easy one to understand. How many times Have you told a lie? Because one lie makes you a liar, and the Bible says all liars will have their part in the lake of fire. But a lot of people will say, well, there's some white lies in there, and I'll say, okay, let's analyze this. Let's just say you only told three lies per week, and you are 50 years old.

Let's add these up. It looks like you've sinned against God several hundred thousand times. Let's go on to the next commandment. Do You think you're still good? It's not that you just lied here and there.

It's that he's keeping a record and every one of them deserves his wrath. Every one of them demonstrates that you are his enemy. Every one of them would demonstrate that if he is good and if he is just, he must punish you. And he must punish you perfectly. And if God is perfectly just and if He is perfect in His punishment, hell not only makes sense, anything less doesn't make sense, because you've sinned against Him.

And yet while you were sinners, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. The punishment that you deserve for hundreds of thousands and probably millions of sin against God. It's not just little. It's not just that, well, I'm pretty good compared to my neighbor, but thousands and thousands of infractions against a holy God are on your account. You have no way to redeem yourself.

You have no way. You could feed the hungry of the earth till they were full every day for the rest of your life, and it wouldn't even make an idol of difference, because you are such a guilty sinner. When you stand before the judge, your list is so long that your shame will be, where does the end come? That is how much an enemy of God you were, if you're in Christ. This morning, the great news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, God's Son, came to the earth, took upon the flesh, did what you could not do, yet still was man, was still tempted in every way, was still, he still knows what you go through.

And yet, went to the cross. And we just read how he is praying to the Father. He knows what's coming. He knows it's not going to be fun. It wasn't a walk in the park.

He's praying, God if there's another way, could be a great time to change this up. He said, but not my will, yours be done, let you be glorified. What you and I deserve in God's wrath, what would take us an eternity to pay for, was condensed and multiplied by the number of those who had come to know Him, and it was poured out upon Him by the Father, and it pleased the Father to do so, because it demonstrated to the world that He is a good God, that He is a patient God, that He is a merciful God, that He is a graceful God. And this morning, for all those who repent and trust in Christ alone, that payment will be applied to your account. And the good works that Christ did on the earth, His perfect righteousness that He accumulated onto Himself, the works that He did, the works actually matter to Him because they actually are works.

He actually is doing amazing and great things, and none of it's tainted by sin. All of that can be credited into your account. And therefore today, if you are in Christ, your prayers are no longer an abomination because the Father is looking down and if you're in Christ, He's looking upon you with no sin. Your sin was placed in Christ's account and the righteousness of Christ. That's how God looks at you, brothers and sisters.

That's why your prayers are no longer an abomination. And in fact, if we are praying rightly, it's as if Christ is praying. Now, I tell you all of this to bring us back to prayer. All of this was accomplished for your salvation, but also that your prayers might be heard. It is a great privilege to pray.

It is a great privilege to be heard by God. It's a great treasure. And how willing and how fast is our flesh willing or ready to bury this treasure in a field and get on with things? It's as if you've won the lottery and you just left it in your account. It's as if you won the lottery and you buried it in a field.

What the world doesn't have, the world doesn't have God's ear, the world doesn't have the ability for God to hear their prayers. Brothers and sisters, you have. How dare we not come to the Father? How dare we boast in our flesh that we can fix things, we can do this. We have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

We have the sovereign God who can point to a mountain and move it. He is the God who hears you. He's the God who loves you. He's the God who redeemed you. Draw near to Him, saints, in prayer.

Draw near to Him. If you don't know Christ, you are missing an incredible treasure you're missing eternal life friend there is nothing you have in this world that's worth it. In fact, everything the world has to offer you is fake life. That the moth steals and destroys, rusts, rusts, and the moth steal and destroy. You're eluded by fake promises and false idols.

Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. Since Then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God Let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He is a good God. He has purchased eternal life.

He offers it to you. If you're in Christ, God hears you. Draw near to him. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Father, when we think of how good you have been to us, your perfect goodness abounding end, that you have saved us, that you've credited us with a foreign righteousness, that you have forgiven our sin, and that you love us, and you desire us to draw near, to share our woes, to share our requests, to give us wisdom as we cry out for it, to give us mercy, to give us knowledge, and Father, to change us to be more like our Savior. Father, I pray that we would be like Him in prayer. That we wouldn't be so busy with life, that we would take regular times to get away and draw near to you, to cry out to you, to cry out for our neighbors and our children, to cry out that you might destroy the flesh within us, to cry out that we might glorify you. Father, help us in this today we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.