In his sermon 'Pray Always - Part 1,' Douglas Campbell delves into 1 Thessalonians 5:17, urging believers to 'pray without ceasing.' He emphasizes that continuous prayer does not mean literal nonstop praying, but rather maintaining a constant readiness and eagerness to turn to God in every situation. Drawing from the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, Campbell underscores the need to persistently bring our requests to God, not as a means to manipulate His will, but to align ourselves with His purposes. He warns against relying solely on human strength and understanding, highlighting the insufficiency of knowledge without the Holy Spirit's intervention. By examining Peter's transformation after Pentecost, Campbell illustrates the profound impact of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers to live out their faith boldly. He challenges the congregation to integrate prayer into every aspect of their lives, advocating for a mindset that seeks God first in all circumstances. Campbell concludes that prayer is essential for applying God's Word, fostering true spiritual growth, and ensuring that the church remains vibrant and faithful in its mission.

If you would turn with me this morning to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. We come to the end of this first letter to the Thessalonians, and there's this morning we come to final instructions and a benediction verse Thessalonians 5 verse 12 Says we ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in 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 and Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil let's pray Heavenly Father we come to you this morning this morning, Father in awe of who you are, in awe of your omnipotence, in awe of your in all of your creation, in all of your knowledge, and Father, in awe that you would love sinners like us. The Father, not only do you say you love us, but you put that love in action by sending your Son to show us who you are, and to take what rightfully belonged to us, your wrath upon Himself, and then give to us what rightly belong to your Son, your glory. Father, we sit here in awe in your patience and your kindness and your grace that you offer this to all those who turn and trust in you. And Father, this morning as we come to Your Word, we're reminded of the grace You've given us to send Your Son, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And Father, this morning, that word is before us, that revelation of you, that revelation of who you are, and that revelation of how we might glorify you. And so Father, this morning we cry, and we plead that you would make us more like you, that we would become obedient to your word. And that Father, at the end of the day and at the end of the year and at the end of this life, may we cry out sola deo gloria for the glory of God who redeemed us. Father, help us. We pray your Holy Spirit would conform us.

Father, we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. This morning as I have read these final instructions in the first letter to the Thessalonians, this morning I am not... My goal isn't to go through this and analyze and exposit all of this text.

It's simply to give you some framework for one verse in this text. And it's one of the shorter verses in the Bible, yet I believe we could spend years diving into it. And that text is 1 Thessalonians 517. It says this, it says, pray without ceasing. Again, pray without ceasing.

We find some example of this. This does not mean that this morning as we read this verse, if we're to be obedient, we must all stop and we must all stay where we're at and continue to close our eyes and pray until we pass out from a lack of hydration, I guess. That's not at all what this means, but Jesus gives us a parable to help us to understand this in Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8. It says, And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. So let me remind you this morning before we read this parable, look what the purpose of this parable is, that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

To pray without ceasing is to continually pray, to pray always, to be eager to pray. It's not this never-ending prayer, but it's as we go through our day, we're reminded and often we come to the Lord in prayer. And when we're... Our flesh is tempted to lose heart, When something happens in the day to where we begin to lose heart about something or to be discouraged, our first reaction isn't to do the manly thing and take matters into our own hands as us men like to do very often. Our first reaction should be to pray and to not lose heart.

Continuing on in verse 2, it says, He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected Him. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to Him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused. But afterwards he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming." And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not, listen listen closely, and will not God give justice to his elect who cried to him day and night will he delay long over them I tell you he will give justice to them speedily nevertheless when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth Now I don't believe as any parable we can go into them too deeply and we can make assumptions or we can make understandings that aren't there. We've already heard what the point of this parable is.

The point of this parable isn't that we can bug God into getting what we want. That would actually be heretical. That would actually be very, very sad. If anything, I think it's James chapter four, James chapter four, somewhere around verse seven, I think, that it talks about how our prayers aren't answered because they're selfish prayers They're prayers that appease the flesh and so when we come to God, it's not that I can say God I've decided today that I need a brand new Ferrari and I'm going to pray every minute of every hour until it shows up. That's foolishness.

You can't get that teaching from this parable. You can pull it out of context and get it, but that's not what this is about. What is it about? It's that we should repeatedly bring our requests to God. That when we have a problem, when let's take for instance Brody's bike breaks down and he goes to the Lord in prayer and then he starts to go about fixing it, because we should do that as well, but if he goes about fixing it and continually has problems and yet he never comes to the Lord again.

See it's the same as if our young one of our children if their bicycle breaks and they come to their dad and and the older they get the more I start saying okay your bike is broke this time I will I will be with you and I will tell you how to fix it and maybe the next time it's I'll give you some advice and you can fix it yourself now if I give the ice and they try and it doesn't work out, I hope that they come back and ask again. But this morning I would ask you, is this our natural reaction? Can I tell you what our flesh's natural reaction is? Can I tell you what my flesh's natural reaction is? I have a problem.

I'll continue this theme. My bicycle breaks down. What do I do? I fix it. And if I can't fix it, I go to the bike shop and I get the part I need.

And I try to fix it, and yet there's still a problem. And I go to the bike shop, and I get another thing, and there's still a problem. And I fight it, and I fight it, and I fight it. And all of a sudden I'm at my wits end, and I say, God, Help me with my bike! Please help me with my bike!" What a sad pastor.

I only come to God when I'm at my wit's end. I only come to God when I try my strength first, but I would have to believe that many of you are the very same. And in fact, I fell into this over and over and over again, that whenever there's a problem, I quickly go to my ability, and I will try my ability, and I will try, and I will try, and I will try, and at some point God in His kindness, and in His mercy, He will allow me to get to a point where I realize that I can't do this. And why is that His kindness and why is that His mercy? Because I need taught to go to Him.

And we need to be taught to go to Him, not at our wit's end, but at the beginning, and over and over and over, coming back to Him, coming to Him again and again and again. Now imagine someone in your family, they do something that's deeply offensive to you. What is your reaction? Is it to say, well I'm going to call them and I'm going to set things straight? Or is it, God, I need to come to you, and I need to thoroughly come to you in prayer until that time that I'm confident in your will when we're offended is our first reaction to fix it?

Is our first reaction to retaliate? It shouldn't be. Our first reaction should be to go to our Father. Again we're reminded of this in Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. Brother Greg read this in the call to worship.

It says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God in everything amen everything I think you I can't remember I believe it was Martin Luther that said something that I remember the quote, and I try to play it in my head very often. He said, I don't know if it was him. One of the great reformers said, I have so much to do today that I must spend an extra hour in prayer. That's the correct viewpoint. Do you know what our Flesh's viewpoint is?

If you're like me, I have so much to do today, I'll pray at the end of the day because I really don't have time right now. That's a silly viewpoint, but our flesh is good at convincing us of it in everything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And we find again in Colossians 412, Ephraim who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of God. When is the last time that you struggled in prayer for someone?

I'm not saying pray for, I'm not saying put them on your list and start your morning with praying to God and going quickly through your list and getting through them and saying, God I prayed for my lost neighbor today, but when have you struggled in prayer? When have you wrestled with God? When have you, like Jacob I believe, wrestled with God until you knew that you got through. You knew that He heard you. You knew that you wrestled with him to the point that your prayers have gone forth.

This is more than a five minute prayer. Some of you, it would do you well to get away for a week and just wrestle with God. Really wrestle with Him. Really seek Him. But it doesn't have to be a week.

One of the things that I, as I have struggled and prayed and considered in the past couple of weeks is I've taken some time off, partially to spend some time with my family and partially to seek after God. Is that if real deep prayer is something that is committed in my life, if I'm doing more than just trying to check the box and get on with the day, but if I'm really trying to seek after God day after day after day after day, I don't need to take lots of time away. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that from time to time, and I'm not saying we shouldn't relax from time to time, but most of us live in a state of prayer famine. And we'll go into more of why that's happening. And this morning, going forth into this message, I also want you to understand that this could take hours and that this will take hours and hours and hours and hours to deeply look into the idea of prayer, to deeply understand it.

The past seven years in Elveston I have been committed to, I have served wholeheartedly into a season of teaching the truth regarding salvation. And we've spent much time looking at it. One, the reasoning is, obviously, as we go through the book of Romans, it's to illuminate, it's to help false converts see that they are false converts, and it's to help real converts to see that they are real converts. Any time in history where we have a time period where we start to stray from Scripture, we ultimately need to know God, and we need to know Him specifically in salvation, in justification, in regeneration. Apart from these things, I can throw all kinds of biblical principles at you, but if you aren't born again, they will do you no good.

And so we must take a long hard look at what does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be made right with God? What does it mean to actually know Him? And what does it really mean to be on your way to heaven? It's very different from what our world teaches.

And so ultimately as we come to the Word of God, as we begin to refocus our eyes back on it, our top goal must be to understand regeneration. To understand God with a saving faith and not with a fake assurance, not with a fake understanding that leads to a point where we hear Christ say, depart from me, I never knew you. But at this point, seven years into ministry, as I've taken time to seek God and to seek His Word, I'm coming to understand that God is leading this church into a different season. That as we come to the Word of God and as we know true biblical salvation, one thing that we must understand rightly is that to come to Christ, you must know Him in truth. And the truth is the Word of God.

But after that comes this understanding that I can read to you the Word of God and I can preach it to you day after day after day after day, but if the Holy Spirit doesn't intervene, you will sit here and you will say, good sermon, pastor. It will have no effect. Look at Colossians, oh sorry, Hosea 4.6, it says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

Now this is a warning in the Old Testament, but what it brings us to understand is you will be destroyed for your lack of knowledge. And so as God has led me to come to the text the first season or the first seven years in Elveston, my desire or my ambition was to bring you knowledge of God. And this morning we've spent years going through the Book of Romans. Each of you, if you've been here, you essentially have a college level education in the book of Romans. If you don't, it's very evident that it's not the knowledge you need, it's the Holy Spirit intervening is what you need.

Paul Washer said, there's a scary thing to me about this Reformed Puritan biblical sovereign grace resurgence. Oh, how I love the doctrine. We rejoice in the Puritan doctrine, but do we love the Puritan piety? See, here's the danger in Reformed doctrine. And I agree with Paul Washer.

I love the Reformed doctrine and the Puritan doctrine. And the reason I love it is because I believe it's what Scripture teaches. And it's very evident that it is what Scripture teaches. But here is the danger. It's that we can become so knowledgeable, we can know so much, that it can actually become idolatrous, when knowledge of the truth is more important than Christ.

And you say, well, that doesn't make any sense. But yet it does. Bible colleges are filled with men who have great knowledge, who don't know Christ. Pulpits in America are filled with men who know much of Scripture. And yet, if it's only a job to them, it's because they don't know Christ.

If you remember several years ago when we were going through Romans chapter 8 and we come to some very hard doctrine, very hard doctrine to swallow, And I put a graph on the screen to try to illuminate something to you. And this graph was how many people believe this doctrine. And specifically, it was within the Presbyterian Church. And it exchanged or it separated the people in the church versus the pastor. I believe this analysis was on the doctrine of election or predestination, one that's hard to deal with.

And you saw in the graph that inside the average person in the church, I think it was less than 10%, believed this. But do you know what it showed about the pastors? Almost 90% of them did. Almost 90% of them did. This doctrine is vital to your life.

It's vital in understanding and knowing God. And those in the pulpit understood it, yet they didn't teach it because they knew, I'm guessing, they knew it was offensive. Or it's that they assumed they knew lots of facts, and yet they didn't see how they applied to your life. Paul Walsh continued and he says, apart from prayer, abiding, enduring, believing, or apart from prayer, abiding, enduring, believing prayer, we are dead as a doorknob with all of our doctrine. You hear me, brothers?

We can know everything there is to know about the text. I can have all kinds of letters after my name. And if I don't pray, this is idolatrous. I don't know Christ. And hear me, hear me rightly.

I know this problem. The reason I know it is because it resides within me. Listen, even in my, you know what, Paul Washer said this, he said, do you know what my flesh hates more than anything? It hates to pray. It hates it more than Bible study.

Why does it hate it more than Bible study? Because I could study this really well, and I could go preach on Sunday morning, and I could impress people with my Bible knowledge. So in a sense, there is at least some part of Bible study that my flesh can cling on to and say, yes, pride, pride, sorry, pride, pride, I get some pride out of this. I'll get to know more than the other person. I'll show them during Sunday school.

They'll think I'm the smartest guy ever. My flesh is just like pole washers. I do like to study. Some days I don't, but most of the time I do. Sometimes it's for great reasons, sometimes it's not.

But do you know what my flesh never gets stroked over? If I do it rightly, it never gets stroked over prayer. Because if I do it rightly nobody knows I'm doing it and it doesn't gain me knowledge it doesn't and according to my flesh it essentially gains me nothing if I understand it rightly, but it does. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't know doctrine. We should know it well.

It doesn't let us off the hook. It doesn't say, well, I don't need to study the Bible, I just need to pray. That's not true. We need them both. So before we go into it too much, let me, as we've touched on some of these topics, let me answer some hard questions for you regarding prayer.

Because I kind of went there and didn't mean to so much, but you and I believe what the Bible says even in Philippians chapter 4. Did you notice that? Or was it in Philippians chapter 4? No, it was at the end of that parable. That for God's elect, He will answer, right?

So we come to that word elect again. So let me answer a question that's hard, and I'm sorry for repeating. If God is sovereign, is God sovereign? What do you think, Sam? Yes, God is sovereign.

That's a big word that just means he's in control of everything. His will, his plans will not be thwarted. They will not be deviated from. God doesn't have a plan B. That his plans are going forth as he intended, and they will not get derailed.

And so if that's the case, why pray? It's the same hyper-Calvinism thing we come to with evangelism. If God has chosen those whom He will save, why do we need to go tell people about Christ? Because He's going to save who He's chosen, right? You remember back that far?

We wrestled with those things. So why pray? And here's the answer. Here's why we pray. One, I could say, and this is what I say about evangelism too, the simple answer because you were told to.

We're obedient. We do it. But let me give you a more thought through answer. God's will, He will accomplish the end, right? God's going to accomplish His will.

At the end of it, when we think of salvation, at the end of it, everyone whom God has chosen to save will be saved. Amen? So typically that's where our mind stops, and we say, well, that's hard to deal with. That's hard to reconcile. That's hard for us to say, God, you're in complete control in that area.

And yet those whom seem to struggle with it the most and those whom would even deny this in some sense or another, they would pray for their friends to be saved. They would say, well, God isn't in control of everything, yet, and God doesn't control people like puppets, but God, could you control my neighbor and save them? It's completely contradictory. If you don't believe God's sovereign, if that's offensive to you, I have no idea why you would pray. You're asking God to do what you accuse Him of being wrong, And that's not where I'm at today.

So when our mind stops at, God accomplishes his end, right? That's where I'm going with that. If God has chosen those whom will be saved at the end, all of those will be saved. If our mind stops there, it's very hard to reconcile. It's very hard to deal with.

But let me give you a key to the puzzle that will help you in this. God isn't only sovereign over the end, He's also sovereign over the means to that end. Do you hear me? What that means is, if God has chosen... Let's just say somebody comes in here and the doctor told them they have two days to live, and they want to obey obedience and they want to come to the church and for the elders to pray the prayer of faith over them.

As we look at God's will, the means to God doing this, if He so chooses, the means to God healing them is according to His Word. We're obedient to His Word. The elders pray the prayer of faith. If God heals them and they don't die in two days, did the prayer have something to do with it? Yes.

It was the means that God chose to carry out His will. Does that make sense? So not only is God sovereign over the end, He's sovereign over the means. And if you and I choose not to pray, it could be strong evidence that God has already said no. It's the same with discipling your children.

If you will not disciple your children, it's strong evidence that God may have chosen for them to not be elect. Because God is sovereign over the means. But if you find yourself discipling your children and praying for them and pouring your heart into loving them and teaching them the Word of God, it's that God is sovereign over these means and it's that he is using these means to accomplish the end. Now I know this is hard, but coming back to prayer, because God's will will not be thwarted does that excuse us from praying? Absolutely not.

Does prayer change God's will? No. Do you hear me? Now this seems like it deflates your balloon. Does prayer change God's will?

No. He has one will. It doesn't get forwarded. It doesn't get derailed. But if you find yourself praying, It's evidence that this is the means to which God will accomplish His will.

So should we take a break from prayer because God is sovereign? If anything, we should pray more. He should encourage us to pray more and wholeheartedly. 1st Thessalonians 1 5 through 7, pray without ceasing. The first thing that I wanted to share with you this morning is that God uses prayer to apply His Word.

Now what do I mean by that? When we preach the Word of God as we're commanded to, we know that it is one of the means by which God brings forth or changes people or gives them new life. And yet, God uses prayer to apply His Word. What that means is this, if I simply as a pastor came before you, and I shared with you the Word of God day after day after day, and you don't change, If my faith is in myself, I become very discouraged. I begin to say, why isn't this working?

And let me give you a deeper understanding of this. There are, so people say this all the time, they say, you know I've read the Bible a hundred times and it's like I've never seen this verse before. Has that happened to you? I've never understood it in this way. In fact, I can't remember who it was.

They used the illustration of an older lady that lost her husband, and she was very sad, and struggled very deeply with it. And the pastor would bring her to Scripture, and he would read the text to her that those widows who were husbandless, or women who were husbandless, it's that God Himself steps in as their husband. And it was of no comfort. And week after week, He would bring her to this text again, and it was still of no comfort. And one day she came to church, and she was a different person.

Her mourning was over, and there was joy upon her face. And the pastor said, hey, what's happened? You seem happy today. And she said, look at this verse. God has stepped in as my husband.

Haven't you read this before? The pastor shared that verse with her lots of times, but it was different. Now the Holy Spirit has made this verse become alive. It's been applied. And the same thing, brothers and sisters and friends, the same thing happens to each of us.

See, I can share the biblical gospel with you week after week after week after week. And as the pastor, and I've told the elders, I said, you know, we've spent five-plus years in Romans, and it's so discouraging when someone comes to me and just says the craziest things. Crazy things like, well, and I've said this a lot of times. They'll say, well yeah, the guy's, no, I don't know if anybody said this, but yeah, the guy is beating on his wife, but he came forward in BBS one time, so he surely saved. Your pastor hurts inside.

He says, and I think to myself, have they not heard anything in Romans? Have they missed this? We have, what's, and I'm going off maybe on a personal end, what's the point of the hymn sayings? Anybody know? It's to glorify God primarily, right?

It's to share the Gospel with a multitude who do not know it. And that seems shocking to some because most of the people are people from all kinds of different churches. But Brothers and sisters, the Bible says the way is narrow. Just because someone goes to church doesn't mean they're a Christian. And if you've read through and you've studied the book of Romans, it will terrify you about those sitting in churches.

Because it will become real to you that it says, many will come to Him and say, Lord, Lord, and He will say, depart from me, I never knew you. As we go through the book of 1 John, we begin to see that not only do Christians claim Christianity, but it affects their life. It affects their life in such a way that they can't continue on sinning. Now, understand that rightly, they can't continue on in the practice of sin. They are born again.

They are different people. They are people born of the kingdom of God. And brothers and sisters, if you still think that because someone goes to church, that means everything is good, even when there isn't this change, The only thing I can do for you at this point is pray that God would apply His Word to your heart, that you would understand it rightly. And in fact, that is where I believe God is leading us as a church. That we spent seven years learning deeply the Word of God in regards to salvation, in regards to regeneration, in regards to justification.

Now church, we must pray. What did Christ say? That his house will be a house of prayer. And brothers and sisters, hear me rightly, this is probably the hardest obstacle you personally and the church as a whole can overcome. Why?

Because it's where the rubber meets the road. It's more than talk. When we think of, when we look at ourselves in light of eternity, and remember how many times have we talked about this? That we have to stop seeing with temporal eyes, and we have to stop living our lives with temporal blinders on, but we must live them in light of eternity. And if we are living our lives in light of eternity, we will understand that there is more going on than what we can see.

And if there's more going on than what we can see, our only hope is Christ. Our only hope is God. He's our only hope. He is the only hope that I have that will change hearts. He's the only hope that I have that He will change my heart, that He will change me to desire to pray more.

And I hear of all these men, and I was so blessed a couple of weeks ago to hear a message by Brother Washer, and he started with this. He said, there are no great men of God. We read of the Puritans, we read of Charles Spurgeon, whom I deeply love and respect. We hear of all these men. But the greatness that wasn't in them, the greatness was in Christ.

And hear me brothers and sisters, We read of men who prayed for hours, and we think those were special men. I can tell you as your pastor, I think these were special men. I sure wish I could be like them, but God just doesn't lead me down these roads, I guess. How could these men pray the entire night? How could this happen except for God intervening, I guess.

But listen to what Brother Washer said. He said, prayer is work. Brothers and sisters, if you are going to be good at it, it's not because God has given you the special ability is because you learn to work. It's hard work. It's committed work.

Yet it's amazing work. Amen. God uses prayer to apply His word. If we want to be a church that's more like Christ, we must be a church that prays. If we want to be a church that is sanctified and our people are hearing the Word and also being changed by the Holy Spirit, we must be a church that prays.

In fact, if we want to be a church that goes forth and doesn't die out like what appears to be 95% of American religious buildings are going to do in the next 20 years, we must be a church that prays. So let me illustrate with you in Scripture, and I know we're getting low on time, and I have lots of pages left, and so we're gonna divide this up a little bit. Look at Peter, Matthew 26, 30 through 35, And when they had sung a hymn, they sent out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, You will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter answered him, though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.

Jesus said to him, truly I tell you this very night before the rooster crows you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, even if I must die with you I will not deny you. And all the disciples said the same. Now fast forward a little bit in Matthew 26 to verse 69. It says, Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Galilean.

But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again, he denied it with an oath, I do not know the man. After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man.

And immediately the rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. Now this is Peter who walked with Christ for almost three years. If there was anyone who knew the Word of God, it was Peter. He knew details of Christ that you and I can only wish to know.

He knew more than the words that were written here. I would think it's safe to say Peter knows Christ better than most theologians. Are you hearing me? But look at the reaction of Peter. Now, so backing up, knowing all of the correct facts is a good thing, But if it's the only thing, it's nothing.

If you only know about Christ and you don't know Him, it's nothing. It would be better if you didn't, because it's going to be an extra weight of judgment in hell. Are you hearing me? Knowing Christ intently and in depth, These are good things, but if left to themselves, they're nothing. Now look at the application of prayer in Peter's life.

Look at Acts chapter 1 verse 14. It says, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers so we find just before Pentecost The disciples are together devoting themselves to prayer. So they've got the knowledge. Now they're devoting themselves to prayer. In Acts chapter 2, we find what happens.

It says, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and Rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit It began to speak in other tongues of the Spirit gave them utterance. Now taking a pause brothers and sisters if you have come to know Christ if you are born again you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Are you hearing me? This is what changed Peter. He is now filled with the Holy Spirit.

Look, it says, Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven, And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elminites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Pargia and Parm-Haleah, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, the visitors of Rome, both Jews and proselytites, Cretians and Arabians. We hear them telling in our tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?

But others mocked and said they are filled with new wine. Now here we come to the good part. I mean that's a really good part. But here we come to the good part. Look at the change of Peter.

Peter is a new man. He's different. But Peter, who was just a coward a few months back, Peter standing with the eleven, Instead of denying Christ, he lifts up his voice addressing them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And your old men shall see dreams even on my male servants and female servants and these days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God, with mighty works and wonders and signs, that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and for knowledge of God.

You crucified and killed before the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand and I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.

You have made known to me the paths of life you will make full of gladness with your patience." Peter continues, Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried in his tomb with us to this day, being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, And of that we are all witnesses Being therefore exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for David did not ascend to the into the heavens But he himself says the Lord says to my Lord Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." This is, sisters, this is Peter with the Holy Spirit.

This is Peter with more than just knowledge. This is Peter with God, the Holy Spirit, residing in him. And if you are in Christ, this Holy Spirit resides in you. And apart from his intervention, apart from the Holy Spirit's intervention, this is just text. It's just an academic pursuit.

You can know all there is to know about it. Without the Holy Spirit, it will be just words. And that's where we are this morning. Brothers and sisters, if we don't understand this, and if we don't pray, because If this is true, praying is just as important as preaching. This isn't a lower preaching, I believe it's a very high thing.

But praying is just as important. And I reminded the elders last week that as elders our two chief functions are to pray and to teach. We do lots of other things and lots of other things are things that we can do and it's easy for us to do that. But if we neglect prayer, we're neglecting who we think is in charge. We're neglecting who we think does the changing.

And my friends, brothers, and sisters, is of that of which I am guilty before you. I come to you asking for your forgiveness. We must pray. And I don't mean just in the morning for a while and at night for a while. Church, we must pray.

We must. I've wrestled with so many things in the past two years. I've sometimes I'm transparent with the elders and sometimes I don't talk about it a lot. I have foolishly told my wife multiple times I would do just about anything to undo falling on the ice. I'm so foolish.

I'm almost finished, but I was helping my brother Eric last week. I've known him for a long time and he, God has used lots of people in the last few weeks to teach me things. He was helping him with a job that he was doing. He was telling the house owner where they needed The internet extended. He said, I brought Doug with me because he's the master mechanic and he can figure all these things out.

He said, two years ago he hit his head and it's finally made him like us. So before that, He could learn anything. He could do anything. He could... When I was a senior in high school, they made us all take the armed services ASVAB test.

And two weeks later, the Navy was knocking on our door with a nuclear engineering pamphlet wanting me to be a nuclear engineer and brothers and sisters I don't say that to my pride, it's been a detriment to me. Because it's taught me to depend upon myself. Two years ago I hit my head and I've... I'm heartily injured. And yet the turmoil within me, because I know that things are different, I know that it's harder, I know that I have to study more, I know that I forget.

And it's caused me to draw near to Christ. When I hit my head two years ago, it was God's grace. I needed it. Brothers and sisters, if you are truly in Christ, what's it going to take to get you to pray? It's easy to say we stop trying to think in the temporal, we try to think with the eternal, but if we really believe it, we will pray like it's nobody's business, as Todd Freel says.

When we go to evangelize, we should spend just as much time praying as we do evangelizing. When we come to preach, we should be spending just as much time praying as we do preaching, and probably more. Otherwise, we get a head like this guy does and he begins to think that he changes people and that he can outsmart this situation. Hear me brothers and sisters, when you're going through a hard time, it's God's grace. It's His grace.

Don't let it drag you down as it has me. Don't let it put your family through turmoil as they watch their husband fall into depression. Because he can't study for a CDL test for 20 minutes and go past the test. So foolish. Don't put your trust in yourself.

God will do what it takes to bring you to Him, to bring you to your knees. It is good. Brothers and sisters, trust Him. Trust Him. If you trust him, you will pray.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your mercy. Mercy. My brother read as we started, and if we take all things to you, if we learn to rest in you, if we learn to depend upon you, you will give us a peace that passes all understanding. We are so thankful for We are so thankful for your word.

We're so thankful to know you. We're so thankful to know about you. But Father, you have called all those whom you made new to not just know about you, but to know you, to walk with you, to talk with you. I can't remember the how the verse goes exactly but your word says that we prepared the chariots that you who wins the battle. Mother I pray that we would apply that to our ministries, to our families, to our evangelism, to our hardships.

To our hardships. Father, I pray that you would give us the faith to trust in you and not in ourselves. I pray that you would destroy our self-confidence, to destroy it, to obliterate it. That God, all of our confidence would be in you. All of our boasting would be in you, because we would rightly see the world.

We would rightly see our surroundings. We would rightly come to you. Father, if you have saved us, we are a part of your family. You are our Father. Remind us of that, Father, as we go through this world.

Help us to sit often at your feet, bringing you our troubles, and then leaving there just just as Hannah, leaving there with changed faces. Because our Father has this. It's his will that will be done And he loves us Father thank you. I ask that you would change us make us a people of prayer Make us a Church of Prayer we pray. In Jesus' name.