In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having a childlike faith and perspective. He uses the story of the blind beggar in Mark's Gospel as an example. The beggar was not praying or supplicating, but simply begging for what he needed. The preacher criticizes the mindset of spiritual beggars who only seek enough to get by and are not interested in true transformation or revolution. He encourages believers to strive for perfection in their works and to continue serving and leading others until the end.

And I always think people are so wonderful to sit and listen for so long. I admire you very much. Anyway, Ephesians and chapter 5 this time. We're going to go and try and go towards the end and look at that passage on prayer. And I want to do that by a little route, looking, starting in chapter 5 and verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and hath given himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, all covetousness, let it not be want named among you, as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving a thanks. For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye therefore partakers with them, for you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Amen. We could read down, but let's just go back and look at this, to pick a little word out in verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. We've looked at this word, dear, a bit, quite a bit. A little joke between me and Chris, don't jest, but anyway, Chris and I have been talking about dearly beloved, whether or not to have it in the marriage ceremony, haven't we? It's just an inclusion, so that word there, I think it's there, isn't it? Dearly beloved. Anyway, it's only a detail. As dear children. As dear children. You know that when we get on to some of these questions, as you look into the season, one of the things you can easily feel in reading a book like this, especially when you get towards the end, is that the book deals with very big issues. Very big issues. Of course, the Bible does. You can't get more important issues than this book deals with. You can't. And as you look through it, you can easily get a little bit heavy, a little bit over-serious, take yourself too seriously, and miss some of the points. Here's one of the points, is that you must be a child. Now, if you're a child, you're okay. At least, most children are okay. Even some children lose their childhood too early, for various reasons. But if you're a child tonight, you're okay. But if you're not a child tonight, if you're over the age... What age did a child used to be a child? Well, it doesn't matter. Let me just tell you, if you're not a child, if you're over a certain age, I won't tell you what age that is. We won't go into ages tonight, don't worry. But at a certain age, you cease to be a child. You become an adult. You leave home. You begin to fend for yourself. You start to become, well, a man or whatever it is, and so life goes on. But the thing is this, that the tragic thing is when you actually come to a stage where you lose your childhood. At least, you lose certain things that are good about being a child. One of the things you lose with being, becoming older, is that you become unable to be simple and soft and so gently submissive. And you become one of those people that are difficult to love. One of the things about growing up is that it's harder to love a person who's grown up. I'm talking the world, of course, you know this. I'm talking the world. It's harder to love an adult and it's harder to reach them. Children respond so easily to love. Adults become, for some good reasons, mistrustful and close up. One of the marks of being an adult, really at least in the world, is that it's a person who is closed up and has shut down certain qualities of heart. Which we all have, potentially. But one of the problems of being an adult is that you shut yourself. And what the Bible says here, walk, be the better followers of God as dear children and walk in love. You know that Christ never lost his ability to be a child. He was always a child. He is still a child. He is still a child of the Father. He has no plans to ever leave his Father. He will never leave his Father. He will always be content just to be a son of God, or the Son of God. He'll always be content in being a child. But you see, when you've lost it, you must regain it. If you don't, you will not be saved. If you do not become a child, you will be lost. You must be converted and become a child. Let me read you a verse now, this time in the, you know, back to quotations. Could you look with me into Mark's Gospel and chapter 10? We'll come back to... You see, as I said, one of the conditions for facing the big issues of life is that you face them as a child. Strange, isn't it? You know, one of the greatest qualities of heart I think that God can ever give a man is childlikeness. It's to have a soft heart. The ability to say, well, you've been wrong. You know, we've been wrong many times. Many of us have done many foolish things and been very silly, before we were the Lord and since we were the Lord. And the ability to add up to it, quite simply, is a very good one. Let me call it a childlike quality. Please, let God give you a soft heart tonight. If you can't say, oh, I've been so wrong, you must learn it and you'd better start tonight. One of the greatest things that you could ever hear a person say really is, I've been wrong. I've never heard my father say it. Never. Never. I've heard him pass judgment on loads of things, but I've never heard him pass that judgment on himself. I was wrong. When did you last say it? When did you last realize the worst thing you can ever do is to hurt another person? You know, when I think back of the things I've done that are wrong, the worst thing I've ever done, since being a believer, is to hurt another person, by actions or words. I've done it. I've hurt people. I've hurt the Lord's people. I'm not saying it, obviously, you understand why I'm saying it to you. When did you last hurt somebody? Maybe it was years ago, but did you face up to it? You have to. You have to have that quality of being a child, to face up with his past. He's shared a lot of hardness and I invite you to do that tonight. I don't know any other thing. There's one thing, if you want to tuck that one away. Be a child. Just say it. Maybe it would be good to tell everybody. Help you break your heart open. In Norse gospel chapter 10, verse 13, they brought young children to him, that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them. When Jesus said he was much displeased and said to them, seek for the little children to come to me. Forbid them not. Whosoever touches the kingdom of God, there I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them and blessed them. Now, this is the ability of children. This is what Jesus did to them. They wanted Jesus to take hold of these children and bless them. And I don't know why they thought this was not really a child. They thought the church was not for children, so they wanted to get rid of the children. But you see, Jesus knew that really children are much, much more important than anybody ever knows. Certainly more than our generation knows. You know, you realize how much money is spent on children in our day, and yet you realize that that amount of money is really a cop-out for genuine love. And not many people have time for their children really. But even then, it's a strange thing. I think cultural things are very hard to understand. The way we treat children is very hard to understand what is right. Certainly in this day, it wouldn't have been the kindest treatment of children that we would have. It would have been a different culture. It's hard to see it, to see through it. But just let's go to this, that Jesus Christ wanted the children to come. When they actually got to him, notice what he did. And this is what children are like. He took them up in his arms. You can only do that to a child. Both of you are too big for me to do that. Maybe you're just a bit too big. He took them up in his arms, took them up, put his hands on them, and blessed them. How did he bless them? Did he say, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless you, my son. Did he say, what did he do? How did he bless them? Maybe he just took them up in his arms, and maybe there was just a little chuckle in his soul as he held them. Maybe it was just the warmth of his love. Certainly that was the greatest blessing that they had. He loved them. He held them in his wonderful arms. And I'm sure those children, whether or not they remembered him or not, not everybody remembers this touch of God, but they would have probably remembered this touch of God, don't know how long. Probably marked them out for quite some time, if not all their lives. This touch of God in their beings, in their physical bodies they felt it. And they just, you know how children do, if they find a person who really loves them, they can even snuggle up there, and you can get quite happy there. Now that is what you've got to do. All right? Hard, isn't it, doing to the King of God? No, it's so easy. You've just got to, you've got to, you've got to let Jesus wrap you up in his arms and love you. That's what you've got to do. Never become so sophisticated in your Christianity that you forget that what you should do as the foundation of your entering the Kingdom of God and eternal life is have a place in your life where you let God love you. All right? You know, I remember going to a family, it's, uh, in Africa this is, and I was in this pastor's house for about a week, and he had a son, and this son came and sat down beside me, sat down beside me on the chair, a little stool actually, I was sitting in this chair, and I reached down my arm and put it on his shoulder. Just a touch, just a touch. I don't know how many people have done it to him, but as he was touching on his shoulder, he didn't move. He followed me around from that day on. Every time I sat down, he was there. For a week, every time I went on, I wanted that little touch, I wanted a touch from somebody. Just a touch. And the day I left, he said, I'm going, and he stood there, and he wept and wept I didn't know how to leave, I didn't know what to do with myself, to leave him, you know. You should do that with children, but you should also let God do it with you. Let God just do that with you. Let God just take you up in his arms. You know when he says, prefer the little children to come to me, what he's also saying is, look, there's a child in you, let it come to me. That's what it means, let it come, let you, you, it's you. You put a great big barrel between you and Jesus Christ because you think he wants your belief. You think he wants something hard from you. All he wants is to let him love you. He will. But you may say, why doesn't he love me anyway? Yes, he does love you anyway, but you see, there's a difference between loving somebody and letting somebody. If you, if you were at home, if you grew up in a home where your father loved you, but never, ever, ever showed you love in any physical contact with you, it wouldn't make any difference at all that he loved you. He might even not exist if he didn't actually show you love. With his voice, with his word, with his touch. And the fact that God loves you on his throne could be just an academic fact, if in the end you will not let God love you. If you won't sit still and receive the love of God for yourself, it will be the answer to you. You may say, I can't believe. God knows you can't believe. He knows he must give you faith. He knows that you can't repent of certain sins. You can repent of a number and he wants you to do that, because you have to. Make your own mind up about certain things. Don't put everything onto God. He knows you've got to make your own mind up about a number of things. You better do that. But he knows that certain things you will not get rid of until you realize, until your being comes into some rest and peace and sanity. Do you know what insanity is? It's a person who has not received love and can't bear it. In the end, and if you're tempted to have a breakdown and go insane, a temptation that is increasing in our days, let God love you. Let God love you. You may say to me tonight, do you want to go to become Christians? If you're not, if anybody is not a Christian, you may say, do you want to go to become, are you trying to persuade me to become a Christian? I am trying to persuade you to let God love you. That's the first thing at this particular moment. I want everybody to do that. Whoever you are, let God love you. There's a child inside you, wizard, dying, unreached by human beings, maybe hated by people, roughly treated, mishandled, but never by God. And you'll find this about God, that God will not deceive you. God will not use gimmicks to get you. I will not use a gimmick to get you to believe in God. God will not use gimmicks because he knows that in the end, you'll still have to face the real issues. This is the deepest question of the human heart and the census. God wants to love you. Become a child and let him take you on his knee and love you. That's what he did. He took them up in his arms and he held them, maybe gave a little squeeze, I don't know. But you see, he loved them physically. When you've got a child, you can do that. And the physical touch reaches death in a child, but not so with you. Not so with you. You need God to love you in your spirit. You need God to pour in his love into your spirit. You know he said this to the people of Jerusalem. He said to them, how often would I have gathered you? As a hen does gather her chicks, but you would not. Go into Ephesians again. Before we do, let's look over into Revelation. You ought to read this little passage in Revelation. You know, there are about five letters to the Church of Ephesus in the Bible. There's the Ephesian letter, there's the first Timothy, there's second Timothy, and there's the Ephesians. That's four, sorry, not five. There was a fifth, but it's lost. God obviously designed that. Didn't want us to know that. Chapter two of Revelation. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things says he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Now remember this, he holds elders in his hand. That's what seven stars are. You can see it is. If you read it, messengers of the churches, the elders held in his hand. And also he walks in the midst of the churches. Now you see, there's a pretty heavy, heavy, heavy deal, isn't there? Elders meeting. That's a pretty heavy deal, isn't it? Oh, what a whole world of meeting in your hand. And he's walking in the midst of the churches, and you know, sometimes you think, wow. But you see, oh, all of that to the children, you see, held in his hand. Oh, it's the real key. Be children. Be children. Don't become so ancient in your wisdom that you can't be a child. Verse two, I know thy works. Now this is Jesus. Remember again, he says, I know you. He knows what's in your heart. He knows what made you do things. He knows why you're going to do things in the future unless you remove those things from your heart. This is the truth. He knows things about you, secret plans that are in you. He knows them. And that's why he wants you to be a child and come and be loved. That will put other things in your heart. Verse two, I know thy works. Your labour, your patience, how you cannot bear those who are evil. You've tried those who say they're apostles, and you've found them lies. Your discernment is perfect. Your doctrinal position is polished. Your, your, your work is accomplished. Now what he says about another church, later on he says to another church, it's in chapter three, to Sardis, don't look at it now, but he says, I have not found any of your work completed. You started, but you didn't finish anything. I have found none of thy works perfect. You started to go to that person, but you gave up. You started to serve the Lord, but you gave up. You started to love this person, but you gave up. How far do you love? How far do you serve? When is the end? You search for the sheep that is lost until you find it. That's what Jesus said. Until he find it. You love. Until the end. Having loved his owner in the world, he loved them to the end, to the end of themselves. You know, he loved them to the end. Let your works be perfect. That means let your works be accomplished. But in verse two, you know it would be better almost not to love somebody than to love them half the way, wouldn't it? And drop them in the midst of their awakening. I know thy works and thy labours, Peter. Verse three, Thou hast borne, hast patient, and by my namesake hast loathed and hast not fainted. You've been tip-top. Nevertheless, I have against thee, because you have left your first love. Remember, verse four, from whence you have fallen, repent and do the first works, or else I will come to thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thy repentance. And you see, you've got this picture of the Ephesian church, that in all its glory, in its doctrinal purity, in the end, it has become an assembly of accomplished brains, if you like, and they've lost love. How do you lose love? Well, I'll tell you how you lose love. You seek to be a child who can receive love. You know that you can't produce love, you must first be loved. You have left this first love, always remember this, first is that you must be loved. It's not everything, you must love others too, but you must be loved. You left it. Let's go back into Ephesians. And then let's look at this chapter five again, and let's look at a couple of things there. We've mentioned this verse so much, and I'm not ashamed to read it again, because I think it's in the text that has been over our weekend together. It's in verse, chapter five, verse twenty-five, and we've already, in verse two, walked in love of Christ, or first loved us, and has given himself for us, an offering of a sacrifice to God for a sweet money saver. Jesus gave himself for us. Chapter five, verse twenty-five, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. But Christ loves the church. When we reach Christ loves the church, he loves you. He loves you. He wants to exhibit his love to you. He wants to actually love you. You know that boy who sat beside me? I loved him. You understand what I mean? I loved him, I loved him. I did it, if you like. It wasn't very much to do. It was very easy. But I loved, that's what God wants to do to you. He wants to hold you, and love you, and squeeze the doubts out of you by his love, and wash the oppressions and depressions out of you by his love. He wants to bathe you in the simplicity of being loved. And as you lie in his love, and are washed and refreshed by it, your mind becomes simpler. Your concentration, your powers of concentration become greater. Your willingness to serve rises as a fruit on a tree. This is not a question of law. God isn't giving commandments to the church, how she should do this and that. He's going to produce his church in a great bath of love, a laver of love. The church is produced in a laver of love. In fact, that's what the church is. She is a laver of love. And you see, when you've got this point, he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, then that he might present it to himself a glorious church. The whole point of that, we enter into the laver of his love, washed by it, cleansed by it, purified by it. He gave himself because of love to cleanse me. You know that God wants to make you clean. Love wants to make you clean. Love doesn't want you to stay with your state as it is. It doesn't. He wants to wash you. But as you become one who has been loved, you find that you are part of this whole work of God, if you like. The heart of the work of God is to love people. The church is a place of love. In fact, you know that the definition of God is love. He is love. But that is the definition of the church as well. The church is love. That's what we are. That's why the church is the most wonderful place to be. Having been in churches for, since I was, you know, since I was converted, having been in churches, I want to tell you the church is the most wonderful place on earth. Isn't it? It's wonderful to be in the church. It's absolutely wonderful. And you see, when we go to this chapter, 26th verse, let's read that for a moment and go over to chapter 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And so it goes on. He talks about the armour. Then he comes down to verse 18, praying always, with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me that options may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And so it goes on. You see, he wants you to pray. He wants the church to pray with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. What is the power that going to make you a person of prayer? Well, it's the only thing. Grip your teeth and pray if you can't. Take yourself a goal to pray for this amount of time. You can't. But how we need people to pray? God only needs a man who cares, and he can build a church. But you have to care enough to give your life. And remember that the one who gave his life in the Old Testament bearing his child was Isaac. He was a child. God didn't wait till he was an adult to the age where he would think it all through and resist it badly. Now look, let's discuss the point. You have to get beyond the position where you're going to reason everything out. You've got to remain in the position where you'll love without reason. You've got to remain in the position where you'll give your life as a ransom, not for many, for one. You can say, I don't know what I mean by that. You can't redeem anybody. But you've got to love somebody. You've got to pray to somebody. You've got to show somebody actual love. You've got to care. You know this thing about, oh, the heath and the perishing and so on. Sometimes people present it as a risk to flood people. But I'll tell you this, if in the end you don't care that people are perishing, you know that Jesus Christ said, lift up your eyes and look on the field. Well, look at it. And look on somebody whom you know, who's maybe even in your church. Look on them. Look on somebody who can't get through. Look on somebody in, maybe just within reach, unless you can touch them. Somebody who's laboured and struggled and they're not sure what they do, they can't seem to get through. And they're bound in sin or darkness or depression or whatever it is. And you sit there and they'll ask you this, do you give your life for that person? In prayer and in love. Do you? Pray in all ways, with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit and watching them too, with all of you. Notice it says supplication. Let me read you a verse in Jeremiah now, on that supplication, chapter thirty-one. Because, you see, the whole mystery of prayer is that it must take place in a great bath of love. The mystery of prayer is that it takes place in people who love. Mystery is all throughout the church. Please, remember they said it's a great mystery, said Paul in the Ephesian letter. Remember that the church is a mystery. Prayer is a mystery. Love is a mystery. The church is a mystery. You may say, it's a mystery to me. Make a man say it's a mystery what he's preaching about. We'll find out one day. Do you understand it's a mystery? It is a mystery. Lose the mystery of the church and you've lost everything. Lose the mystery of prayer, the ABC of prayer is not in existence. In chapter thirty-one, verse three, says this, the Lord of the people of Olsham is saying, it was a long time ago I realized this, I have loved thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Verse nine, thou shalt come with weeping and with supplication will I lead thee. God leads us by supplication. I believe that. It's only the one guidance. You better start praying, not for your guidance, but for people. You'll be guided. Your prayers will intricate you. Your prayers will fashion you. Your prayers will lead you. Love will take you out of your present circumstances and put you in new ones. Supplications will, if you supplicate for God to move, eventually you'll find yourself sitting in front of somebody who's weeping their heart out and you've just got to whisper a few words in their ears to tell them how to repent. It's true. God will lead you to people if you'll start to supplicate. So do we want to be guided? What's it like being guided round a, round a, a mulberry bush? You know, you're going round and round, or round and round. Are you going, are you guided? How, where do I go now? Where do I go now? Guided. It doesn't matter where you're guided. It doesn't make any difference to you, unless you're going to let this guide you, love. When love reaches you, it guides you. When love starts to move in your heart and you pray, you're guided. Your personality is changed, your reactions change. You know, what's the use of being sat in front of somebody who's in great need, if you're not going to care about them? Just imagine, if you were somewhere on an occasion and there was somebody there who needed a word from the Lord, and you were far too busy to even think of that. Maybe all that came into your mind was frustration, I'm delayed. Maybe God organised the delay. But you wouldn't know it unless you were a heart that could listen. Look over with me into Hosea. Let's look into Hosea. In chapter 2, verse 14, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. You see, God sometimes has to take us out of certain circumstances into others. Oh yes, to allure us. And then He can speak with comfort to us. It's nice when God speaks like that. You know, when God speaks comfortably to you, His words melt your heart. His words make you to weep inside. I will give her her vineyards from then, and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. You know what the valley of Acre is, don't you? It's the valley of trouble. God gives you a lot of trouble, and then you get a door of hope. You're in trouble, let it be a door of hope to you. You're in distress, let it become a place that leads to heaven. Are you making your pillow on a heap of stones? Let God give you a vision of heaven, and God will lead you right up to it. And she shall sing there. Notice where she shall sing. You shall sing in the valley of Acre. You're going to learn to sing in the place where your spirit has been distressed. And you turn to God, and you found Him. And He's done this to you. As in the days of old youth, as in the day when she came about of the land of Egypt. And you shall be at that day, says the Lord, you shall call me Ishi, all right? That is my husband. And you shall no more call me Bailey, my Lord. You shall no more call me that, Lord. What? Pardon? Didn't say that in the Bible, did it? Pardon? You shall call me Ishi, my husband. For I will take away the names of Bailey and out of her mouth. They shall be remembered no more by their name. And in that day will I make a covenant for them. With the beasts of the field, this is verse 18, with the fowls of heaven, with the creeping things of the earth, I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down faithfully. I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yes, I will betroth thee to me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercy. I will even betroth thee to me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. All right, there's the wonder of God that he will give you a marriage with himself. Love, I will love you, I'll marry you, I will make you mine. I shall make you mine by an everlasting covenant, I'll promise it to you. Verse 21, it shall come to pass in that day I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, they shall hear the earth, the earth shall hear the corn, the wine and the oil, and they shall hear death's reel, and I will say unto thee in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that hath not obtained mercy. I will say to them which are not my people, thou art my people, and they shall say, thou art my God. You notice what happens when love is flowing like a great river. You know what happens? Love is all... Isaiah chapter... Oh, what is it? God will hear prayer. What will you hear, Lord? I will hear the church in love. He doesn't really say, I will hear. Doesn't the Lord always hear? Oh yes, he always hears. Everything. Everything that is said. He hears the prayer you pray, but he also hears the motive behind your prayer. He hears everything. Some prayers harden his heart, you know that. Not to answer. Some prayers close his ears and make them heavy. You notice that in Isaiah? Keep your finger there. We'll go and look in Isaiah. We're in the Old Testament, aren't we, tonight? Isaiah chapter... Oh, what is it? 59. Verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear. All right? Get that really as a banger in your heart. God's arm is not short, but he cannot save. His ear is not heavy. Verse 2. That your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear you. Verse 3. Your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips with spoken lies, your tongue is not a perverseness, none calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth. I'll leave that. Verse 15. Verse 15 of chapter 59. He that departs from evil makes himself a clone. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Look at verse 16. He saw there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. There wasn't an intercessor. There was no one going to try. There wasn't anybody who cared. There wasn't anybody who would love right through. There wasn't anybody. And you know what that did to God? He wondered. You know it's said in scripture that the Lord wondered, marveled at his faith. It says here he wondered at their lack of ability to pray. They didn't even care. There was no intercessor. You know, let's go back to Hosea and look at our continued earth for a moment. But the thing is that it's this amazing thing that God can look upon people and realize this is the key to it all. People who love. Look what happens when there's love. When there's a marriage. Look what happens in verse 21, chapter 2. It shall come to pass in that day I will heal, saith the Lord. You know, just think about the Lord. He will heal. He does. I will hear heaven, they shall hear the earth, the earth shall hear the Koran, and they shall hear Joshua. Everything that God hears when there's love. Heals. Healing. Do you know that's the greatest cry of all? An ear that will hear and actually understand. That's what God's got. Ears that hear and understand so that you can boldly go to him and know that he will make this understand. He will hear. He will understand. And if you'll love, you'll hear. You'll understand. You'll hear the groaning of creation. Because this kind of child is not the kind of child that sits down and plays Lego with his Bible. This kind of child sits like a child like Samuel sat. Speak, Lord, thy servant here. And God gave that little child a word to Eli that he didn't want to give. He gave it to the child. But you see, it's just hearing, hearing, isn't it? Every word heals, heaven heals, earth heals, earth prays, heaven hears, heaven speaks, earth hears. It's a great opening of ears in love. It's an opening of the mouth to praise, but it's an opening of the mouth to praise and not with great words that God wants. It's the spirit that prays. It's not the mouth that prays. Sometimes the mouth does speak and know what to say, but it's the spirit that prays. And your spirit is overwhelmed within you. You must pray. You don't know how to pray. And it overflows in you. Love. It's the end of Ephesians, isn't it? It isn't a further doctrinal chapter on the great doctrinal statement of the Church. It's the, it's the great climax to the Church's life that she comes to Christ, not with her mind, but with her heart. And there's hearing, and there's understanding. Look at another verse, this time into Mark's Gospel again, and we'll go um into chapter 10. Do you know who, who can ever say really what God's heart is on these things? It all begins when you start being a child and realizing all the things the world has made as other things are really just a load of junk. That's all it is. And to get back to the truth, you have to split out of this culture into another culture. It's the culture of children. The children see life differently. They feel on a totally different plane. They'll feel differently. They think differently. Of course they do. You've got to be a child. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, in verse 46, all you have to do is, they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho, a group of disciples, a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the wayside, begging. Do you know what he was doing? He was begging. He wasn't praying. He was begging. He wasn't supplicating. He was begging. Do you know what a beggar does? He's got a little grove and a little wine. He's not very much bothered about the answer, as long as he gets a little bit of what he needs. He only needs a little bit. He's not expecting anybody to give him very much at all. All he wants is a little occasional 10p to cut into his little bucket. Thank you. And he'll carry on begging the same as before the 10p cut into his bucket. Arms, arms. On he goes. You hear people pray like this. The 10p cut is in the bucket. They pass over it as if nothing had happened. Arms, carry on the same. Arms, arms. On the begging list, bless me, bless me, bless me. Give to me, give to me, give to me. Not give to me a transformation. Not give to me a revolution. Just give me enough just to get by another weary day. O Lord, O Lord. It's grounding, isn't it? It's discouraging. It's heartening. Spiritual beggars, you know what they get? They get ragged. They get frail. And begging. First what he said, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out. And prayed, Jesus, have mercy on me. And many childs told him that he should hold his peace. But he cried to more a great deal. Now he's praying. Now he's got a supplication. Get me out of this. I want out. I don't want to stay as a beggar. I want out. I want my ears opened. I want my eyes opened. I want to become a seeing person, a hearing person. I want to become a person who's got faculties that can hear and speak. I don't want to be a blind beggar the rest of my days, sitting in the church, surviving. I want to be alive. I want to be moved. I want to reach the people. And I don't care if I reach for them. I want them. Many childs told him that he should hold his peace. Oh, if you cry like that, you're upsetting. You know, you don't do that really. You've got to be very careful about things in the church. If you don't like that, you don't know where you end up. You don't perhaps, but you end up in a good place. Move to God. Look, there's got to be a movement to God. I'm not trying to stir you up in a wrong thing. If you haven't got movement in your heart, just come to God. Don't forge a movement that is in... You see, the love of God usually goes back to wash things, isn't it? It's also a fire to heat them up. There's a mixture of metaphors for you. It's a fire. That's what the church is. And in the fire of the church, when something happens, you know what happens in a fire? You put incense on it. Clouds of smoke and prayer arise to God. And he made a charge that he should hold his peace. He cried them all a great deal. The last son of David had mercy upon me, and Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. They called the blind man, saying to him, do of good comfort rise, he called to him. And then he said to the Lord, let him move from his position to come and appear before God. And he cast him away, garment of the beggar, rose and came to Jesus. This whole thing of coming to Jesus, isn't it wonderful? He came to Jesus, blind, left his beggar's load behind him, left his beggar's load behind him, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said to him, what wilt thou that I should do? I'm not going to give thee ten feet. They fastened their eyes on feet and done expecting to receive our arms. For when God arrived on earth, that such as I had given thee, he wasn't expecting it, but he guessed it was a thing. Jesus answered and said to him, what wilt thou that I should do The blind man said to him, Lord, I might receive thy sight. What a bold statement. I don't want a little ten feet, I want my sight, Lord. You can't ask for that, it's an incident. How can you ask for that when you don't know? You've got to ask for something. Jesus said to him, go thy way. Our faith is made thee whole. Immediately receive his sight and follow Jesus in the way. Amen. Amen. Go down to a season. We're going to close in a moment. We're nearing the end of our pilgrimage tonight. Look up down there and you've got the whole armour on. You've been clothed with new armour. We've told you now, you're fighting. You've been through the valley of Acre, you've had your trouble, and you've kept your armour on. You're a fighter now. If only we'd have said it right through, we'd be saying this again and again, I'll say it again. To impart life, you have got to die. To impart life, having joy is no use. Joy doesn't impart life. Laying your life down does. Of course, you have great joy then. But this, 1810, always, as if to speak in separate books, with all prayer and supplication. What does he mean? He just means what you normally do, doesn't he? Praying always, with all prayer. You know the reason why we have to read scripture slowly, don't you? Because there's so little of it. There's so little scripture. Somebody could write a book on that verse, couldn't they? The scripture's so short. There's so little scripture. You've got to realise every word carries great weight. Every word, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Watching thereunto with all perseverance, and supplication for all faith, and to me that options may be given unto me. For I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. We could look at other verses, but we won't. We'll just leave it here. Praying always. You know, I'm going to read you another verse. I've got it in my phone by the way. We'll just read one more. We're ready already. I've just quoted to you. No need to turn to it, but it says in Hosea chapter 2, verse 22, I will sow her to me in the earth. What? God will sow her to me in the earth? Yes. He'll make everybody hear, he'll make everybody speak, he'll make everybody one of these, and then he'll sow her to me in the earth. God sows people like this in the earth for himself. That's how he spreads the gospel. He sows people. You're the seed. You've got to die. You've got to give your life for other people. You've got to become a person who cares. You know, to be drawn to the gospel doesn't mean that you've got to be drawn because you want your sins forgiven. Sometimes it's because you want to become a lover of people without ulterior motives. People realise that they can't go on living selfishly. I will sow her to me in the earth. Praying always. This is the, if you like, the place he reaches in this book of Ephesians, that people make supplications and all prayer. Well, what are the old prayer? What are the old prayer? Well, you could, you can imagine the different kinds of prayer, the waiting, the watching, the fasting, the yearning, the quietness, the noise, the singing, the worship. All prayer. That's where he comes to the end. All prayer. All prayer. All prayer. Why? Because they're all love. Love first, care. All prayer. Amen. Let's pray. Now, I, I know that the word of God, if it has come to you, if it hasn't come to your heart, don't worry about that. God speaks to people differently in different meetings, don't you worry about that. But if he has spoken to your heart, you must respond. And I don't know how to lead you to respond tonight, but I invite you to respond. You can pray out if you want to, but you must respond if he's spoken to you. An act of your will, a declaration of your intent, a movement of your heart, doesn't love leaders to these things, doesn't love movers. Why, why not just start maybe with this, receive his love like a little child. Let's start where we started tonight, receive his love. Let his love wash over you. Just open up to him. Don't start with the great things at the end, we've talked about some things where, maybe that's where you should come, would be tonight, but maybe it's just starting in love. Let him love you. Be a child again. Be a child again. Go back to that place and let him love you. Don't worry about anything. It's all on his shoulders anyway. You don't have to worry about people out there at this moment, unless that's where we're up to. Just come and let him love you. Amen. You're free to respond however you wish.