In this sermon, the preacher discusses three truths about prayer, three enemies of prayer, and four ways God answers prayer. He emphasizes the importance of not just talking about prayer, but actually engaging in it. The preacher encourages the congregation to learn how to worship and bless the Lord, rather than blaming Him. He also highlights the significance of watching and praying, using examples from the Bible such as Jesus asking Peter to watch with Him for one hour.

We're gonna cover three truths about prayer, three enemies of prayer, and four ways God answers prayer. I know what some of you are thinking. Saying, man, we're out here as late as we were last night, we covered one message, how are we gonna get through three tonight? Well, you just pray that we will, amen? You listen real fast, maybe we'll get through. Amen? You have your Bibles tonight, or if you have your sermon outline, either way, turn your Bibles to Jeremiah 33. If you don't have your Bible with you, bring one tomorrow night, and follow along on page six, and let's all stand together in honor of God's word. Jeremiah chapter 33. Talk about prayer tonight, what we're talking about this week. I pray that we not be just talking about it, but be doing it. Amen? And if you love Jesus, you wanna spend time with him. Jeremiah chapter 33, in verse three. God says, call unto me. What would that be? That'd be prayer, amen? Call unto me, and he said, I will answer you. Amen? See, we're his children, and he's our father. Your children call unto you, what do you do? You answer them. And God says, if you'll call unto me, he said, I will answer you, and I'll show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Amen? I love that. You know, I could think of some pretty great and mighty things that the Lord could show me, but according to the Bible, he's gonna show me, he shows me things when I pray that I hadn't even thought about. See, that's the way God is. He always does exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ever think or imagine. So tonight, let's call unto him, and I believe that he will answer us, and he will show us great and mighty things that we don't even know. Father, tonight, we call unto you. We claim Jeremiah 33 right now in our lives, and I ask you, heavenly Father, to show us great and mighty things that we don't even know. Lord, you're such a good God. Thank you, Lord, for being our savior, our master, our king. You are Adonai, you're the owner and ruler of everything. You're our sovereign Lord. You're Elohim, the all-powerful creator and promise keeper. You're El Shaddai, the almighty one who nourishes, satisfies, and supplies. Lord, you're more than enough for all of our needs. Lord Jesus, you're the alpha and omega, the beginning, the begotten, the beloved, the bread, the branch, and the bridegroom. You're the bright and the morning star. Lord, you're the chief cornerstone. You're Christ, the power of God. You're the door, the deliverer, the daysman, the day star. Father, you're more than enough for every need that we have. Lord, I pray that we praise you tonight like we never have in our entire lives. Lord, I pray that, Lord, when we leave this place, Lord, we'll be lifted toward heaven, and Lord, I pray that we have a desire in our heart every day to get up and spend time alone with the God of this universe, the one who came to this sin-sick world, born of a virgin, lived a perfect sinless life, and died on the cross, rose from the grave, and is going to come again to get us. Lord, help us to spend time alone with you. Lord, you're worthy of all our praise and adoration tonight. We just give you all praise and glory, Lord, for your presence here tonight. We invite you into this place. We ask you to bind Satan tonight. Heavenly Father, by the authority of God's word and the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of his shed blood, Lord, I pray that you would just pour out your precious presence upon this place. Holy Spirit of God, please come into this place and have your rightful place in our hearts. Help us to lift up Jesus. Let's pray to Jesus together tonight. Dear Lord Jesus, please speak to my heart tonight. Help me to do what you say. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Jeremiah 33, three. Call unto me and I will answer you and I'll show you great and mighty things that you don't even know. Things you hadn't even thought about, amen? Boy, isn't it just like the Lord? You ever been having your Bible study and the Lord just showed you things that you didn't even know, amen? I just love to get a daily word from the Lord. Brother Manly Beasley used to tell me, what has God said to you lately, Jack David? Boy, I'll tell you something. You better have a word for him, too. He's gonna wear you out. He'd say, what's the Lord said to you lately? You know, I wouldn't ask you tonight what's the Lord said to you back, you know, five months ago, five years ago. Some people, you talk to them about their testimony about how the Lord's moving in their life, they give you something that's got dust on it. You know, it's 100 years old. You know, what's God doing in your life today? What's he said to you today? And by the way, prayer and Bible study are Siamese twins. You can't have one without the other. I suggest everybody that prays, pray with an open Bible. This is the way God speaks to you through his holy word. And you speak to him through prayer. So we're calling to him tonight and asking him to show us great and mighty things, which we know not. Well, number one, I want you to see a three truths about prayer. Prayer is worship. Prayer is worship. Write that down in the first blank there in the top of page number six. Prayer is worship. Prayer is worship. Amen? Prayer is that time when we express to God our faithfulness for his faithfulness. Amen? You know what an atheist's most embarrassing moment is? An atheist's most embarrassing moment is when he has something to be eternally grateful for and nobody to thank. Folks, I'm gonna tell you something. We're blessed, amen? We ought to worship. Prayer is that time when we express to God our thankfulness for his faithfulness. Psalms 95, six, the Bible says, oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Amen? Friend, I'm gonna tell you something. Every day, you ought to get up and worship. I'm enjoying our time of worship here tonight. I mean, I really am. Every night, I'm gonna enjoy our time of worship. But I want you to understand, I've already had my favorite time of worship today. I had it before I even got out of that bus this morning. Just me and Jesus, one-on-one. I'm gonna tell you the most, the favorite. When you start having a prayer time every day, just you and the Lord. Friend, I'm gonna tell you something. You'll understand what true worship is really all about. And see, some people think worship is when they come to church, they come, they sit in a pew, and the preacher spoon-feeds them and burps them on the way out. And they call that worship. I've got news for you. That's not worship. Worship is when you speak to Jesus and Jesus speaks to you, and you are adoring Him, worshiping Him, praising Him for all He's done. Oh, come, let us worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Exodus 34, 8, Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and he worshiped. Oh, friend, when are we gonna learn how to worship? It's gonna be a great day when God's people learn to bless the Lord and stop blaming the Lord. Look what the Bible says in Psalms 103, verse 1-2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Amen? Friend, you know what? You know how I keep from forgetting His benefits? I write them down. Turn in your Sermon Outlined book there to page number 10. Page number 10. Page 10. Now on page nine, you'll notice, and we'll just touch on this very quickly, from this point on is your prayer notebook, how you can have your own personal prayer journal. It's not something you pray to. It's not anything that, I pray that this wouldn't be the end of your growth in your prayer life, only a stepping stone that would help you to get started in your prayer time. But see, from this point on, how you can write things down to pray about. People say, well, how can you pray for an hour? Brother Jackie, no, that's a long time. Well, I'm fixing to show you, amen? See, page 10, I always start off with praise in the Lord. You see, in Matthew chapter six, in verse nine, Jesus starts and begins to show us the model of prayer. I use the model of prayer as a way of understanding how we're to start our prayer time. And the model of prayer, some people call it the Lord's Prayer. It's not the Lord's Prayer, because Jesus never had to say, Father, forgive us our debt. Amen. Matthew chapter six tells us about the model of prayer. Jesus is telling us how to pray. This is not a prayer that He prayed. We're gonna look at the prayer He prayed, probably look closer to John 14. It's a high priestly prayer, but in Matthew chapter six, Jesus says, pray like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Jesus said we're to start off our prayer, blessing the Lord, amen? So in page number 10 here, you see a lot of praise scriptures to how we can praise the Lord and bless the Lord. In Psalms 103, verse one and two, it's right there about halfway through the page. The way I do, and you can do it like the Lord leads you, but I have in my prayer notebook, in fact, I'll have it right here. By the way, on the front of my prayer notebook, I put this on there not very long ago. Pray or become pray. I like that, amen? See, I tell you, you either pray or you become pray. And I've got a lot of things. I put three pages of stuff in here today on praising the Lord in my prayer notebook. But you just do it however the Lord leads you. But I write things in my prayer notebook that I want to praise the Lord for. The Bible says forget not all his benefits. You know why? I'm 53 years old. Guess what? My memory's not what it ought to be. It's not what it used to be. And it was real good, amen? All that marijuana for all them years just kind of put a damper on my memory, but it probably wouldn't have been that good anyhow. But anyway, I just, I try to write it down. If there's anything the devil's gonna try to get you to forget, that's how to praise the Lord and pray, amen? He'll have, you ever notice something about the devil? He'll try to bring up every bad thing you've ever done, and he wants you to forget every good thing that God's ever done, amen? God's just the opposite, amen? He said, when you get saved, he takes all your sins. What did he do? He puts them in the sea, depths of the sea, never to be remembered. And then he says, you know, but he says, remember the past victories. He was always telling the children of Israel, remember when I brought you out of Egypt. Remember when I brought you across the Red Sea. Remember, remember when we defeated the Philistines. Remember! We're supposed to remember God's victories in our life and forget our failures. You can't have them scramble eggs, amen? So I put down here, Lord, I praise You for Your love, Your goodness, Your patience, Your consistency, Your long-suffering, Your merciful, Your wisdom. This is who He is on this side. His character and His nature. That's who He is. He's powerful. He's peace. I praise You for Your joy, Your kindness, Your truthfulness. I praise You for the cross, for the Bible, for Your presence in my life, for Your creation. That's who He is. That's His character, His nature. Then over here on this side, I praise Him for what He's done in my life personally. Personally, amen? This is different. Lord, I praise You every day. Number one, my salvation. Every day. That's what I praise Him for. You praise Him for whatever God's done in your life. If you had never been saved, you can't praise Him for your salvation. And you won't be that thankful for it because you had never had it. But when you get it, you'll praise Him for it. Amen? Praise Him for my family, my friends, my health, my finances, the food, for delivering me from drugs and alcohol and the New Age movement 18 years ago every day of my life, I praise the Lord Jesus and thank Him for delivering me from all that garbage. Praise You, Lord, for my clothing, my home, my truck, my van, the bus, the ministry, the calling upon my life, Your provisions. Praise You for the churches that support us and encourage us and I pray for them by name. Oh, can I tell you, I've got pages of things to praise the Lord for. You know what? Folks, we need to learn to praise the Lord. Prayer is worship. While we're here, let's just go on. I'll show you what's on the rest of it. Page 11 is confession of our sins. You can't hardly turn this thing. I changed these things up, amen? Page number 12 is how to crucify your flesh. Page 13, praying to God the Father. See, the Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and are safe. Amen? You start, you want to know where you're safe. You want to know where you have victory. I'll tell you where it's at. It's in the name of the Lord. Amen? Old David, when he went up before Goliath, all the rest of the children of Israel said, by Goliath, it's too big to hit. David climbed up into that strong tower. He said, I don't come against you with a sword and spear. He said, I come against you in the name of the Lord. David was up in that strong tower. See, he had a different perspective. Amen? He said, guys, from where I'm standing, that sucker's too big to miss. He's going down. And he went down. Pray to God the Son, page 14. Pray to God the Holy Spirit, page 16. Bind Satan, page 17. Bind him some more. Page 18, pray for my family. Page 19 and 20, how to pray for the lost. Page 21, a page that you can just fill up with lost people's names. When you get through that side, fill up the other side. Page 22, pray for your needs. Page 23, just in case you got a lot of needs, like I do, fill that page up. Page 24, pray for the sick. Page 25, I showed you that last night, pray for America. Reckon that's taking an hour? Hello? Don't take long to spend an hour in prayer. See, an hour in prayer. Jesus came to the disciples one day. He said, what, you couldn't watch with me one hour? See, he gives us 24. Amen? He just asked for one back. What's this? What's this? How much of your income does he give you? All of it. How much does the Lord require back? 10%. Do you know I know more Baptists that tithe 10% than pray 124? As difficult as it is to get most Baptists to understand and apply the principle of tithing, I know more people that tithe, my brother, their money than pray an hour a day. And it doesn't cost them a red cent. I know prayer works. I know it works how hard the devil battles it. Prayer is worship. Prayer is worship. Number two, prayer is work. Amen? You think it's not work, you get on your knees an hour a day. Prayer is not for wimps and prayer isn't for lazy people. Lazy people don't pray. Romans chapter 15, verse 30, Paul said, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God. This isn't some little now laying me down to sleep prayer here, folks. Paul said, Strive together with me in your prayers. Agonize. James 5.16, the Bible says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The Bible says we're to come before the throne of grace boldly that we may obtain grace and find mercy and help in time of need. Folks, I'm gonna tell you something. Prayer is a weapon that we use tonight. An arsenal against Satan, the world, the flesh, the devil. Luke chapter 22, verse 14. Speaking of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says, In being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. This is Jesus looking into the cup, friend. He's looking into the cup. He's seeing your sins and he's seeing mine. He looked into the cup and he said, In being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. This is my Savior. This is your Savior. Working in prayer. Prayer isn't for lazy people. You're lazy? You won't pray. You're lazy? You will not pray. Prayer is for warriors. That's the reason we call them prayer warriors. Prayer is for people that wanna be on the front line for God. Now I'm gonna tell you something. When we really get in the fight, and we don't know nothing about the fight here. We're getting a little clue every once in a while when something happens like it did at Wedgwood and here and there and other. But overall, churches in America, overall, except for these isolated situations, we're pretty clueless about the real battle. You gotta go overseas to some of these third world countries to see where the real battle is. And you gotta go over there to find where the real prayer warriors are. Now there's some. There's some. There's probably some right here in this church, but folks, I'm gonna tell you something. See, we're living in desperate times and the church is not. Hear me. We're living in desperate times and the church is not. Prayers work. Number three, prayer is warfare. Amen? We looked at it last night. You go meet with God, I guarantee you who else is gonna try to show up? Stinking devil. You ever been praying and you get this thought, God's not hearing your prayer. Yeah, devil ever put that one on you? Now one of two things is either true. Either when you get the thought, when you start praying and you don't feel like your prayers are getting any higher in the ceiling, one of two things is the truth. Either you're not right with God, like I talked about Sunday morning, you're not saved, you will get that feeling. And if you're not right with God, brother, you will get that feeling. Amen? But if you're confessed, you know you're saved and you're confessed up and you're right with God, amen? I'll guarantee you one thing, God will hear your prayers. And if that's the case, here's what I tell the devil. Psalm chapter six, verse eight through nine. I say it regularly. I tell him, I say, depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping, the Lord has heard my supplication and the Lord will receive my prayer. I promise you one thing, friend, I've gotten victory through that verse so many times, I couldn't even begin to tell you. Devil, well, you know, who do you think you are praying to God that you're first? I'm his child, amen? That's who I am. I'm a child of the king. Prayer is warfare. I wanna show you next page, three enemies of prayer. Three, y'all doing pretty good tonight. Y'all listening pretty fast. We might get through this thing. Three enemies of prayer. So prayer is warfare. Luke 18, one, the Bible says, Jesus said, he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. I'm gonna show you three things that'll make you faint in your prayer life. Number one, sleepiness. Sleepiness is an enemy of prayer. Amen? Now if you're a prayer warrior, you've had this happen. You get up in the morning, you've had eight hours of sleep, I mean, good night's sleep, feeling good and everything. You get down and start to pray. Get down there on your knees. Boy, I mean, you're gonna have your good prayer time. Boy, I'm so ready to have my prayer time, Lord. About 10 minutes, you're going... Zzzzzz... Ever started doing that? Now don't get real spiritual with me and act like you haven't. If you haven't, you haven't prayed much. The devil tried to put you to sleep. I'll show you scripture where it happened in the Bible. Look here in Matthew chapter 26, verse 42-41. Jesus is in the garden. Listen to me, I'll give you some background here. Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane. He's got his disciples there. He's facing the cross the next day. He's told his men, he said, you stay here, you watch and you pray. He said, I'm gonna go a little farther. And that's just like Jesus, he always goes a little farther. And he went down and he knelt down and he prayed. And he comes back and he finds his men. I mean, his tight bunch. I'm talking about the disciples. What were they doing? Matthew chapter 26, verse 42-41. And he cometh unto his disciples and he found them agonizing, interceding, realizing the hour was dark, days were few. No, they were asleep. They were at the same place the average majesty is an hour and a half before church on Sunday morning. You know, at the time we took off our night caps and put on our helmets and got in the side, folks. Sleep's an enemy of prayer. He finds them asleep. And he said unto Peter, amen. Now I'm gonna tell you something, the reason he said this to Peter. He said, now all of them were asleep, but he's just talking to Peter. Peter, what, what? He said, what? Could you not watch with me one hour? Do you hear Jesus here? He said, what, one hour? I just asked you to watch with me one hour. You know what he's asking you to do? Watch with him one hour. You know what we're gonna ask you to do before this week is up? Before, by Wednesday night? We're gonna put a chart right here on this table. We're gonna take this stuff off the table. We're gonna put a chart right here on the table. It's gonna be a sign-up sheet. Prayer Warriors Battle Station chart. In fact, it's right there in that deal, but let me have that sign. Let me have it. We might just do it tonight. There you go. And we're gonna ask every member of this church that loves Jesus, that's born again in the spirit of God, that's concerned for souls, just wants to grow as a Christian, concerned about the future of this church, to sign up for one hour a week to go in that room, in that prayer room, and pray. And you know what's gonna be in that prayer room? There's gonna be a desk in there with notebooks on it, three notebooks on it. One of them's gonna have prayer requests in it for salvation, people that are lost. Another one's gonna have a prayer notebook for sickness, people that are sick, praying for the brother, the chairman of the Deacons, who had a heart attack today, praying for him, praying for people that, I don't know whether I was supposed to share that or not, but brother, but he did. He's gone home now, so praise the Lord for that. But anyway, praying for folks that are sick, amen. Praying for special needs, praying for our nation, praying for all these different things. You know, we got a lot to pray about, folks. We got a lot to pray about. We're gonna ask you to sign up for an hour a week. Now don't, folks, y'all, let's get focused back here because the brother is all right, the chairman of the Deacons, he's okay. They sent him home, he's doing fine. But I want us to stay focused right here. We're gonna ask you to sign up for an hour a week, amen? An hour a week, just an hour a week. You know what God's saying to you? What? Could you not watch with me one hour? I don't think an hour a week is too much to ask, amen? Some of you can pray a lot longer than that. He said, what, could you not watch with me one hour? He said, watch and pray. This ain't talking to Peter. Watch and pray. Now follow along with me in Sermon Outline, folks. I printed it up there for you. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but your flesh is weak. Who is he talking to? He's talking to Peter, the same one that he just got to tell him, Peter, the hour's gonna come and you're gonna deny me three times. You know what he's telling Peter right here? He said, Peter, you better get prayed up, son. Choir, I'll start preaching to the choir, amen. You know what? Guess what, you're gonna face temptations tomorrow. Sins of commission, sins of omission. You're gonna face temptations to not do what you know you're supposed to do. And you're gonna face temptations of doing what you know you're not supposed to do tomorrow. And Jesus is saying the same thing to you as He's saying to Peter. What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. Every day, you got to get up and bind Satan every day. Prayer is warfare. Sleepiness is an enemy of prayer. Look at Psalms 5, verse 3. The Bible says, My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. And that word, my voice, means an audible prayer. Amen. Let me tell you something, this will revolutionize your prayer life. When you pray to Jesus, you get in a place where you can talk out loud. Amen. Amen. A lot of people just say, well, just meditate. Well, God can read your mind, but you know what? He kind of likes to hear your voice too. The Bible says His voice, my voice, O Lord, you'll hear in the morning. I say, I have a relationship with my wife. I could just see me going home and tell my wife, say, honey, I'm just going to sit around here and just meditate how much I love you. I just hear her say, that's going to do a lot of good for me. Why don't you just kind of hear me? Tell me. Amen. Folks, listen to me. When you love Jesus, you want to tell Him, and you'll tell somebody else about it. My voice, O Lord. And by the way, listen to me. This will help you stay focused. When you're talking out loud, it'll help you stay awake. I promise you, it'll help you stay awake. It'll help you stay focused. You talk out loud, talk to Him just like He was in that room for a column, because bless God, He is. He's right there. He is Jehovah Shama. The Lord is here. Speak out loud to Him. Amen. That's the reason you need to have your prayer closet, a place where you can get along with the Lord. My voice shall be heard in the morning, O Lord. In the morning, I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. That word look up in the NIV says, I will wait in expectation. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo. I like that. I love that. Amen. I would love to meet King David. I'll tell you, one day I will. I mean, what a prayer warrior. And he's praying in the morning, just believing, Lord. I'm just waiting in expectation. You hear my voice, Lord? Lord, I'm praying to you. Psalm 63, verse 1 through 2, the Bible says, O God, my God, early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. Matthew 5, 6 says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. I'll tell you how filled up you'll get with Jesus in the morning. That's how empty you'll get of yourself. Amen. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and a thirsty land, where no water is to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. That was my prayer verse two years ago for 1998. See, the psalmist said, Lord, I've seen you move in the church house. That's what he said. O God, thou, my God, early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and a thirsty land, where no water is to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. See, the psalmist is saying, Lord, I've seen you move down to the church house. Now I want to see you move in the White House. Now I want to see you move in the school house. Now I want to see you move in my house. Prayer, man. I'm going to tell you something, prayer is powerful. Number two, another enemy of prayer is not only sleepiness, but a straying mind. A straying mind. Write that in your sermon outline book. Straying mind. Is everybody writing it down? I'm watching. You're not writing. You're not getting it, amen? A straying mind. A straying mind. See, that happens in worship services. People looking at you like you're Catholic and in a new gate. Lights on, nobody's home. A straying mind is an enemy of prayer. Amen? You ever start praying, and your mind starts drifting off about all you've got to do that day? Happens all the time. I've got a good solution for that. I do it all the time. I take me a sheet of paper to my prayer time, just a blank sheet of paper, and that's when I make out my to-do list for the day. It is. And listen, let me tell you something. If it's God, I want to pray about it. Amen? And so if something comes to my mind I need to do that day that I hadn't thought about, well, I just write it down, and right there, I'll pray about it. Amen? Just take a second and just pray about it. Lord, if this is you... Now, see, if it's the devil, he's going to quit getting into all that because he don't want to remind me of nothing. Amen? He don't want me praying about it. Amen or oh me. See, but the Lord starts reminding me about things. I pray about it. Right there. I promise you, I challenge you. I challenge people this all the time. And I've had people come back and tell me, Brother Jack, you were exactly right. I challenge you, you start making a to-do list and praying over it every morning of every day. And you come back after 30 days and you tell me if you don't get twice as much done with much more effectiveness by praying about it. Amen? I hate to waste time. See, time's too precious. I hate to go someplace and somebody not be there and go there and have to take this thing back. I want to bind Satan from every situation. Friend, I'm going to tell you, time is short. You know, and we've got to get things done. Amen? So pray about it. Look at 2 Corinthians 10, 4, and 5. That's just another Scripture I pray. If my mind begins to stray off on things, sometimes just ungodly things, sometimes the devil will just come in and try to invade your thought life. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God's other pulling down of strongholds, casting down imagination and every high thing that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Isaiah 26, 3. Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Number three, believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever put this in here, but I used to have something else here, but service can be an enemy of prayer. Service, even serving the Lord, can be an enemy of prayer. You say, how in the world could that be, Brother Jack? I'll tell you how it can be. I wrote this down. I wouldn't get it wrong. When service precedes supplication, it becomes an enemy of prayer. Did you hear what I said? When service precedes, when service comes before supplication, that's prayer. It's an enemy of prayer. I'm talking to Sunday school teachers. I'm talking to preachers. I'm talking to lay people. I'm talking to staff members. I'm talking to about anybody that's serving the Lord. And by the way, if you're saved, you ought to be serving the Lord. Amen. Look here in the Bible. I'll give you two scriptural tech proof of what I'm telling you is exactly right. Luke 10, verse 38-42. The Bible says, Now it came to pass as they went, that they entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, speaking of Jesus. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. Don't miss that. But Martha was cumbered about with what? Much serving. And came to him, came to the Lord, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? This woman, Martha's busy serving. And bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about with many things. Martha was a busy woman. She had a lot to do. She was a busy servant. He said, you're cumbered about with many things, but look what Jesus said, but one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good part. And look at the next word, what Jesus said, which shall not be taken away from her. Listen to me, look up here. All you hard workers in the church, don't you let anything or anyone take away the good part of your day. And that's spending time at the feet of Jesus. See, you're not ready to serve until you pray. The devil mocks and laughs at our prayerless preaching, singing, serving, I don't care what it is. He mocks at it, but he trembles when God's people pray. And he'll try to get you up and go out, go to hospitals, go work, go do this, go do that, anything but pray. Anything. When service comes before supplication, it becomes an enemy of prayer. Amen or oh me, that's what Jesus said. I'm not trying to get you to stop serving the Lord, to keep on serving the Lord, but I'm going to tell you something, if you're not praying over that class before you teach it, it's an enemy of prayer. If you're not praying over that tithe you give, it's an enemy. If you're not praying over your messages, not praying over the songs, I tell you, our minister of music, he comes and prays, lays hands on every instrument in our sanctuary. We have men that meet in our church at 8 o'clock every Sunday morning, an hour before our Sunday school time, which starts at 9. We pray, we have anywhere from 40 to 50 men, just men that meet in our sanctuary at 8 o'clock every Sunday morning. And my pastor gets at church, well he spends all night on Saturday nights there, usually praying. He's up and down all night long. But he used to come at 3 o'clock in the morning and pray all the way to 8. But now he's there almost all night. I'm not telling you that's what your pastor ought to do. That's what my pastor does. I'm telling you, but when you get in this thing about prayer, it just kind of gets a hold of you and you just kind of get wanting to do it more because you see the results, amen? But anyway, we have a bunch of men that meet down there at the church at 8 o'clock in the morning. And what we do, we split up and we go into groups. We go into every Sunday school classroom. We touch every chair. We plead the blood of Jesus on it. We bind Satan away from that teacher, pray over that Sunday school class. We pray over the entire sanctuary, go around, lay hands on every single pew, bind Satan and spirits of pride, procrastination, presumption, away from every man, woman, boy and girl, sinners in the sanctuary, and ask the Holy Spirit of God to come to move into that worship service. And friend, I'm going to tell you something. It does something for the service. Amen? We have people come into our worship service all the time. And I mean every week somebody will come into our church and will write on a visitor's card, from the moment I drove onto the property. We have men that pray over the parking lot. They have parking lot prayer warriors. They go out into the parking lot. And I mean praying over the parking lot, praying over the sanctuary, praying over the nursery, praying over every classroom, every square inch, all the offices, everything is prayed over, every Sunday morning. We've got to. What are we going to do? Get up there and just work on some little message and sing some little song that we hadn't prayed over? Give tithes and offers we hadn't prayed over? Have people come in that's got all kinds of junk on them from out there in the world, sitting in the pews, and hadn't prayed in their seats? I'm going to promise you, a lost man is not going to pray for himself. I go to every door. We claim the blood of Jesus upon every door post. I'm going to tell you what they did in Exodus, claiming the blood of Jesus upon every door post. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would remove every hindrance and spirit of unbelief that comes from every man, woman, boy, and girl in that door. Every door. Every door. Prayer is warfare, folks. We're in a war today. We've got to pray before we serve, at least once a month. Our pastor will get in the pulpit. We run about 600 Sunday school, about 1,000 in worship. We've gone to that in four years. Wasn't just running, excuse me, six years. We were running 100 Sunday school six years ago. God's just blessed. It's prayer. You call anybody in the church. You call all the people in our community. That's what it is. That's what it is. It's prayer. It's just prayer. But I promise you, at least once a month, at least once a month, maybe it's Sunday morning, maybe it's Sunday night, maybe Wednesday night, pastor will walk into the pulpit, look out there, people just weeping. Broken. You just give an invitation. Won't preach. Happens all the time. That's my wife. Happens all the time. Spirit of God's already showed up. Amen. Folks, I tell you. God shows up in a worship service. You'll know it. You won't have to have anybody tell you He's there. We've got to pray before we serve. Matthew chapter 4, verse 10 through 11. Here's Jesus. Just come out of a 40-day prayer meeting. Amen. 40 days and 40 nights of fasting and praying, Jesus had. My pastor just went through a 40 days of fasting and prayer. You'd have to know him. Appreciate that. Good grief, the way he likes to eat. Typical Baptist preacher, you know. You know what the difference between a preacher and a cowboy is, don't you? A cowboy's buckle covers his belly. A preacher's belly covers his buckle. That's the way he is. Here comes Jesus out of a prayer meeting. The devil meets him face to face. Isn't that the way it is? I'm going to tell you. Matthew chapter 4, verse 10 through 11. Then saith Jesus unto him. By the way, listen to me. I'm going to back up here just a little bit. The devil comes to Jesus three times. Three different times. I've got a message I preach from this whole passage of Scripture on how to overcome temptation. You do overcome it the same way Jesus overcame it. Three times the devil come against Jesus, and three times Jesus quoted the Word of God out of Deuteronomy. Three times. Three verses out of Deuteronomy. And he'd run the devil off. What do you reckon you and I can do with six books? Amen? Friend, let me tell you something. Prayer and the Word of God will overcome Satan. Listen to what Jesus said. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. I tell him that every day. Get out of my face, Satan. Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written. Friend, I'm going to tell you something. You don't have any authority over the devil in your words, but you have all authority on the Word of God. He can't stand this. Heaven and earth is going to pass away one day. I'm going to tell you something, friend. This Word is not going to pass away. Jesus said, It is written, thou shalt what? Worship the Lord thy God, then what else? And him only shalt thou serve. And look what happens next. Then the devil leaveth in him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Now I'm going to tell you something. That's what makes me want to run. Amen? I love that passage of Scripture. Anytime the Bible says the devil left somebody, and angels came and ministered to them, I want to find out how they did it. Especially when it's Jesus. And Jesus did it by telling Satan, It is written, Satan, I'm going to worship the Lord thy God, then him only will I serve. Then the devil left. Let me tell you, that was the one, two, that killed the devil that day. Worship and service in that order. Supplication first, then service. See, either one out of order is unbalanced. What good would it do if I come every morning and I just got on my knees and I prayed all day long and then got up and just sit there? What good would that do? Friend, I'm going to tell you something. God called us to serve. But I'm going to tell you, it's just as out of balance if I try to get up in the morning and try to go out and serve in my own flesh without worshiping the Lord first. Because I'm going to tell you something, if any good thing does come out of that day, I would get the glory. And the Bible says, God's not going to share His glory with nobody. Well, service can become an enemy. I was in East Texas doing a revival here a couple years ago. Did a little mini prayer conference on Saturday. And, well, I mean, we had a good time that day. On Sunday night, the next day, there were several people that were at the prayer conference. They got together and they said, we just want to share testimony. They told their pastor, we just want to share testimony with the rest of the world, with the rest of the church how God dealt with us yesterday in the prayer conference. And so people got up and just had a popcorn testimony. It would be encouragement to the rest of the church that wasn't here and everything. But anyway, this one little boy, he got up. Boy, he just got up there and he said, and this little boy was a very highly educated fella and just, I mean, front line worker in the church. And he said this. That's something I'll never forget as long as I live. I can't remember his name. He said, I owe the church an apology. He said, I've served in a lot of different capacities here in this church. He said, I've worked with RAs. He said, I've taught a youth Sunday school class. Both of them were a flop. He said, I started a bus ministry here at the church. He said, it was a flop. Son, he went on. He named off a list of stuff, as long as you're on. And every time he named one, he said, it was a flop. It was a flop. I mean, I'm about to laugh, you know. I'm loving this. You've got to get honest, you know. He said, I found out yesterday why it was. He said, I didn't really pray about any of them. And once I was doing it, I wasn't praying about it for God's presence upon my life as I did it. He said, I promise the church, if you'll forgive me from this day forward, that'll never happen again. I'll never take a position that I hadn't prayed about. And once I take it, I'll take it very seriously to continue to pray about it. Son, I'm going to tell you something. You give me a church full of guys like that, well, I'll see you four ways God answers prayer. Four ways God answers prayer. Turn the page. Four ways God answers prayer. Sometimes God answers prayers directly. Well, that's the way I like to pray, amen. I pray in the morning, God answers in the afternoon, amen. You all out there? Matthew 14, verse 28-31. Here's old Peter out there walking on the water, amen. And Peter answered him and said, he's seen the Lord walking on the water and he wanted to go pee with Jesus, amen. He said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And he said, come. And Peter was coming down out of the ship and he did walk on water, by the way, amen. Don't get too critical about old Peter, amen. At least he did get out of the boat, amen. I'd rather be out of the boat and in the waves with Jesus than in the boat and out of the will of God. At least he had some fun there for a little bit. And he walked on the water to go to Jesus. In fact, he really wasn't walking on water, he was walking on the Word. He said, Lord, if it's You, bid me come unto You. And Jesus just said, come. One word. He said, Lord, that's good enough for me. And son, he stepped out of the boat. He said, come unto me. And he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterously, he got his eyes off the Word and on the world, amen. When he saw the wind boisterously, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried saying what? Lord, save me. Three words. Anytime you say Lord in anything, you're praying. Amen. Lord, save me. And the Bible says, when did Jesus stretch forth His hand? Immediately. Sometimes God answers prayers directly. Immediately, Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? You know what Jesus was telling him? He said, Peter, you should have just trusted my word. He said, I said, come. He said, I said, come. Amen. That ought to have been enough. He got his eyes off the Word and on the world and began to sink. But even then, even then, he said, Lord, save me. And Jesus stretched forth His hand. I talked to people that had been in crisis situations, I mean desperate situations, and prayer was made and immediately they were saved. I talked to a woman one time. She said, I was being attacked by a man. She said, I just cried out, Lord Jesus, save me. And immediately that man took his hands off of her and run of the direction. Harold Peasley, I was in Switzerland on the International Congress on Revival about 12 years ago. A man who was director of evangelism for the whole continent of South Africa, for the white South African. He was a white South African. And he taught all of the black South Africans evangelism explosion in South Africa for Harold Peasley. You know Harold? Ever heard of him, brother? He's awesome. Man of God. But, I mean, there were all these people that were involved, these black South African witch doctors hated Harold Peasley, as you can imagine. I mean, son, he had a contract out on him. I mean, they was going to get him. And I mean, there was martyring. This was 12 years ago they were martyring him, South Africa. I mean, it's worse today than it was then. But the way they would kill them, they would take them out into the bush and take people that were Christians out into the bush, tie their hands behind them, tie a spare tire around their neck, pour cola all over the spare tire. They called it a death necklace. Then they would take a match, strike the match, light the tire that was hanging around their neck, and tie them up against a tree and let that tire, that car tire, burn literally into their flesh and the smoke would asphyxiate them and they would kill them and sometimes it would take 20, it takes 20, and they still do it today. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to kill a person. They say it's an awful, ungodly, painful death. Just ask Jesus. You know what they tell me? They tell me that there's more people dying for their faith in Jesus Christ today than there ever has been in the history of the world. We just don't see much of it today in America. We're starting to see a little bit of it. I've got news for you. It's going to pick up the tempo. There's going to be more of it. You better get prayed up, church. Trials and tribulations are coming. More and more. It's going to increase. You can check out Matthew 24. You don't believe me? Believe what Jesus says. He said in the last days they shall deliver you up for my name's sake and you shall be afflicted. The most hated people in the United States of America today are people who are conservative, fundamental, Bible-believing Christians. I'm telling you, that's a fact. Some of the most hated people in America today are fundamental, Bible-believing, conservative Christians. One day, Harold Peasley said that they kidnapped him, put him in the back end of a car, took him out into the bush, got him out of the back of the car, tied his hands behind his back, put a tie around his neck. He's black. African voodoo witch doctors. Poured coal oil all over this. He was sharing this testimony. He laid the oberoi in Switzerland. Boy, I mean, it was unbelievable the way he shared his testimony. He said, I just knew I was going to die. He said, I was just praying. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. At the time that he was kidnapped, his wife was back home. She saw him, put him in the back of the car and drive off. She called some of the ladies, some of the men around the church there. They got into their house right there beside the church and began to pray for Brother Harold, pray for his protection. Pray that God would put a head of protection around his life. Pray that it binds Satan away from his body, his soul, and his mind. He said they got him out there, they put the tie around his neck, tied his hands behind him, tied him to the tree, poured coal all over the tire. He said they got out a box of matches and began to strike the matches. He said this was an area of South Africa. He said they get a fraction of an inch of rainfall every year. I'm talking about parts of dry. He said this witch doctor began to strike this match, put it up against that spare tire. He said the match would just go out. He took another match, struck it, put it up against that tire and the match just went out. Took another one, another one, struck an entire box of matches. And it wasn't going to be hard to say they got coal oil all over this tire. They burned slow, not gasoline, coal oil. Burnt up an entire box of matches. Got to the final match and Harold Peasley said, God is my witness, he said out of nowhere, he said there was a clap of thunder. And he said we looked up, he said I looked up, and he said it began to rain harder than I've ever seen it rain in South Africa. And he said they just threw down the matches and they ran and they said, your God's too big for our God. And they never bothered him since. See sometimes God answers prayer immediately. Young people, you remember that. Wives, ladies, gentlemen, God hears and answers prayer. You get into a crisis situation, somebody attacks you, I'm going to tell you, it was unbelievable what Scott was telling us yesterday about when that man come into Wedgwood. Young man that's a youth director over at Wedgwood. He was there the night that that nut came into the church. He was there. He told my wife and I in the bus yesterday about the fact that he said that man, I didn't know this, he never came down the aisle of that church. Only place he could get was toward the back. Scott said, I saw him the whole time. He said, we didn't even know it was real until it was just almost over. He said, he would start down the aisle and he said he would just back up. He couldn't make it down the aisle. He said if he'd have made it down that aisle, he'd have killed a whole lot more people than he did kill. But God wouldn't let him down that aisle. Not one of the aisles. They were praying in there that night. Prayer. God answers direct prayer. Luke 18, verse 13. The Bible says, The publican standing afar off would not lift up his head so much as toward the heaven, but smote himself upon the breast, and saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner! One sentence, seven words. And Jesus said, that man went home that day justified. Let me tell you an immediate prayer that God always answers. That's the sinner's prayer. Amen? I've had people tell me, well, I pray that sinner's prayer all the time. Whoa! That runs a red flag up for me. Well, I pray. I pray to ask Jesus to save. You've heard them say that, brother. I had a lady tell me that Sunday morning. Well, I pray that prayer all the time. Something ain't right. Something is not right. Something is not right. I can't answer what it is in your life because I don't know your life. I'm going to tell you one thing. The Bible says you must be born again. Not, you must be born again and again and again and again and again. Amen? You get saved one time. You do it right. You know it. You'll never have to pray it again. You'll never want to pray it again. Amen? You'll praise the Lord and ask the Lord to protect you every day. I'm not talking about saving your lost soul, friend. I'm going to tell you it happens one time and God answers that prayer directly. Well, number two, sometimes they're delayed. Amen? Sometimes they're delayed. And God's timing. Amen? We live in a fast food society. Boy, I want it now. I want it quick. The Internet. I'm on the Internet, but you know what they say, but I want a faster computer so I can get on it quicker. Amen? I saw an advertisement the other day. Don't get in line, get on line. I mean, they want it quick, fast. We're in that kind of a society. But God don't always work that way, does He? Isaiah 40, 31. Thank God He doesn't. The Bible says, but they that what? Wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Psalm 40, verse 1-3, the psalmist said, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto me and He heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of a mired clay. He set my feet upon a rock. He established my goings. He hath put a new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God. Many shall sin and shall fear and shall trust in the Lord. Woo! Son, I love that verse. He got all that because he waited on the Lord. Amen? Waiting is good training. You're never wasting time when you're waiting on God. Write that down. You're never wasting time when you're waiting on God. Sit in the wagon. Hold the line. Don't worry about the mule going blind. Everything's going to be all right. Amen? God's got everything in control. There's no panic in heaven, just plans. Amen? Are y'all out there? Folks, I'm going to tell you something. This is good. There's no panic in heaven. Just plans. God's got plans for your life. But you've got to wait on Him. Amen? I'll tell you about that bus real quick. God gave us out there in October of 1998. My wife and I started praying for that bus in October of 1997. Not that bus. Just praying for something. And we're thinking, pop-up camper. We didn't think of anything. We'd gotten down and we were praying about suburban. We didn't know. We were just praying what God's will would be done. We were praying, Lord, because we homeschool our children. They go with us. And we all go as a family. And you go to a small rural place as I go to, and four or five people try to go into somebody's house and just stay for a week. It's just a little crowded and awkward and everything. So we just really was praying. And God had given me freedom to really believe that that was His will for our life in October of 1997. And we began to pray and believe that God was going to provide whatever it was He was going to provide for our lives. We were going around. We were looking for other motorhomes. We were praying about it, believing it and everything. Had three churches call me and said, we'll give you $100 a piece a week. Excuse me, not a week. A month. You'll get seven other churches. You get $1,000 a month to come. You call up seven other churches, which I could have. I've never asked anybody for money. God's my source, my force, my course. Amen. It takes money to operate a ministry, to go all over this nation. And I will appreciate your tithes, or appreciate your offerings, that is. Excuse me, not your tithes. That goes to the church, but your offerings that you give this week. Appreciate it very much. It takes a lot of money to operate a ministry. I've never asked anybody for anything. God's my source. You're not my source. The Lord's my source. The Lord will use you to provide our needs this week, but you're not my source. Jesus is my source, my force, and my course. Amen. If they get my eyes on you, I'm going to get disappointed. If I get my eyes on anybody at the bank, I'm going to get disappointed. If I get my eyes on Jesus, I'll never be disappointed. Amen. We're praying, just believing. Lord, provide for us whatever kind of motor home you want to. That was October of 97. In October of 1998, a man called me one day on the phone, a friend of mine. He said, do you want to go to Bible study on Tuesday night? He said, let's go to Bible study. He's a businessman over in Dallas. I said, yeah, let's go. We went to a Bible study. We came over here to Fort Worth. Actually, it's in this area. I'm not going to say who it was because I believe the glory ought to go to God because the Lord gave us that bus. So we pulled up in front of this airport hangar. I said, what are we doing here? I thought we were going to the Bible study. He said, well, we are. We got out and these doors opened up on this big airport hangar. Some men walked out. This fellow introduced me to these folks. I said, what in the world is going on? There was two jet airplanes there, a prop plane, and that bus sitting in that hangar. These men, I'd never met them before in my life. Didn't know any of them. And I knew who one of them was, but I'd never met him personally. And so we start walking over towards the bus. And I thought, oh, buddy. I said, where's the Bible study? I said, what are we doing? He said, it's all right. He lied to me. See them? I forgave him, though. I believe y'all forgive, amen? I got over real quick. We start heading over towards the bus. And they opened up the door of it. The three of us, a friend of mine, a businessman, and this other man and myself stepped up into the bus. It's a minister. This other man was a minister. And we're looking over the bus. And I'm just doing an ah and boy, I said, isn't this beautiful? Man, thank you, Jesus. This is beautiful. Boy. I said, well, maybe we're going to have the Bible study in the bus. I didn't know, you know? And this minister looks at me. He said, I understand you, an evangelist, you've been praying about getting a motor home. I said, yes, sir, we have. Me and my wife and I, we homeschool our children. We travel around. I said, yes, sir, we've been praying about that. And he said, would something like this meet your needs? I said, yeah. I said, something like this would be like a $100 saddle on a mule. Amen? I laughed. Really, when he said, would it meet your needs? He said, well, I just wanted to ask you. He did it just like this. He took his two fingers, put them on my chest. He said, because in Jesus' name, I give you this bus. Here's where it gets good. We prayed, cried, snotted around there, sang for an hour after that. Just worshiping the Lord, thanking Him for His goodness and mercy. And he told me, I said, you don't know me. He said, oh, yeah, I know you. I've already talked to your pastor. My pastor, even though he was lying to me, he didn't tell me about all this mess. He knew they were fixing to give me this bus. Everybody knew it but me. Made me about half hot. But I got over it. I forgave everybody. I said, yeah, I know you. He said, I've checked you out. He said, you're a soul winner. He said, I want a soul into your ministry. He said, it's doing something. He said, you'll use this bus more in one month than I use it in a year. He said, we don't use it that much. He said, listen to what he told me. He said, I could never have given you this bus, Brother Jack, in the condition that it was in. See, that bus is 20 years old. 20 years old. They just got through putting a brand new Detroit 6B92 engine in it. $15,500 engine in it. New paint job, new tires, Michelin's all the way around. I mean, they've gone through the interior and redid it and everything. All redid it. He said, I never could have given you this bus in the condition it was in. He said, we started rebuilding it in October of 1997. Whoa! I'd make a Baptist want to shout. Let me tell you something. I love the fact that God provided the bus. Or the fact that we have the bus. But I'm going to tell you what I love more. That Jesus is completely and 100% in it. Happening. Those old boys that wanted me to go and ask those other churches to commit $100 a week, a month. I didn't finish that part of it. My wife and I prayed about it. We just never could get the peace about it. I went back and I told them, I said, if y'all want to support their ministry, that's fine. But I said, God will not let me call in. And I could have called seven churches. Easy. And asked them, would you give $100 a month towards a bus ministry or a motorhome? They would have done it in a heartbeat. But God wouldn't let me do it. I'm not saying it's wrong for somebody else to do it. It wasn't right for us. Boy, am I glad I didn't. See, we were looking at a $70,000 motorhome. And God gave us a $200,000 bus. See, God's ways are not our ways. And His thoughts are not our thoughts. So far above the heavens are His thoughts in His ways than our thoughts in our ways. God does things, sometimes they're delayed. But He's right on time. God's never late. He's always right on time. Just sit in the wagon, hold the line, don't worry about the mule going blind. Everything's going to be all right. Let me tell you something. If it's a need not a greed, and you pray, God will provide it. Amen? Believe God for it. Some people think, if I pray to ask Jesus to take control of my life, He'll take all the fun away. No, He'll just take all the sin away. Amen? Jesus will never take anything away from you. He won't replace manifold more. The only thing Jesus will ever take away from you is things that will hurt you. Listen to me. The only thing He'll ever give you are things that will help you. See, God's ways are not your ways. Amen? Some people have had a rough go in life, and they just think, you know, God's not going to even be fair. No, God is always fair. He don't do it the same way you do it. But when you come to Him, you'll understand why. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You, Lord, for tonight. Thank You, Lord, that Your ways are not our ways. Your thoughts are not our thoughts. So far above the heavens are Your ways and Your thoughts and our ways and our thoughts. And I thank You, Lord, that they are. Lord, I praise You, and I thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And immediately, Lord, You'll save us. Lord, I thank You. Peter says, Lord, save me. You saved him that day. Lord, there's people here tonight that need to pray the sinner's prayer. We've come to talk about prayer tonight. Lord, they may be like the folk we talked about a while ago, Lord Jesus, that every time we give an invitation, they pray the sinner's prayer. Lord, something is wrong there. Lord, I pray that You'd settle it in their heart tonight, that they'd get it nailed down like they've never got it nailed down before, once and for all, understanding that, Lord Jesus, when You save them, You save them completely and totally, forever and ever, and that they could have the assurance of their salvation tonight. Lord, do that which I cannot do here tonight. Holy Spirit, I pray that You'd bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, of the judgment to come on men and women, boys and girls here tonight. Lord Jesus, they could leave this place saying, I prayed the most precious prayer I've ever prayed tonight. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus, save my lost soul. Lord, please, save people here tonight. Lord, I pray for Christians here tonight that don't have a powerful prayer life. Lord, I pray that You'd give them power through prayer tonight. Power with God. Power in this lost world that we live. Power over sin, self, and Satan. Lord, I pray that Christians here tonight would come to the altar. Father, just recommitting, totally committing, once and for all, to spend an hour alone with You every single day. Lord Jesus, please, move in this worship service, and we'll give You the glory. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I'm going to ask Christians tonight, you want to come to this altar, you want to come on right now and say, God spoke to me about my prayer life tonight in some area of my life. You're in the message. I just want to come and pray about it. That's what this altar is for. See, it's called a prayer altar. It's called a prayer altar. We're talking about prayer tonight. You're here tonight, you don't know Jesus as your Savior. Friend, I'm going to tell you, tonight, pray the first prayer that God hears, and that's God be merciful to me, a sinner. I'm going to lead you in that prayer right now. With every head bowed, every eye closed, if you're here tonight and you say, I don't know for sure if I was to die tonight, that I'd go to heaven. But I want to know for certain. You just pray this prayer to Jesus. Just whisper it from your lips. He can hear a whisper all the way to heaven. Just whisper this prayer to the Lord Jesus, and He'll save you. Just whisper this prayer to Jesus. Dear Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Without You, I'm lost. I'm headed for hell. But tonight, Lord Jesus, I ask You to forgive me of all of my sins. And I ask You right now, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart. Be my Lord, my Savior, and my Master. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. In Jesus' name. Heads bowed, eyes are closed. God bless you, ma'am. God bless you, sir. If you just prayed that prayer tonight, with every head bowed and every eye closed, that's the greatest decision you ever made in your life. You got it settled once and for all. You say, I didn't know for sure before, but I know now. If you just prayed that prayer, and you really meant it, with every head bowed and every eye closed, all over this auditorium, if you just prayed that prayer, with every head bowed and every eye closed, would you just slip up your hand real high? Lift it up real high. God bless you, ma'am. God bless you. God bless you, ma'am. God bless you. Anyone else? God bless you. Anyone else? Oh, thank You, Jesus. People being saved immediately. God answers prayers directly. Immediately.