Prayer, Part 5

Thank you. That's very nice. Ecclesiastes talks about a time to laugh, a time to cry, a time to live, and a time to die. So we will mourn and weep and grieve with the Williams family. She will be missed, but she's fought the hard fight. She's fought the battle. She won. Now she is. By the way she lives, she encourages us all to live that life and endure to the end. She's seven years old. So, she was here almost every Sabbath. And that's an example to each and every one of us. Is that important to her? So with that, we will launch into the sermon. This is part five in the final part of prayer. We went through four different sermons, and last time we talked about the power of prayer. Today we're going to talk about not only the power of prayer, but the components of prayer. And one of the most important things we can learn from today, hopefully I will give you lessons, on how to avoid stale prayer. Because there is such a thing as stale prayer. If you've never experienced it, then I can probably say you've never prayed enough. Because when you pray and pray and pray and pray, sometimes it feels like you're saying the same thing. You're becoming repetitious. It's becoming stale. I want to talk about that today. And before we do, I'd like to pick up where we left off last week. If you would, I'd like you to turn to 2 Kings. 2 Kings, we had the opportunity to see the faith and the prayer of a man named Hezekiah. And what an example Hezekiah was. An example to us. I'd like you to turn to 2 Kings 20, where we left off, because we finished last week, and it talked about chapter 19 and verse 35, and how He came to pass on a certain night, the angel of the Lord, went out and killed at the camp 185,000 people. One swift swoop, and they were gone.

And the city was preserved. And I like how I said, early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead.

And then it said in verse 36, So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained in Nineveh. According to historical sources, it was actually killed about 20 years later by two of the sons. But he went home, and he didn't bother Israel anymore. After losing a big part of your army, I guess that's a good reason not to come back. But it's interesting, as it says in chapter 20 and verse 1, it says, In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. In those days, those days between when God rescued them and when King Sennacherib was still on the throne. Because, as you have to understand, just because 185,000 of his best men were wiped out, that was not the total army. And they were still a military force, mighty. The entire land, they still ruled over all the land. They still ruled over Israel, Judah. But they didn't come back. But Hezekiah was sick and near death. He was 39 years old. Seems awfully young. If you're 50-something like I am, 39 seems young. He was 39, a great king, and yet he was near death. And how would you like Isaiah, the most, arguably the most powerful prophet in the Old Testament? He goes in and you call Isaiah in to find out what the Lord wants to say. And he called for him, and he went in and said, Thus says the Lord, Hezekiah, set your house in order, you shall die and not live. That would be a very, very... How would you handle that kind of news? Maybe you've had to handle that sort of news before.

And he says, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live at 39 years of age. I would say, wonder, what more do you want him to do, God? Verse 2, Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and he did what?

And he prayed, prayed, prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray. How I have walked before you in truth, and with a loyal heart, I have done what was good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly, wept bitterly. His heart was in this. He was appealing to God. He was wanting... He was appealing to God. Sound better now? Yes. That's what you were trying to tell me. And then verse 4, Then it happened. Look at it's mention. Then it happened. What happened? He said, Then it happened. Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of God came to him saying, Return!

Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord God of David, your father. I have heard your... what? Prayer. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years, I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.

It's interesting that as we see this faith being exhibited by King Hezekiah, and we see how he prayed because he had just seen God deliver a whole nation. But it says, then it happened. What happened, brother? What happened was the will of God was changed. The will of God was changed because things happen because God wills it.

It's God's will. I've heard that many times, used that phrase. But the will of God can actually be changed. You can go through the Scriptures. You can see where God's will was changed, even with Moses, where he was going to wipe out the whole nation of Israel, and start with the nation from Moses himself. Moses asked him not to do it.

The will of God can be changed. But we hopefully can accept whatever his will might be. Like you turn to another example, one of my favorite stories is found in the book of 1 Samuel. You'll turn back a few pages. The book of 1 Samuel. We have a man named Elkanah. He has two wives. One named Penanah, and the other named Hannah. And Hannah could not have a child.

Penanah could have all kinds of children. And she wasn't exactly a person most of us would probably want to hang out with. Reading the story. Women know this more than men. How sometimes working with a woman, spending time with another woman, they can be very bitter. They can be very cold, calculating, hurt feelings. That's what we had with a woman named Penanah. It's not that men can't be that way, but sometimes I've noticed even my wife worked with a few women in the past that just needled. They couldn't help it.

Every day they would just needle. They wouldn't needle people who didn't even listen to them, but they would needle those people they could get to. And so here this lovely woman named Hannah had to bear this in her own house. So in 1 Samuel 1 verse 5, But to Hannah Elkanod gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb.

Which in biblical times was a disgrace. It was a shame, considered. They thought it was a cursing from God at that time. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. Then Elkanod, her husband, said to Hannah, Why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?

Not a very compassionate, caring husband. He's saying that. He thought he was making it better. He made it worse. Verse 9, So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, because they were either up for the spring holy days or the fall holy days. For the tabernacle was in Shiloh at this time. That's where they went up to keep the piece of tabernacles or the spring holy days. It was a time of rejoicing, as it should be, during the spring and fall holy days. But Hannah wasn't rejoicing very much. And she was bitterness in soul. There. And she prayed to the Lord as she was there by the door of the tabernacle.

And said she prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. And I feel like the previous example is a kind. Then she made a vow and said, O Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look upon the affliction of your maidservant, remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head. And it happened as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth.

Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord. I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.

Then Eli answered and said to her, Go in peace. And the God of Israel grants your petition, which you have asked of Him. We have to ask in prayer. Sometimes it's with tears that we have to ask things. We may need comfort. We may need His guidance. We may need His blessings. We need to pour out our heart. He said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, all your being.

Verse 18, and she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. She left it to God. You can read in chapter 2 and verse 1, And Hannah prayed and said to God, My heart rejoices in the Lord.

My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. Only like the Lord. And you can read the rest of her prayer. Her prayer obviously made an impact with God because He changed things. She became pregnant with arguably the greatest prophet and judge before all of Israel in Samuel. She gave Samuel up. But it said she also had other sons and daughters. God blessed her. He answered those prayers. Incredible example. There's just something there I want to touch on as we go into the components of prayer in a few moments.

And that's about a vow. I'm very careful what we need to be about making a vow, as she did to God. I want to look at one other example before we move on, and I'd like to go back to 2 Kings. 2 Kings 21 Here we have a story of Hezekiah, the grandson.

Excuse me, Hezekiah's son, the singing of Josiah. It's interesting here in 2 Kings 21. Here you see right above it the death of Hezekiah. He said, so Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place. Hezekiah reigned for 29 years. Judah was a faithful man, honored by God. And he had a son, it said, when he died who was 12 years old. So the son who was 12 years old had spent 12 years with his father in Hezekiah. But he wasn't like his father. Chapter 21, verse 1, said, Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. And he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hezekiah. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He obviously didn't learn much from his father, even though he was only 12 years old. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. He raised up altars for Baal and made a wooden image, as Ahab the king of Israel had done. And he worshiped all the hosts of the heavens and served them. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, which the Lord said in Jerusalem, I will put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord. Also, he had his son pass through the fire, burned alive, practiced sutzein, used witchcraft and consulted spirits and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. He even set a carved image of Asheroth that he had made. So here, this king, not only did he set things up, he even made one himself and set this altar, this image up in the house of God, in the God's temple. And in verse 9, God had warned through many men, warned through his prophets, warned even through Isaiah. Come to verse 9, but they paid no attention. And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spoke by his servants of prophets, saying, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these abominations, he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and he has also made Judah sin with his idols. Therefore, thus says the Lord, God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. Never can say I've ever heard my ears tingle, but some of the things that were going to happen to them was going to be something that they could not get out of their ears for years. And then in verse 16, it says something very interesting about this king Manasseh. He said, Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. Innocent blood, not people who deserved it, but innocent people, from one end of Jerusalem to the other, besides the sin which he had made Judah sin in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

The story is finished up like you'd turn there in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33. In these short 12 verses here, it tells us about this man Manasseh who was so evil, yet he was king. In chapter 33 and verse 1, as we read before, Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah's father had broken down. He raised up the altars for the Ba'als. He made wooden images and he worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord your God said, in Jerusalem shall be My name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven and the two courts of the house. And verse 6, also he caused his at this time sons, more than one son, sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced, hmm, here he was a king. He practiced sous-sein, used witchcraft, sorcery, consulted mediums and spirits. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord. He practiced witchcraft, sorcery, mediums. Do we have that problem today in the church of God? Do we have people practicing? Witchcrafts? Sorcery? All the evils that are related here? Yes, we do. And it's time we as a church put a stop to it, to say it is wrong. And I'm doing that because that's evil. I found out by turning and looking at pages of Facebook. Saw young people in our church, even adults, on Facebook, talking about movies, reading books about witches, witchcraft, Harry Potter, vampires, all these various things that are so popular in the world today. And it cannot be brought into this church. That is not what we do. It should not even be brought up by young people, old people. Witchcraft is evil and it's of the devil, Satan, and it will not be tolerated. I'm saying that here. Not that I know there's anyone in this church. I don't think we've seen it in this church. But it's in this church. It's in the United Church of God. It's in all the churches of God. It's on Facebook. It's evil. It's bad.

People won't even, oh, the kids just want to watch these movies. Oh, isn't it just for the kids? We need to, as sons and God, stand up and say, no.

Won't have that in my house. Only entertain that. I'm going on for too long. So I'm saying it today. I don't know that it exists in this church, but it exists in others. It exists as a piece of tabernacles. It needs to be put to stop. Do it all. We have to live by this Bible. God says a witch is evil, we shouldn't even entertain it.

I remember seeing back there used to be a show called Bewitched growing up. I remember my father coming into the church, showing it to him. He goes, you can't watch that. The witch is evil. He took me to different scriptures and showed me that. I never got that out of my mind. It's been a long time ago. It's many years ago. God doesn't change. He hated it 3,000 years ago. It's King Manasseh. We need to set the right example. Where the people think, oh, you're just too self-righteous. God is right, and anything of Satan is wrong. We need to make that stand and never be ashamed or embarrassed because you don't look at things the way that some people in this church do.

This is what we live by. If Manasseh had turned and done what his father did, all his children wouldn't have died. We need to cry aloud, spare not, and let people know this is the church of God. This is what Mavis Williams believed. This is what people who have died before us believed. We need to carry on with God's heart. Verse 7, He even set a card image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, in which God had said to David, and said to Solomon his son in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes, I will put my name there forever.

Then in verse 9, He said, But Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the Lord brought upon the captains of the armies of the king of Assyria. Remember now, many years had gone by. Twenty-two years had gone by.

Hezekiah was no longer on the throne. God's promise to Hezekiah to preserve the city was no longer valid. They had changed as a people. They had changed as a leader. And Sennacherib's grandson, called Asher Benepaul, was taking the throne.

He had taken the throne and he had come before Judah and Jerusalem and said, This is it. It's mine. And he conquered the city. And it said, The king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks and with bronze feathers and carried him off to Babylon. Here, the historical count of it, the hooks he's talking about, was actually a nose ring. Just like you see cows. They put, they drug this king out, this king Manasseh, who enjoyed watching other people suffer.

The king of Assyria came out and grabbed him and held him as they took an awl and drove a hole through his nose. All the way through his nose, not just the bottom, but all the way through. And then they stuck a ring, as they call a hook, our nose ring. Real big. He stuck it in his nose and tied him up with these chains that was tied to his nose and to his hands and to his feet.

And took him to Babylon. Carried him off to Babylon. Can you imagine what that felt like? But he was an evil man. It said, verse 12, Now when he was in affliction, I'm sure he was, he implored the Lord as God. Interesting. It's amazing how all of a sudden God can become your best friend. It's happened to all of us a time or two. Thankfully, he is our best friend and our father. And humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to him. And he received his entreaty, heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom.

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. And I read this and read this and just had a hard time with it. I'm not as forgiving as God. Never will be. I get it. He's still unchanged. But I thought, read this, hell in the world, just because of God, I prayed, Oh, I'm sorry, God. How could God forgive him? And then it also mentions in another time there that there is what is called the prayer of Manasseh. And it's in the Apocrypha, which is one of the books not canonized in the Bible. But this prayer of Manasseh was laid out for all to see.

Because no matter how wicked you are, no matter what you've done, I doubt there's...we've combined all things we've done in this room, and it can't even compare with how evil and bad Manasseh was. All the children he put to death, all the blood that was from one end to another in Jerusalem. If you don't mind handing something out, I want you to hand out now so you can have a chance to read that.

This is a prayer of Manasseh. This is a prayer that is preserved and thought. This is what he prayed to God. When he was in Babylon, with the biggest nose ring anyone's probably ever had, stuck in some dungeon, realizing that Ash or Ben-Apoll was about to skin him, take all of his skin as he lined all of his pillars in his temple with him.

And maybe he had a little bit of Hezekiah in his heart that we couldn't see.

So I bring this out not only because of the power of prayer, but one of the components of prayer, is that God looks upon the heart. Sometimes we need to pray with tears and with our whole heart.

I find when I read that prayer, I like you all to read it. I won't read it. I'd like you to read it. Think about this man and all the sins he had committed, and how evil he is. And yet God forgave him. God loved him. He still loves him. And he came back and he tried to make a difference. He didn't make a big enough one because by that time he had already corrupted most of Jerusalem, where it was hard to ever get back again. And thankfully, his grandson, Josiah, came along and helped. Prayer of Manasseh helps me to realize, no matter what I've done, no matter the distance between God and myself, he's waiting for us to turn back to him. We talked about that through the actual four other sermons. So now I'd like to, as I finish today, like to go through seven components of prayer. Seven components of prayer. Now, I hope we'll help your prayer life. Things to consider. This is not an exclusive list. I'm sure there will be some that you may be able to come up in a week or two and tell me you thought of something else. You do? I'd love to hear it. It's interesting because sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers right away. Daniel found that out because he had to wait three weeks for God to answer one of his. And he really needed it. He'd gone without food and water.

But God does answer it. He always answers our prayers. Yes, no, or not just yet. So I'd like you to think of these components as seven things, and I'd like you to envision a toolbox. Okay? I have a toolbox back in our condo. Most of you probably have a toolbox around the house.

Even the ladies have toolboxes now. You've got to fix this and fix that. Wouldn't it be great because you wouldn't even need a toolbox if you just needed a hammer and a screwdriver. Wouldn't it be great? Hammer and a screwdriver, that's all you need. But if you've ever done work around your house or anywhere else on your car or anything, guess what? You need more than two tools. You need more than a hammer and you need more than a screwdriver.

You need a Phillips screwdriver, you need a flathead screwdriver. You may need a number one screwdriver and a number two screwdriver and a Phillips head. You may need a pair of pliers, hacksaw, wire cutters. So I'd like you to consider these seven components like a toolbox because in prayer, sometimes you need more than just one or two things to have really successful heartfelt God answering prayer. The first I'd like to bring up out of the toolbox is a prayer list.

You may need maybe a piece of paper, maybe a notebook. When I first started twenty years ago with my very first prayer notebook, it was a notebook and I wrote everything down because I really didn't have prayer down very well at that time.

And I couldn't keep up with everything and I kind of got lost in my prayers. And so I had a prayer notebook. And on one page was all the things I needed to pray for, about my family. Another page, I had other things written down. You would add them occasionally. There would be a list towards the end for the sick and that just constantly changed.

Adding to, taking away, trying to remember, going back there. There are a lot of things to pray for. Now my life has actually changed even here. The first thing I did, I did this for so many years, the first thing I did was get up and get out of bed in the mornings, I'd go hit my knees. But I've changed. This job has changed me because now the first thing I do is I get on the Internet and I find out what prayers I need to pray about that day or I look back on who I need to touch on.

And then I have to look because I kind of want to know what's going on in the news that's part of the prayer list that I need to be covering that day. Well, it may be a mess. The church may be a mess. Your life may be a mess. A friend of yours, the church, life may be a mess. Is that important? Because I do my longest prayer in the morning. But it's interesting, as you use this notebook, use this pad, you'll add more and more to it.

You'll see how valuable it is. So eventually it becomes such a ingrained thing that you don't need the notebook anymore. But I did for years and years. Now I mix my prayers up. That's what we'll talk about. And what you're going to cover. But I think it's very important that you have your prayer list or your notebook in your spiritual toolbox. It helps you because you'll get up from prayer. You'll remember later on that day, I didn't even, boy, I didn't even remember to pray about that.

Pray about them. It helps you. It's a discipline for you. The second tool in the toolbox I want to talk about is a vowel. V-O-W. You see it and it's something that is scriptural, but it's something that we, if you make a vowel, it is something very, very, very important. Because you're not going to hold God captive. He will not be blackmailed. He will not be enticed. He wants things from the heart. A vowel is actually a solemn promise made to God to perform or to abstain from something that is purely voluntary. As a matter of fact, James touches on it.

Where James said, make sure, if you say you're going to go to this city, make sure you do not forget the words, if it's God's will. See, because your vow, the vow as you see in Scripture, from Jacob and Job, the book of Acts, Paul made a couple of vowels. They had to do with God's will. We have to make sure it is God's will. Because when you make a vow to God, He takes it very seriously. You break a vow to God, I don't want to be anywhere near you.

So do we seriously suggest you're taking vowels? No. But if it's something very serious, I've taken some vowels before. But they're life-changing. It's something you need to be very close to God about. Something you need to lay out within the birds.

And one of the most important things about a vow is God needs to be glorified. Oh God, I tell you what, if you help, I'll stop smoking if you let me win the lottery. I'll make that vowels. Or I'll stop drinking if you'll help me pay my car off. It's not what we're talking about, but yet I've had people tell me that. They make deals with God. God's a dealmaker, we're not! If you want to take your life to a higher spiritual plane, and you want to make a vow to God, I think He'll take that.

Because He wants us. He wants us to do things so that He is glorified. His name is glorified. I've known people tell me that they prayed that God would give them, let them win the lottery, and they would give half their money to Him. Yeah, right. Vowel number two. Number three component. Long and short prayers. Scriptures tell us, Daniel prayed three times a day. How about you? Someone asked me, how many times do you pray a day?

I said somewhere between 20 and 30. Most of them are short, but I have long prayers. And that's what you need to make sure. You read the Bible, and you read every prayer in there, which I've done. I've checked every single prayer and read every single prayer. Most of them are fairly short. I think John 17, the high priest of the prayer of Jesus Christ last night, may be the longest if it isn't Solomon's Prayer, the dedication of the temple.

Don't be strumptious. Most prayers, fairly short in the Bible. Powerful prayers have been short, but I found that you need long prayers and you need short prayers. It takes me a while to cover all the bases. It takes me a while to say every one of your names every morning. And then I have to go to the Caribbean.

And sometimes I'll just mention the Caribbean and then cover the Caribbean people at night by name. And then I have my family. It's very important. I think you have to have priorities. But the long and short prayers need to be a part of your life. That's part of the toolbox. I've said prayers driving down the road many times. I've had some great conversations with God in the vehicle.

If you have the opportunity to drive to work at a pretty good distance, in this town, five miles is a good distance of traffic, you get an opportunity to spend time with God. You get an opportunity to talk to Him. Because guess what? He's listening. He's listening.

So whether you pray, if you have your long prayers, maybe it's better for you to pray your long prayers, where you cover so many things at night rather than the morning. Maybe you're a morning person. I am. I like these things in the morning.

Whatever works, whatever draws you closer to God, the big picture is pray. Have that communication with someone who loves you so much.

So long and short prayers, number three. Number four, diversity. Diversity.

God does not like repetitious, vain prayers. He said it time and time again in the Scriptures. We've covered that in one of the sermons already. What about you? How about your prayers? Have they perhaps become a little stale? Are they? Well, I said that already. I said that yesterday. I said that the day before. I said that.

Sometimes you need change up. You need change up.

You need change up your daily prayer. Sometimes you need to begin with God talking to you, Father. As Orlando said, Dad, you may need to just talk to Him about that.

You may need to come Him, and even though we should have adoration, as you can see in some prayers, great adoration for God. Sometimes you need just lay your heart out. I know when I had a problem, I might really need to talk to somebody, and my Father was still alive. It was so good. He'd just say, Dad, I need to talk to you. He'd give me great advice.

We have a Father, a Dad, who will give us great advice.

We need to make sure that we cover our families daily. Ask for that protection. That protection is important. People you love, people you care, put them in God's hands.

We need to make sure we never neglect in our daily prayer the sacrifice that was done for us. That's why we're there.

We need to be cleansed, clean, just like Isaiah, a man of unclean lips. He had to be purged, cleansed of his sins before he came before God. That's why at the start of my prayer, even though various times I try to always put in the cleansing, ask and call upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the blood that would take away, purge and cleanse my sins.

Remove the iniquity, my transgressions from me at the very first of my prayer. Pretty close to the first because it's very important that I am a clean vessel when I come before Him. Because He knows what's important. Because at that moment after we ask for that forgiveness, we are cleansed. We are pure. So pure, it's just a thing every father would love to see.

It's a pure little child coming to Him and asking.

And what about your church, your family here? Not just your personal family, but your church family. Do we remember them? They need to be a part of our daily prayer. This is part of our family. Williams now has this to go through. We will go through it with them in prayer. We will go through it with them in meditation.

One enjoys favor, we all enjoy it. One goes through something, we all should go through it. It's what families do.

What about the leaders? We talked to a sermon a while back about the leaders of this country. I don't know that you can't get on every morning as I do and see something that came down from our United States government and the leaders that you're going, oh no!

They need prayers. We need to be able to carry on our work and peace. We need to carry on His work and peace. Denny Lucre needs your prayers. He's asked for them. Victor? Lloyd, Chugsy? All of them. We need your prayers. Carry on.

And then the sick. Boy, we don't need to leave out the sick. Boy, there's so many people. Boy, they need our prayers. We have them here in this room, and they're all across here. Thankfully, Barbara puts out that list. You need one, she'll get you one. You can add it to your prayer list. Because those people need it. I've needed it. My family's needed it in the past. We've got it.

It's pretty important. Those are sick and afflicted. If somebody asks you, and we should not be afraid to ask each other, I need you to pray for me. We need to do it. We need to take that like we have this special. We have this special pass to the great Creator God. And we can use it. We can say, Father, we can say, Papa, say, Daddy, I need this for my friend.

And then one of the things that we don't need to leave out apart for diversity is the greatness of God.

We need to spend some time, occasionally, just talking about how great He is. How great they are, because He is. I've got a sermon coming up in a couple of weeks on that. All right, partially written. Title is, God isn't. So I want to tell you what He isn't, because I can't tell you how great He is. There's no words to describe.

Sometimes that's a big part of our prayer. It's just realizing who we're praying to and how special, how special it is that we have that opportunity. He's given it to us and how precious we are in His sight.

Number five, very important. Number five, I feel like, is meditation and location. Meditation and location. Meditation, meditation, meditation. Just like what I say about what's great real estate, location, location, location.

Meditation sometimes is a lost art. And I'll have to tell you, God talks about it a lot in the Scripture. We need to meditate on His Word. We need to meditate on His blessings. We never need to meditate on what He's doing with us. We need to meditate on the world. Sometimes in prayer, we need to meditate before we pray. Sometimes we need to meditate in the middle of our prayer. And many times we need to meditate after we pray. On what we just prayed about. And say, God, did I forget anything? And sometimes the location with the meditation is just what you need to stop, to stay on prayer. Change up. I have my room I like to go to. I have my space right by the bed, and that's where I kneel for most of my prayer.

I've had some fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, heart-rendering prayer out by the ocean. I've had wonderful prayer meditation just walking. I've walked an hour, two hours, just walking the seashore, looking over that vast creation that to Him is just a bucket full of water.

And I've spent time praying and talking to Him. And you wouldn't believe how many miles you could walk and not even think about it. It puts you in a different state. It changes you. My wife used to have a place back in Tennessee that she would go and pray. We were on a tomen or whenever she just got away and needed to talk to God. It was down by this stream and this creek that ran down there. Beautiful trees and trees hanging over. She took me down there one time. A special place to her. Because you could really feel close to God.

Sometimes you need to get out in the woods. Sometimes you just need to go in your backyard. Sometimes you need to go in your closet. Sometimes you need to pray on your bed. But meditation and location are very important. Never let it get stale. Get up and do something. Motion controls emotion. God understands why you're not on your knees. You're drawing closer to Him.

You have one of the most wonderful locations. You're near an ocean. Some of you are closer than others. But for a special time, it's a good time to talk to God. Because our God is an awesome God. And sometimes we do not realize Him.

Number six, to bring you up, Scripture.

To stop stale prayer, we need to go to Scripture sometimes. I found it to be very valuable.

Someone introduced me to that many years ago. Because my prayer had gotten stale.

It had gotten repetitious.

And I asked Him, what do you do? He said, I go to the book of Psalm.

I'd like you to turn there.

Show you how easy this is.

I could turn Psalm 54. This is so easy to remember. As a matter of fact, in my Bible here, actually they're actually circled.

I just circled the first verse.

So it's easy for me to turn too. And I will turn sometimes to this before I even go into prayer. I've even carried my Bible in, laid it before me as I'm praying. Because it's amazing sometimes. You are so focused on your prayer. You're right where you want to be. You're praying, and then something about what you're praying gets in your head. Next thing you know, Satan jumps in there and takes you off to the left field. I can't be the only one that had that. And he still does it. He wants to do it. He's constant about it.

With me, I just say, get behind me. Because I know where it's from.

And I say, no, not today.

And then I have to get back, because it's amazing now how the place and the power of the air can get in your head when you're trying to talk to God.

And it will cause stale prayer. It will take you somewhere that maybe is not even bad. But it's some useless dribble.

It's some useless scene that was in your life somewhere before.

What is he trying to do? He's getting between you and God!

Can't allow that.

You have to put a stop to it right then and there. You can't go on. Satan will even make it pleasant. Oh, well, that's nice thoughts and everything. Well, no! You're talking to God!

You can't allow it to happen, brother.

Psalm 54 said, answered prayers by deliverance from adversaries, is what the title has. But I look at the very first verse and it says, Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your strength. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth.

You want to start out first? Go to Psalm 54. Tomorrow morning. Read that before God and put your whole heart into it. And then do it again the next morning, and the next morning, and the next morning, where it becomes a part of you. And then go to chapter 55, verse 1. Give ear to my prayer, O God. Do not hide yourself from my supprecation. I need your help, God.

56, verse 1. Follow, just look at the very first verse of these. 56, Be merciful to me, O God. Yes, I need mercy. 57, Be merciful to me, O God. Be merciful to me.

64.

Chapter 64. Hear my voice, O God. In my meditation, preserve my life from the fear of my enemies.

Chapter 67. God, be merciful to us and bless us. And cause His face to shine upon us. What more could we... What better way? I just gave you six or seven. They're all through there. Use His Word. As God breathed, it's His words. All you're doing is telling Him His words back that you love Him. Be merciful. It shows that He has the power. And you realize it. You recognize it. What a wonderful way to talk to God.

Hmm. Just remember the first verse of all those chapters. And put a stop to stale prayer. And finally, the last one, number seven. One that I think is very important.

It's about thankfulness. We need to be thankful to God. We need to make sure we thank Him. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Father. But it's more than thankful.

It's three little words that if you've never said it to God, you need to start. You need to tell God, I love you. You need to say, I love you. Some people out there haven't had a very good father example in their lives. Some have very great examples. I had a great one. Some others don't have it. But it was very hard for me and my Dad to say, I love you. He said it when I was a kid, but when we got older. It wasn't until the last few years that I ever started saying, I love you. It waited too long. It waited too long. With God, He needs to hear, I love you every day. Doesn't He? If you've got a good case, you shouldn't have to say, I love you to your father. Come up and tell me, because I can't get it. I can't go there. My mind can't go there. It's very important to tell God those simple little words, but mean them from the heart. I love you. Very, very important. So I've given you the seven. One thing I realized after this study, and so much time, and I truly believe that, that knowing great will inherit the kingdom of God. Knowing great, I believe, will inherit the kingdom of God. I can't see God wanting somebody around for eternity who is not even thankful to Him, that does not even have a relationship with Him, that does not pray. But remember, God's will. Remember to pray God's will will be done. I want to turn one last thing before we close. I don't have my watch on today, so hopefully we're not too late. I don't think we are. I'd like you to turn to Romans, and I read this from the New Living Translation. If you want to read your part, I'll read this. It's in Romans 8, one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. We have so much vision in the future, where we are and the greatness of God. But in Romans 8, verse 26, I want us to take this from the prayer. Sermons of five we've had. In verse 26, the New Living Translation, I'll read. And it says, And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. I'm thankful to God for that. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. Do you realize that? We don't know what God wants us to pray for. Oh, we know what we want to pray for. We have that covered, don't we? But we do not know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. That's a wonderful power. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. God's will again. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, and are called according to His purpose for them. Everything's going to work for the good. No matter your trials, no matter your troubles, no matter what you need, let it all start with prayer. And if I can say so, it needs to end with prayer. So remember, always pray. I'll have these cards at the front if everybody would. Just come up here right after closing them and sign these cards so we can make sure we get to the William's Den.