- Well, as we embarked on this series several weeks ago on this journey in the book of Acts, it was Acts 1, where right before Jesus ascended into heaven He communicated to His disciples, "I want you to go to Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power, power to be My witnesses." And that's the key word, "My witnesses by way of the power of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." And that's exactly what began in Acts 2, the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came, and it was Peter who stood up and communicated to thousands about how they could have a relationship with God through the resurrected Jesus Christ, who was crucified for their sin, He arose from the grave, and He called them to put their trust and faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. It records for us in Acts 2 that about 3,000 souls gave their lives to Christ. Actually it was, it was 3,000 souls gave their lives to Christ as a result of Peter's message. Well, by the time we move into Acts 3, once again, it was Peter, but this time Peter, John who were walking up on to the Temple Mount, they went through a gate called Beautiful, and they saw a man 40 years old, never walked from birth, his legs didn't work at all, he was lame, and they heal him by the power of Jesus Christ. He stands up, and probably starts dancing and trying his new legs on in ways he never had before, and as a result of this incredible miracle, Peter looks around, and thousands of people start gathering and up in Solomon's Portico, which is up on the Temple Mount, he begins to, once again, have great boldness by way of the power of the Holy Spirit. And he starts communicating the message about Jesus Christ. He's a witness for Jesus Christ, who's alive. He's real. He's the Son of God. Put your trust and faith in Him. And as a result of that, what we eventually find out by the time we get into chapter four, that another thousand, several thousand individuals give their lives to Christ, and it's recorded for us it was 5,000 men. By the time you add it up with women and children, it's probably over 13,000 people. So by the time we had Acts 4, the church has grown from 120 in Acts 1 all the way to over 13,000 individuals. Well, as a result of the crowds, the religious officials begin to notice what's going on. Plus they're up there on the Temple Mount, and they hear Peter talking about the resurrected Christ, and they didn't like it, and so they throw 'em in jail, which we saw a couple of weeks ago. Or last week. And then they bring 'em out for a trial, and once again, standing in front of the very council that convicted Jesus illegally, but they sent Him to Pilate to be crucified, the very same group of individuals, and Peter does, if you were with us last week, he once again has great boldness, and he communicates the message of Christ. Well they warn 'em, they basically make preaching the gospel illegal, don't do this anymore, and they send 'em out. And that's where we pick up our story today, because in the midst of this growing church, prayer is central to everything that is taking place. And it is a magnificent prayer to look at as we walk our way through this, and it is specifically placed right here to demonstrate what it means to pray, to pray throughout our lives, but specifically when we're facing opposition and persecution. So grab a Bible, bring, or open up the one that you brought into this room, use the one that's in front of you in the chair rack, use your phone, your iPad, I don't care how you get there, but I want you to be an Acts 4, and look at verse 23. Acts 4:23, as we take a look at prayer, which was at the center of everything that took place in this church, and also it's prayer that shakes the world. What does that look like? I don't know about you, but when you think about prayer, there's a couple of questions that come up. It's, okay, Lord, what should be my attitude to pray the way You really want me to pray? If you are a follower of Christ, what's the attitude? And then the other question that comes up is, how do I do it? How do I engage in this activity of prayer so that I'm praying with the right attitude, and I'm also praying, actively engaging with You with the right actions so that I'm praying the way You want me to pray? It is a privilege for every believer. It's an opportunity for us to communicate with the holy God of the universe. And this prayer gives us an idea of the right attitude, but also the right actions as we began to pray. Let me read all the verses for you, starting in verse 23. After they were released, it says, "When they were released and they", Peter and John, and the man who was moving his toes and tapping his feet, okay. They show up, and notice, "They went to their friends, and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father, David, Your servant said by the Holy Spirit, 'Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed.' For truly in this city, there were gathered together against Your Holy Servant, Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness while You stretch out Your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your Holy Servant, Jesus.' And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken." I love that part of the passage. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. He had control of them and continued to speak the word of God", and there again it's the word "with all boldness". So as we consider the kind of attitude of prayer, I think it's pretty obvious when we begin here that the attitude that they had was, "Let's pray". Prayer was not the last thing that they did, it was the first thing that they did. Now, for an average Jewish person back then, if you're just looking at the individuals that were here, they didn't really have a voice in their culture. They really didn't have a voice with the leadership. They certainly didn't have a voice with Rome. Rome was powerful, influential. I know we talk about Rome having a democracy, all that kinda stuff, it was nothing like what we have today, okay. Just follow power and money, and eventually it leads to what? Corruption every time. And it was just ruthless. And most of the believers back then, especially early on, they were poor, they were slaves, they were not found in the halls of government. They were just trying to live their lives, and they understood that the only hope they had was God. Now contrast that just for a minute with us today in our world. We have an incredible gift in this country to have a voice regarding issues within society. We have an opportunity to engage in the public square when it comes to morals and issues and be involved in our government, and rightfully so, we need Christians to carry their faith into all of life, and you should be engaged, and it's an enormous opportunity, enormous freedom. However, here's what I want you to consider. As engaged as we oftentimes are in the midst of what's happening in our nation right now, our knee jerk reaction is, "Hey, wait a minute. What about my rights?" Okay? Are you with me on that one? As engaged as we are there, rightfully so, are we just as engaged with our prayer life when it comes to turning to God? Because ultimately we can do nothing, Jesus said, in John 15. We can do absolutely nothing without Him. Prayer is not optional, it is absolutely essential, and it is a great word for us. Immediately they went to God and they wanted to pray. They didn't wait. He was their lifeline, because they wanted to pray now. So their attitude was, "Let's pray, and let's pray now". Verse 24, "And once they heard these words, immediately" is the idea, "they lifted their voices together." There's no gap there. This wasn't, "Well, we're gonna try everything else out and then we'll fall back on prayer." No, it was really the first and the only option in their mind. You know, why is it that in many cases, prayer is the last thing on our mind when it comes to stuff? And if you're like me, I like to figure things out, and I'm immediately, you know, that's kind of my first, well, what can we do? How can we? Instead of just pausing and praying. Oftentimes I'm working, I'll always have my phone there, unless I just wanna ignore everything, I go put it somewhere else and then it doesn't buzz. Because if you're like me, I don't know now whether I control my phone or my phone controls me, okay. And when that thing buzzes, and I turn the sound, it's off all the time, I never have the sound on. But when it buzzes, what do you do? You look at it, right? It's just, you're like a dog getting a treat. I mean, it just, "Ooh, I gotta go look at it." Well, what oftentimes can happen is people will text me, "Hey, can you pray for this?" I'll have somebody overseas, and they'll say, "Hey, can you begin to pray for this? This is what's happening in my life. We're traveling to this city, or whatever that might be", and it could be on normal texting, or WhatsApp, or whatever application you use. But immediately what I've started to do is when those prayer requests come in, at that moment, I will stop and pray immediately. And the reason is because I don't wanna forget, number one, they're asking me to pray, okay, let's be honest. But then it also becomes part of the ongoing, continuing act of praying as a part of my life for that person right then and there. They were prompted to send it, therefore I wanna be prompted to engage with God based on what they've asked me to pray for. They immediately jumped in and they prayed, and they prayed with total trust. Now we're gonna see this throughout their prayer. They didn't try and discuss the problem. They didn't sit back and talk about their discouragement and their fear. And in the midst of it, they decided to put their total trust in God. They reminded themselves, which you'll see in just a second, of God's complete control, His sovereignty. They knew that God had raised Jesus from the grave. They asked for God to continue to perform signs and wonders and heal by His mighty power. They totally trusted Him. Why? Because they knew the promise that Jesus gave, that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, and so they went in with this attitude of, "Let's pray", and then, "Let's pray right now. This is immediate. This is of first importance. And let's pray with total trust in God." And as they did, then they began to offer up this incredible prayer that serves as a model for us as we look at our own prayer life, if you've committed your life to Jesus Christ. Now, why did I use the word action? Because prayer is action. It's not something passive. It's something that I engage in. It's a privilege, it's a joy, it's an opportunity. But then the question comes up as I said earlier, what do I pray for? What does that look like? What are the things that are on God's heart, so that when I pray I'm actually praying the way God wants me to pray? Well, one of my favorite all-time quotes on prayer, I saw this years and years ago, is written by a guy by the name of Samuel Chadwick. You're really gonna like this if you've not seen it before. "The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying." Did you catch that? The one concern. Notice what he says. "He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion." Now I'm convicted before I even read the last sentence, because I'm so caught up in all that stuff, 'cause I'm a doer, I just like to get things done, okay? But notice what he says. "He laughs at our toil, he mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." That's how powerful it is. So as we look at their prayer, the one that is recorded for us, the action of prayer begins with praying together. If we have the right attitude, we come together. If you look at verse 23, it says that they went to their friends and reported, that's really significant. And then after they shared it all, it says they went to God and they lifted their voice, it says in verse 24, together to God. Not individually. "Hey, go pray silently. Let's all pray silent." No, they did it together in unity. Why together? Well, I think probably for two main reasons. Number one, they went to their friends and prayed together because it was an opportunity as God's people to care for one another. I mean, it was just an open opportunity. Prayer is an opportunity, and we oftentimes say, it's your communication or your communion with God. That's the idea. But it's not just communicating or communion with God, it is communicating and having communion, or oneness, or unity together as brothers and sisters in Christ. And we can care for one another. The other reason why, or that answers the question of why together, is because when we can really offer up these prayers on behalf of one another and care for one another, in the context of friendships, then we can do so intelligently. So they were able to pray specifically for what was reported to them. So we can care, you know, offer care for one another, but we can also do so intelligently. That's why. Now I have found this to be incredibly wonderful as a recipient of this. There are people in my life that specifically pray intelligently for what is happening. They wanna have a conversation with me regarding what God is doing, and then they wanna report. They wanna know what is happening, and they pray specifically. In one case, I know they're writing it down in a prayer journal that they have. They wanna know what is happening in my life so they can pray specifically. Did you notice, too, as well here, who took the initiative? This is important. Look at verse 23. "When they were released", Peter, John, and the guy tapping his feet, okay. "They went to their friends and reported it." You get down, "And when they all together had heard", they went and reported to them, "and then together when they heard, they, now together, lifted their voice to God." So it was Peter, John, and this guy that came to them and took the initiative. Don't wait for people to come to you and say, "What can I pray for?" Okay, we should do that. I'm not telling you not to do that, you should, but don't wait. I think sometimes we expect people to read our minds, or, you know, no, people wanna pray for you, so go to them as friends and ask them. I don't, if it's a small group, maybe it's down in front after our service, but take the initiative, because there's power when we pray together. The church was born in a prayer meeting. The world was turned upside down because the church came together and shared, and they began to pray, not as the last option, but the first option. And they were gonna go to the Creator of the universe on behalf of one another, which says, "I really care about you, 'cause I'm going all the way to the top. I love you so much, I'm going to God on your behalf. I want Him to show up in your life and in your heart." And as a result of this, it brought them to God, it brought them to one another, and there was power here. This is why Jesus makes the statement in Matthew 18:20, He says, "For where two or three are gathered in My name there am I among them, I'm right there." He is with us in power, and there is a dynamic, there's something incredible that happens. When I go into a prayer time with other people and I begin to share my requests and they share their requests, here's what happens to us. I believe that in that moment, a death blow was served to my pride in my flesh. And here's what happens. It's because when I engage in prayer with you, I'm committed to finding out what's going on in your life so I can pray for you, and that means myself is way back here now. I'm focused on you. And you're focused on me. And all of a sudden, the flesh that oftentimes goes in and is about my stuff and the things that I want from God has been set aside. And then, here's where the power happens. There is something that takes place in that moment because I've set aside myself, I've set aside my pride, and looking at my stuff, and I'm praying for you, I'm thinking about you, and you're thinking about me. There's a dynamic that happens in unity. Then all of a sudden, we are open to hearing from God together, because I'm not in the way anymore. And He begins to guide us as we begin to pray for unity. Now, just give you an example of how we've practiced this here. A couple weeks ago, one of our elders was prompted, in the midst of what's going in our culture today, to pray for unity here at Rockpoint, and so he sent out an email to all of us that are elders on our elder board to pray for unity. And so we decided we were gonna mark off a time in our next meeting to specifically, not just pray, but to specifically pray for unity. And that's exactly what happens. And it's remarkable what happens in that moment, because we took several minutes, it wasn't just 30 seconds. We took several minutes and we bowed before the Lord Jesus Christ, who leads our church, it's not us. And together we set aside ourselves and we began to pray for unity. We prayed for you. We prayed for our church. We prayed that God would give us His agenda and His plan. And all of a sudden what begins to happen is we start saying, "God, what's on Your heart? What do You have to say to us?" And it's a powerful moment when we begin to grasp that this is about praying together, and then it is about, because in that moment, God begins to move us towards what's on His heart. And then there is this sense of submission that you sense in this prayer that needs to happen, and it is praying, submitting to God's sovereignty and His control. Did you catch that phrase in verse 28? If you look down there, He says, "As they pray, they said, 'God, do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.'" They didn't just say, "God, go do whatever You want." They said, "God, do whatever You have already determined to do." What does that say? That says, God is in charge. They didn't go to their own ideas, they didn't sit back and think, you know, how do we use money for a little influence with these guys? How do we keep ourselves out of prison? They went to God, to the all powerful, all knowing God and they began to submit to His will and pray according to His will and His ways. They said in verse 24, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea and everything in them", I mean, that covers it all. They were talking about how they had an unwavering confidence in God and His control over everything. It's interesting because they actually prayed two verses from Psalm 2:1, 2, and they referred to it there in 25 and 26. David wrote it, David was talking about the nation of Israel and himself. Every king was anointed as king. But it was the Holy Spirit that as He prompted David to write down those words, the Holy Spirit had more in mind than David did. The Holy Spirit had in mind to talk about the greater Son of David, Jesus to come, who was being opposed. And then it's fascinating that as they quoted it, they talk about how these nations raged against God, and there's this sense, as they quoted it, of cynicism here. And the cynicism is this: They can rage all they want, but God's in charge. Actually the word rage, when you follow it, you know, it's interesting, for those of us that kinda enjoy this stuff, we'll actually look at a word that's used in the 1st century and we'll trace it throughout history, or we'll find somebody that's actually done all the hard work for us so we can kinda look and see what it says. The word rage is actually used later on to describe a horse who's flipping his head around, he's neighing, but he's controlled by reins. You know what it's like to sit on a powerful horse and actually control it? Some of you maybe have never been on a horse before. It is a thing to watch. My daughter rides, she competes, and she's tiny and these horses are massive. And yet she gets on there and does all these jumps, and all kinds of fun stuff with them, and she does it because she's in control. God is ultimately in control of everything. Our enemy Satan and his forces are limited, and God is large and He's in charge, especially when it comes to opposition and persecution. Have you ever been in a tornado before? Hurricane? Okay. Some of you maybe, I don't know. We don't have hurricanes up here. We get tornadoes once in a while. I've never been in either one of 'em, but I have been in a couple earthquakes, okay, when we lived out in California. And they're, you know, they'll shake you up a little bit, no pun intended there. And in one particular situation, I remember, I gotta tell you this story, it's a great one. My wife was at a women's retreat down in Ventura, Oxnard area. And it was at that time that the Northridge earthquake took place. It was a pretty powerful one. It did a lot of damage. Well, it was late at night, women were up talking and having a great time, and the earthquake struck. And what they tell you in California is when, if you're in a building, you know, dive under a table, get in a doorpost, 'cause it's gonna provide some form of protection. Right. As if it's gonna do anything. So she didn't buy it at all. So the moment the earthquake struck, she and a bunch of other women headed for the hall, and they were outside in seconds, okay. 'Cause they knew, building falls, in building you get hurt, outside you're okay. So they got out into this parking lot, and it was late at night, and there was an individual, a guy who was, we'll just say severely inebriated. And he comes walking through the parking lot, and as he sees all these women in their PJ's, his comment was, "I must have died and gone to heaven." I mean, I don't know if that was his prayer or not, I don't know. You know, when you get in experiences that shake you up like that, you realize how limited you are. You are a limited resource, period. God is unlimited. He's all powerful. He's in total control. And it is their prayer that assures us and reminds us that God is in charge. And then He actually takes the things that people intended for bad, and He turns 'em into good. And that's why they went in, and they said, "Pontius Pilate and Herod", and by the way, they were not friends before the crucifixion, and all of a sudden they became friends. And the Romans and the Jewish people gathered against Jesus. And yet it was by God's predetermined plan. Why? Because He allowed it to happen. He designed it. He preordained it to happen so that Jesus could win our salvation, amen? That's what He does. And that's what we pray for. One author said, "In prayer, men grasp the hand that controls all things." So when we look at COVID, we look at the pandemic, we look at national events and global events, I'm reminded by a phrase that a friend of mine oftentimes says, "God has a plan." You know what? That is so true. He's got a plan. He's working it. And no matter what happens, God is growing His church, and it's going according to His sovereign plan, and He's using us. And ultimately this helps provide the foundation for me when I'm dealing with anxiety, when I'm dealing with fears, when I can't connect all the dots, and I'm wondering, and I'm part of this world being shaken as if I'm in some kind of an earthquake and I have no idea what's happening out there, and I don't have control over it at all, and all of a sudden I can have a sense of peace and calm in the midst of it all, and could it be that God is actually allowing all of these things, as we said last week, leaving them in our life so that we would trust Him in and through it and rely on His plan. Why? Because God is in charge. And prayer allows me to connect with the sovereign Lord of the universe. This past week, I was trying to call, make a phone call in another country. And I got up, and you know there was several hours time zone and trying to connect with this person. I'm telling you, we could not connect. You know, I tried all of the apps that we try, Skype, and WhatsApp, and all that stuff, it just was not working. And then finally got connected, and then the call got dropped and it took two hours to do probably a five to 10 minute conversation. Two hours. You know, we never have that issue when it comes to prayer with almighty God. It's not an issue of picking up this, "Oh, my phone. You know, my call got dropped." No, we're engaging with the God of the universe. Prayer is about aligning our will with His and communicating and hearing His heart. And so as we gather together, praying together, submitting to His sovereignty, then all of a sudden He begins to guide us towards His will. And one of the greatest ways to find God's will and ways is to pray God's word, and that's exactly what they did. They prayed this verse. They connected the dots in ways that the religious officials didn't even do. They saw Jesus back there in the Old Testament, and they began to go back to it over and over again. They understood God's great commandment to go. They understood that the Holy Spirit would come upon them to be their witnesses, and they saw it happen, and they knew God's heart, and they knew how to pray His ways. And sure enough, it took place. If you go through the book of Acts, just as an example, you see this over and over again. The Bible figured in their discussions before they made decisions. It showed up in sermons. It showed up when they were on trial. As a matter of fact, if you count all of the Old Testament, scripture passages, or Bible passages in the book of Acts, there are about 200 references to the Old Testament in the book of Acts alone. That's how much they were praying God's word. Why? Because that's the way to understand His will and His ways. You pray according to what He's already told us. I'll tell you, it is so practical and so easy to do. So you say, "Well, why don't we do this even more?" A couple weeks ago, we walked through the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6. Go back, listen to the message. Go back to Matthew 6 and insert your name. This is what I oftentimes do, insert your name in those prayers that are given to us. Insert your name in this prayer as you go before the Lord. A couple weeks ago, we had our half day staff retreat, and we gathered together and Pastor Kevin was in charge of our prayer time together. And so before we even started our retreat, he had all of us open up the book of Ephesians and he assigned a certain passage in Ephesians for each of us. And by the time we got to the end of it, 'cause there were several of us, we read through almost the whole book of Ephesians together. But after we read our passage, we were to stop, and then that was the foundation of what we were to pray for. And it was marvelous. Why? Because we understood objective truth coming from God, and then we prayed accordingly so we knew we were praying God's will and ways. It's that simple. You could do that this afternoon. You could work your way through the Proverbs, for instance, that we studied this summer. You could pull up a Psalm and begin to insert your name and your situation so that you know that you're praying the very promises of God. One person said it this way, his name is Phillip Brooks. He said, "The purpose of prayer is not to get man's will done in heaven, but to get God's will done on earth." And when I gather with others and I'm submitting to His will and ways, I find out what that is when I turn and I begin to understand His will and ways from His word and I pray accordingly. Then I also begin to understand that I need to pray for boldness to share Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what they did. It's mentioned twice here in this prayer. You look back at what happens here, it's at the end of verse 29. They didn't pray to get out of the situation, they prayed for boldness in the midst of it. And then the Spirit came and answered their prayer, 'cause we read in verse 31 that the Holy Spirit continued to give them power to speak the word of God with boldness, as He has promised in Acts 1:8. Now I'll just open up my brain a little bit for you, 'cause maybe you can relate to this. Maybe not, maybe you don't struggle with this, but I know I do, and if we're honest, we, probably a lot of us do. When I go into prayer before God, and I'm in the midst of a trial or a difficulty or something that I just don't like, and maybe it's opposition about something, or a struggle, whatever that might be, circling in the back of my mind is always the sense of, "God, can You please get me out of this mess?" Anybody identify with me? I mean, it's just always there. I, you know, you wanna pray for all this other stuff, but it's always there. God just, just help me out, just once, you know, whatever, I don't know. But you're always wondering, you know, it's always there. Do you know, I want you to understand that when we go through this book, the believers that are mentioned here, as I said the first week, they were not super perfect Christians. They were scared. They were wondering what's next. They didn't have the rest of the New Testament like you and I have, okay, this was all brand new. They didn't have any of it. And they were wondering, "What's the plan? And how's this gonna happen? And what do I do?" And people are now gonna be experiencing prison and persecution is gonna grow, and they're probably wondering what is gonna take place. And yet in the midst of it all, when they reminded themselves of God's sovereignty and they reminded themselves of God's truth, they were able to begin to set those fears aside and pray for boldness in the midst of the opportunity given to them, and claim the promise that God, through His Holy Spirit, would give them power to boldly proclaim the message of Christ. And you know, the power of prayer didn't end with the book of Acts. As we said the first week, the story continues in you. It continues in me. If you like history, it's really incredible to see what happened in the church throughout history. Guy by the name of George Whitfield, great evangelist way back in bygone eras, he prayed and 1,000 people gave to Christ in one day. 1,000 people give their lives to Christ in one day. Hudson Taylor, famous missionary. You realize that the movement in China, there are millions and millions of believers in China, underground, house church, all, you know, you've probably read the reports. If you haven't, it's amazing. You know where that started? Guy by the name of Hudson Taylor. He prayed, and inland China was evangelized. You look at, moving up into this, D. L. Moody, and then we move to Billy Graham, and we look to Campus Crusade for Christ, and Josh McDowell. And then even now locally with Pulse Ministry and Nick Hall, and millions of people are giving their lives to Christ. Why? It's not because of them. There's nothing you can do to bring someone to Christ. You can't do it. It has to be done through the power of prayer where the Holy Spirit moves in their heart and life and then draws them to Jesus Christ. You can't change their heart. And so when you're with people and you engage in conversations, what is it that God is bringing up in the midst of those conversations with you? 'Cause this is where the rubber hits the road, where you can stop in that moment, and I'm not saying don't listen to what they're saying, but your brain moves really fast, so believe me, you can do this right away. You can stop in that moment, just think in in your mind as you're listening to them: "Lord, what are You doing here? Show me." Just that quick. Because God is moving. He's got a divine appointment. I don't think an appointment with you and somebody else is done by accident. I think there's a reason behind it all. If He's sovereign, there's a reason. And so as the conversation comes up, you are able to begin to communicate life, yes, but then your values and your faith and what's going on. I just prayed for my neighbor yesterday. Why? 'Cause something came up in the middle of the conversation, and so I was able to pray for him. Now, oftentimes people ask you about your profession and what you do. And that's kind of a funny one with a pastor, because I don't lie to 'em, okay? If it's with a bunch of hockey players, you oughta see how quick their language clears up. Just kidding. Just kidding. Look, stop in those moments. "Lord, what are You doing? What do You want me to say? Give me boldness." I would encourage you, walk through your neighborhood. You know, I know it's getting cold, but you can still get outside. A lot of people walk outside in the winter anyway. Pray for those neighbors as you're walking through your neighborhood. Matter of fact, use that little motto we've referred to often here: pray, care, share. You begin to pray for them. You look for opportunities to care for them. And then God opens up opportunities to share. Isn't this a marvelous prayer? I mean, it is amazing, because when we pray the way God wants, then I think not only did the physical place shake back then our lives shake, 'cause God is doing something and He's on the move. And our job as followers is to find out where He's moving, and then align ourselves with His direction. 'Cause then I'm praying according to His will and His ways, and why not commit to a greater degree of prayer today? If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, make that your action point today. If you don't know Christ as savior and Lord, I pray that your understanding that we can connect with the God of the universe who is in control of everything, who desperately wants a relationship with you through Jesus Christ, I pray that this topic of communication with God would draw you into a commitment of repenting of your sin and turning to Jesus Christ as savior and Lord. If you have any questions about that, would you talk to us? Come down and talk to me afterwards, I'd love to help you. I want you to see that prayer is our lifeline to the Almighty. I'd love for you to be involved with our Wednesday night prayer team. Our Wednesday night prayer team, they're on Zoom and then they physically meet here, so you can join wherever you are. I'd love for you to come down in front. We're gonna have our prayer partners down in front. I'd love for you to come down in front of today and ask them, take the initiative to have them pray with you. Why? Because we care. I'd love for you to spend time in your small group praying through a section of God's word so you know you're praying according to His will and His ways. And then I'd love for you when you leave this place to begin to write down three names of people you know in your neighborhood, maybe it's at work, who need prayer, but maybe who have never trusted Christ as their savior and Lord. Write their names down. Faithfully pray for them consistently. Look for opportunities to care for them. And then let's see what God will do as He begins to shake our lives together. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your word, and I thank You for what it does. It's a reminder of reality. It reminds us of Your truth. It reminds us of who You are. That You're sovereign, that You're in control, that You're the almighty God who knows us and cares for each and every one of us. And Lord, You remind us of the truth of what we should pray for. In the midst of the stuff we go through in life, we know that You care, but Lord, prompt us not to pray for relief, but to pray that You would use these experiences to give us boldness through the power of Your Holy Spirit, to pray that You would continue to grow Your church, that You would give us a chance to share Jesus with someone who needs their lives changed. So Father, we submit to Your will and ways. Would You cause us to continue to be a church that prays? It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.