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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] for our Sunday midweek, excuse me, our midweek service. Let's go ahead and open the service with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, I thank you so much for our church, for this opportunity that we have to be in the house of God this evening. I pray that everything that is done tonight would bring glory and honor to your name. Lord, please be with the singing, the preaching, and the fellowship. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. All right, we'll go ahead and take your hymnals. We're gonna sing song number 55. And I don't know if you asked me, 55, when the roll caught up yonder, it's a Baptist classic. So I'm gonna ask you to sing out like Baptist, okay? Are you a Baptist? There we go, let's sing out like Baptist on that first verse. When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be poor, when the morning rips, turning bright and fair, when the steam and earth shall yelp, roll along the outer shore, when the folks call and call, they're all here singing out, I can't hear you. When the road is caught up yonder, when the road is caught up yonder, when the road is caught up yonder, when the road is caught up yonder. There we go, that was good. You have to sing like Baptist, you see, praise the Lord. On that chorus there, if you guys pay attention, that bottom line, the main, sing that bottom line. Are we okay with using the top line and using the bottom line? Echo it, okay, let's sing it out. On that second verse, let's give that a try. On that bright and cloudless morning wind, the dead and fresh shall rise, when the glory of His resurrection share. When the strolls once began to roll beyond the skies, and the walls fall around the valley, sing it out. And come on. When the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, I wish you could get on that bird. Let us claim the poor, the past, the poor, the blind, the sad, the son. Let us offer love to others from here. When all the land is over and all the work is done, and the roll is caught up yonder, sing it out, we got this. When the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, when the roll is caught up yonder, I wish you could get on that bird. Amen, and we want to welcome you to the Wednesday evening service here at Verity Baptist Church. We're so glad that you are with us. Let's go ahead and take our bulletin to look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, you can raise your hand and one of our ushers will get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, Psalm 37, for delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m. and we do invite you, of course, to be with us on a Sunday morning on the Lord's Day for church. And then we have our Sunday evening service this weekend. We've got some special things going on and we'll talk about that here in a minute. And then we have our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. and we're glad that you are here for that. If you look at the soul winning times, of course, on Saturday mornings, we have our main soul winning time at 10 a.m. and then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays and on Sundays at 2 p.m. We'd love you to join us for those. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, this Sunday is our I Love My Church Sunday and we hope that you'll be here and make it a priority to be in the house of God for that day. And of course, this is a special day where we just try to round everybody back up after the holidays and after the New Year and all of that. And we'll have special music from the choir and the orchestra. And then, of course, we'll have popcorn, Valentine's Day popcorn bags for everyone in attendance. And if you've been thinking about inviting somebody to church, then you can use one of these cards to invite somebody, bring somebody with you. And then in the evening service on Sunday night, we're going to have a potluck after the service. So we hope that you'll join us, of course, for that. If you can bring a dish to share, that would be great. And then we'll have a time of fellowship afterwards. And then if you look at the homeschool group, there's a Valentine's Day party on Friday, February 14th at 11 a.m. And if you'd like to attend, you can sign up on your communication card. Also, we have some volunteer opportunities for the parents in the back. We've got a clipboard. And if you can help us with some of these things, that'd be great. If you can bring sugar cookies and or prepare frosting, decorating bags, then that'll help with the activities that the kids are going to be doing. You can see my wife after the service. She has a field trip flyer with all the information. Of course, she can answer any questions you have. Also, they're supposed to be P.E. tomorrow. But we're going to cancel that because it's going to be raining and it's been raining all week and the fields all wet anyway. So please make a note of that Thursday, February 6th, tomorrow, no P.E. P.E. class is canceled. Lord willing, Thursday, February 20th is still on board. And then we've got the Biblical Leadership Institute resumes on Tuesday, February 11th. We're going to be learning how to lead when you're not in charge. And this is about being a good employee and being a good middle management leader. Every organization needs leadership in every area. And I want to encourage you to be part of that, men, if you're interested in that. Nine chapters a day challenge, of course, is done. But if you've not yet let us know that you finished, make sure you do that tonight because we want to get the list going. We want to get the plaque going. So on your communication card, let us know that you finished. Write your name down so we can put it on the list. And please do that tonight if you've not already done it. Choir practice, of course, they've been practicing for all of my church centers. There's other things there for you to look at. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of February this week. We had brother Rusty and Miss Abby Santos anniversary on the 4th. And then tomorrow is Miss Katie Rosenberg's birthday on the 6th. Also Mateo Mendoza has a birthday on the 6th. Miss Courtney Rubin has a birthday on the 7th. Grace Vincent has a birthday on the 7th. And brother Matt Lee Wilson has a birthday on the 8th. Praise report, money matters, all of those things are there for you to look at. And I think that's it for all of the announcements. We're going to go ahead and take our song books and we're going to sing one more song before we receive the offering this evening. And we're going to go to page number 29. Page number 29. And we're going to sing at the cross. Page number 29. Go ahead and sing it out on the first. I ask that you rise to hear me. And bring my song with me. Leave me, let me see you. Remember the songs of our country. You are my cause, I am your cause. Where I first saw you. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I received my sight. And now I have to go away. Page number 29. Sing it out on the second. In the day, in the night. And I am one. People of all the trees. Who are made to be. Praise the good. I will always be. I will always be. I will always be. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I received my sight. And now I have to go away. You are my cause. Where I first saw you. I was burning up, I was blown away. Praise the good. I will always be. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I received my sight. And now I have to go away. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. And now I have to go away. Page number 29. Sing it out on the last note. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I was burning up, I was blown away. Where I first saw you. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. Where I first saw you. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I received my sight. And now I have to go away. I was burning up, I was blown away. Yet, as there by me. I received my sight. And now I have to go away. Amen. piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly Amen. All right, well let's go and take our prayer sheets tonight. If you did not get a prayer sheet on your way in, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a prayer list, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. Of course, the way you add a request to the prayer sheet is through your communication card. On the back of the card, there's a place for you to write down a request. Make sure you mark whether it's private or public. If it's private, only I will see it. If it's public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet. If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out. We usually don't add those if we can't figure it out. And of course, when we do add the requests, they are added in the order that they are received. And they are removed after a couple of weeks. So if you want it to be on there for longer than that, you'll need to fill out another card. I would like you to notice on the back there with safe and healthy pregnancies that Ms. Melody Gonzalez's name has been added to the list. Congratulations to Brother Oliver and Ms. Melody on expecting another baby. And let's go and take these requests. Lord, I'm going to pray out loud and I'm going to ask that you would pray in your mind and your heart. And let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you tonight asking for these requests from our church family. And Lord, we begin with these requests regarding health. We pray for Ms. Edith praying for favorable test results and for God to guide the doctors involved in her care. Lord, we pray that you would answer this prayer, that you'd give these doctors wisdom and discernment. Lord, we also pray for Brother Warren who's praying for his siblings, their fiancés and their health. And Lord, we're asking that you would help them and give them good health. Also, Ms. Tamara praying for the health of Ruben Gonzalez, that the test results of this tumor would be favorable. Ms. Rebecca Garcia praying for her daughter Maricela and for her health. Ms. Maria Cudalima praying for her upcoming spinal surgery on April 2nd, that it would go well. And Ms. Christine Ortiz praying for her health, for the Salvador for his health. Ms. Dogma praying for her pain and for relief there. And, of course, Brother Edgar and Ms. Lena praying for little Uretzi and Jonathan to continue to be healthy. And we continue to pray for Ms. Angel, our missionary, Dave Camuntala's wife who's undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Lord, we ask for all of these individuals. We pray, Lord, that you would heal them. Lord, we pray that you would give wisdom to the doctors, nurses dealing with them. Lord, we pray that it would be done in their lives. We also pray, Lord, for the ladies in our church that are expecting. And we pray for Ms. Antonina, Ms. Katie, Ms. Ajana, Ms. Masha, Ms. Mars, and also Ms. Melody, asking that you give them all healthy pregnancies with no issues and no complications. Lord, we also pray for these that are praying for their friend and family, Ms. Nicole, praying for her brother Omar. And also, Lord, we're asking for Brother Salvador praying for his family. And we pray, Lord, that you would help them and be with them. We also pray for these that have physical and financial needs. Brother Warren also praying for the finances of his siblings. And Brother Darrell praying for his sister Belinda, that she would be able to find housing for June. Also, Ms. Irene praying for her neighbor who recently lost her home in a fire. And Ms. Christine praying for her finances, Brother Salvador for work and finances. Lord, we pray for these individuals. We ask that you would help them and be with them and, Lord, that you would provide for them. We also pray for Ms. Christine, Brother Salvador for their faith and their walk with you. And Lord, we pray for these that have unspoken requests. Ms. Kimmy and Brother Nate, Ms. Ruby and Brother Montel, my dad, Brother Felix, and Ms. Brittany, all having unspoken requests. Ms. Natalie having an unspoken request. Brother Salvador and Ms. Dogma also having unspoken requests. And, Lord, you know what their petitions are. You know what they're asking for. We pray that you would answer according to your will. And then, Lord, of course, we pray for our church. We pray for the work being done in the Philippines. We pray for our missionary, Dave Cabuntal, and just for his wife, but for their work there in Cebu. We pray for Pastor Stuckey and for his family and for the work being done in Manila, Pampanga, and Bicol. We pray for the upcoming missions trip. I pray, Lord, that you'd help everything to go well and pray that it would be safe, that there would be many salvations. And we pray, of course, for this weekend for I Love My Church Sunday. And, Lord, help it to be a weekend where we can just round everybody up and get everybody back on schedule. And, Lord, we pray that you would help us to have a successful day, help us to have guests, help there be salvations. Lord, we pray for the Spanish service coming up and also for the vision offering. We pray that you would bless these things and that your will be done. Lord, we ask that you would meet with us tonight. We pray that your word would speak to our hearts, Lord. And I pray that your word would do what I cannot do and that it would speak to the hearts of these individuals that are here. Lord, help us not to waste this night. We're already here. We pray that your word would speak to us, that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts. And, Lord, help us to draw closer to you as a result. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please open up to Psalm 28. Psalm 28, if you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand and I'd ask you to bring your Bible. Psalm 28, just keep your hand up as you will come by. Psalm 28. Psalm 28 being verse number one. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their hands went into them their dessert. Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him. I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength and he is a saving strength of his anointing. Save thy people and bless that inheritance. Feed them also and lift them up forever. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word and for everyone that's here. As you please meet with us tonight, give us all a tender heart to the message tonight. And please be the pastor. Please strengthen him and fill in your spirit. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're there of course in the book of Psalms and we are in Psalm 28 tonight. And of course on Wednesday night we've been making our way through the book of Psalms, taking one Psalm a week. And tonight we find ourselves in Psalm 28. It's a short Psalm, only nine verses. And I'm going to go ahead and give you the three headings. I've divided this Psalm into three different headings tonight. And the headings, if you want to jot these down on the back of your chorus of the week, there's a place for you to write down some notes. The first one is the concern of prayer, which we'll see here in the Psalm, the concern of prayer. And then the consideration of the pernicious. We'll see that and then we'll see the consequent praise. And we'll begin here in verse number one with the concern of prayer. In Psalm 28 and verse 1 the Bible says, a Psalm of David, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. And I want to speak on the subject of prayer from this verse, but before I do that I just want to highlight for you, I want you to notice there in the first line of the Psalm, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. I want to just highlight for you, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but whenever you see this term rock in the Bible, it's always used in reference to deity. You'll notice he says, I will cry, O Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. He says, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. So he's referring to the Lord as being his rock. And whenever you see rock in scripture, you should just assume that it is speaking of deity. The apostle Paul in the New Testament tells us that Christ was that rock that followed them in the Old Testament. And of course Jesus famously said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Catholic church will teach that that rock was Peter. I've learned recently that even some Baptists believe that that rock was Peter. But that is inconsistent with scripture. In scripture the Lord is the rock. Jesus is the rock. And Jesus of course built the rock upon himself. Some of these people are confused by the wording there in Matthew 18 when Jesus says, upon this rock I will build my church. And they'll say, well if he was referring to himself, why did he say this? And the reason he said this is because he's referring to the statement and you'd have to look at the context. But if you remember the question was asked, who do men say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus pointed at that statement and said, upon this rock, upon that truth that I am the Christ, the son of the living God, I will build my church. So no one should be confused by that. The rock is always a reference to deity. It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. So notice he says there, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. I want you to notice that in the next few statements we see the concern that David had with regards to prayer. And I think it's a concern that all of us have with regards to prayer, whether we articulate it or not. The first concern is this, that he would not be heard. Notice he says, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me. Notice he makes that statement twice, silent to me. He says, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them. And the them there is referring to the wicked. He's going to talk about them. He's going to spend verses three through five talking about them. If you'll notice in verse three, he says, draw me not away with the wicked. And that's what he's referring to when he says them, the wicked. He said, lest I become like them. Notice that go down into the pit. That is a reference to going to hell. He says, Lord, I want you to hear me. He said, you are my Lord. You are my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go to hell. I become like them that go into the pit. He's not talking about him losing his salvation. He's saying, I don't want to become like the wicked who are going to go to hell. He's saying, they're living their life in a way that will end up in hell and I don't want to live that way. And you know, as Christians, we need to be careful about patterning our lives after people who are going to die and go to hell. You say, well, I can't die and go to hell even if I tried because of eternal security and praise the Lord for it. But then why are you being influenced by or why are you patterning your life by those that go down into the pit? And David said, I don't want that. Notice verse 2, he says, hear the voice of my supplication when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle. The word oracle there is in reference to the word of God. And what he's talking about is lifting up his hands towards the tabernacle. If you remember the tabernacle house, the Ark of the Covenant, which held in it the Ten Commandments. And he says, when I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle, I want you, Lord, to hear my voice, hear the voice of my supplication when I cry. He says, be not silent to me. If thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. And we see the concern that David had. And the concern that David had was this, his concern was that he would not be heard. He would not be heard. And there in Psalm 28, I'd like you to flip over to Psalm 143 and notice a cross reference here that's very similar. In Psalm 28 1 he said, lest I become like them that go down into the pit. In Psalm 143 and verse 7, I want you to notice what the Bible says. Psalm 143 and verse 7, he says this, hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Notice these words, hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. And again, he's not saying I'm afraid I'm going to go to hell like they're going to hell, but he's saying I don't want to live. I don't want to be like people that are going to end up dying and going to hell. And he's asking the Lord and notice the consistency. He says, hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. So we see the concern that David had. What was it? He had a concern of not being heard. But then I want you to notice secondly, if you make your way back to Psalm 28 and you look at verse 3, not only did he have a concern of not being heard, but he had a concern of not being helped. Notice there in verse 3, he says, draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity. And remember, he said in verse 1, lest I become like them. He said, I don't want to be drawn away like they get drawn away. Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity. Let me give you another cross reference real quickly. Go to Psalm 83, if you would. You're there in Psalm 28. Just flip over to Psalm 83 in verse 1. Psalm 83 in verse 1 says this, Keep not thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace and be not still, O God. So notice he's afraid that God won't hear him. He wants God to hear him and he wants God to help him. And the concern that David has is that he will not be heard and that he will not be helped. Here in Psalm 83, he's telling God, don't stay silent. Keep not thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace and be not still. Don't stay still, God. I need you to do something. I need you to help me. He's concerned that he won't be heard and he's concerned that he won't be helped. Now, what I want you to notice about this psalm is that we begin with prayer in this psalm. Just a very short psalm, 9 verses. We begin with prayer and we end with praise. We're going to end the psalm with praise and a praise report. But I want to just fast forward just real quickly because I want you to see that God answers David's prayer. Notice if you go down to verse number 6, we're going to make our way through every verse of this psalm. But just real quickly, I want you to look at verse 6, Psalm 28 and verse 6. Blessed be the Lord because he, notice these words, hath heard the voice of my supplication. He hath heard the voice of my supplication. I want you to notice that David begins with these thoughts. He begins with this idea. He has this concern that he will not be heard. He said, be not silent to me, lest thou be silent to me. I become like them that go down into the pit. He says, hear the voice of my supplication when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. He has these concerns that he won't be heard and he has these concerns that he won't be helped. But at the end of the psalm, his prayer is answered in verse 6. He says, because he hath, he said, I'm going to bless the Lord, blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplication. And what I would say to you is this, that I think that many of us have a concern about prayer. We have a concern that we won't be heard and we have a concern that we won't be helped. But what we should have with regards to prayer instead of a concern is we should have a confidence that God hears and answers prayer. That there is a God in heaven that actually hears our prayers. I'd like you to keep your place there in Psalm 28 and go, if you would, to the New Testament book of 1 John. 1 John, chapter number 5. If you start at the end, the book of Revelation, and you go backwards, you've got the books of Jude, 3 John, 2 John, and then 1 John. Jude, 3 John, 2 John, and then 1 John. I think the reason that most Christians do not pray, is it okay if I say that? I think it's probably safe to assume. And I'm not going to ask you because I don't want to embarrass any of you. But I think if we ask the question how many people actually spent time in prayer today, we'd probably be embarrassed at the number of hands that don't go up. I think that the reason that most Christians do not pray is because they simply do not believe that God hears and answers prayer. Now you will never say that, and I will never say that. But I think if we're honest with ourselves, I think what we might say is that we believe that theoretically there is a God in heaven that hears and answers prayer. But we just don't really believe that there's a God that will hear and answer my prayer. I mean we know that there's a God, that God is out there, that God answers prayer. But do I really believe that the issue I'm dealing with, the problem that I have, the concerns that I have in my life right now where I need God's help, do I really think that there's a God in heaven that's going to, I know we believe in God, but do we really believe that God hears and answers prayer? Because we think, well why waste my time praying? I just got to get up and go make some money. Why waste my time praying? I just got to get up and go deal with that, or go do something about it, or try to move that in a different direction. I think the reason that most Christians do not pray is because they really simply, if we're honest with ourselves, do not believe that God hears and answers prayer, or they don't believe that God hears and answers their prayer. In 1 John 5 and verse 14, I'd like you to notice these verses. 1 John 5 and verse 14, the Bible says, and this is the confidence that we have in Him. I want you to notice that word confidence. And this is the confidence. The word confidence speaks of trust, faith, belief. And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, of course there are parameters to answer prayer. The Bible gives us all sorts of things that tell us things that we have to do in order for God to answer our prayers and things that will keep God from answering our prayers. And one of these days, probably here soon, I'll preach a whole sermon and going through all those different parameters that God gives with regards to prayer. And here we find one that we have to pray according to God's will, of course. But I want you to notice that the Bible says that this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. So I ask you tonight, and please don't answer out loud, but do you believe that God hears and answers prayer? And do you believe that God hears and answers your prayer? And if you did, I think you might pray. Years ago when my wife and I were, before we were in ministry, we were in a different church and there was a church that would sing a little chorus and the second stanza would say, I believe that God hears and answers prayer. I believe that God hears and answers prayer. When you pray in Jesus' name, things will never be the same. I believe that God hears and answers prayer. I'm going to ask you, do you believe that? Do you believe that God hears your prayers? Do you believe that God answers your prayers? I'd like you to go to James chapter 5. You're there in 1 John. Do me a favor. Keep your place there in 1 John. We're going to come back to it. Just put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there. But if you keep going backwards past 1 John, you have 2 Peter, 1 Peter, and then James. 1 John, 2 Peter, 1 Peter, James. While you turn, let me just read to you a few verses. In Isaiah 65 and verse 24, the Bible says this, And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear. See, I believe that prayer is actually the great time saver. I think sometimes we don't pray because we believe that prayer is the great time waster. We think, why would I spend time on my knees talking to God in heaven? I've got to go do something and I'm busy and I've got this to do and I've got that to do. And listen to me. We all have things to do. I think some of us think that our lives are a little more important than others. But everybody has something to do. Everyone has somewhere to go. Everyone has things that they've got to accomplish. But you and I have to get to the place where we actually believe that prayer is being heard by God. See, I believe that when I wake up in the morning, I've got a million things to do. My wife and I have to hit the ground running. We've got more things that we can do on any given day than can be accomplished in that day. And to spend time on my knees praying to the Lord is actually an act of faith. Believing that it is more important to spend time speaking to the God of the universe. Than to get started on whatever list of things I need to get started on. Because the Bible says, and it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. I remember the story in the Old Testament of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham. Remember Abraham had sent him to find a wife for his son Isaac. And the first thing he does is he stops to pray. He stops to pray to ask the Lord to guide him. I wonder if you and I would have stopped to pray. We probably would have said, well I don't have time to pray. I've got to start finding this young lady and I've got to start asking questions. I've got to start knocking doors and figuring out where all the single ladies are because I've got to bring back a wife for my master. The Bible tells us that Eliezer, he stopped to pray and he stopped to ask God to answer his prayer and to guide his steps and to help him find the right lady. And you know what the Bible tells us? That before he was done praying, Rebekah had showed up. And God says, before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. I believe that God hears and answers prayer, do you? Jeremiah 29 and 12 says this, then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. Jeremiah 33 says call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Psalm 145 and verse 18 says this, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call unto him. To all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desires of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. You want to know why we don't pray? Because we think we're smarter than God is. We think we're stronger than God is. We think we're more resourceful than God is. We think our time would be better spent dealing with our problems and trying to solve our problems than simply bringing those problems to God. The Bible says that if we know that he hears us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. I think the reason that most Christians do not pray is because they simply do not believe and you might not ever say it out loud and I hope you don't. But we just simply do not believe that God hears and answers prayers or we don't believe that God hears and answers our prayer. But I'll say to you this, that if you ever start praying, if you ever start in faith praying and taking time out of your day to get down on your knees or sit somewhere quietly and bow your head and speak to your Heavenly Father. If you ever start praying and God starts answering those prayers, it will do something for your faith. In James chapter 5 and verse 16, I want you to notice these verses. James 5 and 16, the Bible says, confess your faults one to another and pray, and pray one for another that you may be healed. Notice the last part of verse 16, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You know that phrase, availeth much, means it accomplishes much. You know what the Bible tells us here is that there are some people in scripture and some people in our lives that are prayer warriors. The Bible tells us about Jacob when God changed his name to Israel, that he had power with God and with men. And look, I don't know about you but I would much rather have the power of God upon my life. I'd much rather have a connection with God. I'd like to get to the place in my life where I know that God hears my prayer and I know that God answers prayer. And where we come to God in prayer. There's nothing special about Elias. Notice what the Bible says. James 5 and 17, Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are. No different than you, no different than me. Here's the difference though, and he prayed. There was a major difference between Elias and you, Elijah and me. The major difference is that Elijah prayed. The Bible says that Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. Look at verse 18, and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. And here you have a man with power with God. A man who prays. Look, you and I can have that access. I love it. I mean just recently I won't tell you stories but I can tell you stories of prayers that God has answered and I'm talking about specific. I'm asking the Lord, Lord you know we need this specific amount and we need it by this specific day and that exact amount comes in on that exact day. You know that God hears and answers prayer. You know that God is hearing. I think we minimize prayer. I like the story in Acts 12 when Peter, you don't have to turn there, but you remember the story in Acts 12 where Peter is cast into prison. I just love this little phrase where the Bible says, but prayer was made. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church and the God for him. If you remember the story, God sends an angel and breaks Peter out. Peter shows up to the place where they're praying for him and they don't even believe it. He's knocking on the door and they don't believe that he's there. The Bible says, but prayer was made. I wonder what issue you're dealing with and what issue is troubling you. What problems our church has or may have in the future. What problems we have that it might be said of us, but prayer was made. But there were people who believed, who trusted God, who had confidence in God, who knew that God heard and answered prayer. We see the concern. The concern of not being heard and the concern of not being helped. But that concern should be replaced with confidence. I believe that God hears and answers prayer. I wonder what would happen in our church if just a handful of people got a hold of God, got power with God and began to pray. I wonder what would happen in these church services if just a handful of people before they came to church, they prayed and asked the Lord and said, Lord, would you speak to me today and would you help pastor and pastor is just a man and he can't do, none of us can do anything. You know what Jesus said? That without him, he said, we can do nothing. When I stand up to preach here, there's nothing I can do without the Lord Jesus Christ. Without me, you can do nothing. But then Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. I just wonder what would happen if we actually started praying before we went soul. I wonder what would happen if we actually started praying before we showed up to church. I just wonder what would happen in our lives if it could be said of us, but prayer was made. There was this issue and there was this battle and there was this fight and there was this bill and there was this deadline, but prayer was made. I believe that God hears and answers prayer. I hope you do. I want you to notice, first of all, we see the concern of prayer. I want you to notice, secondly, tonight in this psalm, not only do we see the concern of prayer, but we see the consideration of the pernicious, the consideration of the pernicious. And I apologize for the wording there, but I wanted it to be alliterated and I think the words fit. Let me just define some words for you. Pernicious is defined as having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way. You'll notice in a second why I use that word, pernicious. Because what David does is he begins to consider the wicked. He begins to consider, remember he already started talking about the wicked. In verse 3 he says, draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity. And then he begins to explain to us, he begins to describe for us what the wicked are like. Now why don't you notice, the first thing he brings out is their duplicity, another word that probably I shouldn't have used, maybe I should have used their deceptiveness. The word duplicity is defined as deceitfulness, as being a double dealer, as doubleness, which is an older word, which means working against people behind their backs. I want you to notice what David says about the wicked. He begins to consider the pernicious. They are harmful and hurtful people, but they do it subtly. That word ought to remind you of the devil. Remember the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field. The Bible says here in verse 3, draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity. This is David speaking and he says, here's why, here's the thing about the wicked. He says, let me explain to you what a wicked person is like. He says, which speak peace to their neighbor. Their neighbor is anyone that's around them. They speak peace to their neighbor, but mischief is in their hearts. What do you call that? You call that being a hypocrite. They say one thing and they feel another. They say one thing and they do another. They speak peace to their neighbor, but mischief, and the idea is that they're going to do mischief to their neighbor. They're going to hurt and harm their neighbor, and that mischief is in their hearts. Their duplicity is seen here, and this is something, by the way, that David brings up over and over again. Some of you might wonder, well, why do you keep bringing this up in Psalms? I keep bringing it up because David keeps bringing it up. Go to Psalm 26, look at verse 4. Psalm 26, verse 4, remember this? Psalm 26 and verse 4, he says, I have not sat with vain persons, and the idea of vanity in Scripture deals with someone who's fake, someone who's a fraud, someone who's a phony. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with, notice this word, dissemblers. The word dissembler, if you remember we talked about it when we were in Psalm 26, it means a person who pretends, who is false, who is misleading, who is a fraud. So David says in Psalm 28, 3, about the wicked that they speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their heart. In Psalm 26 and verse 4, he said, I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. How about Psalm 12? Look at verse 2. Psalm 12 and verse 2, these are Psalms we've already seen. Psalm 12 and verse 2, notice what he says, he says, they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a, notice this, double heart, do they speak. Double heart, that's the same idea as pernicious, as duplicity. They act one way, they say one way while they act another way around other people while they feel a different way. They are telling someone one thing while working against them secretly. Jeremiah 9, 8, you don't have to turn there, in fact I'd like you to go back to 1 John if you kept your place there, 1 John chapter 2. Jeremiah 9, 8 says this, their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit, one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth his weight. He says one thing but in his heart he wants to hurt. And this is David telling us you ought to consider the pernicious, you ought to know some things about the wicked, you ought to know some things about the workers of iniquity. You say David, what do we need to know? Here's what you need to know, that they are deceitful, they are hypocrites. You should know about their duplicity, they are pernicious, they harm you but they do it subtly. They hurt you but they put on a show, they are fakes and they are frauds. And David brings us up over and over, I just showed you a few references, there's more. You say well what can we learn from this? You know what we can learn from this and what I think we need to learn from it, I think what David is trying to teach us is this, that these people are going to be around us, you just need to realize that. They're going to be around us, they're going to be among us, and when their deceitfulness and when their duplicity is manifest, you should just mark it down, they're wicked. They're workers of iniquity. You say well I know them and I like them and I spend a lot of time with them and they said a lot of nice things to me. Well that's what duplicity is. They say one thing to your face and another thing behind your back. They say one thing to you and then they mean something else and they want something else in their heart and when that's manifest, and when that's manifest, you need to just realize God knows best and here's what God says about people that have duplicity, they're wicked. Because here's the thing, someone who's right with God and someone who's walking like, listen to me, if I don't like you, you're going to know it. I'm not going to be rude to you, I'm not going to be mean to you, but I'm not going to pretend like I'm okay with something that I'm not. And sometimes people, they get caught up on these things because they get deceived by hypocrites. And they ask this question, I've been asked this question several times. Someone leaves a church, someone quits on God and people ask why did they leave, why did they leave? What's interesting to me is that God actually answers the question. I'm not going to answer the question for you, I'm going to let God answer the question. Do you care what the Bible says? I want you to see what the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2. This is not me, I did not sneak around in your King James Bible and add this verse. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 19, why did they leave? Here's what the Bible says, 1 John 2 19, they went out from us. You want answers to your question? I need to know why they went. Well here's the answer, they went out from us because the Bible says they went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And when the duplicity, when the deception, when the deceitfulness, when the hypocrisy, when the lies are manifest, you should just mark it down. Oh they went out from us, I wonder why they left? Here's why they left, because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. I'm not speaking to you, I'm reading the Bible. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. You say well what do you do in situations like that? You know often times the sad truth is this, there's nothing you can do. Can you make your way back to Psalm 28? I want you to notice what David says in verse 4. In verse 3 he tells us about the duplicity of the wicked. He says they speak, he says, which speak peace to their neighbors but mischief is in their hearts. I want you to notice verse 4, say what do you do about it? He says give them. I want you to notice that this is a request that David is making in prayer to God. Do you believe that God hears and answers prayer? This is not a subtle jab that he's putting on Facebook. This is David speaking to God. Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. The word deeds means actions. The word endeavors means their undertakings, whatever it is that they're attempting to do, trying to achieve. David says give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them their, notice this word, desert. And that's one s so it's not the good kind. In fact that word desert there or desert, however you want to pronounce it, is just an older way of saying what they deserve. And this is something that David does and this is something that Paul does. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 you have to turn there. But in 2 Timothy 4.14 Paul said this, he said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his words. And what I would say to you is this, that sometimes there is no closure. Sometimes I wish there were, but there's always prayer. And you know what, when you can stand before God and say, I know, I know and God knows and that person knows that I never did them wrong. And their duplicity shows that they're just wicked rotten people. Then you can pray in confidence, Lord give them according to their deeds. And I don't need to know about it and I don't need to hear it, but Lord I'm just praying give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the works of their hands, render to them their deserts. David, Paul said, he did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works. You know the Bible says, vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord. And sometimes all we can do is pray. And then notice David gives us another characteristic of these pernicious people. He says in verse 5, because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not build them up. And the idea is this, that when people regard not God, when they reject God, God rejects them. It sounds a lot like Romans 1 and I'm not saying that every one of these people is a reprobate, but let me just remind you about Romans 1. You don't have to turn there, I'll just read this for you. Romans 1, 21 says this, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Verse 23 says, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. Verse 25 says, who changed the truth of God into a lie. Verse 28 says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Here David says about these wicked people that because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hand, he shall destroy them and not build them up. And the funny thing is that sometimes you look at people and you wonder, I wonder why they never really seem to succeed. Their lives just never seem to go anywhere. They never get planted anywhere, never get rooted anywhere, never get success anywhere. You know why? Because the Bible says he shall destroy them and not build them up. Because you can fool all of us, but God knows what's in your heart. And when you do not regard the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he will not bless you, he will destroy you, he will not build you up. And if you're wondering, why is God not blessing me? Maybe you ought to check your heart. Is there any area of your life where you're putting on one façade and putting on another? Where you're saying and acting and saying certain things to certain people? Listen, that is wicked. You say, no, no, no, I'm not wicked. It's just the way that it's being a person of low character. And I don't think that we need to go around and be these people and say, well, I don't hide anything from anybody and I'm just rude to everybody. I'm not saying that that's low character too, but let me tell you something. When you sit there and pretend and say certain things that are just lies and deceitful to somebody and then you go behind their back, you are a wicked, rotten person. And if you're saved, you ought to pray and ask God to help you get right with the Lord. Because he will destroy you and he will not build you up. So we see the concern of prayer. We see the consideration of the pernicious. And I want you to notice, thirdly tonight, we see the consequent praise. In verse 6, we get a praise report. Psalm 28 verse 6, blessed be the Lord. This is praise. Blessed be the Lord. Why? Because he hath heard the voice of my supplication. By the way, whenever God does answer your prayer, make sure you take some time to acknowledge and praise him. I mean, sometimes God answers my prayer and I'm like, thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. You know I got more needs, but let me just take a few minutes here to just acknowledge that you did this. Thank you for taking care of that. Thank you for doing that. And then, Lord, you're building my faith. I've got five more things I need you to help me with. Nothing wrong with that either. But there's a praise report here. Blessed be the Lord. Because. And you know, when it comes to prayer, we need to make sure that when God does answer our prayers, that we praise him for it. Psalm 118, 21 says, I will praise thee, for thou has heard me. Philippians 4, 6 says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Colossians 4, 2 says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. So David's prayer gets answered. And he blessed the Lord. He said, blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication. Notice in verse 7, he says, the Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart, there's two references to his heart, he says, my heart trusted in him. He said, my heart trusted in him and I am helped. That's the confidence. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him. And here we see that he's telling us, he says, look, you need to have faith in God, you need to have confidence in God. Your heart needs to trust in him so that he can help you. But why don't we pray? Because we don't believe that God hears and answers our prayers. But David says, my heart trusted in him, and then he helped me. He says, I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth. He says, I am rejoicing in the Lord, because I pray, and he answered my prayer, and with my song will I praise him. When God answers my prayer, and I'm not talking about your Lord helped me to have a good day, some generic thing, I'm saying, when we're praying and we're asking the Lord, Lord, we need to take care of this issue, we have this problem, we need this much and this amount by this day, and then God answers that, hey, that causes us to rejoice, and it causes us, I believe that God hears and answers prayer. You ever just saying something like that, and not just because you're in church and Brother Andrew's making you sing? But just because your heart rejoices? Because you actually went to God and you entered boldly into the throne room of grace. And said, God, I can't do this, and I need your help with this, and I need you to take care of this. And then saw God do something for you? My heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him. Psalm 13, 5, you don't have to turn there, he says, but I have trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. So in verse 6 we get a praise report, and I want you to notice in verses 8 and 9 we get a prayer request. So though we go from prayer to praise, we actually end with another prayer. Because you know what happens when you pray, and you have confidence in God, and he actually answers your prayer? You know what happens? You praise him, and then you pray again. Because when he answers one prayer, you're like, whoa, God heard and answered my prayer. So then you pray again. I was just, I was having a conversation with my wife while we were praying for something, and the Lord answered the prayer, and in this case it had to do with finances, and a certain bill that needed to be paid at a certain time, and it needed to be a certain amount, and it came in, and all of that. And immediately I'm like, Lord, thank you, and now I got this coming up. And I kind of felt guilty, and a little bit I'm just like, Lord, I'm going to pray and ask you to take care of something else here. But then I was talking to my wife about it, and we were kind of discussing it, and it just made me realize, maybe this is what God wants. You know, Jesus said that we ought to pray, give us this day our daily bread. And maybe God sometimes just wants to hear from us, and God wants to keep us in this place where we need him. And listen to me, if he keeps answering the prayers, I'll keep praying. And if he doesn't answer prayers, I'll still keep praying. Sometimes the answer to the prayer is no. But what David shows us here is that we pray, even if you're doubting, even if you're not sure if he hears you, you pray in confidence, trusting, believing that if he hears our prayers, then we know we have the petitions that we desire of him. And then when he answers, we praise. And then when he prays, you pray again. So notice how he hands. Verse 6, a praise report. Verses 8 and 9, a prayer request. Look at verse 8. In verse 8, the psalm changes a little bit. He's been talking about himself and his enemies and the wicked and the pernicious. Now he begins to talk about other people. Notice verse 8, he says the Lord is, notice this word, their strength. Now he's talking about individuals. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. And then he begins to pray for them. He begins to pray for the there. He says the Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. And he begins to pray. And listen to me, if you say, Pastor, I don't even know what to pray. If I start to pray, I don't pray, but I don't even know how to pray. And I don't know what to pray. And if you don't know what to pray, if you don't have anything to pray about, I mean, God bless you. I guess your life must be nice. But, you know, pray for me. There's a whole prayer sheet of people you can pray for. But if you don't know how to pray, you know one thing you can start doing is just praying through scripture. Because I don't know if you've noticed this, but the book of Psalms is not only a scriptural hymn book, but it's a scriptural prayer book. And here's what David prays for them. He says, save thy people. That word save means to deliver. Usually when we think of the word save, we think of like salvation, like save them from hell, and that can definitely apply here, but I don't think that's the only application. I think he's praying, Lord, save them. Yeah, save them from hell if they're not saved. But I think he's praying because we know that he's praying for God's people. He says, thine inheritance. I think he's just saying, Lord, deliver them. Whatever problems they're having right now, whatever issues they're fighting with, whatever it is that they're dealing with, deliver them, save them. Save thy people. Then he says, and bless thine inheritance. The word bless means to favor them, have favor upon them. Lord, help things to go their way. Oftentimes when I'm praying about finances, I pray for the tithers in our church. I mean, just today I was praying for the tithers in our church. You know what I was praying? I was praying, Lord, help the tithers in our church get promotions, help them to get raises, help them to get, you know, more work and more jobs and more sales. That's what David is praying. And bless thine inheritance. Bless them, favor them, help things to go their way. Then he says, feed them. That's nourish. Maybe that's physical, feed them physically, give us this day our daily bread, but it could be spiritual, feed them spiritually, nourish them, help them to grow spiritually. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He says, and lift them up. And lift them up. Let's promote them. Help them. I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day. Lift them up, Lord. Promote them and help them in their life. This is the prayer that David prayed. And what I would like to do is to end tonight by praying this prayer for you. Praying this prayer for our church family because this is a prayer for a congregation. Notice it says, save thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed them also and lift them up forever. So I'd like to pray through this verse for our church family, for God's people, for his inheritance here in this place now. You pray with me? Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, Lord we come to you believing that God hears and answers prayer. And Lord, I want to take an opportunity. David gives us a prayer here for a congregation. He gives us a prayer for a people. The Lord is their strength. He is the saving strength of his anointed. And Lord, I pray for our people. I pray for the church members here at Verity Baptist Church. Lord, I pray that you would save thy people. And Lord, maybe there's somebody here tonight that's not saved and if they're not saved, I pray that you'd help them to get saved. Help them to come to the place where they would understand the gospel, hear the gospel and receive the gospel. But Lord, more than that, I know there's people here dealing with issues, dealing with problems. Their problems might be relational, might be financial, might be health. And Lord, I pray for this, thy people that you would save them. That you would save thy people, deliver them out of the harm, whatever harm they find themselves dealing with. And then Lord, I pray you'd bless them. I pray you'd bless thine inheritance. Lord, I pray you'd favor them. I pray that you'd give them favor with God and that you'd give them favor with man. That you would help things to go their way. Lord, that you would open doors for them. And that you would bless their lives. And Lord, I pray that you would feed them also. And yes, feed them physically, meet their physical needs, give us this day our daily bread. But Lord, I pray more than that, that you would feed them spiritually. And that you would help these people to be people who would wake up tomorrow and open up the word of God and feed spiritually. And that you would nourish them and strengthen them. Feed them also and lift them up forever. Lord, I pray that you'd promote them. I pray that you would lift them. I pray that they would humble themselves, that we would humble ourselves and that you would exalt us. Because the truth of the matter is that there are wicked people out there who want to hurt us and want to harm us. But if God be for us, who can be against us? Lord, I pray for your people. I pray for this congregation of Verity Baptist Church. That you'd save them, that you'd bless them, that you'd feed them, that you'd lift them up. And Lord, we pray, trusting, believing and confidence knowing that God hears and answers prayer. In the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, God bless you. Thank you for being here tonight. I want to encourage you, if you haven't done so already, for those of you that are part of the homeschool group, to go by the clipboards and sign up for the Valentine's Day party. We'd appreciate your help with that. And then don't forget, for those of you that are part of the homeschool group, that there is no PE tomorrow because of the rain and it's been wet. So please make a note of that. And then of course, I want to remind you that this weekend is a very special weekend. It's I love my church Sunday and you're not going to want to miss that Sunday, alright? It's not a good Sunday to miss unless if you're pernicious, you know, then that's maybe a reason to miss. But you don't want to miss I love my church Sunday. I know it's a Super Bowl. I don't know why you would care about that, but I know it's a Super Bowl. I think it's later in the day or whatever, but anyway, be in prayer about this Sunday. Be in your place. Invite somebody. Bring somebody with you. We've got soul winning tomorrow, 2 p.m. We've got soul winning on Saturday. We'd love for you to be part of our big soul winning rally. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. We're going to have Brother Andrew come up and lead us in a final song. Amen, alright. We'll go ahead and take your song books. We're going to sing song number 356. I apologize instrumentalists. I'm changing it up on you a little bit. Song number 356. We just heard a great sermon about prayer. Now we're going to sing about prayer and then you're going to go home and pray, right? So let's go ahead and sing it out on that first. I must tell Jesus, though of my trials, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. In thy distress, He for He will plow the flame. He never comes when there is no truth. I must tell Jesus, though of my trials, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my trials, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. This is a song you have to think about for words when you're singing it, okay? Think about those words. They're very powerful and let those words guide you. As you sing this, I want to sing it out nice and loud for you, okay? It's a powerful song. Let's sing it out on that second verse. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, He has a blind cloud. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. O God of world, do you fear the Lord's name? O God of God, please let us pray. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. I must tell Jesus, though of my troubles, I cannot bear peace for He's alone. As always, if you have questions about church membership, salvation, or baptism, the pastor will be at the door in the back. He'll be able to answer those questions for you or direct you to somebody who is trained to do so. I'm going to go ahead and ask Brother Scott if he doesn't mind dismissing us with a word of prayer. Amen. You guys are all dismissed.