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Alright, so if you look there in James chapter 5 and verse number 16, James chapter 5 and verse number 16, it reads, Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The title for the sermon this evening is The Power of Prayer. The Power of Prayer. Now before I get into the sermon though, I wanted to show you the new design on the wall. That looks pretty cool, don't you think? You might be asking, why did you choose this? You've already seen it at the front of the building, but for those of you that don't know, the reason I chose this image was because it is iconically definitely Sydney. You look at the buildings here, and you see the Centrepoint Tower over there, and where's the Opera House, it's hidden behind the ballpark, but you see, it's definitely Sydney. So I wanted to make sure that whatever image we have either on the window or back here represents the city that we live in, the city that this church is based in, and I don't really care about the city. It's a business hub. It's not like you've got a lot of people living in that area. Most people in Sydney live in the suburbs, of course, and when we go door to door sewing, it is a practice of this church to go house to house, right? House to house in our suburbs, and so even though it has a city down there at the bottom, what I like about this, it has, you know, you can see back here, you can see all the suburbs, right? All the suburbs of the people that we live in, so this is the area that we're trying to knock. These are the areas that we're trying to win the loss to Jesus Christ, and so, you know, what I preached about on the Decentraling in Order series, I preached how, you know, we kind of have this dual citizenship. We have one citizenship where we're on this earth and we're in this nation, and, you know, it is our job, brethren, to win the loss, you know, in the city of Sydney. It is our job to get out there in the suburbs and preach the gospel, but what I wanted more than the actual image of the city in the suburbs was the clouds, was the sky, because, yes, we have citizenship here on this earth, but we have citizenship in heaven, and so what I wanted the clouds to represent is the fact that one day we're going to be caught up together in the clouds, you know, to be with the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and that's where we get the name Blessed Hope Baptist Church from, right? Blessed Hope, looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of our Lord, of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and so we're called Blessed Hope Baptist Church because we're focused on Jesus Christ one day coming in the clouds and being that Blessed Hope, and so I kind of thought, well, this image represents everything that I think our church is trying to achieve, either on this earth, but also looking forward to eternity, the work that we're trying to do for the Lord. I can't wait, brethren, for Jesus Christ to come back. I can't wait, you know, so that's what this image is supposed to represent. It's not just some fancy image. It's there to represent the job that we have at hand and the hope that we have for eternity. Now if you can please take your Bibles, actually I'll just read James chapter 5 and 16 just because I've got a sidetrack there. I'll just read it once again. Confess your thoughts one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, and I said the title for the sermon this evening is The Power of Prayer. Now there's a few things I want you to focus on in that verse. It speaks about the righteous man, and brethren, thank God we have been made righteous in Jesus Christ. That's us then. We are these righteous people, and you know what, you know, yes, being saved and having the imputed righteousness of Christ is wonderful, but hey, our command, our walk ought to be a walk of righteousness as well. We ought to be living after the commandments that God has given us, so hey, that's you. If you're saved, this should be you, but what else have we learned? That there is prayer, okay, and this Thursday, today, we're going to be having a time of prayer straight after the sermon, so I don't want to preach too long, and of course I mentioned how we need to be praying for our government so we can live a quiet and peaceful life, and so it's important that we do pray, but then it also says be effectual. You know what? Prayer is effective. Don't ever get to the point where you think, why should I pray, you know? Should I really get on my knees? Should I really bow my head? Should I really bring these requests before God? Listen, prayer is effective. You know, if you want an effective Christianity, if you want to see effective answers to God where He steps in and helps you in your life, you better start praying. Effective, fervent, fervent. Where does the word fervent come from? The word fervor. We're passionate. You know, it's on fire. You have a desire, brethren. You have a desire to pray. It's not just some quick five-second prayer, you know, Lord, help me today to do well, amen. No, fervent prayer is where we're really seeking God with all our hearts, and so, brethren, if we want effective, if we want to be passionate in our prayer, we want to avail much, we have to be this righteous man with these qualities on board as we go and seek the Lord, and so this is why I wanted to preach on the power of prayer, because I personally have found in my Christian life, when I'm not doing the best spiritually, you know, when I'm kind of a little bit far from God, that one of the first things that falls off my things to do is prayer, or, you know, I just rattle off a few words thinking that I'm fine with God if I just say a few things. Obviously, as a child, I thought these things. One of the great things about being a pastor, when you read through the epistles of a bishop, you know, Titus and Timothy, how often it is brought up that we need to be praying for the flock, and so being a pastor, you're challenged not just to pray regularly, but to definitely be keeping the church in mind, and so, you know, definitely being a pastor has challenged me to be a lot more prayerful, especially for the church. Now why is prayer so powerful? Well, number one, I don't know if you think about this much, but prayer invokes the trinity, the triune nature of God. It invokes the Father, it invokes the Son, it invokes the Holy Spirit. Can you please turn to Luke chapter 11. Let's go to Luke chapter 11, please. Luke chapter 11 and verse number 2. Luke chapter 11, verse number 2. We see the time when the disciples came to Jesus and asked Jesus, teach us how to pray. That's a great question to ask. Teach us how to pray. And here in Luke chapter 11 and verse number 2, it says, And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. So what do we learn there, brethren? When we go to pray, yes, we're praying to God, but specifically we're speaking to the Heavenly Father, right? And so when we pray, brethren, we're praying to the Father. And here it says, Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed comes from the word holy. What are we doing when we're praying? One thing you definitely should do when you start to pray, and this is why the first prayer before the opening prayer in the church service is so important, that we honor God, that we give Him glory, that we give Him praise, that we recognize Him as the hallowed one in heaven. And then we say, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. As in heaven, that's what we're focusing on, and in earth. We're focusing on these two areas here, but we're praying to the Father. And brethren, get into the habit. Jesus Christ is teaching us how to pray here. Get in the habit not just to offload all your needs as soon as you pray, but just give God thanks. Give Him honor. Give Him worship. He's deserving of your praise, brethren. Give Him thanks for the answered prayer. Give Him thanks that He's given you another life to live, you know? And just recognize Him as the Holy One without sin. Recognize Him as the one who loved you and sent His Son to die on the cross for you. Be thankful for God, and of course, speak to the Father when you come to pray. Now can you please turn to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 18? You turn to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 18, and I'm going to read to you from John 14, 13. You go to Ephesians 6, 18. I'll read to you from John 14, 13. And of course, these are the words of Jesus, and He says, And whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. So what did we learn? Number one, that we're praying. When we pray, we're speaking to the Father, but whatever we ask of the Father, we ask in the name of Jesus. Now you know why, if you didn't know already, why we often end our prayers with, In Jesus' name, Amen. It's not just some vain repetition, though it could become that if you don't understand what you're doing. We're asking, Father, can you do this for us, please, in Jesus' name, because there's power in the name of Jesus Christ. You know what, when you give Jesus glory, when you recognize Jesus as the one who has power on this earth, it glorifies the Father. He loves it. He loves it when we glorify His Son. He loves it when we use the name of Jesus Christ, where there is power. There is power in the name of Jesus, Reverend. And so we invoke the Trinity, we speak to the Father, okay, and we ask all things in Jesus' name. Look at verse, I'll read verse number 14 again, and this is the thing that we need to really understand, Reverend, and it says here, if ye ask anything in My name, I will do it. Do you believe that? I mean, we should. That's what the Bible says. If we ask anything, He will do it. How powerful is prayer then? These are the words of Jesus. He will do it. Prayer is powerful. How is it then that when we're struggling in our Christian walk, how is it then that we would allow prayer to, you know, fall off the radar? How is it that we think prayer is not important? How is it that we think just five seconds, God help me today, is going to be sufficient for us to get through the day? Prayer has power. You know, make sure you use the name of Jesus when you're asking the Father to do something on your behalf. You're in Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 18, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 18. The Bible reads, praying always with all prayer and supplication, look at this, in the Spirit. There's the third member of the Trinity, in the Spirit. And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Listen, verse number 18 starts by praying always. Listen, there should never come a day where you haven't bowed your head, closed your eyes and prayed to the Father. Praying always, okay? But how are we to pray? I think sometimes, brethren, we may very well, because it says, look, pray in the Spirit. So what this tells me, if we're being commanded, if we're being instructed to pray in the Spirit, this tells me that many times when we pray, we pray in the flesh. In the flesh. We pray for things that we lust for. We pray that we're not even walking with God, we might be far from God, we haven't confessed our sins to God, and we just say some empty prayer, and we do it in the flesh, and then we ask the question, why doesn't God answer the prayer? Because you haven't prayed in the Spirit. You've not been walking after God's ways. And brethren, it is so important, number one, after we pray to the Father, and we give Him thanks and we praise Him and we worship Him, you better spend a moment to humble yourself and ask Him for forgiveness for your sins, okay? Humble yourself and pray in the Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to be there on your behalf as you pray, brethren. Don't forget, the Spirit is working in us. It's a Spirit that helps us understand the things of God. This is why we must pray in the Spirit and not in the flesh. And look, never get to the point where you think, man, God must be tired of me coming for help, me coming for aid, me asking certain things. God does not get tired, right? It said there in verse 18, praying always before all prayer and supplication, all prayer. What does prayer mean? It means to ask. Everything you need to ask for, go to God. Supplications. The things that you need. Everything that you need, go to God. So never get to the point, brethren, where you think, man, God must be sick and tired of me coming up. God wants you to pray. God wants you to pray, okay? If you have the attitude that, well, God must be sick of me, that's when you get to the point where you think prayer does not have power and you start to give that up, okay? Prayer is important. I don't know how much praying we've been doing during the COVID-19 restrictions. I don't know. You know, I can definitely tell you with all honesty, I've been praying more than ever. Okay? For this church, for New Life Baptist Church, and for each family in every church, and for every member, I've been praying more than ever. Why? Because I see that people are unsettled, people are uncomfortable, people are unsure. And you know, when it comes to times of difficulties, God's people must be sure. God's people must be standing strong. God's people must be bowing their heads and praying to God, you know, not being fearful about things in this earth, but being witnesses, being soldiers of the Lord, and just standing up for what God tells us to do, brethren. We need to be people that are filled by the Spirit of God. If we haven't got the Holy Spirit, then you're going to struggle in life. It's the Spirit that allows us to pray effective prayers. So you see, brethren, that prayer, and look, I can't think of any other moment, you know, in your Christian walk where you are specifically invoking and being very close to God as the triune nature. Okay? Yeah, sometimes when you're praying, you know, reading your Bible, the Holy Spirit is working in you. You know, yes, you know, definitely, you know, when you're going out door to door soul winning, Jesus says, you know, I will be with you even to the ends of the earth. We know that when we go door to the soul winning, Christ is there with us. We know that when we're gathered in church, two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of them. We know that Jesus Christ is there. So we understand all these things, but the closest you can get to God in His triune nature, when you're basically spiritually touching the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is through prayer. Therefore prayer must be powerful when you are that close to God. And when you are forgetting prayer, brethren, when you are leaving that aside, you are not working closely with God. Okay? This is an important part in your spiritual life. Can you please take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 4, verse number 12, Colossians chapter 4 and verse number 12. Colossians chapter 4 and verse number 12. I think one of the reasons why we often forget to pray or we get lazy, and it may not seem this way, like when you think of a job, you know, you think of a job, maybe someone sitting behind a computer, and then we think about a job like a bricklayer, right? Someone that's sweating in the sun. We would probably prefer the job behind the computer. I think. We probably feel it's a bit more comfortable, you can turn on the air conditioning, right? You can sit down, you can, you know, there's a toilet usually in the office or something, but the bricklayer is out there sweating, right? It requires work, right? But here's the thing about prayer. It seems easy. It seems like an office job. Like it seems like you can just sit down and close your eyes, say a few words out of your mouth, but actually, praying is laboring. Praying is labor. Praying is work. Praying is hard work. This is why you struggle to pray. This is why I struggle to pray. This is why sometimes you go to bed and you start to say your last prayers for the night and then you wake up and you wonder, did I even finish praying? Because your body got tired. Your body gave up. It requires labor, okay? Now in Colossians chapter 4 verse 12, this man Epaphras, what a man this man, Epaphras who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salute of you, look at this, always laboring, laboring man, what a laborer, must be building a house, must be doing a plumbing job, must be bricklaying that guy, man, what a laborer, what's he laboring in? Always laboring fervently, hey there's a word again, fervently for you in prayers. That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Brethren and I don't know, maybe you are a prayer warrior, maybe you are someone that can just pray and you just labor hard and you've got great faith, but brethren, I just know my flesh and I know I get tired. I know, you know, there's that hymn, sweet hour of prayer, I don't know the last time I literally prayed for one hour, you're straight, I've probably prayed one hour with other people around me, I've definitely done that, but I can remember the last time where I definitely just got on my knees, bowed my head and just for a solid hour, do you think a solid hour requires a lot of work praying to the Lord? Absolutely, you know, and this Epaphras, I don't know, maybe he was just a behind the scenes guy, maybe he was just someone that was quiet in church, you know, but he was laboring hard for the church. He loved the brethren and he would be fervently praying, and I think sometimes the reason we don't pray is because it is behind the scenes, it is not in the open, you know, getting behind the pulpit, you can all see me, right? And if you're someone that just wants to have the praise of man, you want to get here and look, I can preach the Bible, are you going to look at me, guys, I'm song leading, right? That's all, those are wonderful works, but prayer is powerful, prayer requires labor and many times it goes behind the scenes and nobody notices, okay? But brethren, don't forget to pray, let's be like Epaphras here, okay? Let's be a man who is laboring in prayer, it requires work, okay? It's amazing how tiring prayer can be, and if you've spent a long time in prayer, you would know how tiring it becomes, right? So it requires labor. Okay, now let's, if you can take your Bibles now, let's go to 1 John 5, 1 John 5 and verse number 14, 1 John 5 and verse number 14, I've titled this sermon The Power of Prayer, so I want to show you how prayer empowers us, okay? What kind of power we have, we think about this a little bit though, when you're going to God, the God of the universe, the creator of all things, are we not asking God to do the supernatural? We know things are treated a certain way, we know things are just going to go a certain way because we know of the laws of our world, right, the laws of nature, how things are, and then we're asking God, can you step in and change that, Lord? To me, every time I see and answer prayer, I think a miracle took place, where God stepped in, used his almighty hand and changed the events to take place for me, right? For me, for you. Always remember that, I'm sure we've all experienced answered prayers, but have you considered what God had to do to make that happen for you? He had to stop the natural events playing out, stepping in supernaturally, just to answer your prayer. That's powerful, brethren. How much more powerful can it be when you can ask the God of the universe to step in on your behalf? What an amazing thing. 1 John 5 verse 14 reads, and this is the confidence that we have in him. 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. What I wanted to draw your attention to, brethren, is the end of verse number 14. It says, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. He heareth us. God, you're hearing me. Number one is that what empowers us is this is the method, prayer is the method by which God hears us. What an amazing thing. You think God would be preoccupied with wars? You know, you think he'd be preoccupied with what's going on in the powers that be in this world? You think he'd be preoccupied with the spiritual nature of things, what the angels are doing on his behalf, what the devil is doing with his kingdom on this earth? I mean, there are so many things you think that God would need to be in control of, but then when you bow your head and you pray and you speak to the Father, he stops and he listens to you. I can't believe that. You know, there are so many more things going on, you think of so much more important things in this world than what I have to say, and yet God will listen to your prayers. That's power. That's power. When you can speak to God and he will listen to you, brethren, that's what prayer does. It allows you to be in the ears of our God Almighty. Can you please go to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14? Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 14. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 14. While you're turning there to Hebrews chapter 4, I'm going to read to you from Psalm 145 verse 18. Psalm 145 verse 18 reads, I want you to notice this, pay attention. It says, the Lord is nigh unto them, sorry, let me read that again. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him and to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. Brethren, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him. How else does God empower us through prayer? Point number two, it keeps God close. It keeps him close to you. And we know that God doesn't go anywhere. We know when God is far away, it's not that God has distanced himself from us, it's that we've distanced ourselves from God walking in darkness. But what does prayer promise us? That if we go to God and we pray and we ask for his help, not only will he save us, but he's going to be near us, he's going to be close to us, we're going to have a close fellowship with God. And Brethren, I don't know what your spiritual life is like. You know what it's like. But if you're telling me, yeah, you know what, things are going great in my spiritual world, I'm doing well, but you tell me but I don't really pray, then really God is not nigh unto you. God is not close to you. It is so important that you, you know, develop a prayer life in your life so you can maintain a closeness to God. I have gone days where I've not prayed. You know, I'm willing to confess my faults to you. I'm sure it's happened. I don't know when the last time it happened, but it must have definitely happened. You know what, on that day, I could not have claimed to have been close to God, could not have done so. It is only through prayer that allows us to be close to God's presence. You're not invoking the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as we seek His name. You're in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 14. Hebrews chapter 4 verse number 14 reads, Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So when Jesus Christ came in the flesh and He bore our iniquities upon Him and He bore our sicknesses and our pains and our sorrows upon Him, He knows what we feel. He knows the temptations that we've experienced. He's gone through that in life. He's walked this earth for some 33 years. He's seen how men struggle. He has seen the tiredness, the hunger that comes upon the human body. He has seen that and experienced that all firsthand and again, He's put all our iniquities upon Him. He understands our struggles. And brethren, please don't forget when you're in sin, when you've disgraced yourself before God, when you've offended God in His law, that's not the time to run away from God. That's the time to run to God and understand that Christ understands your infirmities. He understands the temptations that you've gone through and so we can go to Him. Let's keep going. Verse number 16, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can come boldly before God's throne. What an amazing thing. I think it's always amazing just I think of heaven. I think of the nature of God and it just blows me away. We think about His throne in heaven and the thunderings and the noises and the worship that's going on, the heavenly hosts that are praising God and you know what, we don't even need to be in heaven. We just have to bow our heads in prayer and there we are boldly before the throne of God. There we are spiritually speaking before God's throne and we can ask Him anything. We can ask of anything for Him and what I love about that verse is that we may obtain mercy and grace and find grace to help, mercy, grace and help. This is how we're empowered. This is how we get the mercy, the grace and the help we need in our lives by prayer. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is powerful. Boy, I need God's grace. I need it, brethren, because I'm not perfect. I try my best, especially as a pastor, but I make mistakes. I still make mistakes. We all make mistakes, all right, and we need God's grace and we need His mercy. We need His mercy as well. I don't want God chastising me with His heavy hand. Sometimes I don't mind God chastising the wicked with His heavy hand, but even with the wicked, God is gracious. Even He gives them time to turn from their wickedness and, brethren, we need His mercy but we need His help in time of need. What's it telling us? Is this telling us that we're never going to, you know, you get saved and you're never going to have a time of need? It's all going to be fine and beautiful in the Christian life. This is telling us you will have times of need and you will need help and when you need help, that's when you better start praying. Better start praying. It is not time to run away from God, yeah? Point number three, prayer empowers us because that's the way we obtain mercy, grace and help. Can you please turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2? Actually, go to Philippians chapter 4 instead, go to Philippians chapter 4 instead. Because we looked at 1 Timothy chapter 2, I think just Sunday, so anyway. You go to Philippians chapter 4, please. So I don't know if you've been following the news but recently in Adelaide there's been a COVID outbreak, I don't know, I think 20 people or something like that. Anyway, it's not that, that's not, but the reaction, again, just seeing the people how they react. If you've seen on the media, the stores are empty, the toilet paper's gone, you see, what do you notice? Panic, right? Panic! Just a couple of days of COVID, 20 people or something, I don't know what, panic, people are panicking. I don't want you to be someone that panics. I don't want you to be even, what difficulty you go through. Just be calm. So how can I be calm, Pastor Kevin? There's always challenges, there's always difficulties, COVID's around the corner, maybe. I don't know. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6, be careful for nothing. What does that mean? It doesn't mean be careful if you're walking on a high, if you're climbing a high ladder, you don't have to be careful. That's what it's saying. Don't be full of care. Don't be full of worry, is what that is saying, right? Be careful for nothing. Be careful for nothing. Oh, man, can you do this, brethren? Well, let's keep going, but instead of being worried about everything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Brethren, when you start panicking, when you start worrying, you know what, start praying and just give God thanks, let's start with that. Give God thanks for everything else that you've been blessed with, give God thanks for salvation, give God thanks for your family, give God thanks for blessing our Baptist church, give God thanks for the Bible. I mean, you can keep going on and on for the blessings that God has given you, and that's going to set your heart right, but then you bring your prayer and supplications before him. Let it be made known unto God. Look at verse number 7, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The peace of God, that's what we need in these challenging days. We need the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, you know what that's saying? That nobody can really understand, it passes all understanding. The peace of God is beyond your understanding, it's beyond your comprehension. We understand what peace is, but God has a special peace that he can give you in your times of difficulties, to the points where people could be looking at you and saying, Why aren't you worried? Why aren't you upset? Why aren't you stressed? And you say, I've got a peace about it, and they don't understand. It passes all understanding, because it's a peace that comes from God. How do you get that peace? By praying, that's how he comes, by praying. What a powerful tool that God has given us in our arsenal to go before him and pray. And Brevin, if you're ever unsettled, ask God for the peace of God. Say God, I saw in your word, you don't want to be careful for nothing, and you know what, I, you've got the peace there, I need your peace God, I need that peace so I can be kept, I can be settled, and I can be calm, you know, during difficult times. So point number four, the way prayer empowers you, it gives you inner peace, not some new age inner peace, right? But the peace of God which passeth all understanding, it goes above our heads, right? Now if you can please turn to Matthew 26. Turn to Matthew 26, and I'll read to you from 1 Timothy chapter 2, which was going to turn last time, but 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1, and we looked at this verse not long ago. It says, I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. What is that saying? God is promising us that if we were going to prayer, praying about our authorities, that we would live a quiet and peaceable life. Part of that is the peace of God, because listen, you're always going to have some difficulties in this earth, there's always some trouble, there's always some problem, right? So we're not just saying that we know problems, but in the face of problems, in the face of hardships, that we can live a quiet and peaceable life. The next thing that prayer empowers us, brethren, is it gives us power to live a life with minimal troubles. Not with no troubles, because that's not life, life has troubles, but with minimal troubles. If we just went to God and prayed for our government, we would be able to live a life which God has called us to live without having any interruptions. We could serve him properly, we could worship him properly, without any kind of restrictions and difficulties. Again, and I brought this up, this tells me, you know, the fact that there is restrictions and things that stop God's people from doing certain things, it just tells me, we must have, and I don't know about, I'm not just saying bless her, I'm just saying, believers in this nation must have forgotten to be praying for our politicians. That's what, I mean, I'm just reading God, that's what God's word says. If we just prayed, we would live a quiet and peaceful life. So you know, again, reminder, what are we praying for? We pray that they're just blessed and they get a new term in office and that, you know, even when they do wicked things that God just loves them and bless them. No, we're praying that they would pass laws that would be in line with God's word. So we can just worship God in freedom. We are having to worry about anything that government's trying to do, all right? So prayer is powerful. It can change the hearts of kings and governors. It can change the hearts of the authorities to make it easy for God's people, yeah? We're gonna ask you to turn, can someone tell me? Where are you guys? Matthew 26. All right, Matthew 26 verse 40. Matthew 26 and verse number 40. And this kind of goes back to how I started, how it is sometimes difficult to pray, all right? Matthew 26 verse 40. And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep. So if you know the story, Jesus said, hey, can you watch with me? They fall asleep. It's like that. I told you. And then you start praying and then you wake up and you fall asleep, right? It happens. It happens to the disciples. It's gonna happen to you, all right? And findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, what? Could ye not watch with me one hour? Hey, the sweet hour of prayer. Very hard to do, right? Even Peter fell asleep. Verse number 41, look at this. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know what, brethren? The spirit, you know, the new man, right? That which is born again of God, it loves to pray. It loves to worship God. It loves to honor God. It loves to bring the difficulties in our life before Him. But then the flesh is weak. And the flesh is like, ah, do we really need to do this? It's a challenge. It's a laboring, right? So the spirit wants to do it. And the flesh is like, I can't do it. We all have the flesh. So the point that I wanted to drive to your attention there is that prayer gives us power to overcome temptations. Look at verse number 41 again. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptations. So what is it telling us? When you're tempted to sin, the greatest power you can have to overcome that sin is just to get immediately in prayer. Say, God, I've been tempted to sin. Can you help me overcome this? If you don't pray, you're going to give into that temptation. Pray. Go before God. God, I've been tempted. You told me my flesh is weak, but my spirit is willing, Lord. Can you help me overcome this temptation? Prayer gives you the power to overcome temptations so you don't have to sin as often as you do in your life. So prayer has a lot of power. Let me just go through those once again, those six things. And there's probably other things in the Bible that are not covered, but these are the things I've brought to you for tonight. Number one, it's the method by which God hears us. Number two, it keeps God close. Number three, it's how we obtain mercy, grace, and help. Number four, it gives you inner peace. Number five, it allows you to live a life with minimal troubles. And number six, it gives power to overcome temptations. Now please turn to 1 John 5. 1 John, actually, yeah, go to 1 John 5. And we read this verse already, we read this already, but there's another thing that I want to bring to our attention from this verse. 1 John 5 and verse number 14. So we see that prayer is powerful. But when we go to prayer, the next point that I want to bring to your attention here, we need to do it in confidence. Confidence that when we pray, God will answer. When we pray, God will hear us. Do you have that confidence or do you think your prayers will hit the roof and bounce back down? Okay, look at there in 1 John 5 and 14, 1 John 5 and 14. And this is the confidence that we have in Him. What's the confidence? That if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. That's one of the things that I'm probably challenged with sometimes when I go to prayer. God, are you really going to not just hear this prayer, but answer this prayer? You know, I love praying for things that are clearly laid out for us in the Bible. Because sometimes I'm like this, I say, okay, that's what God wants. All right, Lord, I'm not always faithful. But I know you're always faithful. And Lord, you have this in your word. And I know you honor your word. I know you're a God that does not take back your word. And so Lord, in accordance to your word, can you please do X, Y and Z? Because I know I'm not always faithful, right? But I know He is always faithful to the things that He promises in His word. All right, so when we go and we pray to the Lord, we must do it in confidence. I'll just read to you from James chapter one, verse six. It says, But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For here that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Brethren, if you go and you pray and you don't have the faith, and you don't think God can answer prayer, God's not going to step in and do this for me, well, that's wavering in your prayers. And the Bible says if you waver, if you doubt that God is listening, if you doubt that God does not have the power to do what you're asking Him to do, then you're not going to get what you've asked from the Lord. That's your guarantee to have your prayers bounce off the roof if you have doubts. If you don't pray in faith. Boy, you know what, I don't think in the last few months, I don't think I've seen God's hand move as much as I have in my life. There has been so many prayers that I've prayed for, and God has just done it somehow. And so in the last few months, brethren, I'm not wavering. Every time you see God's hand, every time you see you step in and answer a prayer, it builds confidence, right? It builds faith, right? And we need to remember the times in the past where God has answered our prayers and understand, well, if you've answered Him in the past, Lord, you can also answer my future prayers. And so I'm not going to waver. I'm going to ask you in full faith to do what we're asking you to do. Please turn to Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11 and verse number 23. Mark chapter 11 and verse number 23. I thought this sermon was going to be half an hour, but anyway. Every time I prepare a short sermon, it always ends up being long. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. But anyway, Mark 11, 23. So verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he sayeth come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. That's what it says, right? Amen. Therefore I say unto you, What think so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. You know what? When I was looking for verses in prayers and I was just thinking about the verse that would come up, time and time again, time and time again, verse after verse after verse is confirming whatever we ask in the Lord's name, he's going to answer that prayer. I mean, God repeats himself about this topic over and over and over again. And when God repeats something over and over and over again, I know why he doesn't. He does it because we doubt, he does it because we lack faith and we need to be reminded time and time again. You know, things that are easy to understand, God just needs to say them a couple of times and it's fine. But when he just repeats them over and over again, it's because he knows that mankind often doubt when we go and pray. And so if that's you, brethren, well, you're just like a normal human being, but understand that God wants us to ask in faith expecting that it's going to happen. Now, if you're like me, I'm sure you've also prayed and you've had those prayers not answered. So you say, well, what about them, Pastor Kevin, you know, when you go and you pray, what about it? You know, I've asked for this and that, it's not happened. I thought the Bible says that whatever I ask them, we're going to receive of the Lord. Well, let's understand that a little bit. I was meant to ask you to stay in 1 John 5.14, but let me just read the passage to you. I'll read it to you again. And this is the confidence that we have in him. Then it says this, that if we ask anything according to his will, okay, he heareth us. Now we're starting to understand the process here, right? If we're asking things in our will, if our will is contrary to God's will, then it's not going to be answered. Okay? So understand this, if you're asking God for something, and it's just not happening for you, number one, it could be the timing, it could be time, it might be that God wants to answer it, but now's not the right time and it's just you need patience. Maybe God is working with you in patience and he's going to answer in due time, okay? Otherwise, it is something that God says, no, that's the will of Pastor Kevin. That's not my will. In fact, if I gave him what he wants, it's only going to damage him. It's only going to hurt him. It's only going to cause him to stumble and fall and be prideful and give in to sins and walk away from God, and therefore, I'm not going to answer those prayers. And that's what you need to just rest in, reverend. If your prayers have not been answered, you've got certain things that you're asking for and God's not saying no to you, well, just understand, well, God means well for me then. It is not in accordance to his will, thank God that he doesn't give it to me then, because it's just going to cause me hurt, okay? So that's definitely one reason. The timing might be different or it's just not in accordance to God's will. The other reason your prayers might not be answered in James chapter 4 verse number 3, it says, ye ask and receive not, and it says this, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. That's the same idea of asking things in your will, your lusts, you're asking amiss. My boys have been recently, they've got little, what do you call them, bow and arrows, right? Not the sharp ones, just play ones, right, and they've been practicing hitting the target, hitting the target. Well, you know what, that's what prayer is like. If you hit the target of God's will, it's going to get answered. But if you aim and you shoot and it misses a target, it shoots over, it goes amiss, you're not going to have the answer to prayer. If it's gone amiss, it's not in accordance to God's will, it's according to your own personal lusts. So we need to keep this stuff in mind, right? If God says no, it's just because your will was not aligned with God's will, but as you grow as a believer, as you know God's word more, as you walk in accordance to the steps of Jesus Christ, your will will become more molded as into the will of God. And the more your will is aligned with the will of God, the more you're going to see your prayers answered. The more you're going to see God move mountains, the more you're going to see God perform amazing miracles simply because you're bold enough to ask God for it. There is power in prayer. There is power in prayer. Can we please finish up on Romans chapter 8? Let's go to Romans chapter 8. It's the last verse here. Romans chapter 8 and verse number 26. Romans chapter 8 and verse number 26. Brother Luke, did you get a cup of water for yourself? Okay, I think I drank it. Oh well. You're not infected with coronavirus, are you, brother? All right, Romans chapter 8, verse number 26, Romans chapter 8, verse number 26. I love this passage. I love it so much because I'm sure we have prayed for very stupid things. I'm sure we've gone to prayer and God's like, man, that is such a stupid request. I'm sure it has happened, okay? But this is what happens when it happens, all right? In Romans chapter 8, verse number 26, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That's speaking about the Holy Spirit. This is why you've got to pray in the Spirit. What is it saying here? Sometimes we pray things, sorry, we pray not as, let me, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. It's saying that sometimes we pray for things and we don't even know, it's not even right. It's not the right thing to be asking for, right? We're not asking in the right way. We're not asking necessarily for the right things. But then you've got the Holy Spirit of God. When we pray in His Spirit, He steps in and maketh intercession. So as that prayer is going to the Father in the spiritual realm, right, it's a bit silly, it's a bit dumb, all right, before it reaches the ears of the Father, the Holy Spirit steps in, intercedes that prayer and goes, okay, let's fix it up. You know, it's like you're writing an essay, right, and your teacher steps in and starts to correct your grammar, starts to correct your spelling, right? So that way, you know, it ends up being correct in the ears of God. And so this is what's wonderful about praying. We don't need to be worried about maybe somehow saying something silly. I'm not talking about things that are after our flesh. We should be careful about that, you know, things that we lust in for, but just things that we know God wants to do or we're not necessarily sure how to ask those things. And we might be a bit timid before God to ask certain things. Well, look, just ask anyway. The Holy Spirit's going to step in, fix it up for you, and then it's going to get in the ears of the Father. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. And then in verse number 27, and he searcheth the hearts, knowing what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. There it is, right? So if our prayer's a little bit off, off base, just a little bit off base, the Holy Spirit will step in and make sure it's aligned with God's will. You know, and again, why isn't my prayer getting answered? Well, the Holy Spirit probably stepped in and said, God, he doesn't need that. You know, that's not going to help him. That's him asking things after, you know, in his lusts, and we're going to make sure that doesn't happen. But hey, we're going to change it, I know his heart, I know what it is that he needs, and then the Holy Spirit makes sure that that prayer gets given to God, maybe slightly differently. So sometimes, and we don't always understand this, we don't always realize that, we've gone to God in prayer, we've asked for certain things, but God has answered, but he's answered a different way. And the reason for that is because the Holy Spirit stepped in and said, no, it needs to be answered like this. Okay, this is actually what he needs. This is what he needs answered on your behalf. And so Brethren, I think it's, I think prayer is wonderful. I wish I didn't have this flesh, which is weak, right? I can't wait for the day that we can have our new resurrected bodies. But until then, Brethren, we do have this flesh, which is weak. And this is why it's important to pray, sorry, to preach sermons on prayer. So we can be reminded how important it is. Brethren, when you get up in the morning, first thing to do, just pray to God, ask God, God, you've given me a new day, help me to walk in your ways. Lord, help me to be praying continually for my needs. Help me to be praying for my church. Help me to be praying for my Brethren, Lord, that I have a blessed up Baptist Church. Lord, because if I ask in your will, I know it's going to be answered. And Lord, when the government makes our life difficult and challenging, Lord, I need to make sure I come before you and ask that you would step in, Lord, and help us to live that quiet and peaceable life. The power of prayer. There's a lot of power. And if you're not utilizing it, Brethren, you're really missing out on a major component of your Christian life. Okay, let's pray.