The Feast of Tabernacles ended about a month ago for us all. It's hard to believe that. I mean, for some reason, this year was a little bit more vivid in my own mind as we kept the feast here in Cincinnati and then went up to Walnut Creek with another group of God's people up there, and then came back and finished the feast off here in Cincinnati. And with all that Debbie and I experienced with the fellowship, the work, and the service, and speaking, and hosting, and seeing old friends, and meeting new friends, it was a rather vivid experience for us for the feast this year.

And we had an unusual high, if you want to look at it that way, I think for us. And that's why I say, it's hard to believe that the month has gone by. But I think for all of us, no matter how we conducted our feast and what it meant to us this year, once we come back off the feast, and if we're putting our hearts into it, God's Spirit is guiding us, then the feast is the spiritual high point of the year. But as we all know, we come back to the reality of everyday life, don't we?

And we have jobs, we have school, we have matters that we have to pick up with after the respite of the Feast of Tabernacles. And the reality of everyday life comes back in. And sometimes that's good and sometimes it's challenging for us, as we know. And so my question is, for you, how have you handled whatever's come back on you? How have you handled the challenges that have come upon you for this particular period of time? It's always a good question.

I was thinking about it as the challenges have come into our life, and as I've heard about the challenges that have come into other people's lives, and know that, again, the reality bites. It reminded me of something that I guess those that study psychology will know about, it's called the fight or flight syndrome. The fight or flight syndrome, where when stress comes, the response that occurs when the adrenaline or the hormones are released in our body that prompt us to either stay and fight or run and flee the danger, the crisis, the conflict, whatever it might be. Most of us don't like conflict. Some of us handle it a little better than others do. But conflict does come and trials do come, and we handle it in different ways. When our body perceives that there's trouble, our system works to essentially, I think, as they say it and as they put it, to keep us alive, to keep us going. And we have to deal with that, fight or flight.

I learned very early in my ministerial career how to deal with a lot of the common forms of the stress that come with the job that I had, that those of us in the ministry encounter. And any of us that are successful in our work, in our employment, and other aspects of our life, we learn how to deal with the stress. I mean, I would always try to keep up exercise in my life through the years knowing the benefits that was there. In later years, still trying to keep up with my health. I would develop other things to keep the stress down.

For my own style, it became cooking. I would take a Sunday morning and just cook after the stress of a Sabbath and running a circuit, counseling, giving a couple of sermons, maybe a young adults club or spokesman's club or some other social activity on Saturday night, and a week of busy activity if I could get a Sunday in the kitchen, it became for me, stress relieving. That might sound odd, but it was what worked for me in my life and in my job.

But I think all of us know that the ultimate way of dealing, the key of dealing with the challenges of life is a deep relationship with God. We can exercise obsessively, and some people do as a means of dealing with that, or some other type of activity. Sometimes it's not always the best type of activity. It can be rather harmful, as we know. Addictions can develop in that way. But ultimately you learn, as a Christian, that the best key to dealing with the challenges that come at us in our life will be a deep relationship with God that comes through prayer and a closeness with His word.

And I'm talking about the very Word of God, the Bible. It's our understanding of these Scriptures, and our ability to pray and talk to God on our knees in those moments when we may be awake in the middle of the night because we're worried about something, we're stressed about our health, or someone else's health, or a job conflict, or something that might be going on, that we wake up to 2:30. That's my time, it seems like, 2:30 is my time to wake up. I don't know what yours is, but I'll just tell you, mine is 2:30. When I'm awake at 2:30, wow, okay, what's going on? And it's not always easy to turn it off at that point. And so, you lay there and you pray. You talk to God. And you may drift back off to sleep, and at times, you may not. Your day begins at that particular point. But you learn that you have a relationship with God, and that's how we deal with that. It's prayer and it's a closeness to God.

In the book of Acts, we see how the church dealt with this in a unique way through a particular prayer that they had to learn very early in their experience. I would like to spend a few minutes going through that prayer. It's the first extensive prayer that we find in the book of Acts here this afternoon. It's been on my mind as I've been studying this or thinking about these events, both personally and otherwise, in other people's lives since the Feast of Tabernacles. And because it happens to also be where I am in teaching the book of Acts to the students this year at ABC, it has been on my mind.

And so, I would like to spend a few minutes taking you through a section in Acts 4 that happens to be a prayer that the church gave at a time when they were confronted with the issue of either fighting or fleeing, fight or flight. And it was their first major encounter with opposition. And it was a Jewish opposition. As Peter and John had gone up into the temple to pray. The story begins actually in chapter 3, and we won't go there, I'll just tell you about it to get us to this point.

But at the time of the evening sacrifice one day, Peter and John went into the temple. It was about 3:00. They were going up there to pray, to maybe even conduct a small group study. We don't know what exactly their intent was. But they passed a man who had been lame from birth. And he reached out his hand, no doubt, called to them for something and, you know, some help, some handout. And Peter looked upon him and said, "I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you." And he said, "Rise up and walk in the name of Christ." And he did. And the lame man stood and for the first time in his life, he walked.

And it drew attention to the church, to the two disciples, the two apostles, because they began to then teach. People gathered around. They watched what was taking place, the man leaped and ran around the temple area, people knew who he was, and it brought a great deal of attention. And Peter began to talk to them. He gave a very powerful sermon in chapter 3, but it also drew the opposition from the Jewish leadership. Now, as Mr. Cook was reading in his very fine sermonette this while ago, from Luke 12, Christ had already told the disciples, "Don't worry about what you're going to say when you come to a moment of crisis. I'll give you that help." Now, the fullness of what he was telling them, what they later then probably grew to understand because they wrote about it was that they would have His life in them through the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit.

And that was the means by which they would give an answer. And they did give an answer. They learned very quickly how to give an answer because the Jewish authorities brought them into imprisonment there later, you know, at that time late in the day, and then kept them overnight in a holding cell, brought them back before the leadership, the Sanhedrin the next morning. And essentially, as they question them and couldn't really find any reason to stop them, other than to say, "Don't anymore preach in this man's name," the one that they had engineered the death of, Jesus of Nazareth. And Peter said to them, "Look," he says in verse 19 of chapter 4 of Acts.

Acts 4:19-21 “They answered and said, ‘Whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’ Well, they receive more threats but they were then released.”

And they said, essentially, they were not going to stop, they were going to continue to do what they had been commissioned to do, that was to speak in the name of Jesus of Nazareth by whom they had healed, that man had been healed. They hadn't healed, God had healed the man, but it was in the name of Jesus. And so, God gave them that power. He gave them an answer to the moment. It was stressful, being put in jail overnight is no fun. And the opposition that was there was now new to them, in terms of their own personal life. They had watched it just a few weeks earlier with Christ and in His death and His crucifixion, now it was upon them.

And so, they left, they were released. And in verse 23, we find then what they did. Acts 4:23, let's begin to read here and look at the story and what we can learn from this prayer. You might have in your Bible a heading put there, a prayer for boldness. I've been titled this sermon, "A prayer for the bold." Because I think and hope that that's what we should be, and will be. And hopefully by this message and reflection upon this story, you and I will rise to a measure of boldness in our prayer and in our walk with God and our study of the Word of God that will help us to manifest that type of confidence and courage in any type of challenge or crisis that we face so that we learn to fight with a boldness, fighting in a proper spiritual way, and not flee, not retreat, not go back, not encounter fear and retreat in the face of a challenge, in the face of an adversity, in the face of a trial. Because more than anything, we need boldness. We need a boldness when it comes to the Word of God and to our life, to live in this particular way.

So let's look at what they did. It's always good, that's what excites me about every time, every year getting to go through the book of Acts with a group of students at ABC to learn what they did, what the early church did. That's what the book of Acts in one way is, that's kind of sums it up, it's what they did. And it teaches us what we should do, how we should live. This is what they did. It's really not any more complicated than that. They did this. And we can do it too, and we can have the same results and the same success. So let's see what they did.

Acts 4:23 "Being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all the chief priests and elders had said to them."

They had been for several hours in incarceration from the previous afternoon, overnight, and then let's say through a pretty stressful morning, more than likely to at least midday, before they were probably released. And so, it'd been a stressful period of time and they had a lot to say. “And they went to their own companions.” What a joy it is to have people to talk to, friends, people with whom we can share our deepest feelings, and thoughts, experiences, people with whom we can have a common bond and a common goal of God's church, of the truth, a husband, a wife, a good friend, a set of close friends, a church, companions. The word companions here may be in the italics, but the word itself fits because we are working together, we're on this journey together. We're in the same fight, we're in the same experience. We're in the same church, we believe the same truth, we worship the same God, we're all together in this.

And Peter and John were not afraid, they were not holding back to go and tell them what happened. But they were also, I think, looking also for some encouragement. Look, they were human, Peter and John. And Peter already had had one experience with the night Jesus was arrested, where he faltered. He hadn't faltered since then. The account in Acts shows us his strength and his courage. But I think he drew that, not only from the Spirit of God but also from the companionship of those that he had with him in the church, not only the other apostles, but the other disciples. And they talked and they shared that with them.

We have to do the same thing. We have to have that network. If I were to look at, you know, my life in the church, my life in the ministry, and all the years together, you know, I've survived because I've had a very good wife with me, Debbie. We've done this job together. We have both entered into it with our eyes... I think our eyes were open 50 years ago when we got into this, but they've been thrown wider open because of everything we've had to go through in nearly 50 years of experience in the church and marriage itself. But because of that relationship, we've worked everything through and are still here.

But also, I learned that I had to have a network of friends in the church and in the ministry to help keep me straight, keep my thinking balanced, keep me from extremes of decisions or behavior or judgments or whatever it might be. You got to develop those. And this is what is a big lesson here up front that they had in those early days of the church when we see them heady with success. So they reported what had been done. And then verses 34.

Acts 4:24 It tells us, "When they heard that," they being the collected group of whether it was all of the church or an inner circle, I'm sure more than just Peter and John, but those that were there, but I get the feeling of a roomful of people, "When they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord."

A unity, a unity of purpose, a unity of love, a unity of friendship. They lifted their voice to God in a collective way. We lift our voice to God in song, every time we come together. We lift our voice to God in joining in spiritually with the prayer that will be offered up, with a message that is brought, with the special music that is given. We, together, raise and reflect in a voice to God with unity, with one accord. And that brings us together in a closer relationship.

Now, here's what they said. They began to address God in a collective prayer, and again, we don't always know how they conducted their situation in the church here at this time and in the first century. It was a cultural and they had certain traditions as they were coming together and forming what we look at as the Church of God that may be a little different than what we and the way we do it today. But they were communicating as a body with God. And it could very well have been a collective prayer offered and led by one of the leaders, Peter or John themselves. But they all agreed with it and they all were strengthened by it, I think we can say. And here's what they said, and this begins the prayer.

Acts 4:24 "Lord, You are God who made heaven and the Earth and the sea and all that is in them."

Now, that's encompassing. Heaven and Earth and the sea and all that is in them. Their view of God at this moment was greater than probably what they had been raised with. Many of them had been with Jesus for three and a half years as disciples. And then they had witnessed His death. And then many of them had witnessed the resurrected Christ. The greatest of all miracles right there.

And had seemed the power of God at work in all of the circumstances at the time of His death and through the time of His resurrection, and they were eyewitnesses to all of this. And they were seeing what was developing in the church. They had been there on that day of Pentecost. They had a much enlarged vision of God that began to take in what they couldn't see with a telescope but they could see in their hearts.

I just researched for the sermon that I opened the feast with here in Cincinnati by reading a book that many of you have read called "The Privileged Planet." And if you haven't read it, maybe you've seen the videos that were done on it. But it's a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. Done by two physicists and scientists who are believers. And essentially, the point that they make in the book, "The Privileged Planet," is that Earth is privileged above all the other planets and within the entire bodies of all the solar system, to be positioned, to be placed within the Milky Way galaxy, with a moon and a sun and an orbit and a rotation and everything. The galaxy is in the right position, our place within the galaxy is in the right position, with just the right tilt and axis and everything else for life.

And no other planet observed, understood hasn't. And I was working off of the launch this year of the Webb telescope, that if you've seen or been following any of that, you understand that it's going to allow scientists to go and view further out into the universe than any other telescope that we've ever developed. And the images that you can see already are astounding. And, you know, I look forward to what they will find. But I think that...I don't look for them to find planets and other galaxies with any life like we know it, because of what the Scripture tells us and also what we have seen, "The Privileged Planet" shows that the chances of that happening are so astronomical as to be impossible.

We are positioned to have life and we are also positioned, even the universe is positioned at its moment of formation within the billions of years that it has been around for it to even be observed. It's a phenomenal subject to study. But with that in our mind, even with what we have, it should and it can enhance our view of God, that's my point.

As they began this prayer, they were recognizing God who has made heaven and sea and Earth. And we can add to that with the knowledge that we have that they didn't have, and it should and can help us to understand that this is the God we serve, this is the God we know, this is the God we pray to, and this is the God who can help us and will help us and is helping us in the challenges, in the tests, in the trials of life. When we pray to Him, when we're close to His word, when we are talking with Him and His spirit is strong within us. That is the God we serve, who has created all of this. That begins their prayer and it should be in our heart and in our mind. And then they said in verse 25.

Acts 4:25 "Who by the mouth of Your servant, David, said,"

And then they began to quote from Psalm 2, the second Psalm. They go back and they bring the Bible. This is the Word of God to them. This was what they knew to be the word of God. And it was right there, again, God is giving them the words even to speak in such a moment. But in addition to that, the disciples in the early church were very literate when it comes to the Scriptures. One of the misjudgments that people make at times is that first-century Judaism and the culture of the people, the Jews in the first century is that they were not very literate. And the statement that was made earlier in chapter 3 is misunderstood where the Jewish leadership accused Peter and John of being unlearned men. Well, they were only unlearned in a sense that they had not been through the rabbinical schools, but that was to their advantage. Literacy among Jews in Galilee and in Judea in the first century was very, very high. That's known from the cultural studies, the archaeological discoveries, the studies that have been made, that they knew Hebrew, they knew Greek, they knew the Bible, they were literate.

And so here they're calling from fourth, from the second Psalm. And what is remarkable here for us to understand is that they are applying this Psalm to their life at that point, to their circumstances of the opposition from the leadership. And it's an important principle. We rightly talk about doing a proper exegesis of Scripture and not reading anything into it. We want to have a good hermeneutical approach to all of the Bible and we should and do.

But one of the things that God's Spirit led the church then and can lead us now into is the fact that we understand that all the Bible can be applied to the here and now in our life and we can draw lessons from it. And what they were doing here was going back to one of the early Psalms and they were applying it to the opposition from the Jewish leadership. But let's look at it and see how it should apply to us now and what we can learn from it. Because ultimately, that's the important thing, as you and I read the Bible, we're not only learning about the Bible but we're wanting to have spiritual strength and application for what's in front of us right now in our day and our time, and the trials that we're facing. Here's what they said.

Acts 4:25-26 "Why did the nations rage?" And this is quoting right out of Psalm 2. "Why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the Earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ."

Now, as the Jews of the first century would have read that, they would have only applied that to the setting of the Old Testament, they didn't recognize Christ, it was a Psalm of David. They would have been rooted in an explanation that missed Christ, and Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ. But Peter and John and the other disciples now were applying the Scripture to their time. Let's read it and let's apply it to our time, to our day, and let's look at what we might learn. They were gaining strength from it, can we gain strength from it? Well, yes, we can. I look at this and the nations rage and the people plot vain things.

Did anybody pay attention to the election this past Tuesday? I do, I did. I pay attention, for many reasons. But I keep a pretty sharp eye on policies. I won't use the word politics, I'll use the word policies, because there are major policy issues that are in play today and that were in play on Tuesday. And I look at that and I want to understand what's going on. So I look at it with one eye, I keep the other eye on God's kingdom and I keep both feet in God's church and in the kingdom as well. But I want to know what's going on and I want to understand my time. I talk a lot about that with the students, and I think most of you know where I'm coming from there in terms of just watching and understanding our present world.

But, you know, people were looking for a red wave this past Tuesday. I got up early Tuesday morning to go to do my swimming at 6:00 at the YMCA. And I got out in my driveway. And I knew that there was a full moon out and I knew that Tuesday morning was a blood moon. Did you know that? Anybody see the blood moon on Tuesday morning? I got out and I started looking for it, I couldn't find it. My neighbors, next door neighbors, they were already out in their robes looking for it and they said, "Hey, look over here in this part of the sky." So, Scott McKeon was staying with me, one of the camp directors this week. We were both looking in the sky. So we moved a little bit and found it in the western sky. And there it was, a red blood moon on election day of all things when they were expecting a red wave.

Well, if you follow anything, they didn't have a red wave this week. They didn't have a blue wave either. They had kind of a red trickle is what happened with the way it looks like it's going to come out. No huge shift one way or the other. But when you look at all the talk and the issues, there's not a perfect example of the nations raging right now. A cultural rage at many different levels of issues that we don't need to talk about and go into the detail now but there is a raging among the nations and frankly a vain plotting of things, of leaders as it describes here.

Because, ultimately, no matter how you might scrutinize whatever with that one eye or eye and a half, whatever you do, you take a step or two back with the perspective of God's purpose and God's plan. And that's what the Psalmist is doing, that's what they were doing here at the time of the church in the first century. They weren't intimidated by the Jewish opposition. They weren't worried about it.

As we might look at our world today, I'm concerned, I pray, I sigh and cry for the afflictions of Joseph. But I don't get overly concerned and I don't overly worry about it because from what I know from God's Word about the future, God's kingdom, and I recognize that there's a lot of plotting, and design, polling or however you want to apply it and turns out to be nothing. And I'm very careful, and you should be, to not let any of that become something idolatrous, because we should recognize, ultimately, of the futility there in the raging and the fighting and the clashing and even the policies, ultimately, can have some damage, but ultimately, God's Kingdom is going to come.

We may have a rough passage to that point but we have to keep that perspective and recognize the futility of that and not let it worry us, depress us, or concern us. But take this and apply it into our own life, into what is in front of us. This is what they were doing. They were facing opposition that later Scriptures will show got pretty close and got pretty personal. The challenges that come into our personal lives and the challenges that we have to deal with, of health, of conflict, of fear, maybe doubt, maybe a crisis of faith, maybe a crisis in who is God and where He is working and what He is doing and how it impacts our personal life. Those are the things we're going to...that are right in front of us. And we have to have that confidence, the same confidence that they had right here.

Acts 4:27 They said, ''For truly against your holy servant, Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together.''

And they were there facing down, beginning to gather conflict now against the disciples of Jesus. They had already engineered the death of Jesus and now they had the church in their eyesight, at least the Jewish authorities did. But here's how they viewed it. Their eyes were first on God. They had been together and now they were praying to God. And they weren't worried about Pontius Pilate or any of the other authorities of the Jews and the leadership at that time. And they were actually equating the Jewish leadership with the Gentile nations, which is an interesting thought in itself, as they had engineered the death of Christ and now this opposition. But they had a proper perspective.

Acts 4:28 "To do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determine before to be done."

They were gathered together and they did what they did, but it was all according to the great purpose of God, ultimately, the prophecies of Christ death were very, very specific. We know from the book of Isaiah and other prophecies. And His life and death were prophesied, was determined. His death was determined. And yes, it was carried out by those that were stirred and raged and all, but the church had the proper understanding that it was done by God's determined purpose.

When you look ahead into Revelation 17 and you see the events that are described at the end of the age, there's one Scripture that we tend to neglect in that. And that is that God puts it into the heart of even the Gentile rulers at the end of the age to do what they're going to do during a time of tribulation. God guides it all. It is by his determined purpose that the events of this world will ultimately play out. And it is by his determined purpose that our lives are going to be played out as well as we are close to him and understand that.

And, again, that is the focus to always come down to. And so, that is why in verse 29, they came to this conclusion, and they said now. And that's the here and now, that's the present. That's the what's in it for me? Now. Lord, and this is where the prayer for the bold comes in. As we sort out everything that is in front of us what the challenge, the trial, the difficulty will be, what is needed, we then come to God and we say, "Now. Lord.”

Acts 4:29 They said, “Look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your Word.”

Look on their threats, another way to say that is to hear. Hear the problem, know me, know what is taking place. Understand where I am, understand what I need, understand what someone else needs. Look God now.

This is a bold assertion of a relationship with God, that we develop over a period of time that can have a real, meaningful, serious prayer. This is more than just a casual prayer before we go out the door. This is more than just a few words offered up. This is a heartfelt plea and cry. And it doesn't have to take hours to work. It can come from the depth of our heart, just like that, if we are already into the Word of God. Look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your Word. We need to come to God and ask Him to grant what is needed. And to do that, you got to know what you need. I need to know what I need. Faith, courage, confidence, greater commitment, serenity of mind. The ability to stand into the fight rather than retreat from the fight, to stand, to do, to ask God for that help.

This is verse 29, the essence of the prayer for the bold right here, to turn to God and ask Him to look on our lives and to grant what we need from His Word. Our world and our culture right now is trying to rip everything that it can of faith and confidence and courage out of our life. There is something that the Bible talks about that we should always remember, and that is that God has a group of people called His first fruits, the first fruits of salvation. We had a very good sermon last week for Mr. Antion here in the AM congregation about the elect, and the elect of God, and that we are a part of that grouping of people called the elect.

Another way to look at it is the idea of the first fruits. We keep the Feast of Pentecost and we rehearse that meaning of the first fruits of God's plan of salvation. And when you look through the whole Scripture on there, all that it says about that, there is a group of people called the first fruits.

Now, you're either a first fruit or you're not. It's the Spirit of God. It is being called, it is being a part of a group of people who are the first fruits of that salvation. You can have a lot of knowledge, you can be a good person, you can be so many things, but there is a group of people called the first fruits and we're a part of that. And we need to remember and we should never let anything rip that from our life. The world is geared to rip that away from us, through whatever temptation, through whatever distraction, through whatever obsession, through whatever crisis, through whatever trial that might come. It's geared to rip that belief that there is a special calling of the people of God to rip that out of us to cause us to wonder, to doubt, and to, as we say, as the scripture say, fall away. We cannot do that. We have to be bold to understand that. We have to be bold to believe that. We have to be bold to live that way. And never forget that and let God sort out everything else that we may not fully understand, but hold firm to that calling of being a first fruit and have the boldness to do that.

Our camp directors met this past week to plan out the next year of camp activities and camp programs for our youth. I happened to walk into the room a couple of times to talk to them during their breaks. And after a couple of days of pretty hard work and intense discussions, they had all the whiteboards that were in the conference room plus even dragging the one out of our ABC classroom in there to fill it up with scriptures, ideas for the campus checks and for the themes of the camp program, because it's a Scripture-based program. Always has been from the inception that we designed at the beginning of United Church of God. And they were hard at work in creating that. More than anything else, right now there is that need to claim the promise that is in Acts 2 for our children, a promise of salvation, a promise of hope, a promise of the future.

Peter said, "The promise is to you and to your children." And what we do with our education, with our camp program is helping families, helping parents, helping our young people to focus on that promise, to claim that promise, the promise of God's way of life.

One thing I've observed this year, this past year in conversations and wherever...I've been with the people and the church and families that are families with young children. Many of you here, you are interested in passing along the faith to your children. And that is a high priority and that is good. And it is the interest of the church to do that as well. And so, that particular part of our program I think is operating quite well, quite soundly. Work we do you and you do in your homes to make that happen, it's got to work as well.

We have got to all personally claim that promise that is handed to us by God of salvation, and pass that along and teach it and model it as an example. And it takes boldness to do that, is the point. It takes conviction to do that. It takes being able to put everything aside, standing into the fight, not being fearful of the culture, of the challenges. And they are very real and they are very intimidating, that our children face, that we face that are creeping in. But we have to be bold to stand against it, and to model, teach, and example the way of God, the truth of God. That's our job as a church, that is our job as a parent, that is our job as a member to one another. It takes boldness to do that. And we have to ask God for the help. We have to say, "Lord, look on the threats of this world and the threats to our families and the threats to the church and grant to us conviction, grant to us courage, grant to us boldness, that we may speak your Word."

How does this apply to us in our situation today? How do we take a prayer like this and how do we be bold? Well, we don't flee from the conflicts, the challenges, the tests and the trials that come, whether of health, whether personal conflict that might come up, a challenge from family members, work, or the greater culture that is around us and that creeps in, sometimes even causing us to allow the culture of the world to come into the church. The ministry, the programming of the church, the educational programs are doing the best I think we can to teach, to instruct, to help.

All of us collectively have got to work together to do that and to carry it through with our children. Because there is a great push against it. This world is not a friend of families, wanting to be families of faith. And so we have to claim that as well. And it takes a bold claim of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what was working in these disciples to cause them to stand into the challenge that was in front of them at the moment and it's what will work within us.

The very same promise to know what to speak, as was read in the sermonette from Luke 12, is the same promise that we can claim as well, to know what to speak in a moment of test, in a moment of conflict, in a moment of challenge. And we have to be bold for that. And it takes our prayers to God for that help. And it takes the ability to take from the Word of God the examples, the teaching, just as they did from Psalm 2 that we can take that and apply it into our practical life because that's what they say here in verse 29, "That we may speak Your word." There's many different ways that we speak the word of God today. We speak it in our families, we should. We speak it to God. We speak it to one another. And that word is what strengthens us.

Acts 4:30 Then they say, "By stretching out Your hand to heal," and he had already healed this lame man. "And that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy servant, Jesus."

That's how the miracle of the lame man had come about and his healing, and that was a miracle. We look for miracles today, we look for healing today. And while I have never seen such a dramatic healing as chapter 3 describes, and other episodes in Acts describes of even the dead being raised to life, I have seen miracles of healing. I have seen people healed. And I don't doubt that God heals today. And we may not... And I have never at least caused a lame man, in the name of Christ, to stand up and walk. But I've seen other miracles that have been done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus, as is said here. When I see the miracle of a converted heart and mind, when I see the miracle of God's Spirit working in someone that brings them to faith after years of lapse and retreat, and people come to themselves, like the prodigal son did, and they return to faith and to God. When I see that, I see a miracle.

When I see people begin to turn from this world's culture and begin to obey God, that's a miracle. It's the miracle of a changed mind and a changed heart. That is no less of a miracle than a man being healed who has been lame from birth. We must always keep that in perspective. The miracle of conversion is very, very powerful. And it is a miracle, more of a miracle it seems each day. With the current world conditions and the cultural challenges and all that's working against people coming to God, believing the Bible and wanting to obey God and to live a life of faith, when that happens, it's a miracle and it's a miracle only God can do. And it's done in the name of the holy servant Jesus, not by any grand eloquent efforts that any of us would make, it's done by God. We cannot lose sight of that. And we should boldly pray for that.

I'm very glad that we've been able to run this series in the E-News and other places to encourage us to pray for the work of God, the Gospel to have free course, and there were some very great things that are in need of prayers. Our brethren in Angola being shut, you know, not shut down yet but essentially told, "You need to become like everybody else," is what they were told to do. And they couldn't get the recognition, the authorization from the government, that's something that we need to be bold in prayer about.

I was intrigued by David Scriber's report from India, of the number of people that he's been working with there that are interested in aligning themselves with the United Church of God and obeying the Word of God and the truth. And I hadn't really focused on that for some time. We need to be praying about that as well. And there are so many things. And all of those prayers and all of that, we need to be bold in it and we need to take confidence that God will hear. This is what they looked for in their day here in the church, this is what we should be doing as we follow and model that example. If we do, we can expect the power of God to be manifest and should.

This was a very short prayer, it's not long. It's rooted in the word of God, which means we've got to know the Word of God and we've got to be learning it and talking about it with boldness. Verse 31 shows an interesting thing that happened.

Acts 4:31 “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken.”

We can just imagine, you just have to understand it that it was a localized earthquake, I suppose, that particular room. It may not have registered on any other seismometer anyplace else, Judea at that moment, maybe just that place. But they knew the presence of God was there. What's our takeaway? Well, we pray and we know that we have laid it boldly before it God. And while our room and our home and maybe, you know, our collective place of assembly isn't going to shake, we've been moved, you've been moved by the Word of God and by a prayer of boldness to do that.

Acts 4:31 "They were filled," it says, notice at the end of verse 31, "they were filled with the Holy Spirit."

That's the promise, and that's the power by which anything is done. And that's the means by which Christ said that you'll speak what you need to speak when the time comes. And if it's just in our prayers, the boldness to God, than that fulfills that Scripture. And if it's done with boldness, it's God's Spirit moving us in that direction. And it says, ''And they spoke the Word of God with boldness.'' Notice in this account here that I've read to you that the Word of God has been mentioned twice, pointing us to the power of the Word of God. That is a key theme of the church and what they did. They were rooted in the Word of God. And from that came their boldness, the works and what they did.

When the stress comes, when the trials come, when the needs for us to stand come, we have to fight. We have to fight spiritually, we have to fight with the armor of God, we have to fight and we cannot run. We cannot shy from the conflict. We have to stand in and do our job. We have to pray with boldness. We have to lay down a barrage of prayer. Because in the end, that's what's going to be the ultimate key to victory. A prayer from the bold, a prayer of boldness can really make a difference in people's lives, in the Church of God, and in the work that God is doing in each one of us. So let's make a stance to stand and to fight spiritually with boldness. This is what they did. What can we then do?

[Mr. Frank Dunkle]: We have given some thought to health concerns lately. Haven't we? With COVID in the air and all these prayer requests, it's certainly something we have on our minds. And so, it seemed like an appropriate topic to speak on today. Now, I will caution, I spoke on this topic in the a.m. service a few weeks ago, so I'm sorry for those of you that might be hearing it a second time, but I discussed it with Mr. Myers and he thought it was a good topic. I want to talk about some of that and COVID is going through and, you know, I'll confess my family recently had their experience. And we were fortunate enough to be some of the ones with a mild case. I did have the odd experience of coming down with it a couple of days before the rest of the family and we were hoping they wouldn't get it. So, I was isolated, stuck in the guest bedroom for two or three days. And boy, that was an experience - one I'm not eager to repeat. I'm looking for water here. And my son came down with it. It was interesting because we've tested him four or five or six times. And all those other times it came back negative. And what's interesting is when you get that negative test, you go, “Phew, it's just a cold.” It's just a cold you'll get over that. And if you haven't had the experience with fear about COVID, most of us have had a head cold or something like that, a case of the sniffles. And you just think, yeah, that's something you get over. Have you ever stopped to think, well, how do you know? Why are you so confident that you'll get over it?

I'm guessing because you have before and that's the way it goes for us. The same thing happens if you have a minor cut. You get a cut you might bleed a little bit and you, you know, maybe you put a Band-Aid on it or just let it go the natural way. And if you can ignore it and not keep irritating it, a little while later, it'll be gone. If it's mild enough, you don't even have a scar. I say that, as I was thinking about this message always propped up on the bed, looking over my notes. I looked down on my ankle and I've got a scar that's been there for more than 50 years. An unfortunate incident of my ankle meeting a bicycle chain. And it was so long ago, I don't even remember the particulars but, you know, I've got that reminder. Still, it cleared up and I got better. You know, broken bones are like that, right? Matter of fact, we've had that experience in the human body we know you break a bone, you set it properly, six weeks. It's almost like clockwork. And six weeks, the bones, the cells will regrow, they'll knit together and will be like new. They'll maybe not exactly like new, but, you know, it's functional. It works, you know, normally.

These things happen, well not, I just think because we know God designed some processes that He made our bodies to do that are, I think, astounding, they do it without us giving a thought. And that applies to cuts, scrapes, and a lot of sicknesses. You know, we've probably heard more about antibodies in the last year and a half than we ever cared to know, but it is interesting that our bodies have this built into us, the means to recognize something that's foreign and that's damaging and to create a countermeasure. It does it without us giving thought to it. You don't have to go down in your bathroom and or sit in your bedroom and say, “Okay, now I'm gonna direct my body to produce antibodies.” It just happens, in the same way, like if you get that cut. I think this summer, I got to go canoeing in the wilderness and I've got a bad habit perhaps of wearing shorts when I do that. And often my legs come out looking like I've been in a battle zone - cuts, scrapes, scratches, and I never give it a thought as a kid, I always had cuts and scrapes on me. But, you know, a scab is a pretty amazing thing.

It's not the most appetizing thing to think about, but, you know, a little blood comes out and suddenly it forms, I call it God's Band-Aid, it's just automatic. It covers, but this never occurred to me besides taking it for granted until I was reading a book by a Michael Behe called "Darwin's Black Box." It's been around quite a few years, I'm guessing several of you have read it. It makes the case for intelligent design for the fact that the amazing complexity of creation makes it obvious that there was a creator, a designer who planned all this, and blood clotting is one of those things. You know, it's amazing how when the blood comes out, there is some type of chemical trigger that makes it start to clot and form that scab. But it also stops at just the right time. It's one of those processes that had to work right the first time. Now, of course, if it doesn't work at all, people can bleed to death. And there are some that have rare defects that that's a worry. But until I read Mr. Behe's book, it hadn't occurred to me that if it doesn't stop working, your blood would keep solidifying right up into the veins and all through your body. And we can't survive that. So, God created it just right.

And when I think of some things, it brings to mind a scripture I'll quote, without turning there, it's in Psalm 139:14. You can jot it down if you like. It's one you'll instantly recognize. King David, we believe was the author, and he said, “I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Boy, are we fearfully and wonderfully made. Our bodies are amazingly complex and capable. So much so that getting over a seasonal cold or healing from a cut or even a broken bone can seem routine. As I said, you take the COVID test and it comes back negative and you go, “Whoa, I know I'm gonna recover from this in a couple of days,” but I think it's a miracle. I like to term it a miracle of creation. When we think if God creating the life in the first place was miraculous and certainly, it was, it was God's divine power that made us and gave us life, the fact that He built into us, these amazing qualities of being able to heal and recuperate is nothing short of miraculous. And the reason I bring that up today and wanna speak on it by way of introduction to our topic is without having realized it, I think we could say each and every one of us have experienced divine healing in the fact that God built into our bodies that ability to heal. And it's something given to us by Him.

Of course, sadly, we know that it doesn't always work. Some injuries are so traumatic, they end life. Although our bodies are designed to recognize and fight and overcome bacteria and invading viruses, there are some infections that become overwhelming. You know, when the normal miracle of our body's own immune systems just aren't enough, we can go beyond that. And the thing I wanna talk about today is that we can go beyond that and claim a benefit that God offers to His people to ask for healing. Divine healing is a benefit and a blessing that God makes available. And it's not something begrudging or forced, it's something He wants us to have. And we've been thinking about it now, more than ever. I'm confident as we get those prayer requests and we plead to God to intervene and hear those requests. I know I've anointed people and sent out cloths and many of our other elders have. You know, we think about divine healing and we probably have some questions and the Bible has answers. If you will turn towards Exodus 15:26, the first thing I wanna establish about this though is that this idea of appealing to God for divine healing - it's His idea. It's not something people initiated and went to God and said, “Oh, can You grant us some healing?” And He said, “Well, maybe I'll think about it.” You know, no, it came from God.

I want to read in Exodus 15:26. This is as God was bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt and on the way they were having difficulty finding water eventually so much that He brought it out of a rock for them. But at one point they found a pool of water, but it was bitter, it was inedible, perhaps even dangerous. And they appealed to God who directed Moses to cut down a branch of a tree. Some translations say a whole tree, threw it in, the waters were made safe and good. And God told them something. In Exodus 15:26 God said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord, your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I'll put none of the diseases on you, which I brought on the Egyptians for I am the Lord who heals you.” Mr. Myers mentioned this in his message to us that he sent out last night. The Hebrew for this is Yahweh Ropheka. It refers to the eternal God who heals. That's a name or a title that God wants to be known for. He introduced Himself as a healing God. Now, I don't think it's a coincidence that in this passage He linked it to obedience to His laws. You know, not only does He bless rather than curse those who obey Him. But if you study through the laws that God gave to ancient Israel, we see that He gave them principles of healthful living that applied down through the ages. He gave them direction of proper diet, of good hygiene. And, you know, of the principle of quarantine to stop the spread of disease.

Interestingly, of course, human beings at that time had not learned about microorganisms, but God knew all about them. And He introduced this idea of healing. It's worth considering also that healing was a significant part of the ministry of Jesus Christ. If we turn to the book of Matthew, I wanna read a couple of passages there, starting in Matthew 4:23. Matthew 4 is a good summary. It says, “Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease among the people.” If you just do even a casual, superficial reading of the gospel accounts, you can't help but notice that Jesus healed people. Everywhere He went, people flocked to Him because they knew He did that and they wanted to get that benefit. You know, I don't have time to go through a detailed analysis of all those cases, but you pay close attention and you read them, one of the things you see, that's very clear is that the healing was often linked to Christ's compassion. It often says He had compassion on a person and then He healed. So, we say, Jesus didn't heal only to get attention. It brought attention to His ministry and that was valuable. But I don't think He healed only for that reason. I don't think He healed to get people to stop bugging Him. You know, He cared about people. He was a God of love, compassion.

He hated the people, let me say that in English, He hated to see people suffer. If we look in Mark, sorry, not Mark, Matthew 8, just a few pages ahead. I know that's what's missing, it's really quiet in here. It's supposed to be quiet during services. I should be used to that. Matthew 8 beginning at the start of the chapter. When He, that is Jesus had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him, and behold a leper came and worshiped Him saying, “ ‘Lord, if You're willing, You can make me clean.’ Jesus put out His hand and touched him and He said, ‘I am willing, be cleansed.’ ” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. It's noteworthy, one thing that Christ was willing to touch a leper. That's something you did not do. It was a dread disease and people were properly afraid of it spreading. Lepers were commanded to keep separate, it was built into the law. And thus this man, depending on how long he'd had leprosy might have gone without human contact for months, years. And that's one thing I never had that much insight. I thought that might be a terrible thing. But as I said, I had two and a half days of being quarantined to the guest room in our house. I thought I can't imagine doing this for months and years, not being able to touch people or be around them.

Christ reached out and touched him. But more than that, He said, “I am willing.” It was in Christ's desire to heal the man, no indication that it was grudging or just to get rid of an annoyance. And I think that's an important lesson for us. These qualities that we see in Jesus Christ and God, the Father, I believe, I believe They still feel that way. I think They want to grant healing. When we appeal to God and ask Him to make us well, He doesn't see us as a nuisance or somebody who wants to get out of the way. Think of Him as a loving parent, who wants to make His children feel well. Now, that could raise the question of then why doesn't He heal us all instantly? Put that in the back of your mind, I will come back to that a bit later. But let's see a little bit more about this. Here in Matthew 8, if you look down to verse four after the leper was healed, Jesus said, “Well, see that you tell no one,” - so He wasn't trying to get attention from the healing - “But go your way and show yourself to the priest, offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.”

You know, some reasons Christ wanted the man to go do this seemed to be to give proper thanks to God and to be a witness to the priest. But I mention it because it does indicate to us and remind us that healing had a place in the ritual system. You know, there were aspects of that system that referred to God intervening and healing. And I don't wanna examine that today because we know that Christ's sacrifice replaced that system. We don't offer sacrifice and I don't have to bring two birds and dip one of them in blood and set it free if I'm healed from a skin disease, which I'm very glad for that. But with Christ's priesthood and the New Testament, it shouldn't surprise us though that there is a procedure, a method, a specific action that God tells us to take in regard to healing. I'd like to turn to James 5, you're probably thinking of that. James 5 beginning in verse 15, this is central to any discussion of asking God for healing because He raises the question, “Is anyone among you sick?” - This is James 5:14. - “If you're sick, let this person call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if,” - if as a pretty big word there – “he's committed sins, there'll be forgiven.”

And this describes a specific procedure, not a pro-specific procedure. And it includes a particular role for the ministers of Jesus Christ. You know, I've heard some people raise the question since it is in the plural, do you have to have more than one elder to lay hands on. And that's not the way we've interpreted it. It's certainly not wrong to do that. Some translations say rather than call the elders invite from among the elders of the assembly that elders to lay on hands and anoint. We see examples in the Scripture of one person, you know, laying hands on someone and then being healed. The point is this is a procedure to follow. I might note also that I don't think it's limited to a sickness, an infection. It's also appropriate for injury. You know, we can see examples in Scripture of divine healing for injury. The one that comes to my mind, first of all, is in the garden of Gethsemane. As you know, the soldiers came to apprehend Christ and Peter whipped out that sword, swung it, chopped off the ear of the high priest servant. And Jesus put away the sword, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. And He, you know, I imagined He did it this way. He picked up that piece of ear and put it back on his head and healed him.

You know, healing for injury is just as valid. James 5 notes that anointing is done with prayer and laying on of hands. You know, most of us have probably had this experience. I would say, if you never have, you might be intimidated as much as I was. I still recall very clearly the verse, the very first time I was anointed, I was 15 years old and I developed a sports injury. I was on the track team in high school and I developed a bad case of shin splints, very painful. It's a type of tendonitis and at services, one Sabbath, someone said, “Well, why don't you ask the pastor to anoint you?” Well, yeah. You know, why not? That sounds like a great idea. So, after services, we did this and as we're going to a back room for privacy, I started getting a little apprehensive. And because I'd never been anointed before, but I had read the Old Testament. And if you did see how it's described when a prophet would anoint someone there it's a little different than we did here. So, I really thought that the pastor was gonna pull out a bottle of oil, I'm trying to like this, and pour it on my head, ruining my nice new suit. And thankfully it wasn't anything like that. I learned what most of you know now, most of us that are elders carry a little vial of oil and put a little dab on our fingertips and can put it on the forehead and then lay hands on and pray to God.

The oil is a symbol. It's a symbol of something much more important - of God's Holy Spirit. You know, if you want a scripture to support that, Acts 10:38 is my favorite where it describes Jesus Christ being anointed by the Holy Spirit. It's the power of God through His Spirit that does the healing. It's certainly not the oil and it's not the hands of the elder. It's God, God is who we look to for healing. Again, those in the Cincinnati congregations you probably saw Mr. Myers's message yesterday evening. And it was very appropriate and, well, who am I to say if it's appropriate, but as a good focus to us to remember that God is our source of healing. We get anointed and we pray to God to ask for that healing. Now, you might say, well, do you have to ask for an anointing every time you're sick? You know, I described how I might get a case of the sniffles. I could ask for healing every single time, or I asked for healing, I could ask for anointing. I'm not sure if James implies that it's absolutely commanded, but it's certainly available. You know, sometimes when I think I'm gonna get over something, you know, I've got a cold, but I'll pray to God, you know, I pray on a daily basis and I'll ask God, please cause the systems You built into my body to work as effectively as possible, help me to get better more quickly.

It's when I want or need a healing that I'm not able to do, you know, and I don't think my body will do properly then I'll certainly call for an elder to anoint. But I would encourage any of you, don't hesitate. Don't think, oh, it's not a big enough deal to be anointed for. When I was saying earlier that Christ wanted to heal people, I can assure you the ministry of the church wants to anoint you if you want that. You know, I've had people say, “Well, I know you're busy.” Oh, ministers are busy, but this is the job we have to do. Don't hesitate to ask for that. And sometimes people might wonder why does it have to be an elder laying hands on? God doesn't need that. Does He? And the answer is no He doesn't. But one thought I think an important thought of why we have an elder lay hands on and do the anointing is it does acknowledge that the structure and the authority that God builds into His church. As we can read in 1 Corinthians, you know, God sets in the church people according to His will. Some elders, some pastors and teachers, He gives different roles for His purposes. It doesn't make the elder better or more qualified when it comes to health matters. But our willingness to follow God's direction is a mark of faith and submission.

Now, there's another important question that arises. Can I ask for an anointing if I'm taking medicine? Can I ask for an anointing if I'm having a medical procedure? You know, have I already betrayed my faith in God? Or if I've been anointed, do I have to just stop there and I can't do anything else? These are questions we have. And to be honest, Scripture doesn't answer it specifically. It does give us a story though, that I think is instructive. It's in 2 Kings 20. If you'll turn there with me 2 Kings 20 beginning in the first verse. I've pondered over this. And I think I see some reason to it that I'm somewhat confident of. This is during the reign of King Hezekiah, who was one of those reforming kings who sought God and tried to lead the kingdom of Judah and worshiping Him properly. But in this case in 2 Kings 20:1, Hezekiah was sick and it says he was near death. And Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said, “Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, you're gonna die and not live.” That's not a message that he wanted to hear, that anyone wants to hear. And he turned his face toward the wall and prayed saying, “Lord, remember now, Lord, I pray how I've walked before you in truth with a loyal heart. I have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly, you know. God had told him your time's up, but he appealed to God yet. And something intriguing happened. Going on in verse four, it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the Eternal came to him.

So, this is to Isaiah. Isaiah gave the message, you know, before Isaiah and God said, “Turn around, go back. Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, ‘I have heard your prayer. I've seen your tears and surely I will heal you.’ ” It's a direct message from God. “I will heal you, on the third day you'll go up to the house of the Lord and I'll add to your days 15 years. I will deliver you in the city from the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend the city for My own sake, the sake of My servant, David.” Then something interesting happens. In verse seven, Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” They took a lump of figs, laid it on the boil and he recovered. What? You know, understand that I will heal you. You know, and I can relate that if a minister anoints him lays hands on and there's healing. What's up with that lump of figs? You know, both came from Isaiah, which I believe implies that God's working through him. And scholars generally agree that this is representing what has often been called a poultice. A poultice was a mixture of some herbs and medicines. Maybe it was only figs, but maybe other things were mixed in, but used as what we would call a topical medicine. A topical medicine, rather than a pill or an injection, it's something you put on the surface. Calamine lotion is a topical medicine, Neosporin, Preparation H. I mean, there's a number of them. And there was this.

But you think, does God here tell Hezekiah, “I will heal you, now use this medicine.” It seems like maybe He did. I don't wanna speculate too far or make too big of a deal of it. But it does seem to give us at least an indication that asking God for healing and having faith and trust in God and using medicine don't have to be mutually exclusive. You know, if you have a headache and you ask God to remove it, but also take an aspirin, I don't think that's, belying your faith in God. You know, I've used medicine and asked God, please make this effective and please don't let it harm me. Now, please keep in mind as I say this, I'm just looking at this and saying, it seems that they're not in conflict as much as perhaps we've tended to think sometimes in the past. But I'm not, not at all saying we should look to drugs or to doctors or medicine before we look to God. God is first and foremost the God who heals us, He's Yahweh Ropheka. No drug is that, no doctor is that. I'm just saying that doctors have studied our bodies and learned how certain chemicals react and they can have an effect that can be useful, and that doesn't have to be opposed to trust in God.

Now, another question that might come up in relation to anointing for healing. What if you wanna be anointed, but yet an elder can't get to you? Well, Scripture says call for the elders, have them anoint with oil, lay hands on, and pray. But if that's not possible, we can see in Scripture a couple of other ways that healing can still come from God. And there is no specific instruction, but there's what we call the anointed cloth. The example is found in Acts 19. If you'll turn to Acts 19:11, it's a short passage that it seems pretty powerful. Acts 19:11 it says now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Now, known as it does say done by the hands of Paul. So, while it doesn't describe it happening, what I believe happened is that Paul would learn of someone who is sick that needs anointed, but he couldn't go there, so he would anoint a cloth. Now, does it have to be an apron or a handkerchief? Well, I think it's the cloth. I brought a couple of examples. You know, here's some, this is bigger than most but, you know, I found this on my desk, I've got an envelope full of them from when I was a pastor. You prepare them and what we normally do is, you know, if someone asks me to send them an anointed cloth, I'll anoint the cloth with oil and pray for the healing exactly as I would if I were with that person. And the church has a letter specified that we can send this cloth with through the mail, or we can hand it to a person to deliver and instructs the person when you receive this, you know, go to a private place and hold it to your forehead and pray to God and ask Him for healing to acknowledge the anointing.

The cloth is like a remote control go-between in a sense, maybe that's - I'm not sure if that's the terminology God would use - but in essence, it does supply that. I anoint the cloth, the cloth touches the person and I've developed a habit. One thing I tend to do when I'm praying and anointing the cloth, knowing that the oil is still a symbol of the Holy Spirit, I'll sometimes remind God, “God, Your Spirit is with that person, probably in that person right now. If it be Your will, don't wait for the cloth to arrive, You know, You can heal them right away right now.” And I have heard cases of that happening. Matter of fact, there are stories in the church of someone just making the phone call and God granting the healing almost instantly. It's still that person acknowledging the structure and authority in the church and asking for God to take care of that.

And it's funny, I told you the story the first time I was anointed way back when I was 15, I have to confess it was it a couple of weeks ago or whenever when I got tested positive for COVID was the first time in my life I used an anointed cloth. I've anointed several and sent them out, but I had, you know, Mr. Lamoureux here in Cincinnati, who was the festival coordinator, he met us outside the car and handed me an envelope. And so, I got to be on that end of the experience. Well, I believe there was a combination of my body's recuperation, but I was not, not gonna not ask God for healing certainly.

Now there's another way that God can do healing if a minister can't anoint, and I'm gonna reference a story, that's pretty well known. It's in Matthew Chapter 8. So, rather than read it I'll just summarize, but this is the well-known story where a centurion sent messengers to Jesus Christ. So, he's an officer in the Roman army and he hears about this rabbi that's healing people. His servant is sick, so he sends some other servants asking Him, please come and heal my servant, he's sick. Jesus being the one who wants to heal people starts down the road towards the centurion's house. And when the centurion gets that message, oh, wait a minute. You know, so he's quickly sends messengers back out and says, "Oh Lord, I'm not worthy for You to come under my roof. I didn't mean for You to come here." And he basically says, “I know how this works, I'm a man under authority.” Meaning he was used to following orders. And he said, “I have soldiers under me and if I tell this one, go here, he goes, go there, he goes. If I tell my servant to do this or that, he does it.” So, he tells Jesus, “Just give the word and my servant will be made well.” And as you know Jesus said, “What faith.” He said, “I haven't seen such faith in Israel.” And so He gave the word and the servant was healed from that hour.

Now, this reminds us that again, having an elder of the church anoint someone is symbolic. As I said, the oil symbolizes God's Holy Spirit. And the laying on the hands seems to represent submission to God's authority in the church. So, while we do follow and we do what God says, we understand that God is not limited by that. The stories we've referenced show us that God can work the miracles when He chooses to and how He chooses to.

But it's worth noting then why does God give us this? What is required? What do you have to have for healing? And I think the Bible shows us that too. I'm gonna turn to 1 Peter and invite you to join me there in 1 Peter 2:24. But while you're turning there, I'll mention the well-known story of when Christ was introducing to His disciples, the new symbols of the Passover. So we know that the wine He said was symbolic of His blood. And when He took the bread, He broke it and he said, “This is My body, which is broken for you.” Now, we might ponder on that. But one of the things we see that it means we can learn from 1 Peter 2:24, where Peter said, “who Himself,” - speaking of Jesus – “bore our sins in His own body, on the tree that we have in guide the sins might live for righteousness.” And then he adds, “by whose stripes you are healed,” - by whose stripes you're healed.

Peter was quoting a messianic prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 53:5 is where it discusses that. And of course, Isaiah 53 is a well-known passage that we study around the Passover, you know, about the suffering servant and how He would suffer and die to pay for our sins. But it includes that by His stripes we're healed. Now, that's led some people to wonder, you know, if, you know, sickness is caused by some type of sin, that Christ had to die for it. I don't know that the Bible tells us clearly that so and so I don't want to speculate. Scripture doesn't say how it is that we're healed by His stripes. It says we are. And I take it at that, you know, and that's telling us without Jesus Christ, without the Word who was with God and who was God, who gave Himself for our sins as a sacrifice for mankind, we could say, without Him, we would not have healing. But Christ has been sacrificed. We can have forgiveness of sin and we certainly can ask God to heal our sicknesses and our injuries.

While we're on that subject though, it certainly bears broaching another point because you know, breaking God's law certainly can lead to sickness, it can lead to injury. And in some cases it does but remember what I emphasized when I read the passage in James 5, I'm turning to John 9, by the way, I should let you know. I'm gonna read John 9:1-3. Because James says, you know, to call for the elders they'll anoint with oil and pray. And he says, if he sinned, his sins will be forgiven. He doesn't say the sin that caused the sickness because that's how it happens. It doesn't say that at all.

And in John 9 we see Christ addressing that. It says, now, as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned that this man…” Let me start. Let me read what it says, “Who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?” You know, they assume that this guy has got this terrible disability that was caused by sin. Somebody sinned. Was it his own or his parents? Jesus answered, “Neither this man, nor his parents sinned.” It doesn't mean they never sinned in their whole life but related to his blindness. And He said, “But that the works of God should be revealed in him.” So, you know, the disciples made an assumption, this terrible misfortune had to have been caused by sin and Christ corrected them. They were wrong when they thought that. Many times when we see someone suffering or we hear of someone, we think, “Ah, maybe they haven't been praying and studying enough.” Now, I hope we don't consciously think that, but it could creep in. If we think that though, I think we're as wrong as the disciples were. The disciples were wrong when they thought that sin is always what causes sickness. Jesus said it wasn't that. Getting sick just happens. And probably more often than not it's not because of sin.

I'd like to go to Matthew 8:16 if you'll join me there. In Matthew 8:16 it says, when evening had come, this is during Christ's ministry, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. He cast out spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. Then it might be fulfilled what was spoken in Isaiah, the prophet, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. You know, when Jesus saw great multitudes it say that He departed, but this implies lots of people came to Him. And yeah, at the end of verse 16, it says, “He healed all who were sick.” All these crowds coming to Him and Jesus healed them all. Now, were all of these people righteous? Did they all deserve to be healed? Did they become converted because of it? I think the answers are no, no, mostly no. I say mostly, some might've converted, might've began following Christ and lived His lifestyle because of it. But we've seen in the modern era of the church experiencing a divine healing doesn't always lead to righteousness. It's in our nature to associate misfortune and sickness with evil and fortune and blessings with righteousness. But just practice and those scriptures shows that's not the case. You know, being sick is not an indication of a person's degree of conversion. It's just not. Very righteous converted people can get sick and they do. And not getting sick doesn't mean someone's especially righteous.

And I would say if a sickness lingers, we shouldn't associate that. I'm gonna turn there later. But the apostle Paul, author of much of the New Testament can, you know, wrote in 1 Corinthians and said, “I've got this thorn in the flesh and three times, I asked God to take it away, and He didn't.” Paul was allowed to suffer with whatever that was for the rest of his life it seems. And I would say also that not being healed, isn't necessarily an indication of a lack of faith. But I will say Scripture shows us that faith is something that's associated and even required for healing. If you turn a page or two to Matthew 9:27, we can see clearly an example. Matthew 9:27 it says when He'd come into the house, the blind men came to Him. So, Jesus goes into a house. Some blind men came to Him and, you know, they wanted to be healed actually in verse 27, what I didn't read and I intended to was these two blind men came saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us.” They came to the house. Jesus said, “Do you believe I'm able to do this?” The Greek therefore believe is based on the same word for faith, pistis. And they said, “Yes.” He touched their eyes, He said, “According to your faith, be it unto you.” And obviously, they had faith because they were healed and they spread it all around the country.

Earlier in this chapter, actually, if you wanna glance at verse 22, this is the case of before that, as He was in the midst of a crowd, a woman came up from behind Him who had had this issue of blood for many years. And in her mind, she's thinking, “If I can just touch His clothes, I'll be healed.” She touched Him and she was, but Jesus knew it. He turned it around, “Who touched me?” And when finally it's revealed, He's not upset with her, but He turned around in verse 22. When He saw her, He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well.” Her faith. Faith is an important requirement for being healed. Okay? Jesus Christ, sacrifice is essential, faith is essential. It's worth noting though, in some cases might not even be the faith of the person who was healed. Think to that story of the centurion, who said, “I'm a man under authority, I give orders,” and Christ was amazed at his faith, but it wasn't the centurion who was healed, it was a centurion's servant. And that servant might not have had a lick of faith for all we know. Similarly, there's a case where a leader of the synagogue named Jairus sends to Christ for healing because his daughter was very sick, and it turned out his daughter died, and Jesus raised her from the dead. Wasn't the girl's faith. She was dead. But her father had faith and obviously, Jesus Christ had faith.

The point I'm making is, you know, when we pray for others, let's pray with faith and let's hope they have faith. If your faith is faltering when you ask for healing trust that others who do have faith are praying for you. Now, don't trust in that alone, let's build our faith in God, but we want to remember and we've seen from Christ's example. And I'll just reference back again in Matthew 8:2-3 where the leper said to Christ, “If You're willing, You can heal me." And Christ said, “I am willing.” And that's the other element that we can say has to be present for healing. It depends on Jesus Christ, there has to be faith and God has to want to heal us. He must choose to do so. That's the requirement that can be the hardest of all I think for us to understand, because we might think why in the world would God ever not want to heal someone? We see in the Bible of these cases where He does. And especially if it's not based on the person's righteousness. And I've been saying that it doesn't. This is the toughest part of this because we know there are cases where we cry out to God and He doesn't give us the answer we want. And we're in mourning now for some people like that, and we're crying out to God for healing. Why doesn't He heal sometimes? I think part of the answer we can consider can be found in Isaiah 55:8, a very poetic passage where God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Now, this doesn't give a specific reason why God might not grant a request for healing, but it indicates that there might well be good reasons. And I think in some cases, maybe reasons we wouldn't understand if He told us or we just wouldn't want to accept, you know. God can see far beyond the horizon that blocks our vision. He knows things we don't know. You know, I think, you know, He might have an underlying desire to give us good things, but not give us the good thing we want right then and there. But we know God's not fickle. He's not capricious. He really cares about us. Matter of fact, in John 16, I know I'm throwing a lot of scriptures at you, but I wanted to read this one, John 16:23, He gives the disciples a promise that I think does apply to us. John 16:23, referring to the relationship they have with God, the Father, He says, “In that day you'll ask Me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you've asked nothing in My name, ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full.” He says, “You're gonna get the requests that you ask.” But Christ didn't say that Christ would always give them or that God would give them to us when we think we need them or when we want them. And, of course, I'm not telling you anything new, but I believe sometimes God's promise might be fulfilled in the resurrection. And matter of fact, I'm very confident of that. You or I might die of a tragic injury, of a chronic disease, or even of COVID-19, but we will live again.

Every man will rise from the grave and stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And I honestly believe when the dead rise they won't be sick. I don't think they'll be lame, not Lyme or blame, lame or blind or any of those things. If we believe this and we don't falter yet not receiving the promises, we'll be in good company. In Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, the chapter of heroes of faith, we're reminded of something. Hebrews 11:13 says after describing the patriarchs, these all died in faith, not having received the promises. God made them great and powerful promises, they lived all their life and didn't receive those promises. But they saw them afar off and they were assured of them embrace them, confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. They who say such things, declare plainly they seek a homeland. And I think that's part of why. Again, God knows things we don't, but I do know that we grow spiritually through suffering at times. Sometimes it might be in our own best interest to not receive what we're we're asking for. I referenced 2 Corinthians 12, I'm gonna read that now. 2 Corinthians 12:8, actually it's in verse seven that Paul mentions a messenger of Satan, you know, a thorn in the flesh. And we don't know exactly what that was. Some people speculate it was some type of demonic, you know problem. More often we speculate it was a health issue. I think that's much more likely.

And he said, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” Just as an aside I've sometimes had people say, “Well, I was anointed so I can't ask for God again.” You know, if someone asks me if they can be anointed again for the same thing, I say, “Well, Paul pleaded with God three times, so I don't hesitate to anoint again.” But even though Paul pleaded with God and Paul was righteous and had faith, but God answered him and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness.” That was the answer Paul had to accept. And Paul did. He said, “Therefore, gladly, I'll rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” So, there are times when God doesn't grant our request. I would say, you know, I don't believe He doesn't want to heal us, but He might choose not to at that time, and understanding that and accepting it is difficult. And believe me, I know.

Matter of fact, I'll share a story from my own experience that makes it a little easier for me to swallow this because I experienced it in my family. My mother, sometime in her very late 30s or early 40s developed a chronic disease. It was a liver disease called biliary cirrhosis. And I mentioned that one not caused by drinking. My mother enjoyed a drink now and then, but she was not any type of drunk. This is the same disease that took Walter Payton's life if you follow pro football, you know, they always talk about the Walter Payton Award. Anyways, she gradually grew weak and sick and she was anointed and she asked God to heal her, but He didn't.

She lingered on and grew weaker and tireder and her life came to an end. But I believe that God allowed her to suffer this terminal illness actually in order to help her. It wasn't as clear when it was happening, but looking back, you know, especially as I became more mature, this happened more than 30 years ago. So, I'm not tearing up because it's been a part of my life for a long time. But I remember when she was young, she had some traits that I share and that I see in my son, traits that can be used for good, but can be difficult because she was stubborn. She was tough. She'd been through a difficult upbringing and she was a determined individual who most times when there was a trial she would grit her teeth and get through it. She didn't like to ask for help. She would rarely ask for or accept help. And that's why it was hard for her to ever rely on someone else, even God. And it was when she was finally confronted with a situation in which she could not win when she had to be humbled, that I think she finally turned to Him. And to be honest, that's when she became baptized, she'd been attending God's church for many years, but she had this idea in her head that she had to overcome her faults and our problems to be good enough to get baptized.

Sometimes that happens. People, you know, it's not an uncommon thought. I'm not good enough to be baptized yet. None of us are ever good enough. And when God led her to this point when He completely humbled her, she turned to Him and she saw that, she was baptized. And I believe she died a converted woman. And I fully expect to see her come up in the first resurrection if I get there. You know, it's a motivation for me. I don't want her to be there looking around saying, “Where's Frank?” You know. And this is a short version of her story and I don't wanna paint her as a saint. She had her problems like all of us do, but it's an example to me, where she's an example in the church where she didn't experience healing. And those of us that knew her and loved her were crying out to God. And, you know, I believe she will be healed. As I said in that resurrection, she's not gonna be weak and frail, she'll be strong.

Now I wanna counter that and remind us, sometimes God does answer our prayers. And sometimes right away for healing. Let me share one case where I saw it happen right in front of me. And I laugh when I tell this story, I've told it a number of times that I had not been ordained for very long. I was a newly minted elder in the church, and I got a phone call one afternoon from a man in the congregation and he said, you know, he worked as a painter and he said, “I'm on your end of town and I've injured my shoulder and I can't hardly move it, I can't do my job. Can I come by your house and you anoint me?” Well, sure. I'm here. And so, he came, you know, came in and we chatted a little bit. I anointed him, asked God to heal him. And when I was done, he went, “Well, that'll do,” and went out and got in his van and he drove away. And I was amazed. I still tend to think, maybe God did it like that to say, “Hey Frank, I work miracles. I do heal.” That stuck with me. You know, don't think that it won't happen. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.

Now, I add to this, you know, with these things in mind, knowing God heals for His reasons. And sometimes He doesn't, why do we bother with prayer requests? Well, if you'll turn back to James 5, something I didn't read earlier tells us a very good reason why. James 5:16, after the instruction about going to the elders and being anointed in James 5:16, he says, “Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” The effect of fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Big reason we pray for one another is God tells us to do that. It's good for us. Now, I think the benefits, you know, of seeing God answer prayer and work in someone's life can be a benefit to those who are praying for that person, as well as the person, him or herself. And I'll bet many of you have experienced that when you're praying for someone and then you see that you get the news, hey, they've recovered, they're doing well, boy, that's encouraging. Now, James didn't write very specific instructions on exactly how to do this, how, you know, to pray for one another. I think the 1st-century disciples would have been amazed if they'd seen our email prayer requests, how quickly we can send a message very far to a lot of people. You know, that's a great thing.

I will say, you know, I encourage us though, just to be careful how we do this or how we see others doing it, because we all have different personalities and different feelings of privacy. Some people are quick to tell everybody something and ask for prayers, others are more private. One thing I say, it's not like “America's Got Talent” where the more people you can get to call in and vote for you, the more God will heal. But I think God is impressed and moved when He sees a number of His people praying together with a common goal. So, I don't want to, when I say, it's not like, you know, these game shows or whatever, I don't wanna belittle that. I think when we come together as a people and pray, that is moving to God. You know, my own tendency I'll mention, I tend to ask a few people that I know, I've never felt more confident of God answering prayer than when I've had one or two widows in the congregation praying for me. You know, I learned that from an older way who was more experienced than me he said, “Well, we've got secret weapons in the congregation. You know, the praying widows are a powerful thing and a pastor would do well to heed that.” And I said, “I'm gonna heed that.” Thinking of all this, though, we should remember in all of this, God is our Healer.

First and foremost, He built into our bodies amazing powers of self-repair and healing, but He also went out of His way to put it into His word examples and instructions to show us to appeal to Him directly for divine healing. And God chose to involve the ministry in this. It gives us something to do, but it's more than just that. It helps us to see how we're part of a body. And it reminds us of the symbolism, you know, of Christ's sacrifice and of our need for faith. And we can know that God does hear our prayers. God does answer our prayers. Sometimes the answer might be along the lines of hold on, not yet sometimes, but it's not always that. And, of course, even in a worst-case scenario, we know in the Kingdom of God all will be healed. And those coming up in the resurrection I believe will be well, but it doesn't always come to that. Divine miracles happen today. And with that in mind, I'll quote from Hebrews 4:16 where Paul admonish us, let's come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy to find help in time of need.

 

So if God recommended that we do something, would we do it? Can I see a show of hands? Everybody. Nicely done. I think if God recommended that we do something, do this or that, we'd be quick to do it. And you said yes you would. We know that there are people who will say they love Jesus but do not and will not do what Jesus clearly said to do. Let's go to Luke 6:46.

Luke 6:46-48 Jesus says, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he's like. He's like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, and when the flood arose, and the stream beat vehemently against that house, it could not shake it for was founded on the rock."

So if we hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice, we can be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. We live in stressful times, times when economic winds and inflation tear down our prosperity, when waves of discouragement from the devil gnaw at our confidence in God and each other.

I think we all want God's help and guidance. Prayer is how we ask for God's help and guidance. Are we accomplishing something good in our prayers or are we just going through the motions? In addition to our daily prayers for the preaching of the gospel and the care and nurturing of the brethren, Jesus recommended and referred to some supplemental topics for our prayers that are directly relevant for the times in which we live.

Today, I want to encourage us all to pray in the manner proposed by Jesus along with several items recommended by Jesus relevant to our time. I also want to briefly discuss our attitude before, and during prayer, and finally, our royal priestly role in prayer.

Before we start with the supplemental items specific to the time in which we live, we need to remember the general model that Jesus gave for all ages. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 6. We should all know and memorize this model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Matthew 6. And the context is that Jesus says, "Don't use vain repetitions." You know, don't be like certain religions that print prayers on wheels and every time you spin it, supposedly, the prayer goes up to heaven. Or don't be like those who just repeat the same words over, and over, and over again.

Matthew 6:8-9 Jesus says, "Don't be like them. Your Father knows the things you have need. Don't use vain repetitions like the heathens do." Don't do that. But in verse 9, "In this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father in heaven." Our Father in heaven, we remember that He is our Father, Father of all humankind. He's the Father of spirits and He's in heaven. "Hallowed or Holy is your Name." That is very important for us to remember because the name of God, the name of Jesus, is very powerful, spirits must obey that.

I hope you never have to deal with an evil spirit in this life, but if you do, you should use the name of Jesus Christ, in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ to tell that evil spirit to depart. I think we've all had certain situations like that. So you don't want to be taking God's name, Jesus's name in vain, do we? No. We want, when we use that name which has power, which spirits must obey, we want God to listen and act quickly. So it's important, it's not a throwaway line. Holy, righteous, and powerful is the name of our God and Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:10 "Your kingdom come."

When I think about praying God's kingdom come, I think not just about a political government, I think about the birth of first fruits after Jesus Christ, more children being born. You realize, God, how long has He been waiting? He and the Word put this plan into effect 13, 14 billion years ago, by the way, we reckon time. And God, through Jesus Christ, created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, including spirit beings. And all this time, they have been building, and waiting, and putting things together, exercising supreme self-control. And they must be getting excited because the time of the birth of their children is very soon now. So when I pray, "Your kingdom come," I'm thinking the family of God, the birth of the children of God for which God has put so much effort and time and self-control that Jesus gave his life so that we might live. I think about that.

Matthew 6:10 "Your will be done."

That's not a throwaway line either, that's right at the beginning of the prayer. Because, honestly, brethren, we don't know God's will in every respect, do we? We don't. And in the case of Jesus, He had planned with the Father for billions of years when He came right down to it, did He want to be crucified? No. No, He didn't. But He said, "Not my will be done, your will be done." So we need to think soberly about the will of God. We need to learn what the will of God is and be in accord with it as much as we understand and realize all the rest of this stuff that we pray about, we prayed ab initio, from the beginning, that, yes, your will be done. Yes, I'm asking you for this, I'm asking for that, you might know something I don't know. In fact, God does know a lot of things we don't know, so it's His will to be done. Honor as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:11 "Give us this day our daily bread."

Now, is that a throwaway line? It's interesting, this "Give us this day our daily bread." You know that word, daily, there, if you look it up in the commentaries, it's only used there, and also in Luke 11:3, the parallel passage. It's only used there. And the commentaries, they say "daily bread," really could be understood as bread from heaven, or super substantial bread, in other words, the Holy Spirit. So, yes, the disciples of Jesus Christ, we pray, not just that you give me bread and hamburgers and hot dogs and whatever, we pray for the super substantial heavenly bread, the Spirit of God. We need more of that every day, right up there, right into one of our priorities. And, yes.

Matthew 6:12 "Forgive us our sins or our debts as we forgive those who sin against us,"

So important.

Matthew 6:13 "Lead us not into temptation."

That means temptation would overwhelm us. We are flesh and we're asking God, Father, you know how weak we are, please don't allow so many things come on us that I would break. I don't want to break. I want to be an overcomer.

Matthew 6:13 "But deliver us from the evil one. And yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever."

So again, this is the model, and we fill it out with details, with details. That's an outline. You don't just repeat it by rote, but you fill out with details. Okay, so that's the basis, that's the disciple's prayer. Let's go now to Matthew 24. Matthew 24:20, this is the first suggestion, but, you know, if Jesus says do this, everyone has already said, yeah, we'll do it. Okay. Matthew 24:20. This is Jesus speaking to the disciples.

Matthew 24:20 "Pray, you pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath."

Are we doing that? He's not talking about pray that your United flight 46 to Angeles, He's not talking about that. No, no, no, no, no. I think we understand, because I speak to those who are mature in many ways in the faith. You understand flight means flight from a coming terrible time that's going tocome on this earth because of their sins.

This prayer should be part of our daily prayers because we are fast approaching a time of God's righteous judgment and great tribulation on sinful nations. I mean, this was said about 2000 years ago. We know that even at the time of the end of this age, the Sabbath is to be kept holy. Now, would it be a sin to flee on the Sabbath to save life? Well, no. However, it is better, if we can, to rest on that Sabbath day and focus on God rather than running here or there over hill and dale trying to escape physical death.

Matthew 24:15-16 "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

So this is the event, which is the sign to flee. Jesus said so. But the time of fleeing to a place of safety apparently has not been determined.

Matthew 24:20 He said, "Pray that your flight be not winter and Sabbath day. If it were to be in cold, snowy, or rainy weather, wouldn't it be so much harder for women with small children or old people?"

Let's go to verse 36 of the same chapter.

Matthew 24:36 "Of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Matthew 24:43-44 "But know this, if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect."

So we know the event, Jesus said the event, which is the sign to flee, but the time, we don't know that we have to watch. But we apparently can make a difference, your prayers can make a difference, whether or the time when God allows events to become so serious as to require this action. He tells us "Pray that your flight be not in winter." If we don't pray that, maybe God's will, I guess they don't care. So maybe it's going to be icy and snowy and all that kind of stuff, or it's going tobe tough.

But if we do care, and if we want to do what Jesus said, we should be doing this on a daily basis. I believe that our prayers can make a difference. As I said, when God allows events in this world to become so serious as to require this action, you can make a difference here. God says so. So I encourage all of us to beseech God about this daily. Suggestion number two, let's go to Luke 21:36. Jesus is talking, and again, it's about the time of the end of the age.

Luke 21:36 Jesus says, "Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be in the..." in New King James version I have says, "Be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man."

Now, this worthy business, I thought, "What does that mean?" So I looked it up and many translations say, "Pray that you have the strength to escape." You see that in New King James down at the bottom there says, "And you have strength to" Strong's 2729 translated from the Greek says from a word that means overpower. So have strength is probably a better translation than be worthy.

English Standard Version says, "Stay awake at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all these things." What are all these things talking about? Talking about tribulation, world events, Day of the Lord, all these things. Have strength to escape all these things that are going totake place and stand before the Son of Man. Berean's Study Bible says, "So keep watching all times and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man."

So Jesus said that we were to pray for two things in this passage. One, that we have the strength to escape all these things, in other words, the tribulation, Day of the Lord. Number two, that we be able to stand before the Son of Man. So what does this have strength mean? Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 40. What is this? Prayer that you might have strength. I just love this. So many great passages in Isaiah, and this is one that I do like a lot. Isaiah chapter 40, start in verse 28.

Isaiah 40:28-31 "Have you not known, have you not heard, the everlasting God, Yahweh, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, He neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Seek God, He will give us strength that we need. Just across the page, Isaiah 41:10.

Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

So we see having strength means God will give us His strength if we are close to Him. Now, is there anything that we need to do? And I can say as a general principle, God, throughout the Bible, He says He will do things for us, but we also have something that we should be doing too. It's sort of a coordinated combined effort, you know, the old saying, "Pray like it's all up to God, but work like it's all up to you." There's some truth to that. Ephesians chapter 6. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6:10. It's a famous passage, but think about it in this context that we're talking about.

Ephesians 6:10-14 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.” Yes, draw close to God, He will give us the strength. He's promised to strengthen us. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and the power of His might." Not our might, not our power, but by His Spirit, yes. "Put on the whole armor of God.” Well, that means we got to do something, to put on the armor of God, “That you may be able to stand.” Keep that in the back of your mind, stand. "Stand against the wiles of the devil. For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood alone, one could say, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God." This is what we need to do. "That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Think about that. "Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth."

Okay. Learn the truth of God, value the truth, love the truth. Those who don't love the truth will believe the lie. It's another verse Paul talks about, find the truth, love the truth, keep the truth.

Ephesians 6:14 "Having put on the breastplate of righteousness."

You have that righteousness which is obedience to God's commands. If your shield of faith fails but you have the breastplate of habitual obedience to God, you may be struck by the arrows of the devil, hit with various things, rocks, and so forth, and you'll get a bruise, but you'll survive. You'll survive. So have that habit of obeying God and having that righteousness. Comes from obedience.

Ephesians 6:15-16 "And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Having zeal to help the preaching of the Gospel. Zeal. "And above all, taking the shield of faith." Yes, "With which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

I think we've heard, you know, these things expounded that the Romans, they had basically a wooden shield, but it also was covered with some kind of cow skin or leather, and they would wet it down before going into battle. So it'd be wet so that if they had fire arrows coming in, they could lift that up, and the water would put out the fire, okay?

Ephesians 6:16-18 "Shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Take the helmet of salvation, believing God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and being watchful."

So we have our role to play in being strong in the Lord. There are various tasks that we need to do. And He says, "Put on that armor." Do it. Put on the armor of God, truth, righteousness, zeal, faith, the Word. With confidence and reliance on God, we will have the strength needed to escape because He promises to help us.

But remember the second thing Jesus said, "To stand, to stand before the Son of Man," what does that mean? Well, the example of the Old Testament is of Levites who stood to exercise their service to God in the tabernacle in the temple. Very quickly, Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy 10:8, you guys maybe put that in your notes. I'll just read it quickly for you. Deuteronomy 10:8. So Moses' talking a little bit about the history and the nation wandering. And verse 8 of chapter 10 of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 10:8 Moses says, "At that time, the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him, and to bless, in His name, to this day."

So what does that mean? The Levites, they stood to praise God, to bless in the name of the Lord, to do the service of God. Everybody else was supposed to be flat on their face on the ground. I mean, they weren't, like, sitting in chairs, they weren't sort of hanging around. If you were a worshipper of God, you were on your face. But the Levites, the ministers that God chose, they stood, they stood. God tells us to pray for this honor and privilege to be able to stand before God. To stand. Let's go back to Luke chapter 1. We have another example of God's chosen ministers. Luke chapter 1. This is where God wanted to send really good news to Zacharias. He was an elderly man that he and his wife, I believe her name was Elizabeth, that they would have a son. And his name would be John, and he would be doing wonderful, marvelous things.

Luke 1:13-20 “The angel said to him, ‘Don't be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, you should call his name John.’”

So Zacharias is like, "Wow." Verse 18. "And he said to the angel, okay, how shall I know this? How shall I know this? I am an old man. My wife is well advanced in years." So the angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands" notice that. "Who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you shall be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you didn't believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time."

So we see Gabriel stands before God as His chosen servant to transmit God's counsel, His plan, His message to others. Would you want to do that? Jesus said, "Pray for that honor, that you may stand before Him." He's chosen you, He wants you to do that. It's a special honor. Let's go back to Luke chapter 18 now, a third suggestion Jesus was referring to here. Luke 18:1.

Luke 18:1 "Then he spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not lose heart."

So this introduces us that Jesus gave this parable, and this is why He gave the parable. So it's not an exact quote of Jesus, but we get the understanding from the verse here. And you know the story, it's about the importunate widow who kept going to the judge and the judge says, "Well, this woman is bothering me, so I'm going to avenge her lest by her continual coming, she weary me."

Luke 18:6-8 “And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said. Shall God not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you, that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?’”

So we see Jesus is saying that we should pray and not lose heart, that's why He gave the story. But will Jesus really find faith on the earth? I think that statement means that it will be scarce, faith will be scarce when Christ comes. Conditions will be such that we may wonder, "Where's God? Why am I not being delivered? What's going on?"

The devil will try to get to each of us to doubt God, to doubt that God cares for us, to doubt that God hears our prayers. We all have weak points, no one should think they are immune to this temptation. So please, ask God for more faith and wisdom every day, and then act in accordance with faith, patience, and godly virtue.

Fourth suggestion and this is the last suggestion I'll be having. Matthew 9. A few weeks ago in this congregation, Mr. Bill Robinson from Columbia gave an excellent sermon. And it included a plea for compassion on those who are stray, those who have no or bad shepherds, who don't know the right way to act, or who act in a way, and it hurts others. He asked, "Do we despise them, or do we pity them? Do we want to write them off, or do we pray for people?"

Matthew 9:36-38 "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore..." This is the suggestion, recommendation, or command. "Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

This word here is not the normal word in Greek for your average prayer, which is “proseuchomai”. “Proseuchomai” is having a conversation with God. This is a different word. It's “dekatē”, Strong's 1181. And it means beseech God with real want. Beseech God, beg God to send more laborers into the harvest.

More brothers and sisters for the family of God, more people who can share our lives, and, yes, we'll help accomplish the work that God has given to us to do. Beseech God, beg God to send more laborers to the harvest. Don't just ask on hand, not just, "God, you know, if you think it's a good idea, please send some more laborers." No, beseech Him.

Jesus said so. He used a special word, which is much more intense than just conversation. "The harvest is great, the laborers are few." We all know that many long-time laborers are getting older, weaker, and dying.

It is normal for people to pass on, but we need a new generation of young families, younger people, energetic people, successful people who can help renew and energize congregations around the world and energize the preaching of the gospel around the world to reach and help those who have no or bad shepherds, to reach out and make a positive difference. Big need. Jesus said, "Pray earnestly for this." Okay, so what should be our attitude prior to pray...how to pray? Luke 18. Luke 18:9. Again, this is a famous parable. Famous parable.

Luke 18:9-12 "He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.” They didn't have compassion on others, they despised them. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other, tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God..." Sometimes I sort of wonder, is he praying to himself like God, like, "I'm God," you know, anyway. It just goes through my mind. "He prays thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess."

Are those bad things? No, those are good things, but that should not lead us to have an arrogant, "I'm better than you" attitude just because God has helped us realize that, yes, we should fast, yes, we should be faithful in tithe, and so forth.

Luke 8:13 "The tax collector standing far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

And what's not said here but is understood, tax collector repented, he was sorry for his sins.

Luke 8:14 "I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus insists on humility and repentance and he warns against self-superiority. We are not to compare ourselves with other human beings. So that's the attitude, one of those attitudes prior to prayer. Matthew 18. Matthew 18:22, again, a very long parable here. For time, I probably won't read all of it. But this is about the unjust servant who prayed for compassion. You know, he owed 10,000 talents. Matthew 18:25, he was unable to pay. The master commanded that he be sold with his wife and his children. This shows, brethren, by the way, that our sins can affect other people. Our sins can affect innocent people. So that makes the sin even worse, doesn't it? Yes. Well, the servant went down and he pleaded with the master, "Have patience with me." The master was moved with compassion, forgave the debt.

So then he goes out, grabs another servant who owed him 100 denarii, which was about three months' wages. Grabbed him by the neck, "You pay what you owe." Threw him in debtors' jail. The other servant said, "Oh, we don't like this." They went and they told the master. Oh, by the way, be sure your sin will find you out. Nothing can ever be completely hidden forever, okay? I've taught my family, just act and speak like the NSA is watching everything you do. Maybe they are. But, you know, I mean, do we have privacy, but act and speak as... Because God's watching you. God sees everything. So, anyway.

So the servants, they went, they told the master, "This what's happened." So master calls back the first guy, he said, "I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just like I had on you?" And his master was angry with him and delivered him. Notice the difference. His sin affected his wife and kids.

But in the end, each one pays the penalty themselves, each one is personally responsible. You cannot save another person, and your sins will not condemn another person. He delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So we're judged individually. So God answers the prayers of a forgiving person, forgiving person.

How to ensure that God will seriously consider our prayers? We have those attitudes, right? Humility, repentance, no hate, don't despise anybody, no desire for revenge, have a forgiving heart, persistence. Let's go to 1 John 5. 1. 1 epistle of John chapter 5. Some other things so God will seriously consider our prayers.

1 John 5:14. "Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."

What's the key point? Ask according to His will. So we have to study the Word of God, what is the will of God? What is the will of God? And then ask according to His will. Across the page, 1 John 3:22.

1 John 3:22-23 "And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment."

So we receive from Him because we keep His commandments, but not just the 10 commandments because that could have been programmed into us. All right? "But do those things that are pleasing to His sight." That's broad. Have some imagination. What are your talents? How can you help others? How can you serve? Think about it. What's going tobe pleasing in God's sight? Saying and doing things. It's much more than just blind unthinking obedience of the 10 commandments. Let's go back to Psalm 119. How to ensure God will seriously consider our prayers. Psalm 119.

Psalm 119:145-147 And it says, "I cry out with my whole heart." One of God's complaints about ancient Israel said, "You never put your heart into your prayers." Never did that. You didn't do that. God says through the psalmist, "I cry out with my whole heart, hear me, oh, Lord, I will keep your statutes. I cry out to you, save me, and I will keep your testimonies. I rise before the dawning of the morning and cry for help, I hope in your Word."

So we see here, we need to pray with our whole heart, hope in God, and obey Him. These are things that will help us so that God will seriously consider our prayers. Also, back in John 16, I'm sure there are many things, but I'll just add this, John 16:23. We read this at Passover season every year.

John 16:23 It says, "In that day, you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name.” By His authority... Remember, you know, that we prayed, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name," holy, righteous, powerful is your name. "You ask the Father in my name, He will give you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full."

Again, ask according to His will, pray with your whole heart, be obedient, do those things which are pleasing in God's sight, and pray by Jesus's authority. So we need to be careful not to abuse, misuse, misunderstand that authority, or to take God's name in vain.

Okay. We are to be royal priests, royal priests. We must practice now our future role. Right at the beginning of this section, I will say, as a caution, we must not become arrogant because God has chosen us, you and me, to be His royal priests. He's chosen us. We are chosen, not because of our greatness, but to show the greatness and glory of God. Let's go back to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. It's a famous Scripture about being a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.

1 Peter 2:9 Peter's talking to the Church of God, "You are a chosen generation."

We are part of God's family, God's Church, God's congregation, because He chose us. It's not because we were born into the family like ancient Israel, you were born into the nation. No, God has chosen people of all races, nations, and tongues, it's a chosen generation. He chose us a royal priesthood, both men and women. Yes, both men and women. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Holy, that means clean, pure, upright, His own special people. Why?

1 Peter 2:9-10 "That we might proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

So all of us, men and women, we're to be a royal priesthood. So what's the job of a royal priest? Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 4. There's a lot in the book of Hebrews about priesthood, and Jesus, and high priest, and so forth. We'll just see a little bit. Hebrews chapter 4. I will start in verse 14. Hebrews 4:14. So think as we read this passage, what's the job of a royal priest that you're called to be and to do?

Hebrews 4:14-16 "Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let's hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses." That's one thing right there, be sympathetic to others, have compassion. "We don't have high priests who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points, tempted as we, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

So a royal priest goes boldly to the throne of grace, not again, in our righteousness, but because of Jesus Christ, shed blood of Christ. We are imputed that righteousness.

Hebrews 5:1-9 "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin." So that's part of the job description, offer gifts and sacrifices. And this human priest, "He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray since he himself is also subject to weakness." Yes, compassion on those who are ignorant, going astray, because we were also ignorant and going astray. “Because of this, He is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins." Again, Christ is that perfect sacrifice. So we're not saying that, as humans, we need to make animal sacrifices at all, Christ is that sacrifice for us. "And no one takes this honor of being a priest to himself, but he who is called by God just as Aaron was." So did you take this honor for yourself? God called you, He chose you. That's what you are. You are a royal priesthood, He chose you to do this. "So also, Christ did not glorify himself to become high priests, but it was He who said to Him, ‘You are my Son, today I've begotten you.’" He's part of the family, you are part of the family, He chose you. He also says in another place, "You are a priest forever according to the order Melchizedek, who in the days of His flesh when He had offered up prayers and supplications..." That's another part of the job description, offer up prayers and supplications.

 Prayers as your “Proseuchomai”. Supplication is you beseech God with real one like that “dekatē”, asking God for more laborers in the harvest. That's part of the job description, prayers, and supplications "With vehement cries and tears." Are you ever moved to tears when you pray? I am from time to time. Depends what I'm praying about. If you've never been moved to tears in your prayers, I think we need to put our hearts in our prayers more and care, care more. "Vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." That's part of the job description, obedience, even in suffering. "Having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him."

So we have an idea here, the priests is to offer gifts and sacrifices, prayers, supplications, you know, learning things, even though we're suffering, sacrifices. We all have different roles in a church context, but prayerful intervention is something we all must do no matter what our other roles because we are all royal priests. Let's go back to Hebrews 13. We talked about sacrifices.

Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

That's part of the job description, offer sacrifices, sacrifice of praise. So it doesn't really matter if you feel you can't sing, although I think I think we all can sing. I mean, you make the effort. But okay, praise God with your lips. That's a sacrifice, that's part of the job description.

Hebrews 13:16 "But do not forget to do good and to share." Part of the job description. Do good. That's rather broad. And to share, to share. You might have a little or you might have a lot. Whatever you have, find a way to share. "For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased."

It's a job description for royal priests, offer sacrifices, praise, prayers. Did you know priests can change God's mind? Yes, it's true. Back to Numbers 14. Numbers 14, priests can change God's mind. Numbers 14:11. This is one of those times when Israel was being really disobedient, really bad.

Numbers 14:11-12 "The Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me? How long will they not believe me with all the signs I performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

Now, if Moses said, "Okay, go ahead. Kill them all. I don't like them either." How many of us would be here today? Well, Moses said to the Lord, "Well, then the Egyptians will hear." So he starts arguing with God, "Don't kill them." And He reasons with the Lord. Say, "Because the Lord was unable to bring the people to the land which He swore to them, therefore, He killed them." He says, "Don't do this." Pardon them."

Numbers 15:19-21 "Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven these people from Egypt even until now." God said, "I have pardoned according to your word." Wow. According to the prayer of Moses, God pardoned the nation. “But truly, as I live, there will be consequences.”

Isn't that true? We do something bad, we sin badly, God will forgive our sins upon repentance, but sometimes there's continuing consequences. That's just part of life.

How about Numbers 16? Turn over page Numbers 16:41. Another time Israel was doing bad things, rebelling, being difficult.

Numbers 16:41-50 "On the next day, all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying you've killed the people of the Lord." This is the rebellion of Korah, Abiram, and Dothan. "Now, it happened when the congregation gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting and the Lord said to Moses, saying, get away from among this people, this congregation that I may consume them in a moment." He's ready to kill them again. "They fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, take a sensor and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord, the plague has begun. So Aaron took it as Moses commanded. ran to the midst of the assembly, already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living so the plague was stopped."

What is incense? You should know. Revelation 5:8. I'll just turn it very quickly. Revelation 5:8, what is incense?

Revelation 5:8 "When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

Brethren, your prayers can make a difference. Your prayers can stand between the dead and the living. How often have you prayed for someone that they might live and not die, that they might, hopefully, with God's help, change the behavior that's leading to death so that they will not die? Your prayers can stand between the dead and the living, that's pretty powerful.

One last thing, 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12:19. This is where the people wanted a king. Now, was having a human king, was that the solution to the problems of ancient Israel? No. So if someone tries to tell you, "Well, the problem with Israel is because they didn't have a human king," that's really not the problem. The problem was sin because there was a king, the king was God. Jesus was the king. Anyway, so they asked for a king.

1 Samuel 12:19-23 "All the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die." Notice it was, "Lord, your God, not our God." That's a big problem. "Pray to the Lord, your God, that we may not die for we have added to all our sins, the evil of asking a king for ourselves." It was a bad thing to ask for a king. "Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this evil wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake because it has been pleased the lord to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me, that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.’”

It is a sin for royal priests to stop praying for the nation, stop praying for others. Now, I understand sometimes you pray about a situation and you don't hear much about it, then you get distracted and you forget. I understand that. But I'm saying we need to make a good faith effort to continue praying for the nation and for others.

1 Samuel 12:23 And also, it says, "But I will teach you the good and right way."

That's also part of the job description of royal priest, be ready, as appropriate, to teach others the good and the right way.

So in summary, the times that we live and call for certain specific prayers that are very relevant to this time. Jesus said, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." Jesus said, "Watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy," or better translated, "As you may have the strength to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of man."

Jesus wondered if He would really find faith on the earth when He returns, so we need to ask urgently for more faith on a daily basis. Also, Jesus said, "Beseech God with real want," with compassion for more energetic talented laborers to help in the great harvest now.

We all want confidence that God will seriously consider our prayers. The following attitudes and actions on our part will go a long way to ensuring our prayers are heard and acted upon quickly. Humility, repentance, compassion and mercy, a forgiving spirit, tenacity, which includes persistence and continuity. We also ask in faith, with hope, and ask according to His will.

We have seen we're to pray in Jesus' name or by His authority, so we must study to know what is His will as much as we can and be in accord with it. Understand that priests can change God's mind through prayer. Priests can sin if we do not pray for others. So let's all fulfill our royal priestly function, to pray for the nation, for one another, and for the items we covered above that are very relevant to the age in which we live. Let us pray with joy, confidence, and grow in faith.