(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we are in Romans chapter number 12 this morning, look down at your Bibles at verse number 9 it says, Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affection one to another, with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. The title of the sermon this morning is being instant in prayer. Being instant in prayer. I want to talk about prayer this morning and the importance of prayer and what the Bible says about this specific discipline. Now it goes without saying that prayer is an essential element in the Christian life and no walk with God is complete without a prayer life. If you are a Christian and you read the word of God and you're going soul winning and you're coming to church, you know those things are great but here's the thing, you are incomplete. You are not a perfect man if you don't have prayer involved in those disciplines. Prayer is so important in our lives. God tells us throughout the word of God. We see it emphasized throughout the lives of great men of God in the Bible and we see that great things happen when God's people pray. Prayer is not only a discipline that individual Christians should have but it's actually something that every church should do, right, corporately. And in fact Jesus said in Mark chapter 11 verse 17, and he taught, saying unto them, is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. The Bible tells us Jesus said that his house, the church, should be called a house of prayer. Now that doesn't mean that all we do when we come to church is pray. And there's sometimes I've heard people say, well, you know, why is there preaching at the church and why are you guys doing all these things? It should be a house of prayer. That's what Jesus said. But here's the thing, when he says that his house shall be called a house of prayer, it's not at the exclusion of preaching, it's not at the exclusion of evangelism, it's not at the exclusion of every other commandment that God gives us in the New Testament regarding his church. You know, the Bible tells us, if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. And then he says in chapter number four, first Timothy, to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. So obviously, we need to be preaching God's word in God's house. Obviously it's a place to train and equip people for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that's what the Bible tells us. But here's the thing, another thing that needs to be added to that, another factor that's very much important is prayer, that we should be a people of prayer, okay? Now you say, why are you preaching on this today? You know, obviously we know that we need prayer and obviously we know that, you know, the Bible tells us we should pray and we should be praying a lot today, but what inspired you to preach this sermon? Well, the inspiration for this sermon came when the city of El Monte, you know, that wretched place over there that wants me kicked out, and by the way, it's not the people, it's not the citizens of El Monte, it is the leadership of El Monte. It's mayor Anaconda and these other people who literally want me kicked out of El Monte. They are making a mockery of God, and let me tell you why they're making a mockery of God. They held a prayer meeting with a bunch of sodomites, Buddhists, okay, and you know, whatever else, other denominational so-called Christian there is out there, they held a prayer meeting with them, you know, as a call to unity, okay? And here's the thing, they didn't invite yours truly, they didn't invite the guy who got the church bombed, the church building bombed. You know, you would think, oh, you know, we should invite that one, you know, the pastor that you guys violated and, you know, you blew up his building and all these things. We probably should have him come pray as well, but you know why they don't want me to come pray? Because they know I'm going to be praying some curses, some imprecatory prayers, and we'll get into that in just a bit. And here's the thing, if they invited me to go, I still wouldn't go because it goes against my biblical convictions, okay? El Monte had a prayer meeting for unity, you know, because they're trying to gaslight the community into thinking that it's my fault that I got my church building blown up. Somehow, you know, oh, it's your fault, you're not the martyr, you know, these other people, the sodomites, they, you know, they could have been hurt or something like that, you know? You know, they could have been hurt if they blew up the building, you know, when they blew up the building. I like what Brother Ray says, he says, well, no, because they're the ones who are holding the button. Just don't press the button and then it doesn't blow up. Let me just remind you of something, okay? Proverbs 15 verse 29 says, the Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. So what is the Bible telling us? You know, people can join hand in hand, they can get together in unity and kumbaya and do this display as though they're praying to the God of heaven, but here's the reality, they shall not go and punish, the Bible says, okay? God is far from that. In fact, the Bible tells us that his face is against them that do evil. So it doesn't matter if they're trying to do this for PR purposes, you know, they want people to see, oh, you know, they're just trying to reconcile this whole situation and, you know, the city of Oman is in turmoil and we're just trying to bring unity. You can say whatever you want. You can have your little unity, little ring. But the reality is, it's not going to change anything. God's face is still against you. God's not going to hear your prayer. Why? Because he hears the prayers of the righteous. And when it says the prayers of the righteous is referring to safe people, okay? You know, we're righteous not because of our own works, we're righteous not because, you know, we serve God and because, you know, we read the Bible, we're righteous because we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so that is the inspiration for this sermon here is the fact that they made a mockery of prayer in the city of Oman yesterday through Zoom, you know, they prayed to Zoom or whatever to try to bring unity. Let me just teach you what prayer really is, okay? And so, and by the way, you know, I had one of these article, these journalists call me and they're like, hey, did you know they're having a prayer meeting tomorrow? He called me on Friday. I said, yeah, I heard about it. He's like, why weren't you invited to that? I'm like, I don't know, you know, but even I told him, even if I was, it goes against my biblical convictions because I'm not supposed to touch the unclean thing, you know? What fellowship has Christ with Belial? So go with me if you would to go to Hebrew chapter number four, if you would, Hebrew chapter number four. First of all, let me give you some practical teaching on this subject of prayer, okay? And I want you to take this serious this morning. Prayer is very much a serious topic. It's a serious discipline. And often people neglect prayer because they don't have the faith that what they're praying for will be answered. And they think, well, you know, praying, yeah, but we need to make sure we do our part. And that's absolutely true. But we can't neglect this matter of prayer. There's power in prayer, folks. Now let me just answer this. What does it mean to pray? Let me just get practical here. Well, in its simplest form, to pray simply means to ask, okay? It means to entreat and means to ask someone for something. And in fact, when you read the Bible, you often see people telling others, I pray you, you know, do this, or I pray you give me this, or, you know, Paul says, we pray you in Christ's stead. We are asking this of you. That's what that means when he says pray. But when it comes to praying to God, obviously it involves asking God for things. But it also encompasses, for example, praise and encompasses Thanksgiving and encompasses supplication and intercessions and encompasses fellowshipping with God in order to obtain favor with God or just to get peace with God or just to praise God, thank him for the things that he has done. You know, the Bible tells us in Psalm 100, verse four, enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name. Folks, let me just tell you this. When you go to God in prayer, don't just start off talking about the things that you need. Enter into his gates with what? With Thanksgiving. Come with gratitude. You know, if you, you know, if your wife or your daughter comes to you and you know, just says, hey, can you just buy me this? You know, you're more likely to actually get them that gift or that thing that they want. They say, you're so handsome, dad. You know, honey, did I ever tell you, are you losing weight? You know, hey, that keto is going well with you. You look good. By the way, can I get this? You know, so what are you doing? You're kind of buttering them up a little bit. Okay. Well, you know what? This is, that's a biblical principle. That's what the Bible says to enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and the insinuation there is prayer. When we come before God, the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, to help in a time of need, we have to come with thankfulness, right? Lord, just want to thank you for my salvation. Thank you so much for the food on my table, the clothes on my back. I'm thankful for a home, family, church. Thank you so much for everything that you've done, everything that you're going to do. Be thankful unto him. Look at Hebrews chapter number four, it says in verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was an all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy to find grace to help in a time of need. So prayer is us coming before the throne of grace to ask God for mercy. Okay. You know, we come to God because we're going through a difficult time or maybe God's punishing us for maybe a specific sin that you might have in your life and what do we do? We pray that God is merciful unto us. We pray that God would be gracious unto us and that's simply what prayer is, is going to God, coming to before the throne of grace, coming to the gates with thanksgiving, asking for these needs, petitioning for them. Turn to Philippians chapter four if you would, Philippians chapter number four. Now why should we pray? Why should we pray? Well, first of all, because it's commanded, you know, there's not a command that says, you know, thou shall pray, but you know, the Bible does say pray without ceasing, you know, and here's the thing. The reason there's no command that says thou shall pray is because it's a given. You should just pray and everyone in the Bible knows that. That's why when Jesus, you know, was telling the disciples, Hey, when you pray, because the insinuation there is like, obviously you guys already prayed. Let me just show you how to pray. Okay. So we should pray because it's commanded. We should pray because we want to obtain mercy from God. We should pray because it's an act of faith. You know, requires faith to pray. Why? Because you're going to God whom you have not seen to ask for something that you do not have with the faith that he will give it to you when you ask him of it. So prayer is definitely you exercising your faith. You know, a lot of reason, excuse me, the reason why a lot of people don't pray is because they don't believe that God will provide that which they want, that which they need. Okay. Like, well, you know, I don't think God's going to provide this for us. So therefore they don't ask. But you know what the Bible says? He have not because he asked not. Okay. Hebrews 11 verse six tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So God is saying, Hey, you need to make sure that when you come to me in prayer, you have faith and realize that when you diligently seek me through prayer, that I'm going to reward you for that because it's an act of faith. Let me ask you something. What's something in your life that you stopped praying for? Is there a person that you stopped praying for to be saved? Is there a specific need that you have that you just lost faith that whatever happened again? You know, obviously there's certain times when God closes the door, but other times it's not, it's not that God has closed the door is that you stop praying. But it's an act of faith when we pray, but let me also say this is that why should we pray? Well, because it maintains our sanity. It keeps us saying, okay, you know, there might be some psychological thing to that, but for sure it's a spiritual thing. Look at Philippians chapter number four. You see prayer, prayer reminds us that though we walk after the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Right? You know, it reminds us that the things which are seen are temporal because here's the thing, we're physical beings. We have to, we feel pain. We have afflictions. We go through trials and heartaches here in this world. But when we enter into prayer, we're basically breaching that realm between the physical world and the spiritual world. And we're going to God whom we have not seen to ask for certain things. And you know what it does? It creates sanity. It helps us to maintain our sanity. It helps us to realize, you know what, as bad as it gets down here, it's still not really bad because of the fact that I have heaven, I'm saved. I have eternal life. These things are getting really hot, huh? Are they getting really hot? You guys want to turn those off? I feel the heat. So can someone throw a bundle of sticks into those things, please? No, I'm just kidding. You know what, prayer helps us to set our affections on things above, not on the things of this earth. It reminds me that there's a heaven. It reminds you that there's a millennial reign. It reminds you that there's a new heaven and a new earth. It reminds us that we are pilgrims in this world. We're not going to be here forever. The Bible tells us that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Wouldn't you say that a lot of people lost their minds in 2020? Right? A lot of people just completely lost their minds. They're just going crazy. May that not be said of you though, because we're Christians. We have access to something. We have access to a peace that passes understanding. Look what Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 says, be careful for nothing. Now this doesn't mean be reckless. You don't have to be careful, drive on the wrong side of the street and do whatever you want. When it says be careful, it's saying you shouldn't be full of care, careful, full of care. He says be careful for nothing. Don't stress out. Don't worry. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. So what is he saying? Look, instead of being careful, worried, what's going to happen, what does the future hold, what's going to happen, I just don't know what's going to take place next week. God is saying, well just give your request to God. Here's a solution to your stresses, here's a solution to your worries, here's a solution to your cares. You cast your care upon Him for He cares for you. And look what it says in verse 7, what is the result of that? And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So look, he says look, instead of being worried and stressed over that which is unknown, pray, be thankful, have supplication with thanksgiving, give your request to God. And what does God do? Does He just completely just take away your problems? No. Does He remove your financial woes? No. Does He fix your health? Maybe not. Does He fix the situation? No. But you know what He does do is He gives you the peace of God that passeth understanding. Now that's not to say that He's not going to answer that specific prayer, but while you're waiting for that prayer to be answered, He gives you peace. And you know what, sometimes that's really all we need. If we could just have the peace of God, the passeth understanding, you know, the world can be falling apart around us to the left and to the right of us. But you know, we're like, I don't really care, you know, I have peace. You know, I have, you know, the peace of God, I have tranquility, I'm not really worried about anything. I'm just kind of living life, waiting on the Lord for Him to answer these prayers. And if you feel like you're going crazy this year, or if you've gone crazy last year, you know, it's probably a lack of prayer. You know, because the Bible says that He did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and what? Sound mind. A sound mind means you're saying, you're just fixed, you're just kind of like, you know, and I've talked to people, I've talked to family members, and they're like, are you okay? What's going on? I'm just like, yeah, I'm just, you know, just kind of hungry right now, we're going to go to some lunch. And they're just like, you're not like stressing out? I'm like, why? Why would I stress out? Why stress out over things that I can't control? What are you going to do for Sunday? Preach. What are your people going to do? Come hear me preach? What are you guys going to do after that? Go soul winning? And then on Sunday night, where are you guys going to go? Back to go preach? I mean, it's just kind of like, you know, I'd rather live like that, than have everything I need and go crazy, right? So it's the peace of God, so prayer maintains our sanity. You know, David was under a lot of persecution throughout his life, and he said in Psalm 109, verse four, for my love, they are my adversaries. But I give myself unto prayer, okay? Go to James chapter four, if you would, James chapter number four, actually go to Matthew seven, go to Matthew seven. Why else should we pray? Well, because we have needs that we are incapable of meeting ourselves. That's why we pray. We pray because we have specific needs that we can't meet ourselves. That is beyond our capacity, beyond our ability, beyond our finances, beyond our wisdom. And so we pray for those things. And in fact, God says, if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and abraighteth not. You know, obviously, if we're young, we haven't been around the block very often, we don't have much experience, we can fall prey to a lot of woes in this world. But that's why we pray for wisdom. And we ask God, Lord, please give me wisdom in this area, help me to know what decision I ought to make. And God says he'll give to us liberally, which means generously. He doesn't abrade you for it, he doesn't say, hey, get out of here, stop asking me for this. No, he says he gives to us liberally, okay? But we pray because we have needs that we are incapable of meeting ourselves. The Bible says in Matthew chapter seven, verse number seven says, ask, and it shall be given you. That's pretty simple. Seek and he shall find, knock, and it shall be open unto you. And by the way, when you get ask, seek and knock, you get the word ask. That's what prayer is. God is saying, look, if you just ask, it's going to be given to you. If you seek diligently, you're going to find it. If you keep knocking on the door, God is going to answer. For everyone that asketh receive it, and he that seeketh find it, and to him that knocketh it shall be open. And then he says in verse nine, or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will they give him a stone? Which of you who have kids, if your son comes and says, dad, I'm hungry, you're like, well, take this rock, just chew on this for a little bit. No one would. Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? Or if he asks for raising canes, would you give him Del Taco? I'm just kidding. I have to throw that in there. I see some people are not laughing at all. The service shall be cut down tonight to just a few people. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him. So he's basically saying like, he's saying like use common sense. Instead of doubting whether I'm going to provide something for you, just think about you and your kids. You give them good things. And here's the thing he's saying like, you're, you're, you're sinful. You are corrupt. You're in your sinful flesh. You're not perfect. How much more me, you know, God's saying, who's the Lord who's righteous, who is perfect, how much more is he willing to give good things to them who ask him? And what he's emphasizing there is this, ask me, just ask. But here's the thing, a lot of people, the reason why they don't want to ask or they stop asking is because we put a deadline to the things that we want or the things that we need. Say, God, we need this like today. And God didn't say, you know, you know, ask me now and I'll do it like immediately. Everything is beautiful in his time. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18. I'm sorry. I keep doing this. Go to Nehemiah chapter two, actually. My notes are all kind of mixed up here. So we're talking about prayer here. What is praying? It means to ask, to, to make supplication, to, for Thanksgiving, you know, it's praise unto the Lord. It's communing with God. It's fellowshipping with him. Okay. Why should we pray? We went through a whole list of reasons why you should pray. You know, it's obviously beneficial to us in the long run, but not only that, you know, you get to know God more through prayer. When should you pray? When should you pray? You know, here's the thing. The Bible obviously says pray without ceasing, but this doesn't mean like you just like get on your knees of a drop of a hat and just start praying, you know, because obviously we think of prayer, we think of getting on our knees and, you know, going into our closet and praying unto God, which obviously that's part of it, but really what it should be is that we just have a prayer life. We pray throughout the day. Now, I will say this is that I believe every, everyone, every Christian should have a prayer time. And what I mean by that is, you know, sometime in the morning or in the evening where you get alone and whether that's reading the Bible and then praying, you know, you have a prayer list of things that you need. You're praying for your family members, salvation. You're praying for the church. You're praying for church leaders. You're praying for souls to be saved, praying to be filled with the spirit. You know, you go through that list. You should have an isolated time that you do that. And the scripture that I point to when thinking about that is Luke 22 verse 39 where it talks about Jesus. It says that he came out and went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives and his disciples also followed him. Now this is referring to him going there to pray. And the Bible says that this is basically his custom. So this is something that he would do on a regular basis. This is a discipline that he consistently had where he would go into a place alone to pray. Okay. And therefore we see that example. I think we should follow that. You know, you should have a time when, without distraction, without social media, without, you know, YouTube, without anything and, and just get alone and pray for a while. Okay. Look at Nehemiah chapter two. Aside from that, I think you should pray throughout the day. And look, if you, if you pray in the morning, you're setting yourself up to pray throughout the day because you're putting yourself in a state of mind that you are heavily minded. You're praying unto the Lord. And you know what I mean throughout the day, I'm saying as you come across needs or names come into your mind of people that you know, you pray for them there. Now I'm not saying like you're talking to somebody like, yeah, Lord, by the way, you know, I really, Ray needs help. I'm saying you can actually pray silently, you know, unto the Lord. Okay. Let's give an example of that. Look at Nehemiah chapter two, verse number one, it says, it came to pass in the month Nisan and the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before sad, before time sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, why is that countenance sad? Even though I am not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid and said unto the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres lieth waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. So the king's like, all right, you're going through a tough time. What do you want? That's a pretty cool situation to be in because he's the king. He's like, what do you want? And so what does Nehemiah do? He's like, well, man, I don't want to blow this. I don't want to just ask for something stupid, you know? So what does he do? He prays to the God of heaven, verse five. And I said unto the king, if it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in his sight, et cetera. So what do we see? This doesn't mean he like drops on his knees and starts praying. As he's being asked of the king, what do you want? What is your request? He prays, in a sense, thus within himself, but unto the Lord for wisdom, for knowledge, or whatever it was that he was asking for. So I think this is a good template to see that like when you are in a bind or you're out in public and you run into a situation, you just pray unto the Lord, silent, you know. You're just praying throughout the day, asking for specific needs, asking for certain things. Go back to Romans chapter 12. So when should we pray? Always. The Bible says men ought always to pray and not to faint, okay? And let me say this. You should pray before the trial comes, because there's a certain guilt that people carry that like once the trial comes, they start praying, they're like, man, I haven't been praying up until now. Obviously that's a good time to start praying if you're not praying, but it's better to have a prayer life and go into a trial already having that discipline of prayer already set in place. Because you know, like, well, I already know how to pray. I commune with God. I know I have God's favor, et cetera. Look at verse number nine of Romans chapter 12. I'm sorry, verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. So this is a good three point outline for our church right now. Hey, we need to rejoice in hope, because, you know, the things that are temporal, the things that you're seeing are temporal. We don't have a church building to meet in, okay, well, let's just rejoice in hope then. The fact that we have mansions in heaven, the fact that maybe one day I'm going to be the mayor of Omani, you know, in the millennial reign, you know, I'm rejoicing in the hope that is set before me, okay? So rejoice in that. Rejoice in heaven. And look, tribulation should cause you to think about heaven that much more. I know it seems a little distant away, but you know what, it's coming and it should cause you to say, man, this world is not my home. You know, he says there, be patient in tribulation, endure it. And what is the final thing? You need to continue instant in prayer. So what does that mean? Well, you think of when the Bible says, be instant, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. That means you preach when it's popular, you preach when the subject is not popular, you are urgent, you are fervent when you're preaching. Well, in like manner, when it says continuing instant in prayer, it's saying, hey, pray when you have needs, pray when you don't have needs. Be urgent in season, be urgent out of season. Pray with urgency, pray with fervency, continue instant in prayer, okay? Turn with me if you would to go to Matthew chapter 21. Prayer is very much important. We need to continue instant in prayer. And I would hope that a situation such as what we're going through right now has increased your prayer life. You know, I hope that now you pray with your family more. I hope that you pray alone more. I pray, I hope that you would pray throughout the day that much the more, that it would increase your prayer life because you know what, maybe that's something that God wanted from us in the first place. You say, why is it that we haven't found anything? Well, maybe because he wants us to pray more. Maybe because he wants us to increase our disciplines a little better. It's not that he can't, you know, the arm of the Lord is not heavy, you know, that it cannot save. His ear's not short, his arms aren't heavy. Here's the thing is that maybe he's just preparing something for us and he wants us to create a discipline of prayer, okay? And don't leave it up to someone else. Don't say, well, a bunch of other people are praying. You know, I'll just do my little five minute thing going on and you know, you know, just kind of pray over it, just confess my sins and that's about it. No, maybe now's a good time to become fervent in prayer, urgent in prayer, to cry out unto the Lord for the needs that we have as a church or you have as an individual. What should we pray for? Well, obviously we should pray for, you know, our daily bread, okay? But we should never pray for our daily bread in the sense that, you know, that's all we care about because God knows that we have need of those things. He knows that we have need of raiment and clothing. You know, that's why the Bible says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you. You know, if you're serving God, if you're sowing, if you're living a life that's pleasing unto him, you really don't have to worry about those things too much because God will take care of you, okay? But we should pray for our needs. Hey, we should pray for people. Make intercessions for others, okay? Pray for your lost loved ones. You know, instead of labeling them reprobate or whatever and say they're done with, you know, because they rejected you or something like that, why don't you just pray that God softens their hearts? Pray that God will soften their heart. Pray that God would remove the barriers and the strongholds that would cause that individual to not listen to you. You know, pray that they would go through some, you know, trial in their life that would cause them to seek the Lord. Pray that God would just remove the carpet out from under them to humble them and then say, man, maybe I do need to seek out for God. And then you're there to give them the gospel, get them saved, etc. So we should pray for those things. Make intercessions for people. Pray for the people in our church. Hey, here's a good prayer thing for you to pray for, a building. And pray specifically. You know, parking lot, gates, Rottweilers on every corner, I'm just kidding. Nice big building that can facilitate our growth. Pray for some millionaire out there who just likes my preaching and says, hey, we'll just buy you a building. How about that? Hey, it sounds funny, but like McDonald's, it can happen. You know, if it's not specific, it's not dynamic. We need to pray specifically for these things. Pray for that. How should we pray? How should we pray? You know what, we should pray with humility. First of all, prayer just in and of itself is a humbling thing to do because you're going to God for something that you can't provide for yourself. So you need to pray with humility, not with pride, not like we're just some like spiritual giant or something like that and God's so privileged to have us pray or something. You know, we're just like the best. We're just the bossest Christians ever. No, we need to pray with humility. And ask God to help us to recognize how frail we really are, you know, that we are incapable, we don't have the power that we need, we don't have the wisdom, we don't have the resources. We need God. Pray with humility. The Bible says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisted the proud and giveth grace into the humble. So in order for us to obtain grace, in order for us to obtain mercy, in order for us to obtain the petitions for which we're asking for, we need to be humble, okay? But not only that, we need to pray with faith. You say, well that's obvious, pray with faith. But you know what, here's the thing, sometimes we pray doubting. God wants us to pray believing. Look at verse 18 of Matthew 21, it says, now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon. Gives only and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. Now there's a lot going on in this particular story right here, but what this is specifically representing is Judaism or the Old Testament, should I say. The fact that that tree was not bearing fruit. There was supposed to be a light unto the Gentiles, they were not. And when Jesus came into his own, his own received him not, just as he came to the tree to find fruit, he found nothing and therefore he caused it to wither away. And that's why the Bible says in Hebrews chapter number eight, that the old covenant is ready to vanish away. It's withering, no fruit, no leaves, no nothing. Verse 20, and when the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? So I believe this is like a very miraculous thing where he's just like looks at it, says no fruit grow on thee henceforth, and then it automatically just begins to die. The leaves begin to turn brown, it begins to wither and just kind of fall apart and all the disciples are like, whoa, this thing like died like right before our eyes. Look at verse 21, Jesus answered and said to them, verily I say unto you, if ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto the mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. Now let's be honest here folks, you know that you've read that and said, well, not a mountain. Right? I'm sure everyone in here, you know, myself included, have read that and said, well, not a mountain though, but here's the thing, yes, a mountain. Now I'm not going to pray for a mountain to be removed because I have no need for a mountain to be removed, you know, but he's using, and that said multiple times in the New Testament, and you know what he said? If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, now, how many know how big a mustard seed is? It's extremely small. He says, if you just have that much, you can remove a mountain and you know what? I haven't seen any mountains removed as of lately and you know why? Because sometimes we don't have even that much faith and what God is trying to emphasize here is that it doesn't take much faith to move mountains and if it doesn't take that much faith to move mountains, how much faith does it take to do just the basics of life? The basic needs. The emphasis that he's trying to put here is that when you pray, you got to pray believing, not doubting. Look what it says in verse 22, and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. That is a powerful promise from God's word right there, isn't it? He says all things, whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you'll have it. Look folks, I mean, that is an amazing promise right there where God says, look, if you're willing to pray, but not doubt, just believe 100% that it's going to happen. You can have it. You will receive it. So what is, what should we pray for? We should pray or how should we pray? We should pray with faith, okay? Pray that God can provide. Pray that God can protect. Pray that God will accomplish his will. Look at first John chapter five, first John chapter five. Now here's the thing. Don't pray to win the lottery. I'm going to pray believing. I'm not going to doubt. Don't they got that like $70 million lottery thing or whatever? How many of you bought a lottery ticket? No, I'm just kidding. Don't raise your hand. You guys have seen that, right? They have like a Powerball or something, it's like $70 million or some ridiculous amount of money. You know, that's not for this, okay? God's not saying, well, if you just pray believing and you buy that lottery ticket, you know, God will provide it for you. Well, you know, Lord, I'll tithe off of it, you know, I'll buy the church a building, you know, I'll get everything. No, I'm going to explain to you why. Look at first John chapter five verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. So here's the thing, in order for us to get the petitions for which we're asking for, we need to pray in accordance to his will. So not lottery because that's sinful. It's wicked to do that. It's not for sinful means, it's not something for you to consume upon your own lust. You're supposed to pray according to God's will, okay? And look, he's saying here, if you pray according to my will, I'm going to hear you. You got my attention because you're not trying to do your own thing. You're not trying to consume it upon your own lust. You actually want to fulfill the will of God. And he says, this is the confidence that we have. If we're asking according to his will, automatically we know we already got his attention. Look what it says in verse 15. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. So he's saying, look, if you are praying according to his will, just as good as done. You already have it. Because he's saying, look, all you have to do is make sure you pray according to his will, he hears you. And if we know that he hears you, then we already have the petitions for which we've asked for. It's amazing. But here's the thing, you got to make sure that you pray according to his will. You know, not like, well, you know, I think God's leading me to divorce, you know, false. That's not according to his will. Well, I think God's leading me to just not go to church at all. False. That's not God. Okay. That's not according to his will. He said, well, how do I know what God's will is? Well, read the Bible. Read the word of God, you know, study it, memorize it, find out what God wants you to do and pray according to that. Okay. By the way, the Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And the reason he gives you the desires of your heart is because of the fact that he has given you the right desires. When he gives you the right desires, you pray for the right things. Okay. Go to Matthew 17. Matthew chapter 17. Now, look, folks, you know, prayer is definitely an essential part of the Christian life. But it's also can be described as spiritual warfare. When you're in prayer, it's like you're doing spiritual warfare. Okay. And we can point to a ton of scriptures in the Old Testament, Daniel, where he prayed and the angel came and there is a spiritual battle in the in the spiritual realm between demons and angels to come give them the answer to what he was asking for. I mean, it's a spiritual battle. So when you pray for something, it doesn't come right away. Don't think that God is just not like not listening. Don't think that God is just completely ignoring you. You know, there's a spiritual warfare taking place in the unseen realm. Okay. But here's the thing. Another thing is this. Sometimes there are certain things that are taking place in the spiritual realm that requires us to put a considerable amount of effort into our prayer life. So it's not just like, well, I'm just going to pray for five minutes, 10 minutes. Look what it says in Matthew chapter 17, verse 14. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sore vexed. For oft times he falls into the fire and oft into the water and I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. Now, keep in mind, Jesus had already given the disciples the ability to cast out devils. They're the only ones who had that ability other than Jesus Christ. But here we see an isolated incident where they could not do it to this specific individual. And look what it says in verse number 18. And Jesus rebuked the devil and departed out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, why couldn't we not cast them out? So, you know, this could be a little discouraging for the disciples, like, hey, we tried. Why couldn't we do it? Is there something wrong with us? You know, like, am I out of power or something? Do I need to recharge or, you know, do you need to lay hands on me again? What's going on? Why couldn't we do it? Verse 20, and Jesus said unto them, because of your own belief. For verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say to the mountains, remove hands to yonder place, and it shall remove, and now nothing shall be impossible unto you. But look what verse 21 says, howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. Now what is fasting? It means going without food. And he's saying, look, there are certain kinds. There's certain problems. There's certain, you know, challenges that requires prayer, but just like another level of prayer. Prayer and fasting is what he's saying. So coupled with obviously our faith and our belief, but sometimes it's not just prayer that's needed. Sometimes it's fasting as well. Now this is not a sermon on fasting. Obviously, you know, there's different templates in the Bible to fast. The most common one would be just to do a one day fast type of a thing where you skip a meal, skip two meals, three meals. Some people, obviously, I've known people to do it for a week, two weeks, a month or whatever, but there's no commandment to say, well, this is how much you need to fast. The important thing is that you couple it with prayer. And fasting is basically you going without food because the need that you have is so great that you're willing to neglect the necessities of life to pray and ask for that specific thing. So you say, why haven't God answered my prayer? Well, maybe it's this kind. Why hasn't God, you know, helped me in this area? Or maybe you got this kind of a problem. Why hasn't this happened or why hasn't God provided this? Well, probably because it's this kind of need. And this kind, this kind cometh not out, but by prayer and fasting. Okay. Now, don't let fasting be like a sin word, sinful word to you or something. You're like, whoa, fasting, going without food, what in the world, you know? Well, yeah, I mean, this is a spiritual battle. And if you want the mountain to be removed, if you want the need to be met, sometimes it's not just prayer you need, you need to couple it with fasting as well. And let me just say this, if you fast, don't tell anybody. You know, don't and make sure you anoint your face and don't come on. What's wrong? Nothing. Nothing. I'm so hungry. I'm just like, are you fasting? Oh man, how'd you know? You know, take some vitamin B, B12s or whatever, drink water, you know, anoint your face and don't tell anybody. Okay. Cause then you lose your reward. Now go to Luke chapter 11, if you would. Luke chapter number 11. How should we pray? So this is, these last two points are important. Okay. Everything's important, but especially this. When we pray, we need to be able to endure in prayer. Now what do I mean by that? When I say endure in prayer, that means keep praying, just keep praying. And in fact, the Bible calls it importunity. It means persistence. Okay. Look at Luke 11 verse one, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when you pray, say our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now obviously the Catholics would like to say, well, this is, you know, this is the only prayer we should be saying. But here's the thing, uh, you never see this prayed by any of the disciples or the apostles thereafter. Like there's, there's multiple examples of people praying in the new Testament and they never say this. Why? Because it's simply a template of what you should be saying or, or, you know, mentioning in your prayer life. He says in verse number five, and he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go into him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine is in his journey has come to me and have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. So he's saying, look, you know, if you had a friend come to your house and you're, it's midnight, you're already asleep. And he's like, Hey, can you give me some bread? You know, I've got some people coming over. I don't really have any food to put before them. You know, can you, can you cook it up? Looking for some rate? I say unto you, though, he will not rise and give him because he has his friend yet because of his, what importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. So he's saying, look, even though he doesn't want to get up, it's midnight, he's tired. He's already asleep. His kids are with him in bed. He's just, it's a no because the guy keeps coming back and asking. He's like, all right, fine, take it. Here's four loaves. Here's five. And what he's saying, it's because of his persistence. And what is it in context of prayer? He's basically saying you need to be persistent in prayer with me. Keep asking. He said, well, it's just, it's been so long. Keep asking. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open unto you. So what do we do when we pray? We're just knocking on heaven's door. Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have it? Can I have it? And he's just not answering. He's just like, Lord, can I please have it? I need it. Can you give it to me? I need it. You come, you come in the morning, Lord, I need it. You come at night, Lord, I need it. Can I have it? Can I have it? And you know what? He will not abrade you for it. He will give to you generously because persistence in prayer, being importunity in prayer is an act of faith as well. You just say, I'm just going to keep coming back. If he hasn't said no, I'm just going to keep asking, but it requires endurance and it requires for you to have enough faith to say, well, you know, you know, cause some people will be like, well, he's not giving it to me, so I guess I'm just going to stop praying for it. No, maybe you just need to keep, be persistent. Turn to Luke 18, Luke chapter 18. Now, as I mentioned, the inspiration for the sermon was the ungodly union, the fellowship that was taking place in Omani, the prayer meeting that they were having for unity there. And let me just mention this. So I'm going to mention a specific element of prayer that isn't really talked about today. Okay. Because it's so controversial, you know, but the problem is, is that the reason it's not talked about is because pastors don't study their Bibles. Okay. And when we pray, we should pray with imprecatory prayers. What is an imprecatory prayer? It's a prayer to curse the enemies of God. I thought, what? Okay. Folks, it's all over the Bible. And by the end of the sermon, if you don't agree with that, by the end of the sermon, I guarantee you, you will, because you're not going to argue with Jesus. Okay. And he said, well, hold on a second. I thought the Bible says bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Well, yeah, obviously the Bible tells us that we cannot curse those whom God has not cursed. Right. You know, you have Balaam, you know, Balak going to Balaam to curse the children of Israel and Balaam told Balak, I can't curse whom God has not cursed. If they're not cursed of God, I can't curse them. You understand? But here's the thing. When it comes to the people who are haters of God, you know what the Bible literally calls them? Cursed children. These people who are already twice dead, plucked up by the roots, they're beyond the hope of salvation. It's never going to happen. That's who the imprecatory prayers are for. But people who are just, you know, like for example, let me just, let me say this. You know, I guarantee you there's people at the protest who were not sodomites. I'm sure of it. I'm sure there's people there who are not sodomites, they're not reprobates, but they've been so, you know, infiltrated in their minds by the public school system and society that they think it's, you know, they're doing a righteous thing. You know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, you know, curse them. My prayer and my hope is that that person would wake up, they would get saved and they'd get their life right. You understand? And look, if any of those individuals ever came to me and said, I'm really sorry for what happened to you, I would forgive them right away. Because my beef is not with them. They're not my enemies. I mean, they're my enemies in the sense of they made me their enemy, but they're not my enemy. My specific enemies are those who are enemies of God, which is a different element. It's a different category, folks, okay? We ought to love our enemies. We ought to bless them that curse us, you know, and bless them and try to, and heap coals of fire upon their head and not take vengeance upon ourselves. And here's the thing, whether it's the cursed children or it's the ones who are just carried about with their, the simulation and their foolishness, we should never take vengeance upon either group. I've never taught that. We don't take vengeance for ourselves. You know, we don't try to avenge ourselves. We don't try to, you know, go to people and say, well, you know, you bomb my church, therefore I'm going to bomb you or something. That's not our place. Never taught that. The Bible says, vengeance is mine, say the Lord, I will repay. But here's the thing. In pregatory prayers against wicked, ungodly haters of God is so biblical. And let me just say this is that Christians, this needs to come back. This needs to make a serious comeback. Because you have pastors who are being persecuted sometimes or, you know, by these haters of God and they're like blessing these people. They're trying to bring them into the church. They're trying to kowtow to them and, you know, help them. Whereas the Bible specifically says, shouldest thou help thee ungodly and love them to hate the Lord, therefore wrath is upon thee from before the Lord. It's actually counterproductive because they think, well, we should bless our enemies. You know, these bunch of reprobates, bunch of sodomites. I'm not saying that if you bless them, then my wrath is upon you, you understand? So what do we do? If we can't take vengeance upon ourselves, if we can't avenge ourselves for what these people have done to us, if we can't do those things, what should we do? We pray in pregatory prayers. We pray that God destroys them. Oh man, I don't know, man, that sounds kind of like, that's a little uncomfortable. I agree with you on the other stuff, but man, this is, pray that God would destroy something that would God like, like do something to your enemies? Like that sounds a little harsh. What would Jesus do? Well, let's see. Look at Luke 18, verse one, and he spake a parable unto them, he being Jesus, to this end that man not always to pray and not to faint. So this is how he starts off this parable. So what is he saying? He gives a statement. Now he's going to give a story or a parable that relates to the statement that he just made. Now, keep in mind, he's saying, look, you should pray and not faint. Why is he saying that? Well, because sometimes when we're being persecuted and reviled because of what we preach or because of what we believe, you know, we can grow a little weary, we can become faint. So he's saying, no, don't grow faint, just pray. Pray for what? Well, look at what it says in verse two, saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city and she came into him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. So this woman's coming to this unrighteous judge, doesn't fear God, doesn't regard man, this guy just doesn't care. And his widow comes and says, I need you to avenge me of mine adversary. He says in verse four, and he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because his widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me. So how did this woman get the judge to actually execute justice? Because she kept coming back to him. Avenge me of my adversary, avenge me of mine adversary, avenge me, avenge me, avenge me. And the guy's like, I don't care about you, your adversary. I don't care about God, I don't regard man, but just because you're just annoying. Just because you're just like, you're just a thorn in my flesh, you just keep coming back. I'm just going to do it to get you off my case. He says, lest by her continual coming, she weary me. He's like, okay, all right, go kill the guy, go execute. Bounty hunters, go get that guy and execute him or something, you know. He's like, I'll do it. Just stop bothering me, okay. But I want you to notice he makes a specific, he says there that he is an unjust judge, does not fear God, does not regard man, he's not a man of morals. The principle that he's giving here is that because of her continual coming, he gave into it. Verse six, and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge sayeth, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with him. He said, look, if some unrighteous judge was willing to avenge this lady of her adversaries, how much more the God of all the earth who will do right. He's like, if this guy who doesn't even fear me is willing to execute righteousness just because of her continual coming, how much more shall God who's righteous, perfect, just avenge his own elect. It doesn't just say answer the prayers. What does it say? Avenge his own elect. Which cried day and night unto him. And look what it says, though he bear long with him. And what does that mean? Means he's not answering right away. We come to him, Lord, please avenge us, avenge us, avenge us. Please Lord avenge us, avenge us, and nothing happens. What is he doing? He's bearing long. And he's saying, look, if this guy's willing to do it, how much more am I willing to avenge you? Verse eight, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Now this sounds like a contradiction because he just finished saying, though he bear long with them. And then he says, I will avenge them speedily. Well, here's the thing. From our perspective, it seems long. But to God, a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. So from his perspective, he does avenge speedily. And in fact, to some people, he avenges so speedily that he sees them as though they're already in hell because they're twice dead, plucked up by the roots. He's blotted out of their names out of the book of life. He has judged them so fast that like from eternity's perspective, those people are already in hell. They can no longer be saved. Notice what he says here. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? So what is he saying? When I come back, will I find any Baptist pastor with this kind of faith that I'm going to avenge? But what do we hear today? No, that's not what God wants. Jesus wouldn't do something like that. You know what that means? They don't have faith. Yeah, right. Well, what would Jesus do though? Well, read Luke 18. No, I just don't see that. Yeah, because you don't have any faith, that's why. You think that God is just going to allow the enemies of God just to trample over you, just to blaspheme his name. He's just this Barney in the sky, Barney the dinosaur in the sky. He's just this kind and loving God with no righteousness and no justice. You have no faith. And he's saying, look, I'm telling you, if you just come to me day and night, crying to be avenged of your adversaries, I'm going to avenge you. But when I come back, shall I find anybody who has that kind of faith? Folks, let's be a church who has this kind of faith. Cry day and night. Lord, avenge us of our adversaries. Go to Psalm 109. This will be the last portion of scripture. So people will say, well, no, Jesus wouldn't do that. Yeah, you're proving what Jesus is saying right here. He's like going to find no faith on the earth because you're not even willing to believe what he's actually saying right here. People read this and they have this Gandhi Christianity. They read this. Well, that's not what he meant. You know, that's not what he really means. He meant something else. Love your enemies. Yeah. But here's the thing. Love your enemies. So we just, should we just take out Luke 18 out of the Bible then or what? You want us to just ignore everything that the Bible says in this respect? Folks, if you ever find something in the Bible that seems to contradict, it doesn't contradict. We just need to reconcile both passages. And this is how you reconcile. When he says, love your enemies, bless them to curse you, it's not referring to cursed children. And when he talks about these imprecatory prayers, asking God to avenge us of our adversaries, this is obviously referring to a specific category of people that are haters of God. Look at Psalm 109, verse 1. This is probably one of the best imprecatory prayers in the Bible. And I was reading this last night and I'm just like, man, he couldn't, I could not have said it better. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue, L.A. Times. They compass me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself into prayer. They have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. This is how I feel about the city of Almonte right now. Set thou, oh, oh, oh, oh, man, okay. See, everyone wants to, they like verses 1 through 5, oh, man, David, poor guy, you know. Well, let's keep reading. Set thou wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. You know, like that prayer meeting they had yesterday, let it become sin. In fact, those people would have done better if they would have not had a prayer meeting. Their condemnation would have been less if they did not pray. They still would have been condemned, God still would have judged them, but because they made a mockery of God by praying unto him, now their prayer has become sin. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office, mayor. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Man, whoa, David, I thought you were like the sweet psalmist of Israel. Hey, this is sweet. I read it and I was like, sweet. Oh, he's not done either. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him. Neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off and the degeneration fall and let their name be blotted out. Don't even let them be remembered. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Oh man, he's even going after the mama. Talk about your mama jokes. This is not, this is your mama in precatory prayer. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. He's like, I don't even, don't even let them be remembered. When someone asks you like, who mayor, who? Because that he remembered not to show mercy. You know why you shouldn't remember these people? Because they forgot to show mercy. But persecuted the poor and the needy man that he might even slay the broken in heart. As he loved cursing, oh you, oh you love faggotry, oh you love the sodomites, oh you love reprobation, okay. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him. As he delighted not in blessing, oh you didn't like the blessing of a local New Testament church preaching the gospel into God's word in the city of El Monte? You don't want to delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. Folks, don't see us getting kicked out of El Monte or getting our building blown up as a cursing upon us. Actually God's cursing El Monte by removing that light from that city. As he clothed himself with cursing as with the garment, you know with the rainbow flag, so let it come into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. He's basically saying if that's what you love I'm just going to give you completely over to it. It's kind of like you know being given over to a reprobate mind. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak evil against my soul. But do thou for me O God the Lord for thy name's sake because thy mercy is good. Deliver thou me. Folks and pregatory prayers are biblical. I guarantee you after David was finished writing that he put his pen on it, I feel a lot better. I'm sure he pulled that out and look folks this is the psalm so the Israelites would sing this. They would sing this. Where's Eric? Where's Eric? Hey we need to come up with a tune to this. They would sing this. And look is David saying I'm going to go avenge myself? Is he saying I'm going to go I'll make sure I'll facilitate that blood in their names out of the book of life? He's asking God to do it because he's pouring out his heart like water and he's not just talking about just any regular sinner folks. He's talking about wicked haters of God and in fact in context it's actually a prophecy of Judas Iscariot. So what am I saying about prayer today? Hey folks we should pray for all these things but don't forget to pray the imprecatory prayers. It's important. If you're frustrated, if you're just like man how can these people just get away with this stuff? You know like is the FBI going to catch anyone? Are they going to make any arrests? Is any justice going to be brought? Like you're just vexed like I don't know about you but I've been vexed. I've been vexed at times. You're just like man no justice. But then I go to this I said Lord avenge me of my adversaries Lord. I try to be a blessing to this community. I try to be a blessing to the city of Omani. That's what we want to do and they rewarded me evil for good. You know what God is saying when he hears that? I will avenge them speedily. I will avenge them speedily. Don't neglect the power of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word and Lord we're thankful for the power of prayer and all that you've taught us through the word of God when it comes to prayer. Help us to pray and not to faint. We have a lot of needs Lord. We need a building. We need you to provide for us. We need you to protect us. We need you to deliver us. We want to keep serving you. We want to keep preaching the gospel. We want to keep preaching the word and being a blessing to people all around the world Lord. May you give us the ability to do so and Lord I pray against your enemies Lord that you would deal with them speedily Lord. Avenge us of our enemies. These people who have just slandered us and lied about us and just are making a considerable effort just to kick us out of the city and so wicked Lord. They're so evil. I pray that you would render them according to their works and Lord may you may you punish them for that Lord. And I pray that any individual who is not necessarily reprobate who maybe is helping their cause that the judgment of the wicked will wake them up and may they recognize you know who they're fighting against not me not our church but they're fighting against God and I pray God that you bless the soul wanting and all there is in Jesus name we pray. Amen.