Kneeology: The Priority of Prayer

Sermon Summary:

In our exploration of Ezra and Nehemiah, we discover the transformative power of prayer in times of rebuilding and restoration. These biblical leaders demonstrate that our first response to challenges should be turning to God in prayer. Their examples remind us that prayer isn’t just a religious duty, but a vital connection to our Creator that empowers us to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. As we reflect on their stories, we’re challenged to examine our own prayer lives. Are we truly relying on God’s wisdom and strength, or are we too quick to trust our own limited understanding? This message encourages us to cultivate a deeper prayer life, recognizing that it’s through prayer that we find clarity, patience, and the boldness to act in faith. Just as Ezra and Nehemiah’s prayers led to the restoration of Jerusalem, our prayers can lead to personal and communal transformation in our own lives and communities.

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Sermon Points:

• CONTEXT: Come, let us rebuild! The stories of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah are told in Ezra-Nehemiah.
• KNEEOLOGY: The priority and practice of prayer. The posture of prayer is physically disadvantageous, but it is spiritually advantageous!
• Ezra and Nehemiah both model for us the appropriate first response and the ongoing practice when realizing the need to rebuild or restore. They prayed! And—they prayed!Why pray?

  PRAYER:

  1. Prayer connects us to God. This encourages and facilitates the satisfaction of the deepest human need. Connecting to God makes it possible for us to flourish as human beings.

   

  2. Prayer demonstrates our trust in God.

   

  3. Prayer is an act of obedience.

   

  4. Prayer fosters and develops spiritual patience.

   

  5. Prayer offers God the opportunity to bring clarity to us.

   

  6. Prayer emboldens and strengthens our faith.

   

  7. Prayer connects us to spiritual power, fortitude, humility, and grace.

   

  8. Prayer works!

Download a copy of the “Together…for the Future” Devotional Book – HERE

Anchored in Faith, Aimed at the Future: Rebuilding with Ezra and Nehemiah

Key Takeaways:

• Prayer is the appropriate first response when facing challenges or seeking to rebuild
• Prayer connects us to God and satisfies our deepest human need
• Prayer demonstrates our trust in God and is an act of obedience
• Prayer fosters spiritual patience and develops perseverance
• Prayer offers God the opportunity to bring clarity to our lives
• Prayer emboldens and strengthens our faith
• Prayer connects us to spiritual power, fortitude, humility, and grace
• Prayer works and is powerful and effective

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Scripture References:

• Ezra 8:21-23
• Nehemiah 1:1-1

Stories:

• The pastor’s experience with Dr. Jack McGorman and the difference between a prayerful and a prideful approach to ministry
• The analogy of untangling knotted necklaces to illustrate how God can bring clarity and resolution to complex life situations
• The story of taking visitors from West Africa to their first baseball game, used to illustrate how God might view our attempts to navigate life without His guidance
• The airplane anecdote about drawing circles to represent knowledge, demonstrating the limited nature of human understanding compared to God’s omniscience

Transcript

Well, you know that our theme for 2024 is together. And we are spending each one of our seasons of the year exploring a different facet of what it means to be together. And for the fall, our theme is together for the future. And we are reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And we are reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And we are reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. For the fall season. Our staff has produced this devotional guide, Together for the Future. That’s our theme. And in this guide, we have your weekly Bible reading. That is our focal passage. We’re calling that Together in Word. And so we together as a church are reading that passage, reflecting on it, focusing on it. And then we have suggestions for how to put it into action together in deed. And I hope you’ve gotten one of these. They told me this morning that if you don’t have one, that they’re already all gone. But if you’ll send me $9.99, I will make sure you get one of these, alright? And you can just send that to DWI, that’s Dennis Wiles International, and I’ll make sure you get one of these. But no, they’re available online. Let me see, fbca.org slash something. Let me see.

Slash Word and Deed. How about that? And they’re available online. If you didn’t get one, we would love for you to check them out online. So with that. That said, let’s continue the conversation we’ve already begun about Ezra and Nehemiah. I’ve entitled the message today, Neology, the Priority of Prayer. And we’re going to look at a text in Ezra and a text in Nehemiah. And you may remember we talked about this last week. They’re actually, those two books in our Bibles in the Scripture that we have, it’s comprised of two books. The Old Testament, the original Hebrew Scripture. This was actually one book, Ezra and Nehemiah, simply called Ezra. But then the Old Testament was translated into Greek. That text is known as the Septuagint. It was highly influential upon the New Testament Christians. And ultimately, when we have our Scripture translated, Ezra and Nehemiah are split into two books. So with that said, let’s look at two passages, one from Ezra, one from Nehemiah. So if you’ve got your copy of the Old Testament, look with me at Ezra 8. Ezra is… He’s in Persia, and he’s making his way to Jerusalem. So we pick up the story in verse 21 of Ezra 8. He says, There by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road because we had told the king the gracious hand of our God is on everyone. He looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him. So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. Then if you’ll just flip over a couple of pages in your Bible to Nehemiah. Nehemiah, this is some 15 years later. Nehemiah is in Persia, and he receives this report from Jerusalem. And we’ll pick up that story. Nehemiah 1. Verse 1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. In the month of Kislev in the 20th year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men. And I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. And they said to me, Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard this, I said, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said,

Let your ear be attentive and let your eyes be open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your service, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We’ve acted very wickedly towards you. We’ve not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you’re unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to a place I’ve chosen as a dwelling for my name. They’re your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this. I confess your servant into the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cupbearer to the king.

So, you’ll remember last week we set the stage for this journey this fall. And so let me just remind you a little bit of where we are. I won’t go back and do it all. If you would like to know the fuller context, I would encourage you to go and watch last week’s sermon. Here’s the context. Come, let us rebuild. That is actually the heart of this story. The stories of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah are told in Ezra and Nehemiah. So, let me just recap briefly last week’s setting the context. When you get to Ezra and Nehemiah, Israel has already divided into two nations, the north and the south. The north has been defeated by the Assyrians, 722 B.C. The south, primarily Judah and Benjamin, their capitals in Jerusalem. In 587 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded Judah. He captured Jerusalem. He tore down the wall around Jerusalem. He burned the temple to the ground. He plundered the temple, took all the artifacts, the treasury of David, the gold, and also took the leading citizens of Israel and transported all that back to Babylon. And then finally, the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians. Cyrus, the king of Persia. The Persians are the antecedents to modern-day Israel. And Cyrus ruled the world differently than did Nebuchadnezzar. So, Cyrus decided that the Jews could all go home, the ones that wanted to. So, he told them, those of you who would like to go back to Jerusalem, you’re free to go. He also told his officials, go and get the treasury that was plundered from Israel. Return it to them. Give them back their gold, all the artifacts. Let them go home. He also provided resources so they could rebuild their temple. So, Zerubbabel was the leader of the people at that time. And so, he led many of the Jews, the exiles, to return to Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple. And in 515 B.C., a little over 500 years before Christ, they dedicated the temple. That’s the temple that’s standing during the time of Jesus in the New Testament. However, if you fast forward about 100 years, Ezra was a scribe still living in Persia. He was an expert in the Torah. He was concerned because what he evidently had heard is that the, allegiance to the Torah, the practices of Israel, from a theological perspective, had not truly been restored, even though the temple had been rebuilt. So, he requested permission to go back to Jerusalem, or go to Jerusalem, and lead that effort. The king agreed. We just read his prayer. He prayed that God would give them safety because he told the king, God will get us there safely. So, he didn’t want to ask the king for reinforcements. He said, just let us go. So, he prayed that God would deliver them safely. God did. And so, Ezra returned to Israel with a group of Jews in 458 BC to restore the law, the teachings of the law. Fast forward 15 more years, 445 BC, Nehemiah gets this word that the Jews are back in Jerusalem. The zeal of the law has been restored, but the people are in disarray. There’s no wall around the city. They tried to rebuild the wall. Ezra tells that story in Ezra 4. But it didn’t work. And so, the people are disoriented. They’re fearful for their enemies, and they were unsure of their future. And Nehemiah receives that word and has to decide what to do about it. So, with that said, let’s talk today about prayer and how it was woven into the life of both Ezra and Nehemiah and how it should be woven into our life. So, I want to start with neology. What is neology? It is the priority and practice of prayer. Just as an aside. It’s not a real word. We just made it up. So, just know that. But the posture of prayer is physically disadvantageous, but it’s spiritually advantageous. Think about it. On your knees in prayer. Neology is where that comes from. When you’re before the Lord, physically on your knees or spiritually on your knees, if you will, you are in the midst of an act of reverence. If you’re on your knees, then you’ve chosen a posture of being voluntarily defenseless. Eugene Peterson says he likes to pray on his knees. Or he said this. He’s dead now. But Eugene Peterson says, because when I’m on my knees, I can’t run away. I can’t hide. I’m basically defenseless, and I am in the Lord’s presence. He also says… When I’m on my knees, I can’t strut. That I’m being humble before the Lord. It’s a beautiful picture. Now, wouldn’t we agree that when you’re on your knees, that is a physically disadvantageous posture? Can you fight on your knees? Well, it depends on what you mean by fight. If you’re engaged in a spiritual battle, then the answer is yes. In fact, if you’re engaged in a spiritual battle, that might be the best posture. To be on your knees. Physically, you’re at a disadvantage. But spiritually, you’re at an advantage. Because you’re engaging the powerful spiritual forces that God makes available to us. You’re in His presence. And I would encourage all of us to cultivate a life of prayer. The book of Psalms will help you. If you’re looking for a guide. The collection of Psalms is not just a worship manual. It’s a prayer manual for us. You discover… The language of prayer in the Psalms. And I would encourage you to use the Psalms to guide you as you learn about that personal, intimate relationship with God. Also, that you live in community. Because the language of prayer is vital to the people of God. Now, let’s talk about Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah model for us. They both do. The appropriate first response. And the ongoing practice when realizing the need to rebuild or restore. What did they do when they heard… About what was happening in their homeland? They prayed. And they will continue to pray. That’s what we read in this story. As I said, Ezra, if you look at Ezra 8. Ezra is getting ready to go. He’s put a team together. Some families. And they’re going to head to Jerusalem. They prayed. They prayed for God’s protection. They prayed for God’s provision. They asked God to give them what they needed. He will get to Jerusalem. And he will watch the people of God for a little while. And then… And then he will recognize they’re not living the way they’re supposed to live. And it disturbs him. So, if you go to one page over in your Bibles to Ezra 9, guess what he did? He prayed. There’s a lengthy prayer in Ezra 9 where Ezra prays for the people of God. Well, when you get to Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1. Nehemiah is in… He’s in Persia. He’s 800 miles from Jerusalem. And he asks his brother. How are things going in Jerusalem? I heard they rebuilt the temple. Surely, that’s encouraged our people. Surely, that’s infused them with hope and anticipation. And his brother says, well, no, actually not. He says the people are disturbed. He says they’re in great trouble. They’re in disgrace. They can’t protect themselves. And so, there Nehemiah is. And he knows the wall needs to be rebuilt around the city. But what’s he going to do? He’s the cupbearer to the king. What does that mean? Well, in the ancient world, that was a very strategic position in the court. That meant that Nehemiah was the guy who was the last line of defense for the king. He tasted all the wine. He ate all the food. He inspected anything that was brought to the king. And so, if Nehemiah could eat and drink and live, then the king would eat and drink and live. What’s interesting is that particular position became strategically important, though, in the court. The cupbearer to the king became a close advisor to the king. A trusted person. Someone who could do research for him. Someone that the king knew he could trust. So, Nehemiah is playing this strategic role. And his heart, though, now is in Jerusalem. What’s he going to do? It’s 800 miles away. And think about it. He lived 430-something years before Christ. He wasn’t just going to run down to Jerusalem for the weekend. That’s not how it worked. So, he was burdened. So, guess what he did? He prayed. did what he thought was right. He just prayed. As a matter of fact, he keeps praying. If you just continue to make your way through Nehemiah, you’ll find at least nine prayers recorded in Nehemiah. For example, you get to Nehemiah 2. He’s meeting with the king. And the king asks him, you just seem troubled. What’s wrong with you? And Nehemiah says, well, it’s news for back home. My family, my ancestors, their home is in ruin. Look at verse 4. The king said to me, what do you want? And I love what happens. Nehemiah is in a conversation. And in the middle of the conversation, Nehemiah says, then I prayed to the God of heaven. He prayed while he was in a conversation with the king. Some theologians call that an arrow prayer. In other words, just a targeted, direct, quick prayer. He just prayed something quickly. You know, I would say, for us, it might be good advice to pray in the moment. There are at least nine prayers of Nehemiah recorded. In the book of Nehemiah. So, both of these men prayed. That leads me to this question. Why pray? I mean, why? Why pray at all? Because, think about it. Many of us, so often, we are people of action. We are ready to engage. We’re ready to act. Sometimes, I don’t know about you. Are you like me? Sometimes you see a situation and you think, I don’t need to pray about that. I just need to do what I already know. Some of y’all feel that way? Just trust your own inclinations. Trust your own perspective. You feel like you already know what to do. You’ve got a brain. You’ve got experience. You know a few things. Go ahead and do what you think is right. Trust your own instincts. Interesting, isn’t it? Dr. Jack McGorman was professor of New Testament when I was at Southwestern Seminary many years ago. I love Dr. McGorman. He had that rich, he was from Nova Scotia. He had this incredible Scottish brogue, which I just loved. And, in fact, he was preaching for me one time in Garland. And as the week wore on, his Scottish accent got worse. Because the more comfortable he got with you, the more Scottish he became. And I remember the last night of our meeting, he was quoting one of those great hymns. And he stood in the pulpit and he said, Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan. Oh, the grace that brought it doom to man. And we all went, what?

Then we finally figured out what he’d said. But here’s what he told us when we were in one of his classes. He had two PhDs in Greek. One from Southwestern, one from Duke. Brilliant. He said years ago when he was a young minister working on his PhD, the first PhD, he was asked to preach a revival. y’all can Google that, a revival. Some of y’all remember those, but some of y’all don’t know what those were. But anyway, just bear with me for a minute. So he went to this little church and he said he was nervous. So he had his colleagues who were in seminary with him. He told them, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not really a preacher. I’m training to be a teacher. Would y’all pray with me? So they had prayer sessions with his colleagues before he left. He asked his wife to pray over him before he left. He said he got to the little town, checked in the little hotel. First thing he did was he said he went in the room and just prayed. And he told the Lord, he said, I’m not qualified to do this. I’m training to be a professor. I’m not a preacher. So he said he preached the revival at the church. And he said it was an incredible week. People got saved. The church was encouraged and blessed. He said you could just feel the movement of the Holy Spirit. He said it was one of the most monumental weeks of my ministry. Years later, he was invited back to preach a reunion revival in that same church. Two PhDs later, he said, I strutted into town. He said, I’m Dr. McGorman now. And he said when I got to the hotel and checked in, I unpacked. I did some work that I had to get done back at the seminary. And then I went and preached. And he said it was one of the least significant weeks in my ministry life. Come on, y’all. Prayer. Prayer. It’s powerful. It’s important. And you need it. Because we need God’s blessing. Do you know? This month, I’m going to be speaking in various places. Next week, I’m preaching at Criswell College in their chapel. And I’m going to preach to a group of students, college students. Some preparing for ministry. Some preparing for all other kinds of vocations. And I’m going to get to speak to them. Then I’m going out to Abilene. And I’ve been invited to do a pastor’s training in Abilene. A group of pastors from West Texas are coming to Hardin-Simmons. And I’m going to be leading them in what does it mean to pastor your church through prayer. I’m preaching. And then I’m going to Riverbend. And I’m leading a retreat for several hundred men. Can I just ask y’all to pray for me for all of those? Because I need your prayers. I don’t want to just show up and tell them what I already know. I could do that because I know a lot. Seriously. I mean, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve got a whole lot of information in here. Okay? But is that really all I want to do? Just show up and just share what I know? Because here’s the thing. Prayer helps us because you don’t know everything. Look at your neighbor and say, you don’t know everything. Tell them right now, you don’t. Tell them by looking at them, you don’t know everything. You don’t. That’s just the truth. I don’t care how much experience you have. When, you ask me this, when do you get old enough where you can just quit praying? When do you get to that point to where you know so much you no longer need God’s help? I’m just going to tell you that never happens. You and I. I need to pray. Would to God. Would to God that Christians across America spent more time praying than they do posting. Or maybe even try praying before you post and maybe you wouldn’t post. I’m just saying.

Why pray? We need it. That’s why. You need it. So, here’s what I want to do for the next few minutes. I want to offer you some truths about prayer. Okay? So, let me give them to you. Let me go ahead and warn you. I’ve got eight of them. Okay? It always makes me nervous when a preacher starts numbering stuff because I’m sitting there wondering how many of these are there? You know, when’s he going to quit? I’ve got eight. So, now you’ll know when I’m almost done. Okay? So, let’s go with the first one. Prayer connects us to God. This encourages and facilitates the satisfaction of the deepest human need. Connecting to God makes it possible for us to flourish as human beings. God has created you to flourish. The only way you can flourish is if you’re connected to Him. During the time that I was away from you in July, that was really the heart of my study. What does it mean to flourish? That’s what we’re going to be talking about in this church in the future, these next three years or so. Prayer is a lifeline between us and God. The deepest part of us, we get connected to God. Jesus modeled it for us. We need prayer. We need to connect to God. There’s something about being human. Jesus, the perfect human. Modeled it for us. The Bible tells us in Luke chapter 5 verse 16 that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. So, Luke says He did this all the time. Luke 6 verse 12. Jesus prayed all night one night. Mark chapter 1 verse 35. Very early in the morning, as was His custom, Jesus, while it was still dark, would go to a solitary place and pray. The image of God is in you. That means a whole lot theologically. One of the things it means, though, is that you’ve been there. You’ve been designed by God uniquely to be in a relationship with God. Prayer is the lifeline for that connection. Second, prayer demonstrates our trust in God. Prayer is a discipline. When you pray, you’re recognizing that you need God. You’re acknowledging that life is beyond you because life is beyond us at times. Have y’all ever noticed how life just gets beyond us? It just does. It goes past what you and I might know. What you and I might be able to experience. And understand, Nehemiah, our tax receipts, is the king. He’s the king of Persia. He’s a pagan king, 800 miles from home. What could he do? Do you think he could just strut in and demand the king to do something for him? No. Nehemiah, he prayed. In his prayer, beginning in verse 5, he thanks God. He praises God for who He is. He confesses his own sin. And then he petitions God to answer his prayer because he trusted God. He needed to trust God. Well, prayer demonstrates our trust in God. We need God to act on our behalf. Third, prayer is an act of obedience. Nehemiah was a Jew. Well, as a Jew, he had been trained to pray. He had a certain prayer regimen that he was engaged in every day. He was taught to pray. Well, you and I as Christians, we’re supposed to pray as well. In fact, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17, pray continually. We’re supposed to pray Philippians 4, verse 6. Paul says, be anxious for nothing, but pray, he says, in every situation. In other words, be anxious for nothing. Pray about everything. You and I often reverse that. We worry about everything and pray about nothing. Well, flip that. Give God a chance to work. Be obedient. Prayer is an act of obedience. Fourth, prayer. Prayer fosters and develops spiritual patience. You know, when you pray, you’re admitting to the Lord that you need help. And here’s what God can teach you when you’re praying. He can teach you to wait. He can teach you to persevere. He can teach you to be patient. Let God work things out. Because sometimes it takes a little while to work things out. Have y’all ever noticed that? Have y’all ever noticed it takes a while to live life? Have y’all figured that out yet? It just takes a while. And so, as you’re trying to live your life, sometimes things just get knotted up. You know, we used to have this piece of furniture at our house. I can’t ever think of what you call it. But Cindy’s jewelry, we used to keep in it. And she would hang her necklaces in it. We moved several times. And every time we moved, when you would open that thing up, the necklaces were all tangled up. Y’all know what I mean? And they’d get those knots in them. Do y’all know? Okay, I love that. Because what I like to do is take the necklace out, lay it on the dresser, get tweezers and a needle, and I love to separate out. Do y’all know what I’m talking about? Those little knots. And man, there’s so much accomplishment in it. But sometimes when you’re doing it, all you do is make it worse. And when you do that, you just throw those away, right? You just go, okay, I’m sorry, honey. Okay, here’s how it is in life sometimes. We’re trying to do that, and all we’re doing is making it worse. And we’re just knotting it up more and more and more. I’ve done that numerous times in my life. And there have been times when God has shown me, take your hands off. Let me show you. Let me show you how I’m going to untangle this because you can’t do it. And I have to learn that. It’s a valuable lesson, and it requires patience. And I hate it because I want to do it. But I’ve had to learn he’s so much better at so many things. And we’ve got to allow him to intervene, to undo, to redo. And it develops patience in our lives. Fifth, prayer offers God the opportunity to bring clarity to us. Are y’all still with me? We just got three or four more. Here we go. Prayer offers God the opportunity to bring clarity. Because here’s the thing, y’all, sometimes you just don’t know what to do. You just don’t. You don’t see clearly. You have a hard time understanding. You’re looking at your life, and you’re wondering, how in the world are we going to do this right here? How are we going to get past this? You need clarity. You need understanding. God can bring that to you. But prayer, it takes time because God has to change us. He has to inform us. He has to mature us. He has to give us his perspective. And it takes time. You know, my favorite sport is baseball. I’m a baseball player. Have y’all ever tried to teach anybody baseball? Okay. Y’all remember last Sunday we had Joseph and Mariama with us from West Africa? And Joseph came up and prayed. Y’all remember that? We took them Monday night to a baseball game. They’ve never been to a baseball game in their lives. Have no clue. Don’t know the rules. They know nothing. All they do, they watch soccer. Who watches soccer? I mean, seriously. But anyway, I get it. The whole world. I know the whole world. I got it. Okay. Don’t write me about it. I get it. But we’re watching baseball. They’re sitting in front of me, and I’m trying to explain it to them. And they’re looking at me going, why did he go sit down? Well, because he’s out. When you get out. Okay. Here’s the thing. If you catch it on the fly, then they’re out. They have to go sit down. If it bounces, okay, then you’ve got to get it, and then you’ve got to throw it to somebody else, and they need to touch the base before. Okay. Just watch. Okay. And Mariama figured it out. People started catching fly balls. Yankees would catch a fly ball, and she’d look at me and clap. And I’d say, no, don’t clap for them. We don’t want them. No. Okay. This, this is going to take a while. All right. Um, can you imagine how God feels looking down at us, and we’re trying to live life, and he’s looking at the angels going, are you kidding me? Is this serious? This is how they think you do it. Guess what? You need his counsel. You need him to help you bring clarity. So that you can understand what it is he wants you to do. You need his perspective, because you just don’t know everything. A preacher that I used to listen to said, he tells this story, and I’ve used it myself. He was on an airplane one time, and he said the guy sitting next to him was just dogging religion, Christianity, talking about how it was no good. It was not even real. And he said, you’re giving your whole life to do this work, and it’s not even real. Finally, the preacher said, I got so fed up with it, I took out a sheet of paper, and I drew a circle. And I said, okay. He looked at the guy and said, I want you to look at this circle. This represents everything that can be known. Everything in the universe that can be known. And he handed him the pencil, and he said, I want you to draw a circle inside of that circle to represent how much you know. And he said, the guy looked at it for a second, he just put a dot. And the preacher said, that’s too much. You don’t know that much. Just listening to you. You need to erase that and make a smaller dot. He said, before the flight was over, the guy finally said, you know, maybe I don’t know everything. No, you don’t. We don’t know everything. We need clarity. We need God to bring it to us. Six, prayer emboldens and strengthens our faith. Prayer connects us to God. And once we get connected to God, and God reveals himself to us, we can then go act accordingly. In other words, we can animate our faith. We can put it into practice, and we can do it boldly because we’ve been led by God to do it. We can have that sense of direction, sense of wisdom, and it leads us to act in faith. In obedience. Seven, prayer connects us to spiritual power, fortitude, humility, and grace. Here’s the way I look at it. I believe prayer opens a door for us. It just opens a horizon for us, if you will, because God works in that deepest place that’s in every one of us. And when we pray, we’re allowing God to bring things to us. For example, he’s bringing us spiritual power, and we need it. We need power. We need fortitude. We need endurance. We need humility. And praying helps with that. When we acknowledge that God is grander, he’s more majestic than us. He’s a glorious, all-encompassing God. It puts us in perspective. And so, when you kneel in his presence, you acknowledge just the fact that he’s so much grander than you are. And that’s a humbling experience. And don’t you need a little humility? You know, humility is an interesting thing. It’s a,struggle with it because sometimes when I demonstrate it, I want you to know about it, cause I’m proud. I’m so proud of being humble, I want to brag to you how humble I am. And when I do that, I’m just reversing the whole thing. But there’s something about being humble. We need humility. Well, prayer helps me with that because I realize I’m kneeling in the presence of an Almighty God, and I’m unable to figure my own life out in my own strength. And the good news is I don’t have to, because I’ve got him to lead me and guide me. Finally, grace. about it. Grace. Wow. Prayer opens the door to grace. And then the last point is this. Prayer works. That’s just the, I mean, if you didn’t get any of them, get that one. Prayer works. What does James 5, 16 say? The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That’s the old King James version. The NIV says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Praying works. That’s why God invites us to do it. So, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this old gospel song. It’s written by Oscar Eliason. The title of the song is Got Any Rivers? And here’s the opening of that gospel song. Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible, and he can do what no other power can do. Praise his name. Lest you and I be people of prayer. May it be so. Let’s pray. Father, we are grateful that we can come before you today and pray.