The Lord has given all of us different gifts. Some of the gifts that we have, we sometimes try to put them on the bushes, try to hide them. Some gifts that we don't have, we desire for. One of the gifts I've always desired for was to sing. And I do. I can. I really do. I get in the chapel on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Friday early when no one's there, and you ought to hear me. I can really sing. But I tell people, the Lord said, make a joyful noise for those of us who have no tune. That was excellent. And to all of the musicians that have played today, I've really enjoyed hearing those songs as well as the instruments played. It's been a good meeting. And I want to thank Brother Don for the dinner in the family that I had with yesterday as well as the foster family and then this morning Brother Clark I want to thank you for the message I've I've been fed I have really been fed I guess in all the things that we've said so far as the Holy Spirit has led us I guess the last thing I kind of want to leave with us is that we really need him to live godly in an ungodly world it would have been nice if he had just saved us and changed our bodies right then to a point that they would never ever do anything that would can be contrary to him but but that's not the way God intend for us to know him we can get to know him closer by communing with him and obeying his word but it is awful difficult in this world to do it without him as a matter of fact he said you can't do it without him we need him we need him in every aspect as husbands you're going to find out if you're going to live for Christ you're going to need Christ wives we find ourselves really depending on him when we have to not only raise our children but have to raise our husbands as well And if you've got any children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, you know good and well that you really need the Lord to raise these children today. As Paul has said, train them. That training process is not easy. As a matter of fact, we ourselves need to be trained to how to train our children. And so I want to leave this thought with us today that our dependence on the Lord in this ungodly world is greatly needed and we need to ask for help so if you would turn with me to the book of the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews chapter eleven The walk that you and I have with God right now is a faith walk. That is, we're not sure exactly, specifically how we are going to accomplish the things that God want us to do. And so we're depending on him for every need. Bill Song, oh, him that was shared long time ago was, Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart. even though it's a song but it's really a prayer and that's what i want to talk to us today about is prayer how is how is how is your prayer life how is it how is it oh it's easy to offer prayer over the food that we're about to eat it's it's pretty easy it's easy to pray when when when someone calls and says that there is death or physical injury or physical illness that's that's easy to pray for we have something specific is something in gold to pray for but but but in between there how how is your prayer life when we pray what are we doing what are we doing when we pray well Those are some of the questions I want to answer us as the Lord has shared with me. Let's take a look at this in Hebrews chapter eleven. Look at verse six. Hebrews eleven and verse six. Listen to what the Lord says here. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that come to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. How's your prayer life? How's your prayer life? Is it just vocal? Is it just an utterance of words that you feel inside that would say what you really think? How is your prayer life? Here, the Lord tells us, by the mouth of the writer here, that if we are going to be men and women, boys and girls that are pleasing to God, we're going to walk by faith. But at the same time, our faith walk is independence on God. That is, we have to go to Him for our every need. And he puts it this way. Why? Why do we go to God? Why go to God? Why don't we pray to him in the first... Why don't we talk to God? Why can't we just do it our way or do what we want to do? Well, first of all, we know that the Lord commands us to pray. He teaches us. He tells us. He says that man ought to always pray. As a matter of fact, the disciples had noticed. Now don't think that prayer just happened to start when Jesus was here. It had been going on for a long time. Prayer has been going on for a long time. But there was something uniquely different in Jesus' mannerism and prayer the disciples saw that was different than the Pharisees, if you would. The Jewish leaders, the religious leaders. They saw them for years and years as how they prayed. As a matter of fact, most of those Jews in that time prepared their prayers even after those leaders had prayed. But if you remember when Jesus came to his disciples and shared with them that they should pray, one of them came and asked him, so now, Lord, we see even John praying and we see, what does it teach us to pray? He said on one occasion, he said, when you come to pray, you enter into your closet. Most of us, when we think of praying, we think that it is when the elders stand to the front or when they call a brother to stand up and he prays. And if you listen to his careful prayers, he's saying a lot of things. And a lot of those things that he's praying about or praying for, have you ever wondered, are they answered? what was the last prayer that you asked for of the Lord that was answered even when we even when we gathered at our meetings and we said would you would you would you pray at the meeting do you ever hear that the answer to that prayer so why pray why pray what about what about when when when you get up in the morning and before you even start on the job before when we do do we really is there a consistency in our prayer life do we really believe prayer works well let's take a look at the scripture here let's see see what the Lord says here here he says if you look at this carefully without faith is impossible to please him that is you and I cannot even get to God except by faith there's no there is no sense and even even saying our father or Lord or oh God if you don't even believe in him now that's that's something I've heard folks tell me that, well, there's one writer says that God does not hear sinners pray. Sinners can't pray. You know, and technically, and technically they are right. God doesn't hear the sin except one thing God hears when the sinner prays. If a sinner says, oh, God, I want you to bless my family, and oh, God, I want you to give me a job, and oh, God, I need this, and oh, God, out of God's marvelous grace, God's supply sinners with a lot of things, but it's not based on the fact that they ask for it. It's by his mercy. It's by his grace. He lets the sun shine on them, just like he let it shine on us. That's His grace. Sinners didn't ask for that. And if He did ask for it, God was going to let it, God's grace handles that anyway. But what God wants to hear from the sinner is not, oh God, bless me, it is, oh God, I heard about Jesus. The evidence of that is here in verse number six. for he that come to God must believe that he is. Not just the sinner, but you and I. We, first of all, as believers, we must believe that God is who he said he is. There is, he is the Lord of our lives. He is the Father of the Son. He is whom Jesus said we should pray to. Yes, we do pray to Christ. Yes, we do offer our prayers unto the Holy Spirit. But basically it is unto God. But Jesus said, when you ask in any way, you ask him of the Father. And my Father, who is in heaven, he will reward you. So we are in a sense really talking to God, even though we're using the channel of Jesus Christ to get there. For he said, no man can get to the Father except he come by me. So when we pray, it is not just an utterance of words. It's the fact that I believe that God is. Why would you call on somebody on the phone and they pick up the phone and there is no answer and you start talking? Just hold on a conversation. Oh, how are you? How's the kids? How's the family? And you're going on and on and on and there is no answer. That's silly. Now, if you believe somebody's on the other end of the line, then the conversation is all right because I believe somebody's listening to me. Well, that's the same thing it is with God. I, first of all, must believe that he is. So when I pray, and you know, sometimes it amazes me, and I'm only a human creature that's... That's fifty years old. And I'm, as I said the other night, I was shocked in my life the other night when I turned fifty about a month ago, and I got a letter from AARP. I couldn't believe that. AARP, the Association for Retired People, I'm still young. I don't need that. But don't you think, do you know I'm going to fill that card out? I'm going to send it back in. I heard you seniors get a lot of benefits. And I want all that's got coming to me. But do you realize that as we get older every day in our life, we are finding out that we really need God more and more and more? So when I come to God, I have to really believe that he is there. And since he's there, I want to talk to him. I want to talk to him. I want to talk to him. I believe that he is. Now, not only do I believe that he's there. John says that when we ask, if we ask according to his will, now that's a powerful thing for him to say. If I'm going to live a godly life, I need some help. I need some help. Let's Brother Clark share with us. When you look at all the things that he pointed out to us, you can forget it if you think you can make it on your own. All the things that he shared with us as we walk in this life and our ungodly world, we are being confronted on every hand, not only by the world and by ourselves, but even by Satan himself, to cause us to be distracted from the godly life that we should be. It's a war out there. And we need some help. And the help that Jesus has made it very clear to is that we need him. We need God. We need him in our everyday walk. So when we bow our heads, when we stand and look to heaven, when we seek His face, how do we do it? Well, hold your hand there. We're going to come back to that. I want you to turn with me to Philippians. Philippians. Boy, I tell you, Brother Clark, this is amazing how the Lord has worked this out today. Philippians chapter four. Philippians four. Hebrews says he that come to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We who diligently seek God sincerely, earnestly, constantly depending on him. It's like our hands and arms, legs, and bodies. We need the function of the heart for the blood to run warm through our veins. Without it, we would die. Prayer in the Christian life is as the heart, blood to Allah. We need him and we need the prayer life. But when we pray, listen carefully to what we ask of the Lord. Listen carefully at the words that we say. Sometimes when they ask us to pray, we jump up. Just start talking. You ever know what I'm saying? You ever know what I'm saying? Oh, brother, would you pray? Have you ever wondered? Has he thought about what he's saying? you know when you just jump just right off start rattling words off and they sound good and they sound nice and they sound good to us but I wonder if God's saying what are you talking about did you really diligently think about what you were going to say to me before you just jumped up and start saying things or are you that close to God that you're constantly in the prayer mode all the time and we just happen to interrupt you by asking you to say it out loud And then of course there are those of us, there are those of us who pray. And we at, and these are the leading brothers and sisters in our seminary at these meetings and we ask them to pray and they pray. And if you could close your eyes and just listen, you could almost say for word for word what they are saying. They've said it over and over and over. The same thing over and over and we just smile and say, thank you for that prayer. Some of it hits these walls, back, ground, up and down, and just rail, and that's as far as they go when we pray. Because we really don't believe in what we're saying. Not only do we not believe in it, but a lot of the things that we ask for are not according to what God wants us to have. Well, then, how do I handle this then? Well, I want to live godly. But I'm having problems with that. I'm having a difficult time with that. I can't, my lifestyle is not really godly. It's okay, but it's not godly. So I'm having a difficult time, whether it be malice or anger or whatever the things are. I'm having a hard time in trying to accomplish that life. I'm having a difficult time to let my life shine. before men that they might see my wonderful works or my good works and glorify the Father. I'm having a hard time for that. So it's bothering me. It's upsetting me that I still got some sinful natures that are things that I do that I know are wrong. I'm having a hard time. So I'm asking God help me with that. I'm overly burdened with that. Maybe it's my mom that is sick or my brother that is down. Maybe it's a believer that I know that's walking contrary to the Word of God. Whoever is, I'm burdened with that thing and I need to talk to God about it. So how do I go about that? One, I believe God is. Two, I know he's going to reward me. But look how he does it. Look what he requests from us. Look at Philippians four. Look at verse number six. Hebrews four, verse six. Now listen to what it says. Be careful for nothing. Hmm. Be careful for nothing. Be careful for nothing. One writer says the word should be for I but aren't saying it's anxious for nothing. But you don't want to like to do it. Look at that word careful. Two syllables, right? Care, whoops, care, full. Now, if you took the care, pick up, put it here, and put the full in front of it and put of in the middle. Be full of care for nothing. See, you live, you're human, we're human, and we're going to be anxious. We're going to be concerned. We're going to be care of. But it simply means that don't be overly careful. Don't be so full of care that this thing is distracting you from living the life of Christ. Don't be so concerned that it is destroying my life. Now, if it is, he says, now here is how you handle it. By, or should I say, but in everything. whatever it is. Mom's sick. Dad's not feeling well. Kids doing bad in school. Some bullies messing around with you. You're in debt up to your ears or to the top of your head. Got laid off. Maybe she said, I don't like you no more. I like Paul. Paul. Maybe the board is looking at the finances or not. Maybe we're trying to decide what lessons planned should we set up for the assignment. Maybe whatever it is, if it's there and it's concerning you that it's going to affect your life in this world, we need to take it to God. Talk to God about it. But look how he tells us to do that. Look at the same verse here. By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. By prayer and beseeching God and seeking God. Do you even know we don't pray like we really should? When I was growing up, I used to, I grew up in a church where they had, we used to call it a moaners bench. Now y'all down here, y'all know what I'm talking about. Amen. All of us didn't come up in the assembly now. Some of us come up where we had folks who prayed long time for some of us wild children. Or as my grandma always said, children. Folks who prayed, who really believed that prayer worked. And they diligently prayed. They would have groups of prayer meetings and prayer bands and prayer partners, they call them, where they would take one particular item or situation, and they were bombard heaven with that request. They will talk to the preacher and say, Brother, preacher, this is what's on our heart and what's on our mind. What scriptures have you got to talk to us about on this thing here? And he will share with them the Word of God. And they say, well, we got what God wants us to know. Now we're going to talk to him about it. I really think that that's why a lot of our churches are not functioning. Our siblings are not functioning properly like they should because we're in for God out of grace. Our prayers are more literal now. Our prayers are more oratorial now. Our prayers are more patterned now. They're not sincere. They're just words now. For if they were not words, the answers would have come to pass by now. You don't ask God for something out of his will. So what we're asking for must be in his will. Then why haven't we gotten it? There's something wrong somewhere. James says we have not because we ask a miss. We're doing that. We're asking, but we're not. There's something wrong there. You think God made the mistake? I don't think so. Listen to what it says here in verse six. Let your requests be made known unto God. You hear what he says to you? Let God know what the problem is. Let him know. Do you know you don't have to have a long prayer to talk to God? Remember Peter? when he looked out when he was in the ship and it was being tossed back and forth and and all of a sudden he looked out there and there was jesus on the water walking on that water and peter then looked out and they saw him said that looked like the lord he says yeah peter got to the edge of the ship and said it is the lord lord if it is you bid it is thou me to come unto thee peter and the lord said come peter and peter stepped off the ship in the midst of all that wind and rain and all that and he started walking on the water and when he got out there and and saw the lord he I don't know what happened, but he saw something else. Took his face off of the Lord and saw the wind and the clouds and saw the water and saw all that stuff. And as soon as he done that, he began to sing. And do you know that this man made one of the shortest requests that was ever made? I could just hear now with some of our prayers. Oh, our Father, we thank you for... the ship that you allowed us to ride in. And, Father, we are grateful that you have sent your only begotten son, who's now walking on the water. And, oh, Father, we are grateful that you have done the... And, O Lord, we would love that you was... I don't think so. I don't think so. Ever notice that our brothers, would you come and ask God's blessing over the offering? Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to pray and we ask him that you would go to the hospital and remember Sister So-and-so. She's in the hospital right now. We want you also to remember our dear brother who has lost his job and we want you to do. And also, God, we thank you for... I didn't ask you to do all that. Just ask God's blessing over the offering. Why don't we just do what we ask? Because we have the perception that prayer is simply uttering words to God. I wonder what Peter would have done if the Lord had said that you... Peter, that was just too short. You didn't pray long enough, son. You better go back and pray again. No, no, no. Pray to Peter and say, Lord, what saved me? That's all he said. And the Lord didn't waste any time either. He answered him. He answered him. Let your request be made known unto God. What's bothering you? What are you full of care of? What are you seeking from God? You see, if you come into God, we diligently seek him. I'm coming to God because I have this this thing that's bothering me i'm seeking god i'm asking god diligently requesting of god i let him know what's on my mind what's there it's not so much how long the prayer is but where is the prayer coming from if it's coming from here and here It's going to go up and come back. But if it's coming from here, and according to God's will, God hears it. I'm to let him know my request. Now, look at this carefully. Now, let your request be made known unto God. Now, these requests, now, what would you want from God? Well, I want to live a godly life. I want to live a godly life. Now, that's nice. That's good. But you see, we have already read the Word of God, as we've heard today. So even as we are in this meeting today, we should be asking God, God, what is it that I'm doing that is not godly? And since it's not godly, then more, I want you to show me, open my eyes that I might see what I need help in, what area I'm slack in, what area I'm weak in, what area I'm concerned in. that I might improve my life among this ungodly world. So now I'm beginning to, instead of having a broad statement, I'm beginning to say, Lord, here's where my needs are. My desire, Lord, is to live godly, but, Lord, you've already shown me where I'm not living godly. This is the area I need to deal with. So now I let the Lord know what's on my heart. Lord, I get angry very quick and I've vented very ungodly like. Lord, I've got this thing about the lady sitting down the aisle from me. She makes me mad. Every time I see I just can't stand her. Lord, that brother that I saw last night, I saw him, and he never said he was sorry. I just, he's never come to me, God, and I just can't. That's what's hindering me. Lord, Lord, I've got my wife here, and I know she's mad at me. I've never gone back to confessing. This is violent, and I can't live. Lord, I've got children, and my son, my son don't like me. Lord, my dad abused me. He hurt me. Lord, whatever that problem is, that's my concern. That's hindering me. So now I take this request and I let God know. Now, take a look at that request again. If it's something that I think that is according to the will of God, as James says, then I can ask for it. You see, if I'm riding in a Honda, which I'm driving now. But I want a Lincoln. I don't want a Ninety-six Lincoln. I want it blue. I want it loaded. That I can ride around and let folks see this elder is a good brother. He's been blessed. Lord, that's my request. Then I'm actually asking a miss. For God is not getting any glory out of that because I'm going to get all the honor. I'm going to get all the glory. I want this. And I want... See, I want it for my sake, for me. Even when we talk about God, about our husband, Lord, I want you to straighten him out. I want you to give him, Lord. I want you to nail him. I want you to, see, he hurt me, God. And what I'm asking of God is not that God get glory, but that I get satisfaction. And my satisfaction may not be to the glory of God. I want my sons and my daughters. Lord, I want them to go to school. I want them to get an education. I want the folks to know that. That's my child. I want them to understand that I raised that boy. I want them to understand that it was me that's struggling, suffering, and went to awe. It was me. It was me. See, that's my request. But that is not giving glory to God. See, if I'm going to ask God, I need to ask, is this according to his will? And in the Scriptures, God surely tells us on some specific things that we can ask for that we know that are according to his will. But what if I don't know his will? What if it's so vague? What if I'm not really sure if this is God's will? Then we come under two categories. One under what? and the other under needs. See, many of our wants are things that really are not things that are God-pleased. But God graciously let us have them because they're our desires, and he can get glory out of them. But many of those wants are not even nowhere near pleasing God. But God has also let us know that there are some things that if we ask, God's going to provide for us, but we have to ask for them. Look at the same book, Philippians. Look over at verse number nineteen. Same book, verse nineteen. Paul says this. Listen to what it says here. My God shall supply all your what? Need. He's going to provide for my needs. He's going to take care of me. Well, now, how do I determine what my needs are? Well, why don't we do as sheep do? What does sheep do? Whatever the shepherd provides, that's what I'm going to eat. Psalms twenty-three says, Lord is my shepherd. I shall not, what? One. See, my wants, my desires... Whatever I'm asking God for, I want them to fall under what he sees as my need. So in a sense, I wouldn't ask God for something for me that's out of his will that he sees won't do me or him any good. So what I ask him for, Lord, according to your will, I believe that if I ask according to his will, I'm going to get it. I will get it according to his will. He supplies my needs. So whatever I'm asking for, it would be to the glory and to the honor of God, our Lord. As the sheep walks through the field and the shepherd said, no, that's not good for you. I'm going to argue with the shepherd. Well, where you want me to go? Right away. Okay. I'm coming. And go ahead. There are going to be times when the shepherd will give you something that you really didn't want. You didn't want. But he knew that you needed it. And if you don't believe that, look at that lady that you've been married to for twenty-some odd years, third years, or forty years. See, at the time you married him or her, that's what I wanted. But God knew that's what you needed. After thirty-five years, forty-five, fifty years. Boy, you're sure right. Boy, I would have been messed up if I had a marriage whoever else was out there. That's what I could have used, but this is what you saw me need. See, now the complimentary is there. He's provided for us. There are things, jobs that we've gotten. We just thought, I don't want that job. But the Lord just brought it. Oh, I'm going to have a child. That ain't what I want. But that's what you need is. Some of us got some bad children. They just can't, we can't tell them nothing. Those children are what God saw you needed because that child is keeping you on your knees. See, if that child was not there, you wouldn't be praying and asking God for help. So God sent that one that goes this way and that way and around that way, and he says to himself, now, what did you say? Lord, help us. He's got a way of providing for us according to his will. So I let my request be made known unto him because I know that he will give me those things according to his will. Now, in the midst of asking and requesting... Sometimes there is a pause before the receiving of the gift that he intends for me to have. Now comes that careful attitude. Now because I haven't gotten it yet, I get a little nervous. I get a little anxious. You know, I begin to get a little concerned. And sometimes, sometimes we almost listen to Satan say, now the Lord ain't blessed yet. You need, you, you better get up and do something about this. You mean to tell me you don't ask God all this time and he hasn't blessed you yet? You haven't, you better, don't you know that? You better get out of it. You better do something. You better tell him something. See, Satan says, now you ask, now I'm going to answer. Satan can come along and give us some of the things that we ask for thinking when, if we're not close to God, we'll think that that's God's gift to us. Satan is deceptive. He fools us into thinking that that's what you needed. But when we don't get it, God gives us something instead. Paul says here, let's go back up a little bit. Look here in verse ten. Verse ten, chapter four says this, But I rejoice in the Lord greatly now that the last of your care for me has flourished again, of which you were most mindful of, but lack opportunity. Sometimes it just doesn't come. I don't get it. Paul was talking about here that he had some financial needs, some needs there, and the church of Philippi wasn't able to bless him, but they finally came through. But in the meantime, Paul struggled. And sometimes before God bless us, we struggle sometimes. It becomes hard. Sometimes the work in assembly, because God has not truly blessed us as we see, it's a struggle. It's hard. It's difficult. The fellowship is not there. The finances are not there. It seems like we have a hard time. But Paul says this, if we learn to let our requests be made known unto God, not only that, but the time will come when we will find ourselves hurting. That's when we need to learn to depend on God even more. verse ten verse eleven says not the inspector of war but i have learned in whatever state i am in this to be content i now know both how to be a base and i know how to abound everywhere in all things i am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need i go both ways well what do we do then when we let our request be made known as God when you put it in God's hand now we say it if in the Lord's hand now we're not going to worry about that you know a little side thought I see these brothers and sisters on television that doing this healing ministry and they'll come up they'll bring these folks up and this is not a mockery or a knock on them but this is a doctrinal thought that that they will come forward And the brother will grab them and slap them in his, we'll put his hands on them, I guess. and tell them that they healed. She would point out that somebody's here who has a side that's hurting or a heart condition or what. And he do all of this, and they come forward, and they say, yeah, and I was at the doctor last month, and he told me that I had a sister in my side, and I'm here to tell you today. And he said, do you believe God? Yeah, I believe God. Do you think God can heal? Yeah, I think God can heal. Do I know you? No, you don't know. And they lay their hands on them, and they do all that, and they lay out, and they said they healed. two days or three days or four days later they'll say you know how after i was healed i went back to the doctor and he told me he didn't see nothing well i've been wondering if you say you were healed why did you go back to the doctor if you believe god did something then then why would you want to go back to the man and say uh... god healed me uh... what do you think My God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. So when we lay our request before God, now I have this thing that is it going to come to pass yet? Is it going to happen yet? And I ask the Lord for, Lord, I'm waiting. You know, I'm concerned about that. Well, He also gave us an answer to the request after we request it. Look at verse number seven. that verse number seven. Now, once I let my request be made known unto God, that seems so simple, doesn't it? Just pray it from the Lord. Here, this is in your hand. I'm having a problem with smoking cigarettes, God, and I help him with this. Now, I don't think God's going to come down there and take that cigarette out your hand and lay it to the side and it'll cause a stroke in your arm. You're going to sit there and it'll never pick up another cigarette. You can forget that. You see? And some of us blaint, well, you know, I'm the weak, the flesh is weak, but the box, you know, you get out of here with that. You mean to tell me, see, a lot of us got this out of the, well, uh... the devil made me do it that old flip wilson thing the devil made me do it you mean to tell me satan picked you up and forced you into michael's bar and tavern down the street and told you to sit there on it and set you on the bar and went in your pocket pulled your hand out put the money up there and said give me a blood wife and he grabbed your other hand and told you to grab and picked your head up and put it on your mouth he doesn't do that satan tempts Satan gives you an alternative. And based on the temptation and the other alternative, you make the decision. Cigarettes are there. Faith, man, you know you want one, don't you? Go ahead, take it. Go on, go on, go on. You know everybody. Get your boy out of your house. And you hear me, though, when you pick it up and you, oh, my throat's bad. Oh, I don't know how to say that. And you light the faith. Satan just told you that. The body has a craving for sin, and he knows that. He's had you for twenty-some years. He knows your faults, your weaknesses, and so he presents that to me. Now, what you and I learn is that, Lord, this is my problem. This is my difficulty here. Help me with this. That's my request. Now every time temptation comes, as James says, every time that temptation comes, I need to run to the Lord. Lord, give me strength. Lord, help me to do this. Help me with this thing. She made me mad. I want to slap her. And Lord, put your hand down, son. Put it down. Put it down. Oh, Lord. Okay, Lord. I'm going to obey you. Let's see. When you go to the store, Satan says, buy another one. Go ahead and get you. You know, the Spirit says, no, don't buy it. Just walk away. And you know something? Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. All we have to do is obey him. That's all. Just, okay, Lord, okay, I'm surrendering to you. I give in to you and I turn it loose. See, some of our, even our young folks, we hung up. I can't get an A. I can't get an A. I can't get a G. Oh, God, help me get an A. Help me get a G. I don't want to get a G. It don't work that way. What God does, you recognize I have a problem in studying. You ask God to help you to study. I don't just go up there and take a test and an eight fall out of the sky and land on, oh, I got it. It doesn't work like that. He gives us a mind to become students. And where I am, he said, now turn the TV off, turn the radio off, come into the house, go up in the room, open the book, and ask me to enlighten your mind. That's how God works. It isn't a teacher. Yeah, some of them are dumb. But you know what I often tell my students, I'm going to, I got this old dumb teacher. And I say to myself, teacher got a master's degree. Been working at fourteen, fifteen years, making thirty-five, forty thousand dollars, driving a nice car, got a beautiful home, but they're dumb. Something to work here. Something to work here. Here I got this for thirteen-year-old. Can't have a way listen to anything I tell him to do, but he's going to come back and surmise to me that that teacher is done. I'm going to take this boredom. And that's the same way we... When you let your request be made known unto God, when you let your request be made known unto God, you still concern about it. Don't let anybody fool you. Just because you said, now, Lord, I want, my mom is sick, so it's in your hand. Boom, that's it. I'm through with it. Go ahead on. It doesn't work that way. The baby is sick. He's still feeling a fever. He's not well. Posal is not working. Money is not there. We're still concerned about that. The concern is overly careful, overly anxious. God says, don't be there. When you ask me and you put it in my hand, you know what God does? He comes in in a small steel manner. And listen to what Paul says. And the peace of God. When I lay before God, my mind is still upset about it. My heart's still worried about it. I'm still concerned about it. He says, but when you ask and put it in his head, he says, and the peace of God. When I thought about the peace of God, I thought about Jesus Christ when he was in the hind part of the ship that the disciples were in when they were going to the other side of the sea. And while they were on top, he went to sleep. And there came a mighty wind and rain and the waves. And they beat vehemently upon that ship and cause it to reel and to rock and all kinds of things were going wrong. And the disciples were afraid that they were going to fall off or be destroyed. And one of them hollered that we are going to die. One said, let's go ask Jesus. And they went down to a ship and they asked Jesus and said, Master, carest thou not that we perish? What a strange thing they asked the Lord. Carest thou not that we perish? And the Lord didn't even argue with it. He just got up, walked to the top of the ship, stood out on the bow, and looked at the wind and the rain and the water. And all he said was, Peace. Be still. wind roll up like covers and went on back into the mountains. The rain ceased and the clouds disappeared. And the war that was tearing and rocking the ship became ceased all of a sudden. Now, you're talking about peace. That's peace. And that's the kind of peace that we have when we put it in his hand. He comes in and he brings us a calmness there that I don't worry about that. I'm still concerned. But I ain't worried about it. God's going to take care of it. So when I'm having a problem with my smoking, I just send the Lord, it's in your hand. Every time I get that urge, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. And you know something? Now, I know we're smart brethren. I know that. But you know, sometimes we have to get ugly when we talk to God. When the problem comes, sometimes you don't know what to say. You just say, Jesus. Jesus. Oh, God. Short. That's all. Oh, Lord. And when the problem seems to really get heavy and you still don't know just what to say, sometimes you have to call them out a little louder. Oh, God. Oh, Lord. Sometimes you have to do that. He said, you have to go into a closet. They'd be looking at you and you're smiling and you know, you're laughing and talking with them. And you're worried that he said. Sometimes you have to just go on off to the side and you have to get someplace by yourself and shut the door. That is by yourself. And you just have to call it. Oh, God. And sometimes, you know, something. There are times when you and I will find ourselves talking to ourselves. Well, we're really talking to the Lord. And folks, what's wrong with me? Oh, no, I just talked to the Lord. I just had some of my mind. I just want to talk to him. You see, it isn't always you have to be so polite and methodical when it comes to talking to God. Sometimes you can be driving your car. Sometimes you've been watching the vision, hiding in clothes or even folding up or even dealing in the middle of a problem and you don't know the answer and you can just sit there and say, Oh, Lord, help me with this. Talk to me. Give me my answer. Give me the peace on this thing. And the peace of God. That's how I answer it. And the peace of God which passes all. I wish I could explain it. I wish I could explain it. That when you ask of God according to the will of God, when you seek God's faith, there is a peace that comes on. that I don't worry about that anymore. I may not have it now. I may not get it today. And if it's God's will, I don't have it. There is a peace that comes and says within my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's okay. It's all right. If you want to live a Christian life in this world, I need to know that God is saying, I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you, even till the end of the world. And whatever problems that we're dealing with trying to live Godly, God provides. So he says here in that verse there, and it passes all understanding, and above all, this one says, it shall keep your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ. Isn't that what we want? We want him to keep us. Keep our hearts. We want him to keep our minds. We want him to bring that peace that we need when we request of him. Let's go back to Hebrews and we'll close. Hebrews eleven. Verse six. If we want to live a blameless life, In this perverse generation, in this evil world that we live, we've heard the things that the Lord has shared with us today, how we are to do that. We've seen that our affections need to be set aside on the things of heaven and not on things of the earth. We've even seen how even our earthly members can cause grief with God when we disobey Him by following those things. We've even seen how even the Lord had pointed out some things that we specifically should leave alone or lay aside. We've even seen how we have to put on the things of God. Some of the talk shared with us, the putting on now is that I'm taking that which God has offered to me, that I might live, I might see, and might share what the world doesn't know, what God can do for us. And then I'm asking you, don't forget to ask God to help us. For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder, of them that what? Diligently seek Him. Diligently seek Him. What are you doing that's causing you not to walk right in this ungodly world? What is it? Your friends that you're associated with, those on your job and school, at home, or even in the assembly here, wherever you might be, Can they really see Christ in you? Or do they see parts of Christ? They see some of the things that Christ saw. Can they see it in you? Are they able to see that Jesus is real in your life? If they cannot, then you need to talk to the Lord about it. And when he show you the areas that you're weak in or hindrance in your walk with him, Ask him to help you. Ask him to help you. Whatever those desires may be that's causing you to fall in the sight of God, there's nothing wrong with falling. Just don't stay there. Just get up and call on him again and ask him. And then look to him to take care of whatever the need might be. As Paul said to the church, to Timothy, when he was sharing with him, Let us lay aside every weight of sin which so easily besets us. And let's get up and run this race with patience. Lord, let this not be just another meeting that we came to to hear your word I ask O God that you allow your Holy Spirit to examine us that he might look into our heart into our life and to show us the ungodly things we may do think or even act in this ungodly world. Point it out to us, O God. And God, when you do point it out to us, help us to be, as you have shared with us before, obedient to the point that we can look to you for help. Whatever the sin, whatever the lifestyle, whatever the situation might be that will cause shame upon our dear Lord Jesus Christ Lord I'm asking you now to convict us of it and then we pray God that you would give us the strength that we can become obedient and follow through by obeying your word when you show it to us God give us the strength that we can overcome it that we might share with you the glory of the blessed Savior and be blameless in this cruel world that men and women might see Christ in us that we can say or even they can say as Paul said it is not I but it is Christ living in me now whatever we have God we ask that you would take it and use it to your glory if it's something that's not pleasing with you give us that strength and will forsake it. Bless your word today. We pray, Father, for these that have come from all parts of this area, and that you would bless them with your word. Take it, make it alive in our hearts, that we might live godly for you. This I ask in my Son, Jesus' name. Amen.