The Power of Prayer and God's Word

on the power of prayer. I would like to read scripture from Matthew 5 verses 43 through 48. You have heard it said you you have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect. I was a teacher for 37 years and this story came from one of the years at the end of my career when I was teaching in middle school. I had a young lady in my class and I'm going to call Alice and about the second week of school Alice came to me after after class and said well I want to talk to you so okay and she said I you know I just don't like the way you're teaching and I don't like the way you're you're doing things and so I I kind of questioned her I said well give me a can you give me an example of something I've said that you don't like or something I did she could never do that but she just really didn't like didn't seem like anything about me so I talked with her a little bit and I tried to figure out what the problem was and so I told her I would try some things and I tried you know over the course of the next few days to try to do what I thought would make Alice feel better well we started a pattern about every month or so Alice would come in and see me and she would tell me how she didn't like anything I was doing and I never could exactly figure out part of it was I could never exactly figure out what she didn't like because she couldn't give an example and I I couldn't read between the lines and get it and I would try you know to speak in a way and act in a way that wouldn't be offensive to her and I'd go down and talk to my principal about it and I'd tell him this story and he'd just laugh and he'd say oh just don't worry about it go teach class but I did worry about it because I didn't want any of my students to feel that way I wanted to have a good relationship with them and I wanted to show Christ in my classroom and I so I did worry about it well this went on and on and finally it was January and and you know I tried I thought I by that time I had a pretty deep bag of tricks to try and I just tried everything and she came in and once again just really let me have it and I didn't know what to say so I just said well I thank you for sharing I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way and that's all I could think of to say now I hadn't wasn't that I hadn't been praying about this I had you know I'd asked God to help me do what I needed to do to get along with Alice and and to help me do this say things in the right way and do things in the right way but I came to this point where I just I just didn't know what else to do I didn't know what to try I I just didn't have any I was completely out of ideas so one morning on the way to school in the car I I said Lord what is it you want me to do what what do I need to do and this thought came to my mind what does my word say and I thought about it and this scripture came to my mind to pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you and then for some reason I thought it would probably be a good idea for me to argue with the creator and ruler of the universe and I said well now Lord she's not my enemy I don't hate her and you know I don't really think she persecutes me I didn't hear anything I said what do you want me to do and I heard the same answer what does my word say to do well it says you know to pray for so I thought okay I'm gonna try that I didn't have any other ideas so the next day you know I'm in the car and I'm praying God bless this student and bless her family with every good thing help her you know just just pour your blessings upon her and you know I just thought when I got down I thought this is the dumbest wimpiest thing I have ever done in my whole life this is not gonna work this is not gonna do any good but I didn't have any other ideas and I did have faith in God so I just kept doing it every day I would do that well one day I kind of thought about it and by then it was about the same time of year it was February and I hadn't seen Alice for a while so every day I'm kind of watching for Alice to come by and didn't happen spring break came and went state assessments didn't see Alice April came and went may came and went I didn't see Alice and I'm saying thank you Lord you know that I haven't seen Alice well the last day of school came and I'm thinking okay I've made it saw her coming down the hall toward me and I thought oh no she's gonna really let me have it now but she came up and talked to me a minute and she handed me an envelope and she went on and I wished her a good summer and she went on her way and I was like a kid with a Christmas present I could not wait to open that envelope and see what was in it and you know it was a thank-you card and it said I want to thank you for teaching me this year I have learned so much from you I know we got up I know we got off to a rough start but you're one of the best teachers I've ever had and I just stood there in the hall and had to say Lord how great thou art because I hadn't done anything I hadn't changed anything I didn't know anything to do I hadn't done anything different I hadn't acted God had and I don't know how God blessed this child and her family but I know he did because he's faithful but I know he certainly blessed me through that experience because I've used this in time since and I've never had a time maybe think maybe it was never quite so dramatic but I've never had a time when praying for God to bless people didn't work and I learned several things that I'd like to share with you you know we read the story about the Good Samaritan and we learn who our neighbor is our neighbor is everybody but I didn't know who my enemy was I thought my enemy was you know a Nazi or Isis or someone that I hated but what I found out through that experience is this is talking about anybody that we have a conflict with it doesn't have to be someone you hate it's someone that you're in conflict with that this scripture is talking about how to get along with people and you know if I had given this problem to God and saw what he wanted to do from the beginning I probably could have saved myself a lot of worry and frustration but I was trying to tell God to help me do what I wanted to do and he just let me try all those things that didn't work and then when I got my big self out of the way and let him be in charge then he could act and he could take care of the problem so I learned that you know part of a good prayer life is listening and not just telling God what I want that being still and knowing that he is God so I don't know if you've ever had an experience like this or not but I would challenge you today if you have conflicts in your life with your spouse or your family or at work or with your neighbors or in the church or with anyone to try this to just back off and pray and ask God to bless this person because another thing I learned was that you it is not emotionally possible to pray for God to bless someone and hold any bitterness or anger in your heart toward them it can't be done you can't do it you have to let go of that and you have to have a right feeling toward the person before you can pray for them so I would challenge you to try that in your own life and see what God can do for you and so now I'd like to pray for Keith and and for our message father we just ask for you to come in to be with us and let your presence be felt here we ask you to be with brother Keith and to give him the words that you have to direct and guide us help us to know what it is that you have in Bible study that we can grow and become more like you we ask this in Jesus name amen one of the things that I see there thank you you can hear me keep it there my voice may not last this morning one of the things that is common with prayer is hearing God's Word and and seeing how those things come together last night was we watched the war room it was very obvious that prayer wasn't just by itself but that time and prayer was always accompanied with opening up this word and spending some time in it and letting God speak to us and allowing us to listen so when Marla opened up God's Word and it started talking about who is my enemy it began to convict her and it began to change the way she prayed in a way she thought about this young lady and folks I can't I see the the power of a prayer I see the power of Bible study and those things joining together you know there's a passage of scripture and Acts chapter 8 you know the story the church is being birthed the new church the New Testament churches is literally exploding with thousands and thousands of people and and and and during this chapter we see the first martyr happen in Stephen Stephen was diligently preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and boy it upset a lot of the religious leaders of the day and so much so that they begin to to chastise him persecute him and eventually they threw stones at him and he died and standing at that place next to that was this young man named Saul who we now know to be Paul the one who stood there and held the coats because he was so fastidious if you will about his religion that he was willing to stand up for it and die for it and Stephen did die Stephen sat there and he died because of his faith and and even as he died he looked up into heaven and said don't don't don't count this against him God they really don't know what they're doing and and he just had this glow about him at the end of that then all of a sudden the Christians were being dispersed and what that was supposed to do was destroy Christianity but what it did was as the Christians begin to be dispersed and go out and to the countryside and to other places the church begin to explode even bigger New Testament churches were founded and and things begin to happen and and at the end of that chapter there's an interesting story that doesn't seem to fit there was an Ethiopian eunuch who had been in Jerusalem for some religious holidays and they and he was on his way back to Ethiopia you know the story right and and he He was riding in his chariot, and that chariot might have been pulled by an oxen. But he had the Bible open, he had the Word of God open, and what he was reading was Isaiah chapter 53, but he didn't fully understand what he was reading. You're going to have to pardon me, this is a take a drink day. That's good stuff. And as he was walking along the way, Philip was told by the Holy Spirit of God, go and talk to that guy. And when he got up there, he jumped up on the chariot and he said, do you really know what you are reading? And the man said, no, unless someone tells me, I don't know what I'm reading. And Philip began to tell him that the Word that he was reading in Isaiah 53, like sheep, they took him to the slaughter. That it was about Jesus Christ. And that Ethiopian, who was not fully accepted into Judaism, yeah, they wanted him, but they didn't want him all the way. That day was fully accepted into God's kingdom because he accepted Christ as his personal Savior. And he said, watch to prevent me from being baptized, and immediately they went down into the water and came up out of the water, and he went up on his way back to Ethiopia telling people about Jesus. All because he was reading the Word of God. The Word of God, folks, is powerful stuff. I brought with me today a Bible that is 51 years old. I have told you this before, I believe, that I was 12 years old when I surrendered to the ministry. I did that in a September revival meeting. In November, we went to Oklahoma, which is where we normally went for Thanksgiving. We went to my grandmother's and we would eat Thanksgiving dinner, and I would just love being there. And then on Friday, our tradition was to go to my uncle's farm and pick pecans. And we would sit there picking up pecans, and on this particular day, 51 years ago, we filled up our burlap sacks with pecans. And after we finished, all the cousins and all the relatives finished picking up pecans, my uncle Olin said, come on, Keith, I want you to go with me to sell these pecans. Now he had never done that before. In fact, I never knew where the pecans went. We'd always take what we want home. I didn't realize that he sold those and made money off of those. So I went to Ardmore, Oklahoma, took those burlap sacks into this kind of a grain-elevated kind of a place. They weighed the pecans, and he got about $13 worth of pecans sold. And he gave me that money afterwards. He said, now Keith, I want you to go and buy yourself a good preaching Bible for $13. My family loved the fact that a 12-year-old boy had surrendered to the ministry. My grandmother called me her little preacher boy. I went home and had my mother take me to the closest bookstore. I bought me a Holman red letter concordance reference Bible that I could preach out of. And when my mother got this Bible, she took it and opened it up at the front and said to Keith, presented to Keith Bryant by Uncle Olin's pecans. I began to write in my Bible. I began to underline things. It's always fun to come back and to look at this Bible because shortly thereafter, I got me a Schofield Bible that somebody stole at college. Then I bought me a Thompson chain reference Bible. And over the years, I've had many, many kinds of different Bibles that I've used to preach out of above. But I always like to come back to this one and see what God was doing in my young life through the Bible. God's Word is important to us. It's important that we open up this book, even as children. Today we want to talk about how important Bible study is. Last week, we talked about prayer. The week before that, we talked about worship. We need to understand what our actions need to be as a result of what we believe about God's Word. And then today, I hope by the end of this service, that we'll give you some practical steps on how you can be studying God's Word. But before we do that, before we get into our text this morning, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for this morning. I confess my voice is weak, but yours is strong. Father, I pray that they would not hear my words today, but that they would hear your word. Father, I pray that you would give me strength. But again, our strength doesn't come from men, but it comes from the very words of Christ, the very words of life, the very words that pierce our hearts, and that is the Word of God. So Father, speak to our hearts. Speak to us clearly, and we will give you praise, in Jesus' name, amen. Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15 through 17, actually verses 14 through 17. I don't know if I have 12 up. Let me see what passages of Scripture, obviously, it's verse 14, sorry. Verses 14, 15, and 16, and 17. Verse 14 says, but as for you, continue in what you've learned, and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and prosperable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is the Apostle Paul speaking to young Timothy, one of his proteges, if you will, one of the men that he had raised up, one of the men that he had mentored, but way before Paul ever got involved in Timothy's life, there were two other very important people that taught him to get into God's Word, and that would be his mother and his grandmother. If you look there at the very early, it says that you've learned, firmly believed, knowing him you learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings. Who did that? It was his family that saw the value in God's Word and made sure that Timothy saw that. So if there's one thing that I want you to see this morning, it's simply this. Bible study will allow you to be completely equipped. Bible study will allow you to be completely equipped. Now how does that happen? The first question you might simply have is, why? Why does Bible study equip us? Well, let me just say these few words. There's no book in all the world that has withstood the test of authenticity, that has shown the consistency and has shown the reliability like God's Holy Word, the Bible. You can go back and do all the historical tests that you want on this Bible. There are not as many copies of any other historical book that we have like we do in the Bible. When you go back and look at all the manuscripts that we have in Hebrew and in Greek, none of the great writings have that same kind of historicity, if you will. None of them have that same kind of consistency, if you will. None of them have that same reliability that we have in this thing that we call the Bible, God's Holy Word. It is truth. It is holy and it is inspired. Those are some of the things we talked about about 10 weeks ago when we talked about the Word of God and what it means and how we make it applicable. So why is studying God's Word important for us as believers? Let me answer that. First of all, it reveals God's plan of salvation. The Bible tells us that God does not want anyone to perish. Write this text down next to your notes there. Second Peter chapter three, verse nine says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but it is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. My friend, how would you know about salvation's plan, about God's plan to save you and to keep you from perishing eternally from him if it was not for this word that we have here in this Bible? When I got my Bible, I went back and looked right across from where my mother had written to Keith Bryant from Uncle Olin's Pecans. I wrote the Roman road over on the other side, knowledge that we are sinners, Romans 3, 23. We need to know that there is a price for sin, that sin will not go unpunished. But Romans 5, 8 tells us that God demonstrated his love for us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God paid the price. And then we must accept Christ, Romans 10 chapter nine, verse 10 through 13, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. John 5, 24, I've quoted before. And then what do you do after? And then I wanted to look this verse up because I wrote down first John chapter one and I went over there and I have underlined verse five, verses seven, eight, nine, and 10 are good verses too. But verse five says, this then is the message, the message which we have heard of him and declares unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we confess our sins, verse nine says, he is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God's word, the message we've heard through this holy word, the Bible, it is his plan. He is desire that all of us, that none of us should perish, that all of us should have eternal life. God's word clearly from the beginning has told us he wants to live eternity with us. It is in his word. So God's word reveals his plan of salvation, not only that, but it reveals God's purpose of the church. It reveals God's churches of purpose for the church. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, Jesus came to them. You know, this passage of scripture, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now we're living in the last days. We're living in the last times that begin actually, when Jesus began to ascend back into heaven, he told his disciples, you are to go and make disciples. And as he was going up into heaven, said, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world We are to go and make disciples that make disciples. So hear me church The purpose of the church never ever changes If you try to say that we are to be something other than making disciples that make disciples that is not out of god's word God's word is clear. The purpose of the church is to make disciples that make disciples Would you say that with me make disciples that make disciples make disciples that make disciples That is god's purpose for the church as we see it right here in the word of god I hope during my time with you that if you you will hear me say that quite often and quite Frequently that by the time I leave you will know what the purpose now you can say it differently You can say in a lot of different ways But the purpose of this church Is to make disciples that make disciples that share the revealed plan of salvation That's in this clearly in this bible The third thing is that it reveals the purpose for our lives It gives us purpose on how to live our life Uh, max lucado, I listened to his sermon about this subject and he shared a story and and It was back when uh Did any of you remember? when you could go to an airport and not have to go you you bought your ticket and you went straight up to the To the counter and where your plane was you didn't have to check in you didn't have to go through any of those X-ray things you you just you went straight up to the gate anybody remember those days? You're older than dirt. Uh Because i'm right along there with you, okay, that was a long time ago, right? Uh, and that changed over the years And uh, but but he walked up there He he had gotten through and and he had to go to a speaking engagement in denver And it was late at night and he was extremely tired and so he got on, uh where he was supposed to be and he he went down the the The walkway and got on his plane and immediately it was late at night And he must have fallen asleep. In fact, he did he fell asleep in his in his chair immediately until about an hour later Uh, they were on their descent landing and the first words he heard was welcome to houston, texas How did I get here And that was his question immediately and so Uh, he suddenly realized that he had gotten on the wrong plane and evidently the lady who checked him in was as sleepy as he Was because she didn't catch it either you ever wonder now when you get on the plane They say this plane is going somewhere and if you're on the wrong plane, you need to leave now Now I know why they say I always say why do they do that because they check it so many places But now I know why there's people like max lucado who gets on the wrong plane Okay, but anyway, he went out immediately. He said I want to know how I got here And I want to know how I can get where I need to be There are a lot of people in this world that ask those questions How did I get to where I am right now in my life How can I get where I need to go Let me tell you god's word Tells us exactly where we are who we are why we exist and where we need to go The bible says this in mark chapter 12 Jesus answered the most important commandment Is here. Oh israel the lord our god. The lord is one and you Shall love the lord your god with all your heart With all your soul with all your mind with all your strength. The second is like this You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these Those of us who just completed the study in deuteronomy remember this as being called the shema in the old testament This is one of the most important commandments that the hebrew people would learn and live to live by And so we need to understand that when god gives us purpose in our life it begins right here God's purpose for us is to have no other gods besides him God's purpose for us is to love him With all of our heart with all of our soul and all of our mind god's purpose in our life is to love One another even our enemies or students in the classroom That's that's god's purpose for our life The holy bible will give us guidelines. In fact the last 10 weeks of this study uh will be about how we Really, uh motivated and what are the virtues of our life really it's about living the spirit filled life How do we get that we get that from understanding god's word and we get that by the holy spirit living inside us We'll talk more about that in the days to come but today god's word it Clearly gives us the plan of salvation. It clearly gives us the purpose of the church. It clearly gives us the purpose of our lives bible study Will allow us to be completely equipped To be able to be saved To be on mission as a church and to live life on purpose Second thing this morning is If you're not doing bible study you need to start immediately You need to start immediately as you catch the passage of scripture from childhood You've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in christ. Jesus When I was in the third grade Mrs. Tosh Was my sunday school teacher And mrs. Tosh made it as clear for me as the first time in my life that I can remember Of what the gospel plan of salvation was? Every sunday mrs. Tosh would open up god's word And she loved me and she taught me god's word I had the privilege To preach a revival in a church years ago where mrs. Tosh Was living in pampa, texas And I told her I said mrs. Tosh You may not know this but I am a christian today Because you taught me what it meant to know jesus christ as my real and personal savior in sunday school You taught me the road to salvation You taught me the roman road of salvation Thank you After church that day. She said keith. I never knew I never knew that I had that kind of impact on your life church. Hear me The most important ministry we do in this church is right over there From childhood timothy was learning the word of god And he taught me the word of god And he taught me the word of god And he taught me the word of god And he taught me the word of god Folks if we don't have enough We have plenty of opportunities For you to serve in our children's department On sunday mornings You're the reason I got saved Because you taught me the gospel Just as timothy's mom just as timothy's grandmother taught him the word of god I will tell you that a church will not grow numerically If we're not taking care of our children and our youth Those are two of the most important things we do So that kids can we were talking about it in sunday school this morning Who was talking about it? I can't remember but we were talking about Oh, it was it was connie. She was talking about and I think she's with children this morning She was talking about how her child her daughter Her daughter still quotes verses of scripture that she memorized in church And you're probably that's probably true in your life too, right? I still remember john 5 24 because that's the verse my dad taught me as a kid It's so important but not only that let me let me throw the second part of this on this on this point here That we need to start immediately why because in it we find wisdom God's word is just chock full of wisdom In fact proverbs chapter 3 verse 13 and 14 says blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding For the gain from her that is wisdom is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold The bible tells us that if we lack wisdom ask for it I tell you what that is something i've learned in the last few years. I have not asked for enough wisdom We need to consistently ask god for holy spirit power driven wisdom First corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 and 21 says where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not god made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of god the world did not know god through wisdom It pleased god through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe In the wisdom of god We need to pray and seek because in this word we know that there is wisdom The last point this morning is very simply We we grow we are we become more equipped when we do god's holy word when we study it because We will hear The breath of god shirley said it so well this morning in the opening remarks that when we read god's word We hear the breath of god Did you hear the scripture says all scripture is breathed out by god? Some of your translations will say all scripture is inspired By god when we study god's word folks. Listen to me. Listen to me God by his holy spirit is breathing out his word into our lives Now what do we do with that How do we deal with god's word and let me tell you god's word is a hundred percent inspired by the holy spirit God's word is a hundred percent infallible. God's word is a hundred percent truth. You cannot go wrong with studying the bible And yet some people will tell me well, I don't know how to study the bible I'm going to just like I did last week. I taught you how to pray right acts How many of you did that? I hope a lot of you did that this week I'm not going to put you on the spot But i'm going to give you a small outline In fact, I want you to write these words down because I didn't put them on the outline Here are three other words that I wanted to give you this morning examine expose and exercise And i'm going to tie those into the to the outline that we're going to have you fill out here a moment and look at the at the words of the bible Found in this passage here in timothy The first thing is to review And interpret which is also the word that we would say examine or summarize if you want to use that word. We need to look At at at the bible in a critical way and I don't don't misunderstand my words I don't don't criticize the bible But I need to look at it with eyes that's that's going to to ask questions What where when why what's going on in this passage of scripture? What is god saying? We need to examine the word of god. We need to examine and summarize the truth of the scripture The bible said there in timothy that the Bible is useful to teach us. So we never arrive, we never get our PhD in Bible study, okay? We're never there until we get to glory. We constantly open up God's word and we say, okay, what is God saying in this pattern? Not what I'm saying, not what Adrian Rogers said, not what John Piper said, not what Keith Bryant said, what is God saying in this word? I would challenge you to get a journal. And when you do Bible study, I love doing this, when you do Bible study, okay, I'm doing this passage of scripture today, I simply just examine it. I'm gonna review it, I'm gonna interpret it as the Holy Spirit drives me and leads me. The second thing we do is that we reveal and investigate, make us realize what's going on in our lives, what is right in our lives, what is wrong in our lives. In other words, what is that word that I've just studied? How is it exposing my life? What do I need to do differently? What is it speaking to my heart? How is God's word piercing me? Let me share with you that God's Holy Spirit is the one that convicts, God's Holy Spirit is the one that convinces us. And when we read God's word and we understand it as Holy Spirit's driving us, then it will expose something in our life, either what we're doing right or something that we need to do differently in our life. And I would write that down, what is God exposing in my life today? The scripture says, it corrects and rebukes us. When we study God's word, it will tell us how to live our life, it will give us the direction that we need and the Holy Spirit will never ever tell us something that contradicts this word. I always worry about different messages that somebody says, Holy Spirit told me to do that, was that consistent with God's word? God's word would never, never, ever contradict itself with the Holy Spirit, never. Because it's truth. The third point is we need to realize and implement God's word. Because the scripture very clearly says, there at the end of that passage in Timothy, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good word. In other words, what do I need to exercise in my life? How do I need to apply this word of God? So in your journals, you simply, okay, what is God saying? What is he saying to my heart? And what am I gonna do about it? And you write that down and then you begin to make some kind of application in your life. And that, my friend, is how you begin Bible study. Now you can always go deeper, you can always do other things, but if you're not doing Bible study at all on a daily basis, start immediately. Start now. I've given you a small plan on how you can follow through on Bible study. If you wanna see how I do it, you can go to overflowingwithhope.blogspot.com and you'll see that I journal it every day on my blog for five days a week. I journal and I blog what I'm reading and studying and what kind of practical application that I do. I've enjoyed doing that, that becomes my journal. I type that in on a daily basis. It becomes my time, my quiet time, that I read God's word and then I pray and ask God to help me in whatever way I need to be applicating that word of God. This morning, in the conclusion of our study, our author tried to get us to do four things. As we study God's word, we need to keep our heart soft and receptive to the word of God. We need to understand the story of the Bible. We need to study God's word in communities and I take that to mean Bible study groups, small groups. Listen, a church will grow larger by growing smaller. What does that mean? The more small groups we begin to grow and grow and grow, then the more we will be able to reach more people in this community. It all starts with small groups. And the last thing is, we need to memorize scripture. Oh, I'm too old to memorize scripture. No, you're not. No, you're not. Let me prove it. John 11, 35, everybody say this with me. Jesus wept, Jesus wept. Can you remember that? John 11, 35, you just memorized scripture, all right? I'm gonna ask you after church, did you memorize today? You can say Jesus wept, okay? That's simple, I know. But I still try to memorize scripture. I don't do it every day, I don't do it every week. But as we put God's word and hide it in our heart, it will be a lamp unto our feet as we walk in this journey in life. My challenge to you this morning that if you don't understand that you need to be saved, likely you don't understand God's word. You're like the man on the chariot. He was reading God's word, but he didn't understand it. You don't fully understand it till you receive it in your heart. You need to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Do that today, would you? You may be stunning your growth as a Christian because you don't have an effective prayer life and you don't have an effective Bible study life. I would say start today. Start today by studying God's word. Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for it's being true. Father, help us to respond to this truth in whatever way you'd share with us, Father, that people would just simply, simply respond to it. We give you praise and honor in Jesus' name. Would you stand as we have our time of invitation? If you need to respond today, whatever way it is, we'll be here to pray with you. ♪ Speak to my heart, Lord Jesus, speak to my heart ♪ ♪ Speak to my heart, Lord Jesus, speak that my soul may hear ♪ ♪ Speak to my heart, Lord Jesus, calm every doubt and fear ♪ ♪ Speak to my heart, oh speak to my heart, speak to my heart ♪ ♪ Speak to my heart, speak to my heart, I pray ♪ ♪ Yielded and still, seeking I will, oh speak to my heart today. ♪ I say this every Sunday, the invitation is never closed. If you need to pray with someone, please get with someone and pray with them. I'll be here after church. Please feel free to come by and visit and pray with me and I'll be glad to step into another place. People will understand if you need to pray. God bless you. Please come back tonight. We'll continue in this study that we kind of started last night with the war room viewing. We have some books where it's a Bible study. We'll be talking about how we can enhance and grow in our prayer life. So God bless you as we close in a song. ♪ Speak to my heart, speak to my heart, I pray. ♪ This is 432, speak oh Lord, the first verse. ♪ Speak oh Lord, speak oh Lord, I pray. ♪