How to Pray Like an Apostle — Tim Conway

Paul’s Prayer for Wisdom and Revelation

Brethren, would you open your Bibles to Ephesians 1. We're going to resume our study. Ephesians, where we find ourselves today, I believe fits just perfectly with us launching out into a week of prayer and fasting.

Ephesians 1. I'm just going to read verses 15, 16, 17. Ephesians 1. Verse 15, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

You just noticed the word there, prayers. We enter into a week of prayer and fasting. These verses speak of prayer. Paul says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. And this is what he's praying.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. So, before we launch into the text itself, I just want to stress two things by way of introduction.

A Church Devoted to Prayer and Fasting

Ever since our church began to meet together in 2001, we have sought... You know, right after our church started, it was in June, so we came to June 2001. So, opening day 2002. Somewhere in those six months that we had been at church, I learned that John Piper's church started every year with a week of prayer and fasting.

I thought that was a tremendous idea. We need the Lord. We need to lay hold on Him. And so, I wanted us to do the same thing. So, ever since we've been at church, we have sought to devote the first week.

First full week. Sunday to Sunday. To prayer and fasting. And listen to the word I'm using. Devote. I love that word when it comes to prayer, when it comes to fasting. Devote. I hope that that word characterizes what our prayer and fasting looks like in the week ahead.

Devoted. Devoted. A church devoted to prayer. That's a great word. More than that, I pray that our prayer meetings... James was talking in the first hour about somebody saying to him they had concerns about the prayer meetings.

I really hope that our prayer meetings in 2017 will reflect that same thing. A devotedness to prayer. By the way, this isn't something that I'm dreaming up. I love that idea of devotedness to prayer. But it's not something that I've dreamt up.

It's something that we actually find in Scripture. Listen to this. In fact, I want you to see this. The early church. Look at the book of Acts. Acts 1. First book, or the first chapter of the book that deals with a narrative of the early church.

Jesus Christ is ascended. What do we have? The church. The church in the book of Acts. And what do we find? Very significantly, we find in Acts 1. Notice this. Acts 1 .14. We know that 120 gathered in the upper room.

We know that the Spirit of God is going to be poured out on the early church. But I want you to notice this. Christ has ascended into heaven, and what do His people do? All these with one accord were devoting.

That's what the ESV says. Your Bible may say continuing in. To be devoted to. It's to continue in. It's to give yourself to this. They were devoting themselves to prayer. Together. We're talking corporate here.

This isn't just a devotedness in your prayer closet. This is a devotedness to the church gathering to pray together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers. So you have the book of Acts.

Narrative of the early church. First chapter. What do you find? Prayer. They're devoted. What does devote mean? It means to give yourself to. It means to continue in. It means to pay persistent attention to.

To attend to this constantly. That's the idea. To be loyal to. Or to keep close company with. That's the idea of devoted. Now, go a little further. Acts 2. Verse 42. Notice this. Early church. Acts 2.

Verse 42 is a text that I often go to. I often think about. Because when people say, I've heard recently, I heard the accusation came from somebody about the church down in Manawa that they were not like the church in the book of Acts.

I heard that accusation being made. Well, I don't know on what basis that's being said. But I can tell you this, if you want to know what the church was like, what the early church, what God's people were like as they were coming together in the book of Acts, Acts 2.

Verse 42 is one of the best representative texts in all the book of Acts about what the early church did. Well worth coming back to over and over and over again. Again, the ESV uses the term devote. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Now, some of your Bibles don't say the prayers. They leave the article out. You know what? The ESV has it right here. The is in the original. There is an article. You say, why are you stressing that? Because it's one thing to give yourself to prayer.

It's another thing to give yourself to the prayers. The prayers indicates that there are designated times of prayer. Now, in the early church, we know, what? Peter and John went up to pray. You know that.

They went to the temple. You've got the man that sat at the beautiful gate. Well, there were appointed times of prayer the early church gave themselves to. We're talking corporate here. The prayers. Not just private prayers.

They gave themselves to the prayers. They were devoted to that. If our church is going to imitate that early church, yes, we could look at Apostles' Doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and all those things.

But you know what? We're headed into a week of prayer and fasting. Brethren, if we want to be like the early church, this is what the early church was like. They devoted themselves to this kind of thing.

In chapter 1, they're devoted to corporate prayer. In chapter 2, we see a devotion to corporate prayer. Let's go a little further. Acts 6 -4. Acts 6 -4. You know Acts 6. The choosing of the seven. Probably a precursor to deacons, if not deacons themselves.

But in Acts 6 -4, what we have is the Apostles say that they are not going to serve tables. They need to appoint some men to do this. Why? Because we will devote ourselves to, that's giving ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

Now, you want to know about the early church? They were devoted to corporate prayer meetings. Their elders, their leaders were devoted to prayer. By the way, brethren, if you're going to think about somebody who might be fit for the office of eldership or the office of overseer in this church, you do not want to neglect their prayer life.

You want to know what it is. You don't want leaders that don't pray. Prayerless leadership is not healthy for the church. Let's look at one more thing. Romans 12 -12. Jump past Acts, go to Romans. Romans 12 -12, some general instruction.

As Paul enters into Romans 12, he's leaving off all the rich doctrinal treatment of the first 11 chapters. Romans 12, he's diving into now some of the practical implications of this glorious gospel that he's just unfolded.

In verse 12, he says rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant. The new American standard says devoted to prayer. Continuing steadfastly, instant, some of your Bibles may say. In prayer, be constant, be devoted.

Now here, we may include our personal prayer lives. Brethren, you want to characterize the early New Testament church? It's this, they were devoted to corporate prayer. Their elders were devoted to prayer.

And they themselves were devoted. Devoted to the designated times of prayer, elders who give themselves and devoted fashion to prayer. Each of us individually devoted. You ever wonder what a healthy church looks like?

And quite honestly, that accusation made about the church in Nicaragua, I don't think holds substance because if you just think about these things here, I see them happening down there. Devoted to prayer.

What is that? Our souls often rising up before the Lord. We need a people who are constant in this, devoted to this, who give the Lord no rest. Some of you are familiar with the text out of Isaiah 62.

Listen to this, you who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Do you recognize God Himself says to you, church?

Give me no rest. I want to be sought often by you. Give me, you don't take rest, and give me no rest. In other words, bother me. Bother me with your frequent prayers. Come, you say it's too trivial. He says, bother me.

It's too great. He says, bother me. I've already asked Him 50 times. He says, bother me. Give me no rest. That's what we're being told. What's the opposite of devoted? You could say, well, not devoted, but it's basically neglect.

It's apathy. It's indifference. If you're not devoted to prayer, if you are devoted to prayer, they look different. And we need to ask ourselves going into this year, hey, early church, apostolic charge, be devoted to prayer.

The example of the early church? Devoted to the prayers. The prayer times. As we enter into this year, are we committed to that? I mean, would you basically say that 2016, if what James said was right, if the Wednesday prayer meetings, and I'll tell you this, in the history of our church, I believe in these 16 years, our prayer meetings have been well attended.

But if that's beginning to fall off, somebody's devotion to it is falling off. That's just a reality. And you know what? If your devotion to the prayers are falling off, it means you're becoming more devoted to something else.

Something else is trumping that time. And you just need to ask yourself, in light of Scripture, are you making a good exchange? Is it a thing that you're becoming more devoted to? Because I know you have reasons.

People have reasons as to why they don't come and corporately pray. But you have to ask yourself, is that a good exchange? Is it a fair exchange? Is it in line with what we find to be a reality about the New Testament church?

Because I can tell you this, the same people that devoted themselves to the prayers, their lives were just like yours. They had a bunch of children. They had work to go to the next morning. All the same things.

And yet, they devoted themselves to it. It's amazing when your heart is full. It's charged up with the things of the Lord. When you're excited for the Lord. When there's a freshness. Where are we at with regards to this?

I mean, do we see a pattern of praying, both corporately and privately, that actually looks something like devotion to prayer? May God help us in 2017, brethren. You know what? Scripture says, don't be weary in well-doing.

And you can get weary in praying. I mean, for 26 years, I've been coming to the prayer meeting. And I saw it, even when I wasn't an elder, I saw it, I mean, Ruby can tell you, it was mandatory in our lives.

Unless we were just wrought through and through with sickness of the severest kind. The prayer meeting was mandatory. Why? Because we were laying hold on the Lord. It was necessary. Brethren, don't become weary in this.

You have to remember this, brethren. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And if there's anywhere the devil's going to try to wear us out, it's in our prayer. Because our prayers bring down his strongholds.

And you know what? You can hear it whispered in your ear. Ah, it's best to stay home, get a lot of rest, be able to rise early in the morning, kids get full rest, all that. Brethren, don't be deceived.

Satan does not like praying churches. He loves it when the prayer meetings begin to diminish. Brethren, prayer unleashes the power of God and he knows it. Don't give in to this. I mean, if some of you are not showing forth a devotedness to corporate prayer, brethren, I call you, repent of that.

Turn. Don't go down that path. And it can become easy. You justify it once, you justify it a second time, a fifth time. Well, the kids... Brethren, don't do that. Now, look, maybe there's some things we have to do.

I mean, maybe our elders be open. If there are things we can do with regards to our prayer meeting, I know we don't always start on time, whatever it is, but brethren, I'm telling you, do not forsake this.

Because if you do, you're going the way that the early church did not go. Don't do this. You want to go down the path to ineffectiveness? You want to go down the path to weakness? Then don't pray. It's not good.

The Nature and Necessity of Prayer

Now, I want to make a second observation before we actually dive into the Ephesians. You said you read Ephesians 1 at the beginning. Are we ever going to get there? We're going to get there. But I just want to make another observation here in the beginning concerning prayer.

We don't just start every year with prayer and fasting. We have typically tried three or four times throughout the year. Often it's when needs crop up. Sometimes it's coordinated with some missionaries on the mission field that are asking for prayer.

We've tried to set aside certain weeks throughout the year. Over these 16 years, when we announce church, we're wanting to ask you to consider giving yourself very particularly to some prayer and fasting during a given time.

Not that you shouldn't be thinking about it during other times. But just calling the church to really give some special consideration repeatedly over the years. I have had people come to me and say, I don't know about fasting.

Could you help me? Could you teach me? Could you give me something to help me to know how to do this? They're basically not familiar with it. They come from churches where it wasn't practiced. But, in the 16 years, I can never remember anybody coming to me and asking me about prayer.

I wonder, what does that mean? Why questions about fasting and not prayer? Does that imply that most of us approach prayer as something that we've basically mastered? I mean, maybe not. Maybe fasting is just more of a foreign animal to us than prayer.

But why not? More questions. Brethren, you have to remember what prayer is. Prayer is speaking to God. That's what we're talking about. Those who simply recite their prayers, those who are very mechanical, those who repeat their prayers, probably prayer's not a big deal.

But brethren, the moment anybody begins to take prayer seriously, the moment anybody begins to really meditate on what prayer is and coming into the presence of God, and the fact is, there is a reward.

And the fact is, you know what I find interesting? That you have not because you ask not. In other words, there are things we could ask for and have. The only reason we don't have them is because we don't ask.

And Scripture does say that there are those who ask wrongly. You know, we can ask for things in a wrong fashion. There's right ways. There's wrong ways. We're approaching God. It's just like if a child approaches his parents asking for something.

There's a right way. There's a wrong way. Sometimes we deal with God as though He's impersonal. Brethren, He's not. He's not impersonal. He's transcendent. He's high and lifted up. He's holy, holy, holy.

But He is not impersonal. He desires relationship. He desires communion and communication. And brethren, there are some people who are more effective in their prayers than other people because they interact with God in a way that is more acceptable and more pleasing to Him.

Brethren, this idea of prayer is something that we need to seek to master. There is a science to it. God help us to not believe we've mastered prayer. Because anybody that seeks to really think about it or seeks to read a biography of somebody who is a mighty man or woman of prayer, you begin to recognize very quickly that we have not prayed much, maybe as we ought.

That there is so much more to learn. So much more. Brethren, prayer is one of the deepest and most profound exercises of the Christian life. I've been convinced of this in my Christian walk. That reading Scripture, that's not near as difficult to keep consistent in your life as prayer.

I'm not talking saying your prayers. I'm talking communing with God. Maintaining it. Having it rich. Having it deep. Having it what it should be. And perhaps all it takes is a glance at somebody like Paul.

To recognize how little we actually know about prayer. You look at how the apostles prayed. You look at how our Lord Jesus prayed. You look at how godly men and women of Scripture prayed. Brethren, we ought to seek to master those.

We ought to seek to embrace. To dive in. To feel. To learn. I can remember Brother Charles Leiter telling me that he was in a prayer meeting one time. And he said, Bill McLeod began to pray. And he said it was like there was a giant in the room.

You ever heard that? Ever been in a prayer meeting? It's like one person, another person, and then all of a sudden somebody prays. And it's like, wow. What's the difference? There is a difference. And you know there is.

Why? Brethren, there is an art to prayer. And some people have mastered it. And I can tell you it's like many things. Oftentimes the best way to master something is to give yourself to doing it. To practicing it.

To being involved. One of the greatest ways to learn is to be attempting things and make mistakes and learn and correct. Study. Look at the lives of men and women who knew what it was to pray. But even more than that, who knew what it was to prevail with God.

Men like Mueller. Men like Hudson Taylor. There is so much to learn when you study the lives of such people. When a man prays, he is speaking to God. I'm afraid, lest we be too casual. Just thinking along this line, can you imagine the disciples?

Can you imagine what it was like to hear Jesus pray? I once did a message called, The Empty Bed. So often we think about the empty tomb. But you know I thought, I had this picture in my mind of the empty bed.

You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking about the disciples waking up in the middle of the night. And Jesus' bed is empty. Where was He? Up on the mountain side praying. If ever there was a perfect man.

If ever there was one who perfectly knew how to pray. If ever there was one that in all of His praise. Every single prayer that He ever uttered. Could have the Father say, this is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.

He was pleased in every prayer. Totally pleased. And you can imagine. Listen, if somebody like Charles Leiter is floored by Bill McCloud. What do you think these guys felt when they were off there? Some of these guys were with an ear shot in the Garden of Gethsemane.

You talk about a prayer of prayers. When this Christ is sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. And He's crying out for His very soul. As He's anticipating the cross. They heard those prayers. They said, they asked.

Lord, teach us to pray. Why? Peter? James? John? Andrew? Thomas? Weren't they already Christians? Jesus says in John 17, they've kept Your Word. They were already keepers of God's Word. Had they never prayed?

Why are they asking to be taught to pray? Well, brethren, this is like the basketball player who asked Michael Jordan. Teach me to play basketball. You say, what? You've never played basketball before?

No, that's not it. I have played basketball before. But I've never played like him. You see, they recognize that. Lord, teach us to pray. Because they heard Him pray. And this was no Bill McCloud praying.

This was one, no flaw could be found with His prayers. Perfect in every sense. And they knew it. It wasn't just that God knew it. They recognized as they listened. He prays. He doesn't pray like we do.

We recognize that there is a difference here. Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Because no matter how long we've walked with the Lord, none of us pray like Jesus prayed. And there is more to be taught.

There is more to be learned. There are higher degrees, higher planes for us to arrive at. Why? Because we're communing with God in this. We're talking to God. Brethren, these men were on the right track.

They recognized that there was more to be learned. When it came to the art of prayer. They knew that there was more to be considered when approaching the living God than what they had already considered.

Brethren, if you think about it, what is one of the greatest ways to excel in anything? It's going to be to recognize that I've yet not attained to the highest possible level. And you know what? You don't want to go ask somebody whose life is not characterized by devotedness to prayer to teach you how to pray.

You want to sit at the feet of those who knew what it was. You see, that's what I want us to do. Because what we're going to do here in Ephesians, we're going to look at the prayer of Paul. Brethren, we want to pay close attention to the apostolic prayers.

Because here's the thing, it's not just Paul's a champion of the faith and I get to sit at his feet. I mean, if that were all, that's great. I mean, that example, to imitate his example. But you have to recognize this, that when Paul writes what he writes in these three verses, 15, 16, 17, first chapter of Ephesians, he's under inspiration.

It's God moving Paul to specifically record this for us about prayer. It's one thing if you get a spiritual man and he tells you something about his experience. It's a whole other thing when you've got a man being carried along by the Holy Spirit to give us inspired language.

And what God is doing here is He's giving us His own teaching on prayer. So we do well to pay close attention to the apostolic prayers. Look at our verses again. Turn back to Ephesians 1 if you're not there.

Ephesians 1 .15. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Him.

So, as we face this whole science of prayer, especially in this upcoming week of prayer and fasting and in this year of 2017, which I hope will be characterized by a church devoted to prayer. Corporate prayer.

Elders praying. You in your own prayer closets. We can do no better than to study the prayer of one of the champions of the faith. Inspired examples right here in Ephesians. So I've got seven things that I want to draw out of Paul.

Now this isn't actually Paul praying. You all recognize that. But it's Paul telling the Ephesians about his praying. Which is just as beneficial. Because he's going to tell us what his prayers are like.

So, seven things. The first one. I want you to notice, brethren, I want you to notice these. I'm hoping that these seven characteristics of Paul's prayers will impact you and your prayer life. The first one is this.

Unceasing Prayer as a Pattern of Christian Life

It's the manner of prayer. It's unceasing. You see that? 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers. This is the same apostle who also said, don't turn to these, but just listen.

To the Thessalonians, he said, pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5 .17. Later in the Ephesians letter here, chapter 6, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. Colossians 4 .2 Continue steadfastly in prayer.

Be watchful in it with thanksgiving. Think about this. Unceasing. Unceasing. All the time. Christian. Prayer isn't just something, you know, okay, I'm going to set aside five minutes a day, or I'm going to go to prayer meeting on Wednesday.

We're talking that the life of a Christian is to be characterized by prayer. All the time. Unceasing doesn't mean that that's all that you ever do and you don't do anything else. But unceasing is a picture of a life characterized by prayer.

Brethren, how significant is prayer in your life? Unceasing. I would say in light of that, it's probably not as significant as it ought to be. I mean, would we all agree that it's probably not more possible for us to be more characterized by an unceasing prayer life than currently that term would adequately describe exactly what's true in our lives.

Some of us pray more than others. Some of us less. Brethren, we need a church where all of our lives are characterized this way. Let's be honest with one another. If you and I pray without ceasing, there's going to be a pattern of prayer that's going to resemble that.

Unceasing. He prays all the time. She prays all the time. We know we use language like that. It doesn't literally mean all the time. We've got to sleep. You don't pray when you sleep. But you can wake up in the middle of the night and go to praying.

You wake up in the morning, you go to praying. Prayer speaking to the Lord. A pattern that is going to resemble this. And I can't tell you exactly what it's going to look like. We all have our own schedules.

We all have our own lives. But whatever your prayer life looks like, obviously prayer in the life of the Christian is going to be a significant part of it. Prayerless Christians are not apostolically condoned.

Not at all. You cannot continue steadfastly in prayer, pray at all times, or pray without ceasing without it taking up a significant amount of your time. Look, don't say, well, I give God quality time, just not much of it.

There is no way you can pray unceasingly or be constant in prayer, or continue steadfastly, or pray at all times without it taking up a significant part of your life. There's just no getting around that.

Taking up significant time, significant energy, significant attention. Now, some of you might be thinking, well, wait a second. I mean, what is there to pray about that would have me praying all the time?

I mean, there aren't that many things to pray about. Brethren, we need to stop and just think about this for what it is. When we talk about praying without ceasing, I'm not talking about you just standing there asking God for things all the time.

One of the things that we need to recognize is that unceasing prayer, think about it. What is prayer? Prayer is speaking to the Lord. You recognize what God is desiring of His people? Do you know Paul's under inspiration when he says pray without ceasing?

Be steadfast, constant. This is God speaking. He's inspired. This is God saying commune with Me. Commune with Me. Commune with Me. Don't look at His sitting on Santa Claus' lap just give Me, give Me, give Me, give Me.

Yes, we're a needy people. We are. And we need all manner of things. But you have to take this in its fullness. It's communing with the Lord. It's talking with the Lord. It's walking and talking with Him.

It's living your life and talking to Him. You're going through life and in your mind you're in a meeting at work and you're dealing with people but you're holding a conversation with the Lord too. Lord, help me here.

Help me get along with the guy over here that's not easy to get along with. Help me to have some good ideas here that would actually help the company and make it worth them to employ me here. Lord, help me to stay awake.

This thing is incredibly boring and I'm ready to fall asleep. And if my boss looks me in the eye and sees my eyes... I'm serious about that. You're talking to Him all the time. Lord, thank You so much for that drive into work today and for that song I listened to.

Lord, help me with this. Lord, I feel depressed. Please, Lord, I just feel some darkness on me. Lord, cause the sun to come out. You're just communing all the time. Lord, help. Lord, thank You. Lord, You're so good.

Lord, that's what we're talking about here. Each of these calls for constancy in prayer is God saying over and over and over again, talk to Me all the time. That's what God wants. Have you never recognized eternal life?

It's to know Him. It's fellowship with Him. It's communion with Him. God didn't save us to leave us separated from Himself. He saved us to make us His people. He saved us to bring us into communion with Him.

Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. That's what was lost when Adam and Eve fell and were kicked out of the garden. What this is, the cross, is all about is us being restored, brethren. And prayer is a huge part of that.

It's not drudgery. Is it drudgery? If a young man meets a young woman and they fall in love and they want to talk to each other? You see, if prayer has become that, then you've missed the very essence and the reality.

The life of Christianity. It's not slavery. It's God saying, My people, talk to Me. Talk to Me. Talk to Me. Come to Me. Bring Me your wants. Bring Me your fears. Come and commune with Me. Admire My beauty.

Come and dwell in My presence. Come and experience My joy. Keep close company with Me. Brethren, brethren, brethren, the reluctance of a Christian to dwell in God's presence, what is that? That's terrible.

And if you come to the place where, you know, I've got better things to do than go to that prayer meeting. I don't know. I don't feel God's presence so much there. It feels better to devote myself to other things.

But I'm telling you, where two or three are gathered together in His name, and even though that text is directly dealing with church discipline, still the truth goes, where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.

What does that mean? It means that Christ's presence, though it be everywhere, is significant where two or three gather together in His name. It means something, some manifestation, something is a reality there.

Don't lose that. Don't miss that. We have too many who would rather hear of God, or speak of God, than speak to God. Prayer. So that's the first thing. Unceasing. Unceasing. Second thing. The order of prayer.

Thanksgiving Before Petition

What do I have in mind? Just namely this. Thanks before petition. Notice. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, and then he goes on to pray for them.

Thanks before petition. Now, brethren, I'm not being exhaustive here. In other words, I'm not looking at every text in our Bibles that have to do with prayer. There may be aspects of prayer. Confession, for instance.

They're not here. We're looking at this text. I'm wanting us to glean from this text. There's more that can be said. This is not the exhaustive word on prayer by any means. So don't take it as that. Does this mean that we can't petition God before we offer Him thanks?

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that this is some rigid formula. I'm just wanting you to notice that Paul thanked the Lord before he went to asking something of the Lord. Can you imagine, little child, you give the child a thousand gifts.

No thanks. He just comes to you demanding another thing. Christian, don't always run into God's presence with give me, give me, give me. Paul didn't do that. Do you realize how much God does give to you?

You see, when you're not offering thanks, you're not acknowledging what God has done for you. You're going to ask something more from Him. Brethren, do you recognize how much God has done for you? If you are a child of God, do you recognize?

Have you forgotten the first 14 verses? Have you forgotten that you're chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world? Have you forgotten you're sealed with the Holy Spirit? Have you forgotten that you've been pardoned by the blood of Jesus Christ?

Have you forgotten that your children are not yet in hell? Have you forgotten that you're not in hell and have not been dealt with according to your sins? There are so many things that God does for us.

Innumerable things. You don't want to just run into His presence all the time without acknowledging those things that He's done for you. He's given you life. He's given you breath. He's given you His Son.

He's given you His Spirit. He's given you Himself. What God has done for us, if you're a Christian, I mean, if you're not a Christian and you're here today, there are multitudes of kindnesses that He has given to you.

But not kindnesses that are meant to lead you to think everything is okay between you and Him. Kindnesses that are meant to lead you to repentance. If you're a Christian, you are the recipient of untold gifts and mercies and graces.