The Laborers' Podcast - Prayer Part 1

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All right, welcome to the

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Laborers' Podcast tonight. So you probably noticed we've got four squares instead of five or six.

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So Dan's without power likely, Rob is on call. So we are here with you, we've got

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Tyler Noe up in the top right, we've got Andy Cain in the bottom left, and we've got

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John Jones in the bottom right. Big John. Yes sir. Real talk with Big John.

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Big John. Brother of the Word podcast and God -centered theology. So these guys are going to do a lot tonight.

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I'm just here to kind of facilitate and help along any way that I can.

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What we are going to be talking about tonight is prayer, the importance of prayer.

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What is prayer? What are the key takeaways from the

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Lord's Prayer, it's one of the passages of Scripture that we're going to be looking at just to give you all an overview.

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What is the significance in persisting in prayer? Why do we pray in Jesus' name and what does that mean?

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What is the role of the Spirit in prayer? What is the connection between fasting and prayer?

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How do we deal with supposed unanswered prayer? How do we pray in faith?

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And then big kind of a generalized topic here, sovereignty and providence of God versus man's responsibility in the area of prayer requests.

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And then we're going to look at James in closing. If we can fit all that in. That was a mouthful, guys.

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So how are y 'all doing? Doing all right. Very well. We had a good time pre -show.

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The only thing that we lacked was arm wrestling and we know Big John would win amongst all of us on that.

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I don't know about that. And Andy's got Superman in the background, so he may have superpowers.

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I was getting ready to say, there's a pretty good chance I don't have any Kryptonite. So I don't know if I could take

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Brother Andy down. Well, the difference is I don't get my power from the yellow sun. I get it from Diet Mountain Dew.

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Oh yeah. Do the Dew. Do the Dew. All right. So let's do this.

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Let's start tonight. Andy, let's start with you. So give us a bit of a description.

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Did you get the notes? Yes, sir. Okay. Did you get, would you care to give us a bit of description biblically?

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What is prayer? Yes, sir. I actually came across an article today and I spent quite a bit of time trying to hunt down who the author was.

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It's on Ligonier's website about prayer and how it relates to scripture.

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And so I can share the link later, but I could not, I want to, I like to give credit to people when they write stuff, but the author's name is nowhere to be found.

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So whoever wrote this, I apologize, but I really enjoyed it. I looked at it and it says, it quotes

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A .W. Pink and it says, Pink said, prayer is not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to him of our sense of need.

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Not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need. We have the scriptures to furnish us with what we need to know.

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Prayer is designed to give as a confession to our father of our sense of need and understanding that we need him.

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Some other highlights of this article, and I'm not going to read all of it because I want you to go and read it, but just some highlights that stood out to me.

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He talks, this author talks about how God knows what we need before we ask him, things like that. In one paragraph, it talks about how in prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on the

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Lord and give him his due and glory. And it's effective in our lives because God has chosen it.

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Notice that God has chosen to use prayer as a means to bring about his purposes.

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And so some thoughts that I wrote down, prayer is a very natural thing for the

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Christian. It's not meant for the unregenerate. Prayer is not a thing that is meant for unsaved people.

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Now, when someone is regenerated and brought to spiritual life, the first act of obedience and the first act of faith that is a direct result of having been raised to life is the fact that we will very naturally in that moment, repent of our sin, put our faith in Jesus Christ.

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And so it begins that journey of when you think about it, the new creature that we are in Christ begins very naturally with prayer because it's a very natural thing for the

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Christian. Also, prayer is for us. God doesn't need prayer. We need prayer.

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God doesn't need. We have need. Prayer is a very vital part of, I like how the

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ESV study Bible uses very often in the New Testament, particularly in Matthew 5 and 6 and some of the places we're going to be tonight, a lot of the headings over the chapters.

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It refers to kingdom life. What does kingdom life look like?

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We are adopted into the family of God. We are part of his kingdom. What does kingdom life looks like?

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Well, it involves prayer. And what is very interesting in the word prayer comes from two different words in the original and one pros meaning towards or in exchange.

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And so what is literally happening in prayer is we are taking what we would wish to be or what we think we need or what we think we want and the things that we have a desire for.

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And if you think about it in super nerdy computer terms, we have in many devices, in software and hardware and in the computer and technology world, many different types of interfaces.

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An interface is just a very nerdy word to say, what is it you're using to obtain what it is you're wanting to use it for?

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So, you know, for example, sermon audio, which is something that I use, they have the interface there where you can upload your sermon, you can put a title to it, all that's the interface

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I'm using to get my content on to sermon audio. So God uses prayer as an interface between an infinite.

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Eternal being and finite time bound creatures.

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To where ultimately the goal and then I'll end my opening statement with this, the goal is that as we pray, we are doing an exchange, we are going to God with our needs, wants and desires.

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And over time, God is exchanging and imparting his faith. And his desires and his will into us to where as we grow in our maturity, maturity as Christians, we grow in our ability to pray for the right things.

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So as a way of talking to the Lord's way of interfacing with God, it's a way of interacting with the one who saved us.

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And to me, the ultimate goal is to understand what God's will is and what that looks like in our life.

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Amen. Amen. All right.

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We get the keys going. Big John, get ready, get ready because I want to ask a question before I forget.

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Yes, sir. Did y 'all get the chat thing that come across? I see it.

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Oh, man. So do you want to ask it? But so, so, but then you said something

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I totally agree with. And and it has been one of the things that. I was

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I combated this so much from behind the pulpit, if prayer is a form of communion between God, the father and his children.

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Then and you said only Christians or only believers can pray. And the only time that the sinner prays is after he has been regenerated and in obedience to that regeneration, he comes to prayer.

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Did I hear you're misunderstanding? Yes, is my position that in light of.

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What scripture teaches about the unregenerate being so extremely long story short,

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I believe that man is made up at birth of a body and a soul. He's from that point forward, he will be eternal in the sense he will never cease to exist.

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And he has a physical. But yeah, dichotomy, he has a physical body. But ultimately, a regenerate person is, in a sense, switched.

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I probably don't have the best terminology at the moment. They're sort of recreated with trichotomy in the sense of now he has a spirit that has raised the life.

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And I believe scripture is without going into all the different scriptures as to why, but just a very short answer.

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I believe scripture indicates that the only way someone can have faith and have a prayer life and have a response to the gospel is if their spirit is raised to life first.

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So very naturally, like R .C. Sproul would say, regeneration precedes faith. So whenever you consider that's why it makes sense, whenever Jesus talks about when you pray, say our father is assuming a regenerate person is the one praying.

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Whenever people say that, so then how do you face the sinner's prayer?

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How do I do what? How do you face that? Because one of the things that I found is that inevitably

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I'll be dealing with somebody who raised a hand one time or walked an aisle one time or some kind of terminology that I'm completely unaware of they use.

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And they said they repeated what a man told them to say. And somehow or another, this set them right with God.

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How many of y 'all dealt with that in terms of from the ministry platform? How much time do we have?

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I'm not the one running the show. I'm just. You're you're. Oh, no, I'm with you.

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Yeah, it is. It is and has been rampant.

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Right. That the idea of the sinner's prayer being a magic, like a magic spell.

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Yeah, I remember when I was like in the eighth grade or something.

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And my sister, my grandma took my brother, my sister, myself to a play down in South Carolina and had an altar call at the end.

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And my sister wanted to go up front to the to the altar call. And my mama said, take your sister up.

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There's too many people up here. Hard to go by herself. OK, whatever. You just do what my mom said or she hit you.

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I didn't mean that. So I took her down there and some well -meaning brother comes up to me and says, you want to go to hell?

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And I was like, well, no, I mean, I thought it seemed like a pretty straightforward answer. And he said, all right, buddy, take me by the hand.

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Repeat after me. I said, yes, sir, because I was raised. You do what you're told. Yeah. And well,

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I told you, I was going to have a very, very good answer. Now that I know what you're asking about, basically what you're saying is how does my viewpoint in terms of what

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I believe about essentially election and what prayer being for the regenerate, how's that play in with the quote unquote sinner's prayer?

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Well, I would say the sinner's prayer is not biblical for one. I agree with that. That's that's more or less what I was getting to.

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But how do you how do you go about combating that where it's deeply rooted? Yeah. And the way I would combat it is

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I would help people understand and keep in mind, depending on who you're dealing with, you may be very gentle.

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Some cases you may have to be a little bit more forceful, depending on who you're dealing with. But I would explain to them that they've got the gospel wrong to begin with.

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You see, as a reformed theologian, I believe the gospel has 100 percent success rate.

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Every single person that Christ died for will be saved. Every single person that repents and believes the gospel will be saved.

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I don't have to worry about failing. And so much of, in particular, the independent fundamentalist movement that still even in SPC churches that aren't fundamentalists, they still see some of the stain on them.

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They are so worried about someone not getting saved or failing in evangelism that they sort of overwork it to where they're trying to get this thing.

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Well, I got them to do this. So now I can go home and feel good that I got to say the prayers.

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They must be going to heaven. No, we're called to go into the world and call men everywhere to repent and believe.

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And I believe that every single person that does that will be saved. We don't need to use gimmicks.

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We don't need to do any of that. So I would say ultimately what sinner's prayer is, it's an intent.

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The sinner's prayer is an attendance increasing gimmick.

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It's maybe a little harsh to some, and I don't mean that every well -intentioned person out there that doesn't know any better, that's just trying to lead somebody to Christ is doing that.

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I'm talking about, I'm talking about letting them know better. So how do you combat that? I just,

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I know that as somebody comes, somebody comes up to me, say it's on a job site, say it's at an altar.

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I don't care. I'll pray wherever, whenever. You don't even have to drop a hand. And if, uh, if somebody comes up to me and says,

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I want you to pray with me or pray for me, I will. How do you, if somebody comes up to you about a matter of salvation, how do you approach that?

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I know how I approach that. I'm just curious as how you approach that. Do you lead them? Do you follow them?

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Do you instruct them in any capacity whatsoever? What does that look like? You want to answer that Tyler?

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Yeah. Yeah, go ahead, Tyler. Well, like we said, it's repent and believe it's essentially repent of your sins and obey

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Christ. And so it's not this one and done, um, light switch moment as much as it is a 180.

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And so if someone came to you asking about salvation like that, John, I would say it's probably more in the direction of, um, instructing them to obey what

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Jesus has said moving forwards to restructure their lives, to seek

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God at the centerfold. Um, it says in first Corinthians chapter 12, which is to throw out the label.

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That's the verse that made me a Calvinist was no one ever says Jesus is accursed in the spirit and no one can say

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Jesus is Lord except in the Holy spirit. So if you can say with any authenticity that Jesus is

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Lord, you are indwelled with the Holy spirit that has already taken a hold of you, that is already at work within you.

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And so the next step is to obey, is to walk with God, to abide in Christ and bear fruit.

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Does that, does that make sense? Yeah. I'm just curious how y 'all approach that. You know,

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I, I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a Calvinist by no means, you know, but I use the term as a joke in terms of how you approach these things.

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You know, uh, I, I'm not as many times as I'd like to have had this happen.

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I've had the opportunity to, to pray with folks and I typically, uh, well, first of all,

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I asked them, I asked them what they want me to pray for them about or with them about and how, how they want me, what capacity or you want me to pray for you?

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I don't know if you don't tell me, I don't take subtle hints. I don't take obvious hints. I need you to tell me.

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My wife will testify right now. If you want me to figure out what you want, you better tell me because I will not know.

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And, uh, well, I think the heart of the question that you're getting at John is in the moment and see what part of this is in the

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Americanized Western sort of way. We've cooked, we go about doing church.

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We think so much of salvation as a, in the moment and God bless them.

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I love my granddaddy death, but he would say he can, and I wish I could remember the day I got saved. He knows the day, the hour where he was at.

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And that's great. I would never discourage somebody from being happy about that. But that, what it does is it's trained ourselves to think that it's some one moment in time thing we do.

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So the heart of the, what the heart of what you're getting at is okay. Somebody's there and we know they need

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Christ. Does it, or would it necessarily involve some sort of prayer? I would say it can, but it doesn't have to because if you don't, let's say you confront somebody and they're tore up in the spirit and they're like,

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I need, I'm just center and I need to repent. I need to, because ultimately the response to the gospel is a response of obedience to a command of God.

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To my knowledge, and I could be wrong. I don't think you find a lot of biblical prescription that says, okay, when you get saved praying this way, the instruction we get in scripture about prayers to people that are already saved.

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So like Tyler was saying is we need to help people understand, yes, you need to repent and call on the name of the

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Lord. But understand that when you're doing that, you're demonstrating a change that's already occurred in your heart.

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So yeah, with children or with people that are very unchurched, it,

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I could see a benefit to leading them maybe through a prayer, because that'll sort of help them understand what's going on or something of that nature.

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But I just think we need to be careful to not say you must do this in this way.

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That's right. Can I give an example, John? Go for it. Can I give an example?

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So just along these lines, just plain, just a plain country example of what exactly what, and what we're talking about here for those who are listening, by the way, this is actually part of our outline because what we've been addressing here is what prayer is not.

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This is what the big conversation is going on with us right now. But to what

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Andy said, we can't necessarily prescribe a pattern of words for individuals to say in order for them to know that they're saved.

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And the example that I wanted to give was, oh gosh, I think now probably 20, 25 years ago,

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I was helping out at a little Methodist church down in Vaughnor, Tennessee.

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Nobody's heard of Vaughnor, but down in Vaughnor, Tennessee, it was Bible school time, and it was, you know, it was a very teeny tiny little church, 15, 20 people at most.

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But during BBS, I was teaching the teenagers and Thursday night,

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I just decided, and I'll just use regular plain terminology, I felt the spirit telling me break away from this lesson, break away from what you've been talking about and just show them the gospel from the scriptures.

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And that's exactly what I did. I preached Jesus Christ and him crucified. After class, we typically went out and had refreshments, came back in for dismissal into the sanctuary.

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After dismissal, I walked outside the doors of this little bitty church, double doors at the entrance there.

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I was standing on the porch talking to somebody off the porch. I turned around and there was this one of these teenage boys.

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He was 12 years old. Carl was his name. He was,

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I mean, he was like I was when I was, I mean, he was just mean. And I turned around and I saw him.

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And again, this is not about angelic visions or anything like that, but on the door of the church, they had a cross painted and he was just standing there staring at the door of that church at that cross and just fighting back, but getting broke down.

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And I said, Carl, I said, what's going on? Do you feel like you, you need to be saved?

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And he just shook his head short, a real quick shake. I said, you want to go up to the altar and pray?

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Or we can pray right here in the doorway. He said, he just pointed down. Let's pray right here. We got down on our faces before God right there.

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And this is the words that I told him. I said, Carl, there's not a magic formula.

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I can't put words in your mouth. I will be glad to start us in prayer. You finish it.

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And I said, dear Jesus, that little 12 year old boy, all he said was

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Jesus saved me. Now, did he get born again?

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I can't tell you because I've not followed his life, but I can tell you if he did get born again, it wasn't the prayer that saved him.

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It was his faith in Jesus Christ and that alone. So, John, when you when you come when you come up on people like that, they want to, you know, that naturally are compelled to follow that pattern in that routine.

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Sometimes it's good just to stop and say, let me say this first.

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And then, like Andy said, there's nowhere in the scripture that gives a prescribed pattern for the prayer of salvation.

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Tyler said it, the scripture says simply repent and believe. Yeah, it's too it's it's too easy for the person who's not broken hearted and got a contrite spirit.

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It's too easy for them to reject that idea. But for the man, the woman, the boy or the girl who

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God has broke down like a double barrel shotgun. It's not a stretch for them to simply repent and believe because the fight against that repenting and believing is the flesh.

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Yeah, it's God. Well, certainly there's got to be more. Certainly I've got to do something.

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That's where prayer is not what we do. Prayer is us simply. I'm not going to get ahead.

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I won't say no more. Sorry, guys. You know, I like what you covered there. That's good stuff. Good. So so what is we talk about what is prayer, what prayer is not.

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That was a big that was a big conversation there. So let's talk about let's let's skip around in Rob's outline here.

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Let's talk about the role of the spirit in prayer. Let's look at Romans chapter eight.

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I'm going to spell it right. And particularly, let's bring this up here.

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Romans chapter eight, verse twenty six. But let's let's read. Let's read a little bit before and after for context.

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Are you all good with that? OK. And Tyler, this is this one's for you.

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Right. What is the role of the spirit in prayer? So in Romans chapter eight, verse 18, the word of God says,

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I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

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But the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

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For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

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For in this hope, we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees.

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But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And then

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Paul states, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness.

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The King James says the spirit help help with our infirmities, but we do not know what to pray for as we are.

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But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

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And he searches hearts, knows what the mind of the spirit is because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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So, Tyler, what is the role of the spirit in prayer based upon that passage of scripture that we just looked at?

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Well, for one thing, the role of the Holy Spirit means that it's not about the words itself as much as it is the content of the heart and what

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God is doing in a person. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in a way that goes deeper than words.

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Amen. That it gets down to the root of I am a sinful person. I am not good.

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Amen. I need God. I need to be sanctified. I need to be made new. Amen. I need to be purged.

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I need to have this sin rooted out of me. And this is what reaches God. Not necessarily my eloquent word salad.

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Amen. But the attitude of this heart that is made new by God through the personal work of Christ that has been raised to a new life.

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This heart is being conformed to the things of God one moment at a time.

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And prayer is a beautiful picture of that. When we talk about those childlike prayers that we hear in youth group from that initial,

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I want to get saved point, and we're not very eloquent. I know that when

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I first came into acknowledgment of my sinfulness, I didn't pray the sinner's prayer.

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I wasn't led in prayer by anybody. I prayed by myself in the back pew for what felt like an hour.

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And I was not eloquent. I was not. I repeated myself a lot. And it was just, oh, God, for like for what felt like an hour.

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Having heard Isaiah six, woe is me. And there as time has gone on, my words may be bigger now.

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I may use more syllables when I pray, but it's not the words that I speak that give it value.

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It's not my words that make it authentic, because I can I could have a master's degree in English and still be spiritually dead.

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Amen. Yeah, but it's all about the spirits, like what

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Andy said, we have a body and a soul and the body can say whatever it wants, but the spirit is what counts.

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So the spirit, verse 26 of that, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, but we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

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But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. So I would say to largely in the context of this passage itself.

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Remember, Paul is addressing a group of people who are suffering for Christ, who are facing persecution and death.

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And he point he's pointing them to the hope of Jesus Christ. He's pointing them to the source of their the spring, if you'd have it, of their joy and of their hope and that it's not in themselves.

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It's no matter no matter how far we dig into ourselves, we are not going to find anything good.

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We are not going to find anything worthy. But what is the work of the spirit?

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I know this isn't one of the questions, but what is the work of the spirit? It is to point to the father and the son.

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That's what that's what the Holy Spirit does. I mean, when we're down in a deep, dark pit and we can't even see the light at the top of the pit, the

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Holy Spirit comes, he reflects, he shows us the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

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So we have the father, we have the son and we have the spirit. This is why we're Trinitarian, because they work together.

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They are one. And so the spirit helps our weaknesses. So, again, contextually there, this is where we draw we draw the meaning from the text, contextually when we're facing death, sorrow and sadness.

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And we don't even know what to say. Sometimes all we can do is like you said,

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Tyler, you just oh, God, you're just groaning. You don't even know really.

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You know, you don't know what to say. But the spirit brings to light the things that should be and are to be brought before the throne of God in prayer.

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And that's the beauty. That's the beauty of being born again to realize what the scripture says.

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I'm sorry, guys, I shouldn't. This is I'm supposed to be supposed to be you all, but. I don't think

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I mean, it is the privilege is amazing. It has been blood bought for us.

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That's why in Hebrews that we're taught come boldly into the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

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It is bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Prayer is not something just to pull out in the rough times.

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Prayer is something to be done when when you're up and when you're down. Can I read a prayer from scripture real quick?

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Jonah, chapter two, Jonah is in the belly of the fish or the whale or whatever we want to call it.

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But and he prays and he does not say the sinner's prayer. He doesn't give any package thing.

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And he reads out of my distress. I called to Adonai and he answered me from the belly of Sheol.

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I cried and you heard my voice for you threw me into the deep and into the heart of the seas and the flood enveloped me.

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All your surging waves passed over me. And I thought I have been banished from your sight.

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But I will look again at your holy temple. The water surrounded me, threatened my life.

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The deep closed over me, seaweed twined around my head. And I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains to a land whose bars would close me in forever.

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But you brought me up alive from the pit. Adonai, my God, as my life was ebbing away.

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I remembered this Adonai and my prayer came to you to your holy temple.

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Those who worship idols give up their source of mercy. But I speaking my thanks aloud will sacrifice to you what

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I have vowed I will pay for. Salvation comes from Adonai. Amen.

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Jonah's in the middle of probably the worst circumstance of his life. This this is not a logical statement for him.

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This is as we've been saying, this is the Holy Spirit putting words in his mouth. This is yeah. Holy, holy mackerel.

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I put myself here, pun intended. Not intended, but it works, doesn't it?

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Oh, yes. Well, I want to I want to jump in for a second, because everything that Claude said and now what

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Tyler has just brought to light with Jonah, too, I think is going to put a nice bow on what

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John had started us with about the sinner's prayer. Ultimately, we're not anti our brethren that are, for whatever reason, just believe that's the way you're supposed to do stuff.

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What we want to help them understand is that salvation is not about the content of what you're saying.

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It's about the change that has occurred. So what I try to help people understand is at the moment you first exercise faith in Christ because your spirit has been raised to life, which is necessary because we worship in spirit and truth.

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And someone with a spirit that is dead cannot do that. That's right. But that moment of salvation is probably,

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I would say, for ninety nine percent of Christians, the clearest. Most abundantly apparent recognition that, oh,

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I'm a dirty, rotten sinner. I'm in rebellion against my creator.

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Like you said, with that little 12 year boy, God saved me. I mean, my granddaddy, the preacher, when he got saved, he didn't have he'll tell you if he was alive today.

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I didn't have some elegant sermon, a lot like what Tyler said. He said, I can barely through tears just say,

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Lord, save me. He called him in the name of the Lord. It's all scripture requires. Amen.

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It's all it requires. It does not require you to say, you know, one, two, three, repeat after me or what.

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And look, it doesn't mean that if, like I say, if I have a particular three sentence prayer that covers the gospel that I use, if I'm with someone that clearly needs some sort of structure to help them understand what's going on.

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Yeah. Yeah. Use it. That's right. But what I'm saying is we need to make sure that we also take that babe in Christ and help them understand what actually is going on in their life.

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So I'm I'm one that unless it is definitional to the faith and clearly prescribed in scripture,

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I tend to take more of a let's have a little patience, a little grace here, because I'm telling you right now,

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I was the most Milton independent fundamentalist King James only as premillennial preacher of leisure. Whatever they would write spout off in their sermons.

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I was every bit of it. And in my mind, I'm telling you all, you could think I'm exaggerating.

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If you want God's honest truth. Not only was I a one, two, three, repeat after me centers prayer guy.

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But if you did it with the NIV, it didn't matter what you said. You were still going to hell. That's how bad

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I was. So I've come from that to now. I've got to say what

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I say when I respond to John earlier. But at the same time, I'm going to recognize that there was a time where if somebody had a came at me with that,

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I would like this guy talking about the Bible. Just the Bible says, call the name of the Lord. What's he talking about?

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All this understanding a new creature in Christ and all. Yeah, that comes later. You go from milk to meat.

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But the understanding is exactly what Claude said with that. I think he said the 12 year old boy called the name of the

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Lord. And that's it. And what we're saying is the one that does that has,

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I believe, has had a spirit that's been raised to life because 100 % of the time individuals that have a spirit that is alive in Christ will repent and believe as a babe in Christ.

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I may not know how this was to Tyler's point. I may not know how to articulate that as well as I do now at age 39 and a half.

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And I like to remind my wife that she's three months older than me. So when she turns 40, I'll still have three months left.

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She's watching right now. I'm going to be in big trouble later. You're going to be in a Walmart bag in your sleep.

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Oh, but I'll just kind of stop there. But I just want to kind of throw that in there.

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So so. But one thing, Claude, if you're going to move on away from the role of the spirit in prayer, I'm not.

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I'm not. OK, I want to I want to give other people opportunity, but I do want to touch on that at some point.

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Do you want me to do that now or you want to let John go or? That's up to you. OK, I'll go ahead and go because it won't take it won't take much.

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But when it Romans eight, my understanding of that has changed a lot over the years because of how

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God's dealt my own life. So you've got in verse 26, we talk about the spirit helps us in our weakness. We are still encased in sinful flesh.

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We do not have a glorified body. So we we need we need prayer to have that exchange with God where he continually grows us and develops us.

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And then it says he's the spirit that searches the heart or he who searches the heart knows what the spirit is.

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The spirit intercedes for us. So much of my life, it talks about the grumblings and not really knowing what to say.

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And we're not going to get into it tonight. It's not even probably worth our time. But some take this and say, oh, see, that's speaking in tongues.

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That's a secret prayer language. No, I truly believe this is

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OK. The Andy from five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years ago, moving deeper into my past had no idea what to pray for.

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You know what most of my prayer life was? I want to be the CEO of food line or I want to make more money. I want a truck.

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I want this man centeredness. Prayer is not, which prayer is not.

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And what I have found specifically in the last three years as I left the first church,

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I pastored September 26 of 2019. Here we are almost three years later. I'm still not pastoring and it hurts.

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I mean, it hurts those of us that preach or have preached every week. And all of a sudden you're not doing it anymore.

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It hurts. And all my prayers were I didn't know what to pray. I said, well, Lord, just put me in the church. Lord, please be sure.

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And now I'm at the point where it's the spirit, as I've been praying about this, talking about working all things together for good.

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It's for the good of his called. My good right now wasn't to be in a church. There are things that I can't say in this format because they're more of a private thing with my wife and in our relationship and my growth as a

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Christian personally and things that, you know, I might would share with close friends. But we all understand this that have occurred in my life where I've been developed and matured.

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And I'll give one specific example. We often talk about how we should control what we can control and let the rest be.

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It's very easy to say that. I, for the first time in my life at age 39, am finally starting to implement that because I am wired to want to control things and to meticulously format things to work to my advantage, not in a sinful way, but just so,

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OK, I want to I want to be a pastor. So I'm going to put all my effort into making sure I'm doing that.

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But God has specifically not put me in another church because he's trying to teach me, Andy, I'm in charge and you're not, son.

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What am I teaching you in this time? So my life has changed from Lord.

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I mean, I think or I want to be wherever to. Why am

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I here now? Why am I doing the things I'm doing now? Because he's teaching me that you cannot always control how other people operate, but you can control your level of obedience.

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And these are some of the things that I'm learning. And so when I read through these verses and I talk about the role of the spirit in prayer, his the

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Trinitarian harmony, he's bringing him in, bringing me into a greater understanding of God's purpose in creating me, the son's purpose in saving me.

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And now the spirit's person in bringing me into greater conformity, into Christ's likeness, regardless of what

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I'm doing circumstantially at the moment. Amen. Amen.

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That's a good word, Andy. John, so the role of the spirit in prayer.

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So I was going to kind of bring that up anyway. You we've talked a lot about the the role of the spirit in the salvific nature of the new convert and how that prayer language differs from his first prayer to his last prayer.

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And one of the things that personally, I know I've dealt with,

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I'm sure others have, too, but I can't speak to them. I can speak to this is after my salvation.

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I was I was born again right over here in my living room. I was in the church service, but it became abundantly clear to me that I was going to hell and there wasn't a thing

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I could do about it. And it was it was that supernatural revelation of my my coming damnation that sent me for a savior.

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I won't pull no punches about it. And in that my prayer, in hindsight, probably sounded really stupid, you know, because I remember

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I said, Lord, if you'll save me, I'll be the best Christian you've ever seen. How dumb is that?

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But that's that's that's how dumb that's how dumb I was. But one of the things that I've even here recently,

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I have have uncovered in my own, maybe my own wickedness or my own fleshliness or whatever, is that so many times

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I too want to control the way God works in my life.

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It's like I want God to do it this way. And you can do it whichever way you want to, Lord. But if I'm getting a pick, this is the way

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I want it to go. And so in Galatians, I was just reading in Galatians one night and and I had spent a pile of time just thanking

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God. And this stemmed a bunch of different Sunday school lessons, a podcast and even one sermon.

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But this is the truth. I was I was going to go on board and prayer like I do every night.

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And in that time of prayer, I just felt like there is absolutely nothing

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I need to be asking God for. I I have so much to be thankful for, and I'm trying to remind myself or remember, when's the last time

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I just spent a great deal of time thanking God for salvation and for continual work and for my family and their health.

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And if you want to look the materialistic side of it, you know, I'm a very well, I'm a blessed man. Thank God.

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Give me all those things. And then I was thinking about this passage in Galatians three. For context's sake,

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I'll start with verse one. You foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly betrayed and crucified?

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This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by works or by the law or by hearing of faith?

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Now, I'll stop there for a second. Obviously, Paul is dealing with how man is born again, whether it's by faith in Christ or by works and an obedience to the law.

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And that that's a very long and interesting topic. I'd love to get into one time. But for this case in point, the next verse is what

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I want to harp on. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, you're now perfected in the flesh.

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And there are so many things in my life that I have tried to make right because I want to have my hands on it or I want to be in control of it.

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Whenever I couldn't save myself, I couldn't couldn't make sure that my own children were even safe.

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I couldn't make sure that my household was there wasn't a thing I could do to start or initiate this relationship with Christ.

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Let alone maintain it. You understand me? So and in that I said, man.

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I have to thank God for his continual grace and his continual draw to keep us in this state of continual repentance.

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And in that, I say that so many times we think about prayer as how does our relationship with God initiate?

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And that's that's one of the last times you hear prayer mentioned unless it's in response to a tragedy.

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You know, we we we can tell you the day we were saved. And whenever somebody flies an airplane in the buildings, we need to pray or whenever there's a

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Zika outbreak or or a chicken pox outbreak or whatever the new pox is called. My point is, is there's that's whenever we want to pray.

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And and I wonder. I just when's the last time as a leader, you spend an hour with the

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Lord without asking for a thing, but in utter thanksgiving because of what

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God has already done. And that that has changed my outlook so much on whether I ask for anything at all.

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Amen. And this verse of Scripture has been I've got it highlighted on how many places

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I've got it wrote down here. Uh, we do not begin this in the flesh.

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We do not begin this in the end as a word. We begin this in the spirit.

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This is maintained in the spirit. Yeah, this is something that is maintained. This is a work of God that is continually maintained.

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And, you know, I refuse. I refuse to deny God the glory that he should that he deserves out of the

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Holy Spirit working in my life. I refuse to deny that. Amen. Man, we need the organ on that one.

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Yeah, I know

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I'm playing organ. Hey, you know what's so beautiful about that? He's not just saying that he's actually living this.

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That's right. And it hurts my feet because now I'm thinking, Andy, when was the last time you did what

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John just said? And I'm I'm having a hard time thinking of it. It's it turned my prayer time into a time of worship.

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And where were the hour literally melted into time? And I don't really know how long

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I was there. Didn't matter. And. And it really started this, this mindset started, my pastor said something was in the

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Dominican Republic. Now we've spent the entire day. Swatting skeeters, mosquitoes, for those who don't know what they look like.

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That's a straight bird, North Carolina. And and it's pretty prevalent in the Dominican Republic as long as in jumping lizards,

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I didn't know a lizard could jump so far. We had no AC. We had no clean water.

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It was it was not the best of days for what I didn't think. I was a school little white kid, but undoubtedly

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I am a little bit schooled. And we were sitting in this church or standing in this church, rather that is 10 roofed, 10 walled, if it has a wall on that side.

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And it felt something like what it must be like to stand in an oven. And and this old woman came in and she spun her 50 cent plastic chair around and she got down on her knees on a dirty floor and she buried her head in that chair and she began to pray.

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Amen. And everybody walked in there, done the same thing. And I thought it kind of must be something they do here.

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This maybe is a tradition of theirs. And I looked at my pastor and he said, she's probably thanking

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God for how good he's been in her life. And I thought, my goodness. Now, here's a woman who walked down a dirt road from a shack that that they call a dwelling with no no electricity most of the time.

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Absolutely no running water. No, no indoor plumbing of any kind whatsoever. But welcome you into their house.

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Yeah, the house was clean. That sounds weird to have a dirt floor and have a clean house, but a clean home that they were proud and maintain and showed up well dressed to church to thank

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God for how good he's been in her life. And I said, man, yeah. So I'm going to sit outside for the rest of the week and and learn some humility and learn to be thankful.

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And, you know, everybody is going to mission trip one time and really get raked over the coals about being spoiled.

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Yeah. What he just ended there with so much of my personal journey in prayer is a continual humbling of myself that God does when he shows me just how little control

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I really have. Amen. Amen. So, guys,

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I'll tell you what, let's do this. Since Rob couldn't be with us tonight, let's pick up on the rest of this.

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Next week. OK, because I think it's very, very important.

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That we ourselves meditate on what we've heard tonight and we think about what we've heard tonight and we not try to overstuff the episode with more stuff.

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Yeah. And the folks who who are watching this, maybe just take time, rewind, listen to what's been spoken.

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Listen to the testimony of the scripture primarily above everything else tonight, because really that that is this is so key.

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The role of the spirit in prayer. And again, he points us to the father and to the son.

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Can we read Psalm 40? As we go out on this. Yes, sir. 40.

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So the psalmist says and again, the Psalms, our book of songs and praise, prayers of praise, prayers of deliverance, prayers of need, sadness, heartache, brokenness, whatever the case may be.

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But the psalmist says this in Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and he heard my cry.

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He drew me up. He drew me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the mirey bog.

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And he set my feet upon a rock. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our

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God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

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Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.

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And then the psalmist says, you have multiplied over my God, your wondrous deed and your thoughts toward us.

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None can compare to you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

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That's that's exactly what I thought of, John, when you were testifying there. That's exactly what

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I thought of about when you when you spoke about the the importance of just praising God, because when we when we start with praise and next week, when we look at the

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Lord's Prayer, we'll see this. The psalmist goes on and he says, then I said, behold, I've come in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

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I delight to do your will, O God. Your law is within my heart.

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I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I'm not restrained my lips.

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As you know, O Lord, I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I've spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

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I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you,

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O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. What a statement right there.

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Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. We could just say, thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. As Andy, I know you've heard of him. You've probably heard of him,

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Mays Jackson. He would say we ought to just call recess and shout for 30 minutes right there.

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My granddaddy has said that. For evils have compassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see.

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Do you see, John? Now this is exactly, exactly what you were testifying to. Amen.

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And he says, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me.

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But be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.

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Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.

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Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha.

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But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.

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May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the

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Lord. And as for me, I am poor and needy.

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You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay,

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O my God. This is the spirit working in and through prayer.

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Tyler, would you care to dismiss this in prayer, brother? Absolutely. Father God, we've been fed.

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Not by each other, not by eloquent speech, but by who you are.

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By drawing to memory who you are and what you've done.

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The way you pulled each one of us out of the fearful pit and out of the miry clay.

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How you set us on the rock and established our goings. And we come to you right now, thankful, amazed at what you have wrought in us.

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Not because of what we deserved, because of who you are. We pray that you would burn that in our hearts anew today,

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God. May we walk in that, in Christ's name, amen.

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Amen. Amen. Just real quick, guys. Show these comments.

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I missed these as we went along. Give us salvation. He has given us life.

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Let us praise the Lord. Great conversation. That's from Life of a Servant. And Truth and Love Network.

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Growing up into all things said, amen. That was at 929. All right, guys.

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Appreciate y 'all. Let me get to the right screen here to do what needs to be done.

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Hang out for just a second. We want to thank everybody for watching tonight.

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Remember, Rob will be back next week. So we look forward to being with y 'all again,

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Lord willing, next week. God bless. All right.