Be Constant in Prayer

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 17. That's going

1 Thessalonians 5:17

to be in the New Testament, closer toward the

back of your Bible. Y 'all pay very close attention

to this passage this morning. I expect every

one of you to have this memorized by the time

the service is over today. I got confidence in

you. I think you can do it though. 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5:17

chapter 5, verse 17. We'll read the scripture

and then we'll pray. Pray constantly. Let us

pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for these

simple words, this simple command that we see

in scripture. And God, I pray that we would take

these words to heart, that we would be those

who seek you, dear Lord, who seek you in every

aspect of our life, who praise you, dear Lord.

I pray that you'd free us from the distractions

and the worries and the thoughts of this world,

dear Lord. Maybe we came into this place today

and our attitudes weren't in a good spot, or

maybe we just are worried, or maybe we're angry.

Maybe we're just distracted, dear Lord. Whatever

it may be, if we have any of those things going

on, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among

us. I pray that your word would speak to us today,

dear Lord. I pray that you would take away any

pride or any fear that's within me, that I would

preach and teach your word in a way that brings

glory and honor to you. Because everything that

is here today, dear Lord, it has to be for you.

So I pray, God, that we just would feel your

presence, that you would work in our life through

your word today. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen.

Pray constantly. This is a good instruction that

Paul gives us in 1 Thessalonians. Quite literally

speaking, I don't think he just means that we

are to walk around praying 100 % of the time.

I mean, that'd be kind of hard. A lot of us pray

with our eyes closed. We'd be in trouble driving

down the road trying to pray and walking around

trying to pray. But the idea is that prayer needs

to be a constant part of our life. And I suspect

for many of you, you do pray throughout the day.

Maybe you have a set time that you pray. You

might pray in the morning or you might pray in

the evening. And that's good. And maybe even

in between those times, you find yourself praying.

And I find that in my life, probably as I get

older, the more I pray here and there. You know,

I used to, growing up, I had a set time. You

know, I'll pray in the morning or I'll pray in

the evening. But I have discovered that the best

time to pray for somebody is when you think about

them. The best time to do anything is when you

think about them. Because if you don't, you'll

find something that's going to distract you.

And you'll say, oh, I need to pray for so -and

-so. But by the time you go to bed at night,

you may forget about that person. It also may

be helpful to write it down. I used to not have

to write stuff down. When I first started in

ministry, people would say, oh, you need to pray

for so -and -so. You need to put them on the

prayer list. And I could remember it for a week,

and I'd put them on there. But nowadays, as soon

as somebody tells me you need to pray for so

-and -so, I write it down. That may be a good

habit for us to get into. Make sure that we remember

to pray for those people that we say we will

pray for. The best time to pray is when you think

about it. Maybe when you're driving down the

road. Maybe when you're taking a shower. Maybe

when you're laying down in bed. Maybe when you're

working. Whatever it may be, there may be occasion

to pray. There may be a thought that comes to

your mind, someone that you need to pray for.

Or maybe you just praise God. Whatever it may

be, Prayer should be a constant part of our life.

And the question I ask you today is, is prayer

a constant part of your life? Is it a part of

your life at all? Maybe it is or maybe it's not.

Maybe there are some of you that don't ever pray.

Maybe sometimes for us, if we were to chart out

our prayer life, it may kind of line up with

when our life is the worst, our prayer life is

the best. And maybe the opposite is also true.

When our life is the best, our prayer life is

the worst. Sometimes I believe we fall into the

trap of viewing prayer as nothing more than asking

God for something. Now that is certainly part

of what prayer is. God wants us to ask Him. God

wants us to come to Him. God wants us to make

our requests known to Him. But prayer is not

simply just, God, I need this. God, help me with

this. Now those are parts of prayer. Praise the

Lord. We need to ask God for the things we need.

We need to ask God for help in our life. But

if that's all our prayer life is, then we are

missing out on some of the blessing of God. If

all we ever do is ask God for things, then we

are missing out on the blessing of what it means

to have a good prayer life. Our prayer life should

not just consist of asking God for the things

that we need. but thanking God for the things

that we have. Now, we might spend a lot of our

time, not physically, but maybe in our mind,

thinking about all the things that we don't have

and complaining about what we don't have. But

maybe it would benefit us if we spent some time

counting our blessings, if we spent some time

thanking God for the things that we do have.

So we ask God for what we need, praise the Lord.

But we also need to thank God for what we have.

We need to praise God. If you want a good example

of what it means to praise God in prayer, then

I would encourage you to read the Psalms. You

will see some of the most beautiful prayers of

praise calling out to the Lord and recognizing...

God and who he is, that he's the creator of everything,

of the heavens, of the earth, and oh how he blesses

us. And you see beautiful language of that throughout

the Psalms. We need to be those whose prayer

life is constant, those who are seeking God for

what we need, thanking God for what we have,

praising God for who he is. And whenever we just

take a moment, and sit in silence and really

begin to seek God and praise Him, it's a beautiful

thing. And maybe we don't do that enough. We're

too busy, right? It's hard to sit in silence.

Everything that is made for us today is made

for us not to sit in silence. Everywhere we go,

there's noise in our pocket. We got a cell phone

that we can't dare turn off or put on silent

mode because we might miss something. And so

it's constantly dinging. And you have to check

it as soon as it dings. You have to. Heaven forbid

you wait five minutes after it dings. You've

got to check it right then and there. You'd think

somebody had a fire in their pocket. That thing

dinged. Oh, I've got to get it out as quick as

I can. But you know it's okay for us to put our

phone down for a moment. It's okay if it rings

and you don't answer it. It's okay if that text

message dings and you don't look at it instantly.

It's okay because our world has made it. This

is going to shock some of you, but we have made

it for thousands of years without cell phones.

And we can do okay. I think that's one of the

devil's greatest tactics is, boy, he keeps us

busy. He keeps a lot of noise in our life. And

I think he does that because he knows that perhaps

in the silence we begin to reflect. And perhaps

when we begin to reflect in the silence is when

we, really begin to think about our lives and

our choices and our conscience gets the best

of us and we begin to think about God and the

things of God and the Word of God. And so the

best way to keep us from recognizing who we are

and seeking God for who He is is to keep us distracted.

And I would say that he's done a pretty good

job. For me, I don't know about you. You may

be doing better for me. But those distractions

are ever before us, whether it's our cell phones

or our jobs or our kids or whatever it may be.

There are a lot of things in life, some of which

that aren't bad. There are many things in life

that aren't bad, but they can become distractions

for us, and they can draw us from the Lord. But

I want to encourage you today. If you don't take

time to pause and seek God and praise Him, I

want to encourage you to do that. Maybe it's

on your back porch when you get home at night.

Maybe it's on your front porch when you get up

in the morning. Maybe it's on a ride to work.

Maybe as simple as saying, hey, this week I'm

going to take one day that I'm not going to turn

my radio on when I go to work. That I am going

to put my phone on silent. That silence, sometimes

it's kind of scary, right? Boy, we start thinking

about all kinds of stuff. Man, our mind gets

overwhelmed. It'll be kind of tough at first.

But if we really take the time to pause and to

seek God and say, God, this is your time. God,

I just thank you. Push all of our wants and our

needs and our stresses. Just push them aside

for just a moment. Don't forget about them. Just

push them aside. And just begin a prayer life

that starts with us praising God. With us going

down a list of all the ways in which God has

blessed us. And thanking God for those things.

And rejoicing in God in those things. And just

taking a few moments to pause in the presence

of God. If you don't do it, you might find that

it will change your day. I can almost guarantee

you that it will change your day. That if you

start your day out pausing in the presence of

God and rejoicing in Him, I can almost guarantee

you it's going to change your attitude. How we

start our day, it changes how our day goes. And

what better way for us to start our day than

praising the Lord? Don't not bring your request

to Him, bring them to Him. But we need to have

a heart of praise and thankfulness to the Lord.

Our prayer life doesn't just need to treat God

like he's a genie in a bottle, like God just

sits in heaven all day waiting for us to ask

for what we want. He does want us to bring our

needs for him, but we need to recognize that

God is so much more than that. He is a God who

loves us and cares for us. He is a God who brings

us comfort and peace. And often we don't experience

that in our life because we are too busy and

we are too distracted. And so Paul's instruction

here for us is a good instruction. That we need

to be constant in prayer. Not just for ourselves,

but for those around us. Prayer makes a difference.

I'm going to tell you it makes a difference.

I guarantee you it makes a difference. You're

going to say, well, I prayed about some stuff

and it didn't happen. Yeah, well, that's true.

We all have. We have all prayed for things that

they weren't answered in the way in which we

prayed and desired, but I can guarantee you that

prayer works. Now you can look online and you

can search why do we pray and you'll find a lot

of people that say why we pray and oh well everything's

predestined and God knows you're going to pray

for it and he's already done it but you still

got to pray for it even though and you'll find

all kind of people coming up with all kind of

reasons of why we pray and I'm not going to get

into any of that because it doesn't matter. I'll

tell you why we pray. We pray because God tells

us to. I don't know how God works. I don't know

why God works. I don't know the way in which

God carries out our prayers and the way in which

God hears our prayers and the way he makes all

that work together. I don't know how God does

it, but I know that God hears our prayers and

responds to them. And a lot of you can attest

to that today. A lot of you can attest to something

that you've prayed for. And some people will

say, well, I don't know if prayer does anything.

And somebody else will say, well, if prayer doesn't

change your situation, it changes you. Well,

yeah, it does change you. That's true. But there

are plenty of situations in our life that we

have prayed and God have done things that are

impossible. It could not have occurred any other

way. We have prayed for things that nobody else

knew about. Things that we thought, this is hopeless.

And God would answer those prayers and God would

meet those needs. And it's not just a coincidence.

It is God hearing when we call out to Him, when

we pray to Him. Even Jesus Himself gives us instruction

on how to pray. Jesus tells us when we pray,

we're to pray in a certain way. Perhaps you've

heard the Lord's Prayer or are aware of the Lord's

Prayer. You can find it in Matthew. Chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy

name. Boy, that's a good way to start a prayer,

isn't it? Obviously it is. It's Jesus. It's got

to be pretty good. He didn't just make something

random up. He said, look, this is how you need

to pray. You need to pray by recognizing that

God is hallowed or that God is holy. Our Father.

God, you are in heaven, the creators of the heavens

and the earth, and you are holy. Holy be your

name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. Now this is an important

part of our prayer life. That when we pray, that

we always need to desire the will of God. Do

we always desire the will of God? Because here's

what will happen. If we pray according to our

will and God doesn't answer according to our

will, then we become angry with God. But our

desire in life should not be our will. Our desire

should be to live by the will of God and see

that His will is done. And when we pray, even

if our prayers are not answered, we still can

rejoice. Why? Because we know that the will of

God is done. And it is always good. And we can

say, God, I asked for this and I prayed for this

with all the faith in the world, but God, you

did not answer, but I rejoice in you, God. Because

even though I thought this was best and this

was what I was desiring, God, I rejoice in you

that your will is done. Even Jesus, before he

went to the cross, what did he do? He prayed.

He said, God, if there is any way to let this

pass from me. Jesus knew what was about to take

place. He knew he would soon be crucified. And

he said, Father, if there is any other way. Let

this cup pass from me. Let this experience that's

about to come upon me, let this pass. Let me

be freed from it, Father. And that was a beautiful

prayer, and that's your prayer sometimes too.

There's something that you're up against. There's

something that you're struggling with, and you're

praying earnestly that God would hear your prayer

and answer your prayer just as Jesus did. But

Jesus ended his prayer by saying, but not my

will be done, your will be done. God, this is

my desire, this is my request. I call out to

you. But God, more important than what I want

in life is what you want in life. And the moment

our prayer lives begin to be founded in the will

of God, then it's going to help our prayer life

to change. for the better. When we humble ourselves

before God and submit ourselves to Him and say,

God, I know that You are the one who is in control.

I know that You are the one who hears my prayer.

And God, I make my requests known to You. But

God, more than anything in this world, I want

You to be glorified. I want Your will to be done.

Jesus continues on. Give us this day our daily

bread. Praise the Lord. That's a request. We've

probably made that request to God many times.

Sometimes in serious situations, when our daily

bread was beginning to dry up, what's Jesus saying?

He says, look. You need to go to the Lord for

your request. It is the Lord who sustains you.

It is the Lord who provides for you. It is the

Lord who has given you everything that you had.

Did you know that this morning? It is God who

has given you everything that you had. And some

of you may be saying, uh -uh, I got up and went

to work this week. I worked 60 hours this week.

You know who gave you that job? God. You know

who created bread? God. You know who made the

wheat in the field to make the bread? God. You

know who made the dirt to grow the wheat? God.

Everything that we have is because God has allowed

us to have it. It is God who provides for us,

and we need to ask God to provide for us, and

we need to praise God when he does. And our provisions

may not always be what we want them to be. Sometimes

we might have to eat the off -brand Lucky Charms

instead of the real official brand. But that's

all right. God's good to us. We need to ask God

to give us what we need, our daily bread, the

things that we need to survive, and we need to

praise God when he does. And forgive us our debts

or forgive us our sins. That's a good one, right?

I suspect that, I don't know if this is true,

but I'm going to guess that probably every one

of us sin every day. Of course, the Bible doesn't

say that you sin every day, but I think it's

safe to assume for most of us, if not all of

us, that we do. And praise God, through Jesus

Christ, our sins are forgiven. Now, that's good

news. A lot of times we walk around and, man,

we feel the burden and the pressure and the pain

and the shame of our sin. And did you know that

maybe the relief from that for you is praying

to the Lord? Have you done that lately? Have

you brought your sin before God and said, God,

I pray to you now and I know that I have sinned.

Would you just forgive me for that, dear Lord,

through Jesus Christ? Have you tried that? It's

the simplest thing and it's something that we

all know. But sometimes the things that we all

know we kind of forget about. Sometimes we battle

and struggle against our sin. And maybe the peace

that you need is just a prayer away. Maybe you

come into this room today with a lot of burden

in your life, a lot of sin in your life. I want

to tell you today that Jesus says we need to

pray to the Lord that our sins would be forgiven.

And the second half of that command is as follows.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

So God, forgive me for my sins as I forgive those

who have sinned against me. That's a tough command.

Not only are we praising God, not only are we

thanking Him for what we have, not only are we

praying for the things that we don't have, not

only are we seeking forgiveness, but we are also

forgiving other people who have wronged us. Some

of y 'all was good to go until we got to that

point. That's the tough part, right? That's the

tough part. Because, man, we love to feel that

peace and that joy of forgiveness. But it tears

us up to give it to somebody else. And a lot

of times we will hold on to bitterness and we

will hold on to anger and it will tear us up.

And maybe that's the source of some of your pain,

some of your strife, and some of your just...

Just hatred that you've got today. Is that somebody

has wronged you. And people do wrong us. People

wrong us in a lot of ways. I'm talking about

some horrible ways. In the same way that we have

wronged God. And God forgives us. And God calls

us in our prayers to forgive others. You may

be burned down today because you are walking

around with unforgiveness in your heart. And

I can tell you today, I can tell you that the

way to be delivered from that is through prayer.

That you would forgive that person. That you

would ask God to forgive you. That you would

pray for that person. That is the best way. The

best way. If you hate somebody, if you hate them

with all your heart today, and you just wish

horrible things on them, and you don't bear to

think about them, and you don't want to see them,

if you've got that hatred in your heart today,

I can tell you how to fix that. And you said,

yeah, I'm going to punch them in the nose. Nope,

that's not how to fix it. I can tell you how

to fix it. The way you can fix it is to begin

to pray for them. And you don't want to do that,

you'd rather somebody pour you down with gasoline

and light you on fire than you'd pray for them.

But essentially, your unforgiveness and your

attitude, That is what it's going to do. It's

going to burn you up one day. But I can tell

you the solution to that. It's prayer. And you

may have to grit your teeth, and you may struggle

to get those words out, but you need to pray

for that person. You need to pray that God would

love them, and that God would forgive them, and

that God would change their heart, and most importantly,

that God would change your heart. If you've got

hatred like that in your heart, here's your assignment

this week. I want you every day to pray for that

person you hate. I don't mean just saying, God

pray for that person, I don't like them. I don't

mean that. I mean like really pausing for a second

and really saying, God, I'm struggling with this.

You don't have to pretend. You don't have to

like go before God and pretend like, oh God,

I really want this person to change. God knows

your heart. He knows that bitterness and that

anger that's in there. And you can be honest

with God. He's a big God. He already knows what's

in there. And you can say, God, I'm really struggling

with this. I don't want to forgive this person.

But God, your word tells me I have to. Your word

calls me to. So God, I pray for this person.

I pray that you would help them and that you

would change them. I pray, God, that you would

bless them. As hard as it might be to get the

words out. And if you do that for a week, you

come back to me and you tell me if you still

hate them as much as you did. I can just about

guarantee you that you won't. The solution to

a lot of our problems is prayer. And Jesus, praise

the Lord, tells us exactly how we need to pray.

He continues on in verse 13. And lead us not

into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For

thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory

forever. Amen. Boy, that's a good prayer, right?

Because as soon as you wake up, temptation is

before you. Used to, you might have had to leave

the house to be tempted. Not anymore. You wake

up, your cell phone's right beside you. Anything

in the world you can think of to be tempted by

is right there within arm's reach. Our temptations

are ever before us. And everybody's temptations

are different. We're all tempted by different

things. Some of you can overcome some temptations

and you can't overcome others and vice versa.

We all have our temptations. So how do we overcome

them? We pray that God would help us. Lead us

not into temptation, God. Help us to be able

to avoid those things. Deliver us from evil.

It's all around us. We don't want to give in

to those things. We don't want to give in to

that temptation. So if you don't know this prayer

that Jesus teaches us in Matthew chapter 6, verse

Matthew 6:9–13

9 through 13, then maybe you want to bookmark

that. You might want to study that this week.

I'd advise you just pray it as Jesus said. Pray

it just as Jesus said. If Jesus says this is

how you need to pray, that's a pretty good place

to start. And maybe you can use this kind of

as a skeleton to guide the rest of your prayer

life. That you pray for the things that Jesus

says and you see people and areas in your life

that fit into these categories and maybe there

are more specifics that you want to pray for

but Jesus says this is how you pray. And maybe

The way that we pray will have a greater effect

on the way that we live than we realize. So what

does Paul say in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17? He says,

pray constantly. Before that, he says, rejoice

always. Beautiful chapter. Y 'all should go and

read that whole section. Beautiful instruction

right there at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5.

But maybe Paul says we need to pray constantly

because of what he said a couple of verses before.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, he says this,

1 Thessalonians 5:14

And we exhort you, brothers, warn those who are

irresponsible, comfort the discouraged, help

the weak, be patient with everyone. Now, I don't

know about you, but those things are hard to

do. Warn those who are irresponsible. I don't

know about you, I don't enjoy that. I don't look

out at people every day and say, boy, I see him

and her and him, and I'm going to just come see

y 'all this week and say, you're irresponsible.

I don't look forward to that command that Scripture

gives us, but nonetheless, Paul gives us this

command, and Scripture gives us this command.

Well, how are we going to be able to carry out

the commands of Scripture that are hard? Pray

about it. That's a good place to start. What's

the next thing he tells us to do? He says comfort

the discouraged. Well, that's kind of hard to

do too. I mean, we all see people who are discouraged.

Have you ever seen somebody who's discouraged,

and their heart is broken, and your heart is

broken for them, and you just feel so broken,

it's just sad, and you want to help them, and

you say, I don't know what to say to them. I

want to be there for them. I don't know what

to say for them. I don't know how to help them.

I don't know what to do. So we just don't do

anything. Because we want to do these things

that Scripture says, but we don't know how. I

can tell you a good place to start. Pray. Say,

God, help me to be able to be a comforter to

the discouraged. There are people we encounter

that are discouraged. Maybe we don't know words

to say. Maybe you don't even have to say any

words. Maybe your presence is a comfort. It is.

I don't know if you know that or not. I can tell

you a lot of times it's not about what you say.

It's just about you being there. People are discouraged.

Somebody loves them, comes by. Maybe all you

need to say is, hey, I see you're discouraged.

I love you. And I'm praying for you. The next

thing he calls us to is help the weak. All right.

Easy command, but it's not always easy to do.

How are we going to help the weak? We got stuff

to do. Helping the weakest, sometimes it's scary.

Sometimes it's dirty. Sometimes it's nasty. How

are we going to do this? How are we going to

have the strength to help the weak? I can tell

you how. We're going to pray. We're going to

say, God, I see your word and what it calls me

to. And God, I'm kind of afraid to do this thing

that's before me. Or I'm too busy to do it. God,

make time. We're going to pray that God will

help us to be able to carry these things out.

And finally, the last command in verse 14 is

be patient with everyone. Now, we don't have

to pray about that because we're all patient

with everybody all the time, aren't we? Don't

think so. I was in the hospital with somebody

just last week, and boy, they were so impatient.

I said, you know what they call people that wait

on doctors? He said, what? I said, patients.

I said, and that's what you need to have right

now because you're waiting on a doctor. And we

are called to be patient with everyone. Well,

guess what? How are we going to be patient with

people? Well, I can tell you a good place to

start is to pray. Because there are some people

that, man, they try your patience. And they may

not even be bad people. They may not even be

doing bad. It's just some people. And you've

got them. You know who they are. I may be one

of them in your life. I don't know. There are

some people and they just, oh, they just, oh.

When you see them, you get impatient instantly.

I can tell you the solution to that. Say, God,

I need you to give me patience. God, I need you

to give me patience. And I'll tell you the good

news, God is patient with us. That needs to be

our example and motivation. God is patient with

us. He doesn't want any to perish, but all, all

to have eternal life. God is way more patient

with me than I would have been. And maybe for

some of you too. Maybe that's a good place for

us to start. Say, okay, God, I've experienced

patience. God, help me to... Have patience with

others. There are lots of commands in scriptures.

This is just one verse, verse 14. But all of

these things are things that we probably need

some help with. We probably need to pray to God

that he would help us to be able to live in such

a way. The scripture are full of commands that

are too hard for us to carry out and live out

on our own. So we must pray to God. That God

would change our heart and that God would change

our attitude. That God would give us grace and

love and mercy and patience for others as he

has had for us. So I don't know what your prayer

life is like today. If your prayer life is good,

then praise God. Keep praying. If your prayer

life isn't good, well, praise God. You come here

today and you hear God's word, you hear these

scriptures. And you can change your prayer life

today. But I would encourage you to praise God

for who He is, to thank Him for how He has blessed

you, to ask Him for the things you need, to forgive

you of your sins, to help you to forgive those

who have sinned against you. And to keep you

safe from all the temptations in the world. And

when we begin to really seek God and ask God

for those things and experience who God is and

praise who God is, not only does it change us,

but it changes things around us. James chapter

James 5:16

5 verse 16 says this, The effectual fervent prayer

of a righteous man availeth much, to put that

in English, when you pray, things change. When

you pray, God hears those prayers. So be faithful

in your prayers. Be fervent in your prayers.

And in all your prayers, pray that the will of

God will be done. Let's pray this morning. God,

we thank you for being good to us. We thank you

for being patient with us and for loving us.

We thank you for Jesus Christ who gave his life

on a cross so that we could be forgiven. We thank

you that Jesus gives us these beautiful instructions

on how we are to pray, God. Maybe there are some

in this room and their prayer life has just not

been very good. Or maybe there are some, God,

and their prayer life has been non -existent.

But maybe today, for the first time, there are

some that are going to seek you, that are going

to pray to you, dear Lord. I pray, God, that

everybody in this room would know that you are

the creator of the heavens and the earth. And

that all we have is because of you and through

you, dear Lord. So, God, I pray today that we

would just rejoice in you, first and foremost.

Knowledge that you are a holy and good and loving

God. And we thank you for that. God, I know there

are some that have needs today, God. There are

a lot of requests. There's a lot of struggle

and a lot of pain and a lot of sickness. And

dear Lord, we do pray that you would meet those

needs. That you would meet them quickly, dear

Lord. But we pray that your will be done. And

God, should you not answer our prayers in the

way in which we ask, or in the time frame in

which we ask, dear Lord, that we do not question

you or doubt you, dear Lord, but that everything

we pray, we pray for your will to be done. God,

maybe there are some today that are distracted

by the world and the burdens of the world. I

pray that maybe even right now, just for a moment,

that they would pause, that they would seek you,

dear Lord, that they would rejoice in you. God,

maybe they're a son today and they just need

to be forgiven. I pray that they would know that

through Jesus Christ that there is forgiveness

for their sins. I pray that they would confess

them to you right now, dear Lord. Maybe there's

some bitterness and hatred and anger in our heart

toward others. I pray, God, that you would help

us to be able to pray for those that have wronged

us, sinned against us, and treated us in such

horrible ways. God, that we would just lift them

up today, that you would begin to change their

hearts and that you would begin to change our

hearts, dear Lord. God, we thank you for these

scriptures and these commands. God, life is tough.

But we thank you that you are a God that we can

pray to and seek. And I pray, God, that in these

next few moments that we would do just that.

In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. I'm going to

ask everybody just remain seated. Keep your heads

bowed, eyes closed. Macy's going to play for

a moment. We're just going to pause in the silence

for just a moment. Maybe there's something in

your heart today. And maybe today you want to

spend just a moment and pray to the Lord as Macy

plays. Now's your chance to pray.