He came Down - Luke 6:12-19 - Pastor Adam Wuthnow

May standing with me, please.

Turn your Bibles, the Word of God to the book of Luke, chapter six.

The book of Luke, chapter six.

If you have a don't have a Bible with you, we have some complimentary in front of you there.

The gospel according to Luke, chapter number six, verse number twelve.

We'll start in verse twelve.

It was at this time they went off to the mountain to pray.

He spent the whole night in prayer.

And when day came, he called his disciples to him, and chose twelve of them, whom he also named as apostles.

Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James, and John and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who is called the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, and there was a large crowd of his disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured, and all the people were trying to touch him, for power was coming from him and healing them all.

Let's have a word of prayer.

And Lord, we're thankful and we're dependent on you.

As we heard in our songs, how we depend on you for everything.

Lord, we see how we need you to be led in our lives.

How you guide us.

And Lord, as we enter even now into this time of prayer, how sweet it is to be able to talk to you because of Jesus Christ.

Lord, as we spend some time now in your word, I pray that you would be honored and glorified, that you would be lifted up.

Lord, we pray that your word would be honored.

Lord, help us to be able to take this with us.

Thank you for your love, Lord Yamma.

Pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Pastor Byron is away traveling, as Pastor Matt said, so please be in prayer for Pastor Byron and Kim and Liz as they're visiting family, that they have a good time and a safe time and a wonderful time.

We're going to continue in the study of Luke, where Pastor has left off.

And here in Luke chapter 6, we come to a really fun place for kids with memorization, right?

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Remembering the twelve disciples, and there are songs that we use to remember them, right?

And uh they stick in your head.

So you read, he can uh here he how he came, and the first thing that sticks out here with this passage isn't that he just jumps right into the twelves and their names.

But it starts with verse 12, how he in those days went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer.

So when we look at this, I want to talk about how he came down.

And the first thing that we see is that he continued in prayer to God.

So he continued in prayer to God.

So the first thing that we see is a time of prayer.

I'd like to call you back a little bit if that's okay.

I hope you'll forgive me.

To the last time I spoke and I introduced the book of Luke in chapter one, talking about the humanity of Jesus and him being the perfect man.

And so, as we look at this, I'd like to keep that in the back of our mind how Jesus is all God and all man, that he is the perfect man, our perfect example.

So we read this here where he continued in prayer, and it kind of strikes us a little bit.

This is actually the fourth time that Jesus has gone aside to pray.

And there's a couple of things that we read in this verse about Jesus in his prayer, and how he continued in his prayer.

The first thing is that it was pertinent.

It was pertinent.

It says, in these days, in these days, think, well, uh, is this a specific date on a calendar?

No.

He's not talking about a calendar date.

He's talking about the times that he was in necessitating prayer.

So these days brought Jesus to prayer, to pray in his ministry, in light of the growing hostility towards him, in light of the expansion and proclamation of his kingdom, in light of the appointment of his apostles.

I read a few that have thought, well, this was him going to pray specifically about the apostles.

I'm sure that was a part of it.

I I would love to be a fly in the wall in the New Testament, hearing what Jesus would say in his prayers.

Very little do we hear of the actual words that he said in his prayers.

But I love how Jesus spent time in prayer.

We get to read of this.

So when we think about him being driven to prayer in these days, already we see an example for us.

What drives us to prayer when we hear about problems in these days?

I hear that phrase a lot.

You know, kids these days, society these days, politics these days, life these days.

So we have our own these days, right?

So when Jesus came across these days, he went to prayer.

Sorry, we have an example for us in these days.

Do you allow it to drive you to prayer?

Most of the time, it drives me just to grumble and complain.

But we can take our concerns about these days to our Lord.

So the first thing was that it was pertinent.

The second thing is that it was purposeful.

It was purposeful.

It says he went out to the mountain to pray.

Does it strike you odd that Jesus would pray?

He's God, right?

As a kid, I kind of struggled with this a little bit.

Okay, he's God, so he's praying.

So is he praying to himself?

Like I struggled with that, right?

So Jesus is God himself, fully God.

And yet Jesus is also fully man.

So Jesus in his humanity needed air, right?

He needed our oxygen to breathe in his humanity.

In his humanity, he needed food.

He needed to eat.

We read of him eating.

In his humanity, he needed water.

Just as he needed those things, in his humanity, so also in his humanity, he needed divine blessing.

In his humanity, Jesus needed prayer.

In his humanity, he needed prayer.

Jesus being fully God, yet fully man, 100% the human experience, needed prayer.

Now he would not have mentioned all the same things in his prayer as we would normally mention, right?

He didn't need to ask for forgiveness of sins.

He didn't need to ask God to help him in deliverance from sins.

And he didn't need to ask God to search him for any sinful thoughts, ways, or deeds, because he was a perfect human.

But he was still asking God for his divine blessing.

He was asking the Father for His divine blessing.

We read how he went off to pray in the mountain, so it's it's him separating himself to pray.

He did this often.

He made it a whole thing.

It was a whole thing for him to go pray.

He did not just uh tack it on to something else.

He didn't go to have uh teaching time and prayer, he didn't go up there to have work time and prayer, he didn't go to study and pray, he didn't go to sleep and pray, he didn't go to think and pray, he didn't go up to plan and pray, or to do anything else and pray.

He went up into the mountain to pray, and that's it.

To pray.

Often we make prayer only something to be fit in, something to be tacked on, something to add on, which by the way, any time that we want to pray and add it on, that's fine, that's good.

We there's never a wrong time to pray.

But it's not just only to be tacked on.

Jesus went up to just pray.

Just merely pray.

And I don't say just or merely like it's a small thing.

Prayer is a mighty work.

A pastor is not slacking his duties when he spends all day in prayer in God's word.

It is a mighty work.

Imagine if the disciples, seeing Jesus go out to pray all night, would have cried out, uh, he would get more healing done if he didn't spend uh so much time praying.

Or Jesus could have had more meetings if he hadn't spent all night in prayer.

Or Jesus wouldn't be sleeping in the back of a boat if he hadn't been up all night praying, which by the way we read of him sleeping in the back of a boat.

It is good to make time and a place for prayer.

It's important to be intentional about our prayer time.

Churches used to have prayer meetings, not just like a night, but they would have prayer meetings, sometimes weeklong prayer meetings.

As much can be done for the kingdom of God in an hour of prayer as in a year's worth of events, campaigns, and programs.

And please don't be mistaken.

Uh prayer does not replace or excuse us from the works of evangelism and charity.

But neither do works of evangelism and charity excuse us from the work of prayer.

It is God who will build his church, and we must rely on him for his divine blessing.

Psalm 127.1 says, Except the Lord build the house, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain.

If we do this in our own might, it's not gonna be what we think it should be.

So it was pertinent, it was purposeful, it was also persistent.

Persistent.

When it says he continued all night.

Continued all night.

Remember the story in Genesis chapter 32, verse 22 through 32 of Jacob wrestling all night when he wrestled with him, and he was wrestling with him, and he said, Let me go, it's daytime.

Genesis 32:22–32

It's almost daytime.

What does he say to him?

He says something kind of odd, right?

He says, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

This is what prayer is being likened to.

Wrestling with God.

Wrestling with Him.

What do you wrestle for?

To go into prayer and say, I'm not letting go in prayer until you bless me.

God, I'm not gonna end this prayer session until you bless me.

Like Jacob wrestling, I'm not gonna stop holding on to you until you bless me.

This is what Jesus is doing, wrestling all night in prayer.

I've stayed up late for many times for many things.

I've stayed up all night at sleepovers.

I've stayed up all night camping and fishing, though I caught no fish.

I have never caught a fish.

And if you think I'll tell them how to catch a fish, it won't work.

I have other people have said that and failed.

I have stayed up all night pulling wire in factories and nursing homes.

I've stayed up all night many times as an online dispatcher.

I've stayed up all night reading comic books.

Stayed up all night at sleepovers watching James Bond and Godzilla movies.

I've stayed up all night talking with friends.

I've stayed up many nights playing video games.

I've stayed up many nights reading books, and yes, I've even stayed up many, many nights studying for sermons because while working in a full-time job and being a father and a husband, being a pastor meant that that was my only time to study.

But I regret to stand before you this morning and confess to my shame.

I don't think I've ever spent a whole night in prayer.

I've prayed late.

And I've prayed long.

I have yet to wrestle all night like this.

Maybe some of you have done that.

To wrestle all night, to literally race against the sunrise in order to be awarded in prayer.

To shout like Jacob, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

But Jesus, our perfect example, did.

It says it was passionate, it was pertinent, it was purposeful, it was persistent, it was passionate in prayer to God.

This is a unique phrase.

Young's literal translation has it in the prayer of God.

Some think this is a reference to the prayer house of God, which would have been an open-roof prayer room on the mountain.

They also had some of these by the sea.

Some think that this is Jesus' prayer as God, to God, that this was a special kind of prayer as only God could give.

It also could be understood as simply referring to the object, or that is the person of his prayer, which is God.

All this could be and probably was true, but there is more.

So I'm going to pause for a second before I go any further talking about the prayer to God.

We need to understand something important.

God is not given to variance and emotions like we are.

He does not suffer as we do.

The Latin word for suffer is passio, from whence we get our word passion.

We say that God does not have passions.

What do I mean by this?

It means that God is not acted on by an outside influence.

In other words, God is not moved to action.

So I mean that God does not feel love, but is love.

So the beauty of this is that he perfectly loves us.

He perfectly loves us and completely and always loves us.

And there's no variableness in turning in him.

Perfectly and completely always.

We cannot increase or decrease his love for us based on our actions.

He is solid and unmoving.

He is impassable.

So this brings up a couple of questions, right?

Why do we pray if our prayer does not change God's mind?

Why does God respond to us when we sin and when we repent?

Why does God respond at all?

If God is impassive, then does he care about us?

Does he have emotions?

We pray because God has so designed it that he responds to our earnest prayers.

We do not change his mind, but rather we fulfill his desire by seeking him, and he is pleased to respond to us.

That's an important distinction.

He does not change his mind.

Rather, when we read, he repent read when we read he repents of an action.

It is not him changing his mind, but his turning in response to our actions.

He responds accordingly to intercession because he is faithful.

We do not control God with our prayers.

That's important.

That's important.

We do not control God with our prayers.

When we pray, we do not move God to action, but rather God responds to our prayers because He is good.

Samuel Rennihan explains: God helps the helpless from the infinite fullness of his own goodness, not from sincere movement or emotional manipulation.

Therefore, the helpless can always call on God, knowing that he is not merciful, but mercy itself.

God is not moved to mercy, he is mercy.

When you're pleading passionately in prayer, crying out to God, pleading with Him to bless you.

Please don't think I'm saying that if you were just more passionate in your prayer, you would have gotten your prayer answered.

If I would have just had more faith in my prayer, then God would have given me what I wanted.

It's not the intensity of our faith, it's the object of our faith.

And our object of our faith is good.

So why cry out to him in prayer?

Because he has so designed it that he wants us to come to him.

And when we do, it's not that we're changing, it's his mind, it's that he responds accordingly.

Because that was that's what he wants.

For us to cry out to him.

I want you to think back to the story of Jacob wrestling with the Lord all night.

Okay?

There's a little bit of can I use the word absurdity?

He's fighting against God.

Do you really think he had the upper hand in a physical fight?

And just to remind you that he did it, what happens?

He touches him, just touches him, and bam, he's out of joint for the Rest of his life.

Remember, he's been wrestling with him, you know, grappling.

And then I'm not letting you go until you bless me.

So what was the point?

God wants you to come to him.

He wants you to draw close to him, to wrestle with him, to plead to him, to lament to him.

You've got struggles, you've got problems, come to him.

We come to a lot of other places for our complaints and our laments, right?

Some of us go immediately to the internet.

In any place we can type all our complaints.

Take them to the Lord.

We enter into true communion with God through prayer when we pray according to his will.

First John chapter 5, verse number 4.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

And this is the confidence that we have in him.

That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Luke 11, 2.

And he said unto them, When you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

As in heaven, so in earth.

At Matthew 26, 42, he went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my Father, this if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Whose will was he praying for?

The problem with our prayers is that they are often prayers for our own will.

James 4, 3.

You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own lusts.

So what is wrestling in prayer look like?

Asking for divine blessing for his will.

For his will.

The more we think about his will, the less some of the things that we want suddenly start to matter.

Now let us speak carefully.

I want to speak carefully and with awe and wonder as we consider the full implications of Christ's humanity in prayer.

Jesus, while fully God, was also fully human.

In his humanity, he suffered.

In his humanity he desired, and in his humanity he felt passion.

He did all this perfectly as a human.

Think back to that unique phrase, prayer of God.

John Gill gives one other way in which we might understand the full scope of this unique phrase in regards to the nature, manner, and matter of his prayer.

John Gill says it was a divine prayer.

It regarded divine things and was put up in a very fervent manner and with great vehemence.

So the coals of love or jealousy are said to be coals of fire, which had the flames of Jehovah.

So it's a very, very strong fire, if it's the flames of Jehovah.

That is, we render it a most vehement flame.

In like manner, prayer of God is a most vehement prayer, strong cry sent to God with great eagerness and importunity, fervency and devotion.

And such was Christ's prayer, and in which he continued all night.

He didn't just pray all night, he prayed passionately all night long.

Fervently all night long.

Wrestling, grasping, holding.

When we pray, what do we pray for?

How do we pray for it?

Do we pray for God to bless us?

Bless us how?

Bless us why?

What would a whole night of passionate pleading for God to give us Citrus County produce?

What would a night of prayers filled with sweat, tears, aching joints, grasping of the pew, gritting of the jaw, whispers, crying, shouting, pleading, begging, boldly calling for spiritual growth and evangelistic impact look like?

What would a mother's all night praying with weeping where she is laying out her worries before the Lord about her children look like?

What might come of that mother's prayer?

A mother who with open Bible before her in the book of Proverbs is crying out to God for these truths she taught her children to stick.

A father who's up all night praying the prayers of David in the book of Psalms over those who seek to do harm for him living a Christian life, or who mock him at work in prayer over his sins and for wisdom to lead his family.

What would a whole night of prayer from a widow who prays with the book of Revelation open and prays for God's worldwide church in the midst of persecution look like?

Passionate prayer.

And so he then comes and chooses his twelve apostles.

He chose his apostles in verses 13 through 16.

When it was day, when it was day, he calls for his disciples, and of them he chose twelve.

He elected them.

They did not merely volunteer.

God calls us and brings us to himself.

Sad is the ministry of a minister who is pastor called and mother sent, but feels no call of God to the ministry.

Happy is the minister who desires to be a bishop, no matter how difficult the climb and cumbersome the load.

Jesus had a specific number in mind.

The number was twelve.

Why twelve?

The correlation between the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles is, I don't think, coincidental, but is intentional.

They were first to go to the twelve tribes of Israel, so this number was symbolic.

Matthew 10, 5 through 6 says that these twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So they were supposed to go to the Jews first.

Also they were numbered to one day judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

So this is it's a prophetic appointment.

Matthew 19, 28 says, And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in this in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So the twelve tribes of Israel will be judged by their response to the preaching of the twelve, but I believe that also they will one day sit in literal seats of judgment over the twelve tribes of Israel.

We see their office, whom he named apostles.

This was a specific, special office with vast implications.

The apostles were to be Jesus' representatives and his mouthpiece.

He establishes these as his apostles, apostle meaning sent ones.

These are the ones he sends out to preach his message.

And he gives them unique roles, abilities, and offices.

The word apostle is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe others being apostles, but these other occasions only describe them as being sent out by other churches, like what we would think of as missionaries.

Only these twelve were sent, not by a church, but by Jesus Himself.

And thus they are referred to specifically as the apostles.

The apostles.

So we read in Scripture of an Apostle, this is specifically talking of this office of these twelve particular men.

Unlike our friends and other denominations, we don't believe an apostle is something that's an apostolic secession.

Rather, it is something that was appointed only by Jesus Christ.

Then we see their importance.

The twelve disciples were chosen for the unique office of apostle.

And the reasons are important.

They received revelation and authority.

They were to edify the church.

They were to live exemplary lives.

They were given miraculous powers to confirm their message.

And they were and are greatly blessed.

Now I considered when I was studying this, because honestly, going verse by verse and word by word study on this, you could spend a lot of time talking about each of these disciples.

You could have 12 sermons.

Talking about their writings, their death, their ministry.

But I wanted to use this time to focus on what Jesus and his humanity and earthly ministry is doing in this passage's book ends.

And choosing the 12 apostles.

Their qualification, humanly speaking, they were what most would not expect of for twelve apostles.

John MacArthur wrote, humanly speaking, then the twelve hardly seemed qualified for the momentous task to which Jesus had called them.

And I like what he says here.

He says, God uses less than adequate people, because that is all he has to work with.

We're all less than adequate people.

Jesus knew the apostles' weaknesses, faults, shortcomings, but he also saw them in the potential under his power to change the world.

Twelve apostles, Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon the Zealot, Judas, and then the other Judas, Iscariot.

Now he points out who became a traitor.

So you see him choosing his disciples.

And then I love what the next verse in 17 says.

Some of your translations say Jesus came down.

Some of them say he came down.

Jesus came down with them.

He came down with them and stood on a level place.

He came down.

First thing we see is the humility of Jesus.

How humbled he is.

Born in a stable, poverty, not what people were expecting for a triumphant king, a lowly babe.

He came down.

We are sinners and we fall far short of God's glory.

So the only hope of salvation for us isn't for us to try and reach our way up because we can't get up high enough, right?

It took God condescending down to us to reach us and pull us up, right?

In his humility, he came down, fully God and fully man.

Jesus came down among the crowd.

Among the crowd.

On a level place.

Think back to the beginning of the gospel, how Jesus humbled himself.

And he continues to humble himself before God and before man.

All night in his prayer was a moment of humility and his humanity before God.

All night in humble prayer before God.

Now he comes humbly before the people.

His humanity.

It says with the crowd.

With the crowd.

With the crowd of his disciples and a great crowd of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, Seacoast of Tyre, and Sidon.

In his humanity, he came down as a Jew, but among both Jew and Gentile.

He came down to interact with all humans.

He connected with all humanity.

And he came to call for himself a bride of every tongue, tribe, and nation.

So we see his humility, we see his humanity, and then we see his healing.

The healing by Jesus.

Now, in this, when we talk about healing, we have a doctor writing to us.

Luke is a doctor.

So he uses a lot of doctor words.

And as uh as you look into this more and more, you're like, well, he uses some big words.

And like John, who keeps most of his words to about four letters, which is my kind of pacing.

But you've got Luke using big words, and so he looks at this.

Now think of this.

He's a doctor, he's dedicated his life to doctoring, he's taken an oath to help people, and here he's seeing Jesus, the great physician.

And the first thing we see is the patient's problem, right?

They hear him, they have diseases, and they're vexed by unclean spirits.

We live in a world wrapped by sin and its effects.

Jesus preached the kingdom and gave us a taste of the New Jerusalem.

When there will be no more sickness, death, unclean spirits are sin.

We see the patient's problem, but then we see the physician's power.

Says they were healed.

The whole crowd tried to touch him, for power went out from him and healed them all.

Please note the use of that word, all.

Jesus had a unique ministry, and he gave to his twelve disciples a similarly unique ministry.

The message of Jesus was validated by his signs and wonders.

And as we talk about the twelve apostles, the twelve apostles were to be his chief witnesses, and their witness and their teachings and authoritative role were to be received.

And certain writings were to be recognized and received as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Their ministry and teachings, too, also were validated by their signs and wonders.

The gift of healing as practiced by Jesus was unique because he was, is, and evermore shall be God Himself.

The similar gift of healing given to the apostles, which we saw also with the Old Testament prophets, was limited to these twelve apostles, and it ceased with the completion of their life and ministry.

And the close of the canon of scripture, of which they were so designated as the penmen.

The healings performed by Jesus and the apostles were dramatic, unquestionable, and complete.

Many who wrongly claim the title of apostle today and the gift of healing today will bypass many actual sicknesses and disabilities to instead heal only unseen maladies and lengthened legs.

John Yates wrote, Anyone claiming the true New Testament gift of healing should be able to do the same, without excuses about the lack of faith by the one seeking healing.

Jesus also healed all types of sicknesses and diseases that were brought to him.

Anyone claiming the gift of healing today should be able to do this as well.

No long lines of disappointed seekers were left after Jesus healed, as is so often the case with so many so-called faith healers today.

Remember, it's not the intensity of your faith, it's the object of your faith, Jesus Christ.

Oh, how in awe Luke the physician must have been to see and hear the great physician's work, to heal not only the body, but the very souls of man.

Jesus, Lord God Himself, descended to save mankind from sin and its consequences, and to bring an elect bride to himself.

Now I want to bring this together.

Many want the power of Jesus, but are not willing to have the prayer of Jesus.

Many want God to have a blessing on their life and ministry, but they don't want to have the prayer of Jesus.

Think about what came before this, when Jesus was literally exuding power.

He had just spent all night in prayer.

During the Great Awakening, there was a gentleman named Jonathan Edwards.

I think we might have already talked about him a little bit.

Real happy guy.

Every time I see a picture, he's just smiling.

So big.

He preached a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Listen, please, to this account of someone talking about what happened before he preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

For three days, Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food.

For three nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep.

Over and over again he was heard to pray, O Lord, give me New England.

Give me New England.

When he rose from his knees and made his way into the pulpit that Sunday, he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God.

Even before he began to speak, tremendous conviction fell upon his audience.

Edwards did not have a commanding voice or impressive pulpit manner.

He used very few gestures, and he read from manuscript, yet God's Spirit moved upon his hearers with conviction and power.

He literally would read his sermons like this, without a microphone, without any hand gestures, just reading his sermon.

And yet people in the back of the crowd would scream out, thinking that they were feeling the flames of hell licking their feet.

Jesus humbled himself, this perfect man showed us what dependence on the Father looked like, what humility looked like.

Just as he sent out the most diverse and unlikely men to be his apostles, so he has also chosen us to salvation, sanctification, and service.

We want God's blessing on this church.

Right?

We want this church to exude God's power in this community, in our homes, and in our lives.

So then we must pray like Jesus.

We are less than adequate people for this task.

We are less than adequate people for evangelization.

We are less than adequate, I am less than adequate to lead my family in spiritual grace and truth.

I am less than adequate to be a pastor.

I'm less than adequate as a man to live a Christian life.

But because of God's saving, transforming, enabling, and sustaining grace, because of Jesus, we can grow and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Everything is because of Him.

Everything.

Everything that you are as a Christian is because of God, because of Jesus.

How dependent we are on Him.

His humanity and his healing.

If you leave here with nothing else, leave with a higher, grander view of our Savior Jesus as the perfect man.

People encountered Jesus and left changed.

He did not just work them into a manufactured, religious, euphoric emotion.

He did not just work them up into a hypnotic trance where they left thinking, I really felt.

What they left was they left changed.

It wasn't just an emotional experience.

They left different.

His miraculous signs and wonders were not ends unto themselves, but confirmed the message they heard, the message they are about to hear, and the message on the plane.

People were saved, changed, set free.

Jesus had come down, and nothing would ever be the same again.

Now he was sending others to carry the good news, and they would need to rely on God in their ministries.

So we today are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to proclaim his kingdom, and practice true religion and biblical charity.

As we seek to advance Christ's kingdom, we do so only by the power and providence of God.

Because of this, we must fully rely on God, seeking Him earnestly in prayer.

It is only because of Jesus that we can pray like Jesus to the Father.

It's only because of Jesus that we can pray like Jesus to the Father.

We want power in our church, we want power in our homes, we want the power of God in our lives.

Wrestle with God in prayer.

Wrestle with him.

Seek his face.

Earnestly plea with him.

Pray for his divine blessing.

Draw close to him.

He wants to hear from you.

And know that he is good and he is faithful to respond.

Let's stand.

I want to give you just a moment of prayer.

Some of you may be as convicted as I am about your prayer life.

Some of you might be strong prayer warriors, but some of you may be convicted that your prayer life is on life support.

And you're convicted of that.

What a great time right now.

Ask God not just for forgiveness, but also for his enabling grace to help you.

Ask him to help you seek him more.

Not to rely on yourself, but to rely on him more.

Take just a moment.

You're wondering, what are they talking about?

Leaving changed, leaving different.

If you've never come to Jesus, let me offer this to you.

Jesus is able to save you today.

These people that came to him didn't just come to be healed from their sicknesses, they came to be set free.

They came to hear what he had to say about the kingdom.

They're looking for something more.

And some of you are still chains.

You're bound by your sin.

There's no freedom for you, and there's no hope.

I don't want to offer you some emotionally charged statement.

I don't want you to just think I need to respond now because I'm feeling so emotionally changed.

What I want you to understand and what God's word shows us is that there is true hope and change in Christ.

He calls to you.

He draws you.

If there's anyone here who's recognizing that I've never come to know Christ as my Savior, and you're feeling convicted that today is the day when you need to cry to Him to save you, to set you free from your sin.

We'll have deacons here afterwards.

I would like to encourage you to come and talk to one of them.

Come talk to me or the other pastors.

We'd love to show you from God's Word how to come to know Christ as your Savior and Lord.

Father, we thank you for your love and for your word.

Lord, we strive so much in our own power sometimes.

We strive sometimes so hard, we work so hard, and we wonder where the results are.

Wonder where the power is.

Be done.

Help us to spend time in prayer before you, seeking your will, seeking your face.

Help us to wrestle with you in prayer.

And to say, I'm not gonna let go until you bless me.

Lord, I pray you'd help us.

Lord, thank you that we can come to you boldly because of Jesus Christ.

All access that we have to you, Father, is because of what you've done with through your Son Jesus Christ.

Lord, we ask now for your guidance and your direction.

Be with us as we go our separate ways.