How to Pray for Others: Part 3 | Chris Chadwick | Colossians 1:9-11 — Chris Chadwick

My prayer for this series has been all along that you would not simply, get another Christian formula for prayer, but that you would learn, as a believer that when you're reading through the passage of Scripture, through the text, that when you come to prayers in the Bible, they're, they're not only, like, informational, and they're not only, like, narrative style where this is how so-and-so prayed for somebody. They're also instructional and teaching us how you and I can pray for other people. Again, I find it challenging at times to know what to pray. Let's be honest. It can, it can be kind of a stab in the dark, you know. Like, "Lord, pray for Nathan Patt" Just whatever, and then we say things like, "Bless him," because we don't really know what to say. And then how many of you have done praying for somebody, if you're being honest, and going, "I don't know if that was even good"?

Like how many are honest enough and humble enough to go, "I don't know if that's what I should have even said. Like, Lord, does he need blessing? Maybe he's in sin. Maybe he needs a curse right now. I don't know." But the truth of the matter is, and I'm being facetious obviously, but the truth of the matter is that the Scripture guides us on how we can pray for others. And I'll just be super candid with you. The older I get, there's two things that I really believe.

Number one is the sufficiency of the Word of God. It has the answer for life's problems. It has the answer for life and all that is in it, and I'm so thankful for the Bible and how it guides and directs my mind, my heart, and my thinking. And I'm, I'm amazed at how ridiculous the world's thinking is when I compare it with the wisdom of the Word of God Number one. Number two, I've-- the older I get, the more I have come to grips with this reality that the answer to the world's problems is found in Bible preaching, Bible teaching, healthy New Testament churches. Amen. Let me say that again. The answer to the world's problem is in Bi-Bi-- problems, is in healthy Bible preaching, Bible teaching, healthy New Testament churches. Amen. It is, it is imperative that we understand those two things. If you get nothing else tonight, get that the answer is the Word and the Church. And you say, "You say the Church 'cause you're a pastor."

No, that has nothing to do with it. Just because I believe in the Word, and God left the Church here as the organism through which the world is to be reached with the gospel of Christ, I am so pumped about the Church and what God can do in and through his local New Testament church. And there, the examples are endless, and the encouragement is regular. Well, we come to the book of Colossians on this last study, and really, this is the, passage of Scripture that, was the genesis, if you will, or the beginning of my thought about praying the Scripture for others. Just as I was going through to my daily Bible reading, I began to study chapter one, and I was just reading through verse nine and following while on sabbatical, and God used this in my life in a great way.

I-- A little bit of background, the book of Colossians was written about 60 to 62 AD, and, the, city of Colossae was in the region of Phrygia in the Roman province of Asia Minor, about 100 miles-- We won't spend a lot of time on this 'cause we studied it this morning. Just about 100 miles east of Ephesus in the region of the seven churches of Revelation 1 to 3. So what we're studying in the morning, Colossae was very close there. Paul was not the founder of the church at Colossae. It was founded while he was in Ephesus, we believe, and it was founded by a man named Epaphras, that we read about in chapter one, verses five to seven, and we'll jump into that in just a second. And, he was, he was saved on a visit to Ephesus and started the church when he returned home. There were-- Several years after the church at Colossae was founded, there was a dangerous, very dangerous heresy that began to threaten the church.

It contained elements of what would later become known as Gnosticism. Not Gnosticism as we would say it today, or agnosticism. But Gnosticism basically said God is good and matter is evil, and Jesus Christ was merely one of a series of emanations, and when we preached through 1 John we said it this way, of like holy holograms. They were just like, the, spiritual AI of the day. And people said Jesus wasn't a real person. God was really good, but he did not come in the flesh, and anything that was tangible was evil and vile. That was the idea. Very big, broad picture of Gnosticism in the day. And it was having a massive impact in the church at Colossae. And the heresy had been, also, embraced aspects of Jewish legalism, like the necessity of circumcision for salvation, or the observance of ceremonial rituals in the Old Testament, dietary laws, and festivals, and Sabbaths, and other fleshly laws.

They had a mystical experience, and it was really, if you will, having a really big impact in the hearts and lives of the people that were there. And so Epaphras, who loved the people at Colossae as their pastor, it's so motivating to me and instructive to me. Epaphras, who loved the people at Colossae so much, he left Colossae and literally traveled all the way to Rome, where Paul was in prison, to ask Paul questions about this heresy. Now, again, I'm gonna get on a plane tomorrow, and I'm gonna fly, and I'm gonna leave at 11:00, and I'm gonna make it to Denver at about 2:15. and so it'll be about a two hour and 15 minute flight to Denver. And then I'm gonna fly from Denver in about 45 minutes to the beautiful, wonderful destination city of Omaha, Nebraska And I'm gonna-- Yeah, exactly. and I'm gonna do that, and I'm gonna travel well over 1,000 miles in just a couple of hours.

But you have to remember back in Paul's day, and sometimes we need to be reminded of this, in Paul's day, a journey of just 100 miles was a multi-day a week-long journey, and they're sleeping on the side of the road. And Epaphras, he cared so much for the people that he took on this arduous task of basically walking as far as he could, probably taking a boat as far as he could, and then walking, and then getting to Rome, and then finding where Paul was. It wasn't like they had the internet to search out house prisons, 'cause that's what Paul was in was a house jail, to search those things out. It was a lot of work for him to go, but he so desperately wanted to protect the spiritual condition of the people that he goes and he talks to Paul about this. And he talks to him, he gets some help, and he leaves, and he goes back to Colossae and pastors the church.

And it is some time later that the Apostle Paul writes the letter to, Onesimus about Philemon. He writes a letter to the church at Ephesus, the book of Ephesians. And we believe he probably at the same time wrote the book of Colossians and sent it by the hand of the same carrier to the church at Colossae. And in Paul's letter to them, he says in verse number seven, "As ye have so learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant," I love this phrase, "who is for you a faithful minister of Christ." No greater words can be said for a servant of Christ than that they are simply a faithful minister of Christ. The question is often asked, "Pastor, what does God want me to do?" And the Bible says very clearly in the book of First Corinthians, I believe it is, "Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful," not fruitful, not good-looking, not attractive, not the wisest guy in the room, though we have to have biblical wisdom.

Moreover, it is required in stewards not that he be rich, but that he simply be found faithful. There's a lot of things I can't do. But one thing I can do, and one thing you can do, and that is be faithful. Amen. We can all be faithful. We can all just live our life in a faithful way before the Lord, and that's what Epaphras... That's how Paul describes under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, how he describes Epaphras as a faithful minister of Christ. Has not a lot to do with the message other than something that we ought to all desire to be and ascribe to be, and that is a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. I wanna be a faithful husband. I don't know when the Lord will take me home, but when He takes me home, if I pass away before Debbie, I hope that she says, "Your dad was a faithful husband." I hope Judith and Natalie will say, "Yep, Dad was a faithful dad." You say, "Do you live with that in mind?"

Oh, absolutely I live with that in mind. That's the objective. I'm living for that. That's the end state I'm striving for. I wanna be faithful. I wanna be fun. I wanna be attractive. I wanna have better cologne than Leo, which is a low bar. there's a lot of things that I'd like to be said. But I'll tell you this, the thing that I really desire is that I'll be faithful. So here's the deal, some of you are newer believers, and you haven't been saved, as long as maybe you wish you had been, and you wish you'd met Christ earlier. You're saved. You're walking with Jesus. I love that. God doesn't require you to be super gregarious. God doesn't require you to even be an apologist or a huge preacher. Nothing like that. Here's what we all should strive for. It's the same thing as, that Paul described Epaphras, that we ought to be a fellow servant who is a faithful minister of the gospel of Christ in the capacity that God has called us.

And that right there removes the pressure I don't have to live up to somebody else's expectations, I just have to be faithful. I don't have to try to be something I'm not, just be faithful. And Paul calls Epaphras a faithful servant of Christ, and he says in verse number nine, "Who also declares unto us your love in the Spirit." He loves it. I kinda enjoy going to, like, pastors meetings because I get to brag on how awesome Canyon Ridge is. And people will normally say, like, "You really love your church." And I'm like, "Of course, they have the best pastor ever." And then I'm like, "No, they're awesome. I love our church. You're right. You're right, I do." And then Paul describes for them, and this is where we'll take the next 18, 20 minutes. Paul describes for them the way that he prays for them.

He's shared about Epaphras, and then in verses 9 to 12, really 9 to 11, the paragraph goes on farther all the way to 14, but he segues from prayer and to, for the people and to the giving of thanks of God and other things unrelated to the people. And because this is not a true paragraph by paragraph study but a, subject matter study on the idea or the truth of prayer in the text, we'll stop our study at verse number 11 tonight. Paul says this, and I wanna read it slowly, and I want you to read it with me in your own mind. not audibly, but just read it with me, and let's read it slowly. And let's see if you can begin to pick up how the Scripture's instructing us on prayer.

Colossians 1:9–11 says, ‘For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.’ I'd like you to notice, I think we have four things here tonight.

Number one, when praying for others, pray that they will be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Verse number nine, "For this cause, since the day we heard of it, we do not cease," here's where it starts, "to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will." So the Bible views knowledge of doctrinal absolutes as foundational to godly living, foundational to godly living. The Bible desires that everything that we learn would be in relationship to the Scripture, would be under or would be rooted in the doctrine of the Word of God and the spiritual truths that are conveyed in scripture. I do not cease to pray that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will, the understanding. Knowledge here is not esoteric. It is not even overtly personal. This knowledge is clearly connected to the truth of scripture Let me be incredibly candid and helpful.

Sometimes people say, and I mean no disharmony here, and I don't wanna be unkind, but I have to be very clear. Sometimes people just say silly things, just silly things. Like, "Pastor, I'm, I'm, I'm waiting for God to speak to me about something." Well, he already has. Right. Do you need something more concrete than the written word of God? "Well, I'm waiting for God to do something in my heart." Well, the heart's deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can even know their own heart? That's right. Jeremiah says, "I don't know my own heart." I don't have a right to even tell myself how I feel, above the authority of Scripture. Sometimes, you know, when you talk to a lady, you always ask how they feel. When you talk to a dude, you always ask what they think. If you didn't know that might be why your marriage stinks, 'cause you don't know what he thinks and you don't know what she feels.

And so women feel and men think, and that's not an attack on women or on men. It's just a divergent... We were created differently, even in our brains. We think differently. By the way, male dogs are different than female dogs. I have one of each And the male dog is more fun, and the female dog is more loving. I want the female dog when it's time to be quiet, but I want the male dog when I wanna show off or when there's a rat in the backyard. "Chase him!" And the female dog will bark, and the male dog, they just-- we just think differently. We feel differently. And here's the idea that we have in the Scripture. It's, it's not that we would feel a certain way. It's that we would understand what the Scripture says and that we would live out what the Scripture says because it is the truth of the Scripture It's the truth of the Word.

That again, I wanna be clear, filled with the knowledge of His will is not this super secretive, "Well, I've gotta try to figure out God's will for my life." And I went to Bible college. I did. It was an experience. But it was a wonderful experience. It's where I met my wife and got called to got the a call was affirmed for ministry for me there. I loved those things about it. But sometimes you meet people that come from divergent church backgrounds and they just had to feel everything. "Well, I feel God is calling me to go here, and I feel God is calling me to go there, and I feel this, and I feel that." Well, the sad reality was that most of the people who felt things normally didn't do anything because their feelings changed not long after the fact If I only loved Debbie because I felt like she's the one, people say, "Oh, I feel like they're the one for me." I mean, like day number four in marriage, those feelings were long gone.

I mean, it wasn't anything negative, but I didn't have that same feeling. I didn't lose that love and feeling. It was just kinda not there Whoa The idea... You guys are laughing and Burnie's just going, "I don't even know what we're talking..." Did you get that one? One, two in 24 years, man, when we know God is good, Bern. we cease not to pray that you would be filled up to the brim with the knowledge, biblical knowledge, of God's will I wanna pray that for you. Matter of fact, I pray that for you. This was the only passage I prayed on sabbatical. I prayed for, just about I think every one of you, almost. Every member of Canyon Ridge that's in the membership directory, I prayed for you on a multiple times a week that you would be filled with the knowledge of God's will. You know what I ask you to pray for me for? That I'd be filled with the knowledge of God's will based on the authority of the Word of God.

Continue looking at verse number 19, "That you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Number two, pray that people will be filled, that our church members will be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now, I encourage you to pray that, and church family, I encourage you to be a student of the Book of Proverbs because there's so much short, pithy wisdom that is found in the Book of Proverbs, but the entirety of the of the Bible is the wisdom book. But Proverbs is, it, feel uncomfortable with that. I really feel uncomfortable with that 'cause I couldn't see. I don't have eyes in the back of my head, and I'm not worried about some coach when I'm lifting. I mean, I'm just lifting. I'm just going. I'm worried about burning and barbells. That's all I'm worried about. That's what I'm worried about. And so I'm lifting. But she came over and she started talking to me, and it just...

I don't know if you ever get this feeling like, that was odd. I don't know if you know, like, that that was odd feeling. Like something like the Holy Spirit's like, "Chris, you better be careful." And so I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna be careful." And so I just keep lifting, move on. Debbie walked over and everybody thinks Debbie's like this super nice, gracious, kind lady, but she'll cut your throat And she wasn't mad at me at all. She's like, "What was that about?" And I'm like, "I don't even... I sh, you know?" "Lifting. I don't know. I'm just lifting, honey. That's it." And, then we go back to what's called the whiteboard and the workout was reiterated and the coach was trying to talk, and so I walked over and I looked at something, and she walked by me and she goes, "What did you need, baby?" I'm like, "Baby, I ain't taking with that emotion." Some of y'all missed that reference. I was just like, "Are you kidding me?"

And you say, "So what'd you do?" Well, here's what biblical wisdom says to do. First things first. First things first. You say, "You just ran away." No, the sad fact was is that my I still got it. That's right. That's right. I walked over to Debbie and I looked at her and I was like... And walked away. And walked away and God smote my heart. Now it was... We're talking milliseconds, brothers. Milliseconds. Like things that happen in less than a 10th of a second. And you all know that feeling where the world flashes before your eyes in a millisecond, and the Holy Spirit is able to guide you and direct you in the midst of that, and I just... The Lord was like, "Boy, you better walk away." I just walked away. I didn't pay attention. I thought, "Zane's listening. I'll ask him, and he knows more than anybody else," or, "I could ask Bern, 'cause he knows more than anybody else. We've been doing this a long time together."

And I just simply walked away And I just worked out. Did my workout, got home, felt super odd. And so what did I do? The next day I left for Hawaii and I talked to one of the best friends I have in my entire life and I said, "Bro, I just need to be held accountable to you for this and I need you to pray for me and I need this to get out and I need to share this." You say, "Why did you do that?" just simply, that's wisdom that is picked up and adopted from the Word of God. You say, "Well, aren't you mad that that happened?" No, I expect worldly people and unsaved people to act like worldly, unsaved people. Things like that are going to happen. We can't be taken out of the world, Jesus says, but he said pray for them that while they're in the world they would not be consumed by the world.

And so I have to apply biblical wisdom and understanding to my everyday life because if I run from every temptation that's in the world, I'm going to be an ascetic and then I'm gonna be completely self-absorbed and never be able to talk to a single person on the face of the earth. By the way, some of you are like, "I wouldn't let my husband go to a place where a woman says that." Well, let me just be super candid with you.

The Bible says that the woman, there's children in here so you that are mature enough do apply this. The woman who's not the wife of the man lies in wait at every corner and she's always trying to get him. Yeah. I've had some fat pastors have women hit on them, and they're like, "I've still got it." I'm like, "Bro, the only thing you've got's another jelly roll. Slow down. You ain't got anything. Nothing. Nothing. Matter of fact, you're a discouragement for dudes to be around, so just be quiet." But she does lie in wait at every corner. And being filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding says, I take what I've learned from the Word, and I apply it to my life, and that's my prayer for our single folks, and our married folks, and our children when they're in school. Filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Number next, number three I think it is, verse number 10, "That you might walk worthy of the Lord in all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Pray that they'll walk worthy of the Lord That they will live as become, as Albert Barnes says, followers of the Lord That your walk with Christ will be exactly that, a daily worthy walk with Christ. Worthy of who? Well, look at the text. That you'll walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. That your walk will please the Lord, and you'll be fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Again, talking about increasing in the knowledge of God. And you could totally break that down, verse number 10, that you would please God. Man, my heart for you as a pastor is that you would please God. That Mike and Kristen Cardoza would please God with their attitudes, actions, testimonies, that you would please the Lord.

Number two, that you would be fruitful, verse number 10, in every good work. That the good things you do... How many of you have ever tried to do good things, follow the Scripture, and it not work out well? I know I have. Man, I wanna pray for you, and I want you to pray for me, and we pray for one another as a church family, that you'd be fruitful in every good work. And number, letter C, that you would increase in the knowledge of God. That you would increase in the knowledge of God The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." The more you know about Christ, the more grace and peace you can have. That's why if you never spend any time with God, don't be surprised if there's very little grace and peace.

Matter of fact, if you're not learning deeply about God, don't be surprised if you don't have a lot of grace and peace Debbie and I, there's a book in the bookstore called Knowing God, and Debbie and I read that together, and she reads a paragraph, and I read a paragraph, and she reads a paragraph, and I read a paragraph, and we just go back and forth. It's a, it's a wonderful book written by J.I. Packer and a wonderful book our staff and I are reading, an, a different book by J.R.I. Packer, In His Place Condemned I Stood. And we're also preparing for our men's, our pastoral retreat, which is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of the week of men's retreat, and we're reading a book on spiritual leadership, by John Piper, and then we're reading, the book I referenced this morning, Rethinking Sexuality by Steiker. And all of these things are teaching us things about God.

Let me not rebuke the men of our church, but let me rebuke the men of our culture, and that is this: that really for the first time in human history in the last 40 years, the average man has checked his brain at the door, and women are much more intelligent and engaged than men are. Yeah. Men have just given up, and we watch a lot of sports. We play... Not... We, men don't, but dudes play video games. Right. And they don't have time to read, and they don't have time to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. And then when they need grace and peace, they're always shocked that it's not available to them because they haven't taken time to do the work of growing in the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is a command for every follower of Christ. So Paul is saying, "I'm praying for you that you will grow in grace and peace." And brothers at Canyon Ridge, I'm praying for you.

And let me just say, there's an expectation that you will grow in the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if that is through the Faith Bible Institute program, which I think is absolutely amazing that you could do, if it is through the reading of books, which everybody has time to do, and through the memorization of Scripture, which everybody can do. We need to be growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we need to pray for one another that we can. Amen. Or that we will. Amen. And then finally tonight Verse number 11. "I'm praying for you that you will be strengthened in the Lord, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." That you will be strengthened in the Lord unto patience. Remember we talked about patience this morning? So I'm not gonna reiterate that. But patience is a willingness...

And long-suffering, you put them together. patience is dealing with circumstances. Long-suffering is dealing with people Patience deals with circumstances. Long-suffering deals with people. Okay? you could, you could, because you're a follower of Christ or just because of life, you could, go to work tomorrow and lose your job. No fault of your own, just a budget cut, and you were the last person that they hired. and they hired you a year ago, and you're the, you're the junior person on the totem pole, and you get fired. Or you're the junior person on the totem pole, and the position that you have is being dissolved, and so they're gonna put you in a position that you don't like, working for a boss that you don't like, and the circumstance becomes very challenging. Paul says this: "I'm praying that you'll be strengthened in the Lord.

Even when something like this happens, it won't detract you from the Lord, and you'll stay faithful to the Lord and that he will give you patience as you work your way through this As a police chaplain, I have the awesome privilege of counseling cops, a lot of times in a squad car, at the subdivisions, things like that. And oftentimes, guys will not oftentimes, but sometimes guys get in trouble and they, you know, have to go before a review board. Same thing happens in every job and in the military. And first thing that guys say is normally something extreme, like, "That's it, chaps, I'm out of here." Had this conversation with somebody, a while ago. "That's it, I'm out of here." Okay, calm down. Let's be patient. Let's see what happens. Let's pray together. Let's see what Jesus does. Now let's just work our way through it. Paul is praying that for you That Paul is praying that for you.

Your husband might get sent to the Middle East and be on a ship that, like, is down to, like, peanut butter and jelly that's thrown from, you know, some other ship, and it's soggy, and the food's not great, and they're losing weight. And, oh, what are we gonna do? We're gonna pray for patience. Yeah. We're gonna pray for patience. Why? We're asking God to strengthen us in the area of patience because it deals with our circumstances, but the harder one is dealing with people. How many of you have found people are harder than problems? People are difficult. Like, the most difficult thing in the world is us. Right. Just being honest. And so long-suffering love... Matter of fact, this is so true in your marriage. Love suffereth long, and is kind. Love envieth not, vaunteth not itself. It's long-suffering. Every young person, "Oh, I just love her." I remember Zane and Kali, "Oh, I just love her. Oh, she's so great." I still...

I was thinking the other day about your marriage. They've been married now 10 years. 10 years because of a good pre-marriage counselor. 10 years-... they've been married, and it's been awesome to see. But I remember, Zane's from Ohio, so you remember people from Ohio. They're not very effusive with anything other than their disappointment with the Cleveland Browns. but Kali just talked about how amazing Zane was, and how wonderful Zane was, and how, you know, godly Zane was, and all of these things about him. And then they got married, and now she's suffering long Suffering long people. And Paul is saying, "I'm praying for you that as you deal with this problemed person, that you will be long-suffering as you help them through their difficulty." And it might not even be somebody you're close to, it could just be somebody that you're helping that you really are praying for, but they get to be on your nerves.

How many of you have tried to help people walk with the Lord, and after a while you just wanna wash your hands of them and kinda throw your hands up in the air and just walk away and have nothing to do with them anymore? Paul is saying, "My prayer for you is that you will be patient in the circumstances and long-suffering with the person so that we can all walk with Christ." Now, here's my prayer as we talk about prayer, is that you will not become rigid in your prayer. At the end of the service, John has on the back table a bunch of handouts that have every single one of the points that we encourage you to put in your new members packets as to how to pray for people. And I think, JC, there's, there's a total of like 11 different things.

So you could pray for one thing a week 11 times, so you'd get about a little less than five times a year you'd pray through the, you'd pray through the list a little less than five times a year, like four and a half times a year or something like that if you, if you did it that way every time. That's, that's the way that I do it. But remember, that's not the only way to pray for people. Like, "Lord, I pray that they'll be, they'll walk worthy of the vocation you have called them to." When I come to pray for Lance, I'm gonna pray for his deployment. I'm gonna pray for Dana. I'm gonna pray for Malachi and Olivia. I'm gonna pray for the struggles of being a married single mom for a period of time and not knowing exactly when dad's coming home, and the unique pressures and stresses that go on in that life.

And when I pray for some of our single people who are maybe, on the verge of making a good or bad decision, I'm gonna pray for them that the model that we just gave, but I'm also gonna pray for that. You say, "Well, Pastor, I don't know what maybe people need." Oh, right So this is what we get to do. You get to go to that person and find out more about them so that you can figure out how to pray for them. Amen. And that helps us build unity in the church, which is one of the prayers we studied our first night in Jesus's prayer, the majestic prayer of Christ in the Book of John. That's the prayer.

So my desire for this, for our church family, is that we would be a church that prays for the needs of others, and when we don't know the needs of others, we would take that as a personal opportunity to try to get to know them a little bit better so that we can pray, but that every prayer would be rooted in the Word of God because prayer in the Scripture is prayer that God always answers or approves of It's, it's so wonderful to pray the Word of God, 'cause I have so much confidence, and so do you, in the Scripture. So when I pray for my single daughters, one who's dating and one who's not, I pray for them according to this model, but then I pray the Scripture in relation to where they're at in life, or where Debbie's at in life.

And wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we as a church family, like the Apostle Paul prayed for the people in Colossae, if we prayed for one another, and then we prayed for those that we knew, that we would, they would be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power and all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. "And we give thanks unto the Father," verse number 12, "which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." And we just thank God for one another. That's our prayer. Now, why would we do that? Because Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary for the sin of mankind, and there's hope for eternal life for everyone. And you might know people that aren't saved, and the first prayer that you need to pray for them, and the consistent prayer, is that they would come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

And if you're here tonight and don't know Christ as your Savior, a little different service, but if you don't know Christ as your Savior, would you talk to the person next to you, to your left or to your right? or come find me, and we would love to take the Bible and show you from God's Word how heaven can be your home. You don't have to accept Christ tonight, though we encourage you to do that. But at least find out what the Scripture says about how you can know that heaven is going to be your home. And that's our prayer for you tonight.