Prayer Is Relationship

We call it the Disciples' Prayer because we need it. And we've discovered that this particular prayer is a pattern for us to follow. Our God does things decently and in order.

And in my own particular life, in my own prayer time, I've discovered that the Disciples' Prayer is a good pattern to follow. It begins, of course, with that invocation, Our Father in Heaven, Matthew chapter 6, verse 9. Our Lord said, In this manner, pray. That means following this pattern, this sequence.

Our Father in Heaven. That's the invocation. And it tells me that prayer depends upon relationship.

Relationship, our, that's my relationship to God's people. Father, that's my relationship to God in Heaven. And I've discovered that if I'm not in good fellowship with God's people, I'm going to have a tough time talking to my Father.

My Father wants His children to love each other. My Father in Heaven wants me to love you. He wants you to love me.

It's difficult, but He wants us to do this. To live above with saints we love will certainly be glory. To live below with saints we know, that's another story.

And we all know this. I've pastored three churches, and sometimes I confess I have prayed, Lord, don't you want to move this fellow to some other church? And then the Lord rebukes me and says, Why? Why don't you help him? Why don't you learn to get along with him? Why don't you love him? Much easier to send our problems someplace else, isn't it? Relationship. Now, we've talked about the relationship to each other, our.

All of the pronouns in this prayer that refer to God's people are plural. If a committee from your denomination or mine were to write this prayer, it would read, My Father, give me this day my daily bread, and lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from the evil one.

Because we're very self-centered. We're very individualistic in our Christian life. But this is a family prayer.

And though each morning I pray in solitude, I never pray alone. When I begin my praying with our, God reminds me that you're praying, and many others are praying. And I thank God that they are, and that we're all part of one big praying family.

But somebody here says, Well, I don't pray. Well, then you're missing an opportunity. You can't say our.

Our Father. Now, that's what I want to talk about tonight. Our Father in heaven.

Now, let's admit right up front that praying, real praying, is difficult. It's not difficult to go through a routine. We can sort of work our way into that kind of a thing.

It's not difficult just to babble words and sound spiritual. But our Lord told us not to do that. He said, Don't be like the hypocrites.

Their motive was wrong. And don't be like the heathen, the pagans. Their manner is wrong.

They just babble words. Our Lord wants us to come and speak to Him as intelligently as we speak to each other. Our Father.

Real praying is tough. To begin with, the devil doesn't want us to pray. We all know that.

That's why later on we pray, Deliver us from the evil one. The devil trembles when he sees, what? The weakest saint upon his or her knees. Satan doesn't like it when we pray.

I don't think he minds too much how much we do of other things that are spiritual. He doesn't like it when we pray. Because when we pray, we're invading the heavenlies where he operates.

And Satan does not like praying Christians. Real prayer is tough because my flesh doesn't want me to pray. I don't know about you.

I'm not afraid to admit my own failings, because they probably are prevalent here. But I start to pray and I get distracted. I think of something I should do.

I think of, and right away, I keep little pieces of paper near me when I'm praying, so that when some idea, I write it down and say, Lord, take care of that and go back to pray. Because I can get so distracted if I'm not careful. Or you feel some pain.

I don't know why it is, but that so often happens. You're praying and you're just thrilled with talking to God, and then something hits you. And you wonder if the old flesh isn't just fighting you and you're praying.

Praying is tough. That's why you want to start your praying early enough so the phone doesn't interrupt you and the people at the front door and all the other things that have to go on. Now, to encourage me in my praying, the Lord Jesus says, look, when you start praying, say, Our Father in heaven.

Now, this is encouragement to me. You say, well, I don't see much encouragement in that statement. Oh, it's loaded with encouragement.

To begin with, when I say, Our, I realize I'm not praying alone. Others are praying, and they're praying for me. So often when I met people, when I was on the radio regularly, I'm no longer on, but when I was on the radio regularly, people would come up and say, Oh, we pray for you.

I hope they still do, even though I'm no longer on the radio. My Aunt Lydia, who's been with the Lord a long time, good Swedish Christian, and she was a great prayer warrior, and she prayed for me every day. I had a dear friend who had helped to disciple me, and she prayed for me every day.

And when those two ladies went off to Gloria, I could tell the difference. So when I read the word, Our, and when I say the word, Our, that encourages me. It's as though I'm saying, you're not here by yourself.

Others are praying. You're a part of a great praying family. What Paul called in Ephesians 3.14 and 15, the whole family of God.

Part of God's family is in heaven. Part of God's family is on earth. And did you know that no prayer is ever wasted? It may not be answered when I want it to be, but no prayer is ever wasted.

I read in the book of Revelation that they brought all of the incense, the prayers of the saints. Now, I don't think that means the saints are praying for us up there. I think that means that God has just gathered together down through the centuries the prayers of the saints.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done. And one day, all of those are going to be answered.

Our. But it's this word, Father, that encourages me. Now, I know you've got to be very careful with this word, Father, as you do with the word, Mother, because it depends on the kind of father or mother you had.

Some people have the wrong view of God because their father was not the kind of father he should have been. I recall at the Moody Church, I had the privilege of teaching the student class. All the students from whatever school you went to came to my Sunday school class.

We had a great time. And one Sunday morning, we were dealing with the fatherhood of God. And after the class was over, a young man came up to me and he looked at me and he said, You say that God is like a father.

I said, Yes, sir. Well, he said, If God's like my father, I'm not interested. He turned around and walked out.

I don't know what kind of father he had. But God never meant for fathers to be like that or for mothers to be like that. Now, when I pray our Father in heaven, that encourages me to keep on praying because, first of all, God is a father.

That's what Jesus came to teach. In the Old Testament, you will find God addressed as Father about 14 times. That's not a lot.

He's named as Father in the New Testament about 250 times. And in the Gospels, He's named as Father about 188 times. It's rather interesting in the Upper Room discourse.

In John 13 through 16, and then let's add 17, our Lord's Prayer in the Garden. In those chapters, the Lord uses the word Father 53 times. How did He encourage His disciples? He said, You've got a father, a father in heaven.

And so when I pray Father, that encourages me to keep on praying because God is my Father. Now, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and you know this. I'm only reminding you of what you already know.

God was a father to Israel. In Exodus chapter 4, God said, Israel is my firstborn, my son. And if Pharaoh does not let my firstborn go, I'll kill his firstborn.

And he did. In Deuteronomy, when Moses was reminding the Jews of all that God did for them, the word remember is one of the key words in Deuteronomy. Moses said, Do you remember that God carried you through the wilderness the way a father carries a child? Then later on, he said, Do you remember that God chastened you like a father chastens his son? And so God was a father to Israel, but God is a father to all of His children.

You see, we have been born of God. Now, let me pause to make a statement that may shock some of you. The fact that God is spoken of as a father does not mean the Bible is using what is called sexist language.

I finished reading through a translation of the Bible that has taken away all the sexist language. All they've done is made it plural. You see, in the English language, our singulars have gender, our plurals don't.

And so if it says he, they just make it they. Instead of saying blessed is the man or blessed is he who, they say blessed are they. And there's no gender in they.

Our plurals are genderless. Well, you can do that if you want to. But you've got to remember that when God says he's a father, he's not using what we call sexist language.

In fact, the Bible teaches the motherhood of God. You say, I never heard of that. Sure.

The Bible very definitely teaches the motherhood of God. Why? Because God is spirit. Spirits don't have bodies.

And therefore, God is sexless. But he uses the image of a father. He uses the image of a son, of a king, of a creator, of a potter, of a valiant warrior to communicate to us what he's like.

I have just finished reading through the scriptures and marking every metaphor, every simile, and every image that's there. Interesting. I recommend it to you.

Whenever I find one, just put a little red X in the margin. And all of these different images of God are amazing. God's compared to a river.

He's compared to a rock. He's compared to a fortress. He's compared to the sun.

He's compared to a mother. You say, well, where is that? Well, if you're insistent upon it, well, look at it. Isaiah chapter 49, one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture.

Last year at the team conference out in El Cajon, California, Dr. David Jeremiah's church, it was Mother's Day, the day we started the conference. And so I preached on the motherhood of God. They thought Wiersbe had become heretical.

Isaiah chapter 49, verse 14. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Have you ever felt like that? Sure you have.

Be honest now. In my pastoral ministry, I can recall walking into hospital rooms where God's dear people were lying in pain. And on more than one occasion, they'd look up and say, oh, pastor, the Lord's forgotten about me.

The Lord's forsaken me. And that's what Zion was saying. And God replies in verse 15, can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget.

Yet I will not forget you. Now, here God's comparing himself to a mother. The motherhood of God in his ceaseless sacrificial love.

So God is a spiritual parent. And when I remember that God is a father, this encourages me to pray. Now, if there are more male images in the Bible than female, the reason is very simple.

This book grew out of a masculine society. The Jewish people were accustomed to masculine images. The shepherd, the king, the ruler.

But this book does not discriminate at all, not in the least. God is a father. That's what Jesus came to teach us.

Going back to Matthew chapter 6, we can just turn the page to Matthew chapter 7. And in verse 7, find that great promise that all of us have claimed one time or another. Our Lord says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you. How is that possible? For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks finds.

And to him who knocks, it will be open. On the basis of what? Well, he tells us. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those that ask him? You see, prayer is based on sonship, not friendship.

When I say sonship, I'm speaking generically. That includes the daughters as well as the sons. Prayer is based on parenthood.

Just as a parent takes care of a child, so the Father in heaven takes care of his children. At this point, someone says, well, I hate to disagree with you, but I have asked and didn't get it. And I have sought and didn't find.

And I knocked and that door stayed closed. So what are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about the same thing Jesus was talking about. Do you ever take that promise, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened, and really see what it says? Ask and it shall be given you.

That means my Father's wealth is available to me. In Jesus Christ, I'm as wealthy as God is. Ask and it shall be given you.

That's the Father's wealth, but it doesn't stop there. Seek and you shall find. That's the Father's will.

If I'm going to ask my Father for his wealth, I'd better find out what his will is, or I'm going to waste what he gives me. But it doesn't stop there. Knock and it shall be opened to you.

Now, as you know from your own study of the Scriptures, an open door in the Bible speaks of service. God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and Paul went out and preached. I've set before you an open door.

An open door speaks of the Father's work, so that when I pray, I may ask for the Father's wealth if I'm submitted to the Father's will and ready to do the Father's work. That's the mistake the prodigal son made. Do you ever notice in the parable of the prodigal son there are two prayers? He prayed the worst prayer in the best place, and he prayed the best prayer in the worst place.

At home, he said to his father, give me. Out in the pigpen, he said, you know what? My father's servants have got more to eat than I do. I will go home, and I'll say, Father, make me.

Now, folks, there's a grand canyon of difference between Father, give me, and Father, make me. One has to do with things. The other has to do with character.

When that boy came home, he discovered you don't ask for the Father's wealth without seeking the Father's will and wanting to do the Father's work. But he learned his lesson. Bless the Lord.

Some of us haven't. When he got home, he said, Father, not give me, make me. The father said, now I can trust him.

Now I can share with him because his character is where it ought to be. God is a father, and that means that God is compassionate. God cares.

A flood of books has come out of the publishing scene in the last 10 years on evil in the world today. I think I have two shelves of them. Of course, Rabbi Kushner's book came out some years ago on when bad things happen to good people, and he argued for a limited God.

He said the reason we don't have a cure for cancer is because God hasn't found one yet. And this book was chosen by Book of the Month Club, and it became a bestseller, and he preaches a limited God, process theology. Now, if you think process theology is dead, it's not dead.

It's very alive. Where God is evolving, and we're helping him evolve to become more godlike. That's not the God I read about in my Bible.

The God I read about is a compassionate God who makes no mistakes. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those that fear him. He knows our frame better than the chiropractor does, better than the x-ray technician does.

He knows our frame, and he remembers that we're dust. Now, we think we're steel. We think we are so strong that we're going to keep on going regardless of what we do.

No, no. We're dust. We're dust.

And if we should die before our Lord Jesus returns, we're going to go to dust. That's all right. That's okay.

Because one day, Jesus Christ will raise us from the dead, and we will have glorified bodies, and we can say goodbye to the doctors, and goodbye to Medicare, goodbye to the morticians, goodbye to all of these things, and hello to glory. God is a father. He's compassionate.

He's caring. And so I can come to him. If you being evil take care of your children, you wouldn't give them a stone if they ask for bread.

You wouldn't give them a scorpion if they ask for fish. You know what he's saying there? Don't be afraid of answered prayer. If God doesn't give you what you asked for, you may have asked for something wrong.

Many times I've asked for a stone and didn't know it. I thought I was asking for bread. I was asking for a stone.

I thought I was asking for fish. I was asking for a scorpion. If God had given me what I asked for, it would have hurt me.

It encourages me to pray because God is a father. Secondly, it encourages me to pray because God is our father. It's personal.

The house I was born in, I was born at home. I wanted to be near my mother. When she saw me, they took her to the hospital.

But the house that I was born in and grew up in and lived in for many, many years was right in the center of the block in our neighborhood, right smack in the middle, which meant that every kid gathered at our house. This was fine. My parents were very happy to have all of our friends there ruining the lawn.

My dad said, I can always raise a lawn. I can't always raise a family. They wanted to see who our friends were and what we were doing.

They were smart. But it's rather interesting. Every kid on the block called my mother Ma and my father Pa.

Even my Jewish friends up the street, the Markovich boys, they would call, Ma, where's me? Hey, Pa, where's me? And if a salesman ever showed up at the back door with all these kids there calling my mother Ma, a word of explanation had to be given. Now, they might call my mother Ma and my father Pa, but Warren and Edward and Clarence and Doris were the only ones who had the right to say it and mean it. We four children belonged to Fred and Gladys Wearsby.

We could say, that is our father. That is our mother. Now, there's a sense in which God is a father to everyone by creation.

Man is made in the image of God. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. When we lift up our hearts and say, our father, he's ours.

He's ours in two ways. By regeneration, we've been born again into the family of God. And by adoption.

I want to talk about adoption. It's so greatly misunderstood. You don't get into God's family by adoption.

Did you know that? Adoption is a beautiful thing. There may be people here who at a certain age, you discovered that you've been adopted. And you went and said to mother or dad, tell me about this.

And they explained to you that we have you in this family because we wanted you and we love you. It's a beautiful thing. Some people are bothered by this and some folks have problems.

But it's a beautiful thing when someone will adopt another and take them into the family. But that's not how you get into God's family. You see, the only people who are really in God's family have his nature.

Adopted children do not have the nature of their adoptive parents. But we have God's nature. You don't get nature by adoption.

Paul talks about adoption over in Romans chapter 8. I think we ought to look at that because it has to do with our praying. Romans chapter 8, verse 14. For as many as are led... May I put another word in there, please? Willingly led.

That's what the Greek word means. For as many as are willingly led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father, our Father.

Now, the word Abba, as you know, is the Aramaic word for daddy or papa. Now, we wouldn't talk like this in public. I don't think any pastor would get into the pulpit on Sunday morning for the pastoral prayer and say, Papa.

It would be offensive to some people. But it would be biblical. Our Lord in the garden said, Abba, Father.

Now, one reason we know we're born again is that the Spirit of God witnesses down inside that God is our Father. And we can say, Abba, Papa, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Let's talk about this.

What does it mean to be adopted? In the Bible, adoption is the act of God whereby He gives to every one of His children an adult standing in the family. The Greek word means son placing. Now, when I was born into God's family nearly 50 years ago now, I was born through the Spirit of God using the Word of God.

Every child has two parents. Now, if you didn't come into this world with two parents, I want to meet you. Well, we have two parents.

The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to impart the life of God. When I was born into God's family, He didn't leave me a baby. He said, now, son, I know you've only been saved one second, but right now I'm going to elevate you and give you an adult standing in my family.

Now, what difference does that make? Well, number one, a baby doesn't know who its father is. But God's people instantly know that God is their Father. A baby can't talk.

Would it not be remarkable if Daddy, with his white gown and his mask on, came into the birthing room, you know, they do it all differently now, and the baby looked up and said, Hi, Daddy. Now, that just isn't going to happen. In fact, the baby has to learn who his father is.

But that's not true of God's people. He adopted us the instant that He regenerated us, gave us an adult standing so that, one, we know who our Father is, two, we can talk to Him. That's why no Christian can ever say, well, I've only been saved three years.

You can't expect very much out of me. Wait a minute. The instant you were saved, God gave you an adult standing with all the privileges of adulthood, which means you can talk to your father.

That's prayer. You can understand what your father is saying to you. Some children have never learned that.

We can understand His Word, which means that we can walk. You know, the Bible doesn't say now, after you've been saved for five years, you can take three steps, then you can take four steps. No, no, no.

He expects us to start living like adults from the very beginning. That's adoption. We can talk.

We can understand. We can walk. We have freedom.

Now, little children don't have freedom. They're wrapped up and carried. And then when they get a little older, you put them in one of these portable jails, as you call a crib, or a baby tender, or a playpen.

It's just a jail. That's all it is. Children live in fear and bondage.

We don't. He said, God has not given you a spirit of fear. We have nothing to be afraid of.

We know who our Father is. We can talk to Him. He can talk to us.

We have freedom. We're not bound up like papooses. We can walk.

We can talk. We can inherit. No baby can inherit anything.

If a child's name is in a will, the lawyer has to fix it so that that money is in trusteeship. A baby cannot inherit. The instant I was born again, I inherited all that God had for me, potentially.

I am an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. That's where prayer comes in. The Lord Jesus Christ hands me all these checks.

Now, God has arranged that whenever a check is cashed on the bank of heaven, two signatures have to be on it, mine and the Lord Jesus. We're joint heirs. Now, no baby can inherit.

I can inherit right now. I can come to God and say, You have blessed me with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. And You have said to me, These are the things I'd like to give to you.

Now, I'm going to sign a check. But I can't sign any check that Jesus didn't sign. That's why you pray in His name.

When I was pastoring at Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky, the church had then and still has now a very fine book rum, one of the best I've ever seen in any local church. And they also sold school supplies, paper, pencils, erasers, things like that. And sometimes our children would need some school supplies.

And our arrangement was, you go into the book room, you tell Mrs. Estep what you need, and she'll write it down on the account. And the next day when I come in, I'll take care of it. But they come in and they ask for other things.

She won't give it to them. I want one of these highlight paddles. They're not likely to ask for that.

They'd know what we'd do with it, I think. Or I want one of these yo-yos or whatever. Oh, no.

No, no. I don't think your daddy wants you to have that. That's what it means to pray in the name of Jesus.

I come to my father and say, this is what I want, and Jesus wants it too. Oh, really? That's where the first three requests in the Lord's Prayer come in. Hallowed be your name.

If I give you this yo-yo, will that glorify my name? Your kingdom come, will it advance my kingdom? Your will be done, will it accomplish my will? So as adopted children, given an adult standing, we know who our father is. We can talk to him. He can talk to us.

We're heirs. We inherit. We can sign the checks.

That's what it means to say, our father. Father. That's why the hymn writer said, Thou art coming to a king, great petitions with you bring.

So he's a father. That encourages me. He is our father.

That encourages me. Let's quickly notice one final encouragement. This father that we have is in heaven.

Now, we have earthly fathers. We have biological fathers on this earth. My biological father is now in glory.

We have spiritual fathers on this earth. Now, I know Jesus said in Matthew 23, Call no man on earth your father. What he meant by that was don't give anybody on earth the status of God.

It's really too bad the way some of the weak saints are so wrapped up in celebrities, religious celebrities. They've turned them into gods. Our churches today are filled with celebrities.

We need more servants, fewer celebrities. Somebody introduced the great missionary J. Hudson Taylor as a great missionary. Gave a long flower introduction, and Hudson Taylor was so embarrassed.

He just got up and stood in the pulpit and said, I am the small servant of a great God. Some of you people belong to the Christian Missionary Alliance Church, and of course, you've heard Dr. A.W. Tozer. And he was a great blessing to me.

And at one of the Alliance gatherings, he was introduced with an introduction that was just incredible. And Tozer got up and stood in the pulpit and said, May the Lord forgive that man for what he just said, and may he forgive me for enjoying it so much. Now, when Jesus said, Call no man on earth your father, he was not saying don't recognize the fact that there are spiritual leaders in the church.

Paul said to the Corinthians, Though you have had many instructors in Christ, you've had only one father. For through Jesus Christ, I've begotten you through the gospel. And so I have a spiritual father whose preaching brought me to Christ, but he hasn't taken the place of my heavenly father.

And you may have led people to the Lord and nurtured them like a spiritual father or mother. But that doesn't mean you take the place of God. That's what Jesus was warning about.

The Jewish people love titles. They just love the rabbis in particular. The word rab means teacher.

Rabbi means my teacher. Rabboni means my Lord, my teacher. And every rabbi longed to be a rabboni.

Don't be like that. Our father is in heaven. Now, that encourages me to pray.

Psalm 115, I think, is so cute that maybe I shouldn't use that word. It's clever. It's satirical.

You can just picture when you read Psalm 115, you just picture some Egyptian or Phoenician or Assyrian coming into Jerusalem and taking one of the tours of Jerusalem. And he says, hey, where's your God? I've been looking all over for your God. And the psalmist says, why now should the pagans, the heathens say, where now is their God? Because if you went to Damascus or any of these other cities, Memphis or Thebes or any of these other pagans, you'd see gods all over the place.

More gods than people. You go to Jerusalem, you don't see any gods. Where's your God? Our God's in heaven.

He's done whatever he wants to. I like that. Our God's up in heaven, and he's completely sovereign.

So when I come and pray for our Father in heaven, I'm saying here is an exalted, sovereign God of unlimited power, a holy God. The last thing Jesus said was all authority has been given to me. Now get going.

And so no matter where we are, I have prayed in the intensive care ward of a hospital, hovering between life and death. And you know what? My father in heaven heard me. We've prayed in plains.

We've prayed in strange places. You missionaries know what I'm talking about. We have prayed sometimes.

Sometimes we wake in the middle of the night, and we'll say, just pray. We've prayed our way through burdens and attacks. You know why we can do that? Because our Father is in heaven.

He who keeps us doesn't slumber or sleep. He has all power and all knowledge. And the fact that he's enthroned in heaven means he sees everything just the way it ought to be.

And so when I come to him and say, our Father in heaven, he says, son, I hear you. You know, prayer is a mighty miracle. Have you ever tried to get the attention of the president of a bank? You know, the sign out in front says a friendly bank, about as friendly as a cobra.

How many weeks in advance do you call to see your doctor? I'm not criticizing them. They're busy people. My doctor is a dear, precious Christian friend.

I love him. But how long does it take to get an appointment with a doctor? Just think of it. When you say, our Father, you have his heart.

You have his ear. Try to see the president, as much as he's trying to be popular with the crowd. Try to see him.

I dare you. Last time I was in Washington, D.C., and we went down to the White House, boy, I mean, you had to see a senator and get this and get that, and then they checked you at the gate, and you never did see the president. I can go to the God of the universe, the God who made me, the God who wrote the book of instruction for life, the God who saved me, the God who has a purpose for my life, the God who's working out his purpose.

I can go to him at any time. In fact, he says, don't ever leave me. Sometimes we pray like this, Father, we come into your presence, and I feel like saying, oh, Lord, what have I been doing out of your presence? I know what we mean by that.

And so here are three great encouragements to prayer. I should say four. Our, you're never praying alone.

You're never praying alone. By the time you think you're going to quit, somebody's praying for you. God has awakened me sometimes in the middle of the night to pray for somebody.

Doesn't happen too often, but sometimes I just get the impression we'd better pray for people. Our Father, God is a Father. He is our Father, and he's in heaven.

And so don't quit. Don't give up. Keep on praying.

I think you've noticed that our hymn books are changing. Have you noticed that? Yours isn't. You've had it for some time.

But out in the churches, our hymn books are changing. You can't sing from memory anymore. They've changed the words.

We used to raise our Ebenezer. We don't do that anymore. Ebenezer's been kicked out.

I guess that's all right. A new generation of biblical illiterates maybe needs all the help they can get. I don't know.

But what bothers me is some of the great songs are vanishing. They're disappearing. I guess this has to happen.

It happened in my father's day, and it'll happen in my day. And so I'm not complaining. I'm just stating a fact.

One of my favorite prayer songs was written by Oswald J. Smith, who wrote hundreds of songs. I used to preach up at the People's Church many, many times when Dr. Smith was still living. OJ.

And, oh, he could pray. His son Paul would say, now, Father's going to lead us in prayer. And this tall, lanky man would get into that pulpit, and heaven would come down.

And one of my favorite hymns he wrote, and whenever I get discouraged in my praying, I sometimes pull this out. I've got a copy of the People's Songbook that I received at the People's Church. And I think it's the only book you can find it in.

I don't think any modern hymnal still has this song in it. It goes like this. Pray on, O soul of mine, pray on.

This night of sin will soon be gone. The break of day will come ere long. Till then, my soul, pray on.

Pray on, O soul of mine, pray on. Temptations cannot last for long. Thou soon shalt sing the victor's song.

With faith, my soul, pray on. Pray on, O soul of mine, pray on. The Lord will keep thee true and strong.

And answer all thy prayers ere long. With joy, my soul, pray on. Don't quit.

When you feel like quitting, just say, Our Father in heaven. And keep on praying. We're grateful, our Lord, that you encourage us to pray.

You're never too busy. All the millions of people who talk to you, and yet you hear us. You know our names.

You've counted the hairs on our head. You know all about us. And you delight when we pray.

And now encourage us to pray on, through Christ our Lord. Amen.