Pray with Praise

Well, amen. I think we're going to move here. Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. We'll visit this passage one more time. If you've been here the last two weeks, you'll be glad to find there's other verses in the Bible, but we're going to visit it one more time. And I trust the Lord will bless you for your visit with us today. Adam Clark said, "Prayer is the language of dependence." He who prays not is endeavoring to live independently of God. This was the first curse and continues to be the great curse of mankind. John Rice said, "All our failures are prayer failures." So many of God's people because they have a new nature.

If you're saved today, you have a new nature. Uh all when we become saved, we're a whole new creature. Behold, all things become new. We're just a new creature in Christ Jesus. That doesn't mean we're sinless, but we do sin less over time. And as we grow in Christ, we want to serve the Lord, but our flesh is so weak. And if we try to serve the Lord in the energy of the flesh, we're going to fail too often and so often. And so that's why we have visited Luke chapter 18 because we want to have the power of God. And we get that in prayer. And we learned in this story in Luke chapter 18 commencing in verse number 35 that if a nobody can get God to hear his prayer, if a nobody can not only get God to hear his prayer, but answer it.

If a nobody can get God to hear his prayer and answer it and do a miracle on his behalf, then how about us? Most of us in the room feel like we're nobodyies. We're not the pastor. We're not a deacon. We're not a great politician. We don't have a lot of money. We don't have a lot of education. God certainly wouldn't hear my prayers. And you are the very people that I want to encourage and exhort today that of all people, you're the ones that can move heaven and can move the heart of God. And not only that, but see God do the miraculous. In verse number 35, we see sitting outside the city of Jericho, a blind man.

He's begging and he hears in verse number 36, a multitude coming up. He inquires what's going on. And they tell him that Jesus is in the midst. And soon as he hears that Jesus is in the multitude, the Bible says that he cried with a loud voice. Do you see it there? Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. You read it there. And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace. They tried to hush him up, to quiet him down. Uh, we don't want to hear from you. You're a nobody. We want to hear from Jesus. There's others closer to him. Just be quiet. But the Bible says, read the next verse.

He cried so much the more. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. The Bible says Jesus stood and he commanded that that blind man be brought unto him. And verse 41 says, Jesus, think of it, folks, don't read thus so quickly you get you miss the power behind this. Jesus, the creator of the universe, God in the flesh, standing before a blind man, a blind man that can't even see. Jesus, God asked him, "What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? What one thing can I do for you?" And can I remind you this morning, God wants to do something for you. What one thing can God do for you? And of course, the blind man said that I can see.

And the Bible says Jesus said, "Receive thy sight." And he received his sight immediately. Look in verse number 43, the last verse. And immediately he received his sight and followed him glorifying God. and all the people when they saw it gave praise unto God. Now, we've learned in our previous lessons that if we want to pray and get God's attention and and improve our prayer life so that God does hear our prayer, we need to pray first of all with passion. We need to pray from the inner court. We need to be sincere in our prayer life. So many of us pray prayers that mean absolutely nothing. They're just words.

If God answers them, good. If not, we're moving on anyway. If we want God to hear our prayers, prayers must mean something to us if they're going to mean anything to God. We must pray with passion. That's why he cried unto the Lord. We need to pray, secondly, with persistence. They tried to hush him up. They tried to get him to stop, but he prayed so much the more. You'll have friends, you'll have f family that may say, "You've been praying for that for a long time. God isn't going to hear you. You need to keep on praying." You say, "Why would I do that?" Well, because God tells us to do that. The Bible says to continue in prayer.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing. The Bible says in Matthew 7:7, "Ask." And that word, that verb in for ask is a continual asking. Ask and you shall receive. Seek, continue seeking and you shall find. Knock. Continue knocking and it shall be opened unto you. I don't know why God asks us to keep on. I do know it does several things. Number one, it helps us to show God what we are really passionate about. It helps us to think it through. Do we really need this? This is what I really want. Do you think that blind man had any other problems in his life when God said, "What one thing can I do for you?"

Of course, he had other problems. But he knew that if God would do this one miracle, he could live a life to glorify God. That's what he wanted. And we know that to be true. It wasn't that he wanted to see the beautiful sunrise or enjoy the beautiful sunset and see the glory of Hawaii and and the Middle East. What? No, he wanted to be able to see so that he could glorify God. What one thing could God do for you that would help you glorify God? Well, we need to pray with persistence. We need to pray with precision. And then fourthly, we need to pray with faith. Positivity. When you're a man of faith, you're the most positive person on the planet.

Oh my. You can watch the news if you dare. And if you watch 30 minutes of it, you're going to be very frustrated. You watch an hour of it, you're going to get angry. You watch two hours of it, you're going to want to kill everybody and everything. So, quit watching the news. Hallelujah. but you're going to be a negative person on top of it. Spend time in the word of God. Let word of faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The most positive people in the world are people that just believe God is bigger than all our problems. And then for the final P today, I've started all these points with P.

And you say, why would you do that? Because in reality, I hate P's. My mother started her crusade to get those little green dirt bombs down my throat when I was just a kid. And I'm telling you, just the aroma of peas make me sick. You can ruin a whole meal by putting a bowl of peas on the table. And please, I'm not throwing that out to you as a challenge so that you can fix them in such a way that I'm going to like them. I'm going to barf on your table. Don't prepare those for me. They are horrible. And don't ask me after church if I like limema beans. No, they're just peas on steroids. All right?

I don't like them. And so I preach against those kind of peas, but I'm going to use the good kind of peas in a sermon. So those of you that like peas, you can enjoy this sermon. The fifth P. And oh, your music director. What music he selected today was perfect for the message. We read in the verse, when he got his eyesight, he glorified God. And they that were witnessing, they praised God. Don't you know when we pray, we ought to praise God. Pray with praise. Praise means the expression of approval or commendation. Glorify means to cause the dignity and the worth of some person or something to become manifest and acknowledged.

Can I remind you today a changed life is what glorifies God. When a man gets saved and he is changed, he's translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. There's a change in his life. It allows us to glorify God. Think of it. There's likely a man or a woman here today that's one heartbeat from hell. I don't say that to condemn them. They're condemned already. I say that because it's a fact. It's real. Someone you love and care for today has no confidence of their eternal destiny. They have no assurance that if they were to die tonight, that they would go to heaven. They're lacking one thing.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is what saves us. Faith is what justifies us. Faith is what allows us as mortals, imperfect people to please a holy God, faith. And when we get saved, oh my word, we are people that can and should praise God. Now we in the fundamental independent narrow-minded King James only redletter edition no fun Baptist churches we get worried about that because we think that the Pentecostals are the ones that do all the praising and the charismatics and we don't want to be like them and I tell my church which makes them nervous if it wasn't for doctrine I would be a charismatic they're just happy people you Baptists are you're negative all the time.

You're down on everything for crying out loud. Charismatics, they love Jesus. They're not ashamed of Jesus. They talk about Jesus like he's sitting in the room. Now, I'm not going to be a charismatic. I have some friends that are charismatic, but we differ doctrinally. I can't I can't overlook what the scripture says about the gifts of the spirit. I know what it says about speaking in tongues. I am clear on that. So, I can't be a charismatic. But that doesn't mean I can't be happy in Jesus. Hallelujah. And when you get filled with the spirit, you got to let it out. Or if you don't, you get grouchy.

And quite frankly, no fun to preach to. You might be dignified and appear to be holier than thou, but you are no fun. And quite frankly, I think God gets bored with you. I'm on the south side of Chicago and I'm the south side. Now, those of you that don't aren't familiar with Chicago, I'm on the south side. I'm emphasizing that. Do you understand what the south side is? That's where Bad Bad Leroy Brown is. We're not on the north side where the money rollers are. We're we're down where normal people are. And in our area, I mean, we have one of the most integrated churches in all of Chicagoland land.

I mean, we got white, we got black, we got yellow, we got tan, we got dark brown, we got brown, we got pink people. Those are white people that think they're white, but they're pink. Their skin has never seen a ray of sunshine. And they're pink. We got them all. We got them all in our church. And I want to tell you something. Some of the happiest people we have in our area, there's been an influx of black moving into our area. And so now we're a white church, quote unquote, in a black neighborhood, quote unquote. White people drive around our village. Black people drive around our church. We have to go out and bring them in.

People just don't happen in. They don't visit us like they used to in years past. We have to go and reach them one on one. Once we get them in the door, they go, "Whoa. This is nice. This is what politicians are trying to do." And they are not doing a very good job. Everybody gets along. You know why? The ground is level at the foot of the cross. And I want to tell you, I've we supported starting black churches. We had some black preachers come and asked to use our building. I let them use our building. We didn't take a dime from them. They used our building. And and because of that, they were eternally grateful.

And now they have their own facility and have a black church and they have one white guy in the whole congregation. I told him, I said, "Why don't you come over to the white church?" He said, "Cuz you people are boring." And because of that, I've had opportunity to preach annually over there on their anniversary. They're so thankful that we let them use our building to get started. And I want to tell you, those people are not ashamed to praise Jesus. And when I quote scripture, they quote it with me out loud. And I've had opportunity to preach in several black churches downtown Chicago. And I can't even take my wife down there.

It's a scary place to go. In fact, I've had the deacons of that black church say, "Don't go down there by yourself. We'll take you down. It's a rough neighborhood." But the church, awesome. I say all that to say this. When we get to heaven, some of you holier than thou boring white people that are no fun, unhappy, critical of everything, negative on everything. You're going to be shocked when you get to heaven to find it's okay to be happy. Amen. without going to Hawaii, without going to Disneyland, without having a lot of money, you can be happy because Jesus is there. Hallelujah. We ought to be full of praise.

He followed Jesus. He glorified God. He gave thanks and praise. Hebrews 13:15. Jot that verse down. Read it later. I'll quote it to you now. by him. Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Well, what is that? Glad you asked. The verse isn't over. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. When you're a thankful person, you can't help but praise, speak highly of, talk about. I I read somewhere, just suppose you wake up tomorrow with everything that you thanked God for today. What would you have? Maybe I should reward it this way. Suppose you wake up tomorrow morning with only the things you thanked God for today.

What would you have before I get out of bed? I'm not exaggerating. I know I look hip, cool. I actually look pretty good in this um what do you call these things? Aloha shirt. And I've got more jewelry on me. My buddies back home are going to make fun of my masculinity that has been checked at the door. I'm hurting all the time. Now, I'm not just saying that. I'm hurting all the time. When I wake up in the morning, I don't jump out of bed. I don't jump anywhere. I lay there and I take inventory of my body parts and I want to know which ones work. And I know they work because they hurt. And while I'm laying there, I'll commence my prayer time with the Lord.

Thank the Lord for another day. And there is never or seldom that I can recall a day that I don't thank God for at least three things. And they're not a vain repetition. I thank God first of all that he saved me. I still have never gotten over the thought that God would love me and save me. Now, you look at me as a preacher and you think preachers are are better than the average bear in the room. Preachers are flesh and blood like anyone else. And I thought when I got to be a senior citizen, it would be easy street after that. The devil doesn't bother old people. Quite frankly, what can old people do anyway?

They can barely get out of bed. But I'm here to tell you that the devil is after this senior citizen and all senior citizens. He hates us. It's not because we're so special in and of ourselves. He hates us because we belong to God and he hates God. I thank God every day that he has saved me and that he's kept me. I thank God every day for my family. My wife, my mom and dad, my sisters, my five baby girls, my 11 grandchildren. I thank God every day for my family. Number three, I thank God every day for my health. My dad used to say, "The richest man in all the world is the man who has his health and he doesn't even know it.

I had open heart surgery when I was 49. Sort of expected something like that to happen. My dad had his first heart attack at 38, second at 49, and died from his third one at 58. And quite frankly, that's why I'm not pastoring today. No one in my family gets out of their 60s. My mom died at 67 from her second heart attack. It's in my DNA. And I know if I'd eat right and exercise right and all that nonsense. I've done that. And quite frankly, you can believe what you want to believe. I'm going to believe what God says. There's appointed time for my death. And that day is set. Humanly, I'm thinking that time is set in my 60s because that's my family.

And my lovely sister said to me once, "I hope you're enjoying your year, your 69th year of life because no one gets out of their 60s in our family." And that's a sarcastic statement from a sister. And you wonder why I call her fat. It's because she is. But now I'm going to turn 73 in June. Woo! Man, I've outlived my whole family. And that's because I retired from pastoring. It's you church people that kill good pastors. Hallelujah. I'm feeling great today. I thank God for my health. I don't take it for granted. And as Paul said to the Corinthian church, this tabernacle, this body in which I live, it's dissolving.

Oh, I take my supplements. I try to eat right. Except on vacation. I mean, you can't come to Hawaii and not have local moco, right? And go to the spam gym. Hallelujah. But I go back to Chicago tomorrow. It's going to be boring. Thank God for my health. There are so many things that we take for granted. The psalmist said, "Daily he loads us with benefits." Some of you right now, the top five things that are on your mental agenda are all negative. American Christians are notorious for being complainers. They complain about this, they complain about that, and they don't praise God. Why would any unsaved person want to be like us?

We ought to be the ones that are praising God every single day. He blesses us. Now, at home, I'm I'm a guest here, so I try to conduct myself a little more proper, at least not to be a distraction, but at home, I like to sit close to the front because I like to sing loud. That's what the Bible says. Make a joyful nose s noise unto the Lord. Make sing loud unto the Lord. I I belt it out and I sing uh I sing bass. I'll sing tenor. I'll sing the melody if the key is low enough. I'll sing alto. Quite frankly, I make up parts. Meaning, I just sing whatever I want to sing. And if I'm sitting behind you, I'm going to mess you up cuz I'm all over.

So, I like to sit closer to the front not to mess many people up. I like But every now and then, we sing a song that just blesses my heart. And I can't just sing it. I got to just add some to I'll just say, "Amen." I mean, we just sang it as well. What a song. Think of it. my sin. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. Not just one sin, not just a few sins, all my sins. Past, present, tomorrow, all my sins, he's forgiven me. That ought to make you smile. You ought to feel pretty good about that. Your wife may not forgive you, but God will. Your husband may not forgive you. Your friends may not forgive you.

Your children may not forgive you, but God will. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I want to tell you, we have a lot to be thankful for. The songwriter put it this way. Count your blessings. What's name them one by one? I'm in a new lifestyle. I have to travel every week. I preach 45 50 weeks a year. We're seldom in the same bed for five nights. So for us to get to be here at the same church for three weeks, this is like been heaven for us to be in one particular this is wonderful. Everything about it. And then people that seemingly stay awake through the service and and seemingly are getting it.

This is just joy. I mean, this is wonderful. But because we travel and our luggage, we just do carry-on luggage. We don't check baggage. Everything we have, whether it's for 3 weeks, 7 weeks, it's all in carry-on luggage. And so, my sermons, I have to put them all on iPad. I don't like that. Um my my prayer list, I have a prayer book at home that I prefer. And and if you want to see your prayer life take on a whole new life in and of it, start a prayer journal. Start a prayer book. It's incredible. When you start up a a prayer life like that, you'll look forward to it as like a a date with God.

It's it's precious. It's holy. It's intimate. But when we travel every day or every other day, I'll I'll sit and reflect. Some of you might call it journaling. And I keep on my phone under the apps app. I have a blessings 2026 and I I counted them this morning. I have over 327 blessings already this year. I love reviewing them. You know why I learned that? One of my children, we were sharing that with our friends John and Pearl this morning. our oldest daughter, who is a more gifted speaker than I will ever be. If she could grow a mustache and cut her hair, she'd be a great preacher. Her first marriage didn't work out so well.

Her husband, who is a very likable man, you would like him if he'd walk in the room, but he got hooked on drugs. And drugs will ruin a man, a good man, a man in ministry. And there they were going to lose their children if she allowed him to come back. She had to make a decision that I wasn't real fond of. She divorced him. And during that difficult time, those of you that have seen those kind of scenarios, I mean, it was dangerous. When a man's on drugs, he's violent. I mean, when when I go and visit my oldest daughter and she lifts up her shirt and she's bruised across her belly, that's tough to take.

During that time, she didn't want her two children to be discouraged and resent God cuz she tried to keep God in front of her kids. And around their table, she had a little box and she called it a blessings box. Every now and then, people would help her financially and help her with groceries and and she'd write it down on paper. They'd thank God for the blessings God gave them. Once a month or periodically, I don't know how often it was. They would sit down as a family, the three of them, and they'd open up the blessings box, and they'd read those blessings and rehearse the story behind it. Oh, do you remember this?

Do you remember? That's what the songwriter meant when he said, "Count your blessings. Name them one by one. We get a blessing and we want more. We're not even thankful for what God has given us and then we get mad because he didn't give us something more that we asked for. Why would you give an ingrate to anything? We ought to praise him. Now, every now and then I'll say amen when I'm singing. And and sometimes that's just not enough. And I'll have to say hallelujah. That's not even enough. And every now and then when I'm seemingly on my way to heaven, I have to let out a praise the Lord. Is there anything wrong with saying praise the Lord?

No. But is that praising the Lord? We're here longer than normal and the few of you, we've got to spend time with some of the folks in the church and those that have taken us out for meals. Pastor Peter and Pastor John and Tupoo and Justin was Justin and man we Jason Justin Jay. I remember the I remember the first Noel But since your choir didn't sing, she's the last Noel in my book. We've got to hang out with them a little bit. And they'll know I'm not exaggerating. They get to know us a little better than than you folks. You just see me in the pulpit. and they get to hear us after the service and going out to eat and being cut off on the highway and hip going out and all that.

And they'll know I'm not exaggerating when I say that not as not only is Lori a beautiful woman and a good wife, she's got a gentle spirit about her, a calming spirit. I mean, she can pick up a screaming baby and that baby will stop crying. I can stop a baby from crying, but I go to jail. She does it just with her aura. She's a great cook. She's a good teacher. She's one of my favorite singers to hear her sing. She's a wonderful hostess. She likes to play games. She doesn't even show it if she does mind losing, which is good because I win a lot. And she might let me win because I'm not a very good loser.

I don't like losing. She's She's kind. She's polite. She's forgiving. Now, what am I doing? What have I been doing? I'm praising my wife. I didn't say, "Hey, ladies and gentlemen, praise the wife." Nothing wrong saying, "Praise the wife." But is that praising the wife? Praising is when you speak of the character qualities and the actions of someone that you deem worthy. And when we praise God, it's not just to say, "Praise God." No, we talk about his holiness. We talk about his goodness. And today in the theological world, and most of you don't even get into that, and I thank God for that in some ways, though you ought to be students of the word and get into the word doctrinally, great debate on what is the greatest attribute of God.

Some would say, "Well, it's his love. God's love. That's his main attribute." Well, I'm glad he is love. Some might say, "Well, he's a God of mercy. He's a merciful God. I'm glad he's merciful." Someone, some today, especially those of that are Calvinist friends, would say, "God is sovereign." Well, it's not even in the King James version, but okay. Write a new Bible. get the ESV and to prove that for the Calvinists. Okay. God is sovereign. I know what that means. The Bible calls that being almighty. He's in control. He's God. But could I get you to think a little bit today? God is holy. If God wasn't holy, his sovereignty would make him into a bully, a control freak.

If God wasn't holy, his love, like yours can be perverted. If he wasn't holy, his mercy would make him a sappy old man. I thank God today we have a God that's holy and never makes a mistake. You can count on it. He's never made a mistake. He never will make a mistake. He can't make a mistake. Even when a sound panel falls off the wall, it's going to be okay. God doesn't make a mistake. Learn to praise God. Can I just take two more minutes? I'm over time, but this is so important. Do you remember this? Do you remember this passage? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you remember that?

Most of us would say that was Jesus crying on the cross of Calvary. And you'd be correct in so saying, but do you know that those words were penned years before that? Open your Bibles, and we'll close with this. Open your Bibles to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. I just want to help those of you that are possibly going through a difficult time in your life because if you're not today, you will be in the future. Psalm 22. When you get there, say amen. Amen. Boy, you're you're faster than the preacher. Give me a break. Come on. Okay. This this is a font of six. So I don't even know that I can see it. Psalm 22 verse1.

My God, are you there? My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Pause. Look up here. Some of you that are students of the word might recite what you've been taught in a book. This is a messianic psalm. You would be right. you'd be correct. That's why Jesus said, "Search the scriptures." Why? Because they speak of me. Jesus is quoting the Old Testament here when he is when he is crying out on the cross. But never let that dilute what's taking place in the songwriter's heart. This man that's writing Psalm 22 is so down in the dumps. He feels like God is nowhere to be found. In fact, he's upset to some degree.

He's out of energy, so he can't be angry. But he is putting the blame on God. Why have you forsaken me? Look at the rest of this verse. See if I'm exaggerating. He says, uh, got to find that verse. Why art thou so far from my helping me and from the words of my roaring? Do you understand that word roaring is the sound of a wounded animal? If you ever heard an animal get wounded, I don't care if it's a mouse or a rabbit or an elephant. They let out a shriek that you won't forget. And this man is saying, "Why have you left me? You're not hearing the voice of my roaring. I am a wounded man." We're not talking about getting my feelings hurt.

Lord, this is more than what any man can take. Look what he says in verse two. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime. Thou hearest me not. And in the night season and am not silent, Lord. It's not like I just pray in my pray in my devotions and then check out. No, I'm praying every moment of the day that I have a moment to think. I I cry out to you in the daytime. I cry out to you at nighttime when I roll over in my bed. When I get up to go to the restroom, when I just come to consciousness, I'm crying out to you and you don't hear me. So, what's the answer when you're down that low? Verse number three starts with what word class?

But, now the grammatarians in here understand what that is. That's a conjunction. It's connecting two thoughts. In fact, it's a conjunction of contrast. He's contrasting feelings and fact. Feelings are wonderful to have. God created us with feelings. But feelings are a horrible guide and worse as a God. And some people will trust their feelings instead of what God says. I just got to go with my gut. That's another way of saying I'm going with my feelings. You better go with what God says. God never leads you astray. So, how does he get his feelings under control? But thou art holy. He's reminding himself in this song to God.

But God, you're holy. That means you can't make a mistake. God, you could have stopped this, but you allowed it. That's why all things work together for good to those of us that love God. To those of us that are called according to his purpose, for whom he did forno, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his dear son. God allows some things in our life that we don't like. And we're asking God to change it, to stop it. And because he does it, you think God has checked out on you when he's right there with you. He's allowed it to shape you to be like Jesus. Anybody can sing when the sun's shining bright, but you need a song in the night.

He gets a hold of his feelings with fact. He says, "God is holy. He doesn't make mistakes." And then he reminds himself in the rest of this verse where he can find God. Or could I use the word that we Baptist are scared of where he can feel God. Oh thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. He's reminding himself where he can find where God hangs out, if I can use the vernacular of teenagers. He hangs out in the praises of his people. You want to feel God, praise him. Write down in your blessings box, your blessings app. Review the blessings. Rehearse the stories of how God blessed you and you will experience the presence of God right in the midst of turmoil.

I remember when my dad died. It was a horrible time for me personally. I stayed strong for everybody. Had to. So I felt surrounded by 400 church members that loved me. a wife that doted on every need that I seemingly might have had, children that were concerned, and yet I felt totally alone. There's just some places you're going to go in your life that nobody else can go with you. The psalmist said, "If I send my if I ascend into heaven, thou art there. But if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." There's just some places that you're going to go in life that nobody else can go with you.

And before you get critical and say, "Oh, my friends don't my wife, my kids, nobody understands." They can't, but God can. And if you'll turn to him, you'll find he's right there with you. And you'll praise him. I would suggest those of you that are down and out today, the very thing that you're lacking is praising God. Well, preacher, if you were going through what I was going through, you wouldn't be praising God. How do you know? Do you know how do you know what's going on in my personal life? How do you know that I'm not hurting and suffering today? Well, you're up there preaching and making us laugh.

And that doesn't mean that I'm not going through a very difficult time. What I'm saying is you want to conquer those feelings of hurt, start praising God. You want to feel the presence of God, praise him. Talk about what he's done for you. Talk about who he is. Oh, I'm a baseball fan and I I'll talk to you about sports if you want to, but I'd much rather talk to you about God. I'd rather talk to you what Jesus has done for me. He and he alone is worthy of praise. Well, for the last several weeks, we've talked about improving our prayer life. And I hope that the Holy Spirit has helped you somewhere.

Maybe it's a sentence. Maybe it's an illustration. Maybe it's one little nugget of truth because nothing I've taught you or preached to you is foreign to you. You know, this stuff, you know, I speak the truth today. But being a hearer of the word and a doer of the word sometimes is a whole different matter. And so this morning as we stand to our feet, I'm going to ask you today to start praying differently today. Start your prayers with praise.