Ministry Of Intercession

00:02 The disciples said to the Lord, "Lord, teach us to pray." Not only did Jesus give them what we call the Lord's Prayer, but He then taught them to pray through the valley of discouragement and disaster and disappointment and suffering. 00:21 And we want to look at one of those accounts this morning from Acts 12, talking about the ministry of intercession. Now, a couple of weeks ago when I preached, I introduced the subject of ministry and what it is. And basically, ministry is laying hold of Christ and then helping someone else lay hold of Christ. 00:42 Now, we do that in a variety of ways. There are various ministries in the body of Christ. Some of those ministries are behind the scenes. Some of them are public. Some of those ministries are things that nobody ever finds out about, and some of them are highly visible. 01:00 But nevertheless, every person in the body of Christ has a ministry that God has given to you. Call it a gift, but why did God give you a gift? He intends you to use that gift in ministry. He gives us gifts to minister. And so this morning, 01:18 as we enlarge on that subject about ministry in the body of Christ, I want to speak to you on the ministry of intercession. Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. There was a tavern that had gone up in a very public place close to a church, and the church began to pray against that tavern. 01:38 And they prayed that God would burn the tavern down. And so one night, the Lord, for whatever reason—probably in answer to their prayer—struck it with lightning, and the tavern burned down. Because the tavern owner knew that the church was praying that his business would be put out of business, he sued the church. 01:58 And then the church argued against their own prayers to try to defend themselves. And the lawyer or the judge came back with this ruling. He said, "After deliberation, it's the opinion of this court that wherever the guilt of this may lie, 02:18 the tavern keeper believes in prayer, and the church does not." Well, do you believe in prayer this morning? Do you believe that God answers prayer? Do we believe in intercessory prayer? And we're thinking this morning specifically of intercessory prayer, which is praying for others. Praying for others. 02:37 We pray for ourselves quite freely, do we not? We pray for our families. We pray for our wives. We pray for those really close to us. But what about the ministry of intercessory prayer? It really was the atmosphere of the early church. It was the atmosphere of the early church. And just go through a few verses here this morning from the book of Acts. 02:58 If you look through the book of Acts, it seems like what characterized the early church was an atmosphere of prayer. 03:05 In Acts 1 already, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers." This was when Jesus had left, and they were in the upper room awaiting the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit. And they were praying. 03:25 Verse 21 of that same chapter says, "And they prayed and said, 'You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen.'" That was in the context of choosing a deacon to replace Judas. 03:37 And so we go on then into chapter 2, "And they," that is the people who were saved as a result of that initial Pentecost Day sermon that Peter preached, 03:48 "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers." And so that was the four things that were a priority in the early church: the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. 04:07 After the arrest and deliverance of Peter and John in Acts 3 and 4, it says, "When they heard that, they raised their voice to God." This was after they had been delivered. "They raised their voice to God." Prayer. Noisy prayer. Sometimes our prayers are so quiet we can't—well, I'm sure God can hear them. 04:28 But sometimes there's a power in just crying out to God and calling upon the name of the Lord audibly. "Lord," and they did it with one accord, "and said, 'Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.' And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. 04:49 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness." Is there a place for corporate prayer? I believe there is. They were with one accord, and they were gathered and assembled together, and God shook that place amazing in an amazing way and filled them with boldness. When they selected the deacons in Acts 6, 05:09 "We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." That was the apostles' priority. And so they appointed the deacons to wait on the tables. Acts 6:6, "When they had sat before the apostles and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them." Atmosphere of prayer. 05:30 "Raising dorkus" in Acts 9 or Tabitha, which was her name also. "But Peter put them all out and knelt down and prayed. 05:38 And turning to the body, he said, 'Tabitha, arise.' And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up." Acts 10, a number of passages there and verses in Acts 10 that talk about the prayer that was going on in the salvation of Cornelius. 05:52 "He was a devout man and one who feared God and all his household and gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always." Chapter 10:4, "So he said to him," that is the angel that came to Cornelius, 06:07 "'Your prayers and your alms have come up for memorial before God.'" Do you believe that your prayers and your alms come up before God? Amen. According to this, they do when they're prayed in faith and sincerity. Acts 10:9, "The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour." That'd be about noon. 06:29 "And then he came to Cornelius and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.'" Chapter 11:5, "Peter's defense to the Jews when they called him on the carpet for ministering that closely to the Gentiles. He said, 'I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance, 06:49 I saw a vision.'" And then he relates the experience of the unclean of the animals in the unclean sheep. "Appointing elders in Acts 14:23, 'So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.'" "In times of persecution and suffering," Acts 16:25, 07:10 "what was Paul and Silas doing in prison? They were there for preaching the gospel. They were there for taking a stand in the truth and for not backing down in the message of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, 07:30 and the prisoners were listening to them." Oh, later on, some of those prisoners, I think, joined them as they gave their hearts to the Lord, especially the prisoner, the prison keeper. "And in praying for healing," Acts 28:8, "It happened that the father Publius lay sick and of a fever and dysentery. 07:49 Paul went into him and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him." So what you had in the book of Acts was a culture of prayer, an atmosphere of prayer. Prayer was as natural to the church as breathing is to the body. Inhale God's blessing. Exhale God's praise. Inhale God's blessing. Exhale God's praise. 08:09 And God's petition, petition to the Lord. And so in our text this morning, we have the account here where Herod, verse 1, was about the time that Herod the King stretched out his hand to harass some of the church. Herod, this is Herod Agrippa I. He's the grandson of Herod the Great. 08:31 He was riding a popularity surge in Rome after having fallen into disfavor with one of the emperors. A couple of the other emperors came back, reinstated the entire kingdom of Herod the Great to Herod Agrippa. So he's riding a wave of Roman popularity and of power, 08:51 and yet he knows that he's extremely hated by the masses in Jerusalem and among the Jews. So he's trying to win their affections. He was an Edomite, which was a son, a child, a descendant of Esau. So he had close ties with the Jacob and Esau factor and the Edomite and the Jewish people. 09:12 So he was wanting to win the favor of the Jewish leaders. He viewed Christianity as divisive and disruptive, and he stretched out his hand, the scripture says, to harass some in the church. The other translations say he cruelly attacked. 09:29 He laid violent hands on the believers and on the leaders of the church to try to win the favor and impress the Jews. And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Just killed him. This was James and John, the son of Zebedee. 09:44 This was not James that you read about in Acts 15, who was the brother of the Lord who had trusted in Christ and became a leader in the church at Jerusalem. Because he saw that it pleased the Jews, remember that was his mission, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now, it was during the feast of the days of unleavened bread. 10:03 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him. That's four squads is four groups of four soldiers. So we're talking 16 soldiers to secure this violent Peter. 16 soldiers, four squads of four, 10:24 to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. But the Bible says, "Constant or earnest prayer was offered to God for him by the church." And so the church went to praying. You say the setting was there's a problem and a crisis in the leadership and the persecution of the church. 10:45 And the situation here specifically is Peter is arrested, and it's time to go to pray. And you know much of intercessory prayer, in fact, much prayer at all, it seems like it springs forth out of a need. Out of a need. And in this case, it was the need for Peter. 11:05 I don't know exactly what they were praying. They probably prayed some of the same things that we pray. God, give Peter strength. God, give him a clear witness. God, help him to not give up the faith. God, help him to minister to the prisoners around him and to the jailer. And God, Lord, set him free. Lord, we believe you can do it. 11:25 And yet when it actually happened, they didn't believe that he would do it. They just believed that he could do it. Sometimes people say, "You've got to believe that God will do this thing." They didn't believe God was going to do this thing because they were astounded when Peter showed up that night. 11:39 But they had enough faith to pray and enough faith to stay praying and enough faith to obey what God told them to do, and they literally moved the hand of God. The hand of God was moved. And so here's Peter. And Herod, verse 6, was about to bring him out. That night, 11:59 Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'd be sleeping that night. But he was at rest in the Lord. He was at peace in God. He had committed his way to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was trusting in God. And Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, 12:20 not just the customary one soldier, but between two soldiers. And the guards before the door were keeping the prison. "Now behold, the angel of the Lord stood by him and the light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side." Now, Peter must have been really sleeping because the touch didn't do it. 12:39 I mean, he slapped him or struck him or I'm not sure what it took to get Peter's attention. But he wakes up, and he's kind of groggy. In fact, he thinks he's seeing a vision or maybe he's in a trance. He doesn't even know if this thing is real because back in chapter 10, he saw that thing with the sheet and the animals, the unclean animals. 13:01 And so maybe he thinks this is another one of those visions that the Lord had given him. "And the angel raised him up, saying, 'Arise quickly.' And his chains fell off his hands." Just fell off. I don't know if they fell off open or fell off closed. It really doesn't matter. But if they fell off closed, 13:22 then you really know that this was a work of God because his hands were not small enough to slip through those chains. "So however it was, it was a miracle. And the angel said to him, 'Gird yourself and tie on your sandals.' And so he did. 13:37 And he said to him, 'Put on your garment and follow me.' So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real but thought he was seeing a vision." I mean, nobody expected this to happen. He wasn't expecting it to happen. The church wasn't expecting it to happen. But God saw their need. 13:56 God saw their prayers. God saw, for all practical purposes, had the church not prayed, it's possible that Peter would have ended up in the same condition as James. This thing with James, I think, caught him off guard. The thing with Peter, they knew chances are he's going down. 14:16 We got to pray. We got to pray. And they prayed, and God moved. 14:21 Verse 10, "When they were past the first and the second guard posts," they got this place very well guarded, "they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord." Now, I've been in hundreds of prisons, folks, and a lot of the gates open of their own accord today because there's somebody flipping 14:39 a switch behind the black glass where you can't see them. Now, that didn't happen back there. This was a miracle. This was God or God's angels opening the doors, not a remote control to an electronic door. "And so they went up and down, went out and went down one street, 14:59 and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, 'Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. He's awake now, and he's ready to go forward. He's ready to go forward.' And when he considered this, 15:19 he came, verse 12, to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying." Many were gathered together praying. Why gather together? Why not just send out a phone network call, well, or however they did it, and just say, "Peter's in trouble. 15:38 We ought to all pray now at 6 o'clock tonight and do your five minutes, and I'll do my five minutes, and we'll just commit this thing to the Lord." But no, they gathered together. Could there be? I think there is power in corporate prayer when the body of Christ comes together. Just like there's power in worship when the body of Christ, 15:59 with your section and your section and your part and my part and every part, ascends worship to the Lord that blesses the Father's heart. Could it be that in prayer that same type of thing is happening? That same type of thing is happening. "There was a mother who was in great distress, 16:19 and she was in London in a great hall, and there was a meeting there of 20,000 people. And during that time of 20,000 people, she requested the prayer, a prayer for her son. The very hour those prayers ascended from the audience in London, 16:37 that young man was riding through the Australian bush to town, a day's ride from his camp. Something caused him to think of his home and his parents, and he sat in the saddle. The Spirit of the Lord descended upon him, and he was convicted of sin. 16:54 Dismounting his horse, he knelt down by the horse's side and prayed to God for forgiveness. And a little while was assured of conversion. When he reached the town, he wrote the good news to his delighted mother and asked if they would receive him at home, and to which they sent a cable, 'Come home at once.'" It's amazing that while those 20,000 people were praying, 17:14 God convicted this man riding a horse of his sin. Wow, 20,000 prayers all going up. The Bible says that the prayers of the saints are like incense. Incense ascending to the throne of God. The altar of incense speaks of, 17:34 in the tabernacle, speaks of the intercessory ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ as he prays for us, and we pray for each other, and we pray prayers of intercession that are taken by the Spirit of God to the ears of our Lord Jesus Christ who prays unto the Father. 17:52 And there is attention given to those prayers as the answer comes. Sometimes the answer doesn't come right away. But can you imagine 20,000 people together praying as opposed to just one person praying in 20,000 places? Well, God can work however he wants to. 18:11 But what I'm trying to say is that the early church here understood the power of corporate prayer. Corporate prayer. And they had some fantastic prayer meetings. And so here we have in verse 13, Peter knocking at the door of the gate. There's an interesting parallel here. 18:33 Peter knocking at the door of the gate, and while the people were knocking at the door of heaven, Jesus said, "Asking, 'It shall be given to you. Seeking, you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you.'" I'm thankful that God doesn't turn away from us like Rhoda did and leave us standing outside when we pray. But he opens the door, and he comes, says, "Come on in. 18:54 The door will be opened to you." But bless her heart, this little girl named Rhoda came to answer. And when she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter stood at the gate. Well, they thought that was quite something. 19:10 They said to her, verse 15, "You are beside yourself." Some translations say, "You're crazy." Wow, that's quite a response to this poor little girl who just was telling the truth. "So you are beside yourself." Yet she kept insisting it was so. 19:28 So they said, "It is his angel." Now, I don't know what that means, but I expect they probably thought this is his spirit just come to show up and say goodbye because they probably executed him early. "No, Peter standing at the gate, the answer to their prayers." How much faith does it take to move the hand of God? 19:47 Enough faith to pray, to stay in prayer, and to obey in prayer. And so verse 16, "Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. They were astounded. They were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, 20:07 he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and said, 'Go and tell the things to James and to the brethren.' And he departed and went to another place." Go, tell, testify. You got prayer. You got an answer. You got a testimony. Testify what God has done. "Then as soon as it was day, 20:27 and there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter." So they woke up, these soldiers and whatever, however they were sleeping, and probably weren't supposed to be sleeping. But nevertheless, here's Peter gone, and they've got to give an account. They've got to give an answer. 20:43 And you know in your study of the scripture that if an ancient prisoner or prison keeper and guard lost their prisoner, it's their life for his. And so Peter or Herod had searched for him and not found him. He examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death, and he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. 21:03 Now, what do you say about that last phrase? "He went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there." Herod left. 21:11 Herod, old, evil, mean, mean-spirited enemy Herod who was persecuting the church of God and killing its leaders left and was pushed back as a picture of the enemy that gets pushed back when people pray and intercede. The enemy is pushed back. 21:32 So here we have the solution to their crisis, the declaration, the description, the explanation. The enemy is pushed back, and the purposes of God are advanced. That's what we want, is it not the purposes of God to be advanced? "Thy will be done." That's the purposes of God. It may have a little bit different look for every need. 21:52 But when we pray, "Thy will be done," which is what Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done." On earth as it is in heaven. How many of you believe that God has a perfect will in heaven and that God's will is perfectly accomplished in heaven? Amen. All the angels are subject to him. And what we pray when we pray, 22:12 "Thy will be done," we're saying that same attitude, that same power, that same action that takes place in heaven to accomplish the purposes of God, may it be done here on terra firma on earth as it is in heaven. "And then we see the authority. 22:33 We see the authority, a greater authority than Herod, a greater authority than Caesar, the authority of God's kingdom. Thy kingdom come." Jesus, take control over this situation. Lord Jesus, take charge of this situation. 22:53 Lord Jesus, take over. You see what happens when we pray before we get to prayer? Sometimes we try to do everything we can, and I don't think that's always wrong. We try to do everything we can to try to fix the situation. So we tweak a little bit here, and we appeal a little bit here. And then maybe they were going to send a delegation to Herod and pray for his release. 23:14 I don't know. But whatever was happening, they were at the end of the road. Whatever they tried in advance of this, they are at the end of the road. And if not a hand of God moving, Peter is following the same road to execution that James followed. 23:33 "God, it's time for you to take over." I love the psalm where it says, "It is time for you, O Lord, to work." Can you say that with me this morning? "It is time for you, O Lord, to work." I love that psalm. I pray it from time to time. 23:56 "The call to intercession, the call to intercede for others begins with a bad outlook. Maybe it's a hospital stay. Maybe it's a financial bill. 24:10 Maybe it's an enemy in the government. Or maybe it's ideas and thoughts that are ungodly and biblical. 24:21 Maybe it's the oppression of the enemy of our souls pressing in." Whatever the need is can be brought to the Lord. Prayer often, and the hand of God is moved often with a bad outlook. 24:42 A bad outlook. Things not looking so good. Things looking poorly. Things falling apart. Things troubling our soul. Not sure which way to go. Not sure which way to turn. Not sure what to do, how to do it. Need for wisdom, need for strength, need for courage, 25:02 need for comfort because we don't know what's going to happen, and we try our best, and the best isn't good enough. And so we set to praying and ask God to take over and do his work in impossible situations as an exercise of faith. 25:22 Just the faith to pray. The faith to pray is an exercise of faith. It is faith. Why would you pray to an unseen something or someone out there? Because you believe. You believe that he exists. You believe that he's real. You believe that he's powerful. 25:42 You believe that he's able. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And so we exercise our faith, and we persevere in prayer, and we wait for an answer from God. 26:04 And brothers and sisters, I don't believe that our faith is in prayer. I believe that prayer expresses our faith in God. You see often in medical journals or in news reports about medical journals, they say, "Well, does prayer really work?" And some doctors will say, "Oh, yes. 26:24 We've seen prayer really work." Brothers and sisters, prayer doesn't work. God works. And God works through prayer. So I guess you can say, as you spill your water all over the podium here this morning, I guess you can say that prayer does work. Some faith in works here. Maybe I could have a towel. I don't think I've ever done that before. 26:47 Faith, God is activated. He is energized. 26:51 He is motivated as he hears the cries of his people. So should we be praying? How should we pray? When should we pray? 27:05 The Bible says in Psalm 32 that, "For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found." When you need the Lord, when you wonder where he's at, pray. Oftentimes when these crises hit, we wonder where God is. 27:24 How could God allow this? Where's God at in this situation? Thank you, brother. It's pooling up down here where my notes need to be. Where is he? When the time that God needs to be found, everyone that is godly should pray. 27:46 Matthew 26:41 says, "Pray, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Luke 18:1, "He spoke a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint." Not just sometimes to pray, but always to pray. 28:07 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul says, "Pray without ceasing. Pray without ending praying. Just keep on praying and praying for the needs around you." 1 Timothy 2:1, "I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, 28:27 and giving of thanks be made for all men." Everybody needs prayer. In fact, it's only the hardened sinner who would refuse prayer. And even then, you can pray anyway. You can pray anyway. 1 Timothy 2:8, "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, 28:47 lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting." Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, 29:08 let your request be made known unto God." And 1 John 5:14, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." Other messages could be about the intercessory prayer of Abraham to avoid judgment. 29:27 He whittled down that judgment call from 50 down to 10. "Lord, would you destroy the city if you found 50 people?" "No, I'll spare it if there's 50." "Lord, how about 45?" "Well, I'll spare it if there's 45." "How about 40?" "I'll spare it if there's 40." "30, 20, 10." "I'll spare it if there's 10 righteous souls." And God would have, 29:49 but they couldn't even find those 10 righteous souls. Someone has suggested that the only problem Abraham had was that he quit too soon. 29:56 He maybe just should have kept saying, "Lord, would you please spare the city for two or one for a lot?" But be that as it may, God moves and responds when we intercede to avoid the judgment that is pronounced, at least to delay it. 30:16 Daniel prayed. The Bible says in Daniel 10, "I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for three whole weeks." "And then he saw the angel of the Lord, 30:36 and he said to me, 'O Daniel, man greatly beloved.'" Daniel, in his time of crisis, needed to understand that God loved him. "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." While he was speaking this word, Daniel was trembling. 30:57 "And the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood that angel for 21 days." That's why God's answer didn't come through right away. 31:07 But he said, "I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, and for the vision refers to many days yet to come." He wanted Daniel to understand when we pray, understanding can come even when we don't understand everything. 31:25 Job is an example of prayer, intercessory prayer. You realize that after Job's situation in chapter 42, God communicated to Job's three friends that, "I am not pleased with you." He said to Eliphaz the Temnite, 31:45 "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bowls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job will pray for you." Now that's a turn of the tables. 32:05 "My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept him lest I deal with you according to your folly because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temnite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Nammitite went and did as the Lord commanded, for the Lord had accepted Job. And this is what I want you to get. 32:24 "And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends." Wow. Prayed for his friends. Those friends who had hurt him, those friends who had wounded him, those friends who had judged him, those friends who had pierced his soul, he prayed for them. And God, 32:43 at that time, God completed the restoration process in Job's heart. Oh, if we could listen to God when God tells us to pray. A story is told in the Philippines, a true story, during World War II. 33:03 There was a place where the Japanese tortured and killed their victims. And we oftentimes hear about the cruelty of Adolf Hitler, but the Japanese were extremely cruel as well. They would take babies and throw them in the air and catch them with a spear. These are documented things. You could hear the screams. And twice, 33:22 this man, this father, was taken by enemy officers and returned as a result of his wife's prayers. The third time, the officer said, "Don't expect him to come back the next time." So he was arrested the third time, taken out, and he was in line to be executed. And during that night, the mother felt the urge to pray. 33:40 And she prayed and prayed and prayed as if his life depended on it, and it did. The burden was so great, she woke up the children and said, "I got to have you help me pray. We've got to pray for Daddy. We've got to pray for Daddy." So they gathered together in a circle, including the little baby, put the baby on the floor, and they began to hear footsteps. 34:00 And they said, "Dad, this is the footsteps of another officer. He's come to take us all." And Mama said, "No, it's not the footsteps of the officer. It's the footsteps of Daddy. And here come Daddy." And he told them what had happened. He was 10th in line to be executed. And he came up to number nine. Number nine. 34:18 And something got a hold of the officer in charge. It was his time to be executed. And the officer in charge said, "Get out of here and don't come back." And literally pushed him out of line. And he went back home. And it was the exact time that mother was praying. That mother was praying. 34:38 You may not have heard this story from the Titanic, but there was an American woman who was weary and could not sleep because of the fear and the burden of prayer. And the tremendous earnestness began to pray for her husband who was on the Titanic. Didn't know what was happening with the Titanic, but she knew that her husband was in danger. 34:59 And she prayed until 5 o'clock in the morning. Suddenly, 5 o'clock in the morning, peace flooded her soul, and she went back to sleep. Her husband was a man by the name of Colonel Gracie. Colonel Gracie was frantically trying to launch lifeboats from the Titanic. 35:19 And he went down with a ship. And according to this story, which I believe is documented, was published in the Christian Observer a number of years later, went down with the ship and was pulled down as that vacuum just pulled him right down. But for some reason, he was able to come back to the surface right next to a lifeboat that had overturned. 35:41 There were several people around, and so they got upon this lifeboat and were saved and rescued. It was 5 o'clock in the morning. You see, God can lay upon our hearts the need. I do this all the time. I ignore or disregard the promptings to pray. 36:02 Someone has said that if God gives you information, it's His way of inviting you to do something about it. I like that. If God gives you an information about something or someone that's in trouble, it's God's invitation to say, "I want you to be involved in this. 36:21 I want you to speak into this situation at my throne." And so, oh, if we would just come at those times to pray. And we pray for lost loved ones. We pray for lost loved ones. We'll pray till the day that the lost loved ones come back to the Lord. George Mueller, that great man of prayer. 36:41 You say, "How long does it take?" Well, as we read here, it didn't take very long, but sometimes it takes a long, long time. George Mueller selected a group of five personal friends that he said, "I'm going to pray for these men till they come to Christ." And after five years, one of them came to Christ. 37:04 It took 10 years for two more to find the Savior. He prayed for 25 years for the fourth man before he was saved. And for the fifth man, he prayed until the time of his death, 52 years. 37:24 He prayed for that man. He died without seeing that man come to Christ, but he came to Christ several years later or several months later. And oh, the joy, I'm sure, on George Mueller's face when that man who he thought was lost and was lost until George died when he saw him coming in through the gates of heaven. 37:43 How many people will be in heaven because somebody prayed for them, a mother, a father, a church, a congregation, people who love the Lord who bombard heaven on behalf of lost souls. 37:59 And sometimes those parents and those people die without ever seeing the results and the joy that would be on their face when they see that person entering the gates of glory. 38:11 So brothers and sisters, and those of you that are elderly among us, sometimes I know Anita's mother faced this. She said, "I can't do anything. I'd like to die. I'd just like to go home. I can't do anything." We said, "Mom, you can pray. 38:34 We need your prayers." And I'm going to tell you what, we miss her prayers. But I believe her prayers go on. I believe the effectiveness of intercessory prayer goes on even after the person's gone. And so brothers and sisters, God is real. God's truth is real. Prayer is real. God works in response to prayer. 38:54 And maybe you can't do anything else, but you can pray as if that's the only thing, the last thing that we would do. Sometimes that's the most—not sometimes, it is the most important thing that we can do. And so God bless you as you find your ministry and as we pray, 39:16 asking the Lord, "Lord, what do you want me to pray about today? Who do you want me to pray for today?" And asking the Holy Spirit to lay that person on your heart so you can pray until the answer comes. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for a group of people who believe in prayer. But Lord, we believe in it just a little bit too academically sometimes. 39:39 And because it takes a while for us to see the answers of our prayer, and sometimes it takes years for us to see the answers of our prayer, that we kind of forget and we kind of just keep going and we assume that, well, God's going to do what God's going to do whether or not we pray. And so we call for special prayer meetings, and sometimes people show up and sometimes they don't. 39:58 And sometimes we have prayer before the service, and sometimes people come and sometimes they don't. Lord, teach us to pray. Show us how to pray, how to talk to God, how to honor God, how to cry out to God. 40:16 And Lord, show us the answer that you want to accomplish. Help us to pray, to stay, to obey. In Christ's name. Amen.