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[ Silence ] [ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ And don't be troubled ♪

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♪ I'll be there ♪ ♪ Until the end ♪ ♪ My father's home ♪ ♪ He's on my mind ♪

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♪ I'm a conventional ♪ ♪ Can't say no more ♪ ♪ This church for me ♪ ♪ My soul and heart ♪

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♪ Are bound to thee ♪ ♪ The darkness came ♪ ♪ Now here is still ♪ ♪ My life returns ♪

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♪ Sweet art of prayer ♪ ♪ Sweet art of prayer ♪ ♪ Sweet art of prayer ♪ ♪ Shall weep ♪

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♪ Shall my petition ♪ ♪ Declare ♪ ♪ To him ♪ ♪ Whose truth ♪

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♪ And faith ♪ ♪ All this ♪ ♪ Engage ♪ ♪ The way ♪

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♪ For whose long life ♪ ♪ And since he meets ♪ ♪ This sea ♪ ♪ Then let him ♪

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♪ Believe his heart ♪ ♪ And trust in his grace ♪ ♪ I'll ask no name ♪ ♪ I every care ♪

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♪ I'm waiting for thee ♪ ♪ Sweetheart, I'll pray ♪ ♪ Sweetheart, I'll pray ♪ ♪ Sweetheart, I'll pray ♪

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♪ May I at thy consolation ♪ ♪ Share till dawn ♪ ♪ The peace that longs me ♪ ♪ And you my hope ♪

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♪ And make the night ♪ ♪ This whole fresh ♪ ♪ Valley ♪ ♪ Pop and bright ♪

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♪ And see ♪ ♪ The endless ♪ ♪ Sea rise ♪ ♪ And how the ♪

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♪ Welcome to the earth ♪ ♪ And all that makes ♪ ♪ Me a humble friend ♪ - You may be seated.

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[ Background Sounds ] >> Hear this word. First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone.

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1 Timothy 2, verse 1. This passage of scripture serves as an introduction to our prayer seminar. I spoke earlier in the 8 o'clock service from this passage of Scripture, and I am speaking again so that those of you who were not at the 8 o'clock service will be sure to get

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what the others received. The word that Paul gives to Timothy is a word of advice for the church. It has to do with prayer for all. Everyone should pray.

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should pray. Prayer is the wheel, so to speak, that turns and propels us in this Christian life. And it became necessary because of some problems that had arisen and the churches that Timothy ministered to, for Paul to give him instructions which were to be passed on to the church.

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And we look at them today for what strength, what guidance, what direction we may receive for our prayer life. He that prayeth best loveth best all things both great and small. For the great God who loveth us, he may and loveth all.

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King is remembered for many things, but one is his book, Strength to Love, Strength to Love. And how strong we are in our love will determine that for which we pray. He encouraged this nation to manifest that strength that comes only through love. And we do not love as we ought because somehow we have not practiced it.

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And one of the ways of practicing love is by learning how to pray, to commune with God because God is love. And as we learn to commune with Him, to speak with Him, and to listen as He speaks to us,

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it's a dialogue in which we are engaged. And as we gain that strength, We become mature as Christians. Every so often someone says to me,

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I remember I preached a sermon on Hosea and I was talking about the love that Hosea had for his wife. And someone said to me,

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"Rev, I'll never be that weak." Well, the truth of the matter is maybe you won't be that strong. And prayer helps to make us strong.

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It helps to make us take that journey from I to we. Some people never take it. Someone like that man who prayed for his family said, "Lord, this me and my wife, my son Joe and his wife,

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us four no more." (congregation laughing) And something like that. But Paul encourages the church to pray for every person.

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Now, it's easy for us to pray for ourselves We have a catalog of things that we want to present to God every day. Easy. But to pray for someone else, and to even pray for someone you do not know, and you

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have never, never seen, to pray for that person earnestly and fervently, that's what we are about. it is ours as a family. This word is addressed to the family, the church, the family of God to pray for not only all of the members of the church but that

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family of God that is beyond the church for all people to pray for everybody everywhere. That's what we are to do. That's the challenge that we face and that's the challenge first of all to love. To have that agape love for those that you have no reason because they've done anything. It's

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unconditioned and that love is what enables us to pray earnestly for ourselves and for others the love of God. Well Paul says I urge you to have prayer requests, yes, to submit your list, yes, whatever the request may be for individuals or for circumstances, prayer

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requests, to make petitions, yes, to make petition. God wants us to ask Him for the things that we need. Not that he doesn't already know, but it helps us because in the process we participate with God in bringing to pass that which we desire. Prayer. Soul sincere desire. Unuttered or expressed, may not have the language

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someone else has but God who made us knows the yearnings of our hearts and he's able to interpret not only our needs but our yearnings. Paul says I urge you, supplications I urge you, with prayers or petition I urge you with prayers of thanksgiving. Oh how wonderful it is to give thanks to God, to thank Him

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rather than always coming with a list of things we want from Him, just because He's God and because He's good, because He's gracious, because He's giving us life and day and work to do. That's the challenge that we face in the gift of prayer. Pray for everyone everywhere to be inclusive. That's the challenge. And

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And then Paul says, "Pray for the king, pray for the emperor, pray for the one who is over you, who has authority over you." Sometimes that's hard to do, to pray for those who have authority over you.

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But if you're able to pray for those who have authority over you, then the tension, the problems that you encounter in your relationships, Those problems many times will pass away if we pray.

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If we pray. Pray for those who are in positions of leadership that God will give them the insight, the guidance to do what they need to do.

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Pray. One of the gifts that Martin Luther King gave us was It's not only that of how to participate in the struggle in a non-violent way, but in the midst of it all,

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to make an appeal to conscience. His whole program was based on an appeal to conscience. The fact that people basically have a conscience that makes them aware of what is good and what's wrong,

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and that you can appeal to that conscience. And the effectiveness of it is revealed in the success of his ministry. We need a great deal of prayer for those who are over us.

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We're beginning a new administration. And this is an administration that we as a people have not been known to be so favorable to. But prayer is what is needed for our nation,

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what is needed for our president as he begins anew, our president elect as he begins anew to remember the use of prayer. Now Paul discusses this in the light of gender.

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He first discusses prayer as far as men are concerned. In the ancient world, a man was the head of the family. In the ancient world, he was the priest of the family. And he was expected to lead his family in prayer,

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developing a wholesome prayer life. Oh, it's a wonderful thing if you are blessed had parents that gathered you together and led you in prayer. Because as you grow older in life your mind goes back to that familiar scene and somehow in the

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midst of your crisis situations you receive the strength with which to face them and to go on and on and on. He talks about men praying and he says men as you pray lift up your arms to God with holy hands look to God some people still do that but whether you lift up holy hands or not be sure to remember the symbolism

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a minute, helpful hands, to put your hands to work, to do what God wants you to do toward the fulfillment of those prayers. Holy hands, hands of helpfulness, hands of holiness. Lift up holy hands as you pray. Then the Apostle goes on to talk about about women. He talks about women who have been coming to the church and he gives certain

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advice. In other words, he tells the ladies, "Don't come to church overdressed. Don't come to church wearing garb that is ostentatious because the focus will be on the woman." Because the focus will be on you rather than on God. You'll notice on the bulletin we have here for the worship of God, for the worship of

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God, I think sometimes people forget that. And sometimes we emphasize things that make them forget that. man came to the church and he heard me deliver a ceremony, a eulogy, and he talked, came up and expressed appreciation for it, but when he went

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away he said to a person there, "But the thing I really liked was Reverend Griffin's bracelet. Well that's not the thing. That's exactly what Paul was talking about. Not your ornaments, not your dress, not how you've arranged your hair, the braids in your hair, but to focus on God. Now Paul had a very dim

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view of women. We could help him a lot to have. He says, "I don't suffer women to do any teaching, any preaching, or any position of leadership in the church." Well, that was Paul's day, and Paul dealt with it because he was confronting a patriarchal society is not a society that we live in today. So Paul says, "I do not

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suffer them to do this or that." What is really important is that children, men, Men and women all need to pray. I started out as a youngster in the family at mealtime, prayer. Many times you'd come to the table and forget to pray and be reaching for something.

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Boy, take your hands off of that. Wait until the blessing. we were taught and we must not forget that. Give the blessing.

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And then again at bedtime, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I awake,

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I pray the Lord my soul to take. Pray. And you know what? that would carry you because God is everywhere.

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If you learn to pray, if you learn to talk with God, whatever may be your condition and circumstance and wherever you are, then you need not worry because he's everywhere.

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There'll be times when your mother and father are not there, they will forsake you, but God will always be there And you can always call him up and tell him what you want. And he's always ready to hear and prepared to act

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when we trust in him. The wind never gets too dark, mountains never get too high, valleys never get too deep, for God to step in and to help us.

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And I'm glad I learned that early. I learned to pray when I was taking my exams. I studied hard as I could and then I asked God to help me out all he could and would.

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So trust God, whatever it is. If we can't bring it to God, we don't understand who God is. You can come to him with any problem, any sickness,

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Any condition or circumstance you can bring it to God and God can handle it. He can handle it. President Jones of our convention

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often greets you with the words, how you handling yourself? Well, how you handling yourself largely depends on your relationship to God.

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Lift up your hearts to him. Tell him, I remember those experiences when I was in college and didn't have any money,

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didn't know how I was gonna stay there, and sometimes I'd go up to the third floor in Marston Hall and my roommate would be out and I'd just talk with the Lord.

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And somehow after talking with God and coming out and look around, even the sun looked different. (audience laughing) He came into that room and I felt,

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even though I still didn't have a penny in my pocket, I felt that somehow God was gonna work it out. (audience applauding) And the wonderful thing is, he does work it out.

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He just keeps working out. Every time I get into a crisis, I go to him. I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this, but you know that he works it out.

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Thanks be to God that he has given us the gift of prayer so that wherever we are he's there to help us and to bless us. It's a blessing.

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It's a blessing to learn to talk with God. Don't leave your prayer life all up to the preacher. Learn to develop some prayer life of your own and you'll grow stronger and your family will be enriched.

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And the wonderful thing is you won't get overlooked. You won't get overlooked. The universality of prayer, you included. John F. Kennedy, during the early part

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of his administration is said to have held a press conference And the press conference was over, and just as it was dismissed, a young man working for one of the nation's newspapers came up,

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and he had missed the conference, the press conference. Oh, he was upset, he said, "My job is in jeopardy. "I'll lose my job," and all of that. What will I do?

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and President Kennedy went over the things that had been discussed with that young man. He went over the press conference. He included him.

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Well, God's like that. When you miss out on something, he goes over it and he enables you to be brought back into the relationship.

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Isn't that a wonderful thing? And we can all say thanks you God, thank you for being so good, for being so wonderful, for being so kind, thank you. That you consider even me, the wretch that I am, even me with my weaknesses and my faults,

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but somehow I can come to you through Jesus Christ and confess my sins and you are willing to hear. Brothers and sisters, that's good news. That's good news in a world of bad news.

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We include. We come now to the open door that God has set before us in Jesus Christ. An invitation to Christian discipleship,

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we ask you to come. You make love by letter, or professional faith, or restoration.

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It's an open door. Come, just as you are. Come, come. Come.

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Come. Come. [BLANK_AUDIO]