Praying In Hard Times

This morning we're going to turn back to our study in the book of 2 Thessalonians, so I ask that you take your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, first five verses. finally brothers pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith but the Lord is faithful he will establish you and guard you against the evil one and we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do things that we command May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Let's pray.

Father, open our minds now to your word. Help us to understand this. Help us, Lord, to not just hear the word today, but determined to be what the word calls us to be and calls us to do. Help us, Lord, for your glory. We live for that. we want you to be glorified we want you lord we want all to look at us and see you and to glorify you to praise you to honor you so help us then to hear this and to live it for your glory and we'll thank you in jesus name amen not sure if all of you are aware of this but when this whole pandemic started samaritan's purse you call is a is a ministry of franklin graham and they go all over the world trying to help people well they went to new york authorities and said we're we'd be willing to set up a hospital or some in some way to help people who are facing the sicknesses as that is upon us They went to New York to do that.

Well, if you know the rest of the story, they got all kinds of problems or trouble. The people went to the governing authorities in New York and complained and said, we can't have these people helping us. Why? Because of their stand on such things as homosexuality We cannot accept their help Now I not exactly sure what happened as a result of that But I do know this It shows a hostility towards the people of God that is becoming, let's just say, a little more common.

And we need to face the fact that society grows more hostile to believers every day. Now, I don't know if such hostility is going to grow or if, by some means, it may be reversed. We don't know. However, we should always know what we need to be and what we need to do when facing hostile forces and difficult times. Now, the church has always faced adversaries.

It's always had enemies. And scripture tells us exactly how we ought to face that. And we know from our study of 1 and 2 Thessalonians how we're to do that, because that's what the book of 1 and 2 Thessalonians is about. You recall that an important reason for the Apostle Paul writing these epistles was to cheer this church on to the finish in the midst of adversity.

That he's trying to coach them through the hostility that they're facing, through the persecution that is around them. He wanted them to remain faithful to Jesus when the pressure was on. And in this book, and as interesting as I reviewed this book and looked through it again, And it's interesting to me that he encouraged them in the face of adversity by emphasizing primarily two things.

In this book, in 2 Thessalonians, he emphasizes two things primarily. Promises and prayers. The promises of God and prayers to God. He begins the epistle, you recall, by reporting that the mission team gives thanks to God for their faith, for their love, and for their steadfastness. And then he turns to the promises of God. The promise of God's justice. that God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.

Then what does he do? Then he says, we pray for you. Beginning in verse 11 of chapter 1. We pray for you that God would help you live in a manner worthy of him and that you glorify the name of Jesus in your adversity. Next he turns again to teaching, to the promises of God, to the future, to the day of the Lord when Jesus returns. the Thessalonians had gotten a piece of gotten a hold of a piece of rotten theology and had thrown them off someone taught that the day of the Lord had come already and so they had lost hope in the midst of persecution and by giving an outline of the future events as we saw in the second chapter by giving them an outline of future events Paul hoped to reinvigorate their hope Now when you come to the end of chapter 2 what does he do next He prays.

Again, he tells them that the team continues to give thanks to God for the work in them, for God's work in them, and that they're praying that God would exhort and establish them so that they hold fast to sound doctrine. So you see this play between prayer and promise, prayer and promise. Now we come to chapter 3. And in our text you find what we ought to do as a church when we face adversity, persecution, and hostility.

And you find the description of what we should do in the context of mutual prayer. Paul begins by saying, pray for us. And in verse 5 he says, this is how we're praying for you. and so this description of what the church should do in the midst of adversity in the face of hostility is couched in mutual prayer let's look at it again note finally brothers pray for us that the word of the lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith but the lord is faithful he will establish you and guard you against the evil one and we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things that we command may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ what should we as a church do in the face of its adversity persecution and hostility three things preach persevere and pray those are the three things he tells us to do If, again, if the hostility continues to grow, if we face difficult times, here are three things that God calls this church to do.

Preach, persevere, and pray. Let's look at it. God wants us to preach the gospel. Look at verses 1 and 2. Paul asked for prayer from his friends. To pray that the gospel speed ahead and be honored.

Now what he's doing here, what Paul does is draws a picture of a runner in the games He draws the picture of a runner A runner who wins the race and receives honor for his victory That what he means when he says pray that the gospel would speed ahead and be honored He giving us a word picture of a runner But the runner here is the gospel itself The gospel runs for the prize, namely victory over people's hearts. Pray that the gospel would run and be honored for the victory, right? It's running for the prize, namely victory over people's hearts.

The gospel runs. It runs in the world, gaining the victory over the false religions, over the false philosophies, over the narratives, the worldviews, the explanations that are all out there. It runs against them. It competes with them. It competes with all of those things that hold people captive in their grasp. Now, we already know that God will demonstrate at the end of time that the gospel of Jesus is the true winner against all competing world views, against all other narratives.

It is the only, it will come out as the only true religion and the only true philosophy. In the end, everyone, the whole universe will recognize that the gospel is the true explanation of everything. But you know, we don't have to wait for that day to see this runner winning notice what he says so that it so that would be honored as happened among you there already are pictures of the victory of the gospel as it beats down its competitors as it wins out against its competitors it already gained the victory over the hearts of the Thessalonians there already was a group of people in that town devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ devoted to him because it had won the victory.

Now let me ask you, do you think of the gospel that way? I think too often many of us, and I think part of it's because we've emphasized so much of our theology of God's sovereignty that we say, well, we'll share the gospel, but most people won't believe it, but God will open the hearts of some. We need to have a different view of the gospel. We need to have a view of the gospel that it's a runner that's running out there.

It's competing. It can compete. It can win. It has the ability to beat all of the competition. It's a gold medal runner, right? We already see it winning victories.

We see people turning to Christ. We see people's lives changed. We need to have a better view of the gospel. And the Apostle Paul says, pray for us. Pray for us. But the gospel will do that.

Pray that that will happen. But he also asks his friends to pray that his mission team, Paul and Silas and Timothy, he prays, says to them, verse two, that you pray that the gospel go out and run and compete and win and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. He prays that they also, the gospel would advance and that they would be delivered from evil and wicked men.

Now, if you faced what these guys faced, you'd be asking the same thing. I want you to turn over to 2 Corinthians for a moment. I want you to get a view of what he's talking about. 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 3. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.

How do they commend themselves? By great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. By truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.

We are treated as impostors and yet are true. as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as punished and yet not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing everything you know notice the things he mentions their beatings imprisonments hardships calamities riots labors sleepless nights all these things that's what he's he's praying that they be delivered from evil men who inflict these things turn over to chapter 11 of the same book here again we see the apostle Paul speaking of what they're facing beginning in verse 23 are they servants of Christ I am a better one I am talking like a man man a madman now let me just say something here in this book he's he's preaching against his day's prosperity preachers if you will these people who are saying wow we're the we're the ones that have the word of God look how successful we are. The Apostle Paul is saying no let me tell you what success looks like I talking like a madman here You got to think I mad but this is how you know it the real deal Alright With verse 23 Are they servants of Christ, these prosperity preachers? I am a better one.

I'm talking like a madman. With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the forty lashes less one. three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times I was shipwrecked a night in the day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers dangers from robbers danger from my own people danger from gentiles danger in the city danger in the wilderness danger at sea danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst often without food and cold and exposure and apart from other things there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches who is weak and I am not weak who is made to fall and I am not indignant now do you see what he's saying this is why he says pray that we be delivered from evil and wicked men why because look at what they're doing they're doing these terrible things now the question you might ask is this why did Paul experience such hardships was he just a cranky old guy who invited abuse is that the deal no no it was the message if you want to stop the message you try to stop the messengers he experienced this because those who oppose him not only want to stop the messengers but they do not have faith they do not believe you see so he's asking for this prayer certainly so that they wouldn't have to suffer this way but most importantly so that the message of the gospel wouldn't be hindered if you want to stop the message, try stopping the messengers.

And he says, pray that we be delivered from these kind of people. They do not have faith. They are wicked and evil people. That is, instead of believing the good news, they mock, they reject, they fight the good news. They hate the message, and so they hate the messengers. Now, these are not just folks who have unfortunate character flaws, but people who have wicked aggressive intentions people who will stoop to physical abuse in order to stop the message what does he ask for he says pray that we'd be delivered from these evil men so that we can preach the gospel unhindered so what should we do as a church in the face of persecution or just plain old hatred for us What does God tell us He says, preach the gospel.

People might respond, but there are evil and wicked people who don't believe, people who will do horrible things to us for proclaiming the word of God. All that is true. But don't forget the truth, that the gospel is like a runner. vying for victory. It's like a runner who will be honored in the end, who will gain the victory. It's the gospel that overcomes the mockings, the rejections, and the evil intentions of others.

Always remember this. The very thing that produces trouble for us produces new life in others. The very thing that produces trouble for us produces new life in others. and thus we must preach. We must always proclaim the gospel. In a culture of hatred, God says, preach, preach. Now, verses 3 and 4, verses 3 through 5, Paul turns his attention to his friends.

He begins to talk to them about what he would like to see in them. And in this conversation, he indicates this. God wants us to persevere. He wants us to persevere. As you read the content of these verses, in verses 3 through 5, you see that he's urging them on to more faithfulness, to not cave, to persevere. Now, if you want to talk about perseverance, you don't start with yourself.

You always start with God. You always start with God. What does he say? verse 3 but the Lord is faithful in contrast to faithless men right but they don't have faith but the Lord is faithful others will mock you reject you turn against you seek to abuse you hate you for what you stand for but God remains faithful to you he will never reject you he will never throw you under the bus.

Okay? He'll never do that. The Lord is faithful Not because you such a valuable gem of humanity and worthy of the attention That not why It not because you changed into such a faithful soldier and so now you proven yourself as worth the time and effort of God. You know that's not true. You know that we prove ourselves unfaithful in many little ways, sometimes big ways.

He remains faithful to you not because of you, but because of his son. But because of his son. It is sheer grace. God has pledged his loyalty to you not because of what you have done but because of what his son has done. Again, these very familiar words from Romans chapter 8. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things you see that it's all based on his son he goes on to say for i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the The love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see? The love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing will separate you from the love of God because that love of God is expressed in Christ and Christ has brought you to Him. You see, it is because of Jesus. That is why you can be sure that the Lord will remain faithful to you no matter what. because of his son. And that is why he goes on to say in verse 4, notice how he starts verse 4, and we have what?

Confidence in the Lord about you. We're confident that things are going to happen in your life because of the Lord. Not because of you, but because of the Lord. I'm confident in the Lord. Okay? By the way, that ought to give us some hope.

Right? That'll give you hope. That'll give you hope as you help people, as you deal with people, even as you talk to your own kids. In the Lord, you have every confidence. Every confidence. So what does God expect to bring about in this congregation if or when we find ourselves in an inhospitable environment?

Well, he starts out by saying this, the Lord Jesus will take care of us. Verse 3, the Lord Jesus will take care of us. How does he do it? He does it by strengthening and establishing us. Okay, how is it that we can persevere? Well, God's faithful, we can be confident in him.

Next, the Lord Jesus is going to take care of us. How does he take care of us? Well, first of all, he strengthens and establishes us. and then he guards us against the evil one. So the Lord Jesus will take care of us. He does that by strengthening us, by establishing us. Now the word establish here, okay, the word establish means to support so that it doesn't move, right?

So that you're immovable. In the summer before I went to college, I worked for a fence company. That is, we put up chain link fences. We put up chain link fences down the middle of the, you know, in the grass in the middle of the highway. We put it up around prisons. We put it up around tennis courts and football fields.

Okay? And I can remember that we would dig the holes for every post, put the post in, and then what? Pour cement in there. We'd put cement in every one of those holes. Right? Why?

So that that fence, that post was established. That was especially true when we were putting it around prisons. You wanted it established, immovable. And so we dig the holes, put them in, fill that hole with concrete so that those posts would be immovable. And that's what he's saying God does for us. He's establishing us.

He's making us immovable so that we are not moved by affliction. We are not blown off course. we are not led to abandon our Lord Jesus by the afflictions and the persecutions that come. How does God establish His people? How does He do that? How is it that we're established? Well, by using others to minister the Word of God.

That's where it starts. You will not be established. You will move off the course if you do not subject yourself to the ministry of the Word of God. If you going to stand in hostile times then you have to be established and you established by the ministry of the word of God It cannot be any other way You established by others exhorting you ministering God's word both in public and in private.

You know what? You know what I found? I found that we move away from the Lord in the private areas first. That's why in terms of a counseling ministry that all pastors should have that's why we teach and argue and plead and warn in order to help people remain established in order to establish them so the ministry of the word both publicly and privately in exhortation aiming at those areas that where you need help so that you remain immovable when things get difficult you know how else we're established You know how else God establishes us?

Through the love and fellowship of other believers. I don't know if you remember this. It's been a long time. But if you turn back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, you see the same thing. He's talking about them being established. Notice.

You remember what we talked about back then? And notice what he says. Verse 11. Now may our God. I'm sorry. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 11.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. What do you see there? How are our hearts established?

By our love for one another. By this overflowing love for one another, we will remain immovable in the face of affliction and persecution if we love one another. If we love one another. One writer puts it this way. The point is that unless love grows, selfish desires increase and we'll turn our love toward ourselves and not toward God, which results in an ungodly character and lifestyle. and so if you love your brothers and sisters you will not just keep them from doing wrong what you're going to do is encourage them you will seek their good and so in these ways God establishes us so we immovable in the face of persecution he takes care of us by establishing us by making us steadfast and immovable But notice as well that he takes care of us by protecting us from the evil one, that is Satan.

Now that word protect there is a word that's used of shepherds. The Lord Jesus is our shepherd. He constantly watches over us in order to protect us when Satan starts circling the flock. And listen, don't misunderstand. It's in the midst of adversity and hostility where Satan is really circling around the flock of God. That is when we will be the most tempted to be unfaithful.

When Satan begins to use adversity against us. Remember what the Apostle Paul has just told us in the previous chapter. In chapter 2, remember as he's outlining the events that must precede the day of the Lord, he talks about this lawless one. And in chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, he says, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and to be saved.

Please note how Satan powerfully works with the power of false signs and wonders and wicked deception. He's a very wily, crafty opponent. And by the way, those great powers, as we saw, as we studied that chapter, are alive and at work in the age today. We have an incredible adversary. The wicked opponents that the Apostle Paul faces, the wicked opponents that these people face, the wicked opponents that we face, have behind them this evil one, Satan, a powerful, powerful creature.

Evil. Beyond belief. So what does God promise? That the Lord Jesus will guard us. He will protect us from this evil one. Now God does not promise that we'll escape the anger and aggression of this world.

A world that's increasingly hostile towards us. That hates us. But he does promise to strengthen us in our sufferings. To establish us so that we're immovable. and he does promise to shield us from the ultimate shame of succumbing to the wiles of our adversary and so we can persevere as he establishes us as he protects us now notice what else verse 4 the Lord Jesus will work faithful obedience in us he says I confident what that you're doing and will continue to do the things that we command faithful obedience the The apostle has confidence in the Lord, has confidence in the Lord, that he will produce a people distinguished by their obedience to his commands.

Now notice, his confidence does not rest in his effectiveness, and his confidence does not rest in the resolve of the Thessalonians. And we ought not to put our confidence in those things either. God help us. God help all of us if you're putting your confidence in the effectiveness of your pastor Tim Pasma or any other of the leaders here God help us if you if you're putting your confidence in the fact that you're resolved to do what Jesus calls you to do you put your confidence in the Lord that he will bring about that faithful obedience and he believes the apostle Paul believes, he's confident that Jesus will produce people who have a reputation for obedience, for, for, as we saw in, in both these epistles, for loving one another, for sexual purity, for hard workers who are not dependent on others, for people who will grieve with hope when they are, when they suffer loss, people who will encourage one another, who will do good to one another, who will pray, who will give thanks no matter what the circumstances.

He believes that Jesus will produce a people like that. Now the question that comes to mind is, when people are suffering, do you emphasize holiness? Yeah. You know why? Here's why. Because notice, when you're suffering, your universe tends to end at your nose.

You ever notice that? When things get tough, life becomes about you, about escaping from it all. I can remember my naive view of my Romanian brothers and sisters when the first time I went over there. These are people who had suffered under communism. When I went over there, my idea was, what am I going to teach them? They ought to be teaching us.

They stood against the wickedness of the communists, of this incredible oppression. They were meeting in churches when it would cost them their lives. I remember one Romanian pastor telling me when new people would come into the congregation, you didn't know if they were people who were actually interested in Christ or whether they were people who were working for the secret police, right?

What are we going to teach them? But you know what I found out? I found out that they knew very little about how to love their wives and be husbands and submit to their husbands. They knew very little about those sorts of things. And I became convinced that, you know what, people who are suffering still need to learn to be holy. Not only to be immovable, but to be holy.

People facing persecution and suffering are people who should be holy, who are still distinguished by obedience to the commands of Christ. And so the Apostle Paul says to these people who are suffering, I'm confident that you will do what we command and you will continue to do what we command. The last thing he does is he talks about how they're praying for them.

It's a kind of a wish. This is what we hope happens to you, but it's a prayer, if you will. We're praying, first of all, that God would direct, we're praying that God would direct your hearts. In which way? We're going to pray that God directs your hearts to know God's love for you. In other words he's we ought to we ought to pray that that our hearts would be directed to know God's love for us to know God's love for us God's love for us is the anchor of our perseverance it's the anchor of our perseverance you can endure anything when you know that God loves you and that he will always love you if you're convinced that God that God loves you that he is a welcoming father that he will always be loyal to you in Christ.

That if the worst comes and you die, you will find a warm welcome from your Heavenly Father. You'll be able to stand anything if you're convinced that God loves you. And so he prays that God would direct their hearts to the love of God. And I believe he means the love of God for you. The love of God for you. This is a perseverance anchored in love.

And then he prays Then he says we praying that God would direct your hearts to the steadfastness of Christ That is to direct our hearts to follow the endurance of Christ The love of God is the anchor of our perseverance. The steadfastness of Christ is the pattern of our perseverance. Look over at Hebrews 12, the writer of the Hebrews was writing to people who were suffering. he was writing to people who were suffering.

If you want to know, and I'll just say this offhandedly, jot this down. If you want to know what they were suffering, turn to Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 32. That will tell you the things they were suffering, the confiscation of their property. They were being publicly humiliated, hauled out before the entire village, and humiliated, or humiliated in their families.

They were being thrown in jail. They were being persecuted. All those things were going on. Those are the kinds of things that were going on. This is what he writes to them in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 3.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of god consider him who endured who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted jesus steadfastness is the pattern of our perseverance please note please note how is it that Jesus made it through. Do you notice what it says? It was because of the joy that was set before him.

Whatever we suffer, there's joy on the other side. What was the joy for him? The exaltation. Exaltation, vindication, resurrection, all of it coming after his suffering. And so that's the pattern for our perseverance, you see? we know that no matter what comes our way if if it gets more hostile towards us and i pray that it doesn but if things get harder for us we look to jesus as the model of our perseverance the pattern of our perseverance and we look to him and we say at the other side of this suffering is joy There is exaltation for us.

There is vindication for us. All that is true. It was true of Jesus. It'll be true of us. This is perseverance then modeled after Jesus, our leader. And so he says, we're praying for you that you're anchored in the love of God, that your perseverance is anchored in love and that it finds its pattern in Jesus.

So when we face adversity, God calls us to persevere because he's faithful. Because he's faithful. We can persevere since Jesus takes care of us. We can persevere since he produces faithful obedience. We can persevere as he directs our hearts to his love for us and to Christ's steadfastness. In a culture of hatred, God says what?

Persevere. Lastly then, is the last thing he tells us is to pray. So when people begin to hate us and the culture can no longer tolerate us, God wants us to preach and to persevere. but frankly none of that is possible unless we pray unless we pray so god wants us to pray and it's interesting to me that and as i as i wrestled with this passage which is a passage about prayer but it's also a passage about right about the gospel and and perseverance right it's also about that but it's interesting that the brackets the bookends are prayer He talks about prayer.

God wants us to pray. All of this is couched in mutual prayer. We must pray. We must pray. I find it fascinating that Paul encourages these folks in their suffering by mentioning prayer as much as he does. Again, let me encourage you.

Read through the book of 2 Thessalonians. And what you see is this continual pattern. Prayer, promise, prayer, promise, prayer. And now again, prayer. Right? And it's mutual prayer.

It's not just I'll pray for you, but pray for us. Here the question Why did the great Apostle Paul need prayer Here was a guy who had visions from god here was a guy who could do miracles here was a guy who seemed like like suffering just bounced off of him i mean he just the stuff he describes and what he went through he seems completely unafraid in the midst of suffering why does he need prayer you know why because the success of the message does not depend on the messenger but on the one who sent him because it takes the working of God himself for anybody to believe the gospel you know what, miracles will never convert to anybody if you could do miracles you could perform wonders and I bet it wouldn't make a bit of difference. Miracles never saved anybody.

There's only one miracle that works and that is God giving someone life, taking the scales from his eyes and opening them to see for the first time the beauty of Jesus crucified. You see, they need prayer and so we need to pray. we need to pray for the success of the gospel. And we must pray for our perseverance because God is our only hope in the face of overwhelming opposition.

He is our only hope. If we would stand, then we must know God's love and Christ's steadfastness. And if we're going to know those, we have to pray. God direct our hearts in that direction. Let me ask you, what do you pray for? What do you pray for?

Now, listen, pretty soon, I hope, we'll be back together as flocks. And when your flock prays, what do you pray for? I want you just right now think about the things that you pray for? Are these the things that we pray for in our flocks? Right? What is important to you?

What is important to you? We must pray. We must pray that the gospel advances. We must pray that God in his faithfulness would give us perseverance. We must pray that he direct our hearts to his love and to the steadfastness of Christ. We must pray this way because God is our only hope in the face of opposition.

And if hostility starts ramping up, we must surely pray for these things. so in a culture that hates us god says pray pray let's face it we've entered a period of our history where christianity is no longer the favored religion you can't take you cannot take our faith for granted in our country anymore and those who truly stake their lives on on the scriptures who truly believe the scriptures speak to us and we ought to live in accordance with it are no longer welcome in polite society right we find ourselves at best ignored at worst hated but our heavenly father says to us don lose hope don fear don run away instead preach the gospel Persevere Remain faithful in adversity because I am faithful. And he finally says, and the only way you can do that is to pray. Father, help us to pray that way.

Help us to pray for the unleashing of the gospel that would change everything. Lord, you have changed entire societies by the preaching of the gospel. You have turned entire nations around by the preaching of the gospel. We don't know if that's what you're going to do, but Lord, help us to pray to that end. Father, help us to persevere, to remain faithful, to be steadfast and immovable, to remember that Jesus guards his sheep, to look to the love of God and the steadfastness of Jesus.

God, work all those things in us, we pray. We confess to you that we do not face incredible hardship and difficulties, and yet this is what you've called us to do, to preach, to persevere, and to pray. Help us then, in Jesus' name, amen.