Gen 25:21, And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
	We now continue with our series on prayer as manifested in this passage. Over the course of this study, we will be considering the writings of several commentators and many passages of scripture. It is all with an eye to how we, as God’s Church on this earth, can more fully and absolutely please Him in the testimony that we bear before Him.
	At the focal point of this morning, with regard to prayer, is a fundamental question that you and I have to take before the Lord. It’s answer will flavor and highlight the most basic reality of our Christian walk. Do we come to church and to Bible studies in the prayer that God will teach us or do we just come in case we might hear something interesting? Do we seek the Lord to reveal Himself in the Word that we share together by earnestly going before Him throughout the week in preparation for our times of feasting on His Word?  Or, do we just come and hope that something will stick as we listen? 
	This is a foundational course of inquiry and a responsibility that we have as the Church. This is one of those truths that will make the complete difference as to how much we value our corporate time in His Word. It determines whether we expect Him to meet our need for understanding and for feeding or not. When we do not spend time in prayer before every lesson, before every gathering in His Name, before every fellowship function, we are not going to receive or enjoy or find fruitfulness in our Christian life. Everything will become just a social gathering where we hear nice words of encouragement that seem to drift away moments after we have heard them. 
	We have this very aspect given by Our Lord Jesus Christ recorded in all four Gospels. It is that urgent and that demanding! It is the parable of the sower and the seed. Please turn to the account as described in Matt 13:19-23. Matt 13:19-23, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. "And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." 
	Each of us has undoubtedly found ourselves being described in these states in our growth. Each week, it is vital that we come prepared as the good soil, to hear the Word and to seek the Holy Spirit to open it in our hearts and lives. At each Men’s meeting, Women’s meeting, youth meeting, it is our responsibility to spend the necessary time in prayer that will enable us to be that good soil in whom the Word will be fruitful beyond measure. Prayer is that means by which we come into agreement with God that the only way in which we can understand and appropriate the truth of scripture is as the Holy Spirit prepares our hearts to receive it, prepares the minister to deliver it, and then causes it to develop and to grow through His nurturing and watering process. 
	As a teacher and minister, it is the responsibility of the one who delivers the Word to spend time, tremendous time in prayer before the Lord to make the message God’s feeding of His flock.
The Apostle Paul describes this pastoral accountability of prayer for the Word and the Church in Eph 1:18-21. Please read along as the heart of this shepherd is shared with his flock. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 
	Each minister and teacher charged with the overseeing of the localized flock needs to be on bended knee in constant and intense and solemn and passionate and powerful prayer that the Word is delivered and received for the sake of the beneficial feeding of the Lord’s people. Without prayer, there will be no nourishment and no spiritual growth in that assembly of the saints. 
	As well, it is the accountability and duty of each member of the Church to pray for the given minister and teacher of the Word. Here too, we have the Apostle Paul’s teaching and encouragement in this matter given in Eph 6:18-20. Eph 6:18-20, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 
	Again, without the prayers of those seeking to be fed, there will be no sustenance, no nourishment, and no spiritual truth given or received. Only with sincerity and longing expressed in intense prayer will there be the spiritual understanding of the heart of God to be consumed and digested. Without earnest and urgent prayer, the Church will become partakers, not of the meat of the Living Word, but of the fast-food diet of platitudes and dogma and, for lack of a better description, psycho-babble. 
Please consider that this takes devotion and concentration and time and energy and preparation in every heart of the saints. We cannot just come to Church and think that we are Ok. We must very deliberately set our hearts and our minds and our thoughts into the prayer that God will teach us all that He has determined as necessary to grow and to develop and to bring forth fruit unto His glory. Col 4:2-4, Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak
	Our times of learning and feeding and growth are utterly dependent on the corporate union of hearts in prayer. That prayer is for the Lord to give complete and absolutely nourishing food from the banquet table of His heart of Love and Wisdom and Understanding. 
If we are not getting the feeding that we require, if we are not receiving nourishment from the messages or the Bible Studies, if we do not seem to comprehend what is being shared, the very first place to look is at our prayer life. Our prayers will determine whether or not we are seeking to be that good ground prepared under the Holy Spirit’s work in our minds and hearts. Are we giving ourselves over to that intensity of prayer that is required of everyone who truly desires to know the fullness of God?
I have often been told that the Bible is too hard to understand, too difficult to digest. The only manner in which to effectively know the Word is to prayer with all our being that the Holy Spirit will make it real and life to us. We must start with prayer for the desire to understand it. 
	Our Lord Jesus Christ emphasized this urgent need to pray after the heart of God in Matt 7:7-11. Many people read this passage with a very limited aspect of God meeting our physical needs on this earth. However, it is of much more vital and purposeful reality when we see it in light of all that is involved in our spiritual needs superseding our earthly needs. Matt 7:7-11, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. "Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? "Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! 
	Do we ask Him to make each message reality in us? Do we seek Him to open every Word of life into our hearts in a living manner that takes it off the pages of the printed book and instills it into the very fabric of our being? Do we struggle in a ceaseless manner for God to show us what it means to receive the blessing of His Holy Spirit as the source of our every understanding? 
This is not a casual thing that just requires a canned prayer of contrition or of thanksgiving or of memorization. There is great effort and striving after all the fullness of God at the heart of prayers which not settle for less than knowing Him all the more. 
	Listen to the Apostle Paul as he relates the course of his prayers for the sake of his listeners. Col 1:29-2:1, And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face… The Bible Exposition Commentary describes what is at the heart of this prayer in the following extensive quote. 
	… "For this I labor to the point of exhaustion, agonizing" is a literal translation of the first part of Col 1:29. What a picture of prayer! So much of our praying is calm and comfortable, and yet Paul exerted his spiritual muscles the way a Greek runner would exert himself in the Olympic Games. He also taught Epaphras to pray the same way (Col 4:12, Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God). 
This does not mean that our prayers are more effective if we exert all kinds of fleshly energy. Nor does it mean that we must "wrestle with God" and wear Him out before He will meet our needs. Paul described a spiritual striving. It was God’s power at work in his life. True prayer is directed to the Father (Matt 6:9, "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name), through the Son (in His name, John 14:13-14, "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it), in the power of the Holy Spirit (Jude 20, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit). When the Spirit is at work in our lives, then we can pray mightily in the will of God.
How does the Spirit assist us in our praying? For one thing, the Spirit teaches us the Word and shows us the will of God (John 16:13-15, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you). Prayer is not our trying to change God's mind. It is learning what is the mind of God and asking accordingly (1 John 5:14+15, And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him). The Holy Spirit constantly intercedes for us even though we do not hear His voice (Rom 8:26+27, And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God). He knows the Father's will and He helps us pray in that will. End Quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)    
	Therefore, as we continue with this series and with every future time of our feasting on the Lord’s Word, let it be our spiritual purpose, responsibility, and obligation to gather together after we have been prepared in intensity of prayer, to receive the fullness of God. Let us each join together in the singleness of heart that the ministry will go forward in the manner that is pleasing to God in full preparation for the Word to be given. As well, let us pray in all earnestness that God would make us that good soil in which the Word received, prepared through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, will abound in growth unto His glory. This is not optional! This is not a matter of convenience or of preference. Prayer after the heart of God is a just necessity if we truly want to live in the Life of Jesus Christ to the fullest. So be it!
And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 115:14+15. May the Lord give you increase, You and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. Amen.