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[this transcript created with AI - apologies for any errors]

If you want to take your Bibles and turn, we're back in Mark, Mark chapter 1.

And the title of this sermon is Why Pray?

I practiced it on LBC a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully it's better today.

That question, why pray?

is one I've thought a lot about in my life.

Like, why does it even make sense to pray?

If we believe in a God who knows everything, a God who's in control of everything, He doesn't need any information from me, and He doesn't need any help from me, like, what's the point of praying?

And yet, throughout scripture we have both examples of people praying and God responding to that prayer,

As well as like direct commands to pray or encouragements to pray, 1 Peter 5 says, cast all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

And the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, it says, pray without ceasing.

So God wants us to pray.

So then if we know that, and if we know God and love God, we want to be obedient to God, we should want to do what he tells us to do.

That's a good thing.

But so often we don't pray.

So what are the hindrances to our prayers?

And I think two hindrances to praying are, number one, that we just don't actually think it's important.

We know in our head it's something that we should do.

We know that God says to do it.

And we maybe even feel guilty about not doing it.

But in the end, when the rubber meets the road, like in that moment, in that situation day to day, it doesn't seem like the most important thing to do.

And so we don't do it.

And number two is even if we feel like we should, and we know we should, maybe even we think we need to, but we don't actually believe that we're heard.

And I think the text this morning before us addresses both of those things, whether we need to pray and whether we are heard when we pray.

So Mark chapter 1, just to kind of situate us back where we are in the text, Jesus has just called his first disciples Simon and Andrew and James and John in verses 16 through 20.

And then last week we spent verses 21 to 34 spending one Sabbath with the Savior, just one.

day hanging out with Jesus as he goes into the synagogue and he starts to teach and the people are amazed at the authoritative way in which Jesus speaks to them.

He's not speaking with suggestions.

He's not talking like the scribes do.

He's not talking with just helpful pithy sayings for life.

He's speaking with the authority of God himself.

He speaks authoritatively and the people are in awe.

And then to add to his

This is a

They inform Jesus that Simon's mother-in-law lays sick in bed and Jesus goes and with just a touch he takes her by the hand, he lifts her up and she is completely well.

The fever is gone, she has her strength restored, she's able to help serve and make dinner probably that night and so Jesus,

displays his authority in his teaching, he shows his authority over spiritual and demonic powers, and he shows his authority over the human body, over created matter itself, which should indicate, if people are paying attention, if he has authority over these things, may he not be the creator of them.

So that's where Jesus is, and his popularity then starts to spread.

If you're familiar with the other Gospels, Jesus is partially moving into Galilee, coming to this region, because he's already become so popular in Judea.

He's becoming well-known, and at the same time as John the Baptist is being persecuted and thrown into prison, and the Pharisees are hearing about Jesus amassing followers,

He decides to go north to Galilee to kind of like get out of the pressure cooker that is Judea.

But now his popularity starts to swell in Galilee as well.

Verse 32 says, That evening at sundown t