I want you to go to Luke chapter 5.

We're going to continue the study that we did this morning in Sunday school.

We're going to go on with that to talk about Jesus as the man of prayer.

Again, I would say that all that is accomplished in sermons and missionary activity,

evangelism, and church meetings is the direct result of prayer. And I want to give you an

illustration that I gave earlier for those of you who are not here.

We live in a time of what I would call an inverted pyramid,

where, especially among preachers, their public life is larger than their private life.

And that is wrong.

When you see an iceberg floating in the

water, everyone knows that what you see, the public visible part of that iceberg is the

smallest part. What's hidden from everyone else's eyes is the larger part. It's the same way it should be in our life,

our private life with Christ. Our life in the lecture, the reading, the study of God's word

and prayer ought to be paramount. As a matter of fact, just so you know as a church, and I base this on

of course, 1 Timothy chapter 3, Titus 1, but especially Acts chapter 6. In the United States,

one of the things that is most causing damage to the local church is the office of deacon.

Now what do I mean by that?

You all know that many times the office of deacon is lampooned or made fun of or this or that.

We all know stories about deacons.

But what you need to understand is that the deacon ministry in a local church

is absolutely essential, absolutely essential. And it never says that if a pastor or an elder does

well, he is highly esteemed. But it says if a deacon does well, he is highly esteemed. it says if a deacon does well he is highly

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