Prayer - An Open Door Or A Locked Gate - Jason Schrock

Good name to each one, and greetings in the name

of our Savior again this evening. Glad for the presence

of each one here that you've come out, and trust

that our time together will be profitable. I think before

we go into the discussion this evening, we ought to

have a word of prayer, won't you stand? And let's

pray our Father would come to you this evening. We're

thankful again for the privilege to gather together in the

name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We thank you for

the fellowship of the believers, and we thank you that

you are our God. And even though so many times

there's a somewhat of a mystery in how you deal

with man, yet we know that it's all for your

honor and glory for our good, and so we want

to praise you again this evening and trust in your sovereignty.

We pray that you might be with the service of

this evening, bless the thoughts that are shared, that it

might be in accordance with your word and your will.

We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen,

you may be this, you may be seated. As has

been announced, I've been assigned to give some a series

of messages on things I have learned through grief, and

this evening the title of the message is Prayer and

Open Gate or locked Door. And so you notice that

there is a question here, and I think probably we

have all experienced times of questioning the methods of God

in dealing with us. In my experiences in grief, through grief,

the aspect of prayer has been hard to understand. There's

so many promises in the Word of God, how God

will hear and how he will answer prayer. And there's

been times where I've experienced almost immediate answer to prayer,

and then at other times it seems like the heavens

are brass and the answer is not forthcoming, at least

not the answer that I had hoped for. And so

we need to try to understand and maybe sort some

of these things out. I was here's several I guess

a couple months ago, I was reading through jeremiah lamentations.

I think I mentioned that's Sunday, and I have to

think of poor Jeremiah. You know, he saw the city

that he loved just decimated and ruined and taken over

by the heathen, and he didn't seem to have the

access even to God as he had desired. In Lamentation

three forty four, he says, thou hast covered thyself with

the cloud that our prayers should not pass through. Sometimes

that has been the feeling that I've had, that there's

a cloud there and our prayer just doesn't go through that.

You know, there are some Christians who seem to have

the concept of the idea that we need to storm

the gates of heaven. If we're going to get what

we believe that God would have for us, we need

to storm the gates. Well, I don't think that doesn't

quite line up with how I understand God, or even

how I don't understand God. It doesn't quite seem to

line up with that. I'm going to again refer to

different things in relation to the things that experience. I'm

first of all here, I'm thinking of back to the

time of the death or this, I should say, the

sickness my first wife, And during Maryland's illness, she often said,

I don't know what God is trying to teach us,

but I hope we're not slow learners, and we often

prayed that God that we would learn what God was

trying to teach us. I you know, as years passed

and other difficult experiences have come into my life, I've

wondered whether I'm just a slow learner. I believe God

still has refining he wants to do, and so in

my experiences, and particularly where there were terminal illnesses involved,

we resorted to prayer. And in our human way of thinking,

it seems that we should sincerely ask of God that

which I feel would be the best outcome for the

situation at hand, and how I feel it would glorify

God if God would answer according to what I think

it ought to be. But you know, then when God

does not bring an answer in the way that I

think it should be, well, then what do we think?

What do we say? Well, prayer doesn't work, Prayer is

it effective? Where are the promises of God? I'd like

to I'm going to read a number of scriptures here

in the in the beginning that i'd like. First one

in Second Corinthians twelve, and here we have the account

of the apostle Paul, where he had requested three times

that his infirmity be taken from him. So I'm going

to read this in second Corinthians twelve, verses seven to ten.

And let me ask you a question here. When the

apostle Paul prayed that his affirmity would be taken from him,

did he find an open door or did he find

a lockgate? Just think about that a little bit. Tewod

Christians twelve Versus seven to ten, And lest I should

be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations.

There was given to me a thorn in the flesh,

the messenger of Satan to buffet me. Lest I should

be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought to

Lord thrice that it might depart from from me, And

he said, unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee.

For my strength has made perfect in weakness most gladly.

Therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the

power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take

pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses,

for Christ's sake, For when I'm weak, then am I strong.

So three times the apostle Paul ask the Lord to

take away this infirmity. What was God's answer? It was

a very kind and very kind way. He just said,

my grace is sufficient for thee. So was that a

yes or no? But it was an answer. And so

the scriptures encourage us to pray, encourage us to bring

our requests to God, to cast our burden upon the Lord.

And I'd like to just read, refer, and read to

a number of scriptures. I think the first one we'll

go to is James five, and maybe we'll focus quite

a bit on that this evening, because this is where

we find the anointing with oil passage, and as we

get into the message further, I'd like to go into

some of that. But in James five, verses thirteen to eighteen,

it says, is any among you afflicted, let him pray,

has any marry, let him sing psalms. Is any sick

among you? Let him call for the elders of the church,

and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil

in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of

faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise

him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall

be forgiven him. Confess your false one to another, and

pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual,

fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elias was

a man subject to like passions as we are, and

he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it

rained not on the earth by the space of three

years and six months. And he prayed again, and the

heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

And so here it says that the prayer of faith

will save the sick. The Lord shall raise him up.

We shall pray one for another that we might be healed.

And in some instances there's almost an immediate answer to this,

and yet in others it's the answer is not my will,

but dine be done. I'm going to read several verses

from the Psalms Psalm thirty four fifteen the eyes of

the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are

open under their cry. And then in verse seventeen of

the same psalm, the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth

and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Psalm fifty five,

Verses sixteen and seventeen. As for me, I will call

upon God and the Lord shall save me evening and morning,

and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and

He shall hear my voice. So I find that the

Psalmists found a place of prayer, and I believe he

found prayer to be effective. Now, I'd like to read

a number of the words of Jesus, what Jesus had

to say about prayer, starting in the in the Gospel

of Matthew, someone on the mount. I think this here

is maybe what we had in Sunday school last Sunday

Matthew seven, Verses seven and eight, asking it shall be

giving you seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it

shall be opened into you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,

and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh

it shall be opened. And so here we need to

seek or ask, and seek and ye shall find. Then

going over to eighteen, chapter eighteen, verse nineteen, again I

saying to you that if two of you shall agree

on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it

shall be done for them of my Father, which is

in Heaven. Going on to chapter twenty one. Now, remember

everything I'm reading here are the words of Jesus. Matthew

twenty one, verse twenty two. And all things whatsoever you

shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Then going

over to the Gospel of John, we find a couple

more John fourteen Verses thirteen fourteen. And whatsoever you shall

ask in my name, that will I do. That the

Father may be glorified in the sun. If you shall

ask anything in my name, I will do it. And

then John fifteen seven, if you abide in me my words,

abide in you shall you shall ask what you will,

and it shall be done unto you. Now those are

some real promises, and I still claim those promises. But

God doesn't always answer according to what I think it

ought to be. But he answers according to what we

often pray, according to your will, that is how he answers.

It seems maybe too often we use prayer to get

something that we can see, something we can get a

hold of. But you know, Hebrews eleven tells us that

faith is the evidence of things not seen, and so

maybe we don't receive what we think that we're going

to receive, and that's a matter of faith. And that

kind of would bring us into this coming Sunday mornings lesson.

But we'll leave that for right now. But you know,

in Maryland, in my case, there, I don't think faith

was a problem I had faith, she had faith. There

was no question in our minds that God could perform

a miracle if it was his will. But along with faith,

wanted visible proof. As I went back over my journaling

in that year plus after her passing, again and again,

I would refer back to prayer, how we had prayed

and how we had faith that God would answer that.

Maybe sometimes we look at prayer as a means of

making God good, but you know, He is good regardless

of our prayers. He's kind whether or not he answers

our prayer according to how we would desire. When he

grants our prayer, it's because he loves us. When he

does not, it's because he loves us. And so prayer

is not really to inform God of my needs. He

knows that I don't have to tell him, but he

wants us to. But prayer is not informing God. It's

not to bring down gifts from heaven. It's not to

twist his arm to change his will to mine. But

it's for our good. It's to prepare our hearts for

what God has for us. And I've seen that again

and again that I think that prayer is yeah, not

so much to inform him, but just to help us,

help me to recognize God's sovereignty. I don't know. I'm

sure some of you have read in the book that's

come out now that I've written on the Ongoing Stream.

I'm going to refer to that a couple times here.

And in that book I tell of a busy summer

in nineteen eighty three, we as a family had gone

to Sterling, Alberta for for Fellowship meetings, and then we

came back and went right into summer Bible school. I

was superintendent that that year, two weeks of summer Bible School.

Later in that summer, we hosted a fiftieth anniversary celebration

for my parents and all of my siblings, and I

think all their families were here for that. And then

following that, there was some problems. And I got to

think about this. As I was thinking about this talking

about this here, you know, my trips to Arkansas started then,

not just after I got married da Else. There was

some seedback there in Arkansas that we had some problems with,

and so I went to tend to that. I took

Maryland and our little daughter's Sarah, a little over a

year old, along, so Right after we got home, Marilyn

had an appointment with her medical doctor to check out

a lump that had appeared recently. And that morning I

knew that she was going to go, and I guess

I wasn't really thinking as serious as I should have.

But with all the demands of that summer, I thought,

where is my close walk with the Lord? Where's that

time of waiting on him and where he reveals his

will known lives? And I prayed something along this line,

Oh Father, I feel so spiritually drained and distant from

your presence. I want to be drawn closer to you.

Bring into my life, O Lord, that which will draw

me close and into a right relationship with you. And

I rose from prayer and I plunged into another busy

day at work. But you know, I had no idea

how soon God would answer that heart of mine. Before

that day was done, I was informed that my wife

had inflammatory carcinoma likely to be terminal. So now did

God send that prayer to answer my prayer? Send that

sickness to answer my prayer? No, that sickness was already there,

But I think He impressed on me to pray that

prayer so that my heart would begin to understand what

was coming. And so my prayer was not the cause

of her sickness, but it was a method that God

used to prepare my heart for the difficulties it would come.

And some years later I found a poem in one

of my books, and I guess if you look at

the at the our song folder there, David Burkey put

music to this. I'm gonna read it though, anyhow. And

this is something that I, uh I saw on I thought,

you know, that really resonates with me. It's called prayer

answered in God's own way. He answered prayer, not in

the way I sought, not in the way I had

thought he ought, but in his own good way. And

I could see he answered in the fashion best for me.

And I was glad that he had such a share

in his parental love and gracious care that thus he

answered prayer. He answered prayer, But not in my brief hour.

I look to see the fruit air, yet the flower

had shed its scales of sweetness, or my path. But

I have learned that slowest blossoms yield the choicest fruit,

and so I leave them there upon the bowels assured

that they will bear in time. My answered prayer. He

answered prayer so sweetly that I stand amid the blessings

of his wondrous hand and marvel at the miracle. I

see the fashion that His love has wrought for me.

Pray on for the impossible, and dare upon thy banner

of this brave model. Bear my father answers prayer. And

so when I prayed, I want to quick fix. But

as this poem points out, it takes time for the

for the fruit to be born. I think we do

need to reckon with the fact that sometimes heaven the

heaven seem brass and there seems to be no response.

Someone has said that the worst of God is that

he does nothing. I've felt that sometimes now there are

things that will hinder our prayer. I'm going to look

at several of them first of all. And James one

five to seven, if we lack faith, then God can't

really answer prayer. James one five to seven says, if

any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God

that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and

it shall be given him. But let him ask in

faith nothing wavering, For he that wavereth is like a

wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed

for letting not that man think that he shall receive

anything of the Lord. And so if we come in

prayer without faith, James is saying here that we really

can't expect an answer as such. Another hindrance to prayer

is sin. In Psalms sixty six, verse eighteen, it says,

if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will

not hear me. And then another is if we pray

selfishly for our own for our own pleasure. James four

to three says, you ask and receive, not because you

ask him this that you may consume it upon your loss.

I've got a little book here, it's called Finding Hope

and Healing, and this author has done a lot of

counseling with people, and he has a little section in

this booklet about prayer. I'm going to read just a

few excerpts from this. In a grief support group, two

individuals told very different tales about how the death of

their loved ones had affected their prayer lives. One said,

I prayed constantly. Prayer was what kept me going during

that difficult time. The other said, I was so mad

at God for a long time, we weren't on speaking terms.

Do these opposite reactions mean that one person had a

stronger faith or was a better Christian than the other,

Not at all. It simply means they were two different people,

each grieving a loss in his or her own way.

Some people find it very easy to pray after losing

a loved one. Other people, including some deeply committed Christians,

go through times when prayer is extremely difficult. There are

many reasons for this. Some people are simply too physically

or emotionally exhausted to pray. Some have difficulty concentrating. One

man told me, whenever I try to pray, my mind

wanders and I can't seem to finish. The fact that

you may be the fact that you may be having

difficulty praying, does not mean you're a bad person or

a bad Christian. It simply means you're experiencing a struggle

of many grieving people face. In all likelihood, this difficulty

is only t I've talked with countless people who had

difficulty praying at various points in the grief, but eventually

found that their prayer life grew strong again. When I

have difficulty praying, I draw a lot of comfort from

Romans eight twenty six and twenty seven, which is one

of my favorite passages in the Bible about prayer. And

then this would not be in the King James, but

the same thought, in the same way, the Spirit helps

us in our weakness. We do not know what we

ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for

us with groans that with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of

the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in

accordance with God will, with God's will. When we can't

find the words to pray, or don't know how or

what to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us every

pain we feel, every tear we shed, every groan we make,

becomes a prayer that God hears and understands. God feels

your pain, experiences your struggles, and is slowly, yet stepfastly

healing your broken heart. Now. Sunday morning, I talked about

the book that C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis.

I've got that with me here this evening. It's called

a Grief Observed, and it was it's kind of I

think it's just kind of his thoughts as he went

through various stages of the grief. I mentioned that he

was unmarried for many years, and then he married a lady,

and four years later she died of cancer. And here

is what he says in his book, and I want

to read a little bit on this. In he said,

what chokes every prayer and every hope is a memory

of all the prayers H and I offered, and all

the false hopes we had, not hopes raised merely by

our own wishful thinking hopes encouraged even for upon us

by false diagnosis, by X ray photographs, by strange remissions,

by one temporary recovery that might have ranked as a miracle.

Step by step, we were led up the garden path

time after time. When he seemed most gracious, he was

preparing the next torture. Now that sounds a little harsh,

and I'll get just a little bit something else, a

little bit maybe more harsh. But when I read that,

it reminded me of my daughter Esther and most of

you remember how she had seemed like she really rallied

and had overcome the cancer, and then it came back again,

and she freely showed our told us how she felt

like there were miracles that had taken place, and after

describing her cancer treatments from chemo to surgery to radiation

in our family email threat thread, she said, none of

those stark details describe the many miracles that we saw

again and again through treatments, Miracles that reassure you there

is a God who cares and does answer prayer. And

so she felt that many of those remissions were miracles.

And that's kind of what C. S. Lewis here was saying, Okay,

now I'm going to read this a little bit more

out of this book, and just so you get the picture,

he is likening God to a surgeon. And he said,

if a surgeon begins to cut on a person and

then stops because that person says, oh, this hurts too much,

what kind of a surgeon is he? He just he

continues on, So I'm going to read here just a

little bit. The terrible thing is that a perfectly good

God is in this matter hardly less formidable than a

cosmic status. The more we believe that God hurts only

to heal, the less we can believe that there is

any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might

be bribed, might grow tired of his vile sport, might

have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits

of sobriety. But suppose that what you were up against

is a surgeon whose intentions are holy good. The kinder

and more conscientious he is, the more exstorably he will

go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, If

he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain

up to that point would have been useless. But is

it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary

for us? Well, take your choice the tortures occurer. If

they are unnecessary, then there is no God, or a

bad one. If there is a good God, then these

tortures are necessary for no even moderately good being could

possibly infect or inflict or prevent them if they weren't.

And then he goes on and he says, have you

ever been to a dentist? Well, that kind of tells

you a little bit, you know, I don't enjoy how

the dentist keeps keeps going, but then the end result

is beneficial. Okay, So three times I personally was involved

with an anointing service with loved ones facing a cancer diagnosis,

two wives and a daughter, and each time we had

faith that God would answer those sincere requests, and He

chose to answer them, but not really in the way

that we were desiring. After Maryland was was anointed with oil,

she said this, She said, whether I've been healed physically

I or not, I do not know, But she says,

I do know that my spirit has been healed. And

I've seen that again and again through times of anointing service,

where we just lay it all before God and it's

in your hands, and however you see best, we're willing

to accept what you have. And so even though we

had been told that her cancer was aggressive and terminal,

yet we knew that God could intervene, and we looked

for signs of healing that He might send. And when

there were times of good news, we'd rejoice and look

back at the anoining service with the continued hope. But

then it seemed that she was continually losing ground physically,

and during that toward the end of her life, there

the church or Church the Tangent joined with us one

Sunday for a time of prayer and fasting on her behalf.

But the onset of cancer onslaught, i should say, of

cancer kept on progressing. There was a song that meant

a lot to her as she was going through that,

and she knew that she was she was going downhill,

and so the words of this song were meaningful to her.

So she had me help write it down for her

because she wanted it written down. This was probably within

about a week of her death. And here's the words

of that song. The song is they that so in

tears shall reap in joy, though it seems that your

prayers have all been in vain, and your faith this

old world with a joy, though your heart seems to

break till it breaks in two. They that so in

tears shall reap in joy, though the mist of despair

clouds the sky above? Do you pray till his face

appears in your heart? How do you know that you've

touched God's throne? They shall reap in enjoy? That so

in tears is your heart filled with doubt? When alone

you pray, does this old world your soul annoy? Let

your sights look beyond God is standing there. They that

so in tears shall reap in joy. Then the chorus

of that song is they that so in tears shall

reap in joy, while my God is still on Heaven's thrown.

Though you prayed till it seems that your heart will

break day, that so in tears shall reap in joy.

And now as I look back, and as I look

at the words of this song and how it was

so meaningful to her, I don't think I really understood

the depth of the things that she was facing as

she near death that that year. Then Thanksgiving, we had

a Thanksgiving service at the Tangent Church there on Wednesday evening,

and Marilyn was there with that or at that service,

and my mom said to me, she said, you know,

I just don't think she looks very good. How long

do you think this is going to go? And I said, well,

I don't know, I said, I I just don't think

it's probably she's going to last much longer than February. Now,

this was Thanksgiving, and so now I'd like to tell

you a little bit more how there are times where

God answers a prayer immediately. So we were going to

go to the Crup gathering for Thanksgiving and she just

wasn't able to handle that. So I said, well, that's

all right, we'll go back home. Well, we went back

home and she just was not doing well at all.

I said, well, I think I better take you into

the emergency room. Okay, that was fine, but then she

couldn't even walk out of the van anymore. And I

called Paul's there and neighbor and said, could you come

help me load up Maryland. We need to get her

into the hospital. Sure, he came and helped load her up,

and so we headed from our place into Albany. And

I think I get to almost show you the exact

spot of the It was somewhere along the Calipuya River there.

As we were driving along and she was hunched over

from the pastor's seat trying to get her breath. I

just pray to God, I said, if she's not going

to get well, just go ahead and take her and

spare her the potential pain of this disease. In twelve

hours later, she was gone. I thought she would last

another three months, but God answered that was the time.

God answered a prayer in my mind. Immediately, I said,

she graduated before a class. So then, when my second

wife had appeared quite certain that she had cancer, she

called for an anointing service. We didn't know for sure

yet what her diagnosis was, but there were things that

pointed toward cancer. Did I say, well, I'm not going

to go through this again. I didn't work the first time.

There's no use to calling a god that turned the

deaf heir to or pleas. No, we had full confidence

in God, and I'm going to read here a quote

from my book. Ruth said, I think I would like

an anointing service. So I called her Bishop Steve's Air,

and together we planned to have an anointing service the

following Sunday afternoon. At four on Sunday, the ministry team Stephen, Doreen,

Dan and Geryl Weaver, and Gerald and Jewel Bertie came

to join our family and Helen in our living room.

Steve started around the room, giving each one the opportunity

to confess their faults and express their faith. Expressions varied

from honest soul searching to deep settled faith, doubts and fears,

and words of encouragement. As the especially was having a

difficult time, she related how that twenty seven years ago,

at the age of nine, she sat in this same

living room when her mother Maryland was anointed, falling by

her passing a year later. Now here we sat facing

a similar scenario with her second mother. Must we as

a family walk this road again? She asked, how will

we do it? Faith and trust were difficult, and yet

in the end we all sensed a resignation to the

will of God. It was a profoundly healing time and

we felt much more at peace afterward. I was scheduled

to appreciate that evening, but had told Steve on Saturday

that I didn't know if I could do it with

so little sleep and my mind in a whirl. If

the others thought I should, however, I was resigned to

doing it, But after the anointing service, a ministry team

felt it would be good to dedicate the evening service

to a time of prayer. That evening, Steve opened the

service announcing the change in plans and that the time

would be used for prayer instead of a sermon. He

asked me to briefly share what was going on in

our lives, and a number of other prayer requests were

given as well, reminding us that we were not the

only ones struggling and there were many other needs among us.

The congregation divided up into groups and spent the rest

of the service in prayer. And I will say that

those two services, that anointing service and that time of

prayer in the in church, it was soothing to troubled hearts.

We didn't have a final diagnosis yet. And I can

still remember going in the doctor's office. Ruth had had

some testing done and we we were waiting to see

what the doctor would have to say. And so he

comes in, you know, and he got to shuffle some papers,

and it's a very tense time. What is this going

to be? And actually what he shared with us was

a relief. It's he said that the type of cancer

she has, she could live many years yet and you know,

probably probably would not be real aggressive, not probably not,

but it was actually and so one thing as we

sat there, we were thinking, you know, we had that

anointing service, maybe there's nothing that will show up, because

God might have taken care of that. But it was

still there. And so we walked through was journey with

cartonoid tumors for five years? Did we cease to pray?

We continued to call on the Great healer, but his

answer was different than we had hoped for. She did

pass away. Now let's fast forward several more years to

another anointing service, and this is for my daughter Esther,

and she asked to be anointed with oil and to

call for the elders of the church. And so the

ministers and their wives, Lolan Estra's family, and some of

us from the extended family were gathered in their home.

And it was special to have my daughter Sarah and

daughter in law Carolyn join us from Washington, as they

were here in the area for funeral anyway. But the

sea was all too familiar, gathered in the living room,

going around the circle, sharing expressions of faith and fashions

of sin, and the ministry there with a bottle of oil.

For some it was the first time for a time

like this, some a second time, and for some of

us a third. And so this time, more than ever,

we were keenly aware of the inability of anyone there

to stop the onset of this dread of disease, and

we could only throw ourselves on the sovereignty and the

mercy of God. And I guess it's all right to

say that my daughter Sarah, she probably expressed more than

the rest of us did. She just said, it seems

in our family. The cancer means death, but we hope

not this time. In fact, there were some things that

looked favorable as far as the diagnosis was concerned. And

so each one there expressed our faith in God who

made us, and could heal if he chooses. Faith that

was tempered by resignation of the will of God. And then,

you know, several years later, I'm not sure how long

that was, two, three years later, whatever it was, she

passed on. So now it doesn't work, right, James, five

is a farce, No, not at all. Let me tell

you a little something here. I have another little story.

As a ministry, we've had a number of requests over

the years for anointing, and I was sick about that

as I was preparing this. You know, probably we don't

share with the congregation as we should what is going on,

so that you could join us in prayer as well.

I know there's times that we do share that. There's

been a couple of times where as a ministry we've

gone to the hospital for annoying I remember one time

that we needed to suit up to go in because

of the how contagious the patient was. But you know,

with some of these experiences, we've seen some definite answers

to prayer, and so this evening, I'd like to tell

you a little story about someone. And she gave me

permission to say her name, and that's Sinisa. Sonisa was

in the hospital and she was very sick. Her white

cell count was almost nil, and the doctors were afraid

to even test her less they maybe in their instruments

of something they would they would have some that there

would be some infection that would show up. And at

that time she wasn't able to eat or to drink

without excruciating pain. No one was allowed to go in

and see her except her husband Gary, And finally she

asked for annointing, talked to the officials there or the

people there at the hospital, and they gave permission that

a couple of the UH, a couple of the ministers

could come in and do an annoying. And at that

point she had not been allowed any flowers, but they

said some flowers would be okay. Well, that was just

like say I'm sick of to my wife. So she

soon went and got some flowers and we headed to

the hospital and she didn't know if she'd be allowed in.

At least she could send the flowers in uh that

particular time, it was for the Levi and myself that

went for the annoying and so we went and made

ourselves known, and they said all right, and then they

kind of wondered about Elsie, and she said, well, I'm

here with the flowers. Yeah, go ahead. So all three

of us went in and so we had a very

blessed time at that annoying service in that hospital room.

We were barely on our way home, and Elsie got

a text that said that she was able to swallow

some insure right after we left immediately, and she continued

to gain was released from the hospital seven days later,

and we always we all rejoiced in the miracle of healing.

It does work. I just I think we need to

emphasize that maybe that's maybe that's a poor way of

saying it does work. Let's just say that God does

honor those who honor him. I've seen some other situations

where maybe there was not just a real outstanding healing,

but continual gaining and health following anointing. So I say

that God's way is the right way, and it is effective,

not always the results that we would desire, but always

according to will of God. So now, the first sermon

I had after Maryland's death, I didn't know what to say.

I was concerned because we had had so much prayer,

and the congregation had fasted and prayed, and I was afraid,

you know, was there going to be a mass breakdown

of faith? And so I entitled the message that morning

did God Answer prayer? And a few things that I

shared in that message. We believed, through Maryland's illness, that you,

as a congregation were with us in prayer. I'm not

sure what all your prayers included, by I do know

that many, including myself, prayed fervently and sincerely for physical healing.

But our prayers were tempered with not my will, but

dine be done. Then, toward the end of the sermon,

I said, becoming a Christian does not equip us with

germ free suit to protect us from all of earth's dangers.

If God halted all tragedies involving Christians, it would make

it so that we would fail to identify with the

reality of this world's suffering. We have a choice how

to respond to the hand of God. We can rebel

and be of all men most miserable. We can yield

and enjoy His arms of love infolding us. Then, toward

the end of the message, I shared this poem umbly,

I ask of God to give me joy, to crown

my life with blossoms of delight. I begged for happiness

without alloy, discovering that my pathway should be bright. Prayerfully,

I sought these blessings to attain, and now I thank

Him that he gave me pain, for with my pain

and sorrow came to me a dower of tenderness in

act and thought, And with a suffering came a sympathy,

an insight that success had never brought. Father, I had

been foolish and unblessed if Thou hadst granted me my

blind request. And so my conclusion at the end of

that message was resounding Yes, God answered prayer. How she

was no longer living well. I mentioned that Maryland had

the grace to bear the trial. She was spared from

much intense suffering, but most of all, she was completely

healed and now in the presence of God, never to

no pain or suffering again. Writing about Ru's journey with

cancer after her death, I said this. I also gave

an update to our church family that Sunday, struggling to

find the words to describe her journey, the high hopes,

the dashed hopes, the questioning and wondering and trying to

find the path God has for us. We had such

great prayer support, But we're also finding out that prayer

involves both the impatience of desiring immediate healing and the

blessing of allowing time for God to work his work.

In Psalm fifty five twenty two, it says cast I

burned upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He

shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. As I

was thinking on this subject a little bit, I was

meditating on how Jesus prayed. I guess I should have

studied a little bit there. Yeah, there probably were times

where he actually prayed for someone's We know he met

people's physical need. But what was the focus of the

prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call

that the Lord's prayer. First of all, it's a recognition

of the holiness of God. That was how the prayer started,

and then a request that the Kingdom of God come,

and then a desire for the will of God to

be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then

he goes in and requests for personal needs, daily food supply,

and a request to be kept in the hour of temptation,

a deliverance from evil, and then a recognition of the

eternal kingdom, power and glory of the Father. So this

was the prayer that Jesus said, that the model that

we should pray. So then we have him in the

garden praying. I guess you'd say desperately to his father, Father,

if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

What was the answer? Did the Father remove that cup

that he was to drink? But Jesus prayed, not my will,

but thine be done. That prayer was answered, not my will,

but then be done. And so through all the situations

where we prayed for healing, it was tempered with according

to Thy will. And so as I look back at

those prayers, how many of them were recognizing and addressing

the holiness and majesty of God. How many were concerned

with the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth?

Were our prayers to self center? And yet Jesus had

told us to ask anything and it will be done.

And so I just have to come back and rest

on the fact that according to Thy will, and yes,

there is an answer to this is my will. I

have to think of the words I'm going to read

the first stands of the song. Come yet this consolate,

Come yet, this consulate, where ye languish, come to the

mercy seat. Fervently, kneel here, Bring your wounded hearts here,

tell your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.

And so I will need to admit that there are

times when we come to God in prayer where it

seems like there's a lockgate. It just seems like it

doesn't budge. And yet we are invited to come to

the Throne of Grace, and there we find a welcome, opening,

open door. The invitation of Jesus still stands. Come unto

me and I will give you rest. And so I've

these are some of the experiences that I had in

relation to prayer. I will say I still don't understand

God's ways. I don't have it all figured out, but

I do trust in God that he knows what is best.

All right, thank you for your attention. I think we'll

just bring this to a close and maybe ask you

all to stand again for closing prayer, butther Leland, would

you lead us please,