2 More Locks and Keys of Prayer Tuesday night

Okay, sorry.

Are we all dancing now?

Yes.

Follow your...

Would you stand with me as we stand and lift up our hands?

This is how you do the guitar dance.

We'll do it like that.

Lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We cry out, worship Him now, and pray how awesome is He.

That's a fact.

And now we sing, everyone sing.

All is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory.

All is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory.

We stand and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We cry out, worship Him now, and pray how awesome is He.

That's a fact.

All is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory.

I saw my screen saver in there from a different angle though.

Okay, at this time we'll let the children and their leaders go to the classroom.

And those who cannot.

That fits the whacked out simple stuff, Josh.

He needs help knowing how to turn it off.

Alrighty.

So if you hadn't guessed it already by the piece of paper that you've been handed,

we are going to look at two more locks.

So this makes locks five and six for our keys and locks on prayer.

Two more makes five and six.

We're going to jump right in because I intend to tell a couple of stories

and I don't want it to go long, so we're going to jump right in.

So you're in the top half of the page, you're on the right half of the top half.

Do you need help? Can you turn it off?

You got it? We don't want to hear it.

So, you got it? It's okay. Sometimes you don't know how to do that stuff.

I don't always know how to do it either.

Okay. Ain't nothing going on on there that's important.

This is what's important right now. Here we go.

All right, so we're going to look at the top lock.

I bet you if we read this verse, you'll be able to fill in the three words that start with P, N, and P.

And so the reference is there. It's James chapter four, verse two.

Somebody might even be able to do that from memory.

James four, verse two. But I'll just read it.

He says, it's really B.

The whole thing says, you lust and do not have, so you commit murder,

and you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

And then here's the part that we need. Listen closely.

It says, you do not have because you do not ask.

Okay. And so if we're talking about a lock of prayer, what do you think it might be? P, N, P.

And we're going to take a stab at it.

Okay, so it's prayer. Got the first one. Prayer or prayers.

We're definitely talking about prayers. This pen is out of ink.

Nope. Let's read it again. You're trying. You're good. You're good.

Trying is good. Trying is good. You do not have because you do not ask.

So what kind of prayers would be the kind of prayers that would be locked, our prayers would be away from God?

Prayers N and P. Two words.

Okay, prayers not. We've got two words.

Now we should be able to get it. Prayers not prayed.

Okay, so I know this sounds overly simplistic.

I'll tell a story in a minute once we get through it to kind of give you an example.

Okay, so if you don't pray, God is not going to answer the prayer.

Right now you say, God, well, God might know my heart and you might do what I need,

even though I didn't pray it. And that would be true, but it would not be in response to your prayer.

Okay, so prayers not prayed do not reach God.

Remember these locks are times when prayer does not reach God.

And we've saw four others and now this is the fifth one.

All right. And so sometimes prayers are not prayed because people are too busy.

Okay. Now I submit to you that that is one of the most common excuses that people make.

And it's just just an excuse. That's all it is.

Right. Because you can literally pray in your head or out loud while you're doing almost anything except possibly talking or telling a complex story.

And actually you could be telling a story probably.

As long as you know the story, you could be praying in your head while you're telling it, because I've done that.

I've been sharing Christ, for example, and seen like praying in my head at the same time that I'm talking.

So I know we can do that. So sometimes people don't do it because they're too busy.

And sometimes they don't do it because we the W is we.

We're going to take a guess. It's a fun little game.

We think we know very good, are we? We think we know.

So this is this most often happens when you're looking for wisdom, discernment, guidance.

To know what's going to happen next or to affect what's going to happen next.

So this is what happens. I don't want my loved one to die, but I think they're probably going to die.

So I'm not going to pray for them not to die, because if I pray for them not to die and they still die,

then I'll be not answering my getting my prayers answered. Right.

Or for whatever other reason, we think we know what's about to happen. So we don't pray.

And so if you don't pray because you think you know what's going to happen or you know what's coming next,

or you don't need wisdom because you think you already know the truth or whatever, then that prayer will not be answered.

I'm going to give you the next one because it doesn't tie in tightly with the text,

but it does tie in tightly with the illustration that I'm going to get to. And it is we may even think of it.

Now, I'm just going to ask you a point point blank. If you think to pray and you do not pray, what would you call that?

If you have a thought that you should probably pray and you don't say, OK, good. That you're getting really deep there.

But you're right. That's quenching the spirit.

So if you have the Holy Spirit prompting in your heart or your mind that you should pray and you choose not to,

you're definitely quenching the spirit.

Now, let's say you're just learned along the way that you should pray.

And it's not the spirit exactly that's telling you to do it. But you just think, well, I should do this.

This is something I know I should do. And you don't do it.

Does anybody know what James says? You know good to do and you don't do it. That is called sin. Right.

So if he knows the good that he should do and he doesn't do it, that's called sin.

And so you may even think, well, you know, I should pray.

You have that thought and then not do it.

And if you don't do it, that prayer that you would have prayed in response to the idea that you should pray will not reach God.

Yes, ma'am. I have been having and was interrupted real quick and lost it.

And that's still wrong. Yeah, still wrong. I should be running up to my room.

I wouldn't wait to go to your room. I think that I think.

Yeah, I think the issue is we think, well, we got to go to the room and then somebody interrupt us and we can't go to the room.

So then we don't pray. The moment you're prompted to pray, I would start praying.

And then if you know you're going to continue, then I would go in private. That's how I would do it.

That's a great story about that with visitation.

Back in the day when I started doing visitation with prospects, I wanted to have a flyer, business cards and stuff to give them when I got there.

Right. And I go to their house and invite them to church and stuff.

And every time visitation would come around, I'd be getting the flyer and I'd be getting the cards and stuff.

And one night I was doing that. I was supposed to go at six thirty for my visit.

I was trying to get the cards and and I found the cards. I was trying to get the flyers. I didn't have any more.

So I was printing them off and I had trouble with the computer and everything got to be about seven fifteen.

And the spirit was really on me. Heavily. He's like, you got to go. You got to go. You've got to go.

And I'm like, but I need to I'm telling God. Right. Like he doesn't know.

Like God, but I need the brochures like so I can give him something.

And finally, I just threw everything down on the desk and I ran out the door.

And when I got there, as I arrived at the house, I said hello. She said, come on in.

She didn't say hello. She said, come on in. And I said, OK.

And I walked in and she said, we knew you were coming.

I said, well, how did you know that I was coming?

And she said, because we needed you today.

We've been fighting and like her and her husband were on the verge of divorce.

And I fight over their teenage daughter was in all kinds of trouble with the law.

And it was the house was in total turmoil.

And we spent two hours counseling and praying and the whole deal.

But I kept putting it off so much and even had been times before I put it off.

I never got around to it like I was making the flyers.

By the time I got done making the flyers, it was too late to go make the visit.

And that night, God just pushed me out the door and I went.

And when I got there, she was waiting for me. So it happens.

And prayer, I think it's the same way.

I think if God if it's in your head, I mean, obviously, it could be sin.

If God is telling you to do something else and you're going to go get alone and pray

instead of doing the thing that God told you, that also would be bad. Right.

So, OK, so then the next one down, this is just talking about prayer.

We talked about this before. It goes back. Right.

So relationship requires communication.

So right now, all the wives in the room are going, yeah, yeah, we need to talk.

We can't talk enough. Right.

And husbands that have struggled in a relationship realize that a lot of it was about communication.

I did marriage Bible study with people before they get married.

And there are three topics that kill a marriage faster than any other.

And one of them is communication.

Another is money. And the third is intimacy or sex.

And if a man and a woman cannot settle those three issues in their marriage,

it will plague their marriage for their entire time they're married.

If it's 10 years, 50 years, all the way to death, it doesn't matter.

It will always plague them. And I think all relationships require communication.

And so I submit to you that if you are supposed to be praying and you're choosing not to,

you are breaking contact with God. So be careful.

So prayers that are not prayed do not reach the Lord sometimes because we're too busy.

We think we know the outcome. That's our excuse.

We already know what God wants or we already know where this is going.

We may even think of it and think we should.

Remember that relationships require communication.

And so we're talking about prayers not prayed.

And we have you and Q. What do you think that might be?

So if you're praying to God, there's kind of two kinds of prayers, right?

If I start praying to God, kind of one of them is maybe what I'm praying for,

praying to glorify God, so outward.

And the other is, which was actually talked about in the verse, asking.

You do not have because you do not ask. So what are we talking about?

Unasked questions. That's what we're talking about, right?

And I submit to you, if you love God and want what God wants for you,

even prayers where you pray, God, please do this, are questions.

Because you know you really want what God wants.

So if I say, God, please heal him, I know God wants to heal him.

So it's no problem that I pray, God, please heal him.

But I also know that sometimes God chooses to allow somebody not to be healed

because that's actually what's better for them or better for their family

or better for the world in general.

So I always end with, Lord, your will, not my will be done,

which is really a question because I'm saying, Lord,

I really don't know your exact will in this circumstance,

so please deliver it and then I'll know.

And then we end with unasked questions often go unanswered.

Now, not always, right? Not always.

Sometimes people will read you and they'll answer your question.

Sometimes God will answer your question when you didn't even ask it.

But I submit to you that it may be more likely that a lost person's asked question,

which they have no guarantee of answered prayer.

A lost person who prays to God does not have any guarantee in the Scripture anywhere

of any answered prayer except one, and that is the prayer for salvation.

Whosoever called upon the name of the Lord will be saved, so it says.

And so, you all right, brother?

You got a soreness? You got one of these?

All right.

So, a lost person might have a better chance of getting an asked question answered

than a saved person has of getting an unasked question answered.

Why? Because relationships require communications, right?

And if you're supposed to be praying and you're not, that could even be sin.

I think it's really hard for me to believe that God is going to answer prayers

if you're walking in sin and actually despising him at the same time.

So, you're despising God, not even talking to him about what's going on,

and he's just going to do it for you anyway?

Okay. So, I'm going to tell you two quick stories about this specific example,

and then you'll see how easy it is to fall in that trap, okay?

First one, I had a couple in the church.

They had a young daughter, and she got hurt.

She busted her lip, had to get sticks in her lip, and she busted her gums,

and her one tooth was loose, and she went into the ER.

She's at the ER, and I heard about it from somebody else that they told or whatever,

and so I grabbed my hospital badge and was going to go check in.

I'm just going to go see how it's going.

By the way, if you go to the ER, if you let me know, I usually show up.

Not always. It depends if there's another crisis, but I usually show up.

Okay? So, I get over there, and the first thing I do,

oh, Pastor Dan, so glad you're here.

Will you pray for our little girl? She's really hurt.

Will you pray for her?

And I said, well, absolutely. Let's do it.

And we bowed our head, and we prayed for her.

And then we sat there talking a little while afterwards,

and I said, well, you know, a bunch of people, we heard about it.

We spread. A bunch of people in the church were praying for her and everything.

She said, oh, we're so glad. We just didn't know what to do.

And the Spirit prompted me, and I said, well, did you pray?

And they looked at each other kind of guilty, and they said, no.

And the man said, we knew we should have done that.

And what I'm getting at is, in the midst of the circumstances,

when things are crazy, right, it's out of control,

or you're so concerned about what the outcome is, you're emotionally in turmoil, whatever,

it's super easy to get wrapped up in that and not do the number one thing that you should do, which is pray.

You really always go, that should be your go-to.

Somebody offends you, your go-to is forgiveness.

And if you're struggling to forgive them, your go-to is prayer, right?

So they stack. So I'm dealing with an issue.

You know, this guy hurt me. I want to forgive first.

And then I might talk to him about the problem and help him understand what went wrong, whatever.

But first, I want to forgive, because if you're coming to him out of an unforgiveness, you've got another problem.

First, go-to when somebody offends you is forgiveness.

Go-to when anything at all happens that you were not expecting is prayer.

First, say to God, OK, God, I don't understand how I got here.

And help God speak into your life.

Open your ears. Ask the question, how did we get here?

How did we get here?

How did we get here?

I don't understand why this is happening.

And it's OK. And you look at the psalmist prayers, there are tons of them that they're saying,

look, I don't understand why this is like this.

Does anybody have any question as to why it is in the world right now that it seems like the wicked are getting ahead?

You know, it's been like that pretty much since the Garden of Eden, right?

Wives not a wife but wives and they're they're building wealth and they're prospering and everything's going great bigger places

Warring against each other tons of sin sleep with temple prostitutes

tons of sin everywhere right and it really seemed like the wicked were getting ahead and then came the flood and

They saw anything get ahead that day right does anybody have a question?

Why does it seem like in the world today the wicked are getting ahead? Well the psalmist praised that multiple times

Why does it seem like the wicked are getting ahead, but the psalmist always comes back to the answer?

It just seems like they're getting ahead

Right the story goes is simply we don't understand this fully the bigger you are the harder you fall

there are people who are

Thriving or seem to be thriving they're not because they're not alive, right?

They're dead and sin, but they seem to be thriving and witness will resist to the nth degree putting their knee down before Jesus

But we will go before Jesus put our knee down very readily and on that day. They will be in their spirit

They will be crushed. They'll realize their foolishness

They'll realize how they've invested in all of these things and then be forced to bow nonetheless and

They will they will despise it they will want to die

But they won't be able to and then they'll go to hell and they'll really want to die, but they won't be able to

See the wicked are not getting ahead if anything they're getting further and further trapped in the

schemes of their own planning

right and they're

Subjecting themselves to the things that they think are blessing them, but they're not all right second story

Personal story okay, so I

Was this back in the day early on first started preaching and I was preaching at Northwood High School and

I was spending about between 20 and 25

hours a week

Writing my sermon which I would then preach 45

Minutes to an hour on Sunday, so I was spending almost let's just call it 20 20 times as much time preparing the sermon as I was

Preaching the sermon and I went to a meeting out across town or whatever and

One of the guys

Brought that up and he says does anybody have any issue with this?

Seem like lack of efficiency so we we need to share the gospel with people

So why does it take 20 hours to write a sermon that takes one hour to preach?

And I was like I don't really have an answer for that

I said first of all I start with prayer and I pray a lot like so first I'm spending about sometimes

15 hours figuring out what the text is for Sunday, so I'm praying like God where I'm all over the Bible and studying the Bible

I'm praying. I'm like, oh is it this? Oh, no, there's I'll start writing a sermon

I get three points in and I'm like, oh but wait this third point

Kind of that touches on another verse over here that has three points in it

And that's really where God was leading me the whole time and like that and so that I'm like, I don't understand

So I left that meeting after the conversation like I just described to you and I went home and I was praying about it

I'll bet you can't

Yes, I bet you can guess

Yes, I bet you can guess what God told me in prayer as to why it was taking me 20 to 25 hours to write my sermon

That I would only take an hour to preach

I didn't spend enough time praying. That was the problem

Right. So God said yeah, I could give you this the sermon in five hours

Or three and it's hard to write a sermon in less than three hours

Yeah, it's almost impossible right because you want to make sure you're cross-checking yourself. We're human we can make mistakes

You're praying you're asking God. What does this word mean? You're looking up words. You're looking to do any other verses

It's hard to do it less than three hours. It's not impossible. I've been in five minutes, but but it's hard

Yes, but that's that sermon is that yeah, but that sermon is not really directed at preaching

It's directed at witnessing under

Dangerous circumstances, right because it talks about being a hall before governors being persecuted like that's what it's really talking about

So yes

She's saying you don't have to have a prepared message if you're hauled in front of or if you're if you're at the store and all

Of a sudden you're in a witnessing conversation. You could trust that the Lord will give you the words, right?

And you but I will say this it's also assumed that you're studying your Bible and praying

Right because where are you gonna direct draw that treasure from right?

so anyway, so

What I found out was I wasn't spending time in prayer and the word every day

So then when I went to go write my sermon God said, okay

Well, we're gonna spend about 15 hours praying and find in the text

See, so that's the 15 hours. I should have been spending in the other part of the week

I should have been spending a couple hours a day or hour and a half a day or whatever as the Lord leads

Praying and I wasn't doing that. So then I changed it around and I said, okay well Lord

So then I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna be prayerful daily

And then I'm gonna study my Bible daily and you know what the funniest thing that has happened and it's been this way for over

10 years now

15 years

because I I literally have the

Next 20 sermons. I might want to write

Like I'm so I'm so excited about the text, you know

I mean like I'm praying and like I was doing this morning and I was putting notes in my Bible app and I could

Have wrote three sermons in the half an hour that I was in my Bible app this morning

If you spend time in prayer and you study your Bible on a regular basis, you will usually have something to say

But if you talk to a Christian and they kind of don't have anything to say about Jesus like when we go to inspirational moment

moment once in a blue moon doesn't happen often but once a blue moon or if we go to

inspirational moment and we only have the

This song this video that kind of thing and nobody's talking out of the Bible and we're talking out of their prayer experience

I'm not judging anybody but it's probably because we're not really having a Bible in prayer experience

Because that was like I could do sometimes like I want to Wednesday morning. I'm like, ah

I need the inspirational moment. I've got like ten things to say and I don't want and I don't do that because

We're supposed to be doing that right?

So I might come and I have one like I'm like I'll like hone it down and just get one

but if you have something you prayed about and you study then you have something to say and

Not just here because maybe it isn't for here

Maybe as much as it might be for the grocery store might be for your friends or for your family or whatever

So anyway, I wasn't trying to

Turn it into a positive. I'm saying to you I had to repent

Because what I discovered was I was taking so much time to write my sermon

I wasn't spending hardly any time in prayer other than that and that's that can't be done

The same thing with making your income or taking care of your family or whatever

You can spend so much time on something that you don't spend any time in prayer and here's the lock if you don't pray the prayer

It's not gonna make it to God

Right. You have to think or talk it to the Lord at least in order for it to get there

Then that brings us to the key

I bet you can't guess what the one word key is if prayers not prayed don't make it to God the one word key for

this lock is

Pray it's pray

Right, so we always talk about praying

We always talk about we should pray more and things like that

But the bottom line is any prayers that you do not pray will not make it to God. So pray

Okay. Now the next four the first blank that I've given you ask

Four times ask to the first ask ask F

Well, that's true but and I would do that frequently but that wasn't the word I use there

If you do it regularly and you do it when God wants you to do it that would be called

Faithfully say that again. What did you say?

Frequently would be okay. Yep

so but I think it's I was saying faithfully and I went with faithfully instead of frequently when I was thinking about it because

You could say I'm just gonna do it often, right?

But often to you may not be as often as God wants or it may be more often that God wants

So if you go faithfully and you're governed by what the Lord is saying, that's why I put that there

You can do it however you want. Okay, and then ask

In starts with an E

Okay, I like that ask in earnest, yeah mean what you say you could put that that isn't what I had but you could put that I

Put emergency

Because remember this example in the emergency room where they did not pray for their own daughter that they were very concerned about

I hazard a guess if you'll think back to your last

Three emergencies whatever they were

The first thing that occurred to you might not have been to pray

But you probably did think about it and I hope you did do it, but you may find that you didn't do it

and so when you're in an emergency situation

Pray whatever it is. He is your greatest help. In fact, we read that verse

On Sunday that his eyes go through the earth looking whom he may assist

Okay, ask

see

I like both of those actually neither one is the one that I had but I like them both

Okay, so let's say confidently that means you asked because you know you're asking right? Let's say continue

Obviously the Bible commands us to pray continually

Right, although I think we're talking about more intentional prayer where you're actually talking or you're actually asking specific questions

They're looking for direction or whatever when the Bible says pray continually

I think that's a lot talking about just like a state of being we're always thinking to God always listening to God

The word that I put was casually

It should be simple

RJ shared how when he first came to New Heights years ago, he heard Tommy pray out loud in front of church

And it was like time it was praying to a good friend and he usually does that to this day. He might he might be

Intentional about picking certain words or calling him Lord or things like that. But generally you talk to God like he's your friend

if you're just praying

Remember we talked about last word or last time two weeks ago because I wasn't here last week, but

If you're just praying the same words over and over again

That's like getting that's like putting on a tux to take out your garbage garbage gonna get the curb either way

It's still gonna be garbage. Doesn't matter if you're wearing a tux or not

Just talk to God

You try to make it real formal then you may miss out sometimes and then the next one

However, though is ask with an F

And I'll give it to you formally

so do be

Formal about it

Why would we want to be formal about praying to God?

Respect right you you visit your girlfriend at her house for the first time ever

You look her dad in the eye and you offer him your hand

You may not have shaken someone's hand ever in your life, but you do it that day

This is God we're talking about. He owns the cattle on thousand hills. He is the king of the kingdom

He deserves it

Also, if you're formal, then you know who you're praying to I had there was a man in our church and I was

Counseling him about prayer and whatever and I said well because I had heard him pray and heard his spouse pray

And they never prayed in the name of Jesus. They never mentioned the name of Jesus now

They knew who they were praying to and they wanted to pray

But they never said in Jesus name. I pray and I so I just asked why do you never say that?

I mean, you don't have to say it every time

You know, I've been praying to God for a long time and I've been praying to God for a long time

So I just asked why do you never say that? I mean you don't have to say it every time

But why are you doing that? Do you never say that and he said well, I don't know

I guess I never really thought about it

Well, here's the thing if you never really thought about it

You might wind up praying to somebody other than Jesus or in the name of somebody other than Jesus

So sometimes it's a good idea to mention the name of Jesus in your prayer

So that you know, baby, he knows Jesus knows God knows, you know

Everybody knows who we're talking to and who we're talking about right?

So sometimes do pray formally, but that means setting aside time that means intentionally you see certain words that kind of thing

Okay. The next one starts with the d

As da i'm going to take a stab at it

We're talking about the kinds kinds of pray prayer how we should pray I wish you use the key of prayer

So prayer is one of our spiritual

Prayers are not prayed and the key is pray so this is disciplined

Asking remember the verse you have not because you ask not

So this is disciplined asking and so by disciplined it means I I block out time

So I'm not asking you to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask me

So this is the key to prayer

So this is the key to prayer that's the key to prayer that's the key to prayer that's the key to prayer

So we're talking about the healing

And so by disciplined it means I I block out time

I do it in an intentional way. I plan it right now

Am I talking about repetition like i'm praying for healing so I do it a thousand times

So I'm not talking about the same thing that I was talking about a thousand times a week ago

We don't just pray repetition, right?

So sometimes you might need to take a moment to prepare your heart and make sure your heart is right

We'll talk about that in a second and pray intentionally one time

Lord i'm taking this very seriously right now

I'm coming to you and i'm asking you and i'm believing in faith and this is what i'm asking you for

I'm asking you to give me wisdom or solve this problem or heal this person or heal me or whatever and you ask one time

And if you want to end with uh

Your will not my will be done, but lord, this is what i'm asking for and then when you're done, you're done

You know repeat it a hundred times more, you know, although I will say every time he lays the burden on your heart again

Then I would repeat it

Right, but you're listening to god to look for that prompt like he's saying do you really care?

Then yes ask again, right? There's a there's a text in the bible talks about that where

um

The he she keeps bothering him. She keeps bothering the guy to give her justice the judge keep bothering him

She's bothering and then finally he gives her justice, right?

But notice in that story, she's knocking at the right door. She's talking to the guy who can give her justice

And no one else can right?

So she's intentional and formal about her request and she kept coming back to him because he's the only one and in that case

She was looking for justice. All right last one ask trusting

And then the bible verse

All right, so natalie what's the bible verse

What is the bible

That's correct

All right, there's more coming okay, so we're going to the second lock you're going to the right half of the page

We're going to james 4 3

So if the first if this lock was you have

You do not have because you do not ask james 4 3 then says you ask

And do not receive

So some people were asking and still not getting what they were praying for that's not good

Says because you ask with wrong motives

So that you may spend it on your pleasures

Okay, so this lock is the first i'll give you the first word. I left it off, but i'll give it to you as praying

Can anybody fill in the rest what's the l

That's with an l

Praying with a something heart

Lustful that is correct. Very good praying with a lustful heart

so

Hannah can you define the word lust for me?

The job is five I didn't give you the definition in advance you use the word don't you

You know what I mean, I bet you do sometime or other

She's helping you okay, go ahead phone a friend

That's three times well two times and a half

Okay, so rust is basically when you want something to fulfill your desires

And we mostly use it for the purpose of flesh

right

So a man looks at a woman and by jesus says you look at a woman and you lost after her

So you want her to fulfill your desires. It is the same as if he has committed adultery with her already

There is no difference in the sin

Okay, so can you lust after food?

Absolutely, can you lust after food?

Absolutely, can you lust after money?

Absolutely, can you lust after nice cars?

Absolutely now should you?

careful

Are we sure?

I think there's a line isn't there so you can want something to fulfill your desires as long as what what's the limiter?

Okay, that's easy you took the easy road there, but you're absolutely right

You're absolutely right. That's an absolutely true answer if that aligns with god, but let's say what if what aligns with god

What do we need to align with god?

Okay, your heart say it again

His will

Okay, good. Those are both good answers

So if the thing is going to fulfill your desires what needs to align with god the thing

The desires that's the key. It's okay to want a sandwich

People gotta eat

Right. It's okay to want a good sandwich

Right like I when I was eating

Only vegetables and stuff. I discovered the the burger the impossible burger, which is only made from vegetable stuff

I'm like, well, it's almost like a burger and the one night I wanted an impossible burger because it's like a burger

It's not quite a burger so that the one night I made an impossible burger myself on the stove out of beans and other parts

Right, so I knew everything that was in it with no chemicals. No nothing

I didn't I made it was like a burger wasn't quite a burger

But it was pretty it was like a burger enough considering I hadn't had any meat in like 12 days

Right, so I'm like, it was pretty good. And then I went out we went to camp and while we were at camp they made

something that was basically like that from there was a

Sausage that was basically like that

But I think it had meat into but anyway

The point is you can want it for your own desires as long as not the thing

But your desires are in line with God. That's the key. So what people are always trying to do is

Shut down the desires. I don't go have no desires. I don't want nothing. I don't want to eat

I'm not gonna talk to anybody. I don't want a boyfriend not me. No, I'm never gonna have I'm done. I'm not gonna have kids

No, I'm done. I'm not gonna do it. How many 15 to 25 year olds have you said have you heard say I'm never gonna have kids

You have a bunch of them right they do it all the time and then they have kids they go well

Boy, was I stupid right? It's okay to want what you want. There's nothing wrong with that. You just need to bring your

Desires in line with God's will so you do it in a godly way and I submit to you off text for one second

I submit to you that when your desires come in line with God's will they are more likely to be fulfilled

Okay, if they are fulfilled outside God's will you just wind up with more desires

That's what happens. It's never fulfilling. Okay, so

This lock is praying with a lustful heart

And then there's two words there. They're WM and they were in the text

Wrong motives very good. Someone was listening. Thank you so much wrong motives

Right and a motive is just why you do something and having a wrong motive is the wrong reason to do something

Simple, okay. And so now these all of these that are in the middle here are no something

So all those little blanks are no and then there's no L. This was an easy one

No

No lust right so no lust

This one's harder. No G

But it makes sense especially in our world

Nope not grumbling. That's like I see where you're going with that, but that's a different thing

Remember we're talking about lusts or wrong motivations. These are all wrong motivations

Grumbling is a wrong motivation, but the but grumbling isn't really the motivation. It's the action that's precipitated by a wrong motivation

So what do you got know what?

What? No gain? That's interesting

Greed that's what I was going for. Yeah, so gain is almost the same thing as greed because you could gain away. That's not money

Definitely shouldn't be boasting

Motivations for prayer think of motivations for prayer wrong motivations for prayer

Bitterness no bitterness

Can't have it so you can't have bitterness in your prayer

Also, no starts with a V

Well, you know you want patience in prayer that's a good motivation

Don't take like I can't have no patience of my prayer

No, no, we want that one. We'll keep that one pride. That's good. Very good. No pride. No pride allowed

Okay, so no lust no greed. No bitterness. No pride

I mean, I see where you could you don't want to pray in patience because you want to give it

You want the Lord to act but I think we would keep patience actually. Okay

So in these cases, over the last few years, we've had a lot of people who have been praying in prayer

So in these cases or I gave you all this

In any there's the WM again, and we already know it. It's what?

Wrong motives right in these cases or in any wrong motives we risk starts with an I

So we're down to

One word starts with an I

the five word

If I give you one more clue, you'll get it for sure the Israelites were guilty of it like crazy

For a long time

Idolatry yeah impatience would be true you could risk that but like it might not apply with if you talk about praying and pride

for example

So if you in any wrong motivations, we risk idolatry and why do we risk idolatry because prayers?

to things prayed for

Okay, so in other words, I know this is gonna sound weird, but if you just track with me for one second, okay

So you get down with God and pray and let's say you're praying for a car

the Lord I need a car and then you're like Lord I need a 2010 car and I really want it to be blue and

Yep, there you go. So what happens is what you're actually doing at that point is praying to the car

There's no I'm saying you're not praying to God at all

You're praying to the car because you're focused on the color of the car and the type of the car and I want the car

Why do I need the car all the reasons I have the car and you're literally sit there and drum up everything you can think of

about the car

And when you when you really talk about something you think about how awesome it is. What's that called called worship?

Yeah, and it would be worthless speech as well, right so it's worship of the car not prayer to God at that point

That's one example is prayers to the things prayed for it can be a job Lord. I'm praying for a job

These are God I know you're kind of ignorant of my life. You really don't know what's going on

So let me tell you all the benefits that could take place if I have a job as you ask God for a job

And then you spend about a half an hour telling God how good jobs are and how much jobs are needed and all of that

Like God doesn't know that God doesn't know you need to work

You spend all the time worshiping the job

Right or the more money or the promotion or whatever and so you can stray into idolatry if your wrong

Motivations are in your heart and it's greed and you start thinking about how good that job would be or you could be talking about

A promotion you could talk about how how you really deserve it. And so you spend your whole time talking about you

How smart you are how capable you are and how well you should have it and how good you've been as a parent

How good you've been as a child and you're worshiping you

And so the danger of wrong motivations is that you can stray very easily into idolatry

Okay, or just any God will do

That's the other thing so you get praying about what you want and you have wrong motivations and pretty soon you find you're not praying to God at all

Just if anybody will give you what you're asking for it's all good

right, so any demon

Any evil spirit any family member the drug dealer cousin that you got he came along gave you a free car

You'd be perfectly happy with that. It doesn't matter who gives it to me

It doesn't matter where it comes from as long as I get what I want

And it's very easy to do if you have wrong motivations when you while you're praying so idolatry is a very real risk

Okay, we're close to done. Believe it or not. We're doing good. I don't know what time it is

Probably learning late

Yep, we're I don't know if we I don't think we'll finish it

Three minutes, but we're doing good. Okay

So psalm 37 for I'll read the verse and you fill in you tell me what the blanks say. I think I can do it

Psalm

37

Hopefully the translation is the same psalm 37 for

Yep, pretty good. Okay psalm 37 for says this delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart

And so if you take the word yourself out

It's delight in the Lord. So the key is delighting in the Lord

And I'll put it this way you want what God wants more for you more than you should ever want what you want for you

Because God knows better than you do you can be poor for five years

And God's literally saving your life from a terrible situation

Or from violence or from you know

That going down a road of pride and idolatry

I mean or you can be sick and stuck in and out of the hospital month after month after month

And and God is deepening your relationship with him and then you get healthy and you've got another

10 50 70 years, whatever where you're walking with the Lord

Undefeated because you know he was with you during the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time

He never hurt you So if you believe that

You believe that he did have come down of denomination

It was 10 percent...

And that's not an except down from your heart

post twelve

So that would be a two percent

Three percent

Which I didn't put the reference down there so that was a mistake on my part

You want to jot it in there somewhere you can but there's no blanks for it's Philippians 4

Okay, so we're gonna dwell on and then I'm gonna give you the list

For eight I think it's eight and nine I'm checking right now

Yeah, it's just eight okay finally brethren whatever is true

So there's the first one

Whatever is honorable

That's the next one

Whatever is right

Whatever is pure

Whatever is lovely

Whatever is of good repeat

Do I leave enough blanks or do I have one not enough blanks?

Squeeze them in squeeze them in we'll make room just like kids in the church van

Okay whatever is excellent and then so you should have the last one it starts with a P

It's praiseworthy

I think I got them I don't know if I got them all or not but anyway you get them all in there

Okay true honorable pure lovely I think I skipped one blank is what happened

Honorable pure lovely of good repute excellent praiseworthy I made a mistake and skipped right

Okay anyway so these are the things that you focus on why do we focus on them to ensure that our

heart is right when we pray to God right I'm not judging but when you watch a horror flick turn

the TV off and pray to God in the next five minutes you watch pay close attention because

what's in your heart will not be right it will not be sure it will not be honorable it will you'll

you'll need to fix it right when you watch a movie with a bunch of lusty things in it girls and

bikinis running around sex scenes whatever pray in the next thing yes then right after that try to

pray or even during I mean go on our 45 minutes you're not gonna pray for a whole hour 45 minutes

because you're watching a movie that's kind of questionable that's gonna affect your heart and

it's gonna be hard to pray right godly get drawn into it yeah yeah it's not really a good all

things are permissible right so I'm not saying that's gonna keep from having or yeah but if

you're trying to protect your heart to make sure that this lock is open so when you pray God can

hear your prayers then my suggestion to you would be avoid things that are not pure not right honorable

right all of those things okay and at least at least then we have this as a solution all right

so mark 7 20 to 23 Jesus is talking I'm gonna read it real quick and then this is a very last

step says and he says that which proceeds out of the man that is which that is what defiles the man

for from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts for occasion steps murders

adulteries deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit sensuality envy slander pride and

foolishness you don't have to remember all those things but what is he saying all kinds of bad

things come out of us and when they come out of us they come out of the heart they attach to your

heart they come from your heart all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man and

so it's the what's on your paper is what flows out that's the problem so what you think about what

you're producing what you're producing can make your heart a kind of dirty thing and if it does

make your heart a kind of dirty thing then when you go to pray to God this lock can snap in place

and instead of your prayers going to God they get stopped because your prayers are prayed in

wrong motivations you say no God can overcome that yes he can and the last blank is repentance so you

turn to God and he can fix it all he can take care of all of it he can undo what you watch what you

saw that you shouldn't have the way you talked the way you acted you didn't honor him you didn't

focus on the right thing because you committed idolatry praying for your car or praying about

your car praying to your car right all of those kinds of things he can fix all of that but we

have to turn to the Lord and and I again I submit focused on the wrong things it's hard to do that

it's hard to turn to the Lord because you want you're letting your desires not be in line with

what God wants and then you want it and you're going after it and that's not that's interfering

with your prayer life we ask ourselves sometimes why when we pray we don't get what we pray for

well James was very clear you don't get what you pray for because you don't ask for it or maybe you

ask for it but you ask for it to spend it on your own desires on the desires of your lost

heart so that you'll have better you'll want better you want better you want things to go

better or whatever and that's not that's not the point the point is to delight in the Lord and

pray his will and I think our daily we're already mentioning that earlier when we're talking about

that's the key okay all right so unfortunately we're out of time I will give out more candy but

we're gonna pray and be done because we got yeah and I also forgot to put the snacks and

drinks in the cafeteria so we'll go get that here in a second and then we can fellowship on it

anybody talk more about it we can if anybody have a last comment or a question I know we're over time

but so we've got six locks and six keys and you can go back over your worksheets and look at them

again and it should be at this point we should be deepening our fur like we talked to God and

nobody's that's the goal Father heaven I praise you and I thank you you are the awesome God ain't

no car no money no relationship no beautiful scenery no beautifully tasting thing or wonderful

tasting thing no provision of our God has ever begun to come close to you you are our God and

just like they said at camp I remember and he said it very plainly the greatest thing of all that

you could give us is your presence you in us and you have offered it and for those who believe and

receive that you're you're you're right there doing it you're doing grace every day all day and you're

willing you're willing to get down and muddle in our mess waddle in our mud overcome our difficulties

and our problems just turn to you whosoever called on the call upon the name of the Lord to this day

still this day will be safe and we're calling upon you to cleanse us of what we've dealt in to help

us focus our prayer life on only you what I if I've prayed ever to a demon or an object or a

creative if ever I've done that and because I'm a human I probably have Lord I personally repent

of that and I pray that I will be aware of it as I pray that that you will be my focus that your

desires will become my desires that I'll grow a little bit more every day or or in leaps and

bounds whichever way you want it and when I pray I'll know that my God hears my prayers and that

he's at work bringing about the events and the activities of the Kingdom of God when I think

about wicked you seem to be prospering I'll know that you are on the throne I'll not I'll not despair

because I know and then I'll remember that our relationship mine yours relationship it should

have communication in it I should be talking to you and importantly listening to you and I love

it better sometimes when you talk than when I do but I also realize I'm called upon and so Lord

help me help us all to be the best followers of you we possibly can be offering up our prayers

when it's under our control to make a choice Lord keeping our hearts clean so that we can pray

earnest prayers faithful prayers casual prayers to know your witness formal prayers because we

know you're the God of heaven and it's no small thing for us to be able to enter into your throne

room and make our requests and father we go forward with you with you as our shepherd with

you as our guide with you as our king with you as our protector and we'll lift our prayers up to

you and to you alone or crazy things in Jesus name this concludes our Bible study