What Should We Pray? | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. OK, so in the introductory

session that Charles did, we talked about how to be a prayer

warrior. Last session I talked a little

bit more about why do we pray? And this session I want to talk

more about what do we pray? But this won't be perhaps the

standard cookie cutter prayer discussion that I'm sure many of

you have had and even taught, I hope.

I want to go a little deeper than simply saying praise,

Thanksgiving, confession, supplication.

Sometimes you use the Acts model, adoration, confession,

Thanksgiving supplication. And those are great.

And we've done some podcasts and teaching about that in the past

when I was talking through the the initial 7 essentials

conversations and we talked about prayer.

I want to go differently. I want to go deeper.

I'm not intending for this to be an exhaustive list.

I'm going to share with you 12 things that we should pray.

And these things might be a little different than what you

normally think about, but I hope that this will take you to a

little little deeper level, maybe from where you are or

they'll be great reminders because you're already well

versed and, and deep into your prayer life.

But you can hear more about some of these other basic categories

and some of our podcasts and some of these other things.

In fact, we recorded a new podcast on prayer just the other

day where several of us were just sharing prayer testimonies

of God, answering prayer, some of the more powerful prayer

experiences we've had in our lives.

It was a lot of fun. You'll enjoy that one.

It'll be it'll be encouraging to you.

And we're going to have more of those podcasts about prayer

coming out. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for joining who are listening online now.

We're we are going to do a podcast about podcast.

I'm determined to do that. So we're going to, I'm going to

do a podcast about, I was on a podcast today for somebody else.

It was, I was the guest speaker. It was an exciting topic about

church constitutions and bylaws. That's really seriously that's

what it was about. So you can tune into that one if

you have trouble sleeping at night.

I'll make sure you can find that one.

That was for the Southeastern, but let's dig a little deeper.

Let's dig a little more intimately this time.

And these are not necessarily in order, although I think you

admit you could see that some of these things probably need to

come early. It makes sense.

There's probably some order to them.

And so here's some important items that we should pray when

we pray. So one of the things that we

should pray is that we should pray for God's will and God's

word to guide us. And then that's significant.

And I've, I've introduced this thought to you before that

before you pray, there ought to be this sense even in your Bible

study. We talked about preparation.

So before I go to the Word of God, I recognize God has

prepared the Bible for me, but I'm also going to ask God to

prepare me so that I'm ready to receive the revelation that he

wants to give me from those verses today.

And the same thing is true in prayer.

I want to prepare myself for prayer before I really pray, but

I got to pray to prepare. That makes sense.

And so we we need to recognize that, that our definitions, our

guidance, our direction need to come by his authority and not

simply our own. If I go into prayer with an

isagenical mindset, just like in Bible study, if I go into prayer

thinking I'm, I'm, I'm going to push into this what I want to

get out of this and I'm in a sense going to manipulate the

prayer experience to try to get what I want out.

And that's all I'm trying to do. We really are missing out on the

richness of what prayer is. And so we we got to be defined

and directed by his authority and we need to ask him to help

us with that and not simply our own.

And that misunderstanding is what will lead us to sin,

frankly, but it's also, it also will be what makes our prayer

life either boring or not boring, frankly.

Am I, am I just ritualistically working through a list?

Next session, we're going to talk about our model prayer.

We're going to dive deeply into the Lord's Prayer concept.

And you may have heard a lot of teaching about the Lord's

Prayer, but we're going to go into that pretty heavy.

And I'm also going to share with you how Teresa and I pray and,

and, and some practical things there.

But anyway, so, so it's easy, but it is, it could make your,

your prayer life boring. It could make it ritualistic.

It could make it seem like it's not worth it if I'm trying to do

this by my own strength, my own authority and not God's.

So I need his help. So it it, it's also part of the

problem, which is I think a major problem, if people will be

honest, is, is here's why I don't pray enough.

Because I'm not operating under the right authority.

I can easily prioritize our time to do something else we think we

must do rather than to pray to the one who can do it all and

knows what really needs to be done.

And so one of the reason your reasons, your prayer life is

boring, one of the reasons you don't have enough time to pray

is because you might not be under the right authority.

You might be going with your own authority.

Here's what I want. This is my To Do List in prayer

that I'm trying to accomplish rather than God.

Help me to understand what your will is.

Help me to understand what you want me to get out of this.

So I, I need to think in terms that that I got to relinquish

this control over my prayer life and believe that prayer really

is this conduit of communication and communion with the absolute

sovereign one of the universe. And so when I really do begin

to, to start that way. And, and of course, all of these

disciplines that I talked about probably take more time than

you're giving them. It's part of the issue too.

Probably, you know, these aren't things to rush.

Now we're going to talk about praying all the time.

We'll do that more next week. The fact that you're going to

pray without ceasing. I'm, I'm a, I'm a prayer person

all day long. I'm talking or yelling at God

all the time. You see me driving down the

highway in my truck. If you think I'm on the phone

now, I'm not on the phone. I'm I'm saying something to God

probably and arguing with him about what he said to me and,

you know, losing what I'm doing. I'm just losing.

That's what I'm doing. I'm talking out loud, but I'm

losing. First.

John 514 says this. And this is the confidence that

we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his

will, he hears this. And that's not a small phrase.

And I know you've heard that taught.

We have to ask things according to His will.

Well, how do I know what His will is unless I'm asking him

what his will is? Because his will and His word

match, but I need to go to Him in prayer.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that

we have the request that we have asked of him.

Because if I'm in that much in tune with him to where I really

am praying for the same things that he would seek if God prayed

that these are the things God would pray for.

And the more I get closer to that tuning in with that.

Now we're talking about a prayer life.

John 15 says this. If you abide in me and my words

abide in you and ask whatever you wish and it will be done for

you by this my father's glorified that you bear a bunch

of fruit and so proved to be my disciples, but that that big if

on verse 7 is huge. If you abide in me, if you

Tabernacle, if you dwell, if you put your tent down with me, you

live alongside, you walk alongside, you're breathing

alongside of me then and my words are doing the same thing.

And you, you know, there's that there's a reciprocal

relationship there. So what initially frames your

prayer? How do you start?

And, and So what, what initially frames your prayer?

What determines your attitude toward it?

Do you ask God what he wants ever in your prayer life,

instead of just asking him for what you want?

Do you ask him what he wants? Do you study what he wants?

So engaging the Bible with a humble and teachable spirit

dovetails with abiding and prayer, independence and

anticipation. These two of the seven, they go

hand in hand. And so.

Or is prayer simply for you, a supernatural Santa Claus list?

Is that really what it is? Now you wouldn't call it that,

heaven forbid, but that's what it is.

I have this list of things I want I instead of mailing it to

the North Pole. I'm just going to every now and

then ask God for it is is that your prayer life?

So pray about this vital framework and this is a great

beginning point for your prayer experience.

God, here's what your word says. God, what do you want?

Frame me. Help me to be sensitive to your

authority. You take control and let me

abide in that. Let me live in that instead of

just doing what I want. But the second thing we're going

to pray for, and these things dovetail together.

We want to pray for God's glory and mission, not mine.

We we want his glory to be the goal, his mission.

And you know, in God's mission, as we've said here a million

times and we have plastered everywhere, is that God wants to

bring glory to himself and he wants us to join him in

redeeming the nation's. And So what do you hear in that

statement that you get to claim as yours?

What's yours out of that? Just the joining part, perhaps

the glorifying part, perhaps. But but what's the end game?

What's our greatest hope? And if it's not to bring God

glory, then what is it? Is it to just get what you want?

Is that really the end game here?

So what's our responsibility in this?

Well, the psalmist wrote this. Psalm 86 says this.

For there's none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there

any works like yours. All the nations you have made

shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and should glorify

your name. See, we got to recognize that

the first part of his mission and the second part of His

mission are the same thing. He wants to bring glory to

himself. He wants us to join Him in

redeeming the nation's. Why are we redeeming the

nation's? We're redeeming the nation's so

that they can bring Him glory. It's cyclical.

And so everything that we're doing ought to lead back to the

glorification of God and not necessarily my glorification.

But we don't always like that because we like, we like

ourselves and we like shopping lists.

We don't like sacrifice, especially in this culture.

So it produces A struggle. So let me help with that.

Let me pick on everybody a little more.

These have been basic frameworks that you, you could have taught

and you could teach all of this. But look at #3 here's something

to pray for. Pray for the Holy Spirit to

convict us of our sin and for the strength to confess those

sins. But don't stop there.

Sometimes people stop there. You don't need to also pray that

you can receive, embrace and implement His forgiveness.

And sometimes that doesn't work. Sometimes that's the hard part.

Can you forgive yourself? Can you actually believe in His

grace? Can you actually trust in the

fact that He has forgiven you? There are a lot of people who

struggle with what we would call retrospection.

I'm not worthy and I'm not worthy to be used by God.

I'm not worthy to to be alive. I'm not worthy to be used in any

way. I'm not good enough for this.

And, and you're misunderstanding grace.

And so could there be a problem with our prayer life because

we've blocked it ourselves? First of all, are are we

actually brave enough to ask God to peel back the layers of our

life and to expose the rawness of our sin?

Do you ask him to do that? Do you really expect Him to do

that? Or do you hope that somehow you

get to be ignored and get a pass and He'll just focus on your

requests? You just, you can just go with

what you want rather than what you need to receive in terms of

forgiveness and what you need to give Him in terms of confession.

I mean, you're giving something to God when you confess.

I'm agreeing with you, Homologia.

I'm, I'm saying the same words, God, that you would say about my

sin. I'm agreeing with you.

No argument, no debate, no fight.

I surrender. This goes back to the point

before I've relinquished control.

Now maybe I can now, maybe I can pray now maybe we can commune.

Now maybe we can abide together because I've cleared the path.

James 43 says you ask and do not receive because you asked

wrongly to spend it on your passions or a familiar passage

in first John one. If we say we have no sin, we

deceives our deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.

Now remember, he's writing to Christians, if we confess our

sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And, and the question is, is A, do we believe that?

But D, do we or B, do we also thank him for conviction?

A preacher once said that is fear, and I've said this to the

staff a million times, but that my greatest fear is not that God

will put his hand on me. My greatest fear is that God

will take His hand off of me. And so do we thank Him for this?

I didn't. I didn't say to you enjoy it.

Do I enjoy conviction? But do I thank Him for the fact

that He loves me enough to where He hadn't given up on me and

He's still doing it. And so do we really accept then

His forgiveness and cleansing? Do you really believe then that

you're ready to move forward? And does that grace motivate you

to live any way differently than the way you've been living

before you confessed your sin? Or do we just treat us

forgiveness now? This is an important sentence.

This might have been worth the ticket.

Do we just treat us forgiveness as a works righteous sacrament?

Or we can get that specific past sin taken care of, quote UN

quote, kind of breathe a sigh of relief, but now believe that I'm

kind of free to go commit the next sin because we know we can

just come back and be forgiven again.

All I've got to do is go do the sacrament, the ritual.

And how I actually live doesn't matter.

They're actually entire heresies built around this.

And yet sometimes I see evangelicals kind of living this

way to where I got that one covered because I did whatever

it was I was supposed to do. I worked myself up the holy

steps. I did the sacrament, I did

whatever I got to do. And I'm not, I'm not talking

about a certain kind of church. I'm talking about us, but

remember what Paul wrote in Romans, and we'll study this

heavily later because we're getting ready to start to study

in Romans right after Easter. What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How can we who died to sin still

live in it? So either we're taking grace for

granted and that's a dangerous place to be.

Receiving grace and rejecting it is an extremely dangerous

position to put yourself in. You have nothing else that

that's your hope. That's the strength, that's the

forgiveness. And we need to embrace that.

We need to embrace it and implement it in our lives.

And very often people think they've done something too bad

and it can't be forgiven or they are not worth being forgiven.

And you really need to understand who you are in the

image of God and what He wants to do in your life.

Well, this will go a little deeper #4 we should also pray

for faith in God's sovereignty, in the patience with His perfect

will and timing to remember that God answers prayer in His way in

His time. But when God, I want this right

now, do I have the patience? But more than that, do I have

the faith in his sovereignty to believe that because I haven't

gotten an answer yet, there's a good reason I haven't gotten an

answer yet that He's got something planned.

I don't understand. I don't like it, but but I I

trust in it. You need to remember some of

your Bible facts. The Hebrews were in Egypt for

over 400 years. They were praying, they were

asking, and finally God answers their prayer.

They wandered in the wilderness for 40 more.

They were in Babylon for around 70.

And after Malachi, they waited over 400 years before John the

Baptist hit the scene. So time.

Our concept of waiting is very personal and contextual.

Today we get frustrated if the fast food Dr. Thru isn't

immediate, if the Wi-fi's slow, or if that text response is

delayed. We start applying that

spiritually. We're going to be in trouble.

So don't. Don't you know God knows you're

waiting? I mean, do you not believe that

God knows you want an answer? Of course He does.

He knows what you want. He knows you're waiting.

Well, I, well, I don't like that.

Well, I'll share a Hebrew word with you, tough.

Romans 11 says this. O the depth of the riches and

wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments,

and how inscrutable his ways? How often to use the word

inscrutable, for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has

been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he

might be repaid for from Him and through Him and to Him are all

things. What a brilliant verse to Him be

glory forever, Amen. Guess who this is about?

It's about Him, life, creation, the whole purpose we breathe is

to bring Him glory. And so yet in His grace and His

love, He also wants to bless us and He wants to hear us, and

we'll get to that. He wants us to talk to Him and

ask for things. Romans or excuse me, Psalm 1830

says this God, His way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true.

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

So we are supposed to take refuge in Him and He's going to

shield us. He's going to guard us.

He's at work on our behalf. But sometimes waiting and

wanting is part of the whole point.

It's part of the whole point He's seeking to produce in your

life. So take a refuge in Him.

Take a refuge in this communion that you have the privilege of

having with the sovereign Creator of the universe.

Romans 5 says this. Therefore, since we have been

justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ. Through Him we also, we have

also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we

stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

Wait a minute now, wait a minute.

Now, 21st century America, we rejoice in our sufferings.

We rejoice in our sufferings. Now look at the progress, look

at the steps. Look at what God's doing.

Here's what he's doing, knowing that suffering produces

endurance, and endurance produces character, and

character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame

because God's love has been poured into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

He's disciple. He's strengthening in this

incredible progression that sometimes we can't stand.

I want what I want it. It took 15 minutes to get that

fried chicken the other day. I was going to starve to death

and then they got the order wrong.

Lift your heart above the timeline.

This is a deep statement. Lift your heart above the

timeline to the one who transcends it.

Recognize who it is you're talking to.

He's not bound by time. Minutes, seconds, hours, days,

years mean nothing to him. They're they're, they're not

even drops in the bucket. They're blinks, they're

twinklings of an eye. And he knows, but he knows.

He knows what you're going through.

This is also the God who weeps for you.

This is also the God who cares about you.

He knows, but he's also trying to make you something more.

And remember that part of the prayer experience is making us

more for us to grow. So that doesn't mean we give up

praying for something when we're not receiving an answer that we

don't do that at all. In fact, it's just the opposite

of that. That's, that's part of the, the

incredible mystery of it all. We we're going to talk more

about that in a minute, but first look at #5 now pray for

the Holy Spirit and powered ability to remain thankful no

matter what his answer is because his motive is always

love and what is best for us. Even unanswered or prayers were

the answer is no. When the door gets shut, are you

still going to be thankful or you just going to complain?

Are you just going to join me on 64 yelling at God in my truck

and losing every time? He's always right.

Matthew 7 We know this passage. Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to

you, for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks

finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Or which one of you? If a son asks him for bread,

we'll give him a stone. Or if you ask for a fish, we'll

give him a serpent. If you then who are, if you

then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your

children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven,

give good things to those who ask him?

He's not a stingy old coot. He doesn't want to give you

anything. He wants to bless you.

But it's got to be within the framework of a plan.

It's got to be within the framework of a will of a

purpose. He's the perfect gift giver.

He knows exactly what you need. But, and we can be thankful when

we receive the gifts we love and we want it all.

We're so thankful. Oh, he answered that prayer.

Oh, he did exactly what I wanted him to do Praise the Lord,

Praise God. Let me share a testimony about

what he did. Exactly what.

But what if he did the opposite? Can we be thankful even when we

receive a gift we did not want? Have you ever been at Christmas

morning with a kid and they thought that box was something

else? And they open that box up and

there they are, Socks. Not a Game Boy, not that video

game, not the latest robot, whatever transforming creature

thing it is this year. Socks.

Will we be thankful when we get the socks?

Ephesians 520 tells us what we need to do.

You may not think of 520 as a prayer verse, but it's a prayer

verse giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Admittedly, admittedly, always and for everything is tough, but

that's what it says. I looked the words up in the

Greek language. I wish there were some other

language I could look them up in because the in the Greek

language, when it says give thanks always and for

everything, the Greek words mean always and for everything.

There's not and there's not an exception.

There's not an escape hatch. There's not a sum.

There's not when I can check off the list I wanted.

So this is tough, but but that section begins earlier.

Don't miss this in back verse 17.

It says, therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the

will of the Lord is if we start with #1 again, and we're in this

framework of God, what do you want?

What do you want? What do you want that I'm going

to be less disappointed when I don't get what I want because

what I want is what you want. Now I can actually turn that

corner to where my heart's desire really is.

What God wants. That's that's, that's maturity,

that's, that's discipleship, that's growing up.

Now related to this, and I know some of these overlap, you'll

survive. Number six, pray for the peace

to believe in God's answer when it's received.

Not only am I going to be thankful no matter what the

answer is, but I also need peace when I realize what the answer

is. So now wait a minute, God,

that's not what not that's not how I wanted it to go.

Or maybe you're going to say, really God, really you, you want

me to do what right. It might be a calling to serve

in a unique new way. A lot of people called the

missions. A lot of people called the

ministry, never planned it that way.

They were intended that to happen to him.

God works in their hearts and so to do something for him that

maybe you've never done. It reminds me of our Acts study

when Saul was struck blind and there's poor little guy named

Ananias that God appears to and he says you go help this guy in

Acts Chapter 9. But Ananias answered, Lord,

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Lord, got to be a big question mark there.

Really, Lord. Lord, I've heard from many about

this man, how much evil he has done to your Saints at

Jerusalem. And here he has authority from

the chief priest to bind all who calling your name.

You, you want me to do what? Listen, back in Oklahoma, where

we're from in Cherokee County, it used to be.

Now it's not true anymore. There's there's sophisticates

now they've all grown up. They're sophisticated back

there. But in the old days, growing up,

he needed killing would have been a justifiable defense in a

court of law in Cherokee County. And Ananias could have you know,

maybe Lord, you know that lightning bolt little harder.

Just take care of this problem. But the Lord said go for he is a

chosen instrument of mine him him.

He's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Him. And the next verse, if you went

on to verse 16, says that Ananias departed, went right to

him to help him out in obedience.

Will we believe God when He answers?

Will we respond in obedience to His answer?

But be careful. Be careful about praying to God

about some request because He might just answer it in a way

you never expected Him to answer it.

I've known a lot of people who are praying for lost people over

the years. And then they'll come Preacher,

I need you to go share the gospel with my lost friend and

my initial response and that you know, and I'm try, try to be

nice because you know, I'm a pastor and I have to be it's,

it's in the contract. But what I want to say to him is

why don't you go share the gospel with him?

What do you need me to go for? And sometimes, sometimes God

might answer the prayer you're praying for somebody because he

wants to use you to do something you never thought you could do.

I used to stutter as a kid, like everything.

And the first time somebody suggested to me that this was

going to be what I did for a living.

I mean that it's pretty funny. I'm going to share my full bore

testimony with you all after Easter.

I promise I've got it scheduled. It's going to take several

minutes, but if you got a lost friend, if you got somebody

who's rough as a cob, you got somebody who you didn't think

could ever get saved or ever come back to the Lord, that's

the time to get him here. Because I will give an altar

call because I want people to be saved, not because of my wacky

story, but because of God. So we, we need to be careful.

Remember Philippians 4-6 and seven?

Some of you could probably quote it.

It says do not be anxious about what?

Yeah, really, really anything really.

So we're supposed to be thankful for everything we're supposed to

in it. And we're not to be anxious

about anything really. But in everything.

Here's how that were only way that works.

Only way that's possible. But in everything by prayer,

that's the only way that works. The only way I can't be worried

and stressed and nervous about everything is because I'm

praying about everything. And I believe all this other

stuff we've talked about. I believe he's sovereign.

I believe he actually listens. I believe he works.

I believe last session that this is a communion with him and he

really wants to hear. So I really do believe that this

is all working out if I and I can trust him for that.

So by by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, even I'm

stressed out, nervous as a cat, but I'm going to be thankful for

it. Let your request be made known

to God and the, the Irene, the Irene, the peace.

The name Irene means peace the the peace of God, the peace of

God, which which is beyond our cranial cavities.

You can't manufacture it, you can't make it.

You can't create that yourself. It's beyond your understanding.

It surpasses your brain. This is a faith issue.

Well guard it'll guard your hearts and minds in Christ

Jesus. So relieve my spirit with your

peace, Lord, relieve my spirit with your peace.

No matter how you answer my request, no matter how you

answer my prayers or don't answer my prayers, relieve my

stress, relieve my spirit with your peace.

And I'm going to be thankful for it.

Let me never doubt you. Let me never doubt your truth

that you are at work when I can't see it, perhaps especially

when I can't see it. And give me the faith to

believe. It's James one all over again.

But let him ask in faith. This is a prayer, let him ask in

faith with it, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a

wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything

from the Lord. He's a double minded man,

unstable in all his ways. I believe, I trust, even when I

don't like the answer, especially when I don't or I'm,

I'm, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. You know about those who wait

upon the Lord. Have a sermon called Watch your

weight. And we must pray.

See, we're still supposed to ask.

We're still supposed to knock. We're still supposed to seek,

because look at #7 we're going to pray for consistency and

persistence in our prayers. And you had this whole story out

of Luke 18. And he told them a parable to

the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose

heart. And he said, in a certain city

there was a judge neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and

saying, Give me justice against my adversary.

For a while he refused. But after what he said to

himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because

this we don't keep, we don't keep bothering me.

I'll give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her

continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the

unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to

his elect, who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice

to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of

Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

The problem is, will we believe? Do we believe this?

How long? Lord, be persistent until you're

consistent. Never give up on someone or

something. Somebody asked me about Reese.

How long are we going to keep bothering people until you or

they die? And I'd say that with as much

respect as I can say it, but I also say it unapologetically

and, and I'll argue with you till you die about that.

We never give up. I have prayed for people for

years. I prayed for a man named Jim for

five years before he was saved. Don't ever give up.

Don't ever give up. Love them and pray for them.

Never give up on someone or something that God has made it

clear what His plan is. People have prayed forever for

people. Pray for that stubborn one who

doesn't want to obey, who doesn't want to believe.

Pray for that healing. Pray for that wisdom.

Pray for that direction, and then start to pray.

That's part of what the Reach ministry ought to be about for

our community as well As for one another.

But we also want to pray #8 for personal humility as we address

God. Luke 18 goes on and it says he

also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves.

They'll miss the phrase. Jesus didn't mince words much.

He who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and

treated others with contempt. 2 men went up into the temple to

pray. 1A Pharisee, the other tax collector, the Pharisee,

standing by himself, prayed thus.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners,

unjust adulterers or thus. God, I thank you that excuse me

or even like this tax collector probably pointed at him.

I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get, but

the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his

eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful

to me, a Sinner. I tell you, this man went down

to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who

humbles himself will be exalted. It may sound like a dumb

question to ask, but I have said it more than once.

When you pray, who you talking to?

To whom are you speaking? Do we pray for others to hear us

or are we talking to God? Do we pray to the Lord?

Is this for your glory or for his glory?

Is this some religious ritual to show how super hyper spiritual

you are? Or is this genuine communion

with the Lord? Later we're going to have a

session on how to pray in your prayer closet.

What does that mean to get a loan?

What does that mean to be just you and the Lord #9 then says we

also have to pray for a holistic balance between the physical,

mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs.

We need to pray holistically. James 5 says, Is anyone among

you suffering? Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of

the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with the

oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will

save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up

forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to

one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is

working. Elijah was a man with a nature

like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not

rain. And for three years and six

months it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore

its fruit. So the.

Bible helps. Us, it's OK.

When we see these prayer lists, we see a lot of physical prayer

requests. That's OK.

We're supposed to pray for those things.

We're supposed to pray for each other's physical healing.

That's right there in the Bible. It's great.

We're supposed to minister to the people who are sick.

And this church, I feel like, does a pretty good job of that.

I'm thankful for our connect groups.

I'm thankful for our Deacon ministry who who really do reach

out for Charles and the pastoral care office, who really do reach

out to try to help people heal. But that's just one.

Aspect of us. So all I'm looking for is

balance. Sometimes the old joke is is

that prayer meetings can become organ recitals.

You know you're praying for Uncle Joe's liver and Aunt Susie

kidney. And it was funnier than you

thought it was. But don't forget Romans 10/1.

Brothers, my heart's. Desire, in other words, my

passion and my prayer to God for them is that they might be

saved. Are we praying for our people?

To be saved, not just physically healed.

See how balanced is our prayer list.

Are we more concerned about earthly needs than we are about

eternal needs? Do we actually believe in

lostness and eternal judgment anymore?

I had to send somebody. They might be even be here

tonight, somebody who's dealing with some people from a

different religious background and they don't believe in hell

in the same way that I would or the Bible teaches.

And so I sent them some documents on here's the title,

the the eternality of punishment.

And so the idea is, is that hell is as eternal as heaven.

It can't not be. When Jesus used the words in the

original language about heaven, he uses the exact same words

about hell. You can't.

If Hell's not eternal, neither is heaven.

It didn't work that way. Even though we can't wrap our

head around it. So these folks are

annihilationist. They think you go to hell, you

just burn up and you're gone. But there's nothing in Scripture

that teaches that. So do we actually believe in

lostness? Do we believe in eternal

judgement? And do we have any sense of

urgency about it at all? Do we have a burden?

Do we have a passion, a heart's desire?

Or do we surround ourselves so much with dying Christians that

we don't have much awareness about dying, lost people?

And that's part of what we've got to change a little.

Bit in these next months, we've got to look beyond ourselves to

people who aren't here yet. This is a both and we're not

going to stop the other. We want to lift one another.

We want to pray for one another. We're going to take good care of

each other. We want to love each other, but

at the same time, we got to we got to go beyond it.

It's not a both and it's it's not an either or.

This is a both end. I mean not an either or.

All right #10 we need to pray for the focus to listen and be

teachable. This is a.

Part of prayer that I. Talked about in the last session

that often people aren't as aware of.

It seems a little weird. How do I hear the voice of God

stuff and am I going to hyper spiritualize this and make it

some mystical experience to where I'm hearing some audible

voice in the in the midst? Listen to what the Bible says.

Psalm 81. I am the Lord your God, who

brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

But my people did not. Listen to my voice, Israel.

Would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their

stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels.

Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in

my ways. It's not.

Just a matter of getting God to. Listen to you is how are.

We listening to God. Now we have a huge advantage

because we have a whole one of these now.

And here's the word of God. And and this is part of what we

need to listen to. This is part of what we pray.

This is part of how we know God's will, right.

But also remember in Acts 4. Acts 4 says this.

But Peter and John answered them Whether tried in the sight of

God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we

cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard.

So part of prayer is an opportunity to learn.

It's an opportunity to grow. It's an opportunity to focus.

It's an opportunity to listen and to be taught by God and to

recognize all the things that we've talked about already in

this list. But listen to this, you know,

you know the passage, you may not know the reference.

This is first Kings 19 And and he said, Go out, and stand on

the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by,

and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broken pieces

the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the

wind. And after the wind and

earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

And after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in

the fire. And after the fire, the sound of

a low whisper. Or maybe you know, it is a still

small voice. And when Elijah?

Heard it. He wrapped his.

Faith facing this cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of

The Cave, and behold, there came a voice to him and said, What

are you doing here, Elijah? He was running away at that

point from trouble. What?

Are you doing there in prayer? Sometimes in prayer.

Here's Here's what you need to say.

SHH. And just listen in the stillness

and quietness of your. Soul in my office I have a sign

that I have had, I don't know how many years it has travelled

with me from place to place. It's always in my office, always

where I can see it. And it's Isaiah 3015.

And it says, For thus says the Lord God the Holy One of Israel,

in returning and rest you shall be saved.

But here's the point, in quietness and in trust shall be

your strength. But you were unwilling in

quietness. One translation would say in

confidence, you'll be strengthened.

But #11 we also need to pray for the strength and faith to apply

what we learned. We're not just hearing stuff.

We got to put this into action. James One says, But be doers of

the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a

man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for

he looks at himself and goes and goes away, and it once forgets

what he look, what it's like. I wish I could do that.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty,

and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who

acts, he will be blessed in his doing, talking about the word of

God, talking about how we take the word of God.

And we're not supposed to just listen to it.

We're supposed to actually do something about it.

Colossians 110 layers on there so as to walk in a manner worthy

of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good

work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So much like Scripture, much like abiding in the in the Word,

we can't simply be hearers in prayer, we must be doers.

Prayer should change us. Prayer should change how we

live. So change based upon his answer.

Walk differently because of his answers.

Bear fruit because of his answers.

Grow because of his answers. Deepen because of his answers.

Don't simply be happy you got what you wanted.

Change, grow, be different and then we need to pray for God the

Father to receive our prayers in the name of Jesus, God the Son.

You know to do this and. Some of you have probably taught

why you need to do this, but we need to be reminded of this.

We pray in the name of Jesus. We pray in Christ's name.

For those of you who are are new to all of this, you'll hear us

end our prayers that way. Well, why?

Well in our last session, session, whatever that word is,

we pointed out a couple of verses in Hebrews 81.

Now the point and what we are saying is this, we have such a

high priest, one who's seated at the right hand of the throne of

the majesty in heaven. Then Romans 8, who is to condemn

Christ? Jesus is the one who died more

than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God,

who indeed is interceding for us.

And last session, we also know that the Holy Spirit's

interceding on our behalf and helping us.

But Jesus is our high priest. Jesus is our intercessor.

He's our intermediary. He is the one that creates the

access. He not only did it on the cross,

He's still creating access. You don't get access to God

without him. So in my personal quiet time,

I'm one of the books I'm studying right now is Numbers.

And in numbers, believe it or not, they count people.

Isn't that amazing? And, and one of the things that

in the, the chapter I was in this morning, they're talking

about the various tribes and their service in the Tabernacle

and how everybody's got responsibilities according to

the way the Lord commanded. And this tribe's going to do

this and take care of that and carry that.

And when the when the time to move the Tabernacle, they carry

this, take this down. When it's time to set it up,

this group's throwing that on another group's doing this SoC

and the guarded. Everybody has a job.

Everybody has a specific responsibility.

Everybody has a task and everybody is is numbered and

counted so that they know exactly what to do and and it's

all according to what the Lord commanded, according to what the

Lord commanded according to what the Lord commanded, according to

Lord commanded over and over again.

But but. Don't you let a foreigner touch

that and they're. Going to die.

And don't some of you touch the holiest of things or you're

going to die. Interesting.

Even the people who were carrying the tent, dealing with

the poles, dealing with the curtains did not have complete

access. They couldn't touch.

The Ark of the Covenant they. Couldn't go in the Holy of

Holies, They'd be struck dead. Only on the Day of Atonement,

Yom Kippur, could the high priest even dare to go in there.

And yet when Jesus died on the cross.

Like we said last time, He tore that curtain apart.

So He not only created access on the cross, He still creates.

Act the only way you can pray right now and God will hear you

is because of what Jesus has done.

Because in this holy transaction He has covered you with His

righteousness. He is taking his, your sin upon

Himself. And so that the Father sees the

covering, the Father sees the covering of his blood and his

righteousness, This an atoning transaction.

He becomes this, here's the fancy word.

We'll talk about this in Romans. He becomes our propitiation.

And what that means is, is that he appeased the wrath of God.

He paid the price. He took the penalty himself.

He took the punishment himself. And it's only because of that

and only the fact that he's the only one who could do that to

make that payment. That's what makes prayer

possible. Otherwise you'd have no access,

but it's only received through him and because of him in in New

Testament forward days. So we need to pray in the name

of according to under the covering of that'd be a cool way

to end your prayers. Father, we come to you based

upon the covering of Jesus Christ under the umbrella of

what Christ has done. That's what you're that's what

you're saying when you say in Christ's name or in Jesus name

so that it can be received. It can be received.

We dare not arrogantly believe that we are.

Worthy to be heard. All by ourselves.

So to enter his courts, to speak to him, to expect to hear from

him, it's all because of Jesus. What a wonderful thing.

What a gift as a believer. And so one of the things that I

really want you to take with you is in your prayer life, please

focus on the person to whom you were praying and not simply just

getting. Through the habit of praying.

It's so easy, even with prayer lists like we give you, it's so

easy to do. Well, I read through that list.

So I guess I prayed today and I'm done and I'm I would, I'm

glad you're doing that. Not nothing, I guess, but it can

be so much more, so much richer. I I find myself having this

ongoing dialogue with God in all seriousness to where he helps

me, He blesses me, He calms me, He strengthens me.

I've had some. Tough meetings lately.

Dealing with some difficult issues lately and I go to God

and I pray for wisdom. And it's been interesting in

these tough meetings. How, how well I feel like

they've gone now, maybe I'm deluding myself, but I, I'm OK

with that. If I delude myself and I really

think they went well, I'm OK with that, you know, But I just

feel like God's been with me, you know, people come to me and

they want it like, like I have answers to something.

It's really, I mean, I, I know I'm supposed to be the pastor.

And sometimes I was like, well, how do I know?

You know, why should I know that?

But then I pray God gives me a little something you.

Know and maybe it. Helps us both so I'm so.

Thankful for this gift. And next session what?

We're going to do is we're going.

To break down the disciples go to him, he says.

Lord, teach us to pray. We don't want to pray.

Teach us to pray. Everything we've learned our

whole life has been this ritualistic temple praying or,

or, or reciting parts of the law, you know, as we recite

Deuteronomy 6 or something every day, What, how do we really

pray? How does it become more than

that? Then simply recitation.

And we're going to talk about that.

I'm going to share a little, we'll share a little testimony

about what we do and. Frankly, what we don't do?

In our prayer life, because we also still need to grow.

And so I pray. That that's a blessing to you,

I. Pray that that you'll recognize

what God is doing in your midst. I pray that you know if if I

could, if I could make it all happen, that God would

instantaneously answer your prayers and give you what you

need. Maybe not what you want.

But we got to trust this is a. Faith issue, that's part of the

point. Sometimes we just need to wait

and know that he has a plan. Father, thank you that that's

true. I don't know why this comes to

mind right now or. My heart, father.

But you know, I, I don't know why this thought came to mind.

I I think of people that I've known.

Over the over the years, who don't know?

You. And I and I think of the times.

That I've watched them go through crisis, even death, even

even when when I've conducted funerals for people who didn't

know you and the person who died didn't know you.

And father, I often think, how? How?

How do they get through this? And so Father I'm, I'm just

thankful I. Don't want to get through it

that way. I don't want.

To do this. Alone.

I'm not that good. I'm not strong enough to do this

alone, and so I'm thankful that I don't have to.

But father, I worry about them. So how do they get through this

disease? Death, pain.

Divorce. Prodigal.

Children, how do they get through this?

On their own, without you. And then Father, sometimes I

think about Christians who know you.

I, I, I think they're saved as much as I can know somebody's

saved, but. Father, they'll testify to me.

That they don't have much of A prayer life.

They're not talking to you, they're not in the the word.

And so Father, I asked the same question.

How? How do they get through this?

So, Father, let us. Recognize that it's time to go

deeper. It's time to be serious.

It's time to spend time with you, Father.

If nothing else, let us take this list and in our prayer time

tomorrow or tonight, let us start reflecting on these points

and begin praying for those things.

Looking up the scripture, maybe use this as a prayer guide for a

while to see whether or not we recognize the depth of our

communion. Because Father, we want to

search you and know you. We want to find you.

We want to bring you glory and be used by you and Father.

I've just watched you. I've watched you on almost every

continent on the planet. I've watched you do amazing

things for a people who humble themselves and pray and truly

seek your face. Let us be that people.

In Christ's name, we dare come before you.

Amen. God bless you all.

Y'all have a good night, don't burn up out there.

Thank you SO. Much for listening today and I

also hope that you'll go to [email protected]

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you and your families. Thank you once again.