Content + Condition + Cost of Prayer | Eld Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from at church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today. I want to talk about content of prayer, conditions

for an answered prayer, and the cost of prayer. So

treats that I'm going to be touching on. Let me

see if I can do this in less than an hour.

I believe I can. Okay, let's let's dive into it.

We are definitely going through interesting times in the world today.

You know, I I was so shock yesterday I pumped

up patrol and because I drive a diesel vehicle, he

actually went out eighty cents. I didn't know diesel went

up eighty sense until yesterday. Are like looking at the thing,

I'm like, oh my goodness, what's happening. Then suddenly all

the government incentives doesn't come from much. No diesel diesel

vehicle owners actually get. You can you can get two

hundred ate from the government every month when they raise

the diesel prices. That were sort of their gift back,

but you got to go apply for it. Not that

two hundred bucks I think worth not much. Really, I've

never seen it gone up so rapidly. Usually it goes

up like three cents, five cents, ten cents. So all

you patrol car drivers, thank God, thank the govern nor Malaysia,

be grateful. Don't condemn them so much, even though I

have a funny feeling they're going to raise it soon, okay,

because if ever the oil prices goes up, and it

will go up, and we are going to be living

in times which are challenging, and these are you know,

I don't want to sound like a harbinger of doom,

but this is the reality that we are living in.

And sometimes when you read the scriptures, the scriptures should

actually encourage and prepare us for what's to come, not

make us feel like, oh, I don't know what's happening.

Why is this happening. She is not the time to

ask why is it happening? Because we know why all

these are happening. Is happening because the scriptures have ready

told us. He's preparing us for what's to come. Before

anything gets better, it will get a little bit rougher us.

That's the reality. And I pray, you know, when I

read Revelations, I read it so that I'm prepared. I

don't read it out of curiosity as to when I

want to know exactly when someone give me a timeline.

You know, want to read revelations and realize, and I

want to be able to draw out truth. And the

truth must be the Lord must give me the exact

time in which he's coming back. That's not going to

happen if it's anything when you read it, the Lord's

going to prepare us. How do we live our lives

in loyal obedience even right now when things are all

right now, but you will get more and more challenging.

How do we continue to persevere and carry on? And

that's what revelations is all about. It's about perseverance, and

it's about endurance, and then after that it says it's

about overcoming. So let's everything. Every time we read the scriptures,

remember persevere and deal and overcome. That's what God's word

is actually there for us. Four amen, Okay, Luke, Chapter eleven,

verses one to four. I'm going to be drawing out

from the Lord's Prayer some truths. And this one is

the simplified version of the Lord's prayer. Okay. You will

see the Lord's prayer in Matthew and that is the

full version, the longer version. And then this one is

a slightly shorter version. I'm not saying that one is

better than the other. It was most likely given in

two different separate occasions. But I want to just be

able to break it down to the most minimal, because

a lot of us. I want to help us work

with the least vers so that we slowly build ourselves up. Okay,

and so verses one to four. Chapter eleven reads like this.

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished,

one of his disciples came to him and said, Lord,

teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.

Jesus said, this is how you should pray. Father, May

your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon.

Give us each day the food we need, and forgive

us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,

and don't let us yield to temptation. Okay, the Lord

blessed the reading of his word. I was reading from

the NLT. The New Living Translation is Okay, whatever versions

you have, it's fine. So this is what's happened. One day,

the disciples got up early, and then they noticed, Hey,

how come jesus bait was empty? And so they quickly

put on their clothes, rushed out to go and look

for Jesus. They went around looking for him, and they

eventually found Jesus talking to his heavenly father. Wow. And

they had never heard anybody pray quite like how Jesus prayed,

And so they listened, and when he had finish, one

of the disciples, if you really carefully, you realize it

was one of them, went up to Jesus and said, Lord,

teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

And so you think about it that the disciples who

are actually Jews, Okay, they were probably very fervent Jews

who followed Judaism, so they should actually know how to pray.

They actually should know how to say prayers, because that's

how they've been brought up as Jews. When you go

to the synagogue, in fact, there are probably certain prayers

that they recite almost religiously and very meaningful, very sincere prayers,

I'm sure. But when they listened to Jesus talk to

his father, they were moved to ask for teaching. Okay,

so this is well not I wouldn't say they are

well learned people, but they are people who understood religious life.

And they understood prayer, but yet something caused them to

be attracted to what Jesus what was doing. And then

therefore they asked him to teach them how to pray,

and Jesus taught them a little prayer they could use,

and for the last two thousand years Christians have used

this prayer. It is a magnificent and is a wonderful prayer.

The Lord's Prayer really, for me, covers all things in prayer,

and I hope we are able to see that and

understand the depth of the prayer. We call it the

Lord's prayer. But actually the Lord would never use it

because there are some things mentioned in the prayer which

he had no need for. Okay, he never actually needed

to say forgive us our sins. I mean, you can't

imagine Jesus actually having to say forgive us, forgive me

of my sins, because he has no sins in him, right,

no sins that need forgiven. So it is actually a

prayer for us, and it should actually be called the

Lord's people's prayer if you ask me personally. Okay, anyway,

let's analyze it briefly and you will realize it is

a model and one of the things I notice is

that it is brief. Do you realize you can actually

reach side, you can pray the Lord's prayer in I

don't know under twenty seconds. The reality of it. And

you know the Lord wants us to understand is it

is the depth, not the length of prayer that matters

the depth of prayers. So don't be pressured sometimes. No, sometimes,

as leaders know, we can stand up here and pray

long prayers and everyone is I don't think I'll be

able to pray like that if that's what prayer is. No, No,

prayer really is not really too much the length. It's

the depth of it. It is the quality, not the quantity.

And so Jesus warn his hearers, no, he said, don't

think that by heaping up long prayers you will somehow

get God to listen. It's actually something that is simple

yet comprey and sieve that really gets his attention sometimes,

and even a child can use this prayer. That's the

beauty of the Lord's prayer. Even our children can memorize

it in the children's church. And so this prayer is

even shorter. Here in Luke's gospel I mentioned just now

compack to Matthew, and he's given on a different occasion,

so do take note it's a different occasion. But here

in Matthew, in look, I believe it's balled down to

the bad essentials of prayer, and you have everything here.

And here is the first thing I want you to

notice about this prayer. Pray about God wants before you

pray about what you want. First and foremost. That's what

prayer really is. Pray about what God wants before we

pray about what we want. It's a very simple lesson

in prayer and one that we need to continuously learn

often because a lot of times if we don't begin

prayer with God, we beginning with ourselves. And when we

beginning with ourselves, there's always a long list of things

that we are asking for. And don't always rush into

God's presence with your shopping list. I know, I know

we all make the mistake of doing that. So three

things here that we are to think about our God

when we pray. First of all, think of his fatherhood important,

and so Jesus taught if you want to talk to

God like I talk to God, just come straight into

his presence as a child would come into an earthly

father's presence and say Father, our father in heaven. You see,

prayer is like this. And the word that was used

actually in the Hebrew is abah, which actually is a

very endearing term, is a term similar to daddy. It's

almost like we are talking to God, Daddy God, and

he says prayer is like climbing onto a father's lap

and sitting down there and having a conversation with that.

I think that's the most reassuring thing for us right

as humans. Sometimes I think as a child, if you

ever loving dead and the dad who is there for you,

then getting and climbing onto his lab should be the

most reassuring thing. I know maybe some of us may

not have experienced that in our lives. I don't think

I've experienced climbing on my dad's lab and talking to him.

You know, usually he probably smacked me. But the reality

is is, I mean, we all know, those of you

who are married and you are parents, you try, you

try our best to give our best daughture and you

understand what that means to having that conversation when your

child comes to you. I think it's not just reassuring

for you, is very reassuring for the child. Amen. And

so it starts off with that. We need to ponder

upon God's fatherhood. I think when we think about God,

we need to think about fatherhood. Why is it that

we call him father God? Why is it that we

call him daddy God? Why is it that we call

him Abbah? And sometimes we may not have the most

best experience when it comes to father's and fatherhood. I

want you to know that God is a good God,

and he's a good father, and he wants to hear

your prayers and he wants you to come and sit

on his lap. So that's the first thing that we

need to understand is his fatherhood over your lives. Second

thing we need to understand is this think of his

purity because you have never known an earthly dead whose

name was holy, No earthly that can ever fulfill that role.

And you need to remember that this is our father

in heaven, which means our father in holiness. So he

is not like an earthly father who has his own

fault and witnesses and we all can testify to that

he is the heavenly Father who is holy, and his

name is holy, and God's name should would be held

in awe our Father in heaven, HALLO be your name.

It should be held in all you know. Sometimes, and

in today's world, many people use God's name in vain.

They use it as part of swearing and cursing, and

I think this should really hurt us. Believe us, if

really we acknowledge that God's name is almighty, powerful and

holy and sacred. That's why we say, may your name

be revered. May people never refer to it except with

reverence and respect. But yet the world today uses God's

name like as though it's nothing, uses it as a

curse as a cause. And that's not how it should be.

Believer us, do we honor God's name and give it

and afford it the respect and the reverence that God's

name deserves. And so if you understand how pure he is,

then you will will recognize that he deserves all glory

and all praise. This is God who is holy. Not

an ounce of evil can be found in him. So

we need to understand secondly, his purity. And finally, this

third thing that we need to know is this his

power and his kingdom, which means his reign, which means

his power to govern, his power to control it is

actually obvious that this world is not under his government, actually,

if you think about it, and that's why the scriptures

repeatedly says that this world belongs to the prince of

this world, which actually is the devil. It's a reference

to the devil. But our hope is that God's kingdom

will come on earth as it is in heaven, and

that his power will be manifest in every area, every

department of our lives. That is what we are desiring for,

that is what we are looking for. That's why we

pray the prayer as it is, not because it's a

hopeless prayer, but actually it's a prayer knowing that God's

will is as such, his kingdom will come. It has

if you ask me, it has already arrived in the

coming of Jesus Christ. It has already arrived through the

incarnation of God's son here walking this earth. But it's

not fully fully established as of year, because we are

still living in that time right now in which God

is establishing his kingdom. And that's why everywhere you go

you still see the devil has got a stronghold, even

a strangerhold in this world. And that's the reality of it.

But our hope is that God's kingdom will come on

earth as it is in heaven. We want to see

it on earth. We want him to be in charge

of every situation of our lives. How many of your

believe that God is actually in total control? I believe

he's in total control. Then when you pray, you've got

to pray believing that He is in total control of

all things, and not even doubt, because many times you

are wondering, God, can you really do it?

God?

He almost looks like you know you've got things going.

Maybe you are the creator of all things, but then

once you created it, you just left it to his

own devices and you allow it to just run as

it is. But no, I don't believe God has washed

his hands off his creation. I believe He is still

in control. But we need to acknowledge that first and foremost.

If we don't acknowledge God is in control, then alternatively

we will be acknowledging that it's the devil that's in

control and therefore has that hold upon my life. And

so three things that we need to realize about God

is this his fatherhood, his purity, his kingdom. He wants

his parenthood to be enjoyed by his children, his sons, daughters.

He wants his purity to be revered by people on earth,

to be respected by everyone on earth, and he wants

his kingdom to be entered so that we become his subjects.

You see. In other words, you think of God as father, judge,

and king, and now you're ready to bring your own

needs to him. You start off by acknowledging God as father,

judge and king of your lives. That is what the

Lord's prayer really is. It gets us in this position,

in this posture where we are actually right. We've got

a lot of times we treat God like the butler,

but he's not our butler. We don't come to him

with the least and tell him you do this for me.

We come first and foremost and acknowledge Him as our father,

as our judge, and as our king. Hallelujah. Then let's

move on to the tree needs that you have every

day of your life. And you know what, these are

things that we don't always pray for. Actually, you think

about it, because there is no health mentioned in there,

there's no physical safety mentioned in there, there's no wealth

mentioning there. I mean, these are the three things that

we always pray for most of the time on you

make good health, more money can more money will go

a long way. You know when I move around, you'll

keep me safe and secure and don't let anyone harm me.

We don't see those three things in the Lord's Prayer

in state. What we see actually is everyone's daily needs.

And what the daily needs is actually food. Forgiveness and freedom,

you need food. That's the reality of it. But I

know hard for us to pray the Lord's prayer because

a lot of us have a freezer and a fridge

full of food. And sometimes we're like, we take it

for granted that we have a lot, and it's so

well stung. You know, we go to the super against

what lack of food? There's no lack of food that

stunts of food everywhere. No, once in a while we

go for a nice buffet. No, and then yeah, it's

just everywhere. But if things begin to run out, I

think you pray this prayer a lot more fervently, and

I never know, you never know when things will run out,

when food will be scarced again. I don't think we

should ever be complaced, and we should be grateful and

That's why we encourage people to give thanks before every meal,

because you are essentially saying, thank you, Lord for this

food that's before me. It is true, your grace that

I have food to eat. And so this prayer is

so important. Remember this, it's telling us to live a

day at a time. Lord, give us day by day

the food that we need. Because the scripture she does

say men should not live by prey alone. It just

means this that we need at least break to live.

Think about it. I know the scripture says man should

not live by bread alone, by by every word that

proceeds from his mouth. But if you look at it deeper,

you realize that actually that's the least that we need.

Brain and in many countries in this world today you

would have to pray this prayer and mean it because

a lot of people are still going hungry. There's a

lot of famines which are happening around the world. That's

the reality of a distribution of food is and has

never been equal. In fact, if you study the Book

of Revelations, you will realize that one of the things

that will happen actually will be famine and sicknesses that

will come along the way, and so I pray we

will never take this for granted. Daily we need to say, Lord,

give us this day our daily pray. We need God's provision. Amen.

Second thing we need is forgiveness every day. I know

that when you become a Christian, your sins were forgiven.

It was all taken away. We rejoice in Hallelujah, praise God.

But subsequent sins require repentance and God's forgiveness to Yes,

the past since done doesn't wipe away. But unless you

tell me that when you come to God you see

no more completely, I really doubt it. I've never really

met anyone who tells me that the day I met

Jesus and gave my life to Christ, there was the

day in which I never seen ever again. Maybe if

you met him, gave your life to him, and then

literally met him after that, then I'll believe you. But

the truth is a lot of us need to continue

to walk this world and live this life, which I

can assure you that for you will still need to

have God's forgiveness in our life lives. And there is

this one clause in that prayer that has a condition

to it, which is this part of it as you

confess that you have seen today. In using this prayer,

you also confess that you have forgiven others today. And

it is obvious that you cannot be forgiven unless you

forgive others. Let's just put it this way. It's almost

like an electrical circuit, and it is only completed when

your hand is in the hand of God and your

hand is in the hand of someone else, and the

current of forgiveness can only flow into your life on

this daily basis when it's connected. That is, you must forgive,

then you receive God's forgiveness. It is flowing out of

your life. On the other hand, as you are receiving

God's forgiveness. This is where God can and sotimes people like, huh,

well God really hold forgiveness. I don't know. I believe

he's got all the prerogative in the world. Who are

we to think that, oh, no, God must forgive me.

The truth is he says, I want to. I will

forgive you as you forgive others. You cannot have God's

forgiveness if you are holding grudges or resentment against others,

And so the circuit must be complete, and then your

daily need for forgiveness can be met by your heavenly Father.

Makes sense, and so as we pray the Lord's Prayer.

That's why it's not something that we just pray wantonly.

There are things in it that as we are praying,

God actually wants us to do. So it's very important.

Two things that we need. Food forgiveness, and the third

thing is freedom. Again, not freedom politically, but freedom spiritually

and morally. Freedom from temptation, freedom from the evil One,

freedom from the worst slave master of all, which is ourselves.

We need freedom. You need freedom from all this, you know,

from temptation, from the evil One, from yourself. And so

you pray, don't let me be tempted above what I

can bear. That is ultimately what we are praying in

the Lord's Prayer. Don't let me be pushed too far.

I want to be free from shame. I want to

be free from guilt. I want to be free from fear.

In the other versions of the Lord's Prayer, in Matthew,

it actually finishes by saying this, deliver us from the

evil One. And so if you begin your prayer thinking

about God, you actually end it thinking about Satan. Right,

quite weird, Right, it's not everything God, Hello, be your name,

then Sally at the end of it is deliver us

from the evil One. It's quite a thought, right. We

are to pray against Satan as you leave God's presence.

That's the truth of it, because you are going from

God's presence into Satan's realm. So when we as we

are praying, we are praying God, thank you. But you

will still have to walk into this world because we

live in this world, and that's the reality of it.

That's why we've got to pray against Satan. Because the

meaning we walk out into this world, the minute we

go back to our workplaces, the mining, we go back

to our marketplaces and our campuses, we walk back into

the realm of the prince of this world, which is

the devil. And so pray against Satan as you leave

God's presence is so important. As we go into the world,

we need to be delivered from it, to be in

the world and not of the world. That's why we

say deliver us from the evil One. Don't let us

fall into the traps of the evil One. So one

disciple asked for this prayer. One disciple was given it,

but he was actually taught always to say our do

you ever realize that the pronoun that was used, Jesus

didn't tell this one disciple who came up to him,

because the disciple came Lord. He also said, teach us

to pray? Didn't they teach me to pray? But it

was one that approached him. And I think it's quite

an amazing revolution in your private personal prayer to actually

say our, to say we. How often you find yourself

praying our or we or us in your private prayer?

A lot of times that a lot me, I help me,

very rarely we ever go to that. But you must

always remember this. You must think you are sometimes we

think we are very unique and we are the only

individual that exists in this world. But that's not how

it is. Because think about it, every need you have,

every sorrow that you you have, every burden that you bear,

every frustration that you have ever experienced, I assure you

the other God of God's children in this world who

have exactly the same thing. And so when you pray

for that to be delivered from selfishness, from whatever, hatred,

from whatever you're praying to be delivered, pray our because

you are linking your prayer with many other people around

the world. There are many other believers around the world,

and so God is not listening to just one individual.

He's actually listening to many individual prayers. But many people

who are praying together as a family, as brothers and

as sisters are all climbing on his knees together when

we pray the Lord's prayer. And that is the power

of the Lord's prayer. It is not a prayer in

which you refer to yourself only, as a prayer in

which actually, if you pray the Lord's prayer, you can

safely say that I'm actually praying for other people as well.

And I think that is so important. You see, the

Lord's Prayer is a beautiful prayer that puts the language

of humility on your lips and teaches you to come

before God and acknowledge his name. And I want you

to also notice that all of that prayer is actually

asking for something. It is some people think that asking

for things is a very childish form of prayer. It's

a very low form of prayer, you know. I mentioned now, No,

we can get it wrong when we think that it's

not about asking. It is. Prayer is about asking. I'm

just saying, don't come to God and straight away give you,

give him a list of things that you want first

and foremost, acknowledge him first and foremost. And so when

you study the Lord's prayer, you realize and not the

Lord's prayer as in this our father, you study how

Jesus prayed. If you read and you learn how Jesus pray,

you realize that most times he's asking for things. As

he's talking to his father's a request. So prayer is

essentially asking, and that is the heart of it. That's

why in prayer we always say please, we always say

thank you, we always say sorry. It's important for all

those things to be part of our prayer. You see,

a child's relationship to his parents includes asking for things

that the child can't do for himself or herself. And

this is the relationship. It's an asking relationship. Therefore, never

be afraid or a shame to us. I'm not asking,

telling y'all, teaching y'all. He don't ask anything. You don't

just come to God and give him, Reverend. No, it

is about asking. Never let people tell you that. Oh,

even the Lord's prayer is a law form because he's

asking for food. It's asking for forgiveness. It's asking for freedom.

What's wrong with that? But when you come to God,

ask for the right thing things. That is what we

need to learn. Ask for the right things, which brings

us now to the second part of this lesson. If

you ask, you should expect an answer. Right if you're asking,

So prayer is asking. Don't just pray what I sometimes

call perfunctory prayers and least you just pray whatever. After no,

God you answer, you answer, you don't answer, so you answer.

Maybe I don't even want to follow what you answer.

Sometimes we are like that. Right if you ask, if

you're praying and you're fervoly praying, you have to pray

and expect an answer. And it's vital to have answers

to prayer because it's a two way thing. We are

asking God. And this is not just Auto's suggestion. No,

we are not just trying to condition ourselves to accept

things as they are. Prayer changes things we are asking,

and we should expect things to happen as a result.

We should look to God to give us food, forgiveness

and freedom and thank Him when they come along our way.

We should look to God to send his kingdom on

earth and to answer our prayers. When we ask God

to demonstrate his power, we should expect him to do

something about it. Right. In other words, an answered prayer

is a problem to a believer. It is I'm not

saying it's not. Sometimes we're like, oh God, I will

answer my prayers. Okay, I just leave it as it is. No,

it is. It is a problem because the point of

praying is actually to get an answer. That's why sometimes

we get so frustrated because we think that there is

no answer. So let's go to the scriptures and see

what we can learn from the scriptures. We are now

going to look at the reasons why some answers don't come.

And Jesus gives us the conditions. He has talked about

the content of our asking prayer. That's what That's why

I actually entitle it content content of our asking prayer

is this. We got to put God first. Acknowledge his purity,

acknowledge his fatherhood, acknowledged his was it yes, power, kingdom?

Then seek him for food, seek him for forgiveness, for freedom. Amen,

he all falling asleep. Ah, it's okay, It's all that.

The notes, you can take the notes. But we have

talked about the content of our asking prayer. Now, let's

talk about the conditions for God answering our prayer. And

I'm just going to read the next verse immediately because

it goes on to say, is this then teaching them

more about prayer? This is Luke Chapter eleven now verses

five to eleven. He used this story. Suppose you went

to a friend's house at midnight wanting to borrow three

loads of bread. You say to him, a friend of

mine has just arrived for a visit, and have nothing

for him to eat. And suppose he calls out from

his bedroom, don't bother me. The door is locked for

the night, and my family and I are all in bit.

I can't help you, But I tell you this, though

he won't do it for your friendship's sake, If you

keep knocking long enough, you will get up and give

you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. And

so I tell you, keep on asking and you will

receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you're fine.

Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks fines, and

to everyone who knocks, the door will be open. You fathers.

If your children ask for a fish, do you give

them a snack instead? Or if they ask for an egg,

do you give them a scorpion? Of course not so.

If you sinful people know how to give good gifts

to your children, how much more will your heavenly father

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. So

there are two conditions here. One condition is on our side.

The other condition is on God's side. Let's look at

our condition first, and the condition on our side is

quite clear. It's actually persistence. That's what's needed on our side.

Persistence doesn't mean long prayer, but it does mean frequent

prayer and going on until you get the answer. You see,

in the Middle East those days, they went to bath

quite early. Okay, they didn't have separate break rooms. The

family all slapt in the raised part of the house,

and then the animals slap at the lower part. And

so this parable is about this story. This chap went

to bathe with his whole family, and then suddenly he

has a visitor who arrived, and this visitor had no supper.

In the Middle East, hospitality is a sacred duty. Okay,

no one can come to you hungry. So just like Asians. Okay,

we like to feed everyone silly. So this guy comes

and asks, have you got some bread? See, the family

had got a bait for the night. Yet the man

just kept on knocking, kep on knocking, kep on knocking

in the family really sleeping, not embarrassed at all, not

sensitive to the household, the feelings of those who were

living in the house. And he went on knocking on

the door until he was given the brain. And you see,

Jesus is not saying that God is a reluctant giver.

What he is teaching is that the human side of

this story is true of prayer. If you really mean

business with God, you will go on until you get it.

Very very important for us, and I want to encourage

us scriptural because a lot of times we give up

too easily. Of course, you may be asking for the

wrong thing, and you have to test what you are

praying for by the Lord's prayer, hasted. If you are

praying for the right thing, it will come under one

of those six things that I just spoke about just

now that we have just studied, you will come under there,

under the umbrella. So you can always check whether you're

praying for the right thing or not. And thank God

he doesn't spoil us as children. Do you know God

is not someone I don't know what kind of parent

you are. Are you the kind of parent that every

time your kid asks for something, you give it to

your kids straight away? Me? Usually, if you have it,

I'll give it la right, Mona always always have a

lot of things, okay, sex nodding saying no, I don't

get nothing from my daddy keeps everything to himself. Okay,

But it's true. You know, we don't want to spoil

our children by giving them things straight away. Actually, there

are days when I always stop myself shot. Even though

I can afford something or I have it, I can

give it straight away upon request, I still find myself

holding back, not because I'm evil, but because I think

there is something to learn from And so God doesn't

spoil us as his charreny. He doesn't always give us

what we want. But if your prayer checks with the

Lord's prayer and it's legitimate, legitimized by the Lord's prayer,

you go on knocking until God's door is open to you.

That is what I'm encouraging us to do. If you

know that you're praying for the right thing. Keep on knocking,

you see. One of the greatest promises on prayer in

the Bible is, then what we just read, keep on

asking and you received. Keep on knocking and the door

will be open to you. Keep on. It's very significant

because it's actually in the present continuous tense. That means

it's don't stop knocking, don't stop seeking, don't stop finding,

not just once, but keep on doing it. You see,

persistence in prayer is a vital part of prayer on

the human side. It's very very important for us to

understand this condition. Then to balance up the story so

that people don't think God is reluctant to give. Jesus

now talks about divine providence, God's willingness to provide you

with good things. You know. One of the things that

stops people praying and asking God for something is that

they're afraid of what He might give you. Ever find

yourself doing that, Sometimes you're like, oh, give me this, no,

I need this, and then like, oh, if God really

give me the eyes who don't know how to handle it.

I've known people sometimes afraid to ask God to fill

them with the Holy spirit. That's real. No it's the

reality of it. And they have said, no, I'm not

sure what I'll be getting if God feels me the

Holy Spirit. Does it come in more roles and responsibilities? No?

Do I need to carry out more things? Or no,

no do I really want it? And then Jesus says,

even you evil earthly parents, sinners, you evil people. You

wouldn't give your child something harmful? Would you? If they

ask for an age, will you give them a scorpion?

It's the argument or the counter argument. When you pray,

think of these three words, how much more? How much

more will your heavenly Father give you something good? Something helpful?

Do you think that God will give you something harmful

and something hurtful? I don't believe so. So there may

be persistence in prayer, but sometimes a reluctance to receive.

We must always check our hearts. We are sometimes afraid

of what might happen. You know. Sometimes we pray, Lord,

I'll go anywhere in the world, send me anywhere in

the world but Africa. Sometimes we pray conditional prayers, like

no send me down the street, me my workplace like

you know I do missions, don't send me to Timbaktu

in the middle of nowhere. Lord, I'll go anywhere in

the world. But no, we are persistent in prayers, but

sometimes selective in dancers. And then God sends you to Africa.

Low and behold, that's usually what happens. I would like,

as I joke with quantin know if those of you

know quntent missionary I had love people know the Lord

you seem mightily he was reaching out to a lot

of our students in Cyberjaya back then. And then you

know he says, here I am here, I am use

me here, I am send me and lo and behold,

the Lord really sent him to Africa. He was in

Botswana for four years. But because of that we have

our church there as well. Praise the Lord.

Right.

So, Lord, I want to dedicate myself to you, But Lord,

I only want to be here. No, it doesn't be

careful how we seek the Lord for answers. Sometimes there

are a lot of things that we are persistent about,

but then we are not ready to receive God's answers.

And so this is our last's teaching, especially on prayer

for the Holy Spirit, because if you read it, you

realize the last line says, what more, how much more

would God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask you. See,

it is a prayer that the Father loves to answer,

because that is the greatest gift he could give you,

next to the gift of his son. To give you

Jesus to die for you is a very great gift, Allelujah.

And all of us, I believe are recipients of this gift.

To give you the spirit to live in you is

actually as great a gift as the gift of his son,

and it is a gift that you should pray for.

This is what I want us to do, to pray

for the Holy Spirit, because that's what the scripture says.

I know a lot of times when we are asking God, God,

feel me the Holy Spirit. One part of us really

wants it. The other part of us is like afraid

what's to come thereafter? Don't be afraid. Seek God. Knock

on the doors of his heart until he answers, because

if you are seeking Him for the Holy Spirit, he

wants to give you the Holy Spirit. He really does.

Go on asking, go on knocking, go on seeking. God

is looking around for those who can become the temple

of his Holy Spirit and whom he can use Amen. Okay,

those are the conditions again, content of our asking prayer.

Glorify God first and foremost. Acknowledge his fatherhood, Acknowledge his purity,

Acknowledge his power. And when we are asking for things,

don't just ask for anything and everything under the sun

for your daily providence. Ask him for forgiveness, and ask

him what's the third one? Freedom? Because all of us,

when the Lord came into our lives, he has set

us free from death. That is why we are free

from But a lot of times we still live as

though we are bound by this world and bound by death,

we are not bound. We are not bound by sin anymore.

For those who believe and call on the name of Jesus,

if you are safe, he has saved you from sin ultimately.

But it doesn't stop there. We need the Holy Spirit

living in us for us to keep on walking this

world in purity. That is why it is so essential

for us to ask for the Holy Spirit. That's why

the scripture teaches us to ask for the Holy Spirit

in our lives. And that's why the reminder is there.

God does not withhold, He does not want to hold

the Holy Spirit from you. If you keep on asking, Amen,

and we have come to now the final part. How

can we make our prayers effective? Okay, I'm gonna come

to an end. But again this is a reminder. Never

think of prayer from a quantitative point of view. Got

to always look at it from a qualitative point of view.

To think quantitatively is to say the longer I pray

for this person, the more effective it will be. But

Jesus said you will not be hurt for your much

praying or for your many words. It's in Matthew, you

can be full of words. That's not what Jesus is

actually looking for. It is not true that the longer

you pray for someone, the more effective the intercession is

known or likewise, when you think quantitative, listener, we think,

or the more people I can get to pray this

prayer the better. If only I can get a hundred people,

we get all those chain prayers that go, you'll send

this to many many people. So we think the more

people we at least thousands of people praying, it will

go a longer way. But you think about it. The scripture,

she says two or three are gathered in prayer. That's

all you need. Actually, And so if we are thinking quantitatively,

we are thinking that the more names there are to

a petition, to a supplication to God, the more God

will listen. But I have told you that God looks

through the petition. You know, God actually studies and looks

through every one of your supplications, every one of your requests.

A petition is a request. Ultimately, he is not looking

at how many people are petitioning. He's just looking for

one name in that petition only, and that is the

name in which He grants prayers by, and that name

is Jesus. That is why when we pray, we pray

in Jesus' name, not get more names to pray, but

pray in Jesus name. And having said that, see, the

more people that you can get to pray deeply, the better.

That's why I say it's more qualitative than it is quantitative.

So when you think qualitatively and not quantitatively, it would

actually be more effective to have ten people praying at

depth than to have one hundred people just mentioning prayers

deep prayers. What is a deep prayer? It actually means

a prayer that costs the person something. You see the effectiveness,

the effectiveness of your prayer for someone else is actually

indirect ratio to the cost to yourself. And I believe

that is why when Jesus came down and found his

disciples in the valley after he had been on the mountain,

and he found that they were unable to help a

child that was in need. Do you remember what he said?

This is in Matthew chapter seventeen, verse twenty one. Don't

you realize that this kind of situation can only be

dealt with by prayer and fasting. You see, in other words,

you missed the cost out of it, and a lot

of times we missed the cost out of it. It

did not cost you anything to pray for this boy.

That is what Jesus was essentially saying, and that is

the place of fasting in prayer. We don't do it

just for fun, just so that we can get a

night body. After that. It's not a diet because it

is costing you something. It costs you your meal, and

I know how painful that can be for some people,

actually most people. I've never met someone who can go

hungry and be happy on It's a human nature. That

is one of the reasons why I will always encourage

us when we go through a time of prayer and fasting,

that we need to fast a meal. I have a

bunch of campus students in ten sub who tell me

on a fast social media. Okay, I would like to

believe that social media is like food to this generation.

Now there's no social media to go cold turkey, but

nothing like fasting a meal, because that really will cause

you something. The only marriage in spending a long time

praying for someone is that it is costing you time.

It costs you something when you get on your knees

and pray. Yes, it cost you something because it's time

is precious, especially today. So the question we have to

ask is this, what did it cause you to pray?

What did it cause you to pray? The deepest cause

is this. You see when a woman touched the ham

of Jesus's garment and was healed, goodness went out of him.

Makes sense she touched the ham. This is in Luke

chapter eight, goodness went out of Christ. If you have

really prayed for someone, some of your resources have left

you and traveled to another person. That is the reality

of it. Power has gone from God, but goodness has

gone from you, and they have met in the person

who is in need. That's why your prayers can be

effective because the power of God goes out and the

goodness from the person who is praying also goes out,

and when they come together, prayer becomes effective. If you

have really prayed for someone, you will be trained on

ever found yourself in that situation when you are really

praying for someone, you know. Sometimes I get prayer requests

and we get on our knees and we keep praying

until something happens when someone is so unwell. No. I

remember there was one this is our assistancy PC in Ampang.

John and his wife was giving birth to their second

child and she passed out during delivery and the doctors

told John that we're going to lose her. And I

remember he was like asking for prayer, and we got

on our knees and we prayed and we prayed and

we prayed until we were artly exhausted. Really, but that

is what it really. That means if you are really praying,

it will cost you something. And this is what I

want to encourage us. That's why there is power in

prayer and fasting. God will replenish everything that is exhausted.

I totally believe in that that the bank. I'm almost done.

So the question is this, did prayer cost you anything?

And this is how we are to pray. When you

are exhausted after paying the cost of prayer, remember the

content of the Lord's prayer. Remember the content of the

Lord's prayer. Our Father, who is in heaven, Hello, be

your name, your Kingdom. Come. Your will be done on

earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day

our daily prayer, and forgive us our debt. As we

forgive our debts, lead us not into temptation, but deliver

us from the evil one or yours is the power,

the Kingdom and the glory. Amen. Remember the content of

the Lord's prayer, and then exercise the conditions of persistence

we need. That. It's not just one of you know.

You know there are days when sometimes I look at

the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is still quite vibrant today,

even though maybe in Europe is quite dead. Most catholicturures

in Europe are museums and you just go pay a

fee and go in and visit. But that lictures around

the world are still very much alife. And you know,

I really part of me believe that God believes that

God is blessing them. Also, because many Catholics pray the

Lord's Prayer every single day, every single day's actually part

of their the Rosary prayer. Christians, sometimes we forget many

of us do E will know the words to the

Lord's Prayer. I want to encourage us know the words

to the Lord's Prayer because that's the first prayer you

should be uttering and praying every day when you wake up.

But I'm not just asking you to memorize the words.

I'm encouraging you to understand the content of the prayer

because the content of the Lord's Prayer is the framework

of all our prayers. Think of God first and foremost

before we bring what we need to Him. There's an

order right there. So know the content, then exercise the

conditions of persons. You must be persistent in prayer. It's

not just a one off things. It's not just something

I do during twenty one days of prayer and fasting

and I forget about it. No, continue to persist. And

then this is the other part that we need to

be proactive. We need to receive the providence of God

through the Holy Spirit. A lot of times we persist

in prayer but we don't want the providence that God

has given us. You know, He has provided us the

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not just a figment

of our imagination. The Holy Spirit is just not the

person of God who was in existence two thousand years

ago in the Book of Acts. I believe the Holy

Spirit is alive today because Jesus already said very clearly,

I have to go. I am not able to be

with each and every one of you at all times.

He was limited. Yes he was God in Kannate, but

he was still God made flesh, which meant that he

had limitations. And that's why he said I have to go,

because in my limited physical form, I won't be able

to be with every single believer. But he says, when

I go, I will leave with you the Spirit, the

Holy Spirit. And that's why the Holy Spirit is known

as the Paraclectos. He is the person who is by

our side. He is our comforter. Paracletos also means he

is our advocate. He's someone that is always doing things

on our behalf, interceding on our behalf. But yet many

Christians don't have that relationship with the Holy Spirit because

we think that the Holy Spirit is also someone who

is far away. No, the Holy Spirit is someone who

wants to live in us. And so I want to

encourage us seek God and seek God for the Holy

Spirit to be in our lives. Because when you have

the Spirit of God living in you, I am assured

that you will understand the content of prayer. You will

understand the conditions of unswered prayers, and you will understand

most importantly, the cost of prayer. Because everything has a

cost to it, and we all pay a cost. And

a lot of times we don't want to pay the

cost because it is costly, and we don't like things

that are costly. But Jesus really, right from the very beginning,

told us to count the cost of following him. There

is a cost even to follow Christ. It is not free.

Never look at it as a free riot, because whenever

we do that, we will chipen God's grace. We will

think that his grace is free grace. Just take it

and I can make use of anything I want to

know God's grace. Never chipen God's grace in that sense,

because his grace is amazing, and his grace has given

each everyone of us here hope, and because of his

grace Today we are free. We are not bound by death.

Once upon a time we were all walking there. Once

upon a time we had one eventuality, and that is

an eternity without God. But the day we gave our

lives to Christ and the day we invited God to

baptize us with the Holy Spirit, was the day in

which we were set free on death. Now we are

free to choose to do what is right, and do

what is right we need because ultimately, yes, we are

safe by our faith in Christ Jesus, but ultimately he

will judge us by our works. Remember that, that's what

the scripture tells us. When God sees us face to

face and he has come, he will come as a judge.

He's still right now in the face of Savior. But

it says the scripture says that he will come back

once again and he will come to judge. And you

think he's going to judge you by faith. No, we

are safe by faith, justify made right by faith. But

we will ultimately be judged by works. That means what

we do is still important. What we do is not

important on how we get safe. That's why the scripture

says nothing you can do to warrant you God's grace.

But once we are safe and in the Lord, he

wants us to now make sure that our faith is

lived out. That's why faith without works is we need

to act out our faith and so I want to

encourage you twenty one days of prayer and fasting. This

is one of the first few steps that we can

start taking God. I want to act out my faith.

This is what I want to do. I want to

dedicate time spend in prayer because I know this will

cost me and I'm not just praying for myself. Think

of the different needs, not just in your life. I'm

sure many of us have got loved ones who have

not yet known who Jesus is. Let's continue to pray

for them. Let us continue to remember them. There's many

people in this world who are still suffering. Let's continue

to pray for them. Can we do that?

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless