Content + Condition + Cost of Prayer | Elder Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day. We're

going to teach there on prayer. I'm going to take

the shortest prayer that the Lord taught us in the scriptures,

which is from the Book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke.

I'm going to break it down a little bit, and

I pray that prayer is something that we don't find

it impossible or far away or hard to relate to.

I want us to realize how simple it has always

been and how much the Lord wants us to continue

with this daily discipline of prayer and fasting. And so

why I'm doing this also is I hope we are

not just people who wait for the season of land

denually we pray and fast. Let's let's let's not do that.

I pray is next one week left? No, if you

have not started something, you'll start something, and you will.

Let this be a good lifestyle, a good way of

living our Christian journey, our Christian walk, so that it's

something that continues to help us grow and become effective

as believers. I think that's what we all want to

be as well. We want to be not just good believers,

but good effective believers. That is the purpose that the

Lord has for each and every one of us. Amen.

So I'm going to read Luke chapter eleven Versus wonderful.

I simply entitled the message today, the content, the condition,

and the cost of prayer. I'll break it down as

it is. I hope to be able to explain it

clearly so that we are able to also be equipped

moving forward. Okay, and so Luke chapter eleven Versus one

to four it says this, and I'm going to read

it very quickly. Once Jesus 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. The Lord bless

the reading of his word. Okay, short, simple, sweet. So

what transpired on that day is one day the disciples

woke up early and then they noticed, Okay, the bit

where Jesus usually slips in is empty, and so they decided, okay,

I think we need to go and look for where

Jesus is hanging out right now. So they put on

their clothes and they went searching for him. They found

him eventually, and he was talking to his heavenly father,

and so Jesus prays. You realize this if you read

the scriptures, usually read the Gospels, you realize that Jesus

praise and so he was talking to his father and

they had never heard, I'm assuming anyone pray quite like

how Jesus praise to his father. And so they listened,

and then when he had finally finished, one of them

gathered up the courage to approach him and say, Lord,

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

Very honest, I'm sure something must have been intrigued them,

because they've been hanging out with Jesus all this while,

but never once until then did any one of them

asked to teach on how to pray. And so the disciples, actually,

you think about it, should know how to pray, right

because they were all Jews who grew up in the synagogue.

They probably had different kinds of prayers that were already

memorized since they were children. Some prayers they recited over

and over very meaningfully, very sincerely. But when they heard

the Lord pray to his father, they will move to

ask for teaching. And I think that's very very important

for us to take note. And Jesus taught them a

little prayer that they could use, and for the next

two thousand years Christians have used this prayer and I

believe this is one of the most wonderful prayers ever. Really,

it's a prayer that we should pray all the time daily.

You know, there are some denominations that praise the Lord's

Prayer regularly, and I really believe that's also one of

the reasons why they're very very blessed. Sometimes we may

not put it into the order of our worship, or

we may not have liturgy. That does not mean that

we shouldn't pray the Lord's Prayer daily and frequently. My

encouragement is pray the Lord's prayer every day. I make

it my personal habit, and this is what I will

teach people to do. Don't forget it, remember and remember

to pray, and so Jesus taught them this prayer that

they can use. We call it the Lord's prayer. But

if you think about it, the Lord never quite needed

to pray this prayer because there are some things mentioned

in there that he just doesn't need to ask for allah,

He doesn't need to ask for forgiveness. Why does Jesus

need to ask for forgiveness unless some of your things

that he has wronged in you love? But really, Jesus

has not wronged any one of you, even though that's

how you feel sometimes. And I pray that after today

we'll be able to establish some of these as facts

of our faith. Our faith is built on facts, not

just feelings. And the fact is Jesus has not wronged

any one of us. He has come to sick and

save those who are lost, and so it's actually a

prayer for us, not so much a prayer for Jesus.

So if you ask me, it should actually been called

the Lord's People's prayer. But anyway, let's analyze it. Okay,

let's analyze it. One of the things that you'll notice

is it's brief, is short. You can get it over

and done in twenty seconds. I think this one maybe

fifteen is so much shorter. So you will notice that

it is the death of the prayer, not the length

that matters. It is the quality, not the quantity, that

matters in prayer. And Jesus has worn his hearers before,

he says, don't think that by heaping up prayers, long

prayers you somehow get God to listen. That's not how

it works with the Lord. So you realize that it

is a simple yet very comprehensive prayer, a prayer that

even children can memorize. And I know ex Kids teaches

the children to memorize the Lord's prayer in their own

CEV version. But it works. Okay, it's fine. The prayer

is shorter here in Luke's gospel as compared to the

one that we see in the Gospel of Matthew. I

believe it's given in different occasions. So, like I said,

I just want to take the shortest prayer that Jesus

taught us and help us see that this is all

that we need, actually very very important. And so Luke

balls it down to the bad essentials of prayer. Yet

I believe here you already have everything. So these are

the first few things that I want you to notice

about this prayer. First thing is this pray about what

God wants before you pray about what you want. You

realize that that's how the Lord's prayer starts. It doesn't

start with us coming straight to the Lord with our

shopping lists, even though that is usually how we come

to the Lord. Well, usually we come to a lot

more in desperation, you know, when we need something, then

we pray. When we don't really need something, we usually

remain silent and reticent, which is not a good thing

for us to practice. So remember this. The simple lesson

in prayer is this pray about what God wants first,

before you pray about what you want. That's why the

prayer actually begins with God. It doesn't begin with us.

It begins with our Father, who is in heaven. Too

often we will rush into God's presence with our list,

with the things that we want, the things that we need.

But these are the things that true this prayer. The

Lord wants us to think about our God when we pray,

very important. That's why it's us us to pray like this.

So the first thing that we need to think of

is is fatherhood, the fatherhood of God. Jesus taught if

you want to talk to God like I talk to

God my father. Then just come straight into his presence,

like how a child would walk into the presence of

his father and sit on his father's lap and say, Daddy,

can I have this? That is how the Lord has

taught us to pray. You see, the Lord's prayer remind

finds us and it starts off with abah father. Abba

is actually the endearing term that is used in uh

their language. Who not like father. Okay, very few of

us call our father, father or mother very formal. Most

of the time we address our dads as daddy, and

abba actually is the phrase daddy. So it's like the

reminder is when your praying, come to the Lord and

acknowledge him as Daddy, Daddy, God. And that is why

it's so important for us to have that in mind

first and foremost, his fatherhood. That is who he is.

I know sometimes not all of us are able to

identify with a good father, maybe because of our own experiences,

but that does not discount, that does not negate the

fact that God is a good father. And so we

start off with acknowledging that that he is our father.

So acknowledge his father, who the second thing we need

to acknowledge is this, We need to acknowledge his purity

because the truth is, none of us have ever known

an earthly father whose name was holy. Even even me,

my kids, they look at me, they won't, they won't

call me holy, even though I'm like, not just their dad,

I'm their pastor as well. But they heck, no, They're

not going to call me holy because they probably seen

so much of me. Uh, and know that I have

my own faults, I have my own shortcomings, and so

a lot of us will never be able to fully

identify because we never had an earthly father who is holy.

But yere, you need to remember this that our father

in heaven is a father in holiness. He is a

holy God. No, this is something that we find it

very hard to reconsole. A holy God. He is a

righteous God. That means everything that he does is right.

That's something humans find hard to accept for anyone. But

we need to find it deep within the recesses of

our hearts to realize that God is nothing that we

can ever compare to. We can't compare God with any

other creature or any other creation, because he is again

what is he? He is the Creator. That's why in

the Apostles Creed we say, I believe in God, the Father,

the creator of the heavens and the earth. He is

not like us. We need to acknowledge that he does

not have faults and weaknesses like us. He is the

heavenly Father whose name is holy. And God's name should

be held in all it should be it should it

should make us feel unhappy when people use God's name

in way. Really believe that if someone is swearing and

cursing in the name of Jesus. I think as believers

who love the Lord, we can gently and lovingly remind

people please do not use God's name in vain. You know,

the more we allow it and the more we just

turn away. It's almost reflecting our stand and our position

of how much respect we give to God's name. You

don't see Christians fighting for this. You don't see Christians

law being and petitioning Hollywood to stop using God's name

in vain. But I think I'm not asking us to

do it, but I think it should make it should

exasperate us when we hear God's name used in wain.

Because his name is a holy name, it's a powerful

name and so really, there are many people who curse

God because they perceive him as evil. They always percif as, Oh,

God is not fair. You know why he allow all

these things to happen to me. I'm suffering because of God.

That's not true. Earth's falling shot has got nothing to

do with God wanting bad things to happen to people,

because there's not an ounce of evil in God. That

is the reality of it is either we accept it

by faith or not. And many of us find it

hard only because we live in this world and we

see a lot of bad things and a lot of

evil things. But you need to be sure in your

faith that evil does not emanate from God. Evil emanates

from sin and from the prince of this world, and

that's the devil who continues to still kill and destroy

the things that we have. So may God's name be revered.

May people never refer to it except with reverence and respect.

Because he is a holy and he's a pure god,

we need to acknowledge his purity in our lives. The

second thing. The thing is this, you need to think

about God, and you need to think about his power,

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

to govern, which means his power to control. It is

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

not fully. And so I believe the Kingdom of God

has arrived. It has it arrives today? Jesus came into

this world to establish the Kingdom of God. But has

it been fully established? Has it been fully mandated? Not yet.

That's why the scriptures will always tell us that the

one that rules this world is the prince of this world.

It's the devil. And that's why we are called to

be in this world, but not off this world. And

so the Kingdom of God is here. It has begun,

but is inaugurated is the word that is used. It

has really begun, but has it been fully consummated? Not yet.

But it will happen in God's timing, because one day

he will come and he will reign, and he will

reign sovereignly over everything that happens here in heaven and

in earth. Amen. So we first need to acknowledge his

power and his kingdom and not think that God is

just someone who has got no control of things, because

a lot of times that's how we perceive him. We

think that God I don't think you can do this,

so maybe I won't trouble you. A lot of us

have this mindset that God is just someone who has

wound a clock and let it thick, and then whatever

happens is case Sarah Sarah, is nothing that he can

change or undo. It just happening, just flowing according to time.

I don't believe in that. I believe God is still

in control of all things. I believe God can still

change things. I believe he is almighty, his sovereign, and

you know, true prayer we can actually change God's mind.

The scriptures have taught us over and over again. If

you read the Old Testament, if God has set his

mind to do something, prayer actually is something that helps

to change his mind. If he set out to destroy

this group of people. I've seen in the Old Testament

where different ones continue to pray and ask, Lord Lord,

have mercy, have mercy on this view, have mercy, and

he says, okay, I will. By what do you think

he's looking for. He's still looking for righteousness, He's still

looking for people who will follow him, and so he

is willing when we can change. He's my end. I

just want us to know this, he is in control

of every department money in your life. That means when

you pray, you must acknowledge him as God and savior.

You must acknowledge him as the king of your life.

Because there are many areas of our lives where we

find it hard to surrender unto the Lord. Lord, this one,

I will sort it out myself. Lord, this area, I

think I'd rather you not speaking to it. Lord, I

don't think I want to do this in which you

are impressing my heart to do. We've got to be really,

really careful because it's either his king or he's not king.

It's either he is king or we are king. And

so your kingdom come, your will be done. We want

to see it on earth. We want to see him

in charge of the situation. And so this is the

first part that the Lord wants us to see. He

wants his fatherhood to be enjoyed by his sons and daughters.

He wants his purity to be revered by his people

here on earth, and he wants his kingdom to be

entered so that we become his subjects. That is how

we are to think of God when we are praying.

That's how we have to start all our prayers. In

other words, you must think of God as father, judge,

and king and not just your pal. A lot of

times we think Jesus is just our homeboy. No, Hi, hey,

I got this problem and you better help me. You

better help me, don't. No. I think we need to

look at him as father and daring enough for us

to be reminded that it starts off as daddy God.

But never forget the fact that he is the judge.

He determines what is right and what is wrong. And

he's the king, the ruler who rules and reigns, sovereign

and supreme. And this is how we should approach first

and foremost. And then now you're ready to bring your

needs to him. That's what is meant by acknowledging who

he is first. And there are tree needs that I

will highlight from this prayer that you need every day

of your lives. They are not always the thing that

we pray for, honestly, because most of the time what

would we pray for. We always pray for health, right,

all of us. The older I get, the more I've

been praying for health. Seriously, health is not mentioned there.

I mean, we always pray for physical safety and security

for ourselves, for our families. It's a normal thing, but

we don't always see it, and we don't see it there.

We always pray for wealth. Why not, right, more money

the marrier, I would say, But it's not there either.

The three things that everybody needs every day are all

actually said in this model prayer. And these are the

three things. Is food, forgiveness and freedom. Okay, I'll break

it out first and foremost we need food, yes we do.

It's hard for us to pray the Lord's prayer and

really mean it because all of us when we go home,

we pop into our kitchen, open our pantry, open our

fridge and there's a lot of food in there. We

go to the supermarkets and like whoa, it's fully stopped.

And not all of us pray this petition with meaning

and further, Lord give me food. In fact, many of

us forget to thank God for the food that we

are eating. But the prayer is telling us to live

one day at the time. Lord, give us, day by

day the food that we need, because this is the

least that we need. Men shall not live by bread alone.

Just tells us that the least we need to survive

on is food is brain. And in many countries in

the world today a lot of people don't have even

this basic necessity. And that's why it means so much. Lord,

I need food. We need it, and we need to

pray for it. Because one day prayer is also thanksgiving,

and so I think we need to give thanks to

the Lord for the food that he provides for us

all the time. It's not a I'll do it when

I remember. It's really a form of prayer acknowledging that Lord,

thank you so much. Because once upon a time, those

people used to get paid a daily wage, get paid

on that day, get to eat on that day, don't

get paid on that day, don't get to eat for

that day. Give us this day our daily brain. That's

what it means. And so food is the first thing

that we need to always pray sustenance for us to live.

Second thing is this forgiveness. Yes, we need forgiveness every day,

every day. And I know that when we became Christians,

most of us here, if we are believers, your sins

were all forgiven, taken away. But you know subsequent sins

requires repentance and requires God's forgiveness as well. It's not

a blanket past, present, and future. That's why the scripture

keeps telling us to confess our sins. The earnest prayer

of a righteous one goes far, but we need to

confess our sins and then God is faithful to forgive us.

But there is this one clause in this prayer that

Jesus taught his disciples that has a condition to it.

As you confess that you have sined today, in using

this prayer, you also confess that you have forgiven others today.

It's actually a conditional prayer. It is obvious that you

cannot be forgiven unless you forgive others. This is something

that a lot of us missed out because we can't

imagine God holding back forgiveness. But the truth is this.

If you know, in giving your child something, they're going

to misuse it. If your child, you give your child

suits and then the child doesn't share in his siblings.

Do you think you keep on giving your child suits

whenever he or she asked no? You'll hold bad because

you want them to learn to share, just as God

wants us to learn how to forgive. And I can

tell you this forgiveness is one of the hardest things

to do. We want it, but we don't want to

give it. So the parable that we always referred to

as the one that had his debts forgiven but could

not forgive the smaller debt that was owing to him,

and the consequence was severe. Actually, so forgiveness we really need.

You have to imagine it like an electric circuit, and

it can only be completed when one hand hangs on

to God, one hand hangs on to the people that

we need to forgive, and it flows. When you forgive,

you'll be forgiven, and you forgive, you'll be forgiven. It's

a nice circuit, but I know it's not easy. I

know many of us feel that we have been wrong

and therefore we should not forgive others. But our function,

our role, our responsibility, is to forgive. Do not hold

this against anyone. God owes us nothing, but yet he

loved us enough to forgive us, even though he did

no wrong on his pad. Put yourself in his position

because he did not need to meet. Forgive us out

to this world that put him to death, made him suffer,

even though he came to give us a way out.

And we continue to do that even till today. But

yet his forgiveness still falls freely. But we need to

understand what forgiving others means. And you cannot have God's

forgiveness if you are holding grudges or resentment against others.

So the circuit must be complete, and then your daily

need or forgive for forgiveness can be met by your

heavenly Father. I assure you of this. I really believe

that this is God's way and this is how He's

teaching us. The third need is this our need for freedom.

And it's not freedom politically, but freedom spiritually and morally.

Freedom from temptation, freedom from the evil one, freedom from

the worst slave master of it all, which is ourselves.

We need freedom even from ourselves. You need to be

free from all this, And so you pray, don't let

me be tempted above what I can, don't let me

be too too far. I want to be free from shame.

I want to be free from guilt. I want to

be free from fear. These are all these things that

continue to plague us morally and spiritually, guilt, fear, shame,

and daily we need to ask God God set us free,

because that is what He has done for us once

upon a time if we did not know who Jesus is,

all of us only had one end, and that is destruction,

eternal destruction. But the fact that we now have Christ

in our lives, he has set us free from the

destiny that we were bound to, which means that today

we have a choice to do what is right. Once

upon a time, it doesn't matter how much right you do,

you are a ready on the road to destruction. But

with Christ in our lives, now we have your choice

to do what is right when it matters most. Now

are we able therefore to choose to do what is right?

That is why we need God's freedom in our lives. Amen.

You know in the other version of the Lord's Prayer

in the Gospel of Matthew, it ends with this, deliver

us from the evil One. And I believe here is

a reminder. If you begin your prayer thinking about God,

you've got to somehow any by thinking about Satan. It's

quite a thought, I know, but it's reality. Satan's name

is mentioned in a prayer. We're not to pray to him.

We are to pray against Satan because as you leave

God's presence, and that's the reality of it. Because we

will stop our prayers. We will leave God's presence and

we will walk into where the world, which is Satan's realm.

We are walking into a place where he is the

prince of evil, the prince of darkness. And so we

will walk into this world. And you need to be

delivered from this world. That is why the prayer says,

deliver us from the evil one. It is so important

that we are in this world, but not of this world.

And so every line in the Lord's prayer carries meaning.

Another thing for us to consider is this one disciple

asked for this prayer. One disciple was taught and given

this prayer. Yet how he was taught to pray? Is

our father? Interesting pronoun to use is a collective pronoun.

Jesus didn't tag the disciple, okay ah, is how you pray?

I my father? He didn't see my father, says our father.

I think that's quite a revolution for our private prayers,

because sometimes our private prayers can be too personalized. It's

just me, myself and I. But here we are taught

to say our we earth. And sometimes you think you

are so unique. I kid you not. You are not

only because you think about it. Every need that you

have every sorrow, every burden, every trial, every frustration, every challenge.

There are others of God's children who are also going

through something exactly the same that you are going through.

That is the reality of it. And so when you

pray the Lord's prayer, pray our because it's a collective

prayer for each other to stand firm. It's powerful. You

are linking your prayer with so many others as a family,

as brothers, and as sisters, all all climbing on Daddy

God's highs to sit on and talk to him. Amen.

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. Please notice this also,

that all of that prayer is actually asking for something.

This is the next part that I'm going to now

go into and teach. And some people think that asking

for things is a very childish form of prayer, and

I don't blame them. Maybe sometimes we are thought to

don't go into deep prayers, long prayers, meditate until everything

is empty, how to pray when everything is empty? But

sometimes we take it to a level that we don't

even know where we are going. When prayer ultimately is

as simple as ask, it is asking for some It

is not childnged you because think about it. If you

study every most of Jesus's prayer, and Jesus prayed many times,

he talked to his father in heaven, they are always

more often than not, asking for things. Let this cup

pass me by. He's asking for something. Let the church

be one, just like me and you are one. It

is he's asking for something. I pray that Peter's faith

will not diminish, that he will not fall. He's asking

for something. Father, forgive them, for they know not what

they do. He's asking for something. Prayer is asking at

the heart of it. If you think about it, it

is asking. And that's why we must always say please,

thank you, and sorry every time we pray. Please make

sure there are all those three operative words, please, thank you,

and sorry. You see, a child's relationship to his parents

includes asking for things that child cannot get. That's why

a child has their parents there so what they can't get.

It's actually essentially a relationship of asking, right, So never

be afraid or a shame to us. Never let people

tell you that this is a low form of prayer.

If you're asking God for things, are you have not

reached the pinnacle of your prayer life. Pinnacle of your

prayer life is just pray, really pray every day. So

never let people say that asking is the wrong way

of praying. But asking for the right thing is very

very important, Amen, because we worship a righteous God, which

brings us to the second part of this lesson on prayer.

If you you should expect an answer, right. I don't

think all of us have conversations just for the sake

of having conversations with no response. So if you're asking

for something, then should it not also be for us

to expect an answer. So it is actually vital to

have answers to prayer because it is a two way thing.

A lot of people get frustrated because no, they don't

get the answer, or they don't get the answer they want,

and then they just leave it at that. We are

asking God. We are not just trying to condition ourselves

to accept things as they are. We are asking God

because prayer changes things so us. Like I said just now,

prayer has changed God's mind. He has set out to

do certain things, but true prayer he can turn things around.

We should look to God to give us food and

forgiveness and freedom and thank him when they come. So important,

we should look to God to send his kingdom on

earth to answer our prayers. When we ask God to

demonstrate his power, we should expect him to do something

about it. Prayer changes things. Amen. So, in other words,

unanswered prayer is a problem for a believer. It is

and I feel you all sometimes when you're like, ah,

I God never answer my prayer. Okay, It is a

problem because the point of praying is to get an answer, right,

So we are now going to look at the reasons

why some answers don't come, and here will discover Jesus

gives us the conditions you see at the start of

this versus, Jesus talk about the content of our asking prayer.

That's what I mean by the content the first see. Subsequently,

he is now going to speak of the conditions for

God answering prayers. And I'm just going to read on

because it's the same chapter. Reading on after verse four

obviously it's verse five, I'm going to read verses five

to eleven. It says this then then teaching them more

about prayer. He used this story. Suppose you went to

a friend's house at midnight wanting to borrow tree lows

or break. You say to him, a friend of mine

has just arrived for a visit, and I 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 bait.

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

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

knocking long enough, he 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 will fine.

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

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

everyone who knocks the door will be opened. You, fathers,

if your children ask for a fish, do you give

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

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

If you, 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.

You will realize that one condition is on our side,

one condition is on God's side. The condition on our

side is simple. It's called shameless persistence. Persistence doesn't mean

long prayer, but it does mean frequent prayer, going on

until you get And and so you see in the

middle is those days they go to bait fairly early.

This is a story that was told. Everyone went to

bait and then someone came at the door knocking. And

in the middle is somehow hospitality is an important thing

as well. So I can I can't imagine the annoyance

of the houseowner when this chap comes knocking on the

door asking to learn for brain and this flurt no shame,

just kept on knocking, not the slightest bait, embarrassed, totally

insensitive about the householder's feelings. He went on knocking until

he was given the break. Jesus is not saying that

God is a reluctant giver and no signs we always

look at it all. This is terrible, or I see

Jesus is like the houseownerf dragging his feet out of bait.

Don't really want it? No, no no, no, no, no, don't don't

don't focus on that, because the story is about the

person who is knocking on the door. What he's teaching

us here is the human side. It's true to prayer,

and if you really mean business with God, you pray

until you get it. You keep on knocking. That is

why prayer is not I want the answers, or I

want my answers, or I want The answer is pray

until something happened. God is going to make sure something

happens if you pray earnestly to him. Of course, you

may be asking for the wrong thing, and that is

where you have to hast what you are asking for

with the Lord's prayer, with the content that I just

told us just now. If you are praying for the

right thing, it will come under one of those six

hates that we studied. It will come under acknowledging his fatherhood,

his purity, his power in our lives. It will come

under food forgiveness of freedom, without a shadow of doubt.

I believe in them because that is the prayer that

the Lord taught us to pray. So you can always

check whether you are praying for the right thing. And

thank God he doesn't spoil us as his children. He

doesn't always give us what we want. Do you know

if we keep giving our children what they want, it's

going to spoil them. You'll turn them into self entitled

and very rotten people. That is the reality our God.

It's not just someone science. We think, Oh, God, you're

only good if whatever I ask for you give to me.

Even we don't do it with our own children because

we want them to learn, we want to also test

them to make sure that they are doing and making

the right choices asking for the right things. Amen. So

if your prayer checks with the Lord's prayer, then go

on knocking. That's my advice to you. Persistence is the

condition on our part. You see in one of the

greatest promises of prayer in the Bible, he said, keep

on asking and you will receive. Keep on knocking and

the door will be open. Keep on seeking and you

will find. Not just ask ones, but keep on asking.

Carry on. Persistence is vital for prayer on the human side.

And then to balance up this story so that people

don't think God is reluctant to give. Jesus now talks

about providence. He talks about divine providence. He is actually

willing to provide you with good things. So remember, persistence

is our part, provedence is God's part. And you know,

one of the things that stops people from praying and

asking God for something is that they are afraid of

what He might give them. I've met many people like that.

I've known people who are afraid to ask for the

gifts of the Holy Spirit. Why well, if you know

what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for, it

is for the edification of the body. That means with

the gifts, you cannot not do nothing. You must go

and edify the body. That means mus stok. That must

work one. No, God doesn't just give us gifts so

that we can kill car God doesn't give us gifts

so that we can sit down and shake legs. He

gives us gifts because He wants us to be a blessing, blessed,

to be a blessing. And that's why there are many

who are afraid of what to ask, or afraid to

ask things of God because they are reluctant to receive it.

Don't ever be reluctant, especially the gifts of the Holy Spirit,

especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. Important Jesus says,

even you evil earthly fathers. You are all sinners, but

you know how to give your children good things. You

won't give them anything to harm them. If they ask

for an agg you won't give them a scorpion. And

so he says this. When you pray, think of this treewards.

How much more have we ever thought of God's providence,

divine providence? No, we always think that God is a

stingy God, always holding back. Don't want to bless us

with things? Give me more? No, we got to be very,

very careful. How much more will your heavenly give you

something good, something that's helpful. Do you think that God

will give you something that's harmful? Now? So there may

be persistence in our prayer, but sometimes there is the

reluctance for us to receive, and we are sometimes afraid

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

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

I used to joke, no content. Do you know that

when you say send me anywhere, God will send you

to Africa? Usually it's like that, right, send me anywhere,

and then okay, off you go to Africa. Uh, maybe Africa,

bit Father, maybe somewhere in more cosmopolity. I don't know,

but our last teaching on answering answering prayer is this,

and to me, the gift of the Holy Spirit is

the answer to all of our prayers. It is 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. And that's why it's

tighten if you read the scriptures that now after telling

the story about the the Landlord and the person knocking

at the door, and then he goes on the door

with usks sick and not, and then he goes on

to compare earthly fathers and the Heavenly Father, and then

he ends with this statement, how much more will your

Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit? Very specific to those

who ask him the Holy Spirit? This is what the

Lord wants us to know how he can provide for us.

He wants to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

To give you Jesus to die for you on the

cross is a great gift. To give you the spirit

to live in you is also a great gift and

gift that you should pray for. And so this is

something that I want to encourage all of us. Don't

resist the Holy Spirit. Don't think the Holy Spirit is

just someone as far as God the Father and Jesus,

because where is God the Father and where is Jesus, Well,

they are actually sitting next to each other in the heavenies.

There are the scriptures tell us that the only person

in the God here that we have here with us

right now is the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus,

very very clearly in his teachings told us that I

have to go because he knew that he was limited

in his physical form, that he could not be with

every believer for all times. But he came for one purpose,

to sek and save those who are lost, to die

for their sins, and he accomplished it. But he said thereafter,

I can't be the one that is living in each

and every one of you. But there is someone who can,

and there is someone who will come, and that someone came.

But until today, many Christians resist the Holy Spirit in

our lives. Don't resist the Holy Spirit is what I

am encouraging us, not in our theology, not in our

physical acceptance or rejection. Be careful how we think of

the Holy Spirit, because he is here and he wants

to live in us so that we can continue to

build each other up. The Holy Spirit was never introduced

to the church so that it can break the church up.

It is to bring us all together. We all need

the Holy Spirit in our lives. Amen. So remember these

are the conditions for our prayers to be answered. Very important. Persistence,

keep on persisting, don't give up so easily. Don't pray

one time, two times, in fact, don't stop at two hundred.

Pray until something happens. That is my encouragement. And remember

God is the provider of all things good and the

most wonderful gift that he wants to give to us.

I pray we will receive that first. Because when we

learn how to receive the Holy Spirit into our lives,

that is when we are able to receive all of

God's other blessings in our lives. That is my honors

and sincere belief. And we have come to the third one,

and I'm drawing towards the end. The third part is this,

how can we therefore make our prayers effective? And again

here's a reminder. Never think of prayer as quantitative, but

you must always look at it from a qualitative viewpoint.

And I stand here sometimes, you know, having to apologize

because I to pray long prayers sometimes, but I pray

that long prayers. It is not something to discourage us

from praying, because it's not. It's not about that. God

never wants us to go long. He's always sayings. We

think the longer we pray for the person, the more

effective that. Jesus says, No, he says, you will not

be heard for your much praying or for your many words.

So it is not true that the longer you pray

for someone, the more effective your intercession is. Is not

or Likewise, to think quantitatively sometimes to think, now, the

more people I can get to pray this prayer, the better. No,

so we have all get more people pray. No, no, no, no,

it's not that as well. If we are thinking sometimes quantitatively,

we always think that the more names you put to

a petition, the more way it carries, and then God

will listen. But I kid you not when I say this,

God only ever looks for one name in any petition

that comes his way, and that is the name of Jesus.

That's why we pray in the name of Jesus, because

that is the only name that counts in that petition,

not the many others who are praying. By having said that,

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

That's why I say prayer is not just the length

of it is how deep you go. So quality prayer,

effective prayer is not just a hundred people praying. It's

actually even ten people who are praying very deeply for

a particular person. That is how it becomes effective. So

what is deep prayer? And I'll tell you this, A

deep prayer is basically a prayer that caused the person something.

The effectiveness of your prayer for someone else is actually

in direct ratio of what it caused you. And I

believe that is why when Jesus came down from the

mountain and then he met his disciples, and the disciples

complained to him and they say, Lord, we can't seem

to help this child somehow, it's so difficult, so challenging.

And then Jesus's respond was, don't you realize that this

kind of situation can only be dealt with by prayer

and fasting. Fasting is prayer, honestly, Actually, in some of

the manuscripts, this particular scripture or meets the word fasting.

But yet in the Old Testament, if you read the

Old Testament, you will see that fasting is prayer because

sometimes it doesn't repeat by saying they pray and fast.

Sometimes it just says they fast for something. Know, whether

it's in Esther or in Nehi Maya, or in Ezra

or in Joel or in second sermon. You see it

on all these occasions. It doesn't say pray and fast,

It just says fast because fast thing is a form

of prayer. If we miss out on fast thing, we

essentially miss out on prayer. And fast thing is the

price of prayer. Actually, that's why we keep encouraging people

to fast. It's important. In other words, you miss the

costs out of it. It did not cause you anything

to pray for this person. And that is the place

of fasting in prayer, because it is costing you something.

It is costing you your meal. The only other marriage

in spending a long time praying for someone is that

it costs us time, and time is precious. And that's

why I say sometimes time is important for us because

it cost us as well. But fasting automatically will cause

us something unless all of you fast so easily, you

got no problems. It's like a fasting like nothing like that.

I can go on this three und sixty five days. Noah,

trust me, I have not. Everyone becomes hungry when we

ask them to fast somehow, even if you know me

are not. That's the reality of it, because it costs

you something. What did it cause you to pray? Well,

the deepest cause is this. You think about it. When

a woman touched the hem of Jesus's garment and was healed,

goodness went out of him. If you have really prayed

for someone, some of your resources have left you and

traveled to the other person. Power has gone from God,

but goodness has gone from you because you were good enough,

kind enough to pray for that person, and God's power

and your goodness is then met in that person's life. Therefore,

if you have really prayed for someone, you should usually

feel drained. You usually feel tired because prayer is warfare.

Prayer is an act. Prayer is something that you endeavored

to go through willingly, and it will exhaust you. But

yet we have a God who is ever ready to

provide us of all our needs, ready to replenish us

when we are exhausted. We hope you've been blessed by

this message. For more information on our church, please visit

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We're believing that this week is going to be a

good week, a hit for you. God bless