The Model Life: Adoration, Part 3

Take your Bible if you would please, and turn to the 17th

verse of the 5th chapter of the first book of Thessalonians.

We are literally going verse by verse as we conclude our study

of this great epistle, this great letter to the Church of

Thessalonica. We spent two weeks on verse #16

which says rejoice always. We'll spend two weeks on this

verse, pray without ceasing, and then we'll probably spend at

least two weeks on in everything, give thanks for this

is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

And why are we doing that? It's many because it's all about

the model life of 1 of adoration.

The Lord is seeking true worshippers, those who adore

Him, those whose affection is completely his, who want to

truly worship Him in spirit and in truth, and requires that

number one, we be joyful #2 we be prayerful and #3 we be

thankful. And for the most part, we have

joy. We pray and we give thanks.

The problem is, is that we're asked to do it always, that is

rejoicing and pray without ceasing and to give thanks and

everything. That's the problem.

How do we actually do that? And so we, we spent a couple of

weeks looking at what it means to to rejoice always and how you

can actually rejoice in every situation in circumstance

because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

This trilogy of being joyful, being prayerful, and being

thankful is a trilogy that is the will of God for your life.

This is God's desire for you. The life of adoration to the

King, living for the glory and honor of his name, learning to

rejoice always, to pray without ceasing.

What on earth does that even mean?

How do you do that? Do you live a life of

uninterrupted prayer, walking around with your eyes closed

wherever you go? What does it mean to pray

without ceasing? It deals more with the attitude

than the ACT. The attitude that is conscious

of God's presence at all times. It's, it's an attitude that

signifies I never give up when it comes to prayer, that I pray

always without ceasing, never giving up simply because I am

conscious of the presence of God in my life, in my family, in my

work, everywhere. And so my attitude is always

directed upward toward God. Prayer is is a foreign land to a

lot of us. When Arthur said it this way, he

says prayer is like a foreign land.

When we go there, we go as tourists.

Like most tourists, we feel uncomfortable and out of place.

Like most tourists. We therefore move on before too

long and go somewhere else that that signifies most of our

prayers. It it's a foreign land to us to

sit and to pray and to commune with the living God.

Sometimes it's so foreign to us that we act as tourists.

We can't wait to get out of there and move on to someplace

else or something else, and that's unfortunate, The great

theologian Leon Morris said. We are to live in the spirit of

prayer, realizing our dependence on God for all we have and all

that we are, being conscious of his presence with us wherever we

may be, yielding ourselves continually to Him to do His

will. Those who pray without ceasing,

living in constant communion with God, notice this about our

Lord. Take your Bible and turn with me

to the Gospel of Luke, the third chapter.

You need to note that prayer is what commenced the other worldly

ministry of Jesus. We call it the other worldly

ministry because He He came down from above.

He came down from a perfect world to a sinful world, and so

prayer would would commence his other worldly ministry.

Luke 3 verse 21. Now when all the people were

Luke 3:21

baptized, Jesus was also baptized.

And while he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit

descended upon him in in bodily form like a dove, and a voice

came out of heaven. You are my beloved Son, and you

I am well pleased. You will note that that prayer

commenced the otherworldly ministry of of Christ.

You will also know that prayer is that which characterized the

daily ministry of Christ. Just turn over, if you would,

your Bible to the 5th chapter of Luke says in verse #16 But Jesus

himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

What a statement. Not only did prayer commence the

otherworldly ministry of Christ, but prayer was that which

characterized the daily ministry of Christ.

Just read through the the Gospel of Luke which emphasizes the

humanity of deity and to recognize how often Christ was

slipping away to be by himself to pray.

You will also note that prayer is that one thing that

consummated His earthly ministry.

If it commenced His otherworldly ministry and characterized His

daily ministry, then it consummated His earthly

ministry. All you have to do is read John

17, which is truly the Lord's Prayer on the eve of His

crucifixion. All you have to do is examine

His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was

crucified. All you have to do is listen to

his words on the cross. Father, forgive them, for they

know not what they are doing. My God, my God, why has thou

forsaken me? Father, into your hands I

commend my spirit. Prayer was which which

consummated his his earthly ministry.

And then in Luke 24 at the end before His ascension, He lifted

up his hands and begin to bless and pray for his disciples.

But not only did did prayer commence His otherworldly

ministry and characterize His daily ministry and consummate

His earthly ministry, you need to know that prayer constitutes

His heavenly ministry. Hebrews Chapter 7 verse #28 I'm

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

sorry. Hebrew 7 1st #25 Therefore he is

able also to say forever those who draw near to God through

him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Prayer is that which constitutes His heavenly ministry.

He is our advocate. He intercedes on our behalf.

It's no wonder that when the disciples came to the Lord in

Luke 11, they asked the Lord to teach them how to pray.

You know, they never asked the Lord to teach them how to lead.

We need a seminar in leadership. Lord, teach us how to lead.

They never asked that question. Lord, teach us how to be

apostles, how to be representative of your Kingdom.

Never ask them that question. Lord, help us to teach us how to

be better fathers. Never ask that question either,

Lord, Teach us how to be men of God.

Never ask that question either. Never ask that question.

But the one question they did ask was Lord teach us how to

pray because you see, every time they saw him, He was praying.

And so when you when you come to the, the 11th chapter of Luke,

it says these words, it happened that while Jesus was praying in

a certain place. Chapter 11 verse #1 After he had

finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to

pray, just as John also taught his disciples.

Lord, teach us how to pray. Now you can imagine the scene.

Jesus is often praying. So Jesus is praying and they're

waiting for him to to stop, to be done.

They're sitting around thinking, is he done yet?

Not, not done yet. How about that?

Nope, still not done. Is he ever going to stop

praying? When can we ever talk to him?

And there he was praying. Finally, he's done.

Lord, teach us how to pray. Teach us how to commune with our

Father in heaven. Because you see, this is what

Jesus did, Deity communicating with deity in the most intimate

times throughout his life. It must have been fascinating to

be with Jesus when he prayed. We had the that long prayer in

John 17 that speaks of his communication with his Father in

glory in the Garden of Gethsemane, Gethsemane and how

he communicate with his Father in glory.

But to the disciples that they they wanted to know how to pray,

it's the Lord teaches them what is commonly called the disciples

prayer. It's not the Lord's Prayer, it's

the disciples prayer. And it gives them a pattern on

how to do it because prayer is is centered around a a divine

pattern, God and his glory man and his needs.

That's why he says when you pray, pray this way.

He didn't say if you pray, pray this way.

He says when you pray, pray this way, our Father in heaven,

hallowed be thy name, may your name be made holy in our lives.

Thy Kingdom come, praying for the return of the Christ in his

Kingdom. Thy will be done on earth as it

is in heaven. It's all about God's glory,

Lord, where our prayer is that your will be done in US that

your will would would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Well, one of the ways you, you have the answer to that prayer

is that you are to be joyful, prayerful, and thankful because

this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

So when you pray for the will of God to be accomplished, you're

asking the Lord, Lord, I want to be joyful, prayerful and

thankful. And then he goes on to talk

about man and his needs. But what our Lord does next is

very important because he knows how hard it is to pray without

ceasing, how to never give up on prayer, never give up on asking,

beseeching the throne of grace. So he moves from the disciples

prayer to a parable. And so Luke 11 says these words.

Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and

says, Damn friend, lend ME3 loaves.

For a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have

nothing to set before him. And from inside he answers and

says, do not bother me. The doors already been shut and

my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you

anything. I tell you, even though he will

not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet

because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much

as he needs. It's a parable that describes

God's generosity and willingness to answer your prayers.

And even though the reluctant friend doesn't want to get out

of bed, he does so anyway, begrudgingly.

The Lord is not that way. In fact, he gives a similar

parable in in Luke chapter 18 when he says this in verse #1

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Now he was willing to tell them a parable to show that at all

times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.

Same thing. Pray without ceasing.

At all times you are to pray and not lose heart.

So there are two avenues by which you can go.

You can lose heart or you can pray.

If you're praying, you're not going to lose heart.

If you're losing heart, it's because you're not praying.

In other words, when you pray, your heart does not shrivel up.

When you pray, you're able to remain steadfast and immovable.

But the reason we can't stand strong and steadfast is because

we don't pray. So the Lord says very easily,

listen, I tell you this, so that you will pray and you will not

lose heart. And So what do you say?

In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and

did not respect man. There was a widow in that city

and she kept coming to him, saying, give me legal protection

from my opponent for a while. He was unwilling, but afterward

he said to himself, Even though I do not fear nor respect man,

do not fear God or respect man, yet because this widow bothers

me, I will give her legal protection.

Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out

again. The parables are one of

contrast. Our Lord is not like the

reluctant friend, nor is he like the unjust judge, because you

can't wear out the Lord. He neither neither wearies nor

tires. He's always bending his ear to

hear the cries of his own. And so he goes on to say in Luke

18, these words he says, and the Lord said, hear what the

unrighteous judge said. Now we're not going to bring

about justice for His elect who cried to Him day and night and

will delay long over them. I tell you that He will bring

about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man

comes, will he find faith on the earth?

In other words, when the Son of Man returns, will you find find

this kind of faith? What kind of faith?

The faith that believes that God is not like the unjust judge,

but that he he spills out generously upon his own if they

come to him and seek, ask and knock?

The question is, will you as disciples?

Will you as believers be so committed to your God that you

believe exactly what he says, that you will pray without

ceasing, you will live a consciousness of of communion

with God that you never give up on your prayers.

I have several points I want to cover with you this week and

next. And, and the first one is this

that that prayer will will always challenge your

spirituality. There there's nothing that

challenges your spirituality more than prayer.

It it's the greatest challenge to your spiritual growth.

God doesn't excuse me. Satan doesn't care that I

prepare a sermon, but he does care that I prepare my soul to

preach the sermon. Same is true for you.

Satan's not concerned that you get married.

He's concerned that your heart is not right when you get

married. This is what your heart being

right. This is what your life being

right. It's all about the inner man and

the growth of the inner man. And we need to always be

persistent unto prayer. Prayer is, is, is everything.

You know, I, I know that we have electives that, that, that you

can engage in and, and learn from.

I know that we have classes that you can go to and, and involve

yourself with different groups of people.

I understand that, but that's the real know what the ideal is.

The ideal is that when we're done here, everyone of you would

gather together over there in another room and all of you be

in prayer for everybody in the second service, everyone of you.

And then everybody who's coming to the second service, we're not

engaged in some elective or or some class, but they would be in

prayer for you as you are in here.

That would be the ideal that everybody would pray for

everybody else. And then while those are

worshipping, after they're done worshiping, they would go and

pray for everyone else. Why?

Because the power of life resides in our prayers.

That's the that's the impetus, that's the motive, that's the

power behind everything. It's it's spending time on your

knees in prayer, asking God to do a great and mighty work.

It's learning to pray God consciously all throughout the

day, lifting your request before the Lord constantly because you

are heavily minded and you're asking God to do a great and

mighty work. Listen, prayer is the ministry.

Prayer is the ministry. If you don't have a ministry,

your prayer, you don't have a ministry.

Prayer is the ministry. And so praying without ceasing

is a command that Paul gives along with rejoice always along

with in everything. Give thanks because this is

God's will for your life. But prayer is that which

challenges our our spirituality unlike anything else.

We we have to wrestle with our ego when it comes to prayer.

We have to wrestle with with all the effort put behind it when it

comes to prayer. But the thing we wrestle with

the most in prayer is the expectancy.

Let me illustrate it for you. Turn up in your Bible to Acts

Acts 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, verse #1 Now

Acts 12 · chapter mention

about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged

to the church in order to mistreat them, and he had James,

the brother of John, put to death with a sword.

When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest

Peter also. Now it was during the days of

Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put

him in prison, delivering him to 4 squads of soldiers to guard

him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before

the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but

prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

That is just a marvelous statement.

Here's Peter in prison. The expectation is, is that

Peter's going to die, because James, the brother of John, has

already died. Peter now has been arrested.

The expectation is that he too will will die.

So the church gathers together and begins to pray rightly.

So that's what they should do. And they began to pray

fervently. Notice that the effectual

fervent prayer of a righteous man of death.

Much James 516 tells us. So he gathered together to pray,

and they were fervent in their prayers.

Read on verse 6. On the very night when Herod was

about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two

soldiers. Bow to chains and guards in

front of the door were watching over the prison.

Notice that Peter's sleeping. He's not anxious about his own

death, his impending death. He is fast asleep, it says.

And behold, an Angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and the light

shone in the cell and he struck Peter's side and woke him up,

saying, get up quickly. The chains fell off his hands.

And the Angel said to him, gird yourself and put on your

sandals. And he did so.

He said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.

And he went out and continued to follow.

And he did not know that what was being done by the Angel was

real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

They'd passed the 1st and 2nd guard, they came to the iron

gate that leads into the city which opened for them by itself,

and they went out and went along one street and they need to

leave. The Angel departed from him.

When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I know for sure that

the Lord has sent forth his Angel and rescued me from the

hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were

expecting. What were they expecting?

His death verse 12 When he realized this, he went to the

House of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark,

where many were gathered together and were praying.

When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant girl named

Rhoda came to the to answer When she recognized Peter's voice

because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and

announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

Now you have to understand the scene.

They are praying for Peter and Peter shows up and Rhoda goes to

open the gate, recognizes it's his voice, but doesn't let him

in. What does she do?

She goes back to where everybody's praying because she

has to make the announcement that prayers have been answered.

So the Bible says this. It says she ran in and announced

that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

And they said to her, Hallelujah, God has answered.

That's not what they say. What did they say?

You are out of your mind, Rhoda. You're a crazy woman.

You snap the twig. You don't know what's going on.

They kept saying it's his Angel. It's his Angel.

What do you mean it's his Angel? But Peter continued knocking,

and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were

what? Amazed.

Listen, how do you know When you pray?

You pray with wrong expectations.

When God answers, you're amazed. We should never be amazed when

God answers. We should just be praising God

and thanking Him. But they were amazed.

Why? Because they didn't expect their

prayers to work anyway. They gathered together to pray

for for Peter and pray for his release.

But when they were praying for his release, they really weren't

expecting him to be released. I mean, after all, James is

dead, Peter's in prison, he's going to die, but let's pray for

his release anyway. And then when he's finally

released, they're absolutely astonished.

Because God works in conjunction with man's prayers.

And that's why prayer challenges your spirituality more than

anything else, because you live in a life of, in the realm of,

of, of, of not expecting God to do what we ask him to do.

And yet we're told to keep seeking, keep asking, keep

knocking continuously. In other words, pray with

without ceasing. Go back to to Luke 11.

In the Luke 11, Christ knows that persistence and prayer is

going to be lacking in the life of the disciples.

He knows that like he knows it's lacking in your life and mine.

So he gives this parable because the Lord is not like the

reluctant friend, and Luke 18 is not like the unjust judge.

He is generous, he is kind. They says this verse 9.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and

you will find, knock, and it will be open to you, for

everyone who asks receives, and he who knocks finds.

And to him who, excuse me, who seeks, finds and to him and

knocks, it will be open. Now suppose one of you fathers

is asked by his son for a fish. He would not give him a snake

instead of a fish, Willy. Or if he asked for an egg, he

would not give him a scorpion Willy.

If then you, being evil, 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?

This is Speaking of the generosity of God.

You have an earthly father. When you ask ask for a piece of

bread, he doesn't give you a snake.

When you ask for a fish, he doesn't give you a scorpion.

No, because your Father loves you.

He's kind, he's generous. Well, how much more will your

heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit to them?

It asks. Now the parallel account in

Matthew 6 said it doesn't say Holy Spirit, it just says give

to you that which is good. Interesting.

Give that which is good to those who keep asking, seeking and

knocking. We know that only God is good.

The Holy Spirit is God, therefore the Holy Spirit is

good. Very interesting.

Matthew 6 also tells us that that the Lord knows what you're

going to ask before it's ever on your lips.

So he already knows what you're going to ask him.

He already knows that because he knows everything in advance.

God never finds out anything. He just simply knows everything.

So he knows what you're going to ask before you even speak it,

because He knows your heart, knows everything about you.

And so he makes a statement that's absolutely profound for

the disciples. Why?

Because they lived in expectation of the coming of the

Spirit of God. How do we know that?

Ezekiel chapter 36, Ezekiel 36 says it this way.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

Verse 25. I will sprinkle clean water on

you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your

filthiness and from all your idols.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit

within you. I will remove the heart of stone

from your flesh and give you heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my

statutes, and you will be careful to observe my

ordinances. That's a new covenant promise.

They know new covenant promise that the greatest gift that God

will give them is the Spirit that indwells them.

So because the Lord knows what you ask before you even ask it,

He says, look, the Lord is so gracious, so kind, so generous,

He will give you the Spirit of God.

Everything that you've longed for, you're going to get.

That's so important. Why?

Because everything you are asking God for is already

embodied in the Spirit of God. Think about it.

You ask God for courage, for power.

And the Lord said in Acts chapter 1 that you will receive

Acts 1 · chapter mention

the Holy Spirit and when you do, His power will over shadow you.

You receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

We ask God for power, we ask God for courage.

And we had the Spirit of God who is all powerful already within

us. We, we, we need comfort, comfort

during times of sorrow, comfort during times of trouble.

And Christ says in John 14, I'm going to give you another helper

or another comforter, not one of a different kind, but one of the

same kind as me. So when you need comfort, you'll

have the spirit of comfort already within you.

When you, when you want to receive guidance, the Spirit of

God will give you the guidance that's necessary because He will

guide you into all truth. So everything you're looking to

receive you already have in the Spirit of the living God.

You're dwelt by the Spirit, you're sealed by the Spirit,

you're saved by the Spirit, right?

You're convicted by the Spirit and the Spirit makes his home,

his abode with you. God gives you everything that

you need in the arrival of the Spirit of God.

You ask for the supply of something, and God gives you the

source of everything. Interesting you ask.

You ask for God to give you joy and the fruit of the Spirit is

what? Joy You, you, you.

And I've heard this many times. I, I, I just don't love my

husband or my wife anymore. What do you mean you don't love

them anymore? I just don't love them anymore.

No, you, you're saying you can't or you don't want to love them

anymore because you have the Spirit of God in you.

And the Spirit of God produces love.

So you can love your enemies, you can love your wife, you can

love your husband, you can love your children.

Why? Because the Spirit of God gives

you love. The fruit of the Spirit is

Lovejoy and peace. See I'm I'm so anxious.

Why are you anxious? You should be at peace.

You have the Spirit of God within you to give you peace.

How can you have peace when the Spirit of God reigns within your

heart? How about long-suffering?

For the Spirit is patience, long-suffering, gentleness,

meekness, kindness. Oh by the way, the fruit of the

Spirit is self-control. So I just can't control my

anger. Yes you can.

I can't control. I can't control my, my, my, my

sexual tendencies. Yes you can, if the Spirit of

God is within you, because He is a spirit that produces

self-control. You might be unwilling to yield

to the power, unyield to the spirit, unyield to the call of

God in your life, but the source of everything is there.

You ask the Lord for money and he gives you the bank.

Would you rather have a portion of money or would you rather

have the bank? I'd rather have the bank.

Why? Because with the bank comes all

the money you you could possibly ever want to need.

So God says I'm going to give you the Spirit because in all

your search for truth, He's the Spirit of truth and all your

search for direction, He guides you and all the desire for

comfort. He's the one who comforts you

and your desire to be controlled in life with your emotions and

your thoughts. He is a spirit that produces

self-control and your desire to love others, love your enemies,

He gives you the love to do so. It's all within the spirit of

the living God. That's why we say that prayer

will challenge your spirituality.

More than anything else, we need to understand prayer and why the

command is giving. Pray without ceasing.

Be conscious of God's presence as you walk through every

situation in life, no matter how difficult it is, how painful it

may be, no matter how depressing the circumstances might be

around you. God is walking with you through

those times that as you learn to lean upon them, you trust Him

and you rely upon Him. That's why not only does prayer

number one challenge my spirituality, but prayer #2

certifies my dependency. Prayer certifies my dependency.

In other words, it helps establish the fact that I am not

an autonomous being. I can't function independently,

Christ said. Without me ye can do nothing.

John 15-5 But see, we don't believe that we we think that we

can go through life and rely on my intellect, rely on my

ingenuity, rely on my money, rely on my expertise, rely on my

giftedness, rely on the things that I already have.

And so we go through life independently of from God,

trying to establish our life without him simply because we

think we're good enough and excellent enough.

But you are not. Remember Luke chapter 5?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Probably not, so let me read it to you, Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

It says now it happened that while the crowd was pressing

around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by

the Lake of Geneseret or the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two boats

lying at the edge of the lake. But the fishermen had gotten out

of them and were washing their Nets.

In other words, they were done fishing.

They were now cleaning their Nets.

And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and

asked him to put out a little while from the land.

And he sat down and began teaching the people from the

boat. So the disciples have come in

from a from a early morning fishing and they are washing

their Nets and Christ decides to teach.

So he occupies Simon's boat and he says pushed out a little ways

and I'll teach him the boat because the crowds were pressing

against him and he was backing up against the water.

And so he says, I'll just go in the boat and begin to preach and

teach, and people will be able to hear me from there.

And so he says when he finished speaking, he said to Simon, put

out into the deep water and let down your Nets for a catch.

In other words, in the modern vernacular, Peter, I'm done

preaching, let's go fishing. Let's go fishing.

This Simon answered and said, master, we worked hard all night

and caught nothing. He says, Master, Lord Jesus,

you're a teacher, you're a preacher.

But me, I'm a fisherman. I don't tell you how to teach.

You don't tell me how to fish. This is what I do.

My whole family fishes. I was raised this way.

This is how I live my life. I'm an expert fisherman.

I'm not an expert preacher or teacher, but I am an expert at

fishing. And so Peter says, but I would

do as you say and let down the Nets.

In other words. Nevertheless, if that's what you

want, Lord, then that's what we will do, just to prove to you

that you're not a fisherman and just a teacher and a preacher,

that I'm the true fisherman and you are not, because I'm an

expert at it. So Needless to say, we'll push

out into the deep and I will show you, Jesus, that I am right

and you, Jesus, are wrong. And so they says when they had

done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish.

So you don't fish during the day.

Why? Because during the day the fish

go further down into the water. Why it's cooler down there in

the early morning. In the evening they rise to the

top. But during the day, the heat of

the day, they, they go down to the to the bottom.

Peter knows that. But they cast the Nets over the

side of the boat and they caught a great quantity of fish.

So and so the Nets began to break.

So they signal to their partners in the other boat for them to

come and help them. And they came and filled both of

the boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus's feet,

saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of

the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and we're

partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not

fear, from now on you will be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left

everything and followed him. Here is Peter, depart from me.

I'm a sinful man. Depart from the fact that even

though I think I know more than you, I don't.

I thought I did. I thought I could act

independently, God of you, But I can't.

In the arena in which I am the most skilled, in the arena in

which I am the most intelligent, in the arena in which I am the

most experienced, in the arena in which I am the best at, I

still need God. That's the point.

But see, we we go through life thinking, well, I don't need

need God in my job. I can do that.

I mean, come on, who needs God for that?

I don't need God to help me raise my family.

I know how to raise my family. I know how to get them to church

and read the Bible with them. I don't need God to help me with

this or help me with that. Why?

Because I'm smart. But in the arena in which you

think you don't need, God is what you need in the most,

because you see, it certifies your dependency upon Him.

And that's why the story in Mark 9 is so important.

When the disciples remember when Peter, James and John and Jesus

came down from the mountain, transfiguration, and they

couldn't cast out the boy who had a demon in him, in Christ

was frustrated with his own men. Oh, unbelieving generation, how

long shall I be with you? Bring the boy to me.

He cast out the demon. And they wonder why they

couldn't do that. Because he had learned to live

independently of God in the arena which he'd called him to

live for him, he says. He says he's only come out by

prayer. Your dependence upon me for

everything. That's why prayer will challenge

your spirituality more than any other aspect of the spiritual

disciplines. It will certify your dependency

that I need God in every situation, in every

circumstance, no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm

doing. I am not gifted enough nor

talented enough nor experienced enough to do it without my God,

for without me ye can do nothing.

You need me prayer will challenge my spirituality,

prayer will certify my dependency, and thirdly, prayer

will confirm my loyalty. And to understand that, you'll

have to come back next week. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for today. It is a challenge to every one

of us to understand we are to pray without ceasing.

We are to never give up. We are to never quit on prayer.

We are never to throw in the towel on prayer.

There, there might be someone in the room today who said I, I

prayed for a year. Well, you say, keep asking, keep

seeking, keep knocking. We need to learn persistence.

We need to learn steadfastness and prayer.

We can never afford to give up praying for your will to be

done. Why?

Because your will is that we pray unceasingly, that we pray

at all times for all men, that we be the kind of people that

continue to commune with the true and living God as we go

through each part of each day. As you have taught us, Lord, to

rejoice always, teach us now to pray unceasingly.

Why? Simply because you've told us in

John's Gospel, the 14th chapter, the 13th verse, that the reason

you answer prayer is not to get our needs met, but that the

Father would be glorified in the Son.

That's what we're asking for, that you would receive all the

glory. So Lord, whatever we are asking

for today, whatever we're beseeching the throne of grace

for today, may we do it for one reason and one reason only, the

glory of the true and living God.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen.