Ceaseless Prayer

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

So we've been going through 1 Thessalonians, almost done with it, and about to move to 2 Thessalonians, and we've been seeing all these instructions that Paul has for us, and how we ought to wait for the return of Jesus Christ, how we ought to await the

00:15

Son. And he's passed through different things, and now he gets to a very practical section of the epistle where he explains how we are just to live day to day, what we are to do without ceasing constantly, what is it we are to do moment by moment.

00:36

And the answer is we are to rejoice, we are to pray, and we are to give thanks. So if you would turn to 1

00:45

Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 16, if you would stand for the reading of God's Word.

00:52

Actually, we'll start in verse 12. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

01:09

Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint -hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all, see that no one pays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

01:34

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

01:42

Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

01:51

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our

01:58

Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.

02:04

Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the

02:10

Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

02:16

You may be seated. Dear Holy Father, we come to you again in prayer, asking that you would bring much fruit from the proclamation of your word.

02:30

You have said that your word would not return to you void, and we ask you to accomplish its purposes now, that we, in hearing it, be washed by the cleansing of the water of your word, and that the

02:43

Holy Spirit would open our eyes to cause us to recognize the truths contained here, that we would not be blind or deaf, but that we would hear and see the wonderful truths that you have for us.

02:58

I pray that for those that are discouraged, that this passage would be a great encouragement to them, and that as we seek to serve you, that you would encourage us through this.

03:12

And for those who do not know you, God, I pray that this passage would open their eyes to find that there is much misery found in rejection of you, but there is much grace and mercy found in an embrace of your truth and in a trusting of your

03:31

Son. In Jesus' name, amen. We live in a world that is full of luxury.

03:43

You know, the world is just more prosperous in many ways than it has been for all of human history.

03:49

And yet, despite these things, despite also an increased interest in the pursuit of joy, so many people dedicate their lives to pursuing joy, so few people have found joy.

04:03

You look up statistics, they all kind of say different figures, but many statistics talk about the increase of depression, especially in the

04:12

United States, you know, one of the most prosperous nations in the world. And how do you resolve these things?

04:19

That though people have dedicated more of their lives to pursuing joy and have more prosperity and luxury, they have less joy.

04:28

Joy is not ultimately found in such things. And yet, yet Christians in times past who have gone through some of the worst persecutions, some of the worst things, have been thoroughly joyous.

04:44

I'd like to read you a very short passage from Fox's Book of Martyrs. If you're not familiar, there's a book—I'm not sure when exactly it was written—but there's a book that recounts many stories throughout

04:56

Christian history of saints that endured persecution, and one of the recurring themes is how joyous they were facing their persecution.

05:07

John Lomas, Agnes Snoth, Anne Wright, Joan Soule, and Joan Catmer.

05:14

These were all people who endured during the 1500s, the time of the

05:19

Reformation, who were murdered by Roman Catholics for being Protestant. These five martyrs suffered together

05:27

January 31, 1556. Fox goes on to recount each of their situations and why it was they were burned at the stake, but then

05:42

I'll read his final line. The above five persons were burnt at two stakes in one fire, singing hosannas to the glorified

05:50

Savior until the breath of life was extinct. Sir John Norton, who was present, whipped bitterly at their unmerited sufferings.

06:01

So here you have a situation where though there is much suffering and much reason for grief, and no doubt grief being present, here you have someone weaving bitterly, yet still a great joy.

06:18

How do you resolve this, too? Have you ever met a Christian that seems to be just joyful all the time, no matter how miserable his life seems?

06:28

The person who introduced me to—I had already been a Christian, but one of the biggest inflection points of my life was when

06:36

I met this man named Mark who introduced me to good theology and got me to really start reading the

06:42

Bible in a new way and seeing many of the truths that God had there for me in Scripture. His life never seemed that great to me.

06:52

His job did not seem like the most enjoyable job. He had many health problems.

06:59

He had many money problems. His health problems were of such a nature that he was allergic to almost everything, you know, ingesting it, so he would only eat ham and candy.

07:11

Those are the two things that he felt that he could eat without having some kind of reaction to them.

07:17

Now, I don't know if his self -prescribed cure was the right one, but here's a man who—something

07:27

Scripture even points to, to speak of misery, is not being able to enjoy food. That's something that Job points out, is everything just tastes like mallow, you know, just like a tasteless substance.

07:40

And here's a man who's only eating, you know, two things, two things that, in my opinion, don't even taste that great.

07:46

And yet, this man was just always joyful. I was just always impressed at how joyful he was, constantly thanking

07:54

Christ and thinking of his situation in Christ. Now, maybe you've had a thought when you see such a person, well,

08:03

I bet they're miserable when they're by themselves. No, such joy is possible.

08:10

Such joy is something that not only, you know, can be present, you know, on your

08:15

Instagram feed as you're trying to impress the world, but such joy can be even had privately. And maybe you think, well, maybe that's

08:22

God's will for this person, but that's not God's will for me. This passage says it is

08:27

God's will for you in Christ. It is not God's will for everyone because not everyone is in Christ, but he would have it that everyone would trust in Christ.

08:39

And as many as trust in Christ, God's will for them is that they would have great joy.

08:45

And by what means? By prayer and by thankfulness. So I want us to look at this passage, and I want to see what it means to rejoice, to pray, to give thanks without ceasing, and how this is

09:02

God's will for us. Let's begin looking at this passage.

09:07

And remember, we're in 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 16, where he says, rejoice always.

09:17

Now, if you've never heard the term mirror reading, this is a term used to describe how some people read

09:25

New Testament epistles. And sometimes it's an appropriate strategy, but what mirror reading does is it says

09:31

Paul is responding to some situation that was going on in Thessalonica. Now, sometimes that's very appropriate because there is obviously a situation that he's talking to, and some epistles are responses to other letters that were sent to him, and he's responding to those things.

09:48

The letter to the Thessalonians is not like that. He was only with them for a very short while, and he has only been away for a very short while.

09:56

There's been, you know, not kind of substantial updates that would lead to this sort of thing.

10:02

And more than that, something that should really guide our reading of this passage is Philippians 4 .4,

10:08

which says, Now, there he gives the exact same command, right?

10:27

He says, rejoice, don't be anxious, pray, and give thanks to God.

10:34

Rejoice, pray, give thanks. These three things he pairs to the Philippians. And so if this is advice that he's giving at the end of multiple epistles, then

10:43

I don't think we have reason to think that, oh, this is something, especially going on in Thessalonica where they're not rejoicing and they need to rejoice.

10:51

This is something that he would command for all Christians. And so as such, even though situational things would apply to us, we have all the more reason to consider this passage as something that we should regard as applying to us, as something that we must implement in our own lives, as something that is

11:08

God's will, not just for the Thessalonians, but God's will for us as we trust

11:14

Jesus Christ. So he says to rejoice.

11:23

And this is fascinating because in just the previous chapter, he had spoken of mourning, right?

11:30

He had spoken of death. The Thessalonians are undergoing more persecution than many of the other churches that Paul writes letters to.

11:40

In Thessalonica, there is more serious persecution, and you can see that as you read the book of Acts.

11:49

But in verse 13 of chapter 4, he said, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

12:00

So, and then he continues, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

12:10

So here you have two things. One, mourning is right. Grieving is proper.

12:17

And yet at the same time, we do not grieve as others do who have no hope. Our grief is different.

12:24

This is how one can be commanded to rejoice always, even though we are also commanded to weep with those who weep.

12:33

You know, Jesus himself wept, and yet he is not one who would disobey this command to rejoice always.

12:38

We may be always joyful, despite any circumstance, by having a moderate spirit, one that recognizes what is important and what is ultimate.

12:52

So yes, these things in the here and now are real. They are either uncomfortable or they are reasons for great sadness and great mourning.

13:04

You know, the bitterness that we saw of John Norton. And yet, and yet at the same time, if we have our eyes fixed on Christ and that day when he will return to save all those from the grave, to bring them up from the grave in the resurrection, we will have reason to rejoice and to have a joy that pervades even those times of mourning.

13:30

We must rejoice always. Now imagine that you have a terrible, awful day one day.

13:38

You know, you spill coffee on yourself, you get a flat tire, just a bunch of other things happen. But imagine that at the beginning of that day you received wonderful news, right?

13:47

You received news that maybe you got a great job offer that pays, you know, ten times as much as you had anticipated, or just something wonderful, right?

13:56

That's really going to color your whole day, and even those other things that are slightly upsetting, you will be able to be joyful regardless of all those things.

14:06

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he has died to provision a great resurrection for those who trust in him, that is a far greater news than any kind I could make by way of analogy.

14:19

We have so much more reason to rejoice than that situation I just described.

14:25

We have so much more reason to have our eyes fixed on something that causes us to have joy despite all the little circumstances that may come and be afflictions that God would have us to endure in this life.

14:42

He wants his people to be a joyful people, a people who have life in Christ.

14:51

So I would encourage you to engage in some introspection and ask yourself, you know, if this joy, if this enjoyment of the hope that we have, this enjoyment of Jesus Christ, is something that is present in your life or something that is absent.

15:12

And then after answering that question, I would also ask you to ask what other people would think as they look on you from the outside.

15:21

Would they see you as one who has joy in Christ, or would they not see that joy present in you?

15:30

And as you answer that, think about what is needed in order that you be not only a joyful person for your own benefit, but a joyful person for the benefit of others as well.

15:44

This is, as this passage says, this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ. And so we must answer this question, and we must have a way to be joyful.

15:54

And I would also encourage you to engage in this sort of introspection regularly, asking yourself whether or not this joy is present and whether or not others would see this joy in you.

16:06

And in a way, those are really not two different questions. It's not, oh, do I have this joy on the inside, and do

16:12

I also have it on the outside? The question is, do you have this joy? And then secondly, do you really have this joy?

16:20

You know, is it evident? If it's not evident, it's not present. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

16:27

You know, someone who's really rejoicing in the Lord, their words of such nature will be on their lips.

16:35

That is what true rejoicing looks like. It's not something that you just keep internal. It's something that overflows.

16:44

And he says next, he says, We are to pray without ceasing.

16:55

This is the means by which someone can rejoice. Someone can rejoice despite these other things if their cares are cast upon their

17:05

Lord. If your cares are weighing down on your own shoulders, you will not have the capacity to rejoice.

17:12

But if your prayers, if your cares have been cast upon the Lord through prayer, you will have the means to rejoice.

17:19

Do you remember what we read in Philippians 4 .4? Be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication.

17:26

Make your requests known to God. How are you to be anxious for nothing? Prayer. Casting your burdens upon the

17:36

Lord. I joke often that that command in Philippians is one that I have very little problem accomplishing, be anxious for nothing.

17:45

Oh, I am very anxious for nothing all the time. Maybe you feel the same way.

17:53

But God calls us to something different. He calls us not to be very anxious over nothing, but to have no anxiety because our anxieties have been cast upon him, because we know that he is faithful and will take care of every need.

18:10

He cares for us more than the sparrows, more than the grass of the field, and yet he cares for those things too.

18:18

Consider the Psalms. You know, anybody who wants to study prayer, I think one of the best ways, one of the most transformative ways for me was to recognize that the

18:27

Psalms are prayers to God. Right? David is praying to God, and he gives us 150—well, not all of them are written by David necessarily, but he gives us 150 example prayers.

18:41

And you look at those prayers and tell me what you see, and then, you know, look at your own prayers in those light.

18:48

Is that what you see in your own prayers? And one of the repeated themes in those prayers is an expression of anxiety and then a statement of comfort at the end.

19:01

But I know that you have heard my prayers, but I will rejoice because you have answered.

19:07

And he says this not knowing how God will answer, but knowing that the answer is so sure that he can say it in past tense.

19:14

You know what is often called the prophetic perfect. Right? Perfect meaning that it's already been accomplished.

19:21

Prophetic perfect, that God has already accomplished these things. We are to rejoice in the

19:29

Lord by casting our cares upon him so that the things that might weigh us down would not weigh us down.

19:36

We are to be like the psalmist in the Psalms, not pretending like we have no anxieties, not just putting up a facade as so many in the world do as a way of dealing with it, not just, you know, thinking positive thoughts.

19:53

That's just a way of bottling all the anxiety up until it destroys you. We are to actually express those anxieties and leave them to the

20:03

Lord and come away knowing that he has heard them. And furthermore, we are called to rejoice, we are called to pray, and we are called to give thanks in all circumstances.

20:21

To give thanks in all circumstances. We are to be thankful to the

20:28

Lord. This is another way of rejoicing. You know, if you do not appreciate things that God has given you, you will not be able to be joyful.

20:41

And he has given us much that is good. In fact, everything that we receive from his hand, if it is for our good, as it says in numerous places, in James 1 and Romans 8, other places,

20:55

God's—even the troubles that we endure, James 1 17, says are for our good because God has produced these things for us so that we might be shaped to be able to appreciate him more.

21:10

Now, if that sounds selfish to you, consider this, that if God is the source of all good things, then to shape in us, to appreciate him, is not some selfish motive.

21:20

But if he is the source of all good things, then the only true enjoyment that we can have ultimately comes from him, and he is shaping us to have enjoyment, period.

21:31

These things come from the Lord, and if we understand that and we are able to thank him in the midst of affliction, knowing that he is doing good through those things, we can have joy even in times of mourning.

21:48

If you consider a child who, you know, children don't naturally say thank you.

21:54

Their parents have to tell them, you know, say thank you, and the kid just says it dryly. But after a while, learning to say thank you, the kid develops an actual appreciation and an actual recognition of good that's being done, and those children, you know, as they become teenagers, etc.,

22:11

are so much more pleasant to be around. You know what it looks like to be around a youth who is not appreciative?

22:18

It's not pleasant. You be around a youth that is appreciative? Very pleasant. Right? This is what

22:24

God would have for our lives. He would have us to be joyful and to be pleasant, and one of the ways that we can do so is by thanking him.

22:33

And thanking him is not just a means that we can enjoy

22:38

God in our prayers as we come to him, thanking him. It is also a means by which we can have our prayers answered.

22:47

Consider this. If God is answering prayers, not just like some genie in the bottle to do our will, but if he is answering our prayers to ultimately bring glory to himself that we might be able to appreciate him more, what reason does he have to answer our prayers if it won't increase our appreciation of him?

23:06

If we aren't going to thank him for the things that he has given us, why should he answer our prayers?

23:14

It would not be for our benefit. It would not be for his good and his glory. It would not be for our good.

23:19

It is only for our good if we are a thankful people. This is something

23:25

I pray often, is that God would help me to be thankful and for me to be a humble that I might receive his blessings without danger, without threat, so that he would be free.

23:40

Not that he's not free, but that there would be no reason for restraint of his hand in handing me blessings.

23:48

But if I am not appreciative, if I am not humble, recognizing that these things come from the

23:54

Lord, then such blessings would only increase me in my pride.

23:59

They would only increase me in my self -sufficiency. Proverbs say that we should ask

24:08

God that we'd be neither rich nor poor, because if we're poor, we might have too little in steel, and if we're rich, we might have too much to not recognize our need of God and say, who is the

24:22

Lord? And that's what the proverb says, that we might say, who is the Lord? You know, who is he? We don't need him.

24:28

But no, the one who is able to have true joy is the one who is appreciative. The one who has his prayers answered is the one who will thank

24:36

God. Once again, go to the Psalms and see how David prays his prayers.

24:43

He says things like, you know, in Psalm 5, the dead do not praise you.

24:49

The dead do not praise God. What he's saying is, you know, God, I will bless you.

24:55

I will praise your name. I will thank you if you answer me these things. You know, and it's not like God is doing things with quid pro quo, you know, that we offer him this, he offers us that, but that God has a prerogative in his blessing of us.

25:13

God has a purpose in accomplishing our joy and in having us recognize his glory that is failed apart from thankfulness, apart from the humility that receives these things with appreciation.

25:28

We do not want to be like the unappreciative children. We want to be like the appreciative one who is pleasant, who is joyful.

25:37

At one point in my life, I was kind of on a tear, just ridding my life of certain practices that I thought were too traditional, you know, that often

25:51

I pray Dear Heavenly Father at the beginning of my prayers. And I had always done that because my father had.

25:59

And then I stopped for a really long time because I didn't want to just do practices just because my dad had, and I didn't really see that in the

26:05

Bible. And later I realized, oh no, wait, that's right there at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, our Father who is in heaven.

26:11

And then, but one of the things I stopped doing was I stopped praying before my meals because I felt like I don't think

26:17

I've ever seen that in the Bible. You know, that's just something I picked up from my family. So I intentionally stopped praying before meals because I didn't want to, you know, adopt kind of pharisaical traditions.

26:27

Later I began to realize, oh no, wait, there's lots of instances—oh, maybe not, you know, dozens or anything, but there's plenty of instances where people pray for their meals in the

26:38

Bible and they offer thanks to God. And moreover, in re -establishing that practice in my life,

26:45

I realized just how important it is to take moments every day to thank

26:50

God for very small things that we wouldn't thank him for, that we wouldn't be inclined to thank him for just because of our nature.

26:58

You know, we think of things as just givens that are due to us, that, you know, are just guaranteed to come our way.

27:08

And so it is important that even in those seasons where God is freely giving to us, where we don't have many needs, to take those timeouts frequently to thank him because they are from his hand and they aren't guaranteed.

27:22

There is no guarantee that you will receive your next paycheck, your next meal, your next breath, but the

27:29

Lord is merciful and he ought to be thanked and it is only from that thankfulness that we will have true joy in him.

27:37

Now I want to consider the frequency of these things as we look at them.

27:44

You know, it says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. So always, without ceasing, all circumstances.

27:52

I don't think these things are to be considered separately so that we say, oh, rejoicing is the one that you do always.

27:58

Prayer is the one that you don't stop. And thanking is the thing that you do in all circumstances, but you don't necessarily have to thank in always or ceaselessly like you do prayer, etc.

28:09

No, these things are supposed to all be taken together as one merism. A merism is, you know, like if I say heavens and earth, like that's a merism that brings, you know, all the halves together into one magnificent whole.

28:22

You know, this is describing the frequency with which we should do these things all independently in a way that brings them together, united into a greater whole, to emphasize how we ought to do these things.

28:37

So what does it mean to pray without ceasing? Now I think we have to recognize that we are beings in need of sleep, so it does not mean that there's no room for sleep.

28:49

However, these are things that should be constantly on our mind in our conscious moments.

28:57

At all times, in all circumstances, these are not always explicit. We're not always to be speaking.

29:02

Sometimes there's a time for listening, but our mind should be one that is disposed and geared toward giving thanks to God in all things, praying at all times.

29:13

And so, it is both explicit and implicit, you know, both verbal and nonverbal, both at dedicated times and spontaneously.

29:24

You know, there should be dedicated times where we are praying to the Lord and spending, you know, minutes or even hours, you know, in prayer.

29:33

There are other times when such things are not called for, and we are just to spontaneously offer the

29:41

Lord our thanks, spontaneously cast our anxieties upon him, spontaneously rejoice in him.

29:48

So those would be one complementary set of circumstances. There's also good times and bad times.

29:56

God has called us to rejoice when things are wonderful for us by an ordinary perspective.

30:02

God has also called us to rejoice as we have seen, you know, even in the midst of mourning, even in the midst of affliction, even in the midst of persecution.

30:13

So both in the good times and in the bad. And at all times during the day, once again, you know, if there's some takeaway from this, it's, you know, read the

30:23

Psalms. But you look at what David says in the Psalms about praying in the morning and the evening, you know, he is describing a lifestyle that takes multiple times of the day to call out to the

30:37

Lord. That is another way that we are to pray without ceasing. You know,

30:43

I heard someone recommend a practice, and I have not myself tried it, but I'll throw it out there as something that you may want to try for yourself, is to—and part of the reason

30:52

I don't is often I'm not using a physical Bible for myself, but if you have a…if you just buy one of the cheap—or, you know, we've got them here too, you know, just a cheap paperback

31:02

Bible. As you go through it, just use it for one use, you know, don't use it for many, but have one theme in mind as you're going through and, you know, highlight everything that you see with that theme.

31:14

That seems like a good thing that you could do with the Psalms. You know, have this Bible, don't intend to use it for anything else because, you know, it's just a paperback thing, and you'll have the freedom to mark everything that you see in the

31:24

Psalms about prayer and what the implications are. You know, David is praying morning, noon, and night.

31:31

He's calling out to the Lord silently, out loud, etc.

31:37

In good times and in bad times, in scheduled times and in spontaneous times, we are to call out to the

31:48

Lord at all these times, and therefore, we ought to be able to rejoice at all times.

31:54

Because this is not just something that God would have for us occasionally. He would have this to be something that marks our lives, that is ever -present with us as we experience the goodness of being found in his

32:07

Son. You know, one who trusts in Jesus, they are placed in his Son. You know, that means that we are—you know, that kind of mystical phrasing—it means that we are counted as him, right?

32:21

God counts us as righteous as his Son. So you could imagine us being hidden in the

32:26

Son so that when God looks at us, he sees him. He sees Jesus Christ. So that experience of being in the

32:34

Son, when we trust in him, we aren't in him and out of him occasionally, but we are in him permanently.

32:40

That is not a status that is lost. And so, as we are in him, this experience of being found in him, this experience of being able to have joy in him, should be something that pervades our lives.

32:54

And this is, as the passage says, the will of God. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

33:05

Now, it's worth taking just a moment and defining what is the will of God. I think the answer is fairly obvious, but there are some who would say that it's the giving thanks.

33:17

The giving thanks here is the will of God, because that was the last thing that was mentioned. But I think we have every reason to consider it the whole of the statement.

33:25

You know, all these things are paired together. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks to God in all circumstances, for this is his will.

33:32

Right? What you have here is a ascendant, which a good example of ascendant is,

33:41

I came, I saw, I conquered. Usually that's punctuated with periods in between each one, whereas, you know, in typical speech, you would just use a comma and you would say,

33:49

I came, I saw, and I conquered. Right? But to add emphasis, you say, I came, I saw, I conquered.

33:56

Or, well, you wouldn't, but Julius Caesar would. And so here you have these statements placed together as emphatic statements, you know, these emphatic sentences strung together, but forming one whole.

34:11

And so this is the will of God, not just the thankfulness, but the rejoicing. Not just, you know, this thing

34:17

I want from you, but this thing I want you to have. This rejoicing is the will of God.

34:26

And it is a goodwill. Why should the Thessalonians be motivated to respond to this?

34:33

You know, Paul is offering this is the will of God as some kind of motivation for the Thessalonians. Right?

34:39

Why should this impress them? Because they know that God's will for them is not for evil, but for good.

34:44

Because they know that God desires their good. For this is the will of God in Christ is for you.

34:57

Another way of saying will, you know, this is God's purpose. I quoted during Sunday school, and it's probably pretty frequently quoted here,

35:07

Westminster Catechism number one, right? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

35:13

Right? That is God's purpose for us, for us to glorify him, enjoying him forever.

35:21

We are to recognize how great he is, and in doing so, have joy.

35:27

This purpose, you know, many people wandering around not knowing what their purpose is in life, and they kind of ignore the despair that that would create just by, you know, just staying focused on day to day, you know, not worrying about the big picture.

35:41

But whenever they look at the big picture, you know, they're filled with this great sense of existential dread. You know, there is no purpose to all these things.

35:49

But God does have a purpose for you in Jesus Christ, and God's purpose is that you would have joy, and you would have it through him by casting your cares upon him in prayer, and by offering thanks to him.

36:09

And this will of God is found in Christ Jesus. It is not found elsewhere. This is not something that you can have apart from him.

36:17

Not even the prayer and thanks to God is something that you can offer apart from Jesus Christ. Once again, something we were talking about in Sunday school is that our prayer and our thanksgiving are mingled with error.

36:30

You know, if you—when you pray, you have imperfect motives, you have imperfect words that you're choosing, you have—when you offer thanks to God, you are not perfectly appreciative.

36:40

I think, you know, any reasonable person should be able to recognize this. We're called to love God with all our heart, soul, etc.,

36:47

and we fail to do that perfectly as we ought. And so why would God receive these corrupt prayers from us?

36:55

Why would he receive this corrupt thankfulness from us? These things are only acceptable to him because they are offered in Jesus Christ, that he, mediating these things as a perfect mediator, both

37:09

God and man, mediating these things to the Father, they are acceptable in his sight, just as we are, even though we are on our own, of ourselves, imperfect.

37:23

This is God's will for us, not just in general, but specifically his will for us and Jesus Christ.

37:29

It is Jesus Christ who has brought these things about, brought the potential for such great salvation about, by dying on the cross, by bearing the sins of all those who would trust in him, who would believe in him.

37:43

This is the will of God that is not had otherwise, but only had in Jesus Christ.

37:55

There are several different kinds of muscles in the body. You know, there are voluntary muscles, involuntary muscles, and then a combination of them.

38:03

So, for example, my arm is a voluntary muscle. It only moves when I tell it to move. My heart is involuntary.

38:09

I can't tell it to stop, right? It just does its own thing. And then my lungs are a good example of something that's both voluntary and involuntary.

38:17

I can, if I fall asleep, I don't stop breathing. I'll keep breathing. But I can also control my breathing.

38:24

I can stop breathing if I want to for, you know, a little while, and I can train myself to do it for a little longer.

38:31

But you could imagine that if my lungs were instead not a combination of voluntary and involuntary, but were just voluntary, what that would look like if I were not in the practice of using them, right?

38:46

If I were, if I just breathed only when I felt like it, you know,

38:51

I might be the kind of person who just waits until he's about ready to pass out and realize, oh yeah, I need to breathe, and then start breathing again.

38:58

This is how I think many people are following the commands in this passage. Rather than rejoicing always, praying always, giving thanks to God always, it's only in times of great need that they realize, oh,

39:11

I need to go to God in prayer. And they're like this person who has only voluntary lungs, who are just gasping for breath at the last minute.

39:20

We need to be ones who are well -trained to use these lungs involuntarily. So even in times of trial, the lungs are moving.

39:28

We're breathing, receiving from God his goodness, and offering up to him our anxieties and also our thankfulness.

39:37

You know, if you're a kind of person who feels like that person I described, who's, you know, gasping for breath every few moments when they realize that they haven't been breathing, you know, ask yourself why that is.

39:51

Jesus is divine, and we are the branches. If we are not found in him, you know, if this will of God in him is not being fulfilled, if we are not in him, we will dry up and waste away and be fit for the fire.

40:07

But if we are in him, if we are praying, if we are giving him thanks, if we are rejoicing, this great salvation that he has given us will restore our energy, it will restore our joy, it will restore us so that we might perfectly enjoy

40:30

God. If you are not in him, you must be in him. You must trust in him.

40:36

And if you are one who has trusted in Christ but find yourself struggling with this occasionally, the answer is plain.

40:43

The answer is right in front of you. You are not going to solve your own problems, but as you trust in the

40:50

Lord through prayer, through acknowledging what he has done, you will have capacity for great joy because Jesus himself is the source of all joy, and you will be united with him without any inhibition standing between you and him and receiving that joy despite any affliction, despite any calls for mourning.

41:17

Let's go to Lord in prayer. Dear God, I pray that as we hear these truths and as we speak of them and as we affirm them, that we would not be a hypocritical people, that we would not say it is right to pray without ceasing and then not pray without ceasing, but that you would give us the desire to commune with you regularly and that we would find ourselves speaking with you regularly, not quenching the

41:47

Spirit, not ceasing when prompted, and not…

41:56

And God, in times of dryness, I ask that you would stir in us a desire to have your life.

42:09

And God, in times of goodness, I pray that you would stir within us a thankfulness for all the wonderful things that you have given.

42:18

I pray that this people would have a great joy and that the world would be able to see that joy, even in times of trial, even when we are mourning, they would see that we do not mourn as others do, as a people without hope, but that we would have a great hope and a great joy and that these things would all be found in your