Lesson # 8 - Part 2 (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur) Prayer & The Believer

So we're going to continue our study of fundamentals of the faith. This will be part two on the lesson on Prayer in the believer.

So before we pick up Where we left off with the acrostic tulip or I said that last week.

I don't know why I say that acts ACTS I'm used to saying a tulip as the acrostic but it's

Acts so you see that box I don't know what page my page numbers are different But the box that says four important areas of prayer adoration confession

Thanksgiving supplication That's where we left off. But before we get into that, I I went back and I listened to something lasting last week

I want to clarify it so Let's turn to Isaiah 59 this was the last

Question from part C. Isaiah 59 1 & 2 But just on this subject about God hearing our prayers

I wanted to clarify one or two things So the question does God answer our prayers?

Why I do believe that the Lord answers prayers of the believer But last week

I had said that unbelievers don't pray Because unbelievers don't believe in God.

So why would they pray? And of course, that's true for some people There are people who would profess to be

Atheist or agnostic and they don't pray because they don't believe That God is out there.

They don't believe there's anyone to hear us Yeah, so but this this statement that we read from Isaiah 1 and now

Isaiah 59 These are not unbelievers These this is a different group, so let's just read the the passage

Isaiah 59 1 & 2 Says behold the Lord's hand is not shortened

That it cannot save nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated you from God in your sins have hidden his face from you so that what?

He will not hear so this isn't actually talking about unbelievers last week

That's the comment that I made that atheists don't pray because they don't believe that there is a

God But there are people who do pray and it says that God doesn't hear their prayers.

So instead of calling them unbelievers What would the proper term be for this group

Isaiah is talking about I think this would be apostate Believers, so these were

Jews who were in covenant with God. They may have gone to the temple or later to the synagogue they would have gone through the motions and maybe offered sacrifices and offered up their prayers to God, but because They praised

God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. God did not answer their prayers

So the the point is there are people in church if you take this principle and bring it to today

There are people in churches You know whether they're legitimate New Testament churches or not.

It's another story, but there are people in churches That are living in rebellion to God They may pray to God but God does not hear them

So I'm just trying to take this principle Clarify it and bring it to the modern day

So this was common in Israel They would have professed faith in God, but they were

Workers of iniquity especially the leaders of the nation if you look in the Old Testament that some of the

Kings were just Absolute scoundrels they were bloodthirsty They would have gone in and offered a sacrifice and and prayed but is

God gonna hear them So when they asked Lord bless Israel did God bless

Israel? No, or when Judah got into a really bad place they would have

Prayed and talked about may the Lord bless his people in the nation of Judah and yet the

Lord allowed Babylon to come in and capture them so I Try to think of some parallels

So this is pretty common that we would compare the nation of Israel to our nation

I Think it's I think it's safe to say there are leaders in our nation And I'm not looking to get political or specific

But there are leaders in our nation 90 % of members of Congress profess to be

Christian Right and Every new Congress they will open up They'll bring a minister in and he'll open up this new session of Congress after the election with a prayer

Right you have you've seen and heard this Do you remember the prayer for this new

Congress remember what they did? They prayed to God, but then they prayed to Brahma who is

I think a Hindu Deity with like eight arms or some grotesque looking

So obviously God's not going to hear that prayer right if you if you're praying to Brahma one second

And then you pray to the Lord The next moment God is not going to hear that prayer or if you have a leader whether it's a president governor

It doesn't matter who it is it could be a mayor if they are committed to doing evil if their policies are evil and Then they say

God bless America or God bless the state of whatever Can you really expect

God to hear their prayers now? I know this is basic. This is like Christianity 101

But that's just taking what Isaiah said and bringing it to today.

Did I see a hand? Plus when they do the oath they always put their right hand on the Bible, right?

Yeah Right, and it's it's a display of hypocrisy is what it is because everybody this is the dirty little secret that everybody knows

But you know, it's impolite to say anything, but everybody knows these people don't Care about following God's will there is that one member of Congress who said, you know

Senator the will of God is of no concern to this Congress. He said so,

I mean they're pretty open about it The point being God does not hear the prayers of everybody

Who does God hear the prayers of? His people and you can be in Israel or you could even be in a visible church.

It doesn't actually mean You're in communion with God. I don't think this applies to just Every Christian who struggles with some sin because I don't think there's a person in the world who doesn't have

Some besetting sin, so I'm not saying this applies to Everybody because I think no one would have their prayers answered

But it has to be somebody who is walking with the Lord who's gonna have their prayers answered again.

I know that's basic but This is brought out in this statement from Isaiah 59.

Did I see your hand? Well any time We have sin in our life

That we're unwilling to let go our relationship with God is broken and he won't hear us

And basically what this Isaiah 59 1 & 2 is saying as well as James 4 3

You know our motives are wrong Yeah And Psalm 66 18

See the second thing but holding on to sin and not willing to let go

Yeah Yep It's easy to do And we can be the same or deceiving ourselves in life and Thinking we are

His people or You know that he's gonna bless us

Right, there's like the visible church which is made up of people at all stripes and denominations

But within the visible church of the two point whatever billion people on earth who profess to be

Christians Only a section of those are actually Truly redeemed by the blood of Christ.

Yeah, that's the same way it was in Israel. They were all Israelites They were all in the Covenant, but how many of them actually loved

God and were obeying God? Well a small section of them Did I see another hand?

Yeah. Okay. He's just brought first John 5 14 and 15 to mind it says now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will right

Yeah, and you need to pray according to God's will we talked about that last time? There's another verse that just came to mind

I forget the reference but it talks about your prayers being hindered basically the husband and wife

If they're not getting along if there's strife there, it'll hinder your your prayers

So there's all sorts of things that's different from that's different from God not hearing you

But there's a lot of things that can be a hindrance And obviously you have to ask in faith if you pray to God and I know

I've done this Usually it's when someone else asked me to pray and I take their request

But I've prayed for things that I don't really believe that God is gonna do Right.

I think most people have probably done that You're praying God do in in your heart you're saying

I'm saying it but I don't really believe it Well, you have to come to God in faith

But at the same time asking according to his will knowing that there's no guarantees. God is not a vending machine

He's not a genie. He's not Santa Claus. You don't ask and get whatever you receive

I know there's verses that seem to say that if you take them out of context, but Everything has to be according to God's will but he does hear the prayers of this people

Okay, that's what I wanted to say about God not hearing Prayers that happened back in the

Old Testament it's happening today Ecclesiastes 1 9 says that which has been is and What will be that which is done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the

Sun So if it's happening then it's it's happening. It's happening now All right, so you see that box that says four important areas of prayer

Everyone got that so this is the acrostic acts

ACTS Now who knows the difference between an acrostic and an acronym?

Does anyone know the difference? Okay Okay, good, all right, so if I use the wrong term you won't know because you don't know the difference

I think it's an acrostic though But an acronym is it's similar.

Okay, what what is this? ACTS obviously You will remember it because of the book of Acts the

Acts of the Apostles, but this is general guidance in how to pray you start out with Adoration so you're you're praising

God you're adoring God. It says reflect on God himself Praise him for his attributes his majesty and his gift of Christ.

So when we pray It shouldn't be Lord Here's what

I need right now. Can you give me this and do this for me? Oh, you should start out with praising

God for who he is and then you move into the C which is confession

Admit to God that you have sinned be honest and humble Remember he knows you and he loves you.

So Confession would be number two And obviously this is something that is often missing there.

There will be churches and ministries There's no confession anymore because they've already made a decision that they're not going to they're not going to preach about sin

They're not going to talk about sin. So you really can't Lead a prayer where we're confessing our sins because that decisions already been made we don't bring that up And then there's some people that never admit they're wrong

Right, you know, you know these hopefully that doesn't describe anyone here. It can seem that way sometimes probably but You you should be able to admit you're wrong to God.

So we confess our sins to God He knows anyways, he knows he knows our sin and our shortcomings

So we we adore God we confess our sin that way now we are approaching

God correctly Putting him first his rightful place Putting us in our rightful place as the sinner and then we're confessing that we now have a clean heart and Then you get into Thanksgiving and you thank

God for all these things tell God how grateful you are for everything He has given you even the unpleasant things

Your thankfulness will help you see his purposes and then once you've done all that The last thing you do is what?

Yeah, then you get into the supplication or as some people call it the petitions

Make Specific requests. So when you ask God for the yeah, we this is where we ended last week

Remember, you know the general prayers Lord healed the sick Okay, who though like who do you want him?

To heal so be specific in your requests that way when

God answers your prayers You can actually see it It's not some vague thing that you don't really know

So pray first for others and then for yourself and that's in line with the teachings of of Christ to put

You don't love love others. So put them first and then yourself Notice that the first letters of these four words

Form the word acts you can use this see it calls it an acronym here

Like I said, I've been calling it an Acrostic if you want to correct me later explain the difference to me later

You can as a guide to maintain balance as you pray. All right any questions on this?

All right All right. Let's move on to number three the struggle of prayer is prayer a struggle

You'd be willing to admit that it's a struggle or maybe it's not a struggle See it's it's not a struggle if it's a part of your routine if it's something you do all the time

It becomes a struggle not to pray But it's like it's like anything if you're used to doing it.

It it's easier if you Don't do it very much. Then it's a struggle

So we've talked about the nature of prayer the practice of prayer and now the struggle of prayer

Let's see what Pastor MacArthur says Prayer can be hard work

But that should not keep us from praying even when it requires sacrifice

Then I asked the question how long did Jesus pray before he selected the twelve apostles from Luke 6 verse 12?

Yeah, he spent the whole night in prayer Now, why did he do that?

There could be several reasons But choosing the twelve apostles. This was a big decision

Because Jesus had a lot of followers. Sometimes we think that he just had twelve and Mary Magdalene and that was it

No, that's not really accurate. He had a lot more So out of that larger group of disciples

Jesus chose twelve This is a big decision before the point is before you make a big decision

You should always pray about it the bigger the decision the more prayer What's our tendency though when there's a decision to be made?

We just automatically know what to do. We have our instinct We'll go off what we think and we'll make a snap or a rash decision

Sometimes that works out a lot of most of the time. It probably doesn't Linda Yeah Yep, and you know, that's a good idea too to get counsel when making a big decision, you know, look to the word

Get some advice all Good things to do. But yeah, you do want to pray when make making a big decision

I mean, especially about ministry. Obviously, this is what you should do John Right Well, it was so that the scriptures might be fulfilled

Jesus chose Judas Not as a whoops, you know, that was a bad decision.

I I wish I had done that differently. No Jesus chose Judas on purpose So that prophecy would be fulfilled it it was part of God's will that that happened

Because Jesus someone had to betray him so that the soldiers would know where to find them again

It fulfilled scripture. There's all these reasons why it had to happen. So it wasn't a mistake You know, you might think that well didn't

Jesus already know who the twelve were supposed to be he's he's divine Doesn't he already know all these things?

Not necessarily. There's a lot of things during the ministry of Jesus that He knew right away he could read people's hearts he had certain

Divine knowledge that only God could have or that the Spirit could give him but he didn't always know everything

Right because the obvious example is that Jesus didn't know the day or the hour of his return

So there were times where he didn't know Everything right away and it would appear as though this would be another example.

So he prayed all night Before choosing the twelve, but yeah Judas was not a mistake.

Does anyone want to add to that? Okay to describe the intensity of Jesus as he prayed in anticipation of the cross

Luke 2244 says being in agony. He was praying very fervently and His sweat became like drops of blood

Falling down upon the ground now there's some debate about this whether or not he actually did sweat blood or Like this says it became like drops of blood either way

When you're sweating if you ever You're sweating Profusely, the the drops are heavy

You have the normal sweat, but sometimes Yeah, the drops are big in their head

Jesus was what going through agony distress If your prayers ever been like that have you ever agonized over something in prayer

Some people just agonize, you know It's just themselves torturing themselves going over things in their mind better to put it in God's hands and Let him deal with it

I Said well, I don't want to pray that to God because it seems inappropriate or I don't want to here's one thing

I've heard before. Oh, I don't want to bother God with with this I don't know.

I'm trying to think of a Situation where that would be? Yeah, you don't want to bother God, but I can't can you bother

God? It's not like he only has a certain amount of time and this doesn't really rise to that occasion

So bring these things to the Lord in prayer, so Jesus prayed all night there are times he prayed fervently and Then three what should believers be careful to do when we devote ourselves to prayer

Colossians chapter 4 verse 2 Keep alert and have an attitude of Thanksgiving I I'm going out on a limb here and saying this is one of the biggest

Spot talking about struggles. One of the biggest struggles is staying alert You know, we live in a day and age where people have been diagnosed having attention deficit disorder and whether people have always dealt with that or if that's

I know I believe it's More of a thing with some people than others But isn't that's a common problem in prayer is to kind of keep focused

You know, you let your mind wander. I know that's happened to me

I'll start out praying and then two minutes in I'm just Know what

I'm thinking. This is here's the helpful thing Pray out loud

That will help because if you're praying in your mind, it's much easier to go straight So if you find a quiet place

This is why people close their eyes to prevent distractions But hey, whatever works the find a quiet place away from a radio away from TV away from other people away from distractions and pray out loud and that I think will help you keep your focus and Just sometime and I don't know that this covers it but have an open

Bible read and pray pray the scriptures pray through the scriptures Find something in the scripture read it and then talk to God about that if you run out of things to pray for.

All right any This is some advice that I've found helpful All right, we'll move to the next one be

Even when we are frustrated or discouraged we can still approach

God in prayer Why was David discouraged in Psalm 13?

One and two why was David discouraged Okay Yeah, yeah and because David's prayers were not being answered at least that's how he viewed it he felt like God forgot all about him

And this is another common thing people feel like God doesn't care or maybe you know in your mind

Well, he does care but it seems like he's forgotten about me Now, is that true?

You know, you you kind of know it's not true that God hasn't Forgotten about you and here's another problem.

We're impatient You know, we pray for something. We want it done like the next day this afternoon this week

That's not the way it works God answers prayer according to his will like Lance said the second thing it's according to his what his timing

But that's not the way people are so David was discouraged and we can get discouraged in prayer

And I think that's what the devil would want people to do to get discouraged in it when you're discouraged

You're more likely to do what? Stop praying To what was

David's complaint in Psalm 22 verse 2 He says oh my god,

I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I have No rest.

So David thought that God had forsaken him When in reality

David of any man in Israel David was the man that God had his hand on and God was guiding his life

More than anyone. I would have to say and yet there are those moments where he thought

God didn't care That kind of tells you something like David was not seeing things for the way.

They really were but These are some common things and it's helpful helpful for us to see that great men of God in the scripture felt this way because it's relatable and You realize you can read it and see okay

David was wrong. That's not true Well that should help you to realize that's not the case for us either

Okay prayer is governed by God's sovereignty and his determined Purpose or his purpose determines his answer to our prayers

You know, I talked about the woman last week who said I said, you know You need to pray according to God's will and she said all that ruins it then, you know

Then I can't just get whatever I pray for. I Know I I get it.

I mean there are There but there are some preachers who preach like that They'll tell you if you just believe it hard enough if you just have enough faith.

No, you can get whatever you want So I think we have to have some sympathy because people are picking this up from pastors and in authors

Sometimes it's just a matter of being a babe in Christ. You just don't know any better You've never got to that verse that says you should pray according to God's will

So if somebody makes an outlandish statement or something that's clearly wrong about prayer, you know, don't don't be too hard on them

None of us have it all Figured out yet and I can say that because none of us have the prayer life of Jesus Jesus was the man who added he knew how to pray and he if Jesus asked for something he would have his prayers answered

That's not the case for us we asked a miss as James said Even with Jesus that one prayer that you might think wasn't answered, you know, take this cup from me

It's a hypothetical because it didn't work out that way but Jesus said what nevertheless Not my will be done but thine so even

Jesus conceded that even this is what I want I would prefer to Not have to go to the cross, but because Lord it's your will

I Will go I I want to go because that's what you want me to do

And that really has to be our attitude that we adopt God's will whatever God's will is

That's what I'm gonna pray for. That's what I want. Even though it might be the opposite of what you want in the flesh

So prayer does change things, you know, God would have done it differently if you didn't pray this way maybe

But it does at the very least change us it conforms us to God's purposes so read 2nd

Corinthians 12 7 through 9 and You've supposed to have done this already and so what did

Paul pray for? Okay, well, that's what he was that's what he was concerned about or that's what

God was concerned about with Paul that Paul would get too prideful remember Paul was taken up into the third heaven

Paul was given all these revelations by God and that The threat there was that Paul would get proud and puffed up that you know

I no other man has received all this but I have so to keep Paul humble

God gave him the thorn in the flesh So Paul's prayer was that God would remove the thorn

Now there's some debate about what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. What do you think it was? Does that we don't know so there's no real right answer.

But what have you heard that his thorn in the flesh was? Okay, one common

Views that Paul had bad eyesight. I Think he did have bad eyesight whether that was his thorn in the flesh.

We're not really sure it could have been Anyone have any other theories? Well, I've heard all sorts of different things

I Personally think that it was it talks about a messenger of Satan to Buffett him so I Think the

Apostle Paul had there was a man in the church at Corinth Or there was somebody that was just a thorn in his side.

That was just stirring up trouble And just making his life

Just grief in the ministry, I we don't really know whatever it was Paul said Lord, would you remove it and what did

God say? No, no. Yeah, because God didn't remove the thorn and it says how many times did

Paul pray for this? Three well, maybe if he prayed that fourth time that God would have said yes

You Know there's my dad did a sermon a few years ago about persistent prayer and there are passages that if you keep praying

God is more likely to answer we could look at those parables. So, you know, there's no real formula

I heard another preacher say hey if you prayed to God once he heard you the first time and Praying again shows that you're doubting.

I don't think that's right So you could pray once you could pray once a day

Paul prayed three times though and Did he see did he receive what he asked for?

Why or why not the answer? We know no God did not take away his thorn in the flesh

But the Lord said my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness

So if there was ever a man In the New Testament Church that had faith

Just faith in God that could move mountains a man who is just sold out to the

Lord and serving him It was the Apostle Paul and yet Paul asked for something and I think it's a reasonable request

He wasn't praying for a Lamborghini or whatever the first century equivalent was

But God said no my grace is Sufficient Have you ever felt that God has said something like that to you like Paul?

I'm leaving this in your life for your good whether you realize it or not and we pray and ask

God Usually we're praying To ask God to fix our problems, right? I Have this ailment

Lord take it away heal me I had this this person's giving me problems fix this fix that fix that and You have to acknowledge that sometimes

God doesn't do it maybe because you lack faith I mean that that you have to acknowledge that could be a possibility or that you don't ask that's one possibility

But sometimes you do have the faith and you do ask and he still says no and you just don't understand why?

But God knows best and he's leaving that thing or person or whatever it is in your life for a reason

Does anyone have an example? That you'd like to share I Know it's kind of a personal thing

But if you think of anything and you'd like to share it Maybe you've recognized after the fact that God didn't answer your prayers because he would get something better in store, maybe

Okay But I mean Paul Here in 2nd

Corinthians chapter 11 I mean you hear a lot on the radio or television

From some preachers, you know the name and claim it, you know your prosperity your best life now

You're supposed to have you know be healthy and Prosperous and everything but Paul here in 2nd

Corinthians 11 starting in verse 24 Says from the

Jews five times. I received 40 stripes minus one three times

I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times. I was shipwrecked a night and a day

I've been in the deep in journeys often in perils of water in perils of robbers and perils of my own countrymen and perils of the

Gentiles and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren in weariness and toil in sleeplessness sleepless

Sleeplessness often In hunger and thirst in fastings often and cold and nakedness besides other things

What come upon me daily? My deep concern is for the churches.

So I mean politics of abuse right and so I don't see where the name of the claimant guys how they're just avoiding this passage and Telling everybody, you know, no, you shouldn't go through hard times

Right. I don't see anything in Scripture that says we won't be kept from trouble

But I do see that God says He will be with us through it.

Whatever it is. Yeah Yeah, did you have a hand up? That's confusing to me with the prayer about is he saying no or is he saying wait

So that you know how Paul knew after three times, you know, don't come praying anymore

It's gonna be a no right Yeah, well,

I you know Paul is different Here's a man who received

Visions and direct I realize people today claim to receive visions and direct revelation from God.

I don't believe them you know, I Maybe that's happening to somebody somewhere. But usually when you hear that I don't buy it

Paul though was receiving direct revelation from God so For God to tell him no my grace is sufficient that could have been

God doing it in a clear way Well, yeah, that's an answer where you're not gonna get that same type of thing

It's just different we I could do a whole sermon on why it's different But well

God isn't speaking to us in the same way that he spoke and gave revelation to his

Apostles But I don't know if that helps Jen In a way

Yeah, thank you that's a good insight we don't grow unless we go through difficulty

I Mean the illustration I like to use is, you know the gym I mean you got to work hard at the gym to get those results in your body, right?

This is how the Lord grows his people through adversity Romans 5 talks about Romans 5 3 through 5 and not only that we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance

Character in character hope and hope does not disappoint because we have the love of God Which has been poured out in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit. So, you know people that really have character They've been through some things

Right. So sometimes God will allow us To shape and mold us into the image of Christ because Christ is what the man of sorrows

Christ suffered like no other man suffered. So as his Followers, we're gonna go through some difficult times too so that we become more like him

One comment about Larry and the you know, the prosperity preachers I only bring up the Lamborghini thing because it's some name it and claim that people have have said things like that But obviously

God blessed certain people throughout Scripture with great wealth. There's nothing wrong with that So I don't want to make it sound like if somebody's well off that there's there's a problem

But usually the prosperity preachers will have to go into the Old Testament with men like Abraham or David or Solomon who were very wealthy

Job they have to go into the Old Testament to get their doctrine because they're not getting it on the pages of the

New Testament and The Old Testament this is a different covenant if you obeyed the

Commandments you were promised blessing here on this earth so It's not it's just not the same

Again, that could go on and on about it, but that's not really what we're talking about all right, the last thing read mark 14 3 35 through 36 and Mentioned this briefly.

What did Jesus ask of the father concerning his hour of suffering?

What did Jesus ask? Yeah that God would remove this

Cup, but what was he willing to do?

His his father's will now what was the cup Jesus refers to it as the cup

Remove this cup from me The cross now, why would the cross be called a cup?

Well think about in the Lord's Supper the bread represents the body The cup represents his his shed blood

So yes, it is speaking of the cross and what was the cross? What was

God doing to Christ on the cross? Right, he was punishing him

For the sins of the world in the book of Revelation when it talks about a cup

There's the cup of what God's indignation, right? There's the bowls of wrath and the cup of his indignation so when

Jesus was on the cross His blood was being shed and this was God the

Father pouring out his wrath upon the Sun So that's what the cross is all about and that's ultimately what the gospel is that Jesus took the wrath for us so now

There is no Judgment, there's no final judgment and Condemnation for the believer because there's no condemnation in Christ right

Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Why is there no condemnation? Because all of our sins have been forgiven because Jesus because of this because Jesus Wanted to do the will of the

Father Imagine if Jesus said Lord remove this cup from me.

This is what I want and he stuck with that What would that mean for every for all of us

Yeah, it would mean the wrath of indignation still needs to be poured out it would be poured out on us

And of course those who do not believe in Christ those who do not follow Christ This is why we need to evangelize the world.

This is why the church Preaches the gospel and tries to share this message whenever we can because that cup of indignation

Is still there for people who reject God and his free gift of salvation in Christ so thankfully

Jesus Sets this example that he above all he wanted to do

God's will That prayer removed the cup that would have been in his best interest right in a sense

But he was thinking about us. So when we go to God in prayer, we should put the interests of others

Before ourselves and not just go to God with Lord Here are all the things I want you to do for me.

That's really not the point in prayer. That's part of it That's at the end come to God with your needs