Beyond the Basics: Prayer

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Father, what a joy it is to look out this morning and see such a powerful display of your handiwork.
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To just be reminded as we come in of the beauty in your creation, to just look out at the snow on the trees, the snow covering the reservoir, so many beautiful sights.
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What a joy it is to be here this morning to worship our Creator. Lord, would you bless those who are still driving here, would you bring them here safely?
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Father, we would pray that even those who intended to visit perhaps just to get some kind of a
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Christmas morning experience would even still come, that they would hear your word.
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Father, I pray that for those who are here, and there may be few of us this morning, that this would be a rich time of fellowship, of just rejoicing your goodness to us, and remembering your
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Son, Jesus Christ, whose birth the world says they celebrate, but we do celebrate.
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And more than his birth, we celebrate his life, his death on our behalf, and his resurrection.
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Father, would you bless our time, in Christ's name, Amen. Well, I have a lot of pages here, but I thought
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I might just start, and since we are relatively few, I thought
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I might just start and see if there are any questions on anything that we've covered in the last,
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I don't know, 8, 10, 12 weeks. Anything that I've talked about. And then we'll just spend a little bit of time, and Mike tells me that we're going to be running behind amazingly enough this morning, mostly because we want to take some extra time and allow folks to get here.
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Hey, Scott. Scott is struggling with a bad back. We actually have more folks here than I thought.
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Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Casey. Any questions on anything that we've covered?
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This morning, as you might be able to see from the notes, we're going to spend a little bit of time anyway talking about prayer.
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We won't get the whole thing done. I've actually spiffed up the format. It looks so much better.
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We're going to be talking about prayer. You know, years ago, I remember hearing a bunch of people talking about prayer.
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And someone said the idea of praying an hour a day was legalism.
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Somebody else said that they didn't have the time for it. Someone else said that there was no way that they could possibly, kind of a variation on that theme, but there was no way that they could wedge an hour a day of prayer into their schedule between work, school, and family responsibilities.
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And each of those people was a seminary student. I remember first day of class,
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Dr. Ross kept telling us it was a two -credit class on prayer.
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One hour a day, every day of the week, praying. Plus a prayer journal, plus papers.
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And I decided it's the curse of the two -unit class in terms of time. And as I listened, as we all walked out that day, and as I listened to all the guys talking about it,
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I decided, you know, I don't think we should be thinking about prayer like this. I mean,
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I was thinking the same thing, but I'm just listening to everybody else talk about it, and I'm going, you know, it's like the
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Pharisee and the tax gatherer, and I'm just sitting there thinking, well, at least I'm not like those guys.
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And it really convicted me. And as we went through that semester, it was really a blessing to me, and I, a couple years later,
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Dr. Ross Kupp asked me to come in and talk to one of those classes at the beginning of the semester, and to talk to them about the class.
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And you know what? I told them exactly what I thought that first day about how it just seemed really strange to me that here we are, men who profess to want to be in the ministry, and we were all complaining about praying.
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And I said to the men that day, I said, here we have a man, and when you listen to Dr. Ross Kupp pray, you recognize that this is a man who walks, who lives in the presence of Jesus Christ every single day, because he talks as if it is as if you are walking with the
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Lord as he prays. You're just walking right through the room with him, and it's beautiful.
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It's just very compelling. And I said, it seems to me, men, that you say you love the
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Lord. You say you want to serve him, his church, his people. And then you have a dear man who says, men,
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I would like you to get to know the Lord better this semester by praying with him every single day. And we grumble about it.
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What does that say about us? And you should have seen the emails
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I got. Because they all knew. They all thought the same thing when they got the assignments.
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And it's a humbling thought. We don't think of prayer rightly.
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We often don't think of it rightly. Let's put it that way. The times when we think about it rightly are the times when we're praying, the times when we're in the habit of praying.
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Well, let's talk about prayer this morning, how to pray. First, we're going to talk about how to pray.
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Many weeks ago, months ago, when we were in Matthew 6, talking about praying to our father in the pulpit.
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It wasn't that long ago. We should pray to our father. Let's look at Matthew 6, verse 9.
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Some of you might remember it. I think we won't be there this morning, but I think we'll be there again soon.
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Matthew 6, verse 9. Pray then in this way.
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Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Look, Jesus doesn't say, you know, if you pray or, you know, in those times when you pray, he says, he just presumes that this is what
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Christians do, that they're in the habit of praying. Listen to what Kistemacher says.
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He says, It is immediately clear that not everyone is privileged to address God thus.
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Thus what? As father. As father. That is the exclusive.
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He goes on to say that is the exclusive prerogative. What's a prerogative? Right. It is the right of those who are in Christ to be sure there is a sense in which
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God can correctly be correctly referred to as the father of all men. He has created all and he provides sustenance for all.
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But that is not the usual sense in which this in which Scripture. But that is not the usual sense in which in Scripture.
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Kistemacher didn't write that well. The term father can be interpreted. In other words, typically father when it's mentioned in the especially in the
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New Testament does not refer to the father of all mankind. It refers to specifically those whom he has adopted.
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Out of all of mankind, he has chosen some to be in some special spiritual sense, his sons and daughters.
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And so Jesus is instructing his disciples and us by extension that when you pray, you ought to think of God as your father.
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You are his adopted child and you ought to go to him in that same sense. Secondly, you should pray fervently.
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Let's look at Acts 12 .5. And who has
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Acts 12 .5? Everybody has it. The question is, has anybody turned there yet?
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Stephen. And what was the result of that?
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So Peter is freed and it really is an answer to prayer.
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Power of God working through the means of prayer. Matthew Henry writes, That's one thing that magnified his deliverance was that it was a signal answer to prayer.
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Peter was kept in prison with a great deal of care so that it was altogether impossible either by force or by stealth to get him out.
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But prayer was made without ceasing. Unto God for him for prayers and tears are the church's arms.
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Therewith she fights not only against her enemies but for her friends. And to these means they have recourse.
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What's he saying? He's saying, listen, church, you have the means to accomplish great things as evidenced here in Acts 12.
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And that is, that means is, marching in the streets. Carrying signs. We're singing songs.
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We're carrying signs. Mostly say hooray for our side. Those who are old remember that song.
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Our means, prayer. Spiritual means. God is the deliverer.
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He works through the prayers of his people. Secondly, notice, let's look at Hebrews 5 -7.
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Talking about praying fervently. The church prayed fervently, incessantly, intensely for Peter.
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And the Lord heard their prayer and answered it directly. Does he always do that? I mean, how many times do people pray fervently, constantly, intensely for things that don't happen?
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Or they take years and years to happen. We're going to see that we ought not to stop.
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Hebrews 5 -7, who has that? John. Who's this referring to?
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Scripture is talking about Jesus Christ. And it says that he prayed in the day of his flesh with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him.
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What does that mean? Did Jesus need to be saved? He wanted to be delivered from what?
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I'm sorry? Yeah, from what lay ahead of him. And Brown writes this.
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Faced with such a humanly terrifying prospect. I mean, here's the thing. As God, he knew what was coming.
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As man, I think it's fair to say that he wasn't actually looking forward to it. Not in any kind of sinful way, but understanding exactly what was going to happen.
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Knew it was divinely necessary. And he came into the presence of a holy God as he knelt in the garden on the night of his arrest.
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He could no longer look to his friends for help. Although he had asked for their companionship and practical support, they slept.
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You know, what's the principle there? We talk about this on many occasions, especially when you're talking to your children.
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You say, you know, your friends will let you down. Your brother and sister will let you down.
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Your parents might let you down, but God is faithful. God doesn't let us down.
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The ones who said they loved Jesus went to sleep. In that hour, his soul was very sorrowful.
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And he could find real comfort only at the throne of his father. Another principle. Where do you go to?
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What did Jesus do? Could have felt sorry for himself. He could have said, look, my friends have deserted me.
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I know what's in front of me. And instead he went to the throne room of God.
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God himself went to the throne room of God. He cast himself upon a
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God who was able to save him. Save him from what lie in front. But he was not saved. He was not spared, was his prayer unanswered, he asked.
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Surely it was answered. Not by relieving Christ of the agony of the cross, but by giving him strength for it and peace in it.
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In those crucial moments, help came. The comforter came. Pray fervently.
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Exhaust yourself in prayer. Thirdly, pray individually.
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Again, Matthew 6. Back to verses 5 and 6.
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Who has that? Fred. Okay, again, we are to pray individually.
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Pray in secret. Do you have to have a prayer closet? How many of you have built not only a bomb shelter, but a prayer closet in your house?
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Are you guys laughing about the prayer closet or the bomb shelter? I'm not really sure. I mean, nobody has that.
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That would be really weird. You walk in, you're buying a house, and they go, over here we have the master bedroom, bathroom, this is the kitchen, and over here is the prayer closet.
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You just go, who owned this house? Was this Cotton Mathers? Who owned this house?
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We wouldn't know. That's not really the point. I do recall, though, that during this time it was helpful to me because I can be easily distracted by things.
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In fact, Mike has this capacity to multitask and do different things, and there are some things
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I can do and some things I cannot do. He goes, oh, you've got to listen to this sermon. I'm going, okay, but here's the problem.
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If I listen to a sermon, I can't do anything else. I mean, I can have it on in the background, but I won't hear a thing. I'll be typing or doing whatever, and then all of a sudden
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I'll realize he's closing in prayer, and I have absolutely no idea what just,
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I don't know what the whole thing was about. I couldn't tell you what passage it was in. I don't know anything. The only thing
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I can do and listen to preaching is drive. I don't know what that says about my driving, but I can do that.
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But my point is that for some of us, it is more important to isolate ourselves than others.
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But it is important that we take some sort of measure to isolate ourselves, to take some time to cut ourselves off from other things to pray.
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We need to pray individually by ourselves. Fourthly, we need to pray corporately. Let's look at 1
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Timothy 2 .8. Anybody there?
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Becky. Okay, now, to really kind of get this, well, to fully understand, we need to understand something about what
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Paul's purpose in writing Timothy is. And what is that? What's he telling
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Timothy about, generally speaking? How to be a pastor.
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How to run a church. So what he's saying is, look, here's what needs to happen in every church.
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I want the men in every place and every church would be another way to look at it. Lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.
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They need to pray everywhere. If they need to pray in the church, then that would be corporate prayer.
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Praying corporately. And that's one of the things we do here. We try to do things that the Bible commands, like this.
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BKC, by the way, I always like to put, and if I fail to do that, feel free to bring it to my attention after class, but I like to provide the source for my quotes.
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And this is the Bible Knowledge Commentary. And it says here, Undoubtedly, Paul wanted all
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Christians to offer up prayers for a widespread spiritual awakening among the populace and its rulers.
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Yet in the public assembly, Paul specifically specified that men, Greek word andros, literally males, everywhere are to lead the congregation in prayer.
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So we are to have congregational prayer, which we do. So you need to pray individually, pray corporately.
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Number five, you need to pray without respect to your feelings. Pray without respect to your feelings.
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I feel like I want to pray. I don't feel like I want to pray. It doesn't really matter.
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It's a command. 1 Thessalonians 5 .17 says, Pray without ceasing.
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Pray without ceasing on good days. John? Yeah, it was in particular a
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Jewish custom to pray with raised hands. So that would be the way that they prayed.
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Ought we to do that? I don't really know. I just don't think it's a cultural thing that we do.
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Yes. Yes, and I agree with that, that there was definitely a sense that it indicated prostrating oneself.
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Also indicated that a certain going with that humility, holiness of heart.
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They're not holding anything back, but also it was frankly just the Jewish tradition of raising their hands and praying.
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That's just what they did. So, yes.
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Yeah, and I think, thank you, Becky. I think that's, I would agree with that basically.
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I mean, and I say basically only because I'm always like, I hate to read too much, you know, when he says hands represent symbolically the activities of life.
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When Janet and I went to Israel in 2000, they had this tabernacle that they'd build out in the wilderness.
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And for those of you who have been to Israel, maybe you've seen it. You know, and it's kind of built to scale. And they have a guy out there who's a
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Jewish believer who kind of walks you through. The problem with it is that every single thing in there, whether it's the color of an item in there or the shape of something in there or everything, he's like, well, this symbolizes that.
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I mean, it's hyper -typing. In other words, a one -for -one correspondence. This represents the purity of Jesus' life.
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This represents, this represents, this represents, and you go, how do you know all that? And so, you know, do hands represent the activities of life?
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Well, yes, I suppose they do. And should we have holiness before we go before the
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Lord? Well, yes, we should. But then again, what if you don't feel holy? Then should you pray? Well, I think you should start with some good repentance.
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So that's all I have to say about that. Okay, number six.
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Or actually, I guess, yeah, MacArthur Study Bible. I just took out a portion of that quote.
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And it just says, this does not mean pray repetitiously, when it says pray without ceasing, or continuously without a break, but rather pray persistently and regularly.
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That's, again, the MacArthur Study Bible. I don't put A -V because I don't want to confuse anyone. Persistently, consistently, insistently.
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You know, I mean, put an L -Y on there. Basically, you just need to regularly pray, and you need to pray with some oomph.
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All right, number six. Pray sincerely. Let's look at Psalm 145 .18. I wonder how much
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I think I've corrected all my typos. I never do. Who has
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Psalm 145 .18? Simon. Excuse me.
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The Lord is near. So what's the implication then?
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Would you like the Lord to be near to you? Then you need to call upon Him.
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Would you like the Lord to be near to you? Then you need to call upon Him in truth. What does that mean?
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Bible Knowledge Commentary says, God answers the prayers of the needy, those who fear
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Him and love Him, when they call to Him. Let me just give you this.
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This is from Luke 18. Well, let's read that. Luke 18, 1 -7. This is the
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Proverbs Psalm.
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It's one of those P words. Parable. There we go. I knew if I went through the thesaurus long enough for a dictionary or whatever it is,
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I'd get there. Luke 18, 1 -7. The Parable of the
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Unjust Judge. I'm going to read verses 1 -7 here.
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Now He, speaking of the Lord, was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.
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There's the principle right there. Pray and not to lose heart. Saying, in a certain city, there was a judge who did not fear
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God and did not respect man. So what do we know about him? He's an unbeliever.
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Not only that, when it says he doesn't respect man, I would think he's not a very compassionate judge, even for an unbeliever.
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Verse 3. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, Give me legal protection from my opponent.
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Now what's compelling about a widow going to a judge and asking for protection? Stephen. No headship over her.
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And in that culture, when we think about the book of James, it says that religion undefiled is service basically to widows and orphans because they were in a separate class.
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Because in that male -dominated society, if you didn't have a man, if you didn't have a male head over you, you were vulnerable to almost everything.
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You couldn't own property. There were a lot of things you just couldn't do. It wasn't like you could just go down and get a job as a librarian, a schoolteacher, a nurse, anything.
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You were just dependent upon others for your sustenance. So she's an especially vulnerable person.
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And she goes to this judge saying, Give me legal protection from my opponent. For a while, he was unwilling.
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But afterward, he said to himself, Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me,
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I will give her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out.
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It reminds me of Samson. What does he say basically about Delilah? That she wore him out.
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He finally just gets weary and just tells her. This guy, he's tired of it. Verse 6,
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And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now will not
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God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night? And will
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He delay long over them? What's he doing in this parable?
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What's Jesus doing? Comparing God to this unjust judge. And he says, Listen, even the unjust judge, sure he delays, doesn't really care about people, but eventually he decides to do the right thing even if it's for the wrong reason.
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His reason is, I just want this woman to leave me alone. And Jesus says, Listen, God is different than that.
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He will bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night.
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There's persistence. I wrote here, There is a persistency to sincerity.
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Be sincere in your prayer. Continually bring these things before the
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Lord. Don't give up. I mean, imagine this.
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You know this prayer. Lord, please save Steve.
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Next day Steve's not saving you. You go, Okay, well, I'm not praying for that anymore. God doesn't want to answer it. That's not how we do it.
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We don't stop. We don't give up. Lord, I need a job. Oh, today the
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Lord didn't give me a job. I'm done with that. I guess I got to move on. Keep praying. He wants us to keep praying.
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Number seven. Pray in Jesus' name. Let's look at John 16, verses 23 and 24.
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John 16, verses 23 and 24. Who has that? Mr. Johanson.
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I had to quote Dr. Roskup a few times here. But I thought,
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In that day, Well, what is in that day? Typically we think about it as the day of judgment.
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In that day, when he comes back to judge the world. Listen to what Roskup says. In that day, after the
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Lord is absent physically, in other words, when the Lord has ascended, but when he is present only spiritually, they will not, the disciples, will not ask him questions by having him present bodily to answer.
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In other words, they couldn't go to him anymore and say, Lord, what about this? And who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom, by the way? They couldn't do that sort of thing.
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In the future time, their speaking to the Lord will be to the Father through Jesus. And the
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Father will give his answer in Jesus' name. Abiding in Christ and having him and his words abiding in them, tutors, teaches, informs their praying in his name, his will, his powers, his and values, which are the
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Father's. The Father's commitment in answer accords with his own passion.
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Jesus adds that while he has been on earth, the disciples have not asked the Father anything in my name.
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Rather, they could pray to the Father as in Matthew 6, or have Jesus right there and come immediately to him, not directly to the
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Father as they later will, urging the basis of Jesus' clout. Now that the new door of prayer is open,
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Jesus invites their laying hold of such a privilege. In other words, now they can pray to their intercessor, to Jesus.
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Let's look at Hebrews 10 .19. Who has
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Hebrews 10 .19? I think you have the right one the first time.
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10 .19. Okay. It is by the death of Jesus that we can enter the holy place.
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What is the holy place? The holy of holies.
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The throne room of God, as it were. Listen to what Wiersbe says here. No old covenant worshipper would have been bold enough to try to enter the holy of holies in the tabernacle.
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Even the high priest entered the holy of holies only once a year. The thick veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was a barrier between people and God.
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Only the death of Christ could tear that veil and open the way into the heavenly sanctuary where God dwells.
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We have been given access to the holy of holies, to the place where God dwells, to enter into His throne room.
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Why do we pray in Jesus' name? Because He has torn the veil in half. He has given us access directly to the
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Father. We'll do one more here. Pray according to God's will.
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Pray according to God's will. And you say, well, I don't know what God's will is. Well, let's figure that out.
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1 John 5, verses 14 and 15. Who has that?
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Okay, so how do we know that we're praying according to God's will? Again, quoting
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Roscoe, those who have eternal life, which was in verse 13, can have assurance that they do possess this life.
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But they also can have confidence when they ask according to God's will. In such cases,
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God hears and gives what they pray He will provide. How do we know that we're praying in accordance of God's will?
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Well, we have to know God's will. We have to know His will, and how do we find that out?
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By reading His word. Several things happen, and we'll talk more about this next week, but several things happen when we pray.
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First is, well, just generally speaking, when we go and we pray to God, we are not informing
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Him of what's going on. He's not eagerly, He's not the general eagerly awaiting the dispatches from the front to tell us what's happening.
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He's not waiting for the latest gossip. He knows everything. We're not telling Him anything that He doesn't know.
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So why do we pray? Why do we pray? Why would we bring anything before God, since He already knows everything, and He knows what we need, and He knows what
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He's going to do. Why would we pray? Stephen? He commands it. John?
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Okay, to get our will aligned with His. And you know what? Another great theologian named
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John said that. He said, when we pray, thy will be done. We are praying that God's will become our will.
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God's will become our will. We want to agree with God. We want our will to be conformed to God's will.
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And how do we do that? We have to know God's revealed will, which is the Word of God. Just to give you an idea.
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I don't want to get into the whole decision -making thing in great length, but people say, well, how do I know I've married the right person?
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What's the correct answer to that? God allowed it is very close.
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God... He decreed it. I think it goes beyond allowing.
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Decreed means... I mean, if you're married, you are married to the right person. It's just the way it is.
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You know, and I mean, there are a number of places we could go to talk about that, but just for a minute, just think about Romans 8 .28.
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God causes all things to work together for good, except for my no good rotten wife, husband.
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That was a big mistake. I don't know how God let that happen. You are married to exactly the right person.
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How do I know that? How do I know that, you know, Megan and Joey are supposed to be married?
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I have a shock for Joey. I don't yet. You know, when will I know? Well, May 16th, give or take a year or two.
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You know, when they actually get married. On that day, I'll go, I am confident that this was God's will.
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To say anything before that, to say, well, I know this is God's will. Well, I can look at the
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Word of God and I can compare their two lives to the Word of God and I can say everything lines up, but I don't know that it's
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God's will until, you know, Pastor Mike says, I now pronounce you man and wife.
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That's when I know. Assuming he gets the invitation.
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I've been telling him that we're going to fly in Dave Swavely, but that's all. This has been caked. Okay. Any questions about that?
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Any questions about anything that I've covered this morning with regard to prayer? We want,
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I mean, true or false, we want to be aligned with the will of God. What happens if we're not aligned with the will of God?
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What if God, you know, what if he wants us to marry person A and we really want to marry person
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B? Then what? I mean, people think like that.
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Is that possible? God wants me to marry person A and I want to marry person B. I rest my case.
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The only way, I mean, again, this sets up this kind of false idea that somehow
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God has a plan and I thwart it. Me, you know,
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I'm more powerful than God. I changed the plan of God. If I marry person
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B, it's because that was God's plan. Now, if I, if I marry someone that is contrary to Scripture, then
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I violated God's revealed will. In other words, what's in the Bible, but not
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God's decreed will, what he foreordained. That's probably as clear as mud.
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Okay. I can't do, I can't do something that is going to, you know, change history as God has laid it out.
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I can certainly sin, but I don't change the mind, the will, or the decree of God.
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Yes, Joe. Yeah, we often, you know, is our prayer life perfect?
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Is it complete? The answer is no. And sometimes I think we just kind of get, we get bogged down, you know,
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I don't even know what to pray. Now, yeah, now, you know, there's a wrong application for that, by the way. And the wrong application would be,
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Lord, I don't even know how I'm supposed to pray. So I'm just going to leave it to your spirit. The right way is to think about it and go, you know,
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I am confused in these things, or, uh, maybe
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I leave something out that I ought to be praying for. The, the spirit intercedes on my behalf because I'm not, uh, a perfect prayer, prayer of prayers.
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I guess it could be a participle, but we needn't worry.
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Here's the, here's the, you know, we're going to, uh, we're going to close here, but I needn't be concerned that, well,
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I don't want to change that. I am not going to change the decreed will of God.
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I'm not going to change his mind, but I can violate God's word, and I don't want to do that. And that's where counsel comes in and other things like that.
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You know, somebody says they want to marry an unbeliever. Well, I know right away you're outside of the will of God because the
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Bible tells me that. And that's why we would never marry a believer in an unbeliever.
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Just never do it. Why? Because the Bible makes it clear. You shouldn't do that. But if we're going to pray according to God's will, what we really want to do, if we want to have the mind of Christ, if we want to think like God thinks, if we want to have the peace that surpasses all understanding, we want to align ourselves with the will of God.
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We need to know the Bible and we need to practice the Bible. We need to pray the Bible. We need to think biblically and submit to it.
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Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time in your word, just reflecting on prayer.
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Would you grant each of us an increased prayer life, more desire to come to you to recall that unlike the unjust judge, you love to do things for your children.
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You will answer the pleas of your chosen.
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Father, I would pray that we would draw closer to you, that we would seek to know your will, not mystically, but through your word.