August 1, 2017 Show with Armen Thomassian on “Prayer in the Life of a Spiritual Giant” AND “The Importance & Privilege of Corporate Prayer”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio

platform on which pastors, Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron so one

man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we

converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another

wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host Chris Arntzen.

Good afternoon.

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,.

Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming at

ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron wishing you a happy Tuesday and today is the

first day of August in 2017 and I am so delighted to have returning to

the program somebody that has quickly become one of my favorite preachers.

I have to be very careful what I say about my guest today because he is a very humble man and

has already lovingly rebuked me for lofty praises that might go to his head so I

have to keep a rein on my tongue when giving compliments to this brother because he's very gifted and I'm

delighted to have him back on the show.

His name is Armin Tomasian.

He's a former atheist and he's currently pastor of Calgary Free Presbyterian Church in Alberta,

Canada.

He's one of the speakers at the upcoming For God and Truth conference in Trinity, Alabama

and today we are discussing the importance and privilege of corporate prayer and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you

back to Iron Sharpens Iron, Pastor Armin Tomasian

and in studio with me is my co -host the Reverend Buzz Taylor.

And good afternoon, it's good to be back.

If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own about prayer in particular about

corporate prayer, our email address is ChrisArntzen at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S

-A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside of the

USA.

And if you need to remain anonymous because the matter over which you are asking a question is personal

and private and you do not desire to reveal who you are, I

understand that and especially with a subject like this that could be a natural

tendency for someone to have a personal and private question.

Well, we will honor that request and we will not identify you, so you

need not fear about that.

But if it's not about a personal and private matter, please give us your first name, city and state and country of residence.

Before I even go into the subject at hand, the importance and privilege of corporate prayer,

uh, we already have heard your personal testimony of salvation, so

anybody listening after this program is over, if you want to hear a little bit more about Pastor Armin

Tomasien's salvation testimony, you can go to the Iron Sharpens Iron website and click

on the past programs or podcasts, which is in the top right corner of the

website, and you will be given a search engine where you can type in

Armin, A -R -M as in Michael, E as in Edward, N as in Nancy, A -R -M -E -N, if you type that in,

Armin Tomasien's interview will come up and you'll be able to hear that.

But I would like to, for our first time listeners, our new listeners, I should say,

who have not heard you last time, because every day, brother, we are getting new listeners contacting me

every single day now.

It's amazing what the Lord is doing with the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program, but for those of you

listening who are unfamiliar with Pastor Armin Tomasien, I'd like you now, Pastor, to give your

description of the Calgary.

Free

Presbyterian

Church of

Alberta,

Canada.

Yes,

and I

happen

to love the

preaching

of the.

Brethren in the Free Presbyterian denomination.

I obviously haven't heard all of them, but every single one I can think of that I've ever heard

preach has always been a great blessing to my heart and typically known for power and

biblically orthodox content, obviously.

And you mentioned something that might need a little bit of a definition.

You said that your church stands for biblical separation, and one of the things that I

have appreciated about the Free Presbyterian Church of North America and the Free Presbyterian Church

of Ulster is that I think you strike a correct balance with that.

There are some who talk about the need for separation and describe themselves as separatist

fundamentalists who go, I think, way overboard and wind up condemning very sound

brethren in Christ, men for whom Christ died, some of whom have

a great word and ability to proclaim it in our day and age.

But I have seen that the Free Presbyterian Church of North America and Ulster has

had enough of the humility that needs to buffer separatism, if that's

a word I could use, or separation.

And you know, for instance, this conference that you're speaking at coming up later this month

includes men not from the Free Presbyterian Church in North America, and I, as

you know, have gone to the Foundations Conference in New York City where probably

the majority of men are from the Free Presbyterian Church in North America, but you also have

folks from other denominations, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church,

Reformed Baptists, and others involved, where some separatists might not be involved in.

Such

a

gathering,

if you

could

comment

on what

I

just

said.

Yes,

and it is

especially

something.

That should be a part of every Bible -believing church in some

measure, because we're living in a day and age when the lines that have separated

the heirs of the Reformation from the Church of Rome for 500 years are being

blurred more and more as each year goes by, and there are those seeking

unity with Rome on the basis of basically

being kind and compassionate and and loving, and they

think that they're being loving when they discard truth or put it in a lower level of importance, but that's

really not love.

That's not true love.

It's not the love that.

God has,

and it's

not

biblical

love.

Yes, there

is a

facade

that

Rome

has that they welcome fellowship.

And ecumenical relationships with Protestants who they call their separated brothers, but

their agenda is always to seduce those

outside of Rome into membership under her fold, and

it's interesting that when you use a term like separatism, immediately people think of

very strict fundamentalism, but there is a sense where everyone who is

in any kind of a religion or church has a form of separatism.

It's either correct or incorrect, because you have liberal churches that would never in a million years

let you get behind a pulpit and preach whatever you believe that

the Lord is leading you to preach from his word.

Obviously, they're even practicing a form of separatism.

It's just an incorrect separatism, and the Church of Rome even,

because those who are evangelicals or from any other religion

that rejects their idolatrous dogma of

transubstantiation, you cannot receive their Eucharist, nor should you.

So, there is always going to be some form of separatism somewhere that's just going to be.

Biblical and correct, or unbiblical

and

incorrect.

Amen.

One of

the

unique things,.

We've said this before, but one of the unique things about the Free Presbyterian Church denomination is that

you are probably, unless there's another group that I'm unfamiliar with that practices the same thing, you're

the only Presbyterian denomination I know of that permits

baptistic pastors to remain in the denomination or be a part of

the denomination and practice exclusively believer -only baptism or credo

baptism.

And if someone believes in pedo -baptism and they want to have their infant

baptized, you would just call upon.

Another pastor from a church where that is his conviction,

am I

right?

Yes,

and

so the.

Presbyterian aspect of the name is entirely in regard to

church polity, government.

Well, you are going to be speaking, God willing, at a conference this month that I want our listeners

to know about as well.

In fact, one of the three speakers is somebody who has been a guest on my program several times,

and I absolutely love to interview him, and that's George Grant.

But George Grant, Pastor John Weaver, who I have not yet had the privilege to interview,

and you will be speaking at the For God and Truth conference

from August 16th through the 19th, and this is being held at

the Trinity Free Presbyterian Church in Trinity, Alabama, and

they're located on 1280 Old Highway 24 in Trinity, Alabama.

And if you'd like more information on that conference, you can go to

forgodandtruth .com,

forgodandtruth .com.

Tell us something about this conference and about your participation in it.

Well,

obviously, you were well -received if they're having you back.

Wow.

Oh,

really?

Well,

praise

God

for

that,

and

again,

I

strongly

recommend to any of you.

Who desire to go to this conference, I strongly recommend you

to attend, if at all, physically possible, because of the fact that not only is

Dr. George Grant, I think, one of the most gifted men still

alive in the 21st century, quite a brilliant man and a phenomenally gifted communicator,

but my guest today, Armin Tamasian, I do not throw around compliments lightly

or easily, and I think that he is truly a uniquely gifted brother in Christ, and I was totally

blessed, very powerfully blessed at the recent Foundations Conference in New York City,

where Armin was one of the pastors, so I strongly urge you to go there if you can possibly

get to Alabama on a train, plane, or automobile, or

dropping from a parachute, or however you can get, and I strongly urge you to get

there.

And again, the website is foregodandtruth .com,

foregodandtruth .com, and you can also

add to that forward slash conference dash 2017, forward slash

conference dash 2017, and the only way you're going to know how to get there or where this

conference is being held is if you click on the brochure at the bottom,

because that is the only place that right now anyway has the

location of Trinity, Free Presbyterian Church in Trinity, Alabama.

In fact, the brochure that comes up is last year's, last year's brochure, it's

not even the 2017 brochure, but it's the same location though, correct?

It's Free Presbyterian Church in Trinity, Alabama.

Yeah,

that's

what we interviewed, the

last time I interviewed Dr. Grant was on that very theme of.

Thomas Chalmers, and I thank God that

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has a wonderful commendation by Dr. George Grant, among many others,

that he wrote for us after his interview, which is now on the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio website, so if you're listening, Dr.

Grant, thank you very much for that wonderful endorsement, and Armin, if you

think of it the next time you speak with John Weaver, if you could pass on my interest in interviewing him

to him, I would love to get him on the program, judging from your commendation, I would

love to have him as a guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Well, hopefully I'll remember to

look him up after the show today and possibly get the wheels moving on that.

Instead of having to interrupt you mid -sentence, I'm going to go to a break right now, our first

break, and then when we come back we will begin our discussion on the importance and privilege of corporate prayer, which

is actually one of the messages you will be delivering, God willing, at the For God and Truth conference

in Trinity, Alabama.

If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question regarding prayer, and specifically regarding corporate prayer,

our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n

at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA.

Don't go away, we'll be right back, God willing, with Pastor Armin Tomassian, and the importance and

privilege of corporate prayer.

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Perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday

from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio,

www .wlie540am .com.

We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in

with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the pastor's study,.

Because everyone needs a pastor.

Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnsin, if you just tuned in today.

Our guest for the full two hours, with about 90 minutes to go, is Armen Tamassian, who is the

pastor of Calgary Free Presbyterian Church in Alberta, Canada.

Not Calvary, like the Cross of Christ, but Calgary, like the location in Canada, C -A

-L -G -A -R -Y.

Calgary Free Presbyterian Church, Alberta, Canada.

He is one of the speakers at the upcoming For God and Truth Conference in Trinity, Alabama, and today we

are discussing the importance and privilege of corporate prayer.

If you'd like to join us for the question for Armen Tamassian, our email address is ChrisArnsin

at gmail .com.

And before, or I should say during, the station break, Armen,

Reverend Buzz Taylor, my co -host, reminded me that we both have met Reverend Myron

Mooney.

In fact, Reverend Buzz Taylor went to school with him.

Yeah.

He went to Bob Jones University with him, right?

The one thing I will never forget about Myron is if you met him, he remembered your name.

That's the same guy.

And well, Myron is the host pastor of the For

God and Truth Conference.

He is the pastor of Trinity Free Presbyterian Church in Trinity, Alabama.

That's why I mentioned his name.

That's why the Reverend Buzz brought up his name in the station break.

But we are talking, as I said, we are talking about the importance and privilege of

corporate prayer.

If you could define for us corporate prayer, Armen, that may seem like a very basic question

for many of us, but there are people who listen to my program who are either new Christians,

some of them are not Christians at all.

So perhaps you could even describe or define what you mean by that.

As far

as

he

understood it,

I'm

guessing.

And that

was

what

a prayer meeting was, coming

together

of

that.

He

has revealed

the

truth

of

what

it's

all

about.

And in fact, I'm sure you would agree with me that another thing that it would not be

is something that's extremely popular today, and it has been extremely popular for decades.

And that is these very large ecumenical prayer meetings

that involve people from all, not only all Christian, allegedly Christian

denominations, but even other religious groups outside of Christianity.

You can think of things that occurred at major

stadiums and ballparks after national tragedies, like after 9 -11, where you have gathered

together religious leaders from all different religious systems.

And at the National Cathedral in Washington, D .C., after 9 -11, I can remember you had a

gathering of people from all kinds of religions.

And it is one of my saddest moments hearing Billy

Graham, when he had such an opportunity at that gathering,

he did preach the gospel, but he diffused it of its power when

he said before he proclaimed the gospel, this is for the Christians in the audience.

And therefore, those that were outside the body of Christ immediately

were put at ease.

They were able to relax and realize, well, I'm not going to be insulted by this message, I'm not

going to be offended by it, because this is not a challenge or a call to me to repent, this is for

Mr. Graham's disciples and his religion.

But I'm sure you would agree with me, that is also not what you mean by corporate prayer, that we could just gather.

With

any group of

people and

pray to

allegedly

the

same

God

with

them.

Yeah,

you're

praying

to.

Different gods in reality when you're in a gathering like that.

I am all in favor of the President of the United States, whoever that president may be,

dedicating a certain time for a national day of prayer, but what I am opposed to is when people,

when Christians gather publicly with members of

apostate churches or non -Christian religions to pray with them.

That's where I would draw the line and believe that it's heretical and unbiblical.

And for years I have conducted public moderated debates with

evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, and at times there have been

people on both sides of that issue who have said to me, why don't you start

the debate with a prayer?

And what I always say is, no, I'll start the debate with a moment of silence so that

people can pray to God silently, because I do not join with my

Roman Catholic friends in prayer because they are

outside, I believe, of the body of Christ.

I mean, I know that there are some regenerate Catholics who are truly born again, but as a

church they are outside of the body of Christ, and they could be praying to Mary, for all I know, or some

other saint.

Yes, yes.

So this importance of corporate prayer, why is there something unique

and perhaps something that is superior about corporate prayer than me

sitting on a tree stump in the woods, praying to God alone?

Prayer

and

to call upon

when

we

gather

in

this

lesson

not

to

pray,

but

they're

praying

together, and

they're meant to be

watching disciples.

We have a number of listeners already who have sent in questions.

Let's see, we have Gordie in Mechanicsburg,

Pennsylvania, who says, Chris mentioned on a recent show how your preaching, he's talking

about you, seemed to hearken back to the days of the great Puritan preachers.

After listening myself, I must concur.

What influence have the Puritans had on your preaching and prayer life, and has the Valley of Vision

been a resource you have found helpful?

That's Gordie in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

The Valley of Vision, I don't know if you've ever seen that book, that is a book by.

Banner

of

Truth

has

published

it.

And he preached, and

walked out the

door,

and

fell on

one side

of

the

Judaea.

If any man

follow

me,

let

him

deny

himself.

The

man of our

denomination,

because I live on

the...

Amen,

and

thank you Gordie in Mechanicsburg, keeps spreading the

word about.

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

And we have Joe in Slovenia.

I actually forwarded Joe in Slovenia's question to

you moments ago, and I will have you answer it when we return from the break.

We have an elongated break right now, it's about 12 minutes long, because the FM radio station in Florida,

Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, requires that we have a 12 minute

break between our two segments, so that they can air local things.

But you can have time to mill over the question from Joe in Slovenia, but I'll read it

now.

I hope that my overall experience with corporate prayer isn't the norm.

However, I'm afraid it must be, because I don't hear of significantly different situations in

otherwise healthy churches.

Mostly what I've experienced is that the corporate prayer meetings in local churches tend to be overly focused on

intercession for physical needs, such as illnesses.

Not that praying about physical needs in general, or illness in particular, is illegitimate.

But those things are generally most exclusively the topics of concern.

Is this a fairly common description of what is typical?

If so, is moving the congregation to deepen and broaden their prayer into petitioning on behalf

of specific lost people, and such other topics like personal, corporate, and

national revival, simply a matter of pastoral leadership, or are there other more complex

issues you could highlight and discuss for us?

Thank you, and I'm praying regularly for you.

That's Joe in Slovenia.

Very good question, and we're going to go to a break before our guest Armen Tamassian answers

that question.

If you would like to join those who have already submitted their questions, and have a question of your own

asked and answered by our guest, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away, we'll be right back, God willing, with Armen Tamassian and more on corporate prayer.

Paul wrote to the church at.

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Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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Upstore Christianity of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert?

Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship?

And how about the preaching?

Perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island.

Well there's good news.

Wedding River Baptist Church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience

featuring the systematic exposition of God's Word.

And this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you.

Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service

times.

631 -929 -3512.

Or check out their website at wrbc .us.

That's wrbc .us.

I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

The New American Standard Bible is perfect for daily reading or in -depth study.

Used by pastors, scholars, and everyday readers, the NASB is widely embraced and trusted as a literal and readable Bible

translation.

The NASB offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the NASB is known for.

The NASB is available in many editions like a topical reference Bible.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday

from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio,

www .wlie540am .com.

We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in

with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for A Visit to the Pastor's Study, because everyone.

Needs a pastor.

Welcome back, this is Chris Arns, and if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours, with about an hour to

go, is Armen Tamassian, pastor of Calgary Free Presbyterian Church in Alberta,

Canada.

He is also one of the speakers at the upcoming For God and Truth Conference in Trinity, Alabama.

Today we are addressing the importance and privilege of corporate prayer.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail

.com, c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence, unless you are remaining anonymous

for a personal and private matter.

Before I return to our discussion, I have some important events to announce by some of our

sponsors.

This week, the Fellowship Conference New England is being held August 3rd through the 5th.

That is, I believe, the day after tomorrow, or actually it's tomorrow,

through the 5th of August at the Deering Center Community Church.

What's today's date?

The 1st.

Oh, today's 1st, so it is the day after tomorrow.

It is the day 3rd through the 5th of August at the Deering Center Community Church in

Portland, Maine, and speakers include Don Curran, who is the

Eastern European Coordinator with HeartCry Missionary Society in Radford, Virginia, which

was founded by Paul Washer, my friend Pastor Mack Tomlinson, who is an author, and

he is also the pastor of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.

In fact, one of the books that he authored was a biography of Leonard

Ravenhill that I just mailed to our guest Armin Tamasian fairly recently, titled In Light of

Eternity, The Life of Leonard Ravenhill, and also speaking at that

conference is Jesse Barrington, who's been a guest on this program,

pastor of Grace Life Church in Dallas, Texas, the sister church of Grace Life Radio in Lake City, Florida,

who has a radio station that airs Iron Sharpens Iron Radio every day, twice a day, in a pre

-recorded format, and Pastor Nate Pekowitz, who is the pastor of Harvest Bible Church in

Gilmonton Ironworks, New Hampshire, and he's the author of Reviving New England and also

Why We're Protestant.

If you'd like to register for this conference, go to fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,

fellowshipconferencenewengland .com, and register for the Fellowship Conference New England.

And then coming up after that, next month, I'm very happy to announce

that a, well actually, before I go to next month, let me go to this month.

So later on this month, as I've been saying before, our guest, Pastor Armin Tamasian,

is one of three speakers at the For God and Truth Conference, and

that conference is being held later this month, and it features such

speakers as Armin Tamasian, Dr. George Grant, and John Weaver, and that's being

held from the 16th of August through the 19th of August at the Trinity Free

Presbyterian Church of Trinity, Alabama.

And if you would like to find out more information about that conference, go to forgodandtruth

.com, that's forgodandtruth .com, and you'll find out more information about

the 2017 For God and Truth Conference.

And then next month, coming up in September, I'm so delighted

to announce that my friend Dr. Tony Costa, many of you have heard Dr. Tony Costa

on this program.

Dr. Costa is the Professor of Apologetics and

Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary, and he was involved in a debate that I orchestrated here

in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with Roman Catholic apologist Robert Syngenis on Mary.

Basically, I was on the theme, Mary, was she a sinner

saved by grace or a sinless queen of heaven?

Well, Dr. Tony Costa is going to be speaking at the Word of Truth

Church for the Gospel of the Reformation 500th anniversary,

and that is being held from Friday, September 29th through Saturday,

September 30th.

And there will be other speakers involved in that as well, including Pastor Caleb Bunch, Pastor Bruce Bennett, and

Pastor Dave Corson.

And if you would like to attend the Gospel of the Reformation conference, call

area code 631 -806 -0614.

That's 631 -806 -0614.

And make sure that you tell them that you heard about that conference on Iron

Sharpens Iron Radio.

And please also send greetings to Dr. Tony Costa.

In fact, I may be at that conference, God willing.

I'm going to do my best to be in attendance at that conference, so I pray that that can all fall into

place and that can happen.

The very next day after that conference, Dr. Tony Costa is going to be preaching at

Hope Reform Baptist Church of Medford, Long Island at 11 a .m.

So if you'd like more information about Hope Reform Baptist Church of Long Island, go to

hopereformedli .net, hopereformedli .net, or you can call

631 -696 -5711.

631 -696 -5711.

And then, coming up in November, we have

the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals conference.

The Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology is being held at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town,

Pennsylvania.

The theme is Still Our Ancient Foe, obviously referring to Satan from the line in

Martin Luther's classic Reformation Hymn, A Mighty Fortress.

And that's November 17th through the 18th at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania.

Speakers include Kent Hughes, Peter Jones, Tom Nettles, Dennis Cahill, and Scott Oliphant.

To register for that conference, go to alliancenet .org, alliancenet .org, click on

Events, and then click on Quaker Town Conference for Reform Theology or on Reform Theology.

And then we have the G3 Conference Returning to Atlanta, Georgia, the G3

Conference Standing for Grace, Gospel, and Glory.

Their theme this year, or should I say in January, their theme is Knowing God, a

Biblical Understanding of Discipleship.

And speakers include Stephen Lawson, Vody Baucom, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B. Charles

Jr., Tim Chalies, Josh Bice, James White, Tom Askell, Anthony Methenia, Michael Kruger,

David Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, and Martha Peace.

If you'd like to register for the G3 Conference, go to g3conference .com, g3conference

.com, and the three is the number three in that website, g3conference .com.

And now I have to do something that it makes me very uncomfortable, but I have to beg you for money.

The advertisers who have kept Iron Sharp and Zion Radio airing since its inception have

urged me to make public appeals for donations and new advertisers.

I went for years without making a single public appeal for donations, but we have reached an urgent point

in our history where we desperately need more funding to remain on the air.

If you have been blessed by Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, if it has become a part of your regular habit of

life, if you really love the program, well, if you have been blessed by God

above and beyond your ability to provide for your local church, as you always have done,

and your home, those two things are commanded by God.

Supporting my show is not commanded by God.

But if you've been blessed above and beyond your ability to support your church and your home without

dipping into the coffers of either, please consider supporting Iron Sharp and Zion

Radio.

Go to ironsharpandzionradio .com and click on support, and then you'll see an address where you can make

a check made payable to Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, and you can mail that to that address you'll see.

If you want to advertise with us, send me an email to

ironsharpandzionradio .com and put

advertising in the subject line.

As long as whatever it is you're advertising is compatible with the theology expressed on Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, I would

love to speak with you about advertising.

And now we have returned to our interview with Pastor Armin Tamasian, and

we are discussing the importance and privilege of corporate prayer.

Before the break, we had Joe in Slovenia ask a question.

I'm going to return to that question once again, and I'm going to read that question on the air for you

again, for those of you who don't remember what he said or if you are tuning in late.

Let's see.

Dear Brother Chris, I hope that my overall experience with corporate prayer is not the norm.

However, I'm afraid it must be because I don't hear of significantly different situations in otherwise healthy churches.

Mostly what I've experienced is that corporate prayer meetings in local churches tend to be overly focused on

intercession for physical needs such as illnesses.

Not that praying about physical needs in general or illness in particular is not legitimate, but those things are

generally almost exclusively the topics of concern.

Is this a fairly common description of what is typical?

If so, is moving the congregation to deepen and broaden their prayer into petitioning on behalf of specific

lost people and such other topics like personal, corporate, and national revival,

etc., simply a matter of pastoral leadership, or are there other more complex issues you could

highlight and discuss for us?

That's Joe in Slovenia.

Armin Tomasian?

Thank

you

Joe in

Slovenia.

Keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and spreading the word.

About the program in Slovenia and beyond.

We have Daniel in San Jose, California.

Can you ask your guest to explain the state of the church that only has a few people gathered together

for corporate prayer out of an entire church, or just the state of a church that won't

gather in corporate prayer, and I'm assuming he means at all.

That's Daniel in San Jose, California.

Thank you Daniel in San Jose, California.

The Reverend Buzz Taylor has something to ask or say.

Yes, one of the problems that I ran into as a pastor was I many

times felt that if I had prayed what really needed to be prayed, I would be quickly removed

from my church because of, I mean, how can you pray about things that are important if it's

not politically correct to do so?

I mean, you know, I would be the kind of guy that would have prayed, you know, for the Clintons, you know, for Clinton to be removed from office and things like

that, you know, and I used to tell people, you know, don't just pray, you know, bless the president, bless his children,

give him wisdom when you might have somebody who is not the slightest bit interested in wisdom.

You know, what do you do in a situation like that where you want to pray about things that are vital,.

But

you don't

dare?

I suppose

there's a

sense in which, and

certainly

a church

that

wasn't.

We have a question that I already, actually it's a series of questions that I forwarded to you from

Murray and Kinross Scotland, and we'll have you answer as

many of those as we have time to answer, or as much time as you have to answer

when we return from the break.

And if anybody else would like to join Murray and Kinross Scotland on a question of your own, do it now

because we're running out of time.

We've only got less than a half hour left now.

Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away, we'll be right back with Armin Tomassian and corporate prayer.

Hi, I'm Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, here to tell you about an exciting

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday

from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio

www .wlie540am .com.

We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's calling in

with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for A Visit to the Pastor's Study,.

Because everyone needs a pastor.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen, and if you just tuned us in for the last 90 minutes and for the

next half hour to come, our guest has been and will continue to be Armin Tamasian, and our topic

is The Importance and Privilege of Corporate Prayer.

And before the break, we had a series of questions submitted to us by Murray in

Kinross, Scotland, and the first of his questions is, why

pray at all if God's will is always accomplished?

That's something that either typically all of us who are Christians

hear at times from unbelievers, and also something that we Calvinists hear

from our Arminian brethren who are asking it either in sarcasm or

wrongly thinking that they can tie us in knots and refute what we believe in regard to the

doctrines of grace.

But if you could comment on Murray's question, why pray at all if God's will is.

Always accomplished?

It's

always

fascinating

to

hear

an Arminian pray, Lord please open the eyes.

Of my lost family member, please give them a new heart, please open their deaf

ears, unstop their deaf ears so that they can hear the gospel and they can respond.

You can hear those kind of prayers all the time.

Yeah, give them a new heart.

That's right, and in fact it was very ironic too, several years ago

the then president of Liberty University in Lynchburg,

Virginia, he preached a sermon of why

I was predestined not to be a Calvinist.

He thought he was being clever with that, and after ranting a very vehemently anti

-Calvinist message for about a half hour, filled with mockery and

caricatures and so on, after he was finished the late Jerry Falwell approached the

pulpit, thanked the president of his university for the wonderful sermon that he

preached, and then began to pray like a Calvinist.

It's utterly amazing how they cannot see the contradiction that they wind up

speaking when they're on their knees.

Yeah.

But Murray in Kinross, Scotland also says, are prayers necessarily more effective.

The more often

they are

repeated?

They

repeat because

that's an

outward

matter.

And Murray's next question is, how should unanswered prayers be interpreted?

Obviously.

That should go situation by situation, I'm assuming.

Looking at it,

yeah, like is there

a certain modern

knowing?

All things work together for a good

general answer

to

that

question.

And yes, and hinged on Romans 8 .28, wouldn't you say that it's

because God knows what is best for us, and in spite of

how we think the answer yes would be best for us, for any

certain prayer we.

Might offer to him, he knows

better?

Murray

asks,

do

passages such as James 4 .2, you do not.

Have because you do not ask, and Matthew 7 .7 -11, ask, seek, knock,

how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him,

highlight a conditional will of God by which he has determined to grant

certain good things to us, which he has desired for us,.

Only if we earnestly

seek

him

in

prayer?

And

Murray's

last

question is, is there also an.

Unconditional will by which God rejects some prayer requests, rendering them

ineffective?

Well, thank you, Murray and Kinross, Scotland.

Please keep spreading the word about the program Iron Sharpens Iron in the UK and

beyond.

We have Aaron in Indianapolis, Indiana.

How would you help someone learn to pray in corporate meetings?

Did you learn by listening.

Mostly?

Is it wrong to be anxious about praying out loud?

Those

prayer

meetings

that

no

one

wants to go to,

those are

the

prayer

meetings,

the prayer

meeting

that's

at

2 o 'clock, prayer meetings, and

then the

anxiety?

Yeah, in fact,

I've heard, I

don't

know

how accurate the statistic is,.

But I've heard very often that public speaking is one of the most terrifying things

that the majority of people, at least in the United States, are

fearful of.

So, you would not be alone in your in your fear or

anxious or anxiety, I should say, around praying out loud, but that, as Pastor Armen said, is

something that you have to get beyond through prayer.

And thank you, Aaron, and please keep spreading the word about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in Indianapolis and beyond.

We have Tyler in Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York, and I don't know why he specifically

lists these three figures, but he says, can we greatly learn from

the prayer lives of Andrew Murray, John Knox, and Leonard Ravenhill?

We already heard you raving about Ravenhill, but if you could, to the best of

your ability, answer Tyler's question.

Yeah.

Yes,

and

it's

interesting that two of those names, although they would be in some areas

of.

Theology and doctrine and practice in opposition to classic

Reformed theology, Andrew Murray and Leonard Ravenhill, at the same time, great men of God

within the Reformed camp have still revered them and

have loved many things that they've written or preached on.

And in fact, Charles Adams Spurgeon, although he was critical of Andrew Murray, apparently he and his wife loved

to read Murray.

I don't know at what point in their daily, day -to -day lives they

were drawn to read Murray.

I don't know if it was after their dinners or wherever it was.

I heard recently, and I did an interview with someone who is thoroughly knowledgeable on Charles Spurgeon,

how much he and Susanna Spurgeon loved to read Andrew Murray in spite of theological differences.

Thank you, Tyler.

Keep spreading the word in Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York and beyond about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

C .J. in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York wants to know, for

those who have to work during the days and hours when the church that

they are members of have their corporate prayer meetings, how can we find alternatives

and how can we respond to our brothers and sisters who may be well -intentioned, but at

some time heap guilt upon us when there's nothing that we can do about it in regard to our employment?

And he comes to seek God with the congregation.

That's just one example.

So, if

there's an

understanding you

absolutely need

before work,

able to get to prayer, that we can seek God together.

Thank you, C .J. and keep spreading the word about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in Lindenhurst, Long Island and beyond.

And I'd like you to have about four minutes now, Armin, to summarize what you most want etched in the

hearts and minds of our listeners today before we leave this program.

Praise God.

Well, thank you so

much,

Pastor

Tomasian, for

being

our

guest

today.

And

I.

Look forward to having you return.

In fact, if you could hold on the line after we go off the air, I'd like to schedule another interview with you, if you wouldn't mind.

And if anybody would like to visit the Calgary Free Presbyterian Church of

Alberta, Canada, whether you already live there or you're visiting there, or perhaps you have loved ones who are

either visiting there or living in that area, go to calgaryfpc .ca.

That's Calgary, C -A -L -G, as in George, A -R -Y, F -P -C for

freepresbyterianchurch .ca.

And regarding the conference that's coming up later this month, the For God and Truth Conference,

go to foregodandtruth .com, foregodandtruth .com.

I thank the Rev. Buzz Taylor for being my guest, my co -host today.

I thank everybody who listened and wrote in questions.

And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a

sinner.