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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stanley-wells/prayer/
The book of Genesis, please, chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18. It's sure good to see you all here this evening, and trust the Lord will bless you for coming. And I want to talk a little about the subject of prayer as we come to the end of the first session.
I have four brief readings to read with you. The book of Genesis, please, chapter 18. Now, most know the story, so I'll read as briefly as possible. The Lord says in verse 17, And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?
And then he talks in verse 20. The Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come up unto me.
And if not, I will know. Verse 22. The men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
And then the dialogue between the two. End of the chapter. Verse 32. Abraham to the Lord. He said, O let not the Lord be angry. I will speak yet once, but this once, peradventure. Ten shall be found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went his way. First Samuel, please, for the next reference. Chapter one. Again, most know this context, so we'll just read at the end of the chapter, please.
First Samuel, chapter one, verse 27. Hannah talks to Eli, the priest. Verse 27, For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him, I have given him to the Lord, as long as he liveth, he shall be given to the Lord.
And he worshipped the Lord there. First Chronicles, chapter four, for another reference, please. First Chronicles, chapter four, verse number nine. First Chronicles 4 .9. And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren.
And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.
Notice the personal touch there. And God granted him that which he requested. I have one more now in Ephesians, chapter three, to conclude. Ephesians, chapter three. We'll just read part of this. Ephesians, chapter three, please.
Notice verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Notice the emphasis on the little word that, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Verse 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen. And those are the readings for this evening. This is a large subject, and I'll just summarize it for you. Outstanding Prayers of the Holy Bible. And we believe in view of the conference that lies ahead, and as the need has been spread before the Lord already tonight publicly and privately, and in other parts, families and so on, many have been praying for this conference.
I have had emails from all over the country asking who is going to be here, what are the subjects to be taken up, and all the rest of it. Now I want to notice with you the power of prayer. And to illustrate that, I want to just suggest to you and introduce it this way.
You see, in February 2011, in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, there was an earthquake. And as most remember, it nearly devastated that city. I saw a video recently on it. It was absolutely chaos, the power of an earthquake.
I want to think of another one, that big tsunami that took place in March 2011 in the northeast part of Japan, just north of Tokyo in a place called Sendai. I was there not too long ago and saw the devastation that that tsunami made, the mighty power behind it.
You've likely seen the footage of it. What about recent days in the state of Oklahoma, this great country? Look at how many tornadoes those dear people have experienced, and the devastation that has followed.
I want to point out to you the mighty power of the elements. Now it's only a faint picture of what you and I have at our disposal, and that is the medium of prayer, the power to enter the immediate presence of God and present to the God of heaven, as we have done tonight, the needs of the hour.
I want you to think of a pilgrim tonight that prayed for a city. That's where we commenced to read, Abraham, for the cities of the plague. I want to think of a parent that prayed for her child. Hannah prayed for Samuel, for this child I prayed.
I want you to think of a person, an ordinary citizen, likely of the tribe of Judah in his day, 1 Chronicles chapter 4, when the inheritance was being divided amongst the tribes in the land of Canaan. He had a concern in his heart that he desired that his borders, his coasts would be enlarged, and he prayed.
I want to think of a pastor that prayed for his congregation, likely the greatest assembly work known in the New Testament, at Ephesus on the third missionary journey, and Paul bows his knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's interested in every family, each family in heaven and on earth.
Now obviously, there's not enough time to develop all of these, but I want to just get across to you tonight, the power available for the believer in 2013. This already has been touched on by some of our beloved brethren praying tonight.
Here's Abraham sitting in the tent door, and he's in the land of Canaan in Hebron, Mamre. Heavenly messengers arrive. There's a message for Abraham from the God of heaven. Sodom and Gomorrah and Kindred cities are about to be annihilated.
Right away, Abraham has a deep concern in his heart. Lot and Mrs. Lot and the family are living in Sodom. All of a sudden, the circumstances of life are brought to bear upon the dear man, and he has got a crisis in his experience.
Now what does he do? But I started to read, he stood yet before the Lord. I take this to be a Christophanes, a Theophanes, an appearance of the Lord Jesus, likely in angelic form, to convey a message to a human person in the Old Testament before he became incarnate.
It's not the angel of the Lord, it's the Lord that he stood by and beside and pleaded. And you know the prayer that he pleaded. And he takes upon his lips to tell the God of heaven, he's dust and ashes.
And he wants to make absolutely sure that he will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He starts off with 50 righteous in the cities, and he ends with 10. And the Lord said to him, I won't destroy the cities of the plain for 10 righteous.
But you see, on into 2 Peter chapter 2, we're going to find out there was only one righteous person. It was not himself. And maybe Abraham thought of all the family and he stopped at 10. We are in a crisis in 2013.
It has already been hinted at tonight in prayer. Maybe you're in a crisis in your area, your family, your assembly, your place of business, your neighborhood. What do we do? We take it to the Lord in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. So if you're here tonight and we don't know your circumstances and you don't know ours, what do we do?
We bow before the eternal throne, the throne sitter tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ, and bring our petitions to him. Here's a praying parent for her child. Hannah was an outstanding woman in her day and generation.
She knew about the failure of the priesthood to give the contacts and the background. The priesthood of that day, Eli's sons made the people on the nation to abhor the offering of the Lord. Their behavior in the front of the tabernacle was despicable.
She's married, but she's barren. She recognizes that the only thing from a human standpoint is to have a man child that will rule and be the administrator and the prophet of the Lord to meet the need.
See, it was impossible. A day of crisis. Now what does she do? Well, she gets to the Lord about it. And to cut the story short to the bottom line, one day into the world arrived little Samuel. He's weaned where we began to read in first Samuel chapter one.
She stands this day before Eli. And she said to him, for this child, I prayed. You remember earlier he misunderstood the dear soul. He thought she was intoxicated. Her lips moved, but no sign come out.
She's absolutely broken. God is the God of the impossible. And a child was born. And she says to him, Eli, I have given him to the Lord. This is the one that's going to meet the need. And so she brings him to the tabernacle at Shiloh.
And you know all the story. And as he matured in days and developed, everybody recognized this is a man of God. From Dan to Bersheba the new, he was raised to meet the need of the day. You see them that honor me, I will honor.
They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. See that second part of that verse has to do with Eli's boys. But the first part of the verse has to do with Hannah and with Samuel. And you see by human standards, people would say to her, maybe, why would you give this son to the Lord?
And you haven't had a son for years, but the Lord give her three other sons and two other daughters. And he was the man that met the need. I want to say something to this audience tonight. One of the greatest needs of 2013 is to pray for our young people and for our children.
Your brother Dan has been telling the Lord, and I believe it with all my heart, we're in a crisis situation. The world that we live in, the society out there absolutely corrupt and our little ones and teenagers and twenties and all the rest of it are involved there.
What can we do? We don't know all that's going on. Our eyes are not on them 24 by seven, but we can pray to the Lord that the Lord would preserve them. And we have seen it again and again and trust that all of us will suffer the exhortation tonight and take these matters to the Lord in prayer.
I haven't time to give you further illustrations, but it's a fact of life. What a man was Samuel. I want to talk for a minute or two about this man, Javis. You see conditions are extreme here too. Everybody's looking for a portion in the land and to get to the very point, I want you to notice that the beginning of this dear man, he didn't remember it obviously, but you see his mother didn't forget.
There she is. She bore him with sorrow. That's how he came into the world. In fact, his name is the same idea. She never forgot it, but this man was more honorable than his brethren. I take it as fellow countrymen and so on.
And you know, he had a burden that would appear that the others didn't have the burden that he had. And as far as the material situation is concerned, he would like to have it expanded and extended. And so he has personal needs that he brings to the God of heaven.
He desired that the Lord, the God of heaven would bless him. That's right. Land on the surface there in verse 10 of first Chronicles chapter four. We can't develop each of these, but here it is. He wanted his coast enlarged.
He desired that the God of heaven would be with him and would keep him from evil. And if evil did come, that would grieve him at his heart. The me's and the personal touches in the prayer are very enlightening.
You see, when it comes to the burdens of life, they're personal. When there's anyone here tonight in this audience and you have a burden, and you haven't expressed it to one, but you brought it to the God of heaven.
That's the thing to do. We're not halfway through this year yet, but we have sat with beloved brethren and sisters and they have unloaded some of the burdens of their hearts and how they've been crushed with circumstances that have come assembly-wise and business-wise or family-wise, whatever sphere you want to look at.
Oh, dear saints of God, there are people there tonight and you might be in this meeting and you're carrying a burden that nobody else knows, only God himself. I hope you're going to get help at this conference.
I know a sister had a real burden in her heart. It was personal and she was encouraged to go to a meeting and the most unlikely source, a servant rose and gave the message of the conference that stirred her heart and under the permissive will of God, met the need.
We do trust that will be our experience here this evening. I often ask believers as they go through some of these crises in life, would you like the blessing of the Lord in your experience? And they all would bow and say, absolutely.
We want to have the blessing of the Lord in life. Well, if we want the blessing of the Lord, there's likely a price to pay and that is to do what he wants us to do. And let me just touch another one here as the time is moving so quickly.
You see, I want to think of Paul and he's in the context of Ephesus. Three years, night and day, he prayed and labored and toiled. Acts chapter 20 give you the details. He has two prayers in his epistle.
I have just read from part of one, the second prayer there in chapter three of the Ephesian letter. I have some simple thoughts that I enjoyed in this passage today and I'll just give you the summary of these verses in Ephesians chapter three from verse 14 downward.
You see, he's saying to these believers, he's just pouring his heart out to them. He said, saints, for this cause I bow my knees before the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
I want to notice his reverence in prayer. I understand that this is likely public, private, and he bows before the God of heaven. It indicates he has reverence in his heart as he bows before the Lord Jesus Christ and God his father.
Oh dear saints of God, in this day and age, we need reverence in all our gatherings and in our homes and so on. You notice his request. Let me just go down them for you for a minute or two. I pointed out that that's, that he would grant you to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.
What a request. All of us tonight, as we leave shortly and anticipate the weekend, we need spiritual strength to continue. That rooted in love, we might be able to comprehend with all saints and to know the love of Christ.
And as other scriptures show, which passeth all understanding, that you might be filled with the fullness of God. In the highest requests for the saints, that's what we want. That as a result of this weekend and the ministry that we'll hear and anticipate and the will of God and the gospel that will be proclaimed and sinners saved, we hope, we will be encouraged and more than ever determined to live for the God of heaven.
Do you notice how the chapter finishes his refrain? We call it a doxology. If you don't know what the word means, a song, a praise, an outbursting to the God of heaven and thanksgivings for all that is done.
And you know this verse, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that can ask or think, to him, here's the doxology, be glory to the church by Christ Jesus through all ages, world without end.
Whenever we see our prayers answered, and there's been some prayers answered recently in different parts of the world that we know. People hung on a thread, for example, but God was pleased to raise them up.
And there's a refrain of thanksgivings and appreciation to the God of heaven for what he has done in his sovereignty and grace and wisdom. So we have to leave it. It's almost time to go. I hope you've come to this conference with a desire to hear the voice of God and those of us who have the responsibility and the burden to give the ministry that we too have a burden before God to meet the need and that the Lord Jesus Christ will be honored and his people will be edified and sinners will be saved and the assembly encouraged to go on.
How about a pilgrim praying for a city? I want to ask you something. Did you pray for Garnevilla today? No, I know it's not a city, but it's a town. We have tried. A parent praying for her child. I'd like to ask your parent, grandparent, all of us, did you pray for your children today?
Well, the grandchildren, for that matter, here's a brother, likely a believer in Judah, and he's looking for God to bless him. What does he have? Well, he is a burden and a concern, and he brings it to the God of heaven.
Do you know how he got blessed? His prayer was answered. I hope prayers will be answered even tonight in view of the weekend. And then, of course, this man, this pastor, all himself praying for the congregation.
Oh, that the Lord would touch us tonight and in view of tomorrow and the Lord's day that we might hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to our hearts, and by the grace of God, seek to live more for him.