Why Pray If God Is Sovereign?

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Mike answers what seems to be an age-old question. Hint: you will like the answer.  

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Welcome to No Compromise Red Ministry. My name is Mike Ebenroth. Feeling pretty good today. In spite of an intense desire for carbohydrates.
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I do podcasts, hosts have to do that. Somebody said, well, why do you have to have like an intro? You talk about keto ice cream with four egg yolks, some half and half stevia and tiny bit of peanut butter, just at the very end.
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And a vanilla extract. Why am I talking about that? Because we eat that only on Sundays and I'm dying to have it.
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And that's kind of like my only sweet stuff. I guess I could put stevia in my coffee. That would be sweet. There are certain yogurts, put like a handful of raspberries in there.
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Those are sweet. The other day, just to see if I could do it. Remember the old ad, Lay's potato chips?
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Bet you can't just eat one. I remember that ad. I just ate one. It was one of those tiny little bags, those kids' bags for school.
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I just ate one, throw the rest away. But I looked in the garage, sorry, in the garbage, the garbage in the garage.
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And I could see down in there, it hadn't been touched by anything that would be yucky. So I could still pull it out if I needed to.
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Why throw all that food away if there's gonna be an embargo January 15th? Who knows? Run.
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You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. Don't forget the updated sexual fidelity book is on Amazon.
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And 31 Days of Purity wrote the book from conversations that I'd had with my son,
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Luke, as he was growing into be a man. So it's good for that conversation, dads. You'd be the teacher of the subject, not the world or pornography or anything else.
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And then it's good for older men as well, wanting to stay pure in light of current events.
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I think that's an important thing as always. And some ladies have read it. It's definitely got the kind of the male angle in the sense that I'm a man, and I'm just thinking about it from that perspective, a father to a son talk.
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So that's what I did. Tried to do my best, if that's ever possible.
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Has anybody ever done their best besides Jesus? Sometimes as I'm preaching through a gospel,
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I say to myself, if I talk about Jesus, Christians will admire
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Him, worship Him, be conformed to His image. Second Corinthians 3, verse 18, from one level of glory to another as we behold
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Him in His glory. We think about guilt, grace, gratitude, and we want to respond and obey the
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Bible's laws out of gratitude as fruits and evidences. And I think that's right.
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I was reading an article the other day though, and I think it was by Dennis Johnson, Him We Proclaim Fame.
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And he was talking about pastors try to connect the dots for the people sometimes. And so maybe
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I'm gonna call this connecting, I'm slowing down because I'm writing this for a show title, connecting the dots.
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When you hear about Jesus, right? It's in the gospel of Luke, and it says it's another sermon about Jesus.
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And you say, well, there wasn't really any take home practical. I mean, the so what was behold Jesus, that's what we're gonna do in heaven.
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So there's nothing wrong with that kind of message. But once in a while, I thought, you know what? Dennis Johnson, I mean,
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Dennis Johnson is right. So I thought once in a while, I need to try to connect the dots. The Belgic Confession reads, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and godly way, this justifying faith so works within them that apart from it, they will never do a thing out of love for God, but only out of love for themselves in fear of being condemned.
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That is to say, if you wanna motivate people, you use the gospel to motivate them.
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And there's certainly, that's what we do. But Ephesians 1 to 3 is connected to four and following with a therefore.
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There's all kinds of commands as God is glorified by showing his law as a guide.
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And we want to keep that law, right? We want to obey that law. We wanna do what
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God says. In Ephesians 4, based on who we are in Christ, Ephesians 1, 2, and 3.
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And so I think it's Johnson that said, it's connecting the dots, so I'll give him credit.
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And therefore, when I was preaching about Jesus and his prayer life, I thought, well, you know what?
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Let me connect the dots. Let's remind ourselves that Jesus' prayer life has not stopped, right?
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He has continued to pray at the right hand, right? He's seated at the right hand because his work of atonement is done.
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But when Stephen needed help, Jesus stood up. That's a good picture that Jesus is there ready to help. He lives to make intercession for us.
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And if you read the book of Hebrews to find out what he might pray for, when we're tempted, when we're needing help, when we need mercy, when we need grace, when we need to say no to temptation, there's all kinds of things that you could see.
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Whatever's needed to get us through and all the way to the end to glory, Jesus is praying.
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And of course, he, Jesus, has his prayers always answered. And so then
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I would say, well, how am I gonna connect the dots and kind of help people say, in light of Jesus praying all night and Jesus' great prayer activity even now, should
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I pray? Well, the answer is if Jesus, if third -class conditional sins, since he's truly God, truly man, he's truly
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God too, and perfectly man, and he prays, how much more do we need to pray? I mean, he didn't sin.
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We do sin. He's the God -man. We're just frail, sinful, finite creatures.
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So I just talked about it a little bit and gave the congregation some ways to connect the dots, kind of what to actually do.
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And so similarly, I talked about the Lord Jesus and his sovereign choice of the 12th.
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He chose the 12th. And when you name things back in those days, and even today, it shows sovereignty and lordship, right?
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Parents are lord over their children. That is to say they gave them names. And also we have
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Jesus choosing the 12 out of a larger group. He calls a bunch of learners together and he chooses out of those larger group, a smaller group.
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It's like you have a bucket of a pail of apples because you went to the orchard, an apple pick for really expensive apples where you do the work instead of the orchard.
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That's a thing here in New England. Of course, other places too, but really big here in New England as I see the fall leaves turning out here on October 4th.
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And so you'll go, you don't have really anything else to do. It's a nice fall day and you buy a bucket, walk through the orchards, pick the apples, pay for the bucket.
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I don't know what it is, 30 bucks or something. Go home and make apple pan doughty, apple strudel, apple crumble, apple pie.
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Did I mention apple pan doughty? Probably some people make apple schnapps.
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I don't think I've ever had apple schnapps and I don't even want apple schnapps. I just like to say schnapps.
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What does that mean? What does schnapp mean? Deutschland, bitte. You know, sovereignty of the
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Lord Jesus by choosing, some out of the many and by even naming.
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So then I thought, well, you know what? I wanna connect the dots and I wanna say things like,
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I don't know. Did God look down the corridor of time and see what
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Peter did and then chose him as an apostle? No, so I wanted to try to show that the apostles being chosen wasn't because of merit, it wasn't because Matthew collected more taxes and Simon the
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Zealot was more zealot than the other zealots, more zealous than the other zealots. It wasn't like that at all to try to help connect the dots between, here's a doctrine and can it help us in other ways, shapes and forms?
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So today I wanna do the exact same thing here on No Compromise Radio Ministry and I wanna put those two together.
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Jesus's prayer life. Okay, it's right there in chapter six, verse 12 of Luke, prayed all night, mountain, needing wisdom to choose the 12.
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Then in verse 13, 14 and 15, out of the many disciples that he called to, that he brought near, he chose the 12.
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We talked last time about why Judas was chosen, Judas Iscariot. So now let's connect the dots again, putting together both prayer and sovereign choice.
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They're both right there and I know people in the church struggle with that. Jesus prayed,
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Jesus chose. How can prayer and sovereignty go together in our life?
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So today I'm gonna just ramble on a little bit, rambling on. I saw
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Steve Martin in Omaha in 1975, 76.
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I can't remember, I think he had the arrow through the head, the fake arrow through the head, rambling guy. Why pray?
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I mean, God's sovereign, why pray? So this is just a little connect the dots here. Number one,
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I've got quite a few to go, quite a few on the list.
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Number one, we are commanded to pray. If God is sovereign and he is, why pray?
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Most of the time you'll see it at the top of the list because God said to pray. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing.
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Ephesians 6, 18, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Matthew 6,
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Jesus assumed it, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret. Philippians 4, 6, well -known passage, do not be anxious for anything or about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
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Well, if we're told to do something, we can't say, I can't figure that out how those two go together.
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I can't reconcile these things, so I'm not gonna pray. We don't wanna do that. So God is sovereign over everything in your life, but you're commanded to pray, dear
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Christian. Why pray if God's sovereign? Why pray since God is sovereign?
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Second, God hears your prayers. Like, well, yeah, duh.
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But I just want you to kind of stop and think about that a little bit. God hears your prayers. 1
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John 5, 14, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
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So there's a little caveat there according to his will, but he hears us. God hears our prayers.
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And if you think of father and you think of son, does not the father hear the words of the son?
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He hears us. Years ago, I had Daniel Block for a professor at Southern Seminary when
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I was getting my DMIN, not D -E -M -O -N, but doctorate of ministry,
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DMIN. And so it's easier than a regular terminal doctorate, easier than a
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PhD, THD. It's harder than a DD, but you'll have to look that up.
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DD didn't do it. It's kind of an honorary doctorate. And it took me,
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I think, three or four years. You have to write a thesis. It was a lot of work, I'll tell you that, but it's not hard as a
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PhD. I do have a very big problem. Maybe there's an exception to or to here or there, but guys get this easier doctorate.
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And this applies to regular doctors too, PhD doctors, THD doctors, but they get a doctorate of ministry, which again, isn't as hard to get.
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And then they call themselves doctor all the time. Their website is doctor, and then their first name and last name.
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They sign their names with doctor. It is just beyond me.
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If you're out of town and you're in a country where they put a high premium on education, or you're at a seminary and you're teaching, the only classes
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I can really teach at a seminary would be preaching and pastoral ministry. A lot of that has to do with accreditation stuff because they want terminal degree, doctors teaching there.
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But it's interesting, why would I call myself doctor? If they want to call me doctor and the students then call me doctor, fine,
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I accept it. But doctor, people running around calling themselves doctor all the time.
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You look online and you look at websites, you look how people sign their names, doctor.
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I told the church here, do not call me doctor. If you want to call me pastor, fine.
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If you want to call me Mike, great. My suggestion is tell your children to call me
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Pastor Abendroth, Pastor A, Pastor Mike, something, just so they can figure out respect to whom respect is due.
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But calling me doctor, signs out on the billboards out there, doctor so -and -so, you've got to be kidding me.
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It's kind of like, you know, Mark Driscoll, when I think his Twitter handle is Pastor Mark Driscoll, you know, and he's disqualified for being a pastor.
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But I guess if you call yourself that enough, then I guess you are. But God hears our prayers, whether you're a doctor or not.
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Back to the point, I had a class, Old Testament Theology, Old Testament something, and it was by Dr.
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Daniel Block. And he wrote us a prayer, sorry, he read us,
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I'm getting ahead of myself here, I'm tired. He read us a prayer from the library of Asher Banipol, and it was called
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A Prayer to Every God. And it highlights the fact that it would be sad if you didn't think
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God heard, if you didn't think God cared, if you didn't think God would listen.
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And therefore, some of the prayer to every God goes like this. And you can just hear the frustration and the calling out for help, but not knowing the person who you are actually gonna get help from, or in this case, one
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God, three persons. May the fury of my Lord's heart be quieted toward me. May the
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God who is not known be quieted toward me. May the goddess who is not known be quieted toward me.
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May the God whom I know or do not know be quieted toward me. May the goddess whom I know or do not know be quieted toward me.
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May the heart of my God be quieted toward me. In ignorance I have eaten that forbidden of my God.
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In ignorance I have set forth that forbidden by my goddess. Oh Lord, my transgressions are many, great are my sins.
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The transgression which I have committed, indeed I do not know. The sins what I have done, indeed I do not know. The thing forbidden which
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I have eaten, I do not know. The prohibited place in which I have set foot, I do not know. The Lord in anger of his heart looked at me.
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The God in the rage of his heart confronted me. That is someone who doesn't know the
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God they're praying for. And on the flip side, our
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Father, our Father who is in heaven, who art in heaven, so much different.
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Well, don't forget on No Compromise Radio, probably when you're hearing this, that the Pactum Conference either just happened or it's happening right now.
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I'd love to see you. I think Pat said we had 30, 40, 50 more spots open in this mega conference with Dr.
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Van Drunen, Dr. Fesko, Dr. Pat Ebendroth, Dr. Mike Ebendroth. You want answers?
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I think I'm entitled, you - I know, I know. Truth! You can't handle the truth!
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That was a pretty good show. I saw whatever that new
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TV station is, streaming service, Tubi, T -U -B -I, I think maybe that's it.
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They have all the Leave it to Beavers on there now. I've been wanting to watch the Beave for a long time and you can't seem to find it on YouTube or anyplace else.
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And we watched the episode, season one, episode one of Leave it to Beaver the other night, my wife and I for a very romantic date.
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She, the teacher in his school, keeps calling him Theodore and he talked to her after class, do you think you could call me
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Beaver? And she said, well, what's your given name? Is that your given name? He said, yes,
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Beaver's my given name. My brother gave me that name. Oh, the simple life of Leave it to Beaver.
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It probably is full of only moralism, no gospel, but that's okay. It's a different timeframe we live in.
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I wonder if you would have asked Beaver, what's the difference between a girl and a boy? Would he know? Would he know what a woman is?
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I think so. I think one of the, Eddie, was that his name on Leave it to Beaver?
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Eddie, kind of the guy, the provoker. He used to go to the church I used to attend in Los Angeles, but so did
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Orville Redenbacher's son. And so did, for a while, Daryl Gates' wife.
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Oh, who else would go to that church? I don't know. There'd be certain people, kind of celebrities show up for a while.
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And I don't really know if they stuck around much. Although I didn't, I stuck around only eight years. Number three, since God is sovereign, why pray?
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Answer number three, because God answers prayer. Hey, that is great, isn't it?
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God answers prayer. That is wonderful. Why don't you pray?
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God answers. John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that will
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I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
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Psalm 99, six, Moses and Aaron were among his priest and Samuel was among those who called on his name.
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They called upon the Lord and he answered them. Did you know James 5, 16, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working?
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God answers prayer. Dear Christian, Jesus said, "'Ask and it shall be given to you.
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"'Seek and you shall find. "'Knock and it shall be opened to you. "'For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds "'and to him who knocks it shall be opened.
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"'Or what man is there among you "'when his son shall ask him for a loaf "'will give him a stone?
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"'Or if he shall ask for a fish, "'he will not give him a snake, will he? "'If you then being evil know how to give good gifts "'to your children, how much more shall your father "'who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask?
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"'You know what? "'If you want bread from me, son, "'you think I'm gonna give you a stone? "'If you think you wanna have some kind of fish "'looking thing and I give you a snake instead, "'I'm not gonna do that and I'm evil.
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"'How much more your heavenly father who gives good gifts?' If we're centered on ourself and we're evil and we're tainted by the fall and we do that for our children, how much more?
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God answers prayer. Maybe think back in your life. That's what I was doing today. Thinking back,
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I'm gonna write that down right now. Thinking back and just say, you know what?
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What are some things I prayed for that God answered? Now, some may not, you know, they're just simple ones.
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You know, I prayed for a wife. You know, I prayed for children.
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I prayed for my children to marry. Prayed for my children to marry
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Christians. Prayed for my children to have children. Prayed for my children to find a good Bible teaching church.
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Prayed for the spouse of my children to be believers. And, you know, two more daughters left that they would be believers.
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Prayed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Prayed, give us this day our daily bread.
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And you just start going through prayers and you think, well, God has answered those prayers. He is answering those prayers.
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And then you can find some big ones as well. I remember the one that sticks out to me.
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I'm a custodian at Grace Church and what we would do before our shift started,
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I think our shift started at 3 .30 PM. I got laid off in corporate America, needed to work. And I was, we'd sit around for probably 15 minutes and take prayer requests and pray for each other.
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And so a guy named Patrick, still a friend, he prayed, he was a master's university student at the time, not seminary, and he needed a car.
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So he said, I'm in, I need a car, otherwise I can't get back and forth. The university's 17 miles away -ish.
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And so it's not like it was on the campus as master seminary was on campus. So we prayed, we all had walkie talkies and off we would go to our respective rooms to clean up or to set up, break down, set up the chairs.
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And we get this call and Patrick, if memory serves, and if Patrick listens to this, by the way, why don't you come on No Compromise Radio, we'll talk.
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And you can tell me the story, tell me about your ministry. And he said, you know, meet me at the
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J building or whatever, we all go there. And he said, I got a car. What?
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Yeah, somebody just gave me a car. He's like, you gotta be kidding me. And it's kind of like, you know, somebody's showing up at the door, hey, you know, all praying for Peter, but Peter's fine.
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You know, Peter's out of jail, Peter's this, Peter's that. What's her name, Rhonda? Rhoda?
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Can't remember. How could I not know that? See, that's why I do these shows, because then
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I'll look it up before I do the sermon. And he was in a staff person's office cleaning, dumping the trash while the staff person was still in there, pastor.
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And they said, how are you doing? Any prayer request? I'm just got done praying for a car. And he said, oh, I had an extra car and I was just gonna give it away.
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I didn't know to whom I should give it. Here's a car. Like unbelievable. But you know what?
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It should be believable. God answers prayer. God answers prayer.
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That is amazing. I love that, don't you? God answers prayer.
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There was a guy at the same church and he would keep a notebook, prayer request, and then when it was answered, and when somebody would say to him, there's no
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God, he'd show them the seven spiral notebooks full of prayer request and prayer answered.
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God answers prayer. I thought I had another illustration, but I don't have it right here in front of me.
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We're trying to connect the dots. Prayer, sovereignty, do they go together? Well, in this particular case, number four, why pray since God is sovereign?
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God ordains the means and the ends. So God's going to do something, the end, that will always happen.
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And he also ordains the means that we would pray. So there's nothing out of sort here, nothing out of kilter, works perfectly.
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God ordains the ends and the means. Why pray since God is sovereign, number five? So when he answers them, you might thank him and glorify him and praise.
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That would be a good reason. Why pray since God is sovereign? All right, true or false?
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Because prayer changes things. Does prayer change things?
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Hmm, are you thinking? Does God, and does
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God change if you pray? No. Does his eternal decree change?
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No. Does his predestination change? No. Does his election change? No. Is the day ordained for Jesus to come back change?
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No. But if you prayed for a new job and you got a new job, did your job change?
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If you prayed for health issues for your child and your child got better, did their health change?
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Somebody wasn't saved and you prayed for their salvation. Did their salvation change? Their state before God change?
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That's all I'm after. Prayer changes things if it's something to do with decree and the eternal nature of God, of course.
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But there's different ways we can look at it. And lastly, why pray if God's sovereign?
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Because God is powerful enough to answer anything. That is a good incentive to pray, a really good incentive to pray.
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God's powerful to do anything. Powerful enough to accomplish everything.
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Stephen Charnock had a good definition of God's power. The power of God is that ability and strength whereby he can bring to pass whatsoever he pleases, whatsoever his infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of his will may resolve.
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God's power is like himself, infinite, eternal, incomprehensible. It can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature.
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God is powerful. And so therefore I go back to that great hymn, Joseph Scriven's hymn,
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O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
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Is there anything you need to pray for right now? Is there anything that you might have to pray for? Well, why don't you just pray right now?