Pray Without Ceasing (09/07/2003)

Pray Without Ceasing and the Difference Between Prayer and Technique

I was glad Ben started playing there at the last, when I called him Dree. I was afraid he wouldn't play with us. And I was afraid Dree wouldn't sing, so it worked out. You can be turning to Genesis chapter 24.

We'll be there eventually. I have some other verses for you before we get there. Many of you are familiar with 1 Thessalonians 5 .17. You can look that up if you want to, but if you're so familiar with it, you might want to just let me read it.

Let me read that, and then I'll tell you what we're going to talk about this morning. 1 Thessalonians 5 .16 says, Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you.

Quench not the spirit. The phrase in verse 17, pray without ceasing, is what I want to talk to you about this morning. So let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin. Father, we thank you so much for each person you've brought together today for this assembly.

We thank you that you've ordained that we assemble together, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. Lord, we thank you for the comfort we receive, and the faith that grows as we meet together.

And hear your word taught. We thank you for these young people who have come to be with us this weekend, and the way that you've blessed our hearts through their ministry. Each one of them, and through their lives, and just the fact that they are really answered prayers.

Lord, we thank you for surrounding our two daughters with godly friends, and Lord we pray that you would grant that to each of our parents as they send their loved ones off to school someday, because they'll be praying the same prayer.

We thank you that you have demonstrated this answered prayer before our eyes this morning. Lord, we pray that you'll take these passages of scripture, and speak to our hearts, teach us things both old and new, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Praying as You Go Instead of Measuring Spirituality by Prayer Length

Lord, you're really looking at answered prayer today, so I thought I would speak on prayer. We finished our teaching on finished work of Christ with respect to our salvation last Sunday, so rather than continuing with that, I wanted to stop for today and just give you a message on prayer.

When Charlotte and I sent Jenny to college, we prayed long and hard for her, and she had some new wings that she wanted to try out, and so we just prayed that God would surround her with godly young people, and God did that.

It's interesting because Laterno was the last college we looked at, and it was really an afterthought. We had already looked at three other colleges and gone out of state looking at different colleges with Jenny, and then the thought of Laterno just came into my mind, and I wonder why that happened.

To us, it seemed like an afterthought, but to God, it was the plan, and so we have thanked him so often for you young people sitting right here. We thank God for you many times, and not only just for being with Jenny and now also with Katie, but just for being our friends as well.

So we're looking at answered prayer, but I want to speak to you about prayer. I think sometimes what we do, you ask yourself this question if it's true of you, but you'll read books on prayer. Some of you probably have some required courses at Laterno where you have to read, maybe read some books.

I don't know if you picked up any on prayer and read those, but a lot of times when you read books of prayer, you'll read about people who lived in the 1800s who would spend two or three hours in prayer before they would leave the house, and then they would go off into their work or their ministry or whatever they did, and sometimes you may think, well, in this busy world that I live in, I don't pray every day for three hours before I leave the house, and so maybe I'm not as godly as those people were.

Maybe I'm not as close to the Lord as they were. Maybe I'm not pleasing to the Lord, but let me say this to you. If you look at the life of Jesus Christ himself, you will find some cases where he went off into the mountains and prayed alone for hours, but you'll find that most of the time when you see him praying, he's praying as he goes, and so don't ever let the enemy accuse you in your mind and tell you something like, well, all I ever do is pray in the car on the way to work, or all I ever do is pray while I'm walking to class, or all I ever do is pray while I'm fishing or hunting, or wherever I am, I just, I pray, but that's not enough.

Well, you know, maybe we do need some seasons of prayer in the closet, as the Bible calls it, but I'll tell you this, what's more often seen in the Bible is praying as you go, and I want to give you my favorite illustration of that in the Bible today, it's in Genesis chapter 24.

When the Bible says, pray without ceasing, the Greek word literally means without ever leaving prayer, pray without ever leaving prayer, and you might say, well, how can I do that? How can I be sitting in class working on accounting and figure out how I can pray while I'm doing that?

Well, it doesn't literally mean to be petitioning the Lord while you're doing accounting, but what it does mean is to have an attitude towards God the whole time, all day. Now, this is not a verse on prayer, but I want to read it to you in Romans 8, 5, it says, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, it means they think about the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit, and that's what it's all about.

Praying without ceasing doesn't mean continually petitioning God for things, it means walking with God. It means while you're doing what you do, you're walking spiritually with the Lord. Now let's go to Genesis 24 and verse 1, and I want you to watch this, there are a couple things you'll see going on in this as we study through it.

One is we're going to see an amazing and wonderful example of a person who prayed as he went about doing what he was supposed to be doing, and how powerful this prayer was. We're also going to see some symbolism here, because universally, I've never seen a Bible scholar who disagreed with this, but nearly all people believe that Isaac is a type or a symbol or an example of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, that his life gave a picture of Jesus Christ, and so therefore Abraham can be a type of God the Father.

Because if you remember, Abraham took his son to offer him, and he would have done it, but God stopped him and provided another lamb. You remember that story? And that's why universally, even where people may debate about certain things being types or not being types, certain things being examples, certain things being symbols, they don't debate about Isaac and Abraham.

So you're going to see a picture of God the Father and Jesus Christ, his son, in this story as well, if you look for it, you'll see it. Now let's follow along with me. Verse 1, Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

And Abraham said unto his oldest servant of the house that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell.

Now we're not to the part on prayer yet, but there's a principle here I need to let you see if you hadn't seen it already. He said, Do not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites. The principle is this, young men, do not marry daughters of the world.

Don't marry young women who don't know the Lord. It goes the other way around too, young ladies. Don't marry a young man who doesn't know the Lord already. Don't make the mistake of thinking, well, I'll marry him and then I'll change him.

No, you won't. He'll change you, if anything. So you make sure that who you date and who you are interested in, you make sure that person is born again before you proceed any further with the relationship.

And parents, it's instruction for us as far as how to teach our children. He said, You make sure that you don't take a wife from him from the world. Now let's go to verse four. But thou shalt go into my country and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

Now notice the servant begins to speak. And I want us to be thinking of ourselves as we pray and as we get instruction from the Lord to do different things. Don't we sometimes question and want to make sure we're really doing exactly what he wants us to do?

And you see this here. The servant said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again into the land from whence thou camest? The servant's just asking some questions to make sure he has the directions right.

He said, Now what if I go and I find this woman and she refuses to follow me and come back to Isaac? What should I do? And Abraham gives him instruction. He says, No, beware. Bring not my son again to the place where you're going.

Now that's great instruction for us parents. You see, you don't want your daughters to marry anyone who's not willing to come build a house right behind your house in the pasture right there. That's it's Bible.

It's Bible. So what can I do? I like the way Abraham put this, you know, beware. He tells his servant, Beware thou that thou bring not my son away from me. You bring her here. That's the way it works.

Okay. Verse seven, the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and which spake unto me and that swear unto me, saying unto thy seed, will I give this land?

He shall send his angel before thee. Now he's talking to the servant and shall take and thou shall take a wife unto my son from thence. Now notice what's happening. He's giving instruction to the servant.

The servant could, you know, could almost picture us if you want to talk about witnessing, going out and talking to people about the Lord. God sends us out. He gives us instruction about who to talk to.

He gives us instruction about the words to say and so forth. But he tells the servant who's got some problems, he's kind of between a rock and a hard place because he's being sent out by his stern master and said, you go find a wife, exactly the right one for my son and bring him back.

And he says, well, yeah, but what if I don't find one? He's thinking, but then he says, well, what if I do find her and she won't come back and all this. So all of these thoughts and negative thoughts and doubts are in his mind.

And Abraham comforts him by saying this, this is very important because it's going to be point number one this morning. He says, he, God shall send his angel before thee and you shall find a wife. The first point is this, we must be in line with God's will when we pray.

We must be in line with God's will when we pray, especially if you want your prayers to be answered. Now, you know, if you think about it, that brings some questions into our minds, just like it did to this servant.

Well, how do I know God's will? How do I know that what I'm praying for is what God wants me to be praying for? Well, that's a problem, isn't it? And in America today, in many circles, and you've heard preaching on TV, different places, maybe hope, hope not, but maybe a church that you've been in before where it almost makes it seem like that God is a genie in a bottle and he's there for a Christian so that you can rub the bottle and he comes out and you say, I need this, and he just provides it.

In fact, there are many people and preachers today who preach that if you speak it, God is obligated to give it. Have you ever heard anything like that? I have. You just speak it and it will come to pass.

I got some real bad news for you if you believe that. You're not God. You're not God. You are this servant pictured in this story. You are not the master. You're the one being sent into this world. You were sent here with a mission.

You may have more than one mission, but you have a mission, and you've been sent here by God the Father with a mission, and he's told you to accomplish some things. You young people are just starting to maybe think about and learn what your mission may be.

You're getting to the place where you're going to start seeing a glimpse of it. God never shows very far. It's like one step in front of you, he'll show you to take that step, and sometimes he doesn't show you way out there, but you have a job to do, and God has sent you, and you can't just speak things into being because you're not God, and yet he expects us to pray about the things that come to pass in our lives.

So how does all this work together? Well, if it's true that when we pray, we're supposed to pray in God's will, surely God has a way to reveal to you his will, but I can prove to you that you don't know his will.

Look, turn to, keep your hand there in Genesis, but turn to Romans chapter 8, verse 26. I'd like you to see it if you have a Bible. Romans chapter 8, verse 26. Now, sometimes we catch from people that teach us, from people that try to disciple us, from books we read, maybe even from preachers that we hear, that it's almost as if it's easy to know God's will.

You know, all right, you're supposed to pray in God's will, that must mean it's easy to know God's will, but look at this verse, Romans 8, verse 26, likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray.

You see that? We know not what we should pray. Now why is it, if that's true, that we have so many people teaching us nowadays that you just speak it and it comes to pass? You just figure out what you want in your life and you just ask for it and God is then obligated to give it to you.

I don't know any parent that's like that. If God is our father and God uses human parenthood to kind of teach us a little bit about that relationship, I don't know any parents that give their children everything they ask for, and if they do, those are rotten ones.

Sometimes the parent has to say, no, Ben asked me not too long ago if he could have a .22 rifle. I said, yeah, sure, I hate you, go ahead and take it. No, I didn't say that. I said, no, I love you, so you can't have one yet.

How about a BB gun? And you only shoot that when you're with me. Now, you know, you have to look first and see what's good for the child. And you give the child what's the best for the child, if you love the child.

And if we think God would do less than that, we've been taught false doctrine. God is not obligated to answer our prayers, nor do we always even know what to ask for. Now, we have a dilemma here this morning, so let's hope we have time to solve it.

Well, really, it's lunchtime. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed. We have to pray in God's will if we're going to see an answer to the prayer. In Romans 8, 26 says we don't know God's will. We don't know what we are to pray for.

But let's read the verse again. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. So there's the key. The Holy Spirit helps us with the infirmity that we have of not knowing what we ought to pray for. We don't know what we ought to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

This word groanings in the English is a little bit confusing, perhaps. In the Greek language, it means a sigh. It's not a noise of uttering speech that the Holy Spirit is making here. It's a sigh. It says that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with a sigh which cannot even be put into speech.

Now, do you know what that means? That means that the Holy Spirit goes before the Father. And it's the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the only one who knows the mind of God. But it also says the Holy Spirit knows the mind of man, the mind of us.

If you're born again, your body is the temple of the living God. The Holy Spirit lives within you. He indwelt you the moment of your salvation. And so if you realize the fact that the Holy Spirit has access to the mind of God, for the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, he's everywhere at once.

But he also has access to your heart and mind because he lives in you. He is Christ in us, the hope of glory, the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit lives in our heart, but he also knows the mind of God and dwells in the heavenlies all at the same time.

And what happens in the life of a Christian, whether you've been taught this yet or not, it is what happens, is the Holy Spirit sees from the mind of God, the mind of God which is not bound by time, so obviously your future is there already.

He's the I am. Your future is there. Your needs for tomorrow are there with God at his throne now. And he simply sends that by his spirit into your heart and moves you to begin to ask for what he's already going to bring you.

That's the only way you'll get your prayers answered. So it's important that you have a walk with the Lord. It's important that you already have a close, intimate, personal relationship with God before you go off trying to ask for things because what you'll do, as James says, is you will ask amiss.

You will ask wrongly, according to your own lust. You'll ask for just stuff you want. Now what happens is, if it's the right way, is the Holy Spirit comes, and we speak as a man here, he doesn't have to come because he's everywhere at once, but he comes from the throne of God, from the heavenlies, and brings from the mind of God that which God has for you as a servant, it's your marching orders actually, and all the equipment that you need to do that job with.

And he brings and places into your heart a desire. All of a sudden you find yourself, as a Christian, thinking, well maybe, you know, maybe I want to be a pilot. Maybe I want to fix the planes that my friend the pilot's going to fly.

And he begins to place desires in your heart, and you think they're your own desire. You think you just brought them up out of nowhere, and they are your desires, but you didn't just bring them up out of nowhere.

Because God is sovereign. And you're not going to trick God into changing what he has for your life. You can't do that. He's in absolute control. And he sends into your hearts, via the Holy Spirit, that which he has for you, that which you need to ask for, for tomorrow to meet the needs to do the thing that you're here to do.

And as you do come before the Lord in prayer, and you have a quiet moment, you have to be that kind of person. You can't just go and say, God give me this, God give me that. You have to come before God and realize that he's awesome.

And you have to sort of sit at his feet for a few moments, at least, and sense his presence. And when you sense the presence of God, by the way, it's the presence of God that brings worship. It's not the other way around.

A lot of churches nowadays think if they can get enough stuff worked up at the front end of it, and they call that worship, that God will show up. That's not the way it works. God shows up and we worship because he's there.

You'll see that in this passage next week sometime, three months from now when I finish this message. But it's all there in case we don't get to it. Go ahead and read and find the end of it. God brings the desires into our hearts.

I can't tell you how he does it. You won't hear voices. But you will have placed in your heart and in your mind thoughts of things you wish to do, thoughts of things you need to do, convictions of things you know God wants you to do.

And then God will place desires in your heart for the very things that you need to do it, the equipment, the things you have to have. And this is how prayer really works. Now, if it's true that we don't know what we're supposed to pray for, then prayer has to work that way.

It has to come from God to you, not from you to God. It comes from God to you. Then you offer it up to God. And the Old Testament pictures it as a sweet smelling savor going up as smoke from the offering going up before God.

That's your prayer going back. But it was sent to you from heaven first. And that's the kind of prayer that's powerful. That's the kind of prayer that gets answered. It is pictured in this story by Abraham telling the servant exactly what he wanted him to go do.

And the servant had questions about it. And he comes back, says, you don't worry about it. I'm sending a messenger, an angel before you. God is going to be there with you as you go. Now, let's continue.

We see that we don't always know what to pray for. So, therefore, it's only possible to know this if we have a close walk with the Lord. We have to care more about what he wants, care more about what he has for us than we care for ourselves.

We have to care more what his design is than what our design is. We have to care more what he wants us to have than what we want to have. We have to care more who he wants us to meet than who we want to meet.

And you can go on with this. But I'm going to show you something, a powerful verse as far as answered prayer is found in John chapter 15, verse 7. Jesus said, if you abide in me, you see, that's the relationship.

That has to be there first. You cannot teach a lesson on prayer as a technique. You have to teach prayer as a relationship first. If you abide in me, now listen to this second part. If my word, my words abide in you.

Now, how will that happen? Does that happen by accident? How do you get to the place where this word abides in here and in here? Sleep on it, carry it with you like President Clinton used to. Big old Bible, just carry it around with you.

How do you get it where his word abides in your heart? Someone tell me. Study. That's right. What else? Can't just study it academically. What else? Well, you can't. It's a good start. Meditate. Meditate on his word like a cow chews a cud.

Chew on it. And always come in the relationship, come filled with the Holy Spirit. So he says, if you abide in me, if you're walking in Christ and my words abide in you, then you shall ask what you will.

And it shall be done unto you. Do you know why that's true? You see, a lot of people would take that verse and say, see, the Bible says you just ask what you will and God has to give it to you. It's not what it teaches.

It says, if you're walking in him, connected, you're connected to the, I wish it could have been here for the other series we just finished. But do you realize why you're seated here in this room? As a born again person, that you're also seated in the heavenlies in Christ?

Right now, spiritually. So when you have that connection, that's number one. And when you have the word of God in your heart and mind, because you study it every day, you're in the word. Then you can ask what you will and it shall be done.

Why? Because God then places the desires in your heart as well. The very desires, it says what you will, you can ask what you want. The very want that you have came from heaven to you. And it will be answered.

Praying in the Way God Has Sent You

Now, let's go back into Genesis. We're down to verse 10 now. And the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and departed. Now, let me tell you something else about prayer. Prayers of faith include preparing to receive the answer.

A lot of people get the idea when they talk about prayer that, you know, on the one hand, it is true that God is in control. But that you take it to the fatalistic point. You just say, well, that means I don't do anything.

That's not true either. It is untrue for those we call them Armenians who believe that humans do everything and God just sits up there and kind of watches. That's false. But the other end of heresy is when you go out to the hyper end of it and you say, well, God is so much in control that I do nothing.

I just sit here and I sit here and just God will make everything happen around my life. Doesn't work that way either. Because notice that even though this servant knew very well who was in control, because Abraham, picturing the father, had given him specific instructions and told him exactly what to do.

And when he worried about it, he said, don't worry, I'm going to be with you in the form of this messenger that it talks about the angel, the messenger, the one with him. But you know what? As soon as he got his instructions, he began to work.

He began to go get ready to go do this. He takes the camels, 10 camels of the master and he departs and he heads the direction he's supposed to go to go get the job done. He doesn't just sit there and see.

Well, God has to do it because I spoke it into existence. He goes and gets ready to work because the whole relationship here for us in this physical world is God in us working with us. It's not just God working and it's not just us working.

It's God in us working to get his work done. So he takes the camels and he made his he goes on this journey and it comes to the place where he makes the camels kneel down outside of the city by a well of water at the time of the evening.

Even the time that women go out to draw water. Now, let me ask you a question, men. If you had been sent to find a wife for someone. And you know that you you're going to pray and you know that God's in control and you know God is going to make this happen because you've already been given the word.

It's going to happen. You're bringing a wife back. Abraham said, you're bringing her back. Don't worry about it. God's going to go with you. You will bring her back. But you know what? A lot of people nowadays would think, OK, I just get in the mode where I just, you know, sit around the house and pray and pray and pray and just hope it'll happen.

That's not what this man did. He went to a place where he knew women come. That's why most of you guys went to college. You know, it's not that you don't believe in prayer. It's just that after you get through praying, you go make it happen.

Don't look at me that way. Some of you people. But anyway, this is true, isn't it? It's absolutely true. See, you're doing it right. Don't ever let anybody tell you different. These hyper spiritual people know, well, I just pray.

God will bring a wife through my door someday. Now you go out to the place where the women come to water the animals. I'm not calling you guys animals, OK? Anyway, so what's the point here? The point is prayers of faith include preparing to receive the answer.

They include doing our part, do they not? But we do it by faith. Now look at the next point. Very important. Verse 12. And he said, Oh, Lord, God of my master, Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day.

Now picture this servant. He's on the camel and he's headed towards the place where all the women are going to be, where they're watering the animals. And he stops his camel and he stops to pray. Now he already sees a bunch of women coming.

He's doing the work. You see, he's done the smart thing. He's thought this thing through and he's taken the camel. His master would be proud of him, I'm sure. He takes the camel out. He goes right there and he stops at exactly the right place.

But you know what he did when he got there? Verse 12. And he said, Oh, Lord, God. He prayed. He said, Oh, Lord, God of my master, Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master, Abraham.

The third principle we learned this morning is this. Even though the man of prayer is a man who then puts it into action and goes to make it happen, he still prays and he never just does the work by himself because he wants God to have all the glory and honor.

He does not for a moment pretend he can do this on his own. Isn't it interesting how it goes from a point of prayer to going and kind of putting leather to the pavement and working and going to make it happen.

But then it comes back and say, but, Lord, I can't do this without you. Can you see how it's God and the servant working together back and forth, working together? And the servant never will take credit for this, even though he was the one that used his intelligence and his knowledge to go to the right place.

He used some common sense, didn't he? But he didn't take credit for it. He prayed and said, now, God, I am here. I think I'm, he's probably thinking, I think I'm where I'm supposed to be. I hope I'm where I'm supposed to be.

But God had led him right to the right place. And then he prays and says, now, Lord, make this happen. I can't make this happen. Now look at verse 13. You're going to find in the next couple of verses a fourth point about prayer.

Good praying is specific. It is not too vague and it's not too general. Lord, forgive us our many sins. Lord, help us all be safe. You know, don't be too general and too, too vague with the prayers. They are to be very specific.

Now look at this verse 13. Behold, I stand here by the well of water. Now you're going to say to yourself, I don't know that I could ever be this bold with the Lord. But look at this teaching. I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water.

The servant saying, I'm, I think I'm in the right place. He says, but I'm not sure. I want to make sure I'm in God's will. So he says in verse 14, let it come to pass. Lord, he's praying that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher.

I pray thee that I may drink and she shall say, drink, and I will give thy camel's drink. Also, let the same be she that thou hast appointed for my servant, Isaac. Now, does this man believe in the sovereignty of God?

He says, let it be the one God that you have already foreordained that he would marry. Now, how would you like to be sent on a journey? You've got to go get not only just a woman for it. You've got to get the woman that God almighty from before the foundation of the world had chosen for Isaac.

You want that job? Go like this or like this. You want that job? Well, guess what? You've got that job. It's just as important who you marry as it was who Isaac married in God's eyes. It's just as important what your jobs are as servants of God as it was this servant in this story.

You have got to get it this right. You can't miss it. You've got to get it this right in your life. Every little decision that you make and deed that you do from our viewpoint affects our future. You've got to get it right.

So how do we do this? Well, you use common sense and you do the best you can do while you walk in the Lord, but you don't leave it there. You then come back to him in prayer and you say, now, Lord, you know, I need to make sure though.

I'm here, but I want you, would we do this? I'm going to ask one of these ladies, which one do you think he's going to pick, by the way? Well, anyway, you'll see in a minute. I'm going to ask one of these ladies, would you give me some water?

And if she says yes, and she also says, could I give water and food to the camel? I'll know that's the right one. The exact right one. And he says, would that work? You know, father, could we do it this way?

He says, I'll give the camel's drink. Also, let the same be she that thou has appointed for that servant, Isaac, and thereby shall I know that thou has shown kindness unto my master. Now, did he leave some ability for this not to happen from the human viewpoint?

Did he leave a way for nothing to happen so that he wouldn't choose the wrong one is what I'm trying to say. He did, didn't he? I mean, if you just want to look at mathematical odds. It was more likely that none of those young women would say that exactly that way than that one of them would.

So you see, he says, if he's asking father, close the door. If you don't want me to walk through it, that's a smart way to pray. Now, verse 15. The fourth point was good. Praying is specific. But the fifth point is this.

God does not postpone his answers when we are praying in his will. Look at verse 15. This is amazing. And it came to pass. Here you have the servant on the camel as the camel's walking towards the water.

He's praying. You see, he's not in his prayer closet having three hours of prayer before he leaves. In fact, he didn't take time to do that. He got the camels and he took off. He had instructions to go and he was doing God's work.