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Bro. Otis Fisher
Turn me up a little bit, Brian, will you please? Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we open his word. Heavenly Father, clear our minds. Bring us into what you have for us. Let it be only what you have for us.
Let me speak according to what you have given me, and that each mind here can absorb what you have, not what I say. In the name of Christ. Excuse me just a moment, but somehow the rest of my notes are gone or we won't be here over five minutes.
I guess that's what happens when you have to write everything down. I'll probably get home and find them. No, this morning we're going to talk a little bit about prayer, and I liked what Tom put in the bulletin on the flyleaf.
Prayer is a powerful tool by Robert Alleman. Prayer is an indispensable practice of Christian life and is absolutely essential for the accomplishment of God's word. Remember that statement. D .L. Moody once said, it is foolish and wicked to try to do God's work without God's power, but there is no way for Christians to have God's power except by prayer.
Prayer is a powerful tool to be used to accomplish his work. In fact, James put it this way, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. If we would serve effectively, then we must pray fervently.
I would like to begin in the book of Genesis in the 18th chapter for one verse, verse 17. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Now this took place as Abraham was sitting in the doorway of his tent, and three strangers come walking up, and we find out later that one of them was the Lord Jesus pre-incarnate, and the angels that were with him were on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy it, and the Lord started to leave, and then he makes this statement.
So from the very beginning almost of the Bible, we learn that God does nothing in secret, that he extends to his people the desire to pray concerning that which is about to take place in their life, or in which they are involved.
The vast majority of people would pray, or would reply to the question, why pray? And their answer would be, in order that we may obtain from God the things that we need. Well, off the surface that may sound pretty reasonable, but first of all, we don't have to pray concerning that that we need.
He knows what we need before we need it. This statement that I just stated is from man's viewpoint, not from God's viewpoint. In fact, from man's viewpoint, that really is not a prayer. There has been appointed that the Lord himself should be honored.
The purpose of prayer, the purpose of everything, is to bring praise to the praise of his glory. Everything has been made for him, by him, to him, and of him. Leaves very little room for anything else.
Everything is for the Lord. We must realize that God is God Almighty. We like to revel in that perhaps, but then tomorrow morning we get up and go to our works and immediately we have forgotten. God requires that we should worship him, and real prayer is worship of God.
It recognizes his sovereignty by submission to his will. In Romans 8, 26, 27, and 28, we're told that we do not know for what to pray, so prayer shows us our dependence upon God. Whether we acknowledge it, whether we are aware of it, we depend upon God for everything, whether we admit it or whether we don't.
We have nothing but what God has given us. Now immediately someone will say, well I had to work for mine. That's part of his giving. We're able to work. The job we have, he gave us. The family we have, he gave us.
Everything we have received from him. Without him, we are nothing. We're less than nothing, if that's possible. Prayer enables us to grow spiritually. Without growing spiritually, we become stagnant. Brother Barney used to always say to energize, exercise, and baptize, and if you don't, you'll fossilize.
We need to spend time every day talking with the Lord. Now it's nice if you have time and you can, as the scripture says, enter into your closet and close the door. Those are special times, and you don't have to have a closet with a door on it.
It means you shut everything else out of your mind and concentrate on him as I hope you're all doing right now on prayer. We know not what to pray for because we cannot see the entire picture. Russell, if we could see everything as God sees it, then we'd do exactly what he does, but we can't see it.
Did you ever wonder why we can't see it? Why is it that we do not know what the next moment is going to bring or tomorrow is going to bring? We're not prepared for it. What? Absolutely. He has made it so that it is impossible for us to go through a moment of life without faith.
Now when we obtain our final eternal life with him, we won't have faith, won't need faith. It's needed only here in this life, and he's made it so that we cannot exist without it. I used to use an illustration when I had a chalkboard, and I'll try to describe it to you, and perhaps you can get it in your mind, but you're at a lakeside.
The water is out in front of you, and you can see the other shore, and the Lord is on the other shore. Now the water evaporates depending upon your our study and understanding. So each day we study, and he reveals things to us, and the water level goes down, and we can move down to the shoreline, and the Lord moves to the shoreline on his side, and Russell, we're closer together, but still a long ways off.
By study, by continual study, meditation, exercising that that we learn, the water evaporates until we're down as close as we can get, but unknown to us at the bottom of this lake was a great chasm, and it might not be but one foot wide, but I've got to get to the other side, but I can never, never in this life reach the other side.
The only way that I can be with him, no matter how close, is by faith, and he's made it that way. So no matter how much we study, we'll never learn it all, for there are new things every day in our life.
Another interesting point, we study John 3 16, Romans 8 28, perhaps all of your life, and uh you can recite it from memory, then one day you're reading it again, and lo and behold something brand new comes, and it just blows your mind.
Why hadn't I seen that before? It's been there all of the time. Why is that? Why is it that you can read a very familiar scripture, and all of a sudden, Dennis, you see something new? All right, the Holy Spirit's work, because we can learn nothing without him revealing to us, but the Word never changes.
The Bible has been the same from its conception, and it's always read exactly the same, but there's one thing that does change, and it's our circumstances. Did you ever purchase an automobile, and all of a sudden, you see how many more are on the road exactly like yours?
You never noticed them before? Same idea. Circumstances change, and we see something new, and that's why circumstances change. So prayer. It exercises our faith. Now, how do you exercise faith? I thought faith was just faith, Debbie.
What? Put it to use. How do you put it to use? Now, since I lost all my notes, y 'all are going to have to help me. How do you put faith to use? How do you exercise it? Well, you're saying a whole lot of good words, relying on it, exercising it, using it.
All right, that's right. So we put it to work, as Fred said, but literally, faith is knowing that when you're talking to him, you're not talking to a fence post. It's knowing, just like, how do you know that you are a child of your parents?
Russell, how do you know that? They told you? I asked that in class the other night, and the young man says, well, of course, I look just like him. But you see, until DNA come along, and I'll have to scratch that one out, there was no way to really, really prove that you were a child of theirs, but you knew it.
You just knew it. Now, there's so many Christians that are a child of God, and it is as though they never really know if they are his child. It'd be like one of you's growing up and never really knowing whether they were your parents or not.
You wouldn't make a very productive child, would you? So we must know it. It exercises our faith. We have to live by faith. The word says the only living that we do is by faith. What is the opposite of faith?
What? Sight. We have to see it to believe it. Now, how many things you have to see to believe? Don't answer. Answer to yourself. I fear there's too many things. Well, then we come to another question.
In light of Romans 11 36, and let's turn over to that. Romans 11 36, very short verse, for of him, through him, to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Now, I have had people ask me this question.
I'm sure you have, and perhaps you've thought of it yourself. Why pray? What's the use of telling God something he already knows? What's the use of praying for everything when everything has been already ordained?
It has not only been ordained, it's been finished. In God's eyes, everything is finished, Russell. This is why he cannot allow this and change that and permit this because it's already done. Well, prayer is not to inform God as though he were ignorant.
God requires that his gifts should be sought. He requires that. We should honor him by asking just as we thank him for receiving. I'll use Richard since he's not here. I would say, Richard, your wife likes for you to tell her that you love her even though she knows it.
So does our Lord. Well, why pray? One big reason he told us to, period. He told us to pray. Now, prayer is not reciting something that has been written out. You can write out your prayers, that's all right.
It's not in the repeating over and over and over until it becomes a habit. Nothing wrong with being so concerned about a situation that you keep talking about it to the Lord. You don't have to mention it once and then forget it.
Salvation has been ordained of God that before you're saved, you hear the word. Faith comes by what? And hearing comes by what? Word of God. And if you analyze that, all of it has come from God. The hearing means an ear that can hear, and it's from God.
He opens the ear at the right time, in the right place, so you will hear. Soul salvation comes by hearing. That's part of the salvation package. I don't think you'd give me any argument on that, would you?
That's true. When it comes to his will being worked on this earth, part of that package is prayer. Where modern man has stumbled is that so many people think that I prayed and it happened, and if I hadn't have prayed, it wouldn't have happened.
Therefore, I caused it to happen. Have you ever been trapped into that? Well, that's wrong. It starts with God. Just remember this, people. God accepts nothing that did not originate with him. Do I need to say that again?
All that man can originate is sin, so he gives us the thought, he gives us the will, he gives us the desire, he gives us the subject, and he expects us to talk to him about it. Now, it will happen whether you pray or not, but if you pray, then you're concerned about it, whatever it is.
Then when it comes to pass, you can give him the praise for it. If you had not been concerned, if you had not prayed, if you had done nothing, it would come to pass and you'd never know it, and you would not grow spiritually.
He would not get the praise that is due to him, so prayer is a benefit to us. All blessings are spiritual. He has promised us in 2 Peter to give us everything that we need for living in this life. That's a promise of him.
You'll need nothing except what I give you, and I'll give you everything you need. That's a foregone conclusion, so we don't need to spend time praying about things. Besides that, Greg, we'll have to give an account for all of the things that we have and have had, so don't get something and just throw it in the corner.
So part of the package of his will being done is prayer, and he... Well, turn over to Philippians 2 .13. It says this, For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God that is working in each and every person to do that which God wants done, whether we know it, whether we admit it, whether we want to or not.
It is he that does it. So prayer has a place in the order of events. Hearing has a place in the order of salvation. Elijah knew that God was about to send rain, but what did he do? Prayed, but he already knew.
Well, Russell, he prayed anyhow. Our Lord in the garden just before his arrest had a very long conversation with the Heavenly Father, and he knew all that was coming, but he prayed anyhow. It was not so that God's will could be done.
It was so that it would be accomplished in him, in us. The design of prayer is not that God's will will be altered. I fear that we all spend too much time trying to change the events, trying to get God to do something that I know ought to be done.
First of all, we don't know what ought to be done, and he tells us that. We don't know what to pray for, but in order for his will to be accomplished the way he intends for it to be, it includes our prayers.
Every day relate everything to him. Think not just at a certain time in the day to go pray. Look for him in every facet of your life. I would encourage you to do this this coming week. In the many different areas in which this congregation is involved during the week, look for an example of our Lord.
See something that you can use as an illustration of a biblical truth. It'll make your work more exciting. You'll grow, you'll learn more scripture, and you'll become a better Christian. The father that studies, that lives, that works according to God's holy word, their dog is even better because he doesn't kick him when he comes home.
He's in a better mood when he gets there. The family is better. My wife told me years ago from her experience in nursing and surgery, she said the child that is obedient to their parents gets well quicker.
A rebellious child takes a lot longer because that's his nature to rebel against everything. The obedient child does what he's supposed to do, so it makes a difference in our health. Finally, God's will is immutable.
Immutable. Immutable. Greg, what's that mean? Cannot be changed. His will is immutable. Just remember it's already been accomplished. It cannot be altered. Jeremiah 15 .1. Turn over there if you will, please.
Debbie, you go to Malachi 3 .6. Greg, as soon as this train gets by, read Malachi, read Jeremiah 15 .1. Go ahead. Nobody's going to change his mind at all. Now Malachi 3 .6. Boy, I do not change or you sons of Jacob would be consumed.
Russell was consumed me. You would not exist. You'd be gone if I changed. If I changed one little bit. You see how important it is that he does not change. Now some of the newer Bibles, modern versions, have in Malachi 3 .6 that he changed, does not change his mind.
Other places it has that he changed his mind. Well, if you ever see that, don't use that Bible. No prayer is pleasing to God unless his spirit has prompted it. One last verse. Daniel 4 .35. You follow along and all of the inhabitants of the earth, that includes you and I, are reputed as nothing or accounted as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what do you think you're doing? Now any time that you get to thinking or anybody gets to thinking that it happened because I prayed, just go back and read Daniel 4 .35.
We are imputed as nothing. We have no input whatsoever. We cannot change him one bit. And he demands that we pray and that we hear. And that's the way that his will is worked. Now let me ask you another question and I'll be through.
If a man is standing on top of a very tall building and he has in his hand a basketball and he's going to throw it over the edge but he prays that when he does, the ball will hit the ground. He throws it over the edge and sure enough the ball hit the ground.
Was it because he prayed? Same idea. Don't ever get to feeling so important that God does what you want or what I want. He does what he wants and he lets us in on it if it's going to affect us in any way to pray so that he will get the glory, the praise.
We can't add to his glory. He'll get the praise. We'll get the blessing. Let me clarify spiritual blessings. We call material things blessings and to me that's not right. The blessing is if you have grown any spiritually because of the material event.
If you get a new job, how did it help you spiritually? It is the growth spiritually that is the blessing. Well I'm not going to apologize for losing my notes. I don't think I did. I think the Lord did.
Would you stand with me please and we'll be dismissed. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for this brief time in which we can gather together and we can go through your word looking at the great truth that you have for us.
Go ahead of us now not only in our eating time and bless the food for us but in this afternoon service that all together it might be a pleasing day to you in the name of Christ.