The Gospel of Luke (45) Encouragement and Instruction in Prayer (1) 11/19/2023

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Dale is going to come up in the place of Pastor Jason and read for us 1st

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John chapter 4 and then if you'll pray for us please. 1st

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John chapter 4 I'll be reading from the ESV. Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world by this you know the

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Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess

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Jesus is not from God this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already little children you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world they are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them we are from God whoever knows

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God listens to us whoever is not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows

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God anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only

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Son into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we have loved

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God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins beloved if God so loved us we ought to love one another no one has ever seen

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God if we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit and we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the

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Savior of the world whoever confesses that Jesus is a son of God God abides in him and he in God so that we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us

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God is love and whoever abides in that love abides in God and God abides in him by this is love perfected in us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is so also are we in this world there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment whoever fears has not been perfected in love we love because he first loved us if anyone says

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I love God and hates his brother he's a liar who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love

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God we have not seen in this commandment we have from him whoever loves

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God must also love his brother let's pray father we thank you for your word in Lord we just pray that as we sit under the teaching of this word

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Lord you would bless us and help us grant us understanding in a spirit

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Lord to obey your word to walk with you more closely and to give glory to you father bless

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Pastor Lars as he brings the word may you anoint him and help him and help all of us

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Lord give us understanding and may your illumination come upon us Lord that we would truly hear what you're saying to us this day father bless us and help us we pray in Jesus name

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Amen well let's turn in our

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Bibles to Luke chapter 11 beginning a new chapter in our working through this gospel we're not halfway yet and this is what the 45th

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Lord's Day that we've been in Luke's gospel and today we'll begin to address encouragement and instruction in prayer now we want to remind one another that before us this passage is said in the context of the final journey of Jesus and his disciples traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem Jesus of course knew and had foretold to his disciples this was a journey to his death when he arrived at Jerusalem there he'd be rejected suffer and die but be raised the third day so this journey comprises a major portion of Luke's gospel as we have emphasized it began with Luke 951 he said his face to go to Jerusalem and it concludes in Luke 19 27 with the

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Palm Sunday his formal entrance as a son of David into the city much of Luke's record of Jesus's teaching is found in this travel section of Luke's gospel it may be recognized however that a shift of emphasis in the account occurs when

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Jesus departed from Galilee Luke no longer emphasized our

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Lord's interaction with the multitudes but rather in this journey

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Luke recorded the intimate relationship between Jesus and his disciples and the personal instruction that he gave to his disciples and even the encounters with non -disciples recorded in this section seem to have been recorded by Luke in such a way as to provide instruction and encouragement for his disciples and so the point is this it is

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Luke's gospel unfolds we may learn of more intimate and encouraging things with respect to our relationship with our

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God as disciples of Jesus Christ as the days of Jesus's life on earth drew to a close he and his disciples drew closer together and he drew his disciples closer to his father and if we follow his steps their steps we too

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Lord willing will be able to relive an experience for ourselves they're deepening encounter and experience with him that's our hope now we'll read the extended passage that addresses the matter of prayer but we will be able to address a portion of this passage only today actually we had addressed this passage not all that long ago

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I keep a record of every Sunday's message and we addressed

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Luke 11 1 through 13 about five years ago when the series the

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ABCs of the faith a life of prayer and so we're going to be repeating some of the same assertions that I made then for they're just as true and relevant today and as they were five years ago and so here at Luke 11 1 through 13 and I'm reading from the

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New King James Version now came to pass as he was pray praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him

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Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples so he said to them when you pray say our

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Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one and he said to them which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within and say do not trouble me the door is now shut my children are with me in bed

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I cannot rise and give to you I say to you though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs so I say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives he who seeks finds to him who knocks it will be open if a son asked for bread from any father among you will he give him a stone or if he asked for a fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish or if he asked for an egg will he offer him a scorpion if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your

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Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him now we need to say a few words about our new

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King James Version in comparison with the English Standard Version if you were following long in our reading using the

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ESV you would have noted that there are several words and phrases in our Lord's Prayer that are in the new

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King James Version that are not in the ESV this is how the

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ESV reads it's a much shorter version father hallowed be your name your kingdom come give us each day our daily bread forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation and then again for ease of understanding the distinction we have the new

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King James Version again but the additions I put in italic font our father in heaven in heaven or words added hallowed be your name your kingdom come and then this is added your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us day by day our daily bread forgive us our sins and we also for we also forgive everyone who's indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one so the new

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King James Version is longer so how is a shorter version to be understood and explained well it's quite certain that a scribe when copying

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Luke's gospel sometime in the past had intentionally conformed our Lord's Prayer in the

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Luke and text to the word of the longer form of our Lord's recorded in Matthew's gospel which is in the

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Sermon on the Mount his changes to the text were then copied in later texts that were used in the early

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English translations of this passage including the King James Version and then of course the new

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King James Version we should understand that our Lord taught the shorter form on this occasion to his disciples but it taught the longer form before the crowds in Galilee on the

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Sermon on the Mount this effort to conform the words of one gospel to another gospel was unfortunately not an uncommon practice by some scribes in our consideration this passage we will follow the new

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King James Version as read for even though these additional words were not spoken on this occasion they were most certainly expressed by our

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Lord on earlier occasion and they're indeed the Word of God in other words some scribes felt the need to conform one gospel to the other and so they would add words at account sometimes while they're copying a gospel because they were familiar with the other gospel and they wanted to read the same we of course understand that these were different contexts the

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Sermon on the Mount was given to the crowds in Galilee on the side of the mountain this form was with his disciples as they were traveling to Jerusalem we shouldn't assume the

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Lord just taught these things on one occasion but he taught them well at least there he taught these this prayer on two separate occasions but in one he gave a more fuller account than what is is before us well let's work through this first let's consider the privilege and duty of Christians to pray prayer of course is a both a wonderful privilege and an important responsibility for the believer in Jesus Christ God has invited us to come before him frequently and confidently with our concerns and requests knowing that he hears us when we pray and so we're to be diligent we are to be faithful in prayer as the

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Holy Scripture constantly affirms to us our Lord once said to his disciples men always to pray and not lose heart and we'll eventually get to that Luke 18 1 in order for us to follow

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Jesus Christ rightly as his disciples we must be given to prayer if we are not praying frequently and faithfully we cannot be following Jesus rightly we are forfeiting the intimacy that we could be enjoying with him and we would certainly forfeit the good gifts that he gives to those who ask him consider these verses to exhort and instruct us in prayer

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Romans 12 12 we're always to be rejoicing and hope patient and tribulation continuing steadfastly in prayer

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Ephesians 6 8 18 Paul wrote that Christian should be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the

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Saints that's pretty extensive the Apostle commanded the

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Church of Colossae continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving the

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Church of Philippi be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God James urged the brethren confess your trespasses to one another pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much and Peter wrote to disciples but the end of all things is at hand therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers the mandate is clear and repeated frequently we are to be a praying people we are to be serious deliberate specific in our prayers we're to be expectant confident and grateful that our

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Lord hears us and that he will answer us when we lay our petitions before him this matter of praying

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Christian should be so much a part of our experience that Jonathan Edwards once believed that that if you're not praying you're not a in fact he said if if prayer was not found in your life then it revealed that you're a hypocrite not a true

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Christian for true Christians pray in fact he wrote a a sermon and I tell you what it's a convicting sermon hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer and Edwards wrote how difficult it is to get a professing

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Christian to accept and acknowledge his lost condition even though he may be quick to dismiss the claim of another whose life does not bear evidence of true

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Christianity oh he or she must not be a Christian but I don't doubt myself and he said

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Edwards is saying that once a person gets into this frame of mind they're convinced they're Christian it's hard to convince them otherwise but this deficiency of prayer is a pretty good indicator and that's what his sermon declares and so he wrote

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I would exhort those who have entertained in the hope of there being true converts and yet since they're supposed conversion have left off the duty of secret prayer and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it to throw away their hope we're you know don't be assured of your salvation if you're not a praying person

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I'm not talking about specific quiet time each and every day I'm sure a number of us are not as faithful as we should be in that but a

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Christian is a praying person non -christians go around talking to themselves

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Christians go around talking to the Lord that's just our nature we're praying people

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Edwards went on if you have left off calling upon God it's time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you're the children of God probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this it's hard for a man to let go and hope of heaven on which he has once allowed himself to lay hold and which he has retained for a considerable time true conversion is a rare thing but that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion after they've once settled and established in it and have continued in it for some time it's much more rare those things in men which if they were known to others would be sufficient to convince others they're hypocrites will not convince themselves and those things which would be sufficient to convince them concerning others and cause them to cast others entirely out of their clarity charity will not be sufficient to convince them concerning themselves they can make larger allowances for themselves and they can for others we're pretty pretty quick and easy to find fault with others but we tend to pass over it and excuse it in ourselves they can find out ways to solve objections against their own hope when they can find none in the like case of their neighbor but if your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine in other words hypocrites are deficient in the duty of prayer it is surely time for you to seek a better hope another work of God's Spirit than ever you have yet experienced something more thorough and effectual when you see and find by experience that the seed which was sown in your hearts though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing yet is withering away as by the heat of the

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Sun or as choked as with thorns this shows in what sort of ground the seed was sown speaking about the parable of the sower that it is either stony or thorny ground and that therefore it's necessary you should pass to another change whereby your heart may become good ground which shall bring forth fruit with patience if you're not a praying person you never pray to God you're not a

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Christian is what Edwards is asserting and I think he's right yet oftentimes true

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Christians fail to pray faithfully and consistently or else they leave off importunate prayer and what that means is persistent prayer until you get the answer we quit before we receive the blessing we may do so because we're less than confident that God hears us or we doubt that he's willing to grant us our requests the fact is it's a common spiritual problem of the

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Lord's people to doubt that God hears them and that he will answer their prayer and in this travel narrative

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Jesus spends a lot of time assuring people that God is merciful and delights and is willing to hear and answer prayer of his people but this doubting

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God that he will not answer our prayers occurs for at least four reasons there may be others

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I thought of these four first some doubt that God hears their prayers and therefore leave off praying because of their personal failure before God and so you might think to yourself my life falls so short of doing as well how can

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I ask and expect anything from him and there's a certain element of truth to this conclusion for the scriptures do declare that through our own refusal or failure to meet the conditions that God has established

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God may justly refuse to answer our prayers the psalmist in rejoicing that God did indeed answer his prayer stated one reason

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God might have refused to grant his requests Psalm 66 come and hear all you who fear

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God and I will declare what he has done for my soul I cried to him with my mouth and he was extolled to my tongue why if I regard iniquity in my heart the

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Lord will not hear me however but certainly God has heard me he is attended to the voice of my prayer blessed be

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God who's not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me and so to regard iniquity in your heart would be to treasure a sin refusing to acknowledge it as sin and refusing to turn from it

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God may justly choose not to answer the prayers of those who persist in sin and rebellion to him

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God declared to Israel he would not hear their prayers due to their unrelenting and unrepentant sin

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Isaiah denounced his people Israel in Isaiah chapter 1 he indicated

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God was not going to answer their prairie prayers these were the people of Israel Jews and they were in the temple and God would not answer them a last sinful nation of people laden with iniquity a brood of evildoers children who are corrupters you've forsaken the

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Lord they provoke to anger the Holy One of Israel they've turned away backward when you spread out your hands this is the posture of prayer

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I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood wash yourselves make yourself clean put away the evil of your doing before my eyes cease to do evil learn to do good and in another place

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Isaiah spoke a word to Israel telling them that God would not hear them due to their sin your iniquities have separated between separated between you and your

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God your sins have laid his fate have hid his face from you he will not hear and so people who persist in their rebellion to God have no basis of assurance that God will hear and respond to them until they humble themselves and purpose to repent of their sin a second reason that we may doubt that God hears us is when we pray for things or for persons that God had determined he will not bless he wants to bless you but he doesn't intend to bless the people you're praying for Jeremiah was faced with this reality

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God would not hear his prayer to pardon restore his people the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem it was not because of Jeremiah's failure that God would not grant his request it was because God determined he would not bless

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Israel due to their sin and so we read in Jeremiah's prophecy that he would refuse

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Jeremiah's prayer do not pray for this people he doesn't say do not pray for my people they're no longer my people they're this people they had broken their covenant nor lift up a cry or prayer for them nor make intercession to me for I will not hear you and later

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God said to Jeremiah so do not pray for this people or lift up a cry for them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble and yet again

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God said said the Lord who is this peep this people again thus they have loved to wander they have not restrained their feet therefore the

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Lord does not accept them he will remember their iniquity now punish their sins and then the Lord said to me do not pray for this people for their good when they fast

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I will not hear their cry when they offer burnt offering and grain offering I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence one of my spiritual pet peeves is to hear so frequently the word in the

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Psalms pray for the peace of Jerusalem Lord bless you you know if you pray for the peace of Jerusalem and so there are people all over the world praying for the peace of the city of Jerusalem now

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I think we ought to pray for the peace of Jerusalem okay but why do you take that verse and ignore the verses in Jeremiah when they are under the wrath of God don't pray for this people

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I'm not going to hear you they're under the wrath of God because they're outside of Jesus Christ yes we should pray for their conversion to embrace

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Christ but right now they're without God they're without the Lord in the world they need

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Jesus their Messiah their King and we should pray to that end a third reason that we may doubt that God hears us is when we pray to fail to pray in faith

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James wrote of God's refusal to answer prayer that comes forth from one who doubts

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God's ability to grant his request if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach you need discernment you need to know how to live how to think it will be given to him but let him ask in faith without doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind let not that man suppose you'll receive anything from the

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Lord for he's a double -minded man unstable in all his ways we have to pray in faith now we don't want to follow into the error of the the word of faith people of course and and and so we need to make a distinction between having faith in God's ability and having faith in God's will that he will grant a specific request we are never to doubt

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God's ability never the double -minded man that James writes about is one who errs in this matter he doubts

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God's ability to answer his prayer we are never to doubt God's ability to answer our prayers if we do doubt let us not think that we receive anything from his hand but though we may have no doubt of God's ability we may have legitimate doubts of God's willingness to grant our requests this is implicit in our prayer requests this is why we always append our prayers with the expression if the

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Lord wills we ask in confidence of God's ability to grant our request but we ask humbly submitting ourselves to his wisdom and purposes because we don't always know if it's his will to grant the petition that we lay before him we can excite the example of the leper who came to Jesus behold a leper came and worshipped him saying

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Lord if you are willing you can make me clean he had absolute faith in Jesus's ability he wasn't too sure he suspected

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Jesus was willing he'd done it to others and Jesus put out his hand and touched him saying

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I am willing be cleansed and immediately his leprosy was cleansed and so this leper did not doubt our

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Lord's ability to heal him however he did question as to whether or not the Lord was willing to do so we frequently offer prayers in the same manner as this leper asking

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God to hear us and grant our requests yet at the same time not knowing if it's God's purposes that he do so this is not a lack of faith it is recognition of God's prerogative to govern his world as he chooses but there's a fourth reason some may doubt the willingness of God to hear and answer their prayers they do not doubt because of a possible failure of their own they do not doubt because they suspect that God had determined that he will not hear a prayer respecting a rebellious person or people nor do they doubt his ability but they doubt the goodness of God and his general approachableness and willingness to hear them and answer them when they pray and as I alluded to earlier we're gonna see in this travel narrative the

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Lord Jesus in many different ways the prodigal son the lost coin he's showing that the father desires and delights to receive and answer the prayers of his people

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God is not a hard task master unwilling to hear us and so some of the parables we're gonna see is a parable of contrast he's not like the unjust judge who might grant a request because of the persistence of the woman calling out to him

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God's not like that but rather he readily comes and answers prayer when it's in his purposes and so it was this fourth case of cause of doubting that our

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Lord addressed his disciples after he said before them a pattern of prayer Jesus sought to encourage convince and assure his disciples that their father would hear them and readily and speedily grant their request well let's now work through this our

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Lord instructed his disciples and again we read as in the

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New King James version the longer version but you know he did teach this in the

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Sermon on the Mount came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he sees that one of his disciples said him

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Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples we see this in treaty to Jesus to teach him how to pray they stopped in a certain place and Jesus was praying and I didn't put it in here but Luke emphasizes

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Jesus prayed throughout his old gospel there's an emphasis on Jesus praying and apparently moved by hearing

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Jesus pray one of the disciples gave a good request Lord teach us to pray this reveals he knew the importance of prayer but it also reveals he knew of his ignorance regarding prayer at least in comparison to what the disciples of John the

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Baptist had known in practice may we be as this disciple and fully realize the important role that prayer plays in our life but further may we be like the disciples of John the

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Baptist once thoroughly instructed how to pray Matthew Henry wrote now their request

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Lord teach us to pray give us a rule or model by which to go and go in praying and put words in our mouths no it becomes the disciples of Christ to apply themselves to him for instruction and prayer

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Lord teach us to pray is itself a good prayer and a very needful one for it is a hard thing to pray well and it is

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Jesus Christ only that can teach us by his Word of Spirit how to pray Lord teach me what it is to pray

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Lord excite and quicken me to the duty Lord direct me what to pray for Lord give me praying graces that I may serve

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God acceptably in prayer Lord teach me to pray in proper words give me a mouth and wisdom in prayer that I may speak as I ought teach me what

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I shall say that should be our desire let's consider briefly the importance as well as the instruction the importance of prayer why is prayer important several reasons first let's acknowledge that good things do not happen unless prayer is offered

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God has ordained that he will work through the prayers of his people he appoints the end but he appoints the means to the end and the means is praying he need not do so he could you know work and grant his wonderful things regardless of prayer but he chooses to use prayer nothing will happen for good in your life or the life of your loved one unless you pray or other persons pray for you or the

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Lord Jesus prays for you as a high priest or the Holy Spirit himself prays for you intercedes on your behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered according to Romans 830 but you can mark it down you'll not receive from your father unless you or someone ask of him

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James wrote you do not have because you ask not many live spiritually impoverished although they have great riches in store for them if they would but draw upon them if only they would make request of the

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Lord who's willing to give his Mounties freely and abundantly and second we know that good things do not happen unless proper prayer is offered not just your prayers offered but proper prayer and by proper prayer we mean two things prayer is answered by God when one pray and has proper motives

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God will not grant a request of our attitudes and motives are not right again

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James wrote you do not have because you ask not and when you ask you don't do not receive because you ask with wrong motives wrong motives will fail to receive responses from God if God were to give good things to those who ask with wrong motives he'd reinforce their errant desires and attitudes wouldn't he proper motives are essential if we would receive good things from God in contrast to some parents who give thing good things to their little children even while they're exhibiting spirit of stubbornness defiance rebellion

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God never trains his children in this manner your heavenly father loves you and will not reinforce you in your folly he would not train up a stubborn and strong -willed child by giving him good things at the wrong times and then second prayer is answered by God when proper things are requested prayer is offered proper prayers offered proper things are requested it's also suggested in James you do not have because you ask not when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend what you get on your pleasures they're selfish thankfully

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God does not give us everything we ask of him he obliges himself to give us only good things that is things which are for our temporal and eternal good but it should be noted he will only give us temporal good things if they will somehow bring spiritual good to us otherwise

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God is kind to us by withholding from us that which we want but which may cause us harm and so God obligates himself to give his children only that which is according to his will those things for our ultimate good in his glory and then third good things do not happen unless persistent prayer is offered importunate prayer some people do not have their prayers answered for they stop prayed before God would have granted their request of him and this too is important but will not address it now because that's really the subject of verses 5 through 8 in Luke 11 importunate prayer and so we see from verse 1 therefore at least one of the disciples knew the importance of prayer and so he requested instruction from Jesus in prayer on behalf of them all but this disciples request reveals not only his recognition the importance of prayer but it reveals secondly their ignorance regarding prayer many people would acknowledge their weakness in the frequency of their praying but do many acknowledge their ignorance in the manner that they pray we should ask ourselves are the things which are set forth here by the

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Lord Jesus that are essential for proper prayer characteristic of our praying do our prayers reflect the patterns laid out for us in Scripture do we pray for one another requesting for one another the kinds of things the

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New Testament writers set forth as proper things to request from our God on behalf of others do we for example offer regular persistent prayer for spiritual knowledge have you prayed for spiritual knowledge not only for yourself but for others prayer for discernment for wisdom prayer for spiritual growth prayer for spiritual power and boldness or prayer that we might know the unique and discriminating love that God has for those in Christ for the elect do you pray for that understanding we're commanded to I fear that we too are generally quite ignorant of what to pray for that is what we might what might be most needful for one another and ourselves we need wisdom to know but we should be informed about these matters so that they should be the subject of our continual fervent prayer to our father so perhaps we too are ignorant about some of these matters so we should request even now of our

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Lord as did this Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples and one more point we might make here the disciple requested of Jesus Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples

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John the Baptist was a good man he was a praying man he was a good prayer and a good teacher he taught others how to pray may we not aspire to be like John let's go beyond merely asking the

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Lord to teach us to pray but let us ask God that he would make us as John teachers of prayer to others amen well now we have the example of a model prayer verses 2 through 4 the prayer generally this should not be regarded as a set of words repeated by rote but the

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Lord was setting forth the kinds of things to be prayed for setting priorities in our praying giving emphasis where emphasis is due and so it's a pattern prayer with each word and phrase expressing some important aspect of prayer or identifying an issue category which should be the subject of our prayers now we might be so familiar with the words to the point of reciting them but that does not necessarily indicate you could recount the meaning of them if asked to do so let's consider the prayer specifically our

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Lord Jesus said to his disciple when you pray say our Father in heaven and again those words in heaven are not in the

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ESV and we're probably not in this discussion with the disciples but it was back in the

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Sermon on the Mount our Lord Jesus taught and encouraged his disciples to view

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God as their father when you pray pray say our

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Father in heaven our Father in heaven who's approachable willing even eager to hear from his children and grant their requests now note when we are to pray we're to pray our

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Father he does not say pray my father it's collective here a plural pronoun second person plural pronoun our perhaps the stress here is not on individual prayer but prayer offered in the assembly of the people of God you shall know disciples collectively when you pray pray our

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Father in heaven but recognize a great privilege that belongs to you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ you belong to that select group that has the glorious entitlement to call upon God as father only

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Christians can do so Jesus was giving instruction to his disciples only on how they were to pray because they believed in him they had privileges and promises that were theirs alone they could relate to God as their father for he regarded them as his children he cared for them as a father cares for his children they could pray to God with this familial acquaintance when you pray say our

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Father and again we strongly assert this the privilege to regard and pray to God as father belongs only to true believers in Jesus Christ although this

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Lord's Prayer is known by many and can be recited verbatim by them they have no right to call

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God father unless and until they believe on Jesus Christ the Son of God as their

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Lord and Savior God is not their father God becomes your father when you become a true

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Christian this is incredibly important people recite this

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Lord's Prayer all over the world there do it in churches today that are not preaching the gospel but they're praying wrongly applying this to themselves our

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Father who art in heaven this is only true if you're Christian people apart from faith in Christ are estranged from God they may not call upon him as their father for he does not regard them as his children well isn't everybody a child of God certainly not only through the reconciling work of the death of Jesus Christ can sinners becomes members of the household of God the family of God they only may call

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God their father if you're a devout believer in Christ you may join with all your brothers and sisters in Christ in the wonderful privilege of addressing

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God our Father in heaven and as such you may be assured he cares for you as a father cares for his children that he will protect you and keep you and provide for you as one who is loved and regarded as precious in his sight the

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Apostle Paul described the former state of Gentile Christians and Ephesians unbelievers are estranged alienated from God they can't call

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God their father they can call him there his crew you know their creator or their judge their king is creator but not father only through the reconciling work of the death of Jesus Christ can sinners become members of the household of God they only may call

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God their father God the Father alone determines who may come to call him as father as Ephesians 1 blessed be the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place in Christ just as he chose us in him

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God the Father elected us chose us before the foundation of the world for what purpose that we should be holy without blame before him in love having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself we're the children of God according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he's made us accepted in the beloved and Jesus Christ the

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Son of God taught his disciples that God could only be known as father to himself he declared no one knows who the son is but the father and the father who is but and who the father is but the son and the one to whom the son will to reveal him and then

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Paul described the calling of God as father is the unique privilege of believers it's the result of the work of the

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Holy Spirit and them for as many years led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God and here being led by the

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Spirit of God doesn't mean that you get these impressions to determine what what God would have you do each and every day now here to be led by the

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Spirit of God is to order your life according to the law of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out of a father you cannot call

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God father unless you've been adopted by God through faith in Jesus Christ the

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Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God joint heirs with Christ which is one of the most fascinating amazing statements of Scripture we're joint heirs with Christ so the

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Holy Spirit makes people the children of God he leads them and empowers them he puts within them the desire and ability to truly call upon God and intimacy and familiarity as father and so what brings us into this family relationship with God is our adoption true believers in Christ are adopted by God into his family

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Paul declared this to the churches of Galatia you were all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus so you're not children of God without faith in Christ but by faith in Christ now because you are sons

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God has sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts cried out of a father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son than an heir of God through Christ so if you're a devout believer in Jesus Christ you may join with all your brothers and sisters in Christ and the wonderful privilege of addressing

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God our Father in heaven that is a covenant promise to those in Christ and as such you may be assured he cares for you as a father cares for his children as a good father cares for his children that he will protect you keep you provide for you as one who is loved and regarded as precious in his sight second petition hallowed be thy name this should be seen as the first request father it's our desire that your name be hallowed or honored and so this prayer is that God would make himself known for who he is in truth and that we all would come to understand and see his infinite glory

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J .C. Ryle clarified this petition we're taught to pray that the name of God may be sanctified and that's what hallowed mean hallowed be thy name in using these words we do not mean that God's name admits of degrees of holiness you're not going to make more

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God more holy by you know hallowing his name or that our prayers of ours can make it more holy than it is but we declare our hearty desire that God's character attributes perfections may be known honored and glorified by all intelligent creatures hallowed me

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God may you be glorified in fact it's it is the very petition which the

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Lord Jesus himself put on another occasion father glorify thy name we should always be praying that God would glorify himself to us through us to the world about us in all that we think and say and do this petition is essentially prayer that God would glorify himself make himself known and this should be our greatest desire above all things and all we do and all that we experience and all that we witness about us and all that we ask of God that God himself would be displayed and glorified seen for who he is by God being glorified we're saying we desire that others would see him as he truly is all glory it's full of majesty sovereign all -powerful all -knowing all -loving all holy and so may we first and always pray father it's our desire to see your name hallowed we desire ourselves and others to see you as you truly are we're this is a this is petition number one prayer number one top of the list then the third installment your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and if I remember right your will be done on earth as it is in heaven is taken from Matthew 6 by a scribe your kingdom come now in a sense the kingdom has come already of course

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Christ came as king of the Jews he was rejected by them but in spite of their rejection because he was obedient to God during his rejection he was raised from the dead and granted all authority all authority has been given unto me in heaven and earth

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Jesus is not going to have any more authority at his second coming he had it all upon his resurrection and ascension to the throne of God and so in a sense the kingdom was inaugurated

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Jesus is Lord Peter argued that the kingdom been inaugurated evidenced by the fact that Jesus received the promise from the father of the

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Holy Spirit and that he Jesus had given the Holy Spirit to his followers on the day of Pentecost just as in ancient

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Israel as a son of David was enthroned on the day of his inauguration he would give gifts to the guys that he grew up with his friends give them positions of power and authority as ambassadors and whatnot principal people in the kingdom well that's what the

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Lord Jesus did for us the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was proof that he is enthroned he is

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Lord but in another sense the kingdom of God has been coming and is coming even as we speak and so when a soul begins to order his or her life according to the

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Lordship of Christ his kingdom is coming or is being realized whenever the power dominion of Satan is defeated in someone's life we're witnessing the coming of the kingdom when we pray for souls to be converted to Christ we're praying that it

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God's kingdom would would come would be enlarged and yet there's a sense in which the kingdom is yet to come we the

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Bible speaks about inaugurated eschatology okay in other words the you know the last days are now they've been realized and there's a reality now and yet not yet it's true now but not yet as well there's a kingdom yet to come at his second coming his kingdom will be manifested for all to see every eye shall see him every knee will bow every tongue confess that Jesus is

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Lord to the glory of the Father and the difference is you and I as Christians see it now with the eye of faith every

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I'll see it then we see it now we see his kingdom now with the eye of faith all will see his kingdom when he returns in glory at which time he'll put down all resistance all rebellion to his rule and we long for that day to come and here we're instructed to pray to the father that he would bring it to pass we're to pray that he'll advance his kingdom where he's not only father to his people but he's the sovereign of the world his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom is dominion from generation to generation now when we speak about may his will be done we have to understand a little bit about his will there are several kinds actually three different kinds of forms of God's will presented in the scriptures

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I mentioned two here there is first the God's will of decree speaks of his eternal counsel that before creation he determined everything that would take place in history from the least to the greatest event his will of decree all events that transpired history which he determined before creation would come to pass history is that his story that he determined nothing happens outside of his will of decree and it says will of decree described in the

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Westminster shorter catechism God's will is his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will whereby for his own glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass

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God is not surprised by anything nothing happens outside of his control this eternal purpose is

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God's decreed will referred to in Ephesians 1 who works all things after or according to the counsel of his will so when we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we're asking

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God to fulfill his purposes that he is determined beforehand that would come to pass we should not think that because God has decreed something take place and because we know it will therefore we need it we know it'll take place that we need not pray about the matter he uses prayer

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I think of Daniel he was reading Jeremiah's prophecy when he was in Babylon and he you know here we are in exile and he reads in Jeremiah's prophecy that 70 years were determined for exile and the end of those 70 years were coming well you know

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Daniel didn't start packing his bags you know he bet he began immediately to pray to God that this would come to pass we were are to pray that God fulfill his decrees in our lives and in the world about us and it's with the resignation to God's will of decree that Paul friends acquiesce when

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Paul insisted to continue to Jerusalem even though they knew he would be arrested Luke wrote of this incident so when he would not be persuaded we see saying the will of the

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Lord be done God had revealed to certain prophets he was going to be bound prison don't go to Jerusalem Paul but he insisted well may the

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Lord's will of decree be done but the Bible depicts God's will in a second sense

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God's will of command and whereas God's will of decree can never be violated can never fail to come to pass

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God's will of command is always forgotten or transgressed against think of the

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Ten Commandments that's God's will of command this is God's instruction to his creatures that he's given in Scripture on how people should think and believe and behave sometimes it's called his preceptive or prescriptive will sin is a failure refusal to conform our belief our attitudes or actions to his will we are to pray that he would enable us by his grace to do his will that we would obey and conform our faith and practice to his word his will is his command issued forth from his throne in heaven contained in Holy Scriptures we're to pray that his will be done in our lives on earth as it's been directed to us from heaven and so this is a petition of grace to help us be submissive and obedient to his word may your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven and we'll close with Charles Spurgeon voicing these words on this petition all that thou mayest reign over all hearts and lands men have thrown off their allegiance to our

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Father God and we pray with all our might that he may by his almighty grace of do them in loyal obedience we long for the coming of King Jesus but meanwhile we cry to our father thy kingdom come we desire for the supreme will to be done in earth with a cheerful constant universal obedience like that of heaven we would have the

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Lord's will carried out not only by great physical forces which never fail to be obedient to God but by lovingly active spirits by men once rebellious but graciously renewed oh that all who say this prayer may display on earth the holy alacrity or willingness of obedience which is seen in the happy hearty united and unquestioning service of perfect saints and angels before the throng our hearts highest wishes for God's honor dominion and glory and we have to stop here and we'll pick up next week

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Lord willing may the Lord help us to be better prayers amen and more faithful let's pray thank you our father for your word and for the clarity of instruction that we have before us we pray for grace our

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God that you would enable us to be faithful and true to your word help us to see the great privilege it which is ours our

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God that probably few of us really avail ourselves to the promises that you've given in your word the certainties we have of your ability our

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God and so we we pray that your will would be done in our lives and in this world our

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God we know you're accomplishing your purposes but we thank you our God that you have purposes of salvation too and that you have a people our

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God scattered throughout the world who have not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ and we pray our

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God with all the turmoil and difficulty that's unfolding Lord on the on the historical scene that there would be many coming we hear

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Lord heard just recently of this great movement in Iran of thousands tens of thousands of people becoming

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Christians and turning away from Islam and other places our

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God of the world where where people are coming to Christ and we just pray that the kingdom of Jesus Christ would advance greatly and that you would be glorified father in the salvation and through the lives of your people glorify yourself to us our