An Intimate Life Of Prayer

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So we talk about prayer, we're talking about coming into the presence of a God that we've offended. The foundation of prayer for us has to be in the context of the gospel, the good news.

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I mentioned last week that we often get jaded by the Christian language. I mentioned at the beginning of today's service, there's

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Christian ghettos because there are. We stay in our little bubbles, our little safe Christian bubbles, our safe communities, and we have typical language that we use in these communities that we're all just used to.

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And the problem with it is not that it's so wrong, like knowing the language of the

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Bible and knowing those definitions, that's good stuff, but the problem is we get indifferent to it. We get indifferent to it.

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We're jaded by words like gospel. We're jaded and indifferent to truths about God as Father.

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When I talked about coming into God's presence with bold and confident access, some of you already knew that that's what the

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Bible says. So maybe it didn't actually affect you the way that God intends for it to affect you.

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Maybe it doesn't bring you on your knees, it doesn't cause you to be humble, that doesn't give you courage to actually start striving for God.

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We have a problem because we're Christian and we hear these things all the time. We just allow these majestic truths to go right over our heads.

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We're not changed by it. But here's a majestic truth, our

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Father in heaven. That's a majestic truth, that Jesus does something scandalous, says something scandalous to people in his day.

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He says to a certain class of people of false teachers, he says, you are of your father, the devil.

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Very offensive of Jesus to say something like that because doesn't he know in the 21st century that us moderns know that everybody's a child of God, right?

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And that's a popular part of our culture is everybody's a child of God. We're all children of God. And then Jesus says in his day to certain people, he says, you are of your father, the devil.

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He says in John chapter 10, when he'd be impressed on whether or not he's the Messiah, tell us plainly if you're the

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Messiah, Jesus says, I told you. And the reason you can't hear me is because you are not of my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I give them eternal life and he says that nothing can snatch them from my hand.

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They're in my father's hand and nothing can snatch them from my father's hand. That's the message of Jesus.

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He says, here's a class of people that don't belong to God. Here's a class of people that are of their father, the devil, and then he talks to us.

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He talks to those who know him, who trust in him, who cling to him as savior and Lord. And he says, this is how

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I want you to talk to him. You pray like this, our father in heaven.

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Scandalous words. One group gets you're of your father, the devil, and the other group gets grace and mercy.

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And this is how I want you to approach the father. And in the context of Jesus' prayer here, the famous prayer that even secularists and humanists know, the context is

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Jesus actually dissing the religiosity of people who are completely impressed by the externals.

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They're fine to put on a mask. And what he does is he says to them, he says, hypocrites.

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And I mentioned to you guys the word there, hypocrite, comes from the Greek, hypokrite, and it's from the Greek world of acting.

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He actually called them actors. You guys are pretenders. You're putting on a charade. So he condemns them in a couple of ways.

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He says, your religious acts of piety, all this discipline that you have, you're giving so that people blow off this noise and let everybody know.

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You're fasting in a way that everybody knows you're fasting. You're praying in a way that receives the praise of men.

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All that, pretending. Hypocrite, you're an actor, you're just a pretender. And it was obvious to them then when

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Jesus says, you're a hypocrite, you're an actor, you're a pretender. It was obvious to them what he meant, because when you went to a play, it wasn't just makeup they were wearing, it was actually masks, like real chunky, big, obvious masks.

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They put on a mask and they were on stage and it was really hard to get catharsis because it's a mask.

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It's obviously not the guy. There's somebody else behind the mask. And so it's kind of hard, but it's an obvious pretender.

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And Jesus takes what they understood so well about pretending and he says, well that's you. And Jesus talks about their prayer life.

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He says, don't be like the hypocrites, the pretenders who like to pray on street corners, these long, amazing prayers.

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They're doing it so they get the praise of men, the applause of men. He says, don't do it because these people have already received their reward.

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And so Jesus actually cuts to the heart of the intimacy we have with God and says, don't let it be fake.

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Don't let it be pretended. Actually, if you want to talk to your father, this is the real deal.

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If you want to talk to him, go to your closet, hide. He'll see you, nobody else will.

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And that's the problem with religion is we want everybody to see us doing spiritually well. We want to look like the spiritually strong.

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We want to look impressive spiritually. And Jesus takes that and guts it. He says, no, if you want to truly be spiritual and intimate with the father, then go to your closet.

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If it's a real relationship, you know that he hears you. You know that what's done in secret, he rewards you for it openly.

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And if you want an intimate relationship with God, then stop pretending. If you truly want intimacy and reward from the father, your father, well, then what you're doing, let it be between you and him.

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If you're going to give, don't let one hand know what the other one's doing. If you're going to pray, go hide in your closet to do it.

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And if you're going to actually fast, then dress up. Put some makeup on.

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Make yourself look nice. Don't let everyone know that you are fasting. If you're really going to be hungry for God, then be hungry for God.

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Don't make it about everybody else seeing you and praising you, because there's your reward. But then

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Jesus goes from that context of obliterating hypocrisy and pretending and acting, the external shell of religiosity, and he goes, if you want to pray, don't be like those who babble on.

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Those who just think they're going to be heard because of their many words. They're just talking a lot to God, and so he must be hearing them, right?

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Because they say lots of things. The pagans do that. They have all these prayers that they just memorize, and they just keep blabbering on and babbling on, and Jesus says, don't be like the ones who babble and think that God's going to hear them because they're just saying lots of things.

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What kind of relationship is that anyways? They don't even mean it. Isn't it an amazing thing? I'm going to for a moment now.

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Religious people who are impressed with the externals treat relationship with God like no other relationship in their life.

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It's completely fake. It's completely erected as a facade.

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It's all pretend. We would know instantaneously, wouldn't we, if you were in a relationship with a person that was built upon faking it, pretending.

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All of it was a facade. It wasn't real. You would have no intimacy with that person, and yet we treat God like that, like we would treat nobody else, like God's somehow impressed with our faking it, our pretending, our hupacrite, our being actors, and Jesus goes, let go of it.

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If you're going to talk to God, talk to him like this. Don't babble. Talk to him like this, father.

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You're a child. Talk to him as he is. He's the father. You talk to him as the father.

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And so Jesus tells us, you go into the presence of God, and the first thing I want you to announce is that he's your father.

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Don't ever forget. That's the context of this whole relationship. You're walking into the throne room of the creator of everything in existence, and he is actually your father, and you're his child.

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That's how you enter into his presence. Now, can I say this? It's important. Jesus, I mentioned before, is the perfect image of God.

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He is fully God and fully what? Man. Fully God and fully man. And so God becomes a man in Jesus Christ.

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He takes on flesh. God became flesh and dwelt among us, John chapter one.

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And he is not just God, but he's perfect image of God, perfect man. Listen, he is what the father intended in his image in the world.

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You have to grab hold of that because we see Jesus' obedience to the law. And we say, well, of course, but of course.

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He's God. He came to obey the law and to be our substitute and to do what we failed to do.

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We see that in Jesus, and we go, he was perfectly keeping the law his whole life, and that was for me, so that I would have his righteousness and his perfection.

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And he went to that cross to die for me, to receive in his own body what I deserve. And then he conquered that death, but what we neglect to see often,

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I'm convinced, in the life of Jesus, is the deep intimacy that he had with the father.

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So you know what I'm talking about when I refer you to the passages in the New Testament that talk about Jesus going away to talk to the father, where he gets up before the sun is even up and he's gone while everyone else is snuggled up in their beds next to a rock or whatever.

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Jesus is actually going out to spend time with the father. This is not just a religious show.

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It's not just moral law keeping for Jesus of checking the box and obeying the law of God.

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Jesus has an intimacy with the father that is unparalleled, and I am convinced through the

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Scriptures that what God intends for his people is to be conformed to the image of Jesus in everything, not just in our external obedience, but our internal conformity to the law of God.

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So Jesus says things like this, you've heard that it was said, you should not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery with her.

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So Jesus is not just concerned with the external, but the internal, and then he moves it a step further with his life of intimacy.

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Intimacy to a degree that none of us can possibly comprehend.

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For example, in the Garden of Eden, sorry, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus goes to the garden knowing what's ahead of him.

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He knows. He knows the torture. He's seen people walk down that road with that cross.

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He's seen people doing the death march. He knows what the Father has in store for him in his sovereign decree about the salvation of his people.

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He told everybody, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, they're going to kill me, and then three days later I'll rise from the dead.

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So he's in the garden anticipating the brutalization of the Son of Man. He knows the blood about to be spilled.

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He knows about the cat -of -nine -tails. He knows about the crown of thorns. He knows about the abuse and his beard being pulled.

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And he's literally, physically shaking because of what's about to take place.

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He's not just God, he's man. And he knows what's ahead of him, but he also knows beyond the physical torture and him being assaulted in a few hours, he knows that he's about to receive in himself the full wrath of God for all of the sins of his people throughout all time.

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The Father is going to pour out on the Son what we deserve, and yet Jesus, knowing all of that, doesn't come before God and start making demands of God to be better than he is.

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Jesus goes into the throne room with the Father in intimacy and trust in a way that is incomprehensible.

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And I believe with all my heart that what we should see in a life of Jesus and our being conformed to it is that God intends for us to have the same kind of intimate prayer life that Jesus had.

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And the only way that happens is through the gospel. We can't get there through obeying certain laws, reading books on 10 steps to better prayer.

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We have to know Jesus. We have to be reconciled to God, and that is only through Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.

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No man comes to the Father except through him. You have to come to Jesus to be reconciled to the

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Father. That's the start of it all. You become a child of God through faith in Jesus.

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If you're not in Christ, you don't know God. If you're not in Christ, there is no intimacy with the

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Father. If you're not in Christ, there's still war between me and God. And so the start of passionate, intimate prayer life is peace with God.

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And the call of the gospel is repent and believe the gospel. Turn from your sins and cast yourself only on Christ so that you can know

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God and talk to him. But Jesus says, talk to him like this,

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Father. Now I want to say something significant about the prayer itself.

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Jesus says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your name be holied everywhere. Everywhere your name, let it be holied,

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God. In my life, in my family, in my church, in my community, in Africa, in Asia, in Russia, North America, let your name be holied,

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God. And then he says, your kingdom, your rule, come. Let it come, God.

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Talk to God like that. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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This isn't simply a prayer about some strange, gassy existence out there.

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You're asking God, God, let what you want be done on this dirt, just like it is in heaven.

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And so we have to ask questions about prayer. Changing things. Let me say it again.

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Prayer, does it change things? Ask it another way. Can prayer change anything?

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Now you get into dangerous territory talking to a room full of Calvinists. Prayer changes things.

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Yes, according to Scripture, prayer does change things. And you ask, well, how is that possible if God is totally sovereign?

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Are you denying God's complete sovereignty when you say that prayer actually changes things? Not in the least bit, because the

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Bible teaches clearly that God declares the end from the beginning. And it says he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done?

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God is completely and absolutely sovereign to the degree that Paul can say in Romans 8, 28, that God causes, not just works out, not figures out, not fixes all things to work together for our good, which is the way that many people think about it.

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A tragic situation happens and we think, well, God will fix that. He had nothing to do with it. He had nothing to do with it, but he'll fix it, dang it.

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He's good at that. It actually says in the text that God causes all things to work together for good.

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To those who love God, those who are the called according to his purpose, that God works all things after the counsel of his will.

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This is the sovereign God of the Bible. And yet the Bible teaches in the midst of all these grand statements about God's absolute sovereignty over all things, his unquestioned authority, it teaches things like 1

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John 5, 14, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

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Notice that, according to his will. It says in Romans 12, sorry, in Jeremiah 29, 12, then you will call upon me, he's talking to his people, and come and pray to me and I will hear you.

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The Bible talks about things like ask and you'll receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.

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Whoever asks, what? Receives. If you seek, you find.

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If you knock, the door is open. God says things like that in the midst of absolute sovereignty over all things.

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What kind of sovereignty? Down to the big things? Yeah, down to like where arrows are shot and pierced through somebody who thought they could escape it.

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Down to like the really little things, like the micro things? Well, how about little sparrows falling from trees?

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Not one of them falls without your father determining it. Down to like really, really little things, like even to the microscopic, well, down to like the hairs on your head kind of sovereignty.

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He even knows those, that kind of sovereignty. Even the macro sovereignty over all things, like Jesus dying on a cross, being murdered by godless men, and it was according to the predetermined plan of God, according to the church in the book of Acts, that God predestined it.

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What? What? The murder of Jesus. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the peoples of Israel gathered against God's holy servant

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Jesus to do what? Whatever his hand predestined to occur, that kind of sovereignty.

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How do we make sense of prayer changing things when God is absolutely sovereign?

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Well, God is not just sovereign over the entire story, he's sovereign over the means of how he brings about his perfect plan for his glory and our good.

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Which means this, that there are things that will not happen unless, of course,

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I pray. That's dangerous talk.

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It's dangerous, isn't it? To think about the world in a way that's kind of incomprehensible,

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God is completely sovereign, he determines everything for his glory and our good, and yet he calls us to pray, to ask him for things that he's actually going to hear us according to his will and he's going to do it, which means that in the inverse, if you don't pray, if you're not asking, if you're not seeking, then what?

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It doesn't happen. Now, how does that all work out? Well, here's the thing, I'm a human being with a three -pound brain, and this is the

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God of all of creation, the one who spoke and galaxies spun out into the universe.

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We're in one galaxy and we can't even really get to the edge of it, and we're talking about billions and billions of stars and planets and amazing, crazy, creepy things that no one's ever seen but God, and they're just for his glory.

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That kind of God, who knows the depths of the oceans and what's there, and he made little creatures there to cause him joy and delight that you'll probably never see, that kind of incomprehensible

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God says that he declares everything and he calls you into that story to seek his face in the midst of it, which means that God actually shapes the history of the world through, listen, through the prayers of his people.

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God shapes the history of the world through the prayers of his people.

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We are the means of that perfect plan, which means that God calls you and I into intimate fellowship with him to ask.

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Prayer does change things. Now, I want to say this is something that Dr. White has said many, many times. I think it's powerful.

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Prayer is not so much about changing anything about God. You're not coming to God into his presence telling him how to be better than he is.

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You're not coming into God's presence to challenge his blueprint of history, but you're coming into God's presence first and foremost for worship of God.

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Prayer does more in terms of changing me than anything else. One of the things

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I quoted to you guys the first night we talked about prayer is I told you about Luther's prayer life. I told you about John Knox's son -in -law's prayer life, and I told you about Luther's friend

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Philip. He said he heard Luther praying and it just brought him to tears that this great man of God would say things like,

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I have so much on my schedule in the next two days. I got to spend more time praying. I'm so busy. I have to pray more.

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We think the opposite. I'm too busy to pray. Luther was saying, I'm too busy not to pray.

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I have too much going on. I have to pray. And Philip said when he wrote about listening to Luther who prayed out loud so that even the devil can hear him,

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Luther said, he said that his prayers were just filled with Scripture so that he knew.

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So he knew when he was praying to God about stuff in his life and he's quoting Scripture, he knew he was praying according to the will of God.

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And wouldn't you know, 1 John 5, 14, and this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

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Luther was a man who did that and God used him to change the world in many ways. He prayed with his prayers saturated with the

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Word of God, saturated with the Word of God. Prayer changes things. Jesus says so.

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And I think what we often do, can I just be honest about it? What we do as Calvinists, as Reformed folks that believe strongly in the sovereignty of God, what do we do?

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We say God is totally sovereign and we do fall back. We fall back into, well, why do I really need to pray?

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Like even if we deny it, if we say theologically, I know that God uses means and I'm the means of how that takes place, even when we deny it in very practice, we actually live the other way.

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We live in such a way as we go, well, he's sovereign anyway, he's got it handled. We don't actually get this amazing invitation for what it truly is.

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Come and strive for me. Remember we said from Isaiah 64 that God condemned his people.

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He actually condemns them, what, for adultery, lying, theft, injustice.

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Well, yeah, but in this case, in Isaiah, the text said that he condemned them for not crying out to him, not even striving for him, totally ignoring him.

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God calls us to that kind of relationship. Prayer does change things and prayer changes me.

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Now this is important in terms of how do we actually approach God in prayer and this is probably one of those things that has to really hit us at some point in our lives with God or we're never changed in prayer.

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We often think that we need to come into God's presence looking a certain way, put your best dress on, look good for God, put on a good face for God.

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We often think that we need to come into God's presence looking a certain way, having our stuff together so he actually hears us.

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Now maybe you want to do that, maybe you're going to meet someone that's respected in your community, maybe you're going to meet someone in the legislature, maybe you're meeting somebody you highly respect and you do that, don't you?

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You make yourself look good, you put on cologne, perfume, you dress yourself up, maybe you do that.

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You try to make yourself look well, like you have everything together, you go in to get a job and what do you do? You get your resume tight, you look good, you smell good, you go in looking like you have your stuff together for that interview.

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We think that way though when we come to God, I got to have my stuff together, I got to go into God's presence the way that I'm supposed to be, not as I actually am.

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Is that how God intends for us to come to him? Clearly not. And if we read the

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Psalms more in our churches, we would understand that God actually calls us to come into his presence as we are and not as we're supposed to be.

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A good example, and I could give you many, but just in terms of thinking about a theology of prayer,

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I want to just read you this passage. It's actually not simply about the psalmist, it's really about Jesus, but I want you to hear it.

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It's about Jesus, but listen to it. How's this for an uplifting worship service?

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In America today, we're like, give us the smoke and the fog and the lights, give us the disco ball, give us the experience, the worship experience.

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And people do that, they gauge churches today when they shop for churches based upon who had the best worship experience.

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What do they say? That's a great church, has some awesome worship. The worship leader looked like a lady, but it was great.

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Not you, Elliot, okay? But it was great, right? Except for the skinny jeans and the gel that could put the evangelical in evangelical.

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We say, it was a great worship service. Well, how about this for a worship service? How about this for a song that uplifts you?

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Psalm 88, oh Lord God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.

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Let my prayer come before you, incline your ear to my cry. God, bend down, listen to me.

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And it says this, for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol.

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I'm counting among those who go down to the pit. I'm a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hands.

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You have put me in the depths of the pit. You, I'm coming to you,

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God, think about it. I'm coming to you, God, to worship you, and I'm telling you that you put me here.

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You put me here in the regions dark and deep.

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Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.

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Salah, you have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a whore to them.

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I'm shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day

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I call upon you, oh Lord, I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead?

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Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness and about on?

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Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

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But I, oh Lord, cry to you. In the morning, my prayer comes before you, oh Lord, why do you cast my soul away?

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Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

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I suffer your terrors. I'm helpless. Your wrath has swept over me.

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Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long.

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They close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me.

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Listen, my companions have become darkness. How's that for a worship service?

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That's a song, you know. That's a song the people of God used to sing. And now watch.

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This is evidence, premier evidence that God intends for you to come to him as you are and not as you're supposed to be.

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As you are and not as you're supposed to be. And I want to just say as an aside, this is very important. Some of you guys, in hearing that, you're like, man.

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Man, that's me. That is absolutely me. You feel like that right now.

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You feel like it right now. You feel like your companions have become darkness. You feel like God is the one who has thrown you in this pit.

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And you're like, I identify with Psalm 88. That's my life right now. Psalm 88 is going to be my life verse.

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Imagine that. Like you go to meet some Christian author and you sign in books or your favorite pastor. You're like, give us your favorite verse.

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You're like, Psalm 88. Right? Go home and read that to your kids. Kids, get home. Open your

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Bibles. Let's see what the favorite verse is. Psalm 88. Right? It's depressing.

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But you know what it is? Here's what it is. Honest. It's absolutely true. God is sovereign even over this suffering.

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And you right now might be thinking, that's me. That's my life, Pastor Jeff. My life right now is God throwing me in the pit.

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My life is God surrounding me like he's actually my enemy. That's what I think. That his wrath is on me.

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He put me in this pit. He's being a terror to me. That's my life. And it might be true.

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There might be actually aspects of Psalm 88 that resonate with your soul. And I would say this.

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Definitely approach God this way. The truth is, though, what you need to hear before we move on is that Psalm 88 isn't about you.

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Psalm 88 is about Jesus. This is Jesus' experience. And you're thinking, where's

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God in my terror? Where's God in my affliction? Where's God in this pit? Oh, he's the one actually that went into the pit.

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He's the one that experienced the real wrath of God that you never will. This text is more about Jesus than anything else.

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But the point is, is that God intends you clearly to come to him as you are and not as you're supposed to be.

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So here's the point. Stop pretending. Take off the mask. Stop being an actor in God's presence.

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Come to him as you are, not as you're supposed to be. Now, I want to say in terms of prayer in light of the sovereignty of God, God's power, coming to God honestly, not pretending, coming to him as father, oftentimes we have to really consider prayer in the light of God's providence.

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What God does in the world, his actual movements in the world through experiences, through circumstances to provide for you his perfect will for your good and his glory.

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What does God do? And it's hard sometimes, I have to confess, it's hard. It's hard when you're amidst a difficulty knowing the sovereignty of God and who he actually is as father and all of his promises to actually accept it, to believe that it's actually true because you know in your heart of hearts that God is sovereign over this whole situation and that he answers your prayers and that everything works out for good, but you're in the midst of this situation and you're thinking that God is not going to show up.

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And you look at certain situations, you say, how did you do that? Why? Why would you do that?

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God had this whole thing figured out. I was going this direction and you sent me the other direction. It looks like you're not even here right now.

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I had a whole entire plan, God, and now you've thrown it off and it looks like you're not even here.

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And so what do we do? We start freaking out. We start freaking out. We don't trust God. We start trying to pull everything into ourselves, make our own little plans to fix up God's plans.

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And we think, well, I'm going to do what I got to do until he shows up. Because as of right now, he looks kind of like an absentee landlord.

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And so we don't trust him in the midst of his providence. And I think a great story to illustrate that, we could choose passages from the

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Scripture, but I think this one's actually really powerful. It's the story of Corrie ten Boone.

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Corrie ten Boone experienced the horror of the

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Holocaust in Hitler's Germany. And this is just a little explanation.

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On February 28th, 1944, a Dutch informant told the Nazis of the ten

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Boone's activities and the Gestapo raided the home. What they were doing was Corrie ten

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Boone's family was actually hiding Jews from the Nazis.

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And they were doing it even by the hundreds. They were hiding them sometimes for days at a time, sometimes for only hours at a time, but they were hiding these

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Jews to preserve their lives. They were trying to love these people, and they were doing it at their own peril, their own demise.

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And a Dutch informant told the Nazis what the ten Boone's were doing. The Gestapo raided the home.

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They kept the house under surveillance. And by the end of the day, 35 people, including the entire ten

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Boone family, were arrested. Although German soldiers thoroughly searched the house, they didn't find a half dozen

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Jews safely concealed in the hiding place. The six stayed in the cramped space for nearly three days before being rescued by the

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Dutch underground. Here's what you need to hear. All ten Boone family members were incarcerated, including

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Corrie's 84 -year -old father, who soon died in the prison located near the

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Hague. Corrie and her sister, Betsy, were remanded to the notorious

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Ravensbruck concentration camp near Berlin. Betsy died there on December 16, 1944.

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Twelve days later, Corrie was released for reasons not completely known. Here's what you need to know about Corrie ten

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Boone. Her family were Christian. They loved Jesus. They were actually Reformed.

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And they were rescuing Jews. They ended up now, because they were rescuing Jews, at the end of the spear of the

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Nazis, and her family died. Well, she went to essentially experience what the

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Jews would experience in concentration camp. Now, the amazing thing is her and her sister,

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Betsy, were put into a portion in this camp that was infested with lice, completely infested with lice.

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And it was a huge burden. We're now losing our family. We're experiencing the horrors of the

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Holocaust. My sister and I are now in this area of this camp, and it's infested with lice.

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You could die at any moment. Your life is constantly being threatened. There are people being slaughtered, murdered by the millions, and they're in a situation where Betsy is constantly saying, pray, pray, pray, seek

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God, talk to God, pray. This is from her story in the hiding place.

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Listen, this is Corrie. We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw.

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Suddenly, I sat up, striking my head on the cross slats above. Something had pinched my leg.

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Fleece, I cried. Betsy, the place is swarming with them. Here, and here, another one.

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I wailed. Betsy, how can we live in this place? Show us. Show us how.

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It was said so matter -of -factly, it took me a second to realize she was praying. Betsy is saying, God, help us.

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Show us how to live here with these fleas in this camp, deaths all around them.

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It took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more, the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be banishing for Betsy.

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Corrie, she said excitedly, he's given us an answer. Before we asked, as he always does in the

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Bible this morning, where was it? Read that part again. I glanced down the long, dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight.

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Then I drew the Bible from its pouch. They snuck a Bible. It was in 1 Thessalonians, I said.

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We were in our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving. In the feeble light, I turned the pages.

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Here it is. Comfort the frightened. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone.

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See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do the good to one another and to all.

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It seemed written expressly for us. Go on, said Betsy. That wasn't all. Oh, yes.

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Rejoice always. Pray constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

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That's it. Corrie, that's his answer. Give thanks in all circumstances. That's what we can do.

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We can start right now. To thank God for every single thing about these barracks, I stared at her.

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Then around me in the dark, foul -aired room. Such as, I said.

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Such as being assigned here together. I bit my lip. Oh, yes.

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Lord Jesus. Such as what you're holding in your hands. I looked down at the

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Bible. Yes. Thank you, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here.

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Thank you for all these women here in this room who will meet you in these pages. Yes, said

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Betsy. Thank you for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear.

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She looked at me expectantly. Corrie, she prodded. Oh, all right. Thank you for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.

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Thank you. Betsy went on serenely. For the fleas. And for the fleas?

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That was too much. Betsy, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.

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Give thanks in all circumstances, she quoted. It doesn't say in pleasant circumstances.

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Fleas are part of this place where God has put us. And so we stood between tears of bunks and gave thanks for the fleas.

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But this time I was sure Betsy was wrong. Back at the barracks, we formed yet another line. Would there never be an end to columns and weights to receive our ladle of turnip soup in the center room?

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And as quickly as we could for the press of people, Betsy and I made our way to the rear of the dormitory room where we held our worship service.

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Around our own platform area, there was not enough light to read the Bible. But back here, a small light bulb cast a yellow circle on the wall.

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And here, an even larger group of women gathered. They were services like no others these times in barracks 28.

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Now, here's what you need to know about the story is Corey and Betsy are in this camp undergoing this awful situation.

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They've got guards all around them. But for some odd reason, the guards aren't actually coming in. They were able to get a

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Bible in there and they're doing Bible studies in there. They're leading people to Jesus. And they have this particular circumstance that's odd in a camp where they could die at any moment where people are receiving beatens and are being destroyed.

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They've got a little room where they're holding Bible studies, leading people to Jesus. They've got enough light to read the scriptures and they can't really figure out why.

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And Betsy's saying, praise God for the fleas. And it's ticking Corey off. Thank God for the fleas?

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Anything but the fleas. What they discovered later is that the reason nobody was actually coming into this room and the reason they could lead all these people to Jesus, the reason they had this

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Bible in there and they were basically not disturbed was because the guards did not want to come into the room that was infested with the fleas.

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So because of this affliction of fleas in this room, the guards kept this place at hands off.

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Don't go in. Too many fleas. And because of the fleas, people came to know

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Jesus, walked with God, experienced God because of the fleas. And Betsy's saying, pray to God and thank

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Him for the fleas. And we never want to do that in our circumstance. Our circumstance gets bad.

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We don't want to trust His providence or His sovereignty. We try to take control of the reins ourselves.

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Rather than saying, God, thank you for these circumstances. I trust you in these circumstances.

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I will follow you in these circumstances. We don't thank God for the fleas. We're actually rather ticked at Him for the fleas.

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But in Corey's situation, thank God for the fleas. If there were no fleas, who knows what would have happened in their lives?

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Thank you, Lord, for the fleas. Next point

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I want to highlight in the theology of prayer is just quickly. The Bible tells us to come to God always.

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Come to God always in times of blessing and in times where it's a desert.

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Here's some text I want you to hear. Just the Word today. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18.

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Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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God says this, brothers and sisters, it is God's will in Jesus that you are this. Listen, you are always rejoicing.

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You are praying without ceasing. That is praying continually. You are giving thanks in all circumstances.

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That's God's will. Do you do that? No, God, I couldn't thank you for the fleas.

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You couldn't possibly be asking me to thank you for that circumstance. You don't know what

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God is doing as the one who orders the universe and controls everything.

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You couldn't possibly fathom that and comprehend the incomprehensible mind of God.

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And so what God does tell you and I is this. You pray and you give thanks in all circumstances. God, I can't praise you and I can't thank you for my cancer.

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God, I can't praise you. I can't thank you for how my mind is broken right now.

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God, I can't praise you and I can't thank you right now for how my business is failing or my home is failing or I'm losing my job.

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I can't possibly thank you for that, God. Don't ask me to do it because I can't.

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I'm sure that we could all stand here today together sharing story after story after story about how

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God took your life, He changed its course, a direction you never saw coming, and you thought it was a curse.

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And now you look back and you say, praise God, you took it away from me. Years ago, apology at church wasn't even in my heart.

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It wasn't even in my mind. I never even planned on planning a church. It never was something I ever considered. No plan to plan a church.

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I had an entirely different plan in my life that involved me going across the country to be a pastor at a different church.

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And then all of our circumstances fell completely apart. The church I was at overnight fell apart, just completely destroyed overnight.

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I couldn't understand what was going on in my life. I didn't know why God was doing what He was doing. They asked me to take over this church.

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It started to grow again. It started to heal again. It was doing well. And then they asked me to get into the pastoral search process because the church said, we want

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Jeff to be the pastor. And I said, I'm not going to do that unless the elders believe it's actually something that should take place.

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They said, sure, Jeff, that's what we all think. You should get into the search process. And so what they did was they had this search process go down where I said,

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I don't want to be forced into it. I want to do what everyone else is doing. And they put me in this mix. They had thousands of applications for this one church.

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And they had a computer system that whittled everybody's applications down and answers to questions down electronically.

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A very odd way to find a pastor, I would tell you. And somehow my name gets drawn all the way into the bottom of the mix, to the top 50, to the top 25, to the top 20, to the 15, to the 10, to the 5.

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And it's all automated essentially. And it just happens to be the case that of all these thousands, my name is moving down to the bottom.

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And it gets down to the top two. And it's me and another guy. And I was fine with whatever God's plan was.

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And then all of a sudden they decided, well, we want to go with a guy who has gray hair. Literally what they told me.

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I said, okay. But I couldn't understand why God should take away this church in South Carolina?

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Why did you make me stay? Why am I staying here now? Why is this happening now? Why did you have me go in this search process?

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And it got down all the way to this point. And God orchestrated the circumstances in such a way where it finally was clear to us,

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God's calling us to plan a church to take care of all these people coming to Jesus out of this hospital. And if you would have asked me then to thank

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God for the awful circumstances of a church falling apart in a very confusing process, I would have probably said,

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I don't know how to thank God for this right now. I know He's sovereign over it, but I don't know how to praise

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Him in it. And then you look before us as a church today, we can only thank

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Him for these circumstances. What has God wrought as a result of this church with all the brokenness that has got us to this point?

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What has He wrought? A church that's impacting the world in ways that none of us could fully comprehend.

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A body of believers that's unique, that loves one another, serves one another, a community of people being shaped by the

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Word of God and the Spirit of God together. And I can promise you this, what has led us to this one moment on a

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Sunday on the Lord's day to talk about prayer is a heck of a lot of pain, a lot of brokenness, a lot of hurt, a lot of darkness.

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And what we should learn is that God's will for us in Christ is that we rejoice always, we are constantly praying continually, giving thanks in all circumstances.

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The text says, Philippians 4, 6 through 7, do not be anxious about anything. Moms, anything, anything

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Jesus, anything. Do not be anxious about anything, nothing.

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Well, not really nothing, right? Like there's something, nothing. Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

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How do I not be anxious about anything? How is it even possible not to freak out?

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How? Here's how, it says, but instead of being anxious, instead of freaking out, it says, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Colossians 4, 2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

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And finally, Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

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God calls us to this. Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire in this series on prayer is that God would truly change us as a church.

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That's my desire. I mean, I think leaving a series going expositionally through the Word of God, I think you have to be really careful about how you do that.

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We're a church that believes in expositional Bible preaching. We believe you need to teach through the Bible and all of the Bible.

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That needs to be your primary methodology of preaching. But there are times where as a local church, we have to address particular issues of teaching, maybe of rebuke or whatever.

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And my heart's desire in this series on prayer is this, that we would confess our sin of not striving for God, not talking to God, that we would confess our sin of faking it with God, that we would actually come to God in a new way as a body.

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I told you when we started this series that God has done such amazing things through this body that I never, ever saw coming.

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None of us have seen coming, but I'm convinced of something. God is completely sovereign.

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He controls everything, but I'm convinced that He has done what He's done with this body and His gospel through a church that does not seek

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Him like we ought to. We don't pray as we ought. We don't thank

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Him as we ought. We don't seek His face as a church on our knees as we ought to.

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And I mean this sincerely. I know God is sovereign and He's determined everything, but I can't imagine what could be had we prayed, had we prayed.

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We are, in our prayers, the means of God's shaping the world.

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He's the Father. We're His kids. Jesus is the husband.

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The church is the bride. Watch, Jesus has

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His bride. His bride is His helpmeet to bring about His mission to reshape the world and all of creation.

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When His bride asks Him for something that's according to His will, you better believe

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He gives it to her. And so let's seek His face.

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Confess our sin of not striving and not seeking. Confess your sin of not trusting

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Him in the midst of His providence. Oh, Jesus, I'll trust You in the garden but not in the desert.

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I'll call You good in the garden but not in the desert. Let's be changed according to what is