Do you call upon God in times of distress? Do you thank Him when times are good? Do you praise Him for all the blessings He's given you? Or do you tend only to notice that which you don't have? How often do you depend upon God in prayer? Don't you believe He is accessible everywhere and every moment? A faithful saint once said, prayer is the spontaneous response of the believing heart to God. Those truly transformed by Jesus Christ find themselves lost in wonder and joy of communion with Him. Prayer is as natural for the Christian as breathing. Can you relate to that? If so, then that's excellent, but if not, why not? Last time we explored the importance of prayer, God's way instead of man's way. And today I want to take us through several examples of prayer and you'll see the handout in the bulletin with the outline. Several examples of prayer by the saints in Holy Scripture because I want you to be able to learn from their examples. Beginning with James chapter 5 verses 16 through 18, we will examine several accounts of power working prayer in the lives of the saints so that you can recognize more clearly why and how you ought to pray. We will see how God works through the prayers of His people, both for their own good, sometimes exclusively, and at other times, for the good of others as well, all of it showing how God uses prayer in powerful ways to unfold His plan and purposes in history. But before we begin, let's start with prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before You asking for Your help. We are wretched, lowly sinners. We get distracted with thoughts. Our hearts and our affections stray to things of the world. And so now we ask that You fill us with Your Spirit, that we would hear clearly what Your Word has to say to us, so that this day, Lord, we would not allow it to pass by without learning what You would have us to learn. In Jesus' name, amen. So we're going to begin with prayers during Elijah's sojourn. So as you turn to James chapter 5, what you're going to notice is that we begin halfway through verse 16 because this is where James turns to address prayer in particular. James chapter 5 addresses several different needs of the church that he wrote to, including how to deal with the sin of partiality, the importance of patience leading to perseverance, that's where he uses the example of Job's life, and how best to help others in suffering, both spiritually and physically. And in dealing with spiritual suffering, after he notes the importance of the confession of sin, James turns to prayer. And we pick up in the middle of verse 16 where it says, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. We could even translate it this way to try to get to some of the points a little bit more that he's getting at. The prayer of a righteous one is powerful in itself, working much. So let's look a little bit closer at this passage in particular. First, we see that James' focus is on the result and efficacy of the prayer itself, not the man who is the one who is praying. And though there is an essential qualification, we'll look at it in a minute, about the man who engages in prayer, we need to notice that the focus here is upon the prayer itself. He's teaching that God ordains the use of prayers in the lives of His people to accomplish His purposes. God ordains the use of prayers in the lives of His people to accomplish His purposes. Some focus on the person or their will to pray, but God focuses upon the prayer which He ordained through the salvation of His people. James gives the qualification of the man that must be the prayer that is being spoken of, and that he must be a righteous one. This is the essential qualification for effectual prayer. How is this man righteous? That should be an easy question for any one of us who know your Bible, by regeneration and faith. And both of those things are God's work. He's the one that gets credit for those things. The Scripture testifies to God's closeness with His people. Consider Proverbs 15, 29, Yahweh is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous. 1 Peter 3, 12 says, for the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but to the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. John 9.31, the blind man speaking and speaking truly from Scripture says, we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. And then Psalm 34.15 says, the eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry for help. The action in James' statement emphasizes the power and ability of prayer, especially since it's combined with the action of working. The word for much, combined with that power and ability, are at the front of the statement in the Greek. That accentuates God's power in prayer. James teaches here that the prayers of His people are both highly effectual and powerful to fulfill all that they are intended to accomplish. Given this, how often do you pray? Why would you not stop to pray at every opportunity that you're given so that your prayers would be a powerful and effective force for others or even just for yourself? Jesus teaches that the power and efficacy of prayer are due to the loving nature of God who cares for His people. In Luke 11, starting in verse 5, Jesus says, which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And from inside he answers and said, do not bother me. The door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot rise up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much 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 opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" And you could even add Luke 18 where Jesus says, now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart saying, in a certain city there was a certain judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. Now there was a widow in that city and she kept coming to him saying, give me justice for my opponent. And for a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice, lest by continually coming she wears me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. Now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night? And will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? What an important question that Jesus is asked here. At the end of showing us that God is always willing, He's there, it's His character that makes prayer powerful. Will the Savior find the faith of godly dependence in you? Notice that these teachings by Jesus and James, in both of them, faith is a foundational principle. Do you believe that God who reconciled you by the blood of His Son is always seeking your good? If so, then why would you not pray fervently and diligently, trusting that He's going to answer your prayers? Look, the only reason that we need qualifications is because sin is deceitful. And we often ask wrongly, as we learned last time looking at another part of James. However, the more you grow in Christlikeness, the more you can be confident that what you ask in prayer will be answered by your Heavenly Father. But even if you're a brand new Christian, right out of the gate, who has his entire career of becoming holy ahead of Him, you can express confidence in the prayers you pray before your Father. Continuing in the passage in James, he follows his statement on prayer with an example from the prophet Elijah. And thus in doing so, we're going to look at that example and many to follow. James says, Starting in verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, or you could say more literally, with similar passions to us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. So, what is the account that he's referring to here? He's referring to the account that's in 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18. You can turn there, 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18. And 1 Kings 17, 1, we're introduced to Elijah for the first time in the Bible. And his introduction kicks off the beginning of the drought that James mentions. It says, now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. And certainly, it took place, didn't it? But we need to ask, why did it take place? Is it just because God said it right here to Elijah in this moment? Well, that's part of it, but that's not all of it. You see, God had already declared something in His Word. If you back up to get a little bit more context, just a few verses right before chapter 16, it records the rise of Ahab, one of the most evil kings in Israel's history, who married Jezebel. He records some of the evil that Ahab partook of, including the worship of Baal, which would have meant that he sacrificed people, his own sons. And Israel, if they were paying attention to the law, would remember what Deuteronomy said, specifically in chapter 28. It says, And then you get the list of curses. But we need to keep in mind the particular curse where it says, �And the heaven which is over your head shall become bronze, and the earth which is under you iron. Yahweh will make the rain of your land a powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.� So God had made it clear, curses for Israel should be expected when they indulge in the evil of the nations surrounding them. However, God had held back the severity of those curses for some time. Why? Because He's gracious. He often deals with us patiently to see if we're going to come around. But now, during Ahab's unparalleled evil in Israel, God chose to pour out the curses he had promised in full measure. And he did that, as James testifies, through the prayer of Elijah. So the drought caused a famine. And then we fast forward to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18, starting in verse 1, it says, Now it happened after many days that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. God sustains Elijah through the drought initiated through his prayer. Then after three and a half years, God sends him to confront the evil of Ahab. So in that confrontation is recorded for us throughout chapter 18 of that famous standoff between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, where the prophets of Baal make fools of themselves for a full day, calling on Baal, asking him to drop down fire out of heaven, and Elijah mocks them. Then Elijah, by the hand of the living God, actually does call down fire from heaven, what the followers of Baal could not do because their god was a false god. And he caused all the people at that moment to at least temporarily become obedient to Yahweh, long enough for him to put all of those false prophets of Baal to death. Then we read this in verse 41. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. And he stretched himself down toward the ground and put his face between his knees. Notice he's praying here. And he said to his young man, go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and he looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go back seven times. Seven times he's praying. Now it happened at the seventh time that he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea. And Elijah said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down so that the rain does not stop you. He was so confident that even that small cloud was going to turn into rain. He's like, you better go before the rain stops you. It's going to start hitting hard. Now it happened that in a little while the sky grew dark with clouds and wind and there was heavy rain and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. God used Elijah's prayers to bring the curses on Israel. Then he used his prayer to bring the blessing of rain back into the land after that evil, or at least some of that evil, had been dealt with. All because it was according to God's revealed will. God said he would do it, Elijah believed it, and he prayed for it. God used the prayer of Elijah to fulfill the curses of Deuteronomy, and at least in this case, the curses would not have been released unless Elijah had been used in that process in praying. Do you see, even just in this short example, how God uses prayer in the lives of His people? Do you see how important it is? Do you believe that God will do all that He has said He's going to do in His Word? If so, do you pray for His will to be done? Do you pray for His will to be done in your life? Do you pray that His will will be done in others? You may say, well, yes, I believe it. But in the moment you walk away and you don't confide in God for that, then you have just demonstrated that you don't believe it. This is the problem, isn't it? You may be able to give the right answer, but what does your life testify to? What do your actions testify to you? Even just moments after the sermon is done, minutes, days, hours, does your life testify that you believe God will do all that He will so that you pray for it? Or that you don't think He's going to accomplish it so you don't pray for it? Remember, the frozen chosen approach is unbelief. It's not based on truth. Let me give you an example of that. Well, God said he will save his people, so I don't need to pray for so-and-so. God's purpose will be done either way. Or probably more commonly, it's like this. I don't need to pray for this. It will either happen or it won't, and that's just God's will. Is that true? Well, it's a half-truth mingled with a lie. The truth is that God will accomplish His purposes with or without you, but it's also a blatant rejection of God's revealed will, that He intends to use the prayers of His people to accomplish His purposes. God commands us to pray for our good, for His glory, and as a means by which He has chosen to accomplish all that He has ordained in history. Elijah expressed faith in God's will and prayed, and it happened. But even Elijah didn't always pray with God's perfect will in mind, or at least not knowing the whole situation. And James reminds us of this when he says that Elijah was a man with similar passions to us. And we can see this most vividly just in the chapter right after the account we just read. In 1 Kings chapter 19, one through eight, we read this. Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by about this time tomorrow. Jezebel grew up worshiping Baal. She loved those prophets. That was her church that she went to that Elijah killed the prophets of. She was upset and she threatens Elijah's life. And she's queen of Israel at this time, you've got to understand. And he was afraid, it says. Well, you could also render this as he saw, meaning that Elijah recognized the threat and he took it seriously, but it doesn't necessarily imply that he feared it. And he rose and he ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his young man there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked for himself that he might die, and he said, "'This is enough now, O Yahweh. Take my life, for I am not better than my father's.'" Does God take his life? Clearly, that's not God's will, is it? Because it says, "'Then he lay down and slept under a broom tree, and behold, there was an angel touching him. And he said to him, "'Arise, eat.'" If he's giving him food, that means, no, I'm not going to take your life. Then he looked, and behold, there was at his head a baked cake on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of Yahweh came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Clearly here, God answered with a no to Elijah in that supplying of food. Did Elijah sin in this prayer? I don't think so. Instead, Elijah was weary and under imminent threat of death by Jezebel, the queen of Israel at that time. He's done a lot. It's a big day. He just had to stand up for the prophets of Baal and now he's got a warrant out for his execution. And what does he do? Well, one commentator puts it this way, Elijah wanted to die for he was broken. Wouldn't we if we were in that situation? He did not wish to die at Jezebel's hand, for that would be judged her victory, hence his flight. But south of the proverbial southernmost city of the southern kingdom, in the wilderness of Judah, where none would give Jezebel credit for his death, there he begged Yahweh to take his life." He's basically saying, Yahweh, if I'm going to die, I'd rather it not be at her hand. Please kill me. Elijah expressed himself in his wariness and desired not to be overcome by his enemies. That's not sinful. You don't see him complain to any man about his situation. That's an important point, too. He doesn't gossip about or murmur to others in order to gain a following from his perspective. Instead, he goes directly to God, depends upon Him exclusively, and waits for God's response. Psalms records many inspired prayers and human weakness, much like this. And it even goes on in different psalms to record sinful thoughts confessed to God. But all that is appropriately poured out before the Father, who listens and helps in our weaknesses. He wants us to pour out our hearts, even when we're not aligned with His will, because in doing so, He uses our honesty and contrition to correct us and bring us back to Him. Elijah's reasoning was sound, assuming that he could see the whole picture, but Elijah did not know that all there was to know in that situation. God deals with him patiently and later corrects his perspective throughout the rest of chapter 19, not just in giving him the bread. So, what we must learn from this is that just as he ought to, Elijah pours out his thoughts to God instead of other men, saying, it is enough now, O Yahweh, take my life, for I am not better than my father's. You, like Elijah, have every right to pour out your thoughts and feelings to God regardless of what they are. Just realize that then God uses your venting to Him and not others to get you back on track. But when you pray in this way, do not mistake your thoughts and feelings for God's will and His purpose. Instead, do it knowing that God will correct your desires as you pour out your heart to Him. Expect Him to, in fact, especially if you've been reading His Word. Do you pour out your thoughts and feelings, even sinful ones, before God? Are you comfortable enough to do that before your Savior? Or do you allow them to be expressed before others, turning it into gossip and slander? You see, God ordains this kind of prayer, the kind Elijah here models for us, as well as in the Psalms, and you can see specifically Psalm 77 as one example, to help us keep from saying things that we ought not to say in the presence of other sinners. As we grow in bringing our thoughts and emotions to God first and sometimes even exclusively, God is faithful to grow us out of speaking sinfully to others in our emotion and the things that are affecting us. Do you want intimacy with God that goes far beyond any intimacy you have with another human? Then learn to bring everything and all your needs to Him, and He will be your first counselor in all those kinds of troubles." Next, let's visit prayers during Israel's sin, prayers during Israel's sin. And here we're turning to Joshua chapter 7, Joshua chapter 7. We pick up at the beginning of the conquest of Canaan after Israel's first victory. Israel, through their leader Joshua, had been ordered to devote everything in Jericho, except for a few select items to destruction, for that's Yahweh's will and His judgment upon the Canaanites. So the chapter begins this way, it says, but the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things devoted to destruction. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things, therefore the anger of Yahweh burned against the sons of Israel. Now, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avon, east of Bethel, and said to them, go up and spy out the land. So the men went up and spied out Ai. Notice, they're continuing the conquering process without thinking about, okay, did everyone stay faithful, right? Are we going to still have God on our side? Then they turned to Joshua and said to him, do not have all the people go up, or only about two or three thousand men to go up and strike down Ai. Do not have all the people toil up there, for they are few. So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men, pursued them from the gate as far as Cherubim, and struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until evening, both he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. Joshua said, "'Alas, O Lord, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan? Only to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to make us perish. If only we had been willing to live beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, since Israel has turned their back before their enemies? And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut us off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?' So Yahweh said to Joshua, rise up, why is it that you have fallen on your face? Stop there. Does that sound like a good answer to your prayer? Wow, God is rebuking Joshua for his prayer and make no mistake about it. So how did it get to the point that Yahweh is rebuking one of his servants for praying of all things? Well, to answer this, we need to go just back a few chapters. Let's start in Joshua 5, verse 13. It says, now it happened when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up to him and said, are you for us or for our adversaries? Notice, they haven't even started conquering yet. This is the beginning, they're right in the land, and he sees this man, and he's asking him, are you on our side or are you on the other people's side? He said, no, no to both. Rather indeed, I come as commander of the host of Yahweh. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, what has my Lord to say to his slave? Notice here, this was God's warning by his angelic commander that God is on his own side. He isn't on Joshua's side. He isn't on Canaan's side. God is for God. That is the very first principle that should have been on Joshua's mind through the entire process of conquering Canaan. This frames that whole duty of theirs in this conquest. So long as they remain faithful to every word of God's, God will fight for them. But the moment they turn away in sin, God will work against them. The next chapter records their very first victory and right before they take the city, Joshua says to the army of Israel, starting in verse 16, now it happened that on the seventh time the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua said to the people, For Yahweh has given you the city and the city shall be devoted to destruction. It and all that is in it belongs to Yahweh. Only Rahab, the harlot, and all those who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest as you are devoting them to destruction, you also take some of the things devoted to destruction, and make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction, and bring trouble upon it." This is Joshua's own words. He knew what was going on. He knew that if they did not obey the Lord, they would be devoted to destruction, just like their enemies. Joshua himself warned Israel if they failed to keep God's Word. they would be devoted to destruction just as well. The next chapter, as we read earlier, goes on to record that one family did exactly that, didn't they? They kept some of the items devoted to destruction, which then led to what we read at the beginning. Israel is now fleeing from the enemies it was supposed to be conquering. Therefore, there was only one logical reason why that would be happening. And Joshua knew that reason because he had just declared it to his army, just perhaps even days before we read that first incident. His prayer questions God, not man. Whenever there's evil and sin, it's not God's doing. Joshua knew this. Joshua's prayer should have been a quick prayer for wisdom before investigating his army and finding out why they were now devoted to destruction. Instead, in his prayer to Yahweh in chapter 7, Joshua finds himself praying rather than acting as he should, based on the knowledge God had already given him. He was on his knees when he should have been on his feet, gathering Israel and holding them to account. Now this does not mean that he shouldn't have prayed at all, but rather the different kinds of prayer are suitable for such occasions. Pray quickly, then act. Pray silently in your heart like Nehemiah did while doing what you're tasked with doing. But don't replace your responsibility with something else, especially something good like prayer. It's not that prayer is bad in itself, but that anything other than doing what he was supposed to be doing was wrong. Just as James says, therefore, the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. What if you use the good, the right, the proper holy practice of prayer in the place of what you should have done instead? Remember that these lessons on prayer, in these lessons on prayer, you're learning the proper use of prayer and how not to make prayer a replacement for obedience. We're going through this whole series to help you understand prayer, and that includes not misusing it. I suspect that in much of your life, you should stop to pray before you act, as we're going to soon see in Joshua's life. However, I also suspect that there are certain times when the sin of cowardice and ungodly fear comes out in you as well, and you use prayer as an excuse not to do something that you know you need to do. Here's an example from my own life. There's been more than in one occasion in my life where I knew that I should have stopped and talked to someone about Christ. Or, perhaps, I should have stopped someone in the church and talked to them about something I saw that concerned me. But being nervous, I stopped to pray instead, and in praying, I missed the opportunity because it passed me by. Most often, it wasn't the prayer itself that was the problem, but the fact that I hesitated too long because I was afraid of what should be done. Where in your life have you misused prayer, like that or any other way? I would rather you pray more and fail like Joshua here than be afraid to pray. However, we still need to labor against using prayer in an ungodly way. Not only does Joshua learn the hard lesson not to use prayer as a replacement for faithful action, but later on in chapter 9, Joshua learns that acting without praying first can also lead to sin. You don't have to turn there, I'll just note it. Joshua chapter 9 records the Gibeonites who deceive Israel into thinking they're way far away in another country when actually they're right in the very land that Israel is tasked with conquering. And Joshua records that in verse 14 of chapter 9, so the men of Israel took some of their provisions, meaning they believed what they had to say. But they did not ask for the command of Yahweh. They didn't pray before they decided to act. And this Yahweh allows a covenant, or excuse me, Joshua, not Yahweh. Joshua allows a covenant to be cut with the Gibeonites, an agreement to be made not to harm them. And so they end up tying their hands behind their back, making it impossible for them to complete their conquest in its entirety. And thus they sin in making a covenant with God's enemies, making peace where there should have only been war." That's an important point to think about. Where do you make peace with sin that you should be warring against? Have you cut a covenant with your favorite sin being willing to fight anything but that one? Perhaps you have made peace with careless scrolling without watching your heart. Or let your eyes wander in public without restraining your thoughts. Or maybe saying yes to things without following through. Or perhaps you're content to pray in public but are careless with your private time before the Lord. So many more examples could be listed. But what are you missing? Like Joshua, when have you failed to pray before you acted and learned the hard way that you acted without God's wisdom? James reminds Christians at the very beginning of his letter that we should pray for wisdom because God's always willing to give it to us. When have you prayed while having that gnawing feeling that there's something you should be doing instead? Have you asked the Lord to reveal to you why your conscience is bothering you so much? God gave you that conscience. Are you listening to it? Remember, to go against your conscience is sinning, even if it's wrong. Are you sensitive to the Spirit using your conscience to make you aware of your sins, or have you seared it with a hot iron? Remember, it's not always a complete searing, like you have no conscience, but rather you sear it over a certain area of your life, over something that you've done so much, and now you're just blind to it. While we surveyed some of the hard lessons we see here in Joshua's life, and hopefully we can learn from him, not to misuse prayer or surpass it when it's needed, prayer in its proper place and done with a godly heart is always something God intends to use. So let's look next at prayers for Peter's safety, prayers for Peter's safety, and this will be in Acts chapter 12. Often, we pray expecting one outcome, and God gives an outcome that you would have never imagined. God loves to answer prayer in ways that you never anticipated. And that's the case in Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 17. Especially in this example, we see the early church saints praying for Peter. Let's begin in verse 1. Now, about that time, Herod the king laid his hands on some who belonged to the church in order to harm them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. Notice he's making sure that this guy is well guarded. Four squads of soldiers are guarding this guy. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. Now on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone around the cell. And he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, rise up quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, gird yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your garment around yourself and follow me. And he went out and continued to follow. And he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but was thinking he was seeing a vision. And when they had passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself. And they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, now truly I know the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who is also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gate, the servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. And when she recognized Peter's voice, because of her joy, she did not open the gate. But she ran in and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate. And they said to her, you're out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were astounded. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, report these things to James and the brothers. Then he left and went to another place." The church here prayed for Peter, clearly, right? But they did not have the confidence that the outcome would actually be his release. James, the brother of John, had just been killed by Herod. They're seeing this persecution break out. They're seeing their leaders now being martyred, and they're thinking, yeah, it's looking pretty grim for Peter. We're praying for him, but it's looking pretty grim. The church was certainly praying for Peter, and we don't really know the precise content of those prayers. It doesn't elaborate it on here. However, they clearly were not expecting Peter to show up at their door that night, but that's where Peter shows up, doesn't he? At first, they do not believe the report of the young girl, but then they change their tune and say it's Peter's angel. And while there's a lot of speculation about angels going on here, whether or not there's guardian angels, whether or not those angels can imitate the voice of the people that they're guarding, if you even have guardian angels, all that doesn't have biblical support. We're not going to see that in the Bible. This is all something that was often passed around by the Jews. But notice, they get so far off track because they think this is impossible that this could actually be happening. Instead, what we should take away from this rather than thinking about angels or thinking about any of those other distractions is the disbelief of their response to the reality that this girl knew Peter was at the door. Put that together with their prayers and you get quite the combination, don't you? God is very gracious to His own people who lack faith to believe that He can and will do far above their expectations. And this is why when we pray, we believe that God can do it and He will do it if it's according to His purpose and plan. But at the same time, we also need to hold in our own hearts the understanding that we're talking to God, who's free to do as He pleases. He's not bound by anything outside of the promises He's already given to us in His Word. Do you pray, trusting Him with the outcome, or do you expect it to be answered exactly as you desire? Do you pray to God consciously believing that you're praying to a divine person, someone who has their own agency and makes their own choices? Do you pray with God's Word in mind, or do you pray thinking that God talks less clearly by other means? And what do I mean by that? We must resist the modern notion that God speaks to us outside of His written Word, not because God can't do so, but because He's given us no indication and no promises that He will. And throughout Scripture, when He does speak, He speaks clearly and audibly in every instance, and He's not misunderstood. Just as someone within earshot of you speaks and you can hear them clearly, God is heard even more clearly when He speaks. And many times in the Old Testament and even the New Testament, other things accompany God's revelation, such as visions of God Himself in the person of Christ or dreams that are vivid and clear and nothing to be confused with one's own imagination. Believe that God can accomplish what you're praying for, especially when it's in line with His will and the good of His people. Do you believe what James says, that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much? The early church believed that and God used those prayers to save the Apostle Peter from certain death. Do you pray trusting that God will hear and answer it better than you could possibly imagine? You can believe that God can and will do something according to His will while at the same time trusting that even if He doesn't do it the way that you imagined it or chooses some other route, He's not any less God and He's not any less consisted with what He's promised. Now, turning to the next effective prayer of a righteous one, let's look at a prayer for Paul's salvation, a prayer for Paul's salvation. In Acts 7, Stephen, the first martyr of the early church, gives a profound defense of his faith before an angry mob of Jews, calling them out for their hypocrisy and their unfaithfulness to God's Word, especially in the rejection of their own Messiah. Now, this is where we pick up in verse 54 of Acts chapter 7. We read, Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. And the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul," who we later know as Paul, right? Then they went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. When falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. Stephen prayed for his persecutors before dying. And guess who's among those persecutors? Paul himself. What exactly did he pray? That God would not hold this sin against them. The only way God cannot hold sin against a sinner is by redeeming that person through the work of the Son, through repentance and faith in Christ. Therefore, Stephen prayed for the salvation of his persecutors. And in Acts chapter 9, just one chapter after his prayer, Luke records the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus. Stephen didn't know who God would save, but his prayer demonstrated a dependence upon God's perfect plan and intent. Stephen may have had Paul in mind, or he may not have, but regardless, God ordained his prayer and used it as one of the means along the way to save Paul, who was present when Stephen's prayer was uttered. This is a profound picture of how God uses prayer to accomplish His purposes. God ordained that the apostle Paul, in his sin-cursed enemy of God's state, would be present for Stephen's death, his martyrdom. And in that presence, Paul would be prayed for by one of God's people, Stephen. And through that prayer, the apostle to the Gentiles is brought forth. He's called, he's justified, he's set apart. to spread the gospel throughout the entire Roman Empire and end up writing in a large portion of the New Testament that you and I benefit from even today. Anyone who says the prayer of a righteous one is not powerful does not know God's Word. And case in point, consider the Arminian idea of prayer which defies itself. Let's capture a picture of it. Imagine God having already done all He can to try to save everyone. Do you really believe He can do any more by your prayer? Or perhaps the Arminian God is raising His hands in frustration, telling you while you pray, He's done all He can to try to save these people. He's done all He can. It's now up to you. You need to go convince them. Convince them to go the rest of the way. Therefore, isn't it foolish to pray for the salvation if you believe everyone's capable of just choosing God for themselves? Shouldn't you be trying to convince that person to do their part instead of praying since God has already done all He can? What a trivial God, a God with His hands tied because free will must be employed to be saved. No, God is sovereign in salvation. And he employs us to pray that he would use our prayers as a means to act to save his people, a people he chose before the foundation of the world. Always remember what God's sovereignty entails, that God ordains the prayer as well as the answer. He ordains the means as well as the ends. Stephen's prayer was a complete trust in God's sovereign hand because Stephen would not be around to see that prayer answered. There's much we can learn from this. You don't know if your prayer is going to be answered immediately or long after you are gone. And God knows what the perfect timing is. You don't. And if you pray rightly according to God's will, as Stephen did, you can trust that whether it's answered immediately or generations after, it's going to be answered the way God wants it to be answered. For instance, Hannah and 1 Samuel, she was tormented by her infertility and her rival mocking her for not being able to have children, so she poured out her heart and request before God. And in God's timing, he answered that prayer. Little did she know that that child that God gave her would become the last judge of Israel, ushering in the time of the kings with Saul and David. You do not know for certain how God will use your prayer, but trust that He's going to use it. Lastly here, let's turn to look at a prayer by our Savior, a prayer by our Savior. While there are so many ways that we could go about studying the prayer life of our Lord, this particular instance in Matthew 26, verses 36 through 46, stands out as an especially important lesson on prayer. In Matthew 26, we find our Lord one last step away from the road to His death upon the cross. He had just spent the Passover dinner with His disciples. He prayed for them, then led them to the garden where they commonly went. Little did the disciples know this would be the last hour they would spend with Christ before His death and the resurrection. Beginning in verse 36 of chapter 26, we read, Then he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me. And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, so you men could not keep watch for me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them again and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand. The son of man is being portrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us go. Behold, the one who betrays me is at hand." And we know the rest of the story, don't we? We receive two important lessons on prayer in these passages. Prayer is sometimes hindered by the weakness of the flesh. We see this in the disciples. And prayer that is uttered in the weakness of the flesh must always submit to God's will. We see this example in our Lord. First, let's note the disciples. They knew Jesus was in distress. He was even telling them that He was. They should have been compelled to follow their Lord. He even commands them to pray with Him when He comes back. However, Christ's words are instructive as to why they ended up sleeping instead of joining their Lord in prayer. Jesus says, They knew what they ought to do, but they did not do it because they gave into their flesh and allowed their flesh to get the best of them. Do Jesus' words to His disciples here describe your prayer life? Do you know what you ought to pray, yet often do not because you allow the flesh to win over? Notice what Jesus says directly before this. He says, keep watching and praying that you do not enter into temptation. Clearly, by succumbing to the flesh, they gave in to the temptations that were pulling them to sleep. Do you fight temptations that pull you to succumb to the flesh, or do you invite them? The flesh and the temptations thereof must be battled by the Christian, by every Christian. Do you battle temptations that come your way? How often are you aware that you're even being tempted? Next, notice that it is recorded in this account that Jesus prays three times for the same thing, that in His human distress, He asked the Father to allow the cup to pass from Him. But at the same time, He's willing to submit to His Father's will regardless of what His frail human passions compel Him to want. First, Jesus models even better than Elijah did earlier the way to pray in your human frailty, expressing his human passions while submitting to the Father's will. Do you acknowledge and recognize when your desires are from your flesh and your weakness rather than from God? Or do you get confused over that, thinking perhaps your fleshly desires are godly? Only by continuing to grow in Christlikeness, getting to know the Word of the Lord, and that being part of your thinking, will you be able to discern more clearly when you want to do something or ask for something selfishly versus when you want something selflessly. Imagine for a moment if God had answered yes to Christ's prayer, allowing the cup to pass from Him. What would that entail? Well, that would mean the blood of Christ would not be spilled for sinners, would it? that the wrath of God would not be poured out upon a willing substitute, and therefore there would be no salvation for any man in Adam. If Christ had not gone to Calvary and died upon the cross, he would never have risen from the grave, defeated death, Satan, and sin. He would never have accomplished purchasing a people for his own possession, and no man upon the earth would have any hope. Only eternal punishment in the lake of fire would be the final destiny of every man. Therefore, we might ask, was Jesus' prayer sinful? By no means, for He was innocent. And as an innocent man, there was no punishment that in His humanity He deserved. Instead, His obligation came from His mission, from the divine Father as the divine Son incarnate, who together agreed before the foundation of the world that He would willingly lay down His life at the hands of godless men and that that death would please the Father's wrath. The Son's sacrifice would pay the debt of sin for the particular people whom God intends to save. Are you one of those that God intends to save? Have you repented and believed in Christ this day? Or are you still there, not truly believing in the Christ revealed here in Scripture? The one who became a man so that he could be a substitute for guilty sinners, and the only reason he had to do that. because there is no man that is good. Every one of us are evil. Every one of us seek after our own desire. Are you convinced by the world that perhaps you are good at heart, you're just corrupted by everything around you? You have to reject that thinking of the world. And if you don't, then how can you truly know Christ? Christ chose to go to the cross knowing there was no other way than to become the willing substitute for God's chosen people. He made Him who do no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, that's 2 Corinthians 5.21. Let us praise God that Christ was not hindered by His human weakness, though expressed in prayer to His Father. Be thankful that God did not allow any other way for Christ to go according to His will so that your sin debt could be paid and Christ's righteousness would be available to you. God had and still has no obligation to save anyone and every right to send guilty sinners like you and I to eternal punishment. Do you believe that? Because that must be true for you to even begin to understand the work of Christ upon the cross. To reject the reality that you deserve the greatest punishment for the least sin is a rejection of Christ Himself. Christ knowing that such a punishment was owed to every sinner in Adam went to the cross and bore that punishment for his elect. What a profound picture of willing submission to His heavenly Father that every one of us should meditate deeply upon and seek to imitate in our own prayers. Do you willingly submit to the Father regardless of what the outcome is and still go to Him Do you submit to God's will in your prayers? No matter how passionate you are and how bad you want something, knowing that what you wish might not be what the Father wants. Our Lord is our ultimate example to imitate, and that's especially true for prayer. However, we have also examined several examples from faithful saints who've gone before us, Elijah, Joshua, others. They set examples for us to imitate, and with Joshua, lessons to avoid. As Hebrews 11 reminds us, the saints who have gone before us are there to encourage and embolden us, to teach us valuable lessons and to give us encouragement to press on like they did. Just this past week, we were reminded of that very truth by the example of Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church. Pastor MacArthur passed into glory on Monday evening and is now with the Lord. John MacArthur lived a well and he ended his ministry with integrity. He was known for preaching God's Word verse by verse and he accomplished doing that through the entire New Testament. What an accomplishment. He pastored the same church for over 15 years and he died as the pastor of that same church. He raised up hundreds, perhaps even thousands of men who seek to be faithful and to follow his example. Perhaps most importantly, out of all those achievements, was his close relationship with Christ, which included his prayer life. He had this to say about prayer. He said, or provide for your selfish desires, but it is an affirmation of His sovereignty, righteousness, and majesty, and an exercise to conform your desires and purposes to His will and glory." Pastor MacArthur lived what he preached, and his life exemplified his close communion with Christ. Does your life testify to close communion with your professed Savior? If not, today is the day to repent. Today, Christ calls you to commune with Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we've learned some hard lessons this day and some encouragement even about prayer, and yet each one of us struggle with this simple, simple task. Lord, You are always present. You're always here to hear us. And Lord, You have even told us You will hear us and You will use our prayers, be we in Christ. Lord, what encouragement it is that our Savior gives us direct access to Your throne. Lord, break our hearts that we may use that access. ever more fervently, that our desires and passions would change so that we come before You as the saints of old did, that we would be added to their number to be faithful. Help us, Lord, now. In Jesus' name, amen. Before we