We are studying prayer tonight. We've been studying prayer for at least the past two evenings when I got to preach, whenever that was. It's been mixed up the last several weeks, hasn't it? Two messages back when we studied prayer, we looked at one particular kind of prayer, and that's what we would call intercessory prayer. And we learned from Ezra chapter 9 about Ezra's intercessory prayer on behalf of his people Israel. When we look at different terminology for prayer, for example, intercession. Intercession carries the idea that you are praying on behalf of someone else in their need. You are interceding. You're coming on behalf of them and you're asking God to take action. I heard somebody asking the other day about when people die, if they still pray for us. I don't believe that people in heaven pray for us. In Hebrews chapter 7, it talks about Jesus Christ and it says because Jesus Christ lives eternally, then He can intercede for us eternally. He's able to pray for us because He is alive back from the grave. When people pass into the next realm, I don't think They have that capacity to serve in an intercessory way as they do while they're still here in this life. And so that the Catholic idea that, you know, we've got all the saints up there praying for us. I don't believe that's a biblical concept, but you have a high priest who lives forever and he intercedes forever because he lives forever. And that's the unique son of God. But as long as we are here in this life, we can and should intercede on behalf of one another. And when we looked at Ezra's prayer, We saw especially that Ezra's intercessory prayer was on behalf of his people because of their sinful needs. They were separated from God, and Ezra was begging God to show mercy on behalf of his people, the people of Israel. I had a phone call a couple weeks ago from my friend, a very close friend, and his wife called and said that she wanted me talk to her husband because of his uh... his problems and uh... began to pray for him and then uh... the next week she called and said yes what my twenty one-year-old son has just been diagnosed with leukemia so he just began chemotherapy last week and you know uh... you know first thing i did you know and i always have prayed for him because i love him but i just began to pray that god would work in his life to to bring him into a right relationship with Christ. I think he's a believer. He confesses Christ. But I began to pray that God would do something in his life to bring him down and bring him back into a right relationship with Christ and a right relationship with his wife. And next thing you know, their son has leukemia. I'm not saying, well, this is God's way of doing it, but God does use trials to work on our lives. And this is what Ezra did. Ezra began to pray on behalf of his people that God would work. We looked at a second kind of prayer, and that prayer, I don't know how we would label it. I guess you could call it petitions. A petition in the Bible is the idea that you are asking specific kinds of requests. And we looked in Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 to 15 at the Lord's Prayer, the so-called Lord's Prayer. Sometimes people will call it the Disciples' Prayer because the disciples had come to him and said, Lord, teach us how to pray. And so Jesus said, well, this is the kind of thing you should do when you pray. He doesn't give them a formula for the kinds of words. But in Matthew six in the Lord's Prayer, he said, here's the manner in which you should pray. And there were two major kinds of things that Jesus said we should focus on when we pray. The first one, he said, was that you should have your prayer focused on God and his glory. What is the first thing in the Lord's Prayer? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matter of fact, you know, I actually got ahead of myself didn't I? Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so when you see what Jesus said about the focus and the priority of our prayer, you need to be thinking about God and His glory first. Oftentimes we come and we just start going to petitions. Lord, I pray for my you know, my mom's broken arm and I pray for my engine that broke down and I pray that you would, you know, and we start listing the petitions and it's not wrong to bring our petitions before God. But Jesus said, when you come in prayer, the first thing you should be doing is you should be thinking about God and His glory. Hallowed be thy name. May your name be recognized as holy. Now, Jesus does talk about petitions because in the second portion of the Lord's Prayer, He said, Give us this day our daily bread, the mundane things of life. Should we pray for those things like rent and mortgage and food money to pay for our insurance? Absolutely. Jesus said you should pray for those things. So petitions are things that we should lift up to God. And really, in every form of prayer, what we need to do is we need to grab a hold of God and not let go. Grab a hold. Remember Genesis chapter 32 when Jacob was wrestling with the angel of the Lord and Jacob knew that this being was some sort of a divine being. It was actually the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ there in Genesis 32 before he had taken on human flesh. Jacob is wrestling with the messenger of the Lord and Jacob says, I won't let you go unless you bless me. And that's what we need to do is we need to really learn how to grab hold of God and not let go. Tonight, what I want to do is I want to bring you to some spiritual truths, some key spiritual truths that apply to this whole business of prayer. And as we think about these key spiritual truths, I want to bring your focus upon five key spiritual truths that you and I need to remember in our prayer life. And the purpose is that we would learn how to be the kinds of people that God wants us to be. I mean, that really is the larger issue is that in prayer, you know, you're not grabbing a hold of God and twisting his arm until he comes to the point where he says, OK, Uncle, I give up. I'll give you that nice new Shelby Cobra." Not that I would pray for anything like that, you know. But, you know, we don't twist God until, you know, God finally breaks under pressure. Really what happens in prayer is that God is changing us. So, you know, what I want to try to bring to you are some spiritual principles about prayer so that we can learn how to be the kinds of people that God is calling us to be. And in that process, when we learn how to be the kinds of people that God is calling us to be, then we will begin to pray the way that God wants us to pray. And we will begin to see the kinds of answers to prayers that God wants us to have, because God wants us to have a fruitful prayer life. In John chapter 15, Jesus said, if you abide in me, Verse seven, and my words abide in you. He says, then he says, you will ask and you will receive these prayer requests. And then he said, in verse 8, By this is my Father glorified, that you would bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you're going to ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done. And he says, This is how my Father is glorified in you. Imagine that. We're being conformed to the image of Christ because we're allowing ourselves to be shaped by his will. And as we allow ourselves to be shaped by his will and we begin to be more like Christ and praying according to God's will, we begin to receive the prayers that we raise up. And he says, God is glorified in that. Because you're demonstrating that you are my disciple, Jesus said. So really, this is learning how to be conformed to the image of Christ. But prayer is part of this process. So there are five key spiritual truths. And the first one that we come to is this principle that we need to remember that when we come to God in prayer, we must always come to God in the name of His Son, Jesus. We must come in Jesus' name. John 15, verse 23, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you that if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you. in my name. If you ask for anything, the Father will give it to you in my name. Well, we have to ask the question, what does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Let me tell you what it does not mean to pray in Jesus' name. It does not mean that you have to make sure that whenever you pray, you always get those three words on at the end of your prayer. Don't feel anxious. You know, if you were together praying with somebody and you're praying and then you finish and you say amen and you go, oh, in Jesus' name. I almost forgot. I didn't want to miss out on getting that prayer answered. Saying in Jesus' name is not like, you know how in the cartoons, you know, when they come to the cave and they have, you know, two magic words that always open the cave? Open sesame. Open Sesame is the magical formula that will open the door in the cartoons. Well, in Jesus name is not a magical formula that you pray at the end of your prayer. This is not what it means to pray in Jesus name. Now, when we talk about what it does mean, let me suggest to you there are at least four kinds of concepts that are related to this idea of praying in Jesus name. And first of all, it would be the fact that you are bringing your prayer to God as one of his children who has trusted in his son, Jesus Christ. Why is this important? Well, Jesus said in John 14, verse 6, No man comes to the Father. How? Except through me. If you don't come through the Son, you cannot come to God. Because there is one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, and that's Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2, 5. There's one mediator between God and man. By the way, He's always been the mediator between God and man. You know, way back there in Genesis chapter three, you know, when Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden in the presence of God, you know, that was the messenger of the Lord. That was the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ has always been the one to bring mediation between God and mankind. In the book of Exodus, you remember when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush? He says in Exodus 3, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do you know what it says in Exodus 3, verse 2? Who was in that burning bush? It was the messenger of the Lord. The angel of the Lord was in the burning bush. He is God. It's just that 2,000 years ago, he took on human flesh So there's always been the ministry, the mediating ministry of Jesus Christ between God and mankind. And today, especially in the redemptive work of God on the cross of Calvary, you cannot come to God by somehow going around Jesus Christ. God says that the absolute necessity is that you must come to God as one of his children. In John 15, verse 26, listen to what Jesus said. Turn with me to John 15. Jesus was teaching about the need to belong to Him and to trust in Him. And in John 16, Jesus says, In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf. For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me. And you have believed that I came forth from the Father." So Jesus says, talking about the future, He's talking about after His resurrection, when He has ascended back to heaven and He has sent the Holy Spirit and God's people now coming in prayer. He says, in that day, He says, I'm not even going to have to request. He says, because the Father Himself loves you because you have believed in Me. Coming to God in Jesus' name means that you're saved. So the prayer of the unbeliever, biblically speaking, here's what the Bible says. The prayer of an unbeliever is unacceptable to God. Well, that is immeasurably politically incorrect in our day and age, right? I went to this prayer breakfast about a month ago with the mayor and a bunch of business people. It's kind of like a Christian prayer breakfast that they do every year. So this, I think he's a general, maybe a major, they gave a closing prayer, retired major, retired general. He was a Christian, he was a believer. He kind of acknowledged there was a mixed crowd because it was an evangelistic breakfast. And he said, you know, he says, I'm a Christian, so I'm going to pray to, you know, God the Father in the name of Jesus. You can pray to God as you wish. Some people kind of didn't like that he said that. But, you know, he said, he said, I'm a Christian. I'm going to pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ. Well, in our society today, you know, they want to say that everything is legitimate, every religion is equally valid, because in our pluralistic society, we never want to say that anybody's wrong, except for the Christians. That's why we see today, you know, in the police chaplains and military chaplains are increasingly, you know, being pushed into a corner and told you can't make any kind of a prayer in the name of Jesus. Remember, this is about like probably 30 years ago, and not quite that long. But when my cousin graduated from college, there was this rabbi at UNLV that gave the benediction, either the open or closing prayer, And he closed the prayer in whose ever his name we pray. I called him up on the phone. I found his phone number. And I said, hey, you know, come on, you're a Jew. You should at least believe in one God. And I invited him to lunch. I said, I'd like to get together with you. And he never returned my phone call. But here's the truth. If you don't come to God the Father in the name of the Son, you can't come to Him. That really, I think, is the essence or the heart of praying in Jesus' name. Secondly, this idea of praying in Jesus' name means that you're coming to God as one who is seeking to live for Him. You're wanting to live for God. When you come to Him in prayer, you're living according to the Word and the will of God. Listen to 1 John 3, verse 22. In 1 John 3.22, John says, whatever we ask, we receive from Him because, do you remember what the Westervist says? Because we keep His commandments and we do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Let me read it to you again. Whatever we ask from Him, we receive because we keep His commandments and we do the things that are pleasing in His sight. So, coming in the name of Jesus means that you're not only coming as a believer, but you're coming as one that is seeking to try to follow Christ and His will. Because you can be saved and be running in the opposite direction of God at some particular moment of time in disobedience, And if you think that God is really wanting to listen to you in your rebellion, you're mistaken. Now, you know, God can shake up the situation and bring about circumstances even in a person's rebellion, right? I've heard John MacArthur tell about his own call to ministry and that he knew that God was calling him to serve and to minister the Word of God and to preach the Bible. And he was kind of running from that and then got thrown from a car. I don't remember how fast was he going, like 60, 70 miles an hour down the freeway and got thrown out of a car and went sliding down a freeway. Kind of hurts, doesn't it? And that was his point, a point in his life where he said, I know that God is trying to get my attention and He said, I realize what God's will in my life and I need to follow it. But coming to God in the name of Jesus Christ has this idea that you're seeking to submit yourself to Christ and to let Him have lordship over your life. In John 15, verse 7, a verse I just read from, Jesus said, If you abide in Me, in other words, you remain close to Me and in fellowship with Me. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done. That is a fantastic promise. Whatever you ask, it'll be done. But here's the qualifier. If you are abiding in me, you're remaining in fellowship with me and my word, my truth is abiding in you. In other words, you're walking in fellowship with me. Then you're going to have this truth for paralyzed. So remember, this whole thing shows us that that effective prayer is much more a matter of God shaping our lives to become the people that we're supposed to be instead of us twisting God's arm. We're living for God. We're not living to please ourself. Narcissism. You ever hear that kind of Greek story about a narcissist just kept staring himself in the water until he kind of finally did him in? We live in a very narcissistic society, don't we? Everything is about me and about myself. I think it was supremely exemplified in an article that I printed out the other day. There was a lady in Fargo, North Dakota. Fargo's North Dakota, right? Yeah. Haven't been there. Her name is Nadine Schweigert. And she said that her wedding went so perfectly that it left her in awe. The bride wore a long satiny dress in peacock blue and carried a cluster of white roses. Schweigert's best friends stood up for her. And then after the ceremony, the guests enjoyed white wedding cake enrobed in peacock blue fondant and New Orleans-style king cake. The affair was missing just one teensy detail, a groom. In a purely symbolic ceremony, the 36-year-old Schweigert married herself before a crowd of 45 friends and family. During the observance, the Fargo woman read her vows. I, Nadine, promise to enjoy inhabiting my own life and to relish a lifelong love affair with my beautiful self. She presented herself with a ring and invited all the guests to blow kisses to the whole world at the point of the traditional bridegroom lip lock. And she said, I'm very proud of it and I feel very good about it. I'm so glad I did it. We're wrapped up in ourself. And living for Jesus Christ is not about being wrapped up in yourself, it's being about wrapped up in Jesus. So we need to be saved. We need to be seeking to live for his will and for his glory. Number three, a third concept that goes with this idea of praying in the name of Jesus is this, is that you're asking according to the moral will of God when you pray, asking according, not just that you're seeking to live for Christ, but in the things that you bring God, you're asking according to the moral will of God and not against the moral will of God. So for example, And if you have ministered in the church and you've come beside people and tried to help them and minister to them, I've had this kind of circumstance come up before where people say, well, I just think it's God's will that I should divorce my husband or divorce my wife. I say, well, I can tell you very clearly it's not according to God's will. It's not according to God's moral will that you would leave your husband or your wife. Now, sadly, in a fallen world, marriages do fall apart sometimes. That's life in a fallen world. But what I'm getting to, what I'm trying to get to is this, is that when we are coming and we're bringing our prayers to God, we can never say that we are praying something that is against the moral character, the moral will of God, and it's something that he wants to answer. In 1 John 5, turn with me to 1 John. Not the Gospel, but 1 John 5. Notice what John says here about praying in the will of God. 1 John 5, down here in verses 14 and 15. 1 John 5, verse 14. John writes this, And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him. Once again, you have one of these kind of gold master gold American Express cards, you know, unlimited, whatever you ask, you're going to get it unlimited. But he says this, this is the confidence that if we ask anything according to his will, So effective prayer means that we're not only trying to follow Christ in obedience as Christians, but we're wanting to understand the moral character of God, the moral will of God, and we're praying according to the moral will of God. Because if we pray against the will of God, then we certainly are not praying the way that God would want us to. Now, what about God's plan for this world and all the plans that God has? Do I know what God has planned for me? for the rest of this day? I don't know. God forbid, we may end up on the side of the road with a broken down car or worse. You and I don't know what life is going to bring. So we don't know what God's plan and God's purpose. So I can ask God for mercy. I can pray, please, Lord, I pray that you would show your mercy and give safety to our travels. And we can pray that God would guide us and keep us safe. But praying the will of God especially has to do with knowing the character of God and his moral will. And that's why it's so important that we know the scriptures. Because that's where we see what the moral will of God is. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So our need, to put it simply, is to pray according to the person of Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ represents. This is praying in Jesus' name. It's praying according to who Jesus is. And lastly, praying in Jesus' name means that we are coming, recognizing everything what God has accomplished through His Son. As believers, when we come in the name of Jesus, what we're doing is we're confessing and acknowledging who Jesus is and what He has done. Lord, I don't deserve to even be heard by You. I don't even deserve to be coming before Your presence. But Your Son, Jesus Christ, has opened the way for me to be able to talk to You. Your son, Jesus Christ, died for my sin. So on the basis of his death for my sin and who he is and what he's done, Lord, I pray, hear my prayers. So the first key spiritual truth, we need to come in Jesus name. And I trust even if what I gave you is a theological explanation of coming in Jesus name, even if it somehow didn't embrace every point that it should. I think it's the essence of what it means to come in Jesus name. It certainly isn't the formula that you tack on to the end of the prayer. And that's why, you know, when you're praying, you don't have to say, make sure that you always say in Jesus name. It's okay. You don't have to say in Jesus name, not wrong to do it. But that tradition really is not the essence of it. A second key spiritual truth that we need to remember when we pray is this. We need to remember the mighty power of God and that nothing is impossible with God, so we need to believe in what He can do and we need to not be afraid to ask. He's big! He's a big God! You can ask Him for big things. He's a big God. Don't be afraid to ask. Believe and do not doubt. That's what Jesus said. Believe And do not doubt. Just think of some of the ways that God has done big things in the lives of people. As an illustration, we don't need to turn there, but in Luke chapter 1, when Gabriel came to Mary, and Gabriel says, you are going to give birth to the Messiah. She says, how can that be? I'm not even married yet. I've never been with a man. And Gabriel says, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. And He is going to give you conception. And in Luke chapter 1, here's what Gabriel said in verse 37, nothing will be impossible with God. Our response to some of these things would say, that's impossible, that will never happen. Humanly speaking, that may be true. Just remember, memorize that Luke 137, nothing will be impossible with God. So when you're faced with things that you think are impossible, humanly speaking, maybe they are, you may have no clue. You may be looking at it just from one angle and you say, this is impossible. Well, maybe it is. And you begin to beg God and you begin to plead with God for this particular situation. And all of a sudden, God comes around from the back door and God changes the whole thing around. You say, I never could have imagined that this would have happened. I'm sure we could have one testimony after another in your lives, and you say, I never would have imagined that God would have worked in that way. But He did. Another illustration about God working in big ways, and particularly to answer the prayer, is in Isaiah. Turn with me to Isaiah 36 for just a minute. We're going to go back and look at King Hezekiah. Not the book of Hezekiah. King Hezekiah. You guys didn't even chuckle with that one. I guess it's such an old joke, huh? The book of Hezekiah? Yeah. Okay. You still didn't. Well, that's fine. Isaiah chapter 36. What is happening here in Isaiah chapter 36 is that Judah is being invaded by the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. I mean, you know, This would be probably similar to a situation like when the United States invaded Iraq. Iraq didn't stand much of a chance. you know, by God's grace, would not stand much of a chance against a full-scale United States military attack. And that's kind of what the situation was like back in Isaiah 36. You had little, tiny, weak Judah, and here come the Assyrians, the most powerful empire on the face of the planet. And they're being invaded by the Assyrians. And when you read in Isaiah chapter 36, we read about this loudmouth guy, in verse 2, his name is Rabshakeh. He was the guy that would kind of come out and just start, you know, trying to demoralize the people of Israel by yelling and giving political propaganda. He was trying to demoralize them. And he stood outside the wall and he was just telling them, give it up right now. Just surrender. Nobody's been able to stand up to us. and just kept attacking God and blaspheming God. So in Isaiah chapter 37, it says, When King Hezekiah heard all these things, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, entered into the house of the Lord. And then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, a sheebna described, and the elders and the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet. And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, Isaiah 37.3, This a day of distress and rebuke and rejection. Verse 4, Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, he says, please offer a prayer for the remnant that is left. They came and they're saying, Isaiah, please intercede for us. Pray for us. And Isaiah begins to pray, but Hezekiah got into the prayer as well. And if you come down here to verse 14, 37-14, Isaiah, Hezekiah prayed. And look at v. 16. He said, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim. Talking about the glory of God and the holy of holies. The glory that was above the cherubim. Thou art the God. Thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. He's saying, You're God. Not this little runt down here that's blaspheming you and their gods. These guys are not God. You're God. So he began to appeal to God as the true and living God. So in verse 17, he says, Incline your ear, O Lord, open your eyes. Look at what he's saying against you. Take some action against this guy. And this is what we need to do is we need to come and we need to ask God because at this point right here, these guys were surrounded and it was virtually a hopeless situation. How did God answer? Look at the end of chapter 37. God began to give the answer and He says, I'm going to do something about these guys. Verse 35, I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And then verse 36, the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 of the camp of the Assyrians. So the next morning when the Assyrians rose up, the rest of the army and the rest of all of their soldiers were dead, 185,000. So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. You know, these records right here are included on something called the Prism of Sennacherib. How he says, I had Hezekiah caged up like a bird in Jerusalem. But it never goes any further than that. Because God struck down 185,000 fighting army men And the king of Assyria ran with his tail back home. And then it says down here, verse 38, and then it came about as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that Adremalek and Shareser, his sons, killed him with the sword. His own sons murdered him. But this was big! This was real, real big! You are being invaded by the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. The point is this. He is a big god, so whatever your need is, listen, Don't think according to little G-God. He's capital G-God. Size 157 font. He's a big God, so when your needs are big, ask big. Because that glorifies God. That glorifies God when you believe in His ability to do the things that you need Him to do. That glorifies God that you trust Him. That glorifies God. So here are the first two key spiritual truths. Number one, you need to come as a believer who is seeking to live for Christ and pray according to the will of God. And secondly, you're coming in faith in the mighty power of God. You're believing in who He is. A third key spiritual truth to effective prayer is that you need to remember the great mercy and compassion of God, because He's a big, big God, a sovereign God who rules the universe. But at the same time, He's the King who cares. He's tender. He's merciful. He's compassionate. He sees our needs. He knows your feelings. You know that song, Jesus Knows, all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No. Not one. He's merciful. He's compassionate. He knows your needs. I'll give you some examples. Number one, look at right here in the book of Hezekiah, chapter 38. You come right after this incident right here where Hezekiah had prayed and God answered this prayer. In Isaiah, chapter 38, it says that Hezekiah got sick. And God came to him. God sent the prophet Isaiah to him. And Isaiah came and said, you better get your will updated. You're going to die. And Hezekiah 2, he turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord and he said, O God, remember I beseech You how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and I have done what is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Hezekiah wept bitterly. He sought God. And then in verse 4, the Word of the Lord then came to Isaiah Go to Hezekiah and say, Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add 15 years to your life. This is amazing. Isaiah says, God says to Isaiah, I've heard your prayer. I've seen your weeping. I'm going to extend your life. He is personal. He is merciful, compassionate. He understands. Another illustration of this. We don't have to turn there, but it's in 1 Samuel 1. You remember Hannah. Hannah, who could not bear children. And she wept, and she begged God. And there was another wife, a second wife, that used to taunt her and torment her, a rival wife that would mock her because she could not have children. And Hannah, it says in 1 Samuel 1, was tormented, and so she poured out her heart to God. As a matter of fact, she was weeping and pouring her heart to God so much that Eli, the high priest, saw her there at the temple praying, and he said, What are you doing here, drunk? She goes, I'm not drunk. begging God, weeping and praying and asking God for a son. And it says that God saw her weeping and God saw her prayer. And God gave her a son that she named Samuel. Heard by God. Shemuel. Heard by God. The lesson is this. God is merciful and we need to remember that. So when you are facing whatever you're facing, Whether you're praying for yourself and some kind of ton of bricks has come crashing down upon you, or you're praying on behalf of someone else who is going through things, remember that God is compassionate and merciful. So appeal to the character of God. This glorifies God because you're praying according to His moral character. So you come to God in the name of Jesus as His child. You come to God recognizing His mighty power. You come to God recognizing His compassion and His mercy. A fourth key spiritual truth in prayer is that we need to remember the importance of persevering in prayer even when we have not gotten the things that we have asked for. Let me just give you a good reminder from this morning. God promised Abraham a son He might have been 75. He might have even been younger than 75 when that promise was given. But at 75 years of age, God said, I'm going to give you a son. You and Sarah will have a son. That child did not come along for 25 years later. Persevere. I have another very good friend in Arizona. You know, it's amazing how weak we are and how easy it is for sin to grab a hold of us and to just take us through the mud. And it was a husband who I think has been saved this whole time. God knows the heart. But for almost ten years, you know, he went into the pig's thighs like the prodigal son. And this wife, she just said, I'm going to stay dedicated. And she stayed faithful to him. She prayed. She was there. She would not compromise herself in terms of the principles. And she just kept hanging in there and, you know, extending the offer of reconciliation. And it took, it took eight, nine years. I called them because I, you know, they were such good friends at one point. This is 20 some years ago. And I called and she says, we're back together. And she says, and it's good. It's like, wow, I couldn't believe it. You know, for me, it was like, you got to be kidding. I could not believe it. Hanging in there. And don't think that just because you have, you know, I prayed about that once and nothing happened. What a sad testimony is when we think that way, right? You know, I prayed, nothing happened. Let me give you two examples from the teaching of Jesus. First of all, come with me here to Matthew chapter 7. Look what Jesus said about what should characterize our praying. Matthew 7, in verse 7, Jesus said, Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. The prayer is simple. Ask, seek, and knock. But each one of these commands that Jesus gives right here is in the form of a present tense command. So really, it's keep asking. keep seeking knocking not the idea is that well you know i pray about that nothing happened that's how abraham had been twenty five years ago that that is going to be a child but i gave up on that a long time ago is going to go down to the adoption agency by the way that was that was the wrong thing to say uh... i did not mean that in that way at all that was that was really a misstatement uh... But what I meant to communicate is that Abraham did not give up on the promise of God and say, forget about it. I don't think I'm ever going to have a child. So that was really a misstatement in terms of what I meant to communicate. I think it's a great thing when people can adopt, and that's a wonderful thing. But my point is that Abraham did not give up on believing in God. Now, as a matter of fact, You know, they did try to kind of circumvent the plan of God 13 years later, 11 years later, when Sarah said, well, let's just have a child with my maid. Maybe that's the way. So, you know, I think they kind of blew it a little bit in that prospect. But Abraham and Sarah continued to believe God. They continued to trust in God. And this is the essence of what I'm getting to right here, is that Jesus said, you need to keep on asking, keep on seeking. Have you guys ever seen a pit bull grab a hold of something? My grandmother used to have a pit bull. I remember one time a cat got into the yard, and that pit bull got a hold of the cat. My grandma came out with a shovel and started beating the pit bull on the head. Once that thing had latched onto the cat, it was never going to let go, and it didn't let go until that cat was lifeless. This is what God wants you and me to be like when it comes to prayer. He wants you to grab hold of him like a pit bull. You don't let go. Look at Luke chapter 18. Look at Luke chapter 18 here in verses 1 to 8. Jesus told a story about this kind of perseverance in prayer. This is the point is that you should not just pray once and say, well, nothing happened. Luke 18, Jesus was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, Give me legal protection from my opponent. And for a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, even though I don't fear God and respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming, she wear me out. And Jesus said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now shall not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And he will not delay long over them. I tell you, he will bring about justice, and he will bring us fetally. You know, Jesus said, you know, this judge, he was a worthless guy. He was an unrighteous guy. He didn't care anything about the concerns for men. He was not a believer. And yet, Jesus, in this parable, this story, he says that this widow just kept harassing the guy, in a sense. She wouldn't go away. And finally, the judge says, fine, look, I'll give you what you want. I'll give you the legal protection. And what Jesus is saying is, it's the argument from the lesser to the greater. If this is what an unrighteous man does, how much more will God answer your prayers? But he's teaching us that you have to persevere. Don't just say, well, I prayed about it, nothing happened, so forget about it. Key spiritual truths. Number one, you come in Jesus' name. Number two, as a child, you come in Jesus' name, recognizing who He is. Number two, you recognize the power of God to do anything. He's a big God, so pray big. Number three, you recognize the compassion and the mercy of God. And number four, you come in perseverance. And lastly, number five, a fifth key to prayer is that we need to remember the great purposes of God. And ultimately, the best thing that you and I can do is to recognize the wisdom of God and submit ourselves to his wise will. Sometimes the thing that we desperately want is not the best thing. And I would use this illustration again, let's say, you know, you know, having children and adoption. You know, my sister, you know, married and then was not able to have children. And she adopted, I guess, how many years ago, 12 years ago, beautiful baby girl from China. And, you know, I've got this beautiful niece from China. And, you know, it just wasn't God's plan that my sister was able to have children. But that was God's way of bringing her into a perfect path, which for her was to bring this beautiful little baby from China. Praise God. So we need to submit ourselves to the wise will of God, because here's a truth that sometimes we don't like to admit. He is God, and we aren't. You know, unsaved people like to think, I want what I want when I want it. They want to be God. But the best thing you and I can do is to recognize that He is God. You may think to yourself, this is a terrible situation. What's going on in my life right now is horrible. And humanly speaking, it may be. Whatever is coming into your life may be a miserable thing from a human perspective. And that's not what you want. And you may come to God and you say, God, please take this away. I hate it. Take it away. But God doesn't take it away. Guess what? You're not God. I'm not God. And so submitting yourself to the good and wise will of God is what we should do. And remember, this whole issue that God is at work in our lives to shape us and mold us, Romans 8, 29, He's predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. Did Jesus have it easy in this world? No, it was quite difficult. It was the worst. But God used that to perfect His Son. It says in Hebrews 5, God perfected Him. God brought Him to full completeness as a human being, the God-man, the Savior, the Messiah. And God is doing the same thing in our lives as well. God is at work using all of these things to shape us and mold us to make us the people that He's called us to be. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 12. We see this exemplified in the life of the Apostle Paul. 2 Corinthians 12, in verses 7 and following. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, what Paul has just been doing in the first six verses is he has been telling the Corinthians that he himself had been taken up into the presence of God. in one of his prophetic visions, dreams. He says, I'm not sure if it was actually in my body or if it was just in spirit, in my mind. But after he described this experience where God showed him heaven and the things of heaven, he says in v. 7, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason there was given to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan, to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself. A lot of people think this might have been a physical disease. Paul did have physical afflictions, but a messenger from Satan is probably talking about a human being, some particular person that donned Paul throughout his apostolic ministries and was always there causing problems behind Paul's back and the church is coming in and stirring up conflict. Perhaps it was a demon. But many people think that this might have been some human being that was there always following Paul. But he says here that the reason why there was this thorn in the flesh, he says, it was to keep me from exalting myself. Paul recognized that if I didn't have this problem in my life always causing me human weakness and human problems and conflict and suffering and hardship, I would end up getting too high-minded. God gave me problems to help me. How do you like that? He gave me some problems to help me. Concerning this, Paul says, verse 8, I entreated the Lord three times. When he says three times, it's not just once today, once tomorrow, and once the next day. Three seasons. Three periods in his life. The word kairos means a period of time. For three different periods in my life, I entreated God. Oh God, I beg You, take this away. And yet, he says, Jesus answered him in verse 9, My grace is sufficient for You for power is perfected in weakness. I'm going to give you the strength to endure it. But Paul, here's something you need to understand. My power is made complete when you are weak. My power cannot be full in you when it's you in your strength. Power is perfected in weakness. And so Paul says in verse 9, Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell with me. And so I'm well content with weaknesses, insults. By the way, see how all these things are at a ministry level in verse 10? So, here's what I will live with. Weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties for Christ's sake. Because when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. God knew what the best thing was for Paul. Does God know what the best thing is for you? Because you may be looking at something and saying, this is terrible. Well, it may not feel good. Most of these things don't feel good. But you may be saying, this is terrible. I've got to pray that it will be out of my life and it will be gone. But God won't take it away. God didn't take it away from Paul. You need to learn to submit yourself to the wise and good will of God. God has a good direction for your life. And if you are praying and asking God to take things away, and you're persevering, and you're asking God to take it, and in effect, God says, nope. This is the way it's going to be. Submit yourself. Father, if there is any other way, Jesus said, if there is any other way, let this cup Pass from me. I know what the cross is going to bring upon me. If there is any other way for redemption to be fulfilled, I pray, take it away and fulfill it another way. And yet, nevertheless, not my will, but Thy will be done. Submit yourself to the wise and perfect will of God. So in all of this, the truth of the matter is this. One truth is this. We are very, very weak. We are incredibly weak as fallen men. Mankind is weak enough to begin with, but fallen, sinful men, we are so weak. That's why in Romans 8, verse 26, it says that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness because sometimes we don't even know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit helps us in our weakness. But coming to God with a surrendered heart, coming to God with a desire to live for Him, coming to God trusting, believing and not doubting in His ability, knowing the character of God and praying according to His will and asking God to do the things that you know according to His moral character are the things that He wants. Then you be like Brutus. That was my grandma's pitbull, Brutus. You grab hold. And you don't let go. Life is coming along, smacking you on the head with a shovel like my grandma did. Smacking the pit bull. He would not let go. Be like Brutus. Grab hold and persevere. Ask. Keep asking. Seek. Keep seeking. Knock. Keep knocking. And entrust yourself to God as the faithful Creator This is the best thing we can do, right? Father, may you help us, we ask. Give us strength in these things, because we admit that we are so, so frail and weak. And it's almost embarrassing even to talk about these things that we know are true from the Scripture, and yet we can sometimes, so often, so badly fail to carry them out. in real life. So we are asking that you would help to make all of these truths a reality in the way that we think and live. More than anything, Lord, we just want to have lives that please you. We want to be children that put a smile on your face. And then whatever you give us, Lord, it will be good. Whatever you give us, it will be good. Just help us to be the children that you've called us to be. And we ask you for the grace and strength to do these things in Jesus' name. Amen.