of prayers in my absence and God did a great work on our trip. There was some different trials that were faced as we started the trip. My roommate, Don, His luggage didn't come for I think three days after we were there. The main group coming from the United States, they were delayed by four hours in their flight out of New York City because of snow and lack of security staff or something like that. And there are some different bumps like that, but God just took us through all those things and we had gorgeous weather. We had a really good tour guide, Erez, as I mentioned. He's a Messianic Jew and we got to stay at Yad Hashmana, which is a place that was established by a Messianic Jewish community. That's where he stays and got to see some incredible things. That place, Yad Hashbanah, has a biblical garden that you can walk down through where they have different artifacts. Some are old, some are new. And so the actual artifacts, obviously those are old. But then they also have rebuilt some things as they would have been in the time of Christ so that you can have a look at a ceremonial cleansing pool that you'd walk down into, walk up out the other side, a tower, like a watchtower. And they have a synagogue that was moved to the site that has only got walls about this high, but it's an actual synagogue from over 1,000 years ago that they brought to that site. And so it's just really a neat place. But what's really cool about the place, it's just off the road to Emmaus, which the Bible speaks about. the two men on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection of Christ, and they meet with Christ on that road. But then also, not far from there is where the Ark came back after the Philistines took it in battle. And when it came back, those men looked inside of it, and God killed like 30,000 of them. And they took the ark from there, and they brought it up to a property. That property is right next to Yad Hashbanah, where we stayed. And when I went running, I ran in a circular fashion up to the point where basically the ark was brought. And it's probably less than a half mile from this property. And it's interesting to me that the significance of that in history and the significance today of a Messianic Jewish community right there close by because Christianity is persecuted in Israel. If they know that you're a Messianic Jew, it's going to be very difficult for you to get back into the country and to get citizenship. But generally speaking, if you're one fourth Jewish, you can come back to Israel and immigrate to Israel and be there. But if they find out you're a Messianic Jew, it's going to be very difficult. And so anyway, Incredible trip. Look forward to sharing different things about it, but thank you so much for your prayers. This morning, we're in Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 13. We're going to look at the idea of prayer. I think if I look back to my college years, that was the time where the Lord really began to work in my heart about my prayer life. I had a bit of a prayer life in high school, but God developed that as I got into college. Specifically, in one instance, I remember him using a book, it was a book about Hudson Taylor, it's called Spiritual Secrets, to really impact my life and my prayer life. I was in Barge Hospital, which is the hospital at Bob Jones, and I forget, I probably had a bad cold, was run down, whatever, and I ended up checking in for a day or two. And I'd gotten this book, I think, quite recently, and so I had that book with me and I started to read it. And actually, it's a fairly thick book, if you look at it, and probably about five, six hundred pages. But I don't think I hardly put it down while I was in the hospital, just reading through the ways that Hudson Taylor trusted God. He decided as he went to the field that he would trust God in England. before getting to China. So he would prove God by faith here before he left to go to the foreign field and see God answer prayers that when he got to the foreign field, he'd be ready to stand and see God answer prayer in that place. One story that stands out to me and one of my favorite stories is a man asked him, to please come and for his wife is really ill. And so he comes to him and says, please, please, you got to come. My wife's so ill, he goes to the house and the house is just, you know, decrepit and there's hardly anything in there, hardly a stick of furniture and very cold. And there's this woman on this bed and she's obviously very ill, deathly ill, and they have no money to get any medicine. And so husband Taylor had a great prayer life. And so the man says, please, please, You know, can you do anything? And so he begins to pray, and he begins to pray, and he can't pray. It's like the heavens are brass. And the Spirit of God convicts him and said, you know, in your pocket is, I forget what it was, a crown or something like that. You know, it's one coin that he had, but it's all that he had, and it's what he had to pay his rent. And the Spirit of God reminded him of that verse that said, give to him that ascothy. And the man had just said, sir, if you can do anything, please help us. You can see my wife is in great need, and the Spirit of God convicts him, but he thinks, but that's all that I have. And he gives it to him, he says, this may not seem like very much, but it's all that I have. And then he had liberty to pray and ask God to meet the needs of that woman. And as he went back, he had a light heart, gets back to his property where he stayed, and I forget if it was that night or the next morning, he receives in the mail an envelope. And in that envelope, which you couldn't read the writing on the outside to know who it was from, But inside it is a woman's glove, and in that woman's glove is something like four or five times or eight times what he had given to the people the night before, a coin, so he was able to pay his rent and buy provisions for his food in that. And it's awesome. You read stories like that and you think, wow, God, I want that kind of prayer life. And you look at Hudson Taylor. He's gonna see God provide in miraculous ways, but he also is a man of prayer, and he's gonna accomplish great things for God. And when you study biographies and you read biographies, and God has wonderfully preserved stories about men and women of God in recent church history, but you read that, one thing you always find, anybody that did anything for God was somebody that had a deep prayer life. They didn't have kind of an average prayer life. They didn't have an ordinary prayer life. I mean, if you were to think about each one of those people and think what stands out in the life of this person, usually I believe you'd come to the conclusion that they were a man or woman of prayer. They knew how to pray. And so, we might say in our hearts, you know, I wanna pray like that, and obviously we're not the first generation to do that. In our text this morning, in Luke chapter 11, verse one, we have the disciples coming to Jesus, one of the disciples, and saying to Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray. I mean, Jesus had a powerful prayer life. I've heard people say, Jesus prayed because He wanted to teach us to pray. I don't agree with that. Jesus prayed because He had to pray. Why? Because Philippians 2 tells us He became a man who was in all points tempted like you and I are. He became flesh. He was in the form of God. He was made in the form of man. Jesus Christ prayed because prayer is vital, because prayer is important, because without prayer we can't succeed in doing anything that God's called us to do. So Jesus prayed. Before He chose His 12 disciples, we find Him out spending the night in prayer. How often Jesus would get to that solitary place, He was continually pressed upon by people as He's doing His earthly ministry, and He'd seek that place alone with God. And he prayed. His disciples looked at that and said, wow, Jesus has a great prayer life. And so they came to him and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. And so we're going to get into that this morning. I don't know how far we'll get as we go through this chapter. We'll try to get through quite a bit. If you have a pen. and a piece of paper. You might want to take notes to write some things down. This is important as we consider how God wants us to pray. And so let's do that this morning as we begin. Let's pray and ask God to bless his word to our hearts. Father, we acknowledge this morning your greatness. Father, your creation is wonderful. I got to see some of your creation I've never seen before in the past two weeks. I looked at deserts. I saw the lowest spot on this planet, the Dead Sea. Father, we saw the beauty of your creation as I flew over Europe and looked down at the lights from all those villages and cities that were far below. And Father, as I flew over the English Channel and up through England into Scotland and saw the glory of your creation, the glory of the clouds and acknowledged that, God, you're great and you're glorious. And Father, you're worthy of worship and you're worthy of praise this morning. And Father, all that we have and all that we need is from you. And I pray that this morning, as we come to the Word of God, that you'd give us today our daily bread. I pray that you'd feed us from the Word of life. Father, I pray that you'd strengthen us. And Father, what an impact we could have if in our church we had men and women of prayer. I mean, the impact would be far greater than if we had great preachers or great teachers or great singers or great instrumentalists. Father, what we need is people that are great in this arena of prayer. And so I asked that the Spirit of God would answer the prayer that was asked by this disciple on that day. Lord, teach us to pray. Father, it might be that here this morning there's somebody that really doesn't have a prayer line. They haven't really found the joy of going to God and asking to have their needs met. There might be somebody that needs to go to God for the first time and say, Lord, I need to be saved. I need Jesus Christ as my Savior. I need the blood applied to my heart. I need that gift of everlasting life. that put their faith in the death and the resurrection of Jesus and receive that gift. Lord, may that be the gift of prayer today in the heart of that person that they could pray for the first time in their life a real prayer that is answered. And Father, I just pray by the grace that you possess that you challenge our hearts this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And so the first thing as we come to this idea of prayer is God gives us a prayer pattern. It's kind of the idea of what do I pray? And so Jesus said in verse 2, He said unto them, when ye pray, say. When you pray, say, this is not the first book of common prayer. You know, it's not liturgical prayer. I am grieved and probably if you're a believer, you've been grieved to go to a service and have somebody, you know, say, let us pray and they open up a book and they begin to read something. That's not prayer. So He's not giving us something that is liturgical. In fact, the Word of God is against liturgy. Matthew 6, 7 says, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. They are liturgical. They are formalistic, and they ask the same thing every time, and they say it the same way. That's not what the Lord is teaching us. It's a pattern. Yeah, it's an example to us. So what do I pray? First of all, what you pray has to remember that God, put God first in prayer. When you begin to pray, what you should say is something to do with who God is. First of all, remember where He is. He's in heaven. It says in our text, our Father, which art in heaven. See, God is far above. God is in an exalted position and place as He is in glory. Ecclesiastes 5.2 says, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. He's God. He's God. You know, I was amazed as you go, I got, oh, here's, I'll just use this example. Coming back through Israel, and I kind of sensed this when I was there, they don't really like my beard. They don't. Security in Israel doesn't like my beard. All right, so I'm coming through security. Finally, I said to Lee, look, I'm not Muslim. This is my kissing beard. I like to kiss my wife. She didn't like to kiss my beard. This is a compromise, right? That's what we got going on here. This has nothing to do with Islam. And I said, Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God. You know, as we come to this study of prayer, it's remembering who he is. We're going to, get in our knees and we're entering into a very, very powerful place. The place is heaven by faith. We're entering into the Holy of Holies. We looked at the temple when I was there over in Israel and they showed, you know, structures and models of the temple and we went to the Temple Institute where, by the way, they're building the third temple. They've got, I mean, we saw the stuff that they have already prepared for the temple. and ready to get up there on the Temple Mound and build this thing. They've got drawings for it. They've got plans for it. It's all taking place. But I mean, you look at the Holy of Holies, and the priest, the high priest alone, once a year, was to go into that place, that sacred place. And you realize, you know, we go to prayer. We're not going to a ballgame. We're not going to a sporting event. We're entering into the presence of God. And so remember where he is. Then remember who he is. It says, hallowed be thy name. Holy be thy name. As you enter into the presence of God, you're entering into the presence of someone who makes no mistakes. We had, the last day we were there, we were at the Garden Tomb, and they'd warned us. They said, be careful because there's pickpockets that work these streets. And that bus station over there, they're known to hang out there. That's their base of business. And so be very careful. And so we were all conscious of that as we walked in, and none more so than Dr. Steadman. But Dr. Steadman, as he came out, he had a guy that was coming alongside of him and saying, buy the postcards of the Garden Tomb, buy the postcards of the Garden Tomb. And Dr. Steadman had both his hands in his pocket, one hand on his wallet, one hand on his phone, but he must have gestured. And when he gestured, that pickpocket reached in his pocket and took his phone. Took his phone with all the pictures that he had from the trip. That was the final stop of our trip. I mean, we were just going from there to the motel to pack, to get food to eat, to head to the airport to fly home. That was it. Stole his phone. You know what, Dr. Stedman stood up at the restaurant that night and led us in prayer and he said, let's remember, nobody can steal your joy. Why? Because God's good. Why? Because God's in control. Because God's faithful. Because he's holy. See, we can never say to God, God, you made a mistake in my life. When we go to prayer, it's not to correct God and to say, God, you're wrong. And this is why you're wrong. We're going into the presence of somebody who is always, always right, no matter what circumstance has taken place in our life. So remember who he is. He is holy. Then remember how he is. He is king. He is king. It says in our text, how would be thy name, thy kingdom come. His kingdom's coming. And by the way, if he has a kingdom, who is he? He's king. Thy kingdom come. We stood on the Mount of Olives on our last day there. The Mount of Olives looks down at the eastern wall of the temple mound. The eastern gate is there. The eastern gate is where Jesus Christ is going to enter as he comes into that property on the day of his return to set up his millennial kingdom. On that day, the Mount of Olives is going to split, and it's going to split right down the middle as Jesus Christ comes back. He's king. We enter into His presence. Whose presence are we entering into? The presence of the King. Jesus said in John 18, 36, He answered, My kingdom is not of this world, speaking to Pilate. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from thence. But thy kingdom come. His kingdom is not here, but his kingdom is coming. And so as we pray, we're praying to somebody that is going to be over physically this whole world when his kingdom comes. And just considering again, how he is, he is king. Then remember what he is doing. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth. This morning, how is God's will done in heaven? Perfectly, right? I mean, if God says to Gabriel or God says to another angel or to somebody, do this, what happens? It's done. God's will is absolutely perfectly done in heaven, but God's will is not perfectly done on earth. God blessed us with the opportunity to choose what we do today. God's will is that we be in the house of God. God's will is that we be holy. God's will is that we be saved. God's will is that we live a life that's right in his sight. But is God's will being perfectly done in our lives? No. And so Jesus said, when you pray, pray this, God, I pray that your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God, I pray for these people. in our community, that they submit to the authority of God, that they receive Jesus Christ, their Savior. God, I pray that my family, that my heart would be submitted to the will of God, that I could do God's will today, just like God's will is being done in heaven. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so submitting to the will of God, so remembering who he is, remember how he is, and remembering what he is doing. And then set your immediate needs before him. Verse 3 says, give us day by day our daily bread. Now notice in that statement, it's not a monthly supply, is it? Or even a weekly supply. It's just a daily supply. A lot of times I, In our hearts, we can get burdened about the fact that, God, I can't see how this is going to work. Even right now, I can get burdened about the fact that I want my kids to go to Bible college. I want them to be able to get that education that's not just secular, but is a Christian-based education. I'm burdened about that. You know what? I could be overwhelmed by that. Thank God. I don't know how you're ever going to supply six children, go through college. How's that going to work out? But I'm not to be burdened about that today. Because God meets my needs when? Daily. There might be something in your future that you're looking at and you say, God, I don't see how this is going to work out. I don't know how it's going to take place. But God hasn't asked us to know or to think or even to pray about that. God's just said, hey, pray about today. Pray about today. Lord, today, meet my needs today. Provide food for me today. Provide for my daily needs. Matthew 6, 34 says, therefore, take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil era. There's there's enough going on today. We don't need to worry about tomorrow. Well, I was in high school or not even in high school. I was 12 years old going to a public school and I was scared to go to school. I was afraid I was I was so worried about things that were going on in school and stuff like that. And I remember my mom coming to me and giving me that verse take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow. So take thought for the things of itself. sufficient unto the day as the evil thereof. And I remember thinking, I was at my grandparents' house. We were staying with them. I remember meditating on that verse as I went to sleep. Take therefore no thought. We don't need to know the future. We just need to be willing to say, God, I've got a need today. Please provide today and meet my needs today. So set your immediate needs before him. And then, Set your immediate needs before Him, then make certain that your heart is clean towards God and others. Verse 4 says, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. That's a tough prayer, isn't it? It sounds very simple. Forgive us our sins, but then, for we also forgive everyone that's indebted to us. Have you ever heard somebody say, that person did me wrong, I will never forgive them. I will never forgive him. I will never forgive her. That's a problem, isn't it? Because how can I pray as God wants me to pray if I've said in my heart, you know what? You owe me a debt and it's never gonna be settled. Sin is a debt. Anytime we sin against God, there's a debt that we owe him. When we ask his forgiveness, he forgives us that debt. We no longer owe him something because he took the obligation away. And so somebody trespasses against us and we could hold a grudge and say, but you owe me, you owe me. But God says, forgive, forgive. But the thing is, somebody could refuse to forgive, but can I share something with you from the word of God? If you don't forgive that person, God will not forgive you. That's a very serious thing. I'd be scared today to think, you know, I can't go to God in prayer. How can I pray to God? I know that that person wronged me and I will not forgive them. And so what do I know this morning if I've got sin in my life and I want to go to God and say, God, I'm sorry, what do I know? God will not forgive me. There's some people that aren't saved because they refuse to forgive somebody a debt that is owed to them. And so they can't get God's forgiveness because they've not dealt with that. There's people that are embittered in churches because, and I've heard this in ministry that I've been acquainted with, in churches there's bitterness and anger against somebody in that congregation and a refusal to forgive them. But what do I sadly know about the person that's in that condition? They can't possibly be right with God because God has said, I will not forgive those who don't forgive. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that's indebted to us. Matthew 6, 15 says, but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And so this morning, Lord, teach us to pray. Okay, disciples, here's this. Listen, God, forgive me as I forgive. That's the model prayer. And so if in our hearts we can deal with that sin of unforgiveness and say, I forgive you, I release you of your debt, then all of a sudden we have prayer, real prayer. And so it's important in this topic of how do I get answers to prayer? Well, make sure that your heart is right, that there's nobody in your life that you've said to them, I will not forgive you, I refuse to forgive you, and we're bitter in our hearts towards them. And then ask for God's protection against wickedness. It says also in verse four, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so I'm praying, I'm saying, God, don't lead me into temptation. God, guard me from temptation. Help me to, and deliver us from evil. God, will you protect me against that? We stood, sadly, at a place where David really failed against God. I didn't realize this before I went, but you have the Temple Mound in Jerusalem that is part of the Old City, and then you have what's called the City of David. The City of David, with regard to Jerusalem, is just the sliver that was Jerusalem in the time of David. It wasn't a big section, but it was kind of an upper section, looking a part of the valley below, and we stood where the palace of King David would have been. What was interesting is right below the palace, you could see where the houses would have been. And it wasn't far down. In our minds, one of the things that was remarkable about the trip is we have this concept of size. And really, I would say this about Bible lands, everything is much smaller. Everything is closer together. I'll share some of that tonight as I share some of the places that we went to. And so it's not far away and it's where David, probably looking down, it's the only place on that property that would have been, like the Bible said, where he saw Bathsheba and he sinned and he failed God and David fell. And so what an appropriate prayer. Lord, lead us not into temptation. David said in Psalm 19, 13, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. David sensed in his heart a need for God in his restraining grace to guard him from sin. Not just forgive him, not just restore him, but as he walked, he wanted to walk in right paths. He wanted to be on guard against sin. You know, God's merciful to do that. Probably all of us can look back at times in our life and say, you know, it's only the grace of God that kept me from going down a path that was so against God. It's only his restraining grace. There's a story that speaks about that in the Old Testament. Abimelech, king of Gerar in Genesis 20, is a time where Abraham, you know, Abraham would go down in Egypt and he'd say to Sarah, say, you're my sister, because she was his half sister back then, that was okay. And she was distantly related to him. And so he says, say you're my sister because she's beautiful. And he thought, if they think I'm her husband, they're going to kill me so they could take her to what? As their wife. And so she would obey her husband and say that. And so this guy, King of Gerar, Abimelech, took Sarah with the hope of making her his wife, not knowing, okay, did he know? No. That she was married to Abraham. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, behold, thou art but a dead man. For the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, she's my sister. And she herself said, he's my brother. In the integrity of my heart, in the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart. Now this is what I want us to get. For I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. What's interesting about that is Abimelech didn't know. In the integrity of his heart, he thought this was really Abraham's sister, but it wasn't. It was Abraham's wife. But notice, God kept them apart because God intervened. Why are we praying and saying, God, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil? because we need God's protection and we need God's intervention. There ought to be in each one of our hearts an understanding that, except by the grace of God, there go I. I need today to ask God, God, please guard me from temptation. God, help me to walk in bright paths. God, it's pride that thinks I can do this thing on my own, I can get through life without sin. The reality is I need God's help. And so as Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he said, you know what, ask for God's protection. As you pray, ask God, God guard me from sin. So there's a pattern. What do I pray? Put God first in prayer, set immediate needs before him, forgive and ask forgiveness, and then ask God's protection against sin. So that's a praying pattern. What do I pray? Secondly, the praying person, the praying person, this is the intercessor or the person who prays, the praying person. What do they look like? Well, verse five is where we're at. They are a person or a man who can approach God at any time, at any time. Verse five says, and he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. Okay, it's middle of the night. But there's a need that's on the heart of this person. We'll see why they have this need, but they feel comfortable going to this friend, and this friend represents God, okay, in the story. They feel comfortable, no matter what time of night it is, because of the urgency of the need, they are comfortable to go to that friend and knock on the door and say, please, I've got a need right now. And so an intercessor is a person that feels like they have immediate access to God. Remember Hudson Taylor, I shared that story at the beginning. As he went to prayer for that woman, what he expected was great liberty. He expected to sense the presence of God. He expected to sense an openness of being able to ask God, God, meet the need of this woman. The only reason he didn't is because the answer was in his pocket. But his expectation was God would hear. You know, as you think about prayer, how sweet is your prayer time? All of us have had different seasons of prayer. If we're born again, we have a relationship with God. There have probably been times in our life where we felt like, I've got immediate access to God. If I have a need, I can go to God, and I know I've got God's ear. But there's other times where we're not walking with God, we're not close to God, and we don't have that. sense of immediate access. An intercessor is somebody that is ready because this need that comes to this man is not something that he can see coming. He has to be ready so that he can enter into the presence of God, in this case, this friend, to seek an answer to his needs. So an intercessor, a praying person, is a man who can approach God at any time. And it's also a man upon whom others depend for God's favor. It says in verse six, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me. I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. And so again, that friend that cannot rise say, it's the middle of the night. My kids are sleeping. And if I get up, I'm going to wake them up. That's that person in the story represents God. But the in-between person, the man that has come and knocked on the door, is somebody that in the middle of the night has had a knock on his door. Somebody's come on a journey and they've said, you know, here we are, and we've got a need. And they expected that this person could meet their need through the provision of the other friend who represents God. You know, if we're an intercessor, there ought to be times where people come to us and say, you know what, I know you have a prayer life, And I've got a burden on my heart. I've got a burden in my life and I need to see God answer and meet this need. And will you please pray? We take this need to the Lord. There ought to be times where maybe an unsaved friend says to us, look, I know you're a praying person. Please, we pray. We ask God to meet the need that I have in my life. You know, we just received last night, and this is a prayer request, put this on your prayer list if you have one, but Cheryl Webb's mom has just been diagnosed with cancer. Okay, the Webbs were with us in January last year at Evangelist. Her mom's just been diagnosed with cancer. They're asking that God please, if he sees fit, remove it and heal her mom. She's in her 70s. And so what they did, they sent out a prayer request too to churches that they know will pray. You know, that's good, isn't it? To be able to go to people and say, and they can pray, and they do pray, but to say to others, we need you to intercede as well. And there ought to be those times where people are bringing those needs to us and saying, hey, please pray about this with me. So a man upon whom others depend for God's favor. And then a man who prevails with God. Verse eight. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. This is speaking about God, okay, in the illustration. Yet because of the importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. This man prevails. He's at the door. I need something. And in the story, even though he's a friend of this person down here, he's not going to get up and meet his need because he's a friend. He's going to get up and meet his need because the guy will not go away. Because he's there saying, no, I've got a need. It's got to be met. It's for this friend of mine. He's coming on a journey. He needs bread. And he just prevails within our story, this friend, but in reality with God. We passed as we drove down the Jordan Valley with the Jordan River on our left. There was a point where he pointed over and said, that's where Jacob prevailed with God. Remember that story he said of Jacob and Esau? And that over there is where that took place. And the story is about Jacob, Genesis 32, 28. He said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed. That's a great picture of intercession. Remember, Jesus, or a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus, appeared to, I get the name right, Jacob, and wrestled with him, and Jacob prevailed. It's a picture of prevailing prayer. It's a picture of saying, what Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. How's your prayer line? When's the last time you really wrestled with God in prayer and said, this is something that's so important, I'm not gonna let go. God, we've gotta see you answer. That's what an intercessor does. An intercessor has a strong faith to prevail with God. James 5.16 says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. How's your prayer life? See, what we don't need this morning is people that know how to quote the Lord's prayer. We need people that have the ability to prevail in prayer. And so, the praying person, who prays? A man who can approach God at any time, a man upon whom others depend, and a man who prevails with God in prayer. And then the praying power, the intent, or how do I pray? Okay, how do I pray? We need just to ask, ask. It says in our text, verse nine, and I say unto you, ask. And what? Read it for me in your text. If you've got it, verse 9. Ask and what? It shall be given unto you. Are you not saved this morning? Have you not accepted Jesus Christ your Savior? Let me just say to you, it's a very simple thing this morning. All you have to do is ask. Ask and it shall be given unto you. That's easy, isn't it? I mean, imagine me, go with me to McDonald's and get in the queue and walk up with me to the counter and just stand there and look at the person. And when they ask us, what can I get you? Just stare at them. And if you're not removed by the police after an hour, after an hour, scream and say, why didn't you give me what I wanted? And what would they say? Why didn't you ask? You know, there's a lot of people that get upset with God. God, why didn't you meet this need? Why didn't you provide it? And I think God a lot of times could just simply say to that person, what? Why didn't you ask? You have not because you ask not. Why don't we have God's power? Why aren't we seeing more people get saved? Why aren't we seeing things established more quickly? How's our prayer life? Ask and you shall receive. Secondly, we just need to seek. We just need to seek. It says, seek and what? You shall find. I didn't get the names of the men in the article. I'm kind of catching up with news now that I'm back. I was totally clueless a bit about news while I was gone because we had so many other things taking place. But I saw an article last night having to do with a nine-year search for artifacts in New England. and how it was finally found by two men with, you know, they've got their, what's that thing called? Metal detector. Thank you. Looking for treasure. Nine years. They had obviously some information that made them understand that this treasure could possibly be in this location and for nine years they searched and now they found it. It's worth millions of pounds. Millions of pounds. But if you seek, you shall what? Find. I'm tired of meeting people that you talk to about salvation, and they go, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe there is a God. And you go, have you read the book? Have you looked? If heaven and hell are there, have you looked? Have you read the book? Seeking you shall find. Why aren't people getting saved? Nobody's seeking. Go with me. Let's knock on some doors in our community. Knock, knock, knock. Hey, just tell me, how much time did you spend this past week reading the Bible? You know what the answer is? Zero. How much time this past year? Zero. You know what? Guess what? And George Mueller did this. He sought and he found. You know what he did when he had a need? He'd look for a promise from God. Then he'd pray that promise and God would answer and meet his need. Again, going back to salvation. How do I know if you ask, you'll get saved? Because God's word promises that if you call upon him, you'll be saved. That's it. Seeking you shall find. What's the last thing? It says, we just need to knock, right? Knock and what? It shall be open unto you. Nah. You know what? We might be able to open doors, but sometimes we shouldn't. I had a guy in Illinois, we were traveling in our caravan and this man, we're parked in a car park of a church property and this man lived nearby. You know what he did? He grabbed the handle of my door and he opened my door and he said, what are you doing here? Okay. And you know what I said? I said, you just opened my door. He said, I'm thinking about calling the police on you guys. I said, I'm thinking about calling the police on you. You just opened the door to my house. He had no right to open that door. Do you know what? In our lives, in things that God has in front of us, we have no right to open doors. We might be able to. We might be able to reach out and try to open doors, but you know what? We shouldn't open doors because the Bible says, knock and it shall be opened unto you. God is the one, in his timing, that opens doors. God is the one in his timing that makes the way open before us. So that's some simple truth, isn't it? How do I pray? Ask, seek, knock, and then expect. We just need to expect. Verse 10, it says, for everyone that asketh, what? Receive it. And he that seeketh, what? Findeth. And to him that knocketh, what? It shall be opened. Bernard let me know, can you help him, Benson? He needs to leave at 12 and so that's fine. Thanks for coming, Bernard. But you think about it. The Lord teaches us to pray. Okay, Jesus says, ask, seek, knock. And He doesn't say, ask and it won't be given unto you. Seek and you're not going to find. Knock and it shall be opened, right? He doesn't say that. He says, You ought to expect when you go to prayer that you're going to get exactly what you asked for. Isn't that good? It's not vain. It's not vain for us to meet, and by the way, we do meet, and I encourage you to come at 940 if you can on Sunday mornings to 955. We pray and we ask God, please God, work in our service today. Do your work in our hearts today. Do your work in our lives today. Why? Because God answers prayer. So if you ask, seek, and not All these effectual things take place. God is going to answer. Because Matthew 21, 22 says, All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Faith is the answer. And when's the last time you went to God in faith and say, God, I got this need? I am asking you to meet it and I am believing you for the answer. I'm trusting you for the answer. And so the praying power, how do I pray? Ask, seek, knock, expect. And then the praying purpose. Why do I pray? Why do I pray? First of all, because fathers meet needs. Verse 11 says, if a son shall ask bread of any that is a father, will he give him a stone? When's the last time, Mr. Hyken, your children came to you and said, Dad, I'm hungry and you gave them a stone? It doesn't happen, right? Please guys say that's never happened, right? It doesn't. An earthly father never looks at his child and says, hey, I want to give you something awful when you ask me for something. No, an earthly father doesn't do that. How much more than you go to God and say, God, please, I've got a need. Give us this day our daily bread. Is God going to give us something bad in the place you know, worse than what our earthly Father would do? And so our expectation again is that God, you're my Father. Because He's my Father, what? He's obligated. He's obligated. You know, your earthly Father has a responsibility to meet your needs. God, as our Heavenly Father this morning, has a responsibility to meet our needs. And so we go to him believing him because fathers meet needs, because fathers protect from danger. Or if he asks a fish, will he give them for a fish a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give them a scorpion? Is God going to give us something that hurts us instead of something that's helpful to us? No. Romans 8, 28, say it with me if you know it, all things, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Does that mean my phone being stolen out of my pocket, you know, at the garden tomb when I'm obeying God and pleasing God? And the answer is yes, even that. All things work together for good. You know, sometimes it's kind of like this. Imagine I had a really nice gift for my son. I wrapped it up really nice and I put it for him. And somebody mean came along and they took that package and they wrapped it with nasty paper and stuff and put it back there. And my son came along and said, Look at this package that my dad left for me. I mean, it looks so nasty on the outside. They could do one of two things. They could either think, that's what must be nasty on the inside too, or they could think this, my dad never gives me things that are junk. There must be something nice on the inside. I'm going to open it up and see what's there. See, sometimes there's things that take place in our life and Satan comes along and says, ah, you know, that's no good. It's awful. It's going to be horrible. It's miserable. There's nothing good in there. And if we don't open it up, we never understand why God gave us something so precious because the wrapping seemed so corrupt. Satan wants us to view it and say, God, you must be mean. God, you must hate me instead of getting to the blessing. Everything in our life as a believer, we ought to be able to unwrap it and say, you know, I know there's something good here because it's from God. And if it's from God, he's not going to give me something that hurts me, but something that helps me. And I've already quoted the verse, Romans 8, 28. And then, because our heavenly father is better than the best earthly father, verse 13, if ye then, being evil, okay, us, our hearts are corrupt as earthly dads, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? How much more is God gonna give something good? Our expectation ought to be if an earthly father can in any way meet the needs of our child, then a heavenly father could do so much better. This morning, we're thinking about prayer. We need men and women of prayer. Nothing greater for our church today than to have people that know how to go to God and say, God, I've got a need. We've got a need. Our community has a need. God, will you meet this need? What do you pray? When you pray, do you acknowledge who God is? Do you ask him about daily needs that you have and say, Lord, I'm here again today. You met my needs yesterday. I'm here again because God, I've got needs today. Do you ask God, God, protect me. Don't let me go astray. Don't let me walk in a path that's wicked. God, help me to do that which is pleasing in your sight. What do you pray? And then are you an intercessor? Are you someone that has immediate access to God? You're walking closely to God, and you just know that you can go knock at his door at any moment, any time? Do you have people coming to you and saying, I know you pray. I've got a need. Will you please take this need before God in prayer? Then when you pray, do you ask? Do you seek? Are you finding? Are those doors being opened? Is there an expectation that God is going to answer your prayers? Are you convinced that God is good and that God's going to meet your needs? You look at Hudson Taylor. And man, I love those stories about men and women that had great ability to pray. And it challenges me, and I think this morning it challenges us. Are we people of prayer? We can be. We're not any different than those people of the past. May God help us to prevail in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we praise you again because you're a God that does hear us this morning when we come before you. Thank you, Father, that you're a God that is just waiting for an opportunity to bless and provide for your children. Thank you for your holiness. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for giving us the privilege of coming into your presence to pray. And Father, we ask that you please teach us to pray, even as you taught your disciples. Father, help us to be the intercessor that has the ability to go to God and to see answers to prayer. And Lord, strengthen us in this regard. It's in Christ, and we pray this morning. Amen.