This lecture, we are looking now at supplication. For most people who come to a prayer workshop or seminar, everything else is fluff. What they really want to know is how to get God to go to work for them. They want God to get up off his throne and get busy. And what's the secret word? What's the secret phrase? What is the secret key to blessing so that God will do exactly what we tell him to do? So let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Oh Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O Lord, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you are sending it out and for which you have gathered us together. Protect us from Satan who will snatch your word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke your word. Protect us, O Lord, from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Rather, plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, O Lord. Give us good soil that your sown word would send roots downward and then bear fruit upwards. Unsheath now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. Cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each person gathered here. Spread your word before our lives as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. us the heart of the prophet who cried to you thy words were found and I did eat them and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart from called by thy name O Lord God of hosts. O Lord we live in a dark and and a wicked age. Broad is the way, and many are on it, which leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandment, enlarge our hearts that in loving you, we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget, but make us active doers and not forgetful listeners to your holy word. O Lord, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior. We pledge to you this day our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. in the name of our lord and resurrected savior jesus christ we pray amen well let's look at supplication nothing like paying the bills to keep your wife encouraged you know the number one reason in my 20 years of missionary work and 45 years of full-time ministry. The number one reason that wives become bitter towards God and the ministry is their husbands are either not up to budget or poor managers of the budget. The number one reason children are angry at God is because their fathers are non-resident fathers. They're more interested in other people's children than they are their own. And the number one reason I have observed that ministers fall into sin is because they don't stay up to budget, so they're discouraged. Their wives and children are angry at them, so they don't feel appreciated. So they finally decide, you know, nothing ever good happens to me, I want something good to happen to me, and Satan supplies it. And they fall into sin. Okay, supplication. Now, it's true though, isn't it? When people come to a prayer workshop, praise Thanksgiving, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Confession, well, yeah, yeah, I'm pretty into session, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Supplication, yeah, how do I get God to do my will? So the short answer is this, you do not. God is not going to do our will, no matter what we say. Now, we're going to do a whole section on why prayers go unanswered. But we don't play mind games with God. We don't say, well, in Jesus' name, now you have to do it. You promised, now you have to do it. You have to do what I said. So no, God doesn't do our will. We do his will. So how do we pray? We pray to God the Father. Now I sent these notes out. You can take notes here on the whiteboard or you can print them out and then write on them. But we pray to God the Father. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6, 9, pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven. So we are praying to God the Father. We are praying in the name of God the Son. For there is one God and one mediator between God men, the man Christ Jesus. So we come to God in the name of his son. That means there is, there exists no earthly mediator for our prayers. Not a priest, not a pastor, not a holy man, not a so-called man of God. There is no mediators. Your bishop, your Pentecostal bishop, your Pentecostal prophet cannot become a mediator, lay hands on you and give you a gift or give you a blessing or anything like that. Jesus is the one mediator. That's it, beginning and end. Now that doesn't mean we cannot ask people to pray for us. But those are intercessory prayers. We'll look at that next week if we get through supplication in one week. But intercession is not mediation. I've been in this situation many times. The classic one is when I was in India and the pastor's daughter and her husband came up and asked if I would pray that they could have a child. And basically, they wanted a booster miracle. Some Pentecostal prophet had come through town. He had claimed to be a mediator. He had laid one hand on her head, raised the other hand to God, and commanded that she become pregnant. And then he took his money and left. She didn't become pregnant. So of course, it's always somebody else's fault, isn't it, Bishan? Yes, sir. So he said, well, you just don't have faith. That's your problem. Well, if it was going to be faith, she wouldn't have needed him in the first place, would she? No. So she and her husband were under guilt and they wanted me to pray for them. So I said, you know, I'll be glad to pray for you, but... My prayer is not any better than yours or anybody else's. And I began sharing with her the doctrine of prayer. There's one God, one mediator. Children are a blessing of the Lord and a gift, but not the blessing and gift. There are many blessings and gifts that God, that not having a child is no reflection on faith. It's a universal gift given to all men as laid down in God's covenant with mankind in Genesis 1 and 2. Muslims have babies. Hindus have babies. Drug addicts have babies. Prostitutes have babies. Demon-possessed witches in the village have babies. It's a universal blessing. It has no reflection on faith. Well, they didn't want to hear that. They wanted me to get God to give her a baby and were very upset with me when I said I couldn't do it. But I can't do it and nor can anyone else because there are no human mediators. And our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church and in the United Pentecostal Church and many charismatic churches who set themselves up as a priest or a man of God who can become a mediator and dispense gifts, dispense callings, dispense miracles, dispense answered prayer are simply wrong. 1 Timothy 2.5. And we do this by the guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God. 2 Peter 1.21, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but man moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. And so we have the Word of God are the words of God, the Holy Spirit. 2nd Timothy 3.16, all scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, that the man of God may be well equipped, ready for all good works. So the word of God is not only inspired, it's adequate. So it's given to us for that very purpose by God the Holy Spirit. So that guides our prayers. Now, some people, and we'll address this later, but turn with me. Now, this is why I like this noon study, because it's small enough where there can be participation. Look at, okay, Bishan, if you will turn to Jude, second to last book of the Bible. It's a good Bible trivia question. Now, what is the last book of the bible but uh... what is the second to last book of the bible if you look at jude chapter one verse twenty now deanna i'm going to ask you deanna how are your eyeballs today i can find things in my little You got your reading eyeballs all peeled up? Well, I don't have my new glasses yet, but I can read scripture. Okay, put the Oscar. Turn to, if you would, Deanna, 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 30. Bishan, if you would read your passage, please. Okay, Jude 1, 20. but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, when people hear that, praying in the Spirit, they assume that is speaking in an angelic tongue. But that is a universal command to all Christians, isn't it? Yes. Bishan, if you write in the margin of your Bible, write Ephesians chapter 6 Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18 that says with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit so these are praying in the spirit is a universal command for all Christians So Deanna, if you would read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 30. Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? Yeah, so that's a rhetorical question, isn't it? Not everybody possesses the gift of healing. Not everybody possesses the gift of interpretation. And not everybody possesses the gift of tongues. However, in chapter 13, everybody has faith, hope, and love. These gifts and calling are given individually as God decides to distribute them. So the command to pray in the spirit cannot mean praying in the Pentecostal charismatic unknown angelic tongue because we're all commanded to do it. Rather, praying in the spirit means to conform our prayers to the word of God. The prayers of the Holy Spirit will never violate or contradict the teaching of the Holy Spirit. That's like Deanna, she's got her little children gathered around and she's giving them their evening Bible lesson and it's on stealing, that thievery is a sin. And she's in Ephesians 4, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor. And so she is teaching her children to live a life of integrity. Leviticus 19.11, thou shalt not lie, nor steal, nor deal falsely with one another. And she exhorts them to do that. And then she says, now we'll close in prayer. Lord, I really need a new car, and bless me tonight as I go out and steal one. Now, would you say, would you pray that, Deanna? I wouldn't. No. You would pray, your prayer would conform with your teaching. Lord, I need a new car, I pray that you would grant it to me, but until you do, help me not to covet, to lie, to steal, to deal falsely, but to wait upon you. And that, if that would be Deanna, prayers being conformed, to her teaching, how much more will God the Holy Spirit's prayers be conformed to the teaching of God the Holy Spirit? So praying in the Spirit is praying with our prayers conforming to the Word of God. So we pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. Prayer has to do with the relationship with God. We required our children to say please when they asked us for something. But if our child said, please can I have the ketchup? May I please have the ketchup? Pass the ketchup please? Any form of that was acceptable to us. They didn't have a mantra that they had to do. And God is excited about us coming to prayer, to Him in prayer. So we do not have a specific prayer as long as we know that we pray to God the Father in the name of the Son by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes I pray, Dear Lord, I'm asking Heavenly Father for a blessing. And they said, but you didn't say in Jesus' name. Why? I said, Lord. I said, Father. Yeah, so there'd be that and somebody else says yeah, but you have to say in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost No, it has to be in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. No, it has to be in Jesus name No, it has to be in the name of Jesus, you know, your prayer has to end with this special Phrase in fact I had a Bible study with a group of Chinese Christians in it. And if you didn't end your prayer with the phrase, in the name of Jesus I pray, then they did not think your prayer would be answered. Unless you used that specific prayer. Is that the God we serve? Now, there are no magic phrases. God looks at our heart. What we need to know is that we pray to God in the name and by virtue of our salvation through his son under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Now when we talk about the supplication section of our prayer notebook, and remember that's what we're dealing with here, One of the questions that comes up is does God hear prayers versus does God receive prayers versus does God answer prayers? Now the head of the Baptist convention in the South caused a great stir in the early 1980s by saying God does not answer the prayers of Jews. And boy, people went crazy over that. And then John MacArthur said, well, only Christians are going to heaven, that's why. Well, people went crazy over that. And so everybody was talking about, does God hear prayers? Does God receive prayers? Does God answer prayers? So let's look at that, shall we? First, God hears and sees all men. God hears and sees all men. Deanna, would you please look at Genesis chapter 6, verse 5 and 6. Okay, Bishan, would you please look at Psalm 33, 13. Bobby, would you please read Proverbs 15, 3? All right. So we'll go with Sister Deanna first, but I'll give you all a chance to catch up with me there. Psalm 33, actually 13 through 15. Okay, so Deanna, would you read your passage first? Genesis 6 verse 5 and 6 the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil Continually and the Lord regretted that he had made men on the earth and it grieved him to his heart So God saw their actions but he also heard the intentions of their heart didn't he and But Bishan, would you read Psalm 33, verse 13. Psalm 33, verse 13. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. So God looks down. He sees everything they're doing. And by default, here's what they're doing. Proverbs 15.3, Bami. You'll have to unmute yourself, Brother Bami. Proverbs 15.3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. Does God hear prayers? Well, God hears and sees all men, doesn't he? And we looked at those verses. God only receives the prayers of Christians. So Diana, if you would look up John 14.6. Bishan, if you would look up 1 Timothy 2.5. Bami, if you would look up Acts 4.12. So let's first hear John 14.6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So God is not going to receive the prayer of anyone except through Jesus. He may hear what all these people are saying. Bami, if you would read Acts 4.12. Okay, Acts 4.12. Please, sir. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name on high heaven. given among men, by which we must be saved. So only Christians are saved. And so God is only receiving the prayers of the redeemed. Bishan, the reason for this is 1st Timothy 2.5. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Yeah. There's only one way to salvation, that's Jesus. and Jesus bring, and there's only one way for our prayers to get to God, that's through Jesus. So God will only receive the prayers of Christians. However, even the prayers of Christians, God only answers in the affirmative those prayers which correspond with his will. 1 John 5, 14 and 15. 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 we have the request which we have asked from Him. John 15, 7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. So when we talk about answer prayer, we just don't take those verses which we like and ignore the rest. For instance, I have told my, when my children were little, I told them, Friday we'll go get ice cream. Well, did they like to hear that? Yes. And I told them, maybe a different time on Saturday, we'll go to the park. Do they like to hear that? Yes. And I told them another time, you know, we're going to have dessert. And mom has made a special dessert of brownies with M&Ms in it. Do they like to hear that? Well, but I've also told them they have to clean up their room. I've also told them they have to eat all the food on their plate. I've also told them they have to do the homework. They don't like that, do they? So, when somebody says, you know, what does your father ask you to do? And they say, oh no, we go to the park, we eat ice cream and M&M's and we just have fun. Well, it is true that I have said those things, haven't I? But that's not the only thing I've said. And what people like to do is take the statements of God on prayer that they like and forget that God the Holy Spirit through his word reveals all of God's will, but not topically. You know, if all of God's will was done topically, people would complain. It's just so dry. It's just like reading a manual, an outline. Well, then, okay, we're going to do it historically. Well, it's, you know, boy, I just wish there were more topics in it. I mean, you just have to read forever to find something. So God does both. He gives us topics. and historical revelation of his work on the earth. And then it's up to us to study it and find it. So God has said he will answer our prayers, but he has also said that those prayers must be in accordance with his will, and God's word is his will, isn't it? Now there's other aspects of God's will that are not revealed in his work. but all of his word is god's will people say why pray if god is not going to do our will that's basically what they're saying aren't they they don't phrase it like that they say why pray if god isn't going to answer our prayers but what they're really saying is i want my will to be god's will not i want god's will to be my will. Which do you want? You have to ask yourself. Hebrews 4.16, Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. When we go before God, we will receive mercy. That's not receiving what we deserve. we will receive, we will find grace that's God giving us what we don't deserve but it doesn't say let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace because God will get up off his throne and run around Austin, run around Akure, run around Lagos Island, run around Nigeria, run around Texas doing what we tell him to do Now, if prayer is only giving, then there is no reason to pray unless God will do our will. However, if prayer is, as I've been teaching you, spending time with God, then there are many reasons to pray, even when He does not do our will. If praise and thanksgiving were the only prayers that God allowed, would you still pray? Now God could have done that, couldn't he? You can't confess your sins. You can't ask me for anything. You can't ask me to act on other people's behalf. You can praise me and thank me beginning and end. Would you still pray? Or is your prayer life primarily motivated by getting God to do your will? Here's the father. He says to his son, would you like to spend the day with me running errands? Child, will you do whatever I ask you to do while we are running errands? Father, no. Then child, no, then I don't want to spend time with you. Now, if my wife overheard that, she would spank the child and instruct him and what a blessing it was to have a father who even wanted to spend time with their son or their daughter. That's ridiculous, isn't it? I will go to the market with you if on the way to the market whatever I say you do. What child can say that to their father? And yet we approach God the Father like that. We'll pray, we'll do the fellowship, we'll witness, just as long as you do whatever we ask you to do. A father says to his child, would you like to spend some time in the backyard playing ball together? The child says, well, will you give me a Mercedes? The father says, I'm not going to give you a Mercedes. I'm just going to spend time with you. Well, if you're not going to give me the Mercedes, I'm not sure you're my father. I'm not even sure you're a good person. I'm not even sure you exist. Now that's ludicrous, isn't it? And yet God says to Christians, would you like to spend time with me? And you say, well, are you going to answer my prayer? God says, no, I'm not going to give you an affirmative answer. I'm not going to give you what you ask. Well, I'm not sure I'm a Christian. I'm not sure you're a good God. I'm not sure you even exist. Can you imagine the audacity of a man questioning the existence of God because God doesn't do his will? But that happens, doesn't it? Are we inconsistent when weighing our prayer's will versus God's will? Now, here is the prayer, and if we pray this prayer, God will always answer. Not my will, but yours be done. God will also say, good deal. Okay? Sorry, that was my neighbor who I've been witnessing to, so I, if he had decided he wanted to pray to receive Christ, I need to be available. They had some more questions for me. Okay. We say we want to do God's will. We say we want to walk with God. We say we want to make Jesus Lord. But then we become bitter when God does not answer our prayers. So I'll stop with this. If these two prayers, if unanswered, will cause you to be bitter, then you will end your Christian life bitter. So I'm gonna tell you the two prayers. If by God not answering one of these two prayers, you are going to become bitter, then you are going to end the Christian life a bitter person. So in closing, the first prayer is for yours or someone else's life. Hebrews 9.27 says, as inasmuch it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment. We have an appointment with God to die one time, and everybody is going to die. Job 14.5 says, since his days are determined, the number of months is with you, limits which he cannot pass. No amount of prayer, fasting, tithe, double tithe, triple tithe is going to change the date of your death. So if by you dying, when you realize you're going to die, or if by someone you love or admire dying, if that is going to cause you to get bitter towards God, you are going to become bitter towards God. Why? Because everybody is going to die, aren't they? Secondly, If your suffering, your health, poverty, freedom, happiness, if your suffering will cause you to get bitter at God, you are going to get bitter at God. Philippians 3.10, Paul prayed that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his what? Suffering. Suffering. Second Timothy 3.12, indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. We are all going to suffer, we are all going to be persecuted, and we are all going to die. And if by that happening You are going to get bitter at God if it happens to you or somebody else. And you pray, God, don't let that happen. God's not going to answer that prayer because it is going to happen, isn't it? Then Satan's job is over. He just waits around. you're gonna get bitter at God. If by your child dying, by your spouse dying, your mother or father dying, your pastor dying, if by someone dying, that is going to make you angry at God, you are gonna get angry at God because everybody is going to die. Now people say, well, you know, by faith, God is going to heal us, okay? Well, let me ask you something. How do we all die? How do we all die? Well, we all die by organ failure, don't we? We all die by organ failure. We all die by organ failure. Everybody dies by organ failure. Three types of death by organ failure. Disease, you get cancer. trauma, you're in a car accident, or wear and tear, your kidney, your heart, they just fail. If by faith God heals all organ failure, who's in heaven? If by faith God heals all organ failure, who's in heaven? Well, the people in heaven are the people who don't have any faith, aren't they? Everybody else is being healed. Is that true? Do we stay out of heaven by faith? Bobby, do we stay out of heaven by faith? No, we go to heaven by faith, don't we? That's the objective. So we have this upside down Christianity where by faith we stay out of heaven and only those with little faith go to heaven or other people say well you know your organs may fail but you're going to die in your sleep if you're truly a man of God. Oh really? So Stephen The martyr was not a man of God. James, the brother of Christ, who was decapitated, was not the word of God. John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the greatest prophet ever to live, who was decapitated, was not a man of God. No, that's not true either. These things are just made up by people. So, we'll end supplication here. Pick up next week with what should guide our supplications. What if we don't have a verse when we pray? How can we add a supplication section to our prayer notebook? And what about persevering prayer? May God add his blessing to his holy word. In Christ's name we pray.