We are going to continue looking at supplication. What should guide our supplications? What if we do not have a verse? We're going to look at a supplication page for our prayer notebook. And what about persevering prayer? So we'll look at supplication. You know, I was thinking about doing one more section on supplication and that is, I'll add this right here, unanswered prayer. What about unanswered prayer? What do we do with that? So, having said that, what should guide our supplications? We'll be attacking that first. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? O 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 this day for your service and for 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 have drawn us together. and for which you are sending it out. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your work. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions, which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your work. Protect us, Lord, from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke your word, making it fruitless. Rather give us good soil, O Lord. Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown word might send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheathe 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 of those gathered here. Spread your word before us 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. Give 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 call by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. O Lord, we live in a dark 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 commandments, 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 promptly forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of 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 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, great. I'm looking forward to a good time today. I like that we've divided this midday study up into two groups. That way we have more participation. I look forward to this study all week. So we're going to continue looking at supplication. And so Deanna, if you would look up John 15 verse seven. And then Bishan, you will take 1st John 5, 14 and 15. 1st John 5, 14 and 15. If you would read 1st John 5, 14 and 15, please. All right, 1st John 5, 14 and 15. And this is the confidence that we have toward 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 request that we have asked of him. Hey, so what, from this passage, Bishan, would you say guarantees God will answer our prayer? What does it say in verse 14? If we ask anything, according to what? If we, the confidence that we have towards him, that whatever we ask according to his will, that he will do it. Yes. So asking according to his will. That's excellent. You have a great mind for scripture, Bishan. I always feel confident when I can call on you and Deanna, because I never want to embarrass anybody, so I like to call on people who I know will be able to understand the scriptures. Yes, so we have to pray according to God's will. Deanna, if you would read John 15, 7. How do we know God's will? If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Yeah, God's word guides us according to God's will. I mean, God would not give us something in His word that was not His will. god the holy spirit will always function uh... uniformly and in concert and in agreement with god the son and god the father so if it is something from the written word of god we can pray it with confidence knowing that that is god's will for instance Bishan look at psalm 119 verse 125 psalm 119 verse 125 it says I'm your servant. Give me understanding that I may know your testimony. Well, this was one of the first verses I ever placed in my prayer notebook. I was a sophomore in the university trying to teach an evangelistic Bible study, and I thought, you know, I really need to get a better understanding of God's Word. And I came across this verse in my reading program and I said, you know, if that was good enough for King David, it's good enough for me. So God, the Holy Spirit has given us this prayer. So I have prayed that regularly. It was daily, but now I've added more verses on knowing the word of God to my prayer notebook. So I work through it on a regular basis. but I pray daily for an understanding of the word since 1971. What's that? 50 years. And I know that God will answer that prayer. So one of the things I would encourage you to do is as you think of praying to ask God to bless you being in conformity to his word. So we can take sections of our prayer notebook and they would be sections that would conform to what God says about character, about walking with God, about the word of God, about prayer. So what if we don't have a verse in the Bible? What do we do? You say, God give me a new car. Well, we don't know that that's God's will, but it might be God's will. But we don't know. So Deanna, we'll go back to you if you would look at Luke 22, 42. Bishan, you can tell the men in your Bible study that you have discovered the secret prayer that if you pray this prayer, God will always say yes. Now, win the lottery, new car, be president of Nigeria. No matter what you ask God, if you pray this prayer, he will say yes. So this will be a great, you will get their attention. Everybody will sit up, Bishan, because they will want to know this. Okay, Deanna, Luke 22, 42. Saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Yes, so if we pray, not my will, but yours be done, God will always answer that prayer, won't he? Now, when I first heard this teaching, my application was, why bother praying if God is going to do his will anyways? Why even bother? but you see how selfish that is because first reflect on this question do I want God to do something other than His will simply because I ask Him? What would be the answer to that? No, you don't. If God's will will change because of my request, who's in charge? And we don't want that either, do we? Jesus Christ said, did not say, if any man will come after me, I will take up the cross and he can lead me. Doesn't say that, does it? Luke 9.23, if any man wants to lead me, I will take up my cross and follow him. Does it say that? No. Let's look at Luke 9.23, Bishan. If you will look that up for us, please. and yet many in the Pentecostal charismatic and among evangelical mystics teach prayer as if Jesus died for our sins so that he will do our will. So Bishan, read Luke 9, 23 for us, please. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily Yeah, it is not, I will take up my cross daily and follow you. That's not what it says, is it? We take up the cross and follow Jesus. So what we do is walk in accordance with the will and the word of God, not vice versa. And yet many people would want empowering prayer to be that God does our will. But they are really involving themselves in mysticism because they really simply want the power to speak things into existence. And some men in the Pentecostal charismatic movement will just say, speak your miracle. Speak your dream. Speak your blessing. But you see, what they want to do is not for God to do their will, but just to be able to be a God and by faith make things happen. But we don't put our faith in our ability to believe. If I only believe strongly enough, God will do my will. No, we put our faith in Christ. and in the authority of His revealed written word and by doing so we do His will. That's a very important principle. So, what should guide our supplications? The Word of God. So one of the things I ask people is look at your supplication section and see if you could actually put a cross-reference verse by these things or you simply have a do list for God. You simply have a do list for God. Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. We'll see this illustrated in the life of Paul. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. Now in verse 7 and 8, Paul has a problem. So Bishan, would you read 2 Corinthians 12, 7 and 8? 2 Corinthians 12, 7 and 8. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. Okay, yes. So, this is not simply an inconvenience in his life, is it? Somebody say, well, yeah, I think my thorn in the flesh is my boss. Because, you know, he's not a very nice guy. Your thorn in your flesh is not your teenage children. No, this is something that torments Paul, or harasses Paul, and it's from Satan. And it is something that bothers him every single day. And so, Bishan, what is Paul doing in verse 8? and tell his pleading yes or no work yeah that's exactly right he's pleading with god take this away from now this is the apostle paul who heals the sick isn't it but i'm sure uh... not only is this tormenting him harassing him but it's also an embarrassment isn't it heals others why can't he heal himself isn't that what they said to jesus If you're a king, come down off the cross, heal others, heal yourself. Well, and Deanna, what did God, what was God's response to Paul in verse 9? They said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul said, take the thorn away. What did Jesus say? Is he going to take it away? No. My power is made perfect in weakness. So no, I'm not going to do it. Just trust in me. Verse 10, Pishon, would you read that? Pishon, verse 10. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. But when I'm weak, then I am strong. That's something that's lost in most people's prayer notebooks. Lord, take this away, and if you don't take this away, help me to be a witness and an example during this difficult time. Turn with me to James, if you would. I had a minister who used to tell me I don't mind God granting me humility. I just don't want to be humiliated. I don't mind being a servant of the Lord as long as no one treats me like a servant. But unfortunately, they go hand in hand, don't they? And people say, I don't mind being a man of faith as long as I don't have to go through what Job went through to learn faith. Let's look at James chapter 5 verse 11. James 5 verse 11. Deanna, I'll get you to read that if you would. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord. how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So Job went through all he did as an example for others and it is a privilege for God to entrust us with suffering because that expresses his confidence in us and it also allows us to accrue riches in heaven. Bishan Would you read James 1.12? James 1.12 says, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast on the trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. So there is going to be a crown for those who faithfully endure sufferings. whether it's internal sufferings such as a thorn in the flesh or external sufferings such as persecutions. If we faithfully persevere there will be a reward for us. So when we don't have a verse we ask God to give us the request and yet we say not our will but yours. Remembering that from last week, that if the only object of prayer was to receive requests that we give to God, then it is a waste of time to pray if God is only going to do his will. However, if prayer is spending time with God, if it is adoration, confession, thanksgiving, meditation and reflection upon his word, if prayer is spending time with God, being able to enter a seat for others, then We are happy, we rejoice that God will only do his will. If I thought that if I prayed something that was contrary to God's will, that God would do it, I would be afraid to ever ask God for anything. But because I know that God will always do his will, I have the privilege of being a part of what God is doing. we see an example of this of being a part of what God is doing in witnessing uh... Deanna if you would turn please to John chapter six and Bishan if you would turn to 2nd Corinthians 5 2nd Corinthians 5 Now, Deanna, if you would read John 6, 44, please. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Well, and people will say, well, if no one can come to the Father unless... No, no one can come to Jesus without God drawing him. Then why bother witnessing? But Bishan, what does 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20 say? Therefore we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal to us. We employ you on behalf of Christ, we reconcile to God. So witnessing is not simply Seeking to lead other people to Christ, witnessing is spending time with God. That argument, why bother witnessing, God's not going to let anybody go to hell simply because we don't witness, so we don't have to witness. God is going to work anyway, in any case. Jesus said, if these children don't praise me, the stones will cry out. God is not going to let someone slip into hell because of me. If I thought people would go to hell because of my failure to witness correctly, I would commit suicide. Better to get me off the face of the earth than dozens of people throughout my 70 years tumble into hell. But witnessing is more than sharing the gospel. Witnessing is spending time with God. That's why people who say, you know, I like the word and prayer. I love spending time with God, but fellowship and witnessing, I'm just a private person. I'm not that keen on people. So I just don't engage in those two aspects, but no, all of those are spending time with God. Uh, we see that in fellowship, uh, Bishan, if you would look up, uh, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. Gianna, I'll keep you in the Gospels. You look up Matthew 18, verse 20, please. Then Bishan, if you would read Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, please. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as we see the day rolling in. Yeah, so as we fellowship with other Christians, we seek to encourage them. But someone could say, well, you know, I'm not especially a social person. I'll let other people do that. Me, I'm more of a solitary person. But what happens when they do that, Deanna? Would you read Matthew 18, 20, please? For where two or three are dead that did my name, there am I among them. Well, they miss their Jesus time, don't they? And when you don't witness, you miss your Jesus time. And when you spend time praying over and presenting your heart to God, and you say at the end, nevertheless, not my will, but thine, you haven't wasted your time because you've been spending time with Jesus, haven't you? when you say what do you mean John when you pray you're spending time with Jesus well let's turn to Hebrews that's a good question so Bishan we'll go back to you and we'll look at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 Hebrews 4.16 Let us then with confidence go on air to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help the time of need. So when we present our requests to God, we're spending time with God. And that's a transforming experience. And when God says no, and we love him anyways, that's good for us, isn't it? Are you only going to love God if he answers your prayer? I share that with my Sunday school class. I'm at the age now where people I love are beginning to die. Deanna, you've had that experience, haven't you? People you love die. They die and go to heaven. I tell the people in my Sunday school class, if by someone whom you love dying, if that is going to make you bitter at God, then you are going to be bitter at God. Satan can move on to other people. The clock is ticking, and it's only a matter of time until you get bitter and quit the Christian life. Now, why do I say that? Everybody dies. Everybody you know is going to die, including you. We don't, by faith, stay out of heaven. By faith, we go to heaven. And so we're all going to die. Bishan is going to, I'm going to die. And if you log on next week to the zoom and my son has posted, uh, on the zoom, uh, my dad went to be with the Lord, uh, uh, Friday afternoon. We're going to have a zoom memorial service for him next week. Here's the login. If you would like to join. But these zoom studies will have come to an end. Nothing has gone wrong, has it? No. Nothing went wrong. I want to go to heaven. Bishan, do you want to go to heaven? Absolutely. Okay. There's only one way. And how is that, Bishan? How do you get to heaven? Don't die. That's right. And we don't have to worry. These people say that if you talk about death, then you'll die. No, that's not true. I had a relative who hasn't made a will because they say if you make a will, you die. So that's on. That's foolish. That is. Thank you, Deanna. Amen, sister. It is. Well, we can have confidence that God will do his will and that when we are praying, we are spending time with God and that is valued time, whether we receive our prayers or not. And when God says, no, we learn things, don't we? I know I'm finishing up my doctoral thesis and it's in the Ph.D. program and in the Ph.D. program you do an argument. But you know you can present your theorem, your argument, and spend a couple years researching it and find out that your argument is false and still receive your Ph.D. Because that's important information for the other people who are doing research. Don't go down this road. It's a dead end. Dr. McCallway, who I mentioned earlier, was doing studies on Lyme tick disease. And his postdoctoral thesis was that when the Lyme disease the disease hides at some form in its development and they don't know where it hides. So he spent two years under the theory that it would hide in the liver of a deer. And they proved without a doubt that it does not hide there. But they gave him his PhD because that's good information. Now they can look elsewhere to kill that amoeba, that organism, not amoeba, that organism. Well, when we ask God for something and he says no, that's good information, isn't it? Now we know what is not God's will. I mean, I want to do God's will. Don't you want to do God's will, Deanna? Yes. So if we say, please do this, and he says no, that's good information, isn't it? It is. Yeah, praise God. Well, how does that affect our prayer notebook? Well, let's take a look at that. We're going to look at a page from my prayer notebook. I've sent this to you. In my prayer notebook, it begins with a prayer. Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplications, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee today. Now that's a good prayer, isn't it? That can guide us. We should be happy simply because God listens. A lot of people are not happy unless God does what they've requested. So let's look at this. We are over to Psalms. So turn with me to Psalms. And we're going to look at here at one of the reasons that the Psalmist is driven to prayer. Let's look at Psalm 116, shall we? Psalm 116, verse 1. Bisham, would you read that please? Oh, Pastor John, I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my plea for mercy. Yeah, now is that enough for us? That God hears us? should be yes it should moses when uh... he came down from the mountain sinai he proclaimed god speaks yet man lives that should be enough for us that that god would speak to us from his word and we would live and that god will listen to us and take time out and stop what he's doing because we have to remember don't we that when we pray We pray as if we were the only person on the face of the earth, don't we? We do. Bishan, when you pray, do you get in line? Do you queue up? No. Do you have to take a number? No. You're going to go pray. The angel says, OK, here's your number. Your slot is June 5th from noon till one. Don't miss your appointment. I would have given up. Yeah. No, we pray any time we want to as if we were the only Christian on the face of the earth. And boy, if that isn't enough for us, then nothing is going to be enough. So, in my prayer notebook, I have these psalms, and I've sent them to you. And they are psalms which, they are not pure supplication, but they do contain prayers of supplication. Very few psalms are pure worship, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, intercession. But these Psalms contain enough supplications that they would cause us or they would enable us to have our prayers guided by them. Then I have some hymns that I often pray because God calls upon us to worship him with not only our prayers, but also our Our hymns and songs Psalms Bishan if you would read Colossians 3 16 Colossians 3 16 says Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Yeah, so part of my prayer time many times is to sing a hymn that tracks the subject matter, whether it's worship, thanksgiving, supplication. And so, I need thee every hour is a great psalm of supplication. I am thine, O Lord, is a great song. My Jesus, I love thee. May the mind of Christ. Now, what are we going to pray? What will be the beginning of our prayer notebook? And the Navigators has a great illustration called the wheel illustration. and in the wheel illustration, the hub, the power source of the Christian life is Christ the center. So I have these passages on Christ being the center of my life like Romans 13, 14. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. How about Romans 4, 24? but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus from the dead that as sin reigned in death even so grace might reign through the righteousness of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. So we are going to make Christ the center of our life and then the rim is obedience. How about John 14, 15? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. That's a great prayer to prayer, isn't it? To God. Help me to love you. Now, having done that, the first spoke, which transfers the power of Christ, the center of our life, to the rim of the wheel, and the laws of physics say the spokes are power transference, is the Word of God. Psalm 94-12, Blessed is the man who thou dost chasten, O Lord, and teach out of thy law. Psalm 119-18, Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from thy law. Well, God will answer those prayers, won't he? Here's verse 125 from Psalm 119. How about John 7, 46, the officers answered, never did a man speak the way this man speaks. John 17, 17, sanctify them in truth, thy word is truth. So I work my way through these, and the way I do it is that each time I pray this prayer, I'll put a tick mark by it. And I might do one or more of these prayers, And then I'll go on to the next topic. Prayer. In the morning of Psalm 5-3. In the morning, O Lord, thou wilt hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer before thee and eagerly watch. Lord, help me get up faithfully in the morning to pray. Psalm 119, 147. I rise before dawn and wait for thy words. Lord help me when I get up in the morning to pray, to also spend time in your word and meditating on your word. My eyes anticipate the night watches that I might meditate on thy word. Then the next day I would go down to the next series of verses and when I get to the end, I would go back up. How about witness? March 16, 15. And he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Matthew 4, 19. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. So I said, Lord, help me be faithful to take every opportunity. And as I do seek to witness, Lord, as I spend time with you, make me a fisher of men. Teach me, train me. I say one of the great frustrations of my Christian life was the first two years I spent going to church being exhorted to do things and be things, but not told how to do it or how to be it, nor given the tools to do it or be it. And it was a great relief for me when I met a Christian organization called The Navigators, who emphasized the how-to aspects of the Christian life, not just the what, but also the how. Bishan is coming to the Sunday evangelism training. And I, by God's grace, I will not just tell Bishan to witness, but I'm trying to teach him how to witness. Plus I'm mailing him materials that I trust he will find helpful in witnessing. The fellowship spoke is another spoke. If therefore, is there any encouragement in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection or compassion? Well, we know those things are God's will now, don't we? So I've asked God to make each of those true in my life as a fellowship. And then I would go on and pray verse 2 Make my joy complete by being the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. And Lord, help me not only to be a member of my church and ministry, where I show consolation and fellowship and affection and compassion, but help me not to be a loose cannon. help me to be one who helps maintain the unity of the spirit and purpose and love. And so I work my way through these verses on fellowship. I have a section on purity. I have many sections like this. Purity would be just an example of character. So what you would do in the supplication section of your prayer notebook, you would have these psalms that you can fall back on. Sometimes I go to the Lord in prayer and I think, you know, my heart is just hard. I just don't feel like praying. Well, I need to pray anyways, don't I? So I will begin by praying through these prayers on supplication and allowing the Word, sing a hymn, and then allow the Word of God to guide me in my prayers. So this is my supplication section. I sent that to you. Now you don't have to do this in your prayer notebook. you can come up with your own topics and your own verses. In fact, I would encourage you to do that. You don't have to use it. You can use these verses, but you can switch them out. For instance, praying over Romans 14.8, for if we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. Well, you might really like that verse. But this other verse, John Romans 4.24, but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. And there I'm emphasizing that Jesus is Lord. You might think, well, that really doesn't speak to me. I would rather have Luke 9.23 there. If any man would come ask to me. letting denying self take up his cross daily and follow me. That's fine. It's a Word document. You can cut and paste new verses on it. But I would encourage you to have a supplication section in your prayer notebook that's centered not only upon your requests out of the top of your head but also that is centered upon specific passages from the Word of God. Then we say, well what about persevering prayers? Well these are passages from my prayer notebook on persevering prayers. And I have here, Lord teach me to pray. Now look, back October 26th, 2011, I had this thought, I have prayed this too long. Now God will not let me go. I've asked God to teach me to pray since 1971. So even if I stop praying these prayers, God's not going to let me go. He's going to teach me to pray. He's going to keep me in prayer and fellowship with him. Luke 11.1, and sometimes in my prayer notebook, under each section, I will have one of these prayers, one of these verses that's read. So if I just want to hit one that day, this is the one I'll choose. And it came about that while he was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And that's what I'm always asking Jesus. Teach me to pray. But he said, now he was telling them a parable. to show at all time they should pray and not lose heart. And so I will be praying, yes, Jesus, help me when I pray to not lose heart, to persevere. Colossians 4.2 says, devote yourself to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Well, when I get down to here, then I start back up here, start over again. So this is a page in my prayer notebook under Persevering Prayer. that the Lord would teach me to pray. An early verse on persevering prayer was Isaiah 62, 6 and 7. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen. All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves, and give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a place on the earth. Well, I want to have that kind of heart that I would take no rest and give God no rest as he establishes his kingdom here on earth. So I hope that's helpful for you so we can see here what should guide our supplications, the word of God. What if we do not have a specific verse? Well, we fall back on spending time with God, presenting our requests to him, but then always being satisfied with his will, not ours. I've given you a supplication section. For your prayer notebook, you can change it, but now you've got something to begin with. And I've given you a series of prayers that I would encourage you to pray, that as you pray and develop your prayer notebook, that God would teach you to pray, and that we would be persevering in prayer. May God add his blessing to his holy word. In Christ's name we pray, amen.