There's more accessible knowledge of the Bible than any time in the history of the world the age we live in now. If you have a smartphone and you're able to use it you have really no excuse for not knowing what the Bible says realistically. There's too much information free information available at your fingertips. Now the flip side is a lot of people and understandably so is afraid of what they're going to get a hold of and read because it will lead them astray. Let me say there are people and I believe some who have some foundation about them that does get led down a path of false doctrine and it gets them mixed up and then they just get out of church because they get hurt, they get frustrated, they wonder what is the truth and I can't believe nothing I hear. So I understand all that, but just looking at our paper here and we're going to go down through this and discuss some things. Tonight, however far we get, I do want to wrap it up with a couple things and I want to teach you all some things that I've learned that I believe is the truth from God's Word. But anyway, he said, many of us struggle with how I know if I'm praying to the will of God. And I'm sorry for any typos. My wife did not get to proofread this. And if it's something out of place, out of sorts, blame me. But I tried. As you've heard me say, if you talk to us for 10 minutes, you will figure out who the brains of this marriage is. But anyhow, Many of us struggle with how I know if I am praying the will of God or even how to pray sometimes. Now let me stop there real quick. I will give you an example and I use this one from time to time and I know they don't care. I know they won't get mad or upset. We have anointed Lily I know at least twice and prayed for her. Different people have. One time we brought her up here during a revival and I was as sure as I'm standing here that child was going to talk when we got finished praying. And she didn't. And in my mind I'm saying, God is it not your will? Did we not have faith? What's wrong? Why didn't you touch her? Is it me? Did I hinder the prayer? Did somebody else hinder the prayer? What was the reasons? and we can ask those questions and I think they're legitimate real questions let's move on and I got here Satan sees to it that he tries all he can to confuse us and discourage us from praying he has no defense or attack on our prayers now let me explain to you what I mean by that he definitely attacks you in your prayers but what I'm saying is when you pray in the will of God he cannot do anything about that that is what I'm getting at he has no way to stop that from happening when when we pray and we know God hears our prayers and you know God is going to move on that prayer he can do all he wants to do kick up dust and pout and throw tears but there's nothing he can do to stop the will of God the power of God we know that we see examples in our Bible never lose sight of the scene there at the Gadarene at Legion when Jesus got off the boat Legion come running out Pastor Jackie preached a message one time about how that Satan was more willing to worship Jesus than we are sometimes I mean that's got some truth to it because Jesus come off the boat Legion come running and for those of you that remember what did he do? He bowed Legion said we're many because he was full of devils I mean we don't know how many enough to fill a whole herd of swine so he had a few demonic forces behind him and Jesus healed him and delivered him I forgot what I was going to say now shoot delivered him and healed him but I think that's what it is now but the fact is When he came, when Jesus came on the scene, Satan knew who he was up against. He said, Are you here to torment us before it's time? What he's referring to is Jesus. I don't think it was time for us to be sent to hell yet. That's what he is getting at. And when Jesus spoke, the demons had to flee. They had they could not stand in his presence when the word spoken. That's it. There's nothing he can do. And that is what I'm saying here referring to. And never lose sight of the fact that Satan is limited when it comes to God. Never lose sight of the fact that when God speaks, that's it. There's nothing he can do. He has to step aside. So we often wonder, does God hear us or will he answer my prayer? Do you wonder that sometimes if God hears you and you pray? I think we all do, don't we? I think all of us sometimes wonder that. There have been times that I'll start praying and I'll feel like that it's nothing but a mess and a gom and I'll say, Lord, I'm just going to start over. Now, I don't know that I was much successful the second time around, but in my mind, let's move on. He said, but how can I pray more effectively? If God already, and I'm supposed to be knows, not know everything, then why pray? And I've been asked that question a few times in my life. And I think most Christians somewhere in their life ask themselves that question or someone asked you. The young man I work with, really good young man, I won't say his name since we're on live stream. He probably wouldn't care, but nevertheless, we started discussing this yesterday at work. I said, well, When God healed Hezekiah, I said, was it Hezekiah's prayer that caused God to heal him? Did God change his mind? And he said, never thought of it that way. And we're going to talk about this later too. I said, when Elijah prayed for it not to rain for three and a half years, I said, was it because Elijah's prayer or because God said it wouldn't rain? I said, who was in control of that situation? He said, never thought about that. I said, there's something to the solitary of God in prayer. We're going to discuss Elijah later on. I'll let you think about that one. Do you ask yourself, how can I pray more effectively? In our day and time, a lot of people get up on TV, on YouTube, or whatever other platform that they can find, and teach you if you don't get what you want from God, your prayers aren't answered, it's because you did not have enough faith. Turn them off. turn them off. That is a lie, straight out of the pits of hell. And they are making money off of vulnerable people who get sucked into that by the thousands and people's life is a train wreck and miserable and those people do not care because people go around thinking, well I just don't have the faith that I need. I'm going to call some names here so don't get mad at me. Please don't get upset. I'll stand and answer for not calling them, I think. Joyce Meyer admitted. to hear in the last couple of years that she was wrong for all these years teaching people that if they just trust God, He'll take care of them. In other words, no matter what you do, no matter what you pray, if you just trust God and have enough faith in God, He'll do it. She's also getting very wealthy at the same time. I have a major problem with anybody that claims to be a preacher and comes to preach somewhere and charges a fee to come and hear them preach. Well, you do it if you want to. But I'm telling you now, you're throwing your money away. I wouldn't pay a dime. Now, I'll gladly give a love offering, but I'm not going to pay and buy a ticket to hear somebody preach. They say, well, I've got to pay for the auditorium. Then don't go to the auditorium. Go where God sends you. I better move on. Yeah I mean we're free to speak up anytime. It is 100 percent. Yes sir. Plain and simple. That's right. I told as a young preacher I told some of this one time and God showed me this and exactly what you're saying. And we were talking about faith one night or about praying for something. I said, well, you got faith in that. I said, what about all the other things in your life? How's your faith there? Now, don't get me wrong. We need to have faith. I'm not saying you don't. And I'm not saying your faith won't hinder things sometimes. But you've got to keep faith and prayer in doctrinal truth of the Word of God. And we talked about that last Wednesday and I'll give you a quick example so I don't lose you here. One of the curses of being 6'2 is I've got a calcium deposit right here. You say, how? Because I've hit my head so many times on so many things that it don't hurt like it used to. I'm either getting dumber or older or it's getting tougher. Probably dumber is probably the one I'm going to go with. But I've hit my head so much and you think getting, how many of you hit your head getting in and out of your vehicle? Son, I about knocked my brains out a couple times on stuff like that. Things that most people walk under, we were, and I mean, and I'm going somewhere here, just, Amber and I went and looked at a house years ago. The old man and woman that we went to look at had a carport. and he had the gable end come, the low end come down the part you pull under. And I'm looking, walking along looking how he had an anchor and I have a hat on. One of the reasons I don't wear a hat a lot of times anymore is because the bill blocks what I need to see so I don't knock myself out. I've given myself concussions and I'm getting ready to tell you about one of them. And I'm walking along and I turn around and by the time I turned around I couldn't see that carport come down and I hit my head and it knocked me down. Literally knocked me down. And they heard me, an old man opened the door, he said, you okay? I said, I hit my head, mister, I'm fine. And I wasn't fine. And I had to work that night, and on the way, me taking Amber back to her car, home, whatever, she said, you okay? I said, no, not really. So sometimes, I would like to pray and say, God, can you make me three inches shorter? So I don't hit my head. And I'll give you glory for it. Now, is that a real prayer? We know that's not. It's just not realistic. So when it comes to praying and having faith in prayer, if you're not praying according to the will of God and the Word of God, you're not saying a prayer, you're making a wish to a genie. God's not a genie. He's not some I'm reluctant to say it this way. I used to ride this hobby horse, but I've kind of gotten off of it. But every now and then it still needs to be thumped on every now and then. He's not some Santa Claus in the sky. So we ask the question again, if God already knew everything, then why pray? Next paragraph. Last week we talked about the two extremes. I'm not going to go into them tonight. Calvinism and the name it and claim it. We've mentioned that. Both are wrong. in their extremism. Now, both have some valid points, but both are wrong in their doctrinal teachings. Calvinism will be closer to the truth in the name and claimant, I think. But anyhow, I also asked the question about a common phrase, prayer changes things. I asked this last week. If that's true, what and who does it change? It's an incomplete statement is what it is. But you are exactly right. Prayer does change things, but what goes with that? It takes more than just prayer. It takes God and His will to change it. So we say, who does it change? But what does it change? What does prayer change? Right. And I'll tell you something else on that, too. If we went to God and asked Him with a prayer request, almost immediately we got that answer every time. It wouldn't take very long, because we're humans, our hearts wicked. Amen. It wouldn't take long. We would be spoiled brats. and we'd be going to God for everything out of the sun that we didn't need and he wouldn't be a very good father. There's things my kids has asked me and I've said no. Drew was wonderful for the most part. I've been submissive kid growing up. You tell him no, most of the time he would say okay. Kenley's not always that way. She got a little more determination is the word I'm going to use. You know, I've had to explain to her, no, and here's why. So. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. Sugar daddy in the sky. Have you ever heard an illustration about the guy caught in the flood? Because what you just said is exactly the illustration. Guy was caught in the flood. It was flooding. He said, Lord, I need you to rescue from this flood. So some guy come by in a big four-wheel drive, jacked up four-wheel drive, said, buddy, come on. Let's get out here while we can. He said, no, God's going to come and get me. Well, a little bit later, the flood gets over. Now they can't get vehicles. Somebody comes by in a boat and says, buddy, get in this boat. He said, why you can't? He said, I'm waiting on God. Okay. Well, he's on the rooftop of the house. He said, the helicopter comes by. He said, no, I'm waiting on God. Well, finally, the rain, the water comes up around his waist. And he says, God, why don't you come and get me? He said, I sent a four-wheel drive, a boat, and a helicopter. What more do you want? And if we're not careful, that's exactly what we'll do. It's like we're looking for God himself and God is not going to appear as himself to us. So last week I mentioned this and I wrote it down for you. I asked the following question. Is prayer a necessary means of reaching a God-ordained end or is man by using believing prayer the shaper and planter of our world and its events? Read it again. Is prayer a necessary means of reaching a God-ordained plan or is man, by using believing prayer, the shaper and planter of our world and its events? Let that sink in for a little bit. Can we direct our path by our prayers? Can you direct your path by your prayers? Your spiritual path, can your prayers direct that? Yeah, I've tried to help God a few times. Most of the time, I should have left things alone. Him and Sarah said, yeah, Sarah's. Don ain't going to come through, so we're going to take care of it. And we're fighting with it right now. Can everybody still quote it? Can anybody even start it? Besides the preacher. By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice for the Lord. Well there's the whole lesson in two verses. Well I challenged, before you came, I challenged the church to memorize it and the women went away, I was harping on them, the women went away on a women's retreat and they came back that Sunday morning and all of them stood up and quoted it. It's got to get in your heart. It's got to control you. It's got to control you. You've got to live by it. It's not enough just to know it. So in saying this, let me explain to you a little bit more what I mean when I say can we direct our path by our prayers and the discussion I think was good. And I've already mentioned this, the next sentence you see says, we know that we cannot change our appearance by prayer, Matthew 6, 27, I read it last week, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, so we cannot add one cubit to our stature. Also, we cannot let phrases override what we know is Bible truth. A church sometimes, and I've known people like this, a phrase or a so-called scripture is their truth more than what the Bible says because they're convinced that's what the Bible says. The problem is they've never taken the time to really find out what the Bible says. So be careful of certain phrases and things, quoting them until you know their Bible truth and especially living by them. Don't just take something you've heard in church your whole life as the truth. It may not be. And intentions are not wrong. But I've heard things throughout my years and I got to looking at it and I thought, that's not exactly true. So, Rick Warren wrote a book, pretty well known, Purpose Driven Life, and it became very popular. Let me go and tell you this, if the world is comfortable with a Christian book, so-called Christian book, it's probably not true. Y'all remember Sunday morning's message? Anybody remember what I preached Sunday morning? Turn your Bibles. I'm joking. Wednesday nights are going to be reviews of Sunday's messages. Well, you're close. It was in the Gospels. It was in John. If the world hates you because it hated Jesus. And if any time you show the truth of God's love and light to the world, they're going to do one of two things. They're going to run to it or they're going to hate you and run from it. And I'll promise you, most of the time, any book that's accepted by the world with a Christian tag on it is probably not got very much truth in it. In that book, he said God uses your experiences more to mold you and shape you than his word. That's false. He'll use your experiences but it will always, always line up and go first with the Word of God. Listen, God did not set out for me to commit sins and try to use them for His glory. God in His power and His all that He is has used my sins, thank God, to get glory from but He did not wish that on me. It doesn't work like that. So, when I ask the question, can we direct our path by our prayers? There's things that we make decisions of in our lives and it's not necessarily that our prayers shaped the will of God for our life. The will of God was shaped for our life. Our prayers is what helps us find that will, not the other way around. It can't be that way because if it is, then that means we are a controller of our own not God putting a wheel in front of us. Listen to me, every one of you, and I thought I'd get almost to the end of this. Every one of us, God has given you something to do with your Christian life. He did not save you to come to church and just sit on the pew and take up a space and grunt every now and then or smile at me or whatever else you do or don't do and go home. That's not what you're saved for. And if that is all, and I'm going to say this, this is going to be a, I mean, they're not here so it doesn't matter. I know this is going to be very derogatory and sarcastic. I'm okay with it. We got a church full of Sunday morning Christians who I guess they think that's their role in Christian life. It's not. I'll go ahead and say amen. If they're watching, good. I've done everything I know to do to motivate people in this church to try to show them God and it's important to serve Him and pray. Seek His Word. Seek Him and honor Him with your life because every one of us has a God-given will and destiny in our life. And if you don't perform that, you're the one missing out. Now this church will suffer because of it. But you will suffer as well. Not just here, you really will there. And I've tried, I can't do it. Some preachers can, I'm not one of them. I cannot illustrate powerful enough the judgment seat of Christ. I didn't know I was going to get in all this. The judgment seat of Christ, the Bema seat, and what that means to a Christian. I mean, and then you step back And then you say, okay, what about the great white throne of judgment? Now let me paint this, and I'm sorry, I didn't know I was going into this. It kind of goes along with the lesson, but it wasn't part of it. But imagine at the judgment seat of Christ. You're standing there, and I don't know what all is going to happen. The Bible don't give us a lot of details. It just says our life will be judged by fire. Fire is purifying. And so imagine, Jesus says, there's the people because you gave to missions, because you gave offering, because you passed out a tract, because you witnessed to them. They didn't get saved then, but they did later on. However, there's the people that saved because of you. Had a hand in it. Now, let's go to the other judgment section. Let's get to the great white throne of judgment. I wonder how many is going to be standing there and God looks at us and says, because you didn't, they're going to hell forever. I wonder sometimes how many people will be standing there because of my lack of devotion to God. How many will be at the great white throne of judgment facing judgment because I did not devote myself to God and draw lines in the sand like I should have sometimes. God is giving every one of us a perfect will for His life. I do not believe in the doctrine of God's submissive will. I do not find that in the Bible. I'm sorry, I mean no disrespect to anybody that believes that. I do not find that in the Bible. You're either in the will of God or you're not. Now, in saying that, again, God knew what we were going to do. He knew the decisions I was going to make before I made them. and he planned my life out. Could I have had a better Christian life if I'd have made better decisions? I'm pretty positive I could have, but I didn't. And so it's not that you say, well then our sins shape our life, not our prayers. No, they don't. They hinder our life. So let me get back to this, I'm sorry. All right, let's look at the next thing. It says, consider the following two verses. Matthew 18, 18, it says, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This is Jesus speaking. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. I ask again the previous questions. If our prayers aren't answered, then is it because we don't have enough faith? This is a hard question to answer without looking at the Bible in the proper context. What is the one thing I have taught you all? The context is King. So when reading those two verses, especially verse 19, If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done of them my Father which is in heaven. If we take just that verse then should I be able to ask God for anything and two of us agree praying together we touch that and God will answer that prayer. You've got to compare Scripture with Scripture. Jesus also said in John's Gospel chapter 15, He said, If my words abide in you, and you abide in me, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you, my Father which is in heaven. So if His words is abiding in us, we will not pray amidst that James talks about to consume things upon our own lust. for the glory and honor of God and to honor Him and probably be praying with this verse in His will. Now, I want to ask this question and we're going to close with this. This will sound harsh, I know, but please hear me out. Is it wrong for a spouse to pray for God to save their spouse so they can have a better marriage? Think about your answer before you answer. Why do you want them to be saved? It's all good answers, but none of them is correct. I've not been mean. You should have never married them. Unless you got both of you lost, one of you got saved. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to explain to you all this is how strong God is on things that we make God's grace in a way that we just think it's just okay. Now I'm going to leave you on an up note here so don't... So is it wrong to pray for God to save my spouse so I can have a better marriage? Just that prayer right there. Pardon me? That's true. I'm going to give you the answer. I know y'all are thinking, what in the world? Has he lost his mind? What are you saying, preacher? Don't get mad at me. You're praying that to consume that upon your lust if that's your prayer. That is a selfish prayer. you gotta pray God for your glory and for the sake of Jesus I don't you just please I don't want and yes that is that is true too I don't want my spouse to die and go to hell but again that is still your own desires Lord for your glory will you please send conviction upon my lost spouse Jesus died for them, your word tells me that you love them, that you're willing to save them, and I'm asking you to send conviction upon them so they'll recognize and see they're lost and they're dying and going to hell. Now I know that sounds harsh, but God's word does not flex to our feelings. Is everybody with me or did I lose you or make you mad? I know that sounds harsh, a child, a parent, but we've got, listen, now here's what I'm going to say and I'm done with this. We'll stop here tonight because it's getting late. God knows, be careful when you stand up and say this, God knows my heart. Yeah, He sure does. Most of the time when people say that, it's justifying themselves. So yeah, He sure does. God knows your intentions. Thank God for His grace and His mercy. Jesus, we have an advocate with the Father. We also, the Holy Spirit in Romans tells us that He utters things, He goes to the Father with utterings that we cannot make. In other words, let me say it like this, I believe a lot of times Holy Spirit takes our prayers to the Father and says, listen, I live in them, I know exactly what they think, I know exactly what they feel, here is what they're trying to say. I believe that, because I believe the Bible teaches that. Me and you both. Now, the closer we can get to praying in the will of God, biblically correct, the more faith I believe we can have and also the more trust we have in God and the less we are upset when our prayers are not answered in the way and the time we want them answered. I'm going to stop there. I've got other things going through my mind but I'm going to go and stop because if I start into something else I'm going to keep going. Right. I know a preacher one time, a lady in his church told him that story I just told you come from that story. about praying for your lost spouse so you can have a better marriage. A preacher wanted to submit his church. She asked him, she said, why are you praying for God to save your husband? She said, I can have a better marriage. He said, he's not going to answer that prayer. She looked at him and he said, that's a miss. You're praying for selfish reasons. Now I know that sounds mean, but folks, that's Bible. It's Bible. If you do it for selfish reasons, does that make sense to you? And look, all of us are very guilty of praying selfishly, a lot, if we just be honest. We don't want to be, but folks, that's the reality of it. Listen, you and I need all the help we can get. We're broke, thank God broken crayons still call her. And we need all the help we can get. Why do you think the Holy Spirit lives in us? He knows, God knew that we were a mess. None of us has arrived. Anyhow, anybody got any questions or comments? No, it's not selfish at all. Right. Dear God, pray for them until their breath leaves them. By all means, don't stop. I mean, whoever it is, don't quit praying for them until their dying breath is finally gone. I mean, do not give up, don't quit. God is powerful enough to get their attention, I'll promise you. And the thing is, here's the best thing. You know He loves us so much. that he's willing to take, I believe sometimes, our futile attempts at prayer the best we can and say, I know they're trying and I know what they mean and I'm going to answer this prayer because they're doing the best of their ability. Ignorance is not an excuse. It will not work for so long. A young Christian, yes. But as we grow, ignorance will no longer work. I promise I'm dumb. You know how much I prayed when I was a young Christian one time? I actually prayed for Satan somehow to be better. That's how much faith I had in God. And I realized that that prayer wasn't going to be answered. All right. Anybody got anything else? All right. That's all. Stan will be dismissed. Good night.