Good morning, everyone. Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And once again, welcome to those who have always intruded us via internet. Lord bless all over the world. And please open your hymnals on 151. 151. Jesus is coming again. Soon. Number 151. Marvelous message we bring Glorious carol we sing Wonderful word of the King Jesus is coming again Coming again Coming again Maybe morning, maybe dawn Maybe evening and maybe soon Coming again Jesus is coming again Oh what a wonderful day it will be Jesus is coming again Forests and flowery clays Mountain and meadows the same Jesus is coming again. Coming again. Coming again. Maybe morning, maybe noon. Oh what a wonderful day it will be Jesus is coming Standing before Him at last Trial and trouble of past Crowns at His feet we will cast Jesus is coming again Coming again Coming again Maybe morning, maybe noon Maybe evening and maybe soon Coming again Coming again ♪ Oh, what a wonderful day it will be ♪ ♪ Jesus is coming again ♪ Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful for that truth that thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is coming back. It could even be today. And those of us that are saved, we look forward to the soon coming of thy son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We realize that the lost will not be even maybe not even noticed that day. Some of their loved ones will be missing, but they will carry on and they will embrace the Antichrist. We pray that as we are given this warning in thy word, that many lost people would see the need to repent and be saved today. stop playing games and that they would want to know thy forgiveness and truth in their hearts. We pray for our country of Canada, the great need in our country for our government officials to see their need to repent and be saved, for our police officers and doctors and nurses, many of whom are lost and we're thankful for our doctors and nurses and the things that they can help us with, but we also know that there are times when they can make things worse for us because they don't understand the human body properly and they prescribe things that are harmful to us. So we pray for many to get saved. We pray also for the land of Israel. We pray for Mr. Netanyahu, that he would get saved, for his cabinet, for the soldiers that are out fighting. And for the many that are at home and they need to run to their bomb shelters because of rocket fire. We pray that many Jews in Israel and outside of Israel would get saved in these days of grace. We pray also for the Arab community there in the Middle East and that many there would get saved. We pray for the situation in Ukraine as well and for that continuing war there. We pray also for the United States and for Mr. Trump, who thinks that he is the world peacemaker, that he would repent and be saved himself and see the need to know the Prince of Peace. We ask, Father, that Thou wouldst help those of us that are saved, that we would be faithful to Thee and that we would be bold in proclaiming the truth and seeking to help the lost to know Thy peace and blessing. May Thy will be accomplished in these days of grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And go over to 206. 206, Wonderful Grace of Jesus. Number 206. Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater than all my sin How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall this praise begin? Taking away my burden Setting my spirit free For the one of Jesus, which is me. Wonderful, the mouth is great of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Wonderful grace, all sufficient for me. Rather than the scope of my transgression Greater from than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise his name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching to all that Why did I have been pardoned, shipped to the uttermost? Chains have been turned asunder, giving me liberty For the wonderful grace of Jesus, which is me Wonderful the martyred slaves of Jesus They burned at the mighty rolling sea Grace, O suff'ring, sins for me Rather than the scope of my transgression Wither from Thine own, my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the most divine By His transforming power Making Him God's third child Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the mighty slaves of Jesus, they prefer the mighty rolling sea. The grace of salvation's for me, broader than the scope of my transgression, greater far beyond all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. And over to 473. 473, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Number 473. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day I will never forget After I wandered in darkness away Jesus, my Savior, I met Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend He met the need of my heart Shadows dispelling, with joy heaven telling, He made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Saviour made me whole My sins were washed away And my life shall turn to day Heaven came down in glory with my soul Born of the Spirit with life from above, into God's family divine. Justified fully through Calvary's love, O what astounding is mine! And the transgression so quickly was made, when as a sinner I came. Took up the offer of grace that is proper He saved me, oh grace is their name Heaven came down and in glory filled my soul When at the cross the Savior made me whole My sins were washed away And my night was turned to day Heaven came down on glory with my soul Now I will hope that we'll surely endure After the passing of time I have a future in heaven for sure, There is those mansions I've lined, And it's because of that wonderful day, When at the cross I believed, Which is eternal and blessings supernal, From His precious blood I received. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul When attack was, the Savior made me whole My sins were washed away and my night was turned Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke's account of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Chapter 11. I'm going to read there the first 13 verses of that chapter. Luke chapter 11. We'll start at verse 1 to the end of 13. We'll stand, please, for the reading of God's Word. Luke 11, verse 1. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' 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? For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, Will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for the fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your How much more will your Heavenly Father, shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word, thankful that we have the truth. We can read it, we can study it, and we can know thy peace and blessing. We're thankful that we have the privilege of coming to thee in prayer. We realize this is a privilege that is to those who are saved. So we pray for anyone that listening today that's not saved that they might understand they do not have that privilege to come to thee and to learn how to pray. They need to be saved. So we pray that the lost would see their need to repent and be saved. And those of us that are saved that we would understand the importance of biblical prayer for ourselves and for one another and also for the lost. Bless the reading of that word to our hearts. Guide us as we look into the text that we would honor thee and that we would set aside those things that would hinder us from hearing from thee. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Title of the message is Prayer is God's Gift to His Children. Prayer is a gift that God has given for those who are saved. Lost people often speak of praying. They talk about the fact that they're praying for different things and sometimes they even get the things that they pray for and they say, God answered my prayer. Well, the fact is the Bible tells us the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but God does not hear the prayer of lost people. accept the prayer of repentance. If they are turning to him for salvation, he hears that. Lost people don't have the privilege of asking God for the things that we speak of here in this text. And that's very important to understand that. When I was a young person in school, every Friday we had a general assembly. In that general assembly, we would sing a hymn, and we would recite what was then called the Lord's Prayer. That's what many people see this prayer as, the Lord's Prayer. We were not saved. I don't think there was one person, including the teachers, that were saved in that school. And yet, there we were, every Friday, reciting the Lord's Prayer. We wasted our time. It didn't mean anything. But still, today, there are people who recite that prayer on certain occasions. They don't understand the importance of proper prayer. And so we need to understand that this is not the Lord's prayer. It should be called the disciples' prayer, because the disciples are the ones that needed to learn how to pray, and they needed to pray this prayer. Jesus didn't need to ask forgiveness of his sin, but the disciples certainly did, and so do we. So the first thing we want to notice here is that Jesus prayed often. Prayer is simply communicating with God in the context, communicating with God the Father. The Bible teaches us that all prayer must be directed to God the Father. And Jesus here is speaking to his father, tells us, and it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place. The place is not important. You can pray at home. You can pray on the road. You can pray in church. There is no place where a Christian is restricted from praying. Now, in our world today, In England in particular, you can be arrested if you're standing too close to a murder house where they're killing babies. You can be arrested for praying quietly. You don't even have to open your mouth. Praying quietly, you can be arrested. And so we are living in a time when there are oppressive laws in certain places, and the same holds true in Canada. There's a woman in Ontario. I think she's a Catholic. She goes and she stands close to these murder houses and she prays. And there's a certain distance you have to stay away from those places. And she doesn't do that. She goes closer than that and she prays and she gets arrested. And she spent time in jail. She's been fined. And of course, if she's a Catholic, her prayer doesn't mean anything. But Jesus was not restricted in his prayers, and Christians are not either. Now, we need to understand that if our government says you need to stay a certain distance away from a certain place, you can't go there and pray, there's no point in us disobeying that and standing where we shouldn't just to make a scene. We can pray anywhere. So if there's a murder house in town, and there are many of them in Winnipeg, we don't have to go and stand right close to that place to pray. We can pray anywhere. And we can pray for the doctors that they would be brought under conviction and see the wickedness of what they're doing. We can pray for those women who are going there to have their babies killed. We can pray for them that they would see the need to repent and be saved and protect the life of that unborn child. and so on. But Jesus taught the disciples that prayer is important and he taught it not just by his words but by his actions. He spent much time in prayer. And so it tells us here that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased. So prayer is something that we do and the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 to pray without ceasing. So we don't have to be on our knees to pray. We don't have to be falling on our faces to pray. We can pray anywhere and anytime. I can be praying right now while I'm talking to you. You can be praying right now while you're listening to me. We can be multitaskers in that sense. And so prayer is something that is important, but corporate prayer or public prayer as what Jesus is doing here, he ceased from praying. And then after he stopped praying, tells us that one of his disciples, don't tell us who, said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So we see here that John also was a praying man and John had taught his disciples how to pray. So we see that prayer is something we need to learn to do. Our second point is we need to learn how to pray. So we have talked many times here in this church, we do not lead lost people in praying for their salvation. A lost person needs to come to God, needs to pray what is on their heart. That's what anybody needs to do. The Anglicans, the Catholics and other religions, they have prayer books. And so those prayer books are categorized and so you can search through the index and you can find a prayer for someone who's worried. You can find a prayer for someone who's lost a loved one or whatever it is. You can look in those books and you can find somebody has written out a prayer and then you can read it. And if you watch those people in those churches, that's what they do. They read their prayers. That's worthless. If I'm going to come to God in prayer, I need to come to God in prayer. You can't tell me what to pray, and I can't tell you what to pray. We need to come to God in prayer, and we need to learn how to pray. So the lost person, as the person is witnessing that person, he is showing that person his need of salvation. So what does that person need to do if they're going to pray for salvation? They need to ask God to forgive them of their sin and to save them through the blood of Jesus Christ. So that's part of my responsibility when I'm witnessing to a person to help them to understand what biblical salvation is. And then they need to call out to God and ask God to save them if they are truly listening to the Holy Spirit's convicting work. But it doesn't help me to put words in their mouth because it's not coming from their heart then. It's coming from me. And that lost person needs to pray to God himself. And so that prayer of repentance to salvation is something that the lost need to pray. Jesus here is talking to his disciples. He's not talking to the Pharisees. He's not talking to the scribes. He's talking to his disciples. And so the disciples outside of one of them, which was Judas, are individuals who are followers of Jesus Christ. They are saved individuals. They are what we would call today Christians. That term wasn't used until Acts chapter, I believe it's chapter 11, but they were believers in God. That's who Jesus is teaching. So this prayer that Jesus is teaching here is not for lost people. It's for people who believe in God, people who are followers of God. And so in verse two, and he said unto them, when ye pray. So it's understood here that Christians will be people of prayer. It doesn't say if ye pray, it says when ye pray. So it's expected that Christians are going to pray. So when we pray, how do we pray? So it says here, when ye pray, say, our Father. Again, this is talking to believers, and God is our Father. Those who are saved have God as their Father. And you notice here again that Jesus is addressing this prayer to the Father, not to himself, not to the Holy Spirit, but to the Father. So when ye pray, any prayer that is made must be addressed to our Father. There are many professing Christians who are very confused on that, and they pray to Jesus sometimes, they pray to the Holy Spirit. They don't know who they're praying to. They have never been taught, and some of them that I have noticed doing that, and when I've spoken to them, most of them are too proud to change. So that tells you where their heart is. They don't want to listen to what the Word of God teaches. They have their mind made up. They can do what they want, and they can, but they're not gonna get heard. So it says, our Father, which art in heaven, So that's another thing that we need to understand is that God is in heaven. He sees everything. And that's the God who we are praying to. We're praying to the all-knowing, all-seeing God who has all authority. He is over everything. And then further to that, we're still addressing our father, Hallowed be thy name. That speaks of the holiness of God. So when we come to God in prayer, we are recognizing his holiness. Now in our world again, we have been taught that when you address a judge, you address that judge as your worship. No judge is worthy of worship. He's a human being just like any one of us. A judge is supposed to uphold the laws of the land. A judge is supposed to uphold the righteous laws of a land, not the corrupt laws. So judges do not deserve the term your worship, but God is a holy God And he has every right to expect us to recognize his holiness. And so we need to remind ourselves when we are coming into the presence of God, we are coming into the presence of a holy God. That's important that we show that proper reverence for who God is. And then after we have recognized and acknowledged who God is, then we are praying that God's kingdom would come. I think every Christian should be quite concerned with the nature of this country of Canada, the spiritual nature of this country, the open legal murder of unborn children, the sodomite agenda, and the hatred for Israel and many other things, those should be things that would want us to see God's kingdom come. We should feel sorry for those babies that are being murdered before they even take a breath of life. We should be very concerned about the people who aren't sure, young people or older people who aren't sure If they're a boy or a girl or a man or a woman, they're confused because they've been brainwashed. Not because they can't know, but they have allowed somebody to put into their head lies. That's how someone comes to that position. Nobody by themselves, left to themselves, is ever going to wonder, I wonder if I'm a boy or if I'm a girl. They know that. But when they allow people to put thoughts into their heads that are wrong, then they can get confused. Because children in a normal household are told to respect their elders. So when a child goes off to a public school and the teacher tells him, well, you know that you could be, even though you look like a boy, you actually, you could be a girl. Or you might be half and half. And you know that you should really try to figure that out. You should really try to figure out who you are. And if you want, I'm here to help you. And that's why any God-fearing parent would never put their child in the public school. Because those children are being lied to day in and day out. And no Christian parent should put their child in the public school. Let those schools go broke. They won't, because they're living off of our tax dollars, but they are poison. I call them the devil's playground. And I call the school buses the devil's taxis, because that's what they are. And those of us that are saved need to understand that. We want God's kingdom to come. We want God's will to be done. And that's what it says here, thy will be done. As in heaven, so in earth. So that's what we want. We are praying in Canada, Christians need to be praying that God's will would be done as we have such corrupt governments at every level. We should be praying that God's will would be done. that we might see some politician repent and get saved, that they would begin to govern according to the will of God instead of their own foolish and selfish will. That should be our desire. In the United States, in New York, they are preparing for the mayoral election, which is coming up in November. And in the United States, a little different than in Canada, but the different parties, Republican and Democrat, they have to nominate someone to run as the mayor for that election. And so the Democrats have just chosen their nominee, the one that's going to run, and that person, I don't know if he's a Muslim or not, he has a strange name, but he has as part of his policy is that he wants to set up government-run grocery stores. Now, there is a grocery store chain in New York, And the man that owns that chain, he said, well, if that man becomes the mayor, I just may close down all my stores. Because if the government opens up grocery stores, they're not going to care about making a profit. And they're going to maybe give food away, and their purpose is not to help the poor. We need to understand that. Even in Canada, when the government is talking about giving you this or giving you that, it's not because they care about you. What the government wants is they want us all to become dependent upon the government. And once the government has us dependent upon them and we no longer look after ourselves, then the government can start to say, well, there's a shortage of wheat, so there's going to be a shortage of bread, so you're only going to get one loaf. for the next three days. Or there's a shortage of milk. They're already telling us there's a shortage of eggs. And the price of eggs, if you go and buy eggs, you know that it has gone up quite a bit. There's no shortage of eggs. The problem is that the governments have decided that there's a bird flu going around, which there isn't, and if they find one chicken in a chicken barn that has that bird flu, the government says the whole barn needs to be destroyed. They are creating a shortage because they want us to be hungry. And when we are hungry, it's much easier for us to do what they tell us to do because we're hungry. And they tell us, if you obey, I'll give you this. We are turning more and more into communist China. That's how they operate. We need to understand these things. We need to wake up. Too many people are dependent upon the government for their supply. In verse four, Jesus taught, give us day by day our daily bread. Now in Canada, most people have more food in their cupboards than they can eat in a month, nevermind in a day. So we have come to the place in Canada where we don't even pray asking God for our daily bread. We have more than we need. But we need to understand that those of us that are saved need to understand that we should be praying for our daily bread regardless of how much you have in your cupboard. Mice can come in and chew it up pretty quick. The power can go out and the stuff in your freezer can spoil. We are still dependent upon God for our daily bread. And we need to understand that. There could be a drought, crops don't grow. There can be a disease that comes and spoils the crop, kills it before it can even come to maturity. There are many variables in place that we need to understand that we are dependent upon God for our daily food. That's important for Christians to understand that. That we don't become self-reliant and thinking, well, I've got this under control. We need to be praying every day. It says, give us day by day our daily bread. And then in verse four, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. So when we look at that word indebted, It's talking about sin. It's not talking about you owe me some money and I forgive you for that debt. It's talking about sin. And we sin against God. We also sin against one another. And what Jesus is teaching the disciples here is that we need to be forgiven of our sins by God And we also need to understand that we can't hold a grudge against others. And there are people who will offend us. They'll do things to us that are not right. But we cannot, if we're saved, we cannot hold a grudge against them. That doesn't mean that we ignore what they have done. We still would like for them to make it right. But we're not gonna walk around holding a grudge against them. We forgive them. And you can forgive someone for doing you wrong, even though that person hasn't asked you to forgive them. They're still guilty before God. But if you forgive them, you are not going to be holding a grudge against them. They will still answer to God if they don't wanna deal with it themselves. But you don't have to be guilty before God. And then it says further to that, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Temptation in itself is not sin. It's what you do with that temptation that makes the difference. The devil will tempt, the devil tempted Jesus prior to his beginning his public ministry, but Jesus never sinned. And the devil will tempt every one of us in many different ways. It's what we do with that that makes a difference. And no Christian enjoys being tested. We want a comfortable life. We want an easy life. And so we can ask God to lead us not into temptation. And God is going to sometimes put a test before us. to see and to test us as to where our loyalty is. And we need that in our lives. We can become careless in our lives and we can miss out on those areas where the devil is trying to break us down. So we need to be on guard And we need to ask God to deliver us from evil. And there's all kinds of evil around us. And there is a temptation to be involved in evil. It's the summer season now. And in the summertime, there are many activities going on that we don't have in the winter. There are fairs and different things like that. And the fairs that our world puts on, our country puts on, our communities put on, most of them nowadays are not worth attending anymore because the music is so vile. And so deliver us from evil. We need to have the discernment to understand we cannot go to one of those activities where the music is blaring all day long, and it's not God honoring music, and we think we can shut the music out because we want to look at something at that fair. We are subjecting ourselves to evil when we do that. So we need to identify that. We need to see this is not good for my spirit. I should not be here. And then we need to say, I'm leaving. And then the next time that fair comes up, I'm not going there because it's evil. And we don't want that in our lives. And so we need to pray and ask God to deliver us from evil. that we would have the boldness that we need to have to say, no, I'm not going there. Oh, come on, everybody's going there. The whole family's gonna be here. Our crew is gonna be here, whatever it is. No, I'm not going there. Why not? Well, then tell them why not. You see, the Christian wants to grow in the Lord, the true Christian. And you can't grow in the Lord when you're living a compromised life. So we need to make up our minds who we're going to serve. And the disciple of the Lord needs to be faithful to the Lord. And Jesus is teaching his disciples here, Christians, teaching them how to pray. And then thirdly, he gives an illustration of what true prayer is, verses five to 13. So 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. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him." So this is talking, again, a different time in which we live because, again, most people have more food in their cupboards than they can eat in a month. But there are still countries where they have markets and people go to the market every day and they buy what they're going to eat for that day. They might have a little bit left for the next day, but as a rule, they are dependent on that market to supply their daily needs. That's the nature of what Jesus is talking about here. So here, this man has someone that he knows that's traveling, and he comes to his house, and there were no motels at that time. And so it was quite normal for people, when they traveled, they knew someone in another town. They say, OK, we'll travel till that town. And then we'll knock on that person's door. And we'll ask them if they can keep us for the night. So the person travels. And he comes to his friend's house. And the friend has nothing to feed him. The man has been traveling all day. He didn't have food along with him, he's hungry, he needs something to eat. So this friend, he has a friend, and he's gonna go to that friend, and maybe that friend, he knows this friend has a little extra food in his house, and he asks him for three loaves. And so, what's this friend going to do? Verse seven, and he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee." So this friend, even though he has the food necessary to help his friend, he's already in bed. It's late. And we see here that they didn't have big houses like we do today. All of them are in one bed. And so they're living in small quarters. But it's bedtime and the children are asleep already in bed and he doesn't want to get out of bed and wake them up. So he says, no, I can't come. But in verse eight, it says, I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. So even though these people have a good relationship and yet he says, no, I'm not going to get up because we're already in bed. So he's not gonna get up just because he's his friend. Well, I better go help him, he's my friend. That's not the case. Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as much as he needed. So the word importunity there talks about persistence. So the man who is being the host to the traveler, who is looking for the bread, he doesn't take no for an answer. He's at his friend's house. His friend says, no, I'm not getting up. I'm in bed. Sorry. Go home. The person who has the visitor says, no, I'm not going to take that for an answer. I'm going to keep knocking. I'm going to keep calling out. I need some bread. I'm not giving up until I get the bread. So it says, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. So this person who is at home, who has the bread, he doesn't want to have his friend continually knocking on his door. He doesn't want to have his friend continually calling out to him, come on, give me some bread. He doesn't want that. And so just to get his friend to be quiet, he gets up and he gives him what he's asking for. He's not going to have that person continually knocking on his door or calling out to him, just to get him to quiet down. Verse nine, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. So God expects us to be people of prayer, but prayer is not asking once and then saying, well, I asked, nothing happened, so I'm not going to ask again. If it is a genuine need, now again, you might want to have a new car. You don't need one, but you want it. And to you, you think it's a need. And so you pray to God and you might even ask God, God, I'd like to have a car. I'd like to have a red car. I'd like to have this particular model. I want to have these features in it. And I want that car. You don't have the money, but you want that car. And so you might pray to God and say, God, I want this car. And you might be persistent. I want this car. And sometimes God might even allow you to get that car. And you say, see, it worked out, God gave me this car. Well, no, God didn't give you that car, you were persistent and you got it outside of the will of God. But we're talking here about a genuine need. We're talking about a traveler who comes to a person's house, he's hungry, that person doesn't have food, he goes to his friend for food, that's a genuine need. That's not a luxury. So we need to differentiate between the two. And there are many other things that we think that we need, but we don't really need them. And so here, Jesus says, ask and it shall be given you. Again, if you have a genuine need, ask God. And God may not give it to you immediately, but he will give it to you if you ask him persistently. Because again, God is testing you. So there are things that we need, and we can ask God for them. Verse 10, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Then verse 11, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Can your son eat a stone? He's coming to you, again, he's coming to you with a genuine need. He's not coming to you and saying that he wants something that he doesn't need. He's got a genuine need. If he has this genuine need and he's asking you for bread, you're not gonna give him a stone. And it says, if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Well, again, a loving father's not going to do that. What's a serpent going to do? Going to bite him. You don't want to see your son killed, so you're not going to give him something that's going to kill him. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Again, an egg is a genuine need. You're not gonna say, well, I'll give you a scorpion here. You go out and get it yourself, and here's a scorpion. You can see if you can survive. You're gonna give that person what they need. And so, in verse 13, if ye then, being evil, 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? Now the Charismatics, they take that verse out of its context, and so you have Charismatics all over the place today who are praying to receive the Holy Spirit. There are Charismatic leaders who are teaching their people to pray and ask God for the Holy Spirit. Well, go in your Bibles to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter 8. Verse 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is what? None of his. Do we pray for the Holy Spirit? No. He indwells every true child of God. So what's Jesus talking about then? Context. What time is this? Jesus has not gone to the cross yet, has he? John chapter 16. It's always important to keep the context in mind. You cannot take a verse from anywhere and then build a doctrine contrary to the context, contrary to what the Bible teaches. John chapter 16 and verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I, what? Go away. Was Jesus gone away in Luke chapter 11 or was he there? He was there. It is expedient for you that I go away, but if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. We need to understand that while Jesus was on this earth, it was still under the Old Testament dispensation. Yes, the Gospels are in the New Testament, but Jesus Christ came into this world under the law. Mary had to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice for the male child that she had given birth to. That's Old Testament law. When Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood there, the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom, ending the Old Testament system. And that happened when he cried out, it is finished. He had provided the way of salvation. The Old Testament system was done away with. We read in the Old Testament that David prayed and asked God not to take his Holy Spirit from him. We know that the Spirit of God came upon Saul and left Saul at times, but that does not happen after Acts chapter 2 because Paul says in Romans chapter 8, if you don't have the Spirit of God, you're none of his. Can a Christian lose their salvation? No. So can the Holy Spirit leave the Christian? No. Do we need to pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives? No. He comes in at the moment of salvation. But Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray here prior to Acts chapter 2. So in that time, they needed to pray for the Holy Spirit to come into their lives to give them the ability to do what was right. We know that Peter was not operating under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit when he denied Jesus three times. And Jesus warned him of that. But in Galatians chapter two, when Peter decided to cause division between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, he was disobeying the indwelling Holy Spirit and Paul rebuked him for that. He had the Holy Spirit, but he wasn't listening to him. So we need to understand that what Jesus is saying here in verse 13, He's talking about something that was a temporary need, not something that we need to pray for today. So the Charismatics that are out there praying and asking for the Holy Spirit, they're denying what the scriptures teach. And because they're asking for him, they're never gonna receive it because they're not saved. If they were saved, they would know you don't ask for the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter five tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, doesn't tell us to ask for him. And the word filling there talks about being controlled. And so the Christian needs to be praying and asking that God would control his life. So that means that the Christian is asking that he would yield himself to God, to the Spirit. He's there already, but we need to hear him. We need to listen to him. We need to submit to him. But here in our context, Jesus is teaching the disciples. So there are things here that we can learn for us today, but there are things here that were limited to that time frame. And verse 13 is one of those things that's limited to that time frame. We don't pray for the Holy Spirit. He was sent when Jesus rose and ascended, actually when he ascended up to heaven. In Acts chapter two, no, Acts chapter one, go to Acts chapter one. Acts chapter 1. We'll start at verse 1. The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, met by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, we ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Again, this is prior to Acts chapter two. So the disciples were told by Jesus to stay in the upper room, to stay there and to wait for the promise of the Father. What was that promise? Well, we read about it in John 16, the comforter who was going to be given, going to come and indwell them, but it hadn't happened yet. and they were not supposed to go out and preach the gospel until they were filled with the Holy Ghost. So, verse five, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Again, many Charismatics are still teaching that you need to seek the baptism of the Holy Ghost now, today. That's heresy. This is prior to chapter two, prior even to later on, verse 11, when Jesus ascended up to heaven. And so the baptism again of the Holy Spirit, when does the Christian get baptized with the Holy Spirit? When he gets saved, not when he goes under the water, when he gets saved. That's the time when the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside the Christian. Verse six, when they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And then in verse nine, the ascension. So again, that was prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit in his current way when they were told to wait for it. We don't wait for it today. We receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Now we need to learn how to hear the Holy Spirit as compared to the many voices we were listening to before we were saved that were trying to keep us away from the truth. So we need to learn to hear his voice. So again, back in our text, praying for the Holy Spirit was something the disciples needed to learn during that timeframe because they were very weak. It's like any person today that is lost. I'm not going to pick up another bottle of beer. I'm done with drinking. But he calls up, hey, come on over, let's have a beer. Oh yeah, okay, I'll be right there. I'm gonna quit swearing. Something goes wrong and out comes the foul language. You name it, whatever it is, they cannot stop sinning. But on the other hand, Christians can stop sinning. Christians must stop sinning. A Christian doesn't need to go to AA to stop drinking. AA will not help a Christian stop drinking. AA is an anti-God system that is designed to get people to stop drinking without trusting in God. They talk about a God, but they don't know the true God. And that's important to understand that. So Christians are different because They've been forgiven of their sin, and because the Holy Spirit dwells in them. That's what makes the difference. And today, there are many professing Christians who are crippled by all kinds of sins, and they claim they cannot stop. And when they make that claim, they're telling you, I'm not saved. They're not saying it in those words, but when they say, I cannot stop, they're saying, I'm not saved. Because Christians can stop sinning, and God requires that Christians stop sinning. Doesn't mean that we never sin, but we can't live in habitual sin. We stop that because we've been saved. Our hearts have been changed. Our desires need to change, and the Holy Spirit indwelling us is the one who empowers us to be able to change. That's why if you go back to John chapter one, John chapter one and verse 12, but as many, notice that again, but as many as received him, not some, But as many as received him, to them gave he what? Power. To do what? To become sons of God. Did Jesus ever sin? No. And every Christian can never say, I had to sin because of this. We do sin. But we have no legitimate excuse for sinning because we've been given the power to become the sons of God. And what makes us the sons of God? Even to them that believe on his name. So the Christian, the true Christian, is not trusting in himself. He's not trusting in AA. He's not trusting in his pastor. He's not trusting in his church. He's trusting in God. And he's indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and so now he can please God. The Apostle Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We can. We don't always, but we can. And what we need to learn is how to do that more often and sin less often. And that's why daily Bible reading is important to the Christian. That's why a good local church is important. That's why prayer is important. That's why fellowship with other saints is important. We need one another. We talked about that in one of our devotionals this week. We need one another. It's not optional to be a part of a true local church, because we need the fellowship of the saints for encouragement, to pray for one another, and so on. It's important. And it's important for us to understand that. And God wants to bless us, and we have to choose to know him first of all, and then once we know him, we need to submit to him. And the Bible makes that clear that he becomes the Lord of our lives when we are saved. And again, there are many people who fight against that and that just proves where their hearts are really at. So if you're listening today and you're not saved, you need to get saved. That's the place to start. You need to turn to God and ask him to forgive you and save you through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need that. You may think you don't, but you do. For those of us that are saved, we need to learn to be more dependent upon God and less upon ourselves and Let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have thy word, thankful for the privilege that we have in thy word to learn how to pray so that we're praying effectively. We're not asking for things that we don't need, not asking for things that are foolish, but we're praying to the God of heaven and we're looking to thee to meet our every need. We're thankful that we have that privilege to call upon Thee, the true God. We pray for those who are listening and not saved, that they might see that they have nothing without Thee. They're busy, and they may have a lot of earthly possessions, but they have nothing without Thee, because when they die, they take nothing of that with them. And the thing that they need, they don't have. They don't have eternal life. And so we do pray that we would see people getting saved in these days of grace, knowing thy peace and forgiveness, and that those of us that are saved, that we would be strengthened in the inner man to become more faithful to thee and a brighter light in the world in which we live. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.