Our next scripture reading is Exodus 20, verses 1-17. If you care to follow along in one of the few Bibles, it's page 77 in the black hardcover or page 53 in the soft. Exodus 20, verses 1-17. Hear now the word of the Lord. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the sabbath day. Therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. May God bless the reading of this word. You may be seated. Mark chapter 11. Beginning in verse 11, I'm going to rewrite to verse 25. It's going to give us the surrounding context for our study this morning. Mark 11, verse 11. Mark records, Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple. And after looking around at everything, he left for Bethany with the twelve since it was already late. On the next day when they had left Bethany, he became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples were listening. Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And he began to teach and say to them, Is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a robber's den. The chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him, for they were afraid of him, for the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, they would go out of the city. As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered. And Jesus answered, saying to them, Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. May God bless the reading of His Word. You may be seated. At this time, our little one to dismiss to go with Pastor Steve and study God's Word level that you'll understand and appreciate. For the rest of us, hopefully I'll be able to preach and teach at a level that you'll understand and appreciate. Well, it is my joy to be with you this morning and to open God's Word with you. This morning, I hope you've gathered a little bit from the text. I'm going to be preaching on something that's going to be very familiar to every Christian in this room. If you're a Christian, you're going to be very familiar with the topic at hand. It's something that we all regularly practice. Beloved of the Lord, this morning I want to encourage you. My sincere desire, regardless of how familiar you are with the topic, My sincere desire is to encourage you this morning. It's to motivate you. It's to convince you from the Scriptures what a blessing and a joy and a privilege and an opportunity we have as Christ Church and you have as an individual member of His body to pray to the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. To talk. to God Himself, and to know with full conviction, to be absolutely persuaded in your conscience that as you talk to God, God hears you. He actually hears you, and not only that, He will respond to every single one of your prayers, beloved. This is no joke, this is no fanciful thinking, alright? I'm not just shooting from the hip here. This is based upon what the Bible says. The God of the universe hears you when you pray, and He will respond to you every single time you pray to Him. With your Bibles open to Mark's Gospel, please turn back with me to chapter 1. Turn back with me to Mark chapter 1. I understand for some of you we're diving into uncharted waters. You haven't been in Mark's gospel for a long time. You don't know what's going on. For some of you, maybe this has been part of your devotional study and you're very familiar with Mark's gospel. I don't know, but to bring us all up to speed and make sure we're all on the same page here, I want to note here the overarching context of the gospel according to Mark. You know, knowing the purpose can't be understated by any means. You need to know what you're reading, the purpose of the writer, so you can get into the mind of the writer and understand what's going on here. It's been noted by many that the Gospel of Mark, it portrays Jesus as the suffering servant who came to save that which is lost. For those of you that have read Mark's Gospel, that's not going to be new. We're going to see that in just a moment. But with regard to the other Gospels, it's been noted that Matthew portrays Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ of Israel. Luke portrays Jesus as the Son of Man and highlights his humanity. While John's Gospel is, dare I say, utterly different, giving us about 92% new or different information than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. highlighting that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and highlights his deity. Luke highlights his humanity, Matthew highlights Christ's Messiahship, and Mark highlights the fact that Jesus came to save sinners. He is the suffering servant, come to save that which is lost. And again, it cannot be overstated the importance of understanding the purpose by which the Gospels are written. And it's important to note that the Gospels, in case you're wondering, why four different portraits of the life of Christ? Well, for clarity's sake, they never contradict each other, but only complement one another with a portrait of Christ, his life, and his teaching for all of history. And this one I'm going to highlight here. What Christ did in saving us. Not only in our salvation, securing us a place in heaven forever, but actually making it possible to privilege you to prayer. To open that opportunity for you to talk to God and to have an ear with the Creator. Amen. Now, in studying any book of the Bible, again, understanding the purpose and context cannot be understated. And for us, a summary of the purpose of Mark's gospel is right there in chapter one, verse one. Look at the text with me. The human writer under divine inspiration, Mark himself, he writes this influenced by the Holy Spirit. He says here, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Here, this is a delineation of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's going to be expressed in all 16 chapters. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you look at chapter 1, verse 38, Jesus himself, now that we've seen the human author, the divine author, is going to tell us what his purpose is. Chapter 1, verse 38, Jesus said to them, let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby in order that I may preach there also, for that is what I came out for. Here, Jesus knows why he was sent to earth, why he became a man, why he came to preach. And we could say it was for proclaiming the good news of the gospel. He came to live out what Mark was writing about. And as we get closer to our context, turn to Mark chapter 10. I want you to see another purpose statement of our Lord for this gospel. This gospel according to Mark is recorded in Mark chapter 10 verse 45. Mark records another purpose statement of Jesus when he said, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to what? but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Here, Jesus refers to himself as the one, the only one who was willing to redeem. That is, he alone, beloved, releases those in sin's bondage under the wrath of God. He alone provides their soul's freedom, pays their spiritual debt in full, and propitiates. That is, He actually satisfies the wrath of God on our behalf, on behalf of you and me as sinners, who trust and believe in Him. And Beloved, in light of His salvation of our souls, He enables you to pray to Him. Pray to Him. This is an aspect of the Christian life that can't be understated. This is an aspect of the Christian life, as I said. This is something, if you're a Christian, you are familiar with prayer. You know that you have an opportunity to pray. Now, you might not exercise it as frequently as you would want to admit. You may not understand the profundity that you have in being privileged to pray to God. We're going to bring that out this morning. But, with your Bibles open at Mark 11, looking at verse 11, At this point, I'd like to walk us through the closer context so you'll be able to see how the teachings of Christ about prayer fits in the life of every single Christian of all time throughout history and why Jesus preaches on prayer within this specific passage at this specific time in his ministry. Now Mark 11 begins the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry before he is brutally murdered and He willingly and sacrificially lays down His life for our salvation. In Mark 11 verses 1-10, it records for us, if you have a subtitle in your Bible, it records for us the events that we know as the triumphal entry. This is where Jesus comes into Jerusalem, humbly riding on a colt. It's what we refer to nowadays as Palm Sunday. And verse 11 tells us, on the first day of the week, excuse me, on the first day of the last week of the earthly ministry of Christ. So what do we see here? Well, let me give you some titles to help us follow the flow of the passage here. I want you to note in verse 11, the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship. I'm going to go through this fast here, okay? So follow along, put your seatbelts on if you haven't already. We're going to look at here quickly the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship. Mark 11, 11, and he, Jesus, entered Jerusalem and came into the temple. He came into the religious epicenter of Jehovah's worship right there in Jerusalem. at the time of Passover, and after looking around, he departed from Bethany with the twelve since it was already late. Here, again, Jesus tells us that on Sunday, at the end of the day, Jesus went into the temple, and after looking around, beloved, with a look, disappointment seems to be an understatement. Most likely he had a look of disgust at what he ended up seeing and observing in the temple. According to the context, Jesus leaves and he's going to come back and he's going to provide a rebuke. So we know Jesus was not happy with what he saw. And the text tells us he departed for Bethany with the twelve since it was already late. Now this is again, this is not the first time Jesus had seen the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship right there in Israel, right there in the temple, right there during Passover. John chapter 2 records a very similar event. Jesus went there at the beginning of his ministry, now he's there at the end of the ministry, and he sees the same disappointing event taking place, which is the hypocritical worship of Israel. Well, we'll move from Sunday to Monday, from the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship to verses 12 through 14. And this is going to play a significant role in Jesus' teaching and our understanding of prayer. So looking at verses 12-14, we're going to see here the living illustration of the fruitless fig tree. The living illustration of the fruitless fig tree. And here Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he intertwines this living illustration of the fruitless fig tree with the spiritual barrenness and irresponsibility of hypocritical worship. There is a point to the picturesque living color illustration here. Look with me at verse 12. What does John record? It says here, and on the next day, that is Monday, when they had departed from Bethany, Jesus became hungry. Now, this is a clear depiction of Christ's humanity in that he knows what you're going to feel like at the end of this sermon. He has hunger pains and he knows exactly what you feel like. And not only that, but it pictures Christ's humility. How so? Well, it pictures Christ's humility in that he did not exhaust the complete use of his divine attributes. Even though he was 100% man, he was 100% God. But he did not exhaust the complete use of those attributes. How so? Look at verse 13. And seeing at a distance a fig tree and leaf. He went to see if, and it is assumed that it would be found to be true. He went to see if, and he was expecting to find what he was looking for. If perhaps he would find anything on it. And he came to it and found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for pigs." And here Mark simply notes a fig tree that Jesus sees. And it's a fig tree that's not identified, beloved, with anything else or anyone else except Jesus in the context of the narrative. This is not an afterthought, this is purposely placed here, and according to Matthew 21.19, this is a solitary fig tree by the wayside, a stand-alone fig tree on public property. Jesus was not stealing anyone's fruit. Now this is a fig tree being in leaf, which pictures itself as producing fruit, yet without performance. It avails itself, all show, without any substance. And Jesus, in his humbled state, laying aside the complete use of his divine attributes, particularly here his omniscience, he literally expected to find fruit on this fig tree. Beloved, the leaves with a dead giveaway for expecting fruit. Why is that? Well, the season for fig trees was June. Most likely this is happening in April. But with fig trees, the leaves come after the tree has borne its figs. So for this fig tree to be without fruit, it was all show without any substance. It did not perform what it pictured. In today's vernacular, we could say Jesus was robbed. Jesus was robbed. He was hungry. He saw the fig tree. He expected fruit. He goes all the way there and he's robbed. He doesn't find what he's expecting. He doesn't find what he's looking for. Do you see the correlation between what he just went and saw in the temple with what's going on with this fig tree? Look at verse 14. How does Jesus respond? Listen to the indictment, the condemnation Jesus pronounces on this fake tree, this is a curse. And he answered and said to it, may no one ever, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples were listening. Now listen, Jesus did not merely respond with a fit of rage because there were no fruit. He didn't respond in intense anger for it says he couldn't have what his appetite would have been satisfied with. Not at all. What we see here is Jesus cursed the fig tree as a vivid illustration of judgment and condemnation for not producing what it pictured. Listen to the context. Jesus has just gone into the temple. He saw nothing but hypocrisy. He leaves. The next day he finds a fig tree that pictures itself as having fruit but without producing any. And where does he go next? Following the flow of Mark's narrative, we see the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship, the living illustration of the fruitless fig tree, and next, in verses 15-19, the intense rebuke of Immanuel for Israel. Here, Jesus utters an intense rebuke as Immanuel for, and catch this, the nation of Israel. Here, a familiar scene to many of us, and probably the most notable and misunderstood act of righteous indignation Jesus ever exhibited, right here in the passage for us. Look at verse 15. And they came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple, and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the table to the money changers, and the seed to those who were selling doves. Verse 16, and he would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple. What in the world is going on here? Beloved, in this passage we see Jesus returning to the temple with a spiritual rebuke that was blistering to the conscience of those who were inside this so-called house of prayer. Picture the scene in your mind. This is what Mark wants you to do. Mark wants you to picture the scene in your mind. Jesus walked into the temple, and supposedly this is a place of reverential worship. He walks into a place where supposedly God's people came to praise and honor and revere God. And what does he find? Well, just like the fig tree, the temple had the picture of spiritual fruitfulness. but was devoid of any spiritual performance. Catch it! Both the buyers and the sellers were cast out. They were both considered guilty before Jesus. Those who were there to purchase We're just fulfilling a religious duty without the genuine delight of faith. Those there to sell were only seeking a profit by charging exorbitant amounts for their merchandise. Why? Well, remember, this is Passover. This is Passover. This is the mega celebration of Israel. Here, beloved, travelers would have been coming from all over the Middle East, as far as Europe, to travel to Jerusalem at Passover to remember God's grace. This is what they were supposed to be doing. Remember God's grace and passing over them, preserving them from God's judgment when they were under Egypt's bondage while Pharaoh was ruling over them. This was to be a time of gratitude. This was to be a time of praise. This was to be a time of worship unto God, but what does Jesus find here? He finds people buying and selling. So why were they buying and selling? Well, people would have been traveling, as I said, from long distances. And it would have been burdensome and inconvenient, cumbersome, to carry an animal for use in sacrificial worship. Remember, this is a time before automobiles, right? For those of you that have ever ridden a horse, or maybe you've been on a camel, I don't know, think about it. It's hard enough riding a horse, let alone carrying a lamb. Who's going to do that? Who's going to risk their neck for doing something like that? Also, bringing an animal from home, it would have been extremely risky. Why is that? Well, the temple priest had to inspect your animal for sacrifice. And if the temple priest inspected your animal and saw that it was unfit for worship, guess what? You're out of luck. You're out of luck. You have to purchase something new to sacrifice to God in the temple. Which means what? It's going to cost you more money. It's going to cost you more money. So the buyers would wait until they got to the temple to make their purchase. The sellers were cast out. Why? They were ripping people off. They were abusing the people that they were coming to worship. Why? Because they had a monopoly on the situation. Yeah, you came to worship Jehovah? You need a sheep? I'll sell you a sheep. It's going to cost you, but I'll sell it to you. And they were ripping people off. Certainly. They were supporting the pocketbooks of the priests and scribes in the temple. You can think of it as vendors paying for their spot. They are right there on the temple grounds. And the priests and the scribes were getting a cut. This is the biggest time of the year. This is when they made their most money. And Jesus says, this is nothing but hypocrisy. Get out! Likewise, the money changers. The money changers were known for exchanging pagan money for currency acceptable by the priests and charging an exchange rate of anywhere from 10 to 12 percent just to take a coin with the emblem of a pagan emperor and to change it for something more suitable for temple worship. Beloved, even the temple's property was being treated with irreverence as common ground. Common ground. The temple took up a large part of land. And instead of traveling around with their goods and merchandise and going around the temple, they were traveling through it. Trampling underfoot. Sacred ground, as it were. Sacred ground where God, Jehovah, was to be worshipped. And the text tells us that Jesus would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple. Jesus put a stop to it right away. Now with this in mind, let's read verse 17. What does Jesus say? He began to teach and say to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, for all the nations, but you have made it a robber's den. Here the religious indictment is clearly warranted. Jesus' spiritual rebuke is on both the temple's leadership and the nation as a whole. The temple's leadership and the temple's population. Receive the indictment, this rebuke of God in the flesh. This is exactly what Isaiah 24, 2 notes. The people had become like priests. Again, Isaiah 29, 13. The people honors me with their lips, but their heart is what? Far away from me. This simple activity going on in this house of prayer for all the nations is going to be contrasted, beloved, to Christ teaching on prayer for his disciples. The house of prayer has turned into a cave for criminals. Or as the NAS renders it, a robber's den. And beloved, who are they robbing? Ultimately, they're robbing God. They're robbing God. It's not just one another that they're robbing, but they're robbing God. They were robbing God of His worship. They were robbing God of His praise, of His reverence, of His honor, of His respect. They were robbing God in this so-called house of prayer. And in case it's uncertain how wicked and devastating their sin, the sin of the priests and the scribes, had become, look at verse 18. Look at what Mark records for us. And the chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him. You know what that means? They were looking to kill Jesus. They wanted to destroy him. Why? They were upset. They were spiritually offended that Jesus had exposed the hypocritical leading in worship. Part and parcel for verse 19. This gives us explanation why, or whenever evening came, they would go out of the city. Jesus had to take his disciples somewhere safe. Why? It wasn't his time to die yet, so he would leave. He would go where it was safe, and then he would come back when it was safer. Beloved, Jesus had exposed their sin, and killing Jesus was the main point on their agenda. This went from bad to worse, didn't it? It just goes from bad to worse. So here, in Mark's narrative, he's shown us the irresponsibility of hypocritical worship, the living illustration of the fruitless fig tree, the intense rebuke of Immanuel for Israel, and now, since we've concluded our introduction, we get to the heart of this morning's message and the heart of the passage here. This is where the prime rib is at, beloved, and I kid you not, this is where the meat of the passage is right here in verses 20 through 25, and what we're going to be looking at is what I've titled here, the imperative parameters of boundless prayer. I want you to catch that in the context of Mark 11. Here, the imperative parameters of boundless prayer is where we're going to spend the remainder of our time, and for those of you that are thinking through that title, writing it down, and you're like, wow, that sounds like a contradiction, Lou. What are you saying? It's not meant to be a contradiction. It's meant to be paradoxical. It's a paradox. And as we'll see, Jesus will give His disciples three imperative commands connected to prayer, and those three imperatives are going to instruct on the boundless opportunities within our prayer requests. Yet, their boundlessness is found in the parameters of God Himself. Similar to finding true spiritual freedom, it's becoming a spiritual slave of Jesus. Right? Ordaining true life is losing your life for Christ's sake. So too are our prayers boundless within God's parameters. So this morning, we'll be looking at three imperative parameters of boundless prayer, so that your worship will be acceptable to God, so that you will be efficacious in your prayers toward God, and so that you will experience true fellowship with God. And I'll reiterate those as we go along. For those of you taking note, here, let me give you the first imperative parameter. The first imperative parameter, located here in verses 20 and 22, you could title here, the foundation for prayer. Parameter number one is the foundation for prayer. You have to get the foundation down before you can start building, right? So here it is, the foundation for prayer. Now, unlike the majority of the charismatic movement today that teaches that your prayers are contingent upon your faith. Beloved, Jesus is going to teach us that your faith is contingent. Your prayers are contingent. But they're contingent on a person. And that person is God Himself. Prayer, beloved, is not contingent upon the confidence by which you pray, or the intensity of your desires. It is not contingent upon the fervor by which you pray. Though we should pray with confidence, right? We should pray with fervor. We should pray with expectancy. Of course we should. We should bring our desires before the Lord. I'm not saying do that. But understand this, Jesus is going to teach us that our prayers are contingent upon God, who is the true power of all genuine, acceptable prayer. God is the power behind our prayers. Look at the text with me. Look at verse 20. Look at verse 20. Mark records, and as they were passing by in the morning, Here, Mark brings us to Tuesday morning. This is Tuesday morning, just before Christ's crucifixion. This is the largest day. It concludes, actually, all the way at the end of chapter 13, and it covers 95 verses. And be at ease, we're not going to go through all 95 verses, we're just looking at 6 of them, that's it. We're looking at 6 verses, so look at verse 20. As they were passing by, Tuesday morning, they saw that they tree withered from the roots up. And being reminded, Peter said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, Rabbi, behold, look, the fig tree, which you cursed, has withered. Now here in the sovereign plan of God, we, along with Jesus and his disciples, are brought back to the fruitless, now withered and dead fig tree. And without explanation, nothing, beloved, nothing but the context of the narrative connects Jesus' imperative commands to the situation. And he, Jesus, launches into the foundation for prayer. So what does he say? Look at verse 22. What does Jesus answer to Peter pointing out the withered dead fruit tree? He says here, Have faith in God. Simple little phrase, right? Have faith in God. Two things I want you to know. One, it's an imperative command. He's not making a suggestion to his disciples. He's telling his disciples, you! And he's saying it with a plurality of sense. He's saying, you all, all 12 of you, you have faith in God. Do this now, and don't stop doing it. Exercise faith in God. Now, surprisingly, Actually, it's shocking. This is the first and only time this command is recorded in Mark's Gospel. And it's distinctly articulated like the way it is. Jesus commands his disciples to exercise, beloved, real, habitual, sincere, continuous faith, and the object of their faith, the object of their belief, the object of their confident hope, is to be in who? Not what. It's to be in God. In God. Now, we've got to ask why, right? I don't know about you, but when I read the text, I ask questions of the text. It helps me work my way through the passage. The first question I had here is, why? Why, after three and a half years, with the disciples, does Jesus now tell his disciples, have faith in God? Why issue this command now, after three and a half years? Don't they get it? Don't they already have faith in God? Aren't they already Christian? Don't they already believe? Well, in light of the context, this command is in contrast to what was exemplified in the temple, right? In God's very household of prayer, so in contrast to their counterfeit facade of faith exemplified in the temple, here Jesus commands his disciples to have faith in God. Now, beloved, catch this. This is preparatory instruction for the disciples who are about to face their worst fears in persecution, imprisonment, beatings, and for some, even death. Right? And remember this. The first death that they are going to mourn. The first death they are going to weep over. The first death that's going to cause their very souls to tremble. is the death of Jesus. It's the death of their Lord, their Savior, their Messiah. This is real for them. I know we read it on a page and we forget these are real men and they're going to experience real doubt, real stress, real pain and sorrow at the death of Christ. And beloved, Jesus has been leading them physically, visually, audibly, and in just a matter of days they will see and hear of his wrongful arrest, his mock trial, and his gruesome murder. Jesus is preparing them for literally the worst event of their entire life. So what does Jesus command that they continuously do? Have faith in God. Have faith in God. Now, unlike many who would merely look at their faith as being powerful in prayer, or their own personal, determinative will as being the fuel for efficacious prayer, Jesus here teaches that faith in God Himself is the foundation for prayer. Listen, this is not only faith that saves your soul and justifies you before God. It is faith that sanctifies us through trusting in God Himself continuously. Faith in God begins at our salvation, and it doesn't end there, right? It begins at our salvation, but it continues day after day, concern after concern, prayer request after prayer request. We continue to pray to God, and our faith is used by God. to sanctify us. And trials are used by God to turn up the fire of our faith in God. Beloved of the Lord, this is the faith that has as its object God Himself. Now this faith, we might easily gloss over and belittle. But this faith, beloved, the faith Jesus is commanding is the faith that believes in the nature of God. When we see that little prepositional phrase, in God, we have to ask the question, in who? It's God. Well, who is God? Now, I don't know what your understanding of God is today. I don't know if you have a good theology proper, or if your God is all twisted and distorted because of your perverse thoughts and imaginations. I don't know if the God you conjured up is the God of your own appetite and belly, or if it's the God of the Bible. But the God of the Bible, the God that Jesus is telling his disciples to believe in, He is the God who is the omnipotent God. He is the all-powerful God. And we understand that, right? Why would you pray to God if it wasn't omnipotent? Why would you pray to a God who is unable to do anything? Of course not. We pray to God because of who God is. And His very character and nature compels us to pray to Him. He is the omnipotent, all-powerful God. Now, for clarity's sake, I probably don't need to say this at this point, but I'm going to say it anyways. Because I've heard people say the phraseology that everyone just assumes everyone understands what they mean by what they say. But let me be clear. There is no power in prayer. Oh, I'm so glad no one gasped. Alright. There is no power in prayer. Why? Because the power is not in your prayers. It's in the God of your prayers. It's in God Himself who responds to our prayers. It's not just because I pray that things happen. It's because God does something. God acts. God moves and things change. Why? Because all things are subject to His will. Amen? All things are subject to His will. He is the sovereign God. We pray, beloved, in habitual faith because we believe in the omniscience of God. That is, we believe that He truly knows, based upon the Scripture, God truly knows all things. And He is the one we place our confidence in. Beloved, He is the God we confidently hope in because He is the omnipresent God. He is everywhere all the time. He is the one who is constantly with us and will never leave us, beloved. He is the one who is with us in those days that are easy and light and bright. And He is the God who is with us when those days are dark and burdensome and mournful. God is the one who knows our circumstances, who can overrule our circumstances, and is with us in our circumstances. And here, Jesus' teaching is connected to worship that is not only acceptable to God, but the foundation for our prayers in being heard and efficacious. Now, you've all heard the proverbial question, right? If a tree falls in the woods, can anyone hear it? Well, let's change that around. Let's change that around a little bit, because you could ask that same question this way. If an atheist prays to God, does God hear it? I don't know if there's any atheists today here, but if there is, or if you're going to try to think about this with me, Does God hear the prayers of the atheist? Well, obviously, if He's the omniscient God, He hears everything, right? He knows everything. So, He does hear them, but understand this, He does not hear this, He does not obligate Himself to respond the way He obligates Himself to respond to you, the Christian. Now, you could say, well, isn't there one prayer that God hears when the atheist prays? And I would concur. Yes, it's that prayer. It's that prayer of the atheist when he realizes, I need to call upon the name of the Lord. I need to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. And he comes to his spiritual senses, as it were, because God's grace has been poured on his soul, and God's gifted him with faith to believe that that atheist goes to God in prayer and cries out, God save me! God be merciful to me, a sinner! And guess what Jesus promised? Jesus said, all who come to me, I will not pass out. Jesus says, if you don't believe and you realize now, you have been a fool not to believe. Come to Him in faith. Come to Him repenting from your sin. And He will have mercy on your soul. He will be the one that rescues you. Trust in Christ's teaching. Trust in His death and resurrection to forgive you and reconcile you to God. And He will embrace you. He doesn't care how young you are or how old you are. He will forgive you of your past sins, your present sins, and your future sins. Because He is God, a very God. He is the one that can rescue you, and reconcile you, and cleanse you, and not just cleanse you. Beloved, when Jesus forgives us, atheists, when He forgives a sinner, Jesus doesn't just erase your sins, He gives you His righteousness and imputes it to your account. That's why God can see us as His own. He redeems us, He adopts us, He makes us His children. He makes it possible for you to be a part of the Church of the Living God. Because God is the God of the living and not the dead. So in that sense, the prayer and faith of the atheists, yes, God responds to, but for the Christian, for the believer, for the one who has repented and trusts in Jesus' death and resurrection, trusts in the personal work of Jesus. Understand this, beloved of the Lord. I might not love you that much because I don't know you. But listen, if you're a Christian, you are loved by God. Amen? And He loves you far more than I could ever love you. Beloved of the Lord, understand this. God hears your prayers. He hears you. And He will always respond to you. Listen, many of you, you're like me. You pray, you get a lot of no answers. You get a lot of no answers and you say, what's going on? Read the text. I pray, and God says no to me way too frequently, and it kind of gets a little disturbing, right? You start getting all introspective, and you start wondering, what's God with me? What's wrong with me? Where have I gone wrong, God? What's going on with me spiritually? Am I off? Beloved, is no an answer? No is an answer. It is an answer. It is an answer. And more often than not, beloved, I'm glad I got a no answer, aren't you? I'm glad I got a no answer. Look with me at Mark chapter 10. Let me just have you read it, because it's right there in the passage. Mark chapter 10, look at verse 35. Let me remind you of an incident that I'm sure you're all familiar with. especially in light of getting no answers to prayer. Look at Mark 10, 35. It tells us real quick here. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. That sounds very similar to what Jesus says we can do in the passage, right? I want to do whatever you ask. Jesus is later going to say, ask whatever you want. Okay, well here, they say, Jesus, do whatever we ask of you. And Jesus said to them in verse 36, what do you want me to do for you? Verse 37, they said to him, grant that we may sit, one on your right and one on your left, in your glory. But Jesus said to them, you don't know what you are asking. Isn't that how it is in our prayers? God says no because he says, child of mine, you don't have a clue what you're asking. There's no way I can say yes to that because that's going to be more harmful for your life than helpful. I have to say no because you don't know what you're asking. And in that sense, yes, I'm glad at times God says no, because he's the omniscient one. I'm the finite one. Right. He knows far more than me. And if he says, no, I have to trust. Well, that's good for me. It's good for me. I can trust him. He knows what's good. He's going to do what's good. And he says he's going to work all things out to my good. Right. And to his glory. So if he says no, I have to be satisfied with that. But beloved again, when the Lord answers, no, here's an answer. Now it's always encouraging and great. We should be sharing with one another when we do pray and God says yes. Because that's always an encouragement. That's always a blessing. And we know sometimes God says wait. Be patient. He's testing your faith. Keep persevering. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. But we know based upon the context, based upon what Jesus taught, He always answers. And for that we can always be thankful. For that we can always render Him praise. Why? Because the foundation of our prayer is not in us. It's not even in our own faith. It's in the object of our faith, God Himself. Well, let's look at parameter number two here. Just turn back with me to Mark chapter 11. We'll look at parameter number two. Parameter number one, the foundation for prayer. Parameter number two, the spiritual disposition of prayer. Here, the spiritual disposition of prayer is what Mark is going to highlight for us in the teaching of Christ. So if you look at verse 23, what does Jesus say here? After he commands them to have faith in God, we're going to see the imperative command number two. He says here, truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that's imperative command. Believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you. Now first and foremost, let's look at the praise of verse 23. Truly I say to you. This is, beloved, Jesus' way of verbally grabbing the ears of the disciples. As it were, he's verbally grabbing them and he's talking right into their ears and he's saying, listen, I have something true to tell you. It's real and you better listen up. And what does he instruct them? Verse 23, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Now for the name it and claim it, prosperity preacher, beloved, this is a green verse, isn't it? Wow, the floodgates just open, just whatever you want, just treat him like a genie, rub his belly the right way and you get whatever your request is. Yet even for the sincere Christian, For the sincere Christian, this can be more of a problematic than promising verse. But beloved, as we'll make our way through this passage, I want you to know there is much hopeful promise in the teaching and instruction of Jesus. Don't grow weary now. Stay with me. Let's work through the passage. Look at verse 23. Be sure, he says here, whoever says Whoever says, let me point out, whoever says is limited to true disciples of Jesus, true believers of Christ, true followers of the Lord. Whoever says is limited to those who have faith in God. Likewise, whoever says is synonymously connected to what a person prays or asks in verse 24. Whoever says is the one who prays. Whoever says is the one who asks. Whoever says is a disciple, is the one who has faith in God. So to be clear here, verse 23 and 24 are basically saying the same thing, just in slightly different ways. And if we're going to rightly understand these verses, we've got to ask more questions of the text and remember the text in its context. I'll say it to you now, context, context, what? Context! I got one brother listening. Context, context, context! I've heard it said, my professor has said it in the past, a text without a context is just a pretext. Right? It's just a pretext. And I'm not here to whack eloquently on my opinions. My opinions don't matter. I want you to be convinced by the text of Scripture what Jesus has to say about your spiritual disposition in prayer. So first, let's consider the picture Jesus paints. Look at verse 23. What's the picture? Whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea. Wow! Why does Jesus give us this hyperbolic picture? And what does this mountain refer to? Well, here Jesus is using an exaggerated statement that pictures a great difficulty, an impossible circumstance or an incredible trial. Now, I want you to know that nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the Scriptures is Jesus, nor his disciples, ever recorded as literally uprooting landmasses and casting them into large bodies of water. They never do that. But the great things, beloved, they are prayed for. The impossible circumstances, they are prayed for. And even the incredible trials, they are prayed for. We've got to remember the context. This is Passion Week. This is Passion Week. Jesus has been protecting His disciples from all their foes for three and a half years. Beloved, He has been providing all their necessities for three and a half years. Get this, they've never so much had a sniffle or a cough No, why? Because God, Jesus right there, He's been providing healing. They've never gone hungry. They've seen thousands of hungry people, right? You think of the feedings? They saw thousands of hungry people, yet they themselves have never been hungry. Why? Jesus has been there providing for them, protecting them. He has been present. with them in virtually all their situations and circumstances for three and a half years. This has literally been the time of their lives and everything is going to come to a screeching halt in just a matter of days. Because upon that next Friday, Jesus is going to be crucified and their hearts are going to be shattered and their prayer life, catch it, their prayer life is indeed going to experience a new spiritual disposition. Now for the disciples, Jesus instructs on what we could call the heart of prayer. Right? And this heart doesn't doubt. It doesn't doubt. So what does it mean to doubt? Let's just consider that for now. What does it mean to doubt? And why must the one who prays be the one who believes that what he says is going to happen? What's the connection between doubting and believing what I say is going to happen? Well, to doubt literally means divided judgment. It means divided judgment. As one brother notes, it speaks of, quote, a conflict between a person's outward assertion and his inner attitude, end quote. It's a conflict between the outer assertion and the inner attitude. In our context, it refers to wavering doubts in not only what he says, but also in whom he is addressing. Listen, the spiritual disposition of one who prays leads to efficacious prayer toward God. Why? Because the one who prays believes in what he says and the one he says it to. Said another way, look at verse 24. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe." That's the imperative. You believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you. So what is the imperative parameter of boundless prayer? How can all things really be limited? Or verse 24, who is the one you have received that which you pray and ask? Think about it. It's connected. Who I am receiving those answers and who I am praying to is connected. You can't divorce the two. And the answer is obvious. It's God. The answer is God. God is the recipient of your prayers and God is the grantor of your requests. So all that we pray is contingent upon who? God. It is contingent upon His character, His nature, and even His holy will. Now let me give you a hermeneutical insight. Hermeneutical insight. When you don't know how to interpret what the Gospels are teaching, go to the epistles. Let the epistles interpret for you what the Gospels are teaching. So with me, please turn to Hebrews 11.6. Hebrews 11.6, as we race the clock together. Turn with me to Hebrews 11.6, because you know this verse. Some of you probably haven't memorized. I don't know, maybe you've never read it before, but you need to see what Hebrews 11.6 tells us. Because the epistle is clear, Hebrews 11.6, and without faith it is what? It is impossible. Unlike moving the mountains in your life, right? Unlike those impossibilities, here it is impossible. Those are possible. Here it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Beloved, let me break this down to you. A lack of faith becomes a moral issue for the Christian. It's a moral issue. God, beloved, is personally offended when we reject God's own claims and evidences of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. You will not please God in your praise if you don't believe He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. That's why you must believe in what you're saying. But you must believe in the God you're speaking to. Beloved, we see God's power in creation. We read about His power in the Scriptures. And we respond with doubt and disbelief. Incongruent. incongruent, that doesn't jive with scripture. In fact, what we're doing when we doubt God, catch this, and I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings if you struggle with prayer, but you've got to mature. You've got to grow up. You've got to understand, even as a Christian, right? Because we know as Christians we still sin. Amen? Are we sinners? Yes, we're sinners and we need to constantly be repenting of our sins. But listen, when we pray, not exercising faith, we are sinning. Why? Because we are accusing God of lying. That's what we're saying to God. God, you're a liar. I can't trust you. You are a God of deceit. God, you are untrustworthy. Therefore, I don't believe. I don't trust you. I'm not going to go to you. I don't expect you to do anything. God said, how dare you offend me that way? How dare you doubt me that way? I mean, we can go through the life of Israel, right? How many times were they chastised because they doubted God? How many? We roll our eyes. I don't know. I haven't counted that high yet. We don't want to follow that type of example. Beloved, according to Hebrews 11, 6, we must believe that God is who He says He is, and He can and will do what He promises. He must be the recipient of our prayers, for He is the one who rewards our prayers. Beloved, when we doubt, instead of believing in God, what we're doing is rebelling against the very revealed nature and character of God. Instead of trusting in God, I don't even want to say it loudly, we're blaspheming Him. We're blaspheming Him. Please turn back with me to Mark 11. Mark 11, and let's continue with what Jesus says. Try to open this and expand a little bit more with what Jesus says. Jesus says in Mark 11, verse 24, to believe that you have received. Believe that you have received. To believe what you have received, what you pray and ask, is to express, beloved, a confident faith, a hopeful expectation, an assurance that what was prayed will be delivered by the one who was prayed to. We know that God's promises are as good as His performances, right? Of course! We should have the confident hope in God because of the example we have of His works, His teaching, His person, His character in Scripture. Even in nature itself, He declares the power of God. I think R.C. Sproul, if I'm not mistaken, he just came out with a new book. You know R.C. Sproul? If you don't, you should become acquainted with him. Presbyterian brother who's a great theologian. He just came out with a new book called Know what you're praying and whom you're praying to. I just saw it last week. I'm like, did he hear my sermon? Where did he come with that title? Because that is the perfect title for this sermon. You need to know what you're praying and who you're praying to. And you all get this. Some of you, if this is your home church or you have a home church somewhere else, you know how it's like when you go and talk to your pastor. Right? You know how it is. When you go to talk to your pastor, you're very careful about what comes out of your mouth, right? Because you're all of a sudden, you're aware, okay, I'm talking to a man of the cloth, whatever you want to call him. You're talking to your pastor, the shepherd of your soul here, and you want to have reverence and respect, and you're careful, right? Maybe not so careful the way you should be at home, or at work, or when your boss comes into the room, all of a sudden you're very careful, right? We say, he became tight-lipped. Right? Why? Because I'm conscious of someone who is hearing me. I love it. How much more conscious should we be of the words coming out of our mouth when we pray to God? How much more aware should we be? Right? And be careful of what you pray. Now, I don't want to go into tangents here. Sometimes I think we're just too sleepy in our prayers. Right? The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is what? We're weak. We're weak. Right? We don't think about what we're praying. Or even worse, we do pray, God answers, and we forgot we even asked for Him. And we ignore the fact that He actually answered my prayers. Sometimes we're just too tired to pray, and we don't go to Him. And you know what? God is gracious to provide what we need, even when we don't even ask it. Praise His holy name! How often we thank God after we receive the food, but we never pray to God to receive it in the first place. We just assume the next time you go to stop and shop, Don't need food. If you've gone to Market Basket, you know, I should pray. There's no food here anymore. What happened? Imagine that was everywhere. But all of a sudden, we would get a little nervous. We would be more mindful of it. Now, I get it. When you first look at verses 23 and 24, you think, wow, Jesus just gave the disciples a blank check. It looks like He even gave them the whole checkbook. Just fill it out, guys. Put in the dollar amount and it's as good as cash. Bring it to the bank and you'll get whatever you ask. With that illustration, let me say this. Remember, yeah, put anything you want in the checkbook. Put anything you want in the dollar amount. But remember, God has to sign the check. God still has to sign that check. He still has to okay it. Now I don't want you to get me, don't misunderstand me, don't get me wrong here. I believe that God is the one, according to Ephesians 3.20, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. Of course He is, He's God. He can do anything He wants. Beloved, we have to be believing in what we say and the God we are speaking to. That should be our spiritual disposition. So with that, let me just quickly give you some Some practical biblical parameters in light of a biblical spiritual disposition. What are some biblical parameters we should exercise in prayer? Let me give them to you quickly. Number one here, pray according to God's glory. It seems almost redundant to say, but please, when you pray, if you want to be heard, if you want to see efficacious prayer, pray according to God's glory. What do I mean by that? I mean this. Pray so that the ultimate goal in your request is that God would be glorified, that God would be praised, that His renown and reputation would go forth strongly and boldly in your field or your sphere of influence, whether that's with your family, your brothers and sisters, that's with co-workers, church members, so that when people talk to you and you talk about God, you boast in your God because of who He is and how He answered your prayer. Pray that God is glorified. Jesus said it this way in John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. That was Jesus' main goal for answering prayers, so it should be our main goal in presenting our request. Pray that God is glorified. Number two, pray according to Jesus' name. Not do. I'm sure you all do it. In Jesus' name, Amen. But what does that mean? John 16, 23. Jesus said, until now you have asked nothing. in my name, ask and you will receive, that your joy may be made full." So what does it mean to pray in Jesus name? To pray in Jesus name is to say this, When you invoke the name of Jesus when you pray, you are praying as if Jesus Himself were presenting those requests to God Himself. It is as if you are saying to God, God, I am talking to you, I am praying to you, and these are the requests that I am completely convinced that Jesus would present to you if He were praying on my behalf. You see, you really need to, we need to be careful about what we're saying. We need to be praying with informed consciences. Listen, biblically informed consciences. Number three, pray according to God's righteous standard. Okay, pray according to God's righteous standard. That is, beloved, His revealed will found in His Word. Don't pray anything contradictory to it. Listen, don't ever bother praying that God would bless your efforts in robbing a bank. Just don't even do it. Don't blaspheme God that way. I don't care. Regardless of where your marriage is at, don't ever pray that God would cause your spouse to leave you. Don't pray that prayer. Regardless of how sinful or unbelieving they are, pray according to God's revealed will, because you know God's revealed will for your marriages, that would be glorifying to God. That your unbelieving or sinful spouse would be sanctified because of your holiness in your marriage. We need to pray according to God's revealed will. Pray according to what God has taught and instructed us in His Word. Listen, number four, pray according to God's will. Don't just pray according to God's standard, but pray according to God's will. And let me explain what I mean by that, because some of you are saying, you know, Lou, I'm single. I'd like a spouse. But I don't find chapter and verse that tells me who that person is. Or, Lou, my car is breaking down and I need to buy a car. And I don't know, should I buy the black one or the white one? Which one should I buy? I don't find a chapter and verse that tells me that. Or what college to go to. Or what job to have. Listen, this is not a spiritual cop-out. I don't care who has ever said that to you. Biblically, there's no way you could say, praying, God, your will be done, is a spiritual cop-out. Let me remind you of Jesus himself, in the garden, when he had his most agonizing day. According to Luke's gospel, he was sweating drops like blood. agonizing in prayer. Mark 14, 36, Jesus says, and I quote, all things are possible for thee. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what thou wilt. Jesus submitted and yielded to the revealed will of God. Let me encourage you, do that. Whether she says yes or no, whether you buy the black or the white car, whether you get the job or not, submit to God's revealed will and trust Him. Trust Him. I think we're on number five. I'll give you one more. Number five here. Pray according to faithful persistence. And I'll note this because we read it earlier. It was our call to worship. Matthew 7, 7. Ask. And the idea is that you would continuously ask. It's not vain repetition. It's continuously asking in faith. Jesus says, and it shall be given to you. Seek. And you shall find it. The idea is continuously seek. You don't give up. You continue to seek God. Knock. And the idea is you continue to knock. You continue to knock and you don't stop. And it shall be open to you. Verse 11, Jesus argues, if then you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more should your Father, who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask Him? What a comfort, what a hope, God is good, He's our Father, He loves us, and He's good, He'll give us what we need. We need to trust Him in persevering, persistent faith. Well, let me conclude here, you've been so patient with me, thank you. Let me conclude, number three here, the third imperative parameter. It's found in verse 25. It's simple, it's short, and it is so spiritually sweet. The third imperative parameter, it's the prerequisite for prayer. The prerequisite for prayer. What is that? Look at verse 25. Jesus said, and whenever you stand praying, common posture in prayer, whenever you stand, you stand before God, you're looking up for gifts. That's the imperative command. You all do this. Forgive. If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. Beloved, we are to forgive. In the context, in the passage, it's not for your justification. It's not for your salvation. But in order to experience true fellowship with God, we must forgive others. Listen, understanding our plight before a holy and just God, and receiving His grace, and His mercy, and His forgiveness, it must motivate us to be forgiving of others, especially when we pray. And if you want to clog up your privilege to prayer, if you want to clog up that avenue by which you are able to talk to God, stop forgiving one another. harbor a heart of bitterness and anger and envy, and God will not hear your prayers. Husbands, you know this, right? 1 Peter chapter 3. You better understand, your wife, as a believer, is a co-heir of Christ with you. And if you don't treat her right, God says He will not listen to your prayers. You will foul up your fellowship with God. Don't do that. How do we not do that? Be forgiving. Be forgiving. Forgiving your brother and sister in Christ. Forgiving your enemies who despise you for Christ's sake. Consider it a joy and a privilege and a blessing to be hated for Christ's sake and be forgiving. Be forgiving. Because that is the prerequisite for prayer. Foundation of prayer? Have faith in God. The spiritual disposition of prayer? Believe what you're saying is going to happen because you believe in the God you're speaking to. And thirdly, the prerequisite for prayer, attitude of forgiveness. With all this talk of prayer, I guess I should close in prayer. So pray with me. Father in heaven, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your teaching. Thank you for all that Jesus exemplified for us and for the hope that he gives us in this passage to pray to you. God, we love you. We thank you for loving us. First, we ask that you'd help us to live a life of hopeful expectation, that we would exercise true biblical prayer because we trust in you, who is the definer of truth. God, help us this week to exemplify these imperative parameters for boundless prayer. All for your glory, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.