Deuteronomy chapter five, verses six to 21, which you can find on page 150 there in the Pew Bible. So please give your attention and read together with us. Let's read together God's 10 commandments. God said, 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 on 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. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you. that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors. So let's consider now verse 17. You shall not murder. All right, obviously you shall not kill other people. Nor shall you kill yourself. Suicide is included. Killing yourself is not permitted either. Just as you don't own the other person in order to kill them, you don't own yourself. God gave you life. So you are steward also of your own life. So you're not to harm ourselves either. Now as we look at this, we're not to kill. What else are we not to do? We're not to harm one another. So we have here an injunction also on beating each other up, breaking each other's bones. But what else? It goes on, Jesus makes it go on to words. You shall not call your brother a fool. You shall not call your brother an insult. It goes on to words, then it goes on to the thoughts that are expressed by words. You shall not covet, all right? Well, you shall not be attacking your brother in your mind either. So we find the apostle speaking of taking every thought captive to Christ. You find yourself brooding angrily, raging against someone in your heart, well, okay, we have a thought that needs to be taken captive to Christ because you shall not be brooding angrily with your brother. Now, some of them will say, well, what do I do when he's done something wrong? Well, it's a very interesting setting back in Leviticus 19 when we first get what's sometimes called the golden rule. Listen to the lead in. Leviticus 19 verse 17. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Notice, the lead-in to love your neighbor as yourself is not some sweet saccharine, like, really nicey-nicey kind of situation. No, it's when you're inclined to hate him. It's when, you know, you are bearing a grudge, right? You're told, no, don't bear a grudge. Instead, what do you do? Well, you know, you shall reason frankly. Sometimes you need to go and talk to somebody. And that is better than brooding and hating. So reason frankly with your neighbor, so that you don't take vengeance, so that you don't bear a grudge. But instead, in this way, you seek to love your neighbor as yourself. So what is commanded? Something is forbidden harming neighbors, so the flip side of that is, all right, it's commanded that we have a loving concern for our neighbor, that we want our neighbor's good as much as we want our own. And so part of the spelling that out that you get in the Torah is this, if you see your enemy's ox wandering away, You shall not smirk and kick it and get it. No, you shall bring your enemy's ox back to him. If you see your enemy's donkey crushed by its heavy load lying in the road, you will not smirk at him as being an idiot. No, you will surely help your enemy's donkey back up again. And I think the point is rather obvious. If you see your enemy's car being driven down the road by a thief, you shall call 911 and report the car theft of your enemy's car. All right, and so on and so forth. We are to seek our enemy's good and not just simply say, well, thank God he had that coming to him. So it's a good commandment that we have here. You shall not murder or do any of the things that tend in that direction. Instead, reason with your neighbor when you need to and love your neighbor as yourself. So please listen now as I read to you from various passages in Luke. We'll begin at 5, 15, and 16. Please give your attention to the Word of God as we have it here in the Gospel according to Luke. So in chapter 5, verse 15, we get this. But now even more, the report about Jesus went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their infirmities. But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Next chapter, chapter 6, verse 12 and 13. In these days, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray. And all night, he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12, who he named apostles. Moving on to Luke 9, verse 16. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, 12 baskets of broken pieces. Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, who did the crowd say that I am? And they answered John the Baptist, but others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then he said to them, but who do you say? that I am." And Peter answered the Christ of God, and he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And skipping ahead to Luke chapter 22, verses 31 and 32. Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you all, that he might sift you all like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." And on to verse 41. No, you know what? Verse 39. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray. that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Let's stop our reading at that point and pray. Heavenly Father, we pray now that we would watch closely and hear all that you have to tell us today. It would help us to be attentive to your voice. Lord, we pray that you would not allow us to enter in it now into temptation. We pray that you would be near to us and guard us. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. And now our main passage for today is in Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verses one to 13. So please turn to Luke chapter 11, verses one to 13. Luke 11, 1 to 13, please give your attention to the word of God. Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John the Baptist taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend, will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, don't bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, Though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you If a son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Well, I found this to be a humbling week personally. because our key concept today is prayer. So I had to read about prayer. And I read this in the Heidelberg Catechism. Prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And the trouble is that I know that in the Heidelberg Catechism, our thankfulness is our whole Christian life, right? That means our whole Christian response to God, that's our thankfulness. And it says it's the most important part, prayer is, the most important part of our thankfulness. I say, well, that's not the standards of this church, let's go somewhere else. So I read John Calvin, and Calvin has a whole chapter heading, prayer. the chief exercise of faith and by which we daily receive God's benefits. And then he put his money where his mouth is by writing a 70 page chapter on prayer in the middle of his institutes of the Christian religion. Now I do pray and I trust you pray, but I don't know. I don't know if I can say that I am treating prayer as the chief exercise of my faith, or as the most important part of the thankfulness that I owe to God. And I'm confident of you that you all pray. And I'm sure some of you pray a lot, but I at least am not aware that we can collectively say that we're treating prayer as the most important part of the thankfulness due to God. So today we need to confess our sluggishness, if, like me, you agree that you have been sluggish. Now, other Christian traditions have no troubles. In no way, Calvin is not being an outlier. The Heidelberg Catechism is not going out on a limb. Other Christian traditions have no trouble labeling prayer as something big and important. I think it's American busyness and self-reliance and egoism that leads us to think rather instinctively that what's most important is what I am doing and that I need to be busy and active. And indeed, this is not a call for monasteries. We're still Protestants. I'm not going over there. At the same time, who is most important? And whose actions are most important? If we agree that God in fact is sovereign and a merciful Heavenly Father, then we really ought to spend more time on the phone with our Heavenly Father, which we do in prayer. After all, how powerful are you? Can you change a single heart? No. And the scary thing is you probably could get farther on changing a heart for the worse than you could on changing a heart for the better. But you cannot change a heart. So if you cannot do, if I cannot do such a simple thing as that, such a crucial thing as that, let us be steadfast in prayer. Because you know, As I've told you, T. David Gordon, author and current preacher, says there's five ways of thinking about Christian decision-making, five sort of models for thinking about what should I do, and they all point to prayer. If you say, alright, my framework is law, what has God told me to do, that's what I'm going to do. Well, He's commanded us to pray. Now a quibble occurred to me. You can look at verse 2 if you want a quibble. It says, when you pray, say this. Yeah, when you pray. Should you happen to want to pray, pray this way. But it didn't say you had to. And that's a stupid quibble, because verse 9 says, seek, ask, knock. And the other place we get the Lord's Prayer, because we get it twice, if you're wondering why is this one short, well, the way that we pray at the end of the service is in Matthew 6. And over there, he doesn't say, when you pray. Over there he says, pray like this. direct command. Of course, in the other parts of the Bible, the epistles, we're told, pray without ceasing. And James says, is anyone sad? Let him pray. Or the Psalms. The reason that we've chosen these Psalms today is because there's verses in them. 50, call on me in the day of trouble. I'll answer you and you'll glorify me. Or as we just sang in 62, pour out your heart to God. We have this exhortation in the book of Hebrews. Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, and since he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin, let us therefore with confidence draw near to the throne of grace so that we can find help and hope in time of need. And I always hear throne of grace now in an African accent. Because our brother Matthew, he came to prayer meeting. And he got that into his first prayer every time. As we're coming before the throne of grace. And I won't try to imitate his accent, but that's how I hear it in my head. We're coming to the throne of grace. That's how he would begin his prayers. That's what we're doing. It's a throne. God has the power. It's a throne of grace. Because God is compassionate to us. God has commanded us to pray. That other way of thinking about the Christian life is wisdom. I want to do what is wise. The commandments don't always tell me what to do. We need to act with wisdom. Well, God has showed us that it is wise to pray. James 1.5, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him pray and ask it of God. There you go. It's wise to pray. When you don't know what to do, pray. Well, Proverbs repeats that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. How do we express our right fear of God except by praying to Him, asking Him for forgiveness and for help and for direction? This is how we show our prayer, our fear of God. In the Bible, we have many examples of people praying and then God helping them. In particular, we have examples of kings, the most powerful people, kings being in trouble and praying and God answering. We'll talk about one of those tonight. Now think about the message there. Here's the most powerful person in God's people, the king. All these resources at his command, but he knows he can't do something. He knows he's in trouble, so he prays and God answers him. Don't miss the point. If he needs prayer, how much more do we? And if God hears him, how much more will he hear us? Now that in Jesus Christ, we can all call on God as Father. So when you're reading the Bible and you see an example of somebody's praying and God is answering, the point is, go thou and do likewise. Go and pray in your time of need. But you know, you can also think of this, of our life as a spiritual war. There's a spiritual war on. You could say between good and evil, that's too impersonal. It's between God and the devil. between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world is a spiritual war on. And in this war, there is one goat. It occurred to me he's a goat in both senses. All right, Jesus Christ is the undefeated champion because he has been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. Now, what does the undefeated champion give us for advice in our struggle? He says, pray like this and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. That's the champ's advice to you. Pray that way. And he didn't just say it in the Lord's Prayer, he said it in Gethsemane. That's why I read more than I was planning on. I said, oh, I have it right here. What does he say to them? He says, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. And as you know, they didn't pray, they fell asleep, and then they were tempted, and then they fell. Again, the point is being made to us. Pray like this, Lord, lead us not into temptation. Or when it says put on the armor of God, how do you do that? You know he doesn't mean go to your closet and put on that armor. It's not in there. That's not what he's talking about. So how do you put on, you have to pray. Pray to put on that armor of God. And in faith, seek the Spirit. But another way of thinking about the Christian life is that we're seeking to commune with God. As for me, it is good to be dear God. I thirst for you, as he's saying in Psalm 42. And Jesus said, abide in me and I in you. How do you do that? Well, like any relationship, it takes a lot of communication. If you wanna strengthen your relationship, communication will be key. And so our communication with God is through prayer. Through prayer, we pour out our hearts to him, And in prayer, often we hear God speaking and guiding and instructing us. Also in our Bible reading, we hear God instructing us. So we're to abide in Him in prayer. And if you don't understand why prayer is so important, consider this. We're only saved through our union with Christ. And we have responsibility for that union as well, because He says, abide in me. So we're to abide in Him by prayer. So we have these five ways to think about the Christian life and Christian decision making. We've had law, we've had wisdom, we've had spiritual warfare, we've had abiding in Christ. All of those point to the crucial nature of prayer. And the fifth one is the imitation of Christ. Jesus prayed a lot and he taught his disciples to pray. Notice that he prayed a lot. That was the point of the string of things that I read, right, out of Luke. I read, he's praying again, he's praying again, he's praying again. And it is possible to imitate him and pray a lot. Martin Luther, the great Christian leader, he was a monk in a monastery for a part of his life and even when he became a protestant and said you shouldn't have monasteries and I can get married and he got married and they had a whole bunch of kids and life was busy but evidently he kept the habit he would get up early and pray for an hour everyday which is not easy but suppose it was going to be a really busy day because boy that guy got more stuff done than anybody if it was going to be a really really busy day what then surely he needed his sleep Now, evidently the practice was to get up extra early so you could pray for two hours. Because if it's going to be a really busy day, an important day, yes, sleep's important, but to have God, to be close to God, to ask God for help, that's even more important. You saw that with Jesus. Before he chose his 12 disciples, he spent all night in prayer, looking for God's help. Now, Jesus prayed so much you might be tempted to follow my college roomie into error. When I first went to college, first I got a letter in the mail, the name of my roommate. And then I got this little pamphlet that was called a Facebook. because you sent in a picture for yourself when they printed them up in this little booklet so you could flip and see who you're gonna room with. And I said, oh, big football player, big old neck on this guy. I was like, uh-oh, hope I get along with him. So I go in, I move in, he's not there, he's got a Bible on his desk. I said, oh, it's gonna be okay. And it was, great guy, no problems. But we're talking to him about the Christian faith, and this was where he was hung up. He said, I know Jesus is not God because he prayed to God. And I couldn't dislodge him from that point, right? I know Jesus isn't God because he prayed to God. Well, he did pray to God. How do you answer that one? I think with reference to two crucial concepts, the Trinity and the incarnation. The Trinity. Yes, there is one God, but there are three persons from all eternity past. And while we can't understand all the ways they relate to each other, they do relate to each other. And what could be communicated more from the terms father and son, that there should be some communication. And so of course, when Jesus is on earth, he continues in communication with God, the father. And so God, the son speaks to God, the father, that's part of the term son and father. There is no problem here because God is three persons and one eternal God. But secondly, with the incarnation, We say that God became man. Well, hang on with that one. That doesn't mean God became man and stopped being God. Rather, he took into union with his divine nature, a full human person. He took on in union with his divine nature, he didn't lose that, but he added a whole human nature, body, mind, and soul. And he did that not just so that he could suffer in the same nature that committed the sins, our nature, But he also did that to complete everything a human is supposed to do, to keep the covenant of works. Jesus kept the covenant of works. He did what a human being is supposed to do. Now, what are we supposed to do? Pray. So, in his mission of doing everything that a human should do, he prayed, because we're supposed to pray. So I think in these two ways, you should be able to answer a person who's hung up on the idea that, well, I know Jesus prayed, correct. He prayed to God, correct. So therefore, he's not God, incorrect. He's both God and man. The Son is speaking to the Father in the Trinity. And the man is doing what a man should do. He is praying to God. So Jesus prayed a lot. And he taught his disciples to pray. And you'll notice, so did John. John the Baptist taught, that's actually the jumping off point. You know, Jesus, John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. So let's get with the program, Jesus. Shouldn't you teach us to pray? Jesus didn't say, you're being fresh. No, he said, you're exactly right. Let me teach you how to pray. So if we're Jesus' disciples, let's take the lesson. How should we pray? He said, pray like this. Pray for God's glory and God's kingdom. That comes first. We tend to rush on to our own concerns and in a crisis, that's fine. Go ahead, quick pray, God save me. And your crisis do that. But we're to pray not just when it's a crisis, but also pray, you could say, when we are composed, when we have time, when we've gotten up early, or we're praying before bed. There's a time also for those composed when, you know, you have time, you're doing it deliberately, it's not an immediate crisis. And so that's when you have time to reckon with the fact that you're entering before the king. Now, I dare say, if you entered before a human king, You'd spend a little bit of time thinking about how to do that and what you wanted to say. Now don't let that dissuade you from going to God. He is also Heavenly Father, but it's worth thinking a little bit. Okay, as I come before the throne of grace, I should come with reverence and humility. I should come in Christ's name and I should ask for what I really want. I mean, it'd be trivial to go in before the king and be like, oh, what should I give to you? Uh, M&Ms? Talk about a wasted opportunity. I mean, you gotta be thinking about something better than that, right? So as you come before God, ask for what you really want, but that puts it on you. What do you really want? And of course, if what you really want is something you can't ask God for, then you have a problem. And you need to think again. You need to ask for forgiveness, perhaps, if what you really want is not something you can ask from God. Alright, so what should you really want? What you really want is this, for everything to be set right. Obviously, you want your own situation set right, but that's awfully small. You'll get to that, but in the big picture, you'd like everything to be set right. And as we said last week, Everything went wrong with sin. Sin begins with not giving God thanks or the glory that's to his name. So let's begin there. Instead, let's give God the glory to his name. Let's give God thanks and praise and say, Lord, may everyone live for you. May everyone honor you. Would that not stop murder and jealousy and wars if everyone lived for you. God, may your name be hallowed by me, by us, by everyone. Hallowed be your name by all. Lord, take down all those rival thoughts and kingdoms and notions and everything that stands in opposition to you. Take them down so that you and your kingdom can reign supreme. May humanity flood into your kingdom, build up your church, may it thrive, protect it. May nations obey you, O Lord. May the rulers bow down before you, your kingdom come. May we entirely do your will for them, Lord, it would be as it is in heaven here on earth. Yes, pray in the time of crisis and pray for yourself quick. But when you come also to those times of being composed and you're praying deliberately at a set time. Begin with this prayer for everything to be set right. And know that that means when God is put and treated as the one who's in the rightful place. And then he says, pray for bread, for forgiveness and for protection from temptation. How would you summarize that? He's saying pray for your physical needs and pray for your spiritual needs. So having begun with God, proceed to yourself, pray for yourself. Not just yourself, though, because it says us. Pray for our needs. Pray for the us. The family us, the church us, the national us. Pray for the us. But pray first for the physical needs. Those are top of mind, aren't they? If you're in pain, you know it. Either all the time, or every time you move, or whatever it is, it's top of mind. It's right there. You can't escape it. And we sympathize with other people, so we rightly pray for those. who are needing surgery or are sick or something. By the way, if we were all starving, we wouldn't be praying for those surgeries, we'd be praying for food. All right, so starting there with the most basic immediate need, pray for food. And we're told the Heavenly Father knows that we need all these things. That's meant as consolation. That's not meant to say so you don't need to pray, no, the point is consolation. He's telling us nonetheless to ask. Cause we need to learn to turn to him. We need to learn when we get it to thank him. We need to learn to appreciate it all the more because I asked for this and God gave me this. So let me appreciate the gift that I have received from the hand of God. And we can plead God's promises. Father, you said to ask. So I'm here like you said, asking. You said that like a good father, you would provide. So I am asking you as my good father to provide. Give us this day our daily bread. You'll notice, of course, he only said bread. He didn't say the fattened calf, which would be the seven-course meal, which would be the amazing steak and the chocolate mousse. He said, Lord, give me what I need for today. Because we're not looking to pray once and be set for life. Because then where is our communion with God? It's why it says in Proverbs, God, give me the food that is needful for me, lest I be rich and think I don't need you. Or lest I be poor and steal and profane your name. So he would have us pray daily. You see that because he says, give me this day, give us this day our daily bread. Why can't I get a week at a time? Well, because I want you praying again tomorrow. And then remember, please, that while we are indubitably physical beings and should not forget it or pretend otherwise, we are also spiritual beings and should not forget it or pretend otherwise. After all, the spirit is being renewed day by day while the body wastes away. And you are a spiritual being who has offended the Father of spirits by your sin. So the greatest prayer request is always this, Father, forgive me, the sinner. And Jesus tells that parable of two men who went up to the temple to pray. The one who goes down justified is the one who beats on his breath and says, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus says, that's a good prayer. That's the one who went down justified. And since we're constantly being pulled towards victimhood and self-pity and excuses, and that says, okay, what I did, because he did that first, he puts right into the prayer, you can say a sidebar notice. even as we have forgiven others. Everyone knows the cycle. The cycle that says, well, you punched me in the shoulder, so I punched you in the head, so you hit me with a stick, so I hit you with a bat, so you came at me with a knife, so I came at you with a gun, so then your people came after my family. And you'll notice, I haven't described the cycle of violence, I've described the spiral of violence where it gets worse and worse, and Christians are to be those who break those spirals of violence. We are to forgive those who have sinned against us. Violence is to stop with us. And so that's right, and that's hard, and so we need to be in prayer to find the strength from God to do that. And so that is a spiritual need that we have, and we ought to pray intently in that spiritual way. Lord, forgive us our debts, even as we forgive. Oh Lord, help me to forgive others. And lead us not into temptation. You know, we pray for protection in travel, and that's good. Travel smooth and easy until there's a crash. So go ahead, pray for protection and travel. But we don't pray nearly enough for protection from temptation. Surely it's better to fall and break your leg than to fall into temptation and sin and all of its consequences. And so I wanna ask you all for help. We don't have to subtract anything from our prayer requests and prayer meeting or evening church or before church, but we need to add some. We need to add some spiritual prayers. We need to add some spiritual prayers. Lord, pray for me not to be tempted this week when I know I'm going into a difficult situation. Lord, help us to be a forgiving community. Lord, help us with these spiritual problems as well. Because very often, we stick to the physical all the time, and we need that, and that is fine, but we are also spiritual beings. And so he passed on from the bread, yes, pray for the bread, but then pray for forgiveness, and pray that you are forgiving, and pray that you may not be led into temptation, but pray that you will be delivered from evil. And it's in us, so we ought to be praying for each other in this way. So let us have a change starting today in the prayer request that we ask for and say, let's pray for this. Yes, let's pray for Debbie's knee. Let's also pray for one another's souls. May we not be led into temptation. This is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Pray that everything would be set right, that God would be glorified and honored and his kingdom would prevail. And pray for your own concerns, the physical, but definitely also, the spiritual, and not your own individually, but the us, the hour that you are a part of. Now, if you have not been praying much lately, and you decide rightly that you will pray, go and do it. But see if you do not discover the following, that as you set out to pray, especially if you are not in the habit, that you will practically feel the devil trying to put his shoulder into you and steer you into another course. It's almost palpable. He doesn't want to make it totally palpable, because then you'd really believe in Him, and then you'd really pray. Alright, so He doesn't quite show His hand, but sometimes when you're going to pray, you can pretty much feel the devil saying, yeah, after you check email, yeah, after you check your phone, yeah, after you eat some chocolate, yeah, after, you know what, you're awfully tired, why don't you just go to sleep, James, and don't pray. Alright, you can practically feel the devil steering you away, because he doesn't want you to begin to cry out to your Heavenly Father. And one of the ways he keeps us from praying is by offering plausible arguments. So let me knock those down. If God knows all things, as you've been saying all month, pastor, all right? If by his providence, he directs everything. If he has a plan that will be executed to a T, then why do I need to pray? That seems like the most useless activity ever. If God is already gonna work out his eternal plan. Answer, first he commanded it. And that's actually enough right there. He told us to pray, and that's enough. Secondly, He's shown it to be wise. Is that not useful to you? Thirdly, by this, He equips us for battle, for the spiritual battle that we are in, which is to say that we're moving towards this. He told us to pray, not for His sake, He's got the information, but for our sake, so that we would be equipped for the battle, so that we would be unified with Him. We need that necessary refresher course on being a creature. You know, kids ask their parents for things. And you say, not when they grow up. Oh, I don't know. I think when they're small, they want cars. And when they're big, they want cars. I don't think it changes. And we are all small kids next to God. So we ought to be praying. And if you wanna work out the theological puzzle, here it is. God has ordained not only the thing that's going to happen, the end, but also the means, the way that it's going to happen. He has ordained that we would pray and that He would answer. Calvin puts it this way in that 70-page chapter. He says, it is as if you are told there is treasure in the field. You may dig it up, then it will be yours. Here is a shovel. Now, if you're told there's treasure and you may take it and here is a shovel and you only have to go dig it up, what is the rational thing to do? It is to go dig it up. But that is what prayer is. Because when God has promised he will do something for us, he is also telling us to dig it up by prayer. Here's an example. when the prophet Daniel, reading the earlier prophet Jeremiah, saw that after 70 years the Babylonian exile would be over. And when Daniel saw it's been 70 years, he didn't sit back and wait. He prayed, God, make it happen as you said. And he prayed with confidence because God had promised it. Or when King David was told, God said, I will make your house an abiding house. You will always have a king who reigns. David did not sit back and say, thanks, that's cool. No, he went and he sat before God and he prayed and he said, God, you are so gracious to me. God, I do not deserve this. And God, make it happen just the way you said. Make that promise come true. God, that sounds like a great one. Make it come true. Prayer is necessary because God is pleased to answer the prayers of His children. And the prayers of His children are part of His plan. But why should God hear me? This is the next objection. Why should God hear me, the sinner? Why should God hear me, the repeat sinner? And so that brings us back to Luke 11, because right after Jesus taught the Lord's prayer, he addressed this one. He told the parable of the unprepared neighbor, the guy who goes banging on his neighbor's door at midnight for some food to give to his traveling friend. And Jesus says, why will that work? Because if you can picture a village life and these poor people in small houses that probably don't lock very well, and if you can picture yourself in your two-room house in bed with your children, but your next-door neighbor who lives like right beyond, like the next house that shares a wall with you, and if he's banging on your door asking for bread, if he does it long enough, guess what? You'll get up and give him some. Now, why does that work? Jesus says, well, not because it's your friends, but because you want them to shut up. And that's the only way. And so he says, look, if you know that works on earth, and it would if you put yourself in another village setting, well, how much more will it work with God? Who doesn't need to get up? Who doesn't say, well, I only have so much? How much more will that work with God? And then he goes on to say, look, you know what fathers are like? If the father has the food, he'll give it to his kid. Well, God has more food and is a better father. He will give it. Fear not. But, next objection, is God really my father? I mean, Islam has 100 names for God, 99, 101, something, and none of them are father. Islam says, don't call God father. How dare you do that? Can I really call God father? Well, Jesus, the son, said, if the son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. Those who believe in Him, who receive Him, are given the right to be called children of God. And so if you have repented of your sins and believed in Jesus Christ for salvation, among salvation's benefits are this, you are to call on God as Father. You are to pray, because if you are Christ's, then remember, you are in union with Christ. He is the Son of God. And we get some of that. We can cry out to God as Father. But I don't know the right words, I don't know how to pray, next objection. Romans 8.26, the Holy Spirit helps us to pray, because we don't know what to pray for, or how to say it, or anything. But the Father knows the mind of the Spirit. And as you see here at the end of what will be read, the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. That's a little hint for what to ask for. What should I ask for? Well, the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, and that is the greatest of all gifts. Ask for that. I remember one time I was, just before we had kids, we're out visiting Nikki's family. We used to see her cousins more back then. And so I think I was like a brand new pastor at that point. And they're like, hey, John, how about you pray before the meal? So I prayed before the meal. And of course I am a pastor. So you could tell by how I prayed that, yeah, he's prayed before. the phrases come out kind of easily. And so afterwards, some of her cousins are like, hey, did you ever pray before? Okay, because it came out easily. You know what? That doesn't impress God at all. That doesn't make it any more impressive to God. And woe to me if I'm trying to pray to impress you because you can't answer the prayer. We're to pray for God's ears. And we're to pray for very basic elemental things. The small words are better. Go ahead and pray. You know how to talk. You know how to pray. Because prayer is talking to God in the name of Jesus with the help of the spirit for what we need, spiritual and physical. Ask for forgiveness. Give God your thanks. It's the chief exercise of faith. By it, we maintain and strengthen our union with Christ. So I'm gonna conclude with an extended quotation now from maybe the greatest Christian preacher, John Chrysostom. This is what he wrote more than 1600 years ago. Prayer stands before God as an honored ambassador. An honored ambassador. You know, the king lets an honored ambassador in, and if he's an honored ambassador, good to hear from you, ambassador. Prayer stands before God as an honored ambassador. Prayer gives joy to the spirit and peace to the heart. I warn you, though, do not imagine that prayer is mere words. Prayer is a desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man, but brought about by God's grace. As St. Paul says, for when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the spirit himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words. When God gives to someone the gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food, catches fire, and his soul burns forever with desire for the Lord. To begin on this path, start by adorning your house with modesty and humility. Make it shine brightly with the light of justice. Decorate it with the gold leaf of good works, with the jewels of faithfulness and greatness of heart. Finally, to make the house perfect, crown it with a pinnacle of prayer. Thus you will have prepared a pure and sparkling house for the Lord. Receive the Lord into this royal and splendid dwelling. In other words, receive by his grace, his image into the temple of your soul. Let's pray. May Father help us to be renewed after your image in righteousness and holiness. Lord, I pray for us that we would love you and that you'd give us discernment, that we would discern what is good and evil, and that, Lord, we would pursue what is good and cast away what is evil. Lord, give us this discernment, and help us, Lord, also to thirst for you, the living God. We pray this in Jesus's name, amen.