Okay? We'll just start going on pages that have multiple questions. I'll pick one and see how many we can get through. Question number one. Is it right to try to encourage, teach, or admonish others in corporate prayer? If so, how do we avoid the pitfalls of Matthew 6? So we'll just take it. Is it right to encourage, teach, or admonish others in corporate prayer? Yes and no. If your main purpose in praying is to get somebody next to you to start keeping the Sabbath better, or something like that, No, that's obnoxious. But at the same time, understand anytime you pray out loud around someone else, you are encouraging them. You're giving them an insight into your relationship with God, and you're inviting them into it. It's always going to encourage. You're always teaching me. Every time I hear you pray, I'm always learning something. So don't be afraid of it, either. But don't make that your purpose. So the Sabbath thing, that's wrong. Just the Sabbath. I have a very specific example of mine. What should we do when we don't feel like praying? You should pray about that. So I have in mind an interview that Bono did many years ago. He was asked about what do you do when you have writer's block? He writes all these songs. What do you do when you have writer's block? He's like, I just write about that. That's all we start with. What do you do when you don't feel like praying? Well, you probably should pray about that. and pray about that until it changes. So just keep praying. And this is why we start with conviction. If you're led by emotion rather than conviction, you're only going to pray when you feel like it. And then you're going to pray less and less. Lo and behold, when you act with conviction and you pray, the spirit of prayer, the love of prayer, will develop in your life. Also repent, by the way. I mean, if you don't want to talk to God, there's a problem. And there's probably something else going on under that. How did I come up with this title, How Not to Pray? I don't know. Did you write that question? If we are in unrepentant sin, does the Lord hear our prayer? Again, not to be obnoxious, but yes and no. The Lord hears everything and knows everything. He knows everything you say, everything you think, everything anybody says. So in one sense, the Lord hears everything. But I think what we mean is the Lord hears graciously and with a promise to forgive. The Psalms say if I regarded sin in my heart, the Lord would not have heard. So, there are, in my study of scripture, this is a whole other sermon, but there are at least seven different things, seven different ways to get prayers unanswered. And that's one of them, is to regard sin in your heart. So, yes, if you keep, if you I have no responsibility to hear you. Now, God is so gracious that he has the right to answer prayers prayed by somebody who's holding on to a pet's sin, but he has not made that promise. And so, yeah, if you want your prayers to be answered, this is why we repent of our sins first, or early on in our prayers. So your personal life, the process of repentance, put on, put off, is an important part of seeing your prayers answered. What additional counsel might you have for an introvert who is worried about praying wrong in a public setting? What additional counsel would you give to an introvert who is worried about praying wrong in a public setting? So, don't take this too harshly, but I would say repent. Right? Just repent. Just ask God to forgive you for thinking wrongly about prayer. What does it mean to pray wrong? What is that? Do we have some sheets that young believers don't have? Like, here's what it means to pray right and pray really well? that there's good prayer, like there's prayer that's going to be acceptable to other people, and there's prayer that they're going to look down on. If I don't use the right words, the right formulas, if I stumble a little bit, if I stutter, or if I have pauses, I don't know, you have in your mind the fact that other people are going to judge you for the way that you pray, and that reveals two things. Reveals you're not really set on God as you pray, you're really still fearing man. And so if that's, so when I say repent, I mean that's Just ask God to forgive you for caring too much about what other people think of your prayers. Having said that, how many of you have ever been judged in the church of Jesus Christ for praying poorly? I've never seen this happen. I've never seen in a good church somebody pray and stumble along, and they do. And we encourage our little kids to pray, and they're not great at it. But how many of you have ever seen somebody go to somebody else and say, that wasn't very good? And so what I'm saying is you're afraid of nothing. Like the Church of Jesus Christ loves to hear other people pray. And if you stumble, we just don't care. You're talking to God. Satan's in there somewhere. He's worked in there this idea that other people are judging me. Well, they're just not. I've just never seen the church judge other people for not praying well. That's just not a fear that I think is diswarranted. So, alright, I hope that wasn't encouraging that too harsh. How should we pray for others, especially unbelievers, specifically unbelievers, but also how should we not pray for them? Well, when we're praying for unbelievers, we're always praying the gospel, right? We're always praying evangelistic prayers. But we can pray for other things in their lives as well, but they all wrap around that one big idea. And then, not praying for others. How should we not pray for others? Well, just two things come to mind. You, of course, don't want to pray things that you know are against the will of God. So anything that's against the will of God, don't pray that for them. Don't pray that they'll win the lottery or something. We don't pray things that are against the will of God. I would also encourage you to not pray things that are frivolous. You only have a certain number of seconds left before you die. You only have a certain number of prayers that you can give to God before you die. Don't waste them on stuff that doesn't matter. So don't pray that. I'm going to get there. Just don't pray frivolous things. I was going to be offensive there for a second. But just don't pray frivolous things. Pray things that matter. Pray things, especially for unbelievers, that matter for eternity. You said that if we could pray perfectly, then we wouldn't need to pray. Can you expound on what you meant? Did Jesus pray imperfectly? That's a great question. No, Jesus did not pray imperfectly. Jesus prayed perfectly. So that was maybe an illustration that went too far, but I'll stand behind it just as I have to. If we can pray perfectly, it means that I have perfect faith. And so, it is not possible for us to pray perfectly in this life, because we're always being sanctified. So yes, Jesus prayed perfectly, and in a sense, all of eternity will be an eternity of prayer. And so we will be fully sanctified, and yet we will constantly relate to God, and every time we talk to Him, it's called prayer. And so we'll always pray. So yes, Jesus prayed perfectly. And if we could pray perfectly now, in this life, it would mean that we were fully righteous. And in that sense, we wouldn't need to relate to God very often through prayer. So that's what I was trying to get at, maybe imperfectly. When we pray, should we tell God what He already knows about Himself? Yep. That's called praise. And we should do it all the time. And it's not information, it's delight. Right? And so, how many of you husbands or wives get really, really sick of it when your significant other tells you how much they love you and how great you are? I know how handsome I am, just stop. Never come out of my house. Please don't stop. This is praise. To praise God means to delight in who he is. It is not selfish or anything like that for God to delight in the praises of his people. And when you praise God, and you tell Him what He is, you're not informing Him, but you're delighting in Him, and He loves it. He loves it. OK. I'll come back to another question. Is it OK to view prayer as a conversation? Yes. It's not OK. It's not just OK. It's necessary. Prayer is half of a conversation. You ask, is that not reverent enough? It's definitely reverent. Prayer is a conversation. God talks to you. and you talk to God. That's a conversation. Prayer is definitely a conversation. You should think of it that way. If it's not a conversation, what is it? So it is a conversation, we should think of it that way. What's the difference between a good prayer and a great prayer? Let's go to the next question. Jesus prayers are great prayers. So I made fun of the Puritans a little bit. There are wonderful prayers that people pray. I mean, you've all been in situations where somebody prays and you are genuinely helped and moved by listening to them pray. That's okay. And we should, as we all want to pray, and as I encourage all of you to pray in whatever level you have and whatever skill you have, we should also be thankful for people who are really good at it. And there are people that I will, if I can go out of my way to listen to them pray, I will. And so there are prayers that are great prayers. They're often prayers full of faith, full of vision for the Kingdom of God, full of Jesus Christ, full of the Bible. Those are the things that make prayers great. I would love to join in as I listen to them. Why did God... John, I'm sorry. Oh, come on. Yes. Can we have a follow-up on the previous one about being reverent? Yes. It was more of asking, what's the balance between God as a Father and King and having that conversation? And just that balance of that. Yeah, God is a father, a king, and a friend? Yeah. And a friend, right? So the conversation, can it become un-reverent if we're too friendly in that conversation? Yes. Right, our prayers can become irreverent if we speak irreverently to our father. But he is our father. And so, yes, he's a king, but we're sons of the king. We're not servants who come in from way outside and throw petitions over the wall and have to use special formal language. We come into the presence of a king who's also our dad. And so we have a right to be there because of what Jesus has done. We shouldn't worry about the formula like, do I start with dear Lord, or my Heavenly Father, or my King, what do I, just Dad, Dad's fine. I mean, whatever it is, we need to be reverent, and reverence has to do with faith and love when we come to God, and the fear of the Lord, but not a servile fear that somehow I'm gonna say something wrong. So when I was a kid, I remember youth group leaders just saying, just imagine Jesus as your best friend, you're walking on the beach with him, and hanging out and talking. Well, no, that's a little irreverent. That's not all that's going on. Jesus is also my Redeemer, and my King, and my Savior. And all of those things should be swirling in our minds and hearts as we come to Him. But sometimes our prayers, I mean, we looked at the Psalms, and sometimes the Psalms are so brutally honest. If they weren't in the Bible, I'd be afraid to pray that way. And so that's not irreverent. So the Scriptures teach us to be fully honest with God, but in a way that acknowledges His Lordship. So if our prayer is Well, I appreciate that you're starting with really good theology about prayer. That none of our prayers are perfect, and the reason that any of our prayers are accepted into heaven is because Jesus takes them, He washes them, and He presents them to His Father saying, Well, I know these aren't great, but they're mine. Right? And I've covered that. And because of that, our imperfect prayers get to God. Which are, all of our prayers are imperfect. And so because of that, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes them and joins us to Christ, and Jesus prays for us and with us. And so our prayers are brought to the Father, and then they're answered. How should we respond, both to others and within ourselves, when we receive fame and attention for our prayer, spirituality, works, etc., when we haven't pursued it? Oh, I think I'm going to stop. Okay. How should we respond when we receive fame and... This is an intensely personal question, because there are a few people in the room who are called by God to stand up in front of you and pray and preach every week. And we're supposed to be spiritual people. and you're supposed to respect your leaders, you're supposed to respect your elders, and the reality is like, you even clapped when I came up today, and probably tomorrow you'll say thank you before I leave, and you'll be all warm and complimentary of my time here, and they'll, how do you respond? It's really, it's a dangerous thing. to be known for your spirituality, to be known for this. And I don't have great answers when somebody says, I really appreciate that, you were great today. What I try to have come out of my mouth is praise the Lord. I get tired of pastors who are like, no, it wasn't a great sermon. Well, I don't know. But I say praise the Lord, because if God did it, then God did it. That's a hard thing to respond to. And those of you who are called to be up in public on a regular basis, including elders who pray and worship, you have to deal with this before the Lord on a regular basis. Especially if you're any good at what you do. It's easy for some of you to be humble, but... Sorry. I can't look up and make eye contact. But can I encourage you to pray for your pastors and pray for your elders? The public ministry of the Word of God, being in public, carries with it a target from Satan, and one of the things he loves to tell you is how great you are. And Satan loves to tell me how great I am, and sometimes he uses you to do it. Also, it's much better just rather than to say, like, you're really great, I'm so glad you're here. It'd be much more encouraging for me if you said, well, God used this week to do this in my heart. You can help me, you can help your pastor by getting glory to God instead of glory to your pastor. Okay, if you're asking someone on the spot how you can pray for them and you do so on the spot, how can you pray not just so that they hear you? So this means if I'm praying for you, how do I make sure that I'm not just praying to bless this other person, but I'm genuinely praying to God? So this gets back to the question of sincerity that we talked about yesterday, which again is a moving target. If you're together with another person and you say, let's pray, and you say, Lord, here's this person, I want to pray for them, please bless them in this particular way, and you mean what you say, then you're talking to God. I don't think you should... I just don't think you should ask this question too often. It's dangerous to say, am I really talking to God right now? Am I really, really talking to God? Well, did you talk to Him? Did you say, Lord, here's this thing? Then you talk to Him. The emotions in your heart might not be the best judge, the best guide. So if you talk to Him, then you talk to Him. OK. Joel, what was your question? What? I know that, Joel. I'm sorry. I'm right here, I asked. I'm having a cold, promise. Well, Joel's question was a good one, which is he wanted to talk just a little bit more about the idea that God is without passions, yet God is a passionate God. And so just to flesh that out a little bit more so that we'd be clear, when we say God's without passions, we're stating something very theological. And it stems from the fact of what we would call the simplicity of God. That God is without parts, and he is immutable. You can't cut God apart into different attributes into different things. All that God is, He is all the time. God is without parts. There's a simplicity in God. Therefore, God says, I'm not a man that I should lie, nor a son of man that I should change my mind. God doesn't change. He is not driven by passions like you and me are. He's not whimsical in how He decides to do things. but God cares. And so saying that God's without passions is a theologically accurate statement, but the whole Bible also tells us that God cares. He is deeply invested and cares for his people. So we just want to get both of those things straight. All right, one more. Can you flesh out the movement of God through prayer in light of his sovereignty? The movement of God is that God sends his spirit to drive his people to Jesus Christ, and in Christ, a new life in Christ, a delight to talk to him. Jesus prays for His people, and He continues to send the Spirit into His people's hearts, driving them to life of prayer, and God delights in the life of prayer. And when God, in response to His Spirit's movement in you, in response to your words, God delights to answer. And in sovereignty, God has already planned out the next prayer you're going to pray. And in sovereign ways, God has already planned to be moved by it. And so we do pray because God has planned that we do pray. Calvinists who believe in the sovereignty of God should pray more than anybody else, not less, because we believe in the sovereignty of God. So I'll stop there.