Prayer

Appreciate the invitation of the Assembly to come to the conference. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6. I want to touch on the subject of prayer a little bit this morning. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be known unto God.

2nd Kings chapter 4 please. 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse 4. 4th verse, 4th chapter, 2nd Kings please. And when thou art come in thou shall shut the door upon thee and thy sons.

Verse 5. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons. Verse 21. And she went up and laid him in the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out.

Verse 33. And he went in therefore and shut the door upon them, upon them twain. Matthew's Gospel please.

Chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom done, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Now we know the Lord will bless what we've heard already in the reading of the good word of God. I want to mention that when we come to prayer and the word of God we find that prayer requires no gift. It requires a heart that has an exercise, a heart or a burden develop it how you want to put it.

It's often been said sometimes before a gospel series a beloved elder would stand up and he would invite or encourage everyone to go to the prayer meetings and rightly so. And I remember one time in West Bank it was mentioned little prayer little blessing, much prayer perhaps much blessing. And those meetings there was blessing.

When I come into Genesis chapter 4 perhaps it's the first mention of prayer. I know not all would agree with that but let me suggest it. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

You and I cannot move in the journey of life be sustained in the journey of life without prayer, without communion with God, without appreciating what he has brought us into. Second Kings has four times the shut door of supply. We may boldly come before the throne of grace that we might find grace to help in time of need.

We cannot exist in the Christian life without prayer. When I was saved they said and I can't say it's accurate or not but the spiritual barometer of an assembly might be the prayer meeting. It is vital, it is essential and some assemblies since COVID have hit no longer have the midweek meeting, no longer the prayer meeting.

I find it very clear in the Word of God the teaching when we come and when we gather together. Matthew's gospel is not a prayer to be quoted but there are lessons and gleanings to be found from it. We have one that's touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

We have one that we can come to any moment, any time with praise, thanksgivings. He knows our frame, he knows our ability, our Father who art in heaven. He knows us, he knows our weakness.

He longs that we might enter daily in communion with him. Now I'll just mention while I'm thinking of it, there are a few things in the Word of God we are not encouraged just to pray about and you might say well I kind of what would you mean? If any is sick, afflicted, let him pray for him but I do appreciate that God has given skill to doctors to help us. If ever it crosses your path, whether saint or sinner, they're going to take their life and they tell you how, do not just pray for them, get help.

And sometimes when there's problems with one another, we ought not just to pray but we should talk and commune with them. He teaches us to pray in our closet. Our Father is personal, personal relationship from when we came to know him, whom to know is life eternal.

Art in heaven whatsoever is under heaven, the whole realm of God. We need not worry about tomorrow, we need not worry about the future, it's in the Lord's hands. The Lord reigneth.

He's sovereign in all his ways. It's thrilling to think of the sovereign ways of God and how we can look back in our lives, how God brought the gospel across our path and brought the truths of God of the local assembly across our path and we can look back and say it was the sovereign hand of God. When we pray, it's the Lord's will to be done, not my will but thine be done.

As in heaven, no greater joy and no greater peace than when you and I are in his will. The will of God will never contradict the teaching of the Word of God we well know. This day give us our daily bread.

I wrestled with the verse in Psalm 34, I've not seen the righteous forsaken or recede begging bread. And I wrestled with that and some of you will say, well you're a little slower, that's all right but... And then I realized I have to read what the Word of God says. He says, I haven't seen it but there are those that are begging bread and there are those that are hungry.

And even believers sometimes in the assemblies, the food is very thin. I think of a dear family one time that were feeding themselves out of a dumpster. So sometimes we go through great times of trial or difficulty.

Forgive us our debts, it's something moral. We come into 1st John chapter 1 and verse 9, if we confess our sin is faithful and just and to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I may not take everyone with me on that and that's quite all right.

That is not a confession of sin to get sins forgiven. They were all forgiven past, present, and future at Calvary. But that is a confession that we've erred and to ask for God's help a restoration of fellowship.

All our sins are forgiven past, present, and future. Mind and emotion are under attack and God is willing and able to guide us and give us strength and enable us that we won't enter into temptation. Temptation to sin never comes from God.

I come into Habakkuk and it says, Lord that we might revive thy work. If you want to see the work of God revived, if you want to see the work of God prosper in the local assembly, I'm going to suggest that it's going to begin with prayer. Oftentimes in earlier days there is a week of prayer meetings before a gospel series would start.

I know we have busy lives and all those ramifications, but we need God and if we're not before him and seeking him in the prayer meeting and all, how can we expect God's blessing? The more spiritual the task, the harder it is to do. Praying is a spiritual task. Praying takes no gift.

It's not how many words are prayed or how many scriptures are prayed, but that we might know God and know him intimately in our lives to be guarded and presided, preserved by him. Luke chapter 18 tells us that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Jonah prayed in the whale's belly, but oftentimes it's far better to pray ahead or we'll be doing more praying later on.

You read that Paul could say, I'm praying always for you. He says, I cease not to pray for you. He encourages us to labor fervently in prayers and he encourages us in the Word of God to pray without ceasing.

My heart is touched of several brethren I know in the East and in the West and they say, John, I rise up around five or six in the morning and every day I pray for your wife and you for the preserving hand of God. If we love one another, we ought to pray for one another and one of the ways to bear one another's burdens is to boldly come before the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need. Elijah prayed.

He was a man of like passions just like you and I. We read in the Word of God we are always to pray and not to faint, but shame on me sometimes I faint and I don't pray. You remember the Apostle Paul, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. Ephesians is praying always in all prayer and every supplication for the Saints.

Do you pray for the Saints in your assembly? Do you pray for them further abroad? If we love one another, one of the greatest things that we can do is to pray for one another. We all have needs. We all have burdens.

You read in Acts 2 that they continued steadfastly in prayers. Be careful for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication let your request be known unto God. I didn't have the Christian home as most of you would know.

I remember an elder picked me up in high school to go to Macaulay Water Street Mission to give my testimony, 10th grade, for the first time. I was about as scared as a cat on a tin roof and we only went about two blocks and then the car stopped. I said, what happened? Did the car die? No, he says, we didn't pray yet before we go.

I never knew that. I never had the Christian home. Before we move and before we travel, before we make choices, develop it any way you want.

It is so essential that we can come before God and ask for care and protection and preservation. There's the power of prayer, there's a privilege of prayer, there's preservation from prayer, and of course there's patterns found in the Word of God for prayer. I mentioned it takes no gift to pray.

The sisters are to keep quiet in the assembly. Water goes all the way back to the garden, we know. If I didn't have physical problems as a brother, would I be out of place if I never pray and thank God for his well-beloved son? I'll take you to Salem, Oregon many years ago now.

I remember a brother that prayed the first time. I think it was about eight words. There wasn't a dry eye in the assembly.

It's unto the Lord. Supplication is a plea personally for help. Intercession is on behalf of others.

Praise is for blessings, thanksgivings. A petition is specific requests, and of course a confession. I suggest we should pray daily.

It's a duty, you might say. It's an obligation because he loved us unto death, even the death of the cross. And if we want direction and we need direction, we're going to need to pray to find direction.

He'll give us direction from the Word of God. The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth not, that's devotion. It's going to take discernment to pray.

Tell it not in gaffe. There are certain matters that shouldn't be brought forth in a public prayer meeting, or perhaps some have different ways that they don't want their sickness known, so we would like to ask him, can we publicly pray for you on this before we do? And then if cut your course as much as possible, it's valuable to raise your voice enough that the Saints might be able to hear. One of the dear brethren in Newfoundland, I enjoyed times with him in the past.

They have the unique way of saying things. He was told, I couldn't hear you in the prayer meeting. He said, that's quite all right, I wasn't praying to you anyway.

Well, as much as possible, we should try to pray to be heard, and we should be diligent, and we should be definite in our prayers. Lord, bless all the missionaries in Africa and Canada. No, we should try to be specific, and specific individuals.

When in distress, he's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. When we're in difficulty, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Hezekiah prayed when he was sick, and the Lord added days, conditions.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. We find that John's gospel were to ask in his name. Some of the positions of praying would be sitting in 2nd Samuel, would be standing in Mark chapter 11, would be kneeling in Acts chapter 7, and prostrate on his face Mark chapter 14.

The Lord Jesus prayed all night in the garden, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Elijah didn't look at the brook that dried up, but he looked at the God that dried the brook up, and knew he would have other supplies. Our God has promised to meet our each and every need spiritually.

We can boldly come before the throne of grace. I think in Corinthians there it says, my grace is sufficient for thee. If God be for us, who can be against us? Elias we mentioned, Elijah was a man of like passions, and he prayed.

Hannah prayed for children. The psalmist could say, I called upon God day, morning, and evening. Zacharias was told in Luke's gospel, fear not, my prayer is heard.

James says, if any is afflicted, let him pray. Many across the land are sick at this time. Many families have tremendous burdens.

The greatest help that we can give is to pray for them. It's not just a little cliche when somebody tells me we're sick and we say we pray for them, but it's going to be a labor to pray for them, and to see God's hand, and for God to give an infusion and grace in that hour of trial. The Lord's a stronghold in the day of trouble.

Jabez prayed that the Lord would enlarge his coast. Might God enlarge our vision to the lost and the perishing? That we might be able to move out and spread out, if I can put it that way, with the gospel of the grace of God. Colossians, he says, cease not to pray.

Does any have a burden? I'm sure you do. He says, cast it upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men and abradeth not.

Wisdom is knowledge applied. We need wisdom day by day. The Lord Jesus rose early in the day, a solitary place, the example of the Lord Jesus.

And in Mark's gospel, he says, when they'll pray, is close the door. Our prayers may be long in private, but most public prayers in the Word of God are not too long. I remember one of the preachers told me, he says, you know, all the women during the time of prayer were looking around, and I said to him, how did you know that? And then he didn't think it was too funny.

Well, we come to the prayer meeting, we don't need to look around and see who's praying, but we can add our amen and thank God that they are praying. A shut door is a place of supply. A little talk with Jesus, how it smooths the rugged road, how it cheers and helps me onward when I think beneath my load.

My heart is crushed with sorrow, my eyes or tears are dim. His knock can yield me comfort, like a little talk with him. We can pray for the lost, we can pray for rulers, 1st Timothy 2. We can pray for the sick, we pray in his name.

We can't pray if we have grudges, we can't pray if there's strife, we can't pray if our hands aren't clean, we can't engage in a spiritual work and warfare if there be sin in our lives or sin in the camp, that we might be careful and cautious, that we're moving in ways that will be pleasing unto God. Moses, we read in the Word of God, fell down, it was 40 days and 40 nights. They prayed for an inheritance.

David had a prayer of repentance for restoration. Restoration takes place when we find out that we have sinned and get right with God. That's why Psalm 23, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, is the restoring work of God of restoration to return one around that links in lamentation.

There's reverence when we pray. When we come to the meetings, it's not a social time, it's a time where the Lord is in our midst. Holy and reverent is our God.

God is greatly to be feared in the gathering of his people together. We give thanks to God for all believers. Never should be any cliques amongst us.

When it's not over above us, but we can respect one another, we can love one another, and he gives us the privilege to boldly come before the throne of grace that we might find grace to help in time of need. You would remember that Nehemiah spent more time praying than they did building, and I often wonder if we spent more time praying, we might see God's hand more for his honor and glory. Nehemiah has the greatest lessons of leadership in the Word of God that I'm aware of, other than the Lord Jesus.

He did not say, you have sinned, he said, we have sinned. And so when it comes to helping one another, when it comes to issues of interpersonal relationships, to help diffuse matters at times, we can all confess, I maybe should have said something differently, I maybe should have said something more lovingly, that God might help us, individually and collectively, to be a band of men and women whose hearts are touched, known for prayer, and to be able to sit back and see God work for his honor and glory. The gospel we preached, the conference we thanked God, we need God.

Salvation's of the Lord. It's not eloquency, it's not quaint little sayings, it's not entertainment, it's that the Word of God might have power, ungrieved, unhindered, that God might help us, I speak to myself below it, to appreciate the privilege to pray. And as we look back over a year or years, we can see how God kindly, graciously, wonderfully has answered many prayers.

There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And God has given us the tremendous privilege, individually and collectively, to boldly come before the throne of grace, that we might find grace to help in time of need.