Address—Jim Hyland
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Fun failing friend 243 if someone will please start it.
We must have all things and.
Bound through by sufficiency.
You're well tear off. Your blood rolled by the end of the life.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father, how thankful we are this evening for this happy day we've enjoyed together. And now we thank Thee for an opportunity to have Thy living Word before us once again. We pray that as we open and read it and meditate it on on it tonight, that thou guide and direct that Christ might be ministered to our hearts, and according to the need we pray that there might be that which would encourage us and spur us on in the path of faith and service.
So we ask thy help. We ask thy blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
By way of introduction to what's on my Heart this evening, I want to read 4 portions in John's Gospel. First of all in John's Gospel, chapter 14.
John's Gospel chapter 14 and verse 13.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And then in the 15th chapter and verse 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Verse 16 of this same chapter. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you, and then one more portion in the 16th chapter.
Chapter 16 and verse 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. I have it on my heart this evening, and if we have opportunity on for those of us who are still here on Lord's Day, evening.
To go on with the subject that our brother introduced to us last night, and that is to talk a little bit about the resource that we all have in prayer, that is, those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Because it's a very, very important subject. And it's a subject that we have all through the word of God and a subject that I believe is important for us to all understand. Tonight, we're going to turn from one scripture to another very quickly.
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I may, for the sake of time, quote a number of scriptures. I know some of you are taking notes. You can jot these scriptures down and look at them later. We're going to try to cover a vast amount of ground tonight, but I just want to give a little outline as to the powerhouse that we have of prayer in every aspect of our Christian lives. You know, when I was younger, I sometimes would read the stories of missionaries and men and women of old.
And the stories in the word of God, of men and women and young people who had great power in their lives, and as a result of their work and testimony, there was much fruit and blessing. And I used to marvel and shake my head and say, oh, be wonderful to experience the power and blessing of God like that. But in examining their lives more closely, I've realized as I got a little older that their secret was prayer.
Martin Luther said. I have so much work to do for the Lord, I dare not spend less than three hours a day in prayer.
No wonder he was a man mightily used of God during the Reformation as things were being recovered.
He knew the secret of power, and there's no other way to have power in the different spheres of responsibility in our lives, apart from the from the fact that we become men and women of prayer. But I read these four portions. We're not going to spend long on them. But I read these as introduction because the Lord Jesus here was preparing the disciples in what we sometimes refer to as the upper room ministry.
He was preparing them for his departure out of this world, and he brings before them many things in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John.
In this final address to them before he goes to the cross, and then in resurrection return to the Father.
And one of the resources he brings before them, which is later developed in the Epistles, is the resource that they were going to have in prayer. And he brings before that it before them in four different aspects. First of all, in the 14th chapter, he stresses the name. They were going to have the privilege now of coming to the Father, not directly to him like they had when he was walking with them here in this world.
And they could come directly and talk to him, but they were going to have the privilege now of coming to the Father. We'll speak of that in a moment.
And they were going to have the privilege of coming in his name. That's why when we pray.
We so often, and rightly so, end our prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because the name is the Great Qualifier Qualifier. Let's suppose you come to Smiths Falls and you're visiting me and I have an account down at a local store. And suppose you go into that store and I've told you whatever you need while you're here in Smiths Falls, just go down to the store and put it on my account. Tell them you're a friend of Jim Highlands and they'll put it on your account, no questions asked.
But suppose you go down to the store and you ask them one day for a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer. You think they're in my name. You think they're going to give it to you? They'd say, well, you know, I'm not so sure we can give you this request in Jim Highland's name. We know he doesn't smoke, and he doesn't or he doesn't drink beer. It qualifies what we ask for when we ask in the name. And so we come to the Father with requests, but when we remember that we're coming in the name of the Lord Jesus.
It qualifies what we ask for. We realize that when we ask, it is in keeping with those things that please the Lord Jesus, those things that are according to His mind and according to His word. Then we find in the 15th chapter there's a condition and Lords day evening. If we have opportunity we'll develop this a little bit. But there's a condition here in connection with asking and having our requests.
And that condition is abiding in himself, But I'm not going to speak of that right now. Later on in that chapter in the 16th verse where we read it's the the emphasis is on who we pray to. We usually pray to the Father, the disciples, as I say, we're going to have the privilege of now coming directly to the Father, a far greater privilege than they had in even coming directly to the Lord Jesus.
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When he was here on earth, he says, Now you're going to be able to come to the Father, as he said to Mary, I ascend unto my God and your God, to my Father and your Father. And we have a direct relationship in line to to the Father. We can come to him. And that's why we generally, as I say, pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now just as a little parenthesis, I will say this.
That there are times when we pray that it is proper to come directly to the Lord Jesus.
I'll give you a couple of examples. In John Four, we read that he's the Lord of the Harvest.
And he says There, pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would raise up laborers and thrust them into his field. And so we pray and we pray about the gospel. We pray that the Lord will raise up those in the gospel field, that he'll provide for them, give them fruit for their laborers and souls. We pray the Lord of the harvest. Another time we might come directly to the Lord. Jesus is in connection with difficulties that affect the body of Christ collectively.
If there's a problem in the local assembly, it's proper to come directly to the Lord Jesus. Why?
Because he's the head of the body, and as the head of the body, we look to the head for direction and help in those kinds of situations. And there are other times it's it's proper and right to come to the Lord Jesus directly in prayer. I will just say this too in passing. We never have a precedent in Scripture that would teach us to pray to the Holy Spirit. We pray in and by the Spirit.
But there is no scripture to teach us to address the Holy Spirit, and in that regard I'd like to just give a little warning.
You know, when my girls were growing up, we would often buy at a Christian bookstore a tape of Christian songs. And I found it very difficult because there was usually on those tapes, I guess they're CDs now or MP threes or whatever they are. But on those tapes, there would usually be at least one hymn or song that was addressed to the Holy Spirit. We do not pray or sing to the Holy Spirit. We pray and sing in and by the Spirit. So we pray generally to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Or in certain cases we pray to the Lord Jesus. We want to be careful though that we don't confound the persons of the Godhead. To thank God the Father for dying for us on the cross is simply unintelligent. We thank the Father for sending the Son, We thank the Lord Jesus for dying for us and and so on. And so that's who we pray to. Then in the 16th chapter where we read It's when in that day what was the Lord referring to in the day when he was no longer physically with them? The hour was fast approaching when he would depart out of the world under the Father.
And so there was a time coming when they would come and they would pray to the Father in his name. Well, as I say, that's an introduction. Our brother John last night brought before us that verse in Matthew's Gospel, and we won't turn back to it. I'll quote it again. It says there thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
If you read the context of that chapter, you will find the Lord is making a contrast. God often teaches us by contrast. And there were those in the days of the Lord Jesus who liked to pray in public with long, elegant prayer, eloquent prayers, so that they could be heard and given a pat on the back for how well they could express things. But the Lord turned to his own, as was brought before us. And he said, when you pray, you get alone with me, you go into your closet, you go into your room and shut your door.
You get along with me and pour out your heart before me, and I'd like to say echo what John said last night. And that is that I believe it's very helpful that while we can pray wherever we are in any situation, yet I believe it's helpful to have in our daily routine and habit a stated place for prayer, somewhere where you can just slip away. And when you're in that place, you're alone with the Lord.
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You're there to pray without distraction. It's good too, to have a stated time for prayer. Daniel had stated times for prayer. He was a busy man. He was promoted under the king in all those kings and under the Last King there he was a busy man, but he not only had a stated place, his room, but he had a stated time for a stated time for prayer, but and a stated place. And so these things are very helpful.
In the routine of our lives. And I want to encourage all of us to cultivate the habit, the routine of prayer in our personal lives. It starts with our personal lives. And so we're going to break this down a little bit tonight, and we're going to take up 9 characteristics of personal prayer. And many of these characteristics spill over to other aspects of prayer. Prayer in other spheres of our lives, which we will also.
Mentioned very quickly. Before we do that, I'll just say again, as Brother John brought out last night, if there's someone here and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, these things do not apply to you. You need to pray first of all, like the man in Luke's gospel who went up to the temple to pray. In fact, there's a contrast there again. Two men went up to the temple to pray, but oh how different their prayers were. You know, it says of one man he prayed thus with himself.
In other words, his prayer never got above the temple roof, but the other man, he wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, smote himself on his breast and prayed. God be merciful to me, a Sinner, the Lord Jesus said about that man. This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. He went away. This a different He went away in a different condition than he came. He was a saved, a justified man.
And if you haven't come to that point where you realize you're a Sinner and prayed not in so many words, but prayed in the same sense that the man in Luke's gospel prayed, I plead with you tonight to come to that point in your life because that is the beginning. But now, as I say very quickly, I want to take this up in not as to 9 different characteristics of prayer. Let's go first of all to Psalm 45.
Psalm 45.
And verse 11.
So shall the king greatly desire to thy beauty, for he is thy Lord. And then this is what I want you to notice and worship thou him. I want to talk for a few moments about worship. We worship a person for who they are. This is the highest note that we can give to either God the Father or the Lord Jesus. Now if we were to go over to the end of Revelation, we would find that in Revelation 19 and verse 10 if you want to jot that down.
And I'm not sure. I think it's the 21St chapter again twice we find that John.
Overcome by the visions and the wonderful things he sees and is shown by the Angel, he falls down at the feet of the Angel to worship the Angel.
And on both occasions the Angel says to him, see that thou do it not, I am thy servant and my fellow, and so on. And he says, worship God. What I want to point out is that there is no scripture that would teach us to worship any created being or person. Worship is always in scripture, reserved for deity. I know that in under the old British system there were and still are those who are referred to.
Respectfully as your worship, but it is not scriptural to refer to someone or to worship as their worship or to worship someone. Worship is reserved for deity because we worship a person not so much for what they have done, but for who they are. We worship God for who He is, the Eternal God Our Father. We worship the Lord Jesus for who He is, the eternal Son of God. And I say it's the highest note that we can give.
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And the more we have an appreciation of the person of Christ, the more that there's going to be worship from your heart and mind. Again, I said we're doing this very quickly now let's go for the next thing to the 54th Psalm.
Psalm 54 and verse six I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord.
For it is good. Now we're going to speak about praise. Now. We pray. We worship a person for who they are, but we praise a person for what they have done. Now just say in passing, it's not wrong to praise other people. It's not wrong to praise someone we know for what they've done. I've often praised one of my children for something that they did. Maybe they got a good grade on that project. Maybe they helped their mother do something around the house and they did a good job.
You praise them. The Lord didn't say when he was here not to praise others, he said. Let another man praise thee and not thine own lips, a stranger and not thine own mouth.
Now flattery is wrong, but praise is proper, and so we praise someone for what they've done. And so we may praise God for sending his Son the Lord Jesus. We praise the Lord Jesus for that mighty work of Calvary and all that he accomplished to the glory of God while here in this world. And I want to make a little differentiation before we go on between praise and the next note that we're going to speak of.
And that's Thanksgiving, because when it comes to those scriptures, we praise the Lord Jesus more specifically for what he's done to the glory of God.
And we need to realize that the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished in this world had one first and foremost motive, and that was that he accomplished things to the glory of God. He was here to glorify God on the earth and finish the work that He had given him to do. Now, another difference between worship and praise is this worship, while it is sometimes audible, such as on Lords Day morning when we're together, to audibly and collectively worship the Lord.
Yet worship isn't necessarily audible. Let me give you an example. Mary of Bethany in the 12Th of John poured out her ointment at the feet of the Lord in worship. She was so occupied with the person of Christ as he walked here in this world that at the end of it she comes with a heart overflowing with an appreciation of the person of Christ. And that's what worship is. It's a heart overflowing with an appreciation of the person of Christ.
And she came and poured out her ointment. But you can read that account very carefully. You'll never read of Mary saying one word there.
She never said one word, and yet the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment. This is a little aside, but I think of it on Lord's Day Morning. The sisters don't take part in the same way that the brothers do. But a sister who comes on Lord's Day Morning with a heart overflowing with an appreciation of the person of Christ, a heart full of worship, the whole house is filled with the odor of the ointment. It has an effect on the assembly that perhaps we little realize. And so worship, while it may be audible, is not necessarily, but praise in Scripture is always audible.
It's the fruit of our lips. It's you notice he says. I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, Oh Lord, I counted one time well over 20 times in the Psalms. It speaks of singing praise to the Lord or some similar phrase we in the New Testament. It says the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, whoso offereth praise, not silence, but who so offereth praise.
Glorifieth me, and so he wants to hear our voices, the bridegroom said to the bride in the Song of Solomon. Let me see thy countenance. But he didn't stop there. Let me hear thy voice, For thy voice is sweet and thy countenance is comely, and he wants to hear our voice. I'm always encouraged when I visit in a home, and I hear the the lady of the house out in the kitchen, and there's a little note of praise, little song on her lips.
Working around his shop or his yard and you hear that little note. You're driving your car alone.
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You know, sometimes when I'm driving, I listen to some terrible singing by man's standard. But, you know, our voices are sweet to the Lord Jesus. He wants to hear our voices. I know sometimes when we're younger, especially guys, it's not cool to sing. But he wants to hear our voices. He wants the fruit of our lips. And so it says, he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Now it's true that praise needs to come from our hearts, because the Lord Jesus said of those in his day. This generation draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and praise with me with their lips.
But their heart is far from me. He doesn't want, as we sometimes say, just lip service. He wants it from our hearts. But nevertheless, I say he wants that note of praise. And so much does he value it that he counts it as a sacrifice, The sacrifice.
Praise. He values the very response that he puts in our hearts when we give it back to him. Inaudible praise. So much does he value it that he counts it as a sacrifice, and I believe he jots it down in his book of remembrance. As fruit you want to produce, you want fruit for God, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But then there's something else in the 116th Psalm.
Psalm 116.
And the Psalmist raises a question. In verse 12 he says, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
And then notice the answer, at least part of the answer. In verse 17, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving.
And will call upon the name of the Lord. So we've spoken of worship. That's the highest note that we can give to deity. We've spoken of praise. We worship a person for who they are. We praise the Lord Jesus for what he has done, particularly to the glory of God. And then we thank him for the benefits that we have received as a result of what he has done. Let me again give a little illustration that will perhaps help to differentiate.
Between praise and Thanksgiving, when my girls were in school, sometimes they would come home with a good grade on a paper, or they did very well on an assignment or a project, and I would praise them for what they had done. It wasn't really that they did it for me, and it really was no reflection on me. I praised them because they got a good grade or did a good job at school or for somebody else.
But we'll suppose that one of my children then helped me on Saturday with some project around the house and they did a good job and they stuck at it till the job was done. What do I do? I not only praise them for what they've done, I thank them because they've done something that has helped me out in my situation. And so while it's not the highest note yet, it is a very important and vital part of prayer of speaking to the Lord.
And that is Thanksgiving. Have we thanked God for sending His Son so that we could be His children? Have we thanked the Lord Jesus today for dying on the cross so that we could have salvation, be saved from hell, have a friend to care for us all through life and all the wonderful things that not only we enjoy now, but we know we're going to enjoy in that home that He has prepared for us, called the Father's House.
How often do we stop and thank the Lord Jesus? Did you thank the Lord Jesus today for something that he's done for you? We'd be in great indeed if someone did something for us, maybe paid a great debt, saved our life, got us out of a difficulty, and we didn't return to give them thanks. Think of those 10 lepers when they realized they were cleansed, one returned to give thanks. And the Lord Jesus valued that, the response of that man's heart. And I can just hear the sadness in the voice of the Lord Jesus.
As he said to that man, were there not ten cleansed? And where are the 9?
Wouldn't he have desired that the other nine return? Two to thank him as they saw this wonderful thing that had transpired in their life? Why, it was a miracle to think that they could be completely cleansed of their leprosy. And so these are the first three things then, after we're saved, worship, praise and Thanksgiving, and we need to cultivate the habit of these three things in our personal lives.
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But now I want to speak about something a little different, and we're going to read in First Timothy Chapter 4. This might seem like a strange verse to read, but we'll speak about it.
First Timothy chapter 4.
And it's in connection with the food we eat. And in verse five, Speaking of that food, it says for it is sanctified.
By the word of God and prayer. And then I want to read in first John chapter one.
First, John chapter one and verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Well, as I say, this verse in Timothy may seem like a strange verse to speak to read at a time like this.
But I want to speak now for a few moments of prayer in the aspect of fellowship. Or if you notice Mr. Darby's translation here of the word prayer, he translates it as freely addressing God. You know, prayer is more than just making requests. We're going to speak of that in a moment. Prayer, in its simplest form, is speaking to the Lord. Isn't it a wonderful thing that we can come and address the Lord of the universe?
You know when you read about the greats in the Old Testament and in history and today?
Why? Most of them we wouldn't have access to. Even Esther in the Old Testament didn't have complete confidence in coming into the presence of her husband, the king. When Mordecai encouraged her to go in, she said, OK, I'll go, but if I perish, I perish. We know the end of the story, so we read it with confidence. But she didn't know whether her husband would hold out the golden scepter and she'd be able to speak to him freely, or whether she'd be hauled away to be executed.
If I was to show up at the gates of Buckingham Palace, or you were to show up at the gates of the White House tonight, why? And wanted an audience with the president without an invitation. Or I wanted an audience with Queen Elizabeth of England, why, They'd laugh at me. They'd say, you don't have access, You don't. You need an appointment. And even if you applied for an appointment, you probably wouldn't get one. But I have complete 24/7 access to the throne room of the universe. I can come and freely address the Lord.
And the only language that is required in freely addressing God or the Lord is that which denotes reverence. We always want to be conscious that we are addressing deity, but that is the only qualifier as to the language that we use. And so we can come and freely address God. And that's why I read in in First John, because we're told there that our fellowship, our communion is with the Father.
And with the sun, and it's a wonderful thing. Have you talked to the to your father today?
Have you talked to the Lord Jesus? I'm not asking you if you had a specific need or request. I'm simply asking you have you talked to the Lord? You know, I've enjoyed what it says about Daniel. When Daniel in the 6th chapter was faced with the difficulty, it says he went into his room and it doesn't say he opened his windows. If he'd opened them on that occasion, he would have been courting persecution. If he closed them, he would have been a coward.
It says his windows being open. It was the habit of Daniel's life to keep his windows open towards Jerusalem, as they had been instructed to do in the Old Testament, to pray toward God's house at Jerusalem. And it says he kneeled down and prayed three times a day. And then I want you to notice this not just when he got in trouble, but as he did a four time. It was the habit of Daniel's life to talk to his God three times a day, even when things were going well.
In fact, everything had been going so well for Daniel prior to this. That's what had invoked jealousy amongst his coworkers. I just pictured Daniel sometimes not having any special need or request, but communing with his God three times a day and developing that relationship. And you and I need to develop that relationship. We need to speak to him as a man speaks to his friend, if you have a friend and you only come to that friend when you're in trouble.
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Pretty soon that friend gets tired of you, they say. Oh, you only come when you have a problem, when you have a request. Can't we just enjoy happy times and so we can enjoy those happy times of fellowship in freely addressing our God. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Now let's go to Romans chapter 10.
Romans chapter 10 and verse 9.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Hold your finger here. I want to read a verse in Daniel in the 9th chapter.
Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 20 and whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin.
And the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, and so on. I want to speak now of prayer in connection with confession, but I read in first in Romans chapter 10. First because we have confession in two aspects here. First of all we have confession and connection in the ninth verse that we often quote in connection.
With the confession similar to what you have with the thief on the cross, he turned to the Lord and he said Lord first of all he confessed Jesus as Lord. Some have pondered why in the ninth verse it's the confession first and then believing in the heart and then it's reversed in the in the 10th verse. But I believe it's just this. First of all the thief on the cross he confessed Jesus as Lord.
Have you done that initially in your life in connection with salvation, and then to confess him as Lord of your life in connection with your Christian pathway?
It's not enough to know the Lord Jesus as your savior, but we used to sing a hymn when we were growing up. Lord of my life, I crown thee now Thine shall the glory be. But so it stuff Thou shalt believe if thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart. But then you notice in the next verse, the confession is a little different. It's reversed. And so he says in the next verse, For with the heart man believeth, and then what's the result? And with the mouth confession is made.
It's confessing him publicly to others here, Have you confessed the Lord Jesus to others? You know, there's nothing brings more joy to a parent or a grandparent than a child or grandchild coming to them and saying, you know, dad, mom, grandma, grandpa, I know the Lord Jesus as my savior. That's the result of confessing because there's been a work of God in the in the heart. Have you done that? And you know when you do that, it gives refreshment to the soul and it gives confirmation.
As to the reality in the soul, I know we read of those who simply say Lord, Lord and that's profession. But when there's reality in the heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. But I read in Daniel because we find that confessing doesn't stop there. We find that Daniel was in prayer and he was confessing his sins and the sins of the people. And this is an ongoing confession.
That needs to take place perhaps every day of our Christian life, because it says again in First John, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And there it's in connection with the believer having an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. When I confess my sins as a believer and I don't have to ask to be forgiven, that's been taken care of, but I confess my sins. It's just as if the Lord Jesus.
In the presence of the Father says I've paid for that sin. That's how he can be a righteous advocate. And when we confess our sins, it's for restoration. It's so that not our salvation can be restored again. That's secure by one offering. He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, but it's so that the joy of the fellowship and communion that we just spoke of can be restored. It's for the maintenance of that communion, that fellowship.
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That joy of being able to come and freely address him in every situation.
Now let's go to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I want to speak of groanings now.
You know, you've probably experienced this. I know I have many times. And the older I get and the more experiences I have in the Christian pathway, the more I've said to my wife I've learned what it is to groan in spirit, to get into the presence of the Lord. And sometimes I can't even express what's on my heart. Sometimes I just can't put it in words, you know, you like to have a friend. You say I go to that friend and I don't have to say anything. They know what's troubling me. They know because we've enjoyed happy times together.
We enter into one another's thoughts. I'm thankful that I have one who knows me so perfectly, knows all my problems, as David said, knows my down sittings and my uprisings, and sometimes I've got into His presence alone and I've just grown. But I'm thankful that for this verse the Spirit makes intercession again. We don't pray to the Spirit, but the Spirit takes those groanings and presents them to the ear of God and the ear of the Lord Jesus.
And by the time they get from my bedside or the seat of my car to the father's ear, they've been taken and perfectly formed. And he understands and he wants us to come with groanings. Are you going through some real trial, some difficulty? There's many parents here that are going through real trials with their young people and their children, get into the presence and groan. I just say it's a good exercise for the soul.
Maybe you can't express it, but just groan in his presence and know that he takes those groanings and he understands and he wants us to come. You know, if I came to you too, too many times and just groaned in your presence, pretty soon you'd say, Jim, stop it. I just. I don't really understand. I can't empathize Just when you can say it, come in and talk to me. But not so when I come to the throne of Grace and I'm encouraged to come to the throne of Grace. I don't deserve it, but it's a throne of grace.
And it says to find grace to help when in time of need. And so there are many needs and we can come and we can grow them. But now I want to read in Philippians.
Chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4.
And verse 6.
Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. We're going to speak of three more aspects now, and some of these overlap in the verses that we're going to read. But in each verse I read, I'm going to stress 1 aspect. And what I want to stress here in Philippians is requests, because as I said earlier, requests is certainly part of prayer. And maybe there's someone here tonight and you say, Jim, it's OK for you to speak the way you've spoken tonight, but I've got a lot of requests.
I've got a lot of needs and isn't it wonderful that this verse encourages us to come with our request? First of all, he says be careful for nothing. Sometimes these Old English words lose their thrust or sense in our modern English, and when you have the suffix full, it's referring to what is preceded as being full of it. And so it's he's really saying don't be full of care. Sometimes we use the word careful in a little different way. It's like awful. We use it in a little different context today, but it's really saying it's full of awe.
And So what he's saying here is don't be full of care. You know, this speaks to me because so often I'm full of care. You know, so often I worry about things I think are going to happen tomorrow. And it says take no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. What was the Lord saying there? What he was saying is don't worry about tomorrow, because when tomorrow comes, the thing you're worried about may never happen.
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I worry about things I anticipate that never happen. I guess that's why I appreciate those ladies that were coming early to the Sepulchre on the resurrection morning. Because Marks Gospel tells us the subject of this conversation. Who of us shall roll away the stone? They were worried about a problem they thought was going to present itself when they got to the Sepulchre, but they needn't have worried when they got there. The stone was already rolled away. Not so the Lord could come out in resurrection.
But so that the difficulty could be removed and they could see that the Lord Jesus had bodily risen from the dead. And so let's not worry about things tomorrow, Not that we shouldn't occupy till he come, but leave those things because even if the problem arises tomorrow.
Is the Lord not going to be as sufficient as he was today? He's the same yesterday, today and forever. Did he help us yesterday? Is he helping us today? Will he be any less tomorrow? And not only that, brethren, but tomorrow may never come. We may be safe home beyond the problems and difficulties and the need of praying and making requests before another son another sunrise. And so he says, be careful for nothing but in everything.
Not just some things, not just the things we think are big, but I could save myself a lot of frustration in my life if I would take heed to this word. Everything. I'm no more for able for the little problems than the big problems. Peter had to learn. He could no more walk on the water when it was smooth.
When it was rough apart from dependence on the Lord. And then He says in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving. And then this is what I want to stress. Let your requests be made known unto God. Now He knows our needs and requests even before we ask, but He wants us to come. Independence and confidence. And really, if we can boil our subject down tonight, that's what prayer is. It's the expression of those two things, dependence and confidence.
Pray I'm telling the Lord I'm not able for the situation, but I'm also telling the Lord that are expressing to the Lord that He's able. I'm putting my confidence in Him, and often I believe the Lord withholds something to bring us to that point and we'll speak of that another evening. Prayer doesn't necessarily change things, it changes me. It gives me a whole different attitude that is necessary for my relationship with God and the Lord Jesus.
Us in my Christian life, and we'll develop that another time. And so we need to come with our requests. Now let's go to Ephesians Chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. I want to speak now of supplication. Supplication is to implore or to beg earnestly. Now I want to qualify my remarks on this subject by saying we want to be careful we don't beg the Lord for something that may not be according to his will.
Because in his permissive will he may grant it, the children of Israel begged for flesh, and he granted them their requests, but sent leanness into their soul. We always, when we pray in the everyday circumstances of life, we want to pray in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. Not my will, but thine be done. We if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. And so we don't want to beg the Lord for something that isn't according to his mind. But there is such a thing as earnest supplication.
And I know you've experienced this. You've been in earnest as to perhaps some sickness, some circumstance in your life where you're just at the bottom of things, maybe the salvation of a loved one. And you've got into the presence of the Lord not just to make requests, but to supplicate, to implore, to beg earnestly. And I believe he desires that we would do that. And perhaps if we would do that more, we would see more answers to prayer.
Now one more, and this I believe is the 9th if you're making notes and counting and I want to read a verse in First Timothy chapter 2.
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In First Timothy chapter 2.
And verse one, I exhort there that I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men and so on. I know it's in connection specifically here with praying for those in authority, and we certainly need to do that, as we've been reminded recently of our brethren in Egypt and other places and so on. But I want to focus for a few moments on intercession, because intercession is to intervene on behalf of another.
You know we need to do that. It's a wonderful privilege. I'm often selfish in my prayers. I pray for my own needs and circumstances. And again, that's right. But how much do we know about interceding on behalf of others? Family members, brethren, we know that are going through difficult circumstances. You know, the Lord Jesus intercedes for us. He prays for us every hour of every day as our high priest to preserve us.
And as we've said, as our advocate, to restore us when we fail, but we also have the privilege of interceding on behalf of one another. And we see wonderful examples in scripture of those who were blessed because they interceded on behalf of individuals or the people of God collectively. And I want to encourage us to do that. OK. We've spoken of these nine aspects of prayer. Just say this too, that we don't have to be.
In any specific place or any specific position to pray, Kneeling, as we often get in scripture, is a sign of dependence and perhaps even reverence. You come into the presence of deity, I'm sorry, of royalty today, and often you're required to kneel. It's a sign of reverence. It's a sign in scripture to of dependence. And so it's good to be to if we have opportunity to kneel before the Lord, kneel before God the Father.
It's good, as we've said, to have a stated time and place for prayer. But a Christian can pray anywhere at anytime in any position. And isn't it interesting that a conscious Christian may not be able to do anything else, but they can always pray. It's the last thing that's taken away from a conscious Christian. I've been to visit Christians who are lying flat in bed, who are paralyzed, who can't speak, who can't hear, who can't see. But you know what? They can pray as long as they are conscious.
God gives us that resource. Now I just want to say this before we close. Prayer, as we've said, is the powerhouse of our lives individually. You want power in your Christian pathway. There's only one way to have it, and that's prayer. I'm going to give you some scriptures. If you're taking notes, you can jot these down and you can look them up. We've spoken of prayer in our personal lives, and it starts with the individual. We fine too. There's another aspect of prayer, and that is what I'm going to call brotherly prayer. You know, there was a a point in Daniel's life where there was a problem that not only affected Daniel.
But it affected his three friends as well. And if you're jotting these references down in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 17.
You'll find that Daniel gathered his friends together and they had a little prayer meeting. Do we have friends that we can go to and pray with when there's problems and difficulties? David said. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and that keep thy precepts. I want to encourage you to develop companionships where you're comfortable to go and to pray together as brothers and sisters in Christ. It'll be a tremendous blessing in your life and as I say.
God honored the exercise of those four men. Then there's family prayer in First Peter chapter 3, verse 17. It speaks of the husband and wife relationship. And the husband is to give honor unto the wife as under the weaker vessel as heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. And it's a wonderful thing for husbands and wives to pray together. And then when there's children to pray together in the family circle.
The I saw a billboard. I'm not much for catchy cliches, but I saw a billboard that caught my eye. It said the family that prays together stays together. I thought that was very good. And so there's family Prayer first, Peter 37, Acts, chapter 10, verse two and verse 30. There's a little hint that Cornelius was not only a man of prayer himself, but he brought his whole household under prayer. Two more things. Assembly Prayer Acts 242.
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And then the example of it in Acts 12 verse five and that whole context where Peter was imprisoned.
But the early Brethren, they continued steadfastly and the apostles doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer, those are the assembly meetings. They came together in Acts 12 because there was a problem that faced the assembly as a whole. They were concerned about the deliverance of Peter and they prayed and gone honored their exercise. 1St Thessalonians 5 Verse 17 gives us what we might call instantaneous prayer or pray with There it says pray without ceasing again anywhere we are.
Wherever we are, we can pray. Nehemiah was in the presence of the king, like Daniel, but he didn't have time to gather his three friends together and have a prayer meeting. He didn't have time to go into his room at the state of time of prayer and pray about it three times a day. He had to give an immediate answer, it says. So I prayed to the God of heaven.
And I said, under the King, between the time the king asked the question and the Nehemiah had to give an immediate answer, there was a swift little prayer went up, and God honored his request and worked in the heart of the king to answer his request and even more than he asked. I know we've covered a lot of material tonight, but I trust that it will encourage our hearts, if nothing else, to cultivate the habit of prayer in every sphere and aspect of our Christian pathway. Let's pray our God and Father. We're thankful.
For this these scriptures that bring before us the need and the exercise of prayer, and that thou has spelled out to us very clearly how that we can come in every sphere of responsibility in life. So we ask thy blessing now and for a happy and safe evening and night, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.