They can teach me how I'm like
a pageant. Thank you, Sherry. Go back to Luke 11 now, which
Brother Eccles read for us. After reading this passage the
first part of this week, I felt impressed to deal with this instead
of what I announced in the bulletin, so we'll do that another time. This is the story of Joshua and
Jericho. This goes well with last Wednesday
night's message. If you were here last Wednesday
night, we dealt with hearing and reading God's Word. And if
you remember, we talked about prayer as a necessary means in
order to really hear the gospel preached and to enter into the
reading of God's Word, prayer. Because Christ said, without
me you can do nothing, and that which is flesh is flesh. And
the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
so that you cannot do what you would. But we can do all things
through Christ, which strengthens us. So we call on him and ask
him, even now, to bless the preaching of his Word to our hearts. enabled
us, as the brother prayed, to enter into the Word. And so this
chapter, in Luke chapter 11, the disciples asked the Lord,
in verse 1, it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain
place, and our Lord did indeed pray without ceasing. He was
constantly in prayer, as you'll note. And they noticed him praying,
and they asked him—one of them asked him, Lord, teach us to
pray, as John also taught his disciples. Apparently John the
Baptist, or baptizer, taught his disciples to pray, or how
to pray. It's not recorded for us, but
apparently he did. And as we noted last Wednesday
night, We all have trouble at times hearing the Word preached.
We have trouble reading the Word. We have trouble paying attention,
don't we? It's no different with prayer,
is it? Prayer is a difficult thing at
times. It's difficult to know what to
say. And so we can say with this disciple,
Lord, teach us. We need to be taught. No matter
how many times we've read this and heard this, we still need
to be taught, don't we? We need to be taught. Lord, teach
us. Now, this prayer—excuse me—this
prayer is not—the Lord doesn't give this for us to merely repeat
it, as a prayer to constantly repeat. Some people do that. That's not why he gave it, but
it's the manner and the matter of what he's dealing with that
is important. So, all right, let's look at
it. Verse 2, And he said unto them, When you pray, and God's
people do pray, It's breath. When Saul of Tarsus, or the Apostle
Paul, when the Lord saves him, this is what the Lord told Ananias. He said, Go and speak to Paul. Behold, he prayeth. That's how
you know. It's like a little newborn baby. The first thing it does, the
first way you know that there's life is it starts crying. And
so it is with God's people. They do pray. We do pray. And so he says, when you pray. We ought to pray, yes. Well,
God's people do pray. We ought to pray more, yes. But
we do. God's people do pray. They have
to. They must call upon their Father. When you pray, he says,
say, Our Father, which art in heaven. Our Father. Turn over to John 14 with me. John chapter 14. John 14. Now, throughout the 14th, 15th,
and 16th chapters of the Gospel of John, especially these chapters,
well, as a matter of fact, all through the whole Gospel of John,
the Lord The Lord Jesus speaks of The Father. He calls him My
Father. I mean, He says, in reference
to the Father, My Father, The Father. Over a hundred and twenty
times, He refers to The Father, and He's speaking of His Father,
over a hundred and twenty times. In the Gospel of John, look at
chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus saith unto him, to Thomas, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. Verse 8, Philip said unto him,
Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth up. Well, down in
verse 28, just skip down there. He said, You've heard how I said
unto you, I go away and come again unto you? If you loved
me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father. For my Father is greater than
I. So he keeps saying, the Father
and my Father throughout. Well, turn over to John 20 now.
John chapter 20. Turn over there. After the Lord
Jesus Christ went to Calvary, This is after he arose from the
grave, after he made that blood sacrifice for us which reconciled
us to God. He says in John chapter 20, in
the body of his flesh he reconciled us to God. After he did that
work, that atonement for his people, he says to his disciples
in verse He says unto Mary, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended
to my father. But go to my brethren, and say
unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father. That's the first time he told
them, he's your father. Now, after he made that work,
that atonement on Calvary's tree. It is by Christ, the firstborn
among many brethren, we have received the spirit of adoption.
Christ is the only begotten Son of God. We are sons by adoption,
and Christ is the one who travailed in birth for his people. And
we have this spirit of adoption whereby we can cry, Father, Abba,
Father, only through Christ. No man can call him father but
through the only begotten well-beloved son by faith in him. But by faith
in him we can call him our father as much as Christ called him
his father. He said, I go to my father and
your father, your father. What a blessing. Brother James
prayed that, didn't he? What a blessing it is to call
the thrice-holy God, our Father. What a blessing. And the Scripture
says, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. And he remembers our frame. He
knows that we're done. Our Father, which is in heaven. Look back at the text. Our Lord
says, Pray, call in your Father. And since he's your Father, You
can ask anything of him, can't you? Is there anything that you
would hesitate to ask your earthly father for? Anything? Anything
you'd hesitate to bring up to your earthly father? No? Well,
he's just a man. Well, God the Father, who knows
our thoughts afar off, He says, you can come to me. Ask. Ask what you will, in Christ's
name. Our Father which is in heaven, We acknowledge where
he is. Christ told us to acknowledge
where he is. The Scripture says God is in heaven. We're on earth. So what? Let your words be few. Be not hasty with our mouth to
utter anything before God. We're not heard for our much
speaking. We're not heard for our much
speaking. If you read this prayer, the one in Matthew 6 with the
ending there, if you read it as slowly as possible—I sat at
my desk and read it out loud as slowly as I could possibly
read it. It took about forty-three seconds. So we're not heard for our much
speaking. Someone once said, better to have a heart without
words than many words without heart. So our Lord gives us a
very simple pattern in prayer. And he says, call him your father,
but acknowledge where he is. He's in heaven. He's not our
good buddy. And we call him and we talk about
him as our friend, yes. But be careful about that. The
world has brought God down to the level of a man. God is in
heaven. Remember that. Our Lord said
that Himself. I am from above. You're from
beneath. So acknowledge Him. And He goes
on to say, "...say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name." Hallowed be thy name. This is the only time the
word is used in all the New Testament. It's used often in the Old Testament.
Hallowed be thy name. The word hallow—to hallow something
means to proclaim it as holy. Proclaim it as holy. Declare
that it is holy. And the Lord Jesus Christ tells
his disciples, he implicitly instructs us to call—to say of
God, hallowed be thy name. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of
hosts. Hallowed be thy name. So the
first thing he instructs us to do is give glory to the name
of God. Give glory to his name. And his
name is his character. It's his character. His chief
attribute is his holiness. You know that. You're blessed
to know that. Very few people know that. You
know that? You're very blessed to know that
God's chief attribute is his holiness, and it causes you to
fear his name. Not to utter that name flippantly
or familiarly or carelessly or irreverently, but with fear. And our Lord, the first thing
he instructs us to do here is give glory to the name of God,
hallow his name. You see, prayer is not just asking,
asking, asking, asking. The average person in the world
there thinks that prayer is nothing more than calling on our great
benefactor for everything and anything that we need. No, no,
no. Prayer is much more praise and worship and exaltation of
God than anything. If you'll notice that in this
these instructions the Lord gives us. It's more praise and giving
glory to God and thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, the more
thanksgiving you give to God, the less you'll find out you
need. The more thankful you'll be for what you have and the
less you'll be asking for. And you'll only ask for those
things needful. And this hallowing God's name, hallowed be thy name,
this is what distinguishes God's true people from the world. True worshipers worship God when
they come before him in whatever they do in their services, from
the songs they sing, to the messages they preach, to the prayers they
pray. It's worship of the Father. You'll
notice that in the prayers of God's people. Turn back to Psalm
86 with me. Brother Ron Pannon read from
Psalm 86 in the study tonight. And it just struck me. It just
struck me. David, a man after God's own
heart, throughout this prayer, he doesn't ask for much. Although
we're poor and needy and we have many needs, yes, but he chiefly
asks. For mercy, look at verse 3, be
merciful unto me, O Lord. Verse 4, rejoice the soul of
thy servant. Verse 5, he gives praise and
honor, thou art good and ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy.
Verse 6, I want you to hear me, give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer.
Verse 8, among the gods there's none like you, O Lord. Verse
10, thou art great and doest wondrous things. Thou art God
alone. Verse 11, teach me thy way. Verse
13, great is thy mercy toward me. Verse 15, thou, O Lord, art
full of compassion. You see, this is a prayer. All of Psalm 86 is a prayer of
David. What's it about? He's giving
glory to God, and he's asking God for himself. hear my prayer. I'm poor and needy." But it's
mostly praise and worship of God. And while the world rushes into
God's presence with all their demands, taking God's name in
vain, using it carelessly, God's true people God's true people
fear his name. It's said that also in that psalm.
Unite our hearts to fear thy name. They reverence his name.
They make mention, as the psalm is said, that his name is exalted. Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed
be thy name. They glorify his name. Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Look at the next
thing, verse 2 of our text. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Thy kingdom
come. What is God's kingdom? What is
God's kingdom? What is Christ's kingdom? Well,
and you're blessed to know this, because very few know this. Christ
said, My kingdom is not of this world. It isn't. His kingdom
is a spiritual kingdom. His kingdom is already established
and being added to with his people. His kingdom is certain. His kingdom
is established. Christ right now reigns. I don't know what you call it,
omnilent, present reign, whatever that is, I believe it. right
now that Christ is reigning and ruling among the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. Thy kingdom come.
Christ's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. He says, Thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. God's will, Christ's will, as
Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, is to gather together all things
in one. Even in Christ, all things. And in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, he'll gather all things together, it says.
Now, that's why we're here. That's why we're here tonight.
We're here to look into this kingdom. We're here to see if
we're a part of this kingdom. We're here to hasten his coming. The more you're about something,
the more you think about it, the nearer it is. the closer
it is to come. Hasten is coming. We're here
to inquire into his kingdom. We're here to look into it, to
see if we're a part of it. We look forward to it. God's
people, God's children, their goal, their aim, their destiny
is to be a part of this kingdom. And so he says, pray for it.
Thy kingdom come. Pray for it. Ask for it. Come
quickly. Isn't that what he said that
the people said in the Revelation? Come quickly. He said, surely
I come quickly. And the people said, well, come
quickly, Lord. Amen. Thy kingdom come. And he says, pray, thy will be
done as in heaven, so in earth. Thy will be done as it is done
in heaven. Everything, the angels, everything
does His bidding. And he tells us to pray that
his will be done in this earth. Again, our brother prayed that
tonight, that the Lord would have his way among the nations.
Did you hear that? Well, he does. But the Lord tells
us to pray that. Pray for them that are in authority,
those that have the rule over you. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray and so forth. The Lord restrained
evil. Thy will be done. Have thy will
and thy way. Lord, restrain evil. Lord, constrain
that which is good. Lord, lead us. Lord, keep us
on earth. We've got a life to live here,
don't we? We don't know how long—much longer we're going to be here.
It may be—we may live out our full lives here before the Lord
comes. So we could pray. The Lord tells
us, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Lord, have
your will, have your way in our church, here in this church. Let it not be—let it not go astray. Let it not be taken up with anything.
May we seek your will. Thy will be done in all things.
Our children, everything. Lord, restrain them. Constrain
them to seek your faith. And thy will be done. Our Lord,
in another place, he said, if you ask the Father anything in
my name, he hears you. He hears you. To ask in Christ's
name is not only to plead him as your mediator, as your sin
offering, as your blood sacrifice, as your lamb, but it's also to
pray with the character and the attitude that Christ had. And
the name of that is the character and attitude of how did Christ
pray? I remember one time in the garden
that he asked for himself. The one time he asked for himself
something. Do you remember? He was recoiling
at the thought of going to the cross, at being made sin. He began to sweat, as it were,
great drops of blood. And he cried to the Father, If
it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Or as we would
say, Lord, would you please help me through this, deliver me from
this. But then he said, nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. And that's how the Lord
tells us to pray. In all things, we have requests. We have requests. And this is
the difference between the mere worldling and the religionist
and God's people. The world demands that they get
what they want. Why? The true believer wants
God's will to be done. They don't want what they want
if it's not God's will. Right? If it's not in keeping
with His will. So the Lord tells us to pray,
Thy will be done. Not my will, but thy will be
done. Lord, don't let me have something I'm praying for if
it's not your good and perfect will, if it's not best for me. Don't answer this prayer. Right? Thy will be done. Not my will, but thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven. Resignation to God's will. That's
what we're to pray for. Verse 3, now he tells us to ask
for the temporal needs. Verse 3, give us day by day our
daily bread. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And in Matthew's gospel it reads,
and that's the way you started to read it, having done that
so often, give us this day. our daily bread, and that's good.
This day, you notice he said, give us this day, or day by day.
When would you pray that? When would you pray, give us
this day? At eight o'clock at night? No.
You begin the day. You begin the day, the first
fruits of the day. Lord, here it is another day. Your mercies the new this morning,
and I've got a day ahead of me. Give me this day my daily bread."
And the Lord tells us to acknowledge him and ask him for our temporal
needs. Bread being all the necessities
of this life, all is included in that. The Lord knows you have
need of a house, and need to pay your bills, and so on and
so forth. Bread is included. But having
food and rain, but we're to be content, as Scripture said. We're not promised anything more
than that, than that necessity. But the Lord does tell us to
ask for basic needs. Now listen very carefully. Listen
to me. important. He tells us to ask for just our
daily need—bread, food. Lord, give us today's food. Because when we're conscious
that it is God that hath given it to us, no matter how basic
it is, no matter how common it is—bread. If you're conscious
that God is the one who's given it to you, And the only way you're
conscious of that is to call on Him and thank Him for it and
ask Him for it. And when you're conscious of
the fact that God is the one that's given you the simplest
thing, like bread, you never take it for granted. Not even
bread. But you shouldn't. See, the world,
we're so rich, the world is so rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing, doesn't like to retain God in their knowledge,
doesn't acknowledge God in all their thoughts. He's not in all
their thoughts. They actually think that by their
industry and by their own doings that they've obtained these things,
food and so forth. But he tells us, you acknowledge
God in everything from the simplest thing, daily bread. And you'll
realize, and it'll make you thankful for that cupboard that's full
of food. Old Brother John Warburton said in his book that after the
Lord, years later, after the Lord really blessed him, and
he had so much. In the beginning, he was a very
poor, struggling young preacher, didn't have much, didn't have
much to eat. And in the latter, his latter
days, he was doing real well. He said he used to go in and
open up all the cabinets in his kitchen and just sit there in
a chair and thank the Lord for all that food. That'd be a good
thing to do, wouldn't it? Over in Ezekiel's book, in chapter
37, I believe it is, 36, the Lord says, I will do this. I'm
going to do this. I will give him a new heart.
I will bless him. I will keep him. I will, I will,
I will, I will, I will. The Lord is going to give us
bread. You'll never see the righteous
forsaken or his seed begging bread. Not even Mexico, Africa,
not one believer. Have you ever, or will ever see,
begging bread? Because the Heavenly Father takes
care of them all. I've told you about these people
that call me, and they're in need all the time, that call
me up, and I ask them, the first thing I ask them, Brother Jim,
is, where do you go to church? And they say, I remember down
here. And I say, they won't even take care of their own? So if there was somebody in our
congregation in need, we'd meet it. Sure wouldn't go hungry,
sure not going to let the light bill be cut off, sure not going
to let the rent go unpaid, huh? None of God's people ever beg
bread, ever. And over in Ezekiel he said,
I will, I will, I will, I will, this is what I'm going to do
for you. And in the end he says, but I
will be inquired of for this. Everything you get, you're going
to ask me for. I'm going to give it. I purpose
to give it, but you're going to ask me for it so that you'll
acknowledge that I'm the one that gave it. That's what prayer
is about—acknowledging God hath given us all things richly to
enjoy. And we give him thanks for the
simplest thing like bread. And surely the Lord is speaking
of more than material bread. Man does not live by bread alone,
but by what? Every word that proceeded from
the mouth of God. And this is in keeping with what
we studied Wednesday, wasn't it? Now, we need to feed on God's
Word. Well, he tells us to pray, Lord,
give us this day. our daily bread. We need it. This is what we're going to go
in the strength of, this meat. Daily bread. Look at the next
thing, verse four. And forgive us, the Lord tells us, forgive
us our sins. To tell us, to call on the Father,
forgive us our sins. This is our greatest need, is
it not? Remember the psalmist? Have mercy on me, Lord. Forgive
me. Mercy is our greatest need. We need forgiveness because we're
sinners. We're born sinners. We're still sinners. We go to
sleep sinners. We wake up as sinners. Our greatest
need is mercy, forgiveness, forgiveness of sins. Thank God there is blood
on that mercy seat which we sang about. Thank God we do have an
intercessor. If any man sin, we have an advocate,
thanks God. Jesus Christ the righteous. We're
sinners. And so he tells us to pray, Father
forgive us our sin. But look at this. He says, for we also forgive every is merciful. To the forward,
he'll show himself forward. To the unforgiving, he'll show
himself unforgiving. That's how it is. He'll be merciful
to the merciful. He'll forgive those who forgive. Those who don't, he won't. The
Father delights, just as you delight in your children being
merciful and kind and gracious and forgiving and sharing and
Isn't that one of the things, Nancy, that you delighted to
see in your children more than anything else, that they were
generous with other children and thoughtful and kind and considerate
and give? The Lord loveth the cheerful
giver, the Scripture says. Or the Lord loveth the merciful.
And that's to be like Christ, is it not? That's Him—merciful,
gracious. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They shall be called the children of God, peacemakers. The Lord
will—the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that
make peace. He'll forgive those that forgive
others. And you notice he tells us to pray, forgive us. Lord,
give us. Give us. Lead us. Intercessory
prayer. If we're just praying for ourselves,
That's selfish, is it not? The Lord tells us to pray for
the brethren, pray for others, give us intercessory prayer. The Lord delights in intercessory
prayer. He hears those who pray for the
brethren. Isn't that what Christ did? As I said, Christ only asked
one thing for himself. The rest of the time—and he was
always in prayer—was praise to the Father, and ask him for his
brethren. All of John 17, that whole—that's
the Lord's Prayer, by the way. This is not the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is that great
high priestly prayer in John 17. You know that. This is the disciples'
prayer. This is what he teaches us to
pray. He didn't pray this. He taught
us to pray this. But in his prayer in John 17,
the whole prayer is a prayer for his disciples. Lord, I pray
for them. And the Father heard him. The
Father delights to hear those that pray for the brethren. If
you want to be heard, pray more for others than yourself. Forgive us as we forgive those
that are indebted to us. And lead us, verse four, lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lead us not into
temptation. Now, God does not tempt us with
sin. God cannot be tempted, nor does
He tempt anyone with sin. God does not lead us or cause
us to be tempted. No. If we're led—in James, it
says we're led away of our own lusts. You and I were talking
about that. But what he's saying here, he's
telling us to ask the Father, don't leave me alone to go my
own way because I'll run toward temptation. Don't let me make
provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. That's exactly
what I'll do. Because there's pleasure in sin
for a season, and that's what the flesh will do if God does
not lead us otherwise. If God does not lead us in paths
of righteousness to cause us to go in his way. Don't leave
me alone. Don't let me go my own way. Don't
let me fall into temptation. Don't let me get into a situation
where I'll be tempted, because I'll surely fall. That's what he's saying. Pray this. Lead us not into temptation. Keep me from any and every situation
that would tempt me to sin. And deliver me from evil. Deliver us from evil. Deliver us. And that really,
we believe, is talking about the evil one, is it not? Satan—he
just talked about temptation to sin. Now he's talking about
the evil one who's the father of it. Satan, who has a roaring
lion, seeketh whom he may devour. Satan, who desires to sift us.
Satan, who's a master of human nature. Satan, who's a master
at tempting the flesh, who knows our every weakness. Satan is
a master at manipulating the flesh. And so the Lord tells
us to call upon the only one who's stronger than he to deliver
us from him. Call on the deliverer. I love Martin Luther's hymn. We started to sing it, but we
didn't have time. Did we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be losing.
We're not the right man on our side. the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ
Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth is his name, from
age to age the same. He must win the battle. He goes
on to say, Brother John, one little word from him can fell
the tempter. He said to Peter, I'm going to
let you go. You're going to fall. You're
going to deny me. Oh, no, I'm not." Peter confided
in his own strength. All right, Peter, I'll show you.
Without me, you can do nothing. And he denied him, didn't he?
Well, right after the Lord said Peter would deny him, the Lord
said, Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith would fail
not. I'm going to let you fall into
this temptation. because you're confident in yourself,
but your faith's not going to fail. You're not going to finally
fall away, because I'll keep you by my power. Satan has desired
you to sift you like wheat, Peter, and I'm going to let him have
you just a little bit to show you your putty in his hands. But I'm going to deliver you,
Peter, and keep you to show you that he's putty and mine. So
we call on him. Lord, deliver us from the evil
one. We're no match for him. And these
devil-bashers out there, these preachers that like to talk about,
well, speak evil of dignities, things they don't know anything
about, they're actually doing his bidding. They're the sons
of Siva and they think that they're resisting him when all the while
they're doing exactly what he wants them to do. We're no match. The greatest man ever lived,
Adam, turned upside down. Right? So he says, deliver us
from the evil one. Read on. I got to hurry. And he said in verse five, now
he doesn't give us the rest of the prayer like Matthew's account,
so I'm not going to deal with it, it's not that. Verse five,
so the Lord said unto them, now he gives this simple illustration
of the Father's willingness to hear his people. After he tells
us to pray, a very simple prayer. praise and worship, asking for
basic needs, asking for forgiveness of sins. Then he gives us a simple
illustration telling us how willing the Father is to hear us, to
hear his people. Let's read it. Verse 5. He said
unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto
him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves?
for a friend of mine in his journey has come to visit me. I have
nothing to set before him." In other words, the Lord says, which
of you, if a friend came to visit you, and you didn't have anything
to feed him, and you went to a friend of yours' house who
you knew had something, and began to ask him for something to feed
your friend. That's a good request, is it
not? Look at verse seven. He from within shall answer and
say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut. My children are
with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee."
You remember the story of the widow, not the widow, but the
woman of Canaan, whom the Lord ignored when she first came to
him. He didn't even answer her. He
turned his back on her. You remember that? We looked
at that recently. And we noted that why did the
Lord do that? Why did the Lord ignore this
woman? Because the Lord doesn't have to answer anybody. He doesn't. He'll answer when
he's pleased. That's because he's the king.
Well, he ignored her. And then he spoke to her through
his disciples. And finally he told her it's
not fit to give the children's bread to dogs. Now he had sufficiently
humbled that woman, had he not? And she acknowledged it. And
yet she was importunate. She kept coming. Importunity
means keep coming and keep asking. And like that widow who went
to the unjust judge and kept asking him, shall not God avenge
his very elect which cry unto him day and night? He doesn't
answer immediately. No. Is he hearing them? Oh yeah. He doesn't have to answer me.
He will though. Because of their importunity,
verse 8, I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him
immediately because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needed. Now this is
a good request. I want him to feed somebody. He'll answer that. Like intercessory
prayer, charitable, hospitality. I say unto you, verse 9, ask
and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. Present tense. That's the reason
the Lord tells us to pray without ceasing. Ask, that is, keep on
asking. Keep on asking. If it's something
you really need, you'll keep asking until he gives you an
answer. either a yes or a no, right?
Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. Keep knocking. Every one that
asketh, receive it. And he that seeketh, find it.
And him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Importunity is a—or
the Lord not answering is a test of our importunity, a test of—tests
us to see how serious we are about it, how earnest we are
about it, and eventually find out, maybe I don't need that
after all. Quit asking. Or until he gives
us an answer. And he says, yes, I love this.
Oh, I love this. If a son asks bread of any of
you that is a father, will he give him a stone? If your son comes, Dad, I need
something to eat. Here, take this rock. If he asks a fish, will he for
a fish give him a serpent, something to harm him? He asks for something
needful, will he give him something that harms him? If he asks an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, what's he call us? Being evil. That's why we need to ask for
forgiveness, isn't it? It's not like preachers are telling weird,
weird by nature, sinful, evil. If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more? I love those three words. How
much more? If you're willing to do for your
own whatever is necessary to the laying down of your life,
how much more? your Heavenly Father, who loves
you much more than you love your own. How much more? Too kind to do wrong, to do evil. But look at what
he says he'll give us. How much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Yeah, because
that's who we really need. That's what we really need. Isn't
it? As many as are led of the Spirit,
they are the sons of God. The Spirit maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The Spirit. He said,
I'm going away, but I'm going to give you my Spirit. My Holy
Spirit, you need Him to lead you and guide you. You need Him
to keep you from... He's the one leading and guiding His people
in the absence of Christ. The Holy Spirit who dwells with
us. He's our one, the one that's needful. Or else we can't... This sermon meant nothing to
you if the Holy Spirit didn't bless it to you. If the Holy
Spirit doesn't take it and remind you of these things, bring it
back up to you. It meant nothing to you. If the Holy Spirit doesn't
keep you, lead you, guide you, you'll fall. You'll fail utterly.
So He's the one we really need. Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Lead me by thy Spirit. And Christ
said He'll give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. He delights
in that. He delights. All right, I hope
that was a blessing. Let's stand. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
You for Your Word. Thank You so much for teaching
us. Thank You for this model prayer, Lord. Write it on the
tables of our heart. Order our steps this way. Cause us to pray, Thy will be
done. Lord, forgive us, cause us to
be forgiving, and cause us to ask for your Spirit and to submit
to his leadership. Seek ye thy will and thy way
through thy Holy Spirit, and to walk as you walk. Thank you,
Lord, for this word. Now, bless it. Let not the fires
of the air come and take it away. Don't let it fall among thorns,
cares. Let it fall upon a prepared heart,
good ground. For your glory and honor, for
our good, in Christ's name, amen. You're dismissed. Questioner 2 has a question.