we have dealt with the fourth psalm, and the fourth psalm we could accurately say it's an evening psalm. Look at the eighth verse of Psalm 4. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." It's an evening psalm. We lay down to rest our bodies, and when we lay down, and the psalmist, when he laid down, he says he lays down in peace, knowing he's at peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has a peace within that It's a peace that passes all understanding. It's a peace that the world can't give. All is well. I may not feel good. Maybe things are not going the way that I would like for them to go, but I'm gonna lay down in peace, David says.

After all, in this Psalm, Psalm 4, this was written when Absalom had taken over the throne of Israel. Things weren't as David would like to have them, but things were as God would have them, because all things are under the dominion of God. And David, believing that, he says, I'll lay down in peace. He said, but David, your kingdom has been stolen from you. Somebody else sits upon the throne. As you left Jerusalem and crossed over the Brook Sedrum, people were laughing at you. You went out in shame. And yet you say, I will lay me down in peace. How can you have peace with all of these obstacles, with all these troubles, with all these things that appear to be against you? Well, he says, well, this is how. I can lay down in peace the last statement of verse eight, Psalm four, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. I'm safe in the Lord. Let men do what they will. Let them be great in opposition, David says to me. Even if it's my own son, who runs me out of town, runs me out of the city, and who's taken over my throne, I'm still gonna lay down in peace. Because my Lord, Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah Jesus, my Savior, my Redeemer, the author and the finisher of my faith, He makes me dwell always perpetually in safety.

So really, Psalm 4 is an evening psalm. And then we get to Psalm 5. And Psalm 5 is a morning prayer. Look at verse 3. He says, my voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. The Lord heard his voice the night before. And now he says, my voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning. I'll direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. I'll look up in faith. I'll look up in worship. I'll look up in confidence. I'll look up knowing that I'm a child of God and all these things are working together for my good. You'll hear my voice in the evening, Father. and you'll hear my voice in the morning. Wonderful, wonderful news for us and wonderful instructions for us in the evening and in the morning. How should I end the day? I should end the day by speaking with my Heavenly Father and being reminded of the fact that I'm at peace with Him. There's nothing between me and God. My sins have been removed. I made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, my Lord. I can lay down in peace. For the Lord makes me to dwell, to abide in safety. What can harm me? Here's how Paul speaks in Romans chapter 8. If God be for us, who can be against us? I'm safe in the Savior. He cradles me even now in His arms. He keeps me by His power. He bought me with His own blood. He has robed me with His righteousness. He will never let the enemy overcome me. So I'll lay down in peace because the Lord makes me to dwell in safety.

And in the morning, the first thing out of his heart, he says, the Lord will hear my voice in the morning. He says in the morning, I'll direct my prayer. Oh, Lord unto thee, I'll look up. I'll look up. You know, sometimes in the morning, we tend to look down and say, oh, boy, I got a lot to do today, and I'm troubled about this thing or that thing. David says, well, I'm going to look up. Look up, remember what Paul said, look up for your redemption draweth nigh. Look up, see who's on the throne. Look up and see who rules. Look up and see who governs. Look up and see who loves you and who gave himself for you. In the morning, I'm gonna direct my prayer unto the Lord and I'm gonna look up. I'm going to look to Christ. You want to be encouraged? Look to Christ. Look to your Savior.

What is prayer? In Psalm 4, David prayed. He said he'd pray at night. Psalm 5, he talks about praying, praying in the morning. What is prayer? Should we pray? How should we pray? To whom should we pray? Do we have any reason to expect that God will hear us when we pray? Well, I hope the Lord will enable me to answer those questions and maybe a few more for you in a practical way this evening. I'm not going to give you a set formula for prayer. For there is no set formula for prayer. And I'm not going to advise you to set a definite time for prayer, as in a particular hour. The Pharisees, they made long prayers. I wouldn't advise you to how lengthy your prayer should be. The Pharisee there in Luke 18, he had a formula for prayer and he took a formal posture in prayer. He prayed long, he prayed fervently, he prayed frequently, he prayed publicly, but God didn't even hear him. Whereas the publican, He offered to God not a long prayer. Prayer doesn't have to be long. It's not the length of it. You see, real prayer comes forth from the heart, directed to the heart of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The publican had a short, humble prayer, trusting in the merits of Christ. And the God of all grace heard that publican pray.

He said, God, I thank thee. Or the Pharisee said, God, I thank thee. I'm not like other men are. And he went on and on and on. The publican said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the word merciful means is propitious. I need the mercy seat, that's what he's saying. Be propitious, satisfy your justice in the punishment of your sin, and remember me. And the Savior said, that man went home justified, but not the Pharisee.

How would you define prayer? I'll tell you this, it's very difficult to give a definition for prayer. It has been called the breath of a newborn soul. It is characterized by confession, faith, intercession, request, and praise. But all of those things really come up short. Maybe I can best describe prayer by first pointing out some mistaken notions about prayer. It's more than a mere ritual performed at given times.

I remember years ago, I was at a preacher's meeting, and we were waiting to eat, and someone said, hey, one of the preachers said, hey, somebody say a prayer so we can eat. And I was actually taken aback by that. Somebody say a prayer. That's one of the things wrong with this idea of prayer, is that you just say a prayer. I can't tell you how many times people have said to me, say a prayer for so and so, just say a prayer. Well, I'll tell you, I've said a lot of prayers that didn't get very high, I don't think. There's a difference between saying a prayer and praying from the heart. Prayer is much more than repeating something that somebody else has prayed. Somebody says, well, you need to say your prayers. No, you don't. That's the last thing you need to do is say a prayer. Speak to God from your heart. Now, that's praying. And that's not so easy. Just come clean before God. Just be absolutely naked and open, as it were, before God, because He sees you as you are. Don't try to impress God. When you pray, if you pray from up here, you pray silently there, you pray in the morning, pray in the evening at home. Don't try to impress God. God's impressed with His Son. You understand that, don't you? He's not impressed with your prayer.

Well, we gotta get the words just exactly right. Really? I got news for you. The Spirit of God knows the desire of your hearts and he interprets that to the Father without you even saying a word. That's what it says in Romans 8. Prayer comes from the heart. It may be an audible prayer, as I tried to pray a few minutes ago, or it may be a silent prayer. So-called Christians and evangelicals, you know, get so upset, well, they've kicked God out of the school. Can't even pray in school. What? That shows you that people don't know what they're talking about. You know, when in 1 Samuel, Hannah, she prayed for a child, gonna dedicate the child to the Lord, bring him to the temple. And Eli saw her, her lips were moving, but she wasn't making any sound. He said, it might be early in the day for you to be drinking. And she told me, she said, I was praying. Nobody can keep you from praying. If you're washing dishes, if you're driving down the road, if you're nailing, putting a nail through a board or whatever you're doing, nobody can stop you from speaking to the Father. You come to God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. From your heart, you're just thinking about the Lord and praising the Lord and thanking the Lord and say, Lord, I'm such a sinner. I sure am glad you showed me mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is praying.

One writer said this about prayer. What is prayer? That's what I'm working on now. He said, it is the believing and humble and submissive heart worshiping God and seeking His will to be done. That's prayer. Prayer is drawing near to God through Christ the Savior, drawing near to the Lord in thanksgiving, In confession? In honesty? Heard Barnard say one time, honest people, and Brother Henry said this, and I'm going to say it too, honest people don't go to hell. People who are honest with God we're talking about. Honest people don't perish. Just come honestly before the Lord. Lord, I'm such a sinner. I'm just no good. Oh, show me mercy through Christ. Wash me, make me clean. That's praying. It's coming to the Lord, not only in honesty, but in humility. Lord, I'm nothing and you're everything. And it's not an act of the body. It's an act of the heart. It's a spirit of faith and confidence and submission to the will of God. Another writer said, answering what is prayer, it's an offering up to the Lord our desires, our requests, for things that are consistent with and in line with His will in the name of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. Nothing is more consistent for you and me as children of God than the exercise of this lovely privilege to speak with God.

Look at Matthew chapter 6. Like I say, I'll go verse by verse through this psalm a little later. But tonight, just trying to focus in on prayer. Matthew 6. Our Lord says, and when thou prayest, thou shall not be, Matthew 6, verse 5. Matthew 6, 5. And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, in being seen of men, they have their reward. They wanted recognition, they get it. They get it from men.

Oh my, look at his praying. He continues. But 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.

I'll make an honest confession to you. I think one of the most difficult things for a preacher or somebody who stands behind this pulpit is to pray publicly. Because you can't get it out of your mind that people are listening. Whole lot easier to pray silently to God because he knows you anyway. He knows your thoughts and he knows your desires. But it's a different story to stand up here and pray out loud. That's one of the reasons that when we go to a restaurant, generally, I don't bow my head and audibly speak to the Lord in prayer.

You say, aren't you thankful? Of course I'm thankful. I remember Henry telling me this story many years ago. He was in Rocky Mount preaching for me, and I was 24, 25 years old, and we went out to eat. Back then, I thought that's what we ought to do, bow our heads and pray. And if you do that, hey, that's between you and God. I'm not your judge. I'm not your Lord. But I mentioned something to him about it, and I said, don't you think we ought to be thankful? He said, how do you know I'm not thankful? I said, well, I don't. I was kind of hesitant to say anything to him. And then he told me a story that he was out with a young preacher at a restaurant, and The food came and he just, you know, took the silverware out of the napkin, put the napkin in the lap. Actually, I think he said he put it over his collar and had the napkin, you know. And the young preacher said, aren't you gonna pray? Henry said, I'm prayerful, I'm thankful. He said, yeah, but if you don't pray out loud, how's that waitress gonna know that you're a Christian? And Henry said, oh, she'll know by the size of the tip I leave.

Is that all you're doing is bowing your head so somebody will see? See, that's the way the Pharisees did. They'd see them praying on the street corner. Boy, he's a holy man right there. The Lord said he was anything but a holy man. He's just doing that to be seen, to get the praise of men. If you're thankful, wonderful. If you're not thankful, you ought to be. But that doesn't mean that you have to audibly speak a prayer to the Lord. I'm not trying to impress anybody. And I take my Lord's words literally. Going to pray? He said, go in your closet. That's what he said. Go in your closet. It's a different thing. If you're at home, family, bow your head. If you want to say, speak a prayer, pray out loud, that's fine. I wouldn't trash that idea at all. I can't be your conscience, okay?

One of the things wrong with churches today, with people today that look to preach, I want you to pray for me, I want you to teach me, and I want you to do this, I want you to do that. I don't own you. It's not my church. You're not my people. We're the Lord's people. See, you don't answer to me. You owe me no explanation for anything. Nor do I owe you. The only thing I owe you is to tell you the truth of the gospel. That's all I owe you. But these men prayed to be seen of men. The Lord says they had their reward.

He says in verse 7, He says, But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. And they go on and on and on. Pray about matters at hand. Especially if you're praying in public. Praying here. Our Lord says, Be not ye therefore like unto them. For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

Many years ago, Brother Don Fortner and I were preaching together. And we were in New Jersey, actually. And Don had preached first, and it was hot. It didn't have air conditioning. And then the preacher was gonna say a few things and receive an offering. And the preacher, the pastor, prayed. And Don sat down beside me, and the preacher, he went on and on and on with all of his prayer requests. And I'm gonna tell this on Don. Don fell asleep. And he sat right beside me and started snoring. It was hot. He had preached. And the preacher's praying for everything. And I went like that to wake him up. Oh, if the camera didn't get that, I did that. And so after the service, he said, you're not going to tell anybody that I fell asleep, are you? I said, oh, you can trust me.

There's a time for you to pray about many things, but in public, that isn't the time. Deal with the issues at hand. Here's what I want, as we meet together tonight, here's what I pray for, is that the Lord be glorified, that the gospel go forth. I pray that the Lord will bring people to believe the truth. the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, let me keep on reading here. Verse nine, after this manner, therefore, pray ye, pray ye. And if you wanna look the parallel passage in the gospel of Luke, I tell you what brought this on, the disciples saw our Lord praying. And they said, Lord, teach us to pray as you pray. So he says, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. And if you want to pray this prayer from your heart, if you can do that, that's fine. But see, to me, to just recite this, that's vain repetition. And I know some churches, Pray this every service. I think this is a guide as to how to pray and to what to pray for. I don't think it's given for us to repeat it word for word. To me, that'd be a vain repetition. It wouldn't be your prayer. Wouldn't come forth from your heart.

He says, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in 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, the power, and the glory forever, amen.

What should we pray for? Well, number one, according to this, we pray for the glory of God. You don't pray about something important, pray for God to be glorified. I promise you that's pleasing to Him. Let no flesh be magnified in this house. May the name of our God, Father, Son, and Spirit be glorified. And by the way, when you pray, we're not praying to the Trinity per se, we're praying to the Father. We're not praying to Christ. You say, well, we use His name. We pray through Christ. But we pray to the Father. We don't pray to the Spirit. So don't be praying, saying, you know, blessed Holy Spirit, come. No, pray to the Father. He says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye our Father. Our Father. That's what the Savior said. So I'm just gonna repeat what He said. Pray for the glory of God.

Number two, pray for the enlargement of the kingdom of God. He said, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. What's that? Let's pray for the enlargement of the kingdom of grace. I pray that sinners will be saved. That those who are lost will be found by the sovereign, seeking, saving Savior. That's what we pray. We pray for the kingdom of God to spread.

Number three, we pray for the fulfillment of the will of God. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. That's what I want. I think it was Sunday night. I told you about a preacher who came to me. Somebody asked him to pray for the healing of somebody. And the preacher said, I'm gonna pray for the will of the Lord to be done. And I got mad at him. We've always got to pray for the will of the Lord to be done, because what we want, what we will, may not be the Lord's will. I don't want to pray in opposition to Him, so I pray Thy will be done. Why is that? Because His will is perfect. His will will bring glory to His name.

And then verse 11, here we pray for the provision of God. Lord, supply our needs. There's nothing wrong with praying that. Give us this day our daily bread. And I think that's more than literal bread. I think it's give us the bread of life. Give us Christ. And they feed on him today. He's the bread that came down from heaven. And forgive us our debts. Forgive, Lord. Remembering the only way God can forgive sins, indebtedness, is through Christ, the crucified, buried, risen Savior. Lead us not into temptation. Pray for the Lord to lead you. There's not one of us that's very strong spiritually, so strong that we can avoid temptation and successfully fend off temptation by ourselves. We can't do it. Lord, lead us, but don't lead me into temptation. Deliver us from evil, deliver us from the evil one. And then he winds it up by, this is a prayer request for the praise of God. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.

Let me give you this and I'll quit. Our Lord's life and death were much more than examples of how to live and how to die. His life was necessary in obeying all of the law of God and thereby establishing, along with His death, a righteousness that God approves of. His life was important. Somebody had to keep God's law. Somebody had to live up to the requirements. Adam failed. Will the last Adam fail? Absolutely not. And we're thankful for his life and his obedience included his life and his death. By his death he put our sins away. By His death, He established righteousness for us. His sin-atoning death was effectual to the putting away of our guilt. And His blood makes us clean in the sight of God.

But nevertheless, it is very true that He is the perfect example. He didn't come to be an example per se, or only. He came to save, but He is our example. He is our example. It says back there in Psalm 5, turn back to Psalm 5, by the way, I'll give you this. This whole psalm, it's about David, but it's also about David's Lord. He was faithful, Christ was faithful in praying in the evening and in the morning. He's our perfect example.

And I thought about this, if ever there was a man who did not need to engage in prayer, It was the Lord Jesus, he had no sins to confess. He trusted the Father completely. Not a partial faith, but a perfect faith. He was never defiled with the sins that trouble us. He knew no sin, he did no sin, he had no sin. He walked with God always. And yet, when he was in this world, he was a man of prayer. I want to be like that. Don't you? Surely you do.

Our Lord is often said to be our example Somebody says, preacher, you're setting a good example for your people. I'm setting forth him who is the perfect example. When our Lord Jesus washed the disciples' feet, teaching them to serve one another, he said this, I've given you an example. That's what he said, wasn't it? I've given you an example. In 1 Peter chapter two, Peter talks about Christ being the example. Let's do as he did.

And even when he was on the cross of Calvary, you know what he did? He prayed. He prayed. He prayed for us. Jim, what did he pray? Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. He prayed. He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's a prayer. He said, I thirst. Let me give myself to prayer. You say, well, I wish our preacher was a great man of prayer. Well, the preacher isn't, but the Savior is.

I sent somebody a text yesterday. I received an email from a man in Australia who is suffering cancer. And I wrote him this morning. Told him I was praying for him, and I was thankful he was very encouraging to me. He said, I love you, Jim Bird, for preaching the gospel to me. I wrote him back to try to encourage him a little. Got a very good friend up in Michigan whose granddaughter is awaiting A heart transplant. Pray for. Got so many people in our congregation. We pray for them. That's not a ritual, is it? We just talk to the Lord about it. Knowing that the Lord's will is good, and he hears his people, He hears the groans of your heart when you can't even verbalize them.

Sometimes I just say, Lord, I don't know what to say. Do you ever do that? Lord, I just don't know what to say. But you know my heart. You know my desires. My desire is for Christ to be glorified. And my desire is, Lord, if you will, just let me continue to preach your gospel. And then when I can no longer physically do that, or when you're finished with me, take me on home to glory. Speak to the Lord from your heart. He's not interested in the volume of words you use. He's not interested in correct grammar. I tell you what, he'll hear the words of your heart.

Let's sing the final song. 298. 298. God leads us along. 298.