It's a very opportune time to
be meeting with this verse. There's probably more prayers
being said over the next few days than ever. But of course
when we think of the Lord Jesus on that night, we are caused
to think much of his prayer and what a remarkable prayer he prayed. What a remarkable prayer his
father answered. Why don't we read some of it. John Chapter 17. This is the
Lord's Prayer. The prayer in Matthew 6 that
everyone calls the Lord's Prayer is really the disciple's prayer. I think we have time to read
all of it. I can shorten my message. Jesus, when he spoke these words,
he lifted up his eyes to heaven. John chapter 17, we're in, great.
Lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast
given Him. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was. I have manifested
Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and Thou gavest them Me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee, and I have given
unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, and they have received
them. and have known surely that I
came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to Thee, Holy Father,
keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that
they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in Thy Name. Those that Thou gave me, I have
kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that
the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them Thy Word, and
the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that ye should take
them out of the world, but that ye should keep them from the
evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the
world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might
be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word,
that they may all be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and
I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent Me. The glory which Thou gave
me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father,
I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where
I am, that they might behold my glory, which Thou hast given
me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have
known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent me, and I
have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the
love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples
over the book of Kidron and into the garden. And what did He do
in the garden? He prayed. Our Lord Jesus was
a man of prayer, and that prayer is so beautifully answered, isn't
it? It's answered before us. in this day was answered before
our brother Paul in the lives of the Thessalonians. And he
comes to the finish of this letter where he's reminding them of
the encouragement that they are to him, because even though he
is there just with them for those three short weeks, They believed,
and they believed with joy, and they believed with joy and maintained
their faith in the midst of persecution, of opposition, affliction. And
he finishes this beautiful letter with these amazing words. He says in verse 16, which we
looked at last week, he says, Rejoice evermore Pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. The will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you is that you be people who rejoice, but don't
just rejoice a little bit, you rejoice ever more. You are going
to be people of prayer, like the apostles, like the Lord himself. Pray without ceasing, and in
everything give thanks. Recipients of grace, respond
to grace. And it's obviously something
that they've not earned. It's something that's bestowed
as a gift. That's what you give thanks for,
don't you? You don't give thanks for things you've earned. You
give thanks for things that have been given you. Last week we
looked It's really fascinating to see
how the Holy Spirit has put these words together. He begins with
rejoicing, He then talks about praying, and then you end up
giving thanks in everything. You start with rejoicing, you
pray, and then you're giving thanks. We looked last week at
rejoicing. It says, Rejoice evermore. And
there was no if, there's no conditions on it. You rejoice now and you
rejoice evermore and we looked at the fact that rejoicing doesn't
mean that you're not suffering troubles and trials, it's just
that in the midst of them we have a God who is big and great. They had received the word, verse
6 of chapter 1, they had received the word in much affliction,
in much affliction and joy. much affliction with joy. So
joy and affliction are not contrary to one another. In verse 4 he
says, knowing brethren beloved, your election of God, and the
word came to these people, it came to them, they received it
too, verse 13, they received the word of God, they received
it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the word of
God which works effectually also in you that believe." The word
came and the word produced this remarkable impact on these people,
didn't they? in verse 3, he's reminding them,
doesn't he? He gives thanks in verse 2, thanks
always to God, always to you, making mention of you in our
prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labour
of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus in the sight
of God. And so Paul, in his letters,
this one in particular, he begins with prayer, he has prayer scattered
throughout it, And he finishes with prayer. And so he's not
encouraging them to do something that he's not doing himself. We have much reason for rejoicing. We have much reason for being
thankful. As we saw in Song of Solomon,
in 2 verse 9, she says, My beloved spoke and said unto me, Rise
up, my love. my fair one, my beautiful one,
and come away." And that's exactly what's happened here, isn't it?
They heard this word, a word that was spoken by the mouth
of a man, but they heard the call of the Beloved. It's a call, a command of grace
to rise up It's a call to leave something, to leave something
behind and it's a call to come, to come into communion and fellowship
with the Beloved. And he comes, the voice of my
beloved behold, he comes, says the Shulamite, he comes leaping
upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. He's not reluctant
in his coming to his people, he's not reluctant in sending
his word which speaks of him to his people. And the Kingdom
of God, says the Lord Jesus in Matthew 13, is like a treasure
hidden in a field. And so many people in this world
spend their time looking at the field and enjoying the field,
and taking delight from the things of the field, and rejoicing in
the good things the field gives them, and struggling with the
things that the field causes hard for them. But there's a
treasure. There's a treasure hidden in the field. The treasure
is revealed by the Gospel. These people were some of the
first converts in all of Europe to the Gospel. What a remarkable
treasure. They lived in the field and now
they discovered that in that field was a treasure. The treasure
is the Lord Jesus. To the world, as he says in Lamentations
1 verse 12, is it nothing to you. And that's how the world
treats him, isn't it? That's how the religious world
treats him. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Is there any anguish like my
anguish? Is there any suffering, any pain
like I have?" And the world says, It's nothing, but for God's people
it's a treasure. We saw why God's children, some
of the reasons why God's children rejoiced last week. We rejoice
because we're pardoned sinners. We are spirit indwelt saints
and we have been caused to hear the gospel. Even in much affliction,
the gospel is a treasure. that works in the hearts of God's
saints, and God causes His people to stay firm to the faith. So what does Paul say? He says,
you are my crown of rejoicing, you are our glory and joy, 2
verse 19 and 20. His delight, his delight was
in the vindication of the Gospel, in the glory of the Lord Jesus
being revealed in His people. We read the Lord Jesus' prayer.
Here we have the answer to the prayer in the lives of these
people. They are led by God. They are
led by God, taught of God, to love one another. They are led
by God and taught of God to love the Apostle and love the truth
that they brought and declared about the Lord Jesus. They rejoice. God's children rejoice. They're
called into a kingdom, called into glory. In 1 verse 10 we
see that they are delivered people. Delivered from the wrath to come. And when they are saying, when
this world is saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction
comes upon them. The Lord will come as a thief
in the night, when no one expects Him. And God's children have
been delivered from the wrath to come, because the Lord Jesus
took the wrath of all His people on the cross. What a cause for
rejoicing. If it doesn't make our hearts
rejoice now, may God cause us to be rejoicing people. May we
think much of what the Lord Jesus suffered. We delivered, as these
Thessalonians were, they were delivered out of a world of religion. There they were in a Jewish synagogue
under the law of Moses, Gentiles and Jews, and God delivered them. They are delivered and they are,
as he begins his letter, he begins and says, Grace unto you and
peace. God's children rejoice for grace
and they rejoice in the peace that God brings into their lives. and they are examples. So these
people followed Paul and Silas, and here's Paul as he's excited
and thankful, as he hears about their faith, and hears about
them staying firm and true in the midst of opposition from
outside, and opposition from inside, and opposition from their
flesh. They've remained firm in the
faith. And I'll remind you that the
faith in chapter 3, again and again, it's a noun. It's a description
It's a description of the faith that's once delivered to the
saints. It causes the gospel as it brings
new life. It causes us, causes God's children
to be believing people. but it causes them to believe
in some certain facts. We read what the Lord Jesus said
in that prayer, didn't He? He calls on His Father to sanctify
them by the truth. There is no sanctification apart
from a sanctification in the truth of who He is. We are to
rejoice. Rejoicing precedes our praying. We rejoice because He bore our
sins in His own body on the tree. And if He's borne them, I cannot
bear them ever. He's borne them once, He's put
them away forever. Which is why we looked last week
at what Peter says about the answer of a good conscience towards
God. We have the answer of a good
conscience. Our consciences accuse us. Satan
accuses us. The world accuses us. We are
good at accusing ourselves. When people are put under pressure,
the automatic response is, what have I done wrong? So often,
isn't it? And we have the answer for that
conscience. It's not our perfect behaviour
and our perfect faith. It's the perfect saviour is the
answer. The one, as I said, who's willing
and able to bear our burdens. Come to me, he says, all you
who are weary and heavy laden. We rejoice because we are children
of God. As many are led by Him, led to
see our sin, led to believe, led to suffer, led to rejoice
in Him. We call Him Father. We call Him Abba Father. We rejoice
because there's abounding grace here and all of our journey on
this earth. Grace upon grace. John's Gospel
tells us earlier on, grace we have received. That just means
that there's more grace to come, ever flowing. And we rejoice
because we have access to God, which brings us to prayer. Prayer follows after rejoicing, and
then it brings thanksgiving. I love what one of the old poets
said, Jesus, King of Glory reigns on Zion's heavenly hill. Looks like a lamb that has been
slain and wears his priesthood still. He ever lives to intercede
before his Father's face. Give him, my soul, thy cause
to plead, nor doubt his Father's grace. in heaven. There is a saviour,
a man. A man is in heaven right now
with wounds in his hands and wounds in his feet and wounds
in his side and what's he doing? We read what he finished doing
on earth, praying that prayer. He's now interceding for us,
interceding for his people You can read about it in John in
Romans chapter 8. He's interceding. And so Paul
comes to this encouraging part of his letter where he began
with prayer and he has prayer in the middle and his prayer
and his thanksgiving and his rejoicing are all intermingled
as he writes this letter to them. He says, pray without ceasing.
He and Silas were examples. And of course, as soon as we
read those words, we think, dear oh dear, there's another thing
I haven't done. Pray without ceasing. Hands up
those who ever think they have. See, these people were examples,
weren't they? Paul and Silas came to them having had a rough
time in Philippi, having been put in jail and then run out
of town. And here they were saying, pray
without ceasing, and yet they remembered. They are remembered
before God. Paul says in chapter 1, he says,
they are remembered, he remembers them without ceasing. Your work
of faith and labour of love, he remembers them without ceasing. and he laboured, and yet when
they were there, we read in chapter 2 how they came as men who sought
glory from no one except the glory of God, and how they worked. They worked and travailed night
and day. They worked. So praying without
ceasing doesn't mean that you do nothing but pray all day long. It means to pray frequently,
to be in the habit of it. Whenever the Thessalonians or
a circumstance brought the Thessalonians to Paul's mind, he took those
thoughts and he took them to God. You see, until he had received
the news of what was happening to these people, he wasn't sure,
was he? He wasn't sure what had happened
to them. There they were, he'd been run
out of town, He'd only had those three short weeks. What's going
to happen to this little group of believers? Well, the reality
is, Paul, they're in the Lord's hands, and when they're in His
hands, they're in good order, always. Now, Paul was a man of
prayer. Primarily he was a man of prayer.
It's interesting to think, isn't it, that God raised up this man,
this man of the most extraordinary gifts and talents, the man commissioned
to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and then he turned around and
he caused Paul to spend probably half of the rest of his life
in jail. Did Paul cease? to be an apostle
did Paul cease to be doing the work of an apostle in jail? Not
at all. What was Paul doing when he was
locked away? He was praying. He was praying. He was praying. He prayed frequently, he prayed
often. He had times that he set aside
for prayer. But when he was with these people,
he worked night and day, he said. He worked with his hands. He
worked so that he wouldn't be a burden to them. And you can
be doing work and praying at the same time. It's really interesting,
the Jews and the Arabs at Jerusalem are having a big fight at the
moment because the Jews want to have access to where the Muslims
have that golden topped mosque on the site that they believe,
and I think a lot of archaeologists believe, it's on the site of
the old temple. The Jews actually sort of have
the right to the whole place except for this little bit on
top of the mountain. But the one thing the Arabs are
really upset about is that the Jews want to go up there. They're
allowed to visit this Dome of the Rock, this important Islamic
site, where they think Mohammed, I think, went there before he
went up to heaven or wherever he went. Anyway, the Jews are allowed
to go there and visit for three or four hours a day, but the
one thing they're not allowed to do when they go there, they're
not allowed to go up there and pray, which is really fascinating,
isn't it? What on earth do they think prayer
is? Bowing down before Allah five
times a day? I was on a train in Thailand,
an overnight train in Thailand some years ago. I think I've
told you this story. But anyway, in the morning I woke up and
I was in a sort of a compartment area with about six or eight
Jews. And one of these Jews was one
of these, was incredibly religious. They were only young guys, just
out of university or something, or out of the army. But one of
them, he spent half an hour or 40 minutes in the morning getting
himself ready to pray. And he put a leather thing, a
little pouch with scripture in it around his head and he had
leather things to be tied all over his thing and he had a special
thing that he had to put on, blue and white thing with all
the tassels and stuff on. He did all of that in front of
all these people and it took 40 minutes I reckon for him to
get organised. And then when he's finally got
all that done, he can pray. And that's what he was doing,
wasn't it? We are reminded by the Lord Jesus of the Pharisees. It's a remarkable story. You
can read about it in Luke's Gospel of the Pharisee who went up to
the temple. And it's interesting what the Holy Spirit says of
him, interesting what the Lord Jesus said of this Pharisee.
He went up there and he was going up there on the basis of his
merits, that he does this and he does this and he does, I do
this and I do that, and I'm not like this other fellow. And the
Holy Spirit says, he prayed with himself. His prayer went nowhere. He prayed with himself. And the
other man stood a long way off, left a huge gap of grace between
him and God. And he said, God, be merciful.
God, look upon, be propitious to me. Look upon your sin bearing
substitute for me. and be merciful." And he went
home righteous. Now it's really fascinating,
isn't it, what actually happened in him for him to know that he
went home righteous. There was some transaction, wasn't
there, between that man It wasn't just a declaration. I'm sure
it was a declaration. It must be a declaration of truth
from God. But somehow it was something
that communicated. He prayed. He prayed to God. The other man prayed to himself. We are encouraged by the story
of the persistent widow in Luke 18 who pestered and pestered
the judge who didn't fear God and didn't fear men, and eventually
she was answered, wasn't she, because of her persistence. We
are encouraged to pray often. We are encouraged by God to pray
persistently. We are encouraged by God to pray
when there are evident reasons for joy and thanksgiving, as
Paul does for these people. He just can't thank God enough
for them. And these people were also people
who were suffering afflictions. There's reason to pray when there
are afflictions. They're afflictions that come
not by accident. These afflictions were there
as an appointment of God. They were appointed there unto
1 Thessalonians 3 verse 3. So prayer is much more than a
ritual performed. It's not just performing rituals,
it's not performing rituals at all. It's much, much more than
naming it and claiming it, just asking and receiving. Or as someone
told us when we were in India that it's faith, you just sort
of stick it in like a credit card and out comes all the things
that you wish for into the bank of faith. It's a believing, submissive
heart worshipping God. and seeking His will." I think
that's a good description of prayer, isn't it? It's a believing
prayer, a believing, isn't it? It's believing and it's submissive. No doubt these Thessalonians,
like all believers through our time, would wish so much in so
much of their lives that things were different, that the circumstances
were different. But at the end of the day, God's
children submit to His will as the Lord Jesus did in that garden. Not my will, but yours will be
done. And it's worshipping, isn't it?
You cannot rejoice and then pray and then be thankful if you're
not worshipping God. And ultimately it's seeking His
will, isn't it? His will is good perfect. His will will be done." I love
when I speak of it often, Hezekiah received that letter when the
Assyrians were outside the city of Jerusalem and they had just
marched down hundreds of miles. Every time they came to a city
they conquered it and they conquered its gods and there they are,
a huge army stacked outside Jerusalem and they send a letter to Hezekiah
saying, Your God is not as big as these
other guys. Your God is not faithful. Your God will be dealt with you
and your God will be dealt with like all of these others will
be dealt with. And Hezekiah, you can read about it in 2 Kings
19, it's an amazing description. He received this letter and he
went up into the house of the Lord and he spread it before
God. It's a beautiful description
of prayer, isn't it? In the trials and troubles of
life we actually take the circumstances of our life and we lay them before
God. It's a great opportunity, isn't
it, for us just to lay out our lives and the circumstances of
our lives before God. He hears. He hears. He's ready to hear. It's an act
of our hearts, isn't it? It's an act in faith, an act
in confidence, it's an act in submission. We are needy sinners. We're always needy sinners. We're always in need of mercy
and grace and almost always we're in need of peace from God. And that was Paul's prayer for
these people, wasn't it? That they receive and continue
to receive grace and peace from God. And Paul prays, as you read
his prayers and you read the encouragement, Paul is encouraged
when he sees signs of God's activity and he encourages people by thanking
God for what he sees happening in their lives. He's not thanking
them for their activities, he's thanking them for the evident
signs of God's grace. in their lives. Paul prays that
they might have the full assurance of faith, the personal faith
that they have, personally believing and holding on to the faith that
was once for all delivered to the saints. I love how John in
1 John 5, it says, These things have I written unto you that
believe, on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life. and that you believe on the name
of the Son of God." Isn't it interesting how the Holy Spirit
has put that sentence together. These things I've written unto
you, and Paul writes with the same spirit in mind, isn't he? I've written unto you that believe
on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life. It's interesting how John, a
man of prayer, writes that letter and he keeps saying that you
may know, that you may know, that you may know. True saving
faith is not a walk in the dark, it's a walk in the light. It's
walking in the light, that you may know that you have eternal
life and that you believe on the name of the Son of God. And prayer is trusting, isn't
it? That our prayer is heard, our
prayer is heard and it's accepted by our Father in Heaven. that that prayer is not just
heard and accepted, but that prayer is, as John says, is powerful
and effective. John goes on, he says, and this
is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desire of Him. Prayer is heard. Prayer is heard and prayer is
effectual. It's remarkably effectual. It brings us to a place of submission. It brings us to a place of communion. It brings us into a place where
we lay out our lives and we lay out the circumstances of our
lives and we lay out our petitions before Him and we trust Him. It's according to His will. You see Hebrews 4.16 is that
verse that we speak often, let us therefore come boldly to the
throne of grace. We come boldly to the throne
of grace. God's children have a right of
access, not because of anything that they do, but because They
have been raised together with Christ and they are seated together
with Him on the heavenly place. It's our normal place of dwelling,
brothers and sisters, and it will be for all eternity. We
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Isn't it remarkable? We have to receive an invitation
to the Throne of Grace. We've been given one by God.
We have a reason to be there. Our Saviour, our Husband, the
One who is One with us is there and He is interceding. True prayer
is according to the will of God. Paul, as we saw earlier in this
letter, he desired anxiously to go back to see what had happened.
What had happened to this little ragtag bunch of believers in
Thessalonica? What had happened to them when
the opposition that he had suffered had come upon them personally
and from their families and from their friends? and from the people
that they had entrusted their souls into the care of. And now
they were treated as enemies and traitors to that cause of
Judaism and traitors to that synagogue. And Paul says, Now
God himself and our Father Our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
direct our way unto you. He knew that he was hindered. He says that he was hindered
by Satan. Satan stirring up opposition, no doubt, in the other places
that Paul was preaching and the other places where churches were
gathered. But he trusts the will of God. God himself direct our
way unto you. And this God willed it. It's
not going to happen. True prayer is the request of
faith, isn't it? It's believing, that believing,
submissive heart. True prayer is a request of faith
and it looks to the promise of God. And it looks to the promise
of God as it's been revealed in this Word and nowhere else. And true prayer comes in the
name of Christ Jesus. It comes upon His authority at
His invitation. True prayer is trusting in His
righteousness. It's trusting His bloodshed.
It's trusting His intercession for us right now. It's trusting
His promise that the Holy Spirit takes our groans and He translates
our groans right now. He translates them and they commune
effectively for God's children at that throne of grace. Trusting Him. It seeks God's
will. It seeks God's glory. True prayer
seeks God's purposes. True prayer is submission. It's
submitting my will to His will. It's trusting Him. Paul, James says, doesn't he,
in that verse which warns us, isn't it, people ask and they
receive not, and they ask with wrong motives, because they ask
for something of themselves. Paul's prayer is always centred
on the glory of God and God's purposes. When the Lord gave
us that model prayer, the essence of it in Matthew 6 is in the
Name of God, the Kingdom of God and the Will of God. That was
the prayer that we were given to pray. It's really fascinating
the verses around it. It's really fascinating that
he says that your father knows what you need before you ask
him. And he says to go into your closets. So much public prayer is actually
just a performance of a ritual, performance of a show. The essence
of prayer is private prayer. Go into your closet, close the
door. Your father knows what you need. The Lord Jesus said, He knows
what you need before He asks. True prayer looks to the name,
the character of God. It's amazing isn't it how Paul
has outlined to these Thessalonians and he's reminded them of the
character of God. that he preached to them. In
verse 9 of chapter 1, he is the living and true God. He is, as
we saw earlier, He is the one who bestows grace and peace. He is the electing God, electing
His people in eternity. It's called the election of grace. And rather than an election being
a hindrance to prayer, Paul, who probably wrote this letter
from Corinth or Athens, is told when he's having a tough time
up in Corinth, he's told to keep on preaching, Paul. Why? He says, because I have many
people in this place. We pray because God does have
people and God does have purposes. And God, in His purposes, sends
His Word, He sends that Gospel, and He says in 2 verse 13 that
it works effectively in His people. We have As Paul reminds them,
we have a son in heaven and he's only there for a time. He's coming
back. His people who die sleep in him. He comes as a thief in the night. We are called by him into his
kingdom and glory. We are delivered from that wrath
to come wrath. from God, a righteous holy wrath
from God is coming upon the unbelievers. And He is the One who is the
bestower of all grace and all sanctification. He says in Chapter 4, but it is touching
brotherly love. You need not that I write unto
you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. He prays that their love would
abound toward one another more and more and then he acknowledges
that God is going to teach these people. God at the end of Chapter
5 is the sanctifier of his people. The very God, this is his prayer
at the end, and the very God of peace, verse 23 of chapter
5, sanctify you wholly, to make you wholly completely is what
it's saying. And I pray God that your whole
spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 24 he says, Faithful is
He that calls you. So He's outlined again and again
the character of our God. Sovereign, purposeful. Sovereign in sending His Son. Sovereign in sending His Gospel. And He calls on His people to
pray without ceasing, to be persistent, On your walls, O Jerusalem, have
I set watchmen. All day and all night they shall
never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance,
take no rest. The Holy Spirit inspires our
prayers and God's children pray And we pray with an expectancy. We pray expecting God to answer
our prayers. The eyes of the law are upon
the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. Whatsoever you ask in my name,
said the Lord Jesus on that night before he was crucified, that
will I give that the Father may be glorified." True prayer seeks
the glory of God, seeks the glory of His Son. We have the Great High Priest. God hears him always. He hears
us who are in him. And how often He gives us something
much better than we even ask for. He gives us something much,
much better. He's faithful. He is faithful. True prayer honours His faithfulness. Paul prays for his brethren,
asks his brethren to pray for him. What precious, precious
gifts God has given to His people. He's given us the Gospel. He's
given us His Son. He's given us fellowship. He's given us brothers and sisters. The greatest gifts in all of
this life are the gifts that last to eternity. What a remarkable gift giver
our great God is. as Philippians 4, and I'll finish
with this. He says, Be careful, be anxious
about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, the peace
of God which passes all understanding, It's a peace which is beyond
human comprehension and understanding. It's not beyond human rejoicing.
I don't have to understand it all to know that it's true. The peace of God which passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. What a Savior. Let's pray. Heavenly
Father, we thank you again. for the extraordinary gift of
Your Son. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
that the gifts that You give are gifts that are received because
You cause them to be bestowed upon Your people. And we praise
You, Heavenly Father. We praise You for the Gospel,
which declares the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
that He is the Lord, our righteousness, and we praise you that you call
your church. She bears his name as the Shulamite
bore the name of Solomon. Peace. The church is called the
Lord our righteousness. What an amazing gift, Heavenly
Father, to have your Son come and take our sins and suffer
your infinite wrath upon those sins Until your justice, your
holy justice cries out, enough, it is finished. Let these ones
go free. Heavenly Father, help us to find
ourselves rejoicing and being thankful and help us to find
ourselves people of prayer. people of prayer in all sorts
of times of our lives, and cause us, Heavenly Father, to be people
who pray and expect that You, who are faithful, will answer
our prayers according to Your will, and for the glory of Your
name, and for the glory of Your dear sons. Help us to be faithful,
our Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.