If you would, back to Luke 18. Last Wednesday night, I asked
the men in my study to be remembering a few things in prayer. One of
the things specifically was the building that we're pursuing. I asked them to really make it
a matter of prayer. make it a matter of prayer, the
process of going through it, the provisions for it. Most importantly to me, our unity
throughout the process. That's most important to me.
Our unity, our love and our support for each other along the way.
The reason I brought that up was because some verses of scripture,
like the one that we're going to use for a text tonight, they
were heavily on my mind, very heavily on my mind. I'd like
for us to look at a few of them and consider what they're saying
for our message tonight. Let's read our text, which is
Luke 18 verse one. And our Lord spake a parable
unto them to this end for this reason. that men ought always
to pray and not to faint. He said continually, continually,
continually, always to pray and not to faint. And the body is
prone to fainting. It just is. We get so tired.
And we just crash. We just, we give out. And the
Lord, our Lord is encouraging us always to pray and not to
faint. Now, if the Lord is encouraging
us to do that, then we need to take this very seriously. I entered
into the fact that the Lord is God. And the Lord spent his time
here in prayer. And he told us that we should
always pray and not to faint. I believe that we will be able
to see just how serious that is in this thought right here.
Let me just quote this to you. In the Old Testament, Samuel,
God's prophet, said to Israel concerning himself, this is 1
Samuel 12, 23. He said, moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin
against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. He said, it would
be a sin against God. If I didn't pray for you, I would
be sinning against my God. That's pretty serious. It would
be a sin against God. And the reason is because he
has commanded us to do it. And to not do it is going against
His commandment. It's breaking His commandment.
So that is what God commands of us. Now, here's the truth
of the matter. We are so insufficient in prayer,
and insufficient is putting it kindly. We are so insufficient. We are so insufficient. First
Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray without ceasing. We don't. James 5 verse 16 says, pray effectually,
pray fervently. We don't. We don't. Thankfully, though, we have some
good news. We are so insufficient because
we're so unable to pray to God in a way that is acceptable to
him. Christ prays for us because we are so insufficient and so
unable because of that. Christ prays for us. In John 17, he said, I pray for
them. I pray for them. And I pray for
them. I pray for them. And that's good
news. Look with me at Romans chapter
eight. Romans chapter 8. I love this. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. We can't do it. not in a sufficient to God way. So the Spirit of Christ Himself
does it for us. That's so relieving. He does
it for us without ceasing. He does it for us effectually,
fervently, in a way that is pleasing to God. Verse 27 it says, And
he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God." That's wonderful. Whoever does the will of God
is going to be saved. And we don't, outside of Christ. In Christ, it's all accomplished. Everything is accomplished. Verse 34 right here says, "...who
is he that condemneth It is Christ that died. It's Christ that shed
his blood. It's Christ that paid our debt.
It's Christ that set us free. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh. Continually maketh,
he maketh and maketh and maketh intercession for us, prayer for
us. He's praying for us. We say all
the time, brother, pray for me. He's praying for us. He's praying
for us. Daily, He is interceding in prayer
for us. Hebrews 7.25 says, He ever liveth
to make intercession for us. He will forever live to pray
for His people. Look with me at Galatians chapter
four. Galatians 4 verse 4 it says,
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, pleading, praying. Because you
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father, crying out for us. pleading and
praying for us. Verse 7 says, Wherefore thou
art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. In our Lord's life that He lived
on this earth, He was constantly praying for us. Constantly. He would go off to Himself and
pray. He was always in communion with
His Father. Throughout His entire life on
this earth, He was praying for us. In His suffering and in His
death, even in the garden, when that awful moment, that moment
full of awe, that sin was being pressed into Him. And even while
He hung on the cross, He was praying for us. Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. In
His resurrection, in His ascension, in His exaltation, seated on
His throne, He is still continually praying for us. He will always
pray for us and He will never faint from doing it. I love that. I love knowing that. I honestly
love knowing that. Now, in response to that, in
response to him, may God teach us also to pray. No matter how insufficient we
are, that's that's not an excuse. May God teach us to pray. The reason is because our Lord
has given us a promise along with the commandment. He gave
commandment for us to do so, and then He has given us a promise
at the end of it. If you go back to Luke 18, verse 1 says, And He spake a
parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray
and not to faint." He said, you should pray always and don't
ever stop. And then he told why. Verse two,
saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither
regarded man. And there was a widow in that
city. And she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while,
but afterward, he said within himself, though I fear not God
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me." She would not
stop asking. She would not stop begging. And
the judge said, I'm going to give her what she wants just
so she'll go away. Clearly, she is not going to leave until I
give her what she wants. That's just like Job. The Lord
said, Job, let me go. The day is breaking. And he said,
I can't let you go until you bless me. Well, verse 6, the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith, And shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you that He will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Will He find anybody
begging and pleading and crying and praying? Will He find anybody? Outside of His doing, the answer
is no. And the reason we know that is
all we have to do is look right here. Outside of His doing, the
answer is no. But if he does perform a work
in his people, he said, if they do ask, if they continually ask
without stopping, they will receive. If they seek with all their heart,
they are going to find. He gave the same promise in Luke
11. Turn with me over there to Luke
chapter 11. Verse 1, it says, And it came
to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased,
one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When you
pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
holy be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, as in heaven so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. He said, when you pray, pray
for that. Pray in that way. Pray to the
Father. Acknowledge Him to be the high
and holy God of heaven and ask for daily heavenly bread from
the Spirit. Lord, would you please feed me?
Now, I want to encourage all of us to ask for that. Lord,
would you please feed me? You brought me here. Would you
feed me? Please feed me. Ask to be covered
in the blood. He said, would you forgive me?
and asked to be protected from the adversary. And then He gave
the same promise for the asking. 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 is in his journey, in his journey is come to me, and
I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall
answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because
he is his friend." Being his friend is not enough for this
man to get up and get out of bed. He's his friend, but he
said, no, I'm staying here. But the Lord said, Though He
will not rise and give Him because He is His friend, yet because
of His importunity, because He will not stop knocking. He will
not stop begging. He will not stop pleading. Verse
8 goes on to say, He will rise and give Him as many as He needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will he give him a stone, or will
he ask a fish? Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he ask an egg, will he
offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him?" So because of His intercession for us, Our intercession in return
comes with a promise. It comes with a promise. Now,
we just read a moment ago in Romans 8 that we naturally know
not what we should pray for. And have you ever heard a more
truthful statement? We don't know what we should
pray for. We pray, Lord, would you do this?
We don't have any idea if that's the best thing. He knows what's
best and he knows what's right. But we know not what we should
pray for. And we just read right here in
Luke 11, that the disciples wisely asked the Lord to teach them
to pray. As God's people, we need to be
taught to pray. We need to be taught to do it.
And we need to be taught what to pray. And I found in the scripture. Five things that we are told
to pray for. Our Lord said, whoever asks of
me, I will give him my spirit. He's not talking about these
frivolous things that the flesh asks for. He's not just going
to give us every single thing we ask him for. He is kind and
will only give us what's good for us. But there are five things
in the word that we are told to pray for. We are told To ask
for and I want to sincerely ask all of us. To pray for these
five things continually. Importunately, without ceasing,
let's let's make this a part of our prayer. These are five
things that God has given in his word that we desperately
need to pray for. The first one is in Psalm 122. Psalm 122 verse 6 says, pray
for the peace of Jerusalem. Now I hope that this is instructive
and I hope we truly learned something. We have peace with God. I believe that everyone here
tonight knows that in Christ we have peace with God. We know
that through the blood of the cross, through the sacrifice
of the cross, we know that we have peace with God. He made
peace. He is peace. And we know that because of His
own sacrifice, we have peace with God in Him. Let's pray that
that will bring peace within us. We need peace within us and
we need peace among us. We need peace among us. If this
flesh is left to itself, this flesh will ruin all peace and
all unity. It is so selfish. It is so prideful. It is so unforgiving. And we
desperately need peace among God's people. Let's pray for
the peace of Jerusalem. Because it has been made, may
there be peace among us. May we love each other as Christ
loved us and has given himself for us. I sincerely pray that. May God give us a love for each
other. May we forgive each other even
as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. Behold how good
and how pleasant it is. If you want to dwell in a happy
congregation, in a content congregation, then we need to dwell together
in unity. How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Right there, verse
seven says, peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy
palaces. That is a wonderful and a desperately
needful thing for us to be praying for. All right, turn with me
to Matthew five. Matthew 5 verse 43, You have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. You say, why in this world would
I want to do that? That one person or that handful
of people that just makes life miserable for me. Why would I
want to do that? This is the reason why. Hold
your place and go over to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16 verse 22. And the multitude rose up together
against Paul and Silas. And the magistrates rent off
their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the
stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands
were loose. And the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called
for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. And he took them the same hour
of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized he
and all his straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all of his house." That could be a very real outcome. For those who hate us, if we
would make them an importunate matter of prayer, I believe that
the Lord is going to call out sheep in this city and it may
not be who you think it is. That one that's just. Start praying for him. Lord,
would you have mercy on him? Would you have mercy on her?
Man, if God ever opened their eyes to see Christ. You think
that jailer loved Paul? You think Paul loved that jailer? Go back to Matthew, this time
chapter 9. We'll be quick. Matthew chapter 9, verse 36. But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then
saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Sinners need the gospel. Sinners need the gospel. It pleased the Lord through the
means of the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. Christ saved them on the cross
of Calvary, but he has chosen to use preaching to notify his
people of their salvation and to call them to himself. But
how are they going to believe in Him of whom they have not
heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? And this one is the most critical
of it all. How are they going to preach except they be sent? The greatest detriment that a
man can do to himself or any soul who hears him is to run
into the ministry without being sent. Men run into the ministry
all the time. And what harm they do when they're
not sent, when they're not sent by God. So this is something
we really need to make a matter of prayer. Verse 38, pray ye
therefore the Lord of the harvest, pray to Him that He will send
forth laborers. Not just that we're going to
send out every young man who has a fire in him. Pray that
He will send forth laborers into His harvest. And I pray He will. Number four, go to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 verse 41. Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. That is the truth. Oh, may the
Lord keep us from temptation. Many believers have gotten sidetracked
by temptation over the years. And if they belong to Christ,
they will not utterly fall. He will bring them back. If He
saved them, they are eternally saved. But many of us, brethren,
have gotten so sidetracked through temptation. The temptation of
the flesh, the spirit, the new man that Christ has created in
a child of God is so willing, but this flesh is so weak. It is so weak, it is so prone
to sin, so prone to falling. And he said, pray that you might
be kept from entering into what your flesh is so tempted by.
Lord, would you please keep me? We all need to be praying that.
For the gospel sake, we don't want to bring a reproach on His
Word, on Christ, on the ministry. As your pastor, I need to be
praying, Lord, keep me from my flesh. Actively, we need to be
begging Him for this. Every horrible thing that you
see happen to another human being, let's all realize this, but for
the grace of God, there go I. So these are critical things
to pray for. Now, it's not just a, not just
an outline. These are critical things to
pray for. One more go with me to first Thessalonians chapter
five. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 25, it
says, brethren, pray for us. I need to be praying for me,
and I need for you to be praying for me. I am sincerely asking
you, I am honestly, sincerely asking you, please remember me
in prayer. Please pray for me. Pray for
me because I have been called to deliver this word to you.
It's a serious calling. Pray for me always, as often
as you can, and faint not. Pray for me importunately. begging, begging, begging the
Lord on my behalf, specifically for this right here. Turn over
one page or two pages to 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 1. Finally, brethren, pray for us
that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified
even as it is with you. It is in your best interest to
do this. It is in your family's best interest
to do this. I will be praying right along
with you. But let's all pray that the Word of the Lord, which
is Christ Himself, may have free course. Pray that I will not
be a hindrance. Pray that I will not be a stumbling
block. Pray that the Word of the Lord
may have free course and be glorified. Let's pray that a clear path
to Christ might be continually preached here. And that He might
be glorified all the days of our lives. Let's honestly, sincerely,
actually make that a matter of urgent prayer. He said, ask and
keep on asking and you will receive. Pray for me. Pray for me for
the next 50 years. Don't ever stop praying for me.
Don't ever stop praying for those sinners until the day they leave
this earth. And let's pray that the Lord will raise up more works
of truth, more works of grace. Lord, would you open up a mission
field? Would you send the gospel somewhere? Would you pray for all these things? He said, you pray and keep praying
and you'll receive all of them. And I pray we will. The things
He told us to ask for, may they be given to us. Okay, let's all
stand together.