Before we go to our text, turn
with me to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11 verse 1 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 and as John also taught
his disciples. Lord, would you teach us to pray? Would you teach us to pray? Recently,
we opened a message by saying something that we've said before
and we all know to be true and Many men have declared the very
same thing for many years, and it was this. We need to learn
something about God. We need to learn something about
God. And we need to learn something
about ourselves. This is what we sinners desperately
need. We need to learn something about
God. We need to learn something about ourselves and we need to
learn something about the difference. This is so vital. We need to
learn something about the difference in a true hope, a true faith
and a true hope unto eternal salvation. Opposed to a false faith in a
false hope unto eternal damnation eternal destruction we need to
learn the difference and that is the truth and With that We
need to learn something about prayer We need to learn something
About prayer. This is not just the next point
in a good outline. I We need to learn something
about prayer. I need to learn something about
prayer. We need to learn to pray. They said, Lord, teach us to
pray. Teach us to pray. Teach us to
be prayers. Teach us to be communicators
with you. Teach us to open our hearts and
bear our hearts to you and run to you and take everything to
you. Teach us, number one, to pray. And teach us how to pray. Teach us what to pray. Teach
us how to pray. Now, if you'll turn with me to
Exodus 33, Moses prayed a prayer to God. He prayed a prayer that God recorded
in his word. God heard this prayer and God
answered this prayer. I've titled this message, A Prayer
That God Will Hear. And I pray that through seeing
his prayer, God will teach us to pray a prayer that he will
hear and that he will answer. Sincerely, in reality, hear us
and answer us. Now first, we have to approach
God in prayer as we are in our honest condition before him.
When we pray, we must approach him in truth, in our honest condition. If you look at chapter 32, verse
35 says, and the Lord plagued the people because they made
the calf which Aaron made. They came before God bearing
the shame of idolatry. They came bearing the shame of
a broken commandment. They came bearing the shame of
sin. They came in their sin. So Moses went into the tabernacle
to pray to God on behalf of the people. He went and prayed on
behalf of all of God's people. And in chapter 33, verse 9, it
says, And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle,
the cloudy pillar descended Stood at the door of the tabernacle
and the Lord talked with Moses the Lord talked with Moses Prayer
is the tangible Real it is the most real tangible connection
that we have to to our God on this earth. It is the most tangible
connection that a child of God has on this earth. Prayer. Prayer is our moment
to walk straight up to the throne of God and ask him the desires
of our heart. We wonder what it's gonna be
like. We talk about one day, we're
going through these portions of scripture that are talking
about his return and talking about eternity. And we wonder
what is it gonna be like one day to be able to walk straight
up to his throne and bear our heart to him. Well, we can do that right now.
We can do that right now. It's going to be just like it
is right now. It will be physically, but right
now we can go straight to the throne of God and we can bear
our heart to him. As though no one else is there.
We're the only one he and us. And that's what Moses did. He
went privately to God. He went into the the tabernacle. We go into the tabernacle of
our heart the private worship to God and he went into that
tabernacle and he privately poured out his heart to God and he asked
him three things in this prayer. Moses asked three things. The
first one is in verse 13, but let's listen to how he opened
his prayer. We're going to look at these
three different things, but we'll start with how he opened his
prayer. This is how he approached God.
Verse 13 says, now, therefore, I pray thee If I have found grace
in thy sight, this is how he came before God. If I have found
grace in thy sight, I approach you only on the grounds of if
I have found grace in thy sight. Lord, if I am a recipient of
the broken body and the shed blood of Christ, We in our prayer
we close our prayer with things like this for Christ's sake in
Jesus name I Pray I come in him I come Because of him the only
reason I my prayers are not stopped at the ceiling is because of
what Christ accomplished on the cross That's the only reason
they reach your throne. I And Lord, if I am a sinner
who Christ became a substitute for, if your mercy has been freely
shown to me, I come as the humble, unworthy beggar that I am. This
is how I come. If I have found grace in thy
sight, one of the most sickening things
to me on this earth. One of the things that just,
it's just, it makes me ill. It breaks my heart. It produces
a lot of emotions, but it's how flippantly people speak of and
approach God in what they believe is prayer. So, so flippantly. No humility. No reverence, no
fear. I've told you about that person
that I know who was visiting a relative in the hospital, and
while this person was there, the relative's pastor came to
visit the relative in the hospital, and this pastor was a woman.
And after about 15 minutes of a sickeningly arrogant conversation,
this pastor said, all right, let's all bow our heads, I'm
gonna pray. And she said, God, it's me. Now, doesn't that make you wanna
crawl under a rock? Doesn't that make you wanna cry,
Lord, would you pull me out before you send the fire down? Children, don't ever do that. Don't ever do that. Do not ever,
ever do that. Do not ever approach God. Never. Do not ever approach Him
in a casual, flippant way. Never, never. We come before
Him in fear and trembling. Fear and trembling. Oh most gracious
heavenly father Lord God of heaven and earth Holy and reverend is
your name Moses said in verse 13 now therefore
I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight Here was his first
request Show me now thy way Show me now thy way copy this Copy
this after this manner pray ye Lord You are not going to kill
me Because you killed Christ in my stead Show me your way
Show me your way The first request that Moses made was show me thy
way I Need to learn something about this I honestly need to
learn something about this. We spend most, if not all of
our time in prayer saying, Lord, I would like to see this happen,
and I would like to see this happen, and I would like to see
this happen. Moses said, show me thy way. Show me thy way. I know that For all practical appearances,
we believe we know what's best. But I promise we don't. We just
don't. This makes sense to us, this
seems, but we don't. Show me thy way. Now let me show you something
that I hope will emphasize this. And there is really something
to see in this. This is really an eye-opening thing. Go with
me to Philippians chapter four. Philippians 4 verse 6 says, Be careful for nothing, meaning
full of care over anything. Don't be anxious about anything.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. He said we can do that. He said,
we can let our request be made known to God. Lord, this is my
request. All right, now turn with me to
Matthew 6. Matthew 6 verse 9 says, After
this manner, therefore, pray ye our father, which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name. And he said in verse 11, you
can pray, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil He said you can make those requests You
can let your requests be made But he said in verse 10 it all
needs to be prefaced with thy will be done verse 10 says thy
kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and
We do that We do that. We currently do that right now. We are constantly saying in our
heart, Lord, this is our request, but we only ask that it be done
if you are willing for it to be done. We do that. These are
the things we desire, but Lord, we don't want them if you're
not in it. If you're not in it, close the door. We say that almost
every time we pray. Lord, these are the things. These
are the ways that I would like to see things go. But if you're not willing, close
the door. If you're willing, Lord, then we pray this happen.
If you're not willing, then, then close the door. We can pray
that way. Our Lord said we can pray that
way, but that is not what Moses prayed. That's not what Moses prayed.
He said, show me thy way. We can pray, Lord, these are
the ways that I would like to see happen. And if you're willing,
I pray they be done. And if you're not willing, I
pray they don't be done. We ask these things according
to your will. We can do that. But Moses said,
show me thy way. Lord, just show me thy way. He
didn't mention anything about his way. Just show me thy way. Lord, let none of my requests
muddy the way. Don't let me hinder the way at
all. Lord, just show me thy way. I do want to learn something
about this. Lord, show me thy way. This is
a prayer that God will hear. Show me thy way. Show me that
way. When it comes to salvation, this
is a prayer God will hear, Lord, show me that way. Show me that
way. Go back to Exodus 33. The second thing that Moses said
is in verse 15. And he said unto him, Moses said
unto God, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up
hence. Show me thy way, and don't let
me take one step out of your way. Show me your way, Lord,
and keep me in it. They had already left Egypt. Physically, they were already
gone from Egypt. They were free from the bondage. Pharaoh, his army, all of that
was behind them. Spiritually, it's the same thing for us. Sin,
the adversary, all of that has been dealt with. A believer is
free from the spiritual bondage. We're free from the The spiritual
bondage of sin, but physically the children of Israel are still
in the wilderness And they still have a walk Through the wilderness
that they're gonna have to endure. There's still a journey before
them Spiritually, we're still in the wilderness We're still
In the journey, we still have a walk before us. Just like Moses
prayed, Lord, if you do not go through this journey with us,
don't let us take another step. In that same way, we would be
wise to pray, Lord, show us that way. And don't let us take one
step out of it. Don't let us take one step out
of it. Show us your way and just keep
us with you. Keep us right there with you.
Show us your way, Lord, and give us a heart for it. Think about
that. Show us your way and give us
a heart for it. Show us your way and give us
a desire to actually walk in it. Show us what you would have
and cause us to want the same thing. The children of Israel
remained in the wilderness for 40 years. And the reason is because of
murmuring and complaining. I thought a lot about this. I just stayed in the wilderness
for murmuring and complaining and we look at it and we're just
so shocked at how God can provide a rock. Moses struck with a rod
and in water flowed out of an in manna fell and the quails
and Everything God provided and they murmured and complained
and murmured and complained. We think what ungrateful people
And buddy this is a mirror in that just holding a mirror up
right there what ungrateful Murmuring and complaining God showed them
his way. I He showed them his way the
whole time. They spent it murmuring and complaining
over his way. Because of that, no men, except
for two, over the age of 20, were allowed to enter into the
promised land. Lord, show us thy way and give
us a heart to walk with you in it. Give us a heart for it. The third request to this prayer
is in verse 18. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. Show me thy
way. And if it's not your way, don't
let us go. And show me thy glory. You know, Moses saw a burning
bush that was not consumed. And he saw all of the plagues
that came to Egypt. God brought all those plagues
to Egypt. All those things happen, those
miraculous things happen. He saw how God forced Pharaoh
to let his people go. He saw God divide the Red Sea. But he knew in his heart, none
of that is your glory. None of those things are your
glory. This is a prayer God will hear.
Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Show me your glory. I love the song, when all my
labors and trials are over, and I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore will through the ages
be glory for me. When by the gift of his infinite
grace I am accorded in heaven a place just to be there and
to look on his face will through the ages be glory for me. Friends will be there. I have
loved long ago Joy, like a river around me will flow yet. Just
a smile from my Savior. I know Will through the ages
be glory for me that will be glory. That will be my glory. He is glory He is glory our Lord
said father I The hour is come, glorify thy son. Glorify your son that thy son
also may glorify thee. This morning we quoted the verse
that says God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have seen
the glory of God. in the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. To God be the glory. Moses said,
Lord, I beseech thee, show me Christ. Show me Christ. Show me salvation. Show me redemption. Show me life. Show us thy way. If you don't go with us, Lord,
don't let us go. Show us Christ show us your glory. That was Moses prayer to God
And this was God's response to Moses. He said in verse 14 My presence shall go with thee
and I will give thee rest He said in verse 17 Will do this
thing also that thou has spoken For thou hast found grace in
my sight and I know thee by name and he said in verse 19, I Will
make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy
and And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall
no man see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there
is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. And that place
is Christ, and that rock is Christ. And it shall come to pass that
while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cliff of
the rock, Will cover thee with my hand while I pass by I'm gonna
put you in my glory I'm gonna put you in Christ And I'm gonna
cover you while I pass by Verse 23 and I'll take away my hand
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face Shall not be seen. He said this is my way I'm gonna
be with you And I'm gonna reveal my glory to you in the person
and in the substitution of my son. I'm gonna be gracious and
I'm gonna be merciful to you by hiding you in him. This is
my way. This is my glory. I'm gonna pass
by, I'm gonna cover you, and I'm gonna bruise his heel. And
you're gonna be safe. That is my way. And your prayer
to see my way is gonna be fulfilled in him. It's gonna be fulfilled
in him, that's my way. Psalm 37 says, our Lord will
give us the desires of our heart. He'll give us the desires of
our heart. Lord, teach us what the desires
of our heart ought to be. Teach us what the desires of
our heart ought to be. He'll give us the desires of
our heart. Would you put the correct desires
in this heart? Would you put the desire for
your way in this heart? Put a desire to not take one
step outside of you. And put a desire in this heart
for Christ. Lord, teach us thy way. Show us Christ, let us be
with Him, and don't let us leave Him. That's our prayer. Is that
not a believer's prayer? We need Him, we need Him. That is a prayer that God will
hear. That's a prayer that God will
hear. We have our desires, we have our ways, we have our wants,
and we make our petitions known. But Lord, show us thy way and
give us a heart for it. All right, let's all stand together. Turn with me to 361. 361.