Turn with me, if you would, to
Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. This is our Lord. and this verse hit me Luke chapter 6 look at
verse 12 it says and it came to pass in those days that he
went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer
to God Does that strike anybody? This is our Lord. As we look
to Him and we learn of Him and we follow Him, knowing that this
is God Almighty. We know He's God Almighty, don't
we? It came to pass in those days that he went out into a
mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. The statement has been made that
if a man has been called to preach, he has been called to pray. And
man, is that true? That's true. You know, I try
to find a message, try to find a message, and usually I have
to get to that place where I realize I'm not going to find the message.
It's going to be given. And I get to that place where
I have to give up and say, I'm stopping. I'll call and ask and
wait until you give the message. And sometimes I get to the end
of the day and think all I did today was pray. I didn't get
anything on paper, which to me means I didn't get anything done.
Not necessarily true. It's just not necessarily true. Spurgeon said, a man who has
prayed well has studied well. And to take that a step further,
if a man or a woman has been called to believe this word,
then he or she has been called to pray. That's what we do for
a living. We all pray. If the holy and perfect and all-knowing
God gave himself to prayer, How much more should we vile and
faithless and weak sinners give ourselves to prayer? Look at Matthew 14 with me. We're
going to turn a little bit tonight. Matthew 14. Verse 22 says, And straightway
Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go
before Him unto the other side, while He sent the multitudes
away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into
a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come,
He was there alone. He went alone to pray. Go with
me to Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3, this is wonderful. Luke 3 verse 21
says, Now when all the people were baptized, It came to pass
that Jesus, also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice, this is
my beloved son, I'm well pleased. He prayed when he was alone.
He prayed while he was being baptized. I thought, I wish I
could be baptized again just so I could call on the Lord while
it was happening. Go to Luke 9. Verse 18 says, And it came to
pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him.
And he asked them, saying, whom say the people that I am? He
prayed while he was with his disciples. He prayed alone. He
was constantly, constantly praying. Verse 28 right here says, It
came to pass, about an eight days after these sayings, he
took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to
pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered
and his raiment was white and glistening. It just struck me
how often our Lord gave his time on this earth to go pray. To pray. Now what is prayer? What is prayer? Go with me to
Luke 11. First, prayer is acknowledging
God. That's what it is. Luke 11 verse
2 says, And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Lord said, Seek
ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. And that's
Christ. The righteousness of God is Christ
himself. So he said, Call on Christ first. And how often do we do that?
Hardly ever. I would venture to say never. Never. And we stay in misery
until we do. The Lord will bring us to his
house and he'll send his spirit and we'll call on him and we
go out so much more relaxed than when we came in. When these huge problems and
these decisions and these issues come to us, don't you wish that
the Lord would cause us to immediately go to Christ with it? Don't you
wish that would happen? Immediately, first thing, seek
ye first Christ and it will all be taken care of. Prayer is acknowledging God and
it's acknowledging His will. Verse 2 right here says, Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. Thy
will. Prayer acknowledges God, it acknowledges
His will, and it acknowledges His work. Verse 3 says, Give
us day by day our daily bread. Lord, You are the one who gives
it. You're the one who gives it.
It only comes from You. If we're going to receive it,
You're going to have to give it. Lord, You are the giver. The work is in Your hands. Verse
4 says, 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. Give us, forgive us, lead us,
and deliver us. Lord, all of that work belongs
to you. Every bit of it. There's a song
that says, with his blood, he saved us. With his power, he
raised us. To God be the glory for the things
he hath done." Every bit of it. The only reason why we're able
to pray is because of what Christ did for us, making us clean before
God and making us acceptable in his presence. That's the only
reason. Our Lord said, outside of Christ, they're not going
to make it past the ceiling. I won't hear them. I won't hear
them. We usually close our prayers
by saying things like this, in Jesus name I pray. And what we're
saying is, Lord I am coming to you in him, as him, through him. I'm only coming, only he is worthy
to come into your presence and I come in him. We say things
like, for Christ's sake. It's only because of what Christ
did that I'm able to even talk to you right now. That's what
I acknowledge. Now I want to read the verse
of scripture that we're going to call our text. This is our
text. Luke 11 verse 1 says, And it came to pass That is,
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. Teach us to pray. Now, in this request, is what and how. I've always
heard this. I've always read this scripture.
I've heard men quote this scripture. And my mind has always thought
what and how. And we're going to look at some
of that. We are going to look at some of that. But before we
do, I want us to take notice of the actual request. This It was just a light bulb for
me. This is the actual request. They said, Lord, teach us to
pray, to actually do it. Teach us to actually pray, because
we don't. We just don't. I just don't. I don't pray often. It's always
last minute, last resort. Oh yeah, no wonder I haven't
been praying. No wonder I don't have a message.
I haven't even called on God yet. Teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. Turn over to Luke 18. Luke 18 verse 1 says, and he
spake a parable unto them to this end. This is why he spoke
the parable. And this is what the parable
was. That men ought always to pray and not to faint. Don't faint when these things
come. Pray. Isn't that like? Don't faint. Pray. Acknowledge God. Okay, we're in a bad situation.
Let's just stop. Let me pull the car over and
let me acknowledge God. Do I believe God is able? Yes,
I do. Do I believe God is controlling every bit of this? Yes, I do.
Do I believe not a leaf falls from a tree or a dust particle
flies through the air without His exact command? Yes, I do. Okay, then first let's acknowledge
God. And then, let's acknowledge his
will. Do I believe that this thing
is going to go exactly like he has purposed for it to go? Yes,
I do. And then, let's acknowledge his
work. Do I believe that every single thing he does works together
for the good of every one of his sheep? Yes, I do. Okay, let's
not faint. Let's pray. Verse 1, He spake a parable unto
them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint,
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. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith. I think about my loved ones that
I want God to save and I think, I need to be praying, I need
to be asking and asking and asking and asking and asking, asking,
asking, asking, asking. He said, would you hear what
the unjust judge said? Verse seven, 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, will He find faith on the earth? Will He find men
looking to Christ and calling on Christ and waiting on Christ? He's telling us you ought to
always pray. Pray without ceasing. Well, I
pray quite a bit. It's not enough, I promise. You
really think He means without ceasing? Yes, I do. As often
as that can be. He is saying, if you would commune
with your Heavenly Father, you would have peace and you would
have rest. If you would call, He would answer. Isn't that what
His Word says all the way through it? Lord, teach us to pray. Oh, it is no use. It has gone
too long. It has been too far. Teach us
to pray. Now let me show you something
that I believe is will make a lot of sense of some
things. This was wonderful to me. This was a real help to me. A real help. I hope it will be
a help to everybody. Go with me to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, look at verse 44. Our Lord says, 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. What he's saying right there
is it's not if. You have enemies. What he's saying
is you're going to have enemies. You're going to. And you will
be cursed at by some. And you will be hated. And you
will be despitefully used. And you will be persecuted. And
do you know why? It's to teach us to pray. That's exactly why. It's to teach
us to pray. Our Lord has the power to stop
every bit of that. Whenever the children of Israel
were leaving Egypt, and he said, Moses is going to lead you out
of Egypt. He said, not so much as a dog is going to move his
tongue against you. A dog won't even bark at you.
He has the ability to stop every bit of this, but he does not.
He does not stop it. He says, when it happens, I want
you to pray. He's teaching you. You know what he's doing? He's
conforming us to the image of Christ. That's what he's doing.
Teach you and teach me to pray. Go to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 verse 41 says, Watch
and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed
is willing, but the flesh is weak. We will enter into temptation. We will. You and I are going
to see. It's going to be proven to us
that this flesh is weak. It's going to be proven to us.
And the reason is to teach us to pray. It's to teach us to
pray. Prayer is vital in our union
with God. It's absolutely vital. And it
is conforming us to the image of Christ. It really is. And he's going to teach us. He
said they'll all be taught of God. They will all be taught
of God. And our faith is going to be
tried. Everything is going to be tried. The reason is to teach
us to pray. It's to teach us to pray. It's
to teach us to acknowledge God and His will and His work. All right, now let me show you
a few things that he has said about how and what to pray. Go with me to Philippians 4. Philippians 4 verse 6 says, Be
careful, be full of care for nothing, for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
unto God. Sometimes we think I have thought
before that, you know, God is all knowing and it's all on purpose
and it's all been ordered. So I should not request things
because he knows what's right. And, and, um, but what this verse
right here tells us is it's okay to request things. It is okay
to make your request known to God. Romans 8 says, we know not
what we should pray for as we ought, and we don't. And Matthew
6 says that our heavenly Father knows what things we have need
of. We just read it. But he's saying right here, it's
okay to ask for things. It's okay to make requests known. We know that the Heavenly Father
has already chosen all of his people. Don't we know that? He
did it before the foundation of the world. We know that Christ
has already redeemed every one of those people. He's already
died. The blood has already been shed.
But we beg and we beg and we beg for our children Don't we? And our loved ones, we beg. I know that the election is finished. It's all finished. I know it's
all finished. But what he says right here is
okay to make your partitions known. Beg for them. Beg. We have things in our life, we
have things in the life of our loved ones that We desire, we
want to see happen, and it's okay to ask for those things.
As long as, with that request, we're acknowledging His will.
And we are. Ultimately, we say, Thy will
be done. Our Lord was that prime example. He said, Oh my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He prayed that. Do you think He knew it was not
possible? Yes. But as a man, the perfect man,
he prayed that. And then he said, nevertheless,
not as I will, but as thou will. So with that heart to bow to
his will, it's okay to make requests to God. And then he told us a
few things we ought to request. I want to show you a couple of
them. Go with me to Psalm 122. Psalm 122. Psalm 122, look at verse 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Now we've already said the only reason we can pray is
because Christ made that peace with God for us. That's the only
reason. And because of that, for Christ's
sake, because of that, pray for peace among God's people. Pray
for peace among God's people. May we pray always. And may we pray for peace with
God's people. Pray that this flesh and this
mind and this heart won't mess everything up. Now, do I believe
God's in control? Yes, I do. But pray, pray, pray for peace
among God's people. Peace is so much better than
adversity. It's just so much better. Verse
seven says, peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy
palaces. For my brethren and my companions
sake, I will now say peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Let's pray for peace
and unity. Whenever I came here, that impressed
upon me that something this congregation needs to ask for now, and I still
say it to this day, pray for peace here, pray for unity here.
Don't you want unity here? Don't you want this to be a loving
place where people are with one mind and one heart And it's Christ. Pray for that. Pray for love
among God's people. Peter wrote the effectual, fervent
prayer of a righteous man availed much. So let's pray for that.
Go with me over to Jeremiah 29. We're almost finished. Jeremiah
29. Jeremiah 29 verse 7 says, and
seek the peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried
away captives and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace
thereof, shall you have peace? That's a great verse of scripture.
The Lord has carried all of us to Kingsport. Whether we were
born here or whether he moved us here, here's where he put
us. In this captive land. Pray for this city. Pray for
this city that the Lord would make this a peaceful place. If
there's peace out there, it's peace for us. And that the Lord
would allow us to keep worshiping here in peace and that the Lord
would call out more sheep, peace himself, pray that peace might
go through this city. And then let me show you another
one. Go to second Thessalonians three. 2 Thessalonians 3, look at verse
1, it says, finally brethren, pray for us. Pray for us. He said over in Colossians, we
pray for you. Pray for us that the word of
the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is
with you. As God enables me to, as he reminds
me to, I pray for you. I really do. I pray for the child inside your
belly that I don't even know his name yet. My request is that you do the
same for me. Pray for me. Pray for every man who is called
to deliver this message. That the word would go forth
with free course. Pray that the Lord would bless
his word. Pray that the Lord would keep
me. For all of our sake, pray that the Lord would keep me.
And pray that he would keep sending messages to me. And that I wouldn't
get up here and wing it. Pray for that and pray that He'll
keep us on Christ. Just pray that He'll keep us
on Christ. Last thing, I'll close with this.
Go back just a few pages to Colossians 4. Colossians 4 verse 2 says, Continue
in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. Our Lord answers the cry of his
people. He does. He does. He truly does. And he gives his
people a heart to bow to his answer. But usually, not always,
usually though, He gives us what we want. He really does. Sometimes in mercy He spares
us from what we want. But if it's a good thing, usually
He gives us what we want. And may we never forget after
the fact to go back and thank Him for it. I have prayed for
things. to happen or not happen, Lord,
if it be thy will. I have prayed for things, and
I've spent days on end and weeks on end, and in a couple of cases,
years on end, praying for things. And then God takes care of it,
and then out of sight, out of mind. Lord, would you remind me to
go back onto that same issue and give thanks. Pray with thanksgiving. May we never forget that. I wrote
down here Tony Moody before Tom Harding. I thought about, you
know, he told me his story. He heard Henry on tape, CD, before
he was crossed paths with Tom Harding. I thought, how often
did he pray that God would raise up a church here? He said, there's
no gospel here. How often did you pray, Lord,
would you, if it be thy will, would you bring the gospel to
Kingsport? Well, he did. And I say that with fear
and trembling, but he did. Thank you for your blessings
on this congregation is what we just heard a minute ago in
that study. A prayer was prayed, and he said, thank you for your
blessings on this congregation. We've all had this fork in the
road, a fork in the road, and we don't know what to do, and
we don't know what to do, and God shows us the answer. You didn't know if you should
stay in Florida or move to Tennessee, and he showed you the answer. And I didn't know if I should
stay in Virginia or move to Tennessee, and he showed me the answer. Lord, thank you so much for showing
me the answer. Thank you for answering my prayer. There were 10 lepers. And they
came to the Lord, and they all wanted to be healed of their
leprosy. And our Lord never turned away a sick individual. He healed them all. And he told
them, as according to the law, go show yourself to the priest,
and we'll see if you're clean. So 10 of them started heading
to the priest. You know what they were doing?
They were running to the law. All right, we're all gonna run
to the law and see if we're okay. As they were going, before they
ever got to the law, at thy word, clean. Well, nine of them kept
on running. One of them turned around and
came back and gave thanks and glory to God. He said, where
are the other nine? I said, I don't know, but oh, thank you. And he said, according to your
faith, did I write it down? He said, thy faith hath made
thee whole. Now, nine of them were cleansed
of leprosy. One of them was cleansed of leprosy
and saved. Because now does he get the glory?
No, I'm not going to go into all that. Let's just give thanks. Let's give thanks. Lord, teach
us to pray. Teach us to pray, pray, pray. And then as soon as you answer
our prayer, teach us to pray, pray, pray. Teach us to pray.
All right, let's stand together.