A Lesson In Prayer

Q: What does the Bible say about prayer?

The Bible teaches that prayer is a vital means of communion with God, emphasizing our dependence on Him. The Bible underscores the importance of prayer as a communication tool between believers and God, demonstrating our relationship with Him as our Father. In Luke 11, Jesus teaches His disciples about prayer, indicating that we should approach God with reverence and supplication. He encourages us to recognize our needs—both spiritual and physical—and assures us of God’s willingness to provide for us. The act of prayer reflects our dependence on God, acknowledging that we cannot do anything without Him, as expressed in verses like John 15:5, 'Without me, you can do nothing.' Thus, prayer is not just a ritual but an essential aspect of our Christian life, deepening our communion with God.

Q: How do we know God answers prayers?

God promises in Scripture that when we ask in faith, He hears and responds to our prayers. Scripture consistently affirms that God answers prayers, emphasizing His faithfulness and willingness to provide for His children. In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus reassures us, stating, 'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.' This passage illustrates God's readiness to respond to our needs when we approach Him sincerely. Importantly, God may not answer in the way we expect, but He always answers in a manner that is ultimately for our good and His glory. Therefore, the assurance of His response strengthens our faith and compels us to keep praying fervently.

Q: Why is calling God 'Father' significant for Christians?

'Father' signifies an intimate and personal relationship with God, reflecting our adoption as His children. Calling God 'Father' holds profound significance for Christians as it encapsulates our identity as His children through faith in Christ. According to Romans 8:15, we have received the Spirit of adoption, allowing us to cry out, 'Abba, Father.' This acknowledges not only His authority and majesty but also His love, care, and provision. Our status as His children speaks to our close relationship with God, indicating that we can approach Him freely and confidently in prayer. This relational aspect is foundational to understanding our dependence on Him, as noted in Luke 11, where Jesus instructs us to pray to our 'Father who is in heaven.'

Q: What is the importance of persistence in prayer?

Persistence in prayer demonstrates our faith and reliance on God for all our needs. Persistence in prayer is fundamental to a believer's spiritual life, as it illustrates our unwavering faith in God's goodness and timing. In Luke 11:8, Jesus speaks of the friend's persistence at midnight, highlighting that such shameless persistence can lead to receiving what we need. This concept applies to our prayers, teaching us not to be discouraged by delays or challenges. God calls us to approach Him continually, reflecting our dependence and faith in His promises. As we persist in asking, seeking, and knocking, we develop a deeper understanding of God's character and His faithfulness, encouraging us to trust in His perfect timing.

I decided to bring the Bible
lesson, the lesson I was going to bring now, I decided to bring
it this morning as the Bible lesson. But I forgot to tell
Stan. Stan even came over and asked
me, is this what you want me to read? I didn't catch it. I'm serious. I thank God he uses
sinners to preach the gospel. Aren't you? Because we do mess
it up. Turn to Luke chapter 11, and
let's see if we can get it right. The title of the message this
morning is A Lesson in Prayer. We had a lesson this morning
in forgiveness. Now we're going to have a lesson in prayer. And our Lord gives it to us here.
Now let me read these verses. Verse 13 verses. 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. 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." Now, that's not
the end of the lesson. That's not the end of the lesson.
And 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 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, yet because
of his importunity, he will rise and give him as
many as he needeth. I say unto you, and I say unto
you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye 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?" Oh, I tell you, this ought to get our attention.
Our Lord hears our prayers, answers our prayers, and He gives us
what we need. Will he give him a stone, or
if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion? I've never really, this verse
has never really jumped out at me like it did, looking at this
here lately. If you then, being evil, speaking there to the disciples,
if you then being evil, we have a nature about us that's evil.
We're born evil. If you're then being evil, if
you 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? Here is a lesson for us this
morning in prayer. Now, our Lord, who knew no sin, absolute perfection, was always
praying. He would pray, he would go out
and pray and says, all night, all night in communion
with his father. He was always communing with
his father. That's what prayer is, it's communing
with God. I have no doubt that a great part
of our spiritual weakness comes because of our weakness right
here at the throne of grace. It's our weakness in communion
with our Father. Boy, don't you like that word?
It's so endearing. He said, when you pray, you pray
our Father. You think it will ever dawn on
us Before we die, I ask myself this
question, especially me. But you think it will ever dawn
on us, before we die, what a great privilege we have in coming to
God in prayer. To be able to enter into the
Holy of Holies, to be able to have the attention the ear of
God. And not just God, but God our
Father. That we can come into His presence
and speak to Him at any time. Any time. What a privilege. Think of who
it is that we Call upon God of creation. Think about that. Think of His power. Think of
His wisdom. Think of His knowledge, of His
grace, of His love. Think of the immenseness of God.
Think of who He is. And us wiggly maggots can come
right in. and call him our father and have
his full... There are times I've never had
my father's full attention. My sons at times have never had
my full attention. It's like, yeah, what do you
want? What do you want? I mean, it's not my full attention. But when you call on God your
father, you have, now I'm telling you, you have his absolute attention
as if nothing else exists. What? I mean, you have his ear. Give attention to my prayer,
David said often. What's that worth? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Is anything? Anything too hard? Our Lord is praying. They're
in verse 1. And as he prayed, one of the
disciples realized that he and the rest of the disciples did
not know how to pray. When they heard him pray, they
realized, my, Lord, teach me how to do that. And you know
what? I pray. I pray He'll teach us. And He's
teaching us right here. You know, in Matthew 6, it says,
after this manner, Pray. I don't have to repeat these
words specifically every time I pray, but the attitude that's
here is in every prayer. The honoring of the Father, the
recognition of my dependence upon Him, and my spiritual needs. Every one of it's right here.
It's all right there. But he realized, he realized,
I don't know how to pray, not after listening to him. But he
definitely asked the right person to teach him, the great intercessor,
our high priest. Who better to teach us to pray
than him? Who better to teach us how to pray than the one to
whom we pray? Who better? He says in verse
2, when you pray, it's not possible to believe God To believe the
gospel and not pray to him. That's not possible. A believer
lives in an attitude of prayer. Ever conscious, ever conscious
of his or her need of Christ. Of our dependence on him. Without me, you can do nothing. And don't be stupid and try. Because he said, without me,
you can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we come to learn
that, don't we? We come to learn that. Say, our Father which art in heaven.
Now, I want you to notice something here. I want you to notice that
our Lord teaches us to be very liberal in our prayers. Our Father, our daily bread,
forgive us our sins. It's not just me and mine. It's our. Our. We need to be very liberal in
our prayers. Very all-inclusive in our prayers. And we ought
to recognize God as our Father. You know, the
first commandment that was given with promise was, honor your
father and your mother. If we honor our father and our
mother, earthly parents, how much more ought we to honor our
heavenly father? How much more ought we to give
him the glory that's due under his name? The first matter in
prayer is to give unto God the honor and the glory due under
his name. My needs really come second.
Our needs come second. His glory comes first. And we
recognize Him for who He is. Our Father. Man, that's astounding.
He's not just my Creator. He's not just my God. He's my
Father. My Father. And this also shows us union
with Him. Union with Him. And union with Christ. Christ
said, our Father. He said, I go to my Father and
your Father. We have the same Father. Same one. Now, God is our Father. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Well, it means this, we are begotten
of God. We are born of his spirit. We are partakers, we are made
partakers of the divine nature. That's a greater position, I
thought about this last night, that is a greater position than
angels, they are created spirits. We are born. Born. I have two sons that are born
from me and my wife Vicki. And guess what? They are partakers
of my nature. We are born of God. Born of the
Spirit of God. That which is born of the Spirit
is what? It is Spirit. And what does the Scripture say
that God is? God is Spirit. One day we're going to get rid
of this old Adamic nature, and then we're going to understand
this. But until then, we believe God. And as our Father, what does
this mean? As our Father, He's going to take care of us. You
afraid of losing your job? Who took care of you before them?
Who takes care of you now? You say, well, my husband does,
or my wife, you know, it's just... God does. Now these are means. God uses means. He's a God of
means. He uses means. But now, when one means leaves,
He brings another one. Oh, wouldn't God would believe
what we preach? I wish we could get a hold of it. I know we believe
it, but I wish we could get a hold of it. He will take care of us. He said,
don't you worry, don't you live anxiously. He said, look at the
little birds out there, they've never worried in their life.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine getting up one
morning and never, just going through an hour, forget the day,
just go through an hour and not have one worry? to be able to
sleep in a storm like our Lord did when He was on that boat.
And the storm was raging, and He was asleep. And the disciples
were scared to death trying to bail out the water, and they
woke Him up and said, don't you care if we perish? He's not worried. There's not an ounce of worry
going through His mind. God's going to take care of Him.
He knew it. He believed that. The perfection of His faith is
our righteousness. He believed God perfectly. Your Heavenly Father knoweth. You're not informing Him of anything.
You're not going to inform Him. He didn't miss it. Your Heavenly
Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him.
It just takes us a while to come around and realize what we have
real need of. Cast all your care on him, for
he careth for you. As grumbling and fumbling and
sinful as we are, he tells us, commands us, you cast your care
on me. You cast your anxiety, you cast
your worries on me. We sing that song, take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. I've never been able,
I don't believe in this life yet, been able to leave it there.
I keep dragging it back. It's like a tether. You pull
it back, you turn around and leave and it's tied right to
you. That's pitiful. Pitiful. If you worry and never
doubt, He will surely bring you out. Well, I doubt, so I'm in
trouble. I thank God for His grace and
His mercy that He brings me out even though I doubt. Because
if He didn't, I'd never come out. Never. As our Father, He will protect
us. He's our shield and buckler.
He's our high tower. The Lord only makes me to dwell
safely. Go ahead and lock your door,
but they can still break in. Now only, if you and I could
see the evils, I mean really see the evils of this world, how massive it is. But our Father is able to keep
us and protect us from all things. Satan went to God. You consider
my servant Job? Yeah, but you've got a hedge
about him, and I can't do anything. There's a hedge about every one
of God's children. Every one of them. Now, where is our Father? He
is not in Rome. He's in heaven. He's in heaven,
seated on the throne. Listen, seated on the throne.
He's not just in heaven, but he's in heaven seated on the
throne. What's that mean? That means
he rules over all. That means he is right on top
of it. That means he's above all. He's not on this earth. He's in heaven. He is in his
holy temple. ruling and reigning. How are we to think of him? How
are we to speak to him? First, first, hallowed, holy
be thy name. We never use our Father's name
in vain. People like to take God's name
in vain. Why don't they use their own dad's name and use it in
vain? Why don't they use their own earthly father's and use
their name in vain? Don't use his name. None of God's
children are to use his name in any vain manner whatsoever.
Speaking of him in a lightly or in a vain way. Hallowed be
thy name. Holy be thy name. He's to be loved. He's to be
honored. He's to be respected. He's to
be spoken highly of. And never forget that He's holy. I'll tell you this, I'm glad
God our Father is holy. I'm glad He's holy. And here's our attitude in prayer. We give him reverence, we speak
of him highly, give honor to his name, and we pray, Thy kingdom
come. Do you really want God's kingdom
to come? Why? There have been times I've wanted
it to come because I'm having a bad day. I've had a bad week
or a bad year. I wish God would just put an
end to all this. And there are times I strongly
feel like that. Times I wish He'd just put an
end to this and establish it. But the real reason we pray,
Thy kingdom come is for His glory and for the establishment of
Christ and all that He purchased. Thy
kingdom come. or that we pray for the advancement
of His kingdom. Our minds, listen now, our minds
are to be more on His kingdom than this kingdom we live in
down here with men. You know, I love this country. I
thank God that I live in this country. But I seek a better
country, a better city, a better kingdom. A kingdom wherein dwells
righteousness. Righteousness does not dwell
in the United States of America. Righteousness dwells in the kingdom
of God. It's the kingdom of light. Every country on this earth is
a kingdom of darkness. Every country. The only country
that's a kingdom of light is the kingdom of God. The only
kingdom that has righteousness is the kingdom of God. The only
kingdom that's filled full of love is the kingdom of God. Pray
that it comes. Oh, I pray that it comes. That
it be established. A young man, years ago, I said
I wished, and I did, and I still do. I mean, I do. I wish the
Lord would come and this would all end and it would be over
with. He said, well, not right now.
He said, I got some things I want to accomplish. You got some things
you want to accomplish here? I don't. I don't. Not anymore. I don't. I want the accomplishments of
Christ to be established and this be over with. Whenever it's
His will. Thy kingdom come. Now, we'll be done. Now, that's
now, brother. We pray that, don't we? We pray
that and we listen, we desire that God's will be done. But that's not always easy. You know, my oldest son tried
to commit suicide here. A year ago. And just about did
it. And for the first time in my
life. that the weight of thy will be done came home. I had
to think about that one. Thy will be done on earth, in
my house, as it is in heaven. God's will is the best will,
but sometimes it hurts. God's will is for His glory and
it's for our good, but it doesn't always feel good. Not always. But it's good. And we pray. After you've weighed
that out, you know, that's easy. And it's easy to say standing
here this morning. But it's tough to say when you're standing over
a loved one and saying, I will be done. That's it. It's hard. But it's to be done, and it's
the best. As in heaven, so in earth. His will is done in heaven perfectly,
immediately, consistently, and that's how it should be done
here. That's how it's to be done here. And even though I know that we
missed the mark in all of these, at least the
attitude is to be there. At least the real attitude of,
Thy will be done, is to be there. And then here's our recognition.
We recognize God as our Father, His Kingdom, His will. That's first. Now we recognize
our need. Our need and dependence on Him.
Give us day by day our daily bread. What do you need? You need a job? Ask for it. And don't stop asking
for it. I'll show you that here in a
minute. Don't stop asking. We have physical needs, financial
needs, He said, you lay them all out. Our daily bread includes
all our needs. Not just food on the table, it
includes all our needs. Give us day by day. I had a man
tell me, a man who proclaimed, who claimed to believe the gospel
some years ago. He told me, he said, if I did
not have several hundred thousand dollars in the bank, I don't
know what, I'd go crazy. He said, it'd scare me to death.
I thought, you need to go broke. You absolutely need to go broke
to find out whether your faith is real or not. Whether you're
dependent on God or not. You need to go broke. When he
said that to me, I thought... Well, let me say this. Thank
God that He makes you ask for your daily bread. Thank God He makes you understand
and know your dependence on Him daily. Give us our bread daily. Meet my needs daily. It's not that I've got enough
to last, you know, if I lose my job, I've got enough in the
bank to last for five years. Well, you're not going to pray
for five years? You're not going to pray for your needs?
No. We need Him daily. We depend on Him daily. Those
birds out there that fly in the air, They depend on Him every
morning for something to eat and take care of. And then we come to, in verse
4, to our spiritual needs. And forgive us our sins. We pray for our daily needs.
Now we have spiritual needs. Forgive us our sins. And they are many. We need constant forgiveness
of sins, don't we? We need constant forgiveness
because we constantly sin. Just go and read Romans 7. Paul
said, that which I would do, I do not. That which I would
not do, I do. It's a mess. I feel like a mess. You ever do something you wish
you wouldn't do, and then you know you ought to do something
you don't do it? He that knoweth to do good, to him it's sin.
Once there is not a faith, it's sin. Lord, forgive me my sins. Oh, forgive me my sins. Constant need of forgiveness
of sins. And this goes along with the
lesson this morning. For we also forgive everyone He didn't say we ought to forgive
everyone, does he? He didn't say, for we ought to
forgive everyone. He said, for we forgive. No,
he said, forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. Don't you ask God to forgive
you, and you don't forgive. It ain't happening. A sinner who has tasted that
the Lord is gracious cannot help but forgive. It's just in him. Forgive because we've been forgiven.
And lead us not to temptation. I do not want to be led into
a trial. I'm not going to ask God to try
me, to put me into a trial. Because that's already ordained
to happen. I pray He give me the grace to go through it. I've never asked my dad to discipline
me. I never asked my father to...
I never came home from school and said, you need to discipline
me today. I wasn't very good. Or I need a discipline today. No. I pray He give me the grace to
go through all the trials. that are ordained for me. Give
me the strength to endure to the end. Because if I'm trying, if I'm
tempted, I guarantee you this, I'll fail. I'll fail. How many times I can look back
and say, boy, I failed at that. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. One of the first evils that I
want to be delivered from is the evil within. Right here. Deliver me from the evil within.
Deliver me from the evil of this world that surrounds me. And
deliver me from the evil one. Deliver me from evil. My, we
live in an evil place, in an evil world. This is the essence of our prayer.
Recognition of our Father, giving to Him the honor and glory due
unto His name. It's a recognition of our dependence
on Him, give us our bread day by day. It's a recognition of
our spiritual need, forgive us our sins. And remember, it's our sins. We do pray that the Lord forgive
us our sins, and we do pray for things that are personal, but
we always pray for ours, the Lord's people. Now, it doesn't stop there. He still goes on with the lesson.
And he said to them, because it can get discouraging, it can
get discouraging to pray about a matter over and over and over,
and it seems like there's just no end, and there seems like
no answer. But our Lord says this, which
of you shall have a friend? And he's going to go to him at
midnight, and he's going to say to him, friend, lend me three
loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me,
I don't have anything to say 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. Don't bother me. It's late. Go home. I think of that woman, that Syrophoenician
woman. She just wanted some crumbs that
fell from the master's table. Everything he said to her was
totally discouraging. He didn't say an encouraging
word to her. It's not right to give the children bread to the
dogs. And she says, yeah, Lord, but the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Persistence. I say to you, though he will
not rise and give him because he's his friend, yet because
of his importunity." You know what that word importunity means?
Now, you just remember this, because my grandson has it with
me. He has it with me and his grandma.
It means this, shameless persistence. Have shameless persistence. at the throne of God. And God
Himself is telling us to have it. This is not me telling you
to go and have it. He's telling us. He said, when
you come to Me, you keep coming and you keep coming with shameless
persistence. You ask and you ask and you ask. You knock and you knock and you
knock. And you're going to get it. Yet because of his importunity, his
shameless persistence, he will rise and give him as many as
he needs. And I say to you, ask, it will be given to you. Do you
believe that? God of heaven and earth just came to this earth
and just told us himself in his own words. And you keep asking. It'll be
given to you. Seek and you shall find. Lock and it shall be opened
unto you. You know, we live in this country.
We're so used to fast food, fast this, fast that. Hurry, hurry.
Got it, got it. Get it. Patience in prayer. Patience. Waiting on God. He answers, but
he answers in his own time because he's the sovereign. We are not
the sovereign. You know, the generation of kids we're raising
today is A generation of impatient, a bunch of impatient. And I don't
mean this, I don't know you kids, so I just know mine. Brats. Impatient. I want it now. You ever see a commercial that,
I can't remember how it goes, I want my money, I want it now.
It's hanging out the window. It's the most aggravating commercial
on television. It hasn't been on there for a while. What's
the name of that? It's some kind of a money group
anyways that I want my money and I want my money now. That's not the way we talk to
God. We just lay out our needs and wait. We will lay out our
needs and wait. We keep laying them out, and
you keep waiting. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. Have you ever asked God for mercy? Have you ever asked God for forgiveness? Have you ever asked God for light?
Have you ever asked God to teach you? Have you ever asked Him
for those things? I promise you, I don't promise
you, He does. If you ask me for these things,
you'll get it. What was it that king said to
that servant? I forgave you because what? You
desired it. You asked me and that's why I
forgave you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a
father, are you going to give him a stone? If you have a son
that comes to you and he's hungry, he's in need, are you going to
just put a stone up there and say, here, take this? No, you're
not going to do that. You're going to give him bread.
If those two little girls ask you for something to eat, you're
going to give it to them. Or if he asks a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent, something that will hurt him,
bite him? God has never given me anything
that hurts me for eternity. It may just hurt for a little
while here, but not forever. It's for our good. No, you're
not going to do that. You're not going to hand him...
If he wants a fish, you're not going to hand him a poisonous
snake. Or if he shall ask an egg, are
you going to give him a scorpion? Something that's going to destroy
him? If you then be an evil... If you be an evil... Our Father
is holy. Hallowed be thy name. Now, if
you're being evil, you're born in evil, you're born in sin,
you're born in iniquity. If you know how to be compassionate
and tender and caring to your children, how much more your
Heavenly Father? How much more should he give
the Holy Spirit to them? That's boring. If you being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, don't ever have
hard thoughts of God. And I'm telling you, going under
hard trials, you have to fight it off at times. You still have that evil nature
now. You still have that nature that wants to rise up. But remember this, He's our Heavenly
Father, and He's holy, and He always does right. Always does
right, and always gives us that which is good. Fraternity. How much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? I need the
Holy Spirit. I need His guidance. I need his
instructions. I need him teaching. He shall
take the things of mine and show them to you. I need him to take
the things of Christ and show them to me. How much more shall
he give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? Ask. Just ask. All right. There's a lesson in
prayer for us.

A Lesson In Prayer

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know God answers prayers?

Why is calling God 'Father' significant for Christians?

What is the importance of persistence in prayer?

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A Lesson In Prayer

What does the Bible say about prayer?

How do we know God answers prayers?

Why is calling God 'Father' significant for Christians?

What is the importance of persistence in prayer?

Sermon Transcript

About John Chapman

Comments

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