Well, good evening. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 141. Psalm 141. Lord, I cry unto thee. Make haste
unto me. Give ear unto my voice when I
cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before
thee as incense. and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door at my lips. Incline
not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with
men that work iniquity. And let me not eat of their dainties.
Let the righteous smite me. It should be a kindness. And
let him reprove me. It should be an excellent oil,
what should not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall
be in their calamities. When their judges are overthrown
in stony places, they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the
grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, in thee is my
trust. Leave not my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the
gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their
own nets, whilst that I with all escape. Thank God for his
word. Let's bow together. Our heavenly Father, we bow in
your courts this evening with hearts that are full of thanksgiving,
awe and reverence. Father, we're in awe of your
mercy and your grace. that allow sinners such as we
are to bow in your presence, to worship you, to come before
your throne of grace, crying Abba Father. And how thankful
you are for your mercy, your grace, your love, your pity,
your redeeming power in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
Father, I pray that this evening that his name may be exalted
and magnified and that your people might be given eyes of faith
to see Him, to come to Him, to rest in Him, to find there all
in all in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, enable us to worship
tonight, we pray. We know You're worthy of our
worship, and it's good for us to worship. Enable us to worship
Thee tonight in spirit and in truth. And what we ask for ourselves,
we ask for others, Father, who are meeting tonight Worship Thee
and hear Your Word preached. Father, bless Your Word. Cause
it to go forth to Your glory and to the salvation, the instruction,
the comfort, the edification of Your people. And Father, we
thank You for the many blessings of this life, how abundantly
You've blessed us and we're thankful. But we especially thank You for
the spiritual blessings that are found in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, how merciful You've been to us Father, we're thankful.
Forgive us for ever, ever being ungrateful and murmuring and
complaining against your good providence. And Father, we pray
for those who, in your providence, you brought in the time of trouble
and trial, sickness, heartache, bereavement. Father, we pray
for them. We pray that you give your people
a special portion of your presence. We pray you see fit to heal to
comfort and to deliver. But Father, until that time comes
in your purpose, we pray you comfort the hearts of your people
with your presence. Enable us to learn what you'd
have us to learn. Deliver us quickly, Father, we
pray. And all these things we ask in that name which is above
every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is my father's world and
to my listening ears All nature sings and round me
rings the music of the spheres. This is my father's world, I
rest me Of rocks and trees, of skies
and seas, His hands the wonders draw, This is my Father's world. The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white Declare their Maker's praise
This is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair In
the rustling grass I hear him pass He speaks to me everywhere
This is my father's world Oh, let me ne'er forget That though
the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied. And earth and heaven be one. Great, great. Thank you. Okay, let's open our Bibles
now again to Psalm 141. I titled the message tonight, A
Prayer Pleasing to God. Now this psalm reads a lot like
the book of Proverbs. It has a lot of nuggets, just
one right after another, so it's going to take us a couple weeks
to get through this psalm. Tonight I want us to look at
the first nugget in the first two verses about prayer. And I pray that this message
will be a blessing to you and I pray it'll be something that's
helpful and instructive in your everyday life. I think it will
be. I know it will be if the Lord
blesses it. Because believers, I've never found one anyway,
are never satisfied with their prayer life. You know, we feel
like our prayers are often cold selfish and self-centered. We're
just saying the same words over and over again. Nothing exactly
wrong with that. I pray for forgiveness every
day, every prayer. I thank the Lord for the righteousness
of Christ, for the blood of Christ. I mean, there are things I say
in every prayer, my private prayers. But I think often we feel our
prayers are just cold and lifeless. We, at least I do, may feel like
we ask for too many things. We're asking amiss. We're not
sure if we should ask for this or not. We don't know how to
pray, what to ask for in this matter. Whenever we find ourselves in
that situation, it might be a good idea to pray, Lord, I will be
done. Here's the situation, Lord. Just
leave it to Him. We find our prayers often are
so much asking and seldom about the glory of God. At least not
nearly as much as they should be. And we're afraid that our
prayers are not pleasing God because we're not praying right.
Well, in the first two verses of this psalm, I see four ways
that David's prayer is pleasing to God. And if we would have
our prayers be pleasing to God, it might be that we should follow
David's pattern of prayer here. Number one, we please the Lord
when we pray in dependence on him. Verse one, Lord, I cry unto
thee. Make haste unto me. Give ear
unto my voice when I cry unto thee. David says, I cry. You know, there is a simplicity
in crying to the Lord. It shows our dependence on him.
I thought about a baby. You know, there just isn't anything
more dependent than a baby. Someone's got to do everything
for that baby. Everything, don't they? A baby
can't do anything for itself. And all that little baby is so dependent,
all it knows how to do is cry. That's the only way it knows
to communicate. When the baby is hungry, it cries. When the baby needs his diaper
changed, it cries. When it's scared or if it's hurt,
it cries. If it just wants to be held,
nothing's wrong at all. It just wants to be held. It
just cries like it's so hurt. That's the only thing the baby
can do. It's the only way it has to communicate. And all the
baby does is cry. Don't make any suggestions to
mom and daddy. It just cries and figures mom
and daddy's going to take care of it. You know, when you think
of that, sometimes I'm afraid our biggest problem with prayer
is overcomplicating it. Maybe we ought to just cry. Just
cry to the Lord. Maybe you don't even have to
use words. Just groan. Just cry. Cicero said that's
when you're really praying. When all you can do is groan. I always say this about our prayers. Our prayers need to be simple
words that come straight from our heart. Not somebody else's
words. Not religious sounding words. Words that come straight
from our heart to our Father. Just cry. Just cry. But our problem
with parents is We don't always know what the baby's cry means.
We don't know how to fix the baby's problem. Parents say,
we don't know. I've been around babies that got colic, and as
far as I know, there's not one blessed thing you can do about
that. I don't know. But listen, you cried our Father. Our Heavenly Father, He knows. He knows. He knows how to fix
what ails us. Just cry to Him. Just show your complete dependence
upon Him. Now here's another thing about
a baby's cry. A baby's incessant crying can just wear on your
nerves. Now you love that baby. Oh my
goodness, you love that baby. But I mean you just sometimes
wish, just please go to sleep. Could you please not cry? It
just gets on our nerves. You know that never happens to
our Heavenly Father. He never gets tired. of His children crying to Him.
Look over at Isaiah chapter 58. Just cry to our Father in complete
dependence. You'll not wear Him out. Isaiah 58 verse 9. Then shalt thou call, and the
Lord shall answer thee. Thou shalt cry, and He shall
say, Here I am. That's all we need, isn't it?
That's all we need. Here I am, he says. We need his
presence. So David says, Lord, hear my
prayer. Make haste to help me. This shows dependence on the
Lord. I've got nobody else to go to. I've got nobody else to
cry to. Nobody else can help me. So I'm
crying to you. In verse two, David talks about
lifting up his hands. Now that is a symbol of dependence. The lifting up of hands signifies
my hands are empty. I can't produce anything that
I need. I can't reach out and grab anything
that I need, and I can't hang on to it by myself. Empty hands
lifted up to God shows my dependence upon Him. I lift up my hands
to the Lord, begging Him to fill me. If there's going to be anything
of any benefit in me, God's going to have to put it there. It's
lifting up your hands like a beggar. I've seen homeless people and
I've seen people, you know, kind of sitting and want money and
stuff. And it's sad. We kind of get hardened to it,
don't we? When I went to Mexico that first time, I saw some real
honest to goodness beggars. I mean, Just beggars. And all they would do, you'd
walk by and all they do is hold their hand. They wouldn't even
look at you. Because most people just pass by don't even care. They just hold their empty hand
up, begging. It was interesting as I went
through that trip and several other trips, I noticed this.
Not one time ever, not once, got past one of those beggars
that Cody Groover didn't put a peso in their palm every single
time for that very reason. He said, isn't that how we beg
to God? He said, now shouldn't we show that kindness to them?
Well, here's comfort for God's beggars. God's people never cry
to somebody who doesn't care about us. Beggars we see on the
street, they've got their hand out there. Most people don't
care. But look at 1 Peter chapter 5.
When God's beggars cry, to Him. They hold up that empty hand
to Him. They never cry to somebody who does not care about them.
1 Peter 5, verse 6. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. Now
there it is, humble yourself. Admit your dependence on the
Lord. Just claim it. Own it. Wear it. I'm dependent
on the Lord. Verse 7, casting all your care
upon Him, for He careth for you. Isn't that an amazing statement? Of all the people alive on the
planet right now, of all the people who've ever lived on this
planet, Almighty God, personally has His eye, has His ear on every
one of His people, and He cares. He cares. Now just cry to the
One who told us, cast all your care upon Me. Now don't cast
your care on the Lord and then pick it back up and take it with
you. Cast your care on the Lord. He cares about His children. Just hold your empty hand up
to Him. And crying to the Lord in independence, just knowing
we can't do anything for ourselves, We can't even pray for ourselves.
He's got to teach us to pray. We can't do anything. We're totally
dependent upon Him. Do you know that puts everything
in the right place? Crying to the Lord in total dependence,
that puts God on the throne as the one who's in control of everything. It admits He's the one with a
sovereign power to do as He will. And if He will, He can hear my
cry. He can fix the problem. If He
will, He can. And crying to the Lord in dependence like that
puts you and me right where we belong, in the dust, at the feet
of the king, as mercy beggars who are incapable of doing anything
for ourselves. Now God's pleased with that kind
of prayer because that attitude in prayer glorifies and honors
God. All right, number two, the Lord
is pleased with importunity in prayer. Now importunity is just
a great big word that means persistence. It also has to do with begging.
It's persistence in begging. You know, in verse 1, David twice
says, I cry unto thee, I cry unto thee. It sounds like he
keeps crying. He's been crying more than once
and he keeps crying because there's an urgency to his need. David
cries with importunity. He's persistent. He will not
shut up because he needs the Lord. Now again, it's like a
baby crying. That kind of persistence can
drive a parent crazy. I mean, when our girls were little,
they'd ask their mom about something. Well, they wouldn't ask twice,
I guess, if she said yes. If she said no, sometimes they'll
come back and ask again. They're trying to wear her down.
And she'd just look at them and say, ask and answer. Eventually,
she'd look at them and they'd say, I know, ask and answer.
But you know the Lord is pleased with that kind of persistence
in prayer. Let me just give you a few examples.
Jacob wrestled with the Lord all night. The sun was coming
up and the Lord told him, I've got to go. I've got to leave.
And Jacob said, I will not let you go except you bless me. And Jacob was blessed, wasn't
he? He limped the rest of his life,
but the Lord blessed him. Blind Bartimaeus, sitting there
by the roadside, he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing
by. He started crying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. And you know, this is a big deal. I mean, this man's
a prophet. He's got a big crowd. People
are impressed with him. And the folks of the town, they
wanted a nice scene, you know, for all the pictures. And they
didn't want blind barmaids. He's dirty, he's blind, he's
filthy, he's a beggar. We don't want him ruining our
pretty scene here with this prophet. And they told him, just be quiet,
we'll give you a quarter later. And he would not, all the louder.
He wouldn't be quiet. He just cried all the louder,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And that persistent
crying stopped the Lord of Glory in his tracks. They come to blind
Bartimaeus and tell him, be of good cheer. He calleth for thee. Blind Bartimaeus was blessed.
He received his sight. Remember that Syrophoenician
woman whose daughter was grievously vexed with the devil? She came
asking the disciples, can you get your master to do something
for me? And they just ignored her. She wouldn't go away. They came to the Lord and said,
would you send this woman away? Here's this beggar coming. Would
you send her away? And when the Lord talked to her, He insulted
her. Called her a dog. You know, it's
interesting. You cannot insult a dog by calling
it a dog. I tried it last night with our
two dogs. I was feeding them, calling them dogs, and insulting
them a bit. You cannot insult a sinner by calling them a sinner. They need forgiveness. They're
going to be persistent. And that woman would not quit
begging. She just agreed to everything
the Lord said. And she's blessed. Her daughter was healed. That's
why the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without
ceasing. Use importunity. Pray without
ceasing. Look at Luke chapter 18. This
kind of prayer, persistence in prayer, pleases the Lord. And you know what? This is what
he taught us to pray. Luke chapter 18. 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'll avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God, the righteous
judge, 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? Now, do we pray
that way? That's what the Lord taught us
to pray. But do we pray that way? Do we pray without ceasing? Do we pray with importunity? Do we have faith like that that
keeps calling on the Lord? That kind of prayer pleases God
because our continual need of Him and that faith that He's
able to deliver me, He's able to help me, He's able. That honors
Him. So don't quit. Don't go somewhere
else. Keep crying to the Lord. You
know, the Lord often puts His people in a situation that gets
more and more and more urgent. And we kind of count on the fact
that the Lord won't give us more than we can bear, that His grace
will be sufficient. And what we find out is we can
handle a whole lot more than what we think. And He just keeps
pushing it, just keeps pushing it. So we get more and more and
more urgent and we cry and cry more urgently, more persistently.
And you know why the Lord does that? Oh, he's going to answer.
He's going to send mercy to his child. But when he does, that
mercy is going to taste all the sweeter because he made us cry
with this importunity. And it just could be that the
Lord would be pleased with our prayer if we pray like he taught
us to persistently. All right, back in our text,
here's the third thing. God is pleased with the prayer that's
directed by the Holy Spirit. Verse 2 says, let my prayer be
set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice. Now that phrase set forth means
directed and prepared. Now to have our prayers prepared,
that doesn't mean, okay, now you have to, before you begin
to pray, you have to think of everything that you're going
to say, just exactly how you're going to say it and have everything
prepared and have all your arguments prepared, you've used all the
best words, you know, and then you can begin to pray. Like,
you know, if you've got everything prepared right, this is going
to be a good prayer. You know, if we did that, if that's the
way we tried to pray and planned out all our words that way, we'd
use the wrong words every time. They'd be words that would say
what our flesh wants to say. So this being directed in prayer,
it pleases God because that prayer is directed by God the Holy Spirit. Now we ought to know this. If
we don't know it from being told it, and I hope we know it from
experience, that we can't do anything without the Spirit of
God. We can't believe on Christ without the Holy Spirit. He's
got to give us faith. We cannot worship God unless
the Spirit enables us to worship. We can't see Christ, we can't
hear Christ unless the Spirit enables us to see Him and hear
Him. We can't preach Christ without His Spirit. Not only can we not
hear, we can't preach. Without Him, we can do nothing. Well, prayer is no different.
Let me show you that in Romans 8. Romans 8. We can't even begin to pray without
the Spirit directing us. Romans 8, verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Spirit of God is
going to lead all of God's people. Now look over verse 26. Likewise,
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 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. Now, I don't know about you,
but I seldom feel like I have used the right words in prayer.
It's kind of like preaching. I always feel like I could have
used better words. But what a comfort to know we don't have to have
the right words. The Holy Spirit takes our feeble
words and makes intercession for me with groanings which cannot
be uttered, groanings that you and I can't hear. And our prayers
are accepted through the intercession of the Holy Spirit as he leads
God's people to pray. Now, that's true. We don't know
what to pray for as we all in that often the case is a situation. I don't know what to pray for.
But what a comfort to know that the Holy Spirit makes intercession
for our infirm prayers and leads us in prayer. So that prayer
is accepted by the Father. The Spirit makes intercession
for the believer by putting it into the heart of that believer
to pray. It's the Spirit that moves us
to pray in the first place. And the Spirit moves God's people
to pray according to the will of God. The Spirit moves God's
people to pray in faith, believing Christ, trusting Christ, coming
to God only through the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit puts
it in the hearts of God's people to pray. And then he draws that
prayer out of the hearts of God's people so that we pray according
to the will of God. Now, it'll seem to us like we
haven't had the right words, but it is the right prayer if
the Holy Spirit led us to pray that way. The Holy Spirit makes
us desire the will of God, and then he enables us to pray that
way. That's intercession. groanings
that cannot be uttered. And I'll show you that in Psalm
chapter 10. The 10th Psalm. Verse 17. Lord, thou hast heard the desire
of the humble. Thou will prepare their heart.
Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." It's the Holy Spirit that
prepares the hearts of God's people to cry. And God hears
that prayer. That honors Him. Now look over
Revelation chapter 8. I'm going to have you turn to
a few scriptures tonight, but we're getting close to being
finished, so keep turning. I want you to see these scriptures.
This is what David means when he says, let my prayer be set
forth before thee. Lead me by the Spirit. Lead me
by the Spirit to Christ. Let my prayer be set forth before
Thee as incense." What he's saying is, let my prayers be mixed with
the incense of the Holy Spirit, as He makes intercession for
me with groanings that cannot be uttered, so that prayer will
be pleasing to Thee. In Revelation 8, verse 3, we
have this given to us in picture. And another angel came and stood
at the altar, having a golden censer, And there was given unto
him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of
all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of
the saints, ascended up before God out of the angels' hands."
See, those prayers of the saints went up and they are mixed with
that incense. They are mixed with the intercession
of the Holy Spirit. And those prayers were well-pleasing
to the Father because they were directed, they were prepared
by God, the Holy Spirit. Our prayers are always pleasing
to the Father when they're mixed with the intercession of the
Holy Spirit. We're not on our own in order
to make this prayer effective. The Holy Spirit makes it so.
All right, here's the fourth thing. God's pleased with prayers
that are in faith in Christ. Verse 2, Psalm 141, let my prayer
be set forth before thee as incense and a lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice. Now when Davis says let the lifting
up of my hands be at the evening sacrifice, he's speaking about
the sacrifice of Christ. He's asking to be accepted on
the merits of Christ's sacrifice who died when? At the time of
the evening sacrifice. Now that's a prayer that's pleasing
to the Father. Save me by the blood of Christ.
Forgive my sin for Christ's sake, because of the power of the blood
of His sacrifice. Lord, save me. Lord, accept me. Lord, hear me only on the merits
of Christ's sacrifice. Don't save me by my merit. Don't
hear me because of my merit, because of what I've done or
what I haven't done. Save me by the merits of Christ's sacrifice.
Hear me on the merits of Christ's sacrifice for me. And that goes
back to my first point about praying independence. You know,
when we pray to be saved by the blood of Christ, what we're saying
is, I've got no other hope. I am such a vile sinner. The
only way I can be saved, the only way my sins can be cleansed
and purged away is by the blood of Christ. So I need Christ to
die for me. I need the Spirit to wash me
in the blood of Christ. I don't have no hope. I cannot
save myself. I can't even make myself savable.
I can't save myself. But Christ sure can. I can't
be pleasing to the Father. But Christ sure is. So Lord,
save me for Christ's sake. Save me in His merit. Lord, save
me so that Christ gets all of the glory and I get none of it. Now that's a prayer that pleases
the Father because it magnifies God's mercy and God's justice.
both at the same time. And the incense that David here
is talking about says the same thing. Now you remember the incense
that they used to burn on the golden altar in the tabernacle.
Outside the tabernacle in that courtyard was a big old brazen
altar. And that's where the burnt offering
was made. And the people would bring their sacrifices there
And it was a bloody, bloody place. Bulls and rams and goats and
sheep were being killed there all day long. And their bodies
taken and burned on that brazen altar. Then inside the tabernacles,
the golden altar, just outside the Holy of Holies, and that's
where the incense burned. And that incense was a sweet
smell, smoke that created a sweet smell that filled the place that
went up as a picture of Christ's intercession for His people.
Now, when it came time for them to burn incense on that golden
altar, you know, they didn't go get them some kindling and
some coals and strike a flint or whatever and start a new fire
there. No, the priest went out. He had tongs and a censer. He went out to that brazen altar,
the place where the sin offering was made. And he got those coals
from off that brazen altar. And he took them in and put them
on the golden altar. And that's when the incense was
put on. When the incense was burning, the smoke went up. Now
you see the picture and all that? The intersection of Christ is
pictured in that incense on the golden altar. It gets its power. It gets its efficacy from the
sacrifice of Christ pictured on the brazen altar. It's the
blood of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ that makes His intercession
powerful. So when Christ makes intercession
for His people, He always pleads His sacrifice for them. And the
Father is always pleased. He always saves, He always forgives,
He always keeps His people for Christ's sake. Because of Christ's
sacrifice for them. See, it's Christ who makes His
people accepted. And we pray to be heard in Him,
in His sacrifice. The Father will be pleased. And
one more scripture, look at John chapter 14. Father save me, forgive me for
Christ's sake. in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Save me, help me. In John 14, verse 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my
name, I will do it. Now, don't try to make that mean
something it don't mean. That doesn't mean that if we
ask for healing or we ask for a better job, we ask for more
happiness, we ask for more material things, you know, in the name
of Christ, we ask the Lord for all these blessings. Lord, let
me win the lottery in Jesus name. That doesn't mean that God's
going to give us that. There's a key phrase here that the father
may be glorified in the son. Now, I'm not telling you I wouldn't
like to win the lottery. I never will because I don't
buy tickets. But I'm not saying I wouldn't like it. I'm not opposed
to that. But if you had all those means
suddenly, is that going to glorify the Father through the Son? Not if God leaves me to myself
it won't. You know what glorifies the Father through the Son? Me
staying dependent. Me staying dependent. That's
what glorifies the Son, me staying independent. So it's not asking
for all these other things that makes our flesh feel so much
better. You know, that would just, that would be making the
phrase in Jesus' name, that would be like, you know, rubbing the
genie's bottle or something. That would be idolatrous. Asking
in Christ's name means this. It's asking the Father based
upon who Christ is. That's what His name is, describes
who He is. It's based upon the sacrifice of Christ for the sin
of His people. We know that sacrifice is effectual. It does put away the sin of God's
people because of who died. It means asking to be forgiven,
asking to be saved, asking for God's blessing based upon the
sacrifice of Christ. Not anything I've done, but on
who Christ is. It's asking not for my glory,
not for my gain, but for Christ's glory. Now we know that the sacrifice
of Christ pleased the Father, don't we? Because after He was
raised from the dead, the Father glorified Him, took Him back
into heaven, gave Him a seat at His right hand, set Him on
the throne of glory. So the sacrifice of Christ pleased
the Father. It accomplished everything the
Father sent Him to do. And we know that the Father is well-pleased
with His Son, everything His Son did. He said so audibly from
heaven, this is my beloved Son whom I'm well-pleased. Well,
then the Father is pleased with the prayer that's for Christ's
sake, for His glory's sake, based upon His merits. The Father is
pleased with a prayer like that. If the Spirit will direct us
and enable us to pray that way, the Father will be pleased with
our prayer. Now let me give you this small warning in closing. These are good patterns for us
to follow in prayer, to look for in prayer. As the Lord will
lead us to teach us to pray, Now, but be careful about this.
Be very careful that you don't put confidence in the way that
you pray. Not like, well, here's these
four things, you know, that we saw that David gave us. So I
checked all the boxes. I've done all these four things.
So now I've got a good prayer. If you do that, you've ruined
it. You're trying to grade your prayers. Why did this, this and
this? I said this, this and this is a good prayer. If you've done
that, you've ruined it. Pray. Putting your confidence, putting
your hope in Christ the Savior. Put it all on Him, on His merit,
for His glory, and the Father will be pleased. I hope that
will be helpful to us. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You that You would
humble Yourself to hear our poor weak prayers, but Father, we
cry to Thee. We cry for Your presence. We cry for Your blessing. We
cry that You'd save Your people. We cry that You'd comfort Your
people, instruct them, feed them through Christ being preached
to us. Father, bless us, we pray. Bless
Your Word and cause it to take root in the hearts of Your people
that we might rest more fully in Christ our Savior. Father,
I pray you'd bless us as we go back to our homes, keep us, give
us traveling mercies, and bring us back again when it's time
to one more time worship our Savior together. For it's in
His blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen.