chapter 9, 2 Samuel chapter 9. We have preached from this chapter
numerous times through the years. And for those not familiar with
it, it is part of the story of a man named Mephibosheth. He
is the son of Jonathan, David's friend, and he's a crippled man,
grandson of King Saul. Saul and most of his relatives
are dead and gone. David is the king and King David
desires to show kindness to some remaining part of Saul's family. Not for Saul's sake, who hated
David and wanted to kill him. But David wants to show kindness
for his friend Jonathan's sake. And so he asked in verse one,
is there any that is left of the house of Saul that I may
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And when he is told that
there is one man left, Jonathan's son, Saul's grandson, and that
he's a crippled man, he's been crippled from his youth, David
proceeds to sin for him, and he extends great kindness
to him, and he actually adopts him and receives him into his
house as one of the king's sons. It's all a beautiful picture
of God's mercy and grace to sinners like you and I. And having received
us into his house, for Christ's sake, to be his sons forever. But it's not this story itself
I want to talk to us about this morning. But I want you to turn
here and I want you to stay here in this chapter 2nd Samuel 9
I'm going to show you a thought in just a moment. What we want
to talk about is glorifying God in prayer. Glorifying God in prayer. Now this is a perspective of
praying that I want to talk to us about that is not often talked
about. or even in our thinking most
of the time. Most of our praying is with no
thought at all of what it means to God in glorifying Him. It's always about what is it
I need, what is it I want. That's all we think about. But
we want to talk about prayer from the perspective of glorifying
God. Now, one of the greatest pictures
of prayer is that of eating at the king's table continually. And I selected this chapter as
a text because of the emphasis placed on this statement. Four
times it's mentioned in this brief chapter. If you've got
your Bible, look at verse 7. And David said unto him, Fear
not. For I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually." There it
is. Again in verse 10, the latter
part of the verse, he's talking to Ziba, his servant, And he
said, but Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread always at
my table. Again, in verse 11, the latter
half of the verse, as for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at
my table as one of the king's sons. That's three times. And then a fourth time, in the
last verse, in verse 13, So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did
eat continually at the king's table, and was lame on both his
feet. So this emphasis is a strong
statement of the king's acceptance and approval and generosity and
love and continued provision for Mephibosheth, for Jonathan's
sake. And in like manner, we should
come to our God in prayer, addressing him, Christ said, as our Father,
which art in heaven. We should do that in the same
way that Mephibosheth came to the king's table continually. Now on the one hand, Mephibosheth
brought nothing to the table. On the other hand, he brought
a great deal to the table. He brought himself poor and needy
to the king, whose heart delighted in giving more than in receiving. It delighted the king's heart
more to do something for somebody else. than to have something
done for him. And so it is with the Lord. And
this, we should not miss this perspective in our prayer. Just imagine this scene, if you
could, in the king's house. David and his family are being
seated at the royal table. And among them is a cripple who
can't walk in unnoticed like the rest of them. Oh no. He either
has to be carried in or rolled in or with the aid of crutches
or something like a walker. He don't come in unnoticed. It is very noticeable. He cannot come into the King's
presence unnoticed. Neither can you. Neither can
I or any of His children who are crippled by sin and were
crippled for life. That rotten flesh of yours is
not getting any better. You're crippled by sin for life. But at the same time, we're invited
to the King's table continually. But get this, every time, every
single meal, It does as much for the king to see Mephibosheth
come and make the effort to come into his presence. It does more
for the king than it does for Mephibosheth. And this is the
perspective concerning prayer for the message this morning.
In our feeble way, when we make the effort, and I'm sure It's
not enough with any of us. But we make the effort to put
everything aside and come to bow our hearts to Him. Whether
we get down on our knees, whether we're laid out prostrate on the
floor, whether we're sitting in a chair, whether we're standing,
all that makes no difference. The real struggle As Christ talked
about in Matthew 6, the real struggle for us is shutting the
door. That is shutting everything else
out. Letting the focus, the attention, be on Him. But when we do that,
as our Heavenly Father, He is more delighted that we came than
we are in coming. So there's this perspective in
prayer. How is it then, we ask, that God is glorified when we
truly pray? Well, there's ten things I want
to mention to us, and I'll not be over, you know, twenty or
thirty minutes on each one. Ten things. So, I want you to
get these, that we might lay hold of the blessedness and the
necessity to pray often, not just for our needs, but for His
glory. Most of our praying is too much
like the line of kids waiting to get in Santa Claus lap. I
need this, I want this. Or some just hand him the list.
Is that what we do in our praying? Just come hand him the list?
I'm afraid we're guilty of that. But no, I'm talking to us about
glorifying God. in our prayers. After all, when
Christ taught us to pray in Matthew 6, Luke 11, right at the top
of the list, after addressing him, our Father which art in
heaven, the very next thing is this, hallowed be thy name. Lord, I want you to know first,
this is about you. Holy, reverent, honorable, glorious
is thy name. So what are these things? Number
one, God is glorified in prayer as we are acknowledging his sovereignty
in all and overall. We are submitting to his authority
to do as he wills. with whom he wills, where he
wills, when he wills, and as he wills. We are simply acknowledging
that he is God. We recognize his authority to
do as he wills, the prophet said, in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. We are acknowledging that of
him, through him, and to him. are all things to whom be glory
forever. Amen. In bowing to Him rather
than to the many other gods in this world, it is our confession
that He has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. Has His way. He is absolutely sovereign. He
does as He wills every time and all the time. Ephesians 111,
he worketh all things, not some things, but all things according
to the counsel of his own will. So what does that teach us? It
teaches us that though some in this world seem to get by with
a lot and seem to do exactly as they
please, but I'd remind us it's not so. It has a limit. It has an end. God in heaven
is the only one that does exactly as he pleases, always as he pleases,
and shall forever do so. The psalmist said, Psalm 115.3,
But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now this may be a little strong
for some, but listen to me. The only motivation for anything
and everything God has ever done is simply because He wanted to.
That's all. You've never talked Him into
anything He wasn't going to do. You've never talked Him out of
anything He's purposed to do. Matter of fact, all that God
does and all that He's doing He has always been going to do
it. In other words, he's got his
act together. He's not like us. You say, well, what's the point
in praying to a God like that? It is acknowledging his sovereignty. It is to bring our minds and
hearts into conformity with his will. And he's going to do his will
every time. Praying is not to change him.
You're not going to do that. It's to change us. And it glorifies
him as we acknowledge his sovereignty. I fear that most of our so-called
praying is something like this. Not thy will, but mine be done. Is that the way we pray? Not
thy will, but mine be done. Christ our example prayed, not
my will, but thine be done. Not as I will, but as thou wilt. And so this is the first thing
that glorifies God in prayer to acknowledge his sovereignty. He's going to do what he wants
to do. He's going to do all of that
and nothing else. So to acknowledge that all God's
doing, every blessing in life, every pleasant thing, every painful
thing, it all issues forth from his own good pleasure. Mephibosheth
never went to the king's table wondering if he'd be welcome. He was instructed to come. The
King assured him, you're not just here for you, you're here
for me. Oh, how it glorifies God for His
children to bow to Him in prayer for His glory. Not for who we
are, not for what we want, but for who He is. Number two. God is glorified
in prayer as it is the acknowledgement on our part of His work of atonement
through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has opened up and accessed,
the book of Hebrews says, a new and living way. All through the Old Testament,
4,000 years, they offered animal sacrifices, the blood of animals. But when Christ came, Paul tells
us in Romans 8, that he who spared not his own son. Oh, he spared
many. He spared many, but he spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for all his children. That is to pay the sin debt for
all his children. And then Paul added, how shall
he not also freely give us all things? Not all kind of foolish
things that you would ask for, but all things pertaining to
life and godliness, all things that you really need in life.
Our God will not fail us. His interest in us is such as
to call out from us an interest in him and bowing to him in prayer
expresses that entrance, that interest, interest. He's invited us. He's called
us to bow to him. He didn't say the best day become.
He said, you come sit at the King's
table. Sometimes we'll see a sign along
the road on a business. You've all seen this. It'll say,
no appointment needed. Walk-ins welcome. What's that mean? It means they
don't have all the business they want. That's what it means. Well,
may I say by the atoning work of God's Son on the cross, We
have an open appointment anytime, anywhere to speak with the Father. No appointment needed. Oh, how
it glorifies Him when we avail ourselves of this blessed privilege. He is not a father who don't
have time for his children. He does. He does. Number three, God is glorified
in prayer in that when we pray, we are ascribing to Him all sufficiency. You know, it's one thing for
us to just say in a cheap and shallow religious lingo, God
is able. It's something else to bow, believing,
and trusting and crying to Him, Lord you are able. You can do
this. You are sufficient for all my
need. One writer said that our coming
to God is like a small insect crawling around outside of a
huge granary with thousands of bushels of wheat. And the insect is welcome to
all it wants, but it can only carry a single grain. And such is God's sufficiency
for us. A great preacher of long ago,
G. Campbell Morgan, a lady came up to him after he had preached
on prayer, and she asked him, Should we
only pray about big things in life? Or is it okay to pray about
small things? And the wise old man's answer
was, Sister, with our God, they're all small things. He is our sufficiency in all
things. Every need in every area of life,
When you go shopping, you ladies, you may have to go to one store
for one thing and another store for something else. And boy,
I've met people that drive to every grocery store in town to
save $2 and burn $5 worth of gas. Go and see. But you may
have to go different places to find different things. But may
I remind us that when we pray, God's got it all. It's one-stop shopping. Coming
to him in prayer is the testimony on our part that he is sufficient
for all of our needs. Number four, God is glorified
in prayer because when we pray, we are ascribing to him boundless benevolence. He loves
to give. He loves to give. He's a great
giver. Mephibosheth never came to the
table thinking, I'm really hungry. I wonder if I could have seconds.
Oh, he could have seconds and thirds and fourths. The supply
is not an issue. All sufficiency. He's a boundless
giver. Benevolence. He is so kind, so
gracious, so willing to hear and respond to the distress cries
of his children. Some of you think that the only
people God listens to is those who never fail. You know, these
extremely spiritual swinging from the rafters people. Oh,
no. Oh, no. May I remind you, our God is
not listening. for religious success stories. He is listening for distress
cries, distress cries from his fallen children. How gracious
he is. Love makes a person a giver. And God's love for his children
makes him committed to not withholding anything good from his children. We pray knowing that God is not
a Scrooge. We pray knowing that God is the
greatest giver of all and that he delights in doing so. It grieves the heart of a loving
parent not to be able to minister to a child's need simply because
The child never asked, never made the need known. Well, Paul
exhorts us to make it known. He said, be careful for nothing.
Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, let your request be made known unto God. Talk
to him, talk to him. Prayer acknowledges God's interest
in us, His caring, His love, His willingness, His benevolence.
It glorifies God for being the good father He is and His children
not being afraid and being faithful to come to Him. Number five,
prayer glorifies God in that when we pray, We are trusting
in His faithfulness and the truth of His Word, that He will not
and cannot violate His Word, but will remain true to His promises. He said in Matthew 7-7, Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. And when we pray, we glorify
God in that we're believing Him to be faithful to His Word. That's why we're praying. And when we're negligent in prayer,
that's unbelief that He's faithful to His Word and to His promise. 1 John 5, 14, and this is the confidence
that we have in Him. Do you have any confidence in
Him? Or is all your confidence in
being able to pull your own strings and knowing how to maneuver and
do the da da da? This is our confidence in Him. That if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him. If our petitions be according
to His will, He'll do it. We have his word on it. But we must not be negligent
in asking. The little epistle of James,
James 4.2 said, you have not because you ask not. If we really believed that, we
wouldn't be so negligent in asking. And the next verse, James tells
us what's wrong with most of our asking. James 4, 3. Instead
of asking according to God's will, he said, you ask and receive
not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your
own lust. That is, you ask for your comfort
at the expense of any and all. It's a selfish praying. You ask
for your comfort rather than for God's glory. But when we
ask according to God's Word, according to what He has promised,
according to His will, we glorify Him in asserting His faithfulness
to do what He said He would do. Number six, prayer glorifies
God. in that it acknowledges his great
attribute of omnipresence. From any spot on earth you can
call out to God. He can hear from the darkest
jungle in Africa as well as from the finest cathedral on earth.
He can hear from the deepest deep of the ocean same as He
can from the highest mountaintop. Matter of fact, a child of God
cannot get where God is not because He has promised, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. So prayer glorifies God in that
it is our testimony concerning Him that we expect to be heard
from Him anytime, anywhere, because He's present. He's present with
us. Number seven, prayer glorifies
God in that it magnifies the glorious attribute of His omniscience. He sees all. He knows all. When your heart is so heavy,
you cannot even speak All you can do is weep and moan
and groan. He is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Our God interprets groans. When things are so mixed up,
so confused, so complicated, nobody else understands and nobody
else cares. And you can't explain it all.
Because you don't even know it all, but you don't have to. He sees and He knows. Christ said, He knows what you
have need of before you ask. But asking glorifies Him in that
we acknowledge His knowledge, His omniscience. He knows. Number eight, true prayer glorifies God in
the attribute of His omnipotence, His power. Paul said that he is able, that
God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above All that we ask or think. There's a lot of, a lot of adjectives
in that verse exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or even think God is that big. He is able. There is no danger He cannot
protect you in, Natalie. There is no fear He can't give
you peace right in the middle of, say, June and all the rest of you. There is no enemy he cannot subdue. He said in Isaiah, I am God. Just get it. I am God. And beside
me, there's none else. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? The answer is no. Nothing too hard for the Lord. I love to read back in the book
of Chronicles, the godly king of Judah named Asa. He got in
a fix one time and there came against Judah a host, which means
an army of a thousand thousand. That's a million. It was an impossible situation
for Judah. But the Bible says Asa cried
to the Lord, his God, And here's what he said. This is in 2 Chronicles
14. He said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help. Wow. It's more than I can handle. But Lord, it is nothing with
thee to help. This wouldn't put any strain
upon you at all. It wouldn't be wrong in our praying
to say, Lord, if this pleases you, if it's according to your
will, what I'm asking wouldn't put any strain on you at all. Lord, it is nothing with thee
to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.
What the numbers are, what the odds are, is not the issue. It's irrelevant with you, Lord.
How strong they are and how weak we are, it's not an issue with
you. Lord, you can do it. You're omnipotent. You're all-powerful. You can
do anything. How pitiful, how dishonoring when we come to the Lord With
the attitude, Lord, if you could, Lord, if you would, Lord, if
there's any way you can manage to do it. No, that's wrong. That's
wrong. My glorifies him when we acknowledge
him as being bigger than any situation we can possibly have.
Bigger than any mountain that I can or cannot see. calling
His name, believing He's that big, glorifies Him. Number nine, I'm hurrying or
not. Our praying glorifies God in
that we acknowledge His immutability. He cannot and will not change. Whatever the circumstance, God
will be God. He will not fail in His character.
He will not violate His Word. No matter how rough things get
on your end, He'll just go on being God, beginning to end.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Nothing surprises Him. Do you
good to think on that? Nothing distresses him. Nothing puts him in a crisis.
He's God. The psalmist said it so well,
Psalm 90, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God. When your whole world falls apart,
when your health is gone, when your family is tore all to pieces,
when it seems like your whole life is going to hell, I want
to remind you God is God. He was, He is, and He will be.
and he shall be. John called him numerous times
in the revelation, that which was and is and is to come. Nothing that happens to you ever
changes him. Only God's children are thrilled
about that. Nobody else gives a rip. But God's children are thrilled
that our God don't change. Everybody else wants Him to change.
That they want to change Him and explain Him away. But He won't change. What a God
we have to pray to. And how foolish and how sinful
are we not to cry to Him earnestly and continually about everything. And number 10, it glorifies God
when we come to Him in fervency of spirit in our prayers. That
is, when our heart of hearts is bleeding and we cry earnestly
to Him. James 5, verse 16, the effectual
Fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Thomas Watson wrote, cold prayer
is no more prayer than painted fire is fire. Oh, may our praying not be like
painted fire that you can touch on a picture. It won't burn you,
nothing to it. May our prayers not be cold,
but earnest and fervent. Another old writer said, no matter
how sharp the point of an arrow, just to toss it forth gently
will never do the job. It must be placed in the bowl.
pulled back with all our strength, with a definite aim, and shot
forth. Another wrote concerning our
praying, it is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they
be, or the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they be, or the
geometry of our prayers, how long they be, Or the music of
our prayers, how sweet the voice may be. Or the logic of our prayers,
how argumentative they may be. Or the method, how orderly they
may be. But fervency of spirit availeth
much. Spurgeon said our prayers are
like pulling the rope in the belfry. The old churches have some of
the old buildings have this. We've got a bell out here. We
don't have one up in the, you know, beyond there. But you all
know what I'm talking about. He said, prayers are like pulling
the rope in the belfry. And he said, just a little tug
will never make the bell ring. No. Kids can do that running
by and swing on it. And that's about the way we do. But he said, when earnest and
fervent prayer pulls the rope with all our spirit and soul,
then the bell high in the belfry will ring out to be heard clearly
a mile away. A great preacher named Samuel
Chadwick wrote, Satan fears nothing from our prayerless studies,
prayerless works, prayerless religion. He'll fear. He laughs at our toil. He mocks at our wisdom. But he trembles when we pray. So it is. A believer makes no progress
in life unless he travels much of the way on his knees. God, forgive us our failure to
glorify Him. Oh God, forgive us our failure to
glorify You in our negligence to pray. I'll give you this in
closing. Someone said in old England,
a man was in deep trouble and he was journeying to the
king's palace seeking help in his particular trouble. And on the way there, he was
overheard to say, if I get to speak to no one but
the butler or the groundskeeper, it will all be in vain. But if I can have a word with
the king himself, I know I'll be satisfied. I ask us this question. Has it
ever really dawned on you that you can have a word with the
king himself? He has even sent word that he's
available. Bidding us to come. Pour our
hearts out. Spend some time with him. May
the Lord help us. Help us all not to fail in this
matter of glorifying God in prayer. Thank you. Stand with me.