Prayer and Worship

I'd like to read the first verse,
the first verse of Luke chapter 11. 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. I want to begin by saying this
morning that we're no authority on this subject of prayer. I
do not believe that there's any child of God that I ever met
that would claim to be an authority on this subject of prayer. Lord,
teach us to pray was the request of the disciples here, and that,
of course, follows after the Lord Jesus was praying in a certain
place when he ceased. One of his disciples said unto
him, Lord, teach us to pray. I imagine after hearing the Lord
Jesus Christ address the Father in holy prayer, that it certainly
would be the desire of any child of grace close at hand who would
hear him pray, that their desire would be, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us how to approach the
God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us how to call
upon the Lord. While we're seeking to know Christ
and to be found in Him, following His example, we need to know
how to pray. Now then, I'm not pleased with
my prayer life, and I don't suppose anyone here this morning is pleased
with theirs. And if you are pleased with your
prayer life, then I certainly don't guess you belong in this
company, at least probably not this morning. And maybe you don't
belong in the company that I'm in because certainly I'm not
pleased with mine. I confess to you this morning
that I want to pray. I do want to pray. I desire to
pray. I know that many play at this
business of prayer. They're not really sincere in
their desire to seek the Lord and to cry out to God. And they
play at the business of prayer because there's no real pressing
crisis in their lives and therefore they are not pressed to pray.
And so they play at the subject of prayer. But I want to know
the value and the importance of prayer and I want to practice
it. Because I know that a prayerless
life is a graceless life. And I also know that there shall
be no power, there shall be no victory in anyone's life or in
the life of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ if there is
no prayer. There will be no power and there
will be no victory. What breath is to a natural man,
prayer is to the spiritual life of a child of God and to the
life of a church. Beloved, if we're going to have
the life of God, we must be a praying people. We've got to seek the
Lord. And I know that we have many,
many, many hindrances to prayer. And I know that we're hindered.
We're hindered by distance getting together. We're hindered by too
many light hours in the day, I suppose. Too many things to
do. We're hindered by so many, many
things that we do not get together to pray as we ought. But there
shall never be any victory. in our lives and in the church
life until we are enabled of God to call upon His name. Continuing prayer is the language
of the Word of God and it says pray without ceasing. Now public
prayer, and we're concerned about that because we try to pray here
when we get together and And we have one or two of the brethren
to lead in prayer, and I try to pray here as we come together. And public prayer is to be offered. The scripture is full of it.
And there is, I believe also, there's a gift of prayer. I've
heard people pray in public and I thought, my soul, wouldn't
it be wonderful if every time we went to prayer that we could
pray like that. That we have the ability to just
to relieve our souls before God. Just to simply bring all the
burdens and the cares and the concerns of our hearts and not
only our concerns and cares, but the cares of others around
us and bring them before the throne of grace. and after we've
prayed that everyone feels relief and feels that God's heard and
that God's been supplicated on our behalf and that the blessing
is sure to come because the Lord has been called upon. Well, none
of us here, I suppose, feel that we maybe are gifted that way.
But I don't think we should feel bad about that. I think that
we should recognize the fact that God can bestow His gifts
wherever He would But that prayer is something that every child
of grace can perform. It's a part of worship. And every
child of God can pray. And I think this, that if we're
honest, we have to admit that it is difficult to pray in public.
It is difficult because we don't always, it's hard to keep the
Lord in view. Many times when we're standing,
when we're talking, and when we're praying out loud before
other people, we have, we think of brother so-and-so and sister
so-and-so, we think of this preacher that's present or that preacher,
and we think of all that's around us, and it's hard to keep the
Lord in view. And many times we fail when it
comes to public prayer. But just remember this, that
we ought to keep it in our hearts mind that the Lord is the one
that we're addressing and try to single out the Lord in our
prayers and pray unto God and not be praying to our brethren,
not trying to be eloquent so that our brethren and sisters
would feel that we're capable or that we're gifted somehow
or other above them. But we should keep the Lord in
mind. Now one of the hardest parts,
I think, of the ministry is not necessarily getting up and preaching
the Word of God, but I think it's to pray. It's to seek the
Lord both in private and in public. And to do so with an honest and
sincere heart. To do so with a burdened heart.
To do so with a feeling heart. A heart that feels for the people
that we're ministering to. To be able to pray for them is
a very difficult part of the ministry. Well, the Lord Jesus
said here in verse 9 of Luke chapter 11, He said, And I say
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you. This scripture has
often been, I think, very pointed and it's been directed many times
to my soul. It just simply says, And I say
unto you, Ask, And it shall be given you. That's what prayer
is. Seek and you shall find. That's what prayer is. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. And this 10th verse, For everyone
that asketh receiveth. Now isn't that tremendous? Everyone
that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Now this is what our
Lord says to us this morning about prayer. He said also in
Luke 18 and 1, He said, men ought always to pray and not to faint. And then in James, James the
apostle said, you have not because you ask not. And then Paul said,
give thanks and everything for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. And then Jesus said, if you shall
ask anything in my name, in John 14 and verse 14, he said, I will
do it. Well, this business of prayer,
what is prayer anyway? Prayer is a petition. Prayer
is a duty. Prayer is a responsibility. Prayer
is a commandment. It is all of this, but then it's
more than this also. I'd like to say that prayer is
communion with God, because that's really what it is. Prayer is
communion with God. Prayer is a living heart that
speaks in a living ear, and that living ear is the ear of the
living God. Prayer is not a message to the
moon, it's not a message to the stars, it's not a message to
the sun, it's a message to the living God. It's a calling upon
the Lord. It is frailty fleeing to omnipotence. It is misery at the door of mercy. It is warm Jacob at the ladder's
foot, and that ladder's foot reaching into heaven. And prayer
is the exploring eye and the believing hand. Now listen to
me. Prayer is the exploring eye and
the believing hand selecting from the unsearchable riches
of Christ the sweetest mercies and the costliest gifts. Yes,
prayer is strength in weakness and it's courage in dismay. It is the lifeboat which rides
the roaring flood. the asbestos rope which defies
the devouring flame. It is the tent in which frailty
sleeps securely and anguish forgets to moan. It is the shield on
which the world and the wicked one expend their darts in vain. It is the chariot which conveys
the departing spirit into a Savior's arms. That's what prayer is.
And then prayer, I believe, and this is important to us as a
church to know this, prayer confers the largest power of doing good
to others here in this world. Beloved, prayer is the greatest
thing and it's the most powerful thing that we have here in this
world that we can do good to others with. What can I do for
you? We often hear that statement,
what can I do for you? Well, what can you do for me
as a child of God? What can we do for other people?
What can we do about their sorrows? What can we do about their problems?
What can we do about the crisis that's in the lives of our brethren
and sisters in Christ? What can we do about all of those
obstacles that need to be moved? What can we do about the tremendous
situations that we find our brethren and sisters in and ourselves
also in at times when it looks like there is no solution and
the problems cannot be solved? There's just simply no answer.
Well, what can we do? Well, beloved, I believe that
the largest power of doing good to others here on this earth
is this business of prayer. What can I do for you? What can
you do for me? You can pray, beloved. You can
pray. I can pray for you, and you can
pray for me. And that's exactly what we ought
to do. Now, this morning, I want you to turn, if you will, to
the book of Numbers chapter 14. The book of Numbers chapter 14
And here in this chapter, I want to talk to you a little bit about
Moses and the prayer life of Moses. And maybe it will please
God this morning, as I use a few verses in both Numbers and in
Exodus, maybe that the Lord would be pleased to encourage our hearts
in this business of prayer. that we may cry out unto God.
Now, the secret of the Lord was with Moses. There's no question
about that. The Word of God says it's true,
and I believe he spoke with God as a friend to friend, and he
knew the Lord. Now then, there's two things
that stand out in the prayers of Moses. And I think that we
should consider these two things. And I want you to keep them in
mind as I go through here two or three passages of scripture.
These two things. Number one, Moses had a hopefulness
which felt that no moment was too late nor any depth of misery
too profound for prayer. Moses had a hopefulness about
him. He just simply believed that
it was whatever the situation was, however bad the situation
was, that there was hopefulness and he always felt that it was
not too late to go to the Lord and to cry out to God and to
seek the Lord concerning the things that were necessary in
the life of the children of Israel. And number two, he had an expectation
of mercy. and expectancy of mercy. Now he had the confidence of
being heard by God and he expected that God would have mercy. Even
though the God of the Bible was an all-powerful, almighty God
who hated sin, and the children of Israel was a rebellious, stiff-necked
people who did many things that provoked the Lord and caused
Him to wax hot in His wrath, Yet Moses believed that every
situation there was hope in it And so he would cry to God and
he would plead for the Lord's people and he also believed that
God would have mercy That even though the people had in such
outward it would live in such outward Rebellion even then such
great sins that God would forgive and that God would have mercy
upon his people now listen to me If we ever lose those two
things, we're out of business when it comes to prayer. And
I'll just tell you that right now, we're out of business. If
you ever lose hopefulness, if you ever believe that it's too
late, If you ever believe that it's just no need anymore, that
the situation is past the point of help, that there isn't any
need to cry to God, there isn't any need to plead anymore, there
isn't any need to fast anymore, there's no need to cry to God
because the situation is too far gone. If you ever come to
that place, my friend, then you're in a very bad situation, a very
bad state, and it'll take the power of God to ever lift you
up out of that state. And another thing is this business
of expectancy. If you ever get to the place
where you say, I just don't expect God to do anything. I don't think
anything will happen. I don't think it'll do any good
to pray. It won't do any good. I just don't expect God to have
mercy. We've committed too many sins.
We are too wretched before God. We are just simply too black.
And God won't have mercy on us anymore. We've gone too far. We just simply slipped over the
edge. And God's not going to deal with
us anymore. He's not going to visit us anymore.
God's not going to undertake. The arm of the Lord will not
come under us again. God's going to leave us to ourselves.
And when you come to that place where you not any longer expect
God to be merciful, but you only look for God to keep on allowing
things to be bad in your life and to get worse day by day until
the grave is open to receive your body, then my friend, let
me tell you something, you're in a bad state. You're in a bad
state. Now then, here we have in Numbers
chapter 14, and we know that the children of Israel, that
they had been, you remember when, there's two or three cases that
I want to mention here concerning Moses, but the first thing here
that, did I say Numbers 14? Well, let me read, beginning
with verse 17. Now now beseech thee, let the
power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
The Lord is long suffering of great mercy, forgiving iniquity
and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third
and fourth generation. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity
of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and
as thou has forgiven this people from Egypt even until now You
remember the murmurings of the children of Israel and you remember
how that the people of God did? Provoke the Lord and we look
back at verse 11 here in this numbers chapter 14 and And the
Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me?
And how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs
which I have showed among them? Now the Lord is about ready here
to bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. He would
bring them in. We know that this bunch was full
of unbelief and they rebelled against God and they sinned against
God and the spies went up to look over the land and they came
back and none but Joshua and Caleb said, we can take the land. But the rest of the people were
in rebellion against God, and they would not move one peg toward
going up in faith and taking the land. And so the Lord said
to Moses, how long is this going to go on? How long is these people
going to keep on provoking me? Now here's my point. The point
I want to make is that even in the midst of these circumstances,
When the people of God were provoking the Lord, Moses was crying out
to God, as I read here in verse 17 and 18 and 19. He was crying
to God, believing that God was a God of great power. And the
Lord said, I'm just going to smite these people with pestilence
and disinherit them, in verse 12, and will make of thee a greater
nation and mightier than they. And listen to what Moses said
unto the Lord in verse 13. Then the Egyptians shall hear
it, for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among
them." In other words, it was out from among the Egyptians,
Lord, that you brought this people with your mighty power at the
Red Sea, and you delivered them across the Red Sea, and they
will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. For they have heard
that thou, Lord, art among this people, that thou, Lord, art
seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and
that thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of cloud,
and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard of the fame
of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring
this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore
he hath slain them in the wilderness. Now, brother, sister, this looks
like a mighty hopeless situation to me. And it looked like a hopeless
situation, and it was. Do you recognize that only Caleb
and Joshua was enabled of the Lord to live out this next 20
years and to enter into the land of Canaan? That all of these
older generations, that was an unbelief, that they all had to
perish, die off in the wilderness before they could enter into
the land of Canaan? But here's Moses in verse 17
of these verses that I read earlier. And now I beseech thee, let thy
power, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast
spoken. The Lord is longsuffering in
great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no
means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children of the third and fourth generation, Pardon I beseech
thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of
thy mercy and as thou has forgiven this people from Egypt even until
now and the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word
And so he was hopeful in this situation, that even though they
had provoked the Lord and rebelled against him and would not walk
in faith, but walked only by sight, saying, this people is
taller and bigger, we can't take the land of Canaan. Even then
the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. Now then beloved this is very
important for us to see then these two things hopefulness
and expectancy now when when I want you to turn back with
me to Exodus chapter 14 and This is so clear in Exodus 14 And
I just had to mention this today because it's been on my mind
and I want you to see this I want you to look at verse 13 and And
Moses said to the people, and here they are, you know, they
have come out of Egypt and they're at the Red Sea, and the people
were saying it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people,
fear you not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord
in verse 13. which he will show to you today for the Egyptians
whom you have seen today you shall see them again no more
forever the Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your
peace and ye shall hold your peace and the Lord said unto
Moses now listen to what the Lord said wherefore cryest thou
unto me speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward
Here they are, the walls of granite on both sides and the water of
the Red Sea in front and the Egyptians behind them, no place
to go. And the Lord said, speak unto
the children of Israel that they go forward. You prayed enough,
now step forward. But lift thou up thy rod and
stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it. And the children
of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and
so on. And so the Lord delivered his people. Look down here, verse
22. And the children of Israel went
into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters
were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.
Brother, can you think about leading two billion people and
getting them boxed in like this and having all the pressure upon
you that Moses had upon him? And then him speaking to the
people and said, you just stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. And the Lord said, Moses, why
do you cry any longer to me? I'll fight for you. Just go forward. And so we see this same hopefulness. and the same expectancy in the
language of Moses. And then if you would turn to
the 15th chapter of Exodus and look verse 22 through 25 where
they were almost poisoned here by the waters of Merah and you'll
see this again. These two principles. So Moses
brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness
of Shur and they went three days in the wilderness excuse me,
and found no water. And when they came to Merah,
they could not drink of the waters of Merah, for they were bitter.
Therefore, the name of it was called Merah. And the people
murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And in verse
25, and he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree,
which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. And there he made for them a
statue and an ordinance, and there he proved them. Now listen
to me this morning. In verse 25 here, we see that
Moses again had this great burden of the people upon him. And he
had a situation here, he didn't know how to solve the problem.
He didn't know what to do. The people were starving for
a drink. And they had no water to drink. What shall we drink? Verse 24, the people were saying
to Moses. And so Moses cried unto the Lord,
and the Lord showed him a tree. And then he cast this tree, part
of this tree, into the waters, and the waters were made sweet.
Now brethren, this tree was there all the time. We very well know
that. But Moses didn't know it, and he didn't know that that
tree had healing powers. But the Lord showed him this
tree. And it was as he prayed in this
impossible situation. We get shut up and everything
we got seems to be something wrong with it. Everything is
junk, everything is just something is ridiculous. The condition
of things around us, everything is just went downhill until we
just simply don't think we got anything left that is workable
and usable, nothing that we can do anything with. And if we cry
to the Lord, it's awfully easy to get discouraged in those times.
and say we just simply don't have any means anymore to go
on. We cannot function anymore because
we have gotten into a situation where everything we have is just
simply, it won't work anymore. It won't work. But if you're
crying to God as Moses did, He can point you in a direction. He can show you how to heal the
situation. He can show you something that
you've never seen before. He can point you over here, over
there. He can open a way if you look
to Him and if you cry to Him. And sometimes the very reason
why God allows you to get to the place where the waters are
poisoned and you don't have a thing is in order that you will cry
unto Him that His wisdom will be manifest in pointing you in
the direction that you ought to go. And I think this morning
this shows to me, at least it shows to me, the hopefulness
and the expectancy that Moses had in his heart as he led the
children of Israel. Now then, we go to another situation
that I want you to look at. And this is in Exodus 17. You look in Exodus chapter 17
and verses 8 through 14. These are passages of scripture
that describe certain events here in the life of Moses, the
man of God, and the leading of the children of Israel through
the wilderness that are very typical and we can learn great
lessons from these truths. These things were written for
our example. They were written for our learning
and we should follow the leading of the Lord and notice the truths
that are brought out here But in Exodus 17 beginning with verses
8 through 14 We see that the children of Israel came up against
Amalek and This is very important. I want you to follow closely
to what I have to say about this verse 8. I Then came Amalek and
fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
out men, and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow, and I will
stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek.
And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And
it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed,
and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses'
hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him.
And he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands,
the one on the one side and the other on the other side. And
his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua
disconfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Now
then, The victory or the success here against Amalek of Israel
was determined by the uplifted hands of Moses. Now the uplifted
hands of Moses was emblematic of prayer. That's what it was
emblematic of. It's emblematic of the supplication
of God. In Psalm 28 in verse 2, the psalmist
said, Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I
lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. the Oracle of our sanctuary
when I lift up my hands toward the Oracle of our sanctuary He
said hear the voice of my supplications now then in first Timothy chapter
2 and in verse 8 Paul says I will that I that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And so we
see the connection between what took place here and prayer. And
so I believe that as Moses' hands were held up, It was as prayer
going up to God, crying out, supplicating God to intervene
with the children of Israel so they would not be swallowed up
by the Amalekites. Now, Amalek was a type of the
flesh. was the type of the flesh. And
do you know something about doing battle with the flesh? I think
most of you here that have walked with the Lord any length of time
knows how the spirit wars against the flesh, the flesh against
the spirit so that we cannot do the thing that we would and
that we must keep on supplicating God or else the old flesh will
take over in every situation and just completely ruin everything.
Well, his hands, in verse 12, notice this. But Moses' hands
were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he
sat there on. Well, his hands grew heavy. Now this is a type
of how we grow weary of supplicating God. You remember I quoted the
verse a few minutes ago in Luke 18.1 where it says men are always
to pray and not to faint. Men ought to pray and not to
faint. We grow weary of supplicating God. We get tired of just keeping
on crying to God. You remember in the text this
morning in Luke 11 as we read it, that had told the story about
the man who came to his friend's house at night, and the man asked
for some bread, a loaf, to set before those that had come to
his house. And the scripture said the man
would not rise. He said, I'm in bed. He would
not rise, but the man kept on saying, I don't have anything,
and I've got to have it. I've got to have it. I've got
to have it. So the man said he wouldn't rise to give it to him
because he was his friend, but because of his importunity, because
he wouldn't give up. He just kept on until the man
got up and gave him as many as he needed. And so my friend,
here's the lesson. Dependency upon God, as soon
as we lose the spirit of dependency upon God, the flesh prevails. We get tired and we just get
weary of this business of crying to God. Crying to God. But listen to me, my friend.
God will be supplicated by His people. God will be cried to,
God will be pleaded with, God will cry, because the Lord might,
as the scripture says in Luke 18 there, the Lord might bear
long with his elect that cry day and night unto him. But we get weary, and Moses got
weary, but notice Moses was not left to himself. Moses was not
left to himself. And this, my friend, is very
important. Here in the 12th verse, he sat
on a rock, they took a stone, and I believe that was Aaron
and Hur that did that, and then Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands,
the one on the one side and the other on the other side, and
his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. Now here,
notice if you will, Moses, as we said, was not left to himself
because he had Aaron and Herod stay up his hands, one on the
left and one on the right. Now Aaron was the head of the
priesthood of Israel. And this speaks of Christ. He was a type of Christ who in
his high priestly work works on the behalf of the children
of God. He was a type of the Lord Jesus. Now I'm getting to something
here. If you'll turn to Revelation chapter 8. Revelation chapter
8. I want you to look at verse 3
with me. 3 and 4. And another angel came
and stood. Now this angel here is the messenger
of the covenant, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
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 angel's hand. Now my friend, isn't it wonderful
that the Lord Jesus Christ stands on one side of us and that he
with the incense and he has much incense and might I say that
it takes much incense Do you know what incense is? Well, it's
a flavorful, it's something that smells, it has a tremendous beautiful
smell to it, much fragrance to it, and it arises to the nostrils
of God and it pleases God, it satisfies God. The Lord Jesus
Christ has much incense to offer with our prayers. Now what does
that tell you about your prayers? It tells you that there's no
comeliness in them, that there's no fragrance in them that pleases
God until the incense of the messenger of the covenant is
added to it. And when that incense is added
to the prayers of the saints of God, they ascend up onto the
throne of God. God hears them and God will answer
those prayers. So we have standing in our right
hand, our Aaron, our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
incensing our prayers in order that they could come up into
the nostrils of God and be well-pleasing, sweet-smelling in his nostrils. And then we have her. Now, her
means light. And it's the emblem of divine
holiness. And it points to the Holy Spirit. And in Romans 8 and 26, it says,
likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered,
or with groanings which cannot be put into words. And so her
represents the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is on one
side, Christ thy priest is on the other side, and so you and
I, we are supported on either side by God's provision, Christ
and the Holy Spirit. And so my friend, in order to
pray, in order for us to have victory, in order for us to be
motivated to pray as we ought, as the children of God, we've
got to understand this. Because we're in such we we get
in the Lord and only knows my friend. We've cited these examples
here of Moses poor Moses at the Red Sea, the people clamoring,
should have stayed back there in Egypt. And then as we said,
he was at the waters of Merah, what are we gonna drink? And
then here he was in this other situation here with the Amalekites
and his hands were weary and he had to hold his hands up.
He had to be supported and God makes a way for his servant to
be supported. And my friend, I tell you, sometimes
we get into these situations in our lives and we just simply
do not have the strength to go on and the strength to cry to
God anymore. We don't have the ability to
do it in and of ourselves. We don't have the heart to do
it. to any more crying. We've cried and we've cried and
we've cried until we don't have any more tears and hardly have
any more feelings to cry anymore. What shall we do? What shall
we do? Where can we get the strength? Where can we get what it takes
to cry to God so as to get the victory, to secure the victory
so that the name of the Lord will not be evil spoken of? Where shall we get the help?
Oh Moses, But God will not leave his people without support. Christ
on the one hand to offer the incense. Your prayers may be
very feeble. You cannot utter a word. Words,
you cannot put them into words. Groanings only. But Christ will
incense them on the right hand and the Holy Spirit on the other
will make the groanings and they will ascend up unto God. God
will hear the prayers of his people Even if all it is is a
groan and a sigh, God will hear the prayers of these people.
Now, brother, sister, that comforts me because there are times when
I'm without word, when I'm without heart, and only God can. Only God can intervene on the
behalf of His children, and only God can give us the help that
we need. And so we enter into these difficult
times. There's old Moses and how he got wore out. You remember
he did get weary. And until finally he smoked the
rock the second time when he ought to have only spoken to
it. He was worn out with it all. And Moses did not go into the
land of Canaan, he could not. Because Moses was a type of the
law and he could never go into the land of Canaan. Joshua went
into the land of Canaan. He was a type of Christ. You
go to heaven by Christ. You don't go to heaven by the
law. And so Moses couldn't go in. But he was wore out before
it was over and did that which was wrong in the sight of God
and broke the type of God. You remember that? But I'll tell
you what, the way is a wearisome way, but God's people need to
understand what old Moses did in order to be hopeful and in
order to be expecting God to undertake and to show mercy. Even though great sins have been
committed, God always undertook for his people and gave them
the victory because Aaron and Hur was on one side and the other. Christ the High Priest and the
Holy Spirit enabling prayers to be offered. Now there's just
a few things that I'd like to suggest before I let you go on
what we should pray for. as the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the people of God. Some people say, well, I think
I know what we should pray for. Well, I just want to go over
these things with you just quickly. I'm not going to preach on them.
I'm just going to suggest them to you because I believe that
they're important and that we should keep them in our minds.
Well, first of all, I think that we should always pray for a vision. I don't mean the kind of vision
that maybe some people are talking about, but a view, I should say,
a view of our sins. You know, my friend, one of the
reasons why that we don't appreciate the righteousness of God, the
mercy of God, and the grace of God is because we never really
viewed ourselves as we are. We just somehow or other are
blind to what we are, how sinful we are. How wretched we are. I think we should pray that God
will give us a view of our sins. Because it's against that background
that you will see everything else that God has. And if you've
never seen your sins, you're never going to know anything
about the grace of God. Now secondly, I think we ought
to pray for a view of God's righteousness. that we'd know how righteous
God is. And then I think we should pray
for a view of redemption in Christ. What it means to be redeemed
by the blood of the Son of God. Redemption. In order that we'll
know that we're not our own, but that we belong to him by
the price that he paid. Lord, show me your redemption
so I'll understand what a price you paid for me. And then we
should pray for the knowledge of God in His Word. That God
will open up the Word and reveal Himself to us. Show us thyself,
O Lord, out of thy Word. And then we should pray for the
knowledge of God's will in our lives. Pray that God will reveal
His will so that we can walk in it, so that we might do it
for His glory. And then pray for more of Christ
and less of me in what I do and am. Pray that we be more Christ-likeness,
that there be more Christ-likeness in us. Pray to God that we be
more like the Lord Jesus. And then we should be praying
for the salvation of sinners. Asking God to save sinners to
bring them out of their lost state Now what a man dies and
drowns in the river We drag all we can do is drag the river and
get his body and bring him out and give him a decent barrel
It's all we can do for him, but a lost sinner and all we can
do for him is just simply to preach to him that's all we can
do but we can pray that God will undertake and And it's by the
power of God that sinners are saved and we need to stand back
and pray for sinners and believe that God's power is going to
come and convert them and regenerate their hearts and bring them out
of sin's death and bring them into the glorious life and liberty
of the gospel. We need to pray for the salvation
of sinners. And then we need to pray for
the strengthening of the church. This church here needs to be
strengthened. God knows where in it needs to be strengthened. And we need to pray for the success
of the preaching of the gospel both to God's living family and
as we said to sinners that come under the sound of the gospel,
that the gospel would run well in our day. Pray that the gospel
will go forth in power in our day and that we need to pray
for the comfort of the saints. that God will comfort his poor
living family, his poor afflicted and tested and tried people.
Oh, to have a word, how my heart yearns to have a word to get
up and to say to God's afflicted people, his family, his tested,
his tried people, when I don't know where they came from, I
don't know what happened when they were at home before they
left, I don't know what their situation, I don't know what
they're going through, I don't know the test that they have,
I don't know the burdens that they bear, but to have a word
from God that meets their case. So that I can speak the language
of Zion to their soul and have a message of comfort and joy
and peace that would bring some deliverance to the souls of God's
poor afflicted people. My soul, the comfort of the saints. And then we need to pray for
our daily needs. Say, well preacher, I know that.
Jesus said, you know, he said, he knew what things we had need
of before we asked him, but I think we need to pray for our daily
needs. Give us our daily bread, Jesus said, when you pray. Pray,
give us our daily bread. And we need to ask God, and when
it comes to a place where we say, well, we'll just take it
for granted, God will surely give it. Well, my friend, God
said you need to ask for it. Pray for your daily needs. Pray
and ask God for them. And then, I think we need to
pray for special help in our crisis. Do you have any crisis
in your life? Say, no preacher, I don't. Well,
if you don't have any in yours, I got some in mine. Would you
pray about the crisis in my life? Would you do that? Now you see,
it's been the way of the Lord in my life. that there have been
very few days since I've known the Lord when I've been without
crisis. That's just the way it's been.
That's the way it's always been. And it is a very weary way to
live. But that's the way of the Lord
for some of his people. He is in one crisis after another. And most of the people of God,
most of those that follow in the ways of the Lord, most of
God's people They experience just that. They experience crisis
after crisis in their lives. So we need to pray that we get
special help from the Lord in our times of crisis. Cry to God,
my friend, and ask him to liberate, to undertake, and to bless, and
to minister, and to meet the needs that you have in your life. And remember, oh Moses, hopefulness
And expectancy. Remember that. And don't lose
it. Don't lose it. God is able. God is able. He is able to deliver
thee. Well, that's what I had on my
heart this morning to say. And I've said it. And I believe
it was true. And I hope that God will bless
these thoughts to your heart. And that we'll all become more
prayerful. We'll all become more prayerful. and be crying to God
more and more. Do pray for me. The Lord willing,
tomorrow I'm leaving to go up to Minot, North Dakota to preach.
I'll be preaching up there on Tuesday and Wednesday nights,
coming down to Bismarck, North Dakota on Thursday

Prayer and Worship

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