210724 - The Importance of Prayer - Hart

The main ideas from this information are: - The speaker opens with a Bible reading and talks about the model prayer in Matthew 6:5-6. - The speaker mentions the visit of the Gleason family and their long tenure in the church. - The speaker discusses the topic of prayer and mentions statistics on prayer in America. - The speaker highlights the multi-faceted nature of prayer and quotes Ellen White on prayer being the key in the hand of faith. - The speaker describes prayer as giving God attention and mentions George Muller's life and his reliance on prayer for his orphanages. - The speaker talks about George Muller's approach to fundraising and the power of constant prayer. - The speaker expresses a desire for a similar experience of faith in prayer. Let's open our Bibles. Matthew 6, verses 5 and 6. Matthew 6, verses 5 and 6. A little loud here. This is called the model prayer. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Amen. Our pastor this morning has our message. It's nice to see everybody. I think we need to have a Gleason's visit more often so our church can be full and packed and have a hard time finding a room. Two rows back from you. But it is a pleasure to, actually no, four rows. It's a pleasure to have them here. And we were blessed last Sabbath in Congress to have them visiting with us as well. So it's very special. You know, pastors don't always stay in churches very long. Some pastors, as little as two years, I don't know how you get anything done in two years. They say it takes three years for trust, really, to be fully established. And even that seems kind of long. But nevertheless, some pastors seem like they're there and they pick up and they're gone again. I don't understand that. However, the Gleason's were here for 18 years, right? That's a long time. That's very uncommon. And we'll see how God leads. I don't know if we'll be here 18. I'm open to it. I'm sick of moving. You know our moving story. We'll see how God leads us as a church family. But it really is an honor to have them in the midst. I offered the pulpit to him, Dan. Oh no, I'll chuck. They say in the old cartoons, I'll chuck. Anyway, I did grow up with old cartoons. God is good. Well, I hope that means God is being blessed, or you are being blessed by the Word of God. So, but it is a pleasure to be here. And we have a sermon title today. It's not a title, I'm sorry. We have a topic of prayer. So you all watched the story of George Muller, Last Sabbath, isn't that correct? What an amazing story. Really challenged my own faith. Challenged me in different ways. And if you haven't seen it, I would recommend you do see it. You can watch it on YouTube for free. And legally. Do study his life. If you want to read about it, that's good. But if you want to watch the documentary, it's really fantastic. But let's pray before we do anything, right? Because that's what this is all about. Father, thank you so much for this beautiful day you've given us here in Laconia. We are just one among a myriad of churches that are praising your name on this beautiful Sabbath. This beautiful memorial of the day of creation, the crowning day of creation, where you now spent restful time with your creation, with Adam and Eve, and all the beauties and the granders you have made for their enjoyment. But we are most, most of our enjoyment, Lord, and all of our enjoyment, in fact, is found in our relationship with you. So we thank you for this opportunity to come in your presence. We do pray that everything that is said would be to the glory and honor of your name. But we do ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And welcome to everybody who will be watching via TV in a week or so. I know that these are broadcasted via television, so we welcome you as well. Prayer. How many of you have prayed for something and not received it? You can raise your hands. How many of you have prayed for something and have received it? Okay, and I should be raising my hand too. How many of you pray for things sometimes and feel honestly like God is ignoring your prayer? I've had those moments in my life. Prayer is one of those things where it's very enigmatic in some ways. You know, Barna Research says that over 76% of Americans pray. At least they've prayed once in the past three months. That's what the research says. Now, by Christian standards, we wouldn't really call that a prayer life, but those are the statistics. So, Americans do pray, I guess, on occasion. But what does that mean? You know, what does it really mean to pray? Because honestly, prayer can mean a whole lot of different things, can't it? It can mean a lot of different things. A lot of people experience prayer in different ways. A lot of people pray in different ways. But if we want to really pray authentically, as Christians, we really need to kind of study it a little bit in God's Word. Because that's where we find prayer, is in the Word of God, right? And when we look at the Word of God, we find that also is so multi-faceted. You've got prayers of intercession. You've got prayers of supplication. You've got prayers for healing. Prayers of deliverance. Prayers of repentance. I mean, there's just, the list goes on and on and on. The prayer in general, from a Biblical perspective, is very, very multi-faceted. You really can't describe what prayer is in a brief 20 seconds, a minute, or even, you know, it takes a lot of time. Because prayer is kind of complicated. It's been said that prayer is the breath of the soul. I like that description. Of course, as Adventists, sometimes we get a little weary when we hear the word soul in conjunction with other things. But that is one way that it has been described as. And I think Ellen White even endorsed that description of what prayer is. But I really love the way Ellen White describes prayer herself. I think it's in Steps to Christ. Prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse in which are treasured all the endless resources of omnipotence. Right? Maybe a word or two I got wrong there. But that's how she describes prayer. And I love that. It's the key in the hand of faith. Right? Prayer really unlocks amazing experiences when we are sincere. One writer said that prayer is giving God an audience. Giving him some attention. And I kind of like that. It's very simplified. But when you think about it, how much attention do we really give God? I mean, we want his attention. Isn't that right? We want God's attention all the time. But how much attention do we give to God? So I kind of like how that one writer distilled the concept of prayer. It's giving God attention. I think God wants our attention, doesn't he? Because God wants to share things with us. And so when we look at the life of George Muller, it really, really amazes us that this individual accomplished what he did. In his lifetime served over 100,000 orphans, street kids. You learned at that time kids were seen as vermin, you know, a nuisance. And when they didn't have parents, they were grabbed by the authorities and basically sent to the work mill. And they had a very rough life. They weren't seen as a blessing, that's for sure. And Muller was not interested in kids at all. When we learn about him in his early adult life, he was a partier, right? Womanizer. Just that's all he wanted to do was the next thrill, the next adrenaline rush. That was George Muller's life. And his father, a wealthy, wealthy, wealthy man, wanted his son to straighten up his life. It wasn't happening until he met a Christian. Amen? And was invited to a Bible study. And then that really transformed his life. And he wanted to be a missionary, but because of the circumstances of the political spectrum, he couldn't. But nevertheless, George Muller was led to have a burden for young people. These kids who were just tossed aside on the street, running around in trouble all the time, hungry and homeless. He really developed a burden for that. But there's one unique thing about George Muller that he refused to do. And that was to set up campaigns to ask for money to develop orphanages. Really backwards to the way we think, right? Because the way we think is you develop an awesome plan, a strategic plan, and then you go and you go to the people, you unload on them what your vision is, and you try to get them to buy into your vision and then ultimately give to the vision in monetary value. And that's how we typically see fundraising, right? That's kind of how we do it. Truth be told, in the Dark Ages, the Roman Church had a way of building St. Peter's Cathedral, didn't they? They went around town threatening everybody that they would lose their salvation if they didn't fill up the coffers. And so that was their system of fundraising. It's in history. I'm not making it up. And so it's a pressure thing. But George Muller did not believe in that. He said, I'm not going to manipulate anybody. I'm not going to pressure anybody. I'm not going to guilt trip anybody. I'm not even going to tell anybody what we need. And that, of course, is where faith really starts to kick in. You know, it's one thing to say, I'm not going to guilt trip, not pressure, and all this other stuff. But to not even make your need known to the people, that's just over the top, isn't it? And people really thought he was crazy. But that was what he decided to do. When I worked at 3ABN, my boss, he always used this term, you know, talking about Danny Shelton, his covenant with God was similar in some ways. He wasn't going to, you know, pressure people to give to 3ABN. And he used that term, covenant with God. Well, we could say in some ways that George Muller had a covenant with God, and that was, Lord, I'm not going to ask anybody for money. You're going to make this happen if it's from you. And boy, did God answer those prayers, right? It wasn't one prayer. It was constant prayer. And it was not always easy. Isn't that right? Not always easy for George Muller. So there are so many ways to define prayer. Because honestly, when you listen to the story of his and so many others, even when we look back at our Adventist roots and how amazing things happened as a result of prayer, doesn't it ever kind of, something well up inside of you saying, I want that experience? Right? Let's be honest, right? We all want to have an experience like George Muller. Maybe not oversee orphanages, but we want to do something great. We want to see God do something great in each of our lives. We want that sort of connection with God, that sort of prayer connection where things happen. That's what we want, don't we? And so in order to understand how that can be, we have to understand somewhat of how the Bible defines prayer. And we don't have enough time this morning, but I want to look at a few verses to kind of bring us to that place where we can understand the importance of prayer. And then ultimately, maybe we can get a little closer to a George Muller experience. Maybe I'm not on that scale, but certainly in that sort of closeness with God where we see God doing things. So in your Bibles, let's turn to the book of Mark and we're going to turn to chapter one, Mark chapter one. And first we're going to take a look at the greatest example of all. You know, so many people who prayed in the Bible, but let's take a look at what Jesus did, how Jesus viewed prayer. We're going to look at Mark chapter one and verse 35, and this is talking about Jesus and how Jesus saw prayer. Mark chapter one, and we're going to start in verse 35. I have it in my notes, but I like to read it from the Bible. Okay, Mark chapter one and verse 35 Bible says this and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed and Simon and those who are with him searched for him and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. And he said to them, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. So the first thing we must notice is that the Bible says Jesus woke up long before the morning, right? Before the sun started to peak its little, its bright face over the horizon, Jesus was already gone. He was out of the house, right? Or out of the campsite. He was gone, nowhere to be found. He went and found a solitary place. This was his practice. And it's interesting because we all want to know what was Jesus praying. Well, the Bible doesn't really record what Jesus was praying. Don't know anything about it. It just says that he, on those occasions, disappeared and he went to pray. We don't know what he was praying for, but I think there may be a hint somewhat because notice the disciples come to him and say when they actually find him showing that he wasn't like right around the corner, wasn't on the next tree over. He was out there somewhere. The disciples come and find him and they say, Master, everybody's looking for you. And what does Jesus say? Let's go to them. Peter and the disciples are talking about the people in the within the town that they're all staying in, whether it's on the neck of on the edge of town in the woods or wherever. They're talking about those people. Everybody is looking for you, those people. But notice Jesus response. He says, Let us go to the other town. Right? Let us go into the next town. In fact, is what my version says. Let's go into the next town that I may preach to. In other words, I know everybody here is looking for me, but let's go to this town. Is there a hint maybe there of what was transpiring in Jesus prayer as he was all by himself? He was receiving direction probably, right? Instruction. Because it doesn't jive with what the disciples are saying. Like, Lord, there's a need here. But for some reason, and we know Jesus never turned down a need right in front of his face. But the fact that he says, No, let's go to these other towns means he was getting directive from the father, right? In other words, he was disappearing long before morning to hear to spend time with his father and to see what God was going to tell him to do for the day. So I think it's a fairly legitimate conclusion. Let's go somewhere else. One version says. So Jesus was getting directions right long before the day dawned. It reminds me of Psalm chapter 63 and verse one. David says, and you can turn there if you'd like to. It's a beautiful statement of David. The David who really got himself in a lot of trouble. Right, Steve? The David we were talking about this morning. The David who was a man after God's own heart. What does he say in Psalm 63 and verse one? He says, and notice the little heading, a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Not when he was in the palace, not when he was in the hot tub, not when he was taking a swim in his pool, right? When he was in the wilderness, a tough place to be. Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you. You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. I think a simple question to ask would be, and you know, we read this stuff and we just gloss over things, don't we? Man after God's own heart. Yep. Woke up early in the morning seeking the Lord as a deer thirsting for the water, but we never really ask why. Why? I mean, what do you find when you get to God? We ever ask that question? What was David finding when he found God that he longed for God? I mean, it's not just some ambiguous statement in here to make it sound good. Obviously, David must have found something when he actually came into the presence of God, right? Why else would you long for that water? And when you actually get the cup, it quenches your thirst, right? Well, that's why David longed to be in the presence of God, because he found something when he was in the presence of God. And the fact that he was in the wilderness, once again, should tell us, kind of like Jesus, David was looking for comfort, right? In the midst of the challenges of the day, he was looking for direction, and David was looking for something else, because the following verses tell us what he was looking for. What do the following verses say? Maybe I'll just have you guys share a little bit this morning. Anybody have that right there, Psalm 63? Okay. To see your power. Somebody over here said to what? Right. To look upon you in the sanctuary, to behold your power. And then look at verse three. What does it say? Because your loving kindness is better than life, right? Lord, I value your loving kindness more than I value life itself. So those verses tell us that the reason David longed to be with God as a dear thirst for the water, early in the morning, just as Jesus did, was because when he was in the presence of God, his soul felt complete, right? I mean, do you ever long for the loving kindness? How many times do you need to be reminded of the loving kindness of God? Every morning for me, right? Every morning for me, honestly. And not because I've done something bad the day before, not always. Often I look back and say, yep, flipped up there, messed up there. Don is agreeing. Amen, right? Better to agree than to deny. You know, when we look at our lives, we really should find ourselves often longing to hear the loving kindness of God. We need to be reminded of that often. And I think that's why the Bible is so saturated with that theme, God's love for man. Because we don't love ourselves naturally, do we? We're self-destructive. We don't love others naturally. We destroy stuff. We ruin stuff. The Bible needs to remind us that there's a God in heaven who loves us and wants to fill our hearts to the full with his loving kindness. And that's what David is saying. I long to see you in the sanctuary. I long to be in your presence. I need that. I need that every morning, especially when you're in a rocky, dry place. Right, John? Never mind. I didn't know your eyes were closed. Oh, I didn't mean to say that. I'm trying to develop this comical rapport. We need that, don't we? Because life is often like the wilderness. And sometimes life is kind of like it is for Jesus. I mean, we're not pressed as Jesus was during his ministry, but there are many things that press us roundabout. And we have to choose whether we're going to go to God before the day gets crazy, right, or try to find him in the midst of the craziness. And Jesus shows us that the wise thing to do is to get up before the craziness begins and come into the presence of God, because the honest truth is God can give you some direction. He can give me some direction. He can give us some direction so we can avoid pitfalls, right? And that's where God answers prayer. And that's really what it's all about. It's about prayer. I don't know about you, but I always need to know that God is watching over me. You know, Jesus didn't need mercy because he was a lamb without blemish and without spot, right? Jesus didn't need the mercy of God in his earthly experience because he was perfect. So he didn't need to be reminded of the mercy of God in that sense. But he longed to be close to the Father, to have the assurance that the Father had his back, especially when the day was exhausting, right? You know, some of us don't get a lot of sleep. I was talking with Jay recently. You know, Jay does not get a lot of sleep. Poor guy. Really, my heart longs for you. Been struggling with that for years. And so maybe Jay, even better than some of us, can understand what that must have felt like for Jesus day in and day out, you know, lacking that sleep. But you know what? Jesus didn't choose to take a week off and just sleep nonstop straight. He chose to get his strength from his Father. So God can really sustain us in ways that we can't even imagine. Let's look at another instance right here. Another statement about Jesus and his prayer life. Luke chapter 5. Turn to Luke chapter 5 and verse 14. Luke chapter 5 and verse 14. And the Bible says this. Now, this is right after Jesus cleanses the leper, right? You remember the story? The leper comes up to him. Lord, if you're willing to make me clean, I will be clean. Jesus says, I'm willing. He reaches out. He touches him and then picks up in verse 14, says, and he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them. But now, even more the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. What does verse 16 say? But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Right? One version says, but he would often. In other words, while the need of the world was pressing on Jesus and much of those were legitimate. Yeah, there was some of the crowd trying to trip him up, but most of those needs were legitimate. The Bible says he would often disappear and pray. Right? Because as important as it is to meet the needs of the people, if we are not filled, we really have nothing to give. Isn't that right? And that's the model that Jesus gave us. He often withdrew and prayed. And I like what one writer says, if the son of God was so dependent on prayer as the spotless son of man, how much more should we be dependent on him? In fact, the writer says, she makes the comment, how amazing it is how little we pray. Right? And we're not going to look around and ask each other how much we pray, you know, but we know we could probably pray more. I think we all could probably pray more. Not to say that we don't pray. I love her. I love those moments in prayer, but my schedule gets crazy. And there's times where I say, you know what? I need to just stop and take a moment and pray myself because that's life and we need to recognize it as such. Truth is the pressure of life can be overwhelming, whether it's people issues, scheduling issues, business issues, right? Everyone needs a readily accessible way to connect with God. This cell phone, some of you don't have a cell phone. Some of you have made the wise decision at your age to chuck one, chuck it, do it without it. I cannot do without a cell phone, but may God's grace be upon you. But most of us have cell phones, right? How many of you are willing to put this thing in the drawer for a week? Right? And that's not a negative comment because it can be used for negative things, but it really is our access to each other, our access to the world, to news and everything else, even our Bibles now. Many of us have Bibles on our cell phones, right? We can't imagine life without it because it's our window to information. It's our connection. And in the same way, God is our connection through prayer, right? Pick it up any time and we don't have to wait for God to be charged up, right? God is always there. He's always there, willing, able, and anxious to hear, for us to give him some attention. So we wouldn't do without this. In the same way, we really can't do without prayer. So Jesus withdrew often because he needed that charge. He needed that constant connection with the Father. It's interesting because George Muller preferred to live a life of daily dependence on God. I don't know if you really caught that in the documentary, but I don't remember the name of his friend. I think it was a friend that introduced him, brought him to the Bible study. Anyway, you know, they were so busy, they would come again together on occasion and they would ask each other, you know, how are things going with you? Is the goodness of God being manifested in your life? And George Muller's answer was, yes, God is faithful constantly. How is yours? And the friend would say, you know, it's rough sometimes. It's hard, you know, because sometimes God answers at the very last second. God is not always on time, but he's never late. Isn't that true, as the saying goes? And the friend would say, it's tough sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Honestly, George Muller and his friend enjoyed that sort of dependence upon God, living a life on a shoestring, so to speak, because it gave God the opportunity to provide for them on a daily basis. And they loved that. Now, I don't think that's necessarily what God is asking all of us to do, because I think there's wisdom in planning. The Bible talks plenty about it, right? In providing for our families and maybe having some things in the bank. So on a bad day, you know, you've got a little cushion. There's nothing wrong with all those things. I think there's wisdom in that. But we must remember the principle that even when things are set, so to speak, we need God every day, don't we? Our dependence must be on God. You know, when we look at the children of Israel in the wilderness, it's important for us to remember that it's when they felt they didn't need God where God would have to sometimes shake things up, right? Use other nations to kind of make things uncomfortable. And we don't really want to have that sort of relationship with the Lord. So if we can make it our daily duty, our daily, not duty, but our daily practice of going to God when we feel we need him. And even when we feel like there's not something pressing, I think that's the place where we want to be, right? That's the place where we want to be. I like what Charles Finney wrote, the great evangelist that really inspired the Adventists to do the tent meeting things back in the 1840s. But he made this comment about the work of the churches, and it's good. Well, to be taken, he says they have preached and talked and distributed tracks with great zeal and then wondered they had so little success. And the reason was they forgot to use the other branch of the means effectual prayer. They overlooked the fact that truth by itself will never produce the effect without the spirit of God and that the spirit is given in answer to prayer. Well said, isn't that? And we're all guilty of that sometimes as a church, right? Doing a lot, but not praying to the same degree. And I really appreciate what Edna and everyone did last week with the 24 hour prayers, the prayer vigil. That was just a beautiful thing because we need to do more of those. You know, prayer is what moves mountains. Prayer moves mountains. We can do everything right. We can share the gospel as it's written in the Bible, but we really shouldn't expect a whole lot based on the fact that things really succeed when they're saturated with prayer, right? Saturated with the presence of God. And it's really a great commentary on the gospel and legalism too, right? I mean, there's a way to share truth and have no results when Jesus isn't in it. And there's a way to share the gospel with Jesus at the center with an attitude of prayer and a relationship. And that makes all the difference. And that's what we must remember. So God is not a vending machine, right? I think it was Ron Halverson. Anybody hear that sermon from Ron Halverson years ago? The genie in the lamp, right? You know, many people treat God like the genie in the lamp. You know, rub the Redeemer, I think was the expression he used. Rub the Redeemer and then he shows up and he says, what do you want? Many of us kind of have that attitude with God as well. It's like God's a vending machine. You know, if we pray enough times, then we get our product. And that's not right as well. Because remember what Jesus said in our scripture reading, don't be like the heathen. You know, many prayers guarantees great success or a great showing with a crowd, you know, proves that you're really a Christian. You know, we throw all that stuff out because Jesus' example is he disappeared into the wilderness. I can't remember anywhere in the gospels where Jesus stood up in front of everybody and made a big display of his prayer. I mean, he did several times say, Father, I thank you for hearing me. Right. But he didn't say, everybody, look at what a great Christian I am. You know, it was that humility. And so God is not a vending machine. We have to remember that because we want answers to prayer, don't we? The authentic Christian biblical way. Isn't that right? So that brings me to three ways that God deals with prayer at times. And that's sometimes that God ignores the prayer. Sometimes God grants the request or does not grant the request. I'm sorry. And then sometimes he does grant the request. None of us like to admit that God ignores prayer sometimes. That's a hard one to swallow. But there's biblical proof he does at times. Sometimes God ignores the prayer. Sometimes he does not grant the request. And sometimes he does grant the request. Never always one or the other. Right. Because we don't know the mind of God. He's too wise to give us everything that we want the way we ask for it. He's too wise for that. But there are some cases in the Bible where God ignores prayer. And we should probably recognize a couple of those. So turn in your Bibles if you have 1 Samuel chapter 28. Classic example of God ignoring the prayer of someone. You remember that Israel demanded to be like the other nations. Had to have a king. God said, bad idea. And they said, no good idea. God said, bad idea. They said, no good idea. God said, bad idea. And they said, give us a king. We're not going to walk away until you give us one. And God said, sure. Okay. You got a king. His name is Saul. And they got King Saul. And it wasn't long before Saul was doing his own thing. Right. He didn't. Saul didn't have that intimate prayer life. And so Saul was just kind of doing things the way he wanted them to do. Wanted to do them. And it fractured the relationship. You know the mistakes he made. Samuel told Saul, the Lord has departed from you. You're just doing things backwards. And then Saul didn't accept that. So we find in 1 Samuel 28, 4 to 7, a challenge comes. Right. Because God uses challenges sometimes. And the Bible says this. Verse 4 of 1 Samuel chapter 28. Then the Philistines gathered together and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or the prophets. And you remember the priests would wear the Urim and the Thummim, the high priests, those weird little rocks. That's a mystery. How they would light up and give guidance sometimes. It wasn't the most common method, but God used that. Or the prophets. In other words, the Lord ignored Saul's prayer. How about answering you, Saul? I'm not even here. So then Saul said to his servants, find me a woman who's a medium. We know this story, right? The Witch of Endor. We're not going to go through it. Point being said, God ignores Saul. Why? Because Saul ignored God. Pretty much. I like that. Right? Yeah. Saul ignored God. I know what you've told me to do, God. I know how you've laid it out, how things are supposed to work. I know we're supposed to be dependent upon you, but I'm just going to do it my way. So the Lord says, okay, well, I'm going to do it my way. And then the Lord ignores Saul. Saul gets all nervous and crazy. We know the story, right? See, I'm going to tell them, God's not going to hear you anymore. And Saul says, okay, well, then you know what? If God's not going to hear me, I'm going to do it. I'm going to find out another way. You see the attitude? And sometimes God ignores those prayers when our attitude is, okay, if you won't answer me, God, I'm going to make it happen another way. That's the wrong attitude, right? Because what God really wants is for us to be dependent upon him. He wants to be the one who gives the answer to our prayer request as God sees fit. So it strengthens the relationship. But when we have the attitude of, well, I'm just going to do it my way, we run into trouble. Maybe I've mentioned here before Adventist pastors in certain parts of Africa have very challenging challenges, big challenges, because when it comes to anointing, families will go to the Adventist pastor and they will have an anointing service. And let's just pretend the child is sick. If the anointing service doesn't heal the child within a brief period of time, in the essence, the family says, okay, time to go to the witch doctor. And that's what they do. So you've got a problem with syncretism where you've got new converts to the Adventist church, but they've brought in a whole lot of old stuff from their previous ways and practices. And so, okay, if this isn't going to work, we're going to go over and use this means, which is completely forbidden. But we don't really care as long as we get the answer that we want. And so it's an attitude thing, right? Now, I don't know how God deals with all that. We'll find out in heaven. We shouldn't be judged. It's just a major challenge. We should pray for pastors over there and church leaders and workers, missionaries. But the point is, it's the wrong attitude. If we want response from God, if we want God to hear our prayers, first of all, we need to be humble. Isn't that right? Just like David. When David heard the truth, it cut to the heart. David wasn't going to back out and pretend any other way. And he says, I've sinned against the Lord. We need to be humble. We need to have that attitude toward prayer. And I believe none of our prayers will be ignored if that's the case, if we are humble. Two, sometimes God does not grant the request. And that is frustrating for us sometimes, isn't it? I mean, I know you have known many people with cancer. I've known many people with cancer in my time pastoring. Some are healed, some are not. And it's painful, the process of praying and anointing and healing isn't coming. It's just you have no words, except it's in God's hands and we just don't know, right? And that's the best we can do because that's the best the Bible teaches. And God will explain things one day. But in our human experience, it's tough. It's not easy. So there are times when God does not answer the request that we give. Here's an example of that in Deuteronomy, chapter three, verse twenty four to twenty six. You can turn there if you want. I'll just go ahead and read it for the sake of time. The Bible says in Deuteronomy, chapter three and verse twenty six. Oh, Lord, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand for what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your work and your mighty deeds. I pray. Let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan. I know who we're talking about. Moses, those pleasant mountains and Lebanon. Oh, Moses, just long to see Canaan after all the headache he had to deal with. Right. I pray. Let me cross over. Verse twenty six. But the Lord was angry with me on your account. He's speaking to the congregation and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me, enough of that. Speak no more to me of this matter. We know the story of Moses. God told him to strike the rock the first time and water came out at Horeb. Right. The next time Israel was parched and thirsty and needed some water, needed some Evian or some Poland Springs, whatever you have. The next time God says, speak to the rock and the water will come out. Right. But there, you know, there's a bad day and Israel's complaining and whining and Moses is getting frustrated. More frustrated and says, come over here to the rock. And everybody goes over. And instead of speaking to the rock, Moses strikes the rock. That may not seem like a big deal to us, but it was a huge deal because the lesson God wanted Israel to know was that the Messiah, the Lamb of God, would only be struck once. Right. One time. Praise God. We serve a savior. Doesn't a risen savior. Doesn't need to be recrucified over and over again, as some religions teach. Right. He's our living savior. He's our high priest. And so when Moses got mad and struck it, he really destroyed the symbol that God was trying to do through the rock in the wilderness, the water from the rock. So God said, no, you're not going to see Canaan, not in this lifetime. So there are times when, despite our greatest disappointment, God says, no, this is not going to happen. And it's hard to swallow. That must've been a very depressing day for Moses. In fact, I think he died shortly after that. But we do find in the New Testament that God did answer his prayer, didn't he? Not the way Moses wanted it to be answered, but on the Mount of Transfiguration, who's there? Moses and Elijah. So at some point, and we can read this from the book of Jude, Jude, at some point, there was this arguing over Moses' body, the devil saying, no, you've got no right to take him. And the Lord said, yes, I do. And he resurrects Moses, Moses in heaven, and he shows up at the Mount of Transfiguration. So Moses did get to see Canaan, right? Before the resurrection. God did answer his prayer, just not how he wanted it or expected it. And so we must understand that we pray for things, most of the time, very specifically. And sometimes God doesn't grant us the answer to that prayer. And sometimes it's hard to swallow. But it doesn't mean that God is not faithful, right? Sometimes the greater blessing occurs at a different time. Ultimately, the greatest blessing will occur when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven, right? All of our prayers will be answered in one form or another, right? All rolled up into one. Seeing Jesus, being with Jesus, walking on a new earth and in a new heaven forever with him. That's the best answer to any of our prayers we could ever have prayed and wanted. So God does not always answer the request, but he will answer it one day. Then finally, sometimes God does grant the request. And scripture is full of instances where God answers the request of his people, right? It's full of many times where someone prayed and the Lord answered. How does it feel when God answers your prayer? It's a great feeling, isn't it? Because I find that it's so exciting because we believe in God. We know he's real. Our faith is not doubting on that fact. But when we see an answer to our prayer in my life or your life, it just makes God almost tangible, doesn't it? And so it's a beautiful thing when that happens. It's a beautiful thing. Us being here is an answer to prayer. At least we believe that. It was an answer to prayer. You know, we got to the place in California, and I can go through the whole story, that we just knew God was pressing us out. You know, health problems with our son. We knew that our time had just kind of come to an end there. And we prayed and we said, God will go anywhere. And so we moved in that direction and we didn't know what the direction would be. The East Coast was the last place we thought God was going to bring us back to. Right, dear? I mean, you and I would never have imagined that we'd have been back on the East Coast. New England, so to speak, specifically. But God answered that prayer. He answered the prayer. Why? Because we were open to his will. And you see, many times that's the difference between answered prayer and unanswered prayer. Many times we pray and demand a specific thing and we don't leave some room open for God's will. We don't add to that prayer. Nevertheless, your will be done. Right? And that kind of brings us, that scripture reading, to what follows when Jesus talked about vain repetitions and doing your prayers in public. I won't ask what that was. Jesus gives us the model prayer. He says, in this manner. Oh, it was little Riley. How sweet. Heard a motorcycle and the noise at the same time, thought they were connected. In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Amen? Your name is hallowed. So when we approach God in prayer, first let's recognize that he is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Right? We're not just approaching our friend or someone on the street. We're approaching the king of the universe. Your kingdom come, and we're doing a study on the kingdom of God in prayer meeting. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen? Right there in the beginning. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And sometimes when we say on earth, we're thinking the earth in general. And yes, that's true. But on earth means our own lives as well. Individual lives, right? Our familial life. Your will be done on earth and in the life of our family or my life, my marriage, whatever you have on earth as it is in heaven. And when we pray that prayer, and I think that's why Jesus used that or had included that because it's such an important component. Give us this day our daily bread. Lord, we trust in you. All right. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Talked about that in Sabbath school. That's not an easy one to swallow. It's easy to get forgiveness and ask for it. Well, it's not easy to ask for forgiveness, but it's not always easy, but it's more difficult to give forgiveness, right? Another important element of Jesus' prayer. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen. So Jesus model prayer has a lot of important elements. You and I think of George Muller and his success. And the reason why he was so successful was because George Muller had a private prayer life. He knew what that secret place was, wasn't it? Didn't he? You know, he didn't disappear into the wilderness, but I'm sure he disappeared into his closet, his bed, wherever, whatever have you. He and his wife. Very, very personal, very private prayers. You know, and what were those prayers for? That they become big, fat and rich? No. That the work of God could be done on these kids who are basically tossed to the side and counted as nothing. And that's a prayer that God will always hear. I believe God cares about our wants. There's nothing wrong with sharing our wants with God. But if we really want to see God's hand at work and feel there's a guarantee that he will answer, we can always know that when we pray for God's will to be done. The will of ministry and the will of those who are hurting outside the church. We know that God will answer because we know that it's his will, right? Jesus stood up in front of that in the temple and said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, right? To proclaim liberty to the captives. Well, when we pray that God would give us the strength and the ability to do that in our community, liberty to the captives, he's going to answer that prayer because we're doing what Jesus modeled us to do. So here's some suggestions for effective prayer. And this is the problem with the topic of prayer. We could go on and on and on. Here's some suggestions for getting answers to your prayer according to God's will. Call upon the Lord while he may be found, is what the Bible says. Call upon the Lord while he may be found. In other words, don't put off prayer, keep putting off prayer until you're in a time of great need. Don't wait until you're under the gun, so to speak. Seek God while he may be found, right? Seek him just to be in his presence, not to press your request for presence, right? Seek him while he may be found. Sin, an important thing, right? We touched base a little bit on that in the Sabbath school. David tried to cover his sin and he didn't prosper. So if we have sin, let's confess it because 1 John 1.9 says that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to do what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen? And what a promise we can go to God with. Lord, you said in 1 John 1.9 and we can walk away and say, I am forgiven and I believe God will give me power to avoid that same sin. We must believe that. So sin is an important issue that needs to be dealt with before we go to God in faith expecting great answers from him. We must exercise faith. Jesus talked about that, faith of a mustard seed. And incidentally, we always focus on the size of the mustard seed, faith as a mustard seed, but really I think sometimes we ought to think about the nature of the mustard seed. How do seeds grow? Put it on a nice glass shelf with a little spotlight shining on it for all to see my little seed? Just stick it in the ground, right? Under a lot of cold dirt and soil, right? It's wet, it's damp, it's uncomfortable. So we don't need a lot of faith because I do believe the size is relevant. But faith grows when we're in the midst of the uncomfortable atmosphere, right? And we believe that God will work. So faith as a mustard seed, not just the size of a mustard seed. We must abide in Jesus. If I abide in him and he abides in me, they shall ask what they will and it shall be done for them. So we must abide in Jesus, not once a month, not one prayer every three months, according to 75% of Americans. Is that enough? Is that abiding in Jesus? That's knowing about Jesus. Oh, hey, Jesus. My once a quarter prayer is coming up. And I heard you answer prayers. So here I am. And here's my list. Right. Abiding in Jesus means we are connected to the Savior daily. Obedience. Is that important? You know, we don't obey to be saved. We obey because we're saved. Right. We don't obey. We can't add one iota to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But because of the sacrifice he made for us, it's our it's our aim to be obedient. It's our delight to follow his commandments because of what he's done, not to ensure or guarantee our salvation. It's for and because of him. Praying with others. You know, we have to pray for each other. Prayer isn't only about our own private secluded prayers. We must pray with each other and we must pray collectively at times. And then finally, praying for the things you know are God's will. And I kind of touch base on that. And there's more. There's money. We'll put these on the screen. Probably give a handout. Tips for prayer. As we wrap up, anybody ever hear of the prayer of Jabez? Prayer of Jabez. Very popular. Right. And there's a reason why it's very popular. I'm going to read the reason right now. Here's the prayer of Jabez from First Chronicles, chapter four, verse 10. Now, Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my border and that thy hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from harm, that it may not pain me. And God granted him what he requested. It's in the Bible. It's there. It's a legitimate prayer. God answered the request. But the problem is sometimes that we live our lives in the prayer of Jabez. And that's it. Right. I knew somebody not too long ago, they would pass out little cards with the prayer of Jabez. You know, just give it to anybody who would take it. Pray the prayer of Jabez. Well, that's kind of like the genie in the lamp thing, isn't it? I've got the prayer of Jabez. So God's going to bless me. I'm going to pin it on my wall because it's on my refrigerator. I'm guaranteed that God's going to watch over me. Right. That how it works. Not really how it works, is it? And he prayed that prayer every day. He told me so. And he prayed that prayer because he was on the verge of a huge business venture. Massive. It would have had the deal transpired. And every day, tell me, Pastor, it's going to happen today. I kid you not. This went on for a year. Today's the day. Today's the day. I'm praying the prayer of Jabez. I mean, after a year, I'm thinking, I'm not sure he really ought to be praying about this anymore. You know, just leave that in God's hands. But anyway, that was his prayer, the prayer of Jabez. And claiming that over this business venture, because it would have equaled millions into his pocket. Millions of dollars. And yeah, he threw in, and I'm going to give so much to the church, and I'm going to do this and that. But that was kind of like a side note. It didn't lead with that. It was a side note. It was a little parenthesis in there. And before long, something transpired in his marriage. Marriage fell apart. Made some bad decisions, kind of like David. Made some bad decisions. And that business deal went south. Never happened. Now, I'm not saying it was wrong to pray the prayer of Jabez, but what I am saying is that his whole life and dream was centered on the prayer of Jabez. It was a me thing, right? Because that's what the prayer of Jabez is all focused on. It's focused on me. Or if you're praying it, it's focused on you. And I won't know for eternity why. I really don't even care. That's between him and God. Praise God he still knows about God, and he's struggling to get his relationship with the Lord right. So I pray for him. But that was his thing, the prayer of Jabez, and to be blessed beyond measure with all this wealth. It was misguided. That's not what God asked us to pray for, is it? We can pray that prayer, but I would add, if you're going to pray the prayer of Jabez, throw in there so that I can be a blessing to those around me. And meet it in your heart and determine to do so, right? So that if the blessings come, you don't just hoard them up. Anyway, enough said about that. So prayers are answered according to certain things and certain stipulations, if you want to use that term. That's why prayer is so enigmatic, because we can just call prayer prayer, but if we really want to be Christians and be biblical when it comes to prayer, we have to understand the prayers of the Bible and what is effective, what's going to end up being effective, and what is not. All prayer is the result of a relationship with Jesus. All answered prayer is the result of wanting to do God's will. Amen? That's how prayers are answered. Not because of great strategies, not because of great plans, not because of manipulation and tactics and pressure and all that other stuff. By the way, great news, we're going to be starting our building project in the next couple of weeks. The guy's going to be here tearing stuff apart. Not the sanctuary, but the outside. Right? That's going to begin. And we're not going to do a big old pressure campaign. I'm not going to go to your house and say, how much are you giving to this project? I think you could give more. Let me see your bank receipts. I mean, can you imagine? That's a dark age church. You give as God impresses you. Right? And that's where we're going to leave it. Because we want a healthy congregation full of people who love the Lord and are not trying to prove anything, and who see prayer as that at the core of prayer is a relationship with Christ. So, as we close, sometimes we think, when we see these stories about people like George Muller, we think to ourselves, man, I'll never be a George Muller. I could never be a George Muller. I mean, look what God did through him. I mean, you thought that prayer? Or have you thought that before? We probably have all thought that before. Great names, and we see the lives, and we're like, man, I'd love to be that, but I'll probably never be that. Well, guess what? God doesn't want you to be a George Muller. He didn't call you to be a George Muller. He called George Muller to be George Muller. Right? He called you, Don, to be Don. Don's like, yeah, with some improvement. I like you the way you are. And John, and Melissa Wright, and Dan, and Pastor Cliff, and Sue. God hasn't called us to be somebody else. He's called us to be us. But He's called us to be us in Him. And as we abide in Christ and see prayer, first and foremost, as giving God some attention. And then we lay our requests, hopefully unselfish requests, before His feet, trusting that He'll answer in His own time, or not answer, whatever God sees fit, when we trust Him and prayer with that, that I believe we can have the confidence that God will do a mighty work in each and every one of our lives. And that mightiness may not be metered in the scope of 100,000 orphans, but God will see it as great from Heaven's point of view. Amen? Amen. Did you have a hand seat? Yeah. Oh, that's good. I like that. Yeah, very good. God make me the me I would be if you were me. Is that right? Yeah, that's very good. I like that. And that's a great prayer. I think that's a prayer that God will answer, you know, if we have humble hearts. Amen. All right, Father, we want to thank you so much, because right now we're, we're giving you some attention. And Lord, honestly, when we see how good you are, how glorious you are, as David said, to see your might and power, we really don't come with much, but we can come with our hearts. And Lord, we want you to live in our hearts. We want you to, to transform our hearts so that the things we do pray for are more and more in harmony with your perfect will. So do bless us, Lord. And we do pray that prayer of Jabez. We agree with that. But we also, more importantly, want to see you manifested in our lives, in the life of this church, in the life of the community, so that when Jesus comes in the clouds of Heaven, that audience will be greater than it would have been had we only focused on ourselves. So bless us to this end. We do thank you for all these things in advance, because we pray them by faith, according to your word. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Our closing hymn is. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. Ninety nine. 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