It's Balanced With a Disciplined Obedience - Supplication, Part 1

We want to talk about the discipline of supplication. And like I said earlier, it's another word for petition. And we've chosen the word supplication because it originally meant to bring an olive branch to a sovereign. That is, when a man would come to bring a request before a king, he would offer him an olive branch to serve as a peace offering. We, as Christians, come before the King of Kings. And when we go into His presence, we ought to kneel before Him and offer Him an olive branch before we ask Him.

Our petition. God wants to hear what's on our heart. He wants to hear the cry of your heart. He wants to hear the petition of your heart. He wants to hear the things that you desire. Turn with me over to 1 Peter chapter 5.

Casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. Peter says, I've learned a lesson over my years, and that is to make sure that we throw upon God all of our anxiety. We cast everything His way. Now I've come to the conclusion that if you're not a caster, you will be a crasher. You will crash. Because you've got to unload the burdens. If you don't unload the burdens that are there, they will weigh you under and you will fall. Under the heavy load. What do the songwriters say? Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God. In prayer. But the problem is, that's usually the last thing we do, isn't it? When all else fails, we decide to pray. And so as we begin to talk about this discipline of supp, this evening we're going to talk about the difficulties that we face. Because we do face difficulties, and I've tried to summarize them into five areas.

Hopefully, you'll be able to relate to them. I'm sure you will. But we need to understand that this is a discipline of the Christian life. And it follows on the heels of the discipline of Scripture if we're going to understand what it means to walk in intimacy with the Lord God. So, the very first difficulty I want you to see is The ego.

That's number one. Our egos. They're pretty big. And it's because we think highly of ourselves, it's because we think we are self-sufficient, that we have a difficult time. Even coming before God. I mean, after all, if we're going to bring a supplication before Him, if we're going to come and kneel before the sovereign king and bring him an olive branch in order to beseech him. Then it would cause us to humble ourselves. And most of us just are not in the habit of doing that kind of thing. James said it well in James chapter 4, verse 2.

You have not simply because you do not ask. Now think about that for a moment. You don't have because you don't ask. You see, God wants to answer prayer. The problem is, most of us don't spend the time asking him for things that we need. And James very simply states it this way. You do not have simply because you do not ask. And we say, well, you know, it's very difficult because I don't have the time to pray. Folks, if you don't have the time to pray, man, you're in big trouble. But so many times the ego gets in the way.

Vance Hadner said it this way: the measure of any Christian is his prayer life. He would go on to say that the self-sufficient or the self-satisfied do not want to pray, the self-sufficient do not need to pray, and the self-righteous cannot Remember over in Luke chapter 5, turn back there with me if you would for a moment. Luke chapter 5, the Lord and Peter went on a little fishing expedition. And the Lord said in verse number four, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Verse number five, and Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at your bidding.

I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break. And they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. The essence of the story is that Peter realizes that in those areas in which he finds himself the most eff, is the area in which he needs to pray and depend upon the Lord the most.

Think about that for a moment. Peter was a fisherman. Peter was a good fisherman. Peter was a great fisherman. He had given his life to that. That was his occup And yet the Lord comes along, who is not necessarily a great fisherman, he's a carpenter. Okay? And Peter tries to help him understand that, Lord, you can bang some houses together, but when it comes to the sea, this is where I'm an expert. But, nevertheless, Lord. To pacify your curiosity, we'll throw the nets out into the other side. And lo and behold, there was a miracle.

And Peter realized that he stood in the presence of Almighty God. And he real that he needed God in every area of his life. You see, our problem is that we think we only need God in certain areas, don't we? The other areas we can handle. And the area in which you think you can handle is the area in which you need God the most because you demonstrate highly your ego at that point, that you are self-sufficient. And therefore, you don't need to pray. Mark 9 is another illustration. Peter, James, and John coming down off the Mount of Transfiguration.

And the other disciples meet them, unable to cast a demon out of the individual who was demon-possessed. And the Lord ended up casting the demon out. And they gathered the Lord back in a room, in the house, and asked him, Lord, what is the problem? How come we couldn't do this? I mean, after all, you had given us the power to exercise demons, and we have already done it before. Why is it we couldn't do it today? And the Lord said, these things only come out by prayer. Once again, they demonstrated their self-sufficiency, thinking that they were capable of operating without depending upon God.

And God says, You can't operate that way. For without me, ye can do not. Our prayer life is hindered because of our attitude. Lord, I'm not sure I really need you in this area. I think I can handle it myself. You ever faced that? You ever been in that situation? God wants us to pray without ceasing. He wants us to pray at all times because we need Him for all things. The second difficulty is what I will call the essential.

And this is important. Because if you don't understand the essentials of prayer, then you will not be able to overcome the difficulties of prayer. Turn with me over to John chapter 15.

Verse number seven. Jesus says these words: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

The word abide is in the Arost tense, meaning it's a permanent fact. Whenever God speaks of abiding in the scripture, He's not talking about communion, He's talking about salvation. Okay? The word abide means to remain. And so the Lord is saying, Look, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, Ask what you wish, and it shall be done unto you. Now, if he didn't add the condition of saying, My words abide in you. Then he would have given us a blank check to ask us or ask him for anything that we so desired, and he would be obligated to pay for it, or to pay it, or to give it.

But you see, he put a condition there. If you abide in me, if you remain in me, if you're part of me, if you're one of my branches, and my words now abide in you. Then you ask what you wish, and it should be granted you. But my words must abide forever. In you. You see, the essential thing in prayer is this: whenever you pray, there must be a consist between the words and the will of God. In your life. If my words abide in you, the specific utterances of what I have said, if you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, If my words are part of your life, then you can ask whatever you want and it will be granted to you.

But that's the condition. That's why Bible study comes first. Than prayer. All intelligent praying is based off an understanding of the Word of God. That's why there's such an emphasis at Christ Community Church on the teaching of the scripture. If you know the word of God, you know how to pray, right? You know what God says in His Word.

If you don't know what God says in His Word, then you don't know how to pray. That's why it's important to study the Bible. So you learn and know how to pray. The third difficulty that we face is the enemy.

The enemy, he wants to keep you from praying. Turn with me over to Ephesians chapter 6. Paul's prayer in Ephesians 6, verses 18 to 20. Comes in the context of spiritual warfare. And it's no accident that it comes at the end of his letter to those at Ephesus. Satan is fighting to keep us from praying. And when we fail in our praying, we will fail in our warfare. And our warfare is symbolized by the armor of God, the things that we are to put on. The breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit.

It's those things that we are to put on. And Paul says these words in Ephesians 6, verse 18: With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf. That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Why did Paul have to pray for boldness? That man had boldness. But he knew that the enemy was going to do all he could to deter him from being all that God wanted him to be.

Prayer is not something we add to the armor of God. Prayer is something that is woven in between each piece of the armor of God. We are to pray at all times, we are to pray without ceasing, Paul says. We to live a life of constant communion with God because that is where the battle is truly won. Remember the night in the garden when Christ was agonizing over in Matthew 26, verses 37 to 41. Christ was on his knees praying. And understand that during that prayer, Christ did not confront Satan in that prayer.

That's not his job. And nor did he enter into what is called warfare pray. Didn do that. He prayed for God's will to be done. He prayed to God and to God alone. He prayed that God would do his work. And that's why he went to his men and said, Why are you still sleeping? Can't you watch and pray for just a little while? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. If you're not a man who prays, if you're not a woman who prays, watch out because you will fall into temptation. And what happened to Peter?

Sure enough, that night, he fell into temptation, didn't he? Why? He couldn't handle the maidservant by the fire. He couldn't stand firm for his God. Why? Because he decided to sleep instead of pray. And the Lord said, You be careful. You stand strong, you watch, you pr, lest you enter into temptation. We need to understand that in our warfare with Satan, he wants to keep us from spending time with God. He will make you busy. He will give you disruptions. He will make sure that you won't have time to go on your knees.

That's why prayer is such a discipline. And it is a discipline. It's hard work. It's taxing kind of work. Because you're fighting against the wiles of the devil. You're fighting against everything that He doesn't want to see happen in your life. And so, you've got to discipline yourself to godliness. You've got to discipline yourself to get up. You've got to discipline yourself to pray without ceasing. You've got to Discipline yourself to stay up at night to pray. You've got to discipline yourself to go before the throne of grace.

And beseech God. If you don't do that, you will faint. Let's lead us to the fourth difficulty, and that is the efforts. Most of us just aren't willing to do what it takes. To have a good prayer life. Over to Luke chapter 11. Turn back there with me, if you would, please. Verse number 5. Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I had nothing to set before him. And from inside he shall answer and say, Do not bother me.

The door has already been shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you, ask. And it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Now, suppose one of your fathers is asked by his son for a fish.

He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Christ is looking for persistence. He's looking for the people who continually ask, who continually seek, who continually knock, who fearlessly plead before the throne of grace. Who, like John Knox, said, Give me Scotland or I die.

We've better ask ourselves the question. Do our prayers lack urgency? Are you the kind of person who prays for a little while about something, and after a few weeks or a few months, you don't have an answer, you stop praying about it? Or maybe you think God doesn't care about it anymore? Folks, understand that God doesn't not answer your prayer because He doesn't have the resources. And he doesn't not answer your prayer because he is reluctant to give you good. He doesn't answer your prayer because he needs to test your faith.

The true man of faith will never give up. The true man of faith will continue to persevere even though there's a no answer, even though there's a delayed answer, even though there's a wait. He keeps knocking at the door because he knows the words. And the will of God, and he knows that an unjust situation needs to be made right, and he'll continue to knock and bang on the door of heaven to make sure that God hears and God answers. But God is testing that man's faith. And God is stretching that man's maturity.

He's saying, Are you going to give up? Are you going to quit? Don't quit. Well, I have the answer. I'm just waiting to give it to you. But I want to see how long you're going to keep knocking. So many times we just want to quit. You see, we just don't want to pay the price. We don't want to spend long hours in prayer. We want to be able to get up and say a two or three minute prayer and expect God to do great work. And sometimes He does. But is it not true that maybe the Christian faith that some of us possess is as weak as it is because we don't want to Pay the price.

Do the work. Expend the energy to be men and women of prayer. But I guess the last one probably is the most convicting. And that is the last difficulty that we seem to face: the expectancy. We just don't expect God to do anything anyway. And for that, I would invite you to turn with me to the book of Acts, 12th chapter.

Very familiar story. Peter's in prison kind of was his second home. Maybe he had his own cell with his name on it. I don know. But he was in prison. And I find it very interesting that here is Peter in prison. And it says in verse number five: So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. They'll stop right there. That's good, isn't it? Isn't it good to know that if you're in a difficult situation, that the Church of God's praying for you? To know that you're fervently praying.

I mean, what a comfort to know that the people of the church are beseeching the throne of grace on your behalf. And that's important because look back at verse number one.

What's it say? Now, about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them, and he had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. Well, James is dead. He's the first martyr, right?

First martyr disciple. Stephen was the first martyr. James was the first of the disciples killed. So James has been beheaded. He's a dead man. Peter's in prison. He's waiting to become a dead man. And so the church is fervently praying that's important. Verse number 6 said on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. And that's good. Stop right there. That's really good, isn't it? What would you be doing? I mean, man, you'd be nervous, pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what you're going to do next, you know, and you hear that the sharpening of the sword down the hallway, you know, you're sweating great drops of blood.

Peter's sleeping. He's sound asleep, man. He's bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone in the cell. And he struck Peter's side and roused him, saying, Get up quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, Gird yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

And when they passed, or they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself.

And they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter came to himself, he said, Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were what? Praying. They were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.

And when she recognized Peter's voice because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. And they said to her, Praise the Lord. That's not what they said. You're out of your mind, Rhod. You 're a mad woman. You 're crazy. But she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying, it must be his angel. Well, wait a minute. Weren't they fervently praying to God? Wasn't this a praying kind of church? Sure. And Peter continued knocking.

And when they had opened the door, they saw him and were what? Absolutely astonished. Why? Because they didn't believe their prayers were going to work anyway. That's why they were praying. But after all, James is already headless. He's a dead man. And Peter, you're next, buddy. We're going to pray for you, but you know what? It doesn't look good. I mean, the cancer has infested your body. We'll pray for you, brother, but you know what? We really don't expect God to do anything anyway. Your marriage is so bad, we'll pray for you, brother.

But we don't expect God to really put the marriage back together again. You see, that's the biggest obstacle we face, isn't it? We don't expect God to do anything. Oh, we'll pray, but we pray with no expectancy. God said in Jeremiah 33:3, Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. I believe that. I believe that with all my heart. Yet there are times where I'll have to admit that when I pray, I really don't expect God to do much work anyway.

And then I wonder why my prayer life is as weak as it is. Stories told of the man who died and went to heaven. And the Lord was showing him around those great, great streets of gold. And they began to pass different rooms in the mansion where he lived. And in one room there was boxes of gifts wrapped beautifully in wrapping. And the man said to the Lord, Those are beautiful. What are those? And the Lord said, Those are all the wonderful gifts that I wanted to give to you and to your family. But you did not ask.

And when you asked, you did not expect. Therefore, I kept them here. And I wonder how many gifts that God would like to bestow upon us, but because we don't expect Him to answer, there is no answer. And we need to go back and say, Lord, I want to be like that widow who persistently prayed. I want to be like that man who came to the door and kept knocking on the door. Even though that man wouldn't get up because he was in bed, I want to persistently plead before you my c. Because I want to know the will and the words of God.

Those are just some of the difficulties that we face. That need not be there for us who are children of the living God. But this week, expect God to do a great work. And you know what? I firmly believe he will. Do you?