It's Balanced With a Disciplined Obedience - Supplication, Part 2a

I want to read to you what Alexander White said about prayer. He said these words I am as certain as I am standing here that the secret of much mischief to our souls and to the souls of others lies in the way that we stint and starve and scamp our prayers by hurrying over them. Prayer worth calling prayer, prayer that God will call true prayer and will treat as true prayer, takes far more time by the clock than one man in a thousand think. Samuel Chadwick, a contemporary of his, would later come in with these words in his book, The Path of Prayer.

To pray as God would have us pray is the greatest achievement of each. Such a life of prayer costs, it takes time. Hurried prayers and muttered litanies can never produce souls mighty in prayer. Learners give hours regularly every day that they may become proficient in art and mechanism. All praying saints have spent hours every day in prayer. In these days, there is no time to pray. But without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray. It ought to be possible to give God one hour out of 24 all to him.

I wonder how many of us could give one hour to God out of the 24 that He gives us each day. Last week, we talked about some of the difficulties that we have. In the life of prayer. The first one centered around our ego, how we really believe that we are sufficient in and of ourselves, and it's our ego that keeps us from falling to our knees and beseeching the throne of grace.

And then we talked about that essential of praying in the will of God, understanding that our ego reigns supreme, so much so that we don't want to submit to the will of God, therefore, we can't meet the essential quality. Praying in the name of Jesus Christ. And thirdly, the enemy.

He is always at war with us, trying to keep us from communing with God. So we have that spiritual battle as well. And then, of course, there's the efforts. It takes work to pray. It takes commitment to pray. It takes discipline to pray. That's what we're talking about, the spiritual disciplines. And then, fifthly, was the expectancy. We just don't expect God to do anything anyway. This evening, we want to talk about some of the details, some of the things that are supposed to happen when we do pray, so we can understand more of what it means to commune with God.

This is a discipline. To develop a prayer life is not going to happen just because you decide today that you want to develop a prayer life. It takes hard work. It takes great effort. And so, hopefully, this evening we can give you some guidelines that will help move you in that direction. Turn with me to Psalm 65, if you would, as we begin to talk about some of the details we are to follow.

Psalm 65, verses 1 to 4 say this: There will be silence before thee and praise in Zion, O God, and to thee. The vow will be performed. O thou who dost hear prayer, to thee all men come. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou dost forgive them. How blessed is the one whom thou dost choose, and bring near to thee. To dwell in thy courts, we will be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, thy holy temple. Those who are drawn to God are those who delight in God. And those who delight in God are ones who dwell.

With God. But Psalm 65, verse 2 talks about a seeking kind of people. O thou who dost hear prayer. That's a great, great verse. It's God who hears pr. There, all men come to thee. We seek thee. And notice those who seek thee see their sin.

Verse number three, iniquities prevail against me, as for our transgressions, thou dost forgive them.

The man who seeks after God sees his sin because he sees the holy God and he understands that God forgives. those sins. But it's the one who seeks God and who sees his sinfulness and realizes that God forgives his sins is the one who what is truly satisfied. That's a truly satisfied man. It says in verse 4, We will be satisfied with the goodness of thy house. And that leads us to our first point, and that is the privilege of prayer.

God grants us access into his presence. That's a good thing to know. God is not a strict individual or a stern person that doesn't want you to be around Him. He draws you into His presence. He wants you to be apart. Him over in Ephesians 2:18, it says, For through him, that is the Lord Jesus, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. Ephesians 3:12 says that Jesus, in whom we have boldness and confident access, through faith in him. The writer of Hebrews, over in Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 16 would say, Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time.

Need. You see, God grants us access. God wants us to come to Him. It's no wonder the psalm said in Psalm 100, verse 2: come before His presence. With joyful singing. It's no wonder over in Psalm 100, verse 4, he says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. The psalmist knew that there was something about getting into God's presence that was a joyful experience. So we enter his courts with praise and thanksgiving, with a song in our hearts, realizing that the God of the universe has granted us access through his son.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Have you seen prayer and the privilege that it affords you? Most of us don't see prayer as a privilege. We see it as a burden. We see it as something that takes us away from something else that we need to get done. But prayer is a privilege. And I believe we need to see God and see prayer as that wonderful opportunity to gain access into God's presence. Whenever you pray, you should realize that you're coming boldly before the throne of grace. And that's how God wants us to come.

He doesn't want us to come shivering before the throne of grace. But he wants us to come with boldness. And we can only do that because of the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God is that which grants us that boldness. Number two, not only the privilege of prayer, but I want you to see the priority of prayer.

Colossians chapter 4, verse 2 says, devote yourselves to prayer. Devote to prayer. Acts 6:4 says, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word of God. Let me ask you a question: What do you devote your life to?

What is the priority of your life? What is that one thing you will do more than anything else? What is the one thing you look forward to doing every day? That's your priority. And Paul says, you've got to devote yourself to prayer. You've got to be a faithful kind of prayer warrior. It was C. J Vaughan who said these words: if I wish to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayer life. I know nothing to compare with this topic for its sorrowful self-confession. If someone was to ask you, tell me about your prayer life, when do you pray?

How long do you pray? What do your prayers consist of? If you were to keep a record of your prayer life, what would it really detail about your life? Do you ever keep a record of your prayers? How often you pray? When you pray, what you pray about? It'd be a humbling experience for most of us. It was Os Sanders who said, most of us are plagued with a subtle aversion to praying. We do not naturally delight in drawing near to God. We pay lip service to the delight and potency and value of prayer. We assert that it is an indispensable adjunct of mature spiritual life.

We know that it is constantly enjoyed and exemplified in the scriptures, but in spite of it all, too often we fail. To pray, Paul prayed without ceasing. It was that constant communication with God. And whenever you talk to somebody about incessant kind of prayer, The prayer that is to be without ceasing. They always want to know what that means. And I think that Dr. Leon Morris helps us understand that when he said these words. It is not possible for us to spend all our time with the words of prayer on our lips, but it is possible for us to be all our days in the spirit of prayer.

Realizing our dependence upon God for all that we have and are, realizing something of His presence with us wherever we may be, and yielding ourselves continually to Him for the doing of His will. Where there is such an inward state, it will find outward expression in verbal prayer. And in this connection, we should notice the frequent ejaculatory prayers throughout Paul's letters.

Prayer was so natural and so continual with the great apostle that it found its way inevitably into his correspondence. The disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray. But so many times we find ourselves dejected. So many times we find ourselves anxious. We find ourselves in fear, and despair, and discouragement, fainting visibly. And therefore, not praying as we should. Because prayer is not a priority in our lives. Prayer is simply the expression of a human need. To an eager father. That's what prayer is all about.

One author said it this way: I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn't even have time to pray. Problems came tumbling about me, and heavier came each task. Why doesn't God help? I wondered. He answered, He didn't ask. I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, But you didn't seek. I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided my child.

You didn't knock. I woke early this morning and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray. How about you? Do you take time to pray? Remember John:? It says of the Lord Jesus, the Son can do nothing of his own acc. That's a marvelous verse because it tells you that the Lord Jesus Christ did not operate independently of his Father. He operated in submission to his father, realizing that he did nothing of his own accord, but everything was centered around his father, his will, his direction.

That's why he spent time in solitude. That's why he spent time on his knees because he beseeched the throne of grace. He did nothing of his own accord. How about you? What do you do on your own? That somehow you think you can make it without God? God has to be the priority. It was the priority for the Son of God to approach God the Father. Therefore, it must be a priority with us. Thirdly, I want to look at the prerequisites of prayer.

And I want to give you two of them. One you'll probably know firsthand, the second one you probably have never heard of before.

So listen very carefully. This is very interesting. Two prerequisites to prayer. You must understand them. The first one, of course, is confession.

1 John 1:9, right? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we have to understand that a prerequisite to prayer is personal confession. Now, follow this very closely with me when you go to God. And confess your sins. You don't ask him for forgiveness. You thank him for forgiveness. Did you get that? Why? Because you've already been forgiven. Right? Ephesians 4:3. Christ has forgiven us. He's forgiven us of our sins. Psalm 103, verse 12.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits, who pardons all. Your iniquities. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 3:3, the Lord said through Jeremiah, I forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember.

No more. You say, well, if my sins are forgiven, then why the confession? Because you see, there needs to be a restored communion with my Father. My sin separates me from him, not him from me. Psalm:, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. It's my sin that separates me from God. It's my sin that keeps me from enjoying intimacy with Him. Proverbs 28:1, He who covers his sin will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. The one who obtains mercy Is the one who confesses his sins and forsakes his sins.

Remember what David said over in Psalm 32? Psalm 32, verses 1 to 5. Listen to what David said. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away. Or through my groaning all day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was drained away as with the feet. Heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to thee, and my iniquity I did not hide.

And I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. David said, When I tried to hide my sin from God, when I tried to cover everything up as if no one knew what was happening except for me and Bathsheba, God's hand was heavy upon me. The vitality of my life was being drained from me. I had to go and confess my sin. And when I did, God removed the guilt that was there. That's what God does. He wants us to come to Him and restore that communion with Him.

There's got to be a confession on our part. That says the word confession means to say the same thing. Am means to say the same thing. So I am saying the same thing about my sin that God says about my sin.

And what does God say about my sin? It's wrong. I got to confess it. And say, Lord, I've sinned against you. I want to thank you that you've forgiven me of my sins, that you've wiped them all away. And I know that these things have caused me from being all that I can be for you. And I want the guilt to be removed. I want that communion to be restored so you and I can enjoy a blessed communion, Father and Son. But also notice that there needs to be the confession of sin to my brother.

That's also a prerequisite to prayer, isn't it? Over in Matthew chapter 6, we looked at this when we examined the Lord's Prayer. And we won't spend a lot of time here, but just to bring it back to your remembrance, Matthew chapter 6. For if you forgive men their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. As you recall, we commented on this part of the prayer. It's the only commentary that God adds to the disciples' prayer.

Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. But this one, he adds the commentary. Why? Because it's a prerequisite to an effective prayer life. If you harbor bitterness, if you won't forgive your brother his transgressions, then neither will your heavenly father forgive you your transgressions, not in the judicial sense. Why? Because those things have been wiped away. But in that relational kind of sense, that communion between me and my father, that sin separates me, and God values that relationship with another brother.

Why? Because that relationship with another brother is indicative of my relationship with God. If I have been forgiven of my sins, What right do I have to hold a grudge and not forgive another brother his sins? Matthew 18, the parable that's recorded there, explains that very well. It was Dr. Harry Ironside who told of a man who gave this testimony: For years I prayed for the conversion of an erring son. But all the time, he seemed to go from bad to worse. And during those years, I had a bitter feeling in my heart towards a brother who I felt had grievously wronged me.

I insisted upon Reparation, which he refused to make. Feeling my cause was just, I held this against him and would not overlook it. At last, I realized that this was hindering prayer. I judged it before God and freely forgave Him. Oh, the liberty, as I then turned to God about my son. Soon I heard with joy of his conversion, though far from home, he was brought under the power of the gospel and led to Christ. An unforgiving spirit explains why thousands of petitions go apparently unheeded. Think about that.

You've been praying for something for a long time. You've been fervently petitioning the throne of grace. Ask yourself: do you harbor bitterness? Do you have an unforgiving spirit? Is that hindering my prayer life? Is that hindering an answer to prayer someplace because there's bitterness I have because of a past relationship, a past experience with someone? You need to ask yourself those questions. Because the Bible is very clear in Matthew 6, verses 14 and 15. O a wrong relationship between the husband and wife.

1 Peter 3:7. If the husband doesn't treat his wife properly, his prayers are hindered. So we 've got to recall what the Lord says. A pre to prayer? Confession. But there's another prerequisite. Turn to Proverbs 21 :1. I want you to read it with me. Proverbs 21. Verse number thirteen: He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor. Will also cry him and not be answered. The second prerequisite to prayer is compassion for the needy.

If you're not very compassionate toward the needy, guess what? Your prayer life is not going to be very effective. God says, if you turn your ear away from those who are in need, those who are crying for help, and you turn your ear toward them or from them, and go off and do your own thing and forget about their needs.

Your cry will go unanswered. Your cry won't be heard because you must exemplify me to the needy. Why? Because you see, those who are in need, those who are in need. Represent the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must reach out to them who so desperately need to see the touch of Jesus Christ to the family of God. Ask yourself the question: Is there someone you know who has a need? And you've turned your back on them, you've refused to meet the need, even though you've got the resources, you've refused to meet it.

And therefore, God says, wait a minute, you can't do that. If you know the burden, if you know the need. You are required to meet the need. To touch the heart of the individual who cries for help. That's your responsibility. Fourthly, the purpose of prayer. Turn with me to the book of John, the 14th chapter.

John 14, 13, and whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The purpose of all prayer is that the Father may be glorified. You must understand that. That is absolutely crucial to having an effective prayer life. We said this in our series on the disciples' prayer. You never pray to get your needs met, because that's not what prayer is for. Prayer is to bring glory to God. And if your needs get met when you pray, that's icing on the cake. And so instead of praying, Father, remove the cancer, the prayer should be, Father, glorify thy name.

In the cancer. That's the prayer. We pray for the removal of the cancer because we don't want to go through the pain and through the difficulties. But maybe God wants you to experience the pain and the difficulties. How is God best going to be glorified? We don't know. But when the Lord was in the garden, he said, Lord, remove this cup. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. You see, we don't want to pray that. We don't want to pray, Father, glorify thy name, because we think that that always means a negative thing for me.

How selfish we are in our prayer lives. Isn that true? I'm afraid that if I pray that, it might mean a negative thing. Hey, folks, listen, God's sovereign, right? So, whatever you pray doesn't make any difference. God's going to do what God's going to do. But you must understand that prayer is aligning my will with God's will. Now don't hear me say that you should never pray that God would remove the cancer or God would restore you to health from your sickness. I'm not saying that. I'm trying to help you gain perspective here and help you see how selfish we are in our prayer life.

That we want for me. Comfort. We want for me good. We want for me. The question is: do you want for God? That 's the bottom line. And only you can answer that. I can't answer that for you. And I'm not even sure that you can answer that because the Bible says that our heart is so deceitful and desperately wicked, not even no man can know it.

That's why we pray, Lord, glorify your name. That's what's important. God, be put on display. Think about how our pear lives would change if that was our attitude. Ask yourself the question: Do I want God really glorified or do I want my needs met?