Over-arching Prayer

I want to welcome you back to our second session on the foundations that fortify the family These are very, very important These are going to help you finish strong So many times we don't finish Life is strong, we don't finish life well, and so we're going to help you know how to go through the rest of your life and finish Strong So many of us just peter out at the end and just kind of hope that the Lord takes us quickly rather than longer, and hopefully that our life will be done

But you know what? God is so good to be able to explain to us in His Word the things He wants us to learn and know and understand We began last week by looking at the foundational principle that begins at all, and that is a forgiving spirit It is so imperative that you understand that Because without a forgiving spirit, you're going to be treading water in your marriage You're not going to begin to swim You're going to be running in place and not being able to embark on the marathon that's before you Let me help you understand something You probably already know this: life's a grind

Marriage is a grind Your family's a grind You know, we don't li from vacation to vacation, from cruise to cruise, from Week in retreat to weaken retreat. I mean, those are all fine and those are all good, okay? But in all reality, life's a grind And we have to learn to live in the realm of that grind and to find within that grind the beauty for what God has for us Going to work every day, living with the same people all the time, that's the daily grind that every one of us goes through And yet, it's in that realm where the beauty of life blossoms

And if you understand the foundations that fortify your family, you're going to begin to see How your fam can truly bl And it begins with a forgiving spirit We talked about this last week, and I don want to spend a lot of time reviewing it for you, but it's imperative that you understand that without that, without that attitude, Your family is going to struggle It is the glory of a man to over a transgression The book of Proverbs tells us, 19th chapter, the 11th verse It is the beauty of a man It is the brightness of a man Man is biggest, brightest, and best when forgiveness is at stake

And it's the glory of a man to overlook a transgression The Bible says in Psalm 8, verse number 5, that our Lord is good and ready to forgive And if we are going to exemplify Christ in our families, we must be obsessed with forgiveness It must control our lives We must be ready to forgive We must be willing to forgive We must be generous in our forgiveness

We must be eager to extend a forgiving spirit. I wish that everybody in your family would come to you and ask for forgiveness when they sinned against you. I wish that everybody in your family would repent of their sin when they sinned against you But the fact of the matter is, they're not going to do that. I wish they would And even if they did, you'll never know how serious they are because that's why Christ said in Luke chapter 17, If your brother sins against you seven times in a day, you forgive him seven times And the disciples said, Well, Lord, we can't do that Increase our faith

We need more faith That's not about faith, it's about obedience And so when Christ says you've got to forgive your brother, Peter says in Matthew 18, well, seven times is there a limit? On how I forgive and how many times I forgive in a day, in a life? Christ says, no, 70 times 7, because forgiveness is un That's why Christ said in Luke 17: Stumbling blocks are going to come, but woe to the man through whom they come You're going to face many stumbling blocks You're going to face many hardships, many difficulties That you wish someone would come to you and say, you what, I was wrong

Would you please forgive me? But sometimes, and more often than not, they're not going to do that That doesn't mean you don't forgive them Or are they willing to forgive them by extending kindness and generosity and having a willing spirit that says, I want to be like the Lord, I want to be ready to forgive. I want to extend a forgiving spirit Let me say it to you this way: an un Spirit leads to an unholy life, and an unholy life leads to an unhealthy family Just remember that An unforgiving spirit leads to an unholy life

Why is that? Because if I don't have a forgiving spirit, I'm going to develop a bitter spirit. I'm going develop an angry spirit. I'm going to develop a v Venge Spirit And if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me If I'm not willing to forgive my brother his trespasses, Christ says, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your Trespasses Yes, there is a time where people need to repent of their sins They need to be confronted on their sins That's true If someone commits a sin and it's a deterrent to them spiritually, it's going to hurt other people physically

That needs to be confronted and dealt with in a biblical way Yes, that's true If there's a sin that's committed that's blasphemous against God, that's going to bring a reproach upon Christ and his church, that's got to be confronted Yes, that's true It needs to be dealt with in a biblical manner That's why we have Matthew chapter 18 of Scripture to lay out the outline for us Us, but most offenses can be over And it's the glory of a man To overlook a transgression, be fervent in your love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins

Wouldn it be good that every one of us would be ready to forgive? That we want to forgive That we never want to withhold forgiveness from anybody because we want to exemplify the attitude that Christ Himself exemplifies every single day when He was on Mount Calvary, when He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing Were they all forgiven of their sins? Nope, because he didn't repent But was he ready to forgive? Yes Was he willing to forgive? Yes Was he wanting to extend forgiveness to those people? Yes Because our God is a forgiving God

And if we have the opportunity to represent Christ to others, the best way to do that is when forgiveness is at stake And I don't know what happened between last Wednesday and this Wednesday in terms of your own personal life, in terms of what you went home to do Or how you handled the next conflict on the very next day, or the very next night, or even that night Or how you dealt with conflict in your home, whether or not you were ready to forgive or not, I have no idea because I don't live in your home. I'm not there But boy, I sure hope that you truly want to have a forgiving spirit

Because if you do, whether anybody in your family does or doesn't, whether anybody in your family asks for forgiveness or seeks to repent of their sin or not You exemplify that attitude, that spirit, you'll stop treading water, you'll start swimming You'll stop running in place, and you begin to embark on the marathon of life that lives to the glory and honor of the Christ But if you don't have a forgiving spirit, foundation number one, you cannot do foundation number two

Which is this Matthew 11, 25, 26, Christ says, remember we said last week, when you stand praying, forgive, right? When you stand praying, forgive In other words, when you're praying, you must have a forgiving spirit Unless you had that forgiving spirit, you can't pray And foundation number two is this: number one is a forgiving spirit Number two is overarch prayer Pr is that which over everything Prayer is that which encompasses everything It is the overarch foundation of your home Every must be the kind of person that wants to commune with the true and living God

Now, I say that, and a lot of people, maybe you're one of them, have already tuned me out Because we like to talk about prayer, but nobody likes to pray But we've gotten to a point in the church where nobody even likes to talk about prayer In fact, if we have a concert of praise and prayer, most people don't even show up because they don't want to pray, they don't want to hear about prayer So let me begin this way: Elijah, remember him? Back in 1 Kings, it came on the scene during the reign of King Ahab and Jezebel

We put them together because they are two peas in a pod, and they were some wicked people But Elijah came on the scene during the reign of King Ahab And the unique thing about Elijah is that he didn't have any Unique giftedness or skills or a unique personality He was just an average Joe He was called by God to be a prophet of God To be a spokesperson for God And of all the people in the Old Testament, he is the one spoken of the most in the New Testament when it comes to prophets, except for Moses Elijah's the guy He was on the Mount of Transfiguration Remember that? With Moses

Moses was the great lawgiver Elijah was the great law guardian And so they were both on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, John, and Jesus Remember that? When he had zipped his flesh and the glory of the Lord would shine forth, Elijah was there with Moses Elijah was a man who was commended not for his pro ministry He was a man commended for his praying minist Remember what James says in James chapter five? He says these words: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours In other words, he's just like you and me He's an average Job Nothing special about Elijah, just like you and me

Oh, except for the fact that he never died He and Enoch are two people who never died But he had a nature just like yours and mine And it says, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain And the earth produced its fruit Before that, in verse 16, James says the effectual, fervent prayer. of a right man accomplishes much And he uses Elijah as the example Because Elijah was a prayer warrior He was a man of prayer

He was a man, in order to accomplish his ministry, had to rely upon the living God He was a man who was chased by Ahab, hunted down by Ahab He had to rely upon the living God to make it from day to day But he was a man of prayer And all throughout the study of Elijah, you see the man praying because that's the cornerstone of his ministry And so we need to Look at prayer from this perspective Let me give you some preliminary comments that will allow us to unwrap prayer for you And then we're going to give you a primary concept that will help you understand prayer

Did you get that? Some preliminary comments that will unwrap prayer for you And then a primary con that will truly help you understand prayer, because for the most part, even though we've heard messages on prayer, I'd venture to say that most of us have no idea how to pray Because there's one primary concept that, once accomplished, will revolutionize your prayer life If not, you'll have trouble praying Because there's a lot of you here tonight who will, Well, I pray all the time Pastor, nothing ever changes in my marriage Nothing changes in my family My kids are still rebellious

My husband still doesn't love me In fact, we don't even get along And I've prayed for years Have you? How do you reconcile that with James 5, 16, where it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much? Could it be that maybe you're not righteous? I'm not saying you're not, I'm just saying maybe But there's a concept, a primary concept, that must be understood in order for your prayer life to be all that God wants it to be and for you to be able to experience Experienced the great things that Elijah himself experienced He prayed, didn't rain Prayed again, it rained

When you pray, What happens? And so let's look at some preliminary comments That needs to be unwrapped for us about prayer That becomes a foundational element for your family, for my family For us to be able to understand how God wants to fortify the family unit to make it strong, resilient, so you can get through the daily grind every single day, that you can make it through And find that in that grind is the beauty of God because He's not found In all of its beauty and splendor, on vacation, on weekend retreats, and on cruises Although those are nice to take

In the midst of daily living is where God wants to manifest Himself the most So let's be this way: pr Prayer is caught Prayer is caught That needs to be unwrapped for us Prayer is ca When Jesus was living on this earth and he had his men with him He never once said to his men, okay, guys, listen, this is what we're going do We're going to over the land of Israel And I'm going to use you in a mighty way So, in order for me to do that, I got to teach you how to pray So, gather around, and I'm going give you some lessons on prayer so that you'll know how to pray Jesus never did that

Jesus never said, You know, if you guys are going to do this miracle-working thing like I do, you've got to learn how to pray And if you can't pray, you're in trouble So gather around Let's Teach you how to pray That's not what Jesus did Instead, Jesus would escape Into the night to pray He would rise early in the morning to pray His men would go looking for him, only to find him in prayer Because his whole ministry was wrapped around praying, commun with his Father in heaven

So much so did he pray, so often did he pray, that his men would one day ask this question, Lord, in Luke:, teach us how to pray They saw him praying, and finally they got the point and said, Lord, we need you to teach us how to pray because there's something that you're doing that we're not doing There's something that's a lifeline for you that we don't have

There's something about you that sets you apart from us as to why you escape into the night, why you get up early before everybody else, why we have to go looking for you, and every time we go looking for you For you, we find you doing the exact same thing over and over again That is, you're praying So, Lord, teach us how to pray because the Lord knew That prayer is best caught You catch it When I was growing up, my father never one time ever taught me how to pray My father never one time taught me how to study the Bible My father never taught me one time how to read the Bible

My father never taught me how to memorize scripture My father never taught me how and how much to give to the Lord Never once But you know what? I saw him pray. I saw him study the Bible And I saw him give to the Lord Because my father knew that if I was going to be a son who prayed, I'd have to catch it If I was going to be a son who studied the Bible, I'd have to catch my father studying the Bible. I'd have to catch my father giving to the Lord And my parents made me sit with them in church

And so when my father gave, I saw him give every week in the offering basket. I never knew how much he gave. I never knew what percent he gave. I just knew he gave My father never sat down and said, Son, I'm going to teach you how to pray because you've got to learn to pray No, but my dad prayed in the same spot every day, a. m. p. m Same chair When I got up in the morning, there he was He was in prayer When I went to bed at night, there he was in prayer And I realized something pretty significant about that My dad never taught me how to study the Bible

But boy, I always saw him studying the Bible. I thought to myself, I got to get that So my dad modeled to me those things that were absolutely crucial for me to live the life that he himself was living in communion with God Because prayer is that which is caught Why is that? Why does that need to be a wrap for you? Because mom, dad, your children will learn to pray by watching you pray They're going to learn to pray by listening to you pray

But the question is, do they ever see you in prayer? Do they ever see you in the word? Do they ever see you give? My dad never taught me how to serve in the church, but I watched him serve As I watched him serve, I knew I needed to serve And so, therefore, even to this day, I serve in the church You see, it's caught Prayer, more than anything else, is caught Number two, prayer is taught Once caught, it can be taught But if you answer questions your children are not asking, you have a hard time getting through to them

But if you answer questions your children ask, it's easy to get through to them So the Lord knew that So when the disciples said, Lord, teach us how to pray, he taught them the pattern for prayer, did he not? When you pray, pray this way, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven He taught them a very important principle that they needed to grasp And that is this: prayer is all about God and His glory before man and his needs Before you can pray, give us

Forgive us and lead us, you must pray about God's name, God's kingdom, and God's will If you don't do that, better not even pray because you're doing the wrong thing The pattern of prayer that Christ gave us is a prayer not necessarily to be recited, although you can recite it because it's scripture memory, so you can't do that But it's a prayer that gives us a pattern on how to pray And so when the Lord says, when you pray, you pray this way Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name

You must make sure that you are consumed with the purity of God, that you want His name hallowed, made holy in your life If you're not consumed, Consumed with the purity of God, better not even pray You're wasting your time Number two, you got to be concerned about the program of God Thy kingdom come If you're concerned about your program and your desires, just as well not even pray because it's all about God's kingdom If you're about building your own little kingdom in your own little way, just will not even pray about it because God's not going to listen to it

It's all about his name being hallowed in your life It's all about being consumed with his purity It's all about being concerned with His program And it's all about being committed to his plans Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Lord, I want your will to be accomplished in my life If your prayer is about your will and your desires, Just as well, not even open your mouth because God doesn't listen to that It's about God and His glory And then and only then can you rejoice in this provision, give us this day our daily bread Then and only then can you truly, truly receive His pardon

Forgive us our debts as we have already forgiven our debtors And then lead us not into temptation Then and only then can you rest in his protection See, the Lord taught them But they had to catch prayer first Then they would ask the question That's why in the book of Deuteronomy it says this And these words which I am commending you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons

Why is that so important? Because there comes a time in Deuteronomy chapter 6, in verse number 20, when it says, When your son asks you in time to come, saying, What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you? There's a time when your son's going to come to you and say, Dad, these commandments that God has commanded you that you're obeying, this lifestyle that you're living, that you're obeying Teach me about them Now you have an open platform to be able to teach your children

You see, one of the things that we try to do is teach our children things that I'm asking Are there things they need to know? Yeah, there are

But once you're modeling the things that God wants you to model to them, Then they can say, why is it you do that? Why is it, Dad, that we always go to church? Why is it, dad or mom, you spend time on your knees? Why is it that you are always talking to people about Jesus? Why is it that you really want to do what God says in this area? Because you're always doing it, see? And so, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, and you are the kind of person who keeps the statutes of God, the commandments of God, the precepts of God, what happens is your sons and daughters say, Why do we do that? Then you teach them

Because the things that we do are more caught than taught But prayer, if it's to be overarching in our families, is it to be the thing that overshadows everything? If it's that one aspect of our families that is all-encompassing, prayer must be caught Prayer must be taught And thirdly, we must understand this about prayer Prayer is always bought Prayer is bought It was bought with the price The blood of Jesus Christ our Lord Listen to what the Bible says So unique. 1 Peter 3:12 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer

His ears do not attend to the unrighteous person's prayer, but only to the righteous person's prayer Very unique See, prayer is bought It was bought with a price The veil was torn in two Access into the throne of throne room of God was granted to us by the Son of God who died for our sins He who knew no sin Became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him So He became sin for us that we now would obtain His righteousness because that's the only way The Father attends to the cry of his people We have to be righteous people

And the only way that can happen is if Christ imputes His righteousness to us He takes our sin So that we can have his righteous That 's why we are called a priesthood of believers Because as priests, we have access into the Holy of Holies We are able to access the presence of Almighty God So we need to unwrap that, understand that, because now, as Revelation 1:5 to 7 says, we are a kingdom of priests We are now able to access the throne of God Why? Because prayer has been bought He knew, the Lord knew, that we would need to depend upon him We would need to rely upon him

We would need to cry out to him And the only way for his ear to be attentive to our cry was for us to become a righteous people Prayer is caught, taught, bought, and fourthly, prayer must be sought It m be sought In other words, pray t work, discipline High energy Prayer is something, as the Bible says, men ought always to pray And not to faint Mark 1:3, and in the early morning, while it was still dark Jesus arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there And Simon and his companions hunted for him Listen, prayer does not come naturally Prayer does not come easily

Prayer always comes in the realm of difficulty Because Satan doesn't want you on your knees Simply put And whenever you set out to pray, all kinds of distractions come your way All kinds of difficulties come your way There's always something more important to do than to pray Because by nature we want to handle everything, we want to do everything But we need to be people on our knees, we need to be people who cry out to God And ask God to do a great and might work Prayer Prayer must be sought That is, you must diligently seek to pray

The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing, right? First Thessalonians 5:18 But also, the Bible says that when you pray into your closet, so we must pray without ceasing, and we must pray within our closets Because Matthew 6 says that when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, the Pharisees, who like to stand out in public and let everybody recognize the words they're saying, the things they're doing But when you pray, into your closet, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly But boy, that closet time takes work, discipline, getting up, staying up

You begin to pray, it's easy to fall asleep. I remember a time growing up when we were kids, we were around praying in our family room My sister prayed first, I prayed second, and there was this long pause And the long, long pause became even a longer pause Because my mom was supposed to pray third But she began to snore She fell asleep And we waited and we waited And who was going to wake up mom during prayer time? Until my dad reached over and just kind of nudged her a little bit, woke her up, realized it was her turn to pray That happens

You begin to pray, your mind begins to wander about all the events of the day That's why it's important to keep a list, go down through a list so that your mind is not distracted You can keep a list and keep it going But prayers work It's not easy That's why prayer must be sought So, these preliminary comments unwrap for us some things about prayer that need to be understood in our families Prayer is caught, it's taught, it's bought It's sought And fourthly, or fifthly, I guess it is, prayer is fought Not only is it hard, it's war It's absolute war Because S is at war

We have those fleshly lusts, 1 Peter 2:11, that wage war against our soul, right? How many times have we told you you're engaged in warfare? We're soldiers, and no good soldier actively involves himself in the affairs of this world or gets so entangled in the everyday affairs of life that he forgets that he's to please his commanding officer Why? Because the Bible says Sees us as soldiers on the battlefield And we don't see ourselves that way anymore We don't see ourselves going to war every day. A couple of weeks ago, we told you: when you get married, you're going to war

When you go to work, you're going to war When you go to School, you're going to war when you get up, you're at war If you don't see yourself at war, you're already defeated If you don't see yourself at war every day, you are Already down for the count Prayer is fought That's why the Bible says over in Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 18 These words, 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 that pray on my behalf

Why? Because prayer is interwoven in and throughout each part of the army Prayer, listen, is not part of the armor Prayer enables the armor That without prayer, the helmet, the sword The breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the feet that were prepared with the gospel of peace are inoperable without prayer And Satan is doing everything he can to keep you off your knees Keep you from commun with the true and living God So you say, okay, I can get that Prayer is caught. I need to model that to my family, to my wife, to my kids To my grandchildren

Prayer then can be taught because they begin to see the importance of prayer, and I can teach them the pattern of prayer. I can begin to teach them how to pray based on what the Word of the Lord says Prayer must be sought. I must discipline myself to get up and to stay up or to stay up late and to be on my knees Prayer has been bought It's a privilege that I have as a priest in the family of God Prayer must be fought because it's a battle going on every single day that I must be ready for war You might be saying, Yeah, I know all that. I get that

But, Pastor, when I pray, nothing seems to happen When I pray, nobody's moving When I pray, things aren't changing When I pray, it seems like God never answers What is the problem? That's where the primary concept must be understood Once the preliminary comments are unwrapped, the primary concept now must be understood, and this is where most of us fall short The Bible says very simply this in Psalm 145 these words The L is near to all those who call upon Him See, I've been calling upon the Lord, and I don't sense the nearness of God We got to read the rest of the verse

The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him, to all those who call upon Him in what? Truth That's the primary concept that's not understood, that needs to be understood You must call upon the Lord in truth What does that mean? Well, that's why you're here If prayer is going to be overarch our family unit All encompassing our family unit If prayer is going to be a foundational element, Of our family, I must call upon the Lord in truth How do you do that? Hopefully you're ready, because here we go Number one, and I have several principles. I have 11 of them to be exact

So, hang on to your hats We going to go really, really fast Okay? I really have 16. I'm just going to give 11 of them to you tonight Okay? Number one is this: you must accept the person of truth You must accept the person of truth You can't call upon God in truth if you don't believe that God is the God of truth Right? So, unless you accept him as the person of truth in your life, then you can call upon him, but he won't be near He's only near to those who call upon him in truth Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life

Jeremiah 10:10 says that the Lord God of Israel is the God who is true Pilate asked, What is truth? John 18 Christ said, I am truth. I have come to fulfill all that is true Christ told Pilate, Because I am truth, I have come to fulfill all that which is truth Truth about what? Truth about God Truth about Christ Truth about redemption and salvation The truth about the crucifixion The truth about the resurrection The truth about Everything that's in the scriptures, Christ says, I have come to testify to that truth Listen to what 1 John 5 says. 1 John 5, verse number 20, records these words

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true And we are in Him who is true In his Son Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life Christ is the true God, the one that's in us is true We are in him, he is in us Unless we accept the person of truth, we can call upon him, he will never be near Because you must call upon him In truth So you must accept the person of truth And number two, you must abide in the pres of truth You must abide in the pres of truth Listen to what the Lord God said

In the Gospel of John, John chapter 15, he said these words to his disciples on that eve of the crucifixion He says, if you ab in me, if you remain in me, that is the person who's a true believer Remains in Christ He abides in Christ He does not run away He does not fall away He. rem in Christ

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, in other words, if you remain in me and my words remain in you, that is, rhem, the specific utterances of the truth of God, That is, we have God's words remaining in us, the specific words that he has said about him, about life, about the doctrines of scripture, about the precepts of scripture If you abide in me and my words remain in you, he says this: if you ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you Wow But if you don't abide in the presence of truth, you can call upon the Lord, but he will not hear You must abide in the presence of truth

You must call upon him in truth How many people do you know? That are involved in some kind of prayer ministry, or they pray, but they can testify that my prayers are just absolutely zeros Nothing happens Nobody moves, nothing changes Things remain the same Why? You got to call upon him in truth You can only do that if you accept the person of truth, if you abide in the pres Of truth Number three, if you're going to call upon him in truth, then you must Acclaim and affirm the pre of truth You must affirm and acclaim The pre of truth If I claim something, I'm celebrating it

If I claim something, I'm welcoming it. I'm affirming it. I am affirming the precepts of truth Listen, I might not know all that God says about the tri nature of God or about the doctrine of election and doctrine of predestination. I might not know all that, but I'm going to celebrate the fact that God foreknows Everything that God is sovereign over all things. I might not be able to explain to you the sovereignty of God and the volition of man. I might not be able to explain it to you because I might not understand it completely, but I believe it's true because the Bible says

It's true, and if the Bible says it's true, it's true no matter whether I can explain it well or not, or no matter what I think about it, because what I think about it doesn't matter What God says about it matters What you think about it doesn't matter Only what God says matters So, I affirm the fact that God is sovereign. I affirm the fact that God has chosen me before the foundation of the world. I affirm the fact that he is the God of truth. I affirm the fact that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. I affirm the fact that you

Yes, Jesus came to earth, he died, he rose again the third day, he's coming back again. I affirm that, even though I might not understand everything about it, I affirm the precepts of truth because I'm going to call upon God and I'm going to call upon him in truth Because when I do, he is always near, my friends, this is so important Because over three decades of ministry, I have counsel people, tons of people Who say to me, yeah, that prayer thing, it doesn't work. I tried that, it doesn't work God never listens Well, if you don't call upon him in truth, of course he doesn't

Now, it doesn't mean that God can't hear He's deaf He's not deaf, he can hear He can hear everything He knows everything He knows what's on your heart and mind, on your lips, before you even speak them But he says, Listen, if you're going to call upon me, You got to call upon me my way, not your way Because your way doesn't work Only my way does So, therefore, you must accept the person of truth, you must abide in the presence of truth, and you must affirm the precepts of truth to call upon God in truth Number four, you must acquire the protection of truth

You must acquire the protection of truth. I just read it to you earlier, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 18 Right? Paul talks about the armor of God And talks about that armor, and as that armor is being put on and being appropriated, you must be in prayer all the time Because prayer, prayer, listen, is the ministry It is the ministry Without prayer, you don't have a ministry You got a lot of people getting together, doing a lot of things But so much of what we do, we do in the flesh We don't do it in the energy of the Spirit

We don't do it because we are dependent and reliant upon the true and living God to accomplish His purposes in and through us We want to see it happen, so we seek to make it happen It doesn't work that way It works because God Himself is in complete control of everything So I must acquire the protection of truth If I'm going to call upon the Lord, For him to be near The Lord is near to all those who call upon him, to all those who call upon him in truth Well, in order for me to do that, I have got to be protected from the wiles of the devil, from the evil one him

So I must acquire the protection of truth, which comes through prayer as I appropriate the armor of God in my life Next Number five If I am going to call upon the Lord in truth, I must adhere to the p of truth. I must adhere to the p of truth Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 119. 1 Thy word is the lamp unto my feet and the light unto my path God's word lights the path If I don't adhere to the path that he lights for me, I'm not calling upon him in truth That's why the Bible says, tr in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understand

In all your ways to know him, he will make your path smooth Do you have a smooth path tonight? Or is your path a rough and patchy one? Hard to get through because it's so rough? Have you leaned so much on your own understanding that you haven't acknowledged him and trusted in him? You must adhere to the path of truth Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm forty- Psalm forty- Verse number three: Oh, send out your light and your truth Let them lead me Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling place

Then I will go to the altar of God to God, my exceeding joy, and upon the leer I shall praise you, O God, my God In other words, the joy comes because he followed the light Which is the truth, which took him toward God Himself, he followed the path that God had for him You must adhere to the path of tr Number seven Six Thank you At least you're taking notes

If I'm going to call upon the Lord, okay, in truth. I must accept the person of truth, abide in the presence of truth, acclaim and affirm the precepts of truth, acquire the protection of truth, adhere to the path of truth. I must act like the people of truth. I must act like the people of truth In other words, the Bible says in First John 2:6 If you say that you abide in Christ, then you need to walk as Christ him walks Christ said in John 10, 2, My sheep hear my voice, and they fo me Why is it we think we can call on the God of truth? And then live in disobedience to the truth that He gives

Why is it we think that we can honor God with our lips and yet our hearts be far from Him and He respond to us when we go to Him in prayer? We must act like the people of truth In other words, we must live out the truth If we say we believe in what God says, then we at least need to act like we believe in what God says, right? We need to live it out because we truly believe it The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him, to all those who call upon Him in truth So, therefore, to call upon Him in truth, I must live the truth So it must act like the people of truth

Number seven. I must amplify the praise of truth. I must amplify the p of truth Listen to what Psalm 117 says Psalm 1 The psalmist says these words Praise the Lord, all nations, laud him, all peoples. for his loving kind is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord is ever In other words, I must amplify the praise of truth In other words, the truth of God must be a megaphone in my life So that I acclaim it so loud and so clear that everybody around me knows that I believe in the God of truth That I sing praises unto his name

The psalm for today, if you read through the Psalms every day of the year, today is Psalm 105 Psalm 105 says this: Psalm 105, ver Number one records these words. I've got to get there Hold on a second Psalm 105, verse number 1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord Call upon his name Make known his deeds among the peoples Sing to him Sing praises to him Speak of him All his wonders, glory in his holy name Let the earth of those, let the heart, I'm sorry, of those seek him, the Lord be glad Seek the Lord and His strength Seek His face continually

Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments of Uttered by his mouth Sing to him, speak for him, seek him, amplify the praise of truth The Lord is near to all those who call upon him, but only near to those who call upon him in truth Is that what you do? Next, I must hurry You must apply the principles of truth You must apply the principles of truth James 4:1, to him that knoweth to do good, it doeth it not to him, it is sin So if I sin, I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord's not going to hear me. I must apply the principles of truth

The principles of prayer, the principles of child rearing, the principles of marriage and family. I must apply the principles of truth Number nine, I must anticipate the promises of truth. I live in anticipation The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth Therefore, I anticipate the promises of truth All the promises of God are yes In Jesus Christ our Lord The promises of his return, the promises of his spirit Luke 11 talks about

If your Father, who is evil, gives you good things, how much will your Heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit to those of you who ask him? Because if you have the Holy Spirit, you have the comfort of the Spirit, you have the guidance of the Spirit, Of God So I live in anticipation What was wrong with the early church when they prayed for Peter's release? And Peter was released But when he arrived at the house, nobody expected him to be there Because they didn't pray in truth, anticipating the promise of God's deliverance for Peter himself

They missed out on the joyous blessing because they did not anticipate the promises of truth How about you? What do you anticipate tomorrow and the next day? Do you call upon the Lord in truth because you anticipate the promises of truth? That was number nine, right? Ah, number ten The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth You must appreciate the pleasures of truth You must appreciate the pleasures of truth What are the pleasures of truth? Psalm 19: the law of the Lord is perfect, he restores the soul The testimony of the Lord is sure He makes wise the simple

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever The judgments of the Lord are true They are righteous altogether They are more desirable than gold Yes, and much faster Fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb Moreover, by them your servant is warned and keeping them, there is great reward Not just some reward, there's great reward

You need to learn to appreciate the pleasures that truth brings your way when you are focused on the commandments and the judgments and the precepts of God and all that He gives to enlighten the eyes To make sure that things are done right in your life And lastly, we'll end with this one The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him, to all those who call upon Him in truth You must appropriate the power of truth You must appropriate the p of truth The Lord said To his men in Acts chapter 1, that he's going to be leaving, but he's going to give them the Spirit of God, the Spirit of power

And once that Spirit comes, they shall be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the utter parts of the world But they had to appro the power of that truth They had to learn to commune with the living God Paul would talk about in Colossians 1, verses 28 and 29, that he was able to work Through the power that works so mightily in him, the ministry of preaching and proclaiming and admonishing every man That he might present every man complete in Christ was done because of the power of God that works so mightily in him

We must appropriate the power of truth to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask Ask or think to him be the glory in the church forever and ever and ever Amen How about you? Is the Lord near to you? He's only near to those who call upon him in truth My prayer for you and for me His overarching prayer would be that symbol that would that would clarify Our families, because we as families know how to call upon the Lord in truth Let me pray with you Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight So much to be said, so little time to say it

Our prayer, Lord, is that you would take your word and that, Lord, you drive it deep into our souls Lord, I pray for the people that are here tonight And one day, we'll be listening by way of radio We pray, Father, that you'd work in their hearts There are many, many who are downcast and downt because They have come to you and received no answers But they have forgotten to call upon you in truth They might not even have accepted the personal truth And there's no way they can enter into the throne room of God because they're not a part of the family of God

We pray for them that Lord they would embrace Christ as the one true God For the rest of us, Lord, all of us, we need to appropriate all these principles in our lives. I know there's a lot of them, but they kind of all go together There are 11 of them, but they're all just one sim principle Call upon you in truth May truth be that which governs our lives From this day forward, we pray in Jesus' name, Am.