Baptists Believe in Prayer

Turn to Matthew six because we'll be reading a portion of scripture from Matthew six in just a moment. Matthew chapter six. If you'll find that, please. Already made quite a bit of Jeremiah thirty three three this morning. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.

God told Jeremiah and all of Israel, want to see amazing things happen? Then call out to me. Call unto me. Cry out to me. He says, I'll do what?

I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. I'm glad to see Christine Oatman here with us this morning. It's been a little while. Brother Steve has been in poor health now for two or three months. Back over a little two months ago, maybe three, I guess, I don't know.

I lose track of time. It seems to go by faster and faster all the time. Anyway, brother Steve developed pneumonia but worse than that, medication he was they were giving him caused him to bleed into one of his lungs and they didn't catch it soon enough and brother Steve almost died. I got a text from Christine a series of text from Christine saying that he was in the hospital, that he was in ICU, two or three of those said, I don't know if he'll make it through the night. He was on a ventilator for how how long Christine was he on the ventilator?

For two weeks, he was on a ventilator. Could not breathe on his own. They kept him under. When he came out of that and they weaned him off the ventilator. He was still incredibly weak Then in in the midst of the time that he was on the ventilator, we were praying for him.

I know Christine was praying for him. I know other people were praying. And Christine told me, they decided to move him one night from one floor to another and at that time, it it didn't look like he was going to make it. The doctors had told her that they didn't think he was going to make it, that they were she ought to consider taking him off the ventilator. But as we were praying, as they were moving Steve from one floor to the next, something changed.

And when he got to the new floor, just an hour or two later, he began to immediately improve. You know, God still what? God still answers prayer. God still answers prayer. He does.

And he does great and mighty things. Which we can't even imagine. According to the doctor, Steve wasn't supposed to make it. But I hope maybe in a couple months to see Steve sitting here again. He's in a rehab up in Safety Harbor because of being on the ventilator for so long, he lost strength in his legs and feeling and strength in one of his arms and it is coming back.

It's taking a while. This week, he took few days. He took some small steps with the help of the bars and he is improving, doing better but more than that, I am encouraged and blessed by my visits with him especially this last one. He was in a really good mood, Christine and you know, God answers prayer and and we sometimes I think as Baptist, we say we believe in prayer as Christians that really really don't believe in prayer to the extent that we should. If we did, we would pray more than we do.

God is still answering prayer. Spoke the last few weeks on playing the ball where it lies. In life, we have to learn to live where we are. We have to learn to accept God's will. We have to learn to accept the actions and forgive them of others and we have to accept, learn, accept personal responsibility for our actions and then, like Paul, put those things which are behind behind us and move forward to those things which are before.

The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We have to learn to play the ball where it lies. We learn have to learn to get back up, to get back on the horse, and to keep moving forward, trusting in the Lord and part of doing that with being content and living a joy filled life is learning to lean on Jesus. Learning to abide in the vine who is Jesus Christ. Learning to depend on him and one of the ways that we depend on him is through the exercise of prayer.

Through prayer is one of the ways we depend and we demonstrate and express our dependence upon God is through prayer. If we really trust in the Lord, if we really believe God will hear our prayers, if we really believe he's interested in us, and we'll go to the Lord in prayer and he'll do incredible things Verse up here on the screen, passage, Philippians four, six, and seven, Paul writes, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That phrase, be careful for nothing means don't be anxious. Don't be worried about things. No, rather than being anxious, rather than being all distraught, rather than being discouraged and depressed, and all stressed out, God says, there is a better solution.

Come to me. Come to me. With those things. That makes you anxious. Come to me with those trials.

Come to me with those burdens. Bring them to me. Let your request be made known unto God and as we bring those requests to him and we make them known unto him and we learn to trust and to lean on his answer. Then, he'll give us what? He will give us peace that passes all understanding.

There is a peace at times that I see in the lives of those who are struggling that know the Lord when I go to visit them in the hospital or go to visit them in their home. That the world can't understand. And that the world can't give. Only Jesus can. Give peace in the midst.

Some of the storms of life. And only if we learn to trust him. And to make our request known unto him. You want to have contentment in life as a Christian? Learn to talk with your God.

Learn to make your request known. Learn to pray. There are some things, many things in life. We have no or little control over but what we do have as Christians is a direct line to the one who does have control. Jesus Christ.

God the father in heaven. We have a direct line and an invitation to bring our request to the one who is in control of the things that we are not. Even though it maybe out of my control, it is not out of whose. It's not out of God's control and the most wonderful thing is this, He gives me the opportunity the privilege the invitation to bring those things to trouble me to him. Paul reminds us in the last Thessalonians to pray without ceasing.

What does that mean? Pray without ceasing. It means, don't stop praying. Praying. Don't stop praying.

Just keep on praying to God. Don't give up. Don't stop. Whenever you have a need, whenever some God, whenever something burdens your heart, remember who is there and who is listening. And don't stop praying.

Look if you would in Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six, we're going to read verses five through 15. Christ is going to use a negative example at first here in his instruction to his disciples concerning prayer. The example of the Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees were the church goers so to speak.

They were the people that dressed up every week to go to the synagogue. They were the people that held their head high in the air and walked solemnly to the synagogue in order that they might impart their version of spiritual truth to the waiting people there. The majority of the rabbis were Pharisees. They believed in the majority of the what you might call the fundamental doctrines of the Old Testament. There was one major one that they had missed.

And that is salvation is not by the works of the law by faith. They depended upon their own self righteousness. They were satisfied in themselves. They didn't recognize that they were sinners in need of a savior. So, when the savior came, they didn't recognize who he was or that they needed him but to others around them, they seem to be the religious ones.

They were the pious ones. So, Jesus often use them as negative This is what you don't do. That you see these quote unquote religious leaders doing every day. Matthew six verse five and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men.

Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. That is the praise of men. But when but thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet or into thy thy secret room. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which see it in secret shall reward thee openly. In other words, don't be prayed to be seen of who?

To be seen and heard of men. Prayer is not talking to men. Prayer is talking to God. Pastor once was praying at a meal which he had some guests and he didn't pray very loudly and somebody said, why don't you speak up so we can hear you? And he looked over and he said, pardon me, sir, but I'm not talking to you.

When we pray, who are we talking to? To God, not to men. Verse seven, but when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the hidden do, for they think that they shall be heard, for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. After this manner, therefore, pray you.

Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Amen. And we'll stop there this morning. We look to God's word for God's instruction. These are not the words of men but the words of God and they are profitable for doctrine, correction, for proof, for instruction, and righteousness in every area of life and certainly in respect to prayer. What is prayer this morning?

Well, prayer is just talking to who? Prayer is talking to God. That's what prayer is. Not a religious right or an exercise to make one feel better. There's a lot of people out there with their legs crossed and their hands a certain way and they're doing their meditation to feel better.

Prayer is not a practice or an exercise to help you feel better. It's not about your karma or an out of body experience or emptying your mind or striving to reach the next level of consciousness or positive thinking. Should you think positively? Yeah, I think it's probably a good thing to do. If you're always negative, You're going to be a sour, miserable person.

But prayer is not about thinking positively. It's not a new weight loss program or a get rich scheme. When I when I was a youth pastor a few years ago, there was a certain prayer that this guy wrote a little book about. It was called the prayer of, anybody know? Starts with a J.

J. The prayer of Jabez. Jabez was this person in a genealogy in the Old Testament that nobody had heard of and he gave a simple prayer there that Jabez prayed And the Lord blessed Jabez with material blessings among other things. And so somebody picked on that, wrote up a book about the importance of prayer and God providing for us. Not all that bad but as many things happen, people take it too far.

They run with it and it became became this type of thing. Well, if you pray this prayer, you're going to get rich And the Bible never says that, okay? We are rich. We're rich in who? We're rich in Jesus Christ, our savior.

We're not to lay up treasure where? On Earth but in in heaven. That's right. God didn't promise to make us rich here. God promised to make rich in Jesus Christ.

To prepare a place for us in heaven but some people picked up on that and that, oh yeah, Imma pray this prayer and Imma get rich. That's not what prayer is. It's not a get rich scheme. It's not wishing upon a star. It's not superstition.

It's not talk, not about talking to Mary or dead saints or spirit guides or spirits of the dead, of dead relatives or some false ambiguous or unnamed deity or lifeless idol. Prayer is speaking to the true and living God. What good does it do to speak to a lifeless idol? None whatsoever. What good does it do to drop a coin in a wishing well?

Or to wish upon a star. What's a star? Oh, it's just a bunch of helium and hydrogen gas out there in space. It cannot answer your wish. Or grant it.

But there is one who asks us to bring our request before him, who does hear because he is a living person, does care, does answer our prayers. Not long after I moved here, somebody called me from the school board and asked me to come pray at one of their school board meetings and they said, now, you understand this is interdenominational. Said, well, that's fine. I I don't care. So, as long as I can pray in the name of Jesus, it doesn't matter.

And the person kind of hesitated and then said, okay, well, I'll find somebody else. You mean I can't pray in the name of Jesus? I guess they didn't mean interdenominational. They meant interfaith and your prayer had to be so, you know, innocuous as to not mention who you were praying to or in whose name you were praying. I pray in the name of Jesus because because of Jesus, what he did on the cross, I have the invitation and the privilege to come before the throne of grace and make my request known and therefore, I will pray in the name of Jesus Christ for he is God.

It is not therefore a series of religious platitudes and repetitions and chants, liturgy. It's a conversation. Some denominations have prayer books and I don't know that prayer books are all bad but I do know this, prayer is more than just praying a prayer that somebody else has written out for you to pray in a specific situation. Prayer should come from where? It should come from our heart.

Sad to say many people take the example, the sample prayer that God gave his disciples here as the prayer that they should say over and over and over and over and over again. I think it's a good thing to say the Lord's prayer. Sometimes I think it's a good thing to pray the Lord's prayer. But not all the time because your prayer needs to come from where? Your heart Because you, you're talking to God.

It's not a practice to empty your mind of conscious thought but to communicate your conscience, thoughts, with God. That's what prayer is. An opportunity to share our burdens and our thoughts with the Lord. It is not to be heard of men to be heard by God. That is why we feel as Christ that the most important prayers are the ones that only God hears.

Not so much the word but the cries of our heart and our closet or in our head. You don't have to pray out loud. You can pray in your heart to God and he hears just the same as he does. If you speak loudly, God's not hard of hearing. It must be done with reverence and not flippantly.

You know, it is talking to God but just because it's talking to God doesn't mean that you should come to God flippantly and treat him like you would your your buddy or just anybody you meet on the street. You see, you're not talking just to your best buddy or somebody you meet on the street. You're talking to who? You're talking to God. You are talking to the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

We are talking to our heavenly father. We're not talking to the man upstairs. We're not talking to the big kahuna or our good buddy. We're talking to God Almighty, the Holy One, the Creator of all that is, the Judge of all men. Prayer is worship.

The Greek word often translated prayer in the New Testament is or What does that mean? It means worship. Prayer is worship. And when we come before the Lord in prayer, we're worshiping him. We're worshiping him when we give testimonies.

We're worshiping him when we sing praises. We worshiping, we're worshiping him now as we proclaim and receive his word. We also are worshiping him when we pray. We are adoring him. We are lifting him up and we are humbling who?

Ourselves and expressing our dependence upon God. We are worshiping him. It's an opportunity to communicate our gratitude, our love, our hopes, our fears, our failures, our needs, our burdens, and our faith and dependence in our God. Read with me the Lord's prayer if you would on the screen. Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Two things grab me when I read or pray the Lord's prayer of this. It's making requests to God.

It's an important part of the prayer. Give us this day our what? Daily bread. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil.

But it's also worship. Our father, which art in heaven. Hallowed, holy be thy name. We are worshiping him. One of my favorite prayers in scripture comes from Nehemiah chapter one.

Hold your place in Matthew. Turn if you would back to Nehemiah chapter one. Nehemiah chapter one. And we'll read Nehemiah's prayer to God. Before he approached the king about taking supplies back to Jerusalem to rebuild, he was the king's cup bearer.

You weren't supposed to make requests. Kings in this manner as he did in chapter two, it was a dangerous thing to do so. But he could make request of who? Request of his God in heaven without fear. But he also did so reverently.

Nehemiah chapter one verse five. And said, I beseech thee, oh Lord God of heaven. The great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open. That thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee now day and night.

For the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments which thou commandest thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses saying, if you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of heaven, yet, will I gather them from thence and will bring them under the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

He's quoting from Deuteronomy and what God said to Israel. Verse 10, now, these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. Oh Lord, I beseech thee. Beseech means I come before you humbly. And ask.

Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray, thee thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cup bearer. You see, Nehemiah had a burden on his heart. Who did he take it to?

He took it to the Lord in prayer. He took it to the Lord in worship and acknowledgement of God, his word, his promises, his faithfulness, and he leaned upon the Lord and the Lord did what? The Lord heard and answered his prayer. In chapter two, he went before the king to ask. And the king not only allowed him to go to Israel, he gave him what he needed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Amazing. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Prayer is talking to the king of kings and Lord of lords. Does God hear? You know, it doesn't do any good to talk to God if God isn't listening.

God does hear and he does answer. Call unto me and I will what? Gonna have this memorized by the end of the day I hope. Call unto me and I will answer thee. God says to Jeremiah and Israel when they were in the midst of trials and judgment, he still says, if you will call unto me, I will still what?

Hear and answer your prayers. If you will come to me in faith and repentance. Call unto me. I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. Jeremiah fourteen thirteen, I mean, John fourteen thirteen and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son.

Jesus said to his disciples, whatever you ask in my name, I'll what? I will hear. And answer. I like Matthew chapter seven. If you're still in Matthew six in your Bibles, if you turn over to Matthew seven, if you would, look at verse seven.

One of my favorite passages of scripture. Ask, ask, and it shall be what? Given unto you. Seek and he shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you.

For everyone that ask it receiveth and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be open. Or what man is there of you whom if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Jesus says, if you'll ask again but you need to ask Jesus said, you know how to give good things to your children that have needs and you're sinners God in heaven who is perfect Do you not think that he wants to give good things to his children too?

Of course, he does. He's just waiting for us to what? To ask. And he says, he will hear. He will hear his children who call upon him.

Young and old, rich and poor male and female servant and king. The ground is level at the foot of the what? At the foot of the cross. God hears my prayers the same way. He would hear the prayers of the president of The United States.

The ground is leveled at the foot of the cross. God hear the prayer of Nehemiah Samuel Hannah, Elijah, Moses, Paul, David, we could go on and on and on. The Bible is a book about prayer. Many of the Psalms are just David's prayers. That he prayed to God.

That he recorded for us God hears the prayers of his children. If you're here today and you're his child through faith in Jesus Christ, he'll hear your prayer. As many as received him, that is Jesus. To them gave you power to become the what? The sons or the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.

He believed in Jesus Christ, on Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior, you are indeed a child of God. He wants to hear from you He he answers the prayers of those who pray out of a pure heart. A cleansed heart. David says, who shall ascend under the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

He goes on to say, those who have clean hands and a pure heart. James four twenty three, he says, you lust and have not, you kill, and desire not to have, and cannot obtain, you fight in war, yet you have not because you what? Ask. You ask not and when you ask, you ask, you receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust. Sometimes, we come to God selfishly in prayer and we wonder why we don't hear the answers to our prayers.

Sometimes, we come to God with iniquity. David said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer. That God, I'm not going to do it the way you want me to do this. I refuse but yet, I need you to do this for me. If you had a child and you told your child go take out the trash and your child said, no, I'm not taking out the trash and you said, well, son, take out the trash.

No, I'm not taking out the trash and then, ten seconds later, your son said, will you you know, I really want to get this little remote control car. Would you get that from me? Well, is there a disconnect here? You know? You won't honor me and just take out the trash and yet, you expect me to go get this for you.

Sometimes, we approach God that way. We wonder why we don't see answers to our prayers. We ask amiss that we may consume it upon our own lust. We wonder why we don't see answers to our prayers. God answers the prayers of those who come humbly with a repentant heart.

If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, Then, when I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, we'll heal their land. There's a world out there of people. Many of whom sit in a church or even at home pray to God and never see any answers to their prayers and they wonder why because they have never repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus Christ to save them from them. They don't come to God humbly. With a repentant heart.

They come to God expecting God to do what they want without coming to God through the way that God has prescribed through his son. Jesus Christ. We humble ourselves and repent and come before God in a humble, with a humble heart, repentance. Then, God says, I'll hear from heaven. Forgive your sin and heal your land.

Land. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much his eyes unto heaven. Publican was a tax collector. He was a cast out of Israel. He was considered a traitor.

They didn't like publicans. But he wouldn't lift up so much his eyes unto heaven but smote his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased but he that humbleth himself shall be what? Exalted.

Exalted. Again, Jesus is uses a Pharisee. There's a negative example. He stood up in the temple and said, I thank you father that I'm not like that publican over there. He didn't realize.

He was just like that publican over there. In his sin, but he wasn't like him and that he was refused to repent, humble himself before God. Jesus said, I've called not to call the righteous but what? Sinners. To repentance.

We're going to come to God in prayer. We need to come humbly in faith and repentance. First John five fourteen, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. God says, I'll hear your prayer and I'll answer it. Particularly when you pray according to my what?

To my will. I mentioned this before. My favorite car is a 1965 cherry red hard top convertible Corvette. I think those thing runs about $50.00 or $40.00 for one of those now because they're antiques. You know, something I'll probably never own one of those things and it's a good thing because I probably would end up with points on my license because those things are hard to drive and keep under the speed limit.

But you know something I've never asked God to give me? A cherry red, hard cop convertible 1965 Corvette because it's just, I don't believe his what? His will. It calls me more trouble than it would good. Sometimes, we pray outside of God's will.

Things that we know. We know are not his will. And of course, we shouldn't be surprised when we don't receive those things. But there are many things we can pray that we do know are God's will. Particularly the salvation of lost souls.

For revival to come to the hearts of God's children. We can go on and on. God says, if you pray according to my will, I'll answer your prayer. We need to pray believing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not and shall be given him.

Let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. James Wright and says, if you don't believe God's going to answer your prayer, guess what? Chances are he's not. Prayer involves what?

It involves faith. Faith. It involves faith. God hears and answers the prayer of the person who believes that he will hear and answer their prayer. And then finally, Luke eighteen seven.

And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him? Though he bear long with them. In other words, back to what we said at the beginning. Paul said to pray without what? Pray without ceasing.

Keep on praying. Don't give up. If you're praying for something you believe to be God's will, keep praying. Sometimes Prayers aren't answered when we expect them to be. Keep praying.

God's timetable is not ours. I don't know how many testimonies I've heard of people that prayed for their lost relatives for ten years and twenty years and thirty years and forty years before they came to know Christ as savior. Just keep what? Just keep praying. If you pray something in prayer once and then maybe in a few months, you, oh yeah, I'll pray for that person again.

We're just indicating, well, you know, that person really, that thing really isn't all that important, you know, and God knows our heart. If it's really important to us, they're really important to us, then, we'll what? We'll be consistent and persistent in our prayer. To remember them. Until we see the answer come.

James five sixteen says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Prayer is powerful because of the God who is on the other end. And prayer does accomplish. Watch.

But we need to pray. We need to pray sincerely. We need to pray believing. We need to pray persistently. We need to pray without ceasing.

We need to pray humbly. Most of all, we just need to pray Bring our request before God and the peace of God that passeth all understanding will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Dear heavenly father, Lord, thank you. For the privilege that you have given us to come before you in prayer. Lord, I pray that you would forgive us if we have neglected our prayer life.

Lord, if we have been spending our time other things that are passing away not spending time talking to our Lord in heaven who we will spend eternity with. Lord, please forgive us. Help us Lord to see the need of prayer. Give us faith to believe, to grow in our faith. That you do hear and answer prayers.

Lord, we pray most of all, if there's one here today doesn't know you as Lord and savior. We pray. That you would draw them to yourself. For there is one prayer of theirs that you will hear and most certainly answer. That is a prayer of the heart.

To trust you as savior to accept your forgiveness for sin based upon what you did on Calvary's Cross. That they might be saved. And Lord we pray if there's one here today that's not done that or is unsure. They would come as we give this song of invitation that we might share with them today. How they might be saved and know it.

In Jesus name, we do pray.