For What Should I Pray?

And if you'll take your Bibles, Turn if you would to first Timothy chapter two. First Timothy chapter two, it'll be a few minutes before we get there but it's the first passage that we'll read through that won't be on the screen this morning for you. We we have been talking about prayer Last couple of weeks, we'll continue again as I mentioned this morning. What is prayer? Prayer is what?

Talking to God. Call unto me. Who who is who is speaking? God is. God pleads with us, invites us.

Please, talk to me. Call unto me. Cry out unto me. God wants to hear from you. God wants you to talk with him and share him your heart.

Well, you say, well, he already knows my heart. Yes, he does. He already knows my needs. Yes, he does. But he wants to hear from you.

I already know a lot of my children's needs but I still like to hear from them. I still like to converse with them and God wants to talk with his children and wants to hear from us as well. Prayer is talking to God Next question, asked couple weeks ago is this, does God hear? Well, what's the use in talking to God if he doesn't hear? He does indeed hear.

He says, call on to be I will answer thee. God says, I will hear. If you'll call, I'm listening. I will hear you. I care about you.

And if you call, I will answer. And then last week, does prayer change things? Yes, it does. Prayer indeed changes things. Confess your faults one to another.

Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth or accomplisheth what? Much. Sincere prayer from a child of God who is walking in the spirit is powerful. God hears.

God answers. Prayer changes things. We need to be ready when God answers. We looked at that last week. Faith, prayer, and courageous action.

Be ready. Be prepared. When God answers your prayer. Esther was ready. Nehemiah was ready.

Daniel was ready. They stepped out in faith believing. That prayer is powerful, that God hears, and that God would respond. He would answer them and praise the Lord of course, he did. I was going to end with this verse last week but I didn't get to it.

One of my favorite verses, Isaiah forty thirty one, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. You want to mount up with wings as eagles?

Begin by getting down on your knees before God. And learn to wait to rely on him. To wait doesn't mean just sitting around twiddling your thumbs. The weight means to rely upon the Lord. Trust in the Lord.

Prepare for his answer. You will mount up with wings as eagles. God says so. You say, but pastor, things haven't been looking so much that way. Don't give up on God Great is thy faithfulness, oh God, my father.

He will not fail you. Things may look bleak. Things may be rough. But he will never leave you nor forsake you. His grace is sufficient.

And he knows what's best for you. He will be there to help you. When you need him. Which is a lot more often than we realize sometimes. This morning for for for what should I pray?

For what things should I pray? Read this verse earlier and this is the confidence that we have in him. Confidence as his children. That he hears our prayers. That if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. The short answer to this and I guess if all you wanted was the short answer, we'd say it and you can go home but I'm not going to let you go home quite yet. Anything. Anything. Anything according to his what?

Will. What should you pray for? Anything according to his will. I've said this several times. Y'all have probably gotten tired of hearing it.

But I'd love to have 1965 cherry red hardtop convertible Corvette Stingray. But I've never asked for that in prayer. Well, if I like to have it and it says anything, why don't I ask for it? Well, the second part of this phrase is important too. Anything according to his what?

To his will. He doesn't me to get in a wreck or get a bunch of tickets or or get enamored with a piece of metal. He wants my heart to be focused upon him. The Corvette wouldn't be good for me. So, therefore, I've never asked for it.

You see, but there's other things that can be, could be, or most definitely are God in accordance, in agreement with the will of God. You need to pray for those things. Praying for those things, being willing to accept and desire that God answer that according to his what? According to his will. The big things, the small things, the monstrous things of life, and the everyday little issues of life.

I remember one time, I was at Home Depot and I was looking for a gizmo and I don't remember what the gizmo was right at the moment. It just came to mind and they had these different little boxes down there and you had one that was one inch and one that was two inch and one that was three inch and the one that was two inch or whatever was the one I needed and it was empty and I thought, Lord, I really need this. Let there be one in the three inch box. So, I started going through the three inch box. Guess what?

Somebody had misplaced one in the three inch box. So, I got it. He say, well, that was just Well, with God, nothing is entirely what? Coincidence. I believe God answered my prayer.

At least answered my prayer enough for me to have faith to look in the other box. A lot of times he answered prayers more about us than it is about the thing we're praying for. Anything according to his will. God wants you to pray for. Let's look at some specifics from God's word this morning before we dismiss.

Romans chapter 10 verses nine and thirteen. But if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I can tell you right now, if you're here this morning and you are unsure of your salvation, you've never trusted Christ this morning. I can tell you right now.

God says in his word, it is his desire. It is his will that you be saved. Amen. He commands it. He says, call unto me.

Come to me. You that are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. He says, he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. God says here, call upon me in faith I will save your soul.

God wants you to be saved today. The first prayer he has committed to answer in your life. So, So, when you call on him from your heart in faith to be your Lord and savior He will hear, he will answer He will save your soul Luke eighteen thirteen and fourteen. There was a, this doesn't have the entire passage but there was a Pharisee who was very pious religious leader in the temple, courtyard, and then there was the publican who was a tax collector, who was a traitor to his own people, who was the scum of the earth. To the Jews.

The Pharisee prayed previous to this verse and said, I thank you Lord that I'm not like that publican over there. He's this and that and that and this and I'm glad that I'm not like him. That was his prayer. Wasn't much of a prayer. Really wasn't talking so much to God as he was talking to himself about how proud he was about about himself.

When the publican prayed, he prayed like this. Do not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, Jesus said, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. If you'll humble yourself, call upon God.

As a lost sinner He wants to be saved and forgiven. He will save you. He will keep you He will seal you until the day of redemption He will give you a place in heaven. Where you'll spend eternity He will hear your prayer. The only thing if you're here today and you don't know Christ as savior that you need to think about praying about.

Just calling upon him in faith to save yourself. Likewise, the the Bible also tells us that we need to pray for other people who have yet to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. First Timothy chapter two verse one, I had you turn there a few moments ago. First Timothy two one. Says, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Paul says to the to Timothy for him to communicate with his congregation that prayers, supplications, prayers, intercessions be made for whom? All men. All men. Not just our favorites. Not just the people like us.

But for all men. For kings, for all their in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who will have all men to be what? Saved. To be saved.

What specifically does God want you to pray for concerning all men? That they might be saved. Why? Because we know that it is God's will. God said, he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and so, what should we be praying for?

We should be praying for the salvation of lost souls. We should be praying for our neighbor. Do you know your neighbors? You see their faces in your mind? You know their names?

Their souls that will spend eternity somewhere. Heaven or hell. Depending on their relationship with who? With Jesus Christ. Will you pray for them?

Do they matter? To the Lord? They do. They should matter to us. As we approach revival services at the end of October.

Would you commit to pray for those neighbors? I have one on one side. His name is Liam. He's on our prayer list. On the other side of me is Derek and Sarah.

On the other side of the street are the Ansel's. Side them is a man named John. Down the street, three doors over is a fellow named Jeremy. To my knowledge, they all need Jesus Christ. You know your neighbors?

You pray for them. If you're not praying for them, there's a good chance nobody else is. Pray for the lost that they might be saved. Oh, I have a film I've shown a couple times in church. It's called When Silence Speaks.

It's about the salvation of a man who is deaf. And in this movie, the the sister of the deaf man had sort of given up on him. Oh, he's deaf. He don't understand. There's nothing I can do.

But this young preacher who had recently came to town felt burdened for the man. That he learned the gospel, that he learned how to be saved and so he prayed for him and he prayed for him and he tried to witness to him and it wasn't easy. He didn't know sign language. But eventually, the man was saved. When Gordy, the deaf man was saved, then, they started praying for his neighbor.

Grouchy farmer who hated everybody. You know, guess what? He got saved. Well, you say, pastor, that's a fictional story. Well, it may be a fictional story but guess what?

It's one that has happened. Many, many, many, many times over. God answers prayer. God answers prayer in ways that you can't imagine. God can reach the heart of people that you think are so far gone that they would never show interest in God.

Pray for them. Pray for them. We also can pray for God's provision for our needs and for the needs of others. God wants to hear from you about your needs. God wants you to to pray for the needs of others and for particularly for their salvation but God also wants to hear about your needs.

The Lord's prayer, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. What's the next phrase there? Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. What is Jesus saying to his disciples by giving this example of prayer?

He's saying this, God wants to hear about your needs. It's not selfish. It's not wrong. To bring your needs before God. God wants to hear about them.

God wants to answer your prayer. He wants to show you his love. And providing the things that you need. If you'll turn to Matthew chapter seven, turn to Matthew chapter seven. We read this passage a couple weeks ago but it does definitely applies here.

Matthew chapter seven Jesus speaking, sermon on the mount to his disciples says, verse seven, ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Verse eight, for everyone that ask it receiveth and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you whom if his son ask 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 unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven? Give good to them that ask him. Does God want you to have good things? Does God want you to have the needs of your life met? Does God want to give you the desires of your heart?

He says so in Psalm thirty seven four. He says, ask and I'll give. I'm ready. Would you ask? He says in Matthew six thirty three, you want to look back across the page there, he says, but seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

In context, these things are our needs. Whatever it is you need, God says, I'll help provide it. I'll answer your prayer. I care about you. I want good things for you.

Would you please what? Would you please ask? I'd want you to. He's pleading with you to. Would you be willing to do so?

And trust in him. Ask the Lord to help provide for our needs and also for the needs of others. Turn if you would to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Now, halfway through your New Testament, maybe a little past halfway.

Come to Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Colossians chapter one, we're going to read verses nine through 11. Paul often prayed for those to whom he was writing these letters, for the church at Colossi, for the for the church at Ephesus, for the churches in Galatia, for the church in Philippi, for the church in when he wrote the letter, he reminded them often that he prayed for them. Does that matter? Of course, it does.

Because God answers prayer. And so they were to be encouraged and they should have been encouraged that the apostle Paul took time out of his busy day to pray for all these different churches. Colossians one verse nine. He says, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthen with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering joyfulness.

Again and again, we see this. We won't take time to look at all the different letters but Paul prayed for them. Now, what he was praying for here specifically for was their spiritual needs. There were times he also prayed for their physical needs but your spiritual needs are just as important as your physical ones A matter of fact, might say they're a little more important than your physical ones. So, Paul prayed for the church at Colossian, Colossian.

We should pray for one another. First part of this verse, we looked at the last half, few minutes ago at the first half says, confess your faults one to another and what? Pray for. Pray for one another. That you may be healed.

James Wright and says to the churches there, he says, confess your faults one to another. Share what's going on in your life. Share your needs. Share your concerns. Share your failures and then pray for each other.

Pray for your brother or sister that sits in front of behind you in church. Don't forget about them. Be sensitive to their needs. You might even ask them. Is there anything I can pray for you?

Spend time praying for others that God will also help to meet their needs. God wants you. God wants us to pray for our needs needs of others. I want to read example here. There was a Christian evangelist in the middle of the 18 hundreds, nineteenth century by the name of George Mueller.

He's written several written a few books and many books have been written about him as a man of prayer. He wasn't just an evangelist by the way. He also open and directed an orphanage in Bristol, England. Over the time that he was the director of this orphanage, over ten, zero orphans passed through. His orphanage.

And he depended upon the giving of others to provide for the needs of those orphans. Sometimes, over a thousand at a time. The one story related here, it says the children are dressed and ready for school, but there's no food for them to eat, the house mother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited.

George knew God would provide for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. Mister Mueller, he said, last night, I could not sleep. Somehow, I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three bat, three batches for you.

I will bring it in. This is one of many many stories. Look em up on the internet. That George Mueller told or others told about him, about how God provided. For an orphanage and for orphans.

Because he was a man of prayer. And he really believed that God would hear and answer his prayers for these children and for decades, God did. There's another story. Charles Inglis, a well known evangelist, relates the following incident. He says, when I first came to America thirty one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic with a captain of a steamer who was once who was one of the most devoted men I ever knew and when we were off the banks of Newfoundland, he said to me, mister English, the last time I crossed here five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened that has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life.

Up to that time, I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Mueller of Bristol. I had been on that bridge for twenty two hours and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Mueller.

Captain, he said, I come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon. This was Wednesday. It is impossible, I said. Very well, if your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty seven years.

I would be willing to help you but how can I? I am helpless. Let us go down to the chart room and pray, Mueller said. I looked at this man and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could this man have come from? I never heard of such a thing.

Mister Mueller, I said, do you know how dense this fog is? No, he replied. My eye is not on the density of the fog but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life. He went down to his knees and he prayed one of the most simple prayers. I thought to myself that would suit a children's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years of age.

The burden of his prayer was something like this. Oh Lord, if it is consistent with thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement you made for me in Quebec for Saturday. I believe it is your will. When he had finished, I was going to pray but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray.

First, he said, you do not believe God will do it and second, I believe he's already done it And there is no need whatever for you to pray about it. I looked at him and George Mueller said this, said this, captain, I have known my Lord for five seven years and there's never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the king. Get up, captain and open the door and you will find the fog is gone. I got up and the fog was gone. On Saturday afternoon, George Mueller was in Quebec.

Does God always answer prayer? Yes, he does. Does he always answer it the way we want? No. He always answers it according to his his will.

He always hears and 99.9% of the time the issue is we just don't really trust him. George Mueller seemed to really trust him. Changed his life and the lives of over 10,000 orphans who passed through his orphanage. God does want to hear about your needs. He does care.

About your needs. Also, the needs of others. God also wants to help you deal with the trials of life and the temptations of sin. And the Lord's prayer after it says, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. It says, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

God wants to help you not only to meet your physical needs but he wants to help you deal with the trials of life and the temptations of sin. You're most definitely going to have to deal with tomorrow and the next day and the next day. You know something and he knows that. He knows that. He wants to help you.

To handle. To deal with. He wants to give you peace in the midst of the storm. Sometimes he'll calm the storm. Sometimes he'll just give you peace.

He wants to help you with the storms of life. I don't have the verse up here I want. Turn if you would to James chapter one. That's why I don't have it up there. It's too long to read.

James chapter one Look if you would in verse two. James writes, my brother Count it all joy when you fall in the diverse temptations. Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect or complete and entire wanting or lacking nothing. James writes, count it all joy. He doesn't say jump up and down.

It's a wonderful day. No, he says, you can have joy and peace in the midst of your storm of life. If you'll remember that God is in control and that God is trying to teach you something through the storm that you're in. You can have a measure of joy and peace within. And he goes on to say, in the next verse, if any of you lack wisdom, let him what?

Ask of God. Let him ask of God. That giveth to all men liberally and abrade it not and it shall be given him. James writes, okay, storms of life come, don't get depressed, don't get despaired, don't give up, trust God, he has a purpose. If you don't know how to deal with the situation, here's how you deal with it.

Ask who? Ask God. Part of the difficulty, the the the pain of trials in our life is not knowing how to deal with them. We need wisdom from God. How do I deal with this situation?

God says, ask me. I will give you wisdom. I will give you direction. I will give you peace. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and appraideth not.

Liberal means abundantly. Ask of God. He will give you abundantly what you need to handle this trial and abraideth not means he does not hold back. Sometimes, you ask other people for help. They don't give abundantly and they know how to hold back.

But God God is different He has it all to give. He gives abundantly. He doesn't hold back. But when we're going through trials, the thing we often forget is to pray. And to pray in faith.

Verse six, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. If you're going to pray and ask God to help you, have to believe. You have to have faith. Otherwise, you're going to be like that wave of the sea tossed back and forth.

I don't know how to deal. All this is wrong. All that's wrong. Now, this happened. Oh, no.

Now, I don't know. Back and forth and back and forth from trouble to trouble, not knowing how to deal with any of it. Need to ask God in faith because I know somebody who does know how to deal with it. It says here, he'll help me file Just one. Then, we also can ask God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness by confessing our sins and our failures to him.

And the Lord's prayer here it says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us of our debts, particularly our debts to who? To to to God. What do we call that sin? We fail him.

Jesus said, if you have debts to God Ask him. He'll forgive your debts. He can do that because he died for our sins on the cross. They're already under the blood of Jesus Christ. Not only has he forgiven them but he will cleanse us.

Of them. And give us power to conquer them. First John one nine, we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to what? And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, if you sin against God as a Christian, probably know it and you walk around with a burden You want to get rid of that burden?

Oh God. God says, just tell me. Confess it. I'll take away that burden. I already done.

I really already have on Calvary's Cross. I've washed away your sins. They're under the blood of Jesus Christ. Don't walk around with that burden. Come to me in prayer and confess it and I'll take it from your heart So many times we as Christians walk around with so many burdens that we don't have to carry.

Jesus Christ carried them on the cross of Calvary. Why do we walk around with them? When God says, Tell me. I'll take that burden and I'll cleanse you and I'll give you victory over sin. Also, ask God to embolden Those who preach his word and proclaim his gospel Ephesians six nineteen and twenty, Paul writes and pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Paul pleaded with the people to whom he wrote at the church of Ephesus. I want you to pray for who? I beg you, pray for me. I need God's hand in my life. I I need boldness to preach his word.

I need guidance. I need wisdom. Would you please pray for me? We have missionaries come and visit every now and then. They're they're seeking financial assistance so they can get on the field.

And it's not the only thing they're seeking. They're sincere. When they ask you to what? Pray for them. Pray for them because they know that without God's assistance in their ministry, it will be all for not.

You can have all help and converting souls you won't see one soul saved because we don't save people. God does. Paul pleads with them. Please pray that God will embolden me and save lost souls. And then pray that God's will will be done.

That's also the Lord's prayer. On earth as it is in heaven. What can we pray for? We can pray for God's will to be done. For his kingdom to come.

For when his kingdom comes, the enemy will be defeated. For when his kingdom comes, there will be peace on the earth. There will never be peace until his kingdom come. No matter how hard man may try there will not be peace without the prince of peace. If you're a child of God, you want his will to be done Pray for pray for.

As we close this morning what should we pray for? Pray, cry out to God in faith to save your soul if you've never trusted Christ as savior. For without Christ, you are without hope. But with Christ there is life eternal Pray for the salvation of others who need Jesus. Pray, bring your needs before the Lord.

He wants to hear them. He cares about you and bring the needs of others before him too. Intercede for them. They may not even know to pray but you can pray for them. There may be needs in their life that you cannot help.

You can pray for them and God can. Change their life. Pray and ask God to help you with the trials of life and to give you wisdom and patience and endurance and joy. Confess your sins before him. Trust in him.

To carry those burdens. To forgive you and to give you victory. Pray for the preacher, the missionary, and the proclamation of the gospel. Pray for God's will to be done. Pray for anything according to his will.

He will hear you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. For the opportunity, Lord, to look into your word today, to be reminded. Lord, there are many things we can pray for.

We can pray for our neighbors who need Jesus Christ. We can pray for the needs that we have. Financial provision. We may not have at our fingertips but Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Lord, we we can pray for the needs of our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, those who are sick and ill.

Lord, diseases and illnesses that we have no power over but you do. Lord, help us not to forget to pray for them. Lord, we can pray that you give us wisdom to deal with the trials of life and strength to endure. Lord, may we look to you. In hope and in faith, Lord, you have a purpose in everything.

Even say in your word, all things work together for good to them that love the Lord. May we claim that by faith and believe it and take it to you in prayer. Lord, we can pray for the proclamation of the gospel. For the missionaries who we support financially. We can support also in our prayers.

That they might see souls saved. Wherever you have placed them. May we not forget. Lord, we can pray for your will to be done in our lives. As long as we are willing to follow wherever you lead.

May we be willing to trust you and do so. Lord, when it comes down to it's a matter of trust. Lord, do we trust in you? Or do we trust in ourselves? Lord, help us to trust you more.

And thus to spend more time on our knees before you. In Jesus name, we do pray.