Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church! Can you please find your seats? If everyone
could please find their seats and grab a song book, we'll turn our hymnals to
song 260, He is Able to Deliver Thee. 260, He is Able to Deliver Thee.
Song 260, He is Able to Deliver Thee.
Tis the grandest theme through the ages rung, tis the grandest theme for a mortal
tongue, tis the grandest theme our God is able to deliver thee. He is
Able to Deliver Thee. He is Able to Deliver Thee. Though by sin oppressed, come to Him for
rest, our God is Able to Deliver Thee. Tis the grandest theme in the earth or
main, tis the grandest theme for a mortal strain, tis the grandest theme
tell the world again, our God is Able to Deliver Thee. He is Able to Deliver
Thee. He is Able to Deliver Thee. Though by sin oppressed, come to Him for rest, our
God is Able to Deliver Thee. Tis the grandest theme, let the tidings roll to
the guilty heart, to the sinful soul. Look to God in faith, He will make thee
whole. Our God is Able to Deliver Thee. He is Able to Deliver Thee. He is Able
to Deliver Thee. Though by sin oppressed, come to Him for rest, our God is Able to
Deliver Thee. All right, let's open up with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father,
thank you so much for this day and thank you for all the people that would
come to church this morning. I pray that you bless every person here.
Please bless our singing and worship to you, Lord, the preaching and the
fellowship. Soul winning today, Lord. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. All right, for our second song, we'll go to song number 10,
Near the Cross. Song number 10, Near the Cross.
Song number 10, Near the Cross.
Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious mountain, free to all a healing
stream, flows from Calvary's mountain. Near the cross, near the cross, be my
glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me, there the bright and
morning star sheds its beams around me. Near the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God,
bring its scenes before me. Help me walk from day to day with its shadows o'er me.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. Near the cross, I'll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever, till I reach the golden
strand. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond
the river.
Let us meet at whatever location we are meeting for service. So today our soul winning time
for two o'clock is going to meet here and then we'll go out and preach the gospel
from here. We did get some new tracks in. I might, I don't know if we have them with
us right now, but I'll have them at two o'clock. So I'll have the nice trifold tracks
if you want to have those as an additional thing to use for soul winning. Also we have
our church stats. Please make sure to put in all of your stats to your soul winning
captains and your lieutenants. Make sure that you're also giving the maps to Brother
Dylan so that way he can continue to track that and monitor that. Also on the right
we have a list of expecting ladies. Continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies.
We also have our prayer list. If you have any prayer requests that you would like added
to the bulletin, we try to update this every single week and that way we can put it in here
and everybody can be in prayer for one another. I know we have a lot of people coming in
this morning. We still have a few seats up here front if anybody wants three seats
right up here front and we got some over here if you all want to make sure. Also
on the back we have the homeschool field trip April 29th. Now there is a sign up sheet
right over here on this table. Also I believe there is an online sign ups if you would
like that as well. But you need to sign up by the 13th because, which is, is that today?
I want to make sure. No, okay, that's like a few days. It's like Wednesday. Okay, so
you're almost at the deadline. That way we can make sure to plan because they are
going to do a sack lunch for us and we have to have an exact number. I believe it's
a hot dog, chips and a drink. So if you'd like to participate, please make sure you're
signing up. In order to participate, you just need one child that's five or older
that you're homeschooling and then you can bring the whole family. Also we
have a Mother's Day tea that's coming up. Also you need to sign up by April
13th and the tea is on April 30th. So I believe that's the week before
Mother's Day. So it's like one week approximately before Mother's Day. We'll
be having our Mother's Day tea and all ladies and their daughters are invited
as well. You can invite any of your family members or friends. So if you'd
like to invite your your mother or your grandmother or your daughter or
your cousin or whoever, just make sure you sign up. That way we have that
information recorded there and it's a really nice event. Apparently has
something to do with chocolate. I don't know. So I mean I would just figure you
got to show up for that, right? And also we have the Austin, Texas still
winning marathon, May 21st. So make sure to I think is there a sign up for
that one as well over here? Okay we'll get a sign up for that one but
at least put that one on your calendar. And then I want to make a
couple other announcements real quick.
you
15 lead me to Calvary song number 15
song number 15 lead me to Calvary
song 15 lead me to Calvary
king of my life I crown thee now thine shall the glory be lest I forget
thy thorn crown brow lead me to Calvary lest I forget gets a money lest I
forget thine agony lest I forget thy love for me lead me to Calvary show to
the tomb where thou was slain tenderly mourned and wept angels in robes of
light array guarded thee while style slept lest I forget gets a money lest I
forget thine agony lest I forget thy love for me lead me to Calvary let me
like Mary through the gloom come with the gift to the show to me now the
empty to lead me to Calvary lest I forget gets a money lest I forget thine
agony lest I forget thy love for me lead me to Calvary may I be willing
Lord to bear daily my cross for thee even my cup of grief to share thou
hast borne all for me lest I forget gets a money lest I forget thine agony
lest I forget thy love for me lead me to Calvary great singing as the
offering plates are passed around please turn in your Bibles to Luke
chapter 11 Luke chapter 11 we'll read the whole chapter before the sermon
follow along silently starting in verse number one Luke chapter 11 the Bible
reads and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he
ceased one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also
taught his disciples and he said unto them when you pray say our father
which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done
as in heaven so in earth give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us
our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead
us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and he said unto them which
of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto
him friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine in his journey has
come to me and I have nothing set before him and he from within shall
answer and say trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are with
me in bed I cannot rise and give thee I say unto you though he will not
rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needed and I say unto you ask and
it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened
unto you for everyone that seeketh receive it and he that seeketh find it
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened if a son shall ask bread of
any of you that is a father will he give him a stone or free ask a fish
will he for a fish give him a serpent or if he shall ask an egg will he
offer him a scorpion if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts
unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him and he was casting out a devil and it was dumb and
it came to pass when the devil was gone out the dumb spake and the people
wondered and some of them said he casteth out devils through Beelzebub
the chief of the devils and others tempting him sought of him a sign from
heaven but he knowing their thoughts said unto them every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house
falleth if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his kingdom
stand because he say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub and if I by
Beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your sons cast them out therefore
shall they be your judges but if I with the finger of God cast out
devils no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you when a strong man
armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger than he
shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted and divided the spoils he that is not with me is
against me and he that gathereth not with me scatter it when the unclean
spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and
finding none he sayeth I will return unto my house once I came out and when he
cometh he findeth it wept swept and garnished then go with he and take it to
him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell
there and the last state of that man is worse than the first and it came
to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lifted up
her voice and said unto him blessed is the womb that bear thee and the paps
which thou hast sucked but he said yea rather blessed are they that hear
the word of God and keep it and when the people were gathered thick together
he began to say this is an evil generation they seek a sign and there
shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the Prophet for as
Jonas was assigned unto the Ninevites so shall also the Son of Man be to
this generation the Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the
men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the utmost parts
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than
Solomon is here the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with
this generation and shall condemn it for they repented the preaching of
Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here no man when he had lighted a
candle put it in a secret place neither under a bushel but on a
candlestick that they which come in may see the light the light of the
body is the eye therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body also was full of
light but when thine eye is evil thy body also was full of darkness take
heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness if thy whole
body therefore be full of light having no part dark the whole shall be
full of light as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee
light and as he spake a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him and he
went in and sat down to meet and when the Pharisee saw it he marveled that he
had not first washed before dinner and the Lord said unto him now do ye
Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your
inward part is full of ravening and wickedness ye fools did not he that made
that which is without make that which is within also but rather give
alms of such things as he have and behold all things are clean unto you
but woe unto you Pharisees for he tied mint and rue and all manner of herbs
and Passover judgment and the love of God these ought you to have done and
not to leave the other undone woe unto you Pharisees for ye love the
uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are as graves which appear
not and the men that walk over them are not aware of them then answered one
of the lawyers and sent it to him master thus saying thou reproached us
also and he said woe unto you also ye lawyers for you laid men with
burdens grievous to be born and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with
one of your fingers woe unto you for you build the sepulchres of the
prophets and your fathers killed them truly you bear witness that ye allow
the deeds of your fathers for they indeed killed them and ye build their
sepulchres therefore also said the wisdom of God I will send them prophets
and apostles and some of them they shall slay and persecute that the blood
of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be
required of this generation from the blood of Abel under the blood of
Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple verily I say unto
you it shall be required of this generation woe unto you lawyers for you
have taken away the key of knowledge ye entered not in yourselves and then
that were entering in ye hindered and as he said these things unto them the
scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him
to speak of many things laying wait for him and seeking to catch
something out of his mouth that they might accuse him
amen now Luke chapter 11 covers a lot of detail but I want to focus on the
first part of chapter 11 it says in verse 1 again and it came to pass that
is he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples
said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples and
he said unto them when ye pray say our Father which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done as in heaven so on
earth so we have here in the Bible recorded that the Lord Jesus Christ
taught his disciples how to pray and in fact in this passage is saying
that John the Baptist also taught his disciples how to pray and so you know
I think this is something that maybe we sometimes take for granted but
teaching someone how to pray is actually a biblical concept teaching
people what to do how to pray you know a good person to teach how to praise
your children teaching them and instructing them modeling for them
showing them what to pray for why we pray what prayer is there's a lot of
teaching and instruction that comes with prayer and the Lord Jesus Christ is
a great teacher here he's going to tell us a lot about prayer specifically
and what I want to title my sermon this morning is this things to pray for
things to pray for because I think not only do we learn how to pray and
there's a model here but the Bible gives us a lot of concepts a lot of
things that we should be asking for and it's often in stark contrast to what
many evangelicals or a lot of these false TV preachers will suggest you
need to be praying for and asking for on a regular basis whereas the Bible
has a really clear outline here and gives us a lot of ideas of what to be
praying for and my first point is this that we're supposed to pray for
his will you're supposed to pray for God's will now he said here in verse
number two thy will be done as in heaven so in earth so Jesus when praying
is praying that God's will would be done now why would he pray that the
Lord's will would be done you know don't we believe in the sovereignty of
God that everything happens exactly how he wants it no no no no obviously
we're not Calvinists so we realize that a lot of things happen that are
not God's will like sin God never he never willed sin he never wants sin to
happen what is sin a result of it's a result of our will it's a result of
what we do so in this prayer when Jesus is saying that he wants God's
will he wants the Lord's will to be done what he's really trying to say is
that he wants him as a person to align with God's will he wants to be
renewed in his mind and say you know not what I will today but what do you
will today what do you want me to do not what is my flesh want not what do
my my spouse want not one of my children want what does God want not
what does the government want not anybody else know what does God want
me to do today how does God want me to live my life and really we should be
praying for the Lord's will to be done in our lives because you can step
out of God's will for your life you can basically have a plan set out for
you that God desires you to walk in and you basically reject that plan you
decide to go your own way to not walk away that God would have you walk and
so one of the most important things we can do is try to align
ourselves with God's will now before I get too deep in this thought I want
to address one more thing notice the very beginning of his prayer is our
father which art in heaven so in the Bible when people pray they're praying
to God the Father and specifically they're using his name now I'm not just
gonna say that this is a one-time thing if we study this in the Bible
it's very very consistent that when Jesus prays he prays to the Father and
he addresses him as father okay now keep your finger here because we're
coming back throughout the sermon but go to John chapter 17 go to John chapter
number 17 I want to show you another time when Jesus is praying if we want
to learn how to pray why not go to all the places in the Bible where
someone's praying and see what they did okay now one thing you'll notice
about prayer in the Bible is it's never very long and I've heard some
people act like if you don't pray for hours or something like that you're
not right with God and I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with praying
for hours but show me a prayer in the Bible that takes hours to read that
would be my first question show me any prayer that you ever find in the
scripture where someone prayed for just hours and hours and hours in fact
the Bible actually says to pray without ceasing so are we gonna say 24
7 you know to me what's actually being taught in the scriptures and you
can study this for yourself is that rather than praying just these
exorbitant amounts of time God wants you to be in prayer consistently
throughout the day just like a relationship you want to constantly
talk to the person that you like you have a relationship with someone
you're constantly talking it's not like I've set apart one hour to talk
to you today and then I'm never gonna talk to you the rest of the day
it's like no normally a relationship you talk to them on a regular basis
right and even the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the Bible in various points in
the day I mean you can see Jesus praying in the morning during the day at
night virtually all different times of the day why because I believe Jesus
praying all the time okay now when he prays a lot of his prayers are not
even that long and why would he say hey if you pray pray like this and
then he gives you like a 30-second prayer in fact some of the most
important prayers in the Bible are less than 10 seconds God be merciful me a
sinner don't these think that was a pretty good prayer Lord remember me
when thou comest in my kingdom that was a pretty good prayer wasn't it and
it's a pretty short prayer so it's not like you have to go through these
just ginormous links of just like beating yourself and getting down on
your knees and just crying and wailing and and all this like theatrics God's
not really interested in theatrics God's interested in your heart and God
wants you to pray from the heart with understanding and he wants you to pray
according to his will okay here's the will of God is that you pray to the
Father using his name okay look at John chapter number 17 look at verse
1 these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father
the hour has come notice how he starts his prayer father how did he
started and Luke chapter number 11 our father go to Luke 22 go backwards
and go to Luke chapter 22 real quick let's just look at a couple places in
Scripture as we kind of study this Luke chapter 22 look at verse 41 Luke 22
verse 41 the Bible reads and he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast
and kneeled down and prayed saying father if thou will be willing notice he
also starts out saying if thou be what willing meaning Jesus wanted God's
will not his own now when you're the Son of God when your God manifest in
the flesh you probably have some good desires you probably have some good
wills as it were but notice even the Son of God himself submitted himself
unto the Father's will so if Jesus can submit himself to the Father's will
how much more should we say you know what it's not what I want what does
God want and not to pray these presumptuous prayers you know you
never find these presumptuous prayers in the Bible you always find prayers
this if God wills if you're willing please you know these type of phrasings
not not this is like give me money you know I just declare this right now
or whatever it's like who are you to tell God what to do ever you know
who am I to declare anything to the Lord you know we should pray if the
Lord wills right I mean the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest man to ever
live he's God in the flesh even he himself does not address the Father in
such a demanding way but rather he addressed the Father if thou be willing
remove this cup for me nevertheless not my will but thine be done now let me
go a step further because not only does the Bible teach that you should
align yourself with God's will and the Jesus and Jesus did this in this
portion of Scripture the Bible is abundantly clear Jesus did not want to
go through this it was not his will to go through this his will is if
there's any other way please allow me to go through this our temptation Jesus
did not want to die on the cross he did not want to be spit upon he did
not want to be mocked he did not want to be ridiculed Jesus didn't want
to have his beard plucked out Jesus didn't want to have to be publicly
shamed and all of his garments ripped from him I'm gonna be naked and be
put on a cross and nailed there and people going by and say oh you trusted
in God won't you come down then we'll believe in you he didn't want to go
through that the Bible says that he despised the shame enduring the cross
you know obviously we have to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross for us but he didn't want to go to the cross there
was nothing about the cross itself there was nothing about his passion
there was nothing about all the evil that happened to him that he desired
in fact he desired to escape that if possible he didn't want to have to
go through that but nevertheless not my will but thine be done you know and
this is a great picture I believe of how a wife submits her husband is how
Jesus submits to the Father and this is you know oh it's so demeaning
to do what somebody else wants you to do well I guess it's demeaning that
Jesus did what the Father wanted them right no of course not being in
submission is always the right attribute and Jesus is the perfect
example for all of us not doing his own will but the will of God now go if
you went to mark chapter number 14 mark chapter 14 I want to show you
again and this is the same this is a parallel passage this is the same
timeline but notice that the Bible is very consistent in the prayers of the
Lord Jesus Christ mark 14 look at verse 36 and he said Abba Father all
things are possible unto thee so notice again he dressed he addresses God first
Abba being you know father in Hebrew so it's not like some people like oh say
so I'm supposed to say Abba not father no no you're English-speaking so
you say father okay all right it's not like this mystical word it's not
like a special word when you say some things in Hebrew it's just giving
us what he said okay it's the same thing Abba Father it's the same word
it's the same name and of course you know the Bible even in the New
Testament says that we cry Abba Father but it's not this overly literal thing
because I never pray Abba I pray Heavenly Father okay but at the end of
the day we see the Lord Jesus Christ again praying to the Father all things
are possible unto thee take away this cup from me what does Jesus want take away
the cup that's why he's asking for it he's not asking for it because he
doesn't want it to happen he literally wants it to happen he's literally saying
like hey let's do something else you know like do we have another option
here right is there something else on the table but what does he say
nevertheless not what I will but what that will so again we see that
we're praying to the Father for his will it's specific this will go to
Matthew chapter 26 go to Matthew chapter 26 so when we pray what's a
great way to start out how about addressing the Father and praying for
his will not ours that is a thing to pray for is his will and how many
times do we even do that I think as a society I think as a group of people
it's very easy that when you go to prayer you're there to just basically
say here's my want list here's my Santa Claus list Lord will you go ahead and
just grant me everything that I want here you know we look at him as like a
magic genie or something where we rub the lamp and we basically just say I
want a red Corvette you know and I want a fancy house and I want my day
you know I want all these things good things to happen to me but notice
how the Lord prays notice how the Lord Jesus Christ prays he says father
not my will but thine be done he starts out saying I may not even know
what's right I may not even want what's right please help me to want what's
biblical please help me to want what's godly please help me to want what you
want because when you wake up in the morning let me tell you something that
old man that old flash that's a sinner he still wants to sin let me
tell you what he wants he wants to go out and lie and steal and cheat and
commit fornication and adultery what he wants is all the money and the
pride and the lust he wants to win all the accolades he wants everybody to
like him but you know what not what I will what about wilt that's how you're
supposed to start your prayer and I think a lot of us if we were honest
with ourselves we sometimes forget about saying it okay what does God want
me to do God what do you what do you have for me today what would your
will be for my life this morning Matthew 26 verse 39 Matthew 26 verse 39
and he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying oh my
father if it be possible let this cusp cut pass for me nevertheless not as I
will but it's thou wilt so again we have recorded so many times in the
scripture what the Lord Jesus Christ praying to the father oh my father
right Abba father father our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name
what is how lo me it means to set apart it means to bless meaning that there
isn't all these people that have that name no there's one person which is
the Father in heaven there's one God the Father only one person has that
name it's God the Father we want to sanctify it we want to set it apart we
want to hallow it we want to bless it and we want to pray to him and ask
him for his will go to Ephesians chapter number five Ephesians chapter
number five and I'm just kind of setting the groundwork but I think this
is probably the most important point every single prayer needs to be according
to God's will okay and an Ephesians chapter number five look at verse 17
what the Bible says wherefore be not unwise but understanding what the will
of the Lord is you know our children especially if you have young children
they do not often know what they need they often don't know what's good
for them and they'll often ask for things that are not good for them and
as a parent you have to say no you basically have to reject that request
and you say hey we're not gonna have ice cream for every meal okay we're not
gonna have macaroni and cheese for every meal okay we're not gonna stay
up late every night we're not going to you know they want to just I
remember we went and ate at a restaurant we get in the car and then
my kids are like so what restaurant we going to now it's like we just went
out kids don't know what they want they don't even really know what they
need at all okay and why is it because they're foolish because they're
not smart they haven't grown up they haven't matured and I'll say this
Christians today often can fall in the same boat in the same category
where they haven't been studying the Bible they haven't matured they're
still kind of unwise when it comes to the scriptures and so they ask for a
lot of things that God doesn't want to give them they ask for a lot of
things that God's not interested in giving them okay look at James chapter 4
go to James to the right Hebrews James if you're in Hebrews just the next
book over James chapter 4 if you're in first Peter go backwards James
chapter 4 look at verse number 2 the Bible reads he lust and have not he
kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet you have
because he asked not now one reason why people don't have things because they
simply never asked for them okay the best way to get something is to ask
for it but there is a condition upon this asking look at the next verse he
asked and received not because he asked him is so not just because you asked
you get things from God you have to ask in the appropriate way you have to
ask for the right thing because if you just ask for all this stuff that God
never wanted to give you anyways he's not gonna give it to you and the
people get confused and they think like all my prayers aren't working no no no
prayer works you need to ask according to God's will that's the
reason why you've noticed it not working is because you're not praying
according to God's will but I'll tell you something when you start
praying according to God's will you will see him show himself strong on your
behalf you will show he will show up he will answer those prayers I've seen
many prayers that I never thought fleshly speaking could be answered even
yet they were answered because they're parts of the Bible because they're what
God said because they're what God wants okay and you know I never got
that Corvette I never became a professional golfer and you know I
never got to see I remember being young I would always pray that God would
give me a vision of what my wife looked like you know what I don't have
to wonder anymore I know and she's gorgeous it worked out okay but I just
remember being a young boy I was just thinking like I just want to see
what she looks like you know cuz I'm like I need to figure out which one of
these girls in my school is my wife you know or whatever and I I just you
know I went to school with her she was there and I never saw the vision
okay but eventually I saw all right but here's the thing we asked for stuff
that's kind of silly I remember being a child I asked for a lot of silly
things from the Lord but you know we want to pray with maturity we want to
pray according to God's will we want to pray for what he wants us to have
because if we pray amiss asking for things notice what it says that you may
consume it upon your lusts so notice most of the time people pray it's
just selfish prayers I just really want extra money I just really want an
extra car I just really want all these materialistic things that you don't even
necessarily need but you just want okay and and then people get frustrated like
well why am I not getting this well maybe God doesn't want you to have
that just like your children asking for ice cream before dinner it's like
why is my parents not giving that to me because they love you and they
don't want you to spoil your dinner they don't want you to have a tummy
ache they don't want you to rot out all your teeth and basically stay up
all night that's the main reason okay go you would to Proverbs chapter
number three you go to Proverbs chapter three for a moment and we're kind of
we're kind of going through the scripture in a lot of different places
but I I think this first point is the best one to kind of sit here and
dwell on for a moment we want to make sure we're always praying according
to God's will and here's the thing we have to be challenged by God's will
now some people say well I don't know what God's will is how do I know what
God's will is in my life Pastor Shelley how do I know what God wants me to do
it's the Word of God you know his will is not a mystery his will can be learned
very quickly and very easily most of the time our problem is not knowing what
God wants us to do it's being willing to do it you know a lot of people
would be like I just don't know what God wants me to do with my life
and I'm thinking like well are you going to church no okay well there's
step one are you reading the Bible no well there's step two did you get
baptized no well you need to get baptized right I mean it's not like it's
rocket science how to serve God in this world if you're going to church if you're
reading your Bible if you're going soul winning if you're providing and
taking care of your family I mean you're locked in to most of what God
wants you to do I mean a lot of the other stuff is just kind of cherries
on the top it's not like it's a magic formula wow I just you know I
finally had God tell me what he wants me to do he wants me to be a
professional video game player you laugh I've literally had people tell me
that I've literally had people God spoke to me and he wants me to be a
professional video game player and I'm just thinking like no he doesn't I
mean I don't care if you are not but I know that he didn't just come to you
and be like Jonathan you're gonna be a professional video game player it's
like that's what you want to do because you're lazy and all you do is play video
games it's not rocket science why that you came up with that okay God didn't
come to Jonah and be like Jonah you know play Starcraft play Call of
Duty he's like go to Nineveh and preach the Word of God okay and here's
the thing was that hard to understand no it wasn't hard it was really easy
but you know it's hard to do it so what if Joe did he ran away from God you know
it's not hard to go to church it's really easy you just show up you know
it's hard to do it to consistently do it to get plugged in you know it's
not hard to read the Bible I mean if you've gone through second third grade
you can learn how to read the King James Bible is not that hard my friend
yeah you got to look up a few words but after you look them up you don't
have to look them up again because you learned them this is called learning okay
and then you just keep reading and then you're like oh wow I'm learning
more and more and more as I read and I study and then you start realizing
like every chapter is like saying kind of the same things over and over
over again I mean we could find salvation by faith and every book of
the Bible we could find baptism and tons of places of the scripture we could
find the importance of going to church and tons of places in the scripture we
could find hey making having a successful Christian life not quitting
all over the scripture and sometimes people look at the pastor Shelley why
you always ripping on Bible reading and church attendance and being faithful
and it's like because that's all the things the Bible saying the Jews
are God's chosen people it's everywhere sorry I didn't write the
Bible I didn't write the Word of God you know why God's repetitive is
because you need it drilled in your head the same things over and over
because it's not hard to know what to do it's hard to do it and people try
to make it this great mystery so as they can hide behind the fact that
they don't want to really do it well I you know I'm not gonna do
tithing because I just I just think that that's on biblical so I'm gonna
tithe of my time it's like when did the Bible say that I'm gonna tie I'm
gonna tie my gummy bears to my friend you know it's like people just start
making up stuff they make up all these ideas well I'm not gonna go to church
I'm gonna serve in this parachurch ministry right where's the Bible say
that you know I just want to make my own song well where does the Bible
say that you know why do we sing the Psalms why don't we sing well
that's hard it's hard to sing the Psalms I just want to sing our God is
awesome God he reigns and you know that's all I can really learn so let's
just see it again our God and just do that for like 10 minutes straight or you
could do Stephen heretic song JIRA where it's just like you are enough
that was all I mean that's all you get you are enough you are enough you
are enough you are it's like they can't even learn more than one phrase I
mean that's the kind of world that we live in today where they're not
willing to do God's will it's not a mystery of what his will is in your
life get saved get baptized get into church start preaching the gospel hey
you're right there I mean in fact you're gonna be in the top 1% instantly of
Christianity you know how many people are faithfully going to church reading
the Bible and going soul winning it is less than 1% of Christianity today
and people want to be like I don't know what God wants me to do with my
life I do like well how prideful of you no no no it's real easy they're like
well I'm a young lady okay get married and have a family and go to
church it's like well a man get married and have a family go to church
you know it's like why I have no desire to get married okay well then
preach the gospel you know I mean it's not like rocket science what we're
supposed to do here folks and what we supposed to do is we're supposed to
challenge ourselves with the Bible we're supposed to look at the Bible and say
well I want shiny red object over here what does God want and how do I figure
that out I read the Bible look at Proverbs chapter 3 verse number 5
trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own
understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he is so direct
be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil according to
the Bible we're supposed to say you know what not what I think not my
understanding what does God want and you know even if you didn't
understand what the Bible is saying like in a sense that you don't know
why God wants you to do that like going to church on a regular basis you
may not understand why he wants us to do that but if you realize he's
supposed to go to church you just go to church you say well I don't
understand why God wants me to read the Bible so much well I don't care if you
understand that if it says that you do it okay well I don't understand why we
should go out and knock doors and preach the gospel and get people saved
when 99% of them will never get plugged in church when 99% of them
will never thank you when 99% of them will never do anything with their
life for God why do I do it so they won't go to hell that's why I do it
and I'm not leaning on my own understanding I'm saying this is what
God ordained me to do because in our flesh it doesn't even make that much
sense it kind of seems futile in the flesh you know what when you read the
scriptures it makes perfect sense because you read about a place called
hell and you realize everybody that's not trusting Christ is going there and
you say I don't want any of these people to go there even if they never
come to my church even if they never get baptized even if they never read one
scripture as long as they're going to heaven I can at least lay down at night
and feel a peace in my heart how can you feel peace in your heart when
everybody around you is going to burn in hell that means you have no
love and frankly you're probably just ignoring what the scriptures say oh
Jesus died on the cross for me so I'm gonna go ahead and play video games
rest of my life I'm gonna watch TV and movies I'm gonna go and make a lot
of money and build me houses and cars and get a bunch of accolades and do
whatever I want no no no no that's your own understanding that's your own
wisdom why don't you sacrifice at all just to serve God well I don't know if
that makes sense look you're supposed to just trust the Lord with all thine
heart you know obviously when we get saved we put a hundred percent of our
trust for salvation and you and if you didn't you didn't get saved but on top
of that you need to put that in every area of your life your finances your
family your career your life goals just everything just say you know what
what does God want me to do and I'll just do that where does God want me
to go who does God want me to marry who does God want me to be around what
does God want me to say go to Mark chapter 3 and here's one how does God
want me to pray father heavenly father not my will but thine be done asking
for the Lord's will in our lives submitting to the Lord's will saying
whatever the Bible says I'm gonna do it and you know what we would have a
different society if every Christian woke up every morning and says what
does the Bible want me to do today you say what does God want me to do
let me introduce you to God right here say what does God want me to do
today it's right here and let let me say this God speaks to you through the
Bible he said well I want God to talk to me well read the Bible out loud it's
that easy okay it's not it's not rocket science it's super easy we're a
fundamental Baptist Church I'm not up here with some kind of gimmick I'm not
up here with some kind of trick there's no fancy thing to do with
prayer hey pray to the father and ask him for his will but you know when
you pray that then we start reading the Bible and you start seeing
something like I don't know if I want to do that do it just say okay I don't
know if I want to do that but I'm just do it anyways just like Jesus
staring down the cross is like I don't really want to do this but I'm
gonna do it because that's what God wants me to do you know Jonah didn't
really want to go the Ninevites do it Jeremiah didn't really want to
preach do it you know a lot of the men of the Bible didn't really want to
do it Moses didn't want to do it Moses didn't want to go back and rescue the
children of Israel and think about his ministry talk about going out and
getting people saved and I'm not being grateful about it not really wanting
to come to church not really liking church not really getting plugged in I
mean he rescued a whole bunch of ungrateful people didn't he a bunch of
jerks frankly speaking you know what a lot of those jerks are in heaven and I
guarantee that they're thankful that Moses drugged them out of that place
called Egypt drug them out of the world help them to realize what they
need to do mark chapter number three look at verse thirty four and he looked
round about on them which sat about him and said behold my mother and my
brethren for whosoever shall do the will of God the same is my brother
and my sister and mother when Jesus Christ is preaching the Bible his
family is literal family his literal mom his little brethren are standing
outside the church service basically and they're like we want to talk to you
and he says hey let me tell you something you know my real mother is the
one sitting in this room listen to the word of God being preached you wonder
my real sister is the one sitting in this room here in the word of God
being preached you wonder my real brother is is the one hearing the word
of God being preached and not only hearing it preached he does it the
people that do the will of God are your brother and your sister and notice
those are the people they wants to be around are the people that are doing
the Word of God not the people that give lip service to it but the
people that actually do it okay now go view it the first John chapter
four and I'm gonna move on to my my next points we can't emphasize the
will of God enough the will of God is what we're supposed to do with our
lives and when we pray we need to be praying that God will help realign our
will with his and it's easy to be selfish it's easy to be in the flesh
it's easy to desire the things that are natural that's why you have to die
daily as the Bible says so we have to take up the cross daily that's why
crucify the flesh because it takes effort it takes energy to serve God
it's not easy it's not easy to drag yourself out of bed on a Sunday
morning get dressed you know feed all your kids drag them across town go to
church I mean most people won't even go to church unless it's five minutes
from their house and you know I have to say this I had to brag on this
church a little bit because not very many churches could survive what we've
gone through I mean if I had to take some of these old IV churches and say
hey we're moving we're going 30 minutes in another direction of meeting
a random hotel and it might be hot now the old people might like that but
most people wouldn't you know think about think about this church you're
willing to drive across town go wherever I mean our church is
literally thriving in a really bad situation why because people want to do
the Word of God people here this morning are just like this is fun it's
not even that much fun probably I'm not I'm you know from a fleshly carnal
perspective I don't think that this is that great okay I don't even
like the lighting in here sucks okay I can't even hardly see anything okay
do you know why I'm here because you're here because I'm with my brothers
and sisters in Christ and because I want to do the will of God even if it
means going out in the wilderness to find John the Baptist dear and rebuke
my face you know what that's where I want to go because that's what God
wants me to do I don't wake up in Sunday morning and say what do I want
because you know what I would do I would sleep until noon watch all the
football games I know because I did it when I was in college I would just eat
right I would just sit at home eat watch the football games I watched all
of them too because I played fantasy football on top of that and I would
watch football games at teams I didn't care about at all I watched the
Jacksonville Jaguars play which literally no one likes them I mean I
don't even think their own fans go to the game okay it's like it's just
the opposing team that shows up you know in the stands or something like
that but I'm watching the game because I got there running back on my roster
you know and I'm just sitting here caring so much about something that's so
trivial and meaningless and stupid and pedantic rather than saying what does
God want me to do where would God want me to go get in the get in the
fight you know and if we're gonna pray you know it's kind of silly to sit
here and pray if it means nothing right I mean how would you how
beneficial it is if you're gonna write a letter and then as soon as you write
it you're gonna put in that bottle and throw in the ocean no one's finding
that thing buddy okay I don't want to sit here get my knees and pray to God
and it means nothing it has no impact okay so if we want to pray what a pray
according to God's will and look what it says in first John chapter
number five it says in verse number 15 let's do 14 to and this is the
confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his
will he here with us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we
know that we have the petitions that we desired of him now I've heard a lot of
people though to say oh the Bible just says ask for anything and God will
give it to you and I'm thinking like what verse is that and then I'm
like okay well let's go look that verse up right verse 14 if we ask
anything oh wait according to his will you need that phrase hey ask God for
anything that's according to this book but notice it didn't just say
anything carte blanche my friend just like when the Bible says judge not it
didn't just end there okay there's plenty of parts of the Bible that we
have to put in context we have to put in balance of the scriptures what's the
context here the context is that when we ask for the things that God
wants us to ask for we could ask for any of them all of them are
available to us anything we find in the Bible that God wants for us to do
in our lives we're available to ask for that but according to his will not
according to our will not what we want not what we've decided what does God want
for us now go to first Timothy chapter number six first Timothy chapter number
six and I want to remind you in the book of Luke as we read this morning
the next part of his prayer that Jesus is modeling for us he says give
us day by day our daily bread okay so step one was to pray for his will
step two what does the Lord pray for he prays for his needs if you think
about it he prays for his necessities okay now when you're asking for daily
bread you're not asking for the luxuries of this life you're asking
for the daily necessities okay and the Bible teaches that food is a basic
necessity that in the scriptures is taught as a very real thing look what
it says in verse 7 for we brought nothing into this world and it is
certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us be there
with content so according the Bible if you have food and clothing you're
supposed to be content with God now what does that imply that implies that
if you did not have food if you did not have clothing that's something you
should ask God for okay that's something that you would be asking the
Lord and saying Lord I need food Lord I need clothing and of course the Lord
wants to provide that basic necessity we need these to even live okay the Lord
does not want us to go without food and to go without clothing the Bible
even teaches that he you know the psalmist or whatever is basically
saying that he's never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging
bread meaning that when you're serving God and doing right and
praying according to his will he's gonna give you that daily bread as you
want now it doesn't say necessarily the cheesecake bread okay it didn't say
the Outback bread you know didn't say Texas Roadhouse Rolls cuz that's
that's where it's at okay with that cinnamon butter it didn't say steak
but of course it's food right it's substance so if God gives us food
that's enough and we should pray for our necessities but we don't want to go
above that you know go to Proverbs chapter number three go to Proverbs
chapter 30 Proverbs chapter number 30 we don't want to get in this pattern or
in this habit where we're just we're not content because when I think of
someone asking for something I think of them not being content right I mean
if I feed my children food and they say can I have more they weren't
satisfied right they're asking for that's implied by the fact that
they're asking for more is it not and by my estimation the Bible pretty much
teaches us that we should be content with what God has given us now there's
nothing wrong with having more it's more of the concept that we're talking
about it's more the the will of our souls that we don't want to have
these exorbitant amounts of luxury and excess goods as a desire of us okay
there's nothing wrong with having excess goods but the desire is a
problem okay it says in Proverbs chapter 30 look at verse number seven two things
have I required of thee deny me them not before I die remove far from me
vanity and lies give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient
for me so according to the Bible he's requiring this meaning he's what he's
asking he's praying God for what his daily bread and he's saying I don't want
to be poor I don't want to be rich I just want to have the things that I
need okay and there's nothing wrong with asking God for the things that we
need but should we really be so focused on our daily prayers on all the
things that we want and I would submit to you know now because really if I'm
focused on all the things that I want I'm not even really having spiritual
thoughts I'm having carnal thoughts but of course there's nothing wrong with
wanting your basic necessity there's nothing wrong with your child saying
hey are we gonna have dinner tonight you know but if you feed him dinner in
a dessert and he's like I want ice cream now too you kind of think like
he's a spoiled brat don't you and so sometimes when we have God our lives
giving us all the things that we need we could be like well I want more you
know I want I want extra or whatever and you know there's nothing wrong with
working hard and getting extra but we shouldn't be sitting here a discontent
with what God's already given us having some kind of angst towards the
Lord I remember talking to someone about this go to Acts chapter 8 if you
wanna go to Acts chapter 8 I remember talking to someone and they had a nice
house they had multiple cars good job good family and they had bought a
brand-new car now it wasn't new it was only new to them right mostly was a used
car was a nice car it was like decades newer than mine which is not
hard but okay and they basically look at me like I don't know what's going
on I feel like I'm serving God and I'm praying but you know all my friends
they have it a brand new truck you know they have a brand new this
whatever and I'm like and they're just thinking like I don't I want that I
need that and they're basically having depression in their life because they
didn't have a brand new truck because their friends have brand new trucks now
you know in my mind I knew what to say but I didn't say it but I probably
should have been like that's a wicked thought that's an evil thought God
doesn't want us to sit here and be discontent with the things you know
what there's nothing wrong with having the new truck I'm not I want you
to be understanding what I'm saying I'm not saying there's anything wrong
buying a new truck sometimes you got to buy a new truck you gotta have a new car
you're gonna have these things but it's like wherever you're at just be content
with where God's put you right now and you say well I want more well then
just work harder but don't sit here and get mad at God because you don't
have things don't get mad at God because you don't have the nicest things
okay you know God gave you a great welfare program it's called working it
works now if you work really hard you'll never ever ever ever be Jeff
Bezos you'll never be Elon Musk you'll never be Bill Gates because they don't
have all their money from working hard they have all their money from
being evil and being wicked okay so of course you're never gonna have the
wealth of the ungodly but you know what you can have good money you can
have you know nice houses and nice things if you work hard if you put a
lot of effort and energy into serving God and there's nothing wrong with that
but you know what'd be wrong is no matter what stage you're in to be
discontented if you're just starting out and you live in an apartment and
your car you have to like you know put pour water on the engine before it
starts that was my dad's car okay we had a Buick and we had all these
jugs of water in the back and we had to literally pour water on the
engine if we drove too far okay so we would drive to the golf tournament and
stop on the long way pour water on the basically the engine and then keep
driving a little bit further right but you know what my dad was content I
remember as a kid I wasn't I wanted my dad to have the new truck I wanted my
dad to have the fancy car I felt embarrassed getting out of the what we
called the deer Slayer you know what the deer Slayer is legit okay it was a
steel frame and whatever it hit the frame wasn't changing it was changing
okay these these modern cars you'd like touch them and they didn't you know it's
like this baby plastic or whatever they put cars in it's almost like a scheme
to sell more cars or I don't know it's a different sermon but point
number two is what we need to pray for our necessities but we want to make
sure that we're we're kind of prioritizing it as a necessity if we're
praying for it not going above and beyond look you can have all the wealth
in the world and still be content and you could have nothing and still be
content you know Paul said whatever state I'm in there am I content okay so
it's not about the possessions it's about your heart it's about your
motivations and being content means I could lose it tomorrow and be fine I
could have more tomorrow and it wouldn't change anything because I'm
still gonna wake up in the morning and I'm gonna pray what does God want me
to do today now here's the third thing that we basically had him pray
for as he was praying for forgiveness as he forgave others and in Luke
chapter 11 he said and forgive us our sins we also forgive everyone that is
indebted to us and lead us not in temptation but delivers from evil so
he's praying for forgiveness and in Acts chapter number eight we have a
passage here where it's literally instructed for someone to pray for
forgiveness look at Acts chapter 8 verse 22 this is Peter repent therefore
of this by wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart
may be forgiven me so one of the things we need to be doing is after we
prayed for the Lord's will after we prayed for necessities as we need to
ask God to forgive us of our sins now of course some people that teach a
works-based salvation they teach you have to do this every single day to go
to heaven false just like I don't have to ask my parents for forgiveness
every single day to stay their son I'm their son regardless you know what if I
want a good relationship with my mom if I want a good relationship with my dad
if I screw up I'll tell them sorry I'll ask them to forgive me right and
the same with God if I want to have a good relationship with God I'm gonna
daily or on a regular basis maybe even more than once a day if I screw
up I'm gonna get on my knees and I'm gonna say God please forgive me for
doing this wicked sin please forgive me for this wicked thought please
forgive me for what I said what I did or what I didn't do sometimes we sin
because we just failed sorry I didn't read my Bible today sorry I didn't pray
today sorry I lost my temper sorry I I was really prideful today sorry that I
only desired things about me rather than you sorry that I prioritized my
life over the Word of God today sorry that I lied sorry that I stole
sorry whatever it is that I did getting on my knees and praying God
please forgive me for my wickedness and you know what when you do this on a
regular basis it makes it easier if you have other people you know why
because you realize how many times you have to ask God for forgiveness
you know Peter's like how many times should I forgive my brother and it's
like well how many times you need forgiveness buddy and he said seven he
said seven times he's like no seven times seventy and if we realize how
many times we truly need to ask forgiveness of our sins it would make it
seem pale in comparison to what other people do to us we start realizing like
oh wow that's not even a big deal I mean you know what I did to God this
week yet if you're Donald Trump you say I've never asked God for
forgiveness because I didn't know of any sins I need to ask forgiveness for
you want to know why they don't know about their sins these are not reading
this book it's like oh I don't ever sin it's like well did you have a
proud look oh yeah all the time did you ever ask forgiveness for that one
no I have did you have lustful thoughts did you have foolish thoughts
did you just waste all of your day did you even read the Bible yesterday
did you even pray yesterday here's one how many times did you sing a praise
unto the Lord yesterday because isn't the most common commandment in the Bible
praise the Lord I mean oh I'm good I don't sin anymore it's like you are a
wicked person if you even think that let alone if we were able to sit here
and mark all your sins buddy you wouldn't you wouldn't even you'd be so
embarrassed if we just read one day of sins we could just throw a dart on
a calendar of like just any day you've had in your entire life and
then just read all the sins you've done that day and you'd be so
embarrassed I would too I'm not any better than anybody else that's why we
need to get on our knees in the morning and pray and you know what I try to
mention all the ones that I sin I'm sure I said a lot of times I didn't realize
it that's why I also pray I pray for the sins I don't remember I pray for
the sins that I forgot about that I don't even know that I did I'm
ignorant of you know the Psalms you literally have David praying for sins
he's like I don't even please forgive me of the sins that I didn't even
realize I did secret faults yeah go to James chapter five go to James
number five I like it when you get on other people pastor Shelly well you know
what we need reminders that we need to we need to pray for his will for our
necessities and for his forgiveness look at James chapter 5 verse 15 the
Bible says and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall
raise him up and if you have committed sins they shall be forgiven him so we
see another picture of forgiveness being taught here go to second
Thessalonians chapter 3 and the latter portion of Luke that we read is that he
was deliver from the evil right deliver us from temptation lead us
not in temptation but deliver us from the evil temptation in the Bible in
that context is not what you think it is typically okay often when I hear
the word temptation I think of being tempted to sin but that's not what it
means temptation oftentimes in the Bible means a trial or testing and
temptation can also be that of persecution or tribulation and
essentially what he's praying for is I don't want to have to go through
some kind of a trial that's not needed today now that has to be so
biblical when you think about Jesus Christ's prayer I mean I already read
it for you what was his main prayer request and all of those Gospels that
were reading that he wouldn't have to go through that temptation he wouldn't
have to go through that evil of the cross he was praying for the deliverance
from that particular evil he was gonna have to face but at the end of
the day if that's where the Lord's leading him he's gonna walk down that
path but he's asking to go down a different path and you know sometimes
we have to wonder if we could have gone down a different path if we had
been praying that Lord would lead us down a different path because I don't
believe in this this fatalistic thing where no matter what you do or say it's
gonna happen God is a God of hypotheticals God has ulterior plans
he has alternate plans for all of us he constantly is bringing up in the
Bible if you had done this this would happen if you'd said this this would
happen if you'd gone here if you hadn't done this this is what would
have happened he always brings up the fact that our choices literally
impact our lives and I'm gonna tell you something praying that God delivers
you from evil in the future is gonna have an impact on the evil you may face
in the future and not always what a job do job prayed every morning he's
offering sacrifice every morning that his children wouldn't die but the Lord
allowed him to go through that anyways but you know what I guarantee it worked
for the next set of kids didn't it so you can't say guaranteed like well
if I pray for no evil no evil happen in my life no sometimes evil is gonna
happen and gain all the will of God in Christ Jesus house over persecution
the Bible is crystal clear but you know what I want is the least amount
of trouble that I have to face as possible I want the least amount of
evil as possible you know I don't want to go through the the most
temptation I have to I would prefer to resist the devil and let him flee
from me okay second Thessalonians chapter number three look at verse one
finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course
and be glorified even as it is with you so here's the thing there's nothing
wrong with hoping that God makes Church easy I don't want Church to be
difficult I don't want preaching the gospel to be difficult I wanted that
free course you know I don't want to plan missions trips to foreign
countries and then get shut down by stupid government mandates or travel
restrictions or monetary restriction I don't want that kind of stuff you know
and the Apostle Paul didn't want that but at times Satan hindered them at
times Satan closed certain doors at certain times even the Holy Ghost was
not allowing them to enter into certain parts of Asia as the Bible
subscribes but let me tell you something we should be praying that we
would have free course we should be praying that God would allow us to do
our thing and to serve him freely he wants us to serve him freely but
sometimes we have to walk out in the wilderness to do it can't serve God
freely in Egypt you got to leave you got to walk through the Red Sea you got
to go out in the wilderness and you got to serve God but you know what what
if every morning the children of Israel are waking up saying God please
give us free course to worship you rather than saying like I don't want
to face these Giants where's the cucumbers where's Cora you know a
bunch of complainers you know how much God likes complaining zero he
never ever ever ever likes complainers it's always mad at them he's always
angry with them and what of course it's easy to complain when it's not
what you want that's why the first part of this whole prayer was so
important what does the Lord want because once you see in the Bible and
you say well that's what God wants me to do then it's hard to complain
about it but Acts chapter number eight go to action over eight there's a lot
of other places we could go this morning let me say this my sermon title is
things to pray for this is not a complete list I can't there would be so
much to bring up but if you get these basics everything's gonna be covered
because number one was his will so that means anything in the Bible you
can pray for okay number two is the necessities number three was
forgiveness number four was deliverance and if we give the end of Luke
chapter number eight that particular section talking about prayer he's
saying if you know how to good give good wow if you know how to give good
gifts on your children right how much more shall your father in heaven give
the Holy Ghost unto them that ask him right so if you're capable of giving a
good birthday present to your children how much more is God the father
willing to give us good gifts and one of those specifically is the Holy
Ghost now consistently throughout the Bible you see men praying and receiving
the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts this is a little bit different than what
we see in Ephesians chapter number one talking about the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost the moment someone believes in Jesus Christ they're sealed with
the Holy Ghost okay but the measure the quantity of being filled with the
Holy Ghost is dependent upon our actions meaning that you can be more
or less filled with the Holy Ghost at any moment in time and we even see in
the Old Testament men of God filled with the Spirit of God and then the
Spirit of God leaving them departing from them and in the New
Testament while we always have the Holy Ghost with us and we understand
that doctrine you can be more or less filled you can be more filled with
the Holy Spirit or less filled and one of the things that asked for from God
is that you would be filled with the Holy Ghost okay and of course that
filling is gonna have a direct relationship to reading the Bible and
singing the Bible that's why it's so important to do these things but in
Acts chapter number 8 look at verse 14 now when the Apostles which were at
Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent on
them Peter and John who when they were come down prayed for them they
might receive the Holy Ghost for as yet he was fallen upon none of them
only they were baptized in the name of Lord Jesus now here's the thing they
were saved and baptized meaning that they have the indwelling but they
didn't have received the Holy Ghost the filling of the Holy Ghost at this
point and the Holy Ghost enabled men in the book of Acts to do great miracles
and wonders in his name and in the New Testament it's not like the Holy
Ghost stopped you know we're not Pentecostal so we're not getting up
here screaming and hooping and hollering okay I'm not gonna have
people come up here and bark like a dog and say that that's the Holy
Ghost or anything like that good Acts chapter number four but hey I still
believe in the Holy Ghost because I reject Pentecostalism because I
reject the charismatic movement I've had people tell me that I don't even
believe in the Holy Ghost and I'm like what are you talking about of course I
believe in the Holy Ghost you know I don't believe in your fake gibberish as
being described as the Holy Ghost yeah I don't believe in that yeah I
don't believe that people are barking like a dog and that's how
somehow holy where the Bible is a dog ever holy the dog is the antithesis
of that which is holy in the Bible okay the Bible literally says give not
that which is holy under the dogs yet you're gonna tell me that a person
barking like a dog is holy how is Jesus saying I'm not gonna give
anything holy to a dog but I'm gonna put a person in a prone position
barking like a literal dog and then call that holy that's wicked okay
that's a familiar spirit okay that's man's best friend a dog you know but
I'm not I'm not in the flesh I'm in the spirit okay that's why I say
beware of dogs beware of Fido people like he hates dogs get the context
alright but here's here's a picture of them asking for the Holy Ghost and it's
really important look at Acts chapter 4 verse 29 and now Lord behold their
threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they
may speak thy word by stretching forth thy hand to heal and that signs
and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus and when they
had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with
boldness so notice when you get filled with all the ghosts you don't
go no no you know you do you speak the Word of God with boldness my
friend it's articulate it makes sense it actually resonates in the mind and in
the heart it's the Word of God that has power and let me tell you something
there's so many men today that are afraid to preach the Bible because
they don't have boldness they're not praying for the boldness that comes
from the Holy Ghost to get up and Thunder forth God's Word there's such
a coward and they're so just timid they're feeble they're not willing to
get up and read Romans 1 with power they're not willing to get up and read
Jude with power they're not willing to stand against the false doctrines of the
pre-trib rapture they're not willing to condemn the false prophets of today
they're not willing to call out usury they're not willing to call out I mean
all manner of sin and evil they're not going to call fornication in their
church they're not going to call the drunkards in their church they're not
going to call out the extortioners in their church they're not going to
call out the railers in their church let me tell you something churches
that don't have Church discipline are full of railers because a little leaven
the whole lump and let me tell you how you keep a clean church is you rebuke
any and all sin as much as possible and I don't care how much you like the
person I don't care how much you have favor towards that person you just
need to be on top of it but you know what it takes boldness and that
boldness comes from the Holy Ghost not many people are willing to take a
stand many people will even chicken out even when trying to give the gospel I
mean they'll be like oh you you preach those parts because you're so
prideful and blah blah blah and it's like no it's actually humbling to
preach the Word of God you and I both know if you've ever tried to share the
gospel with someone that you actually care about not a stranger a family
member a friend a cousin an uncle it is one of the most humbling
experiences you'll ever go through it's very challenging it's very
difficult you know it takes the boldness of the Holy Ghost to come upon you to
say this is important I'm going to preach the Bible you know to tell
someone that they're wrong according the scripture takes boldness you know and
you think about them they're being threatened with their lives they're
being saying if you preach this gospel we're gonna kill you you think
it's hard to preach the gospel now how about when the US government says
if you preach the gospel we're gonna throw you in jail for 30 days if we
catch you out here preaching the gospel we're gonna round you up and throw you
in jail we might even kick you when we arrest you a little bit we might kind
of step on you a little bit what if they say hey not only that we'll beat
you on top of that not only will we beat you in fact if we catch you we'll kill
you and your whole family but there are places in this world right now
where if you try to preach the gospel especially openly they would kill
you and your whole family and I'm not saying Romans 1 I'm saying John 3 16
I'm saying the loving parts of the Bible let me tell you something the whole
books of loving okay number one but number two it takes boldness to preach
the Word of God it takes boldness to stand in the face of this wicked world
this adulterous generation it takes boldness to look at people's faces
and start preaching on sins that they're currently guilty of not easy
it's not fun especially if you care actually care about them if you're
just a psychopath and you just want to piss everybody off anyways but you
know what people actually have sincere heart and love people it takes that
boldness and you know what we need to be praying for that we need to be
praying we have the boldness to share the Word of God with our family members
with our friends you know it takes courage it takes strength today and we
can pray for that you know the Bible talks about James praying for wisdom
here's the last point I'm not gonna go to a lot of places in this just
just go to just go to Ephesians 1 last place of eternal okay we could
dwell this thought all day but we need to learn how to pray according to the
Bible and according to God's will point one when you pray pray for his will
point to pray for your necessities point three pray for forgiveness point
four pray for deliverance point five pray for the Holy Spirit to give you
those spiritual gifts like boldness like the courage like the wisdom and
point six is this pray for other people pray for other people and and I
was gonna show you a litany of Scripture but we don't have time but you
probably already know that since our bulletin it literally has other people
you need to be praying for okay this is a very biblical thing the
Apostle Paul is constantly bringing it up asking for people to pray for him
and the fact that he's mentioning them in his prayers you know I believe
that a lot of our prayer if not the majority of our prayer should be for
other people that'll also help you it'll help you have the right attitude to
right spirit and when I think about prayers being answered okay for me
personally I would say the miracles that I've witnessed in my life have
always been really for praying other people praying praying that other
people would get saved praying that other people get right praying that
other people would have the right doctrine would love the Lord you know
all kinds of things and there have been plenty of times in my life where I
prayed for someone that I totally thought like they're never gonna change
but through prayer and me saying in me realizing like I can't do anything
to fix it God please do it God please touch their heart please God
allow the Word of God to change their heart change their mind allow
the Word of God you know to plant a seed in there change them and it
works I've seen miracles in my life now I haven't seen you know I didn't throw
some guys body dead body against the wall and he came back to life you
know I grew up in church that's what they told me they're like oh yeah I
went to Africa it's always in Africa okay and there was this dead guy and I
picked his body up and threw it against the wall and he came back to
life I'm thinking like what in the world you know they sit here and they
tell you all these crazy things they do oh I've been in Africa and and people's
arms are chopped off and they they put it back on their arm and it heals back
together what are you talking about this is weird okay now of course
doesn't that happen the Bible I mean Jesus picked up the guy's ear and
put it on his head I'm not saying that God can't do it because God can do
whatever he wants what I'm telling you is I don't see that in the
scripture what I do see is praying for other people for the Word of God to
change their lives not some fancy miracle because you know what the Jews
saw the miracles and they still died and went to hell what good is it if I
heal a man if I bring him back from the dead if he goes back to hell I mean
what good is it that the Antichrist dies and goes to hell and comes back
and is still wicked that didn't benefit anything didn't benefit the devil and
there's modern evangelical preachers today they get up and let me tell you
what they're praying for it themselves Kenneth Copeland Kenneth Copeland gets
on national television and he starts telling people how to pray and he says
this money come to me now and the one of his disciples Leroy Thompson money
come to me now and then they have their whole congregation come and put
money on the stage and they like dances in the money this is what they're
teaching millions of people there are literally millions of people in the
Dallas fourth area Kenneth Copeland ministries TD jakes these people are
teaching the weirdest junk about prayer and of course it sounds great
all I do is just pray for money and I just get money who wouldn't pray every
beggar doesn't every single day they're always asking for money aren't
they everybody's begging for money everybody wants more money look that's
a wicked selfish attitude you know it's the right attitude pray for other
people Ephesians chapter 1 look at verse 16 cease not she's talking
about what he does cease not to give thanks for you making mention of
you in my prayers you know we should we should never stop praying for other
people praying for their good praying for their lives praying that for their
families you know praying for health that's a biblical thing praying for
family that's what I mean praying for children that's a biblical there's
so much we could we could talk about but ultimately want to make sure
there's always praying for his will in our lives not our own not some
money not some carnal lust let us have a church that is constantly praying
and singing after the Lord's will and not our own so the prayer thank you
Heavenly Father for this church thank you for giving us an opportunity to be
meeting together here I pray that our church would have desires after
your heart and not our own that wherever you'd have us serve we
would just align ourselves in our minds and our hearts and our souls to do your
will not our own that we would be content with what things you've
already given us that you'd bless us with all the necessities of life you
would help forgive our church and our congregation of sins that we've
committed sins we're not even aware of so that we can forgive others and I
pray that you would just deliver us from evil that you allow our church
to have free course that we could go out and preach the gospel that we'd
have boldness given to us from the Holy Ghost that you'd fill every single
one of us to shed all the carnal lusts and rather be filled with the
spirit of God filled with the words of God filled with wisdom filled with
knowledge so that we get many people saved and that our hearts and desires
to be towards other people not ourselves in Jesus name we pray amen
all right for our last song we'll go to song number 20 when I see the
blood song number 20 when I see the blood
song number 20 when I see the blood
Christ our Redeemer died on the cross died for the sinner paid all his due
all who receive him need never fear yes he will pass will pass over you
when I see the blood when I see the blood when I see the blood I will pass
I will pass over you chiefest of sinners Jesus can save as he has promised so
will he do Oh sinner hear him trust in his word then he will pass will
pass over you when I see the blood when I see the blood when I see the blood I
will pass I will pass over you judgment is coming all will be there
who have rejected who have refused Oh sinner hasten led Jesus in then God
will pass will pass over you when I see the blood when I see the blood
when I see the blood I will pass I will pass over you oh what
compassion Oh boundless love Jesus have power Jesus is true all who
believe are safe from the storm oh he will pass will pass over you when I
see the blood when I see the blood when I see the blood I will pass I
will pass over you great singing god bless you are dismissed