Go with me, please, to Scripture
that we looked at on last Friday, and let's continue. We're believing for the Lord to
lead us the right way. Luke eighteen. Luke 18:1. If you weren't with this, you
can get-you can go online and watch or download, or you can
get a hard copy. It won't cost you anything. It said Jesus, "Spoke a parable
to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to
faint." One translation said, Young's
Literal said, "It behooves [us] always to pray..." Are there benefits in prayer? The Amplified says, "[Jesus]
told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to
pray and not to turn coward," which means to, "(faint, lose
heart, and give up)." The NIV says it like that. "...that they should always pray
and not give up." Say it out loud: "Always pray. Don't give up." In fact, God's Word translation
says it like this. He told them these things,
"...to show them that they need to pray all the time and never
give up." So say it like that: "Pray all
the time, never give up." Which would be why people would
quit praying because they gave up that it would make any
difference. There are a lot of people who
used to pray a lot, who don't pray much anymore. Because they-you know, a number
of reasons why. Some people have gotten mad at
God. They didn't see their prayers
answered the way they wanted them to be, and they prayed as
sincerely as they knew how, and as diligently in their mind as
they knew how. And they don't know why God
didn't do what they asked Him to do. And then there are other folks
that that's not so much the case. They just got carnal, too much
fleshy stuff. It's kind of like any other kind
of exercise. You skip one time, it's easier
to skip the next time. Right? And the next thing you know
you've skipped a month. And so you don't pray, and then
you don't pray, and then you don't pray, and it's been a long
time since you've really spent any time praying. But the Lord exhorted us and
taught us, He taught them, He taught us, don't quit praying. Always pray. And never give up. Let's read some other Scriptures
to confirm that. First Thessalonians 5:17. You don't have to turn there;
they'll put them up on the screen. I'll just read them for you. First Thessalonians 5:17 says,
"Pray without ceasing." Now, that doesn't mean you're
praying every breath. I mean, what about when you're
sleep? What about when you're eating? What about when you're getting
ready? What about when you're working? All these things. It means you don't get to a
place where you say, "Okay, I'm done praying. I prayed all I'll ever need to
pray." No, prayer is part of our life. We never stop praying as part of
our lifestyle. And a lot of prayers don't have
to be long. A prayer can be thirty seconds
and be effective. But there are also times we need
to spend some time praying. More than five minutes. More than thirty minutes. There's times-we saw last week,
there are times Jesus prayed for hours. There are times He prayed all
night long. Well, if Jesus needed to pray
for hours, you and me need to pray for hours. If Jesus prayed all night long,
there were times that He did, then for sure there are times
that you and I should pray all night long. And one of the things that we
saw in that is that the end of that prayer, He had direction
about who the twelve apostles were to be. That's a pretty big thing. Right? Immediately that morning after
praying all night long, is when He called them together and
selected the twelve and appointed them. Well, where did He get that? How did He get it? Is it a coincidence that He just
got through praying all night long and now He knows this? He said Himself He only did what
He saw the Father do. He only said what He heard the
Father say. And in these extended times of
prayer, it is the environment where the Holy Spirit can
commune with us, and we can see and hear and know. Can you say, "Amen?" I've said this for some time. Prayers get previews. People that will spend time
praying, they get glimpses of things to come. That's part of the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. It said He would show us things
to come if we'll spend time communing with Him. And some of those glimpses of
things to come are things you need to do. So, it's in the form-it's a
glimpse of things to come, but it's direction of the way you
need to go. Ephesians 6:18 says, "Praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints." Praying always-some translation
say it like this. "Praying always with all kinds
of prayer and supplication." Now, you'll find these two words
used often in the same sentence: prayer and supplication. They are not unnecessary
repeats. There are no superfluous,
unnecessary things in the Word. It's either inspired or it's
not. And if it's inspired, there's a
purpose for every Word. Many purposes. It's a living thing. And the best of my understanding
and study, prayer refers to the general topic. And I would say it like this:
communing with God, would be my definition-the word here
translated "prayer." Prayer. Communing with God. And supplication would have to
do with asking. Now, you do your own study, see
what conclusion you come to on it, but having looked at it for
some time myself, that's where I am today. Prayer, when you say prayer,
you're talking about a lot of things. You're kind of rolling a bunch
of things under one heading. But prayer-the word, generally
speaking, refers to communion with God. Fellowship with Him. Which includes praise,
thanksgiving, worship. How many know we could call all
of that prayer? You're in your bedroom praising
God and communing with Him, giving Him thanks, that's not
all you did. And you might've asked Him some
things too, you might have just got quiet and listened for a
while; all of that is communing with Him. But if somebody asked you what
you were doing, you might've said praying. Right? But there were several elements
in the prayer, what you called praying. And included in praying can be
supplication. Supplication involves asking. Asking. But prayer is not supposed to be
only asking. Well, you tell me how you feel
if the only time you ever see a person, the only time you ever
hear from them is when they want something. They don't want to spend any
time with you, hear what you think, talk with you. The only communion they have
with you is asking for something from you. That doesn't bless you. Well, your Father is a Person. You are created in His likeness
and image, and so He cares about us wanting to commune with Him
other than just asking something all the time. But here He's talking about-look
at it again. "Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints." And what's in verse nineteen? "And for me, that utterance may
be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known
the mystery of the Gospel..." Paul asked people to pray for
him that he would have utterance. We need to not be so loose with
the concept of prayer. Sometimes people will say, "Pray
for me." I've had people say, "Pray for
me every time you pray." I'm not going to do that. What do you mean pray for you
every time I pray? Why? Why should I pray for you? Now, people will get upset just
at that one response. Why? What are we praying about? "Well you know, just pray for
me." No. See, that's being religious. Like it's not real. There are two big issues with
prayer that I can see, and problems with prayer. And one of them we've already
touched on is not praying-just not praying. Not praying enough. Not praying is a problem. The other one is praying wrong. Praying wrong. Vain praying. Jesus talked about vain prayer. Do you remember? He said, "Don't use vain
repetitions like the heathen do. They think they will be heard
for their much speaking." Jesus told us don't pray like
these people pray. We do not need, we should not
develop chants. Did you hear me? We don't need to spin wheels. Did y'all hear me? Or do repetitious things,
repeating the same phrase over and over. I know a lot of people do it. Jesus told us don't do it. He told us not to do it. Why? Because it is the vain. "Vain" means "useless." No results, no effect. And sadly, there's a lot of
praying that is absolutely useless. And people get mad if you imply
that every prayer that comes out somebody's mouth is not holy and
wonderful and good. People are reverent of prayer,
sometimes more than God. I don't know if you heard that
or not. People say, "I believe in
prayer." What does that mean? Prayer is not the Savior. What is prayer? Prayer is not just going through
the motions of a thing. Prayer is communion with a
living Being. The Creator of the heavens and
the earth Who, if you're born again, is your Father. And if we'll do it right, it is
wonderful to experience His presence in communion with Him. And if we'll do it long enough
until our mind gets quiet, and all the myriad of distractions
that are in this world we tune out and become aware of Him, we
can actually hear from Him. I'm not talking about seeing
something, feeling something with your body, I'm not talking
about hearing something with your ears, but every believer
has the ability to know on the inside of them what He is
communicating to us. It's life-changing, it's life
leading, life directing. But the reason, the only reason
you take the time to do it, is because you believe you can hear
from Him. You believe He's real. You believe He hears you. You believe if you pray the
right thing the right way, He'll do it. And things will change. But many, they've divested the
communion part of it, and to them prayer is only asking. And they don't know Him, they
don't know His character, they don't know His will, they don't
know His Word, they just think maybe they found out a neat
thing that I can get whatever I want by just asking "the big Man
upstairs." I don't like that phrase. Do you? That's spoken like somebody who
does not know Him. No. Jesus said, "If you abide in
Me," let's put it up on the screen. What is it? John fifteen seven, I believe it
is. John 15:7, can we put that up? Jesus said, "If you abide in
Me," that word "abide," that means "live, stay, dwell." If you live in Me, "And My Words
live in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done
to you." He didn't just say you'll ask
anything and it will happen. Do you see the first part of
this? Should we take the first part of
this serious? "If you abide in Me," that's a
living, daily communion which goes along with this pray
without ceasing. Right? It's living with somebody. Right? You live with somebody, you
should be talking to them, right? You should know something about
what's going on with them, about what they think, what they like,
what they want, what they're doing. Well, we should be living with
Him. We should have some idea about
what He wants. What He likes. What He's doing. Right? And we should be only interested
in that, and available to help facilitate that. "If you abide in Me, and My
Words abide in you," Jesus said, "you will ask what you will, and
it will be done to you." Why? Because you're asking is
influenced. Can you see this? By knowing Him, by knowing His
Word, by knowing His will. You're not just asking off the
wall stuff. Brother Hagin said, my father in
the faith, he said a fellow came in one time and said, "I want
you to pray about something for me." He said, "What do you want me to
pray?" He said, "Do I have to tell
you?" He said, "Well, I'm not going to
pray if you don't." See, so much of the unspoken
request is useless. I know folks don't like that,
but he went on to say-he explained to the man. He said, "If you ask me to pray,
you're asking me to believe for something. You're either asking me to
believe for something for you, or to believe with you. How am I going to believe for
something I don't know what I'm believing for?" And how do you even know in this
case, how do you know if it's Scriptural or something God can
do, right? He's not going to contradict His
Word. So the guy said, "Well, I want
you to believe with me that I will get so and so's wife." Well, it's a good thing he
asked, right? He said he actually asked him
that. Because he's decided that they
should be together. Well, should you pray about
that? Should you even say I'll pray
about it? No, you don't need to pray about
it. Because the Scripture has
already answered that. It says you're not to covet your
neighbor's wife, which is exactly what he's doing. He has his eyes on her and
decided he wants her, and he wants God to help him get her. He wants God to help him destroy
his family and destroy their family, and hurt people, and
contradict commandments and Scriptures. Now, we're laughing about it,
but a whole lot of folks have done the same thing. Maybe it wasn't as obvious, but
they don't commune with God, they don't know what His Word
says, they don't know what His will is. All they know is what they want. Or what their flesh wants. "I want this. God, give it to me." If we really knew the truth and
the spiritual things were real to us, if we came to the Father
and asked about something that was off He would say, "Come on a
little closer. Come here. Come here. Sit down. It's been a while since you've
been here, hasn't it?" And we would commune. You would commune with Him, and
as you're communing with Him, He would remind you of things that
He said in His Word. He would help you to see your
motives. Come on, are y'all with me? Your desires, and these kind of
things. And if you're honest and humble
at some point you would go, "Oh, right. Sorry, Lord. Forget that prayer. Just, yeah, forget that." But, even if we've made big
mistakes, what did Jesus say? Don't quit praying. Don't quit praying. Don't give up. Just stay with it until you get
it right. Because amazing things can
happen when people of faith pray. I mean, cities can be changed. Countries can be changed. I'm not exaggerating. There are examples of it in the
Word of God. Judgment can be stayed and
prevented. Gifts of the Spirit in
manifestation. Miracles can happen. It's amazing what can happen
when you pray right. Say it out loud: "Father God, I
do desire to commune with You. Teach me about real prayer, not
religious, not man's idea. True communion with Your Spirit. Real fellowship with You. Show me how to pray in the way
You can hear it, and do it, in Jesus' name." Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah. Even though we may have
floundered and made a lot of mistakes, we can straighten up. We can get it together, and we
can become very effective in prayer. We read this last week, and it
will be okay to read it again. James five. James 5:16. I'm going to read from the
Young's translation. "Be confessing to one another
the trespasses, and be praying for one another, that you may be
healed; very strong is a working supplication of a righteous
man." Now don't get hung up on
righteous and begin to question am I righteous enough to be
ineffective prayer. Realize what has made you
righteous. We could not accomplish enough
righteousness on our own merit and works, Jesus had to come and
give us His Own right standing. But He has. And if you'll receive it, you've
been made righteous with His rightness. Is my rightness good enough? Well, it better be. It's His. Is that right? If His is not good enough, there
is no good enough. No, His right standing has
already been accepted, and that's the righteousness we come
to the Father in prayer in. That's how we can come boldly
right to the throne of grace. We have a right to be there. Why? Because we're not coming in our
own righteousness, we're coming in His. This is a revelation. I said, this is a revelation. Anytime those thoughts come to
you, wonder if-I don't know if I'm really righteous man or
woman to pray. Are you saved? Have you received Jesus? Did you receive the
righteousness He gave you? It doesn't get any better than
that righteousness. So quit asking that question. The NIV says, "The prayer of a
righteous man is powerful and effective." Somebody say: "Powerful and
effective." Does it do any good to pray? This is why a lot of people quit
because they prayed a bunch of things and a bunch of them
didn't happen, and the enemy lied to them, "God didn't hear
you... God doesn't care... Does God exist?" I mean, the more you start
questioning, the further off you get, the worse it gets. But just because you made a
mistake does it mean prayer is not right. It doesn't mean that the right
prayer of a person doing it right, see right, righteousness,
it's an old English word for "right." Doing it right is powerful and
effective. Oh, somebody say: "Powerful. Powerful and effective. The Amplified says it like this. "The earnest (heartfelt,
continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power
available [dynamic in its working]." And we know he's not
exaggerating. He goes on to give the example
of Elijah praying, and for I suppose hundreds of miles, the
weather being changed. For years. And this is not some conjecture,
the Bible tells us it's because this one man prayed that this
happened. So, if this one man's prayer and
praying changed the weather for years over a large region, why
couldn't all of us stand up together and believe God when
something is trying to damage us or destroy us? We can. We should. God is faithful. Can you say, "Amen?" Have you been made righteous? Yeah, you have. Can your prayers be powerful and
effective? Effective. Effective. Go with me, if you would, to
Philippians the fourth chapter. I studied and got too much
material today. A bunch of material. But you're believing with me for
the right thing, is that right? For tonight. And maybe you can come back and
get some more, get some more. Because prayer is a big subject. You talk about praying; you have
a Bible full of verses on praying. And we only need the right thing
for right now. And so we prayed, prayed,
earlier in the service, and our prayer is effective. That's what's going on right
now. Philippians chapter four. I'm going to answer the question
just a little bit, why pray? Why should we pray? Philippians 4:6 are you there? The Scripture said, "Be careful
for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and," here you see
that phrase again, prayer, communion with God which
includes all different forms of praying, and, supplication,
asking in prayer. And of course, if you hook James
with this, you need to ask in faith, not just asking, but ask
in faith. Not wavering. "Be careful for nothing; but in
every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God." I had a fellow one time,
actually this has happened more than once, either in person or
through some kind of communication say, "Brother
Keith, the Scripture said let your requests be made known, so
I'm letting you know that I need this." That's not what that said. Did I lose somebody? It's not what it said. He didn't say let's request be
made known. "Let them be made known to God." You might say, "You talk about
what the church is doing and believing for." That's not my personal needs and
desires. You're the church. And all the partners. We're believing for this as a
family. But, you don't hear Phyllis and
I saying we're letting you know what we want personally, what we
need personally. We're supposed to go straight to
Him. And so are you. Why pray? Praying, correct praying, is
what we're supposed to do instead of worry. Praying is what we're supposed
to do instead of be full of care and anxiety. Put the Amplified up on that
please, Philippians 4:6. The Amplified says it like this:
"Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every
circumstance and in everything," do what? "By prayer and petition," now
see, the Amplified brings out-I didn't know the Amplified says
that. "(definite requests)," that's
another way of saying ask. Request is asking. "By prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God." If you need something and you
don't have it, you're in a situation you're going to be
tempted to fret. I don't care who you are. Right? So what are you going to do? Most people just fret. Most people just worry. Right? That's what they do. And/or they pull on other
people. They plead with people, they
pull on them, "You help me, you got to help me. I need this." But we don't need to do that. It's so wonderful; believers
never have to beg. Never. Never. If God is real, and He's God,
and He's your Father, and He supplies all your needs, He's
your Provider, why would you ever have to beg anybody? You don't. You don't. But if you don't pray and you
don't have faith, you're going to do something. Because the pressure is on. You need this, you need that,
you have to have this to pay your bills, you have to have
that to take care of this. What do you do? Most people, including most
Christians, most churchgoing people, they fret. They have anxiety. They worry. They worry. But there's something you can do
instead of worry. You can pray. And not pray a vain prayer, a
vain repetition, you can come before the Father and you could
start out in faith. And you could say, "Father, I
know this is no surprise to You." Why do we pray? We don't pray to inform God of
situations. Never, never do we come in and
go, "Oh, God. I've got to have five thousand
dollars, and I have to have it right now." Never does He look over at one
of the angels and go, when did this happen? Michael, Gabriel, nobody tells
Me about this? Are you kidding? You're talking about Him Who
knows the end from the beginning. No. We're never going to surprise
Him. It might've been a surprise to
you, but it's not a surprise to Him. And He is never caught
unprepared. Remember we were reading about
He choreographs seed for the sower? He saw that need coming before
you were ever aware that you were going to be in that area,
much less that you would have a need in that area. And actually, where Abraham went
up on the Mount to offer up his son as a sacrifice, and he had
said by faith, "God will provide," and he called on the
name of the Lord there Jehovah, anybody remember? Jehovah Jireh, or some pronounce
it differently. And it literally means "the God
Who sees." Somebody said, "I thought it
meant the God Who provides." It does, but it literally means
the God Who sees ahead and provides. Because when Abraham was ready
to offer up Isaac and the angel said, "No, no, no." He turned around. There's a ram with his horns
caught in the thicket. Well now, that ram getting there
and getting caught, that's some good timing. Come on, can you see that? I mean, we don't have to say
okay, Isaac is not going to get offered today. Where's the sacrifice? We're about to find a sacrifice. No. He's right there already. And that's what Jehovah Jireh
means. Is He still Jehovah Jireh? The God Who sees ahead and
provides the supply for those that are on His path. What if Abraham had said no, I'm
not going to do that? I'm not going up there, I'm not
doing it. Well, he would've never
experienced the provision the Lord had for him. You have to be on the path. But on the right path, there is
prepared provision. Do you believe it? That Jehovah Jireh, the God Who
sees ahead, saw-He knew before you knew, He knew what the whole
path was start to finish. And if you would go down the
path-how did that ram get up there? This ram, I don't know, maybe
three days ago, may be before that, he just gets an inkling to
go this way. And so he does and he does. And the next day, for some
reason, he just likes the looks of it over there. So he goes over there. And on this day, for some
reason, he winds up at the exact right spot, and he just wants to
stick his head in those briars and rummage around in there. What's going on? There is a leading, there is
Something that is choreographing and causing this to wind up at
exactly the right place, at the right time, so that every need
is met, every bill is paid. Come on, can you see it? Every obligation fulfilled,
every need met. Is He still Jehovah Jireh? Is He still the God Who sees
ahead and provides the supply? Well, backing up, only those who
are on the path are going to intercept this pre-prepared
provision. How do you know to get on the
path? That's where the praying comes
in. Come on, can you see this? The praying comes in about
what-Phyllis and I have seen this, and I'm not claiming that
I've always done everything perfect, but we haven't had
disasters in the churches where our projects are concerned. And I give God the praise for
that. But one of the things I want to
do on that kind of thing-there are times we may talk and pray
about a project for years before we launch it. Are y'all with me, Christians? Why? Because I know if it's Him, it's
not going to be a problem. Can you see that? If it's something that He's
directing us to do, you not going to have to try to talk Him
in to providing for something that was His idea. But you also need to know the
right time, and the right way to do it. Can you see this? The wisdom of God. And whether it's us personally,
or whether it's your business, or a church or ministry, people
have gotten in trouble because they didn't ask Him. They just ran off with an idea,
or maybe they even got a piece of an idea from Him, but they
didn't get the rest. They didn't get the time; they
didn't get the way. Can you see this? And where are you going to find
out all that? If we'll take some time. Can you see this? And instead of worrying about
it, worrying, worrying, worrying-worrying takes time and
does no good. Come on, can you see this? There is a God ordained
replacement for worry. It's prayer. Prayer. And not just begging vain
repetitions, but communion with God. You come in before His presence,
you shut off your phone. Turn off the TV. Come on, are y'all with me? Mute, silence, turn off whatever
you need to do and get in there and commune with Him. Tell Him you love Him. Praise Him. Thank Him. Come on, are y'all with me? He already knows what you want
to talk about. Is that right? He already-come on, we need to
remember Who we're dealing with here. He already knows the answer to
the question you're looking for the answer for. Right? He knows the answer to the next
question you haven't thought of yet. The one you're going to find out
in three weeks. We need to remind ourselves of
Who He is, how big He is, how awesome He is. How wonderful He is. And spend some time with Him,
not begging in unbelief, but talking to Him about it in an
intelligent way, and then asking Him to give us utterance to pray
out exactly what we should pray out-and thank God at that point
for speaking in tongues. If you don't know about that,
find out. Do not let this pass you by
because this is the means to pray beyond our limited
knowledge and understanding. And to pray out, the Scripture
says, divine mysteries. Things, they're not a mystery to
God, who are they a mystery to? You. But it's a way for you to pray
about it and then find out about it. Why do we pray? We pray because God told us to
pray, and we pray because it's better than worry. We pray because it's what you do
instead of worry. Instead of fret. Instead of fear. Instead of toss and turn. Instead of pace. Instead of call other people and
bug them. Come on now. How many know, don't point
fingers or anything, you know of situations where people called
you and they shouldn't have; they should be praying. They should be talking to Him. But you know, the flesh doesn't
want to pray. It wants to be lazy. You just tell me what to do. You just give me the answer and
save me all that. I've heard people say before,
"You just pray and find out and just tell me." And there's been more than once
that I did, I tried to do that. And the Lord said, "You tell
them to come see Me." He's even told me before,
"That's none of your business. That's between Me and them." And I'm glad, I'm glad He won't
hang all of your dirty laundry out for me to see, which means
He won't hang mine out for you to see. Right? He's good. He's merciful. He's gracious. He is kind. But, what I'm saying is other
people cannot do your praying for you. It doesn't mean they can't pray
for you, but they can't pray instead of you. They can pray for you under the
right conditions, but there's a lot of wasted motion in prayer. There's a real legitimate
question. Somebody says, "Pray for me,"
the next question could be, why? Right? Why? What are we praying about? What do I need to pray about? It's not that I don't have a
life. It's not like I'm not already
using my faith. I need to pray about-not saying
I won't pray for you, but what praying is needed that you can't
do for you? Or just won't do? But if will spend time communing
with Him, we get direction. We learn about getting on the
path. And on the path-how many
remember Proverbs talks about this path, is that right? The path of the just it's like
the shining light, it's like the dawn of the sun, that as the day
progresses, it gets brighter and brighter. Brighter and brighter means you
see more and more. Everything gets plainer and more
clear to you. Boy, there's nothing like
knowing what to do, knowing where to go, knowing who to work
with, knowing what to do here and when. Operating by the Spirit of
knowing. Jesus did this. How many believe Jesus always
knew where to go, what to preach, who to see, what to
answer? Right? He also did a lot of praying. Didn't He? Reckon there's a connection
between any of that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, we pray because the Lord
told us to pray, and we pray because so much better than
worry. We're there in Philippians, back
up to Philippians one. I know this is basic, but we
need basic. Philippians 1:19 he said, "For I
know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer,
and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." Listen to the New American
Standard. It says, "For I know that this
shall turn out for my deliverance," now you have to
remember, Paul is in jail. He's in prison. Not for crimes but for preaching
the Gospel. I know this will turn out for my
deliverance, "Through your prayers and the provision of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ." Say it out loud: "Prayer and
provision." This has been coming up all
night, hasn't it? Prayer and provision. Why do we pray? The Lord told us to. Sure beats worry, is that right? We do it instead of worry. Here's another reason. Why? It results in provision. Provision that God gives. That God releases. The Young's Literal translation
says it like this: "I have known that this shall fall out to me
for salvation, through your supplication, and the supply of
the Spirit of Christ Jesus." Do you see these two phrases? Prayer and provision,
supplication and supply. One of the reasons we pray is
because right praying results in supply given to us. Provision released to us. Thank You, Lord. Well, if you believe that, you
wouldn't quit praying, right? Now, in Philemon, I want you to
notice this. Paul said this. Just one chapter in Philemon,
twenty-two. Philemon twenty-two, Paul said
this. "Prepare me a lodging: for I
trust that through your prayers I shall be given to you." He said go ahead and get me a
place ready because I'm trusting that I'm going to be released
because of your prayers, through your prayers. Somebody say: "Thank You, Lord." Prayer and provision,
supplication and supply. Why do we pray? Because prayer allows God to
change things. Securing His release, giving Him
a supply of the Spirit. You will see this in the Book of
Acts. That's one thing I was talking
about, I got way too much material for tonight because I
started looking at prayer in the Book of Acts, and began to see
they prayed and God moved. They prayed and God moved. They prayed and God moved. I'm talking about specific
instances in the Book of Acts, and I'm not done. They prayed and God moved. And then guess what happened? They prayed and God moved. And then what happened after
that you reckon? They prayed again, and God moved
again. And you could see they're just
back to back. You read about them praying and
like two verses, three verses later, something amazing
happened. Now don't misunderstand me,
don't give the glory to prayer. Prayer is involved, prayer is a
factor. It doesn't happen just without
prayer. But, prayer didn't do it. God did it. Come on, we need to keep this
straight because if we give the glory to the prayer, you wind up
glorifying the prayer. Can you see that? And a lot of folks like that. "I'm going to pray, I'm going to
pray all night and all day. I'm going to straighten this
out. I'm going to fix this." No, you are not the Savior,
you're not the Healer, you're not the Creator. You're going to come in and talk
to Him about it. And prayer is not to be one way. It's to be two ways. You talk, you listen. You listen, you talk. We're supposed to hear from Him
in prayer. And there will be times, I mean
there are Scriptures where He told individuals, "Don't ask Me
about that. Don't pray about that." We have to know Him well enough
to commune with Him and hear from Him when we bring up things
that we shouldn't be talking about. There is no set answer. If anybody ever comes out with a
thousand the volume book on everything to pray about and
everything not to pray about, save your money. It is not exhaustive; it cannot
be correct. If you can do it with that, you
wouldn't need the Holy Spirit. Only He, and only through
communion with Him can you know day in, day out, pray about
this, keep on praying about this, leave this alone, don't
bring this up to Me again. Come on, are y'all with me? God is a Person. And the better we know His Word
and the better we know His Spirit, the quicker we will
recognize-can you see why some folks have been off, they got
mad at God? They prayed and asked for a
bunch of things, didn't happen exactly the way they thought,
but they didn't know Him. They didn't know His Word; they
didn't commune with Him. It wasn't prayer and
supplication; it was just supplication. It was just request, request,
request, give me what I want or I'm not going to go to church
anymore. Really. People will try to make deals. And that means they don't know
Him. They don't know Him. He's never trying to take
anything away from us. Always has your best interest at
heart and mind. He just knows so much, and we
know so little. And if we're smart, we'll trust
Him. And when He tells us something,
even though we don't understand it, if we're smart we'll go,
"Well, there's things I don't know." Right? And He's right always. Always right. Let me give you just one in the
Book of Acts really quickly before we finish up this
evening. You got time? Alright. Go to the Book of Acts and
chapter twelve. And I mean, I got three pages of
it before I got to that one, so we're just being led, right? Acts chapter twelve. Why do we pray? Help me out, saints. Why do we pray? Not just to be religious, not
just to inform God of things, we don't just put in time praying
to make us feel like we did something, like we are holy. Why do we pray? Number one, He told us to. Told us to pray all the time. If He told you pray all the
time, there's reasons why you need to pray all the time. Right? You would be smart if you did. Number two, you need to do
something instead of worry, because worry is just going to
mess everything up, it's going to wear you out, it's going to
make you sick. It actually gets in God's way. What are we going to do instead
of worry? You can pray. Instead of worry half the night,
what if you prayed in faith, in the Spirit, half the night? Oh, you're going to come out so
much better at the same time. The same amount of time. And then thirdly, we pray
because praying right allows God to release supply and provision
into the earth. It changes things. In Acts twelve, "Now about that
time Herod the king," about that time he, "stretched forth his
hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother
of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of
unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him
in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to
keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the
people. Peter therefore was kept in
prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church to
God for him." Now, think about it. One of your favorite ministers,
the government just came and got him and killed him. Maybe one of your other all-time
favorite ministers, they grabbed him and put him in jail and they
have already set an execution date for him. So, you can't go to church and
hear them preach and you can't go to the meeting and be in the
meeting with them. One of them is dead, one of them
they said is going to be dead in a couple of days or the next
day. The next day. So what do you do? You could worry. You could be mad, you could be
upset, right? You could say what right do they
have to do that? What did he ever do to them? You can cry about how unjust it
is, about how unfair it is, you could write papers. You could be indignant. You could be distraught. You could be beside yourself
with anger and grief. And you could worry. Or as we have discovered
tonight, you could do something else. Come on, help me out now. I'm not just going on for no
reason. Isn't that what I just described
isn't that what a lot of people do? You know it. There's something else you could
do, and in these early days of the church, they knew how to do
it. Instead of fussing, instead of
crying, they prayed and didn't quit praying. They kept on praying. Why would you keep on praying? Because you don't have it yet. You don't have the answer yet. You don't know what to do yet. You haven't got the release yet. And that's why the Lord said to
always pray and not quit, not give up. Why? Why did they keep on praying? They don't want to lose Peter. And they don't know, they
haven't got a Word from the Lord that they could just stand on. And they know something bad is
happening because the other brother, one of their favorite
ministers, he's gone. They killed him. So, what do we do? They prayed and they kept on
praying, the whole church kept on praying. Kept on praying. Kept on praying. Kept on praying. What are they praying? They're not begging God in
unbelief. I mean, it does no good to say
ten thousand times, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? They're talking to God about
this. They're communing with him. "Prayer was made without ceasing
of the church to God for him. And when Herod would have
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between
two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before
the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he
smote Peter on the side," Peter is sleeping hours before he's
supposed to be executed. I like this. Don't you like this? He sleeping so sound the angel
had to kick him to wake him up. Get up! I'm here to get you out, get up. Man, I was sleeping good, what
do you want? He smote Peter on the side, "And
raised him up, saying, arise up quickly." And when he got up the, "Chains
fell off from his hands," without a key. Can God do some amazing things? Two verses before this, what was
it? "Prayer was made without ceasing
of the church to God for him." Reckon there's any connection? This is an amazing thing. Why is God doing this? They're asking God to intervene. They're asking him. Now I doubt anybody knew to ask
specifically for this. Because they didn't have a
passage to read where this happened before. But they just know they want him
out. Maybe they're thinking some
legal maneuvering, maybe they're thinking a stay of execution. I don't know what they're
thinking, but God has a different idea than people do. You want him out? Let's get him out. Now. He doesn't need to check with
anybody. Keep reading. "And the angel said unto him,
gird yourself, and bind on your sandals," put your shoes on,
he's having to tell him everything. Get up, come on. No, get your clothes. Put your shoes on. Put your shoes on. "And so he did. And he said to him, put your
garment," on. It's cold around here. "And follow me. And he went out, and followed
him," and he's just trucking along following the angel. "And wist not that it was true
which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision." He thought he was dreaming or
having a vision. "When they were past the first
and the second ward, they came to the iron gate that leads unto
the city; which opened to them of its own accord," and this is
before there were openers. It just unlatched and opened up. Is this amazing or is this
amazing? "And they went out, and passed
on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed
from him. And when Peter was come to
himself, he said, now I know of a surety, that the Lord has sent
his angel, and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from
all the expectation of the people of the Jews." He realized, I'm really outside. Where did that angel go? "And when he had considered the
thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose
surname was Mark; where many were gathered together," what? What? What? "Praying." Praying. Reckon there's any connection? Why would the Scripture bring it
up before, right before this happened and right after? Why would he bring it up? Why would he bring it up? It's connected. Can you see this is connected? Many have talked about wanting
to see more of these mighty things, more of these signs and
wonders. Well, we need to pray more. Come on, can you see this? Pray right, pray in faith, pray
and power. Pray as a church. Pray as a group. Pray as a church family. Pray as the church. "Many were gathered." Somebody say: "Many. Many. Many, many were gathered
together praying." We should not, if bad things
happen, we should not be quick to give up. Can you see that phrase? And just go, "Well, isn't that
awful? Isn't that awful?" We should know things can be
changed. Right? God can get involved. Something can happen here, and
especially when we are stirred, we should pray. And keep on praying. And keep on praying. Right? "Many were gathered together
praying. And as Peter knocked at the door
of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened not the gate," because she was so glad and
excited but she just got through standing there. And she ran back and told
everybody how Peter was standing at the gate. Well, what were they praying
about? Well, it said prayer was made
without ceasing, in connection with Herod taking him. They're praying about it. So she comes in and says he's at
the gate, he's at the gate. Verse fifteen, "And they said,"
you're crazy. Why do you think we have the
prayer meeting going? "But she constantly affirmed
that it was even so. Then said they, it is his
angel," maybe. "Peter continued knocking," hey! Let me in! He just got out of jail. You don't want to be hanging out
on the street, is that right? Where anybody can see you. "And when they had opened the
door, and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning to them with
the hand to hold their peace," he said, let me tell you what
happened, told, "how the Lord had brought him out of the
prison. And he said, go show these
things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into
another place." I don't blame him. He left town that night. This amazing or is this amazing? This is just one. If you're interested, and I
encourage you to do it, read the Book of Acts. It's not that big of a Book, and
look at the connection you just saw here and see how many
times-you know how the Book of Acts starts? They were in one accord. In one place, one accord, and a
few verses prior to that said they had been praying. And then on the day of
Pentecost, here comes the Holy Spirit. You see prayer. They prayed, God moved. They prayed, God moved. You'll see it all through the
Book of Acts. We're a part of the same church. We have the same name of Jesus,
we have the same Gospel, we have the same Holy Spirit, right? We can pray, if we will, if we
want to, willing to, like they did, we can see some amazing
things happen. Do you believe it, saints? Stand on your feet everybody.
