Persistent Prayer (Part 1) Pastor Mike Fabarez - Focal Point

Romans chapter 12 would tell you that you need to be constant in prayer or as FirstBest says and I'm sure you're familiar with this passage a you are to pray without ceasing or the words of Colossians chapter 4 you should continued steadfastly in prayer or just real simply seasons chapter 6 you have pray at all times I mean the Bible is certainly big on getting us to pray persistently this should be no surprise it's a big theme throughout the Bible to pray and continue to pray and don't stop praying and that's certainly as clear as it could ever be in our passage that we've reached in our study of Luke chapter 18 we see Jesus tell a parable in Luke 18 verses 2 through 8 and he begins by telling us why we have this in verse number 1 he says that this was told to his disciples so that they would learn to always pray and never lose heart always pray and never lose heart now you take those kinds of words from the Bible and you combine them with words like you'll find in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says you know ask and it'll be given seek and you'll find and knock and the door will be open to you and you have a recipe for a lot of disappointment a lot of frustration and a lot of misunderstanding why do I say that well because it's probably not a Christian in the room who hasn't sincerely asked and sought and not and not received the answer that they wanted surely there are many people that could take the microphone this morning and say well I've prayed and persisted in prayer and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and God didn't answer certainly not in the way I was asking I mean this is a common experience among Christians so we better understand what Jesus is getting at when he tells us to always pray and never lose heart there's got to be some context there's got to be some fine print there's got to be some stipulations some qualifications well I mean there's has to be and of course there is in this particular passage that we are going to look at we'll see next week the context and if you've been with us you'll remember where we've been and that is this great anticipation of the coming kingdom and the deterioration of culture and then we have a parable about persisting in prayer and all of that fits the immediate textual context and gives us a sense as to what Jesus is meaning when he says to his disciples always pray and never lose heart but as counterintuitive as it may seem this morning what I want to do is not look at the immediate context we'll deal with that next week I want to look at this principle that is not unique among statements in Scripture to have you persist in prayer along with the promise that if you do you know God's gonna give you what you asked for we've got to understand that in its largest biblical context so this morning something unusual for us is we usually go expositing verses verse by verse I I just want to take a look at this verse and understand how in the world were to understand not only this statement but so many statements like it throughout the Bible that are calling you and I to persist and persist and persist in prayer and combine that with all these promises to give us what we're asking for and say well what what are we supposed to understand that to mean clearly it can't mean that we just asked however and for whatever we want and God will do it or just keep on asking if you ask long enough God will do it I mean that's what it seems to say but there's got to be more to this so we're gonna look at some context here not just the context in the text that's next week the context throughout the Bible when he calls Christians like you and me to pray and keep on praying and adding all these promises that he'll give us the answer so this morning I got five things that will create a short list for us of concepts stories narratives principles and precepts throughout the Bible that will help you I hope leave this morning with a better understanding what Jesus means when he tells you to persist in prayer and not lose heart not just here but everywhere else in the Bible so if you found your worksheet you'll see I've got the text there for you and hopefully you've turned to your Bibles already in Luke 18 but you'll see the rest of it grayed out because all I want to do is deal with this one statement and then we'll get to the context next week he says he told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart and then he tells the story a judge fear God widow keeps coming give me justice he refuses she keeps at it keeps bothering the judge and finally as well you know what I'll just do what she says you know hear what the unrighteous judge says will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night will he delay long over them verse 8 I tell you he will give justice to them speedily nevertheless with the son of man when he comes will he find faith on the earth he told them a parable to the effect that they should always pray and never lose heart let's look at what God would expect us to know before we read a passage like this and reach the wrong conclusions first passage I'd like you to write down and I'll call it to your mind it's short I'll quote it for you as first John chapter 5 verse number 14 this should be in your mind understood as the one governing principle of every call to prayer throughout the scripture if God is gonna ask you to pray clearly this ought to be in your mind and I'm glad it stated so succinctly in first John chapter 5 verse 14 when he says this if that's a conditional word representing a conditional clause here comes the condition here's the fine print if we ask anything now here's the qualifier according to his will he hears us next verse and if we know he hears us and whatever we ask then we know we have the request we've asked of him so if you're gonna get what you ask of him and certainly the context is throughout the Bible ask and keep asking seek and keep seeking knock and keep knocking well then you'll have it now here's the caveat if you ask according to his will now if I'm gonna know the will of God the wishes of God the wants of God the intentions of God there's one place I can go to get that the unalterable unchanging propositions in black and white we have it a translation of it right there in your lap it's called the Word of God the will of God is gonna be revealed in the Word of God so the will of God Word of God I need to know what the Bible has to say before I start asking and persisting and asking because if I ask for things that are unbiblical well then that's just a waste of my time number one let's put this in these terms how not to persist in prayer number one don't persist this way don't pray unbiblical ii and that may sound like a no-brainer but it's not as easy as you may think don't pray on politically if I want to pray according to God's will and persist in prayer and not make it a colossal waste of time or a practice and exercise in frustration well then I better make sure that my prayer requests are in line with the will of God the will of God's gonna be revealed in the Word of God at least by and large we'll look at that objection that you're raising in your mind right now in a second well let's just start with this and indulge me in some silliness here if I said to you I've got in my prayer list that I'm praying for every day that God would stop being holy I hope you'd say stop praying for that right why cuz you know holy holy holy Lord gotta he was he is he is to come he's always gonna be holy he's the eternal immutable holy God you should not pray for God not to be holy you'd slap me in the face and say that's a dumb thing to pray for Pastor Mike and you want me to stop and if I quoted Luke chapter 18 verse 1 well he said pray and not lose heart so I'm praying you'd say stop it that's a dumb prayer why cuz it's unbiblical if I said I'm praying that Jesus does not return I don't want Jesus to come back once was enough don't come back you'd say that's dumb and stupid they indulge me in the silliness cuz it doesn't get so silly when I continue this discussion when I say things like this well I'm praying that the world would love me I'm praying the world would love me now you may not put it that way but so often I just want non-christians to understand I want them to like me in spite I don't I know they say I'm a Jesus I just want them to like well if you're well versed in the Bible you'll say oh no wait a minute here was the promise if they hated me they're going to hate you why would you pray for that I know it makes sense in your mind it makes no sense to pray that God would stop being holy or that God would not send his son back a second time because that's what he promised but you are now asking for something I think we can all empathize with I understand how you want to be liked by the non-christian world I understand that too but once that makes your prayer list you are now praying unbiblical ii and that's a ridiculous thing to pray when Jesus has said just the opposite or let me start with a silly progression of things I want God to change his view on two armed robbery I can make a lot of money in this matter of fact is very lucrative for me I I'm just praying that maybe the old God of the Old Testament that was against armed robbery I'm just praying he'll change his view of that's why I can continue our mother or adultery oh I know it's kind of a puritanical season of God's life and I just hope that maybe it's probably not so bad in his mind I'm praying that God would change his view of adultery now again I started with silliness but we're moving into very contemporary headlines at this point well whatever God said about homosexuality I mean Old Testament stuff I mean let's just let's just pray that God can be more understanding you can pray all you want about what you think God should want or approve or see as moral or ethical but if God is revealed in his eternal Word here's clearly what I say is right and wrong you can hope you can pray you can persist you can you can hope to reason with God but it's useless that would be ridiculous to persist in prayer or any hope that God would change his view on morality because he's been very clear about that I am praying that I won't have any problems I don't want any problems how about just this week I don't want any problems I don't okay we're moving now from what seems obvious you tell me not to pray for but if I'm at a prayer meeting and I pray I don't want any problems today Lord you'd go oh hey man Lord bless Pastor Mike give him no problem but at some point you answer think biblically and say is that even a biblical prayer for him to pray I need us to be much more mature in our praying and the only way to get more mature in our praying so we don't waste our time and persisting in prayer we better understand the Bible because in the Bible we have the will of God revealed and if I'm supposed to pray according to the will of God so that God hears and answers my prayer I better make sure my prayers are increasingly biblical and not just reactive I understand reactive prayer and I reactively pray just like you do when I hurt I don't want it to stop if it's bad I want it to be good if there's a situation's crooked I wanted to be straight if it's rough I want it to make it smooth I want all the natural things that you want and i reactively and impulsively pray to god but at some point the scripture has to invade my mind and i have to say well let me start to shape that prayer so that i don't sit here persisting in prayer hoping that i'm claiming that if i just ask God will give it and if I ask long enough he'll give it I've got to pray biblically there are times that people heroes of the faith were praying for something persistently and God had to step in and say you're praying for something against my will stop praying for that case in point it's a good homework assignment study in Deuteronomy chapter 3 when Moses tells a story ayah autobiographically about himself in his prayer life what he was praying for and what he was praying for made complete sense and everybody in the prayer meeting would nod their head and Josh would say Amen Lord grant Moses his request because here's what Moses with praying I want to go into the Promised Land does that sound like a reasonable prayer of course let me into the Promised Land I just want to be I want my sandals to get into the high Jeff before I die let me into the Promised Land and he prayed that and he prayed that and he prayed that and let me read from the scripture here's God's response to Moses his persistent praying enough from you verse 26 says do not speak to me of this matter again can you imagine if God were to speak up about your prayer list I'll bet there's some things on your prayer list God would say can you stop praying for that if you read Luke chapter 18 verse 1 and you say right there he says always pray and never give up always pray never give up I got my list I'm gonna always pray and never give up you have some things on that list I'll bet that if you thought about them in light of Scripture you would think long enough to say I don't know if I have any right to pray that as a matter of fact some things may be in complete opposition to the scripture and what the scripture is promised then you'll have to say as a dumb thing for me to pray for and you know why by the way it was that Moses was not to keep asking and pestering God about entering the promised land because God's Word had already told him you are being disciplined and in your discipline you cannot enter the promised land and the discipline Sunday school grads was when he did what struck the rock and God said don't strike the rock speak to the rock you didn't show me as holy you didn't honor me in front of all the people you need to realize and learn your lesson you're not going to the promised land oh please God let me go let me go let me go let me go please let me go please let me go into the Promised Land enough from you do not speak to me of this matter again stop praying that way now it's a reasonable prayer request it's a reactive prayer request it's a prayer request that Moses and and and Joshua and Caleb might sit around and pray and you might hear all of them go mmm-hmm-hmm and God's going stop now as Moses a godly guy sure is he asking for something reasonable yes is he asking for something viscerally in our gut we'd say that's a good thing I want Moses that you know but here's the thing when it came to God's good plan it wasn't that God is being mean to Moses do you know anything about the history of when this took place it seems near the end but there was lots of things Aaron was going to about to die we had the entire transition of the worship system around Aaron it had to be there had to be this transitional period and it took very wise and smart and godly decisions to be made during that time you had Balak hiring Balaam to come and curse the people we need a leader that would circumvent that whole situation and be godly and persist and do the right things in the midst of that trial you had the people take that bronze snake that was held up in the desert early in the narrative and now was being worship and bowed down to there was idolatry in the camp and everybody said this is the right thing to do and it makes some biblical sense to us to exalt this to a place of worship and here's what here's what God needed he didn't need a happy Moses and that would have made him happy to go into the problems they've got said okay you're right your timeouts up you can come on in I would have made him happy but you know what God needed was a holy Moses and right then he knew that if he stuck to his guns and did not let Moses keep praying this unbiblical prayer and he could submit to the will of God in this that Moses would come out of this and God's good plan is that Moses would be holy and he needed a holy Moses to get through the transition to the priesthood to get through the idolatry scanned to get through Balaam and Bey licks spiritual showdown as they traverse the desert we needed Moses to stop praying something that God had already said one gonna happen prayer I know it's easy for us to pray without the information that I'm giving you this morning and think we're doing the right thing and wondering what's wrong with God he's not answering my prayer my wife likes candles in the living room we haven't a family room and we have our friends over which seems to be the only time we light these candles but that's when she says you know where's Cameron honey would you help me light the candles and you go into the drawer and I get the little lighter and I go around and start lighting candles well she started unbeknownst to me to buy some new candles that aren't real candles their electronic candles they look real well I started lighting I get to this one and a man I was working it she walks past from the kitchen shift what are you doing lighting the candles and this one's being a real beast about it I can't get it lit she said pick it up turn it over there's a switch on the bottom turn it on I have the right tool and in some cases it worked perfectly it's just that I applied the right tool the powerful tool to the wrong thing and it did nothing and all I did was frustrate myself myself the effectual prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much prayer is powerful but you're sitting there perhaps in some unbiblical situations trying to apply God's mechanism a prayer to something guys thing would you stop that Moses was a man of Prayer you know where we needed his prayers to be in biblical prayers for God's will and instead he was wasting his time on his knees praying for something God said stop pray Blakely don't pray unbiblical II that is the underlying foundational governing principle of all prayer in the Bible we have to pray according to the will of God but Mike sometimes that's not clear clear there's no chapter in verse I can't go to a chapter in verse and see whether or not this is God's will and welcome you know to real life so much of Scripture I don't see whether or not this should happen I see examples of both in the scripture and sometimes God wants and sometimes God wants I don't know as I said most of our prayers start as reactive prayers particularly when they relate to our own lives if there's something in our life that's an impetus for pain then I want that to go away the Apostle Paul is a great example this if you want a passage to put next to the second point that we're about to fill in put down second Corinthians chapter 12 verses 7 through 9 jot that down 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 7 through 9 and in this passage you might know the Apostle Paul was struck with something that was so bad in his life he called it a physical ailment he called it a messenger of Satan sent to Buffett Maine now I get a lot of prayer requests from church congregants as they pray for me I'm sick if I had one that came in and said I have a messenger from Satan that's tearing my life apart I'm thinking you're in a lot of pain you're saying this is a demonic satanic attack on your physical body this was so painful that you know that Paul would be totally understood in a prayer meeting say would you pray with me that I would be healed from this this ailment and he began to pray and if you know the passage the Bible says he prayed and it gives us how many times he prayed he prayed how many times three times that God might remove this from me and then there was a realization you might claim special revelation Reverend nevertheless we often have these realizations when we do not persist in prayer he's a godly man not persisting in prayer about something that viscerally we should all say it makes perfect sense you would pray that you'd be healed from this he stopped praying that he would be healed from that because he saw a greater opportunity to glorify God through this ailment and he said this I understand that God's power is perfected in this particular weakness because I have a problem of vulnerability in terms of my own because it's conceit and here's what I've learned in this sickness it has really become an aid in my humility and so I'm starting to see God's greater glory is manifested in my illness if it stays because it keeps me where I need to be because you know what God needs a humble apostle not a prideful conceit conceited apostle therefore he says I'm glad more glad to be chronically ill for the rest of my life even though people empathize with me in the Galatians want to gouge their eyeballs out and give them to me probably had something to do with his eyes and so he said much rather have this problem I need an amanuensis I need a secretary to take dictation so I can write letters to churches but you know what I'm good with that I've stopped praying for it now you compassionate Christian might put your arm around the Apostle Paul and say oh I you shouldn't stop praying you know Jesus once said you should always pray and never give up never give up never lose heart Paul you've lost heart here and the Apostle Paul would look at you and say you don't understand here when I pray about everything I need to pray here comes number two flexibly and I would say this he would turn that around and say to you don't pray inflexibly don't pray on biblically if you want to learn how not to persist in prayer don't pray in flexibly and if you pray with flexibility guess what you may not persist in prayer because it becomes clear to you that God's greater glory is manifested in this world if that thing is not answered the way you initially reactively wanted it to be therefore sometimes you have to say hey you know what I'm realizing this would probably better if it stayed in place if I didn't get that promotion if we didn't get that house if we didn't have that child if I didn't get healed if I didn't have this thing fixed if I didn't have that lawsuit go away I'm seeing God's greater glory played out and therefore I'm willing to say I'm gonna stop praying for that some of you need to stop praying for things because you are praying in a very rigid inflexible way you have to do it and you have to do it this way and it's not clear whether it's God's will for you to get over that illness it's not clear whether you should have it we don't know sometimes he relieves you of that sometimes he doesn't so you're gonna have to make these decisions as you look for God's greater glory in your life and I say that because of Romans 8:28 which you all know that says that God's got a good plan but before we read 28 you should be reminded of 29 that says those he's predestined he's Pradesh on whether he's predestined to become conformed to the image of his son and guess what the image of his son was not conceded and so in Paul's mind perhaps he realized this if I'm to be more like Christ I realized that not praying for this would make me more like Christ I should be praying for the benefit and that is that the power of Christ would be seen in me through the weakness of my illness I've stopped praying for that I'm not going to persist in prayer that way I'm going to persist in prayer with the flexibility that eventually says you know not my will but yours be done and where would Paul ever learn to pray a prayer like that Jesus Matthew 26 certainly taught us and when it comes to our praying we pray in a very flexible way it sounds like a cop-out I told you this before I'll go to a bedside in a hospital and call in the pastor you know and he'll he'll pray a great prayer and I get there and someone's in her bed and I'll pray something and I'll pray flexibly and they'll open one eye and think I want my money back right I want my offering back this guy's kind of fudging on his prayers right now I want him raise his hand about you you be huemul ORD you and he's praying if it's the Lord's will that's with that I don't always know what God's will is for your health my health your job your housing my job my house I don't know I need to start with some flexibility before I settle in to persistently praying I've got to be convinced it is the will of God and I look to the Word of God and one of things I learned in the Word of God is the goal of God to work everything out for good which doesn't necessarily mean my pleasure or my happiness or my satisfaction don't pray on biblically and don't pray in flexibly that's certainly not what Christ meant Luke chapter 18 verse number one this one's related but I think sometimes based on our daily Bible reading I am reminded as we work through job this week that we can pray for things with a presumption that we know what's best follow me on this we introduced ourselves in our daily Bible reading again as we go through the Bible again this year in job chapter one through three was our reading yesterday and hopefully you read that if not you can catch up today and we we meet Jove and he's so godly in Chapter one and two he's described that way by God he responds and everything falls apart and O Lord gave Lord take away blessed be the name of Lord man that's a godly man but by the third chapter and I'm so glad on our daily Bible reading schedule we get one two and three yesterday because when you read three in conjunction with two and one you recognize this he's really fallen from that place of having this great humble perspective when he starts saying things like this in Chapter one of joe he says I should have died when I was born I should have been stillborn cursed be the day of my birth it would be better if I were never born and I just want to ask you this question as God looks from heaven at that statement does does God say Amen brother better if you were never born no God says no how dare you no it would not be better if job was never born matter of fact job you are right now playing out a drama that is not only going to be for your generation a horror mark case of understanding that the quote unquote good things don't just happen to good people that sometimes what we have is bad things happen to quote unquote good people and you need to recognize something called the retributive principle in the scripture is going to be understood at a deeper level not just in your generation but there will be people I mean thousands of years later on the other side of the planet learning from your life no it is a really good thing you were born job but he was praying prayers about his life based on his presumption that he knew better and I hate to and with great deference to job and great respect he's a more godly man than I am I understand this but let me say this you need to learn from that number three not to pray arrogantly cuz that's all that real is its arrogance don't pray arrogantly and what is arrogance I think I know it's best I think I have all the information and that's the drama of Jobe is it not he didn't have all the information and we're led in from the beginning on all the information he had no idea why his kids just died he had no idea why he was ill he had no idea why all of his his herds were ripped off by the sabaeans he had no idea we know why it happened because we're reading job chapter 1 and 2 we get the heavenly insight on it he's praying though without that knowledge and he starts to pray in a way that's very arrogant and I use that word advisedly with great deference and very respectfully to job he didn't know everything and you and I pray sometimes and we start putting our fists down on our table saying God do this for me I know this is what you should do and we persist in prayer but what you need to see when we presume we have all the information is we're doing nothing other than praying arrogantly Jonah prayed arrogantly he thought it would be best if the Ninevites just got destroyed I mean how often is the Book of Jonah becomes such an instructive tool for generations but here is Jonah wanting them all - they don't deserve a prophet they don't deserve any warning they don't deserve to have any information from Yahweh that they're going to be destroyed and he fought with God and God said no no I do know better this is the right thing stop praying that you can get out of this assignment as a matter of fact the more you pray to get out of it the more I'm gonna take extreme measures to get you to your mission field you're gonna go he didn't know which reminds me in our recent study in Luke when James and John came to Jesus and thought what every Jew thought of the Samaritans they're worthless and when they traveled through Samaria and they wouldn't give Jesus and His disciples a place to stay you remember what James and John said how about a big mushroom cloud right now let's just would you you got direct line to God let's just all call down fire from heaven and destroy this this group of people and of course Jesus has to rebuke them there's a limited perspective God knew what he was doing he has all knowledge he's not going to respond to our immature praying I don't care how much we persist in it when we don't have all the information I guess it relates to where we've just been we certainly need to pray flexibly because we are praying humbly we don't know everything remember the classic passage in James chapter four would you turn there with me real quick James chapter four James chapter four humble praying is flexible praying because we don't always know the will of God all these fit together in a nice little chain and James says I know it's Bible talk but you can see in the first two words of verse thirteen I mean it's kind of a slap in the face come on come now grow up stop being that way come now you who say James 4:13 today or tomorrow will go to into such-and-such a town and will spend a year there and we'll trade and we'll make a profit well God is not for advanced planning God doesn't want us to have any business plans no of course not he's all for that Mister kind of stuff we teach our kids it's stuff I think we should have a seminar at the church about that I understand the God is all about the book of Proverbs is full of it full of those kinds of exhortation to you and I to have foresight and plan ahead it wasn't the plan that was the problem it was the heart of the people making those plans and I'm sure if they were Jewish Sabbath going you know our synagogue going Sabbath keepers they would say oh god please write we want you to bless this and of course in the New Testament era you could see them sitting there in church as the Apostles letters were read and they're saying we just we want God's blessing I'm sure they were asked to pray for this trip I'm going on a visitor pray that it be profitable verse 14 the Apostle basically saying you're ignorant you don't always know you do not know what tomorrow will bring what is your life you're a mist that appears for a little time and then advantages instead you ought to say here's your mindset this is how you ought to pray sounds a lot like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane if the Lord wills and I love this we'll live and do this or that I don't know if I'm gonna be alive for my next business but I'm gonna pray with deference because it comes from a humble heart that has a great flexibility about my praying and sometimes God is gonna rearrange substitute things on my prayer list and I know that whatever I pray for it needs to be the very humble heart cuz it don't have all the information do you see verse 16 this is why it's all about the heart of the matter in the print as it is your concepts your ideas your planning your prayers your boasting in your arrogance all such boasting is evil I would hate for God to look at my prayer list and say hey there's an evil prayer list and all it would take from me is a presumption on God's grace a presumption on God's future in my life I don't know so I'm praying very deferentially very flexibly very humbly about the future well that leaves me thinking I can't I don't even know I just this is terrible I don't even know how to pray jot this one down if you would we won't take time to turn there just to actually stay in James for I got more to say there but Romans chapter 8 verse 26 and 27 here's the great encouragement if you're feeling very vulnerable like I don't even know why even waste time prank the Bible says this you and I have a weakness we don't know everything likewise the Spirit helps our weakness we do not know what we are to pray about or how we're to pray as we ought we don't know the things that we should be praying about and and so we throw up our hands you'll forget it no but the spirit capital s God's Spirit the Holy Spirit he intercedes for us oh I know Christ is our mediator he's our intercessor an intercessor I understand that but here the Spirit is our intercessor not as the mediating qualification for me to talk to God on his throne but now he's one who's translating my prayers he's interceding for me he who searches the hearts he knows the mind of the Spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints here's the best words I've ever according to the will of God not just the revealed will of God but all the secret will of God I don't even know about tomorrow Bible doesn't tell me when I'm gonna die but the will of God is that he's got a plan all my days are numbered from the very beginning so the Spirit of God knows the future for my life therefore he's interceding today for me pray for the things that I ought to be praying for even when I'm ignorant and so now all the sudden you've just taken a verse in in Ephesians six that stop being so mystical and and confusing and you've made sense of it if you understand this passage and that is praying at all times in the spirit what's the point there's nothing weird about this it's me trying to say how can I align my prayers with God's Spirit and sometimes I understand there's conviction there's freedom you think Paul felt freedom when he stopped praying for the thorn of the flesh absolutely and I'm sure the Spirit gave in that sense of okay I feel good about no longer praying for that because I see God's greater glory here and you and I need to try and align our prayer list with the spirits prayer list and you and I need to be much more humble about the reality that he knows and we don't when Simon got up in the morning and started praying through his list which I'm sure he was courage to do by Christ cuz he got up before dark he taught his disciples how to pray and late in their ministry he was praying every day I'm quite sure but on one day he got up and said his prayers he went off to do ministry with Christ and in Luke chapter 22 verse 31 Jesus looks him in the eye and speaking for him and the rest of the disciples he says you know what Satan has demanded to have you and to sift you like wheat not just you that's a plural you y'all Satan wants to have y'all Satan wants to sift you all like wheat but Peter I prayed for you I just want to know singular now I prayed for you I prayed for you and here's how he puts it that your faith wouldn't fail there's a trial coming you don't see it you don't have it you don't have a none greater the Spirit knows and I know and I'm praying for you and when you turn back when you turn again that you'll strengthen your brother I'm praying for things that you don't even know about and I love the fact that you and I can have the confidence that the Spirit intercedes for us and what I'm wanting to do every morning saying God how would you like to change my prayer list today help me understand what I should be praying for and even if I sit here and have no clarity about that I'm grateful that you're praying for the right thing is when I might be praying for the wrong things don't pray arrogantly it's easy to do I said there's more in James 4 for our fourth point I want you to go up to the top of this passage James chapter 4 you see there in verses 1 & 2 about quarrels and fighting you got all these problems going on you're fighting with each other you can't obtain you're coveting can't even you're fighting in quarrel quarreling verse 2 last sentence last Frazer you do not have because you do not ask well there it is again that promise we see all over the Bible asking you'll receive right keep on asking persevere don't lose heart God will give it to you mmm button you're asking and you do not receive I mean there's a lot of things on your persistent prayers you're not getting and why aren't you getting because very insightful you ask wrongly and how is that to spend it on your passions now he's gonna define what that is verse 4 you adulterous people right now that's a metaphor it's not about their sexual they don't have you know immoral illicit things in their prayer list necessarily do you not know that friendship with the world there's the standard yourn acting like the world now and what is the world while this want to feel good they want peace they want comfort they want convenience you're acting like them now and when you act like them and you pray like them you make yourself an MC with God and God's not sitting there and go give me more of your prayer requests you're praying like the world would pray just you want stuff so that you'll feel better there forever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God you suppose that it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit small-ass that he's made to dwell in us that's a tough notoriously tough grammatically grammatical Greek sentence but I think they probably got it right here in the ESV if that's what you're reading from that the spirit that he's made who I am God jealously wants me it's not about me in this world is about me knowing him and glorifying him that's why I'm here my prayer list needs to reflects that reflect that the world has no concern for that the world is just praying that they'll have a great day a great time and if they did pray and some of them do they would be praying just that they can have things to spend on their pleasures they have their Christmas list and they want to bring it to Santa Claus and say give me all these things this is what I want you're acting like the world what God wants is you he wants you to be the God or he wants you to be the person that glorifies God and all that you do he gives grace that's why it says God is opposed to the proud verse 6 but he gives grace to the humble that connects us to the third point but let me just put it this way you want to pray this is a very hard one number 4 you need to not pray selfishly if you want to persist in prayer make sure the things you're persisting in are not selfish prayers that's hard because there are a lot of things on my list that are about me yeah you're right and that's fine but be sure that when you're praying for things you've extracted the selfish motive now think that through I'm not saying play word games in your mind but I am saying try and extract that selfish motive sometimes that will change the request itself and sometimes it just changes why you're praying for that thing there shouldn't be a thing on your prayer list you don't ask at some point why is that on my prayer list why am i praying for that and if the only reason you can get around to is what they said in first samuel 8 and that is i just want to have what everyone else has and they're having a lot better life than me so i want that stuff first samuel 8 what am i talking about Israel came with a chronic persistent prayer and you know what it was God give us a king an earthly king we want an earthly king here's why like every other nation we want a king like every other they got Kings we want one they got a house we're an apartment they got a degree we're just going to we don't get we don't have money to go to school they have a baby and we're infertile we don't have it they got they moved up in the ranks and they're coming I haven't moved up in mind these things just reactively get right onto our prayer list and all I'm saying is there may be a time to pray for a baby there may be a time to pray for a house there may be a time to pray for a promotion at your work there may be a time to pray for a degree there may be a time to pray for that but you need to extract though and it may change the item on your list or it may change how you pray for it is that you just want to spend it on your pleasures in other words you're asking for the same reason a worldly person would ask for it you've got to change the reason you're asking for it and maybe even recognize if I change the reason I'm not I'm not even really praying for it anymore and it may be the God says listen you're about me and glorifying me it doesn't matter if you have that baby didn't matter if you have the house does matter if you have the degree as a matter of you have good looks doesn't matter if you're really smart doesn't matter if you have some of these things because really all you want is to spend them on your plate it's interesting when we stop caring about our pleasures how God seems to satisfy us with his goodness sometimes through the very things we stopped praying for because we finally stop praying for them with a selfish motive I'm not saying that to manipulate God I'm not saying that so you can play word games in your mind I'm just saying that this is a big big challenge for us to ask ourselves why am i praying on a daily basis for these things on my prayer list God makes it very clear I'm not going to respond to selfish praying that is all about spinning it on your pleasures don't pray on biblically don't pray and flexibly don't pray arrogantly don't pray selfishly lastly jot down if you would John chapter 11 not because they were praying this way but it's a great example for us that we don't number five pray impatiently impatiently and even before I reference John 11 I want to remind you of where we're at as a society I had some people over we were talking on Friday about the olden days and my daughter I think was sitting there with us rolling her eyes but as we were talking about dial-up modems and the noises they made one of my friends said yeah I remember at the end of the day if I had to upload this big file the video file sound file whatever I put it on I dial up the modem and before I left work I'd make sure it started I'd go home and overnight I come back in the morning hoping to get it all transferred I'm thinking about how many hours it took to transfer these files on the old you know slow dial-up modems I came across an article that spoke of how impatient we'd become because of our technology we were willing to wait then of course because it was important to get that information today it says that if you have to wait two seconds for something to load on your web page two seconds we start to lose people and they don't they don't stay on the website as a matter of fact if they wait five seconds here was the article if they wait five seconds even for information they went to that website to get you will lose at least 25% of those people and if you ever have to make people wait 10 seconds for something you'll lose over half of the people that went to that website to get that information think about that you take me ten seconds in the old days to get out of my chair walk across to my bookshelf and pull an encyclopedia off and set it down and open it and now if I don't get everything I want within seconds I give up I quit Mary and Martha prayed that their brother would have the help of Christ the healer and when Jesus didn't respond in time though they had great respect and love for Christ you can hear the frustration when Martha asks about Christ and white in common in essence she says this you know I know if you had been here he wouldn't have died what Christ wants in our praying is the ability to be patient and therefore there's a kind of praying that will undermine everything we're going to talk about next week when it comes to this enduring persistent prayer that is biblical that is flexible that is humble it is something that we know is for the good and the glory of God you and I need to learn to not pray number five impatiently with all that I've said once you start to narrow that prayer list to where God should have it in your life then you need to learn to be patient in our microwave culture we need to learn to recognize that God's timing is not our timing and now this sounds like a traditional sermon don't know because God's gonna come on his time and God has a reason for it and when Martha's going you know had you been here we would it would have been great but you waited so long and the text is very clear when he heard lazarus 6 he did wait long on purpose God is not slow in keeping any of his promises and he's not slow to react to your prayer list he's got reasons for waiting and even when you pray the right thing in the right way with the right heart he may say it's not the right time continued steadfastly in prayer I quoted that from Colossians 2 at the outset later he speaks of a past in that passage in verse 12 Colossians 4:12 and he says he is always struggling on your behalf in his prayers he doesn't give up in praying for you it's the right thing it's a selfless thing it's a biblical thing and he's praying always a go needs oh my he's always struggling in prayer for you what does that mean he's always intent on praying and he gets up in the morning he prays again and he goes to bed at night he prays again that's why so many the Psalms remind us of how to rightly pray for a God that is going to do things for his own glory through the instrumentality of prayer but he's gonna do it on his timetable and it's always for the greater glory of God and it's not immediate God wants something he's accomplishing something and even in the bad in our lives that we think took place because God waited so long to respond he says I've got a reason for that and certainly Martha and Mary learned that that day that's why when you read the Psalms someone even will say things like this how long oh Lord there's the heart plaintive cry of the of the psalmist sing where are you as a matter of fact one of the words that you don't often see associated with prayer in the pages of Scripture certainly is a combination of Prayer in other words it is a synonym for prayer and that is this phrase wait for the Lord why because prayer is usually that it's asking and waiting and asking and waiting I give you one of those passages in your discussion questions on the back of the worksheet for your small groups this week but let me read you another from Psalm 27 Psalm 27 7 here Oh Lord when I cry be gracious to me an answer me you said seek my face it my heart says I your face I will seek don't hide your face from me don't turn your servant away you've been my help you've answered in the past now don't cast me off now don't forsake me teach me your way which by the way is part of what he's doing often when he makes this way O Lord lead me on a level path because of my enemies look can't you see give me not up to the will of my adversaries for false witnesses of risen against me they breathe out violence I believe here's his resolve even though he's made to wait that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and Martha and Mary learned that they should have thought that no matter how long it took for God to respond and then here's the verse verse 14 wait for the Lord what do we need in the midst of that patience be strong let your heart take courage and wait for the Lord sometimes we're praying to make the shot and God's working on winning the game and that's a different strategy sometimes we're thinking well god I'm praying just we win the game and God's saying I got something planned in the postseason that really requires we lose this game and you don't see that because you don't say so humble flexible praying but when you're praying and it's the will of God just keep praying and never lose heart most of you watched my daughter grow up my third child she's of the age I know don't gasp but I took her out driving for the first time recently I know took her out driving I found a really big parking lot and we went out driving and she is so happy and stoked and excited you know so different than teaching the boys to drive you know but it's just fun to see her and it's funny I didn't say this but when I thought about her behind the wheel I saw her there getting ready to drive as a saint the first time you've been driving not the first time it's like most dad's I've had all my kids when they were toddlers flop on my lap cuz they all want to at some point get in that driver's seat they get their hands on the wheel they start bouncing all right they doing this and then of course I'm the kind of dad and most of you are I would think I'd take them into a parking lot and just let him steer and they start going they get so excited for head over the wheel now of course they think they're driving and I guess they are but there are some things down on the floorboard they have no idea what's going on down there I'm controlling this thing I'm letting you steer but not even really fully letting you steer because secretly I have my hands down on the bottom of the wheel down here and you're up top going driving but you know when you start to steer it into the light pole I start steering the other direction and it's funny to watch little crinkle on there for it is there going oh it worked before it's not working now well what's happened well I've just vetoed that prayer request we need to go here when I see something and there's danger on the horizon I'm down here working the pedals and I just slow down and I come to a complete stop and they think if you bounce harder it goes faster of course which it doesn't but again they get a little frustrated I was driving we were moving what's going on well it's not time right now we got a stop I know as God's kids we'd all like to think we're expert drivers in this thing we call life but we're not and we have very limited of perspective and while we got our hands on the wheel called prayer and God does give us this great tool and the power of prayer and the effectual prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much please understand that there is a God who's working the pedals and there's a God that has the veto power and can overwrite what we're doing down here when we start getting off course and what we need to do is very humble very respectful deferential children is learn that when sometimes God makes it clear this is not a biblical prayer you're not being flexible man your presumptuous on the fact that you think you know what's going on or you know it really this is about you and it should be about where we're going and the good of the church and the good of your family when God starts doing those kinds of things be patient let God move and shape and twist and replace things on your prayer list and when you got it all where you think it's lined up probably going to change again but if you think you're in the right course keep going and if it doesn't happen immediately and God slows this whole thing down you just have to learn to trust them because you're not doing this thing called life alone Christian's let's learn to pray well and it starts by taking verses like this and knowing the larger biblical context for this and I hope that truth this morning serves you well this week as you pray to our kind God let's talk to him now God please help us to think more maturely about our prayer lists let us understand what it is for us to pray in a way that brings you honor and glory which is never to pray in a way that is contrary to your will in some ways sometimes that's easy to see because if we just knew the Bible better we'd see the Bible just would make that such a silly request to ever have in our prayer list other times it's harder and we just need to have some flexibility about the fact that you may have a greater glory to achieve somehow by not having that thing persistently prayed for and maybe like the Apostle Paul we're only pray for it three times and we'll recognize no there's something better here something better you're doing for the good of your own name or maybe God there's just like so many other people in this world that pray with a kind of presumption they know better than the God they're asking and not only that but often it stems from a real selfish motive just to have things go their way like any worldly person would pray and I pray we would get past all that so that when we get that prayer list there's always seemingly influx to a place when we know we're praying for the right and biblical things that we would pray patiently we would endure in our prank and then when you don't come through and it seems like you delay that we would always pray and never give up now god help us next time as we get together and look at the larger context of this passage understand the overarching eschatological concerns you have about the coming kingdom as it relates to prayer but for now god help us to pray well as we know we're committed to praying every day just want to pray the way we ought to encourage us in our prayer life help us to pray much more and much better this week in Jesus name Amen amen you are dismissed

Channel: The Focal Point-CBC

Views: 3,637

Rating: 4.9411764 out of 5

Keywords: Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez, Mike Fabarez, Persistent Prayer, mike fabarez sermon, compass bible, focal point, compass bible church, christian sermons, bible compass, bible study, compass study bible

Id: nERG4165wXY

Length: 52min 41sec (3161 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2017