[0:00] And sanctification and our coming to know Him as Lord and Savior.! So salvation and sanctification.
[0:11] ! Today we're going to move into part of what sanctification means and we're going to move into part of what sanctification means.
[0:32] So those of you who teach school at one level or another, you have students and they're under your tutelage. They're sort of your disciples. We're to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
[0:42] And then we are to be disciple makers. Jesus walked with the disciples for three years, taught them. They walked with Him and then they were ready to take the Word and take the Gospel and continue it.
[0:59] So part of discipleship is our prayer life. Is our prayer life. And we have a key verse today. It's John chapter 15, verse 7.
[1:10] I'm going to start. If you went on the retreat, we studied this at the retreat this past year. I'll start in verse 1 and go through verse 8 to begin with.
[1:22] Jesus says, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
[1:37] You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.
[1:50] Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.
[2:02] If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
[2:18] By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples. So this is our scripture for today, verses 1 through 8.
[2:31] Verse 7 is our key verse, our focus verse on prayer. If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you shall ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
[2:46] So this is an if-then statement. If you do this, then this is what happens. And so we need to be aware of that, that there's a condition there.
[3:00] There's something that we should be doing. We come to know the Lord at salvation in a moment. And then sanctification happens the rest of our lives. We should commit ourselves to being disciples of Christ for the rest of our lives after salvation.
[3:17] And that's that sanctification process, that discipleship is that part. And Jesus gives us the understanding of how we can have an effective prayer life.
[3:31] And that is in abiding or remaining in him and abiding or remaining in his word. So that's what we'll look at today as we open his word.
[3:43] We'll go to several different scriptures, but that's sort of the key for us. And then we'll dig into that a little bit more as we move along. If you looked on your little sheet, on the blue and green sheet today, it's the prayer life and the biblical teaching on prayer, the importance of prayer, and practical thoughts on a life of prayer.
[4:07] All through the Bible, we see how important prayer is. As I was thinking about this morning and just in a word and just narrowing it down, I thought about David.
[4:19] We read many of his psalms and he pours out his heart to the Lord and tells the Lord what's going on in his life and how he needs help. And he glorifies God.
[4:29] So we have a good example of a prayer life in David. The other person, I thought, was another D, and that's Daniel. Particularly chapters 9 and 10 are two different times in Daniel's life and two different times that he's calling out in prayer.
[4:47] And we see how he, once again, sort of like David, he's pouring out his heart as to what's going on. In chapter 9, he knows that the time is 9 or 10.
[5:00] I can't remember. Anyway, one of them, he knows that the time is coming to the end. He knows Jeremiah's prophecy that they will be in captivity for 70 years. And he's pouring out his heart.
[5:12] He's praying for forgiveness for his own life. He's praying for forgiveness of the people and their past sins. And he knows that God is about to move them, give them that opportunity to go back to Jerusalem, back to Israel.
[5:26] And so he's praying. I think that's chapter 10. And chapter 9, I think it is, is he's praying for understanding of the vision that he's been given.
[5:36] But we see in Daniel how important prayer is. Everybody knows Daniel in the lion's den. Why did he end up in the lion's den? Because he was praying.
[5:48] There had been a judgment given that you could only pray to the king. They set him up as a god. And you were only to pray to the king.
[5:59] And so he just continued to pray three times a day just as he always had to the Lord and was put in the lion's den. Prayer life was very important to Daniel.
[6:11] We look at Jesus' life. And, of course, we know that Jesus, how important prayer was to him. He went to the wilderness to pray. He went up on the mountain to pray. He prayed all night before the selection of the disciples.
[6:24] Many opportunities for prayer. And then, of course, Paul is another good example for us. He always told who he was writing to that he was praying for them. And he always, if I'm correct on this, almost always, if not always, was asking them to pray for him as well.
[6:40] Prayer is very important in our lives. And then the practical thoughts on prayer. And that's where I move on down the sheet a bit.
[6:51] The Disciples' Cross is a part of the Master Life program. It's a great discipleship tool. It teaches you several models to be able to express your faith in.
[7:07] And then the Disciples' Cross is the first one. On the Disciples' Cross, if you can imagine a circle in the middle of the cross, and that is to have a Christ-centered life.
[7:21] Christ-centered life. You put him first in your life. He's not only Savior, but he's Lord. He's Master of your life. He's Lord of your life. He is the center of your life.
[7:33] Put that right in the middle of the cross. On the bottom part of the vertical bar of the cross, that represents the Word. And our foundation is in the Word of God.
[7:45] And all through the Bible, you'll read about the importance of the Word. When Israel moves away and is about to be disciplined by God, it's because they've forgotten the Word of God.
[7:56] They've left it out. King Josiah is one of my favorite kings because when he hears the Word of God, he understands why they are in the shape that they're in, and he tears his clothes and he weeps.
[8:10] And the Word of God is important. That is the bottom part of the bar. It is the foundation of who we are in Christ. And then the upper part of the bar is prayer.
[8:22] That's our communication with God. And so that represents our relationship with God. We're Christ-centered. We're grounded. Our foundation is in the Word.
[8:37] And we're in touch with God through prayer. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn. The Holy of Holies was exposed.
[8:48] And we have direct access to God the Father through the blood of Christ to the Holy of Holies in heaven.
[8:59] That's the kind of access you have as a true believer in Christ. So the first thing I have on my sheet is to whom are we praying? To whom do you pray?
[9:11] And I hope that you do. If statistics are correct, and Barna and others do that, it's unfortunate, but many in the church do not open the Word and read.
[9:24] Many in the church don't even pray during the week. Oftentimes it's just when they come to church that they'll hear a prayer or that they're in the Word. And that's the first thing we have to overcome.
[9:36] But we need to know who we are praying to. God is omnipotent. Omnipotent. That means He's all-powerful. He's omniscient. That means He's all-knowing. He's omnipresent.
[9:47] It means He's everywhere. He's the great I Am. He is eternal. He's self-existent. And that's who we pray to. Matthew chapter 16.
[10:00] You can turn there if you would like. Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 through 16.
[10:11] When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked the disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
[10:26] But He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
[10:39] And Jesus answered and said, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. There are many religions in this world, and there's many thoughts on who Jesus is.
[10:55] And it's important that you have this right, that you have it correct. Jesus is the Christ. He's the long-awaited Messiah. He's the one that, from Genesis chapter 3, when the seed is promised, all through the prophecies in the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus.
[11:14] And He is the promised Messiah. He is God in the flesh. He is God with us. We know Him as the bread of life, as the light of the world.
[11:25] He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It's important that you know who you're praying to in His name, praying to.
[11:39] And He is the Son of God. He is God in the flesh. And we'll talk about that a little bit more here in just a minute. It's important that you get that right and who He is.
[11:52] John 13 through 17, we just finished studying that in our Bible study. It's the last, Jesus' last teachings before the cross, before He was denied and died on the cross.
[12:06] And in that, we made the point, or I made the point, I guess, as I was teaching, that over and over, Jesus talks about the oneness that He has with the Father and with the Holy Spirit and the oneness that we can enjoy with the Father and with God when we come to know Him.
[12:28] He also talks about the love, the love that God has for Him and the love that we can share with God as we come and draw close to Him.
[12:39] It's important for us to know who we are praying to. Jesus loves us so much that He came to earth and He fulfilled all of the prophecies and He died for us.
[12:50] He took the death that we deserve and died for us. That's who you're praying in His name. Numbers chapter 6, if you want to turn there. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Leviticus.
[13:06] I left out Leviticus, didn't I? Leviticus, Deuteronomy. Numbers chapter 6. This is called the priestly blessing.
[13:20] And so the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his son saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.
[13:31] Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
[13:44] So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. When we were in John chapter 15, it talked about the vine and the vinedresser. Jesus is the vine and we need to stay connected to Him.
[13:58] That's how we are able to produce fruit and live for Him. The vinedresser is the Father. And He comes and tends to the garden.
[14:08] So He draws near to the garden. So what does it mean, this priestly prayer, and how can we apply this to our lives, daily lives, day by day?
[14:21] They were to bless the children of Israel with this. And so can we make a... This was specifically for the children of Israel, but can it apply to us? And I believe the answer is yes, because we know that the Old Testament points to Jesus.
[14:36] The prophecies point to Jesus. So the first line, verse 24, the Lord bless you and keep you. And this is important in knowing who you are praying to.
[14:48] The word bless there means to bless, but it also means to draw near. It means actually, the word in Hebrew means to kneel and draw near and make Himself available to you.
[15:01] So God Almighty, God the Father, draws near to us and kneels and wants us to come to Him.
[15:13] I see Jet standing by Mason. I've seen Mellie and Collins run in and run up to Hunter, wanting to pick them up. That's sort of the picture.
[15:23] God is right there making Himself available to us. The question is, will you come into His arms? Jet's not going to run up to me.
[15:35] He'll run the other way, but he won't run up to me. But the choice is yours. God doesn't make you come into His embrace. He doesn't make you do that.
[15:46] You have to choose to do that. You have to choose to abide in Christ. You have to choose to abide in His word. But this is who God is. He loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for us.
[16:00] That is who you're praying to. It says the Lord bless you and keep you. Last week, Billy Joe talked about our assurance of our salvation.
[16:13] That's what this word keep is. If you're familiar with the 23rd Psalm and if you're familiar with the work of a shepherd, you know, that's what this word to keep is.
[16:24] It's to provide. It's to protect. It's to guard over. That's what it is. So God is right there making Himself available to you and wants you to come to Him that He can take care of you.
[16:36] The next line is, The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Jesus came and He is the light of the world and He shined on the world.
[16:48] And we receive His grace, His unmerited favor day by day. Another part that's important for us to understand too in the Hebrew where it says make His face shine on you, make His face, that means to give you His full attention.
[17:08] It's not, you know, like we're passing by and yeah, I'll see you next week. He's actually giving you His attention. You have His full attention when you go to Him in prayer and He wants you to come to Him.
[17:24] The picture where we see this fulfilled is in Christ coming to us. In Israel at this time, God has told Moses how to arrange all of the tribes of Israel.
[17:38] And so the tabernacle is in the middle. The Levites are surrounded. Moses and Aaron's tent are on the east side of the tabernacle. And then each tribe is positioned, as God has told them, all around.
[17:52] So God is in the midst of them and they have access to Him. For us today, Jesus came fulfilling all of this for us. He came, God in the flesh, right here with us, made Himself available to us.
[18:07] And in John chapter 13, He washes the disciples' feet. And we see that picture of Him kneeling down and cleaning their feet. It's a picture like that for us of who we are praying to.
[18:21] The Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you His peace. Jesus was lifted up and gave us His full attention. He took on all of our sin so that we could have relationship with Him.
[18:33] I see in this priestly prayer not only for Israel, but for us as well. Because Jesus came near and fulfilled this Scripture.
[18:45] He ends up saying, so they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. We take Jesus' name. We're Christians, so we should be about being more and more Christ-like and taking on His name on us.
[19:04] He sees us as His children. So it's important for us to know who we are praying to. And I think that's more important than the rest.
[19:16] But we have to get that right in order to, I believe, to pray rightly. So that's who we're praying to.
[19:30] We pray to the Father. Jesus teaches us this in Matthew 6 in the model prayer. We're praying to the Father in Jesus' name.
[19:40] And so that's who we're praying to. Let's move on. How faithful are you in prayer? How faithful are you in prayer? I hope that each and every one of us has dedicated time.
[19:55] We have time that we've dedicated to the Lord to be in His Word and be in prayer. And I hope that you had that time. If you do, I hope that it's not a legalistic type of thing or a pride kind of thing.
[20:09] I hope it's out of your great love for the Lord Jesus Christ is why you're spending time in His Word. And what I found in my own life is the more time I spend in the Word and studying, the more time I spend in prayer and I see Him answering prayer, the more I love Him.
[20:28] And so the more I want to be with Him. So I hope that's an encouragement to you. But how faithful are you in prayer? What keeps us from having a fruitful, meaningful prayer life?
[20:41] The first thing that I would give to you is that we need to acknowledge that nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God.
[20:53] Genesis 18, 14, the Lord is speaking to Abraham and He's told them that they would have a child.
[21:04] The statement comes up, is anything too hard for the Lord? In Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 7, nothing is too hard for you to God.
[21:15] And in Luke chapter 1, verse 37, as He's talking to Mary, for with God, nothing will be impossible. Do you understand?
[21:26] Do you know? And when you pray, do you realize nothing is impossible with God? Nothing is impossible. That sort of goes right in with James chapter 1, verses 5 through 8.
[21:41] You might want to turn there. Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, right there in the end of your Bible, back of your Bible.
[21:53] Do not doubt as you pray. James chapter 1, verses 5 through 8. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
[22:07] But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not the man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
[22:20] For he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Do you ever doubt when you pray? Do you ever doubt when you pray?
[22:31] What does James teach us here? We shouldn't even expect anything if we doubt when we pray. If we doubt. So, how do we pray?
[22:43] How do you know, how can you overcome your doubt? I guess is a question. If we do doubt. And I can tell you from experience, and we'll go through difficult times, and there probably are some major big things that come up and we're just like, I'm praying, but I have some doubt in there.
[23:02] But the more I pray, and the more I see God moving and directing, the more I don't doubt as I pray. Come to an expectation of prayer, prayer, and not a doubting in that.
[23:18] So, don't doubt. Let him, let him who ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
[23:31] Doubting is one of the reasons that our prayer life is not as fruitful and meaningful as it should be. We look back at the, at our key verse here.
[23:44] If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you. It's important for us to understand our key verse here because if we're abiding or remaining in Christ, he's the center of our life and we've, we're committed to the word and we know what the word of God says.
[24:09] The result of that, the end, you will ask what you desire. You're going to desire, you're going to ask according to God's word. When we pray according to God's word, we can be assured and not doubt because we know we're praying according to his word.
[24:26] It's so important that we're discipled and we know God's holy word, that we've studied his word and, and, and know it. That way we can, can, can pray rightly.
[24:40] The next verse after that talks about glorifying the Lord in that. So when we're praying according to God's word, living and remaining in him, then we can, can pray without doubting.
[24:54] The next thing, I'm going to turn over to Matthew, Matthew chapter six again, or Matthew, I don't guess we've been to chapter six yet.
[25:09] One of the things that keeps us from having a meaningful and fruitful prayer life is sin. Sin keeps us from having that, that relationship.
[25:20] If, if we are living in sin and not asking for forgiveness, that's going to block our prayer life. It's going to cause it to be stale.
[25:32] Matthew chapter six, in the middle of this, verse 12, and then 14 and 15, in the middle of the model prayer, and forgive us our debts or our sins as we forgive others.
[25:49] Another if, then statement. And then, because I think Jesus knew that we needed to have this repeated so that we would understand that it's very important, he says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
[26:06] But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither, neither will the Father forgive your trespasses. Is there anybody that you haven't forgiven?
[26:18] And I know many of us, maybe all of us, have been hurt in many ways by others. And so, it's like, so you're saying I need to forgive that person who wronged me so badly, who hurt me so badly.
[26:38] In the prayer ministry we were in in Fort Smith, I prayed with a number of men, and oftentimes it was their dad that was either completely missing in action, was a terrible dad, at home, was awful, but there were many things like that and they had to pray and forgive, learn to pray rightly, learn to pray effectively so that they could move on, get out of that cycle of being in and out of jail, in and out of addictions, and that's possible.
[27:06] You don't have to be that bad off. All of us have things in our lives that have affected our prayer life. All of us have had people at one time or another that have harmed us. And so, but it's important for us to follow scripture.
[27:21] We need to forgive. It's an if-then. If we will forgive others, then we will receive the Father's forgiveness. So you say, well, when I came to know the Lord and I was saved, I thought all my sins were forgiven.
[27:36] And that's correct. It's correct. And Jesus tells them in John chapter 13 when he's washing the feet of the disciples, he comes to Peter and Peter says, no, don't wash my feet.
[27:50] And Jesus said, well, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part in me. And then he says, well, wash me from head to toe. And Jesus says, no, you don't need that. If you've been washed, you only need to wash your feet.
[28:04] That is, if you've received salvation, if you're walking with the Lord, your sins have been forgiven. But then day by day, you'll have that errant thought.
[28:16] Pride will creep up on you. Other things will, you will, there will be sin in your life and that's that foot washing that you need. That's when you need to have your feet washed.
[28:27] We are to be praying. And this is the model prayer that Jesus teaches us. This is what we should do. We should be praying daily for forgiveness of the sins we've committed each day.
[28:40] Keeps us more in touch with the Lord. So what are these, what are these things? I've got a couple of other verses down here. Why would you not want to forgive someone?
[28:50] Why has someone hurt you so bad that you don't want to forgive them? In chapter five, starting in verse 21, and actually, you can look at that through verse 30, but in, in, he talks about murder and anger.
[29:10] And if we have any unrighteous anger, it is as if that's going to lead us to, to murder. And so it's as if you have murdered if you have that thought of anger.
[29:23] We think back to Genesis chapter four and Cain and Abel. Cain's offering was rejected, so he, he was angry. God came to him and spoke to Cain and said, told him, sin is lying at your doorstep and you must rule over it.
[29:43] And so when that thought of anger comes, we need to, to rule over that and not let it to grow and to fester and turn into, which could be murder.
[29:55] So why is that important? And, and the, the, and the forgiveness. Ephesians chapter four verses 26 and seven, Paul teaches the Ephesians, he says that we should not let the sun go down on our anger.
[30:14] So if something happens and it makes you angry, we should not let the sun go down on our anger. That is, we should not hold on to it even to the next day. And why is that?
[30:25] In verse 27, Paul teaches, don't let the sun go down on your anger and give Satan an opportunity or a foothold in your life.
[30:37] See, if you hang on to that anger, if you hang on to that unforgiveness, then it's going to become a foothold to Satan in your life.
[30:49] There are four voices. You're either listening to your flesh and the world and Satan or you're listening to Jesus. one way or the other.
[31:01] It's so important for us to be in his word and abide in him so that we're listening to him and not in this. But if we actually give Satan an opportunity in our life, if we hang on to those negative emotions.
[31:15] And then 1 Peter chapter, 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 through 8. tells us, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all of your care upon him for he cares for you.
[31:43] So you've got this anger, you've got this unforgiveness, what can you do with it? Jesus has taught us, and here in 1 Peter, Peter teaches us that we are to cast our cares on the Lord.
[31:58] Jesus came and he will take your burdens if you will give them to him. Learning to pray effectively about your emotions is so important because we can give those to the Lord and he'll carry those for you.
[32:12] You don't have to carry those burdens alone. He will carry them for you. We go on to verses 8 and 9. Why is that important? Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
[32:29] Once again, Satan is looking to devour you. He's looking to see if he can get a foothold in your life and he can keep that anger, that bitterness, grief, shame, other emotions that we have.
[32:43] He will use those to get a foothold in your life. Satan does not want you to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but if you are saved, he doesn't want you to be effective.
[32:56] He wants you to be an ineffective believer and he'll do everything he can to make you ineffective. So it's so important that we learn to pray effectively about our emotions so that we can forgive others regardless of what they've done.
[33:13] And then the last thing I've got in that list is a lack of love for the Lord will hold your prayer life back. Mark chapter 12 verses 29 through 31 is one of the places that it's recorded.
[33:28] The religious leaders come and they've questioned Jesus and then one of them asks him, well, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus quotes Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Shema, and he says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
[33:45] That is the first and great commandment. That is the commandment we should be striving to meet. And then he continues that and he says and love your neighbor as yourself.
[33:57] Our first and most important relationship is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then if that relationship is right and we love the Lord Jesus with all our heart and soul, mind, and strength, then we will love our neighbor.
[34:11] My closest neighbor is Lisa. And then I have neighbors around the house. I have neighbors here, all of us.
[34:22] We will love each other and be an example of that, what Jesus commands us to do, as if we love him, if we make that our first and greatest relationship is with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[34:38] So a lack of love for the Lord will hold our prayer life back. Not knowing who he is, not realizing how he works in our life, those things will hold us back.
[34:50] In John, in those last chapters as he's about to part, he teaches us that if you love me, you will obey me. So it's important that we know what Jesus' word is.
[35:02] He also teaches us about the love of the Father for him and for us. He teaches us that by the love that we have for each other here within the church, the world outside is going to know that we're his disciples.
[35:17] They're going to know that we are his church through that. So a study of John 13 through 17 is very beneficial.
[35:29] And then lastly, those are things that can keep us from having a fruitful and meaningful prayer life. Those are some things that would keep us from experiencing what Jesus has taught us to do, to abide or remain in him, abide, remain in his word.
[35:47] Then you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. We will be asking appropriately, asking correctly because we're in his word and in prayer.
[36:00] prayer. And then how do we pray? Matthew chapter 6. Back there again. And you will notice starting in verses 5 through 7, and when you pray.
[36:19] It's not if you pray, when you pray. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray, standing in synagogues and on the corners of streets that they may be seen by men.
[36:34] Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Verse 6, when you pray, but when you pray, go into your room. When you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in the secret will reward you openly.
[36:52] Verse 7, but when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
[37:04] When you pray, that's the first part of this, we need to know that it should just be our practice, it should be a time set aside every day that we spend time with the father, spend time with the Lord when we pray.
[37:19] And then he goes on, therefore do not be like them for their father knows for your father knows the things that you have need of before you ask him.
[37:30] He has come close to you, he's made himself available to you, and he knows what we need, but he wants us to ask. He wants us to have that relationship with him.
[37:43] So how do we pray? Verse 9, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We first glorify the Lord, we exalt the Lord, we esteem the Lord.
[37:56] We do not esteem ourselves, we esteem the Lord, and we realize who he is, he is our creator. He spoke the world into existence, he spoke the stars into existence, he's so smart and so knowledgeable, we can't even count the stars, he not only has them counted, but he knows their name, and he knows each of us personally.
[38:22] He's given each of us, he has his face set to each one of us, and he hears us intently. That is who we're praying to. So we start off our prayers exalting the Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[38:40] We're to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We're to deny ourselves and place God first. We are to be praying for his will, not our will, to be done.
[38:53] And when we're in his word and we're walking with him day by day, we will pray rightly and we'll pray for his will to be done. What does God want? He wants us to draw near to him.
[39:05] First, he wants us to have salvation. He wants us to go out and witness to the world. But then he wants us to grow in our relationship with him.
[39:19] So we want his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we get that from reading his word. He says, give us this day our daily bread. We're not to, we're to humble ourselves before him and ask, we're to seek him.
[39:36] At the end of chapter six, yes, at the end of chapter six, Matthew chapter six.
[39:48] He tells us not to worry about all these worldly things, but we're to seek him. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be done for you.
[40:01] So we're to ask for daily needs and we're to seek him and his righteousness is what we should be praying for. We pray for ourselves and we intercede for others.
[40:15] The next line, verse 12, and forgive us our debts or our sins as we forgive our debtors. We've already talked about that. We're to forgive others and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
[40:28] We know that Satan wants to get that foothold in our lives. We know that he wants to seek who he can consume and so it's so important that we are close to the Father and close to him, close to his word so that we're praying rightly.
[40:45] And as those attacks come, we don't have time to look at Ephesians chapter 6, 10 through 20, but we know who our battle is against. It's not against flesh and blood. It's against the principalities of darkness.
[40:57] It's against Satan and the demonic. It's not against man itself. So knowing that helps us in our praying. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
[41:11] Amen. We begin with exalting God, we end with exalting God in our prayers. For us in the church, we have our five E's.
[41:27] And I wrote them down just so I wouldn't forget any of them. How can we, our key verse, John 15, 7, it talked about being fruitful.
[41:37] How can War Trace Baptist Church not only produce some fruit, but abundant fruit. We want to be connected to Jesus Christ in such a way that we are completely connected to him because it's through him that we can be fruitful.
[41:54] Expand the kingdom is the first one and that is going out and preaching the gospel. It's evangelism. Equip the church, that's discipleship.
[42:06] Once we come in to know the Lord, we need to be equipped. We need to be discipled so that we know the truth. And then out of those two, out of that, becomes enhance the home, empower the men, and engage the youth and children.
[42:22] I think those three things come out of being discipled, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, and then being discipled in him. Our homes will be different. They will be enhanced when we know the Lord and we're walking with him.
[42:35] The men are empowered. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that they're dictator or something like that over their homes. It means that they know the Lord. They're attached to him, and it's Christ's power that works and moves through them, not me, myself, or other men.
[42:54] It's his authority and his power, and then engaging the youth and children. When the home is right, when men are seeking the Lord, the youth and children will be engaged as well.
[43:10] So we can do our five E's, and we can see great fruitfulness from the Lord. So that is a prayer that I have for us each and every day.
[43:22] So I hope that we will all commit ourselves to being in God's word, and to being in prayer daily, and seeking him, growing in our love for him, and walking with him day by day.
[43:35] we'll see in our community, and everywhere that he sends us, a change and the fruit that he will provide through us.
[43:52] On time, like I would be. Let me, we'll praise the Lord. If I said anything worth hearing, we'll praise the Lord for it.
[44:05] Let me close us in prayer, and then I guess if there's any questions, we'll take that too. Heavenly Father, we just, we do exalt you, and praise you, and esteem you, Lord God Almighty.
[44:19] You've created us, you've drawn us to yourself, you've given us salvation through the body and blood of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
[44:31] Lord, we just love you and praise you and pray, Lord, that you'll guide us each and every day, that you will be exalted and glorified as we walk, that you'll provide much fruit through us as we draw close to you and are connected to you.
[44:49] So, Lord, we just lift up this church to you, War Trace Baptist. I pray, Lord, for just a great move of your spirit among us, that that fruitfulness will be seen here in this community and everywhere that you send us.
[45:05] So, Lord, as we continue today in worshiping you, I just pray, Lord, that you will be exalted in our hearts and in our worship, and I pray this in Jesus' name.
[45:16] Amen. Does anybody have any questions? Billy Joe's here, so he didn't answer. No. No. No. No.