Men of Messiah June 13 2014 Christian Prayer 2

Second Peter, chapter three. I want to pick up.

I want to.

It's a lengthy passage here in my English text.

It comprises two paragraphs, but boy are they chock full. And there's nothing arcane about this text. It's pretty plain and simple and straightforward, but extremely compelling if we talk about eternal perspective. For those of you who are supporting Rich and myself in this ministry, thank you, both in prayer and with your resources. We appreciate.

Your participation and partnership with us as we seek to glorify our Lord and present an eternal perspective.

From a biblical perspective. Obviously.

I want to pick up with verse 10. There's so much that I could expound.

Upon in terms of this text, but.

Let me just say that.

This is the conclusion to his second epistle. Peter's. It's replete with the doctrine of biblical eschatology, the the study of last things.

Or the last days.

And so we pick up in verse 10. But the day of the Lord.

Will.

Come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens, plural.

The day.

Of the Lord will arrive without warning. As a thief in the night.

The heavens will pass away with a great noise.

You want to circle that phrase.

Going to be a loud, calamitous event. And the elements of the heavens will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works. That's all the efforts and deeds and.

Activities of man, both good and evil that are in it will be incinerated.

Burned up, is a little weak.

Will be incinerated like a nuclear blast. Verse 11. Therefore. Therefore, since all these things will be. Will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you. He's talking to Christians.

Remember, believers, regenerate people.

Ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Now, if you want a real profile of what this holiness and godliness looks.

Like, I would suggest you go back to the first chapter of this book and look at verses 5 through 11.

All right. All the time. Here is the eternal perspective. Us on earth knowing these things. Verse 12. Looking for and hastening. Imagine that we can hasten the day, the coming of the Notice the phrase here is day of God, not day of the Lord. He switches from the day of the Lord to the day of God. This is the only time this phrase appears in the Bible, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire. And the elements will melt. All the elements, both terrestrial as well.

As celestial, will melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, look at this. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, a new earth, in which, and this should be translated righteousness permanently dwells. Therefore, verse 14.

Continuing on.

Beloved, looking forward to these things.

What things? The things you just got through talking about, Chuck.

Be diligent to be found by him in peace. Now, let me pause here because Peter makes it pretty clear that I am going to in one sense, be found.

By him when this is all over.

By him, be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless. And consider that the long suffering or the patience of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, as written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of things in which are some things hard to understand.

Notice the next qualifying phrases, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction. False teachers, false prophets, false eschatologists, as they do also the rest of the scripture. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware.

Here's a caveat.

Beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness and being led away with the error of the wicked.

And verse 18.

But grow, grow, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This phrase is really interesting reading from.

The majority text, actually.

He says to him, be the glory. Both now and I would translate this. Until the eternal day, which is the day of God. Here's my point. Everything that's going on in this planet.

Today.

Both visible and invisible, can be summed up somewhat in the euphemistic term chaotic.

That's to put it mildly, chaotic.

It's a mess.

And the only escape clause for me is the biblical teaching such as what we read right here, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically, that there's a coming day, first the day of the Lord, then the day of God, when he will wrap all of this up.

This world, this universe that has been inundated with evil since the fall of man, all.

The way back in Genesis, chapter three.

And he will replace it with a.

Righteous king, a righteous kingdom that will dwell, that will live, that will exist, that will be preeminent forever and forever.

But grow, Peter says, Chuck, grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Guys.

You brothers to make the effort to come here on Friday. He's got to be blessing. He's got to be to some way on a personal level.

Because if this is not enhancing and enriching your personal relationship with him, man.

How demoralizing is that?

How absolutely incredibly discouraging is that? Because no one else matters in this life. Nothing else matters.

But him and this eternal perspective. Yesterday I was thinking, listening, let me Just say, by the way, this is a personal testimony, but it's an honest and it's a true one. Being involved with my dear, eternal friend and brother, Rich Gilgalan, recently has reignited my need to be more interested in what's going on with balance.

And I learned from him. He, in fact, is a substitute for me having to read Reuters, the Wall Street Journal or any. I can get my information from him.

And I know he does his homework.

But yesterday, and I had a point.

So I didn't listen to the whole.

Show, but it struck me as I.

Was listening to you, and I wrote this down.

People, human beings, such little creatures.

Endowed with tremendous capacity.

Endowed with tremendous little creatures.

We're little piss ants on this planet, you realize that?

We're just these little ants. And this enormous creator characterized by these incredible, unsearched, audible qualities, is involved with us. And when he made us, he gave us incredible capacity. Unbelievable. And how is that capacity being used.

By most nefariously, Horribly. And he puts up with that until the day of the Lord. He's going to close the COVID man.

It's over.

It's done. I'm through with you.

So, Rich, thank you for being diligent.

In your profession to bring the much.

Fact and truth as you know it to the listening audience.

And then we temper it with the eternal perspective on Sunday. I love the connection here.

Grow in the grace and the knowledge.

Of the Lord Jesus Christ and to.

Me, and for me and my wife.

Left me this note this morning.

Our capacity to know and love God.

To come into possession of eternal life and to walk with him in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is a capacity all men possess, for which Darcy and I give him tremendous thanks and praise.

I am prayerful this morning that you men will be at peace.

Because his.

Sovereignty rules the day and his grace abounds. That's from my precious bride this morning when I got up. I always go to bed before her on Thursday nights. Well, most nights. But.

That'S the spirit of a woman who goes and walks with Jesus Christ and sees the big picture.

All right with that, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we're.

Going to talk about prayer. How's that sound? Sound good?

How we doing, Rambo? Good.

Father. Help us to recall truth as you.

Teach it to us that's learned in.

The light, so that when darkness befalls.

Us, we will fall back upon the truth of light.

We love you.

We thank you for your grace to us. We need you so desperately each and.

Every day, every moment, actually, to keep us enlightened, perceptive, hastening the day of God, looking for.

Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, your son, our Lord Jesus, to whom.

You'Ve given all authority in heaven and earth. And although he permits Lucifer to run wild, he still has him on somewhat.

Of a short chain. And we're thankful.

Because there is blessing.

In this life and on this planet, and we're thankful for that. But someday, in your eternal will and sovereignty, you will close the covers.

You will shut up this planet, the tainted universe in which it exists, and you will bring to us existence that is marked and characterized by permanent righteousness, love, grace and holiness.

Amen. A Messiah ministry.

That's what we call ourselves, Father.

And those of us that are partners in this ministry do our very, very best to cooperate with you and your spirit to grow, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is to you and to him, according to your will and in his name, that we commit this morning.

Okay, guys, our central text, if you'll.

Notice your outlines, if you don't have one, Jim Dennis has some extra ones. This. 1st John 5, 14, and 15. Let's take a look at it again, please. 1st John 5,14, and 15. What an honor it is to have a relationship with the God of creation.

In the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Wow.

Yes.

I want to keep.

It's about that text, Ken, I'm glad you have a question. Something. But I want to keep going on this if I can. I took that 15 minutes, so maybe we could talk about it afterward. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for indulging me.

I love you guys having questions.

But.

I want to finish up this discussion, if we can, this morning. If not, we'll finish it up next week.

Now, this is the confidence we have in Him.

We're talking about prayer, Christian prayer, qualifying in here.

People pray all the time in various religions.

Who are they praying to?

Who are they praying to?

God, Allah, you know, Buddha.

Statue.

We can call that prayer because that's fundamentally just communication with whatever their concept is of their deity or higher power. But we're talking about Christian prayer.

We're talking about prayer in relationship to.

The true Creator, the true God of.

The universe, and him in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now, this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have petitions.

The petitions we have asked of Him.

Clearly our central text states that.

The.

Thrust of Christian prayer that's viable and I think immediately answerable must be according to his will.

That's the operating phrase here.

But what does it mean to pray.

According to his will?

We began to probe this question last week by talking about the nature of Christian prayer.

If you follow along on your outlines.

Here, intelligible, personal, intimate communication with God.

That's prayer.

This morning I prayed with you in English, not in some unintelligible ecstatic utterance.

In a continuum of intimate fellowship with God, with Christ, who both indwells me.

And sets his right hand on the Father, asking Him for certain things.

So that's basically what prayer is. Last week I spent most of my.

Time trying to accentuate.

I don't know how well I did at this. You know.

I know what this truth.

Means to me personally, and that is.

The role of the Holy Spirit in Christian prayer. We looked at some passages. I gave those passages to you.

They're listed on your outline for you, are they not?

For you to study and think about more fully. But let me just summarize by saying that the Holy Spirit, who is God himself, His Spirit indwells you in me, a gift given to us at the moment of our conversion, when we come.

To faith in Christ for eternal life or salvation.

Part of this wonderful bundle of eternal benefits that accrued to us is the.

Person of the Holy Spirit indwelling us.

And when he does, let me break it down into two categories.

Biblically. And I know this experientially. He walks with us through life. He's our partner in all aspects of our life.

And he possesses the capacity and the power, the ability in partnership and synergism with me to help me grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.

Jesus Christ, to get transformed, to conform.

To his character image, to live a life that is noble and pleasing to.

The Lord and according to his will.

He helps me be obedient. He assists me and enables me to do that. But he also helps me in my prayer life.

And the passages, especially the Romans 8.

Passage, I think.

Makes that clear.

I find this incredibly uncomforting. I don't know about you, especially when I find myself, as I mentioned last.

Week, in the throes of pain and suffering.

Discouragement when I don't physically feel good, when my mental fact faculties influenced by the breakdown of my body are fuzzy and unclear.

I don't know what to say.

I have a partner that says, I.

Know what you're trying to say.

I know what you're trying to say.

Better than what you're trying to say.

And I'm going to bring this before the Father because he knows too. And we're going to cooperate in making.

Sure that you get the best representation.

In terms of your need.

That is an amazing, amazing concept if.

It'S true, and I believe it is.

In fact, I would go so much as saying that the very reality I believe it's a reality.

Maybe some people would like it to be an illusion. That I'm standing here today teaching you.

Sharing my heart with you, my life, appealing to the Scriptures and the truth and the eternal word of God is.

Because of the prayer ministry of the Holy Spirit on my behalf.

What a wonderful, wonderful prayer.

So don't forget that the Holy Spirit is my partner in my communion with God. So we pray in the Holy Spirit. When Rich and I held hands Sunday morning and we prayed the Lord's Disciples prayer, we prayed in the Spirit.

The Spirit of God was helping us.

Is the building still standing? Yeah, I think it's standing. You know, you can sense the Spirit of God working with our words to form words before the Father that clearly.

Articulate his will.

And his will be done.

Now, what are this capital B.

What are the types or expressions of Christian prayer in partnership with the Holy Spirit? Let's take a look at some of these particulars that I've articulated or outlined for you.

First, thanksgiving. First thessalonians 5, 16 and 18 through 18. Thanksgiving.

Let's take a look at this text. First thessalonians five, 16, 18. If anybody happens to be watching, open up your Bible.

Which is on the top shelf, dust it off with all that still agree.

And open up the.

First Thessalonians 5, 16, 18. You also might want to turn to James chapter 5, 14, 16, when we look at the second type of prayer. And then Philippians 4, 6, 7. Let me give you just a moment to get there.

First estimates 516 through 18, James 5.

14, 16 and Philippians 4, 6, 7.

Do me a favor. Do an act of grace for me.

The next time you pray after you.

Leave this room, consciously ask the Holy.

Spirit to help you in your prayer.

Will you do that? If you've never done that, do that and then try to make that a habit. Ask the Holy Spirit.

In essence.

You are asking Christ to.

Help you because they're indistinguishable on one level. And he also intercedes for us. Paul makes that clear later on in Romans, chapter eight.

Thanksgiving. So this is one manner with which I commune with God, namely by uttering words or thoughts of thanksgiving and gratitude.

Notice verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians 5. Rejoice always. Really, really always.

No matter what. That seems to be.

The nature of.

The absolute clause here.

Or admonition, Rejoice always. Notice verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. I don't think he necessarily means that.

You've got to be moment by moment in a constant state of prayer. I think he said, be consistent.

I would say it this way. Don't let a day go by where you are not in communion with God.

In everything. Here's the substance. Give thanks in everything. Really. Again, in everything. Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This makes it pretty clear that if we pray according to God's will, then our prayer and the substance or content of our prayer will include what?

What thanks, thanksgiving.

And everything.

Next. Intercession James 5, 14, 16.

Boy, is this an abused text.

Intercession. This is another type or expression of.

Christian prayer in partnership with the Holy spirit.

Intercession James 5:14 through 16. Okay.

Is anyone. He's talking to Christians again in this context. Primarily those from a Hebrew Jewish ethnicity who became believers.

This is that brother of our Lord.

Is anyone among you sick?

He asked the question physically.

I think it's the emphasis here.

Let him, the one who was sick, call the pastor.

Call the prayer chain, call the women.

Call Westford.

No.

Call Chuck.

No.

What is this called? The what? The presbuteroi. The elders of the church, of the local church. And let them, that is the elders, pray over the one who is sick, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith of the elders will do what will save the sick, raise them up, provide whatever he needs from Almighty God to be restored.

And lifted up from his sick bag.

The Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Let me just say something here. By way of subset elders in the body of Christ and at the local level, qualified men who possess the calibrated spiritual qualities that Paul does in 1 Timothy 3, 18 Titus chapter 1 are to be the key, the core.

Human apparatus for praying for people in that church. Not the pastor. Not so called pastors. But these are qualified men.

First of all, you have elders. And then you have to, if you use the biblical picture profile of what an elder is, you have to have qualified men.

Now, I came out of a church just recently that has so called none.

Of those men are qualified as elders.

I wouldn't want them praying over me. I would rather have you guys.

Because these men are way out of their league. They're outside their hot house.

This is a very serious office. It's one of only two what I would call offices in the body of.

Christ or in the church. Elders and deacons, or deaconesses.

They are the operating.

Leadership in the church, not the pastor.

But look at the effect of their prayer.

Look at it. This is amazing. We want people to get healed, to find some elders, become part of a church that has elders that are qualified, that walk daily with the Lord Jesus Christ, who are knowing how to care and manage over the household of God and are doing that effectively.

Sometimes people are on their six bed because of sin. Not always, but sometimes.

And even if that's the case.

If the elders are praying with them, symbolized and enriched by the anointing of oil, and the Lord hears it and he raises them up, if they're there because.

Of sin, they will be forgiven.

Verse 16.

Confess your trespasses to one another.

Now he's talking about us. And pray for one another that you may be healed.

The fervent, effective prayer of a righteous man avails much.

He jumps, he moves, transitions in this.

Concept of prayer from the elders, the.

Supreme model of leadership, to righteous people.

Praying for each other in this regard.

And he says, you know, if your life is practically, not positionally or eternally characterized by righteousness, Christlikeness, you have a better opportunity or chance of having your.

Prayers answered than others. It avails much, the fervent, energetic prayer. And he goes on to use Elijah as an example.

Okay, number three is petition.

Okay, we have thanksgiving, intercession, petition.

This is a type of form of prayer.

Philippians 4, 6, 7.

This is one of my wife's memory verses. This is a great text, petitionary prayer.

It's broad in scope, but for us.

For my wife and myself, my household.

Petitionary prayer is always tempered, monitored, directed by the will of God.

In Scripture.

There's obviously some overlap here, guys, between.

Intercessory prayer and petitionary prayer.

And it include a large spectrum and.

Variety of specific requests.

But let's look at this text.

Philippians 4, 6, 7.

Be anxious for nothing, Chuck. Be anxious for nothing, but rather in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

So he opens the door wide open to comprehensive, broad requests, petitions before him. Right?

And everything.

And verse seven, the effect, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will.

Guard your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus.

What is the only thing from this.

Text that I am promised?

What is the only thing from this.

Text that I am promised? Peace.

Does he promise that he's going to answer the request?

Whatever it is.

And isn't that encompassing? It is to me. We can bring our requests no matter.

What they are, and there's a broad range of them, everything before our Lord.

And we can expect him to, at least because of that.

Generate within us by his spirit, peace, tranquility. I don't know about you guys, but one of the most wonderful to me, one of the most prized spiritual dynamics.

Qualities and commodities is peace, man.

There's nothing more.

On an emotional level.

That I value more than peace.

So the peace of God.

Which surpasses all understanding, it's almost irrational.

Will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I think that's what you experienced, Ron.

On the airplane flight home, the peace.

Of God.

Surrounding your heart and a.

Lot of your terminal illness.

And what was the physical expression of that inner peace was tears.

You couldn't stop the tears to the point where the flight attendants said, what's wrong?

Are you okay?

What a beautiful display. But is he answering the prayer? I don't know.

Maybe he will for healing Iran or prolonging his life, I don't know.

But we give him thanks.

What's the opposite then of anxiety? Be anxious for nothing. Peace. How do we get that peace?

Pray.

All right.

We punctuate this prayer by according to your will, Father.

Capital C. Then as we move on, what is the biblical core principle of Christian prayer?

I'm suggesting to you once again that.

If we ask anything according to his will in the name of Jesus Christ, he hears us. He hears us.

The word here. It's not like he doesn't hear the.

Prayers of people who are praying to a false God.

He hears her.

The morning prayers.

Associated with the Islamic tradition.

People go to mass.

It is not that he is deaf. What John is getting at and what we need to understand about hearing here is hearing because of a personal relationship that one has with him that.

Opens up the probability, certainly the possibility of him answering. So he's connected on an intimate level.

Christian prayer according to his will. Let me say something and then I'm.

Going to open it up for some discussion here.

About what I call a damaging misconception. Under Roman numeral 2, you notice capital A.

You guys.

This text. First John 5, 14, 15. If you've ever been to a Protestant.

Prayer meeting or a so called evangelical prayer meeting in the church or Whatever.

Often this text is appealed to.

But more often than not I have found it's misunderstood and therefore misapplied and it causes some serious issues within the hearts and lives of those who are sincerely misusing this text. In some religious circles.

Christian enclaves and prayer groups, this text is taken to.

Infer, if not explicitly state that the.

Christian in prayer has a need for great faith, more faith, or a great faith faith.

Those who hold to this conception seem convinced that we must persuade or convince ourselves that God is going to do something or a certain thing. For me.

Now, here's one of the ways I've heard this expressed. Okay, if we really believe that we believe that we believe that we believe, then as these verses state, we will certainly get what we ask God to give us.

So there is an emotional component here.

That is connected to faith that I need to conjure up so that I am convinced that I have great faith, big faith, large faith that is going to persuade, I'm going to persuade myself and by that persuade God that he needs to do this. Now, no one sweated in prayer blood more than who? And did he get his prayer request answered? No. Did he? Absolutely not. What was his prayer request in the garden? Take the.

He didn't want to go through that and he let his Father know, but he punctuates it at the end, but not according.

Your will.

So if there's anybody that wanted to convince the believe, the belief, the belief, the belief it is. May I suggest that in this approach to prayer, asking according to the will of God is virtually equivalent to convincing myself that God will respond in a particular way. And this has been manifested so clearly, so diabolically in the positive confession movement, the prosperity movement, the faith so called faith movements.

Gab it and grab it, name it and claim it all based upon convincing myself and hopefully convincing God that my faith is worthy because it's big and it's great and it's grand for God to respond.

This psychological state is often expressed with.

The words that I know, that I know, that I know. Whenever I hear someone say that, my heart just cringes with pain because that person is self deceived.

It's self talk is all it is. It's just self talk. Coach yourself a life coach. I'm a life coach. It's a positive. It's an Anthony Robbins gig.

So the emphasis in this approach, this.

Is a dangerous misconception.

It shifts our focus away from the objective word of God in scripture.

And the presentation of his explicit will, his moral will in Scripture, it shifts from that objective source to the more subjective, so called quantity or strength of my faith.

And my personal resolve to believe God, to give me what I ask for. If I just believed hard enough or if I just believe, what does that mean?

If I can just get strong. Let's have a pep rally.

Guys. Don't waste your spiritual oil and time.

Examining the quantity of your faith.

And you will move away from this.

Misconception if you have it or you've embraced it, or you know something to do. The more you understand and appreciate the objective will of God disclosed in scripture that we can hang our emotions on. Let me just give you an illustration and then we'll stop.

I shared this with some of you before, but many of you have not heard it.

Some of you know that I met and married my wife Darcy, while I.

Was the singles pastor on staff at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, in Orange county over 30 years ago now.

Now, what I'm about to share with.

You did not come to my attention until after Darcy and I actually got married.

There was a single Christian woman who.

Regularly attended my studies along with others.

And she had also come to me a number of times for personal pastoral counseling and advice. Now, since I had not just fallen off the turnip truck and fallen on Calvary Chapel soil, I knew that this woman.

Liked me, that she had a crush on me. I mean, we know. We know when women are flirting with us.

We know when we're flirting. You know, it was pretty clear.

But what I didn't realize is that she was convinced that God had told.

Her and that she had trusted this small still voice inside of her, which.

She attributed to God, that I was.

Going to be her husband.

Here's what she did. By faith, by great faith, she claimed this word from the Lord, this word.

Of knowledge, or whatever she called it.

And was completely and emotionally devastated on the Friday night when I stood up there unexpectedly and made the announcement of.

My engagement to Darcy.

Devastated.

Seriously, she became disillusioned and disappointed with God because she had thought she'd heard a word from God and that her faith.

Had given birth to a word of knowledge.

And that she had claimed it by faith. And this text was one of the texts that she used.

Now, much to your surprise, she wasn't.

The only one that had the crush on me. I found out later.

And many of them, because this was a prominent. This was a prominent theme, her false teaching, I think, that permeated this environment for years concerning the will of God.

They were disappointed.

I would have done very well in Old Testament context.

Let me assure you. Let me assure you that to my own chagrin and demise, persuading or convincing myself or my faith.

That something is God's will and actually knowing his will on the basis of biblical objective teaching are two different things.

My brothers.

And boy, for the short time you.

Have left on this planet, get that distinction, right?

If you want a full orbed, rich, exciting, vibrant Christian life, you've got to understand what the will of God is objectively and biblically. Because if you trust your emotions or your feelings.

I mean, I don't care if you've had one of the finest red pinot on the planet and a.

Great meal.

Are you in your prime.

Deceptive, Dangerous. That's a dangerous misconception of this text.

According to the will of God.

That's what we're exploring.

In fact, one more, let me throw.

One more text into the discussion.

Jeremiah 29:11. Let me read it to you just.

So you don't have to take it. So we don't have to take it.

Write it down, man. Have I used some sincere. I'm not questioning sincerity of people in using these texts. Jeremiah 29:11 is a divine promise to them. For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, toward you, Israel.

The church wasn't even born yet to you. I know, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil. And I to give you a future and a hope. Now, based on this verse taken totally out of context, many claim God has a perfect detailed plan for my life that will offer me nothing but peace and prosperity and a secure future. Have you heard this verse used in that way? I think you probably have. I certainly have many times. Well, let me, let me put it in context. Unless you're a Jewish living in captivity in Babylon, which is modern day Iraq under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, I would be very careful claiming by faith or any other attitude this promise given to God's old covenant people, Israel. And in fact they do have a.

Hope and a future.

We know that from the full teaching of scripture, someday Israel will be restored, completely.

In line with the Abrahamic promises.

Given to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 and the Davidic promises in covenant, etc.

This is not a promise for new covenant believers.

You're going to get into trouble if you claim it as such unless you can find some corollary principle in the New Testament.

Now, sometimes Old Testament.

Maybe some of you.

I've seen these before. Maybe some of you have these promised.

Books, promises of God.

And most of them of the texts are drawn out of the Old Testament and they're taken totally out of context. People are praying these promises and they're wondering why nothing's happening.

That one.

We need to be careful, guys, to do due diligence, however.

And whenever we.

Engage the text in ascertaining what the.

Will of God is so that we can pray accordingly for our lives.

All right, we got some time for questions. We'll just finish up this discussion next week, part three, and open it up for more prayer. Because this is a very, very vital.

My prayer life.

Is a carotid artery, man.

It is a lifeblood for me, and it should be for you.

Yes, Jack, I don't know why, but in John 1st, John 5.

It says.

And you kind of glossed over it, but it kind of hit me. It says, and.

Now this is the.

Confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us.

In other words, some people. I mean, I guess before I became a Christian, I didn't know if he heard me or not. I know that now that I'm a Christian. I know that he hears me.

That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that he hears you.

Because you're a Christian. He hears you because you're praying according to his will.

He hears you because you're praying according to his will. If you don't know his will, your prayer very likely is not getting the same audition.

And if we know that he hears.

Us, and we know that he hears.

Us because we're praying according to his will.

Look at the sequence of thoughts here. Not because we're simply a Christian.

I just gave you examples of Christians.

Praying in a faulty manner.

That's dangerous, Jack. It's according to his will. What is his will? Where do we find out what his wish is?

His will?

Zeles, what is it?

The Lama.

What is his will? What is his wishes? Scripture tells us it's not just some bolt of lightning coming out of sight.

Some sign or circumstance, some broadpost.

It's the world. If we pray accordingly, we know that he hears us. And whatever we ask which is according to his will, we know we have the petitions we have asked of Him. One thing I did gloss over is that I didn't mention in this text, did I, that when he says, we know we have the petitions we have asked of him, he doesn't say, we have the petitions. He says, we know that we have them. But the time frame whereby these petitions, which we prayed according to the will of God and that we're confident he.

Heard and that he's going to answer.

Will come in his time.

Fourteen years ago, when we started this little ministry, we asked. I asked him, I'm sure Jim did, too.

To bless this ministry, to make it a beacon, a light.

That expresses the gospel about Jesus Christ and the.

Message of eternal life and the grace of God. Just a couple of guys.

Well, this is his will. I can show you biblical principles and truths that express his moral will. Where he wants us to minister, be ministers of light, ambassadors that are sharing the truth of the word of God with you.

That's what we're doing.

But the time frame, even when we ask him for things that are according to his will, we know that we're confident. Jack, we still have to throw away.

The counter and say, okay, in your time.

All I'm saying is monitor the content.

And the substance of what you're praying for and what you're hoping for by the objective word of God in Scripture.

Yes, Dennis.

James, back to James, chapter 5, verses 14 through 16.

I want to thank you for clarifying something here.

It made me read it twice. In 14, call the elders for. And let them pray over him. Anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. Verse 15 has always been a little. And the prayer of the faithful will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up. And it says, if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. There's a misunderstanding. I think that if they pray over him, his sins are forgiven. But as I read this, again, it says the prayer of faith. So when they're praying over him, they're kind of witnessing to him. Are they not saying something similar to, you know, making sure his salvation is taken care of? And then he's saying, well, of course, then his sins are forgiven. The anointing is not forgiving the sins. And this has always been a misconception, I think.

Well, I think the next verse helps explicate the.

Content or the substance of what he's saying here in verse 15, confess your trespass to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Let's try to put the sequence here.

The elders come.

Danger.

The qualified elders come to a brother or sister in their local church that's sick physically. They go through this process.

They anoint them, they pray over or hurt.

The Lord raises them up, they're healthy. And then the elders, although I think this can be applied even beyond the scope of just elders hear the confession.

Of sin from this person.

If there is sin. They may be lying on their sickbed.

Because of sin, which is a very.

Prominent.

Or at least a possible condition that we know from the New Testament.

Christians can get our.

We can get ourselves into physical problems because of sin.

So if the person is living.

Is.

Sick directly because it's sin, they confess.

It and the forgiveness is administered. But it's all part of the elder process.

I'm suggesting that a secondary application would.

Be that we can do this with each other if we're comfortable in our.

Relationships, and that if there's righteousness involved.

In our lives, or at least in the life of one of the brothers, that's hearing the confession, that there's some good things that go on. And one of them could even be a healing of sorts. So there's. There's a double application, at least. I'm taking, as I'm taking this text. But the primary focus is upon the ministry of the elders and the church.

With regard to praying for people that.

Are part of this congregation or this fellowship, this church family who find themselves sick physically.

In other words, Lorraine should have, as my wife should have elders in the.

Body of Christ come and pray over her.

Not just approaching. Although I'm not knocking. My wife's going to the hospital for surgery on the 23rd. She'll be laid up for two weeks. She's had an eye surgery.

I mean, I would love, you know.

To have access to three elders. I like the number three in a local church that I was participating with, breaking bread and fellowshipping and growing rather than a political corporate entity.

And I could call them and have.

Them pray over my. I'd love that.

I don't have it.

So I have to depend on you guys.

And that's good. I like myself, you know.

But that's.

How I look at that text right there.

And I think it's got to be.

To appreciate it.

Looked at objectively.

Ron, you.

And speak up. I think we can get you on this.

You read Jeremiah 29:11?

I did, and.

That'S a verse that goes on as well. But it's something very important to me. But I think maybe from what you said, I've been taking it out of context. But I mean, Jeremiah 29:12 says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. I've got. This means a lot to me personally, just from. Not so much that he'll fix things. He doesn't say, I'll fix it.

That's right. That's good. That's great observation. And that's great.

And then when he talks about to give you hope in the future, to me, that was internal life. That's the hope in the future that I have. And again, out of context, I guess, but totally wrong now that I figured it out.

I love this.

I love this.

This is great.

This is. Boy, this is great. Ron, thanks for bringing that up. This is a prime example of a sincere spirit who belongs to the Lord.

Jesus Christ, the God of creation under.

The auspices of the New Covenant. He's not a Jew living in the.

Context in the time where Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophets were preaching and instructing and guiding the nation of Israel, which.

Is the context where this text finds its original setting. Okay, but he's taking principles now.

He knows what he's been doing, and.

He'S correlating them with New Covenant principles. And they're married. They're okay. In other words, as long as he didn't read this false conception of faith.

And claiming into this text, which I didn't hear him say, he found solace.

And peace from the word of God. Now, I don't know.

You may find solace and peace and.

Contentment in the book of Leviticus, if you can do that. Wonderful. It's the word of God. But don't abuse the context and the initial intended application of the truth that you're looking at. These are promises made to Israel, God's Old Testament people, both for their present.

Situation back in the time of Jeremiah, as well as their future.

But what you're doing is you're taking.

Your personal relationship with him, which is.

Under a New Covenant, which is ratified.

By the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that comes with.

That, and you're applying some of these principles. I don't have any problem with that.

As long as you know what you're doing.

I guess I kind of took it as well. When you read the notes from my version, it talks exactly that.

He's talking to Israel.

To Israel. It may appear as though God has forgotten you, but God may be preparing you, as he did the people of Judah, for a new beginning with Him.

Okay, so there's an application. He may be. He could be right, not he is, just like he did Israel. So you're drawing some principles out of there for application, which is fine.

I don't have any problem with that.

But I know people have taken Jeremiah 29, 11 and 12 and made it their life, passion, this God is obligated to do this for me because I'm trusting Him. I believe that. I believe that I believe. And then they apply to all areas.

Of their life like a spouse, a house, a job, income, etc. Etc. Etc.

Thank you for sharing that, Ronald.

Ronald, my man.

I've got a plaque next to my bed on the nightstand. Oh, no, it's on.

What you need to do is you need to fly into Tel Aviv, find the nearest kibbutz, hook up and put this plaque over.

But we don't need to go outside of the New Covenant to find all.

The promises and heartfelt.

Objective expressions of God's will for our lives. We live under a new and grander.

And superior covenant than any of God's people in the past. The New Covenant.

Let's make use of the promises. There, the Lord Jesus Christ says, I'll never leave you.

Over.

I mean, there.

Let's major on the majors. That's my point.

And there he is talking to you. Exactly. Exactly.

I hear the voice of God. When I myself acquire spiritual ears that.

Listen to him through His Word.

I hear his voice and then my spiritual voice takes on a tone and a substance where I can have intelligent, rational, and yet heartfelt and emotional communion.

With my Creator in Whose image I have been made. What a joy.

And then his love and his grace and mercy overwhelms us in those moments, praying according to his will.

Now don't play church, you guys. Don't waste your time with religion.

Develop this relationship with the living Christ in you. The hope of glory on the basis of His Word. I'm not saying don't participate with people and love people and social. I'm just saying don't make this. Make this the genius, the thrust. I mean, I spent a couple an hour or so with my brother Ron on Wednesday. What a joy to spend time with you, man. He so encouraged me.

I mean, he gave new meaning to the.

I'm living on borrow time, man. He's sitting there encouraging this idiot with his relationship with Jesus Christ.

And the genuineness of it.

He's got no time to play church religion.

Do you. I mean, do you have any extra time to just play the playground of religious frivolity?

Do you have time to do that?

No, I have time to be joyful and thankful for everything that I've got and have gotten and have experienced and for the promise of eternal life.

Amen.

That's what gives me peace and joy.

Contentment.

Contentment, yes.

And that's the peace of God.

Be anxious for nothing but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God.

The contentment of God will guard your heart, mind, soul in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

That's the effectiveness of prayer according to the word of God.

Any other final thoughts or questions? Wrap this up.

If you wonder like that.

Jeremiah 29, that future and hope, if you refer to that, it doesn't mean that everything's haunted dory. But it's that peace and joy in the midst of comfort through the turmoil that we go through.

To follow Christ.

Well, the Philippius passage is the passage I would use. The Jeremiah passage talking about the future of Israel.

Next year in Jerusalem.

Peace, peace, peace.

The peace.

Shalom.

Peace.

They're looking for peace.

Well, that peace is going to come.

There's no peace there now with the.

Palestinian uprising and all of that stuff, the conflict there. But in the future, Israel has a peace when the Prince of Peace returns and establishes his kingdom. The Jeremiah passage is not one I would use. I appreciate how Ron has been using it.

There are too many other New Testament texts, New covenant principles.

Well, and more relevant to you and.

Me, we're not Jews who are saved living in Israel.

We're not Old Covenant people, are we?

Not, as far as I know, better covenant.

That's right, the New Covenant. I mean, I'm exceeding exactly Hebrews 8. Read Hebrews 8, where he contrasts the obsolete old covenant system in its totality with the new covenant system in Christ.

Ratified by his blood. We live under a new, grander, beautiful, superior covenant.

Rather than the Mosaic, Davidic, Abrahamic covenants, as wonderful as they are.

And the exceedingness.

Is that our Bible? A lot of it is that peace that passes all absolutely without peace.

That's the most important. You can't.

A billion dollars can't give us that kind of peace.

I'd try to work on that if.

I had a million dollars.

What it would do is give you some temporal security. Yeah, but knowing me, knowing me, I probably get that billion dollars and then.

The next day kill myself.

What'd you say?

Take it.

That's enough of that nonsense.

You don't have to give it to him.

All right.

I may have a new study for you next week. I may just punctuate some of the next week. I think you've got the gist. That's pretty much the gist. Not what I was trying to communicate here. In Christian prayer, at least things for.

You to think about.

Stay close to the Lord.

Stay close to the Savior. And again I ask you encourage you pray and ask specifically, personally. Close your eyes, look inside and say.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of God who indwells.

Me, help me to pray. Let's do that now.

Praying in your spirit, Father, and in full knowledge that he is interceding for us perfectly. According to your will, we ask that the name of your Son, Yeshua, our Christ, would be glorified and honored through our ministries, and that.

We would engage.

Throughout this day your peace that surpasses all understanding, and that we will experience the sentinel guardianship of that peace over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. According to your will and in his name we pray.

Amen.

Oh, don't forget.