The Model Life: Adoration, Part 4

Pastor Lance finishes expounding Scripture's picture of prayer: the priority and vital practice of a Christian. Are you devoted to prayer, as Scripture repeatedly commands?

Episode Transcript

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This morning as we continue our journey through the 5th chapter
of First Thessalonians, we once again look at the 17th verse
which says that we are to pray without ceasing.
The late Leonard Ravenhill was aBritish evangelist.
He died in 1994. But listen to his words as he

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talks about prayer. He says no man is greater than
his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is
playing. The people who are not praying
are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window

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to display one's talents. The prayer closet allows no
showing off. Poverty stricken as the church
is today and many things, she ismost stricken here in the place
of prayer. We have many organizers, but few

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agonizers, many players and payers, few prayers, many
singers, few clingers, lots of pastors, few wrestlers, many

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fears, few tears, much fashion, little passion, many
interferers, few intercessors, many writers, but few fighters.

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Failing here, we fail everywhere.
The ministry of preaching is open to a few.
The ministry of prayer, the highest ministry of all human
offices, is open to all. He had his finger on the pulse

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of the modern church. He recognized that there were
very few people committed to prayer.
I don't know about you, but as you spend each day, there are
times throughout the day that you waste.

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I think we'd all be have to be honest and say, yeah, there this
was a wasted hour, or this was awasted few minutes, or this was
a wasted part of my day. I can guarantee you that there's
one part of your day that you could honestly say is never
wasted, and that's the time you spend in prayer.

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That time is never wasted. That time was always used to the
highest degree. Yet the Bible says that we are
to have an unceasing kind of prayer life and uninterrupted
kind of prayer life. A life that's completely
conscious of God all throughout the day.

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A life that's always in tune with the Spirit of God.
A prayer that or life of prayer that that never ends, that never
quits, that never gives up, thatnever gives in.
Pray without ceasing. Peter would say it this way
first. Peter 5 verse #7 Cast all your

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anxiety upon him, for he cares for you.
Taken from Psalm 55 where the psalmist said cast your burdens
upon the Lord and he will sustain you.
I've come to realize that as I go through life, as it says in

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Luke 18 verse #1 we talked aboutlast week, men, not always to
pray and not to faint. You either pray or you faint.
If you're fainting, you're not praying.
Well, Peter says it this way. If you're not casting your
burdens upon the Lord, you're crashing under the burdens that

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you bear you to cast all your anxiety, all your burdens upon
the Lord. But so many times, when those
fears arise, when those anxious thoughts come, when the
nervousness begins to envelope us, very rarely do we cast it

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upon the Lord. Yet those who pray without
ceasing understand the the importance of living a God
conscious kind of life that theymight be able to offer up a
prayer to their God knowing thathe is the one who hears.

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In fact, the psalmist said in Psalm 65 these words, You who
hear prayer to you, all men cometo you who hears prayer to you
all men come. Psalm 65, verse #2 verse #4 He

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says, how blessed is the one whom you choose to bring near to
you, to dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the
goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.

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The blessed man is the one who who God chooses to bring near to
him. And the Bible says that that God
is near to all those who call upon him.
Psalm 145 But there's a qualifier to that.
The Lord is near to all those who call upon him.

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And then it says to all who callupon him in truth, He's not near
to those who don't call upon himin truth, only to those who call
upon him according to his truth,because he is the God of truth.
And yet God who hears prayer brings men near to him.

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And if we are near to God, then we ought to be able to commune
with him because the privilege of prayer is that we have access
to the throne room of God. When the veil was was torn in
two at count, when Christ was onthe tree at Calvary in the
temple, the veil of the temple was torn in two.

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Access to the presence of God. The holiest of holies was
granted to all men. That's why I love what it says
in the, in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2
verse #18 For through him that is Christ, we both have our
access in one spirit to the Father.

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And then in chapter 3 verse #12 Paul says, because of Christ, in
whom we have boldness and confident access through faith
in him, we have this access. We had this opportunity to
always enter God's throne room and to call upon him.

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I, I love what the the songwriter said.
Oh, oh, what peace we often forfeit.
Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer. Everything.
Cast all your burdens upon the Lord.
Not just some of them, all of them.

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Prayer is the great privilege ofthe believer.
That is we, We can enter the throne room of God and we can
call upon our God to do great and mighty things.
So last week we, we began to talk to you about some of the,
the principles surrounding prayer, telling you that it that

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it, that certifies my dependencyupon God.
Nothing certifies your dependency more than your prayer
life. That's why Paul says pray
without ceasing. He gives these commands.
Be joyful, be prayerful, be thankful.
Why? Because this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you. These three commands are the

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will of God for your life. You need to be joyful, prayerful
and thankful in all things. And as believers in Christ, we
we we hasten to obey the commands of God.
Listen to what the psalmist saidin in Psalm 119, verse #60 I
hastened and did not delay to keep your commandments.

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That's the, that's the heartbeatof the believer.
I hastened and did not delay to be joyful.
I hastened and did not delay to be prayerful.
I hasten and did not delay to bethankful.
In fact, he goes over and says this in verse #112 of Psalm 119.

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I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever
until the very end. I've determined in my heart that
I perform Your commandments, Your statutes forever.
So I will be joyful forever. I will be prayerful forever.
I will be thankful forever, evenuntil the very end.

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That's the heartbeat of the believer.
So Paul rattles off his commands.
Be joyful, prayerful, and thankful.
I love what Leon Moore said in his book Heart Cry for Revival.
He said it is not possible for us to spend all our time with

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the words of prayer on our lips,but it is possible for us to be
all our days in the spirit of prayer, realizing our dependence
upon God for all that we have inour, realizing something of His
presence with us wherever we maybe, and yielding ourselves
continually for the doing of Hiswill.

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Where there is such an inward state, it will find outward
expression in verbal prayer. And in this connection we should
notice the frequent ejaculatory prayers throughout Paul's
letters. Prayer was so natural and so
continual with the great apostlethat it found its way inevitably

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into his correspondence. That's the way it should be for
us. Praying without ceasing it
certifies our dependency upon God.
Turn turn back with me, if you would, to to the book of Second
Chronicles, a book that you probably read every day in your

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devotions. But Second Chronicles chapter 20
and I want to show you how how prayer certifies our dependency
upon the Lord. This is so important.
Now it came about verse one after this that the sons of Moab
and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Edomites came

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to make war against Jehoshaphat.Then some came and reported to
Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you
from beyond the sea out of Iran.And behold therein in Getty.
For those of you who've been to Israel, you know where in Getty
is. It's in the, the, the wilderness

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of, of the Judean, the Judean wilderness.
It's there. And that's where David will hide
from the apostle, not from the apostle, but from Saul himself.
Excuse me. And and it's a good place to to
enter into Jerusalem because of all the mountain ranges that
hide you. And they say, King Jehoshaphat,
they've come against us. Verse 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid

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and turned his attention to seekthe Lord.
That's good. When you're afraid, what do you
do? What do you turn your attention
to? Jehoshaphat turned his attention
to to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast sweat all
Judah. So Judah gathered together to

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seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the
cities of Judah to seek the Lord.
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem
in the House of the Lord before the new court.
And this is what he said. Oh Lord, the God of our fathers,

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are you not God in the heavens? He appeals to the preeminency of
God, does he not? Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Here is Jehoshaphat appealing to
the God of the heavens, and he says, are you not ruler over all

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the kingdoms of the nations? Don't you rule over everyone?
It speaks not only of his preeminence, but it speaks of
his Providence that he is in complete control of everything.
It says power and might are in your hand so that no one can
stand against you. So he appeals to God based on

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his preeminence, based on his Providence, and based on his
power as the Lord God of Israel.And then it says, did you not,
oh our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before
your people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham,

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your friend forever? They have lived in it and have
built you a sanctuary there for your name.
Now he appeals to the promises of God, got me to promise to
Israel, got me to promise to Abraham, and God has fulfilled
that promise. So he's appealing to God based

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on his character and based on his nature.
You are preeminent, you are providential, you're powerful,
and you're God who keeps his promises.
So he says, verse 9, should evilcome upon us, the sword or
judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before

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this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and
cry to you in our distress, and you will hear, and you will
deliver us. They appeal to the presence of
God, that we will come to you. We will come to Your temple,
where Your glory dwells, where You are, and we will appeal to

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You and You will deliver us. Now behold the sons of Ammon and
Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade.
When they came out of the land of Egypt, they turned aside from
them and did not destroy them. See how they are rewarding us by
coming to drive us out from Yourpossession, which You have given

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us as an inheritance. Oh our God, You will not judge
them, for we are powerless before this great multitude who
are coming against us. Nor do we know what to do.
But our eyes are upon you. That that's, that's, that's a

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dependent king. We don't know what to do, but
our eyes are upon you. That was the the verse that that
that Sandy, my first wife and I decided to put on a gravestone
before she died. Many of you know that she had
cancer and she suffered for 15 months and then she went home to

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be with the Lord. But we didn't know what to do.
They had no idea. And so we cry out the Lord Lord,
we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.
And when you live in fear or anxiety or uncertainty, what do
you do? Do as Jehoshaphat did.

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He lived in dependency upon God and sought the Lord of the
universe, whose presence was with Him, whose preeminence was
seen, because He's the God of the heavens, who providentially
works in the hearts of man, who's the all powerful God of
the universe, who keeps His promises.

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Prayer certifies our dependency.Prayer challenges our
spirituality. It challenges our spirituality.
You know that nothing will challenge your spiritual walk
with the Lord than your prayer life or lack thereof.
Just ask yourself, how much timedid you spend in prayer this
morning before you came to church, or yesterday, or the day

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before that? Your spirituality will always be
challenged. Remember, on the eve of the
crucifixion, Christ took Peter, James and John into the into the
depths of the Garden of Gethsemane.
Keep watch, pray. I'm going to go over here for a
while. And he went over to pray.
He came back and Peter, James and John were asleep.

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He says, could you not keep watch with me for one hour, just
one hour? The Bible says that he was in
great torment, our Lord was. And all he did was ask them to
keep watching, pray lest they enter into temptation.
So he went away, came back again, and they were asleep

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again. You see, they were being
challenged spiritually and the Lord knew that the the challenge
before them was going to be so great that if they didn't spend
time in prayer, they would not be able to handle the
temptation. And guess what?
They failed miserably when they were tempted, especially Peter
when he denied the Christ. Nothing would challenge your

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spirituality more than your prayer life.
And then #3 we left off this last week.
It will confirm your loyalty. It confirms your loyalty, that
is, to the Lord God Himself, that you are loyal to keep the
commands of God. The Bible says in First Timothy

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2 verse #1 that first of all, I urge that entreaties and prayers
and petitions and Thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men.
Paul is writing to Timothy. It's a pastoral epistle telling
him how to set things in order in the church.
He says in chapter 2 verse #1 First things first, that you

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should be in prayer for all men.You should be petitioning all
men because the the ministry of the church is the ministry of
prayer and that needs to be offered first.
That's why over in Colossians 19it says we have not ceased to
pray for you. In Colossians 4/2 devote

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yourselves unto prayer, says in Second Timothy 13.
Paul's prayers were night and day.
Romans 1212 be devoted to prayer.
Listen, when you pray it confirms one thing, that you are
loyal to your God, to obey the commands of God.

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So it certifies your dependency,it challenges your spirituality,
it confirms your loyalty. And then note this, it catapults
your productivity. It catapults your productivity.

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In other words, without prayer, nothing is accomplished, but
with prayer, everything can be accomplished.
Turn back to me, if you would, to the book of Exodus, Exodus
chapter 17, another book that you read every day in your
devotions. Second Chronicles, the book of

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Exodus. In the book of Exodus, you have
Israel's first conflict, first war.
It's the first mention of Joshua.
Joshua will be mentioned some 200 more times in the Bible, but
the first mention is in Exodus chapter 17 because Joshua is

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being prepared to take on Moses's responsibility.
Doesn't know that yet, but but that's what God's doing in the
life of Joshua. And so they come to fight
against the Amalekites, and thisis their first conflict as a
nation where they go to war. It says this in verse #8 Then

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Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rafidum.
So Moses said to Joshua, choose men for us and go out fight
against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself
on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.
Joshua did as Moses told him andfought against Amalek.

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And Moses, Aaron and her went upto the top of the hill.
So it came about when Moses heldhis hand up, that Israel
prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses's hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put
it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and her supported his

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hands on one side, one-on-one side, and 1:00 on the other.
Thus his hands were steady untilthe sunset.
So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek andhis people with the edge of the
sword. Now you read that and you're
thinking, OK, what does all thatmean?

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Well, all throughout the Old Testament, you realize that when
when Israel prayed, they would always pray, lifting their hands
to God. The staff was a symbol of the
power and presence of God. So Moses went up into a hill
with Aaron and her, and he was going to beseech the Lord.
He was going to pray to the Lord.
He was going to intercede on behalf of Israel as they went to

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war. Joshua would carry the sword,
Moses would carry the staff, andhe would begin to communicate
with his God by holding his hands up and appealing to God
for his strength, for the power.But when his hands began to
fall, Amalek prevailed. But when his hands went up

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again, Israel prevailed. And it went through this over
and over again and lost. The text says, it says that
Moses hands were heavy. Moses was becoming weary.
This is very important. Why?
Because listen to the book of Deuteronomy, the 34th chapter,

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right before Moses dies in Deuteronomy 34, he's 120 years
old. And it says although Moses was
120 years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor
abated, in other words, nor was his strength gone.

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So go back now to exit 17 and say, why were his hands heavy?
Was he, was he getting old? Was he weak?
Oh no, his vigor never abated. He was strong even to the day he
died, but that emphasized the fact that Moses was interceding
on behalf of Israel as he would appeal to the power and the

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protection and the presence of God on behalf of the nation of
Israel. And intercessory prayer is not
light work, it's hard work. The effort is intense.
That's why it says of Epaphras in the Colossians 4 verse #12
that he labored fervently in prayer.

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Because prayer is hard work. Satan would do all he can to
keep you off your knees. He'll do all he can to keep you
from communing with your God. He wants you to do everything in
the energy of the flesh. He doesn't want you to live in
dependency upon God. Why?
Because he knows that if you do,the power of God will be
displayed, and great things willtake place, and knows it.

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Says this verse 14. Then the Lord said to Moses,
write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to
Joshua. Write it down, recite it #3 and
remember it. He says that I will utterly blot
out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

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Remember this. Why?
See, you have to realize that Amalek was was a nation that
came against Israel. But Amalek also is a symbol of
the flesh and a symbol of sin and a symbol of all those things
that take us away from God. And that's why prayer is so

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hard, because when you're praying, you're moving away from
those things. When you're not, you tend to
move toward those things. And therefore we need to always
be in the fervent spirit of prayer, beseeching the presence
and power of Almighty God. Then it says this Moses built an

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altar, named it. The Lord is my banner, yave
nisi. The Lord is my protector.
The Lord is my victorious warrior.
The Lord is my satisfier. The Lord's presence gave us
victory. The Lord is my banner.
And he said the Lord has sworn the Lord will have war with
Amalek from generation to generation.

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The Lord is your inspiration. He's your banner, He's your
flag, He's your protector. He's your inspiration.
That's why there's so much perspiration.
Why? Because he's the one who
inspires us. Look at what the psalmist said
in in Psalm 20, Psalm 20 verse #4 or let me read the whole

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thing to you. First one, may the Lord answer
you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob
set you securely on high. May He send you help from the
sanctuary and support you from Zion.
May you remember all your meal offerings and find your burnt
offerings acceptable. May grant you your hearts desire
and fulfill all your counsel. We will sing for joy over your

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victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
We will set up our inspiration because we will trust in God,
the God who provides the power and His presence to give us the
victory that we need. May the Lord fulfill your
petitions. Now I know that the Lord saves
his anointed. He will answer him from His holy

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heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
Some boasts and Chariots and some of horses, but we will
boast in the name of the Lord our God.
They have bowed down and fallen,but we have risen and stood
upright. Save, O Lord, may the King
answer us in the day we call. Wow.

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Talk about your dependency. Talk about, talk about your
productivity. It happens because you live in
dependence upon God and not in the flesh.
You're trusting God to save yourspouse.
You're trusting God to bring therebellious child home.
You're trusting God for the salvation of your work mates and

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your classmates. You're trusting God for the for
the for doing a a work in in your family with your friends.
You're you're dependent upon Godfor everything.
Why? Because that's the only way
you'll ever be productive in theKingdom of God is when you lie
upon the King himself and trust in Him.
Every one of us has to examine our own lives and realize there

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are so many things we want to see happen.
We we want our family members saved.
You can't save them. Only God does that.
God does that. Listen to EM Bounds, if you've
never read a work on prayer, read the multitude of volumes
that EM Bounds has written on prayer.

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It will convict you so much thatyou'll want to stop reading.
But you need not stop reading. You need to continue on.
But this is what he says. Talking to men for God is a
great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.
Think about that. Talking to men about God's a

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great thing, but what's greater than that?
Talking to God about that man, they says this, he will never
talk well and with real success to men.
For God who has not learned wellhow to talk to God for man, that

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is just so good. That's because we think we can
convince men. We think we can persuade men.
We think we can. We can convince our husband or
wife to be saved or our kids. You can't, just can't.
So talk to God about that person.
As you talk to God about that person, watch what God does in

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the life of that person. Because you see, your priorities
are set in order. You're trusting God to catapult
all productivity. So God gets all the glory.
See, we want to want to get the glory.
Yeah. I LED my son or daughter to the
Lord, or I LED my friend to the Lord.
No, you didn't. You didn't lead them anywhere,

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God sought them. God saved them.
God just used you as a vehicle, probably 1 of many vehicles over
their lives to show them the direction of the Kingdom of God.
God saves trust in Him to accomplish His great work.

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Prayer is that which certifies my dependency, challenges my
spirituality, clarifies my loyalty, catapults my
productivity. Prayer is that which
characterizes my ministry. Prayer is the ministry prayer.

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Without prayer, there really is no ministry.
It's just work done in the flesh.
The prayer is that which characterizes the ministry of of
the pastor, of the people. It characterizes your ministry
at home. I mean, think about it.
It's just gathering your family around.
Hey, let's pray. Let's bring this before the

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Lord. Let's just trust the Lord here.
Let's see what God's going to do.
You got conflict at school, Let's give it to the Lord.
You got conflict with relationships?
Let's talk to the Lord about it.Let's just cast our burden upon
the Lord you, you have situations that you're you're in
need of. Lord, we need you to take care

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of this. We need you, Lord, to deal with
these things. It characterizes our ministry.
That's why a couple of weeks agowe took you to Acts chapter 4,
Where, when, when the city of Jerusalem or the leaders of
Jerusalem came against the apostle said you cannot speak
anymore in his name. What do they do?
They went right to prayer as a community of believers and the
whole place was shaken and they continue to speak the word

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boldness. Why?
Because prayer catapults our productivity and characterizes
our ministry. Prayer is the mainstay of every
ministry. Your ministry to your wife, to
your children, your ministry at church.
It's all about prayer and commitcommitting everything to the

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Lord. Prayer is that which cultivates
our maturity. Prayer cultivates our maturity.
Prayer is a discipline like, like, like Bible study is a
discipline, like meditation is adiscipline.
So prayer is, is a discipline. We discipline ourselves unto

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unto goddiness. And it's a hard work.
It's a strenuous work because Satan will always bring
interruptions to you, always take you away from spending time
in prayer. So Paul knows that.
So he says, pray without ceasing, always be prayerful,
always be communing with the Lord as you go through the day.
Why? Because this is what cultivates
your maturity. This is what Paul says in

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Colossians chapter 1. For this reason also verse 9.
Since the day we heard of it, wehave not ceased to pray for you,
and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His
will within all spiritual wisdomand understanding, so that you
will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all
respects, bearing fruit in everygood work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God. Strengthen with all power

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according to His glorious might,for the attain of all
steadfastness and patience. Joyously give me thanks to the
Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the
Saints. This is so beautiful.
Paul knows that in order for them to be filled with the
spirit of knowledge and and the spirit of his will, he's to pray

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that God does that. Over in Colossians 4 verse #12
it says that Paul tapas labourlyinterceded for them earnestly so
that they may stand perfect in the Lord.
He prayed for his people. Paphos was the pastor in the
Church of Colossae, so he prayedfor his people.

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They would stand fast, stand perfect, stand mature in the
Lord. Prayer is that which cultivates
our maturity. Prayer is that which conquers
our infirmity. You have an infirmity today.
It might be a physical infirmity, It might be a

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spiritual infirmity, but prayer is that which conquers that
infirmity. So we give it to the Lord, we
bring it before the Lord. We commune with the Lord all
throughout the day. The Bible says in in James

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chapter 5, these beautiful words, Is anyone among you
suffering? Then they must pray.
Let's pray. That's what you got to do.
And then he says, is anyone cheerful?
He's singing praises. Is anyone among you sick?

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That's not physical illness. It's a word that means weary,
worn out, tired, that he must call for the elders of the
church and they are to pray overhim, anointing him with the oil
in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offering in faith
will restore the one who is weary, and the Lord will raise

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him up. If he's committed sin, they will
be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to
one another and pray for one another so he may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.
What is your infirmity today? Paul had a physical infirmity.
Second Corinthians chapter 12. So what did he do?

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He prayed, He prayed about this three times that the Lord would
remove it. And God said, no, I'm not
removing your infirmity. In fact, my grace is sufficient
for you. In fact, you will be made

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perfect through your infirmity. Whatever that infirmity was.
None of us knows, and it's good that we don't know because we by
nature would compare our infirmity with Paul's infirmity.
You can't do that. But the Lord said, my grace is
sufficient for you. My power will be made perfect in

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your weakness. You ever notice that sometimes
God allows an infirmity to come our way and never leaves us, so
that we can depend upon Him for everything and learn to trust
Him all the while? And Paul did.
Paul was a dependent man. But but prayer certainly is that

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which conquers our infirmity. Prayer also combats our
adversary. Prayer is the combat against
your adversary. That's why over in Ephesians
chapter 6, Paul says these wordsin verse 18 as he concludes this

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whole series on the armor of God.
He says with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in
the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the
alert with all perseverance and petition for all the Saints, And
pray on my behalf that the utterance may be given to me in
the opening of my mouth, to makeknown with boldness the majesty
of the Gospel. Prayer is is not a part of the

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armor. Prayer is woven in and around
each and every piece of the armor.
As you put on the helmet of salvation, as you take up the
sword of the Spirit, as you, as you put on the the breastplate
of righteousness, you do it in the spirit and attitude of
prayer with all petitions. Why?
Because prayer combats the adversary.

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Prayer is that one Ave. we have by which we are able to overcome
our enemy. And so Paul says, pray
unceasingly, pray, always pray without ceasing, be in the
spirit of prayer all day long. Never give up, never give in.

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Just keep communing with your God because you are conscious of
His presence and His power as you walk through the every
single day prayer to give you another one.
I'm not sure how many I've givenyou calms your anxiety calms

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your anxiety. That's good because at times we
all can become anxious, but it calms your anxiety.
That's why Paul says over in thebook of Philippians.
The 4th chapter of those very familiar words, but I'll start

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in verse #4 because it says rejoice in the Lord always.
So He's saying be joyful. Be joyful before you're
prayerful. Be joyful.
Why? He says, let your gentle spirit
be known to all men. The Lord is at hand, the Lord is

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present. You can rejoice in the Lord
because the Lord is near. You can rejoice in the Lord
because the Lord is present. And then he says this.
Be anxious for nothing. Why?
Because the Lord is near. Do you know why we become
anxious? It's because we don't perceive

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that the Lord is near. Listen, when I walk with my
children when they were younger,they were never afraid why?
Their father was with them. They had No Fear of anyone else.
And if a dog came out and started barking, they would just
cling to my leg because I was near.

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They weren't afraid because their father was near.
When you're afraid, it's becauseyou don't perceive the nearness
of God. He is near to all those who call
upon him, to all those who call upon him.
In truth to you, O Lord, who hear prayer, all men come, and

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you draw them near to you the Lord is near.
Therefore be anxious for nothingbut everything by prayer and
supplication with Thanksgiving. Be joyful, be prayerful, be
thankful with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
to God because He's near and thepeace of God where it surpasses

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all human comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus. So God does someone that Paul
says you got to pray without ceasing.
It's so important. Back in 17 71, James Montgomery

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wrote these words. Prayer is the soul's sincere
desire, uttered or expressed, the motion of a hidden fire that
trembles in the breast. Prayer is the simplest form of
speech that infant lips can try.Prayer, the sublime of strains

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that reach the majesty on high. Prayer is the contrite sinner's
voice returning from his ways, while angels in the songs, in
their songs rejoice and cry. Behold, he prays, O thou by whom
we come to God, the life, the truth, the way, the path of

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prayer, Thyself has trod. Lord, teach us how to pray.
I would trust that you are learning to rejoice always and
to pray without ceasing. And next week we'll look at what

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it means to give thanks in everything.
Let's pray together. Lord.
We are grateful for today, for the time that we could spend
together as a church, as a church family.
Pray that, Lord, the word of theLord would seep deep into our
hearts and that we would be men and women of unceasing prayer.

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Forgive us, Lord, for for not coming to you or communing with
You as we should. Forgive us, Lord, for not
recognizing that you are near, You are here, You are present
with us. We cling to You because you are
a banner. You are inspiration, You're our

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strength. Maybe live in the light of that.
So many people here are going through things that Lord, they
wish they were not involved in, they wish they didn't have to
handle today or tomorrow, this week.
But the pressures of of everydaylife, the pressures of family,
the difficulties that arise, they're insurmountable at times.

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Help us Lord to learn dependencyupon you.
Help us to learn as as King Jehoshaphat learned.
Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes they are upon you.
Why? Because Lord you know what to
do. And we just leave it all in the

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hands of the all powerful God ofthe universe, who is the creator
of heaven and earth and all things in it in Jesus name,
Amen.