SPEAKER_01: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jessica and Choir.
SPEAKER_00: That is one of my all-time favorite songs from Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.
SPEAKER_00: And that is an incredible hymn and has an incredible way to memorize that hymn and to learn that psalm that's in Scripture is by listening to that song and those words and it resonates with that melody.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's just I would encourage that in your quiet time.
SPEAKER_00: Sometime when you're in the car, you need to feel close to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Just pull up that song.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to find, and it is an incredible and an incredible truth.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Jessica.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to pray with me as we start.
SPEAKER_00: Since we're talking about prayer, let's ask the Lord to guide us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that we can rest in the truth of that psalm and our modern music to that psalm that you wrote in Psalm 21.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we can always look to you and you are always our help.
SPEAKER_00: I know that today we'll look at a question that the disciples asked Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so, since we've just sung and worshiped and thanked you for being our help, we ask you today that you'll teach us in the same way that Jesus taught the disciples that he looked down through the quarters of time and saw us and taught that lesson.
SPEAKER_00: It's recorded in Scripture twice.
SPEAKER_00: He taught that lesson to teach us how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray you'll guide us in this time and be our help and teach us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As you know, we've started a new sermon series last week that we'll be carrying through the month of September in the classroom of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And we have created a prayer booklet to guide you as a follow-up to the message each week.
SPEAKER_00: And so you receive these when you came in.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't, they're at the doors for you have them.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to grab one and pray along with the rest of us as we uh work through this time of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: These books are simple to use.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about brewing scripture in the classroom of prayer, and that's a Bible study method that we use.
SPEAKER_00: And it's simply uh an easy way, a shorthand way for you to meditate on Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: That's its point.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture all throughout the Bible tells us to meditate on Scripture, and so this is a way to meditate, a way to think about Scripture, a way to slow down and read it carefully so God can speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's real simple.
SPEAKER_00: We use the word brew, and it has these four principles to it.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, believe God has something to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: Read and repeat that verse that you're meditating over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: Just do it as an exercise till that verse becomes comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And then each word, you just slow down, you pay attention to each word, and then you write down what God spoke to you from that.
SPEAKER_00: And each week you'll receive a bullet, uh, a booklet like this.
SPEAKER_00: And it's very simple.
SPEAKER_00: It uses that brew method, and you'll see right here, just day one, as you start tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a holiday.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to start on Tuesday, I think that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: So you just start there and starts with believe, and there's a verse, and you just pray that verse, and that verse is a promise of God's answered prayer.
SPEAKER_00: For example, this week, it's now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's just a promise.
SPEAKER_00: So we're asking God, we believe you have some wisdom for us.
SPEAKER_00: You read and repeat the verse, the first day is that same verse.
SPEAKER_00: Then each word I have given you, I've picked out one word and just illustrated for you how simple it is.
SPEAKER_00: I wrote some a note about that word, and then you got space to go through the other words, and at the end you can write down what God has spoken to you.
SPEAKER_00: We heard some great feedback this week, and I pray you'll jump in and join the rest of us, and I believe it'll really add to your prayer time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're really trying to do is to help everyone really get equipped in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of times we don't really sit down and teach people sort of the mechanics and the mechanism of how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And so today what we want to talk about is uh how you design a prayer life, how you design an effective prayer time for you.
SPEAKER_00: I have uh spent time, and our staff has gone a couple of times, to pastors' prayer gatherings with Arkansas Baptist uh pastors around the state, and we gather together, and one of the things that happens in those meetings is we'll have a pastor who will spend a little time talking to us about how to organize an effective prayer time.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, I need to do that for our church.
SPEAKER_00: We need to make sure of that.
SPEAKER_00: There are certain things I decided years ago as a pastor, and I thought, you know, I'm not gonna be the greatest pastor in the world, uh, but I do want to be effective and I want to serve our congregation.
SPEAKER_00: And so there are certain topics and certain things that I want to make sure.
SPEAKER_00: I may not have been the greatest pastor in the world, but when you left at some point, you know, you God transferred you or whatever was going on, or your kids grew up, your kids went off to college, whatever happens.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to make sure if you were in our church, you knew this truth.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of those is how to design an effective prayer time so you can organize your time where you sit down with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me ask you a question before we get started.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is really important for us to think about.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout Scripture, God promises to answer prayers.
SPEAKER_00: So if God promises to answer prayers and he repeats that promise all throughout Scripture, we'll see another one here in just a moment, then why don't we see more impact?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see more movement of God?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see more folks healed in our church?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible tells us to pray for healing.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see revival?
SPEAKER_00: Why aren't we seeing folks baptized all over our city every Sunday?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is moving in revival.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus stepped out of heaven, went to the cross, and died in our place so that salvation could happen.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see that?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see greater spiritual commitment and growth?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we see those things?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I believe it's because, as the church as a whole, we don't have enough people who really know how to sit down and organize an effective prayer life and call out to the Lord in prayer on a committed, consistent basis.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to learn that.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, Jesus actually taught us in real specifics and great picture how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Here, this version of Jesus telling this story is in a sermon that we refer to often as the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all about the heart, about who God is, about who we are, and how we relate to Him.
SPEAKER_00: It's an incredible series of messages and truths that Jesus gives.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is the greatest preacher and teacher that ever lived, obviously, and so he really teaches an incredible specificity.
SPEAKER_00: There's another time recorded in the book of Luke, after the disciples have been watching Jesus pray and listening to him pray and praying with him, that they just flat out asked, Lord, will you teach us how to pray?
SPEAKER_00: And he gave a very similar lesson to this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as you read this in a moment, you're going to recognize, and if you've been in church any amount of time, you already know what this passage of scripture is.
SPEAKER_00: Here in Jesus is going to give us a prayer that we often refer to as the model prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's the model prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we repeat that in church and all of that, but I want you to listen how Jesus really is unpacking this lesson.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, the Bible says this, but when you pray, first I want you to note the word when.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an if, it's when.
SPEAKER_00: There is a presumption as the followers of Jesus that we are constantly in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there is a presumption that Jesus has that we get alone with the Lord on a committed and consistent basis, and we bring our prayers to Him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not only here in church when we pray, but in your life on a daily basis, and many other times, a number of times throughout the day, you are to get alone with the Lord and pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is explaining here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very simple, clear picture.
SPEAKER_00: You find a room, you get by yourself, and there you call out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_00: And there is another promise that God gives that He answers prayer.
SPEAKER_00: When we get alone with Him, He answers those prayers.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, don't babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we're not repeating incantations, we're not just saying stuff, we're not just going through it.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times in church life, I think this is a challenge for us, we get church phrases, and if we're not careful, we allow those church phrases, not meaning to, but they become like an incantation that we just babble.
SPEAKER_00: We hear this in church.
SPEAKER_00: People are praying out loud and they're praying, and then they always, you know, they'll be praying in a meeting or a Sunday school class or praying in church, and then they'll always end things like, Father, forgive us our sins, forgive us where we failed you.
SPEAKER_00: Corporate prayer is not where we do repentance.
SPEAKER_00: We say that because we think we're supposed to.
SPEAKER_00: We say that because it's in the model prayer, but that's that's not really where we do that.
SPEAKER_00: We repent in front of the Lord when we're alone with Him and we're praying and we're repenting.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we just turn these prayers into that.
SPEAKER_00: And we we we have these phrases that we just repeat, and yet that's not really what prayer is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, listen, when you're praying, it's not just stuff you're repeating, that this is a time where you are talking and communicating with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When we use the Lord's prayer sometimes, we just we repeat it as a thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, so don't come out and say our pastor doesn't love the Lord's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Got that?
SPEAKER_00: But that was not given to us as a re as a prayer to repeat as a thing.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand that because it says right here, don't just keep saying these words over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, don't be like them because your father knows the things you need before you ask him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Jesus affirming the message that we saw last week that God is the source of all things, and we are dependent on him, and he is God, and we are not, and we are looking to him to guide and provide and protect and tell us and to look to him for our needs.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is affirming that.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you you don't you don't just babble, it's not just a performative thing that you're doing in front of God, and you're not coming because you've got to convince him of anything.
SPEAKER_00: He already knows you are connecting with him in this time alone when you are being with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Listen again what he says.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your God, your father, who's in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't babble, don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Your father knows the things you need before you ask him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is saying, listen, you come to the Lord, this is a time you're communicating with him.
SPEAKER_00: You are showing that you are surrendered to him, you are dependent on him, and you are looking to him to speak to you, to provide.
SPEAKER_00: You are looking for his guidance.
SPEAKER_00: You are showing your dependence on him and worshiping him.
SPEAKER_00: You're building a relationship with him as a father.
SPEAKER_00: And in light of that, then here's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you should pray like this.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say repeat this, he doesn't say pray this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, pray like this.
SPEAKER_00: Another version I really liked, another translation version says this pray in this manner, in this way.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to pray.
SPEAKER_00: So what he's about to give us is a template for how we organize our prayer lives.
SPEAKER_00: So listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you should pray using this as a template, a lesson to help you know how to organize your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father who art in heaven, your name be honored as holy.
SPEAKER_00: Your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: Just a thought.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say pray once a month for your monthly bread.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say pray at budget time when you set up your family budget for the year.
SPEAKER_00: Daily, we're dependent daily on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts or our sins, as we have also forgiven our debtors or those who have sinned against us.
SPEAKER_00: And do not bring us into temptation, but Lord, deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus right there gives us a model of how to organize an effective prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to see a couple of principles this morning that I hope maybe over the course of since it's a holiday weekend, you could practice a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't begun this, now if you have, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And next week, I want you to go in, I want you to start sharing testimonies in your Sunday school groups, helping others who don't know how to do this or it's been a struggle for them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can share a testimony in your class and and really give a testimony to help folks.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the key truth of this: Jesus did not teach us a prayer, but how to pray effectively.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, there's nothing wrong with saying the Lord's Prayer, using that as a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing wrong with saying anything Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not its point.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a prayer that we are to pray over and over.
SPEAKER_00: It is a lesson that we are to break apart and learn how to pray effectively.
SPEAKER_00: Pray in this manner or way.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you should pray like this.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look and break down this template, see it as a template, and see what it tells us.
SPEAKER_00: God teaches us to build a prayer time, a prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, when you go into your secret closet to pray before the Lord, He has put this model in the context of a consistent time before the Lord where you are talking to Him in an intentional way.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are certain things or characteristics of this template that Jesus built.
SPEAKER_00: First, he put the foundational elements of prayer in there.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I like to use the word pray to give you a way to think through what the elements are.
SPEAKER_00: Praise, repent, ask, and yield.
SPEAKER_00: Praise, repent, ask and yield.
SPEAKER_00: So praise, our Father who art in heaven, your name be honored as holy.
SPEAKER_00: How are we coming to the Lord as dependent on him as our sole source of provision if we're not saying thank you and honoring him as that?
SPEAKER_00: How are we to submit to the Lord unless we are recognizing him as you are God and I am not?
SPEAKER_00: Repentance becomes a different animal when I am praising the Lord for who he is and his character and his holiness and his faithfulness, and then I'm convicted of a sin and I realize my character does not match up to him or the standard of Jesus' life, and I realize I'm a sinner, and praise gives me that sense of I need to repent.
SPEAKER_00: But it also gives me the sense when I praise him for his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness, that I can come to him in repentance because I know he is faithful to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is that time alone with the Lord where we are specific in what God has convicted us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm sorry I lost my temper.
SPEAKER_00: I know that my kids deserved it, but I'm sorry I lost my temper.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm sorry that I have this animosity toward my boss.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know what a jerky is, right?
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, I'm I am convicted that my spirit is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And how can I be a witness at work if I have this animosity and bitterness in this situation?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, forgive me of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And so you ask for repentance in a specific way.
SPEAKER_00: Asking, he teaches us how to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is clear in here.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those or forgive our debtors, whichever word you want to use.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is that sense of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives us this.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us how to pray these things.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We are yielding to his will.
SPEAKER_00: We are asking for his work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: We are surrendering ourselves to that, but we are also asking for him to work.
SPEAKER_00: God, work.
SPEAKER_00: When we pray for people to be saved in our church, it should be a consistent time where we get alone with the Lord and we are pleading for the souls of men and women and boys and girls to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we want your kingdom to work, and your kingdom involves salvation, the advance of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, we want to see people saved.
SPEAKER_00: And we're asking God to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Give us today our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to articulate your dependence on the Lord and spiritually build that dependence if you are not asking him to provide for you and thanking him when he does?
SPEAKER_00: He says, listen.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, yield.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking, and he gives a list of times to ask, and then he says, yield.
SPEAKER_00: Your kingdom done, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, and yours is the glory forever.
SPEAKER_00: It is where I am submitting myself to him.
SPEAKER_00: If he is the sole source of everything I have, I am submitted to him.
SPEAKER_00: And if he is God and I am not, then I am submitting my life to him.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is a life lived in submission, and so part of my prayer time is being submitted to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says, listen, you've got to get it alone with the Lord because you got heart things in your life you got to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: And in your prayer life, you should have these elements in your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Some days you pray more one than the other.
SPEAKER_00: Some days God stirs you to pray in a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: I love Jacob's testimony this morning where he said he woke up and God just had impressed him with a sense of gratefulness, and he's just worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that happens.
SPEAKER_00: Other times you just have this sense of you've been carrying around this thing and it's just wrong, and God is saying, listen, Greg, we're not going any further until we deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to repent of that and deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's, man, I don't want to do what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's called me to teach Sunday school.
SPEAKER_00: He's called me to get involved with youth or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: And I just don't, I, you know, God, I just don't want to do it, I just don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And he just lays on your heart, you've got to get before him and be submitted.
SPEAKER_00: These elements should be in our prayer lives, and they will breathe at various times, but every prayer time should have these elements in their prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is teaching with this structure.
SPEAKER_00: He also gives us another truth, another part that's in this prayer, and it's organized in these categories of prayer, right?
SPEAKER_00: So if you'll look when we're praying, when we get past the praise and the yielding part, you come to asking.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Ask for your needs.
SPEAKER_00: You should have organized in there or in your thought, you should be asking God to provide.
SPEAKER_00: Asking God, Lord, where do you want me to go?
SPEAKER_00: And how do you want me to do this?
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, provide for my kids, and Lord, do this.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance should be a part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is a category of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you didn't stop repenting when you got saved.
SPEAKER_00: You started repenting when you got saved.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is, Lord, I know I'm a sinner and my sin must be punished, and God, I am humbling myself before you.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot forgive myself of my sin, but Jesus died for me to forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I repent of my sins and I place my faith in what Jesus did on the cross to forgive me of my sins.
SPEAKER_00: And now I've started this Christian life, and the rest of the Christian life is going to be a journey of being transformed in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's taking things out of my life, he's putting things in my life.
SPEAKER_00: When he's taking things out, I'm repenting of those things.
SPEAKER_00: That I've allowed to live.
SPEAKER_00: When he's putting things in my life, sometimes that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Greg, I need you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And I say, I don't really want to.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I want you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really want to.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: And repentance is a part of that transformation as I keep moving forward and repenting of those things that affect my relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And then spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_00: This is a critical part of our spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is highlighting that when he says, Don't bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: He is telling us to recognize there's a spiritual life that goes on, and there's a spiritual warfare that goes on.
SPEAKER_00: And my life is spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm to come into this deal and I'm to realize that this is about Jesus and what he's doing in my life, and it's not about the things and the stuff and whatever, but what is God doing around me and what is God doing through me?
SPEAKER_00: And he is teaching us that a category of prayer is to be our spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_00: How can you grow to be like Jesus if you are not praying and asking Jesus to make you like him?
SPEAKER_00: All throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There are these incredible categories of prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And there are so many times that God highlights through the prayers of Paul for the church and places like that how we are praying for spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_00: How I submit myself to the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to understand this scripture and what it means for me.
SPEAKER_00: God, this temptation is killing me, and I need you to help me work through this.
SPEAKER_00: When He tells us in Philippians chapter 4 that we are to pray and give our requests made known to Him, so that the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds and keep us from anxiousness.
SPEAKER_00: So many times, man, I'm telling you, worry is a part of life.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's worried.
SPEAKER_00: Anxiousness is everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: We're in an epidemic of fear and angst and anxiousness.
SPEAKER_00: There are record numbers of antidepressants that are being prescribed by doctors everywhere because people are struggling with that.
SPEAKER_00: That is a spiritual formation issue.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it involves chemical imbalances, but most of the time it is a spiritual issue that we have to learn how I give that to the Lord and how I trust in him and how I don't borrow worry for three days from now about what might happen.
SPEAKER_00: But I walk through this moment and I trust in the Lord and his provision of daily bread, whatever that is in that part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I am giving those to the Lord and I'm learning to place that request in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: Again, God already knows what we need.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 8 again, the Father knows the things you need before you ask him.
SPEAKER_00: But why are we asking?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is a part of our spiritual formation to go to him and say, Lord, will you help me deal with this?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I want to give this to you so I'm not worried about it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I need to hear the presence, your presence in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort me in this moment as I walk through this thing.
SPEAKER_00: I need you.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual formation should be a category of prayer in your life that you are consistently praying.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just run through a couple of these other categories.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus has set this up.
SPEAKER_00: Here are basic categories that he's telling us in this model prayer, this template for our prayer life that should be there.
SPEAKER_00: And then as you go through Scripture, there are all these places where we are commanded to pray or we are offered the opportunity to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Just look at some of this list.
SPEAKER_00: This is not even an exhaustive list.
SPEAKER_00: But we're to pray for effective doors for evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be praying for God's will to be done.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be praying for people to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not praying for people to be saved in our church, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6 is all about spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons he says that we're to be praying for people to be saved because we're in the midst of spiritual warfare and we live in a world where people are trying to squash the gospel, hide the gospel, distract from the gospel, challenge the gospel, get people to believe something else.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in this time of spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe spiritual warfare is real.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons that we've created our prayer ministry, our prayer force, because there are times as a church, man, we just need to push back against evil.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus recognizes spiritual warfare, even in this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: We're to be intercessing for the church.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it says that in a lot of places, but Ephesians 6 is another great place to see that because he says, put on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're wrestling against, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of evil and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, You're to pray every prayer and all requests for all the saints with every perseverance, with every alertness all the time.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredible how much he says.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1, you'll look at that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: He says, pray for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 4, 6.
SPEAKER_00: I quoted that a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be anxious for anything, but give your requests, made your requests be made known to the Lord with thanksgiving, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us to pray for our government officials.
SPEAKER_00: You may agree or you may disagree, that has nothing to do with God's command for you to pray for government officials.
SPEAKER_00: You may have voted for this president.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have voted for this president.
SPEAKER_00: You are still responsible to pray for him.
SPEAKER_00: And the way most life goes, we have this time, this side one time, and this side another time, and this side another time, and you're supposed to pray for all of them, whether you agree with them or not.
SPEAKER_00: We are commanded to pray for those who are in spiritual authority and command over us.
SPEAKER_00: We're to pray for our city council, we're to pray for the school board, we're to pray for the governor, we're to pray for all of them.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: I had to pray for the last president, I have to pray for this president.
SPEAKER_00: They're very different, but it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: My responsibility as a Christian is the same.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed for President Biden, I pray for President Trump, and the next one, whoever it is, we'll pray for that one too.
SPEAKER_00: We're commanded to pray, and that's a category of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: All right, enough of that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of those categories, and Jesus says we have those.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk just practically for just a moment about how you take what Jesus taught us and you put this into a methodology.
SPEAKER_00: You put it into a way to go about it.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, don't turn this into homework, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't make this hard, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't, don't, don't make this some legalistic obligation.
SPEAKER_00: I've been very careful.
SPEAKER_00: I hadn't given you lists and all these pictures.
SPEAKER_00: I thought about that, but I don't want you to think that this is some legalistic thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because number one, if you do and you make it too hard, and then in building a habit, you don't, you miss some of that, you're gonna quit because you're gonna say it's too hard, you're not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: Or you're gonna say, well, that's just legalistic, I'm not gonna do that because you know how those preachers are all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't want you to get bogged down in that.
SPEAKER_00: These are principles that every person in your personality, in your life, in your pattern of how you wake up in the morning, or whatever it is, that you can spend some time organizing a prayer life the way Jesus taught.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, find a place.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, go into your private room and shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: You need a place.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a chair, it may be wherever.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, the mornings are beautiful and all that, and I have a chair.
SPEAKER_00: When I get up early, it's in the sunroom in our house where I look over the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: And the deer, there's a deer running in our backyard.
SPEAKER_00: They're starting to move a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Rabbits are out there, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I have coffee for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time I'm up early right now, so the sun's coming up, and it's just a great place for me to speak to the Lord and commune with him.
SPEAKER_00: I know the place in my office at home where I spend time doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But you find a time and a place, you get in a pattern, you get there and you meet with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: It means something to us when I go to meet with the Lord there.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I meet with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome to go meet there.
SPEAKER_00: Then you have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have to have a plan?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus gave us a plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's literally right here.
SPEAKER_00: There is literally a template for you to follow.
SPEAKER_00: You should have the elements of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You should have a time of praise.
SPEAKER_00: You should have a time of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You should have a time of asking.
SPEAKER_00: You should have a time where you surrender to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Again, those things may breathe.
SPEAKER_00: Different times, there's more of one element than the other.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to organize that in your mind and your heart and walk through that together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, if it's not like that, then what's going to happen is you're going to spend all your time asking and not praying.
SPEAKER_00: Asking is only a part of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's one category, one element of prayer, but it's not all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: You may take a little sheet of paper and write it down, or you may take this booklet that we're giving you and use that as a model.
SPEAKER_00: However, you want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But just take a few minutes and work through a plan.
SPEAKER_00: And you see if God doesn't start to speak to you or open up some area of your life that maybe you didn't think was there.
SPEAKER_00: Now cover the elements.
SPEAKER_00: In that plan, make sure you cover the elements.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you have some praise.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you stop and ask the Lord, is there anything in my life that you want me to repent of?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything in there that you're working on?
SPEAKER_00: Anything that I push back against?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_00: And you keep short accounts with the Lord, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: And then you ask.
SPEAKER_00: Have a list.
SPEAKER_00: Be organized what you ask.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a plan, you just come in, you sit for a few minutes, and then the dog barks, or you know, some kind of thing distracts you, or you forgot to turn the coffee pot on, or your spouse wakes up early, or your kids wake up early, and you get all this and get distracted, and you still have another day where you didn't open the day with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to have a little bit of a plan.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a plan, you've organized it, even if you just jot it down on a piece of paper and just walk through it, carry through it, then you need to list your ongoing requests.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remind yourself to be praying for people to be saved at church.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen in our church if a hundred more people four days a week were praying for us to see souls saved than we're doing that right now?
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not trying to lay heavy on you.
SPEAKER_00: We're just working through this.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if a hundred more people in our church than are doing it right now, committed four days a week, even if it was just 90 seconds or 180 seconds, where you stopped and intentionally told the Lord, Lord, we want to see people saved.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe on Monday you pray for students, and on Tuesday you prayed for children's ministry, and Wednesday you pray for men's and women's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Thursday you pray for families and parents as they're walking with their kids, and maybe on Friday you just pray for services.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you know how Pastor Greg is.
SPEAKER_00: We we really need you to help him.
SPEAKER_00: And would you help him be clear with the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Help my Sunday school teacher be clear with the gospel in our class.
SPEAKER_00: If you spent one day a week and you had your love list, the three people you know that need Jesus that God's put in your life, and you prayed one day a week or two days a week for your love list intentionally, and you prayed for those three people by name, and you prayed for God to open a door for you to share your testimony, and you prayed for a chance to invite them to church, and you prayed for them to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine how God would respond if a hundred more people in our church, God alone, trusting the promise, your father who sees in secret will reward you, and they started praying for people to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: What about your family?
SPEAKER_00: What about your needs?
SPEAKER_00: How would your spiritual life grow if you had one thing a week that you focused on asking the Lord to help you grow?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the fruit that would happen in our church and the testimony that would blossom if a hundred people who were not praying for their spiritual formation started praying for their spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: And then you have your immediate requests.
SPEAKER_00: Your friend that asks you to pray for their doctor's appointment tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids are having a test, uh, whatever's going on, and then you just jot those down, and then here's what I would say: confirm answered prayers.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, God answered your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He deserves to be worshiped for that.
SPEAKER_00: But also, what fuels our faith is when we see God answer prayer and we come to him in those prayers and he feeds those prayers and we pray in those prayers and we're writing down God did this and God did this and God did this.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: What else can I pray about?
SPEAKER_00: Because God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Again, don't make it homework.
SPEAKER_00: There are a gazillion different little notebooks this size.
SPEAKER_00: At every store that you go to, there is an aisle that has little notebooks just like this.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a drawer filled with either printer paper or notebook paper that has been sitting in that drawer forever, and you can fold it over just like this and make your own little book to practice with.
SPEAKER_00: There are those little bitty three-ring binder doohickey things like that.
SPEAKER_00: They sell them at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Walmart.
SPEAKER_00: It is impossible not to be able to have a simple little place where you can organize your prayer thoughts and your heart before the Lord and you can go to Him and pray.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, just get in the habit.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot do it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: If you're meeting with the Lord, he already knew what you needed anyway.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to guide you in it.
SPEAKER_00: His biggest problem with us is simply getting us to sit in the prayer room with him.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what happens when he does that.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we all ought to know that God answers prayer because the first prayer that he answers is the prayer of repentance when we ask God to save us.
SPEAKER_00: When we cry out to Jesus, as I said a minute ago, and we say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, please forgive my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I give my life to you.
SPEAKER_00: I yield my life to you.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender my life to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not mine anymore, it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, here I am, I'm yours.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving me.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first prayer that God answers.
SPEAKER_00: And when God answers that prayer in your life, you ought to know that every other prayer He'll answer as well.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you bow your heads as we close the service this morning?
SPEAKER_00: If you've never prayed that prayer and asked the Lord to save you, if you've never come to Him and said, Lord, I know I'm a sinner and I know my sins have to be punished.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I know Jesus died for me on the cross to take my punishment for all of my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I repent before you, God.
SPEAKER_00: I am sorry that I've rejected you, that I've lived my own way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I trust you to save me.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll pray that prayer this morning, he'll save you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're watching online or television, he'll right there where you are.
SPEAKER_00: You talk to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's no, as Jesus said, we don't babble incantations.
SPEAKER_00: If you bring your heart to the Lord and you acknowledge your sin and you repent of it and ask him to forgive you and tell him that you trust him, however you do it in your words, if you will come to Jesus and you will talk to him in your heart, he will save you because he promised to.
SPEAKER_00: In a moment, I'm gonna offer us a chance to hear.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here in the room and you'd like to pray, I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask God to give us a freedom to respond, and then we're gonna stand and our people are gonna sing a testimony that God answers prayer, and I'm gonna invite you to come.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to come and pray at the altar, come and pray at the altar.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with praying in public.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't condemn that with the right heart.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us to pray on our own.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, the altar is here.
SPEAKER_00: It is open if you want to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you give us a freedom to hear from you today and respond to you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people send.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.