Okay, sorry.
Are we all dancing now?
Yes.
Follow your...
Would you stand with me as we stand and lift up our hands?
This is how you do the guitar dance.
We'll do it like that.
Lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
We cry out, worship Him now, and pray how awesome is He.
That's a fact.
And now we sing, everyone sing.
All is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory.
We stand and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
We cry out, worship Him now, and pray how awesome is He.
That's a fact.
All is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory.
I saw my screen saver in there from a different angle though.
Okay, at this time we'll let the children and their leaders go to the classroom.
And those who cannot.
That fits the whacked out simple stuff, Josh.
He needs help knowing how to turn it off.
Alrighty.
So if you hadn't guessed it already by the piece of paper that you've been handed,
we are going to look at two more locks.
So this makes locks five and six for our keys and locks on prayer.
Two more makes five and six.
We're going to jump right in because I intend to tell a couple of stories
and I don't want it to go long, so we're going to jump right in.
So you're in the top half of the page, you're on the right half of the top half.
Do you need help? Can you turn it off?
You got it? We don't want to hear it.
So, you got it? It's okay. Sometimes you don't know how to do that stuff.
I don't always know how to do it either.
Okay. Ain't nothing going on on there that's important.
This is what's important right now. Here we go.
All right, so we're going to look at the top lock.
I bet you if we read this verse, you'll be able to fill in the three words that start with P, N, and P.
And so the reference is there. It's James chapter four, verse two.
Somebody might even be able to do that from memory.
James four, verse two. But I'll just read it.
He says, it's really B.
The whole thing says, you lust and do not have, so you commit murder,
and you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
And then here's the part that we need. Listen closely.
It says, you do not have because you do not ask.
Okay. And so if we're talking about a lock of prayer, what do you think it might be? P, N, P.
And we're going to take a stab at it.
Okay, so it's prayer. Got the first one. Prayer or prayers.
We're definitely talking about prayers. This pen is out of ink.
Nope. Let's read it again. You're trying. You're good. You're good.
Trying is good. Trying is good. You do not have because you do not ask.
So what kind of prayers would be the kind of prayers that would be locked, our prayers would be away from God?
Prayers N and P. Two words.
Okay, prayers not. We've got two words.
Now we should be able to get it. Prayers not prayed.
Okay, so I know this sounds overly simplistic.
I'll tell a story in a minute once we get through it to kind of give you an example.
Okay, so if you don't pray, God is not going to answer the prayer.
Right now you say, God, well, God might know my heart and you might do what I need,
even though I didn't pray it. And that would be true, but it would not be in response to your prayer.
Okay, so prayers not prayed do not reach God.
Remember these locks are times when prayer does not reach God.
And we've saw four others and now this is the fifth one.
All right. And so sometimes prayers are not prayed because people are too busy.
Okay. Now I submit to you that that is one of the most common excuses that people make.
And it's just just an excuse. That's all it is.
Right. Because you can literally pray in your head or out loud while you're doing almost anything except possibly talking or telling a complex story.
And actually you could be telling a story probably.
As long as you know the story, you could be praying in your head while you're telling it, because I've done that.
I've been sharing Christ, for example, and seen like praying in my head at the same time that I'm talking.
So I know we can do that. So sometimes people don't do it because they're too busy.
And sometimes they don't do it because we the W is we.
We're going to take a guess. It's a fun little game.
We think we know very good, are we? We think we know.
So this is this most often happens when you're looking for wisdom, discernment, guidance.
To know what's going to happen next or to affect what's going to happen next.
So this is what happens. I don't want my loved one to die, but I think they're probably going to die.
So I'm not going to pray for them not to die, because if I pray for them not to die and they still die,
then I'll be not answering my getting my prayers answered. Right.
Or for whatever other reason, we think we know what's about to happen. So we don't pray.
And so if you don't pray because you think you know what's going to happen or you know what's coming next,
or you don't need wisdom because you think you already know the truth or whatever, then that prayer will not be answered.
I'm going to give you the next one because it doesn't tie in tightly with the text,
but it does tie in tightly with the illustration that I'm going to get to. And it is we may even think of it.
Now, I'm just going to ask you a point point blank. If you think to pray and you do not pray, what would you call that?
If you have a thought that you should probably pray and you don't say, OK, good. That you're getting really deep there.
But you're right. That's quenching the spirit.
So if you have the Holy Spirit prompting in your heart or your mind that you should pray and you choose not to,
you're definitely quenching the spirit.
Now, let's say you're just learned along the way that you should pray.
And it's not the spirit exactly that's telling you to do it. But you just think, well, I should do this.
This is something I know I should do. And you don't do it.
Does anybody know what James says? You know good to do and you don't do it. That is called sin. Right.
So if he knows the good that he should do and he doesn't do it, that's called sin.
And so you may even think, well, you know, I should pray.
You have that thought and then not do it.
And if you don't do it, that prayer that you would have prayed in response to the idea that you should pray will not reach God.
Yes, ma'am. I have been having and was interrupted real quick and lost it.
And that's still wrong. Yeah, still wrong. I should be running up to my room.
I wouldn't wait to go to your room. I think that I think.
Yeah, I think the issue is we think, well, we got to go to the room and then somebody interrupt us and we can't go to the room.
So then we don't pray. The moment you're prompted to pray, I would start praying.
And then if you know you're going to continue, then I would go in private. That's how I would do it.
That's a great story about that with visitation.
Back in the day when I started doing visitation with prospects, I wanted to have a flyer, business cards and stuff to give them when I got there.
Right. And I go to their house and invite them to church and stuff.
And every time visitation would come around, I'd be getting the flyer and I'd be getting the cards and stuff.
And one night I was doing that. I was supposed to go at six thirty for my visit.
I was trying to get the cards and and I found the cards. I was trying to get the flyers. I didn't have any more.
So I was printing them off and I had trouble with the computer and everything got to be about seven fifteen.
And the spirit was really on me. Heavily. He's like, you got to go. You got to go. You've got to go.
And I'm like, but I need to I'm telling God. Right. Like he doesn't know.
Like God, but I need the brochures like so I can give him something.
And finally, I just threw everything down on the desk and I ran out the door.
And when I got there, as I arrived at the house, I said hello. She said, come on in.
She didn't say hello. She said, come on in. And I said, OK.
And I walked in and she said, we knew you were coming.
I said, well, how did you know that I was coming?
And she said, because we needed you today.
We've been fighting and like her and her husband were on the verge of divorce.
And I fight over their teenage daughter was in all kinds of trouble with the law.
And it was the house was in total turmoil.
And we spent two hours counseling and praying and the whole deal.
But I kept putting it off so much and even had been times before I put it off.
I never got around to it like I was making the flyers.
By the time I got done making the flyers, it was too late to go make the visit.
And that night, God just pushed me out the door and I went.
And when I got there, she was waiting for me. So it happens.
And prayer, I think it's the same way.
I think if God if it's in your head, I mean, obviously, it could be sin.
If God is telling you to do something else and you're going to go get alone and pray
instead of doing the thing that God told you, that also would be bad. Right.
So, OK, so then the next one down, this is just talking about prayer.
We talked about this before. It goes back. Right.
So relationship requires communication.
So right now, all the wives in the room are going, yeah, yeah, we need to talk.
We can't talk enough. Right.
And husbands that have struggled in a relationship realize that a lot of it was about communication.
I did marriage Bible study with people before they get married.
And there are three topics that kill a marriage faster than any other.
And one of them is communication.
Another is money. And the third is intimacy or sex.
And if a man and a woman cannot settle those three issues in their marriage,
it will plague their marriage for their entire time they're married.
If it's 10 years, 50 years, all the way to death, it doesn't matter.
It will always plague them. And I think all relationships require communication.
And so I submit to you that if you are supposed to be praying and you're choosing not to,
you are breaking contact with God. So be careful.
So prayers that are not prayed do not reach the Lord sometimes because we're too busy.
We think we know the outcome. That's our excuse.
We already know what God wants or we already know where this is going.
We may even think of it and think we should.
Remember that relationships require communication.
And so we're talking about prayers not prayed.
And we have you and Q. What do you think that might be?
So if you're praying to God, there's kind of two kinds of prayers, right?
If I start praying to God, kind of one of them is maybe what I'm praying for,
praying to glorify God, so outward.
And the other is, which was actually talked about in the verse, asking.
You do not have because you do not ask. So what are we talking about?
Unasked questions. That's what we're talking about, right?
And I submit to you, if you love God and want what God wants for you,
even prayers where you pray, God, please do this, are questions.
Because you know you really want what God wants.
So if I say, God, please heal him, I know God wants to heal him.
So it's no problem that I pray, God, please heal him.
But I also know that sometimes God chooses to allow somebody not to be healed
because that's actually what's better for them or better for their family
or better for the world in general.
So I always end with, Lord, your will, not my will be done,
which is really a question because I'm saying, Lord,
I really don't know your exact will in this circumstance,
so please deliver it and then I'll know.
And then we end with unasked questions often go unanswered.
Now, not always, right? Not always.
Sometimes people will read you and they'll answer your question.
Sometimes God will answer your question when you didn't even ask it.
But I submit to you that it may be more likely that a lost person's asked question,
which they have no guarantee of answered prayer.
A lost person who prays to God does not have any guarantee in the Scripture anywhere
of any answered prayer except one, and that is the prayer for salvation.
Whosoever called upon the name of the Lord will be saved, so it says.
And so, you all right, brother?
You got a soreness? You got one of these?
All right.
So, a lost person might have a better chance of getting an asked question answered
than a saved person has of getting an unasked question answered.
Why? Because relationships require communications, right?
And if you're supposed to be praying and you're not, that could even be sin.
I think it's really hard for me to believe that God is going to answer prayers
if you're walking in sin and actually despising him at the same time.
So, you're despising God, not even talking to him about what's going on,
and he's just going to do it for you anyway?
Okay. So, I'm going to tell you two quick stories about this specific example,
and then you'll see how easy it is to fall in that trap, okay?
First one, I had a couple in the church.
They had a young daughter, and she got hurt.
She busted her lip, had to get sticks in her lip, and she busted her gums,
and her one tooth was loose, and she went into the ER.
She's at the ER, and I heard about it from somebody else that they told or whatever,
and so I grabbed my hospital badge and was going to go check in.
I'm just going to go see how it's going.
By the way, if you go to the ER, if you let me know, I usually show up.
Not always. It depends if there's another crisis, but I usually show up.
Okay? So, I get over there, and the first thing I do,
oh, Pastor Dan, so glad you're here.
Will you pray for our little girl? She's really hurt.
Will you pray for her?
And I said, well, absolutely. Let's do it.
And we bowed our head, and we prayed for her.
And then we sat there talking a little while afterwards,
and I said, well, you know, a bunch of people, we heard about it.
We spread. A bunch of people in the church were praying for her and everything.
She said, oh, we're so glad. We just didn't know what to do.
And the Spirit prompted me, and I said, well, did you pray?
And they looked at each other kind of guilty, and they said, no.
And the man said, we knew we should have done that.
And what I'm getting at is, in the midst of the circumstances,
when things are crazy, right, it's out of control,
or you're so concerned about what the outcome is, you're emotionally in turmoil, whatever,
it's super easy to get wrapped up in that and not do the number one thing that you should do, which is pray.
You really always go, that should be your go-to.
Somebody offends you, your go-to is forgiveness.
And if you're struggling to forgive them, your go-to is prayer, right?
So they stack. So I'm dealing with an issue.
You know, this guy hurt me. I want to forgive first.
And then I might talk to him about the problem and help him understand what went wrong, whatever.
But first, I want to forgive, because if you're coming to him out of an unforgiveness, you've got another problem.
First, go-to when somebody offends you is forgiveness.
Go-to when anything at all happens that you were not expecting is prayer.
First, say to God, OK, God, I don't understand how I got here.
And help God speak into your life.
Open your ears. Ask the question, how did we get here?
How did we get here?
I don't understand why this is happening.
And it's OK. And you look at the psalmist prayers, there are tons of them that they're saying,
look, I don't understand why this is like this.
Does anybody have any question as to why it is in the world right now that it seems like the wicked are getting ahead?
You know, it's been like that pretty much since the Garden of Eden, right?
Wives not a wife but wives and they're they're building wealth and they're prospering and everything's going great bigger places
Warring against each other tons of sin sleep with temple prostitutes
tons of sin everywhere right and it really seemed like the wicked were getting ahead and then came the flood and
They saw anything get ahead that day right does anybody have a question?
Why does it seem like in the world today the wicked are getting ahead? Well the psalmist praised that multiple times
Why does it seem like the wicked are getting ahead, but the psalmist always comes back to the answer?
It just seems like they're getting ahead
Right the story goes is simply we don't understand this fully the bigger you are the harder you fall
there are people who are
Thriving or seem to be thriving they're not because they're not alive, right?
They're dead and sin, but they seem to be thriving and witness will resist to the nth degree putting their knee down before Jesus
But we will go before Jesus put our knee down very readily and on that day. They will be in their spirit
They will be crushed. They'll realize their foolishness
They'll realize how they've invested in all of these things and then be forced to bow nonetheless and
They will they will despise it they will want to die
But they won't be able to and then they'll go to hell and they'll really want to die, but they won't be able to
See the wicked are not getting ahead if anything they're getting further and further trapped in the
schemes of their own planning
right and they're
Subjecting themselves to the things that they think are blessing them, but they're not all right second story
Personal story okay, so I
Was this back in the day early on first started preaching and I was preaching at Northwood High School and
I was spending about between 20 and 25
hours a week
Writing my sermon which I would then preach 45
Minutes to an hour on Sunday, so I was spending almost let's just call it 20 20 times as much time preparing the sermon as I was
Preaching the sermon and I went to a meeting out across town or whatever and
One of the guys
Brought that up and he says does anybody have any issue with this?
Seem like lack of efficiency so we we need to share the gospel with people
So why does it take 20 hours to write a sermon that takes one hour to preach?
And I was like I don't really have an answer for that
I said first of all I start with prayer and I pray a lot like so first I'm spending about sometimes
15 hours figuring out what the text is for Sunday, so I'm praying like God where I'm all over the Bible and studying the Bible
I'm praying. I'm like, oh is it this? Oh, no, there's I'll start writing a sermon
I get three points in and I'm like, oh but wait this third point
Kind of that touches on another verse over here that has three points in it
And that's really where God was leading me the whole time and like that and so that I'm like, I don't understand
So I left that meeting after the conversation like I just described to you and I went home and I was praying about it
I'll bet you can't
Yes, I bet you can guess
Yes, I bet you can guess what God told me in prayer as to why it was taking me 20 to 25 hours to write my sermon
That I would only take an hour to preach
I didn't spend enough time praying. That was the problem
Right. So God said yeah, I could give you this the sermon in five hours
Or three and it's hard to write a sermon in less than three hours
Yeah, it's almost impossible right because you want to make sure you're cross-checking yourself. We're human we can make mistakes
You're praying you're asking God. What does this word mean? You're looking up words. You're looking to do any other verses
It's hard to do it less than three hours. It's not impossible. I've been in five minutes, but but it's hard
Yes, but that's that sermon is that yeah, but that sermon is not really directed at preaching
It's directed at witnessing under
Dangerous circumstances, right because it talks about being a hall before governors being persecuted like that's what it's really talking about
So yes
She's saying you don't have to have a prepared message if you're hauled in front of or if you're if you're at the store and all
Of a sudden you're in a witnessing conversation. You could trust that the Lord will give you the words, right?
And you but I will say this it's also assumed that you're studying your Bible and praying
Right because where are you gonna direct draw that treasure from right?
so anyway, so
What I found out was I wasn't spending time in prayer and the word every day
So then when I went to go write my sermon God said, okay
Well, we're gonna spend about 15 hours praying and find in the text
See, so that's the 15 hours. I should have been spending in the other part of the week
I should have been spending a couple hours a day or hour and a half a day or whatever as the Lord leads
Praying and I wasn't doing that. So then I changed it around and I said, okay well Lord
So then I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna be prayerful daily
And then I'm gonna study my Bible daily and you know what the funniest thing that has happened and it's been this way for over
10 years now
15 years
because I I literally have the
Next 20 sermons. I might want to write
Like I'm so I'm so excited about the text, you know
I mean like I'm praying and like I was doing this morning and I was putting notes in my Bible app and I could
Have wrote three sermons in the half an hour that I was in my Bible app this morning
If you spend time in prayer and you study your Bible on a regular basis, you will usually have something to say
But if you talk to a Christian and they kind of don't have anything to say about Jesus like when we go to inspirational moment
moment once in a blue moon doesn't happen often but once a blue moon or if we go to
inspirational moment and we only have the
This song this video that kind of thing and nobody's talking out of the Bible and we're talking out of their prayer experience
I'm not judging anybody but it's probably because we're not really having a Bible in prayer experience
Because that was like I could do sometimes like I want to Wednesday morning. I'm like, ah
I need the inspirational moment. I've got like ten things to say and I don't want and I don't do that because
We're supposed to be doing that right?
So I might come and I have one like I'm like I'll like hone it down and just get one
but if you have something you prayed about and you study then you have something to say and
Not just here because maybe it isn't for here
Maybe as much as it might be for the grocery store might be for your friends or for your family or whatever
So anyway, I wasn't trying to
Turn it into a positive. I'm saying to you I had to repent
Because what I discovered was I was taking so much time to write my sermon
I wasn't spending hardly any time in prayer other than that and that's that can't be done
The same thing with making your income or taking care of your family or whatever
You can spend so much time on something that you don't spend any time in prayer and here's the lock if you don't pray the prayer
It's not gonna make it to God
Right. You have to think or talk it to the Lord at least in order for it to get there
Then that brings us to the key
I bet you can't guess what the one word key is if prayers not prayed don't make it to God the one word key for
this lock is
Pray it's pray
Right, so we always talk about praying
We always talk about we should pray more and things like that
But the bottom line is any prayers that you do not pray will not make it to God. So pray
Okay. Now the next four the first blank that I've given you ask
Four times ask to the first ask ask F
Well, that's true but and I would do that frequently but that wasn't the word I use there
If you do it regularly and you do it when God wants you to do it that would be called
Faithfully say that again. What did you say?
Frequently would be okay. Yep
so but I think it's I was saying faithfully and I went with faithfully instead of frequently when I was thinking about it because
You could say I'm just gonna do it often, right?
But often to you may not be as often as God wants or it may be more often that God wants
So if you go faithfully and you're governed by what the Lord is saying, that's why I put that there
You can do it however you want. Okay, and then ask
In starts with an E
Okay, I like that ask in earnest, yeah mean what you say you could put that that isn't what I had but you could put that I
Put emergency
Because remember this example in the emergency room where they did not pray for their own daughter that they were very concerned about
I hazard a guess if you'll think back to your last
Three emergencies whatever they were
The first thing that occurred to you might not have been to pray
But you probably did think about it and I hope you did do it, but you may find that you didn't do it
and so when you're in an emergency situation
Pray whatever it is. He is your greatest help. In fact, we read that verse
On Sunday that his eyes go through the earth looking whom he may assist
Okay, ask
see
I like both of those actually neither one is the one that I had but I like them both
Okay, so let's say confidently that means you asked because you know you're asking right? Let's say continue
Obviously the Bible commands us to pray continually
Right, although I think we're talking about more intentional prayer where you're actually talking or you're actually asking specific questions
They're looking for direction or whatever when the Bible says pray continually
I think that's a lot talking about just like a state of being we're always thinking to God always listening to God
The word that I put was casually
It should be simple
RJ shared how when he first came to New Heights years ago, he heard Tommy pray out loud in front of church
And it was like time it was praying to a good friend and he usually does that to this day. He might he might be
Intentional about picking certain words or calling him Lord or things like that. But generally you talk to God like he's your friend
if you're just praying
Remember we talked about last word or last time two weeks ago because I wasn't here last week, but
If you're just praying the same words over and over again
That's like getting that's like putting on a tux to take out your garbage garbage gonna get the curb either way
It's still gonna be garbage. Doesn't matter if you're wearing a tux or not
Just talk to God
You try to make it real formal then you may miss out sometimes and then the next one
However, though is ask with an F
And I'll give it to you formally
so do be
Formal about it
Why would we want to be formal about praying to God?
Respect right you you visit your girlfriend at her house for the first time ever
You look her dad in the eye and you offer him your hand
You may not have shaken someone's hand ever in your life, but you do it that day
This is God we're talking about. He owns the cattle on thousand hills. He is the king of the kingdom
He deserves it
Also, if you're formal, then you know who you're praying to I had there was a man in our church and I was
Counseling him about prayer and whatever and I said well because I had heard him pray and heard his spouse pray
And they never prayed in the name of Jesus. They never mentioned the name of Jesus now
They knew who they were praying to and they wanted to pray
But they never said in Jesus name. I pray and I so I just asked why do you never say that?
I mean, you don't have to say it every time
You know, I've been praying to God for a long time and I've been praying to God for a long time
So I just asked why do you never say that? I mean you don't have to say it every time
But why are you doing that? Do you never say that and he said well, I don't know
I guess I never really thought about it
Well, here's the thing if you never really thought about it
You might wind up praying to somebody other than Jesus or in the name of somebody other than Jesus
So sometimes it's a good idea to mention the name of Jesus in your prayer
So that you know, baby, he knows Jesus knows God knows, you know
Everybody knows who we're talking to and who we're talking about right?
So sometimes do pray formally, but that means setting aside time that means intentionally you see certain words that kind of thing
Okay. The next one starts with the d
As da i'm going to take a stab at it
We're talking about the kinds kinds of pray prayer how we should pray I wish you use the key of prayer
So prayer is one of our spiritual
Prayers are not prayed and the key is pray so this is disciplined
Asking remember the verse you have not because you ask not
So this is disciplined asking and so by disciplined it means I I block out time
So I'm not asking you to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask you to ask me to ask me
So this is the key to prayer
So this is the key to prayer that's the key to prayer that's the key to prayer that's the key to prayer
So we're talking about the healing
And so by disciplined it means I I block out time
I do it in an intentional way. I plan it right now
Am I talking about repetition like i'm praying for healing so I do it a thousand times
So I'm not talking about the same thing that I was talking about a thousand times a week ago
We don't just pray repetition, right?
So sometimes you might need to take a moment to prepare your heart and make sure your heart is right
We'll talk about that in a second and pray intentionally one time
Lord i'm taking this very seriously right now
I'm coming to you and i'm asking you and i'm believing in faith and this is what i'm asking you for
I'm asking you to give me wisdom or solve this problem or heal this person or heal me or whatever and you ask one time
And if you want to end with uh
Your will not my will be done, but lord, this is what i'm asking for and then when you're done, you're done
You know repeat it a hundred times more, you know, although I will say every time he lays the burden on your heart again
Then I would repeat it
Right, but you're listening to god to look for that prompt like he's saying do you really care?
Then yes ask again, right? There's a there's a text in the bible talks about that where
um
The he she keeps bothering him. She keeps bothering the guy to give her justice the judge keep bothering him
She's bothering and then finally he gives her justice, right?
But notice in that story, she's knocking at the right door. She's talking to the guy who can give her justice
And no one else can right?
So she's intentional and formal about her request and she kept coming back to him because he's the only one and in that case
She was looking for justice. All right last one ask trusting
And then the bible verse
All right, so natalie what's the bible verse
What is the bible
That's correct
All right, there's more coming okay, so we're going to the second lock you're going to the right half of the page
We're going to james 4 3
So if the first if this lock was you have
You do not have because you do not ask james 4 3 then says you ask
And do not receive
So some people were asking and still not getting what they were praying for that's not good
Says because you ask with wrong motives
So that you may spend it on your pleasures
Okay, so this lock is the first i'll give you the first word. I left it off, but i'll give it to you as praying
Can anybody fill in the rest what's the l
That's with an l
Praying with a something heart
Lustful that is correct. Very good praying with a lustful heart
so
Hannah can you define the word lust for me?
The job is five I didn't give you the definition in advance you use the word don't you
You know what I mean, I bet you do sometime or other
She's helping you okay, go ahead phone a friend
That's three times well two times and a half
Okay, so rust is basically when you want something to fulfill your desires
And we mostly use it for the purpose of flesh
right
So a man looks at a woman and by jesus says you look at a woman and you lost after her
So you want her to fulfill your desires. It is the same as if he has committed adultery with her already
There is no difference in the sin
Okay, so can you lust after food?
Absolutely, can you lust after food?
Absolutely, can you lust after money?
Absolutely, can you lust after nice cars?
Absolutely now should you?
careful
Are we sure?
I think there's a line isn't there so you can want something to fulfill your desires as long as what what's the limiter?
Okay, that's easy you took the easy road there, but you're absolutely right
You're absolutely right. That's an absolutely true answer if that aligns with god, but let's say what if what aligns with god
What do we need to align with god?
Okay, your heart say it again
His will
Okay, good. Those are both good answers
So if the thing is going to fulfill your desires what needs to align with god the thing
The desires that's the key. It's okay to want a sandwich
People gotta eat
Right. It's okay to want a good sandwich
Right like I when I was eating
Only vegetables and stuff. I discovered the the burger the impossible burger, which is only made from vegetable stuff
I'm like, well, it's almost like a burger and the one night I wanted an impossible burger because it's like a burger
It's not quite a burger so that the one night I made an impossible burger myself on the stove out of beans and other parts
Right, so I knew everything that was in it with no chemicals. No nothing
I didn't I made it was like a burger wasn't quite a burger
But it was pretty it was like a burger enough considering I hadn't had any meat in like 12 days
Right, so I'm like, it was pretty good. And then I went out we went to camp and while we were at camp they made
something that was basically like that from there was a
Sausage that was basically like that
But I think it had meat into but anyway
The point is you can want it for your own desires as long as not the thing
But your desires are in line with God. That's the key. So what people are always trying to do is
Shut down the desires. I don't go have no desires. I don't want nothing. I don't want to eat
I'm not gonna talk to anybody. I don't want a boyfriend not me. No, I'm never gonna have I'm done. I'm not gonna have kids
No, I'm done. I'm not gonna do it. How many 15 to 25 year olds have you said have you heard say I'm never gonna have kids
You have a bunch of them right they do it all the time and then they have kids they go well
Boy, was I stupid right? It's okay to want what you want. There's nothing wrong with that. You just need to bring your
Desires in line with God's will so you do it in a godly way and I submit to you off text for one second
I submit to you that when your desires come in line with God's will they are more likely to be fulfilled
Okay, if they are fulfilled outside God's will you just wind up with more desires
That's what happens. It's never fulfilling. Okay, so
This lock is praying with a lustful heart
And then there's two words there. They're WM and they were in the text
Wrong motives very good. Someone was listening. Thank you so much wrong motives
Right and a motive is just why you do something and having a wrong motive is the wrong reason to do something
Simple, okay. And so now these all of these that are in the middle here are no something
So all those little blanks are no and then there's no L. This was an easy one
No
No lust right so no lust
This one's harder. No G
But it makes sense especially in our world
Nope not grumbling. That's like I see where you're going with that, but that's a different thing
Remember we're talking about lusts or wrong motivations. These are all wrong motivations
Grumbling is a wrong motivation, but the but grumbling isn't really the motivation. It's the action that's precipitated by a wrong motivation
So what do you got know what?
What? No gain? That's interesting
Greed that's what I was going for. Yeah, so gain is almost the same thing as greed because you could gain away. That's not money
Definitely shouldn't be boasting
Motivations for prayer think of motivations for prayer wrong motivations for prayer
Bitterness no bitterness
Can't have it so you can't have bitterness in your prayer
Also, no starts with a V
Well, you know you want patience in prayer that's a good motivation
Don't take like I can't have no patience of my prayer
No, no, we want that one. We'll keep that one pride. That's good. Very good. No pride. No pride allowed
Okay, so no lust no greed. No bitterness. No pride
I mean, I see where you could you don't want to pray in patience because you want to give it
You want the Lord to act but I think we would keep patience actually. Okay
So in these cases, over the last few years, we've had a lot of people who have been praying in prayer
So in these cases or I gave you all this
In any there's the WM again, and we already know it. It's what?
Wrong motives right in these cases or in any wrong motives we risk starts with an I
So we're down to
One word starts with an I
the five word
If I give you one more clue, you'll get it for sure the Israelites were guilty of it like crazy
For a long time
Idolatry yeah impatience would be true you could risk that but like it might not apply with if you talk about praying and pride
for example
So if you in any wrong motivations, we risk idolatry and why do we risk idolatry because prayers?
to things prayed for
Okay, so in other words, I know this is gonna sound weird, but if you just track with me for one second, okay
So you get down with God and pray and let's say you're praying for a car
the Lord I need a car and then you're like Lord I need a 2010 car and I really want it to be blue and
Yep, there you go. So what happens is what you're actually doing at that point is praying to the car
There's no I'm saying you're not praying to God at all
You're praying to the car because you're focused on the color of the car and the type of the car and I want the car
Why do I need the car all the reasons I have the car and you're literally sit there and drum up everything you can think of
about the car
And when you when you really talk about something you think about how awesome it is. What's that called called worship?
Yeah, and it would be worthless speech as well, right so it's worship of the car not prayer to God at that point
That's one example is prayers to the things prayed for it can be a job Lord. I'm praying for a job
These are God I know you're kind of ignorant of my life. You really don't know what's going on
So let me tell you all the benefits that could take place if I have a job as you ask God for a job
And then you spend about a half an hour telling God how good jobs are and how much jobs are needed and all of that
Like God doesn't know that God doesn't know you need to work
You spend all the time worshiping the job
Right or the more money or the promotion or whatever and so you can stray into idolatry if your wrong
Motivations are in your heart and it's greed and you start thinking about how good that job would be or you could be talking about
A promotion you could talk about how how you really deserve it. And so you spend your whole time talking about you
How smart you are how capable you are and how well you should have it and how good you've been as a parent
How good you've been as a child and you're worshiping you
And so the danger of wrong motivations is that you can stray very easily into idolatry
Okay, or just any God will do
That's the other thing so you get praying about what you want and you have wrong motivations and pretty soon you find you're not praying to God at all
Just if anybody will give you what you're asking for it's all good
right, so any demon
Any evil spirit any family member the drug dealer cousin that you got he came along gave you a free car
You'd be perfectly happy with that. It doesn't matter who gives it to me
It doesn't matter where it comes from as long as I get what I want
And it's very easy to do if you have wrong motivations when you while you're praying so idolatry is a very real risk
Okay, we're close to done. Believe it or not. We're doing good. I don't know what time it is
Probably learning late
Yep, we're I don't know if we I don't think we'll finish it
Three minutes, but we're doing good. Okay
So psalm 37 for I'll read the verse and you fill in you tell me what the blanks say. I think I can do it
Psalm
37
Hopefully the translation is the same psalm 37 for
Yep, pretty good. Okay psalm 37 for says this delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart
And so if you take the word yourself out
It's delight in the Lord. So the key is delighting in the Lord
And I'll put it this way you want what God wants more for you more than you should ever want what you want for you
Because God knows better than you do you can be poor for five years
And God's literally saving your life from a terrible situation
Or from violence or from you know
That going down a road of pride and idolatry
I mean or you can be sick and stuck in and out of the hospital month after month after month
And and God is deepening your relationship with him and then you get healthy and you've got another
10 50 70 years, whatever where you're walking with the Lord
Undefeated because you know he was with you during the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time
He never hurt you So if you believe that
You believe that he did have come down of denomination
It was 10 percent...
And that's not an except down from your heart
post twelve
So that would be a two percent
Three percent
Which I didn't put the reference down there so that was a mistake on my part
You want to jot it in there somewhere you can but there's no blanks for it's Philippians 4
Okay, so we're gonna dwell on and then I'm gonna give you the list
For eight I think it's eight and nine I'm checking right now
Yeah, it's just eight okay finally brethren whatever is true
So there's the first one
Whatever is honorable
That's the next one
Whatever is right
Whatever is pure
Whatever is lovely
Whatever is of good repeat
Do I leave enough blanks or do I have one not enough blanks?
Squeeze them in squeeze them in we'll make room just like kids in the church van
Okay whatever is excellent and then so you should have the last one it starts with a P
It's praiseworthy
I think I got them I don't know if I got them all or not but anyway you get them all in there
Okay true honorable pure lovely I think I skipped one blank is what happened
Honorable pure lovely of good repute excellent praiseworthy I made a mistake and skipped right
Okay anyway so these are the things that you focus on why do we focus on them to ensure that our
heart is right when we pray to God right I'm not judging but when you watch a horror flick turn
the TV off and pray to God in the next five minutes you watch pay close attention because
what's in your heart will not be right it will not be sure it will not be honorable it will you'll
you'll need to fix it right when you watch a movie with a bunch of lusty things in it girls and
bikinis running around sex scenes whatever pray in the next thing yes then right after that try to
pray or even during I mean go on our 45 minutes you're not gonna pray for a whole hour 45 minutes
because you're watching a movie that's kind of questionable that's gonna affect your heart and
it's gonna be hard to pray right godly get drawn into it yeah yeah it's not really a good all
things are permissible right so I'm not saying that's gonna keep from having or yeah but if
you're trying to protect your heart to make sure that this lock is open so when you pray God can
hear your prayers then my suggestion to you would be avoid things that are not pure not right honorable
right all of those things okay and at least at least then we have this as a solution all right
so mark 7 20 to 23 Jesus is talking I'm gonna read it real quick and then this is a very last
step says and he says that which proceeds out of the man that is which that is what defiles the man
for from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts for occasion steps murders
adulteries deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit sensuality envy slander pride and
foolishness you don't have to remember all those things but what is he saying all kinds of bad
things come out of us and when they come out of us they come out of the heart they attach to your
heart they come from your heart all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man and
so it's the what's on your paper is what flows out that's the problem so what you think about what
you're producing what you're producing can make your heart a kind of dirty thing and if it does
make your heart a kind of dirty thing then when you go to pray to God this lock can snap in place
and instead of your prayers going to God they get stopped because your prayers are prayed in
wrong motivations you say no God can overcome that yes he can and the last blank is repentance so you
turn to God and he can fix it all he can take care of all of it he can undo what you watch what you
saw that you shouldn't have the way you talked the way you acted you didn't honor him you didn't
focus on the right thing because you committed idolatry praying for your car or praying about
your car praying to your car right all of those kinds of things he can fix all of that but we
have to turn to the Lord and and I again I submit focused on the wrong things it's hard to do that
it's hard to turn to the Lord because you want you're letting your desires not be in line with
what God wants and then you want it and you're going after it and that's not that's interfering
with your prayer life we ask ourselves sometimes why when we pray we don't get what we pray for
well James was very clear you don't get what you pray for because you don't ask for it or maybe you
ask for it but you ask for it to spend it on your own desires on the desires of your lost
heart so that you'll have better you'll want better you want better you want things to go
better or whatever and that's not that's not the point the point is to delight in the Lord and
pray his will and I think our daily we're already mentioning that earlier when we're talking about
that's the key okay all right so unfortunately we're out of time I will give out more candy but
we're gonna pray and be done because we got yeah and I also forgot to put the snacks and
drinks in the cafeteria so we'll go get that here in a second and then we can fellowship on it
anybody talk more about it we can if anybody have a last comment or a question I know we're over time
but so we've got six locks and six keys and you can go back over your worksheets and look at them
again and it should be at this point we should be deepening our fur like we talked to God and
nobody's that's the goal Father heaven I praise you and I thank you you are the awesome God ain't
no car no money no relationship no beautiful scenery no beautifully tasting thing or wonderful
tasting thing no provision of our God has ever begun to come close to you you are our God and
just like they said at camp I remember and he said it very plainly the greatest thing of all that
you could give us is your presence you in us and you have offered it and for those who believe and
receive that you're you're you're right there doing it you're doing grace every day all day and you're
willing you're willing to get down and muddle in our mess waddle in our mud overcome our difficulties
and our problems just turn to you whosoever called on the call upon the name of the Lord to this day
still this day will be safe and we're calling upon you to cleanse us of what we've dealt in to help
us focus our prayer life on only you what I if I've prayed ever to a demon or an object or a
creative if ever I've done that and because I'm a human I probably have Lord I personally repent
of that and I pray that I will be aware of it as I pray that that you will be my focus that your
desires will become my desires that I'll grow a little bit more every day or or in leaps and
bounds whichever way you want it and when I pray I'll know that my God hears my prayers and that
he's at work bringing about the events and the activities of the Kingdom of God when I think
about wicked you seem to be prospering I'll know that you are on the throne I'll not I'll not despair
because I know and then I'll remember that our relationship mine yours relationship it should
have communication in it I should be talking to you and importantly listening to you and I love
it better sometimes when you talk than when I do but I also realize I'm called upon and so Lord
help me help us all to be the best followers of you we possibly can be offering up our prayers
when it's under our control to make a choice Lord keeping our hearts clean so that we can pray
earnest prayers faithful prayers casual prayers to know your witness formal prayers because we
know you're the God of heaven and it's no small thing for us to be able to enter into your throne
room and make our requests and father we go forward with you with you as our shepherd with
you as our guide with you as our king with you as our protector and we'll lift our prayers up to
you and to you alone or crazy things in Jesus name this concludes our Bible study