Well, another one of those heart-to-heart talks today,
you and I are in a series of messages
regarding the greatest sermon that was ever preached.
No man can take issue with it.
You can be dead sure the one who gave that sermon
had his theology straight.
Because the sermon was preached by the one
who has the highest authority in heaven and earth,
the very son of the living God.
Oh, this, believe me, is the world's masterpiece.
No sermon ever preached
has been comparable to the sermon that was preached that day
by the Son of God.
When he preached it, his hearers were just a group
of folks sitting on the side of a hill.
But when he preached it, he was looking down
through a telescope of time to the thousands and tens
of thousands and thousands upon thousands,
even including you and including me as he spoke.
Well, sir, and in it, in this wonderful sermon,
he taught us how to pray.
He gave us the pattern for prayer.
Do you wanna know something?
I challenge you to go into any religious bookstore
and you will find that on the Shellsite bookstore,
you'll find more books having been written on prayer
than any other subject.
Literally volumes had been written on prayer.
There had been thousands of sermons preached
on the subject of prayer.
And yet, when you come to the final analysis,
when it's all boiled down,
Jesus has given us the pattern for prayer in various ways.
The pattern for prayer in just the few words.
So simple.
I dare say if I had a youngster,
a very small child sitting here beside me,
I could take the very words that Jesus took regarding prayer
and teach that little child how to pray.
He said simple.
The thing that amazes me is that human beings
just cannot accept simplicity.
They want something hard.
If it was some great thing, some mighty struggle,
something that was intricate regarding prayer,
and you read all of these volumes on prayer
and after you've finished them all,
you're so confused, you don't know anymore.
In fact, you know less about prayer than when you began.
And it's so simple.
Turn, if you will please, to the sixth chapter of Mary.
And may I remind you again of the heart to heart talk
that we had in a previous broadcast.
For preceding the teaching of how to pray,
Jesus gave us the three great means of grace.
Giving, prayer, and fasting.
All of this is in the sermon.
All of this he gave preceding the pattern of how to pray.
You heard me make the statement before.
I repeated the proof of our human relationship to God
in this world here and now, today, this very hour.
The proof of our human relationship this hour
to God is in our giving.
Because there's something that's very fundamental.
There's something peculiar about love.
Love is something you do.
Love is something you give.
Love is something you do.
Love is something you give.
Love is outgoing.
I'm not merely talking now about the financial.
I'm not talking about the material.
The material will be included,
will be a part of this giving.
You cannot love God.
You cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ without giving,
and the only way that you can give is yourself.
And he'll not be satisfied with just a part of you.
He'll not be satisfied with two thirds of you.
Oh, I'll tell you something.
I've argued this thing with him.
I tried to make him content with three fourths of me.
But it just didn't work.
He wasn't satisfied.
There's something about it.
I never received heaven's best.
I never completely enjoyed the fullness of his love.
The completeness of his blessing and his favor
until I sold out to him, locked, stocked, and barrowed.
Everything.
100%.
And it's just like that.
And the power that creates the giving is prayer.
And the condition that makes prayer powerful
is that of fasting.
Therefore, you cannot separate any one of these
from the other.
And in the three of them, the combination of these three,
you have the three great means of grace.
Now, he's giving all of this
before he gives us the pattern of prayer.
The last thing that he gave before teaching us how to pray
was the real place of prayer.
The secret place.
With the door closed.
In other words, the public is out.
No one is hearing you.
It's just the two of you.
You're not praying to be heard of anyone else
but the master himself.
The position of prayer is not stated
because it makes no difference whether you're kneeling,
whether you're lying down, whether you're standing,
whether you're standing.
No, that is not all important.
It's that secret place, just the two of you.
Then he goes one step further
before telling us how to pray.
And that was the emphasis put on the simplicity of pray.
How often you've heard me say
that it isn't the length of one's prayer,
it isn't how loudly one prays,
it isn't the beautiful words that one speaks.
You know, sometimes I sit and listen to some book as they pray
and they're so unnatural when it comes to the talking to God.
Oh, my word.
If that same person would stand before me
and in conversation talk to me as I've heard them talk to God,
I would almost feel insulted.
They're so unnatural.
I'd look at them and say,
are you all right? Are you sure you feel well?
Why, this isn't you at all.
Why, Mary, do you know me?
Am I here? This is you.
They are just that unnatural
when they approach the throne of God.
Why, bless you, you're talking to someone when you pray
who knows you better than you know yourself.
He knows every detail of your life.
It's the easiest thing in the world
to talk to somebody who knows all about you.
Be simple in conversing with him.
He understands.
That's why he says when you pray,
oh, not with vain repetition.
No.
When you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do,
for they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking.
But when you come in my presence,
just talk to me.
It isn't a matter of saying prayers.
It's a matter of conversing with him,
an intelligent God
who will return the conversation,
speaking intelligently to you and through you.
All right?
I left you with the first six words
of the pattern that Jesus gave us
when it comes to the subject of how to pray.
After this manner, therefore, pray you,
our Father who art in heaven.
If you really learn to pray the first six words,
you need go no further.
And when he said who art in heaven,
it was not merely for giving the location of the Father,
but reminding you of the perfection
of this precious heavenly Father.
Do you want to know something?
If somehow the Spirit could make this real to your heart,
if you could understand the complete perfection,
the absolute perfection of your heavenly Father,
you would never again, so long as you live, ever
ask the reason why
regarding his guidance, his dealings with you.
Every time you look up through bitter tears
and ask the question why,
you question his intelligence,
you question his wisdom,
you question his power, you question his authority,
you question his perfection.
He is absolute wisdom, he is absolute perfection.
Know that.
And I still contend and I believe it
with every atom of my being
that if you are completely surrendered unto him,
if you have surrendered body, soul and spirit,
not only a part of you, but all of you,
and living in his perfect will,
and you know that you're living up to all the light
that you have regarding spiritual things,
that nothing, absolutely nothing can come into your life,
nothing can touch you,
but what he allows and he permits.
And knowing that he is perfect wisdom,
that he is perfect knowledge,
knowing that he can never make a mistake,
it is impossible for our heavenly Father to make a mistake.
Oh, I know there have been times when,
years ago I questioned it and I thought maybe he got off
a little bit in his dealings with me.
I wondered if maybe, if just maybe,
well, if maybe he might have made a slight mistake,
but he cannot make a mistake
because he is absolute perfection.
Therefore, we are to accept that which comes into our lives
if we're living in his perfect will.
Now, there is a portion of the Word of God
that is abused by most people.
It's used probably more than most any other scripture.
All things work together for good,
to those who love the Lord,
who are living their life in his perfect will.
My friend, that promise is only for those
who are living in his will.
For those who've surrendered everything to him.
I am still a free moral agent,
even though I'm a minister of the gospel.
I am still free to do as I please.
I can literally take myself out of the will of God.
I can walk out.
I am free to deliberately live contrary
to that which I know spiritually.
And should I deliberately take myself out of God's will,
go against God's plan,
live according to my own will,
my own selfish desires,
I can no longer claim that promise
that all things will work together for good for me.
You can't do it.
You can not do it.
You can only claim that promise.
If you as a son, and remember something,
as a son, always the father has the right of command.
Therefore, you will surrender your will to the will of God.
Oh, this relationship is marvelous between father and son.
That's the reason I remind you again,
that if you fully understand the meaning
of the first six words of this prayer,
you don't have to go any further.
That relationship of son and father, a perfect father,
having confidence in him completely,
in everything he does, never questioning.
As a son, your will is surrendered to his will.
Watch it, and that's one of the hardest things in the world to do.
Had you completely surrendered your will
to the will of the father,
is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Have you got to the place where you can say,
none of self, let self be crucified?
Then, my friend, you have the right to claim that promise
that all things work together for your good.
All things, regardless of what happens to you,
nothing can touch you, your life, or anything that concerns you,
but what your heavenly father permits and allows.
Amen.