>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
THIS SERMON AVAILABLE WITH POWERPOINT IN RESOURCE DOWNLOAD!
This sermon (and several hundred others) are available for download.
> Microsoft Word
> Most with handouts
More info: www.sermonsubscribe.com or darrellstetler2@gmail.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How do you pray for the glory of God?
It’s more than just putting “for your glory” in your prayers… what’s the essence of it?
Luke chapter 11… (Set the scene.)
Lu 11:5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
Now, let me stop here and say, when I read this over a year ago during my soul-searching time, I was immediately struck by those words “in his journey”… Every Sunday, I have people come to me who life has brought on a long journey.
There’s a teenager who helped steal a car at age 12… and wrecked it. The police were not impressed. He’s awaiting trial… he comes on a long journey.
There’s the tall African-American guy who prayed to be saved at our Christmas service and is battling a marijuana addiction. Two weeks ago, his cousin killed his ex-girlfriend and their two kids before taking his own life. Two months ago, another cousin was gunned down in a shooting. He sits in church, and he’s come to me on a long journey!
And the problem is, I can’t give them what they need.
My cupboards are empty.
And so, I do what this man did – I run to a friend who I think will help. And I say, “God, you’ve got to save this person… you’ve got to pour out your grace and change their mind and their heart! You’ve got to save them!! They’ve come to me on a long journey, and I CAN’T give them what they need!”
Are you convinced that _________you have nothing________ to meet your own need, or the needs of those who come to you?
7 "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'
And God says “NO.” I don’t like this at all, in the human. If God would let me erase one verse in the bible, this might be the one.
WHY does he say no?
Is it because he doesn’t love us? Doesn’t care?
Is it because it is not his will to save?
NO ---- it is something else.
Sometimes God answers NO to see what will happen IN US!
Let’s look at it next.
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend,
Don’t miss that… there are some prayers God will not answer for you because you are a Christian…. There are some prayers God WILL NOT ANSWER because you are a member of the holiness movement, or even the CHM, or because you’re a Bible Methodist or Pilgrim holiness or God’s Missionary!
So what will make God answer?
yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
What does it mean by boldness?
Boldness is an attitude of audacious persistence.
What kind of idiot do you have to be to stay and knock again.
What would you think of me if I knocked on your door at 2 am and asked for a loaf of bread, and you said, “Not now.” And I WOULDN’T LEAVE?
IMPORTUNITY is born in a desperate, self-empty desire to see God glorified in answering your prayers. To have importunity, you have to be conscious that your cupboards are bare!
Wilma didn't get much of a head start in life. A bout with polio left her left leg crooked and her foot twisted inward so she had to wear leg braces. After seven years of painful therapy, she could walk without her braces. At age 12 Wilma tried out for a girls basketball team, but didn't make it. Determined, she practiced with a girlfriend and two boys every day. The next year she made the team. When a college track coach saw her during a game, he talked her into letting him train her as a runner. By age 14 she had outrun the fastest sprinters in the U.S. In 1956 Wilma made the U.S. Olympic team, but showed poorly. That bitter disappointment motivated her to work harder for the 1960 Olympics in Rome--and there Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals, the most a woman had ever won.
Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, Jan, 1992, p.10.
One of the most important things about your prayer life is WHAT YOU DO AFTER GOD SAYS NO.
Sometimes:
• God says no because it is not his will. We understand that.
• God says no because it would hurt us. I understand that.
BUT SOMETIMES, God says NO because he is watching to see if an attitude of faith-filled importunity will rise up in our hearts. He says no to test us and see if we GROW under the rejection and delay…
SOMETIMES, God says NO to see if you’ll ____GROW____.
John Killinger retells this story from Atlantic Monthly about the days of the great western cattle rancher: "A little burro sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging, convulsing like drunken sailors, the two would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging that litle burro along and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first, trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world, that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burro, and in that moment, the burro would take mastery and become the leader. And that is the way it is with the kingdom and its heroes, isn't it? The battle is to the determined, not to the outraged; to the committed, not to those who are merely dramatic.
Leadership, Summer, 1989.
What would YOU do if you went and knocked at a friend's door and asked them for something at midnight… and they said NO?
“Oh… Ok, sorry to bother!” Probably.
There is a lot of difference between praying for the convenience of me, and praying for the glory of God.
Here is how we pray for the glory of God: If what you are asking is to the glory of God, don’t stop asking until he gives it!
MY DETERMINATION: I will stand here and knock until my knuckles bleed…. I’m NOT LEAVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One day George Muller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Muller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Muller's funeral the last one was saved.
Our Daily Bread.
Someone is thinking right now, “What about submission in prayer? What about ‘not my will but thine be done?’”
Charles Finney says, “Let us be careful not to confuse submission to the will of God with indifference to the will of God. No two things were ever more unlike.”
He tells the story of man who came to a revival, and when “he heard the people praying as though they could not be denied, he was shocked, and kept insisting on the importance of praying with submission, when it was plain that he confused submission with indifference.”
Praying as though they could not be denied!
Submission is what happens when God’s will is revealed to be something else. This is what Jesus did in the garden – in the human he wanted to not have to go through the suffering and separation from his Father… but God revealed his will, and Jesus said, “Not my will, but thine be done.”
Submission is what happened to David when he prayed and fasted for days for his child from Bathsheba… and when it died, he submitted, got up and ate.
I’m afraid that too much of our submission has been closer to indifference. I’m afraid that’s why we don’t see God moving powerfully, healing, saving, answering… because we don’t care enough to be importunate in our prayers!
The story is told that Andrew Jackson's boyhood friends just couldn't understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson's friends said, "Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now." Another friend responded, "How did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn't they usually say three times and out?" "Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat -- he would never stay 'throwed.' Jim Brown would get tired, and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner." Picking up on that idea, someone has said, "The thing that counts is not how many times you are 'throwed,' but whether you are willing to stay 'throwed'."
If you will get an attitude of determination with God that says, “I’m not leaving!” I’ll stand here until I die if I must, but I won’t quit praying and asking… then one of these days, let me tell you what will happen:
The bedsprings will creak, and footsteps will cross the floor, the doorknob will turn, and God will fling the door wide open.
No doubt you have heard this one but it is worth repeating for obvious reasons.
The value of courage, persistence, and perseverance has rarely been illustrated more convincingly than in the life story of this man (his age appears on the right):
Failed in business 22
Ran for Legislature--defeated 23
Again failed in business 24
Elected to Legislature 25
sweetheart died 26
Had a nervous breakdown 27
Defeated for Speaker 29
Defeated for Elector 31
Defeated for Congress 34
Elected to Congress 37
Defeated for Congress 39
Defeated for Senate 46
Defeated for Vice President 47
Defeated for Senate 49
Elected President of the United States 51
That's the record of Abraham Lincoln.
Bits and Pieces, July 1989.
Luke 11:9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Notice: What you need most may not be what you _____think you need________ most.
What you really need most: The _______Holy Spirit_____ in your life.
Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous Polish composer-pianist, was once scheduled to perform at a great American concert hall for a high-society extravaganza. In the audience was a mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, the boy slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the Steinway on the stage. Without much notice from the audience, he sat down at the stool and began playing "Chopsticks." The roar of the crowd turned to shouts as hundreds yelled, "Get that boy away from there!" When Paderewski heard the uproar backstage, he grabbed his coat and rushed over behind the boy. Reaching around him from behind, the master began to improvise a countermelody to "Chopsticks." As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear, "Keep going. Don't quit, son...don't stop...don't stop."
Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, Jan, 1992, p.8.
What about you?
What if we all agreed that we would double our personal prayer time?
What if we repented of giving up too easily in prayer, even on things that we KNOW are the will of God?
What if we ________never gave up_______ until we received?
HANDOUT:
Luke 11:5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
Are you convinced that ______________________________________ to meet your own need, or the needs of those who come to you?
7 "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Boldness is an attitude of __________________________________ ______.
One of the most important things about your prayer life is ___________________________________________________________.
Sometimes:
• God says no because it is ____________________________.
• God says no because it would _________________________.
BUT SOMETIMES, God says NO to see if you’ll _________________.
There is a lot of difference between praying for the __________________ ___________________________, and praying for the _________________ ___________________________.
Here is how we pray for the glory of God: If what you are asking is to the glory of God, _________________________________until he gives it!
Someone is thinking right now, “What about submission in prayer? What about ‘not my will but thine be done?’”
“Let us be careful not to confuse submission to the will of God with indifference to the will of God. No two things were ever more unlike.” – Charles Finney
Submission is what happens when God’s will is revealed to be ____________________________________.
Luke 11:9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Notice: What you need most may not be what you __________________ ________________ most.
What you really need most: The ___________________________ in your life.
What about you?
What if we all doubled our personal prayer time?
What if we repented of giving up too easily in prayer, even on things that we KNOW are the will of God?
What if we ____________________________ until we received?
