June 7, 2015
Now the chapter that I want to focus on is beginning there in verse number seven where the bible reads, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Oh what man is there of you whom if the son asked bread will he give him a stone or if he asked a fish will him give him a serpent. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is heaven give good things to them that ask him?” I want to preach about this morning is the subject of prayer and I want to talk about six different types of prayer that are found in the bible.
First I just want to point out to you the meaning of the word prayer, if we just look at the word pray itself it means to ask for something. When we are praying that’s what we are doing and often in the bible you’ll read people just saying one to another things like, “I pray thee” where they are just asking another person for something. That’s all it means to pray, here he says in verse seven, “Ask and it shall be given to you and seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth.” Notice what he says in verse 11, he says, “If he then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is heaven give good things to them that ask him.”
The implication is there that if you don't ask you are not going to get the good things and if you do ask then you shall receive. Go to James chapter four and he explicitly tells us in James chapter four that we have not because we ask not. If we are not praying then we are missing out on receiving good things and good gifts from God. It’s not that we are going to receive the things no matter what we do and no matter what happens. No there are good gifts that God has in store for his children that He will only give to those who ask Him and if you do not pray then you are missing out on the blessings of God. It says in James chapter four verse two. “Ye lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.”
“Ye fight in war yet ye have not because ye ask not.” It’s that simple and I have had people even say things like, “Well you know God’s already going to give you every, you just pray just to show God your faith or something.” No I pray because I believe that praying is going to change things and I pray because I believe that praying is going to allow me to receive things that I would not otherwise receive had I not prayed. For me praying is not just an exercise or a ritual that I would go through but rather prayer is a direct access to God to get something that I need. Or to get something that I want. Now when God says that “Everyone that asketh recieveth and when the bible says things like, whatsoever we ask we receive of him.”
You have to understand that there’s often a bit of a curvy out with that. Because for example he says whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Or He will say, “We know that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” Here in James He says, “That you have not because you ask not” but then in verse three He says, “Ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust.” What He’s saying there is, if you pray and you do not receive basically what’s he saying, you are doing it wrong.
Because He’s saying, if you’re continually praying and not getting your prayers answered you might just be praying for things to consume upon your lust. God is not giving us a promise that says, “Hey if you pray for whatever bonuses and money and cars and how” I will just give you all that wealth and riches. That’s not what He’s saying, He’s saying don't pray for things that you would consume upon your lust or to pray for spiritual things. Now look if you would at Mathew chapter number six, by the way I have always thought it was neat in that verse in Mathew seven where it says, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
If you take the first letter of each of those words it spells the word ASK. It actually makes that verse really easy remember it says, ask that’s the A and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be so it all actually spells Ask right in that verse. God’s saying that He wants to give us good things just like we want to give good gifts to our children. If they ask us for bread we are not going to give them a stone, if they ask us for a fish we are not going to give him a serpent. If they ask us for a fish we are not give them a serpent. If we they ask us for an egg we are not going to give them a scorpion.
Okay He’s saying if we being evil comparison to God because God is still much greater and more holy than we are. If we being evil know how to give good deeds unto our children how much more will the father which is heaven good give things for those that ask Him, give good gifts unto His children. It says in Mathew six verse seven “But when you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things he have need of before you ask him. After this manner therefore pray you.” Then He’s going to give an example of how to pray.
The reason I’m turning here is to show you some examples of what we should be asking for because Jesus says, “Pray in this way, pray after this manner” so this will give us some ideas of what we should pray for. What’s funny is that people will often chant this prayer and use it as a vain repetition. The Catholics will call this doing a series of Our Father’s. They’ll do a series of Hail Mary’s and a series of Our Father’s. It’s funny because he just finished saying, “When you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. They think that they should be heard for their much speaking. He’s saying, “Part after this manner” and then they just chant that when He just finished telling them, “Don't chant don't repeat things vainly.” God already knows the things that we have need of before we ask him, does that mean that we are going to get those things without asking? No, because the bible says, “If we ask not we will have not.”
What it is saying is that we don't need to chant over and over again what we need, we could just tell God one time what we need and we don't have to just over and over chant it vainly. Now we can plead with God about something multiple times if it’s from the heart every time. Not just if I say this 50 times He’s going to answer me or if I do it every day it’s going to get answered not necessarily. Now the bible says here in Mathew chapter six nine, “After this manner therefore pray ye, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it in heaven” Of course first of all we see that honor and reverence is being given to God and an understanding is there that it’s God’s will that needs to happen.
Not what we will but as He will. He says, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.” In this scripture we can get some ideas of what we should be praying for. Now first of all notice there’s nothing wrong with praying for our physical needs. In verse 11 He says, “Give us this day our daily bread” that’s talking about physical food that we need to live. There’s nothing wrong with praying that we’ll have the food that we need, or praying that we would have the lodging that we need or the vehicle that we need.
Things that we need to live and to serve him to have clothing and food and things like that. What the bible is telling us not to do is pray for things to just consume upon our lusts. Now go to proverbs chapter 30 and will find a great example of this back in the Old Testament the middle of the bible is Psalms, right after that is proverbs. Look at Proverbs chapter 30, while you are turning there I’ll talk about some of the other things in the Lord’s Prayer. First of all he says, “Give us this day our daily bread” asking God for something that’s definitely praying and saying give me something, give me the food that I need to eat. Notice he’s not saying “Lord, give me great feasts and give me enough food to where I can stock, pile it for many years to come.”
The prayer is to give us this day our daily bread and then next He says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Now what we can learn from that is of course the concept of praying and confessing our sin to God and asking for Him to forgive us our debts as forgive our debtors to forgive out sins, our trespasses.” Now of course this has nothing to do with salvation, we are saved we are eternally secure, it will be like if my son came to me and said, “Dad I messed up I did wrong and I’m sorry would you forgive me dad?” He’s not saying, “Dad may I remain your son?” Can I still remain in the family?” No what is he trying to do? He’s just trying to mend the relationship there and that’s all it is when we confess to God and would say to God, “Forgive us our debts, forgive us our trespasses Lord.”
All we are saying is like a child would say to their dad, “Dad I have done wrong and I’m sorry and we are just confessing that trying to make things right with God.” Not to try to remain safe, some people literally think that they are saved by asking for forgiveness for their sins every day. Now you have thin eyes if that’s what you are doing because first of all we have sins that we don't even know about. We commit sin without even realizing it, we sin every single day and then people literally think that if they die between sinning and asking for forgiveness they are going to go to hell because they are not in a state of grace is the Catholic terminology for that. Its nonsense my friend.
That’s why they teach, “Hey if you commit suicide you are going to hell because you didn’t have a chance to ask forgiveness so you are not a state of grace. People in the middle ages if they want to commit suicide then they were Catholic they would tie a stone to themselves and throw themselves into the sea. Because then they could ask forgiveness and they could repent and they still couldn’t untie the thing. You know what I’m saying? They could kill themselves, “I’m sorry” and repent and untie it but they can't untie it because it’s chained to them and then they drown so that’s what they do. This is nonsense, salvation is the gift of God by Grace through faith.
Not of works so any man should vote and Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” We don't have to keep saved over and over again. Jesus didn’t say that to be saved you had to be born again and again and again and again. He said, “You must be born again” just one time just like my children were born in my family one time we must be born into God’s family one time. He also said that we should pray not to be led into temptation. That God will keep us out of the path of temptation and also that we will be delivered from evil that we protected, that we will be safe. He says at the end, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen.”
Look that in Proverb chapter 30, this is a prayer unto God this is speaking unto the Lord. It says in verse seven, “Two things have I required of thee, deny even not before I die, remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me lest I will be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I will be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain.” That’s similar to the prayer of give us this day our daily bread, not looking for great reaches and great stock piles and great feasting and wealth but just saying, “Look just don't make me poor or rich I just want to be fed and I want to be clothed and I want to just be able to live my life as a Godly person and go to work and serve God and fee and raise and take care of my family. That is what our goal should be as Christians, our goal should not to be rich. Some people today even amongst Christians they get excited about getting rich and they get this goal of putting a whole bunch of money and getting very wealthy.
They get caught up in all the financial seminars and the Dave Ramsey and the Michael Kiyosaki Kosotu Tokyo, I don't know, what’s that guys name? Robert Kiyosaki and the Donald Trump and everything. You say, “Well you know Dave Ramsey is telling you to get out of debt” well great get out of debt but then David Ramsey is also telling you to stock pile a bunch of money and get wealthy and lay up treasures in this earth and that is not what the bible teaches. We should not obsesses and fixate on money, now if your finances are screwed up you need to give some attention to that. If you are in debt, if you owe people money you do need to dwell on that and get that fixed.
It should not be a goal of just laying up great treasures, see there’s a difference though isn't there between being in debt up to your eyeballs and stock piling great treasures. Want to find that middle ground, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me Lord. That’s a prayer that we could pray to God just saying, “God help me to feed my family and provide my needs it’s not carnal to pray for your physical needs. If you need stuff physically pray for those things and there’s nothing carnal about it, God will give you those things. If you need a job pray for a job. If you need a vehicle to get to the job pray for that.
Pray for your food, pray for your cloth, pray for all of those things but also we should be praying for spiritual things. One if the greatest things that we could pray for is wisdom. Now turn toward Philippians chapter number four and while you are turning to Philippians chapter four let me read through James chapter one verse five it says if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and that breadth not and it shall be given to him. This is something where if you pray to God for wisdom you are guaranteed an answer to prayer. You just keep asking God for wisdom in maybe different areas of life and God will give you wisdom.
The bible says but there’s always the curvy out, it’s not just a carte blanch of prayer with God. He says, “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the seed driven with the wind and toss for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Basically if you pray to God and say, “Oh God give me wisdom” but then you are also looking into the wisdom of the world and you are not really sure whether what the bible teaches is really the right way to live your life in a certain area. God’s not going to with you at that point he’s saying you have to ask in faith trusting God to provide the wisdom and trusting God’s word as the ultimate source of wisdom. Not trying to say well I’m mixing the wisdom of this world with the wisdom of God. There are certain things that this world to offer that there’s nothing wrong with them if they have nothing to do with spiritual things.
If it’s just practical things of how to work on a car or something, how to build something. When it comes to spiritual things, our spiritual wisdom needs to come from the bible and so we need to ask in faith and trust that God’s word is true and any time we are listening to something of this world that begins to contradict principles of the bible. We must immediately reject it out of hand, if we want to be the person that is nothing wavering that has complete faith in God when we ask God for wisdom. That means when we hear the wisdom of this world that says, “Well here’s an alternative how to have your marriage or how to raise your kids or how to run your business.”
It contradicts God’s word it should be rejected out of hand and if we don't reject it out of hand then God’s not going to give us the real wisdom. There are things out there wisdom and teaching that contradict God’s word that are just practical things and there’s nothing with that. Anytime anything begins to contradict God’s word it needs to just be immediately rejected as false, because God’s word is true. It’s the only thing that we can really trust and anchor our soul to it’s the rock of our salvation. Now let’s talk about the second kind of prayer, the first type of prayer is just basically just asking for things. This is also known as supplication and the meaning of the word supplication is when we humble entreat for something.
When we humbly request something from God so that would be asking for something supplication but secondly there’s another type of prayer which is the prayer of thanksgiving. Look at Philippians chapter four verse six. “Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God.” Here we see the component of asking for something and requesting something but also we see it’s on with thanksgiving. Then the bible says “And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” See the reason we can have peace when we pray to God and make our request unto him is that we know that he hears us whatsoever we ask.
We know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. We know that if we asked anything according to His will he heareth us. That means if I need something in my life and I pray to the Lord and ask Him to give it to me then I can just rest assured and not worry about. I can go to sleep at night and not be biting my finger nails and worry about it because I know that God is either going to give me what I’ve requested if it’s his will or he has a reason why he’s not going to give to me that’s for my own good or for the furtherance of the gospel. A lot of things that we ask for we are, we are asking a miss, we are asking for the wrong stuff and God knows better. Wouldn’t you rather God would withhold things from you that you asked for if you know that they were going to ruin your life or make you miserable or ruin other people’s lives?
I remember my sister was telling she had a prayer list where she would keep like a prayer journal. Or she would write down what she was praying for and then revisit it six months later, 12 months later. She said when she would revisit it, everything on the list because she would then mark them up if they were answered. A year later she would look at that list and say, “This was answered, this was answered, this was answered” she said everything was either answered or she would look at it and say, “Sometimes I don't even want that anymore.” That’s not even what I want anymore because at the time she wanted something but then later she realized that wasn’t really the right thing.
God really does answer our prayers it’s not that we are just going through an exercise. If you pray to God and say, “Oh God help me with this and that situation at that point you can just relax. Because either He’s going to help you with that situation or he’s going to do something different than maybe you haven’t even thought of but you know that you are in His will at that point. Listen if you don't pray you don't have that assurance because if you don't pray there’s the thought that God could have stepped in fixed it. God could have given you the things that you needed and maybe He’s just not doing it because you are not asking.
When you are doing the things that are pleasing in His sight keep the commandments, praying to the Lord you can have the peace of God that passeth all understanding. To just know that, “Hey whatever happens, whatever God gives me it’s what God has for me and I’m going to accept it from the Lord.” It’s going to be for my best because the bible says, “All things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are the called according to His purpose.” Flip back if you would to the book of Daniel chapter nine and while you turn to Daniel I will give you a few other scriptures here on thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 says, “Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
Nehemiah 11:17 talks about thanksgiving in prayer.” It says in Mattaniah the son of Micha, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph was the principle to begin the thanksgiving in prayer. Bakbukiah the second among his brother and Abda the son of Shammua, the son of Galal the son of Jeduthun. Also when you look at Jesus Christ often it will talk about him breaking bread and giving thanks and then eating. Also the Apostle Paul where he would break bed and then he would give thanks and then they would eat. This is where we get the custom of thanking God for our food before we eat because we see Jesus doing it, we see the apostle Paul doing it in the bible and so we often pray before we eat. Now this is a great custom as long as it doesn’t become a vain repetition. Because sometimes I think people just mindlessly go through a ritual but they are not really in their heart thankful to God.
They only thinking about is saying [inaudible 00:21:25] they just crank through a prayer for the food right, just rattle something out. Instead of actually thinking about what we are saying. Like I heard about a kid that would pray every meal and say, “Bless all the missionaries in the cornfield.” Because he meant to say, “Pray for the missionaries on the foreign fields” but he really didn’t understand the meaning he’s just saying it just chanting repeating. Bless all the missionaries in the cornfields so we need to think about what we are saying and mean it from our heart and actually comprehend what it means to thank God for our food.
Because just saying it, just bowing our head and putting on a show doesn’t really mean anything to God. It’s supposed to come from the heart and it shouldn’t be a vain repetition. Prayer for our food would be the first of all thank God, that’s what Jesus is predominantly doing He’s giving thanks for the food. It would be to first of all say thank you God for providing the food. You say well, I went and bought this food, I worked for it myself but then you are a fool if you don't give God the glory for the food that you eat. Because the bible says it’s he that giveth you the power to get wealth. God gives you your health and your strength. God has provided you with a job, God has provided you with places to buy inexpensive healthy food.
Often we eat better food than your average person. In fact in America today many of us eat as kings would have eaten hundreds of years ago. Because if you think about it hundreds of years ago you didn’t eat food from all over the world at all seasons. You ate the local food and if you wanted to eat exotic spices and things brought from India or China or other distance places and fresh fruits from other parts of the world, only a king would eat like that. We have fruits and vegetables and spices flown in from all over the world and we can pretty much eat whatever we want and honestly there’s a lot to be thankful for with that. Thank God just for the pleasure that we get to enjoy of eating such good food and just the health benefits of eating nutritious food.
Hopefully you are eating nutritious food otherwise you are going to really have to pray hard for that food, if you are going to go out and eat a bunch of junk food you better be praying like, “Oh God please let this food not kill me.” Please just change it Lord make it organic, remove the pesticide Lord. You are the God that parted the Red Sea you can fix this Lord, I know you could do it.” If that’s the only food that I had it was junk that’s how I would be praying. Now when you go out and choose junk I don't know if God’s necessarily going to change the molecular structure of that food. You know what I mean but honestly we should be thankful for our food give thanks. Then where prayer or asking could come in to is to just pray that the food would strengthen us and be good for us and that there be nothing harmful in that food.
The third type of prayer, we talked about just a basic supplication asking for things, talked about the prayer of thanksgiving. A third type of prayer is a prayer of confession unto God and I touched on this a little bit earlier with the Lord’s Prayer. Look at Daniel chapter nine verse one a prayer of confession to God confessing our sins to God. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes which was made the king over the realm of Chaldeans. In the first year of its reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years where of the word Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. I said my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sack cloth and ashes.”
I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, “Oh Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. We’ve sinned and have committed inequity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from my precept and from thy judgment. This is a prayer of confessing sin to God saying, God we’ve seen, we’ve blown it at the end of the chapter verse 21 it says, “Ye whilst as I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel who might have seen in the vision at the beginning the cost to fly swiftly touch me about the time of the evening oblation.”
He informed me and talked with me and he said, “Daniel I am now come forth to give these skill and understanding at the beginning of thy supplication the commandment come forth and I have come to show thee. For thou our greatly beloved therefore understand the matter and consider the vision flip over to first John chapter one. First John chapter one says, “It’s interesting because in Daniel at the beginning of the chapter begins to confess sin to God and to make supplication to God and he’s praying for wisdom, for knowledge for skill for understanding. He’s praying for spiritual things and this angle shows up unto him and says to him.
He says, “I’m now come forth to give these skill and understanding.” He says at the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth and I’m come to show thee.” If you read Daniel nine and 10 you read about Daniel praying and at one point the answer comes 21 days later. Then when the angel when it comes and speaks to him says, “From the first day that you started praying God sent me to answer the prayer.” He talks about how he was held up a lot of spiritual battle is going on and things and so therefore it took 21 days for Daniel to get the answer. Sometimes our prayers is not going to be answered immediately, sometimes it takes time even if God decides right away, “Hey, I’m going to answer you right away.” Sometimes it just takes time for the answer to get there.”
Because God in his wisdom has a certain time frame in which he works but he gives skill, understand these are the type of things that we pray for if we are smart. Because in Proverbs over and over again the bible says that wisdom is the principle thing and that we should seek knowledge and understanding. Remember King Solomon he was told by God, “Hey pray for anything you want.” What did he ask for? Wisdom an understanding heart, knowledge and he was given those things, he was answered because he asked for that which is spiritual. One of the greatest things we can pray for is spiritual wisdom knowledge, understanding famous prayer in the bible in Psalms.
When the bible says, “Open now mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” That’s a great thing to pray as you are opening the bible. Saying, “God please show me the truth. Give me knowledge, give me understanding, give me skill and wisdom.” You would also ask for skill at your job, skills to do what you need to do to serve the Lord in this life and to take care of your family. 1st John chapter one has more on this idea of confession. It says in verse eight, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and He cleanse us from all and righteous. If we say that we’ve not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.”
This goes to show you that anyone who says that they have not sinned or anyone that says that they presently have no sin, is unsaved. Because the bible says in verse eight, “If we say that we have no sin the truth is not in us.” Of course the spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ said, “I’m the truth.” He said, “Thy word is true, how could that be abiding in you if you claim to be sinless. Whenever anybody says that they are sinless, you know that the truth is not in them. Anybody says, “I have not sinned” then you know that they are not, they are making God a liar and His word is not in them. You know what another name for the word is, Jesus.
Jesus is not in them because it’s the Father, the words and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. Jesus is the word made flesh and dwelled among us. That right there shows us that if we confess to our sins He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse from all righteous. God is going to go easy on the chastening, nothing to do with heaven and hell. God is going to go easier on the chastening if we confess our sins to them. If we are sorry and make supplication and He’s going to help us to do better and help us grow and help us get cleansed of that. Look at James, look at 1st John chapter five and I want to talk about a fourth type if prayer so far we have talked about just basic supplication and requests unto God. Asking for something is the first type of prayer. Number two there’s a prayer of thanksgiving. We need to be thanking God in our prayers.
Number three there’s confession, prayer of confession where we are confessing sins to God and we should be specific and say, “You know what God here’s what I did I’m sorry.” God will hear that he’s faithful and just he’s mercies are new every morning the bible says. Fourthly there’s intercessory prayer now this is like confession but it’s for someone else. Confession is for our self basically telling God we are sorry and pleading with God to be merciful unto us like Daniel did. Intercessory prayer is when we do that for someone else who’s in sin. The bible says in 1st John 5:16 if any man see his brother sin in a sin which is not unto death he shall ask” what’s another word for ask?
Pray and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There’s a sin under death I do not say they shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin and there’s a sin unto death. If we see our brother sin what does the bible say that we are supposed to do if we see a fellow Christian committing sin? One of the things that we are supposed to do is pray for that person. Now why would we pray for that person? Now most people would think, “I’m just going to pray that they’ll stop sinning” Here’s the thing though that’s up to them where they stop sinning. God doesn’t make people stop sinning we have to stop sinning. Okay God can help us and guide us and bring circumstance into our life but one of the things that we could pray is basically that God would be merciful to that person.
Like when God was just going to start killing the Israelites and then Moses is praying, “God please don't destroy them Lord.” He’s basically pleading with God to be merciful. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ and we see them do something that we know is wrong we know its sin our attitude should not be that we just want to see God really cloud up and rain on them. I hope God comes down hard on them and make an example to everybody. Because God already makes examples of plenty of people what we ought to do if we have love in our heart for our brothers are sisters in Christ is to pray for them and say, “God please be merciful unto them Lord.”
“Be gentle with them Lord, help them to get it right if there’s anything I can do to help Lord but no matter what Lord just please take it easy on them.” Because you know what? God likes that because it shows that we love them. Because whatsoever things that we would that man would do unto us we are supposed to do unto them. Here’s the thing if I committed sin I would want people praying for God to go easier on me and not to just come down on me like a ton of bricks. I’m going to pray that for my brothers and sisters in Christ that’s called making intercession. This is what Jesus is doing up for us in heaven, the bible says that he’s making intersession for us daily. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. He basically pleads with the father to go easy on us as Christians for his sake and for the sake of His sacrifice on the cross to go easy on us. Look at James chapter five we’ll see more intercessory prayer, James chapter five verse 13.
The bible reads is there any sick among you, I’m sorry starting in verse 13, is there any among you afflicted let him pray. Is there any merry let him sing psalms.” He say, “Look you are in a bad mood things are going bad pray. If you are in a good mood things are going great sing psalms.” He says, “Is there any sick among you let him call for the elders of church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sin they shall be forgiven. Now when the bible says, “The Lord shall raise him up” it’s talking about raising him up out of the sick bed okay.
Because this isn't just talking about somebody who has the snipples, this is talking about somebody who’s very sick. It says, “Is there any sick among you let him call for the elders at the church notice they are coming to him, its real sick. It says let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. This is not talking about, “Hey it’s going to get him to heaven.” A lot of people misunderstand the bible when they think save is always talking about heaven and hell. You know what I mean? What about when Peter is drowning and says Lord save me?” He’s not saying that he wants to have Jesus in his heart.
He’s saying get me out of the water I’m drowning. Here when it says the prayer of faith shall save the sick it’s talking about the fact that he’s not going to die of his illness. People throughout history have gotten sick and died, frequently especially back when they had sometimes very strange medical practices. Didn’t have as good of sanitation didn’t eat good food. When people were really sick and had a bad fever and everything you were really praying for that person that God would be merciful. We still should pray that way because even today there’s a danger anytime people get very sick. It says, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up.”
Watch this, “And if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven.” Why because the bible is clear that sometimes sickness is a result of our sin. Now where this becomes a false doctrine is when we would say anytime somebody is sick, that’s sin. They are in sin that’s a wicked thing to say but this is what the prosperity preaches will sometimes preach then name it claim it, put your hand on the screen type people. They will tell, “Hey if you are right with God you will never be sick and everything is going to go great and you are going to be wealthy and everything like.” That’s not really true because look at Job, Job was without sin, I’m not saying he was perfect but he didn’t have some big sin in his life. Okay where God was punishing him, obviously he was a human being he made mistakes but he had not sin to bring that sickness and punishment upon himself the bible is very clear about that, very clear.
What does his three friends say? They told him, “Look if you weren't living in sin this wouldn’t be happening to you” when they looked at his sickness. The bible tells us that he was the most righteous man on earth at that time. Why was he sick for another reason? We don't want to get carried away to where anytime somebody is sick that’s a punishment from God, God’s chastening them that’s simply not true. Sometimes people just get sick for no reason or sometimes they are sick because God has a reason for why they are going to be sick because he wants some circumstance to take place that we don’t understand. Here’s the thing though a lot of people they go to the other extreme where they would just say, “Well God will never send sickness as a punishment.” That is foolish because all the throughout the bible he talks about sending sickness as a punishment.
In 1st Corinthians 11 even in the New Testament he says, “For this course are many sick among you and many sleep for if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord.” The bible talks about God sending sickness as a chastening. Now it’s not our job to judge other people and to look at their sickness and be like Job’s three friends and say, “He’s getting punished for his sin.” It’s not our job to look at other people and make that judgment because we don't really know that that’s why they are getting sick.
What the bible says is that when someone is sick and we pray for them, we just pray for them with an “IF” because he says, “If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.” Just because somebody is sick it doesn’t mean that they sinned but if they have committed sins we can make intercessions and pray and say, “Dear Lord I pray that brother so and so would be made well again that he would recover from this illness.” I remember recently I had a very severe life threatening illness and I was praying and one of things I prayed was I said, “God, if this is a result, if this is the result of some sin in his life Lord I just pray that you would just forgive him and just be merciful and just give him another chance.
Just heal his body anyway Lord and be kind unto him, be gracious unto him Lord because of your mercy. That’s what it means to pray intercessory prayer and I think a lot of people miss this in the bible and they miss it as a part of their prayer life. I think most of us ask for staff. Most of us say thank you to God when things go good and we thank God for our food. I think pretty much anybody who’s a Christian does a lot of confessing to God. Because we sin a lot and we confess to God a lot as Christians. I think intercessory prayer sometimes go by the wayside where we’ll pray for other people sometimes but it’s not an intercessory way. You know we might pray for other people just for needs that they have but we should also pray for God to be gracious to their sins and to be merciful to their transgressions. That’s part of what we should be praying. That’s the fourth type of prayer now fifth type of prayer is what we would call imprecatory prayer.
Okay now this is something that a lot of people reject but it’s biblical, people can reject it all they want but it is biblical go to Psalms 69. In fact there are 19 Psalms that are classified as the imprecatory psalms. Now Psalms is a book of prayers and praises unto God. 19 of the Psalms are imprecatory Psalms and to imprecate someone is just a fancy way of saying to curse someone. Imprecations are curses now this is not popular because we live in Lala Sunshine happy land where everything has to be positive and sweetness and like and hear no evil, see no evil and don't you dare say or preach or do, or think or feel anything negative or we’ll have a drug for that. To make you be happy and positive all the time.
No the bible is a negative book, it’s both negative and positive. It’s like the battery that’s under the hood of your car. It’s both negative and positive. If you really want to be so positive why don't you remove that negative terminal of your car because I think it’s bringing you down. I think that that car is way too negative you need to disconnect that negative so all we need is a positive terminal. I was talking to a Buddhist at soul winning on Wednesday and she was trying to tell me how much better Buddhism is than any other religion and “Buddhism is such a wonderful religion because we’ve never started any wars and we would never hurt any, we won't even hurt an earth worm.”
“We practice nonviolence, won't hurt anyone, won't hurt anything nonviolence it’s so great.” Here’s what so stupid about that, we never started any war okay but let’s see, the most sickest bloodiest most wicked government regime in the history of mankind in communist China took place in a Buddhist country and the Dalai Lama supported Mao Tse-tung. Look it up, the Dalai Lama was sucked in by Mao Tse-tung and thought he was great. Yet he’s supposedly a man of God with all these wisdom and revelation you are so stupid Dalai Lama that you fell for Mao Tse-tung and thought he was a great guy. The evil blood thirsty dictator that he was and where did that all take place?
In a place filled with Buddhists right so here’s the thing you are all nonviolence but here’s the thing there’s a time to kill, there’s a time to love, there’s a time to hate. To sit there and say, “It’s nonviolence I wouldn’t kill anything” so basically let’s just let our house be filled scorpions. We had 60 scorpions in our house it was a time to kill okay because we had a scorpion problem for years, for the first five years we lived here we never saw a scorpion. Then we started seeing scorpions and scorpions and we tried everything to get rid of them. We tried all the nonviolent methods and we just couldn’t get rid of them. Finally I did a bunch of research and I figured out there’s only one way to get rid of scorpions. You can't use pest control but even ways that you would normally think of killing bugs with pesticide and everything doesn’t work. There’s one way, you have to kill them physically smash them each and every one of them. I went out with a black light and one those paint stir sticks from home depot that was my weapon of choice.
I went out with a black light and paint stir stick and I went hunting for hours you got to do it after dark because they grow in the black light. I want out and hunted everywhere and I killed over 40, it was like 41, 42 I don't remember the exact numbers. It was a little over 40 scorpions in one night all around my house front yard back and I don't have a big property at all just a little tract home. There were just a lot of scorpions and I went around and hunted them and I killed them and I smashed them and chopped them off. I tried to do this as many as possible finish them off first. I killed like 40 something scorpions and then one of them I couldn’t quite get to it because it was inside this chicken wire and I couldn’t get it out.
I lit a fire and I burned it out and I actually killed two by fire. I mean I put them to fire and sword and honestly it was a Buddhist nightmare. I set myself back several reincarnations according to these people okay. Here’s what so stupid about that they are people I’ve heard about Buddhist where their house is filled with mosquitoes and they can't kill the mosquitoes. They can't even kill the mosquito’s nonviolence. They do all this stupid stuff but here’s the thing though. If everybody that all these Buddhists are just, “We are all going to be nonviolence but guess what, there’s always going to be violent people.”
Who’s going to fight back against the bad people? Nonviolence but what happens when somebody is just coming in and assaulting your family? You are just going to stand back and just, “Nonviolence.” What are you going to do? Just let your family be raped and killed? Of course not so this whole thing of just this taking it to this extreme of just nonviolent, no the bible says, “Kill and eat” about animals and the bible also teaches that we should defend ourselves and our family and not just practice this thing of just, never harm anyone for any reason. This mentality has gotten into our American society where we are not Christians anymore.
We are getting influenced by all these other philosophies and these eastern philosophies. Now for example if you hear the word hate it’s just like, “Hate that’s so bad. Hate is so evil.” When in reality everybody hates someone or something they just don't admit it and hate has become this curse word, this four letter word of don't hate. “Don't you dare, you are so hateful.” Really anything that you say that’s negative just becomes hateful, you hate because you preach against sin. The churches now, the Christian bible believing churches now, you know it my friend have gotten to where they are like 90% positive, 10% negative. If you are lucky it’s not 100% positive Joel Osteen style. What is the bible like? The bible is both negative and positive and listen there’s more negative in this book than there’s positive.
It’s a fact and if you don't think so well you haven’t been reading it. There are more negative things in this book than positive and now there’s both and some people make the mistake of just going overboard where it’s just negative, negative. Then other people will just go where it’s positive, positive we need to preach the whole thing. We can't just reject a whole section of the bible and say, I don't believe in that, I don't believe that is right to ever curse anyone or anything for any reason no imprecatory prayer. I’m only going to love, love, love and all you need is love but that’s not biblical friend and I don't but into that philosophy.
I think that’s there is a place for a negativity my friend. Now I don't know about you but I’m a very positive person in my personal life you can my wife and kids. He says, “If you are afflicted pray, if you are married sing” I’m married most of the time, I do a lot of psalm singing more than praying. Because of the fact that I’m a very married happy positive person. You know what though it’s wrong to just be only positive all the time and it’s wrong to be only negative all the time there’s a time and a place for both. We do need to have some negativity in our lives. This attitude that I’ll get rid of everything negative it’s a lie of the devil. Because of course the devil wants to teach you don't fight.
Don't fight, don't get mad, don't put up any resistance, don't harm anything or anyone for any reason because then he can just walk all over you upshot and take over. Because you are not fighting anything or attacking anything alright. When I preach sermons I saw that preacher in the tax sermon. Why? Because there’s some things that need to be attacked today, fight the good fight but of course the devil wants to convince us to just be passive. Why? So he can walk all over us and why is the bible liken onto a sword? Why didn’t he liken it unto s plough share or why didn’t he liken it unto a pruning hook?
Why did he say it’s a sword? Because it’s a weapon and again, I’m not preaching violence or Hey lets go out and kill and put everything to fire and sword” I will put the scorpions to fire and sword. Honestly it’s a spiritual warfare it’s not a physical battle that we are fighting I’m not going out to harm physical people. I have never harmed a person, I’ve never laid hands on somebody and assaulted them and injured them or anything like that, I’m not going to, I don't plan on. If I had to God forbid, protect myself or my family or someone else, I would do it. I wouldn’t shrink from it but I have never had to and I hope I never do. You know what, this sword is going to be engaged in the battle and there’s going to be blood shed spiritually.
It is a spiritual warfare so don't get all nervous about the imprecatory Psalms. Don't get all sacred about imprecatory prayer and get all uncomfortable like I don't know man, this is weird.” Look just get over the brainwashing for a minute that tells you that anything that’s negative is bad and just look at the word of God and say, “Well this is what God is saying. Let’s just read it and see what it says.” Look at some of the prayers that David prayed and keep in mind a lot of people will write these up and say, “That’s just David.” The bible whenever it quotes Psalms in the New Testament it will often say things like, “The Holy Ghost speak by the mouth of David the prophet.”
We have to understand that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. No prophesy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. By the way even some of these imprecatory Psalms were quoted by Jesus and were quoted in the New Testament we’ll see that in a moment. Look in an example of an imprecatory prayer, look at verse 22 of Psalms 69. “Let there table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake pour out thy ignition upon them and let thy wrath or anger take hold of them.
Now is this intercession? Is this saying, “God go easy on them?” God be gentle with them” no it’s the exact opposite. “Let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents, for they persecute him whom now have smitten and they talk to the grief of those whom now has wounded. Add inequity unto their inequity” it’s the exact opposite of making intercession for our brothers in Christ. Because this is not directed toward our brothers in Christ. It says, “Let them not come into thy righteousness, let them be bloated out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous but I’m power and sorrowful let thy salvation oh God set me up on high.”
Flip over to psalms 109 but see a lot of people you will read this storm and then they will just say I still don't believe in it. It’s like, what in world? Then or they will say, “Well about the New Testament?” These are quoted in the New Testament and I’m going to show you some imprecations in the New Testament but not only that but the bible in the New Testament says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all knowledge speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” We are commanded to sing the psalms they are 150 psalms and so why does God wants to sing these if they are just totally irrelevant and not applicable in the New Testament.
No they are pointed to in the New Testament it says in Psalm 109 verse six, “Set thou wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged let him be condemned” not let me stop right there, this isn't in my notes but that prayer right there let Satan stand at his right hand that imprecatory prayer because that’s not a blessing to have Satan at your right hand that’s a curse. That imprecatory prayer is commanded in 1st Corinthians 5 which is one of the dispensation is right? It will tell you is this what Paul wrote? Okay well let’s go to what Paul wrote. In 1st Corinthians 5 it says, “That the man who was committing fornication with his father’s wife that they were supposed to get together and pray and to deliver such and one unto Satan.”
Then not only that Paul talked about praying an imprecatory prayer toward false teachers. He said, “Of whom is Ananias in Alexander he said, “Whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. What did the apostle Paul mean when he named a few false prophets and he said I have delivered unto them unto Satan? When he said unto this guy who’s just committing this gross sin in the presence of the whole congregation everybody knows about it and he said, “Deliver such in one unto Satan.” Well what does it say here? “Let Satan stand at his right hand, when he shall be judged let him be condemned.”
Loot at the end of verse seven, let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually bag of bones and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he have and let strangers spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, we could go on and on it goes on till like verse 20. Then we could go other places like Psalm 55:15 where it says, “Let death cease upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
We could go on and one but some people would just reject scripture. They will just reject scripture and then demonize somebody who preaches these scriptures and say that they are bad for preaching God’s word. Now if you would let’s just look at a little bit of example of this in for example you go to Galatians chapter one, if you want flip over to Galatians one. While you are turning to Galatians one let me show some imprecatory prayer in the New Testament. For example second Timothy 4:14 Paul said Alexander the copper smith did me much evil the Lord reward him according to his works.
He said in Galatians 5:12 he said, “I would they were even cut off which trouble you. He said in Galatians 1:8-9 but the we in angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you then that which we’ve preached unto you let him be cursed. As we said before so I say now again if any man preach any other gospel unto you then that you ever seen let him be cursed. Of course there are also quotations in the New Testament of the Psalms that we read, Romans 11:9 David saith, “Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always.” That’s Romans 11:10 so what’s going on with this imprecatory prayers? Well this is not just, “Hey somebody does us wrong we are going to pray the wrath of God on him. That’s not what it is teaching because the bible tells us to love enemies’ right.
He said, love your enemies but a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that that’s some new teaching to the New Testament when in reality the Old Testament teaches to love your enemies okay. What are these imprecatory psalms? Look he says, “Love your enemies pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, bless them that curse you.” All these different things, you say, “Well it’s a contradiction look whenever you run into something in the bible that seems like a contradiction you have to have the faith to believe that the whole bible is true, right? Isn't that the starting point of saying, “Hey all scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
The wrong way of handling it when you come to an apparent contradiction where you got scriptures over here saying, “Bless and curse not, don't return cursing for blessing bless your enemies, love your enemies, pray for your enemies.” Then over here you’ve got curses being blessed on people and a man of God cursing people and even the word of the God showing us examples to curse people okay. Even a command to curse people who preach of false gospel. Well when we look at those two things a lot of people will just make the mistake of just picking the one that they like. Pick one I like and just reject the other one. Now is that making any sense at all to just pick one throw out the other?
No what we have to realize is that, wait a minute both of these have to be true because they are both God’s word so how can we interpret this to where they are both true? Because if we interpret it in such a way where there’s a contradiction it’s not that there’s a problem with the bible, it’s that the problem is with our interpretation. What we have to do is figure out okay what I’m interpreting wrong here why this is not making sense to me? Then we have to find a way to interpret it to where they are both true. Now if you interpret the bible as, “Hey we should never pray anything negative to anyone. It’s wrong to ever pray for anyone to die or to be punished or to be afflicted that’s always wrong.
Then now you are contradicting 19 Psalms out of 150 you are contradicting 19 of them. You contradict to Jesus and the Apostle Paul and all kinds of scripture but what if you interpreted it this way, what if you interpret it as God wants me when somebody smites me on my right cheek to turn to him the other also. When people do me wrong I’m supposed to patiently bare it and when people curse me I’m supposed to bless them and I’m supposed to love my enemies but then I’m supposed to basically hate those who are wicked, evil, reprobate depraved sick people. Now is there a difference between being your personal enemy and being a sin of Belial, wicked reprobate, evil child. It’s totally different and that’s what the bible actually teaches. David said I hate those that hate the Lord and the bible tells us in second Chronicles 19 verse two that we should hate those. We should hate those who hate the Lord, don't love those who hate the Lord.
For example somebody cuts me off in traffic I’m supposed to bless that person. Somebody at work lies about me in order to get the promotion that I should have got I’m supposed to love and bless that person and forgive them. Somebody slaps me in the face or shoves me at soul winning I’m supposed to forgive them, love them and pray for them to be saved, right? There are people in this world that are just, what about some serial killer serial rapists, child molesters? Would it be wrong to just pray for them to just die and go to hell before they hurt anybody else? Well wrong answer buddy.
No because look and that’s what we see here, we see them praying, we see David praying for this wicked, horrible reprobate people, think about what if you were living in communist China while Mao Tse-tung was in power. Would it be wrong for you to pray for him to die? Or for them to be defeated when they go to war? Won't you pray for the Red Army to be defeated and pray for it be killed? Because you want to have righteousness and Godliness again and look it’s not that he’s your personal enemy or anything, it’s just that they are ungodly wicked horrible people. For example this week, this filthy sodomite picture is everywhere and people are showing this transvestite or transgender or whatever this guy is.
You know what I’m talking about? These athlete or whoever he is, I don't know who it is, I have never even heard of him before this week. Bruce Jenner has basically mutilated his body apparently and he’s being praised by our president. Our President Obama is praising her we don't even know what it is. I think that he used the female pronoun about somebody named Bruce and said, “Such courage you are so wonderful.” Our president is praising the wicked here okay. There’s just all, this filthy pervert is just on all these magazine covers and just everywhere just being crowned all …
To literally like hundreds of millions of people, literally hundreds of millions of people are being subjected to looking at a trans-freak. This person is just the evangelist of sodomy and filth to the world and you know what? Then people are like, “Oh we need to pray for him that he finds Jesus.” I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell are you serious? Look I have nothing but hate when I see a man dressed up as a woman who has mutilated his body to become a women and saying, “Hey look at me everybody, look at me kids.” The kids in America today five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years old are seeing this freak. Having their minds perverted and ruined permanently I hope, listen to me I hate him with a perfect hatred I have no love, no love for this Bruce freak. I hope he dies today, I hope he dies and goes to hell he’s disgusting, he’s filthy, he’s reprobate and I pray all these prayers from Psalms 69 and so, “How could you say that?”
Well how did God say it? I pray all this in Psalms 69 and Psalm 109 toward him. You evil filthy animal that’s destroying the morals of our country die. “You are hateful” “No I’m loving, I love my children. I love my country, I love the brotherhood and I hate this filthy sons of Belial it’s there disgusting and sick.” “Pray for him, we need to love him and pray for him, help him find Jesus.” That guy will never find Jesus, the bible says, he’s reprobate, the bible explains why people would last after other man when they are a man because they a reprobate. Because they’ve been darkened and you say, “Well I’m offended I don't want ever” hen get out of here.”
Because you know what you are not welcome here honestly nobody who defends that freak is welcomed in this church, why? Because look around, look at all the little children it’s not safe to have perverts like you in our church if you are going to defend that filth, get out you don't belong here. You are afraid you are going to lose people, I hope I lose people with this preaching. I hope I lose all the freak perverts sympathizers, get out of here you are destroying America, I’m going to stand up for what’s right. I’m going to pray the imprecatory prayers. Let’s go to the last type of prayer, the sixth prayer. You don't have love, I love Christians.
I love unsaved people as long as they are not reprobates. As long as they are not evangelists of sodomy, as long as they are not preachers of damnation and lies and filth of course I love unsaved people, of course I love the lost. No I don't love that kind of filth and perversion, they should be stoned with stones what the bible says. All scripture is given by inspiration of God not just the part that you like. The last one, I’m out of time I got a little carried away on that point but somebody needs to get carried away on that part where else are you going to hear it in?
Many curtailing preachers today are probably whining and mourning and, “You know it’s getting hard in these last days it’s all this stuff but you know you just got to stay faithful and just remember God can still, God can still touch his heart.” I hope God touches Bruce Jenner’s heart like this, that’s how I want him to touch his heart. I pray that his heart would explode right now. Filthy disgusting are we living in the twilight zone? Is this a weird dream that I’m going to wake up from or something that this is what our country is like? Look who would have thought back in the nineties that we would even be having this conversation? Who would have imagined, who would have imagined that this what America would be promoting? Then our president would be praising people who cut off their privy member as the bible says.
Who in the world would have dreamed it possible but yet today people think I’m crazy. You are right I’m crazy because I think that every man should keep his privy member in place. I’m nuts, I’m crazy go then, you go find the pastor that’s not crazy then. Because you know what, I’ll help you find it, here’s how you find a church that won't preach this way. Open the yellow pages close your eyes and drop your finger on the page and go to that church and you will hear the sweetness and light you are looking for. You know that that’s true and thank God I’m not the only one there are still 7,000 men that have about the need to bail. It’s just TV that wants you to think that is only a few people that believe this way.
By the way I was just out soul winning a week ago and I knocked two doors in a row of just people in and in just a random soul winning, I knocked two doors in a row and both people said, “I saw you on TV talking about the homos” and they said, “I’m with you, I agree with you.” Two doors in a row so it’s not everybody that believes in this junk, it’s just that’s what the world wants you think. Anyway the last type of prayer, I’m out of time. I will just touch on it real quickly just Romans 10 is the only place. The last type of prayer is the sinner’s prayer, okay. What do we talk about? We talked about supplication and prayer, making a request unto God that’s number one.
When we need stuff, we pray to God when we need things right. Secondly there’s a prayer of thanksgiving where we are thanking God for what he has already given us right. Then thirdly there’s a prayer of confession where we confess our sins unto God. Fourthly there’s intercessory prayer where we confess the sins of other people. By the way you shouldn’t do this kind of prayer in a group. You know what I mean? Like somebody will say, “Hey listen we really need to play for so and so because he’s living in sin right now. Did you see what he did? This is something that needs to be done privately.
We don't get together in a group and we are going to pray because that’s what some people will gossip about other people and then it’s all under the guise of, “Hey we are going to pray for him because he was busted doing whatever.” Intercessory prayers that’s when we confess not our sins but confess the sins of others and ask God to be merciful. Then there’s imprecatory prayer which is the opposite of intercessory prayer. Where instead of praying God please bless your people be good to them, overlook their sins. Forgive them for they know not what they do that’s intercessory prayer right. Forgive them they know not what they do.
Then there’s the imprecatory prayer which is reserved for just only the sickest most violence, wicked, filthy disgusting filthy sinners and don't say that to everybody because it’s not. Hang that out to dry it’s a lie, okay. The devil wants to convince you that all sin is equal and blah, blah that’s junk that’s not found in the bible. Anyway as a reserve for the Bruce Jenner’s and Barrack Obama’s of this world and the Mao Tse-tung’s. Anyway the last one would be the sinner’s prayer, this is when somebody prays and ask God for salvation and this is a onetime thing. This is the most important prayer that anybody ever prays and it only is prayed one time. Because it’s the prayer that gets you saved.
This goes all the way back to Genesis 4:26 when it says, “Then began man to call upon the name of the Lord” in Romans chapter 10 we could also turn to other places where this is found. In Romans 10 it says in verse eight, “But what saith that the word is neither even in thy mouth and thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach that if thy shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God is risen from the dead thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him for whosever shall call upon in the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is salvation it’s a onetime prayer where you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and just ask him for that free gift of salvation. What’s the sermon about? Prayer, if you are one that has become slacked in praying and I know that all of us can sometimes get slacked in praying we get busy and we don't think about praying. If we’ve been slack let’s stop and think about how we can increase our prayer life and we can start with these five areas. Because the sixth area hopefully you already took care of that one time.
I took care of it when I was six years old, when I prayed that sinner’s prayer. You’re going to think about these five areas where you say well you know what do I pray for? Pray for your needs, pray for your physical needs, thank God for what you already have. Confess your sins to God pray for people that you know that are maybe backsliding or maybe getting out of church or going into sin, pray for God to be nice to them and to bless them and pray for Bruce Jenner to die and go to hell. There’s something to pray for so you have got five nice things to pray for, let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much Lord for your grace Lord and for the fact that we can come boldly to your throne Lord, it’s such a privilege Lord and there’s so many things that I know I’ve missed out on I’m sure and other people have missed out and just because we didn’t pray Lord. Help all of us to pray, help us to not miss out on the blessings that you have in store for us. Let it never be said of us that we have not because we asked not Lord, help us to pray every single day and to put our heart into it and really mean it Lord when we pray and in Jesus name, amen.
