Thank you for coming and thank you for staying. Let's turn in our Bibles please to the Gospel of Luke chapter eleven. Luke's Gospel chapter eleven. We were saying this morning that some vitally necessary ingredients in the Christian experience are prayer and the Word of God and, of course, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit of God. There would be no Christian experience apart from God dwelling within us, apart from prayer and the Word of God. And prayer and the word of God go together, do they not. And what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. We should be men and women of prayer. We should be men and women of the word of God. I realize that much can be said and should be said on these particular topics. The Holy Spirit of God in the life of the believer... prayer in the life of the believer and the Word of God in the life of the believer. But in messages like these, all we can do is touch upon these things and pray that it will provoke you further to your own personal study and meditation of the Word of God and your yieldedness to the Holy Spirit of God who desires to make these things real in your life and in my life. So this afternoon we speak about prayer in the life of the believer. Now tonight will be a gospel message. In the morning, Lord willing, it will be a gospel emphasis. And we'll finish up on the word of God in the life of the believer tomorrow afternoon, Lord willing. And I have spoken to Brother Kenneth Daughters about us switching around tomorrow afternoon in that I will go first. He was scheduled to do so tomorrow. I will go first in that I will have to leave from the Omaha airport at six-thirty to fly back to St. Louis where is my car. But it is good to be here and we appreciate your prayers. Luke's Gospel chapter eleven and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray. as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Turn with me please to the Old Testament scriptures to First Chronicles chapter four. First Chronicles chapter four. Come down please to verse nine. And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me. and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested. My brother, my sister in Christ, how is your prayer life? We read about praying, we sing about praying, we hear about prayer, but I wonder how much we Christians spend in prayer in the presence of God. When the Apostle Paul was converted there on the Damascus Road shortly thereafter, God said concerning him, Behold, he prayeth. And one of the characteristics of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is the prayer life. Behold, he prayeth. Behold, he prayeth. How is your prayer life? We have heard and read many stories about D.L. Moody. One of the stories I read was that Mr. Moody was addressing a crowded meeting of children in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in order to get their attention he began with a question. What is prayer? He was looking for no reply. He was expecting to give the answer himself, but to his amazement scores of little hands shot up all over the hall. He asked one lad to reply, and the answer came at once. This was his reply. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. According to the story, Mr. Moody's delighted comment was, Thank God, my boy, you were born in Scotland. How is your prayer life? No Christian is greater than his prayer life or her prayer life. And that seems to be a difficult lesson for us to take in and learn. No Christian is greater than his or her prayer life. Prayer life. How is your prayer life, my brother? How is your prayer life, my sister? Prayer is communion with God. But there are different aspects of prayer. First of all, there is adoration of God or worship. Then there is acknowledgement of guilt. or confession. There is petition or supplication, which is primarily asking for oneself. There is intercession, advocacy for others. And then there is the attitude of gratitude or thanksgiving. And when we pause to think, we do have cause to thank. Now we don't have to understand all of these aspects of prayer to be a man of prayer, to be a woman of prayer, any more than we would have to understand all the compounding of different medicines for that medication to become effective in our physical makeup. But we are to have a prayer life. We are to be in the attitude of prayer. Paul speaks of praying always. And I believe that has to do with always being in the attitude of prayer. Prayer is not magical. Prayer is not a means to an end. And prayer is not mechanical. How is your prayer like? I jot it down a few scriptures, and here again I'll give the references here. Prayer is not prayer without faith. Matthew seventeen twenty, Hebrews eleven, six. Prayer is not prayer unless it is in the name of the Lord Jesus. John fourteen and thirteen. And I believe that means more than simply attaching His name to the end of what we say. I believe it carries with it the thought of praying on His authority. praying as the Lord Jesus would pray. It is not prayer unless it is in the name of the Lord Jesus. Prayer is not prayer unless it is in the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. Jude, verse twenty. Prayer is not prayer unless it is according to His will. First John five, verses fourteen and fifteen. Prayer is not prayer if there is unrenounced, unconfessed sin in the life. Psalm sixty-six, verse eighteen. Isaiah fifty-nine, verses one and two. Prayer is not prayer if there is an unforgiving spirit. I have been guilty of that so many times, and I'm seeing it in so many others. An unforgiving spirit. We must be forgiving. if we're going to walk in fellowship with the Lord because He's forgiving. But prayer is not prayer if there is an unforgiving spirit. Matthew five, verses twenty-three and twenty-four. Prayer is not prayer if it is not sincere. Luke chapter eleven, verses five through eighteen, also in chapter eighteen, verses one through eight. James five and sixteen. What is prayer? I was looking in the blue hymnal for that song. We sometimes sing. It's not in that one evidently. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed. Prayer is the very breath of the Christian Godward. We are to pray without ceasing. Always be in the attitude of prayer. Plains cannot operate without fuel. No matter how congested the plane might be or how busy the schedule might be, planes have to land for fuel if necessary. They need fuel. And prayer is our fuel. It is our power. And though we might think we don't find time for it, we have to make time for it if we are going to be the Christians that we are to be for the glory of God. How is your prayer life? I was reading a story some time ago about a little girl four years old. She was staying with a relative. It was bedtime. It was prayer time for her, and usually her mother prompted her as she was praying, but now she was depending on her relative. And when she knelt down to pray, she was expecting her usual promptings, but no response from the relative. The little girl said, Please, God, excuse me. I can't remember my prayers, and I'm staying with a lady who don't know any. I read another story about two men. They certainly were not Christians, and they were indulging in an intoxicating beverage, but one got to talking about prayer, and the other one asked him, What do you know about prayer? Well, he said, I know quite a bit about prayer. So his friend said, you don't know anything about the Lord's prayer. He said, yes, I do. You can recite the Lord's prayer. He said, yes, I can. Let me hear you recite it. He said, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. His friend said, well, you sure fooled me. I didn't know you could say it. Look back at First Chronicles chapter four. Here we read about a man named Jabez. And one lesson that we learn in the study of Jabez is that obscurity need not overshadow a life for the glory of God. Here are just some bare essentials relevant to this man, Jabez. We don't know just when he lived. We don't know who his parents were. In fact, all we do know about him was that he prayed. And here his simple sincere prayer is recorded in the eternal word of God for our benefit. Church history tells us and teaches us that God sometimes takes up obscure men and women who desire to be used of God and he uses such ones greatly for his honor and glory. But let us keep this in mind. No Christian is greater than his or her prayer life. Now from Jabez we learned that disabilities need not disqualify us in our race, in our Christian experience. Jabez prayed. And we note in verse nine that his mother called him Jabez because she said, I bear him with sorrow. There was something about her experience before his birth, and at the time of his birth, that brought upon this woman such sorrow that she called him J.Bez. I remember some years ago, Brother Gibbs, AP Gibbs was speaking on J.Bez, and he asked the audience, how would you like to have a name like this? His name means sorrowful. Think of his mother calling him for mealtime, he said. Oh, sorrowful! My, what a name. Well, there was something about him that overshadowed his arrival. Most births are those which bring joy and happiness, times of gladness, but there was something about his birth whereby his mother called him sorrowful or sorrowful. Jabez. And I believe this indicates to us that she was cast upon the Lord, and it is quite evident from this short prayer that we have of this man of God that he was cast upon the Lord as well. Now I want you to note his prayer with me. Verse ten, Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested. In thinking of this Jabez, I think of an appreciative man, I want you to note the sincerity of his prayer. He called on the God of Israel, Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed. I'm not going to go into the long story of my experience when I were saved. I shared it with a couple last night, and a sister who's visiting here, Sister Blevins from Atlanta, reminded me of my experience earlier in I said, well, I'm not going to be telling that. Oh, she said, please do. I don't think time will permit, but I had no religious training whatsoever. And when we started going to this chapel in Richmond, Virginia, I noticed how things were not altogether organized. I've been noticing that ever since. And it was quite evident to me that the song leader or the speaker, whomever was there on the podium, was calling on people extemporaneously. That was quite evident. I mean, he would look out over the audience and he would say, Brother, you know, pick and choose. And it used to bother me. I confess this used to bother me. I wondered, well, now suppose I were called on. not knowing that I wouldn't be. I talked to my wife about it. I said, I just don't, I'm nervous about that. Well, after I was saved, dear brother Joe Cheatham, who led me to the Lord and many others, started a Bible class, an Emmaus course, what the Bible teaches. We took a number of them. What the Bible teaches. And I was really looking forward to that Bible study, and I missed the first one. My brother-in-law, Dalton Moses, not Jewish, but Dalton Moses went, and I asked him how it had gone. Oh, he said it was fine. He said, but he said, something just took me back. Something startled me. I didn't know what to do. I said, what was that? He said, well, they had a season of prayer. A season of prayer. I'd heard of hunting season, fishing season, but a season of prayer. Really, I mean, this was real. This was genuine. I said, well, what is this season of prayer? Well, he said, they all got down and prayed. All the men prayed? He said, yes. Did you pray, Dalton? Yes, he said, but don't ask me what I said. He said, man, I'm telling you, I really... Boy, he said, I realized it was expecting of me to pray, and I said something. I don't know what I said. I said, are they going to have this season of prayer next week? Well, he said, I don't know, but I'm going to be thinking of something to say. I talked to Louise about it. I said, I don't know about this season of prayer. I just don't know about that. I thought about doing what one man did in Shelbyville, Tennessee, came to a Sunday night service. He was talking with the men and all of a sudden there he was in a room with the men who were praying. And they were praying around. It came to him and there was a long pause and finally said, I pass. I thought, well, I could do that or just, you know, just not pray, just not say anything. No, I said, I want to do what is expected of me and I'll do the best job I can. And I noticed that these men, when they prayed in this meeting, they used a lot of these and vows and vines and everything was completely new to me. But I wanted to do a good job. I didn't start out to be superficial or hypocritical. I just wanted to do a good job. I wanted to do what was expected of me. So I got a songbook. I knew a lot of the wording. These and vows and vines were in the songbooks. So I got one of the song books. I ran across a serviceman's spiritual almanac, a little booklet that was given to the soldiers and sailors and CVs back in the Second World War. And there was a little section there. When you're up, read so-and-so. When you're down, when you're back and forth, off and on, cold and hot, read so-and-so. And here was a section of prayers. Here was a prayer by General Mark Clark. There was a prayer by Eisenhower. other military leaders and politicians and prayer for soldiers and sailors and CBs and Marines and, well, I said I'd have to eliminate some of that military wording. Well, I came up with what I thought was a good prayer. I really worked at this diligently and I guess it was about a two-minute prayer. Well, then I started getting into the superficial stage because there was one old brother there, Mr. Gary, who, when he prayed, had a vibrato. And it was very noticeable. Well, he was an old man. I can understand that, or at least I'm beginning to understand that vibrato. But it sounded so godly when he prayed. And it was. He would get up and he would have a lot of O's in his prayers, and he would say, Oh, Father, we thank thee. And it, oh, my, it just touched my heart. I'm not making light of his prayer. I'm just telling you what my impressions were. Well, I thought I'd put one or two O's in my prayer, like he did. So it was time to go to a prayer meeting that night. I rode with Dalton, and I was nervous. I had gone over that prayer from the time Dalton said it up until that night. I quoted it to my wife every day, sometimes two and three times a day. We would be driving along. I would say, Louie is... Listen to my prayer again. Oh, no, come on, Eddie, not again. Yes, come on. This was, all right, go ahead. And I would say, our Father, we thank thee, that we can call thee Father, the Lord Jesus, not ashamed to call us brethren. Oh, Father, we thank you. How does that sound? And she said, that sounds all right, but I don't think you're supposed to do it that way. I said, well, okay, all right. How does it sound, though? Yeah, that sounds okay. So it was time to go to the meeting, and I was going over this thing, and Dear brother Joe Cheatham, most of the men, about twenty men, babes in Christ, recently saved. Joe Cheatham said, Men, before we get into our Bible study, we're going to have a season of prayer. There we are, a season of prayer. I'm ready. So we had prayer requests. Well, he said, Men, now... Maybe some of you have never prayed publicly. He said, I would encourage you to do so. Just say what's on your heart. Remember, you're talking to the Lord and just speak to a friend. Do so with reverence, but speak to a friend. Well, we all got down on our knees and there was a long pause. I thought, should I be first? No, it'd be too obvious. I'll wait. Finally, one brother started. It was terrible. He stuttered and stammered, cleared his voice, every other word. It was terrible. Another one prayed. That was terrible also. Stuttered, stammered. I'm going over my mind what I'm going to say. After about fourth or fifth place, I said, Well, I guess this is as good as any. Just recently got saved now. Our Father, we thank thee. We can call thee Father. The Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. Oh, Father, we thank thee. Well, I went on for about two minutes and I knew it was good because all the men said, Amen. And that's an indication that you've done a good job. I was so pleased with myself, these poor fellows. Well, we went through the Bible study. Joe Cheatham kept looking at me. Looking back on it now, I guess he thought, Oh, God, you've given to us a Moody. You've given to us a Spurgeon. Well, it was time to go home, nine o'clock. He said, Brethren, let's have another season of prayer. Yeah, I thought the same thing. I thought the same thing. I thought I'll excuse myself and go to the men's room. But I said, no, the odds are twenty to one. Pretty good odds. I'll just move my chair behind this brother in front of me and get out of Joe's line here. So I hid behind this brother. Joe went on with these, let's remember these requests once again, and he said, no need for all of us to pray. We'll just have one brother to pray. We'll call on, and he looked way around, said, Brother Eddie. Well, all the men bowed down, they were ready to pray. And I closed my eyes and I got the floating in space. Beads of sweat popped on my brow. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't say the same prayer. I mean, it would be too evident. And I remember this much of it. And I stuttered and stammered, just like these other fellas, cleared my voice every other word. It was terrible. But I remember saying this, Lord, we thank you. The meeting is over. We thank you. We can go home and go to bed and go to work tomorrow. And we thank you for the sky and the grass and the mountains and the birds and the bees and When he got up to Dalton's car, he laughed and laughed. He said, Eddie, that was terrible. My prayer wasn't sincere, but here was an appreciative man. Note the sincerity of his prayer. He called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed. My brother, my sister in Christ, let's be sincere. when we pray to God. These forms of prayer that we hold on to sometimes, they're not going to help us. I think of the two men crossing the pasture and one looked back and he saw the bull coming down on them. John, he says, there's a bull. They got to running. He said, John, pray. John said, I don't know any prayer. They're gasping for breath. He said, well, pray something, John. Pray. The bull is going to get us. And John said, O Lord, for this which we are about to receive make us truly thankful. Listen, we were reminded last night from Philippians chapter one, Paul said, Be sincere and without offense. That is, be without wax. Don't be a phony. The Bible says if we walk in the light as he's in the light, that means everything above board. Lord, you know me all together. You know my down sitting, you know my uprising. You know me inside out. And Lord, there is to be nothing between my soul and yourself. Everything above board, everything out in the open, everything in the light. Lord, I can't fool you. And so I just lay my heart right up to you. the sincerity of his prayer. He was not only an appreciative man, but I want you to note that he was an ambitious man. Note the scope of his prayer. Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. That's it. You can read that in less than a minute. But note the scope of his prayer. Here is a man, regardless of what the difficulty was in his life, who wants to be used of God. He wants to be a channel of blessing to others, and he is ambitious for God. Is it wrong to be ambitious? Is ambitious necessarily a bear and... or a base in selfish quality? Well, the Bible indicates that there are certain ambitions that are wrong. Lord, who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? Let me set it your right hand. But the Bible also teaches that there are ambitions that are not only worthy, but they are praiseworthy. and we are to be ambitious for God. You know, in thinking of this, I think that when it comes to facing this hard, cold, calloused world out there and living a life for our Lord Jesus Christ, we know that we have an enemy. He goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but he also goes about as an angel of light seeking whom he may deceive. And he wants to bring us down and he wants to bring shame and reproach on the name of Christ. And when it comes to this matter of temptation, now it is true when we go to the book of James. James tells us in chapter one, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations or testings. Then in verse thirteen he says, Don't go blaming God when you're tempted to evil. And we say, now, that looks like double talk here. What does it mean? Well, I think we should keep in mind what we have in Luke chapter three, verse seventeen, is it? Where we read, the Lord's fan is in his hand. That is, he winnows. The Lord's fan is in his hand. The Lord Jesus said to Peter in Luke twenty-two, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. but I've prayed for thee. So that makes me think that the devil has a sieve, but the Lord has a fan. The Lord works with us in such a way as to bring out the good. Satan comes to us with his solicitations to evil to bring out the bad. And I believe all temptation can be funneled into one of three categories. We think of the desire to enjoy things. This is the way Adam was tempted. These are the temptations the Lord Jesus Christ faced. First of all, the desire to enjoy things. God give him desires. But Satan wants us to satisfy our appetites contrary to the word of God. The desire to acquire things. Nothing wrong with acquiring things. It seems that worldly success today is buying things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like. But there's nothing wrong with acquiring things as long as it's according to the will of God and the desire to accomplish things. Nothing wrong with that. As long as it is according to the word and the will of God. And we are to pray as the Lord Jesus himself prayed, Lord, thy will be done. And this in essence is what Jabez was praying. But note the scope of his prayer. Jabez prayed for a greater blessing and he prayed for greater usefulness. Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast. Jabez knew that no ordinary blessing would do. He knew that once he reached a certain level of spiritual enjoyment and communion with God, nothing less than that would satisfy. So you consider, meditate upon the scope of his prayer. He was an ambitious man. But I see here that he was an available man. In praying, he wanted to be the solution. He wanted to be used in the answer to his prayer. He was an available man. Note the stipulation of his prayer. Here I see grace. He prayed for divine enablement. Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed. He prayed for divine enlargement, that thou would enlarge my coast. I want to have a wider sphere of influence. I want to overflow. I want to be a channel of blessing to others. Here is growth. He prayed for divine enlargement. But I see your also guidance. He prayed for divine enlargement. that thine hand might be with me. It was a confession of human insufficiency. He knew he was not capable of doing what he desired to do for God. God must be his health. And it is good, as we noted earlier, to be able to say, God is my helper. And we are able to say, by the grace of God, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, that needs to be qualified. I can do all things. That is, all things within the circumference of His will for me to do. I can do. Because He is my help. He prayed for guardianship. He prayed for divine environment. that thou wouldest keep me from evil. He knew, as we have it in Numbers chapter nineteen, that if he were to touch a bone, if he were to touch a dead body, if he were to touch a grave, he would become ceremonially unclean. His communion with God would be broken until such a time that the cleansing would be effective. He did not want that to happen. He enjoyed communion with God. He's not praying selfishly because we read, and God granted him that which he requested. The stipulation of his prayer. And I want you to note, too, that Jabez is an admirable man. Note the simplicity of his prayer. It's a very simple prayer, isn't it? We would expect that Jabez would have prayed some long prayer using very difficult words that maybe others would have difficulty in understanding. Some time ago I thought about the popsicle man going around the streets, and I thought of a child hearing that sound. Boy, they can hear it four miles away, five miles away. You can call them, you can scream at them, and they can't hear you, but they can hear the dingling of that bell four miles away. But imagine a little boy running into his mother after hearing the sound of the popsicle truck and falling down before his mother saying, Oh, most gracious maternal affiliation, treasurer of the family budget, in your great legacy of quarters And on the basis of the existential facts of the approach of the popsicle man, I want to petition you, so to speak, for one shekel, so that I hitherto may transact the indispensable bargain tantamount to acquiring the sad popsicle involved in my hallowed supplication. You think a boy would pray like that? But now listen. Let's keep in mind that when we do pray, we are to do so with reverence. Someone has said, it's not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are. It's not the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they are. It's not the geometry of our prayers, how long they are. It's not the music of our prayers, how sweet they sound. It's not the logic of our prayers, how argumentative they are. It's not the theology of our prayers, how doctrinally sound they are. It's not the method of our prayers, how orderly they might be. But it's the fervency of our prayers. And it's the simplicity of our prayers. He prays. and God granted that which He requested. Now looking back at Luke chapter eleven, the Lord Jesus said, Pray after this manner. And this is a patterned prayer. I know there are a number of professing Christians or people in Christendom who and maybe some genuine Christians who just recite the Lord's Prayer. Well, I wouldn't be critical with that as long as they're sincere. This is, to me, a pattern prayer. My wife does a lot of sewing. It would be like her wearing the pattern. No, that's just used to make the dress or whatever she's making. Our Father, here is confidence. We need to get alone with God. and realize that our confidence is to be in him, our Father. Hallowed be thy name. Here is reverence. Now, though we would not go into the presence of God, talking to the Lord like this boy in my illustration here, asking for a quarter for a popsicle, let's remember we're talking to God. Let's do so with reverence. I'm not critical about the these and the thou's and thine's. I use them most of the time. That's just the way I learned. And when I hear someone praying to God, you, that doesn't bother me. It might bother you. It doesn't bother me. But it's reverence. Hallowed be thy name. And it's patience. Thy kingdom comes. And it's with obedience. Thy will be done. And dependence, give us this day our daily bread. And penitence and confession, forgive us our sins. And I see here impotence, lead us not into temptation. Now we might be inclined to think that J. Bez was praying selfishly. He said, Lord, this is what I'm praying, that it might not grieve me. He knew that if he were rendered ceremonially unclean and his communion with God were broken, that would grieve him. And it should grieve us too. But my brother, my sister, let us be men and women of prayer. Let us do business with God in prayer regularly. Let us walk in communion with God. Let us walk in the light. as he is in the light. It's then that we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, goes on cleansing us from all sin. I pray that we will be men and women of prayer.