Over the last ten days,
as I began to pray about
what to preach this morning,
I finished two sermons to preach
this morning.
And last night, I was walking
to my room.
Brother Tim turned to me and said,
"Brother, do you know what
you're going to preach on?"
And I said, well, I finished two sermons,
but they've both flown away from me.
And so last night, I went to the room,
and just began to pray.
And bits of conversations that I've had
with Tim and Mack and Mike
over the last two days
started to come to mind
and bring conviction to my heart.
And I'm convinced that the Lord
has brought me to this conference
to do a work in my heart;
to preach to my own soul
and my own life.
We all desparately and continually
need to be growing
in our doctrine and our theology.
One brother said,
if the "you" of today,
doesn't look at the "you" of five years ago
and call that man a heretic,
you're not growing fast enough in truth.
By God's grace, over the last fourteen years,
I can see where the Lord has grown me much
in understanding of the Gospel
and the Scriptures,
and doctrine and theology.
Scripture is continually sharpening
my understanding
and shaping my theology and my doctrine
and challenging what I was taught
growing up.
And that's a good thing.
But there's also a potential danger there -
a danger to be avoided as we grow
in doctrine and theology.
You see, fourteen years ago
I didn't have a lot of understanding.
I didn't have a lot of experience.
And that's dangerous too.
But with a little bit of understanding
and the little experience I had then,
I only had one place that I could lean.
And that was in total and complete
dependence upon the Lord.
Do you know where that dependence
on the Lord was reflected most
in my life?
It was in devotion to prayer.
Steadfast prayer.
Last night, I began to wonder
how much have I really grown
in understanding and doctrine
and theology?
Because if those things really have
their effect in your heart
and they play themselves out in your life
to the degree that they should,
they should be manifested in many ways,
but one way a true understanding
of doctrine and theology
should manifest in
is a deeper devotion to prayer.
A deeper leaning upon the Lord.
As I listened to the brothers preach
those three sermons yesterday -
and praise God for their sermons -
I learned a lot and there's much to apply
in my life.
But last night, I laid in the room
and prayed.
I thought about Mack's sermon:
The Garden of Gesthemane.
And there's so much to learn in that
of what my brother preached.
But what stood out to me last night
in the room was the example of Jesus Christ
and His fervency and dependence
upon the Father in prayer.
If you would just read through
the book of Luke
and highlight the prayer life of Christ
in the book of Luke
and look at the dependence
of the Son upon the Father.
As I listened to brother Mike
preach on the sovereignty of God,
that He controls all things,
and if we don't let that go
to the fatalistic mindset,
which we should not,
what impressed my heart last night
was if He is really in control
of all things,
determining the end from the beginning,
how can it not manifest itself in my life
in devotion to prayer
and dependence upon the One
Who holds the universe in His hand?
You say, well, how are you going to tie
Brother Tim's sermon in from Hebrews 11?
With Rahab?
How'd you get to prayer from there?
And I thought, I'm not going to try
to make a way to prayer from there.
It was so clear
that it was a leading to prayer for me.
Because one of the reasons that we struggle
in coming to the Lord
and approaching the Lord in prayer
is because we look at ourselves,
our scarlet letters,
our Rahabs upon all of us,
and we say, He doesn't want to listen
to someone like me.
I'm not worthy to come to the throne.
But Brother Tim reminded us last night
that because of the blood of Jesus Christ,
I'm counted worthy.
I can boldly come to the throne,
not on my own righteousness,
but on the righteousness of Another,
and He delights in the prayers of the upright.
Brothers and sisters,
what I need -
what we all need,
what New England needs -
is God.
We need churches.
We need faithful pastors and preachers.
We need evangelists.
We need faithful brothers and sisters
living upright and godly lives.
But in all of those,
they're all dependent upon God.
You can have a church
that has right theology,
but it's not lived itself out
demonstrated through a dependence upon God
and steadfast prayer.
So I want to begin and just pray
because we so need it.
I so need it.
And ask the Lord to do a work
in my heart first.
And if that's selfish,
I'm going to be ok being selfish.
And I'll pray for you as well.
Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ.
God, we come, not minimizing our sin;
not continuing in it that grace may abound
but acknowledging it and confessing it, God.
Believing that You have counted us worthy
in Your Son Jesus.
And in Him, we boldly come.
God, we come because we need.
We have so much need
and we come because we don't realize
how much need we have
and we need to see that.
I need to see that, Lord.
God, would You show me things
that I am leaning on instead of You?
Would You show me things
that we are trusting in
instead of You?
Would You show us Your willingness;
would You show us Your desire
for us to come, Lord?
Draw us, God.
As we draw near to You,
draw near to us, God.
Open up Your Word to us.
And guard me, Father.
But let this Word go into my own
heart and soul this morning, God;
into the hearts and souls
of Your people here, God;
that Your name would be great here.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
Please open your Bibles
to the book of Colossians 4.
We'll just be looking at one verse this morning.
Colossians 4.2
"Continue steadfastly in prayer,
being watchful in it,
with thanksgiving."
The New American Standard renders it,
"Devote yourselves to prayer,
keeping alert in it,
with an attitude of thanksgiving."
Paul here exhorting the church
at Colossae.
Living lives consistent
with the revelation of who Jesus Christ is
from chapter 1.
He's exhorting them to live consistent
in light of all that he has taught them
in chapter 1.
A Gospel-consistent life.
And he calls them here to
continue steadfastly in prayer,
to devote themselves to prayer.
To be courageously persistent in prayer.
Holding fast to and not letting go of God
in prayer.
Enduring in prayer.
Not fainting away.
Let's first remember
that this is a command.
An imperative through Paul from God
in Scripture.
And what it teaches us right away
is that God does not want us
to give up in prayer.
God does not want us to quit in prayer,
but rather to persevere
and be devoted to Him in prayer.
Brothers and sisters,
God knows our need for Him.
No one knows your need for God
better than God does.
God knows our great need for Him.
And so what does He do?
He commands you to come.
Do you see the grace and love
of a God Who knows our greatest need
and then commands us
in regards to that great need?
And it's not a command to just come and pray,
it's a command to come and commune.
To be with Him.
The work of redemption on the cross
was not an end.
It was a means
to bring us to Him
in relation,
to commune with Him
and never to leave.
To be with Him eternally.
And we all know that for the true believer
the commandments of God
are not burdensome.
They're a delight.
But you know what can make
the command of prayer burdensome?
Pride.
Pride makes the commandment of prayer
burdensome.
Listen, there's discipline in prayer.
You must prioritize your life for prayer.
But prayer becomes burdensome
in a negative way
because of pride.
Because we fail to see our need
and our weakness.
This command from God to continue
in prayer -
Him knowing our greatest need -
is like a man turning to a starving man
and saying this:
"I command you to come eat.
And I will provide a buffet for you to feast."
Now I want to ask you,
is that a burdensome command
to a starving person?
Come and eat
at the table
and feast on My Son Jesus Christ.
That's not a burdensome prayer.
That is a gracious and loving command
of our God,
unless we don't realize that we're hungry.
"I'm full. I'm not hungry right now, Lord.
And You want me to come eat?
I'm not hungry.
I don't need to eat right now.
I'll eat later on."
It's burdensome if we don't see
and acknowledge our need.
Brothers and sisters,
everyone in this room is dependent upon God
and in great need at this very moment,
whether we realize it,
whether we feel it or not.
Everyone here is completely,
wholly, utterly, totally dependent
upon God.
Fourteen years ago,
without much understanding;
without much experience,
I was totally dependent upon God
and what God convicted me of last night
is fourteen years later,
I am in the same place
of utter and total dependecy
and the need for God,
but I've allowed knowledge and experience
to be something I feel like I can lean on,
and that's foolishness,
and it just reveals,
I really don't have that much knowledge.
A true knowledge of God should make us
even more dependent upon Him
as we grow in the revelation of Who He is,
what He has done,
and who I am in Jesus Christ,
it should draw me to greater prayer
and greater dependence;
not the ability to stand
because I'm a strong man now.
Paul boasted in his weakness.
He was proud of it
because he knew that in his weakness
he was strong.
We need preachers.
We need evangelists.
We need churches.
We need faithful church people.
But we need God.
You know what your prayer life truly reveals?
Your pride life.
Our prayer lives, brothers and sisters,
are a direct reflection of one thing:
our pride.
I repented last night of pride.
Pride in understanding;
pride in experience.
Here's how gracious our God is:
When we don't understand
the depth of understanding of our need
and dependence upon Him,
or when we forget it
and begin to place that in other things;
here's how gracious and loving this God is:
He teaches you and He reminds you
of your need for Him.
How?
Through trials, tribulation, and suffering.
We talked about the sovereignty of God
last night.
The hidden things belonging to Him.
But one thing that we can learn from Scripture,
is that God is sovereign over
our trials, tribulations, and suffering.
And they are meant for our good.
They are meant to teach us our need for God;
our dependence upon God,
and the willingness of God.
If He is sovereign over my life,
and He is bringing into my life
these things,
it has a purpose:
to draw me back to weakness
and dependence upon Him.
I often feel very overwhelmed.
The Lord has found it fit to save
many people in Dallas.
He has found it fit to draw
many people to our assembly.
And I look at what He's doing
and I come to Him in a place
of [being] overwhelmed,
and I say, Lord, what are You doing?
This is overwhelming, God.
I'm not equipped for this, God.
And last night, it was as though
I had the understanding again:
"Don't you know?
I'm teaching you your weakness now?
I'm showing you how dependent
you must be upon Me."
Can I encourage all of us in our trials,
tribulations and sufferings
come into our lives,
that our first prayer
wouldn't be for deliverance from them.
That our first prayer would be
that we would learn our need for Him;
our weakness outside of Him,
and that we would learn in this
to be more devoted to Him in prayer.
As the brother said the other day,
many times we're praying for God
to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
And He does that work.
Then, we pray for deliverance from His conformity.
Pray that we would remember and know
His power is made perfect in weakness.
Pray that at the revelation of our weakness
and our need for Him
that we don't try to pretend we're strong.
But because of the Gospel,
we acknowledge our weakness.
Not that we can continue in any sin,
but acknowledge our weakness
and come to Him in prayer.
God doesn't need strong people.
God's not going to bring strong people
into New England.
God is going to bring people
who recognize their weakness
upon a very strong, mighty, and holy God
and who are devoted to Him in prayer.
And through those people,
He will work.
Because He gets the glory.
So I asked myself last night
and I'll ask you:
Do you want revival in your own heart?
Do you want revival in the church
that you're in right now?
Do you want revival in this whole
New England area?
Are you given to prayer?
Are we given to prayer then?
Are we continuing in it?
Are we being steadfast in it?
Are we devoted to it?
Because there's an inconsistency to say,
God, we want You to come,
but not being revealed in our consistency
in prayer.
We were talking the other day.
We need to plant.
And we need to strategize.
Those are good things.
You can read through Scripture.
Paul says, I made plans to come to you.
He plans things out.
That's good.
Planning and strategy is good.
But I can tell you this,
planning without prayer amounts to nothing.
It is just the plans of men then.
So does God really want us
to continue in prayer?
It seems some of us have been praying,
but we're beginning to lose heart
because we're not seeing God move yet.
So I began to ask,
does God really want us to continue in prayer?
Does He really want us to be devoted to prayer?
And when you begin to lose heart in prayer
what do you do?
Oh, God forbid that we would stop praying.
When you are praying and praying
and being devoted to it
and you begin to lose heart in prayer,
I hope you turn to the Scriptures
and preach to your own soul.
I hope you look at commands in Colossians 4:2
where God through Paul
commands you to continue steadfastly
in prayer.
But I want to give you two other texts
to preach to your soul
when you begin to lose heart.
So turn if you will to Luke 11.
Luke 11.
As you're turning there, I'll remind you
at the beginning of Luke 11
is when the disciples are with Jesus
and they are seeing Him pray.
And they turn to Him and they say,
Lord, teach us to pray.
Teach us how to pray, Lord.
And you know at the beginning of chapter 11
He leads them through the Lord's prayer there.
But we're going to pick up in verse 5
at the second thing the Lord teaches them
about prayer.
Look at v. 5 with me.
"And He said to them,
which of you who has a friend
will go to him at midnight and say to him,
'friend, lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine has arrived
on a long journey,
and I have nothing to set before him.'
And he will answer from within..."
This friend didn't even open the door.
Lend me three loaves.
Wouldn't even open the door.
Talking through the door right now.
"... and he answers from within,
'Do not bother me.
The door is now shut and my children
are with me in bed.
I cannot get up and give you anything.'"
V. 8, "Jesus says, 'but I tell you,
though he will not get up
and give anything because he is his friend,
yet because of his impudence
he will rise and give him whatever he needs."
Because of his shamelessness...
Because of his nerve...
this other friend who was knocking
had the nerve to knock at midnight
and keep knocking.
And the friend didn't get up
and answer the door
because they had a good relationship;
because their friendship was so strong;
because he had so much affection
for this other person,
but because of the boldness
and the nerve that this person would have
to sit there and continue to knock.
This so-called friend will finally say,
fine, here's what you need.
Take it.
And then Jesus applies it here in v. 9.
"I tell you,
ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks,
it will be opened.
What father among you
if his son asks for a fish
will instead of a fish
give him a serpent?
Or if he asks for an egg
will give him a scorpion?
If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts
to your children,
how much more will the heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask."
If a bad friend, because of the nerve
of the other friend,
and their continual knocking -
the boldness of that person -
will finally give in
and give them what they need,
how much more
will the loving heavenly Father
Who demonstrated His love
through the crucifixion of His Son,
Who's commanding us to remain in prayer -
how much more will He give
to those who ask.
It's not an issue of ability.
It's not an issue of His willingness.
It is an issue of continual, steadfast prayer.
Turn to the right 7 chapters to Luke 18.
Is God really willing?
Does God really desire for us
to continue in prayer?
Does God really want us to seek Him?
Are you losing heart
leading to quitting in prayer?
Then we need to preach texts
like Luke 18:1-8 to our soul.
"And He told them a parable to the effect
that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart."
You see, Jesus knows that we will pray
and we will not hear when or what we want
and we will begin to lose heart,
so He says I'm going to address that
because I know that's going to happen,
and I want you to pray
and not lose heart.
I want you to pray
and not stop.
I want you to continue in prayer.
So I'm going to remind you of this.
And He says to them in v. 2,
"In a certain city, there was a judge
who neither feared God nor respected man.
And there was a widow in that city
who kept coming to him,
and saying, 'give me justice
against my adversary.'
For awhile he refused.
But afterwards he said to himself,
'though I neither fear God,
nor respect man,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
I will give her justice
so that she will not beat me down
with her continual coming.'
And the Lord said,
'Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
and will not God give justice
to His elect who cry to Him day and night?
Will He delay long over them?
I tell you, He will give justice to them
speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,
will He find faith on the earth?'"
Do you see the comparison He makes?
A judge who does not fear God;
who does not respect man,
yet why?
Because this woman will continually come
and continually ask
and will not leave him alone,
and she keeps bothering him,
this evil man will reluctantly,
finally just say, "here,
take what you've been asking for.
Just leave me alone."
Then how much more
this God Who chose you
and set you apart
at the cost of His own Son
and adopted you,
and commands you to come
and petition and don't give up.
If the evil judge will give in to this,
how much more will the sovereign King
Who loves you and has adopted you
give you what you ask?
Does He want us to come?
That's exactly what He wants us to do.
And He wants us to continue.
The last line of that is very important
because He says,
"Will He find faith on the earth?"
What does that teach us?
The issue of continuing in prayer
is a lack of faith in God.
He's not going to answer...
I prayed for two years.
He hasn't answered yet.
You say, well, it says He'll come speedily.
Well, the secret things belong to the Lord.
Speedily is different for you
than it is for Him.
Part of faith is trusting in His timing.
If you're going to say,
I'll pray and remain steadfast
as long as You work on my timetable,
you've just put yourself in a position of sovereignty.
Brothers and sisters,
we need to preach these verses to our soul
when we find our hearts
beginning to become weary.
Quickly now, just the last two parts
of Colossians 4.
Not only are we to remain steadfast in prayer
and be devoted to it,
but he says we are to keep alert
and be watchful in our prayer.
It literally has the idea of staying awake.
And Brother Mack just led us through
the Garden of Gethsemane yesterday.
And when our model Jesus Christ
is petitioning the Father and continuing
steadfastly in devotion to prayer
which was His style of life,
the disciples were on the side asleep.
Not alert.
Not keeping watch.
Jesus actually says to them,
"Keep watch that you might not fall into temptation."
And they fall asleep.
And Jesus said I know
that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
And so in this command from Paul,
we are called not only to continue steadfastly
in prayer, but to keep alert
and be watchful in it.
So what does that mean?
As you begin to try to apply:
continue steadfastly in prayer,
there's a temptation at some point
to say, "Well, I'll just sit here
and do this command
and then God will answer it."
And we can begin to do that
without an awareness of mind
of even what we are praying.
And we need to have our minds
alert and focused and be praying
for specific things.
Our minds need to be engaged in this prayer.
It is not just filling up this quota of prayer.
That if I hit this certain number,
then I'll manipulate God to move in some way.
It is a continuing in prayer,
but it is a watchful prayer.
It is an awareness prayer of the mind.
It is specific prayers to be prayed.
God's not impressed with how long you can pray.
It is the awareness of how much we need Him
that we pray with our minds.
That's where our doctrine and theology comes in -
Teaching us His sovereignty,
our weakness and our great need.
Then He says at the end here,
with thanksgiving -
or with an attitude of thanksgiving.
Continuing steadfastly in prayer,
being devoted to prayer,
being watchful in it,
keeping alert in it,
but with an attitude of thanksgiving.
And I loved it so much
that when Brother Tim prayed,
he said nearly that very thing.
We are here asking God to come,
asking God to move
in our hearts,
in our churches,
in this area -
but we still have so much to give thanks for
that He has redeemed a wretch like me.
There is so much He has done
that as we are continuing steadfastly
in prayer and petitioning the Father,
continuing in it,
not letting Him go,
we also need to keep in mind
all that He has done
and be giving Him thanks.
Hearts of thanksgiving.
I was reminded last night of John 15:5.
The vine and the branches.
And v. 5 says this,
"Without Me you can do nothing."
And what convicted me last night was this:
I thought with knowledge and experience
I could actually do something without Him.
And as much as you grow
in knowledge and experience
and maturity in Christ,
that verse will never change.
Without Him you can do nothing.
So as I sat last night,
I said how much do I really believe
that verse?
"Without Him I can do nothing."
And here's the answer:
I believe it to the degree
that I continue steadfastly in prayer.
That's how much I believe it.
To the degree that I'm continuing
steadfastly in prayer,
I believe that verse.
And when I stop or I grow weary,
I stop believing that.
Brothers and sisters,
I can't tell you when God's going to come
and pour out His Spirit in your heart
or over New England.
Those are the secret things
that Brother Mike was speaking about.
I can't tell you when He is going to do that,
but I can tell you this,
it will not be apart from steadfast
devotion to prayer.
It will not be apart
from steadfast devotion to prayer.
And I'll encourage you in this:
When the Lord does answer that prayer,
don't stop praying.
When the Lord brings a man into your city,
proclaims the Gospel,
people start getting saved,
a church is established by God,
there is healthy life and fellowship
with Jesus Christ at the center;
you're beginning to see lives transformed;
do not stop praying.
It is then that we need to pray even more.
Let me finish with Isaiah 62.6-7.
"On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen.
All the day and all the night,
they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
take no rest,
and give Him no rest
until He establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth."
Brothers and sisters,
give the Lord no rest.
He commands you to give Him no rest
until His name is praised in the lands.
So I pray that that was encouraging
yet convicting.
But I truly believe it was for my own soul.
And by God's grace, I left 15 minutes.
So here's what I'd like to do if it's alright.
I'd like to just pray.
I think the greatest thing you can do
when you hear a sermon
that convicts or encourages
is as fast as you can,
begin to implement that in your life.
And so, if I can just pray,
and you guys can pray with me
and just in the next five minutes or so,
praying about these things to the Lord.
For your own heart
and for this land.
So if you'll bow with me.
Father, in the name of Jesus,
Lord, I confess even this morning,
even a difference from last night.
Last night, I seemed so aware
of my weakness, God.
So aware of my need for You, Lord Jesus.
And even today I sense
that that is beginning to wane, Lord.
Lord, I know that I am just as needy
last night as I am today, Lord,
but I struggle to see it so often, God.
God, we need You to see these things.
We are asking now
in each of the hearts of people
represented here,
and churches represented here, God,
that You would help us to see, Lord,
these things.
See our great need, Lord;
see Your willingness, God;
see that You've made the way for us
to be able to come through Jesus Christ.
That we come, God, not on our own merit;
not on our own righteousness.
On the righteousness of Christ, we come.
God, as we approach Your Word
and we grow in doctrine and theology, God,
let it lead to a greater revelation
of weakness and dependence.
Let it lead to a greater revelation
of You and Your willingness, God.
God, when we grow faint of heart,
let us remember these petitions
You've put before us;
You're calling us and commanding us, God,
to be persistent;
to have the nerve to come
to the King of the Universe.
And to stay there, God.
To remain there.
To be devoted there.
God, thank You,
for Your loving chastening hand
when we forget these things,
to draw us back;
to teach us.
We want Your glory, God.
We need You, Father.
And so as I ask with my brothers and sisters
that You come, Lord.
I pray that it wouldn't be just here and now
in this moment,
but that You would keep us in a weak place
where we are constantly
and continually reaching for You
in utter dependence
manifested in devotion to prayer.
Thank You for Your patience, Lord.
Thank You for Your grace and kindness to us.
Help us.
In the name of Jesus our Savior,
Amen.