James Merritt - Prayer 201
I wanna begin by showing you a picture of a wall that you may recognize. It’s an ancient wall, dates back about 2,000 years. It’s the most famous wall, the most visited wall in the world. Matter of fact, it’s kind of strange to think that people go visit a wall. I don’t know why they would do that, but in a way you do. It’s called the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall. And it’s fascinating to see devout Jewish people go to that wall. They’ll stand right up against it. I’ve seen it, I’ve been to that wall, I don’t know, 27, 28 times. How many of you have been to Israel? How many of you have been to Israel?
If you’ve never been to Israel, if you get a chance as a believer, you need to go one time before you die. It is, you can go to Hawaii, you can go to the Bahamas, there’s a lot of places it won’t change your life, this trip will change your life. And I’ve been to that wall many times. And you watch these real devout Jews and they stand at the wall and they rock back and forth, back and forth. And they’ll stand there for an hour, sometimes two hours. And they’re praying back and forth, just praying, praying, praying.
And I prayed at that wall myself. But I have to tell you that every time I go to that wall, every time I can’t help but remember a story I heard years ago about a reporter that was doing a story. And it was about a man that prayed at this wall. He’d been going to this wall for over 50 years and never missed a day. In over 50 years, he went every day, rain, shine, snow, sleet, hail. Every day he would go pray at this wall. And when she heard about it, she said, that’d make a great newspaper story. So she goes to the wall and she finds this guy. And she said, sir, is it true that you’ve been coming to the Wailing Wall and you’ve been praying for over 50 years? And he said, well, yes it is, matter of fact, I have never missed a day. She said, well what do you pray for? He said, I’ve always prayed for three things.
Number one, I pray for peace between Jews and Arabs. Number two, I pray for our children grow up in safety, never hear bombs go off or guns fired. And then he said, I pray thirdly that Israel would never have any more enemies in all the world. She said, well, how do you feel after praying that for 50 years? He said, like I’m talking to a wall.
Now, be honest, have you ever felt like when you pray you’re talking to a wall? Have you ever felt like when you pray it’s like rubber balls bouncing off a ceiling? Do you ever feel like when you pray that your prayers maybe get up to the clouds but they don’t get any further at all? Well, prayerfully, no pun intended, I’m really praying that the next two messages we preach on prayer will make a total difference in your prayer life. So if you’re one of those people who would say, you know, pastor, I just don’t really know how to pray real well. Or if you’re one of those people that you say, well, pastor, I try to pray, but I just don’t always feel like my prayers are real effective. I just don’t really feel like I’ve really got a handle on how to pray.
Here’s the good news. Today in the next message I preach, you’re not gonna be listening to me, you’re gonna be listening at the feet of the master teacher on prayer. You’re gonna be listening and learning from the greatest professor on prayer we could ever have. You’re gonna be sitting at the feet of the one who not only could pray better than anybody’s ever prayed, He’s actually the one that we pray to. So over the next couple of messages, we’re gonna have the joy of taking what I call Prayer 201 and Jesus is going to be the professor.
Now, if you’re a guest of ours today, we’re in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, we’ve been calling Get Used To Different. And you talk about different, Jesus was so radically different when He was talking about prayers. A matter of fact, let me tell you how different He was. His prayers were so different, His prayers were so unique, His prayers were so never heard from before, never heard about before, that when the disciples heard Jesus pray, they snapped their heads, opened their eyes, and when He got through, they literally said, we have never heard anybody pray like that ever. Would you teach us how to pray like that? We don’t know how to pray like that. Would you teach us how to pray? And that’s exactly what Jesus is going to do.
So last week, if you were here, we took Prayer 101. If you don’t remember that or you weren’t here, in Prayer 101, what Jesus does is He doesn’t tell us how to pray, first He talks off and tells us how not to pray. So He says, if you remember what I said last week, He said, look, when you pray, do your most serious praying in private not in public. And when you pray, don’t come to God with the same old prayers over and over and over. You’re not even really thinking about what you’re saying. Give me, bless me, help me. When you pray, really put thought into your prayer, really be sincere in what you pray. Don’t pray like the pagans do, really pray like you mean business. So that’s kind of setting up Prayer 201. And now He gets to the nitty-gritty by saying this. «This, then, is how you should pray».
Now when Jesus said, okay, this is how you should pray, let me tell you what the disciples did. They stopped everything they were doing, they got out their notepad, they got out their pen, they sat down, they said, I mean they were really leaning in because they know that Jesus is going to tell them something seismic. Jesus is gonna tell them something that is gonna change their life. He’s going to lay down the perfect pattern of prayer. He’s finally going to give us the key that we know unlocks the door to the throne room of heaven. We’re all ears, we’re all in, tell us how to pray.
Now, before I get into the prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer, I want you to understand something. Jesus did not give us this prayer just to pray it mechanically. You know you’ll see football players sometime after a football game or basketball players and they’ll kneel down after a game and pray the Lord’s Prayer. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with saying it just word for word. That is not why Jesus gave it. This is not a mechanical prayer. It is a model prayer, okay? So let me give you an example. Patty, you work in real estate, so you can relate to this. So my brother works in real estate.
So if you work in real estate, you’ll know that sometimes they’ll build this subdivision. And when you go to that subdivision, you wanna check out whether you want to live in one of those homes, the very first home in that neighborhood is unoccupied. It’s furnished, but nobody lives in it. Why is that? Well, it’s called a model home. And they want you to go into that home first. And the purpose of that home is so you can go in and see, okay, if you move into this neighborhood, this is what it’s gonna feel like, this is what it’s going to look like, this is what it’s gonna be like to live in a house in this neighborhood. It is a model home, all right? This is a model prayer. And so Jesus is not saying, this is what you should pray. Jesus is saying, this is how you should pray. This is the pattern.
Now here’s what makes this prayer so different. This is what makes the disciple’s mouth drop to the floor when He prayed this prayer, when He gave them this prayer. It is unlike any other prayer you will ever find in all of the Old Testament. Go by all the way back to Genesis. There are so many prayers in the Old Testament you couldn’t count them with a computer. Everybody’s praying all the time but there’s no prayer like this prayer. Because it’s unlike any other prayer that any person ever prayed before Jesus came to planet Earth.
I want you to think about that. Abraham never prayed like this. Joseph never prayed like this. Moses never prayed like this. David never prayed like this. Solomon never prayed like this. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the great prophets of the Old Testament, nobody ever prayed like this. It is the key to all prayer. And the key is found in one word. And I’m gonna give you a clue to what it is. If you go back to the Old Testament, there’s all kinds of names for God. There’s Yahweh, there’s Elohim, there’s El Shaddai, there’s Jehovah Jireh, there’s Jehovah Shalom, there’s Jehovah Tsidkenu, there’s all kinds of names. And they used all kinds of names whenever they would pray to God.
But here’s the key questions. It’s a pop quiz question, you ready? What is the singular distinctive name Christians use for God that’s in the Lord’s Prayer? What’s that one word? Can anybody tell me? Father. Father. Every time God was called on prayer in the Old Testament, go back and check it, nobody ever called Him Father. So when Jesus said, okay, this is how you pray, and the disciples are ready, okay, how do we pray? He says two words, our Father. And they dropped their pen. They jerked up, they opened their eyes. What? Yeah, this is how you pray, our Father. Jesus said, that’s the key that unlocks the door. That’s the word that gets you into heaven every single time. When you understand you’re praying to a father.
One of my favorite authors is J.I. Packer, you’ve probably never heard of that name, he’s in heaven now. But there’s a book that every Christian should read before they go to heaven. It’s one of my five top books I’ve ever read. It’s called «Knowing God» by J.I. Packer. If you like to read, go get that book. I’m telling you, everybody able to read, J.I. Packer «Knowing God». In that book, Dr. Packer said something. I read this when I was in seminary and it radically changed my whole attitude about being a believer.
Here’s what Dr. Packer said. «If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God».
So he says, if you don’t understand what it really means that God is Father, and if you don’t understand what it means to have the privilege of calling God as your Father, you really don’t know about God what you ought to know. So I’m gonna tell you today in four words the key to all effective prayer. If you wanna say, if you were to say to me right now, pastor, I wanna know how to pray, I wanna know how to get into it, I wanna know how to pray and know the first words I say, I know God’s going to hear me, I know God’s going to answer me, I know that I’m on praying ground. You say, yup, that’s me. All right then here’s the four words you need to remember. In prayer, you focus on the Father. That’s the key. You focus on the Father.
So Prayer 2O1, okay? How do you get into prayer? Two steps we’re going to take. Number one, first thing you got to do, you show the Father worship. That’s the first thing He wants you to do. When you come in prayer, you show the Father worship. A lot of times people will say, I just don’t know how to get into it. I just don’t even, I don’t even know how to start. I don’t even know where to begin. So Jesus said, okay, here’s the first thing you need to do when you go to pray, remember who you’re talking to. Well who you’re talking to? Here’s what He says. He says, «This, then, is how you should pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.'»
That’s where your focus ought to be from the get go, it ought to be on the Father. So here’s our problem. 99,99% of the time when you and I go to God in prayer, what pronoun do we use? We use first person. I, we, me, us. It’s always starting with us. So what do we do? I want you to give me this. I need you to bless me in this way. I’m asking you to do this for my family. And so Jesus says, okay boys, first thing we got to do, we need a grammar lesson. You got to get rid of the first person pronoun. You got to go really to the second person pronoun. Your prayer is not about you, your prayer is about Him. So when you start with you, you’re already getting off of the wrong ground. You’re not even getting the plane off the ground. And the reason why this is so important is this.
I want you to listen to this. The more time you spend recognizing who you’re talking to and where He is and what He wants, the less concerned you’ll be about who you are, where you are, and what you want. See real prayer, this is why prayer is so great, you know what you do when you pray right? When you’re praying right, you’re putting God in His place and you’re putting you in your place. You’re putting God where He belongs. You’re putting you where you belong. He is the Father, you are the child. 'Cause there’s only two persons in this prayer, a child and his father.
So we’re to come to God and speak to God as our Father. And the reason why that’s so important is because powerful prayer is really personal prayer. Powerful prayer is when you walk, when you get alone, and you realize you’re not talking as a subject to a king, you’re not talking as a citizen to a president, you’re talking as a child to a father. That’s why Jesus says we’re to pray our Father. Who is the our? The our is us. The our is the church. The our is the family of God. Prayer is a distinctly family privilege. Buddhists don’t understand that. Muslims don’t understand that. Hindus don’t understand that. Jews don’t understand that.
One of the great things about being a Christian is we get to pray in a way we know God hears us. Because the Father listens to His children. And here’s what’s amazing. You go all the way back to the Old Testament, 14 times God is referred to as Father. 14 times, but never in a second person way. It’s always used by the nation of Israel. It’s always used in a third person way. They never ever called God as Father. I mean, they never ever did that. 14 times, always used, but never in reference to prayer. You won’t find one time where anybody, nobody, not one individual, no prophet, no patriarch, nobody ever said our Father, not one time in the Old Testament. Jesus comes on the scene and guess what He does? The only way He ever addresses God is Father. It’s an amazing thing. He never calls God any other thing except Father.
As a matter of fact, He called God His Father 170 times. Now think about that. 14 times in the Old Testament, 107 times. And oh by the way, how many of you saw the movie «The Passion of the Christ»? How many of you saw that movie? A lot of you did. If you remember it was in Aramaic. Do you remember why it was in Aramaic? Because Jesus and the disciples really didn’t speak Greek. That was not their primary language. Jesus' primary language was Aramaic. So when Jesus prayed Our Father, he didn’t use the Greek word, which is pater or pater. He used the word abba. You know what the word abba means? It means papa. It means daddy. It was the most intimate term that a toddler would use for his dad. He literally would say, I want you to pray this, our papa, our daddy.
I want you to be on that kind of intimate terms with Him. When you look at the life of Jesus, the first sentence we know Jesus ever spoke, the very first sentence He ever said as a 12-year-old boy, He said to His parents, here’s what He said. «'Why were you searching for me? ' He asked. Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house»? And Joseph and Mary, when He said that, almost probably said, you mean God’s temple? What do you mean calling God Father? That’s the first thing He ever said. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said this, «Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they were doing».
The last words Jesus ever spoke as a human being were these words, «Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit». And that one word makes all the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So think about it. The word Father is used 14 times in 39 books in the Old Testament, the word Father is used 170 times in four books of the New Testament. You say, okay, so what happened between the Old Testament and the New Testament? I can tell you in one word, Jesus happened. Jesus came. And Jesus said, because of what I’m about to do for you, you’re going to be allowed to call God your Father. So here’s how Jesus tells us to pray Our Father, but then He doesn’t go, He doesn’t stop there. He says two more words that when you first read it, you go, why did you even have to say that? He says, I want you to pray to our Father in heaven.
Now these guys are Jewish. They grew up in a Jewish home. They knew God was in heaven. They they knew that. Why do you thought, why would He even add those to words our Father? Why would He tell them what they are to do? Our Father in heaven. You know why He did that? Again, He wants to remind them where God belongs and He wants to remind them where they belong. Because when you pray and you pray right, you put God where He belongs, you put you where you belong. So let me just make it real plain, okay? So who are we praying to? He’s in heaven, we’re on earth. He is God, we’re not. He is over us, we are under Him. We’re not in control, He is. We’re not in charge, He is. He is in heaven.
What does that mean? That means nothing escapes His notice. It means nothing is out of His sight. It means there’s not a question He cannot answer. There’s not a prayer He does not hear. There’s not a problem He does not solve. There’s not a wrong He will not make right. He is our Father in heaven, but He is our Father. He’s a God of intimacy. He wants to have that father child relationship. He’s also a God of majesty. He’s unlike any other earthly father because He has unlimited ability. There’s nothing He cannot do. I had a wonderful dad, but there were things my dad couldn’t do. He has universal authority. My dad had authority over me. He didn’t have authority over any of the child.
Our heavenly Father has authority over everyone, everything, everywhere. Our Father has unending availability. There were times I couldn’t be with my dad, he had to go to work. There were times I couldn’t talk to my dad because he was busy doing other things. But our heavenly Father has unlimited availability. Every time you walk into His room, He’s not busy, you don’t have to make an appointment, you don’t have to come back later, He’s not involved in something else. Every time you go into His room, He’s always ready to hear you, see you, and love you because He is our Father in heaven. But then what He says next, Jesus says, makes perfect sense. He says, since our Father is in heaven, we also ought to pray, «hallowed be your name».
Now most of us have no clue what that word hallow means. We don’t use that term. That’s not a term that we use in everyday language. It’s not in our vernacular. But it’s a very powerful word. Because what that word hallow means is very simply that word hallow means you give something the respect that it deserves. And God’s name deserves to be glorified, and God’s name deserves to be magnified, and God’s name deserves to be edified. So if you’re sitting there, you’re saying, okay pastor, can you be practical? How can I hallow God’s name every day?
That’s an easy question. The way you hallow God’s name is to live up to it. That’s the way you do it. When I went to college, my dad pulled me aside. And my dad didn’t have a lot of talks like this, but only a couple of times. But my dad pulled me aside and he said, son, you’re about to go off school. I was going eight hours away. I’d never been away from home. He said, son, you’re about to go off to college. He said, you’ve been home, you’ve never been away from home. You’re about to go to school, he said, you know, I won’t know where you are, I won’t know what you’re doing, I won’t know who you’re doing it with, I won’t know whether you even go to church or not. You are on your own. I said, yes sir. He said, I want you to remember one thing. I said, yes sir. He said, I have given you a good name, live up to it. Never forgot it. I’ve given you a good name, live up to it.
That’s the way you hallow God’s name, you live up to it. So what does that mean? That means you remember Him for who He is. You revere Him for who He is. You respect Him for who He is. So that means every word you say, every prayer that you pray, every deed that you perform, every thought that you think, you ought to always make sure it honors His name. Because remember, the first thing we need to do in prayer is not to get something from God, it’s to give something to God. That’s the first thing.
See there are two halves of the Lord’s prayer. You may not realize this. There’s two halves. The first half is God’s prayer list. The second half is our prayer list. Well, what’s on God’s prayer list? Well, God’s prayer list, well first of all, remember who you’re talking to, I’m your Father. Remember where I am, I’m in heaven, I’m in charge, you’re not. And therefore, by the way, you hallow my name. If you’re gonna call me your Father and if you’re gonna say you’re one of my children, act like it, live like it. Let people look at your life and say, wow, like father, like child.
So what’s the first thing we do when we pray? The first thing we do is we show God our worship, we focus on the Father. But when you do that, then the second thing you’ll find on God’s prayer list is, hey, my first item on my prayer list is I want you to come worship me, but the second part of His prayer list is not His worship, it’s His will.
So if you really wanna learn how to pray, first thing you got to do is you show God worship. And then the second thing you do is you surrender to the Father’s will. You show the Father worship then you surrender to the Father’s will. Now again, this prayer makes perfect sense. It’s so logical. It goes in just the order it ought to go. That’s why it is the perfect, it’s not just the Lord’s Prayer, it’s the perfect prayer. Because if you understand what you prayed in that first half, what comes next makes a lot of sense. Because if God is my father and I’m His child, if God’s in heaven and I’m on earth, if I’m here to honor Him, He’s not there to honor me, then I should not only focus when I’m praying on who He is and where He lives, but what He wants. So what does He want?
Okay, we go to God and tell Him what we want, let me tell you what He wants. You ready? «Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven». Now this part of the prayer revolves around two nouns and two verbs. Kingdom, will, come, done. Kingdom, will, come, done. Kingdom come, will done. So the verbs are come and done. The nouns are kingdom and will. What is the kingdom? A kingdom is a place where a king rules. A kingdom is a place where a king reigns. So when you ask God’s kingdom to come, you know what you’re really doing? You’re asking God to become the king of your life. You’re asking God to sit on the throne of your heart so that His will will be done in both places.
Now let me just state something that we don’t like to admit but it’s true. That is the hardest part of the Lord’s Prayer. I mean, to come into God’s presence and praise God, bless His name, love Him, tell Him He’s so wonderful and so awesome and so great, which is the way you all start your life every day. That’s easy. But then you get to that part, your kingdom come and your will be done. And that’s hard. 'Cause there’s gonna be times in your life, I’m gonna tell you, there’s been times in my life when it was the most difficult and least favorite part of this prayer. But this is the priority of the prayer. Because I wanna repeat something. The number one priority of prayer is not to get God to do what you want, but to ask God to do what He wants.
And here’s why that’s so hard. The hardest contract you’ll ever sign in your life, the hardest contract you’ll ever sign in your life is a blank contract. No fine print, no exemptions, no exceptions, no exclusion, don’t even know what’s on the contract, signing a blank contract. Because if you’re going to pray and pray the right way and pray the way that you know your prayers will get to God, you’ve got to say this right off the bat. Lord, before we really get into this, I just want you to know I’m taking all of my plans, all of my ambitions, all of my goals, all of my agendas, all of my desires, and I’m surrendering all of them to you. Because you will never be able to go any further with God in any prayer you pray till that issue is settled. You got to let go of your wants, your desires, your agenda. You got to go where that contract already signed.
Now I know what you’re thinking and I don’t blame you for thinking it. You’re sitting there and you’re going, wait a minute, when do I get to ask what I want? When do I get my needs met? Great question, fair question. So here’s the principle I want you to remember. Until you want what God wants, you’re not ready to tell Him what you want. That’s what’s coming to the church for right there. Until you want what God wants, you’re not ready to tell Him what you want. Jesus, I got news for you if you don’t know this 'cause we’re in Palm Sunday, on Friday of this week, Jesus said something to the Father He had never said in all eternity and we’ll never say it again. But on Friday, He said, I don’t want to do what you want me to do.
You do understand Jesus did not want to go to the cross. Everybody understand that. Jesus was not going hip, hip, hooray, I get to get nailed today. He didn’t want to go so badly, blood’s popping out of His forehead. But the reason why I’m standing here today is He said this, but not my will, yours be done. The reason why I’m here today, instead of being in a courtroom tomorrow, 'cause I wanted to be what my son is, an attorney. The reason why I’m standing here today is because in 1974 on my knees at Stetson University, when I got in my, when I knew I made the LSAT score, I had the grades, I knew I’d go to any law school I wanted to go to, any, I mean Harvard, Yale. I’m not trying to brag, I could go to any law school in the country.
But I got on my knees in that room at Stetson University and here’s what I said to the Lord. I said, Lord, I do not want to go into the ministry. I do not want to be a pastor. I do not want to be a preacher of the gospel. I’m saying, literally what I said. But then I said, but I will do what you want me to do. And that’s why I’m standing here right now. But you know why I’m glad I said that. I have met people I would’ve never met. I’ve been to places I would’ve never been to. I’ve experienced things I would never experienced. I wouldn’t even be married to the greatest wife in the history of the planet if I’d done what I wanted to do. And you have to come to that point. You’ve got to get to that point where you say, Lord, not my will but yours be done. Because prayer is not to get your will done in heaven, it is to get His will done on earth. Prayer’s not to get God in line with what you want, it’s to get you in line with what He wants.
So in essence, when you pray this part of the prayer, when you say your kingdom come your will be done, for the rest of your life whatever else you do, don’t flippantly pray that prayer ever again. Don’t just kind of say those words and move about going about your business. Because when you really pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, let me tell you what you’re doing ladies and gentlemen, you’re laying the sword on the ground. You’re waving the white flag of surrender. You’re signing everything you are over to Him. You’re giving everything you want, your future, all of your place, you’re giving it all to Him. Because let me remind you of one thing. When you pray your kingdom come, that means somebody’s kingdom’s got to go. And whose kingdom do you think has to go? Anybody wanna take a guess? Yours. Your kingdom’s got to go.
So your heart’s like a throne. And when you pray your kingdom come, what you’re saying is, Lord, I want you to be on the throne of my life. I want you to be the king of my life. And what He wants you to do is just simply say, whatever your will is, I’m gonna accept it, I’m gonna prove it, and I’m going to apply it. That’s what I’m going to do. So here’s the beautiful thing. It is God’s will that you want His will to be done. That’s God’s will for your life. See it’s one thing to discern the will of God. Well, I know what it is. It’s one thing to desire the will of God. You can say, yeah, I wanna do it, but it’s another thing to do it. And that’s what you’ve got to be willing to do. I mean it 24/7, you’ve got to be committed to the will of God.
Now listen, that may be scary. Some of you may say, but I don’t wanna do that pastor 'cause I don’t know what He may want me to do. I’m afraid to say, Lord, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, whatever you want me to be, whatever you want me to give, I’m willing to do it. I’m afraid to do that. You shouldn’t be. You really shouldn’t. Why? You should never be afraid to commit the future that you don’t know to the God who knows the future. You should never be afraid to commit the future that you don’t know to the God who knows the future. That’s why the best prayer, can I tell you the best prayer you’ll ever pray in your life? In fact, can I tell you one prayer? Have you ever been in a situation you say, I don’t even know what to pray. I’ve been there. Have you ever been there? I don’t know, I’m in such a mess. This is so screwed up. I don’t even know how to pray.
Let me tell you one prayer you can pray anywhere, anytime, in any place for anybody. Your will be done. Your will be done. Lord, your will be done. You know why? Because God’s will is always the right thing to pray for. It’s always the best thing to pray for. Even though they may not be the thing that you’re asking for. And again, the reason why God is saying pray your kingdom come, you may say, wait a minute, pastor, I thought God’s kingdom’s here? Well it is, but it’s not. So what do you mean? We know God is king of the universe, we know God is, we know that. But not everybody acknowledges that. Not every nation acknowledges that. Not every government acknowledges that. Not every human being acknowledges that. And that’s why we wanna pray for your will and your kingdom to come.
You say, well how do you really know it hasn’t already come. I’ll tell you why. Because when you look, just read your newspaper, just go on the internet. Why do you think you see all this evil in the world? Supernatural human? Why do you think every day you see violence and war and sickness and injustice and oppression and murder and death and rape and division 'cause there’s a war going on. There’s a king up there and He wants to be king of everybody, but we don’t want it. And that’s why we need to pray. God, whatever it costs, your kingdom come. Whether it’s in Washington DC or Beijing, China. So now we come to the close of Prayer 201. You’ve done great. Nobody’s gone to sleep. Most everybody’s listened most of the time. But you know I’m a hard professor.
So you didn’t know this, but we’re gonna have a pop quiz to see whether you passed the class or not. Didn’t you hate pop quizzes? I hated them. They’re from the devil. But here’s the pop quiz. Is the number one priority of your life, can you say this and mean it? Is the number one priority of your life, is the one thing that’s more important to you than anything else in your life, is to be completely, unreservedly, unequivocally, unconditionally surrendered to the will of God for your life? Now don’t say it too quick. So do your finances say that? When it comes to your money, when it comes to what you give versus what you buy and what you pull and what you pay for and what you owe, are you really surrendered to the will of God for your life?
In the last two weeks, I’ve dealt with two married couples on the verge of divorce. I’ve done everything I know to do. I’ve said everything I know to say. And it’s just I cannot even tell you how frustrating it is. When you say, look, I’m not minimizing the problems you have in a marriage. Everybody’s got them. I can only tell you what I know is God’s will for your life. It’s God’s will for this marriage to work out, it’s God’s will for you to partner with him and work out your marriage. I know that’s God’s will. And then you find out the next week they’re going to divorce court, they’re going to the divorce mediator. It’s just frustrating. I’m not trying to be too harsh, but it’s just hard.
So I just wanna leave you with this truth and we’ll say amen and we’ll be ready to go home. Let me tell you why this week is so important. Let me tell you why this week changed everything. Because even though we’re sinners and even though we don’t deserve to even look at the house of God, much less go into the throne room, even though God has every right to put a no trespassing sign on heaven. Because God sent His son to become like us and He dies on a cross and He comes back from the grave. Because of that, you and I can become children of God. Because of Jesus, we can call God our Father. Because of Jesus, we’re somebody, we’re a child of the king. But when we go to the king, yes we bow in reverence. Yes, we give Him the respect and the homage and the praise that He deserves.
Yes. But at the end of the day, you and I can come to the creator of this universe and sit in His lap and put our arm around His neck and say, Father, I just love you. Thank you for making me one of your children. Thank you for making me a part of your family. Thank you that you have a plan for my life. Thank you that you’ve got a will for me that’s so much better than what my will would’ve been for me. All of that because of a cross. All of that because of an empty tomb. So as His child, we have the privilege, we have the honor, we have the joy of seeking His will and surrendering to His will, knowing His will is always best for the entire world.
So I’ll leave you with this. In the front of a Bible that I have at home, I wrote these, I came across these words that I found in a book and I wrote them down. And sometimes I’ll just open it and I’ll just say it to myself. «Lord, I am willing, I’m willing to receive what you give. I’m willing to lack what you withhold. I’m willing to relinquish what you take. I’m willing to suffer what you require». And that is the prayer of everybody that passes Prayer 201. You show the Father worship, you surrender to the Father’s will, and I promise you, you will be able to pray like you have never prayed before. So what are you gonna do with that Jesus who came on Palm Sunday? What are gonna do with that Jesus that was nailed at that cross on Friday? What are you gonna do about that Jesus that came out of that tomb on Sunday? What are you gonna do?
I know what the Father’s will is for you to do. If you’ve never given your life to Jesus, you’re watching me right now, you’re in this room, you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I know what the Father’s will is. The Bible says, it is not the will of God that anybody should perish, but that everybody be saved and come to Jesus. That’s the will of God for your life. And right now, for the first time, some of you could say, I need to get in on God’s will for my life. All right, here’s where you start. If you’ve never trusted Jesus, here’s where you start. You pray this prayer. Some of you may wanna pray this with me right now. TV, internet, computer, in this room, you might wanna pray this in your heart right now.
Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner, I need a savior. I can’t save myself. But I believe you died for my sins. I believe God raised you from the dead. I believe you’re alive right now. Come into my heart, save me. Become my Lord, become my savior. I lay down my sword, I wave the white flag, I give everything I am to everything that you are. When you make that decision, you don’t just become saved, you don’t just get eternal life, you become a child of the Father.