Our Great Need - Learning How to Pray part 2

Thank you, brother Keith. The last song that we just sang, I asked the Lord that I might grow, is a very very good teaching tool in this subject of prayer. I would encourage you maybe to get a copy of that song from brother Keith. He can help you with that and like he said it is written by very famous wonderful Christian man who lived a long time ago, John Newton. He is one of those great examples, though one of those great men of prayer that we can study.

So just in that song and in that example of John Newton, I can help you in this school of prayer and like I said brother Keith can help you get that copy of that song if you so desire and I challenge you to do that. Well take your Bible this morning, turn with me to Luke 11. You know where we will be. Last week we were in verses 1 through 4. We will just pick up where we left off last Sunday and this is all one message, but we divide it because of time. We want to take our time and go as deep as the Lord wants us to go in these verses. Many times we have to have a part one, part two so that we can adequately cover the material.

So we'll be in Luke chapter 11 starting in verse 5. Now this is part of that series that we started last week, messages from the pastor's heart. This is an open-ended series and prayer has been on my mind and in my heart and I feel brother Keith and I feel the need to revisit this subject of prayer, go into the school of prayer. This is a subject that we will have to revisit from time to time in our Christian life because we are prone to wonder and we are prone to leave the school of prayer and attempt to live life on our own.

We need to be reminded afresh and anew and I believe that the Lord will visit us this morning and next week as we look into this subject a little deeper. Now last week we saw how Jesus put his disciples in the school of prayer. Now the disciples, they were in the best place that they could be. They were coming to Jesus and they were asking to be taught how to pray and I said in last week's message, but this needs to be repeated, I believe that they were all struck by these tiring examples and I believe that there was a drawing in their heart, a spiritual experiential work that brought them to the place that we see in verse 1.

What did they say? "Lord, teach us to pray." And for Jesus, I believe Jesus started in the best place. He knew best because he was a master teacher and he knew exactly what the disciples needed and he started with them personally. Verses 2 through 4, deal with them in who they are and if you look at the model prayer, it's all about God working in them. So Jesus started in the best place and the disciples were in the best place. Now real quickly, I will remind you of the application from last week's message.

Remember, they were all struck by those great examples and that brought them to that place that brought them to the place where they could say, "Lord, teach us to pray." And then Jesus begins to teach them. The disciples were gripped by Jesus' example. They had seen him pray many times. They knew of John's prayer life and they no doubt had been around John's disciples and they knew of their prayer life. And then he begins to deal with them in who they were.

Now Wednesday night in our Bible study, I challenged us to examine our prayer life, to take the time to go to the Lord and ask the Lord to evaluate and examine and encourage and correct and even maybe rebuke us and bring us afresh and anew to this verse, verse 1, where we would say, "Lord, I need you teach us to pray." Now last week I said that a good breakdown of the scriptures is key. This is called an outline. Now you know that I'm an outline preacher. I divide the verses. I want to give you an outline and it gives us a skeleton for the truths that the Lord is going to teach us and I challenge you to remember this outline.

I believe there are certain outlines. There are certain messages that need to be remembered. They need to be in your Bibles. They almost need to be in our hip pockets to pull them out from time to time and this is one of them. In all of my Bibles that I write in, you will find forms of this outline because I have gone back to this well for a drink over and over and over through the years. Now I'll give you the title of the message, it's a part two, and I'll give you last week's main truths that we looked at and then you'll see this morning's truths and how we're going to divide the verses.

Last week we had had the inquiry of Jesus from the disciples. They came and they inquired to be taught how to pray. Then we had the model prayer. Now Luke's version of the model prayer is a shorter version but this is how Jesus taught them to pray. This was a pattern. It wasn't necessarily to be repeated. It was a pattern for them to follow and if we follow this pattern we'll begin to see the Lord working in us and you see starting in verse five how we'll break these verses down. We'll have the parable out of verses five through eight. We'll have the instructions verses nine through ten. They come out of this parable.

Then we'll have the principle that is taught and then we'll have the promise at the very end in verse 13. So I encourage you to take these notes and develop that habit and if you develop that habit that will enable you to be a better student going back over and over to study, to pray over what you've learned and you'll find it falling deeper and deeper into your mind and your heart. Let's look at verse five. We'll read down to verses 13. And he said to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves.'" That would be bread.

"For a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him and from inside he shall answer and say, 'Do not bother me. The door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence." Some translations say boldness. He will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you, "Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened." Verse 11, "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, will he not give him a scorpion, will he?" Verse 13, "If you then, being evil or sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" So let's take these first few verses, our first major truth. We see the parable that is taught by Jesus. This parable that is taught by Jesus. Go back to verse 5.

We see Jesus is engaging the disciples and he says to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him.' And from inside he shall answer and say, 'Do not bother me. The door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give him anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because of his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." Now here we have Jesus teaching his disciples through a parable. And we must see that a parable is an earthly story with a spiritual meaning. The word parable literally means to cast alongside. If you take that word parable in the original meaning, the very first portion of that verse means cast aside. So it's a story that is cast alongside to illustrate spiritual truth. And that's what Jesus is doing.

He's using an earthly story to illustrate the truth that he wants to bring to them. Now here in the scene in this story, this is a common Jewish home where the family is all asleep in one room. Now this was well known in that day. What I mean by that is many homes in that day had one room and many families would sleep maybe even on one common mat in that one common room. So here for a father to give up, get up and open the door, he would disturb his entire family. They would have been a very large door and there would have been a large bolt on that door for security purposes.

But we do see that the man there with his family, he does respond and he does open the door here at this midnight hour. Some commentators note some specifics that seem unusual in this parable. First that this individual seemed to have been traveling at night. That might seem odd to some. Now night travel was not uncommon. There were many people who traveled at night to avoid the extreme heat of the day. And second, there are some that see that this friend going to another friend at such a late hour is very uncommon. But in that culture, the man inside would have been expected to provide a welcome and to meet the need at hand.

Many times when visitors would come, the whole community would be involved. Many times different individuals in the community would know the traveling individual. So there was a great responsibility on the host who received the traveler. And then there was a great cultural responsibility from the man behind the door with his family in bed. Now out of this parable, I want to make two observations. Now this could be familiar to you because I've used this language before in dealing with these verses. First, I want us to notice the perspective. The perspective. Go back to verse five.

Suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to present to or give to him." Now these two verses in this story are meant to teach perspective. There is a friend who is in need of a meal. He is a traveler who has come to a friend and he needs a meal. He has a real life need and this need seems to be at a very inopportune time. Now the focus can't be on the inconvenience or the time of the arrival or the family. But the individual who is in need, that's the perspective.

There is an individual who needs a meal. Then the second observation is the persistence. Look at verse seven and from inside, here's the man with his family in bed, he shall answer and say, "Do not bother me. The door has already been shut and the children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything." I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. Here in these verses, we have a very important key word that you need to know. Now the New American uses the word persistence.

The King James uses the word importunity. The English Standard Version uses impudence. It can be translated accurately as boldness or shameless. Now this word is a very striking word with a very striking meaning which causes some people to ask. Does this mean that if the disciples were to persist long enough, God will answer their prayers? The focus here is not on God. We can't make that mistake. The focus is on the man doing the asking. Jesus is teaching his disciples to be shameless, to be bold, to be persistent in their prayer. So here in these verses in the parable, we have a story that is cast alongside a spiritual truth that is taught.

This was a common scene that all the disciples would have been familiar with. A man has a friend who comes to him at a very unexpected time. This traveler has been on a journey and he needs food. The host goes to a friend at an inopportune time asking for bread for this traveler. Reluctantly, the man does give his friend all that he needs for his friend. But the point here is persistence in prayer, boldness and shamelessness in prayer. That is the spiritual truth that is taught within this story. Now this is not uncommon. We see this in other places in the scripture.

Let me give you the example of Abraham in Genesis chapter 18 verses 22 through 33. There's that great intercessory prayer by Abraham and he's interceding for Sodom. And what do we see? Abraham is bold. Abraham is persistent. Abraham is shameless. And what is he saying? "Lord, you cannot destroy Sodom." Why? Because Lot was inside him. And if you look at Abraham's attitude, his approach, how he prays, he exemplifies what is taught here in the parable. He is persistent. He is shameless. And he is bold. Another great example is found over in the Gospel of Mark. Write this one down for your own study. Mark chapter 7 starting in verse 24.

This is the story of the serophoenician woman who comes to Jesus. And it illustrates this very well. From there he arose and he went away to the region of Tyre. And when he had entered a house, he wanted no one to know of it, yet he could not escape notice. But after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile and we learn that she was more than a Gentile. She was of a despised race. She was serophoenician and she came asking him to cast out the demon out of her daughter.

And he was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first," referring to the Jews. "For it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." What is he saying? "I first come to the Jews, not to the Gentiles." He's saying, "My bread is for the Jews first, not for the Gentile dogs." Verse 28, "But she answered and said to him, 'Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs.' And he said to her, 'Because of this answer, go away. The demon has gone out of your daughter.'" What do we see? A shameless, persistent, bold prayer by this woman and by Abraham.

And that perfectly exemplifies what we see here in Luke. Now, what do we need to learn? What do we need to see? Those two words, we need to see perspective and persistence. We need to see that there are people all around us who are lost, people all around us who are helpless and hopeless. We need to see our mothers and our fathers who are unconverted, our sons and our daughters. Yes, maybe even a spouse or a neighbor or a coworker. We need to have a fresh, new perspective. We need to see them the way this friend sees his friend who comes at midnight. "Oh my goodness, a friend has come and I have no bread." And then we need to see persistence.

This is the prayer that Jesus is teaching them. A shameless, bold prayer, a persistence in prayer, just like the Cyril Phoenician woman, exactly like Father Abraham, a persistent, shameless prayer. So we see the parable, taught by Jesus. Let's move on to the second major truth. I want us to see the instructions from the parable. There are instructions from the parable, starting in verse 9, "And I say to you," see how it changes?

"Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open to you, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be open." Here we have Jesus moving away from the parable and teaching the disciples from the parable. Notice the language changes, and I say to you, that shows us how he changes. Jesus does not merely give the great parable, but he applies the parable to their life. Now, this is really what I want to show you. In my opinion, anytime a man or a woman teaches the Word of God, they must have the spiritual ability to apply it to the life.

There is a question that I ask myself all the time, and that question is, "So what?" So what does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? As I'm studying to teach, I pray for you and I think of you and your families and the needs that I know of and what you're going on in your life, and I think so what does it mean to you? That's what Jesus did. Let me show you what this means to you. Now, there are three observations I want to make here. First, I want us to see the position. Look at verse 9, "The position, and I say to you, ask." Now, this word asking is of an inferior asking a superior. We see this in Acts chapter 3 verse 2.

What does the scripture say? "And a man lain from birth was being carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, and asks alms of those entering the temple." See that picture? This is an inferior asking a superior. We see it also in James 1.5. What does James say? "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." An inferior asking of the superior. So you see the position here? This is a humble position. Then second, notice the progression. "And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and it shall be opened." Here we see Jesus gives the disciples a short series of commands. He commands them to ask and to seek and to knock, but we can't make a mistake here. We can't see this as repetitive. We can't see it as Jesus is using different words to teach the same thing. This is not repetition. This is progression. Seeking is more than asking, and knocking is more than seeking, but there's more. This is not a one-time action. If we look at the tenses of the verbs here, it communicates keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking. You see the progression? It's ongoing. It's asking and seeking and knocking.

It's going on and on and on. Isn't that what we see in Abraham? He would not stop until his prayer was answered. Then third, we see the promise. Verse 10, "For everyone who asks receives and who knocks, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened." And here we see an all-inclusive promise for everyone who asks. Jesus is saying that all who ask and all who seek and all who knock, the door will be open. Now we know that this everyone includes those who know Christ. Those who are lost and outside of Christ, this does not apply to them, but there is a promise at the end of this prayer. So here we have teaching from the parable.

Jesus tells them exactly how they should pray. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knock knocking, and this is done in humility. So the position is key, but it's done in boldness and it's done shamelessly. You see how it all comes together? I think the Sarah Phoenician woman exemplifies this wonderfully. She understands her position. She is humble, but yet she is shameless and persistent and bold, and she keeps on asking and keeps on seeking and keeps on knocking. Now earlier I said we need to remember the word perspective. We need to see everyone around us and see the needs of our brothers and sisters.

We need to have proper perspective and we need to have this persistence, but we also need to see that there's progression in prayer from a humble position. We keep on asking, we keep on seeking, and we keep on knocking. Now let me pause here in my application and say this. This can only take place in your life if there is a work of God in you. This can only take place in your life if you allow the Holy Spirit to remove the blinders and you see things the way God sees them. This can only happen in your life if you allow God to get you to the beautiful place of verse one. They were awestruck by the examples.

There was a drawing in their heart and they said, "Lord, teach us to pray." So if you want to know how to pray, you need to see what Jesus is teaching. This is the instruction from the parable. Let's move on. I want us to notice our third major truth and that is the principle. The principle from this parable. Verse 11, "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by a son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish. Will he or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Now here in these verses we see Jesus become the storyteller again. Now this parable is not a continuation of the previous parable, but it does involve one common component and that is food. That's the common component. We see the use of bread in verses five through six and here we see the use of bread, the use of fish, the use of egg, and some translations use bread. Again, these were ordinary things, common things that they would have understood. A story cast alongside spiritual truth.

Two observations I want to make here. First, I want us to see the bizarre or the extreme examples. Now these are bizarre. Go back to the verse. "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by a son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish." That's bizarre. I'm sure they would have stepped back in their minds. Or verse 12, "If he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion. So we see these bizarre or extreme examples. Now this reasoning that Jesus is presenting here, it is absurd. This is bizarre. You would say, "No, you're an unfit mother, an unfit father.

You're crazy in our language." This would have gotten the disciples' attention. We do know that some of them were married. The scripture says that Peter had a mother-in-law and he was married. So it's natural to assume that Peter had children. And no doubt many of the other disciples would have been married and had children. So they would have seen this as bizarre and strange and in our language, crazy. And then the second observation is the style of this argument. Go back to the verse. "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish.

Will he not give him a snake instead of a fish?" Verse 12, "Or if he asks for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion. Will he?" And then notice it changes. Verse 13, "If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Now this style of argument or reasoning was common among rabbis or teachers in their day. This argument reasons from lesser to the greater. This is purposeful. This is how this argument works.

If illustration number one is true, verses 11 and 12, an earthly father, then how much more true is illustration number two, verse 13, which is the heavenly Father? You see? Let me go back to the verses. I'm not trying to be redundant, but I want us to see this. "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?" That's illustration number one, the lesser. But now we go to the greater, verse 13.

"If you then being evil or sinful know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" This is the lesser to the greater. This argument starts with sinful parents, sinful men who obviously provide for their children's needs. And if this is true, and it is, then how much more can the disciples be certain that their Father, what does he say in verse two when he says pray? "Pray Father, they can be certain that their Father will answer their prayer." And let me tell you, this should cause them to take a deep breath and say this is good.

So here we see the loving Heavenly Father. We see the principle of God the Father lovingly answering the prayer of his children. That's the principle. He will do far more than a loving earthly father who is sinful. If he did not, he would tarnish his reputation, he would not be true to his word, and he would violate his character. If he did not, he would contradict his character as a loving, gracious Heavenly Father. And we must understand this principle. He is a loving Heavenly Father.

And it's sad because many people, they have a faulty understanding of God the Father, many times because of a physical earthly father, or how they were treated by males in their family, or in their dysfunctional background, and they can have a warped, distorted view of God the Father. I remember there was a woman in my home church. She stood up in a Sunday school type setting, and she gave a testimony of how she could not comprehend a loving Heavenly Father.

She grew up with a father who was a tyrant and who was mean, and she said, "I always viewed God as a big policeman in the sky with a stick ready to bop me over the head every time I did something wrong." That's not what's being taught here. We need to see the principle that the Father, the Heavenly Father, is a loving and gracious and good and kind and merciful Heavenly Father. Yes, he is a God of judgment, but he desires mercy rather than judgment. Yes, he will judge sinners. Yes, he will judge the lost, but those are things that he understands, and many times we do not.

And we see here that he is a loving, heavenly, caring, patient, gracious, merciful Father. So let's notice our fourth major truth. Let's notice the promise, and we see this at the very end of verse 13. "If you then, being evil or sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Now here at the end of the verse, we see the promise, this answered prayer, and this promise is much more than an answered prayer. Now, let's think for a moment. Let's think about who this letter was intended for. The readers would have read this letter after Pentecost.

Therefore, they would have understood the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now for the disciples, they would have come to understand this after the Spirit came at Pentecost. In John, we saw that Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit would teach them and remind them of his teaching. Let me go back to John 14 verse 26. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." So for the disciples, these truths would have been brought back to them through the work of the Spirit in their life, and the readers of this book would have understood because they possessed the Spirit in their life.

So here, we see that the promise is the giving of the Holy Spirit to them as to their need. And I'll repeat, as to their need. If they were in need of salvation in someone's life, what was the answered prayer? The giving of the Holy Spirit because John teaches that it's the Spirit that brings about conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment in the work of the Holy Spirit and his ministry is promised for those who are Christian, for those who need comfort, those who need encouragement, those who need teaching, it's the Spirit that comes and does that work. And the work of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is promised.

Every need that they could have and every obstacle that they would face and every prayer that would come to their mind could be brought about through the work of the Spirit in their life. This is the promise. Now for us, an application, we must see when we're praying for the lost, when we have that godly perspective, and we begin to pray, and we begin to boldly pray, and we begin to learn to ask, and then to seek, and then the knock, and we have that heart of God for that lost husband, or that lost son, or that lost neighbor. We are praying for the work of the Holy Spirit.

We are praying for the Spirit, if I can use this language to come down and work, and there's the promise. For those of us who are Christian, we desire to be taught by the Word. We desire to understand the Word. It's the Spirit of God living within us that grants us the ability to understand, that takes the Word and teaches us the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the promise. And when we're interceding for brothers and sisters, when we see them struggling, we see them living life, and we're interceding. It's the Spirit that we pray for that would come and work in their life. You see the promise? Because without the Spirit, we have no hope.

Now as I move away from the verses that we're looking at and dividing, last week I used an illustration of school. Now if we can go back and look at verses 1-4, this is basic education. This is elementary, maybe a little junior high. But what is Jesus saying? When you pray, you pray like this. This is all about self. This is all about God working in them. Let me pick one out and give you an example. If they could not pray through verse 3 and learn to depend on God for their daily needs, they're going to worry. They're not going to trust Him. They're going to worry about this. They're going to worry about that.

They're not going to trust in His leadership through the day. They're not going to trust in His leadership through their life, and they'll fail to be used of God. Listen, if they cannot forgive others as they have been forgiven, they will hold grudges, and they will hold animosity, and they will be angry at everybody and angry at the world, and they will be unusable by God. You see, this is elementary school. This is junior high. This is the beginning of the education of prayer. Verses 1 through 4, it's all about God working in them. And look, for you and for me, we must be sure to pray this pattern.

I've known Christians who struggle to be used because they struggled with forgiveness. Oh, pastor, you don't understand what they did to me. It does not matter. What does He say? We forgive and forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. That person may never repent to you. That person may never say, "I'm sorry." And if you will not forgive, you will not be used. You might say, "Pastor, you just don't understand. Worry is a part of my personality." No, it's not a sin.

If I go back to the first verse, what does He say, "Father, praise Your name." "Father, I praise You for who You are and everything You represent." If we cannot just worship God, we will never be used by God. See, verses 1 through 4, it's the basics. It's elementary school, maybe a little junior high. But all when we get into verses 5 through 13 is higher education. It's mostly about intercession. It's mostly about praying for others. Because what is the beginning of the parable? What does it say?

"I have a friend who's come to me at midnight, and I have no bread." And when we grasp this, when this teaching becomes a reality in our life, then we enter a world. We rise up to a different plane, a higher plane, a greater place. We rise up to a place of the fullness and the work of the Spirit in our life where we're using kingdom life and other people's lives in a way in which many Christians never, they just never get there. Now, there are two reasons why many Christians never get here. Number one, they want to fully obey God in their walk. And number two, they're never taught these things.

Thinking of a great example, I gave you some examples last week. One of them was Jim Elliot. Dug around in my office and I pulled out my copy. It's titled Shadow of the Almighty, the Life and Testament of Jim Elliot. If you read this book, if you read these journals, if you read his writing, you'll hear a man who was walking with God, praying, wanting to be used of God. You just, you get his prayer life. But I mentioned another one. It's the story in the life of David Brainard. He's a well-known missionary to the American Indians. And I'm going to read a little quotation from his journals. He's ministering in his youth. He's in his 20s.

He's ministering in sickness. He died of tuberculosis. But I think when I read this, you'll see that he got past the basic education and he got into the higher education of the prayer life. Listen to what he reads. Saturday, or listen to what he says. Saturday, July the 21st. About nine I withdrew to the woods for prayer. No air conditioning, no heat. But in the wilderness, ministering to the American Indians. Towards night, I was aggravated by hearing sundry things and I looked and looked encouraging that they indeed intended the Indians to meet together the next day for an idolatrous feast and dance.

If you read in his journals, he was always burdened about their idolatry and their feasts and their reverie and their immorality. I thought I must in good conscience endeavor to break them up and knew not how to attempt such a theme. In prayer, I was exceedingly enlarged and my soul was drawn out as ever I remember it to have been in my life. I was in such anguish and pleaded with such earnestness that when I arose from my knees, I could scarcely walk straight. The sweat ran down my face and my body. I was wholly free from selfish ends in my supplications for the poor Indians. I knew they were met together to worship devils and not God.

And it made me cry earnestly to God that God would appear and help me in my attempts to break up this idolatrous meeting. Thus, I spent the evening praying insistently for divine assistance. That's the spirit. And that I might not be self dependent. What I passed through was remarkable. And there appeared to be nothing of any importance to me but the holiness of my heart and life and the conversion of the heathen to God. What do we see? No ordinary Christian, a man who lived these verses. Holiness of life, usefulness for the conversion of the heathen and ultimately he knew what it meant to have a friend in need of bread.

Now, I will give you a preview of next week. This leads us to a theological dilemma considered by some. This leads to two different errors. And next week we're going to look at these two errors and we're going to look at this theologically. We're going to look at practically and we're going to look at it biblically in a holistic manner. And I believe the Lord is going to empower us and enable us to be able to pray and pray accurately and biblically if we'll digest what the Lord is giving us. Let's pray and then we'll have a closing verse and we'll dismiss.