Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: We've got a father who truly cares for us. He truly knows us, and he knows what's best for us. That's a bit of an ouch, that one, isn't it? When we're praying, God knows what's best for us. He's also a father church that we will meet face to face one day. He's amazing. He loves us so much. The best thing of it all. What did he do? He sent his son to die for you and me. That some father.
Okay, so let's remember when we are praying who we are praying to. This is ingredient number one we're praying to. Father Jesus said, pray, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. So I think before we present any requests in our prayers, let's acknowledge who God is at the start of our prayer and praise him every day. When you pray, start off every day, I promise you, it changes your mind. As you pray, you pray, Father. God, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Sometimes some of those little wish lists you've got start to change because you're recognizing who you're praying to.
In our praying, does his kingdom actually come about? That's what he said, you, kingdom come in our prayers. Does God's kingdom come in what we're praying about?
So what a great way to start our prayer church.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: By saying, father, Father, your kingdom come, hallowed be your name.
Funny. Esther asked her mum for her dad's. I said, ask your dad for a rugby shirt for me. He always wore rugby shirts. I said, get a rugby shirt. I've got a little rucksack to remember my dad. It's only a little keepsake, but every time we go walking, I have my dad's rucksack with me. It's lovely. And I said, get something from your dad. And she got his rugby shirt. But she also got his preaching notes from years of preaching. He was a great preacher.
And last night we had a look at them, and one of them he was talking about Father. And Brian Hewitt said this. It was brilliant. He said, sorry, the area in his preaching notes. I just found one that said, great prayers. Listen to this. Esther's dad speaking said, great prayers start best by simply hanging out with the father.
Hanging out with the father. And I can't remember the sermon he preached, but he was speaking about the father's love. And he said, when you start praying, hang out with the Father before we talk about us.
See who he is. Hallowed be his name. Hang out with the Father before you pray. Okay, cool. That's ingredient One. Number two. Ingredient number two. How's Esther doing with her ingredients? Cool.
Cool.
Looking good. Anybody looking forward to one of those afterwards?
Answers on a postcard? Right.
Number two, Forgive. Forgive. Jesus said in our passage, forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Bit of a tough one that, isn't it? But that's what Jesus tells us to do. Not only say, I, I love it. Sometimes on a Sunday morning, I come sit there, I say, forgive me, Lord, for whatever's gone on this week. I want to purify myself before you, before I come and worship you, Lord. But Jesus goes one better than that. He says, forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who sinned against us. So what a great way to start praying. It's like you're acknowledging your human frailty, isn't it?
And how we've let God down.
At the start of a prayer, you're acknowledging who you are as a human being. We can let God down and asking him to forgive us and forgive others. I believe it's a beautiful way of daily praying, purifying ourselves before our Maker. Before you pray, get right with God. His grace is sufficient for you. I do it every time I start there on a Sunday morning. You know, I pray before we start. Forgive me, Lord. Let's do that before we pray. Church. Praying to our Father. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us, Lord. It's a daily reset church. Yeah. Before we meet Jesus and before we pray to him, before we pray to our Father. Pray from a pure heart, a right heart. Are you with me? He says, forgive us, Lord, as we forgive others. Have you ever forgiven anybody for anything? It's actually a great feeling. Sometimes you want to poke him in the eye. Think, don't want to forgive you. That really hurt what you did. You forgive somebody, it's wonderful. I'll tell you what's a brilliant testimony as a Christian.
It is forgive others how awesome Jesus really is.
So he knows what's best for us, doesn't he? And he's asking him to pray his way. So he says, pray to my father, forgive me, Lord, as we forgive others. Cool. Ingredient number three.
Simple one. This church. It says ask in our passage today. It simply says ask.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:04:48] Speaker A: You got to ask.
You got yourself right with God. You acknowledging who you're praying to, Father God, hallowed be your name. Forgive me, Lord. Now you're coming to him to talk to him.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: I believe you're coming out of the right mindset and the right heart, though the way you've started your Prayer. So you've got to ask.
Ask and it will be given to you. Our passage says, seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone.
Everybody. That's all of us. Everyone who asks receives the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
So we do this. After acknowledging who God is and asking him to forgive our sins, we ask.
I think it's wonderful that we can come to God and ask him for anything. But I believe he wants. When Esther and I were talking about this yesterday, he wants us to pray to him, Right? He wants us to come to him. He's saying, come to me and ask. Seek, knock. This is Jesus instructing us how to pray. He said, ask, seek, knock.
He says, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened. I think Jesus here is explaining about his good, good, good Father who wants to give us good things and he wants to provide for his children as any good father would. You know, Caleb and Holly have dedicated their son to God. That's the best thing you can do as parents. Beautiful. Any father and mother here who loves the kids, you want to give them good things. I think I've shared with you before. I remember as a kid growing up, my mum said, phil, I love you so much, I'd throw myself under a train for you to save your life. When you're eight, you're like, no, you won't.
I don't think you would. Well, I wouldn't do that for my sister.
But you would as a parent. You become a parent and all these things. You remember your mum and dad saying, you're thinking, I would actually. I'd jump in from that train to pull Reuben out of the way, or Heidi or James. And I'm sure you all would as Mum and Dad. Well, our good, good Father knows what we need. He says, ask, come to me. Because he wants to provide for his children. Jesus is saying, my dad wants to provide good things for you. Indeed. He goes on to say, which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.
Or if he asked for a Man United shirt, we'd give him a LEED shirt. No, that's not in the Bible. Sorry.
I believe this is a stunning realization of our praying to a father who truly loves us and wants to give good things to us. If you really think about it, Jesus is instructing us how to Pray. But he's saying, my dad wants to look after you. He wants to give you good things. We've got to pray in God's recipe. So I can see you thinking it's so simple. Is it, Phil? You just ask, seek and knock.
Well, we know that the Bible works perfectly together, don't we? The whole Bible works perfectly together.
So let's just hold that thought until we get the rest of the recipe. It does ask to ask, but there's kind of some more parts of the recipe that all need to intertwine together for it to work. Esther, how are you doing with your cooking?
Good.
Do you like that?
You've got to remember the recipe, right? Ingredient number four. So we're praying to our Father, asking him, forgive us before we start. Then we start asking, is it as simple as just asking God for a Ferrari? Asking God for this, asking God for that? Well, no. There's three more ingredients we need to be mindful of when we're praying. Ingredient number four is faith.
Faith.
Are we praying in faith?
Often when people come to the front and they'll be praying for something. Over the years I've said, do you believe God can heal you or God can get you out of that situation, the mess you're in, or whatever you're praying for, do you believe it? And I can tell by the looks in the eyes sometimes whether they do or they don't. I believe there's a beautiful twinning of faith when you're praying for somebody and they're receiving prayer. I don't even believe they need to be a Christian if they believe in the God that's real.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: If you pray an awesome prayer and they say, well, I believe God can move. You see people get saved and set free because they're seeing the power of God in work, in their lives. There's something powerful about praying in faith.
There's something from your gut. I'm sure loads of you that have journeyed over the years with Jesus have seen this in your own life. So you've seen God move. And there's this. It comes from inside. It's a faith fueled prayer. This, this is a really important greeting, guys. Prayer number four. Let's look in our cookbook, which is the Bible.
So our cookbook is the Bible for these ingredients. We're looking at faith. James 5:15.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith.
The prayer offered in Faith will make the sixth person. Well, come on, let's start declaring these. Matthew 21:22. Jesus replied, Truly, I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt. There's an instruction here in the scriptures.
Yeah. Faith. And it's saying, believe. Now it's saying, do not doubt. Truly, I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but you can also say to this mountain, throw yourself into the sea and it will be done. For if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
Wow, ask that word there. Ask.
Mark 11:24. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. Do you know what? I could go on Church. Hebrews 11. Full of faith in it. Philippians 4.
Our Bible is full of faith. We've got to pray in faith. So I believe there's a huge narrative right throughout the New Testament, especially to pray in faith.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Want us to pray in faith. Believe what you're praying for. Are we truly praying in faith? Church, when you get on your knees in the morning or whenever you pray, are you praying in faith?
Yeah, you've got to pray in faith.
I've shared this a few times with you, but it was such a wonderful encounter. Esther and I once had a life group around our house and a couple had not been able to have a child for about five years. And she just broke down in tears and she said, phil, Esther, we were the life group leaders. Will you pray for us to have a baby? And it was such a God moment. And I said, come on, let's all stand around in a circle. Same now as I got there and every time I think about it, the hairs on the back of my neck stuck up. And I remember praying my guts out. And it was a real warm, lovely time. And I felt something inside.
And they went home and three months later they came back to the life group with a little picture of a little baby in the womb. And it was powerful. And I remember that little baby got really ill about a month old. I said, God, God gave you that baby. He ain't taking it away. And we prayed again and this baby was healed. He's about 18 now, this child. It was a wonderful time. But I remember that, you know those faith fueled prayers we get church, that's my story. What's yours going to be? Build history with God.
Pray in faith. When you pray. Pray in faith. Pray your kingdom come. Yeah. That was an encounter for us that Esther And I. That was so powerful. We can all experience these, can't we, in our lives? But pray your kingdom come, pray in faith.
So you start seeing how all these are working together, all these ingredients. You gotta pray in faith. When you ask, you gotta pray in faith. Yeah. Are we praying in faith and in line with God's kingdom?
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Gotta pray in line with God's kingdom. Think about that. So come on, church, let's pray in faith. Ingredient number five. How are you doing, Esther?
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Nearly there.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: No, it's okay.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: We'll get there.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: So ingredient five.
This is a good one.
Are we praying, Church? Are you praying when you pray in line with God's will?
So often when with Christians, it can be a bit of a.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Are we praying in line with God's will? I know, it's a tricky one. Your kingdom come, your will be done.
It's powerful, isn't it? That's what we're praying. We've got to get all these to link together when we're praying.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: I know it's a tricky one. Starts getting a bit more salty now, doesn't it? We're getting to the heart of it. But stay with me. Let's go to our recipe book again, the Bible. We've got this one John 5.
Listen to this. It's beautiful. One John 5, 14, 15.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God. Wow.
That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Say that again. This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know what we have asked of Him.
Wow.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Like this one. Check out the Amplified Bible. I love checking out other versions when I'm preparing a passage and when I'm reading the Bible. You must do it. It's brilliant. It really sometimes brings a point home to you. If you read a passage, read it in another translation. Here it is in the amplified says this.
This is the remarkable degree of confidence which we as believers are entitled to have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will that is consistent with his plan and purpose, he hears us.
Starting to explain it a bit more now. We're praying in line with his will according to his plan and purpose.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: I love how we suddenly recognize here in prayer, it's all about him and not us, isn't it? Who we're praying to. It's all about Him. We are praying to a holy, loving Father. Yes. We're praying to the One true God.
I love what my life application says at the bottom.
So I have an application Bible at the bottom. It's just some theologians have just given some of their thoughts on the scripture. It's not the Bible, but it's just some of their thoughts on the passage you've read. And this is what it said. He said the emphasis here is not on God's will.
Sorry, other way around. The emphasis here is on God's will, not our will.
When we communicate with God, we don't demand what we want.
Rather we discuss it with him, what he wants for us. If we align our prayers to his will, he listens.
And we can be certain that if he listens, he will give us a definite answer. Come on. So start praying with confidence.
There's a boldness and a confidence to pray when we're praying in line with his will. Okay, so I know you might be all thinking, oh, no, that's kind of put a hold on praying for my Ferrari and my America holiday next year.
Come on, chin up. Listen to what the Bible says. It says we can have confidence that if he hears us, if we pray in line with his will.
Get to know God's will for your life, church. Get to know God's will for your life.
He has the best plan for your life.
Might not be your plan, but God has the best plan for your life. You know, get to know God's plan for your life.
As you get to know God and journey with him, more and more your prayer life changes. You know that you actually start praying God honouring things. You start praying for things. In the kingdom of God, it's not as much me, me, me. It's like God, how can you use me, God, how do you want to be in this area? I want to bless those people, provide that I can bless you start thinking kingdom. This is what the Bible's instructing us to do as we seek him, Live for him, pray to him. You get to know him. Okay, he wants to answer us prayer, church. But it has to be in line with his will over our lives. God didn't make us robots. He didn't make us robots with no soul or ability to think or brain.
He made us what in his image. So the Bible says we were made in his image. We wow. Get that, Church. You are made in the image of God. So let's start asking God, what is your will over my life, over this church, over my family?
And you'll start praying powerful and effective prayers, I believe.
Don't forget Romans 12, 2 that famous passage, it says what? Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Just said that, Auntie. Start thinking different.
Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. So as you've been transformed to be more like God, you start changing to be more like Him. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. Here again in the new living. Love this. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by. By changing the way you think. Wow.
Then you will be able to know what is his good, pleasing and perfect world. Come on. How exciting is that? God changed us. This is my Yorkshireman take on this fully. Give yourself to God and He will change the way you think. He'll transform you. He will give yourself to God with a full heart. Pray. Jesus, work on me. I want to be more like you.
Change me to be like you. I want to know your will over my life.
Then you won't just pray church bless me prayers. You won't.
I love the next bit when it says, then you will learn God's will over your lives. So it's as we get transformed to be like him.
Then we will get to know Him. Then we will pray in line with his will over our lives.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Come on.
Finally. What's our last ingredient?
How am I doing for time?
Hurry up.
I'm on my last one. Sorry. Finally. Last ingredient.
Has it been helpful?
Ingredient number six is praying in line with His Word. Praying with his life. With His Word. And I believe this ties beautiful with all of them. But especially with ingredient 5 where we're praying in line with his will.
What's ingredient 6 in our recipe book in the Bible? Simply put your Bible, read your Bible. If we're going to pray in line with His Word, I'm not just going to give you one passage. Read the whole thing.
If you want to pray in line with God's Word, you've got to know your Bible. You've got to read your Bible.
We want to know your God. We want to live for your God.
As he put in Romans. Our thinking is going to be transformed by God. Well, we've got to read the Bible, aren't we?
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: A huge part of getting to know is so simply reading his beautiful word. You will get to know God as you read His Word. It jumps out on you on every page.
