[0:00] I greet you in Jesus' name this morning. Our shepherd.
[0:14] Savior like a shepherd lead us. Is he your shepherd? Do you know his voice? My sheep know my voice. You know, that thought, do we know the voice of the shepherd?
[0:34] Do we know his voice? This morning, somewhat continuing from last week, I want to talk about prayer.
[0:55] And two things we'll be looking at this morning. One is hindrances to prayer, and the other is whose prayers does God hear?
[1:08] You know, many people will pray, many people will say prayers, but does God hear? And if he doesn't, why not?
[1:27] The devotional this morning, Psalm 24, those were two of my first verses I was going to read this morning. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
[1:40] Who will stand in his holy place? Who will ascend into the hill of the Lord?
[1:56] Who will enter into that place of worship and will pray and God will hear and will answer?
[2:12] He asks a question and then he answers it. He said, He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lifted up his soul under vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
[2:26] Now let's, we'll just get a few verses here as we travel through the scriptures. In Psalm 66, here's a verse that the blind man quoted when Jesus had healed him.
[2:46] Psalm 66 and verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
[2:59] If I regard iniquity, if I allow any room in my heart for iniquity. What is iniquity? It is whatever exalts itself against God, whatever argues with the will of God, whatever is not in submission to God.
[3:21] In our heart, it's iniquity. If I regard iniquity, if I give place to anything in my heart that is not of God, the Lord will not hear me.
[3:35] In Proverbs, Proverbs 28, verse 9. And yes, there's, there's many more, there's many others, but we will just be reading a few here this morning.
[3:54] He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
[4:13] You know, are we hearing the word of God? Are we listening? Are we, are we hearing? Are we reading this word?
[4:25] Are we taking it in? Do we believe it? Do we, do we allow this word to change it? Change us. But here he says that he that turneth away, he that turneth away from, from the word of God, his prayer will be an abomination.
[4:49] You know, and we see in our day, we see many people that turn aside, people that somehow they make allowance to go contrary to the word of God, and they claim that their prayers are being answered.
[5:09] Now, I'm going to read in Zechariah, chapter 7, 8 through 13. Zechariah 7, verse 8.
[5:23] And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother.
[5:40] And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
[5:53] So here he, he was, the Lord had given the prophet a word, and he gave it to the people. And it was a word that would, that would direct them in the way of the Lord, in the right way.
[6:07] He said, Execute true judgment, show mercy and compassion to your brother. Oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
[6:31] Well, what does it say here? But they refused to hearken, and they pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in his spirit by the former prophets.
[6:55] Therefore, came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore, it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear. Now, notice this verse 13.
[7:07] Verse 13 is a very key verse in our lives today. That as he cried and they would not hear, God cried through the prophet, God cried.
[7:22] He brought his word to these people and they refused to hear. So, they cried. So, now the people are crying. They're now in dismay.
[7:33] They're now in need. But God will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. You know, isn't that, doesn't that tell us a lot?
[7:50] Doesn't that show us why many prayers are not answered today? people refuse to hear the word of God.
[8:01] They refuse to allow the word to dictate their lives, to show them the way of salvation, to show them the way that they need to walk in.
[8:13] And so, now, when they call up, when they cry out to God, God does not hear them. In Isaiah 59, again, we're looking at hindrances to prayer and why God does not hear people when they pray.
[8:31] In Isaiah 59, verse 1 and 2, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.
[8:45] But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Again, that little word iniquity, there it is again, but it is something that will separate us from God.
[9:04] If we will allow, if we will allow iniquity in our heart, if we will hide something in our heart, and we'll be looking at some of those things later, but anything that is not under the submission of Jesus Christ is iniquity and it separates us and God cannot hear our prayer.
[9:28] He asks the question here, Is the Lord's hand shortened that it cannot save? Is his ear heavy that he cannot hear? No, it's not that, but it's us.
[9:41] So whenever it seems, whenever it is that God's not answering your prayer, examine your heart, examine your heart.
[9:55] In Ezekiel, we have an example here. In Ezekiel 14, in Ezekiel 14, we have a people that are seeking, that are seeking the Lord and they come to the prophet here.
[10:13] In Ezekiel 14, the elders of Israel came to the prophet and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, in verse 3, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face, should I be inquired of at all by them.
[10:37] Here we have men who have idols in their heart. They have men, we have men that will not hear the word of the Lord. We have men that have turned aside from the word of the Lord and have refused to obey it and to submit to it.
[10:55] And now they're in need. Now they're in a hard way and they come to the Lord. They come to the prophet and they want to hear a word from the Lord. They want to hear direction from the Lord God.
[11:08] And so they come to the prophet. And before they ever even got there, I believe, the word of the Lord came to the prophet and God asked Ezekiel, He said, should I even be inquired of by these men?
[11:22] Should I even listen to what they are saying? Because they have refused my word. They have refused my voice. Should I even hear what they are saying?
[11:35] Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him that cometh according according to the multitude of his idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
[12:13] God says here that if there's idols in the heart, he will answer us according to those idols. You know, you have many people today that will say, The Lord told me to do this.
[12:29] The Lord told me to do that. Things that are against the word of God. And I believe the reason that they believe the Lord told them this is because they have these idols in their heart and they have refused to take this word.
[12:45] that's what it says. They have refused to accept the word and they have gone, continued on their own way in their iniquity. And when they come to God, just like here in Ezekiel, people come to God and he answers them according to the idols that are in their hearts.
[13:08] And he allows them to go on in their own way. He allows them to continue on. Why? Because they refuse to deal with the idols in their hearts.
[13:30] Idols of self-will and unsubmissiveness. Idols of silver and gold. You know, I was looking at this. I was looking at this and said, well, does this apply to us?
[13:45] And then I read it in the Amplified and that's what the Amplified says. And I believe it does apply to us. Idols of self-will. Idols of unsubmissiveness.
[13:58] You know, if we, if we do not submit to him, we want to go our own way, then we are in idolatry. We are in idolatry.
[14:09] And then, that and the other thing that he says here, silver and gold, probably the main idols in our day, silver and gold.
[14:20] Yes, there's others. Sports and pleasure and all of that. They can become idols. idols. But, but these are, in the Amplified, they're mentioned, they're spelled out in that way.
[14:37] Idols of self-will and unsubmissiveness. Idols of silver and gold. Idols that we go after. They take the place of God.
[14:47] They, they keep us out of the altar of God. They keep us from worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Well, let's continue on.
[15:06] Let's go, let's go to Mark chapter 11. Amen. Amen. Mark chapter 11, verse 25 and 26.
[15:31] And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
[15:43] But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Now, I believe that there's an, in one of the other Gospels it says that when we come with our gift to the altar and we realize that there's, that there's something amiss between us and a brother, we need to leave our gift and go and make our things right and then come back.
[16:12] But here he says, says that when we stand and we pray, we're praying, we need to forgive all those that, that, that we have, if ye have ought against any, we need to forgive them.
[16:28] If there's anyone that you still hold something against, if there's anyone that, that you still, you know, that man, he owes me an apology. He needs to come make his things right.
[16:41] You know, we just need to forgive. Yes, that man still needs to come make his things right. But I can't be free until I forgive him.
[16:53] And then it doesn't depend on him to set me free. I can be free today. He might come tomorrow and make his things right. But if he doesn't, I can still be free.
[17:05] So if we have ought against any, we need to forgive them that our Father, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.
[17:17] And the Lord's prayer also says the same thing. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Because if we do not forgive, then he cannot forgive us.
[17:31] But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. You know, this is very serious.
[17:43] very serious. Now let's go on. Let's go to James chapter 1. James chapter 1.
[18:03] My brethren, verse 2, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
[18:21] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
[18:38] So, if we, if we lack wisdom, if we lack anything, then let us come to God in prayer and ask him for it. And he says, here we have wisdom for our example.
[18:53] Just let him ask of God. And God is the one that gives liberally. He upbraideth not. He doesn't, you know, he just gives us an answer to our prayer.
[19:06] It says, it shall be given him. But there's some conditions that he comes after here. He says in verse 6, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
[19:18] Nothing wavering. We need to, when we come to God, and we ask him for some, we bring our need to him, we bring our petition to him, we cannot waver.
[19:33] For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
[19:45] A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You know, when we come to God, God, we must come in faith.
[19:58] We must believe. We must believe that he hears. We must come with clean hands and a pure heart. And when we come to him in faith, believing, he will answer.
[20:14] God demands that we believe his word absolutely. This word of God. God demands that we believe this word absolutely.
[20:27] It's not if, it's not any ands or buts about it. This word will stand forever. And if we will believe it, we can build our life upon it.
[20:40] It's an anchor that will hold in the storms of life. Jesus, our anchor, he will hold in the storms of life.
[20:53] And we can come to him in faith, believing. To question God is to make him a liar. Can we believe him?
[21:07] Actually, this was a quote from R.A. Torrey. God demands that we believe his word absolutely.
[21:22] To question it is to make him a liar. We're looking at hindrances to prayer in 1 Peter chapter 3.
[21:45] And verse 7. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
[22:05] You husbands, this is for you. Yes, it's for all of us, but I believe it's especially for us as husbands. Dwell with your wife according to knowledge.
[22:19] And what all does that mean? We can't, you know, we can't look at all of that. But, you know, treat your wife in a godly way.
[22:33] In a godly way. Have your relationship with her. It says, according to knowledge and giving honor to the wife as the weaker vessel and being heirs together of the grace of God.
[22:49] You know, you sisters, our wives, they're not less important in the kingdom of God. No, but we are heirs together.
[23:03] Hallelujah. Heirs together of the grace of life. Yes. Let your prayers be not hindered.
[23:20] James chapter 4. A very simple phrase here.
[23:35] Ye have not because ye ask not. You have not because you ask not. Yes, there's more to it.
[23:47] But, let's look first at the reason why we don't ask. I believe that many times we don't ask because of unbelief.
[23:58] We don't ask because of pride. We don't ask because we've been taught to be self-sufficient. Here in this land of plenty and everything, you know, I believe that this society has endeavored to set up a way to live without God.
[24:22] There's everything you need for life. You can get a job and you can work and you can provide for your family. If you get sick, you go to the doctor and he'll prescribe some medicine and hopefully it will make you well and society has provided a way to live without God.
[24:48] But they forget a few things. Our very breath comes from God. The strength that we have to work comes from God.
[25:00] His blessing is what makes our job successful. His blessing is what makes our business successful. God's blessing is the most important thing in your life is to live your life that you have the blessing of God.
[25:23] And so in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path and we'll come into some of that here as we continue on but you have not because you ask not.
[25:38] You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust. You know many times we have our own agenda.
[25:57] We ask for our own lust. We ask for our own will of God. How will we ask in the will of God?
[26:09] We'll be looking at some of that as we go along here. We have not because we ask not. We lack faith. We lack faith.
[26:21] Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so if we need faith we need to get into this word and we need to read it.
[26:32] We need to hear it. We need to obey it. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes as we learn to know God more.
[26:46] You know if we doubt God we don't know him. That's why we doubt him. How could we doubt how could we doubt the almighty God?
[27:03] The creator of heaven and earth. The one who sustains us. The one who empowers us. The one who fills us with his spirit.
[27:14] The one who dwells within us. How could we doubt him? The adulterers and adulterers us.
[27:24] Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? You know as long as long as we consider the world a friend we will not walk in faith.
[27:51] Unbelief. Let's turn to Matthew 17. Unbelief I believe you know unbelief kept the children of Israel from entering the promised land.
[28:08] You know they they were obedient they left Egypt they slew the Passover lamb and they were obedient and they left left. But somehow when they got when they got there to the border somehow their faith was not there.
[28:33] It was not somehow they could not enter in in faith. They refused to enter in.
[28:45] You know they could have said well I don't really feel strong. I don't really feel the power of God but God promised to be with us and so I will walk in obedience and we will cross this Jordan.
[29:03] no they refused to cross. They refused to go in. They listened to those ten spies and those ten filled them with unbelief.
[29:17] Instead of listening to Joshua and Caleb unbelief it keeps us from entering in to what God has for us.
[29:30] So many times so many times. I want to look here unbelief you know if if if there's unbelief in your heart God will not hear your prayer.
[29:48] The only prayer he will hear is a prayer of repentance. In Matthew 17 see well here we have a man in verse 14 there came a certain man kneeling down to Jesus and saying Lord have mercy on my son for he is lunatic and sore vexed for oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water and I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him.
[30:33] Then Jesus answered and said oh faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you bring him hither to me.
[30:46] You know in verse 16 he says I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. You know just a few chapters before this Jesus gave them power over all demons and sickness let's see if we can read that in Matthew 10 Jesus took the twelve and he he gathered them and he he sent them out he said go not into the way of the Gentiles but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils freely have received freely give Jesus gave them this power and he said freely I have given you this power so freely you give it to those who you meet who are in need and so when this man came you know they probably remember that you know he came at a time when Jesus was not with them he was up on the mountain and so this man brought his son to the disciples and they could not heal him
[32:13] Jesus answered and he said oh faithless and perverse generation verse 18 and Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said why could not we cast him out and Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief for verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you how be it this kind going not out but by prayer and fasting notice here what he says he says if they had faith if they had a living faith if they had faith even the size of a mustard seed but that mustard seed it is alive it is alive it is living if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed then nothing shall be impossible unto you unbelief it stops the work of God in you and through you in Mark 11
[34:00] Mark 11 you know here we have Jesus cursed the fig tree because he came to this tree it had leaves the time of figs was not yet but it had leaves and usually when a fig tree has leaves it also has figs and Jesus came to it looking for figs and it had none and so he cursed it he said no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever well they went to the temple they overthrew the money changers drove them out and Jesus said it is in verse 17 is it not written my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer but ye made it a den of thieves now let me ask you is your house today is your temple the temple of the holy ghost is it a house of prayer or is it something else if it's something else it's a den of thieves if your temple is not a house of prayer then it is something else it's a den of thieves well when they went out of the city it says in verse 20 as they in the morning as they passed by they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him master behold the fig tree which thou curses is withered away that was quick trees don't wither away in one day do they no first the leaves they start to wither a little bit after a few days they'll they'll dry up in the sun and and and so on it's a slow process but this tree it dried up by the next morning and
[36:30] Jesus answering saith unto them have faith in God verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say to this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith therefore I say unto you that what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them and when ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses so he admonishes us to to ask in faith believing when we come to
[37:32] God come in faith and believe that you will have what you have asked for how you know there's so many promises there's so many promises in this word about God hearing and answering what are the hindrances well unbelief is a big one and he admonishes us to have faith in God to have the faith of God you know as we as we allow God to add faith to our heart faith cometh it comes faith cometh so as we read this word it comes and we build up ourselves in the faith and then in that hour of need
[38:37] God can give us also the gift of faith that we can pray for miracles and whatever the need is whatever we're facing if we will trust him he will meet our need he will be sufficient now how do we come to the place that God will hear and answer our prayer well we'll look at a few things we will look at the word of God and it will show us let's go to 1
[39:44] John 1 John chapter 5 starting in verse 13 these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he he he he heareth us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him here's one of those promises one of those promises that promises that
[41:04] God will hear and he will answer our prayer you know with every promise there's conditions now let's look at this these things have I written unto you that what that believe on the name of the son of God I believe this is one of the main things is that we believe in the name of the son of God and that you know as we believe in him we know that we have eternal life why because we have come to him and we have believed in his name we have believed in his provisions we have believed that he gave his life for us we have come to him in this way but if we truly believe that Jesus is the son of the living God Jesus is the son of the almighty God and he has saved us from our sin he has saved us from that in my heart if we truly believe that then we can also come to him and pray and believe that he hears and he answers and we will be looking at more things as we go along here in chapter 3 in chapter 3 verse 22 and whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight now here he gives us more conditions you know you know every promise in this book has its conditions and here we have it again that whatsoever we ask we will receive but he says the reason we receive is because we keep his commandments and we do those things that are pleasing in his sight hallelujah and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of the son of his son
[43:40] Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment that's commandment number one believe on the name of Jesus Christ love the Lord thy God with all your heart believe in Jesus Christ and love one another yes he says if we keep his commandments and if we do those things that are pleasing in his sight then we can ask whatever whatsoever we ask we will receive of him the gospel of John 15 we'll just pick out a few verses then we'll read we'll read verse 4 and 5 abide in me and I in you as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me
[45:12] I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing you know this is I believe this is one of the very important things you know that you not only do we abide in him but we also acknowledge and realize that without him we can do nothing without Jesus there's no good comes out of our life without Jesus we cannot do anything that pleases God verse 7 if ye abide in me and by words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples so shall ye be my disciples the disciples of
[46:21] Jesus he expects them to bring forth much fruit how will we bring forth much fruit by abiding in him and his words abiding in us you know that is that is one of the first rules in abiding in him is that his word abides in us that's how we abide in him one of the ways one of the things we must do to abide in him is to have his word abide in us his word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee his word is it precious to us do we love his word do we love to read his word do we spend time in his word meditating reading allowing him to speak to us allowing him to talk to us you know many times we read and we pray and we just talk to him but do we take time to listen to what he has to say be still and know that I am God
[47:45] I believe that that means to be still before him and to allow him to bring that word and not only that we have now read it and we're going to go out and forget it what we've read but know that we meditate upon it and we allow him to take it from our head into our heart the word of God thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee if ye abide in me and my words abide in you hallelujah then you can ask what you will and it shall be done unto you and when we ask what we will because it is his will and we ask it he says the father is glorified you know maybe that's a good maybe that's a good way to judge if our prayers are are are are right or not will this glorify
[49:01] God if he answers it or will it glorify me abide in Christ this is the great secret of prevailing prayer and I want to I want to read a quote again from R.A.
[49:34] Torrey it's a little lengthy a little longer than what I would normally quote a man but he writes here concerning this verse he says what is it to abide in Christ it is to continue in living union with him to bear the same relation to him that the living healthy branch the continuously fruit bearing branch does to the vine this branch has no independent life of its own its sap and vigor all come from the vine so we abide in
[50:35] Christ in so far as we have no independent life of our own in so far as we do not seek to have any thoughts plans feelings purposes works fruit of our own but let Christ think his thoughts feel his feelings purpose his purposes work his works bear his fruit in us when we do this and in so far as we do this we may ask whatsoever we wish and it shall be done is God's will our will are we abiding in the vine you know you know you look at any vine you look at any tree and that branch that branch if it's disconnected it loses its life all of its life comes from the roots of the vine and as long as that branch has a vital connection to the vine it can live and it can bring forth fruit to the glory of the vine but when it's disconnected from that vine it dies it dies and it can't bring any fruit
[52:19] I believe many Christians they still try to have a root connected to the old vine to the satanic vine to the vine of self and they try to live a double life that will stop the life of God he continues he says our prayers themselves will be the outcome of the Christ life in us the father hears him always and will hear him when he prays through us note that he says also and my words abide in you it is through his words and only through his words that
[53:22] Christ imparts his life to us and lives his life in us the words of Christ are the vehicle of the life of Christ it is vain then to talk or think of abiding in Christ if we neglect his words we must let his words sink deep into our souls and form us and mold our thoughts our feelings our purposes our plans our actions if ye abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you is the way the promise reads you know that's a heavy word a heavy promise are we abiding are we allowing Christ to live his life through us are we allowing him to have his way in me do we hear his voice do we follow his voice do we follow his leading you know
[54:40] Jesus said he says in John chapter 10 he says let's just look at just a little bit here he says the sheep follow him for they know his voice they follow the shepherd because they know the voice of the shepherd in verse 5 a stranger will they not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers you know we must know the voice of the shepherd we must know his voice or we will not know it when a stranger talks we will not know it when the deceiver talks we will not know it when the false prophet comes with his glamorous prophecies but we must know the voice of the shepherd and we must follow him it will protect us it will protect us from deception it will protect us from the stranger to turn to psalm 91 psalm 91 and we'll just read a few of these verses verse 1 he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty he that dwelleth that means not just visiting not just visiting
[56:39] God in the morning not just visiting God on a Sunday morning no but dwelling in that secret place verse 14 because he has said his love upon me now we have God talking because you have set your love upon God upon Jesus therefore will I deliver you therefore I will set him on high because he has known my name he shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation have we set our love upon Jesus do you love Jesus more than anything else have you set your heart have you set your heart upon him if you have he will deliver us he will he will sustain us he will he says
[58:02] I will set him on high you know Ephesians says we are seated together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus hallelujah we can't overcome you know we don't have time to go back and read the rest of this chapter but it would you know the Lord he is our refuge and our fortress our God and in him will we trust he is our truth he is his truth is our shield and our buckler he is our habitation hallelujah his is he is he our all in all because we have set our love upon him he will hear us psalm 37 delight thyself in verse four delight thyself also in the
[59:23] Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass if the Lord is our delight you know if we abide in him I believe he will be our delight if we love him more than anything else he will be our delight delight thyself you know verse three says trust in the Lord and do good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass have you committed your way to him or do you plot out your path and then ask God to bless your way how is it how are we living where does
[60:27] God come into our plan John 14 John 14 verse 30 hereafter I will not talk much with you Jesus talking here to his disciples for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Jesus he knew that the devil was going to come and tempt him
[61:36] Jesus knew that his hour of trial was come the hour when he would need to lay down his life it was the greatest trial of his life but notice what he says here he says the prince of this world cometh Satan is coming and you know when Satan comes there's no good in his heart there's no good in his mind no but he will try to deceive you will try to trip you but notice what Jesus said and hath nothing in me there's nothing in me there's nothing in my heart that belongs to Satan so Satan can come and he can fight against me and he can struggle and he can try to deceive me and he can try to trip me but there's nothing in my heart that belongs to him so he has no hold
[62:38] Satan has no hold in my heart you know that is what Satan tries to do in your heart is to gain a beach head to gain a hold somewhere to get you to compromise somewhere even just in a small thing and once you have compromised then he will work to take you on down the wrong road you know you know he doesn't care he doesn't care if you go to church just so you don't get too fanatical about Jesus he doesn't care the many religious things we do but he tries to get us to compromise even in the smallest way knowing that if he can if he can get us to trip if he can get us to compromise he will use that to take us on the wrong way he will use that to do what if we regard iniquity in our heart the
[64:12] Lord will not hear us if we allow anything that is not of God it will hinder our prayers you know let me see if I can find that verse yes 2nd corinthians 10 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exulteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
[65:22] God anything that is not in submission to our Lord Jesus Christ it must be taken captive and put out taking into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ that is how we will have victory and that is how we will live a life that God will hear our prayers a life in submission to him a life abiding in the vine Philippians 4 Philippians 4 we'll read a few verses here yet in closing 4 through 8 rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice let your moderation be known unto all men the
[66:23] Lord is at hand be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God he says be careful for nothing don't worry about the things of this life don't worry don't worry about those things if you if you're a child of God if you're abiding in him just cast cast all your care upon him for he careth for you it's what Peter says but he says be careful for nothing don't worry about those things but bring everything to God in prayer and in supplication with thanksgiving bring your requests to God and the peace of God the peace of God that passes all understanding you know it doesn't say that we will be that we will always be in a peaceful setting no but in the midst of the storm we can have peace in the midst of the storm the peace of God will rule in our heart it passes understanding this world can't understand it how that in the midst of the storm we can have peace this peace that passes all understanding it will keep our hearts and minds through
[68:09] Christ Jesus finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you taking every thought into captivity think think on these things you know this word this word has so many practical instructions will we allow this word to direct our paths will we abide in him will we allow his word to abide in us if we abide in him and his word and his word abide in us we can ask what we will and it shall be done praise the Lord let's pray to here to him out to to he