if you could ask the Lord Jesus Christ for anything you wanted what would you ask him for would you say Lord teach me to preach oh Lord teach me to sing oh Lord teach me to lead the disciples asked this Lord teach us to pray profound truth simply stated This is Love Worth Finding with Pastor teacher and author Adrien Rogers we’ve been talking about uh the kind of church that we ought to be the kind of church that I’ve tried to teach you to be in these years that God has given me the wonderful privilege of being your

pastor this morning I want you to open uh God’s word if you will to Matthew chapter 7 and in a moment we’re going to look at verses s and 8 I know they are very familiar to you but the church that I want to be talking about today our church biew Baptist Church needs to be a Praying Church we’ve talked about a unifying church or unified church and a steadfast church and other things but today a Praying Church Belle will no be no greater no better no more useful than her prayer life and her prayer life is

not going to be any better than your life because you are the church and don’t ask yourself is B you a Praying Church ask yourself this question am I a Praying Christian if you could ask the Lord Jesus Christ for anything you wanted what would you ask him for would you say Lord teach me to preach oh Lord teach me to sing oh Lord teach me to lead the disciples prayed asked this Lord Lord teach us to pray and the lord gave them some words here and I want you to listen to them this is uh Matthew chap 7: 7 and 8

listen carefully ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that askthestorybots and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be open these are not the words of adriam these are the words of Jesus undeniable impeccable promise our Lord says we’ ask to seek and to knock when we ask that speaks of our desires when we seek that speaks of of God’s Direction and when we knock that speaks of determination and what we need to do is to bring

desire Direction and determination together into a burning laser point to get our prayers answered before God now I want to tell you folks listen to me the greatest problem that you have in your life is not unanswered prayer the greatest problem is unoffered prayer unasked prayer the Bible says in James chapter 4 and verse two we have not because we ask not you see not to pray is not only to miss a blessing it is rebellious uh our Lord has commanded us to pray quickly jot these scriptures down Luke 18 verse1 and he says in here

that men ought always to pray now who said that Jesus said that Mark chapter 14 and verse 38 Jesus said Watch and Pray watch and pray and the Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 4 ver six I’ll be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God there’s no substitute for prayer not enthusiasm not eloquence not energy there is no substitute for intercession and for prayer and the reason that many of us fail the reason that many of us are

poverty stricken in our spiritual life is we’ve never learn to pray may God help you to pray may God help me to pray so this church will be a Praying church now listen very carefully why does God ask us us to pray it’s a good question I mean doesn’t isn’t God good doesn’t God want to do good things and doesn’t God know everything so why should we pray but putting an anary verse over there in Matthew 6 we’re in Matthew 7 go back to Matthew 6 and Jesus said here in verses 7 and 8 but when you pray use not

vain repetitions as the Heathen do for they think they should be heard for the much speaking be not therefore like unto them now watch this for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him that’s very interesting God knows before you ask well that just begs the question then why should we ask well number one not to impress God don’t use vain repetition you you don’t have to be a junior siiz Shakespeare in in order to pray with your little flowery Praises we don’t pray to impress God and we don’t pray to

inform God God already knows what things we need he knows everything that you need and there’s nothing you can tell him that he does not already know so if you don’t pray to impress God and you don’t pray to inform God why do you pray do you pray to instruct God absolutely not prayer is not some way where you in God’s will to fit your will you don’t instruct God In Prayer why do we pray to invite God to invite God to be a part of our lives so we can Delight ourselves in the Lord the Bible says there in 2

Corinthians chapter 6 verse1 that we are workers together with him God loves us so much that God gives us the privilege of participating in his kingdom work through prayer now God can work without our prayers but we cannot work without God and it is prayer that causes us to depend upon him God does not want us to live lives independent of him if God just simply blessed us without our asking what would that do that would teach us to live life independently from God but the Bible Jesus said if you abide in me and my word abides in you

then you’ll ask what you will and it should be done unto you you see God wants you to abide with him and that’s the reason God has taught us to pray to invite him to take control of Our Lives now listen very carefully the devil cannot keep God from answering so what will he do he will endeavor to keep you from asking think about it now the devil can’t keep God from answering so what will he do he will try to keep us from asking now our Lord in this scripture says ask seek and knock now three factors I want to give you factor

number one the desire Factor ask and express your desires to God so if you have a desire in your heart what things soever you desire When you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them now the Bible says delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart now don’t get the idea that there are spiritual things that you can ask for and uh secular things that you cannot ask for the Bible never divides life from between the sacred and the secular with God every task is a holy

task every day is a holy day can you imagine Jesus dividing his life into the sacred and the secular can you imagine Jesus saying now Lord uh father when I preach I want anointing but the rest of the time I’ll do it myself no you see in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God a good test as to whether you should desire it or whether you should do it is can you ask God to help you or can you ask God to do it through you whatever you desire listen whatever

you desire tell God ask you say what if I want the wrong thing tell him say Lord I want the wrong thing have mercy upon me oh God fix my wer that’s right listen you can’t hide it from God if you want it he already knows it doesn’t he so tell him say oh God this is what I want and I know it’s not what you want so have mercy upon me but friend pray about everything the responsibility for asking is ours the responsibility for giving is God’s and you just ask learn to ask God for whatever you want uh you you see

sometimes the answer to prayer is direct and I want you to learn these three words today direct different and delayed all right sometimes you ask God and the answer is absolutely direct I woke up one night with an excruciating pain in my right ear what caused it I do not know but I put my hand on my ear and I said oh Jesus in the name of in your Holy Name heal me because I felt that was his will immediately immediately immediately the pain was gone I don’t know what caused it but I know who took it his name was Jesus you say

well that was a coincidence you believe what you believe I believe what I believe but friend sometimes the answer is direct we ask God and God answers our prayer now remember Satan cannot keep God from answering so he’ll try to keep you from asking now he cannot uh answer unless we ask now that’s the first Factor the desire Factor what things have you desire the desire factor is ask and express your desires to God if you’re enjoying this message from Adrien Rogers and would like to dig a little deeper into today’s topic download this

free companion Bible study use the link above to get yours now the second factor is the uh the difference factor or the direction factor I meant to say Seek and expect direction from God because there’s sometimes that things that we ask God for and they’re not his will why did he say Seek because God sometimes wants to redirect our prayers to his will asking and seeking have to be linked together sometimes God’s ways are unknown to us sometimes we’re asking for one thing and we need to be seeking another thing and so we

keep asking and keep seeking until God directs our prayer if we’re not asking for the right thing the first time have you ever thanked God for unanswered prayer it’s reported that Mrs Billy Graham said I thank God that he does not answer every prayer of mine had he done so I would have married the wrong man five different times sometimes we ask God for things and it’s not what God wants us to have so we have to keep seeking the Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh and you can read about it over there in 2 Corinthians 12: 8 and

following and he said oh God take away this Thorn three seasons of prayer he prayed but God said no I’ve got something different for you and I’ve got something better for you my strength will be made perfect in your weakness I’m going to give you a special anointing a special power now so what we do we ask and express our desires to God then we seek and experience direction from God and then thirdly we knock and when we knock we exercise determination with God sometimes we’re asking in the will of

God sometimes we’re asking with specificity for what God wants to give us but we give up too easily to knock implies determination in the Greek language and this was written as you know in Greek the word is knock and keep on knocking knock knock knock upon heaven’s door now I said that sometimes the answers are direct you ask God for something there it is I love those kind of answers but sometimes the answers are different you ask God for one thing and God in love does not give it but he gives you something

better but different but sometimes the answers are not direct and they’re not different they are delayed there seems to be some impediment something there we we’ve asked God we sought God but the door is close and so God says knock knock keep on Knocking on Heaven’s Door that’s very interesting why would God tell us to do that why doesn’t God just uh give us what we ask well this same scripture as seek and knock is repeated in Luke 11 might want to turn over to Luke chap 11 Jesus here again is teaching on

prayer and look if you will in Luke 11: 5-10 and he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him friend lend me three loaves that is three loaves of bread for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him now in the Middle East if a friend comes to you uh you must invite him to stay there and you must feed him that is the expected thing and he and now I said Mana look the the cupboard is empty I’ve got this friend I’ve got to feed him

something and uh and he from within shall answer and say trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed I cannot rise and give Thee I say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity now just write out in your margin his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needeth and I say unto you here it is seek ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be open unto you now he’s not talking here about a

light rattle on the doorknob he is talking about a man banging on the door and his friend his neighbor said will you go away do you know what time it is man if you wake up those dogs and wake up those babies we going to have some serious trouble and he said look I I can’t do this go away I said go away I said how many you need how get this bread and get out of here now why would Jesus use an illustration like that about prayer he’s not saying that God is like a unconcerned neighbor he’s just saying that if if a

neighbor will do that just because he’s being pestered how much more will God hear us if we continue to seek if we continue to ask if we continue to knock Jesus told a story of an unjust judge judge there was a widow she had a good case but this crooked uh judge would not answer he didn’t have time for her and uh she just kept on pastoring him and notice if you will here in Luke chapter 18 uh and verse 5 yet because this wiow well let’s let’s go to verse four and he would not for a while but afterward he

said to himself though I fear not God nor guard man what a hard-hearted guy this was didn’t fear God had no respect for man listen to what he says uh yet because this will troubleth me I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me and the Lord said hear what the unjust judge saith and shall not God avenge his own elect which CED day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily now what’s all of this about is he saying that God is like an

unconcerned neighbor no is he saying God is like a perverted Wicked judge no but what he’s saying if an unconcerned neighbor will hear persistent prayer if an unconcerned judge will hear persistent prayer then keep on knocking that’s Tau we see it all in the Bible uh over there in Matthew chapter 15 there’s a story of a of a Canaanite woman the Bible calls her a syrop phenician woman she was from Syria and Phoenicia that is she was a Canaanite she had a daughter that was demon-possessed she came to

Jesus and she said Jesus I’ve got a big need my daughter has a demon do something for her do you know what Jesus said to her I haven’t come to you Canaanites I’ve come to the lost sheep of the House of Israel do you think I’m going to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs now suppose Jesus talked to you that way you’d say huh some Messiah he is some caring person he is call me a dog said he doesn’t care about me and my daughter she’s demon-possessed you know you know what that woman

did she said that’s that’s that’s right Lord you describe me perfectly I’m a gentile dog but I’m a dog under your table and I’m going to stay there until I get a crumb from you Jesus heart broke he wasn’t being cruel to that woman he was trying to teach her to not to persist and he said woman great is your faith great you’ll have what you ask you see she just continued to knock Elijah was a prophet of God in the Old Testament God had shut up Heaven that it would not rain for three years it didn’t rain the

leaves were shriveled the animals were dying it was a judgment of God upon the land but then Elijah and the People Prayed For Rain for the glory of God Elijah went up on the top of Mount Carmel I’ve been there many times and he looked out and he sent his servant he said go see if you see any clouds he went nothing he prayed some more he said go again he went nothing he prayed some more go again he went nothing on the seventh time the servant came back and said I see a little Cloud about the size of a man’s hand

Elijah said there’s going to be an abundance of rain friend we need to keep on praying until God RS down upon us and here was a man who knocked and kept on knocking and that’s what we need to do if God doesn’t answer your prayer just keep praying well that that brings up a question how long should we continue to pray pray let me tell you how long you continue to pray how long you continue to knock you continue to knock until you have the answer in your hand or in your heart or until God says no if you have the answer in your hand

you got four tickets you don’t have to keep asking now you may have the answer in your heart heart God says I have heard your prayer wait upon me I had a deep prayer request in my life one time concern some of my loved ones and I tried again to tell God how to do it but he would not let me instruct him but one day he said to me Adrien you trust me I’m going to take care of it I have heard heard your prayer now it took a while for that prayer to come to me but I had the answer in my heart and sometimes God will just simply

say no why because he doesn’t love us no because he does love us three of God’s greatest prophets in the bible ask God to kill him God said no you know God said no I’m not going to do that that’s not what you need you ask you seek you knock you pray until you have the answer in your hand in your heart until God says no the answer may be direct the answer may be different the answer may be delayed but God answers prayer what is my desire for this dear church that we will be a Praying Church bow your heads in

prayer Oh Our God We join Thee the disciples in asking you Lord teach us to pray [Music] [Music]