0:01 Well, good afternoon. Good to see everyone. Today, I wanted to share an encouragement and that encouragement is this. To keep praying and don't give up. That's what I want to talk about today. I know a lot of us have burdens in our 0:16 life. It could be a burden for the salvation of a loved one. Perhaps it's the burden for a loved one who's entangled in sin. Or maybe it's a burden for something in our own lives. maybe a complex or a very difficult situation 0:31 what to do in those situations and the encouragement is this to pray and to don't give up and so I want to share two things today one is to have a right attitude towards prayer and then secondly I want to share some encouragements about how we can pray 0:46 without giving up and so the first thing having a right attitude towards prayer prayer is like a phone call and the important thing is not so much how many times I call somebody but whether they pick up on the other side or not. I can 1:00 call someone a lot but if they don't pick up well all that calling is not going to do very much. And so in the same way when we pray to God it's like a phone call and we need to make sure that as we're praying that God is listening 1:13 on the other side that he's willing to pick up the phone. So how can we do that? How can we make sure that God is pleased when we call him and that he's willing to listen? So I want to share a few practical ways which we can apply 1:24 that. So, first please turn with me to Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 9. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 9. Okay, I'll read it real 1:43 quick. He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer, is an abomination. And I want to focus on that last word, abomination. What does abomination mean? Abomination basically means it's something that God really, 2:02 really, really, really, really, really hates. Okay, that's what abomination means. It's something that God really hates so much. And the Old Testament gives some examples for what an abomination is. For example, in the Old 2:14 Testament, there were people who would offer child sacrifices to idols. And God says, "That is an abomination. You should never do that." Or there's other people who um let's say they um have a bad um they have a bad attitude towards 2:28 commerce and they say hey I'm going to cheat in in my dealings with other people when I do deals and sell things and buy things and God says that is an abomination. So those are some things which we can say God sees as an 2:39 abomination. But have you ever considered that prayer could be an abomination in God's eyes? Now if it wasn't written in scripture I probably wouldn't believe that. But it is prayer can be an abomination to God. And how is 2:52 it? How can that how's that possible? And it says here, the one who turns away his ear from listening to the Allah, that person's prayer is an abomination. And I think of it like this. So I'm a I'm a dad now, and one thing I tell my 3:06 children do is, "Hey guys, you have to clean up the room. You have to pick up all the toys." And sometimes they listen, and sometimes they they don't. And there's times when they don't listen. And after a few minutes, they 3:15 say, "Hey, daddy, can I get a snack from the pantry?" And I say, "No, I'm not going to listen." Why? cuz you didn't listen to me when I told you to go clean up the room. So now I'm not going to get you a snack from the pantry. So in the 3:26 same way, we can see how from God's perspective that if we don't listen to the things that he's commanded us, then what's the point of God saying, "Hey, I'm going to listen to you." He won't. And so the practical application is it's 3:39 really important then to live with a clear conscience. That's how we can listen to the law. If we listen to the listen to the conscience in our hearts, if God says, "Hey, this is something that's wrong. Go correct it." If we 3:50 listen to that, then that's one way we can listen to the law and God will listen to our prayers. And now I'll say the opposite is true. Now I've said here that prayer can be an abomination. But I'll also say that prayer can be a 4:00 delight in God's eyes. So if you just turn a few pages over to Proverbsap 15 uh and verse 8. This is the opposite that's also possible. Proverbs 15:8. It says this, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an 4:17 abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight." And I I like that last part. It's his delight. And I think of it like this. You know how sometimes when you go into a room or a gathering and you see somebody whom 4:31 maybe you haven't seen in a while or someone you really like, you say, "Hey, what's going on? So good to see you. I'm so excited to see you." Right? That's the light. And can you imagine for us to pray to the Lord and the Lord to have 4:42 that same sort of excitement? and say, "Hey, my son, my daughter, I'm so glad to hear from you. Tell me what's going on." That's also possible. How? It's like what we said earlier. If we live with a clear conscience, the one who is 4:54 a righteous person, that person's um prayer to the Lord will be a delight in God's eyes. So, that's the first encouragement I want to share with people. Let's live with a clear conscience and this way God will will hear our prayers. So, this is the first 5:06 thing. The second thing I want to share is we can make sure that God hears our prayers if we live in an understanding way with our wives. So please turn with me to uh 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7. 5:25 Okay? And I'll just read it real quick here. 1 Peter 3 verse 7. We don't see this type of commandment in the Old Testament, but in the New Covenant, this is God's standard for us, especially as husbands. It says this, 1 Peter 3:7, 5:43 "You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir to the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." And so 5:58 the first thing that it says in this verse is that you husbands in the same way. And if you look at the context of this verse, it's talking about Jesus. It talked about how Jesus is an example for us. How he never pleased himself, but he 6:10 um denied himself to please the father. And so in that context, Peter is now saying, "You husbands, in that same way, you deny yourselves how? So that you can live with your wives in an understanding way." And I like the Living Bible 6:23 translation of this. It says, "You husbands must be careful of your wives, being thoughtful of their needs." I like that. To be thoughtful of their needs. And I've noticed that there's really two categories in which we can we as 6:36 husbands can be thoughtful to our wives. One is in the physical needs and then secondly, it's in the I guess the emotional needs. So, first of all, the physical needs. Um, as a father, um, as a husband, I've noticed that there's a 6:47 lot of stuff to do around the house. Okay? There's a lot of dishes. There's a lot of toys to clean up. um a lot of floors to be you know swept but the question is what is my attitude towards those those chores okay is it the 6:59 attitude of a servant or am I simply just serving okay and this is something I heard at the singles conference which encouraged me there's a difference between being a servant and simply just serving for example if I'm serving I can 7:11 say hey I'm going to do the dishes and I'm going to sweep the floors but in my heart I can say okay this is the last time I'm going to do this next time it's going to be somebody else's turn to do dishes okay that is serving But it's not 7:23 the heart of a servant. And the heart of a servant would say, "Well, this is my job. This is my responsibility to do the dishes. And if I have to do this for the rest of my life, I'm going to do it." Okay? And that is, I believe, the way 7:34 that we as men should live in the home as servants to have that attitude to say, "Lord, I'm willing to do any lowly task in the home, and that is my responsibility because I want to be a servant in the home." And I've noticed 7:47 it's easy to start that way in in marriage, but over time it gets it gets harder and harder because marriage is sometimes I've heard like a bowl of soup. It's like a when you first get married, it's like a bowl of really hot 7:57 soup and but then over time the soup just gets cooler and cooler. But it takes some work to keep that soup hot. And marriage is like that. It takes a lot of work to keep that that um that soup hot. And so for me it was just a 8:08 challenge. Lord, I don't want to cool in this attitude of being a servant in the home, but I want to say, Lord, this is my responsibility to take care of the home and I will do it so I can help my wife with the the physical needs in the 8:19 home. So, that's one thing. Another aspect of helping our wives is also on the emotional side. And because I've noticed that sometimes the emotional burden that a woman has to carry can often be greater than the physical 8:30 burdens that the things that are on our heart can actually weigh much more heavily than any household chores that needs to be there. And for me, I've been I felt like the Lord has challenged me to be more careful in listening uh to my 8:41 wife when she's speaking. Sometimes if my wife speaks to me, my mind I might be there but my mind is actually somewhere else or my eyes might be looking at my you know phone for example and I felt the Lord correct me on that and say no 8:53 one when your wife Crystal is speaking listen to her listen to her that's how you can help her um in the emotional burdens as well. Um, there's a song that we sing at church. Uh, it says it's it's called this. Lord, help me live on earth 9:07 like the like thee. And I like one of the verses there. It goes like this. Lord, help me do whatever I can to ease things for my fellow man. I only want to do my part to lift a tired, weary heart. And usually when I've sing that in the 9:24 past and I think about my fellow man, I think about, you know, folks at church. But I believe that this could also be saying to ease things for my fellow wife, for my wife at home. That's the person I should primarily work to help 9:34 lift a tired, weary heart. And so that's the second thing I wanted to share that we can make sure that God hears our prayers if we live in an understanding way with our wives. And then the last thing I'll say in this um area is we can make sure God hears 9:48 our prayers when we have a heart that's centered in God. We know that if we pray to the Lord and we have bad motives, God's not going to listen. to us. If I say, "Lord, please give me a a big house so I can show off to all my friends how 10:01 wealthy I am." Okay, God's not going to listen to that prayer because we know that's being prayed with the wrong motive. So then what is the right motive? How should we pray? So please turn with me to John chapter 17 and we 10:14 can see what was the burden on on Jesus's heart. John chapter 17 and we can look at verse one. And while you're turning there, I can ask you a question. If you have 24 hours to live, okay? If you have 24 hours to live, how would you 10:32 pray and what would you pray for? Okay, so think of that for a second. If you have 24 hours to live, how would you pray and what would you pray for? And I believe that that person whenever they prayed for, they would pray for the 10:44 things that are most important in their heart. They would pray for the real burdens on their heart. Um, they wouldn't pray for the promotion uh that they're hoping to get or the bigger home. They wouldn't pray for that. they 10:54 would pray for something that's really really burdened on their heart. And so in that same context, think about Jesus. He in this uh verse here, this is the the last supper. He in a couple hours he's going to be captured and um nailed 11:06 to the cross. So in his last hours on earth, what was the things that's on his heart? And that for me was is a good example for me to learn from. What was on Jesus's heart? John 17:1 Jesus said this. Okay, he's praying and 11:20 he said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son might glorify you." And I like the Living Bible translation. It says this. It says, "Father, the time has come. Reveal the glory of your son so that he can 11:36 give the glory back to you." I like that last part. Reveal the glory of your son. Why? So that he can give the glory back to you. So I see Jesus almost like a like a mirror here. You know how for mirrors, if you have a very bright light 11:50 and you shine it at the mirror, the mirror doesn't absorb any of the light. It just takes all that bright light and reflects it back to somewhere else. And that's what Jesus is like doing here is saying, "Lord, give me the glory." Okay, 12:00 glorify me again. Why? So that I can give all this glory back to you. So that was the primary burden on Jesus's heart. The first thing he said, "Lord, I want you to glorify yourself." That's the main thing that's that's important. And 12:13 then the second thing we see from this passage, um I don't have time to read it, but if you read through it, you see that he prays a lot for the disciples and he prays for the disciples that they should be protected from the evil one, 12:23 that they should be pure and most importantly that they will be united together. And you could say that that group of disciples that he's praying for, it's it's like the church. It's like he's praying for the church. And 12:33 what is his desire? His desire is for the church to be to be um pure. his desires for the church to have a group of humble people that's united together. That's what Jesus desires. And so for me, it was a challenge. I can say that 12:46 this isn't true in my life, but I want to go towards this direction to have that same burden that Jesus has where the core of my being says, Lord, I want first of all that you would get glory out of my life. That's number one. And 12:58 then secondly, that you would build your church, that your church here should be a pure church, that your church here should be a united church. And I believe that Lord if I have that as the core of who I am then the rest of my prayers 13:10 will have the right motives and then the Lord will hear. And so just to summarize what are some right attitude towards prayer. Again the first thing is let us live with a pure conscience always. Secondly let us live h especially 13:23 husbands as an understanding way with our wives. And lastly let's have a heart that's centered in God. And if we do these things the Lord will hear. So having said all this about having a right attitude towards prayer um now I 13:37 want to talk about the main thing that I want to share today which is to pray and to not give up or as the Bible says to not lose heart. So please turn with me to Luke uh chapter 18 Luke chapter 18 13:54 and verse one. Luke 18 and and verse one. Okay. And I'll just paraphrase this. And it says, "Now Jesus was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart." And then Jesus gives this 14:08 parable about this widow. And a widow is a picture of someone who's powerless, who's really weak. And she has an opponent that is pestering her, but she can't do anything about it. So she goes to this judge and this judge here is 14:21 what the Jesus says is an unrighteous judge. He doesn't fear man. He doesn't um respect doesn't respect man. Doesn't fear God. And so what to do? But this widow just keeps on going, keeps on going to this judge. And eventually this 14:33 judge says, "Hey, she's going to wear me out if she keeps coming. I'm going to help her." And then Jesus says, "Look, if this unrighteous judge is willing to help the widow, then what about your heavenly father? What about the God in 14:45 heaven? Wouldn't he listen to you?" And so it was an encouragement for us to to pray and to not and give up. But the key verse for me in this passage is verse 8. The second half of verse 8, Luke 18:8, Jesus says this, "However, when the son 15:00 of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" And when he's talking about faith, he's not talking about just general belief in Jesus. He's talking about a type of faith. The question Jesus is saying is when the son of man 15:11 comes, when Jesus comes back, will there be this persistent faith that is still in the believers on this earth or will they have given up already? And that's a that's a challenge to us. And I want to read a quote from George Mueller about 15:24 prayer because he talks about this persistence. And let me read what he says. This is what George Mueller says. It is not enough for the believer to begin to pray nor to pray correctly. Nor is it enough to pray for a time to nor 15:38 is it enough to continue to pray uh for a time. And basically what he's saying is that hey, if we pray good, if we pray the right way, like we've said, that's also good. And if we pray for like a period of time, great. But that's not 15:50 enough. We need to do more. Okay, what is this more? This is what George George Müller says. We must patiently, believingly continue in prayer until we have obtained an answer. Further, we have not only to continue in prayer 16:05 until the end, but we also have to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. And here's the most important part. Most frequently, we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained and in not 16:18 expecting the blessing. So that first part especially most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained that I find in my own life to be the challenge. It's okay to pray for a week maybe a month but 16:31 after that tend to forget about things and fail to be persistent in the prayer and that has been a has a challenge to me. And so the question is how do we pray persistently? What can help us to pray more persistently? And I'll I'll 16:44 share a few things that have stood out to me. The first thing I've I've want to share is to look at the living examples around us. That has helped me to know what it means to pray consistently uh and persistently. And um I know this 16:58 passage of the the widow and this parable. I've heard that before. But for me, it was just a nice theory in my head. But it wasn't until I saw the example of our dear uncle Thomas in our church. That's when I realized, oh, this 17:11 persistent prayer is real. Because I remember when I was a a single person in NCCF many years ago, we used to have prayer meetings on Saturdays and Uncle Thomas would come every single Saturday and pray for the salvation of his loved 17:25 ones. And it stood out to me. I don't remember a lot of the prayers that were prayed at that time, but his prayer it it was in my mind uh after all these years cuz he kept doing it week after week. And what was so beautiful is that 17:36 when I asked him about, hey, how long have you been doing this? He's like at least 10 years maybe now even I don't know 15 even more that he's been doing this and we see the fruit of his prayers because now we have um brother Tony and 17:46 and family here in his church and for me it was such an encouragement to say hey this is not just a theory or a nice you know story to know in the Bible this is real this is real that we can be persistent in our prayers and God will 17:58 answer and so that for me was a a beautiful example uh Uncle Thomas's his life and sometimes I wonder Lord why is it that you don't answer prayers quickly like Why wait 10, 15 years? Why not, you know, save your relatives in like a 18:11 week? And one thing I've noticed is that the benefit of the Lord waiting is that it allowed Uncle Thomas to be an example to me. Okay? Because I saw that he had prayed for so long, for me, it realized, okay, this is something that I can 18:25 strive to to work towards um to to follow his footsteps. And so, that's the first thing to look at examples around us. And in my case, it was Uncle Thomas who kept on praying. Um, the second thing I' I found that's very helpful is to pray with a a 18:38 partner. Okay, if you can get a prayer partner, someone to pray with, it's one of the I think the biggest blessings that God can give in this area. Um, and my personal story for this is that when I was single, one of the things I wanted 18:49 to do was to start praying for a wife. Um, but I would pray for a day and forget the next until the next prayer meeting and pray again. I was like, "No, no, I need to be more consistent about this if I want to get married." And so 19:00 what happened was that God allowed me to meet a brother in the church who was also looking to get married. And we would uh pray together uh during uh during the the lunch hours. So he'd call me at work and for 5 minutes we'd pray 19:11 and pray pray for our marriages and that was it. But then over a year or two um we both eventually got married. And so it was a really wonderful thing cuz I by myself I would have forgotten but because he kept calling me and I kept 19:23 calling him we helped each other and that helped us to be persistent in our prayer. And then the last thing I'll say is um let us keep on praying out of love because prayer is one way we can show love to those who have been so good to 19:35 us. And so please turn with me to Mark chapter 2. When I think about praying for others out of love, one thing that stood out to me was the story of the paralytic. Okay, if you look at Mark chapter 2, this is the story of the paralytic and 19:49 the people who brought Jesus brought these brought the paralytic man to to Jesus. So Mark chapter 2 and verse three and it says this. And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. So I was thinking about the attitude of 20:05 these four mens that was carrying these uh this paralytic. So they go to the house of Jesus and they see that hey the house is completely packed. We can't even get in. Now if it was me one of those those men carrying the paralytic, 20:16 I would have said hey guys let's let's come back tomorrow. It's too packed today. That would have been my story. But these men didn't. Okay? And we know the story that they not only didn't give up, but they climbed up to the roof and 20:26 they dug a hole in the roof. And just imagine like how long that would have taken. And also, it's actually kind of embarrassing. You're digging a hole through someone's roof. And yet, these people didn't care. Why? Cuz they wanted 20:36 to help his friend. And so, I was thinking, why were these four men so willing to do this for this this paralytic? And the Bible doesn't say, but if I had to guess, you know, my guess is that these four men and this par paralytic were really really good 20:51 friends. Perhaps before this man was paralyzed, he was really good to these other four friends of his. Maybe when these four friends needed something, this was the man that was there to help them. This is the man to uh get them out 21:02 of trouble and to be of an encouragement to them. And so when this man got paralyzed, now his four friends are like, "Hey, now it's our turn. Now now our turn to help you." That's one guess for why these four men were doing that. 21:13 And so I apply that in my life like this that Lord you've allowed people in my life who've done really good things to me that have been a blessing to me that taken care of me physically um emotionally so many ways what is the way 21:26 in which I can show love back to them I can pray for them I can pray for them and can you imagine the the scenario in in heaven one day if we see one of our relatives in heaven and say hey I'm here because you prayed for me what a joy 21:40 that would be what a joyful conversation would be for everybody And so that was an example to me. Say, "Lord, I want to pray because that's one way I can show love to those who've been so good to me." The last thing I'll share is an 21:52 encouragement because sometimes when we pray, it's we wonder, hey, is God listening? Is is God going to do something? Because we pray for a while, we don't see anything happen. What do we do in this case? And um I just want to 22:03 share a quick story from Genesis chapter 24 that has encouraged me. Genesis chapter 24 if you turn with me there and verse uh let's do verse uh 12. Okay. Genesis chapter 24 and verse 12. And the context 22:21 of this story is that Abraham is looking for a son for his looking for a wife for his for his son Isaac. So Abraham sends his servant out to um some foreign city and says, "Hey, look here for a bride for my my son Isaac." Okay. So now this 22:38 is Abraham's servant. Abraham's servant goes to this the city. Okay. And he kneels down and he prays. Okay. And he says this and say, "Lord, just a paraphrase, Lord, um please grant me success today and show me loving kindness to my master." Okay? And then 22:52 he asks the Lord for a sign. And he basically says, "Hey, the girl who comes out of the city to draw water and offer also offers to me and my camels to drink, then that may that person be the one whom you've picked for um for 23:04 Isaac." And verse 15 is the key. Genesis 24:15, it says, "Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebecca, okay, came out." And so the question is, when did Rebecca start moving out of her her home? Was it before um Abraham's servant 23:22 prayed or was it after? And so according to this story, the way I see it is before this servant even prayed, God was already moving Rebecca along. Hey, you need to get out of the home. You need to go get some water. Something's going to 23:33 happen. And so for me, that was an encouragement to say, Lord, before I even prayed, you might be doing something in the back that I I don't realize. And so for me, that was just an encouragement because again, sometimes 23:42 when we pray, it can seem like Lord's not doing anything. But I just want to encourage myself and everyone here that no, we have a God who loves us beyond all that we can imagine. We have a God who can who who can do beyond all that 23:54 we ask or think. Lord, I want to have a limitless faith towards you. That's my attitude. I want to have a limitless faith towards you in terms of what you can do. And so that's my encouragement uh for everyone today. I want to say 24:04 that if we have a burden for somebody, that is a blessing. If we have a burden in our hearts for somebody, it's a blessing because actually the worst thing is to have no blessing than no burden for somebody. that's even worse. 24:15 But to have a burden in our hearts, that's a real blessing. And I just want to encourage myself and everyone, let us keep praying and let's not give up. And we can believe that we'll see the answers in the days to come. Uh thank 24:24 you for giving me a chance to share.
