Prayer

 Contnuing on looking Matthew 7 ,lets consider v 9- 10, our Saviour leads us on,two examples as regards asking,He commences ,'You parents- if your children ask for a loaf of bread , do you give them a stone instead?well would you?,of course not,you would  give what they asked.Then he continues,'Or if they asked for a fish, do you give them a snake?,of course not,it all very obvious,you will give them what they asked for.You can imagine everyone nodding their heads in agreement,yes your right, every loving parent would agree with Jesus. So Jesus continues,' If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children',again Jesus is speaking the obvious, it may come as a surprise to you ,your parents, my parents,every bodies parents are sinners. Jesus continues, these sinful parents,'know how to give good gifts to their children, yes everyone would agree,that what He is saying was  right. Having said this Jesus says,' How much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.'That should be obvious, but it does not always appear so to many of us, for some people people they they don't think they should ask God for anything,it appears selfish to them,The fact  our heavenly father is more loving and kind than any earthly parent, I believe he delights to bless  his children,and He will always give us whats best. Spurgeon says this, 'He will give good which we did not ask, and withhold the ill which we so unwisely requested'.

Keep praying. ( Kings 18 v 41 - 45 )

Let us turn to  Matthew 7 v 7 - 11, and our Lords teaching on  prayer.The first thing He tells us,''Keep on asking,and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking,and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks , finds. And everyone who knocks,the door will be opened.  When my wife and I finished are Bible college training, we applied to a mission, the door stayed shut,we continued to pray, and continued to seek God's place of service, I managed a Christian bookshop,which eventually closed,so we continued our search, and so we continued on asking,seeking,knocking, we applied to another mission,the door stayed  shut,and another,and another,went to churches with a view,the door stayed shut,made enquires to three other missions, no way forward,but we continued praying,asking seeking,and knocking. Then we applied to a church in England, and the door opened.

The sinners prayer. ( 1 ) Luke 18 v 9 - 14 )

 In  Matthew 7 v 7- 9, our dear Saviour is encourage  us who are Christian's on the vital subject of prayer,I think many people struggle with the whole idea of prayer. I think many unbelievers pray,are they heard?, one prayer they are sure to have answered, it is the  sinners prayer, indeed that is the most important prayer anyone can pray,it  opens the door, for forgiveness through Jesus Christ. It is an act of faith, to the only one who can save, burdens are lifted at Calvary, no more guilt, no more bondage,no more fear of judgement I used the  term ,the sinners prayer,' so that may confuse you,it just means you come to God and utter your own  words,you can whisper it,or cry aloud, it hasn't to be in a church building,you can pray it anywhere, you don't  even have to close your eyes,the main thing is God hears the penitent, meaning those who regret their past sins, and now are asking God to forgive them, through His Son Jesus.Here is what one man prayed

                                          ''O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner''

Failures ( Isaiah 53 )

Let me ask you a question,do you know anyone who has never failed?, the fact is we all fail at something or other. Some failures are awful,some not so ,other failures are inconsequential, and yet even those inconsequential failures sometime can have devastating effects.People can be rejected because of their failures, and sadly some people cannot live with failure,and even end their lives. Dennis  Wailley said,' 'Failure should be our teacher.not our undertaker'. I wonder what you think of the following, 'For  all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' Romans 3 v 23. Let me clarify ,sin relates to our offences against God's moral law,yes we live in a moral universe, Sin is not a word people use much,if at all,but that does not nullify it, it still remains valid, because God is valid, He may not be in our thoughts,and we may take no account of Him, and live as we please, ignoring our moral sinful short comings. But God does not ignore them ,He cannot, His holiness and justice demands that they will receive ,their due,judgement. Hebrews 9 v 27.Failure at that level brings with it awful consequences, yes for everyone,unless our sins are  forgiven, there is no hope. So God who is merciful has provided  us a Saviour called Jesus,

                                                    Wounded for me,wounded for me,

                                                    There on the cross He was wounded for me;

                                                    Gone my transgressions, and now I am free,

                                                    All because Jesus was wounded for me.

                                                                  

                                                  

The Gospel . ( 5 ) ( Matthew 10 v 28 )

 We touched on last time,with what the writer Brennan wrote, being critical of him and his imbalance as regards those who are suffering,and those who would try to help them. Let me say Brennan has much to say that's good,you may be his number one fan,but we must always be discerning, as regards preachers,or whoever. In my opinion he at times appears to deny obvious  biblical truth, here what he says,'' In addition to the trinity of pain,suffering, and evil, add another major obstacle to unhesitating trust in the merciful love of God, the wretched witness of  hard - hat Christians with their images of a malevolent God. They speak  in giddy or  sepulchral tones of a deity who, with malicious glee, dispatches to a fiery lake ninety percent of the people  he created in his image and likeness. ''I appreciate he is being critical of certain people, but I know nobody who is filled with glee as regards the fate of the lost in hell. As a  Christian and a minister I believe that the word of God teaches clearly that there is a hell, if it were not so I would not preach it,the fact is I did not invent hell.There is a heaven and  nothing can changes that fact, the only way to get to heaven is through Christ, and the only way to escape hell is by trusting Christ,as the scripture declares , 'Believe  in the Lord Jess, and you will be saved,Acts 16 v 31, that's the gospel. Just a last word on this, when I speak or preach on hell ,I am not meaning to add to anyone's suffering ,no ,I  am trying to save them from suffering.

The Gospel ( 4 ) 9 The alternative. ( Romans 12 v 15 }

When we embrace the gospel ,and trust Christ as our Saviour, our sins forgiven, we have peace with God, we are justified, we are granted eternal life,we receive the Holy Spirit ,God is now our Father,we are secure, nothing can separate us from God's love.I am sure there are many other things we can say, we are truly blest. But if we don't trust Jesus we will continue to be cut off from all those blessings, and the only thing that awaits us is judgement.Which brings me to an important point,our responsibility to warn people what awaits them if they die without Christ.I read something recently,from a book called , 'Ruthless Trust',by Brennan Manning,the book is about trusting God, in every situation, like Job did.He is critical of people who say what he considers trite things to people who suffer the lost of children,or other awful things.On a person level I lost my first wife with cancer,and was left with four little boys, I did not  feel bitter, never have. So BM goes on as if he is the only one who understands, of course people people struggle in tragedy, that's to be expected,and people don't always know what to say, they may say the wrong thing,but I am sure they mean well.Next time we will come back to consider after death, and what BM says.

The Gospel . ( 3 ) ( Acts 13 v 38 )

So the gospel is good news, and there is only one gospel,why do we rule out those other so called Gospels ?,because the gospel alone ,is God's answer to the dreadful sin problem.,that is why I pointed out that there is not a Lordship,or disciple gospel.The Lordship of Christ, and being a disciple,comes after conversion, the reason Jesus came we are told, that he would be pierced for our transgressions ,that he would be crushed for our iniquities,his  life would be an offering for sin,and that he would bear the sin of many. CP Isaiah 53.in Matthew 1 v 21, we read, 'he will save his people from their sins.He cannot be ones Lord,and we cannot be a disciple ,until until one knows Him as Saviour. Humanities greatest need is Jesus for only he can forgive sin,Their are people who try to live by the sermon on the mount who are not Christians, they cannot do it, it is impossible, we can only attempt to do it through Christ and His strength alone.  CP  Philippians  4 v 14.,and so we continue  to consider the gospel.