The Christians Workout No.2 God's Providence, our prayer

Well, it's good to have you all with us this morning. I do think that God has got a sense of humor. I think that comes out in scriptures on several occasions.

I sometimes wonder if there wasn't a tinge of humor in calling this a day of rest, because sometimes Sunday, particularly Sunday morning at the time, seems to be anything but restful. But there is a rest into which we can enter in terms of the state of our minds and the realization of the power of God and the presence of God and the goodness of God. This is going to be a wonderful day.

We've already had a good time at our 945 live service. It'll be a sad day in one sense, because we're going to be saying goodbye for the second time to one of our friends who we commissioned to the work of a missionary, and she had a few weeks still to burn up in the UK, but this week sees her going. More of that in a moment or two, and then this evening we'll have a splendid occasion with Fiona Castle being our guest speaker.

Our Lord Jesus taught us a wonderful prayer. We're going to be speaking about prayer throughout the whole of our service this morning. It's going to be our subject for focus, but let's just stand and sing together the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to say.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Bless this day to each one of us, we ask. Break your wood up into such small morsels that each will be able to eat.

Bless boys and girls and men and women, and get to your name the honor and worship great God and Father of our Lord Jesus, which is indisputably your due. Amen. Remain standing, let's go to a traditional hymn.

Praise my soul the King of heaven. Five, six, oh. We'll do sit down, what a lovely song.

We're going to read now from the book of Daniel and chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9 and beginning at verse 1. Daniel's prayer. In the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years.

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed. Oh Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands.

We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled. We have turned away from your commands and laws.

We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame, the men of Judah and people of Israel and all Israel, people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. Oh Lord, we and our kings, our princes, and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you.

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants, the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the word spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does, yet we have not obeyed him. Now, oh Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong.

Oh Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hell. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant.

For your sake, oh Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, oh God, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name.

We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Oh Lord, listen. Oh Lord, forgive.

Oh Lord, hear and act. For your sake, oh my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name. The second reading this morning is from Matthew chapter 6. That's Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 5. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.

I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Let's keep our Bibles open at this passage.

Father, as we come before your throne, thanking you for your Word, so break it open to us, so that as individuals we may benefit. And grant to the media of the media, particularly radio and the printed page, the opportunities of getting this message across to the nations, because we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Sovereign Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Now we're looking at a particular passage of Scripture, or two passages of Scripture, which highlight what is really the subject matter for this morning, which actually is twinned with what we were considering last Sunday. For then, you recall, we were thinking in terms of the sovereignty of God. If God is absolutely sovereign, then how can our wills in any sense be free? Now we're thinking of the providence of God, which means that God relates to, is involved in every incident, every situation.

The way that that's expressed in Scripture is so very clear, you can hardly come but to any other consideration. That is the claim of the Lord. As far as the cycle of your life is concerned, it is determined the days of the years of your life have already been recorded on the computer of heaven, Job chapter 14 verse 5, though it doesn't use the word computer.

The story of your life, that also has been predicted by the Lord, as you will discover in Psalm 139 and verse 16. And what is more, hold on to your safety belt. The result of the national lottery is known by God.

Proverbs 16 and verse 33 will tell you that the dice when it falls is not outside the providential dealings of the Lord or His knowledge. That does not incidentally underline or give any credibility to the lottery as such. God knows what we will do, whether to the good or to the bad.

That's what we mean really by the providential dealings of God. He is fully aware of every circumstance of every situation. Now, you're thinking people, or else you wouldn't come along to a church that's known for somewhat modestly long addresses.

If this is so that God's sovereignty, that God's providence pervades every situation, then what is the use of praying? We have to address this subject, because unless you have a theology of prayer, you'll never have a practice of prayer. Unless you believe that prayer is valid, a useful occupation for you to invest some time during each day, then you will default in this whole discipline. And there are those even within the Christian church who do not believe that petitionary prayer is really necessary because God's will is not affected by our petitions.

They will speak of meditation and contemplation and reflection and so forth, but not intercession. In the more dramatic, vital way that Scripture indicates and that revivals have illustrated down the years. And here we are at the TAB, a church known for mission, as well as faithfulness to the Bible, also has as one of its facets, one of its goals, to be a praying community.

So woven into the infrastructure of the church permanently, it will never be dislodged, is our commitment to pray. But why pray? If God is so providential, if His sovereignty is such that He's anticipated every situation, isn't it just a waste of time? Now you remember I tried to help you last week as we dealt with this sort of twin subject of God's sovereignty and free will. And I argued that though God is sovereign, there are areas in which our will is genuinely free.

And that's not a difficult concept for you to home in on and understand. You go to Lois Jail, as a visitor of course, but let's assume that you're a guest. That means to say, putting the humor on one side, that you are not free.

But cannot you brush your teeth in the morning? Can't you from time to time engage in some exercise? Can't you take a cup of water or tea and drink it? You have freedom within limitations, but the overarching sovereignty of the state means that you are not free to get out. And in God's relationship to us, He's sovereign, but He makes it possible for you to make valid decisions, which will determine the outcome of certain situations in your life. So let's apply this to the whole business of prayer.

And now Tony read to us from Daniel, and here you've got one of the great intercessory prayers in the whole of the Bible. It's a classic. There isn't much time to go into the history, but just in passing, Daniel is really in difficulty, and all the Hebrews, because they are in exile.

The reason why they're in exile? Well, Jeremiah the tearful prophet spent an unprofitable ministry in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, warning people of the judgment of God. They refused to take his warning and the warning of the preachers before, and what God predicted happened. Seventy years, seventy years you will be away from the land of promise.

Now Daniel knows this. He says it in the first couple of verses of of the ninth chapter. It's within his intelligence.

So what does he do? Que sera sera? You know the French, whatever will be, will be. Just leave it alone then. I mean God has declared this.

There's no point in spending time in intercession. Not a bit. He spends a lot of time.

Prime time gets him into trouble. If he had been an anonymous prayer warrior, if he had barricaded his windows, then on one occasion he would have been much better off. He would not have been discomforted by falling foul of the police and the authorities and their decrees that prayer should only be made to one God by the King.

You see here is a man who's fully cognizant of the fact that the Israelites will be away from Israel for 70 years and yet it is necessary for him to pray for the nation. Here is our beloved Lord. His prayer life is unquestionable.

Early in the morning, peak periods in his life, when he picks a handful of men to be his associates, to follow him down the highways and byways, to burn up 36 hours, 36 months of their lives, he spends time in prayer. When he's contemplating going to the cross some months before on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's spending time in prayer. The beginning of the day, the end of the day, it seems our Lord, was an intercessor.

And yet, and yet he knew. He knew what would be the outcome of God's will in his life and for the Jews. So here is our Lord, whose favorite title is the Son of Man, showing his great need.

Notwithstanding that, notwithstanding the fact that he has this relationship to God and this relationship to man, it is necessary for him to come before the Lord and to ask for his wisdom, for his advice, and also to ask for his permissions and authority. How do you balance the two? God's providence pervading everything, him knowing what's around the corner, and the invitation that Scripture gives you time and time again to engage in intercessory prayer. Well, let's say this, and on several occasions from the pulpit we've admitted to it, the Christian faith is not watertight.

I mean by that, it does not provide a logical answer to every question. There are certain aspects of the faith that have to be taken on trust. There are certain things that God allows to happen in life that you cannot really understand, but you believe that the fallout is according to his will.

There are certain things that God did in one situation and didn't do in another. He released the Hebrews from the Nazi-like punishment that they were receiving in Egypt, but when in the lifetime of many of us here, the Jews were in difficulty in Germany, God seemed to do very little. Several million being taken to the concentration camps.

You see the point? God is knowledgeable of these situations in history, and sometimes reacts in one way, and sometimes reacts in another, and he seems dilatory and not even involved. Whether be nationally or individually, he still asks you to believe in him and to believe in the necessity and the power of prayer. Time and time again, 22 times to be exact, in the New Testament, references made to the word mystery.

The Christian faith is a mystery. One of the Latin theologians says credo queer absurdum est. I believe what is absurd, and it does seem ridiculous, and this is the problem that the Muslims have with the Christian faith.

That God incarnate in Jesus Christ dies on the cross of Calvary for our sins, is raised on the third day. This is mind-blowing, this is illogical, but it is true. But you don't only understand it as a mystery.

Great is the mystery of godliness. Here you are, a puny human being. How can you comprehend the mind of God? There are certain things into which he gives you intelligence, certain things which fit into a logical order, but not everything.

And where it doesn't, he asks you to take his revelation on trust. That's how it is in the matter of prayer, you see. Prayer is a mystery.

That we can somehow influence the purposes of God and the decisions of God in this world, that the scripture says is right. And yet it also tells us that God in his greatness, in his foreknowledge, has the whole future in his control. Two parallel revelations which at the human level seem to cancel one another out, but they don't, because as the sovereignty of God makes allowance for human freedom, thus my illustration from the prison, so the providence of God makes an allowance for the validity of your prayer and my prayer.

As for prayer, it has its latitudes, and the latitudes are illimitable. We're told in Luke chapter 18 and verse 1, we're always to pray. In Matthew 6, 28, we're to pray for our enemies.

In Matthew 9, 38, for our missionaries. Matthew 26, 21, we're to pray against temptation. Philippians 1 and verse 9, we are to pray for an increase in love.

Second Thessalonians 3, 1, we are to pray for preachers. James 5 and verse 13, we are to pray for the sick. And I've only just given you a sample of those areas in Scripture where we are told to engage in intercessory prayer.

Our reason may have its limits, but prayer in its latitudes is without, without limit. We're induced to pray. We're encouraged to pray.

We're praying, but the reason why we pray, well, that's an interesting subject to open up. Do we pray to let God know what we need? And the answer is no. Does a little boy have to come to his dad and say, dad, I really need an ice cream? Well, maybe in certain circumstances he has to, but dad does know that there is food and also perhaps not always the necessary food, the vital food that his boy, that his girl should have and perhaps to some degree deserves.

What father, what mother would really be satisfied with their children if they never came to them and said, mom, can I have I remember my old dad on the occasion when my brother and I made it to grammar school in the days when they had the 11 plus. Some years just after the war, things not easy as far as money was concerned in the country as a whole and in our family. And I remember that he'd anticipated that we need a school uniform.

I'm not suggesting that his way of doing it was perhaps the most secure, but under the peg rugged carpet, he'd been collecting his half crowns. Some of you remember the coinage and the sixpences and so forth. So that when his lads went to grammar school, they too had a blazer.

They too had a school tie, an idea to suggest that the pleasure that we had was even more greatly reflected in the heart of our father. And don't you see that's the same with God. You bring him your requests, not because he doesn't know, but there is a God to give towards the children whose welfare he is committed to.

Prayer is not made so that we can find out, so that God can find out what we need. He knows. Here is our Lord Jesus.

And in that prayer in which he enjoins his disciples to pray, he says, don't pray like the heathen. It's not a necessary task for you to engage in a babble of words and to come time and time and time and time again on the subject. You're not going to be heard for your much speaking.

He said, incidentally, fellows, that when you do pray, he actually knows. He knows your need before you ask him. But still, says the blessed Christ, say, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, and so on and so forth. You see, not only does it give pleasure to the heart of God, it is therapeutic. It is also leveling as far as you and I are concerned, because there is nothing greater than prayer to show us the nature of our need.

The problem with the 20th century is that we have produced a generation of individuals who are self-contained. I speak way in my words, but the Christian Church has never been at its best when it has been comfortable. During times of persecution, when she has been driven to her knees, she has been a stronger church.

Arguably, our society was a better society during the war and in the years just after it than in the more affluent days of the 1960s and the 1970s. You see, when you are self-contained, you have no need for this God, and as a result, you don't engage in the leveling experience. What do I mean by leveling? Here's Abraham.

Yes, Abraham, I'll grant you what you need, but Abraham, go out into the night, look up, see the moon, see the stars, and as Abraham engages in that experience, copied by the psalmist some centuries later as he beholds the heavens and the stars and the planets and so forth, Abraham is aware of his creatureliness, his smallness, his utter dependence on God, and the man, the woman who's on their knees, either literally or at least symbolically, is showing the same. You've got it in order. This God, you're holy entirely.

In an unqualified fashion, you are dependent on him. So Daniel prays. So our Lord Jesus, in the example of his own life, engages in prayer.

One of the benefits of prayer, I say, is obedience. We are commanded to pray, to pray for our nation, to pray for our enemies, to pray for ourselves. But prayer is not just presenting the shopping list, is it? I mean, here is our Lord in the chapter that Heneke read to you, at least part of it, and he's teaching his disciples to pray.

And in that classic prayer, which becomes the example for all praying, it's only a limited amount of the prayer that's given over to petition. It starts off with doxology. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Just a statement, a reminder of who God is, and that's one of the therapeutic values of prayer, a recognition that behind your life, behind this world, there is God. Our Catholic friends can teach us more about meditation and contemplation than the average evangelical stroke charismatic community. That's not to put ourselves down, but it is to remind ourselves that there are other departments of the church who can contribute something to our understanding of prayer.

Contrition, confession, contemplation, all these are vital aspects of prayer. But it must be said, as I draw this little address to a conclusion, the petitionary element is also vital. And it's vital even if you know the outcome of your prayer.

Listen as we hear read to us. Here is our Lord, and he is stating that he knows that when he gets to Jerusalem, certain things will happen. Now, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside and said to them, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, he will be raised to life. So he knows that when he reaches Jerusalem, despite the immediate spontaneity of praise and welcome from the ordinary folk, a horrific death is in store for him.

We know that when Henneke goes to North Africa, there will be certain things that will happen. There will be the welcome from her friends, her colleagues out there. There will be certain challenges that she will have to respond to.

We know that the TAB will remain faithful to the commitment we have already expressed to her. But to leave it at that, we would fall short in our understanding of prayer, because when she arrives there, she will still need your intercession. So here is our Lord, and he knows what is going to happen to him when he gets to Jerusalem.

Now he is in Jerusalem itself, or just outside. He is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he has a firm idea that beyond is the cross. But listen to him.

Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, my father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.

The Son of Man, praying still into circumstances, the outcome of which he knows will not correspond to the prayer that he is at that point offering, but still he prays. Don't you see here, brothers and sisters, here is an exact illustration of what I've been trying to say throughout the whole of this address. There is an over-pervading providence of God.

He knows what is going to happen. There is also the legitimacy of prayer, beneficial to you as the prayer, beneficial to the circumstances to which you are directing your prayer. And at the human level, the Bible teaches us that prayer does change circumstances.

Prayer does change situations. It will not let you off the hook. If your prayer life is faulty, then you will be defective in certain aspects of your discipleship, and the church will be impoverished as a knock-on result.

God's providence makes room for your prayers, as God's sovereignty makes room for your free will. Let's pray for a moment. And as we pray quietly, and then we're going to be led in a song.

Just before that, it would be nice if Toni prayed for Henneke. We know that God is going to be there as she moves into her adopted country in North Africa. We know that there is a certain guarantee of support, and we know that God's got his hand upon her.

But still we recognize our responsibility to pray for this dear lass, and for all from the tab who are serving God in various parts of the world. Father, we thank you for the words that we read in the book of Daniel, because we don't come to you and expect our prayers to be answered, because we are a righteous people. We come to you and we bring you our prayers because you are a God of mercy, and a God of love.

Lord, we thank you that you are the sovereign Lord of the universe. The earth is the Lord's. Morocco is the Lord's.

And we can pray here in Worthing and in England, and expect answers to our prayers in Morocco, as Henneke goes. We thank you that you are a father who cares for his children, and so we bring to you our sister Henneke as she leaves us this week. We ask for her in these remaining days a sense of peace and a joyful anticipation of what's going to take place.

We pray an easing of the heartache as she parts from her parents and her sisters, other members of the family and friends. Grant that there will be no regrets. We pray for her as she journeys, that she will have a safe time, an enjoyable time as she flies and drives and eventually gets to the place where she will make her new home.

As she arrives, we do pray that there will be a warm and a joyful welcome for her. Not only among those that you have sent already and who have laboured for many years in that place, but as the months roll by, so there will be many joyful hearts among the women of that place as they see the Lord Jesus in Henneke, as they feel his touch through her fingers, and hear his words through her voice, and discern his love in her eyes. May there be a building of your family there, Lord.

May your church grow and be strengthened because of what our sister is going to do, and above all, what our sister is going to be. Keep her in your love, we pray. Protect her from harm.

Help her through those days when there will be loneliness, possibly despair, attacks of the enemy, when she will need your strength, when she will need reassurance that she is there because you want her to be there. She is there and you are the sovereign Lord. May there be the love of Jesus flowing through her into that place.

Take her up and use her as the Lord Jesus builds his church there, as he said he will. And when she comes back, Lord, in a year or two's time, we will rejoice together as we have followed her with our reading, with our prayers, and we will be praising you for what you have done. So take her, enfold her in your love, we pray.

Bless her and make her a blessing. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

And true of all good things the giver we turn and lift a fervent prayer to you be merciful once more let your love know our thirst remember our mercy O Lord again Please join us. Your church once great Though static, clothed in sorrow, is even still The Bride that you adore, revive your church That we again may honour our God and King Our Master and our Lord, hear our prayer O Lord, be merciful once more You are our Master, give us Thy mercy, O Lord, again As we have slept, this nation has been taken By every sin ever known to man, so at its gates Though burnt by fire and broken, in Jesus' name We come to take our stand, hear our prayer O Lord, be merciful once more You are our Master, give us Thy mercy, O Lord, again Your mercy flows upon us like a river Your mercy stands unshakable and true Most holy God, of all the things that give us We turn and lift our fervent prayer to Hear our prayer, O Lord, be merciful once more Let your love, your righteousness, remember mercy, O Lord, again