Approaching God's Throne of Grace With Confidence

Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see everyone here today. Fortunately, Karen couldn't join us here today. She's been suffering from some headaches here the latter part of this week, so she's at home resting today. Hopefully everyone here had a good week. It's nice to see everyone here today. I wanted to talk today for a little while about a fundamental element of our Christian lives. It's very basic. We do it probably every day, hopefully many times, several times a day, certainly in church several times, and that's prayer. It's something that we take for granted in one sense as something that we do as part of our Christian lives and our Christian disciplines, but at the same time it's one that many people find challenging. It's not something that we're necessarily used to doing if we've not come from a religious background or not grown up in a concept of God or where prayer is a part of our everyday lives in our homes.

And so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today. There are different approaches to the topic that will resonate with different people, so one of the things I want to do is just take a look through the Bible at different examples that exist of prayer and try to glean some lessons, some tips, some ways of approaching God that come from those areas. I'd like to start in Hebrews and set a backdrop. And, you know, we talk about God. We heard in the sermonette that God uses very intimate relationships, like marriage, like family, to describe the way that we relate with Him and the way that He relates with us, and there's a reason for that. And it's something that we probably take for granted in the Western world today because Christianity, as it's broadly understood in our world today, has the concept of God as our Father and that close and intimate type of relationship that's pretty common to anyone who would call themselves Christians. But it's not always been that way. And if we look back into Old Testament times, the relationship with God was one that was often considered a lot different or a lot more distant. And in a lot of different religions that existed, even going back in the years, God was viewed more as a ruler and authority, and there were many rituals that were involved in going to God. If you'll turn with me to Hebrews 4. The book of Hebrews spends a lot of time talking about what changed when Jesus Christ came and in the wake of Him giving His life for us. And the big thing that changed is our relationship with God and how we can come directly to Him. We'll read in Hebrews 4, and we'll start in verse 14. And it talks in this passage about a number of issues and then says, therefore, in verse 14, since we have a great high priest who's ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we don't have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are, yet He didn't sin. And verse 16 is really the punchline to this passage.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need. Now, there's a lot packed into that last verse, verse 16. Approaching God's throne of grace, doing it with confidence, and receiving mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. We're not going to even look at that entire verse today, but I'd like to really focus just on shortly on one part of it, and then focus mostly on a second part of it.

So in the end, when we look at what it talks about in terms of finding grace and mercy, I think that's everything that we want to receive from God, that we count on to receive from Him, and that He promises to us. But it's the first part of the verse I'd like to spend a little bit of time taking apart today. First of all, approaching God's throne of grace, and then spending even more time on the last part of it with confidence.

And what does that mean? So we back up a little bit, and we think about the backdrop of worship in Old Testament times. For those who would have been familiar with Judaism and come out of the Jewish faith, they would have been very familiar with the temple.

And if you recall, the temple originally, the tabernacle in the Old Testament, was originally a tent which had in it a Holy of Holies, which was a subset of that tent. And later, as Israel came into the Promised Land, and as Solomon came forward, he built a temple, a physical building that had been designed by David. And it was a large building, we've probably seen pictures of it, and it had a similar type of setup, with an outer court, with the physical building itself, and then inside of that building, a Holy of Holies. And the inside of that building, the Holy of Holies, was meant to be a physical representation of God's throne. There was very thick curtains that separated that holy place from the rest of the temple.

And then the temple, of course, was a building separated from the outer court. And it was there where God was symbolically living with the people of Israel. And if we recall, it was one time a year on the Day of Atonement when you could actually enter the Holy of Holies. And it wasn't even the whole assembly of Israel that could enter the Holy of Holies. It was only the high priest, after going through some fairly involved rituals of cleansing in order to be able to approach what was there pictured as the throne of God. So when we read in Hebrews 4 and verse 14, and we read about us having a great high priest in Jesus Christ, it's talking about the fact that things have changed with the coming of Jesus Christ and with his sacrifice.

And rather than having to go to a physical likeness of the Holy of Holies inside of a physical temple where one person, the high priest, would approach on the behalf of mankind through Jesus Christ, who had all of the same temptations, all the same feelings and thoughts, but was sinless, through him we can come literally to the throne of God, to the actual throne of grace as it's described here, and we can do it with confidence so that we can receive grace and mercy directly from him.

We don't always think of that, again, because the concept of prayer is out there in different ways in broadly described Christianity in this world, but I think it's helpful to step back and think about what this must have been like in terms of a difference of worship, a difference of ways to approach God in a very personal way at the time that Hebrews was written. Think about the way it was back in biblical times, and in some ways even is today, if you were going to approach a king.

You might recall in the book of Esther, we don't have to turn there, but Esther 4 in verses 10 through 12, if you want to look it up later on, I always found this passage interesting. Esther was the wife of the king, and she was going to make a petition to the king on behalf of the Jewish people, because the Jews were being persecuted, advisors had gotten to the king and were convincing him to persecute the Jews, and I always found it somewhat odd that as the king's wife, she couldn't simply go before the king and ask him something.

And in fact, if she did, she risked death. The king had a scepter, and if she were to go into the king, and you'll find it in these verses if you read them later on, if the king did not extend the scepter to her and essentially give her grace and say, you may approach me and ask this question, she could be killed.

We see other examples of that in the time of Jesus Christ. If you recall Herod, before he put John the Baptist to death, he was having a big ceremony, he was having a party, and it was his stepdaughter who made a request of him, and he granted her the opportunity to make a request. So in those situations, even making a request of a ruler of a king was not something you could take for granted.

It was something that would have to be given to you on the pain potentially of death if you tried to stand out and do it yourself. Now, even today, to have an audience with somebody who's in power takes quite a bit of effort, doesn't it? I mean, think if any of us wanted to go and meet President Obama, wanted to meet President-elect Trump, if we wanted to meet Governor Kasich, could any one of us do that?

If we tried to march into their offices, we'd probably suffer the same pain of death that we were talking about before with no golden scepter to reach out there and help us, right? Because it would probably be shoot first and ask questions later if we tried to approach many of those figures. And it's very difficult. And, you know, even in the business world, people will spend days, weeks, even months strategizing, getting to know people and figuring out how can I meet this person who runs this company?

Or how can I get an audience and get a meeting to talk to somebody that I'm trying to speak to about a certain topic?

We had a guy that I worked with for a while. I think he actually ended up writing a business book. He lived in New York. He was a typical sort of aggressive New Yorker. And he had an interesting strategy that he made up for how he would try to meet people who were running companies. He would always carry an umbrella with him. And he would tape his business card to the umbrella. And if it was raining, he'd look around and find a well-dressed man, usually with with his wife, and run up to them and say, here, you can use my umbrella. And he'd catch them as they were going outside. And he'd have his business card taped to it.

And they'd say, well, no, how am I ever going to find you to give this back to you?

And he'd say, don't worry, my business card is on the umbrella. Just give me a call, and I'll come to your office, and I'll get it back from you. And that was a strategy that he used successfully, surprisingly enough. I guess in New York this kind of thing works. But he used that, and he used it to gain meetings with a number of different people who were running companies that he had wanted to meet and talk with about the business that he was doing. So people go to all kinds of ends to meet people who are in charge, people who can make things happen, people who can do things. We don't have to do that. We can simply approach the throne of grace. As we go into this topic, I think it's something we need to understand and think about, and make sure that we don't take for granted. It's not something that's existed for everyone in mankind before the time of Jesus Christ.

And it's a rare privilege that we have. Let's move on to this word confidence or boldness as it's translated in some of the versions of the Bible. Again, this is in verse 16 of Hebrews 4. It says, let us approach God's throne of grace with confidence. Now this word that's used here for confidence is a Greek word, paresius.

Paresius. And it's a Greek word that can mean confidence, it can mean boldness, it can mean openness, it can mean freedom. And some of the different things that I read suggest that a word like frank confidence is a good way to describe this word. So it means going forward and going completely openly with everything that we have, wholeheartedly, laying everything forward. And etymology of the word would mean literally speaking everything.

So we can go before God's throne with this kind of frank confidence, with openness, with boldness. We can speak anything and everything to God. That's also something that we don't always do in our human relationships. I think even as close a relationship as husband and wife, we would say we often think about the things that we're going to say. We choose the moment we're going to say it. We choose how we're going to say it.

But with God, it says, we should not only approach Him, but we should approach Him with this frank confidence, this openness. So in the balance of time today, with that as a backdrop, I'd like to just focus on a few examples, a few stories from the Bible of different ways that people have approached God and talked with Him. And hopefully we can take some lessons away from it that'll help to invigorate our own lives in prayer and the way that we come before God on a day-to-day basis.

Turn with me, first of all, to Hebrews 11. This first section I'll just call through the ceiling. This happens to be one of my favorite stories in the Bible, and when I was a kid I always thought it was kind of bizarre, so I enjoy this story. But we'll start in Hebrews 11 and verse 6. Hebrews 11 and verse 6. Here it says, Without faith, it's impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

So God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Turn with me then, if you would, to Mark 2, and we'll read our story about through the ceiling. Mark 2, and we'll read verses 1 through 5. And this is a story as Mark is talking about Jesus Christ and some of His early ministry. This part in the city of Capernaum. Capernaum was a town right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and many people were there to see Him. So Mark 2, and we'll start in verse 1.

Again, Jesus entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. And immediately, many gathered together, so there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. So you can imagine this crush of crowds. By this point, Jesus had a reputation. People knew that He was healing people. They knew that He had a new or revolutionary, a different message to preach, and people from all around the area were there to see Him.

And you can imagine, like any crowd seen here, like Black Friday if you're trying to get into Walmart or something, it was not going to be easy to approach the door. So He preached the Word to them, and in verse 3, they came to Him. And there was a group bringing a paralytic who was carried, in this case, by four men. And in verse 4, when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was.

And when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you. So imagine this scene. These people, including the man who wanted to be healed, wanted to be healed so badly that they were able to bust through the roof.

I don't know where they got the rope, and literally lowered this guy down into the room because they couldn't break through the crowds. Now, you talk about earnestly seeking God. In this case, they were physically seeking the Son of God. A little different than what we do in prayer. But the attitude that's there and the attitude that Jesus Christ reacted to in this situation. A clear demonstration of faith because of the way that they were able to do this, the the ends that they were willing to go to in order to approach Him. I want to read a little bit of a description from Expositor's Bible commentary that I think helps to draw out a little bit more how this would have happened and what it would have been like. It says here, in order to understand the actions that these verses describe, it's necessary to visualize the layout of a typical Palestinian peasant's house. It was usually a small one-room structure with a flat roof, and access to the roof was by means of an outside stairway. The roof itself was usually made of wooden beams with thatch and compacted earth in order to shed the rain. And sometimes tiles were laid between the beams and the thatch and earth placed over them. So we're really not used to this in the way that we build houses, but the Middle East is a very warm environment, especially during the summer. And in the heat of the in the evening, these buildings will often gather up the heat in the mud-brick walls that they'll use to build the buildings. And in the evening, the heat radiates out. It's pretty warm inside of these buildings. I had the opportunity when I was in college to live in Syria for a summer, and we saw buildings built exactly like this in the village that we lived in. And people, families, would simply go up these steps that led around the outside of the house, and at night, on a clear day, they'd just lay out on this rooftop carpets and blankets and sleep out there, because the cool of the evening was a lot easier to deal with up on the rooftop than it was inside the house. So unlike the way that we live today, I don't think many of us would sit up on our roof or try to sleep on it.

I'd roll off as soon as I dozed off if I tried that, and most of us would. It was an accessible space, okay? So this wasn't some crazy miracle that they got up on the roof. They took the time, they took the effort, skirted around the crowd, walked up the steps, and got up on the roof. So let me get back to my place here.

The four men going on from expositors brought the paralytic to the house where Jesus was, but when they saw the size of the crowd, they realized it was going to be impossible to enter by the door. So they carried him up the outside stairway to the roof, and then they dug up the compacted thatch and earth. And no doubt there was dirt showering down on those inside the house. They removed the tiles and lowered the man through the now exposed beams to the floor below. So you can imagine there were some wooden beams that were holding the roof up. And you can imagine Jesus Christ inside talking with people who were wanting to hear his wisdom, and this dirt keeps dropping down from the ceiling. They're hearing this scraping noise like there's a badger up on the roof or something. A sloth would never do something like that. So imagine the ends that these people went to. If you have compacted earth and tiles and everything built there, this wasn't a five-minute operation. And these four men with their friend are to be commended for what they were willing to do with them as well. I have no idea how long it would have taken, but these guys were there with their hands digging this stuff up. They didn't come with a plan of busting this guy through the roof. They improvised when they saw the crowds, and they found a way to get to Jesus Christ, and he healed the man. And what was interesting in the end, again, as we think about coming to receive mercy and grace in time of need, is Jesus Christ did not only say to the man, be healed. He forgave his sins. He did that for a number of reasons, one of which was to show the people around them that he was the Son of God and had the power to forgive sins.

But I think he also saw something inside this man and his friends that impacted him because of the earnestness with which they were willing to seek him. So as we think about this first vignette and this first story, the lesson is fairly simple in terms of the earnestness that God wants to see in us as we approach him. Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 14 verse 2. Psalm 14 verse 2. This is a theme that we see throughout the Bible in terms of being earnest and really seeking after him. And in this short psalm it's also brought home. Psalm 14 and verse 2. It says here, the Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. And seeking is much more active than wandering around, casually looking, maybe seeing if you stumble across God.

Seeking God is the word that's used here. So as we think about our lives in prayer, as we think of approaching God, one of the things I'd like to encourage us all to think about is this story of coming down through the ceiling and how earnestly we're seeking after God as we're coming to him in prayer.

Let's turn to another vignette. This one is often referred to as the importunate widow, which is kind of a strange word. I think it comes out of the old King James, but let's read through it, and as we read through it, we'll understand a little more what's really happening here. This one is in Luke 18. Turn with me to Luke 18, please. So this is another parable of Jesus Christ, and it starts in verse 1 of Luke 18. Here Jesus Christ is speaking a parable to them with a purpose, that men ought always to pray and to not lose heart.

So he said in verse 2, there was in the certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man, and there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me from my adversary. So she's coming before the judge. There was some sort of a dispute that she had. She was at odds with someone and wanted justice from the judge, and he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I'll avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

And then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them? I tell you he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on earth? So let's take this story apart for a little bit and see what it is that's happening here as well.

So again, reading through some of the commentaries and getting a little bit of the background of what might have been happening here, in the different towns and cities that existed, there was usually a religious court that people could go to, but not everyone would necessarily have access to that religious court. And in addition to that religious court, there would be local secular judges who would hear small cases.

So if you think of today, there's a thing called small claims court, and I don't know what the financial limit is anymore for small claims court. It's something like $10,000 or something like that, I think. But there's a level of claim, and if it's below that, you can go to small claims court, you don't necessarily need an attorney, and there's a judge there. If somebody was doing some fix-up work on your house and left a hole in your roof and it needs to be fixed, you might take that roofer to small claims court, and the judge will hear the case, and the judge will make a verdict and say, roofer, you promised to fix the roof, there's still a hole, you know, you're going to have to fix it at no additional cost, whatever the verdict might be.

So this is a small claims sort of situation. It was not a religious court, so it was a secular judge. And what's happening here is a judge like this would hear all kinds of different cases, and probably like any judge, they have to decide which cases they're going to hear.

And very likely, being a widow who had a small matter in this case, it would be somebody who didn't have somebody to speak up loudly for her. In this society, men would have a lot more people listen to them than women would. Women didn't have the same standing in society. And probably the case that she had might have been fairly small to a judge who's sitting there, even though it meant a lot to her as a widow in the case that she had to bring.

So he'd be besieged by many cases. And in the end, though, he acts. And why does he act? Look in verse 5, and he says, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Now when you take apart what that word means, it's a figure of speech that means to get a black eye. So she's literally saying, I'm gonna hear her case unless I end up getting a black eye over this.

And we use that phrase today, too, from time to time, right? I promise to do something. I'd better follow through and do it, or I'm gonna get a black eye. Right?

And symbolically what we mean is everybody's gonna know by looking at me that I went back on my word, or that I didn't do something that I was meant to do, or that I should do because of the job that I have. And so this judge, because this widow keeps coming back, and you think of this courtroom, and this widow just keeps coming back and saying to the judge, hear my case, judge, hear my case. I've got a case that I need you to hear. And at some point the judge says, well, I'm a judge. I'm here to hear cases. I can't have this lady keep coming back every day, you know, saying loudly that I'm not hearing her case, or people are gonna wonder what in the world I'm doing. So I'm just gonna go ahead and hear her case, and I'm gonna settle it. And so he's looking after his reputation. He's making sure that he's doing the job that he's expected to do, and that he doesn't lose his standing in that sense by not doing his work. Now in some ways we've seen an example like this this week, even, right? So we saw Donald Trump as he went and talked with Carrier Corporation to keep jobs. I found it interesting, just listening to the news the last day or two, that what he said made him act was when he was watching television, and he said he actually didn't remember promising that he would try to talk with Carrier Corporation about keeping jobs.

And he said he was watching the TV news, and he saw an employee of the company say, I voted for Donald Trump because Donald Trump's gonna keep my job. And it's interesting, watching commentary on the news, whether it was people who favored him or people who didn't favor him, they said, you know, this is this is amazing because he saw somebody say essentially to him, you made a promise, I need you to keep it. And he went through, in the end, this same political calculation. He decided, you know what? I'm gonna get a black eye in front of the American people, but I've got somebody standing up in this case saying, I voted for him because he was gonna save my job, and I don't do anything about it. And for whatever reason, it moved him to, in part, to protect his reputation and politically to go and try and do something about it. A very similar type of situation. So what's the reputation of the judge that we go before? And what does that judge stand for? What is that judge trying to do? We know God as a God of mercy, a God of comfort, a God of forgiveness, a God who promises us an eternal reward. And those are the things that we can come before him earnestly seeking him, coming continually back and forth to him and not growing weary, and knowing that as somebody who's going to act according to his reputation, somebody who's going to act according to everything that he stands for, he will grant those things.

Now we know that he'll grant them in his time, and he'll grant them in his way.

Sometimes he grants them through the trials that we have to go through as we learn the lessons that we need to learn, but we know that he will grant those things to us. And as we look again at the reason for this parable, he spoke the parable in verse 1 of Luke 18 that men ought to pray always and not lose heart.

The things we shouldn't lose heart in are the things that he promised, the things that he stands for. Now as much as we'd like it, God doesn't necessarily stand for a Lamborghini. God doesn't necessarily stand for a vacation in Tahiti. Those are all things we'd like to have, but those aren't things that he stands for in the Bible. But the bigger things, the things that are ultimately to our long-term good, our forgiveness of our sins, our eternal life, the comfort and the mercy and the grace that we need in our everyday lives, are absolutely 100% things that he stands for. And as we come back to him and ask him for those things day after day and keep seeking him out like this widow seeking out the judge, he will grant those things to us. And he wants to continue to hear from us in those things. David in the Psalms often cried out to God boldly with openness and frank confidence. And what did he say? He said, how long, God? How long does this have to keep going on? You can imagine the despair he felt when you read the words in some of his Psalms. And he was open, he was frank, and he was honest with God in those things. And he asked for God's comfort. He asked for God's protection. He asked for his help. Turn with me, if you would, to Romans 7.

See here that the Apostle Paul expresses the same thing. Romans 7. We'll read verses 24 and 25. This is Paul being incredibly open to God as he approached his throne of grace. Romans 7 verse 24. Paul starts out by saying, O wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this body of death? I thank God it's going to happen through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, even though the flesh serves the law of sin. So we see David, we see Paul crying out in this way, being open to God and knowing that they need the deliverance that God has to offer. So as we wrap up this little vignette, this example that we see in the Bible, we need to learn and understand and think about the fact that God will deliver us, but he'll do it in his way and his time. So we should continually come boldly before his throne and pray for deliverance. Pray for the things that he stands for and that he says he will deliver for us. And clearly, like he said in that first verse, not to lose heart.

God does deliver. He delivers in his time, but he will deliver us. Let's go to another story, and this time we'll go back to the Old Testament. We'll look at Abraham. We'll turn to Genesis 18. Now this is one of the more familiar stories, maybe, that we hear in terms of the context of coming boldly before God. This is when God came down and before he was going to destroy the city of Sodom, and he spent time with Abraham on the plains there and talked with him.

Genesis 18, and we'll start in verse 16 and read through this account. And this was after they'd had a meal together and they'd sat down.

Abraham had killed a calf, I think it was, laid out a meal. They'd spent time talking. And in verse 16 of Genesis 18 says, the men arose from there and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I've known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they've done all together according to the outcry that against it that's come to me. And if not, I will know. And so in the Bible, this is in quotation marks, it implies that God is now saying this to Abraham. And in verse 22 then, the men turned away from there and they went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were 50 righteous within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? So these are pretty bold words if you think standing before God, asking him these things, challenging him in a way. And what is it that happens? The Lord said, If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I'll spare all the place for their sakes. Okay? 50. But that wasn't quite enough for Abraham. In verse 27, he answered and said, Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. So he's realistic here. He's not demanding. He's humble in what he's asking. He's recognizing the greatness of God. He's recognizing that he's making a petition. But he's coming back at him.

He's not going to accept 50. He's going to go for more. He says, Suppose there were five less than the 50 righteous, would you destroy all of the city for lack of just five people? And God said, If I find there 45, I will not destroy it. And he spoke to him again in verse 29 and said, Suppose there should be 40 there. And he said, I'll not do it for the sake of 40. And he said, Don't let the Lord be angry and I'll speak. Suppose 30 will be found there. He said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. He's going to continue to press his luck, though. And in verse 31, he says, Indeed now I've taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Again, he's being respectful. We have to recognize this. This isn't Abraham saying, I know better than you. I demand you do this. He's asking things of God. He's trying to reason back and forth with God and say, Is this something you're going to do? I really ask you not to do it. And he says, Suppose 20 should be found there. And in verse 31, he says, I won't destroy it for the sake of 20. And then in verse 32, he comes back again and says, Suppose 10 will be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 10. So the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. So it's a pretty remarkable passage, isn't it? I mean, there are few people in high levels of authority humanly that we would think of talking to like this. Even though he was deferential, he was asking questions and all the rest, he knew he was in front of a divine being and he made these requests. But I think it's interesting also to see that this was Abraham praying for someone else. He was praying for someone else, not just for himself. And I think that makes a difference in the boldness that Abraham had in praying for others. And what's even more remarkable to me is the fact that even though 10 righteous were not there, and the city was destroyed, God still took Lot and as many of his family as would come out. In the end, it ended up being Lot and daughters out of that city, and he saved them. So this prayer, this time that Abraham spent, the time that he spent reasoning with God, trying to understand, making a case for other people to try to save other people, did result in human lives being saved. He was able and interested in spending this time in being bold, in going before God, and making petitions to this extent on the behalf of other people. And God listened to that, and he saved, even though he didn't find 10 people, he saved others' lives as a result of that. As demonstrated by Jesus Christ as well, he was praying according to God's will. Again, I don't want to say here that we should just go before God and start making demands of him. We can see in the way that Abraham approached God, that he recognized his place before God, and he was appealing to God's sense of justice and righteousness. Likewise, if we look at Jesus Christ when he prayed in the garden before he was crucified, he was telling God very openly what it was that he was hoping for, to be spared from the painful death that he was going to suffer. But he also said, not according to your will, not according to my will, but according to your will, let it be done.

Things that we have to keep in mind even as we come boldly before God. But the lesson that I'd like to draw to this passage of Abraham is not only God and how he reacted and how he was willing to have this dialogue, to hear Abraham reason through what it was that God was doing, as though he was coming to an understanding of what it was that God was trying to accomplish, but also the fact that Abraham was willing to go to these ends in terms of time, in terms of boldness, in terms of making requests, in order to help other people. And as we have our prayers for other people, as we're praying for the people, whether it's in our congregation who have needs, other friends that we have, neighbors, other people, what do we bring before God about those people? It's something to think about in the way that Abraham prayed this prayer and the time that he took, caring about the human lives that would be snuffed out, granted in an evil city, but he cared about those lives. Do we bring before God more than a person's name and bless them, or please help him to get better? Or do we talk to God about that person? You know, God, this is a person who I've seen do these things. This is somebody who I've seen interact with your people and add to the congregation in these ways. We need a person like this to continue to be in our congregation, to be active, to help. I see these things in this person's heart because of the things that they do, and I ask God that you would take those things into account when you look at this person's sickness or difficulties or trials that they're going through. Do we think to that level? Do we pray to that level to God in boldness, in openness, in respect, as we're praying for other people? Something to think about as we go through our lives in prayer. Let's turn to another fairly well-known prayer in the Bible. This one is in 1 Kings 3. 1 Kings 3. This is Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom. This is one of the earliest stories that I remember in the Bible as a kid, one that I always found really instructive. 1 Kings 3.

We're going to start here in verse 5. This is fairly early in Solomon's tenure as king very shortly after David died. Solomon's trying to come to terms with what it's going to mean to be king and how he's going to go about doing that job.

This is before the temple was built, and even though it was wrong to do so, they were using high places to sacrifice to God. At Gibeon, one of those places, Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ask, what shall I give you? Solomon said, you've shown great mercy to your servant, David, my father. Actually, I think I misspoke there. I was thinking of a different story.

This is Gibeon where they were worshiping. Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ask, what shall I give you? Solomon said, you've shown great mercy to your servant, David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and uprightness of heart with you. You've continued this great kindness for him, and you've given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.

Now, O Lord, my God, you've made your servant, talking about himself, king, instead of my father, David. But I'm a little child. I don't know how to go out or come in, and your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted.

Therefore, give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I might discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours. So, look at the way that Solomon came before God here. He was very self-aware. He could see and acknowledge before God all of the limitations and the weaknesses he had. He acknowledged to God all the ways in which he felt like he was not prepared to do the job that he was being asked to do.

And he simply laid that out there before God. And I just love this phrase of this idea of, I don't know how to go out or come in. He's really saying, I just don't know how to do thing one about this job of being king. And he's asking God for the wisdom to deal with it. And so it shows that he took time. He was processing what it was that he was getting into. And he was thinking through and realizing the fact that the essentials that he needed were things that he didn't have, and he needed them from God. And the speech pleased the Lord, if we look in verse 10, his prayer, that Solomon had asked this thing.

And God said to him then, because you have asked this thing and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have you asked riches, nor have you asked the life of your enemies, but you've asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Behold, I've done according to your words. See, I've given you a wise and understanding heart, so there's not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. But I've also given you what you've not asked, both riches and honor, so there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.

So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I'll lengthen your days. And then Solomon woke, and indeed it had been a dream, and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and made a feast for all of his servants.

So in the end, God granted, according to his grace and mercy, more than David or more than Solomon had asked for. And he did it because Solomon had asked for the important things, the things that were going to be essential to doing his job well and caring for the people well.

And because he did that, God decided that he would give him something extra, not because he deserved it, not because he had promised it, simply because he wanted to. He gave him that additional amount, giving him the riches that he had not asked for. So as we look at this, a big piece of what this demonstrates is the humble heart, in this case, that Solomon had.

He recognized the fact that he needed what God had to give him, and he'd had limitations within his own life that needed to be filled, and he prayed for those essentials. That's the other thing I'd like to focus on for a moment, is he prayed for the things that were important. So Solomon demonstrated, in this case, a real maturity, because he could have asked for all kinds of different things, as God recognized.

But what he focused down on was those intangibles, not the things, not the riches, not the gold, not the silver, not a big army. He focused on that one quality that he knew he was going to need in order to reign effectively, and that was wisdom. And likewise, in our lives, as we come before God, as we think about things, we need to boil things down as well to understanding what's at the core of what we need, and what are the additional things that we hope will be added on top of it. This goes along very much with what we see in Matthew.

Matthew 6, 33, we won't turn there, but it's a verse that probably many of us have memorized, which says, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of his righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you. And these things that it's talking about in that passage are the things that we just deal with every day. Food and clothing and all the additional things that we want above those basic necessities to be comfortable. And God says, seek first his kingdom.

Seek first those essentials, the things that we need to have a healthy life before him, to be successful Christians in order to be able to continue to walk with him. And he promises he'll add the other things on top of that. In this situation with Solomon, he showed it in a very strong way. As Solomon asked for his essentials, what he needed, the wisdom and the ability to judge righteously with the people. And God added additional things on top of that. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Peter 5 also, because the other element, again, that comes out of this story very strongly is the element of humility.

It's a recurring theme that we see in the Bible as people come before God, but God reacts to this attitude of humility, of realizing the need that we have for God in our lives, of realizing the things that we're not sufficient to do by ourselves. And in the end, humility is really reality, isn't it?

Because when we're honest about ourselves, we realize that it's not by our power that we can do much of anything in life. It's by God's grace, it's by his mercy, by the gifts that he gives us, that we can accomplish anything.

1 Peter 5, verses 5 through 7, breaking into the thought in verse 5, it says that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. This carries a lot of the same themes in it, right, in terms of casting our cares upon him, being open with him about the things we're worried about, things we feel insufficient to do, how we know that we need him. If we cast these cares upon him humbly, recognizing how much we have need for him, he promises that he'll care for us and take care of us, and he's shown in the way that he's dealt with Solomon with others, that in his grace he'll add on extra on top of those things in his time.

So when we pray for ourselves, we were focused a minute ago with Abraham on praying for others, when we pray for ourselves, we focus on the things that God has done for us, things he's given us, and we look back at Solomon's prayer again. He started out by acknowledging the rulership that he was given over the nation of Israel, and that that came through God. So we acknowledge the things that God has given us, and we humbly then focus on the things that we need from him, the things that we have recognized now are essential to our lives, the things that we know that he wants to build within us. And he promises that he will respond to those prayers of humility, and he will give us the things that we need.

He won't always give us the things that he want, that we want, but he will give us the things that we need, and he'll care for us, and he'll add extra on top of that in his grace, as he knows we can handle it and the things that we need.

Let's turn to one last section. I think any discussion of prayer and stories about prayer coming out of the Bible would not be complete without David, and without the openness, the boldness that David showed in coming before God. Let's turn to Psalm 32 verses 1 through 5. We haven't talked a lot about it, but so far in this sermon, it's certainly the most important thing that we need from God is his forgiveness. We focus on the fact that initially on baptism we're wiped clean, we're forgiven of all of our sins, but that doesn't mean that we walk forever and never sin again. We know that the reality of our Christian lives is that we deal and struggle with our humanity every moment of every day, and so we come before God regularly to ask for forgiveness, to ask him to extend to us that grace and through the blood of his son Jesus Christ to wash away our sins.

Psalm 32 shows David doing this in a very open way and more again than just saying, God, I sinned, please forgive me, but an acknowledgement and depth of thought of really having thought through what he'd done and why he needed to be forgiven to. He says, happy are those, and I'm reading this from the Good News translation, happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned.

Happy is the one whom the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong and who's free from all deceit. When I did not confess my sins, I was worn out from crying all day long. Day and night you punished me, Lord. My strength was completely drained, as moisture has dried up by the summer heat. But then I confessed my sins to you.

I did not conceal my wrongdoings. I decided to confess them to you, and you forgave all of my sins. So he's talking here about really going before God and laying out the things that he's understood about himself and the things that were he had failings and asking God for his forgiveness. Psalm 51 is another passage that we think about often with David in this respect. We'll just read verses 1 through 4. Psalm 51 verses 1 through 4. This is a Psalm that David wrote and prayed after he had sinned with Bathsheba. Psalm 51 verses 1 through 4.

He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness.

According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions and wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. And I have no doubt that David's prayers to God probably carried a lot more detail of what he did and where he realized he'd gone wrong in doing those things as he asked God to forgive him. And that's part of the process of repentance, of change, is not the fact that we simply have a magic wand waved over us and our sins are washed clean, but that we've thought about what we've done. We've thought about our very nature and what it leads us to do at every unguarded moment. And we think through those things and how that works its way through our lives. And we pray specifically to God and acknowledge the way that it works through our lives, acknowledge the damage that we see it do in our lives, and unfortunately sometimes in the lives of others as well.

And we ask him to forgive that, we ask him to make up for it, we ask him to take us forward on a new path. And this is where that openness, that frank confidence, that boldness in coming before God is important. As we lay everything out, we're always guarded with other human beings and we always will be. That's how we are built as people. With God, we have to let those guards down. We lay those things out to him and he responds with forgiveness and with grace when we do those things. So we have to never forget to approach God and ask for forgiveness on a daily basis from our sins, recognizing our fallibilities as human beings, doing it in a way that lays before him what we've thought about and why and how we want to move forward in a different way. And he will give us strength, he will give us forgiveness, and he continues to carry us forward and leads us to growth in his spirit. So as we conclude, like I talked about earlier and as we all really already know, prayer is a complex and it's a multi-faceted relationship with God. With each of us, our lives in prayer are going to be different and unique, just as we're all unique individuals. My hope today is that in going through a few different stories and approaches and ways that people have gone before God, it sparks all of us in some way that you'll connect with some of these things that you've seen in these examples and that we can all use these things to increase the power of our prayer life, that we will come before his throne, and we'll do it regularly, and we'll do it often, and then we'll do it with greater boldness and with greater openness. And as we strengthen that relationship with God in prayer, that will continue to grow and develop in our Christian lives. Have a great Sabbath!