Episode Transcript
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Well, if you're able to,
please remain standing and let's gear give our
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attention to God's word and second chronicles
chapter six, second chronicle six, versus
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twelve through twenty one. Last time
we were in this chapter we heard of
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Solomon's a blessing, the way he
was blessed the people by Blessing God.
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This is all following the construction of
the temple. And now we read Solomon
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Turning in prayer to the Lord and
we're going to read the beginning of this
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prayer. So this is second chronicles
chapter six, Verse Twelve Through Twenty One.
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Then the Lord are then Solomon.
Rather then Solomon stood before the altar
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of the Lord, in the presence
of all the assembly of Israel, and
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spread out his hands. Solomon had
made a bronze platform five cubits long,
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five cubits wide and three cubits high, and in set it in the court
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and he stood on it. Then
he knelt on his knees and the presence
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of all the assembly of Israel and
spread out his hands toward heaven and said,
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oh Lord, God of Israel,
there is no God like you in
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heaven or on Earth, Keeping Covenant
and showing steadfast love to your servants who
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walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant,
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David my father, what you declared
to him. You spoke with your mouth
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and with your hand. Have fulfilled
it this day. Now, therefore,
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O Lord God of Israel, keep
for your servant, David my father,
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what you have promised him, saying
you shall not lack a man to sit
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before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention
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to their way, to walk in
my law, as you have walked before
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me. Now, therefore, O
Lord God of Israel, Let your word
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be confirmed, which you have spoken
to your servant, David. But Will
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God indeed dwell with Man on earth? Behold Heaven, and the highest heaven
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cannot contain you how much less this
House that I have built yet have regard
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to the prayer of your servant and
to his plea. o Lord my God,
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listening to the cry and to the
prayer that your servant prays before you,
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that your eyes may be opened,
day and night toward this house,
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the place where you have promised to
set your name, that you may listen
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to the prayer that your servant offers
toward the plot this place and listen to
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the please of your servant and of
your people, Israel, when they pray
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toward this place, and listen from
heaven, your dwelling place, and when
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you hear forgive, you may be
seated. When Martin Luther stood before the
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die of to verms in fifteen twenty
one, we know the story. He
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stood strong before the Lord and his
reply to the pressure that the council was
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pressing on him to recant views that
were true to the Bible and true to
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the Gospel were and are famous.
His reply, unless I am convinced by
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the testimony of the Scriptures or by
clear reason for I do not trust either
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in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they
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have often aired and contradicted themselves.
I am bound by the Scriptures I have
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quoted and my conscience is captive to
the word of God. I cannot and
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I will not retract anything, since
it is neither safe nor right to go
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against conscience. Well, this is
Martin Luther's famous response, his famous reply
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in which he stood strong for the
Lord. But what is not as well
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known, or perhaps what is known
but forgotten, is the way that this
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reply. This stand for the Lord
Finishes. It finishes with a prayer.
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There's one more line I didn't read. So Luther says, since it is
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neither safe nor right to go against
conscience, I cannot and I will not
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retract anything. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help
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me. Amen. Luther's stand for
the Lord was also a stand before the
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Lord. Luther stood not just for
God, but he stood before God.
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And he concludes this stand with a
prayer. In an essay by Brian G
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Naja, before he quotes another author, Martha Martin e Lehman, who's writing
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on Lutheran prayer, and Mr Lehmann
concludes this about Martin Martin Luther. It
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is clear that his understanding of prayer
can in no way be isolated from the
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totality of his theology. Indeed,
it can be said that prayer is an
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intrigral and significant part of his entire
theology. What this author goes on to
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argue is that to understand Luther's theology, you have to understand how he thought
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about prayer. Well, this should
be true for all of our theology.
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Thinking about God in a way that
is abstracted from a relationship with him turns
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God into an object to be controlled, as opposed to a being to be
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loved, serve, feared worshiped.
That's why theology has all should be always
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done in prayer. It should always
be done with an understanding towards who we
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are speaking about, to whom we
are concern praying, who it is we
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are obedience to. Well, tonight
our passage teaches us a lot about prayer.
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It focuses our minds on this,
as we see a Solomon lifting up
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this prayer before the Lord. It
is a model of prayer, and in
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it we also see the theological foundations
of prayer, and that's what I want
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to focus on this evening. God
showing us how and why we should pray.
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So first, the how of prayer, particularly the beginning of prayer.
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Prayers should begin in a particular way. Now, of course, not always
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this is true. There are all
kinds of situations we find ourselves in and
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we don't need to follow any kind
of rigid system. If we need to
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say something the little Lord, we
should just say it. But there is
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an appropriate way of framing our lives
of prayer, and even particular prayers,
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and it is the way that Solomon
demonstrates here. It is the way that
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our Lord speaks when he gives us
what we call the Lord's prayer. The
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Lord's prayer begins how, our father
who are in heaven, how would be
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thy name? It begins by addressing
God and adoring him for who he is,
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by considering his attributes. And these
are the kinds of things that Solomon
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does as well. So how should
we pray? Let's I want to address
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this in in four points. First, we are to address God appropriately.
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This involves acknowledging the one to whom
we are praying in a way that fits
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his nature. How does Solomon do
this? Well, for one, he
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uses his name. He calls him
Yah Way. Here it's written in small
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capital letters in our Bible several times. As Lord, he calls Him Yeah
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Way or Jehovah. This is God's
name that he gave to his people.
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It is the name that God has
given to Moses and to all of Israel
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and to us to use, to
call him by, to address him by.
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This is echoed not only it's said, not only in the name itself,
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Yeah Way, but it's echoed in
the following phrase that Paul Uses or
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sorry, Solomon uses, speaking about
Paul this morning, a little tongue tied.
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He says he addresses Yah Way,
but then he says God of Israel.
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It's a way of echoing what that
name itself means, that God is
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not just odd, but he has
his particular eye on this people. He
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loves them, and Solomon has this
in mind. He has from the very
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beginning of his prayer, from the
very first words, the relationship with God.
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Another part of addressing God appropriately,
and not only in his titles,
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is honoring his unique nature. This
is another appropriate way to begin our prayers
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as we address God. So,
for example, notice what Solomon says.
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He says Oh Lord, or Oh
yeah, Wagh, God of Israel.
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There is no god like you.
You see what he does. He distinguishes
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in his mind and he speaks to
God in a way that distinguishes him from
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all other gods. There is none
like you. And then he gives some
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specifics. He says in heaven or
on Earth, Keeping Covenant and showing steadfast
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love to your servants. In this
we see Solomon addresses not only his unique
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nature as being the only one and
true God, but also unique in his
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works. He is God who keeps
covenant, who shows steadfast love to his
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servants. Solomon even focuses in on
particular works, which is appropriate for us
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to do on our prayers, to
bring to our mind particular attributes of God,
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odd to think about who he is, in his uniqueness, in not
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being an idol but being the one
true God, but also thinking about his
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particular works. So what is Solomon
Mentions mentioned? Well, he talks about
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keeping word with your servant, David, my father, what you declared to
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him. This is in Verse Fifteen. You spoke with me your mouth and
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with your hand. You have fulfilled
it this day. So this is the
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way, a good way, a
holy way and an appropriate way to begin
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our prayers by addressing God in a
way that is fitting for who he is
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and what he has done. The
second point I want to make and how
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we should pray is that we should
address God not just appropriately or respectfully,
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but adoringly. When we use these
titles for God, when we say our
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father, who arn't in heaven,
we're not just jumping through a hoops.
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We're not addressing him in a way
to kind of check a check a box,
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like saying Sir to someone that you
don't really respect at all. We
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say these things because this is who
god is. We don't just address him
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in a way that's appropriate. We
address him in a way that involves adoration,
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adoring which is love and and worship. Notice how we see this in
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Solomon. First of all, I
think you hear it in his words,
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but you also see it in his
posture. We read that at the beginning
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of this prayer he is on his
knees, his hands are lifted up to
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heaven. He is acknowledging him self
as one who is low and God,
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who is high. This great king
who has built this great temple, does
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not have his greatness in mind,
but only the greatness of God. As
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he gets on his knees and he
prays, it is perhaps the first act
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of any true worship to start with
wonder, to wonder at the glorious self
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revelation of God. To pray properly
and truly is to stand in awe before
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him, to consider all his perfections, to take note of his attributes,
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his selfsufficient existence, his covenant love
toward us, and to bow our hearts
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down before him in love and in
worship. Isaac Watts, in his book
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a guide to Prayer says wisely that, though we are creatures and we stand
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far off from God, the more
that we speak and consider his attributes,
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the more we realize that this glorious
God whom we pray to has worked for
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us on our behalf. The more
we consider these things, the nearer we
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will feel toward him and the better
we will be prepared for confessing our sins,
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for making requests, for professing our
love and forgiving thanks. Well,
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the third thing to mention that we
see in this passage about how we ought
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to pray is that it is I
in the nature and the work of God.
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It is, or rather it is
the nature and work of God,
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on which we base our requests.
In other words, we bring supplications and
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petitions to this God because of who
he is. We learn this from verse
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sixteen with two words. Now,
therefore, Psalomon lifts up the Lord,
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Oh Lord, God of Israel,
there is no God like you and Heaven
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on Earth, Keeping Covenant and Showing
Stats Steadfast love to your servants who walk
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before you with all their heart.
He mentions the specific covenant with David and,
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on the basis of all of that, on who God is, and
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what he does. That's when he
says now, therefore, Oh yeah,
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way, God of Israel, keep
for your servant David, my father,
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what you have promised him saying.
And then he says the promise, the
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promise that David shall not lack a
man to sit before God odd on the
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throne of Israel, if his sons
will pay close attention to their way and
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walk in his laws, as David
walked before him. This teaches us that
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we, when we pray, we
base our requests not on our will but
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on God's will. We base our
requests not on the strength of our desires
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and the things that we want,
but on the promises God has made,
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and we seek him and no other, because there is no other. There
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is nowhere else to go. There
is no other God to save, no
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other God to speak to, no
other God who has promised himself to us
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in His grace. This is why
we go to God and give him and
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make our requests. We ask of
him as our father, because he is
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our father. Lastly, the other
the last thing I want to mention about
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how we to pray is that all
of these things are done the all of
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these things are done in a way
that is humble. You hear this in
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Solomon's words, you see it in
his posture and you notice how he doesn't
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demand for the things that he asks
on the basis of what he wants,
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but on the basis of God's promises. You could also adverse eighteen to see
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the humility of Solomon in his prayer. He says, but will God indeed
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dwell with man on the earth?
Behold Heaven, in the highest heaven,
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cannot contain you, how much less
this house I have built. Solomon recognized
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as though he has built this Glorious
House, God's presence doesn't depend on what
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he's done. Solomon confesses that he
knows he cannot control God, he cannot
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contain God. This is a very
different view from the nations around him,
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where the gods are viewed is as
these movable objects, these controllable objects that
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can be bound to a time and
to a place and to a people.
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Solomon recognizes that he belongs to God, not because he's captured God and brought
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him into a temple, but that
God, who cannot be contained in a
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place like this, nevertheless has condescended
to us and and is present with these
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people. Solomon pleads before the Lord
in Verse Nineteen. Yet have regard to
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the prayer of your servant. Have
regard to his plea. He considers himself
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a servant. He recognizes that everything
that he has from God, anything that
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he will be given, anything that
he asks for, will come only by
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the grace of God. We add
to that one more thing, and that
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not only does it come by God's
grace. In other words, Solomon isn't
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owed these things, but in fact
he is owed the opposite of blessing.
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We get this from the last few
words that we read in Verse Twenty One.
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He says, Solomon says, and
listen from your heaven, your dwelling
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place, and when you hear,
forgive. Solomon recognizes that he does not
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stand before the Lord as equals.
These are not too equal conversation, partners
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trading favors. He also recognizes that
he has not an unequal partner, as
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simply a servant who who he can
go to and ask things of God.
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No, he recognizes that not only
are they unequal, but that he and
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the people are sinners in need of
forgiveness. And this is true when we
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approach God, we not only approach
him humbly, but we approach him as
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sinners, as those who need not
only good gifts or desire good gifts,
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but he need forgiveness. In other
words, before we can even approach God,
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before we can even add is can
these things, we need to be
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reconciled to him. That's a part
of the true humility which is required in
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prayer. So here we learn how
our prayers should begin, some of the
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things that they should contain. They
should addressed God in a way that is
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prop appropriate, a way that honors
him and his most holy name. It
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should also be filled with adoration and
love and humility, confession and Fort of
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sin, and all of this relying
on his nature, his works and his
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promises of grace. On the basis
of those things, we go confidently before
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the Lord and we ask him to
hear us and to answer us. This
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is how we pray. Now,
why do we pray? What is the
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foundation that we on which we go
to God? Well, one of them
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we've already spoken of. I'm going
to mention two. The first is there
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is this personal relationship that we have
with God. Prayer is a very personal,
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relational kind of speech and it has
a particular flavor to it. When
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we address various people in our lives, we address them according to that relationship.
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So you speak to your sister one
way, your neighbor another way,
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your boss yet another way, and
the same is true with God. This
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means that true prayer is built on
an understanding and a faith in God.
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This means that to know him better
is to pray better. And what do
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we learn of God here? What
is it? Who is the god to
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whom we pray? Well, we
learn that he's all glorious. We learned
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that he is a lover of good
things, that he has a promise keeper,
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that he is mighty, that he
is powerful, that he has worked
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in History Making Covenant Promises With these
people, that he is poured out His
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grace on US and calls us to
to depend on him for these things.
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When we go to the Lord in
prayer, we go because he truly is.
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That is why we pray the way
that we pray, but, even
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more basic, it's why we pray
at all. We go to God because
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he's revealed himself to us. We
speak and call out to the Lord because
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he has first spoken to us.
The second reason and the last thing I
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want to mention about why we pray
is that there is a kind of covenantal
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action, a covenant that is established. Prayer, I should say, is
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a covenantal action. Let me put
it this way. I've said that in
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prayer there is a relationship involved.
Right, there's a relationship between us and
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God. But when we speak of
covenant, when Solomon Speaks of covenant,
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he tells us that we have a
particular relationship with him. In other words,
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God is not just someone we know, or even someone we know well,
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like a colleague or an acquaintance.
He's more like a spouse. We
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have this obligation to one another,
him to us and US to him.
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We have this agreement, a contract, a promise that has been made,
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not, of course, because we
forced God into it or tricked him into
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it, but because he's graciously made
this relationship with us. And this is
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what Solomon has in mind when he
talks about God as the one who keeps
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his covenant, and it's what we
should have in mind too when we pray
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to him. We pray to him
in the way we do because there are
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these covenance in place, these this
relationship that God has established, and this
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is our starting place to just as
it is for Solomon, except that for
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us it's even stronger, as strong
as Solomon's relationship is with the God,
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God of Israel, because of the
covenants that have been made with Abraham,
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with Moses, with David. We
come to God not only on the basis
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of these covenant promises, but also
on the covenant that he has made with
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his son and with us in him. We come to the Lord in prayer,
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remembering not just these covenants in the
past, but the new covenant which
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holds all of them together, which
brings all of them into completion. God
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has answered indeed, Solomon's prayer in
the person and work of Christ, when
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Solomon Praise and ask that know that
David would not lack a man to sit
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on the throne, that God would
provide a son of David who would sit
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on that throne and would stable it
and would be established as Israel's ruler forever,
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as a son who would play close
attention to his walk, that would
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walk in the law of God and
walk in holy ways and in the ways
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of David. We have not only
one who has done that, but one
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who has superseded David in every way, the son that God has provided is
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not only the son of David,
but the son of God. And so
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when we pray as Solomon was praying, and when we consider the Covenant that
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God would made with David, we
don't have to hope in some future king
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that might do the things that the
Lord Commands, knowing that very possibly he
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might not and we might all suffer
on behalf of that King and his actions.
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No, we pray knowing that God
has provided the final king, the
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final son. We come into the
presence of the Lord, we depend on
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his covenant promises, knowing that they
have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the
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son of David. We pray knowing
that Jesus himself intercedes for us at the
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right hand of the Father in heaven. We pray knowing that Jesus has fulfilled
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all of these things more than Solomon
could have ever imagined or experienced. All
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of this means that Christian prayer is
not a set of techniques or Mantras,
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nor is it some kind of ecstatic
experience that we search for. Nor is
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prayer some kind of thing that we
use to prove our holiness. No,
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prayer is, as I said this
morning, a simply faith in the mouth.
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It's a verbal expression of the Covenant, in which we stand its knowledge
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of God as it is revealed in
Jesus Christ, and living our lives praying
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continually in confidence that this vision that
God has given to us in his son
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is one in which we come to
know God as perfect as saving, as
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covenant keeping, as unique in all
the universe, and one who uses all
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of this glory and this power to
save you, to grab you into his
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arms, to fold you into his
flock and to carry you to heaven itself
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and to see it to you with
Christ in the heavenly places. Christian prayer
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is not just speaking with God,
but communing with him, trusting him,
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him knowing him. This is how
we pray. It begins by understanding who
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God is and how he has revealed
himself to us, and then responding in
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faith, in love and in worship. May God grant to us a greater
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understanding of him that we might pray
prayers that are more worthy of his name.
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Let us pray
