 You should you should have or should be getting a an outline that I put together of it. I Condensed it's 40 pages down to two But I hope that you'll actually read the whole thing You can find you just Google it just by name you'll find a PDF the several places I think have it Available There's also so though. There's another one that's in our foyer JC Riles a call to prayer Have any of you seen it or read it? Some of you yes, okay, so I Recommended to it. It's very helpful and I actually wanted to start here both of these writers one of the main points that they bring to us and and In their discussions and meditations on prayer is that It is the they both use the phrase secret of holiness and I wanted to Share with you what what JC Riles said about it just as a way of sort of setting the table About this topic of prayer. We're in our fourth week. I think now of talking about prayer and We could go on and on but I think next week we're going to a new topic Glory of God, okay So Riles says There are some of the Lord's people who seem never able to get on from their time of conversion They are born again, but they remain babes all their lives You hear from them the same old experience you observe in them The same want of spiritual appetite the same want of interest in anything beyond Their own little circle that you observed ten years ago. They are pilgrims indeed, but Pilgrims like the gibbianites of old their bread is always dry and moldy their shoes always old and their Garments always rent and torn. I Say this with sorrow and grief, but I ask any real Christian. Is it not true? There are others of the Lord's people who seem to always be advancing They grow like the grass after rain. They increase like Israel in Egypt. They press on Like Gideon though sometimes faint yet always pursuing They are ever adding grace to grace and faith to faith and strength to strength Every time you meet them their hearts seem larger their spiritual stature taller and stronger every year They appear to see more know more believe more and feel more in their religion They not only have good works, but prove the reality of their faith Good works to prove the reality of their faith, but they are zealous of them They not only do well, but they are unwearyed and well-doing They attempt great things and they do great things When they fail they try again and when they fall they are soon up again, and then he goes on to say the reason for the difference I believe that those who are not eminently holy pray little and those who are eminently holy pray much so Why do we not pray much? Why are we not pray much? Well, it's not to say that we not all of us Many of us do pray much I'm sure but one of the first things that that McIntyre addresses in his essay on the hidden life of prayer is Chapter one item one Prayer is hard work. I thought it was interesting that that he would start there You know, it does it does require discipline and Commitment and effort it's I think we all have the experience that it's It's easy to just sort of get swept away at the start of the day Which is normally when my principal time of prayer is by whatever is happening You know the phone rings The doorbell rings Something happens and pretty soon, you know an hour or two has passed and you have not spent time in prayer McIntyre says in its nature it is a laborious undertaking and In your endeavor to maintain the spirit of prayer In our endeavor to maintain the spirit of prayer. We are called to wrestle against principalities and powers of darkness So you know it right from the Start, you know the part of the issue is that There is a spiritual warfare involved in being diligent in prayer if you can be Distracted you're fighting not only your own sluggishness and and doing this but real Principalities and powers that don't want you to we don't see exactly how those work but The Bible tells us they're real and that we're we're hindered by them and so You know you have to consider that there is a real Battle in a sense that you're fighting just to make sure that you get time to pray to be in communion with God so it's hard work and There's a spiritual warfare aspect of it and then you know as I mentioned in the second party says we must be on guard against neglecting the gift of prayer through sluggishness, you know, I think part of the you know in our fallen nature the The reality is that it's easy for us to convince ourselves That will be okay today if we don't pray You know where it's not like we're not we're not going to be able to eat or breathe or You know make it to work if I neglect this duty. It's easy for us to Think that way, but it's not wise We're just silence this We we have to you know exercise ourselves to think of our own weakness Our Yeah, our sluggishness our our sense of our independence The you know the reality is that you won't take the next breath and you won't get the next meal and you won't make it to work apart from God's protection and provision for you, so you are dependent Much more dependent than you're prone to think and this Act of prayer in itself is an expression of that dependence So beyond guard against your your own sluggishness in that section McIntyre says The only remedy for this sluggish mood is that we should rekindle our love Let us ask for a fresh gift of the Holy Spirit to quicken our sluggish hearts a new Disclosure of the charity of God the Spirit will help our infirmities and the very Compassion of the Son of God will fall upon us Clothing us with zeal as with a garment stirring our affections into a most vehement flame and Filling our souls with heaven. I think Spurgeon made the same point in Chapter 9 of the book that we just finished Spurgeon on the Christian life You know, he said if you're having trouble praying pray and ask God to help you pray Prayer is continuous For the one who walks with God or waits upon him You know, I've talked with people in the past and Different situations, but I'll ask about you know, how is your how is your quiet time with Lord? How are your devotions and when we talk specifically about prayer? Is often the case that well, you know, I'm praying regularly and you know throughout the day and and I Feel like it's good and the you should do that But Look at what Matthew 6 6 says When you pray go into your room and when you have shut the door Pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees you in secret Will reward you openly We'll get to that openly reward you openly part later, but You know, there there is a clear instruction here to take time to Commune with God Apart from distractions apart from For me the biggest challenge is my phone Either I need to Start before like the office gets going Or wait until you know, I know that the office is going and then I can just turn it off for a while and But I can't have it on Because every time it dings, you know, it's there's something that I've got to stop and you know, just a total distraction So there they're it's important that you make time to Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father and not not treat it casually remember that the initial point of You know, it's the secret of holiness It's not really a secret What we'll look at the ways that Prayer changes us as we go through this but There's a there's a There's a part of it that it's like it's it's almost undissurnable to you Like I don't think we you know when we pray You spend an half an hour an hour praying and you know, we don't we should come out of that feeling renewed and refreshed but It's not like we can measurably, you know tell that there's a You know an increased spiritual maturity that we've you know, we've come out of the other side of that hour with But over time that's what happens That that's the issue the more you you were going to God and communing with God The more you are being conformed to Christ slowly different people different speeds, but It is happening even though you don't know it other people will see it other people will see your own Sanctification maybe before you will so You know McIntyre makes the point that it's It's continuous And it's as you go, but it also as we're instructed In the word of God needs to be deliberate set apart time with God on the second chapter he gets into the Equipment and he talks about a quiet place a quiet hour and a quiet heart He wrote this in 1913 And when he talks about a quiet place He talks about you know, all the distractions of traffic and You know commotion and That was a long time before we had as much traffic and commotion as we have now before electronic media So you have to you have to plan it you have to As McIntyre says exercise some some self-denial here you have to you have to make it You know you have to make a time in a place. You have to you have to do this, you know, it's It seems so Basic, but you know if you don't do it, it's not going to happen You need a quiet place and you know, he writes a link about this and at the end of that section He says, you know if if necessary do as this poor woman that he had spoken with She just threw an apron over her head and Made for herself a quiet place a Quiet hour Will be harder to find than a quiet place Again, you know, it takes planning and forethought Enter with deliberation as Christ did Paul Washer did a I Guess you'd say I don't know if it was a sermon or a lecture either way we spent one of our small group nights watching it and the whole focus of his Our talk was the example of Christ and his diligence in prayer and You know this the difficulty that he had in with the mobs and the throngs and the people pressing in all the time Well, you know wanting a part of him and he he always made time no matter how Tired or you know how Exhausted what the circumstances were He made he made time he made He found a quiet place and And a quiet hour and Macintyre's advice on You know when and is the best time it's Some people it's morning some it's midday some it's evening some can do all three But a Macintyre's point is give your best to God My best is in the morning I Think more clearly. I'm able to once I've had at least one cup of coffee Be more focused less distracted and So my time is early in the day a Quiet heart he says will be harder And he quotes John Bunyan Let's see if I can find that quote. I put some page numbers in here so that I could Find these quotes but But standing in front of all of you and looking for them is different Bunyan, let's see that is a Quiet heart bunion remarks from his own deep experience Oh the starting holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer None knows how many byways the heart hath and back lanes to slip away from the presence of God I mean I I Certainly have that experience it, you know even when I am all alone when the phone is off And I am trying to pray I am I just feel like you know all these things are happening in my head that are trying to Derail me and I have to I you know I have to stop and pray and ask God to just help me focus on what I'm trying to pray about It's a struggle But so so he gives some advice about how to how to quiet quiet in I get quiet quiet your heart And he says recognize our acceptance before God as a privilege possible only by the blood of Christ I don't think that's something that we think about You know, I guess I should say I don't think about it enough. I don't know how you all think but To be reminded every time I pray Father in heaven that The only reason I have that privilege and that access is Is Because of what Christ has done because of the blood of Christ Do you stop and think about that when you're when you're when you're about to pray That this this privileges entirely Made possible by Christ that would help that'll help quiet your heart and And it's another way in which we can Quiet our hearts and a time of secret devotion McIntyre says receive the enabling grace of the spirit and so it is the spirit of God dwelling in us Who Applied redemption to us who works even this desire to pray in us Receive the enabling grace of the spirit so you're You're Your time and prayer the spirit of God is working You Don't even know how to pray apart from what the spirit of God is doing in you and when you do pray you don't do it well and but the spirit of God is is is Working to On your behalf enters, you know Making sense of what your needs are to Christ who is then interceding for you And then the other piece of advice here is direct our hearts toward the holy scriptures as a means of helping Calm a contrary mind and McIntyre Quotes George Mueller I think I mentioned him last time you've probably heard of him if you haven't read his autobiography you should It's quite a testimony But you know he struggled in the same way and here's just like Get this great example of a praying life for us Who struggled to have a quiet heart before God and what he did was he started by Reading scripture and meditating on scripture to get his mind right so that he could Focus on prayer George Mueller confessed that often he could not pray until he had steadied his mind upon a text It is not the prerogative of God. Is it not the prerogative of God to break the silence? When I say is seeking my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord Will I seek Psalm 278 is it not fitting that his will should order all the acts of our prayer with himself? so That's the equipment quite place quiet hour quiet heart Chapter 3 the direction of the mind Here McIntyre talks about realizing the presence of God and And I tried to look up he said he quotes pro I don't know like I didn't count them But probably 50 or 60 people who have who have had wise things to say about prayer But in this section he quotes brother Lawrence who apparently was a Catholic monk So I inserted my own little editorial remark there I Think so this they're We don't want to cross over into mysticism here, that's not what we're Recommending but You know one of the things that really changed my prayer life was when I studied and thought and meditated on our union with Christ and You know the way in which We have a shared life with Christ Christ shares his life with us We are indwelled by the spirit, but I think it's John 1421 it speaks about We will come and dwell with you and manifest ourselves to you so Your union with Christ Even I think it's fair to say It's connected with the way that you were created in the image of God You were created so the father and the son there's a mutual in dwelling You were created with the capacity for God to dwell in you So as there is a sense in which that is part of the way in which you are Created in the image of God you're created with this capacity for God to dwell in you and if you're regenerate if you're Christian that is the reality and It's Just mind-blowing And so when I when I Start to pray the first thing I think about and meditate on is my union with Christ and the indwelling of the spirit and this just astonishing reality that Is made possible by God becoming a man Taking on our nature so that We could partake of the divine nature So realizing the presence of God and You know McIntyre says and this is I think true for all of us that you know sometimes that Is very real to us. We we have a strong Sense of that presence and special privilege and sometimes not When it's not When you when you feel distant when you don't feel connected You pray you cry out to God to awaken Your sense of his presence in you honesty in prayer is essential so this is still the direction of the mind You have no secrets anyway And you know McIntyre makes the point that even if you're Even if you're frustrated or angry at God deal with it tell him You know don't act like that's not the way you're really thinking because he knows how you're thinking anyway But in just doing that you're There's a part of that that's simply confession and It's purifying And that's another point that McIntyre makes we're enabled by being honest and being Specific we're enabled to remember and repent of sin And certainly You know that's so so we've talked about this method of prayer of Matthew Henry's And and I need a structure so that I can You know not just Flail around for a couple of hours. I mean I need that I Don't always use a list, but I have used lists But Adoration confession Thanksgiving intercession and petition Sometimes even though I've sort of organized it that way in my own mind Sin comes to mind and some other part of my prayer and So that's That's why that's really one of the necessity one of that I think one of the reasons why you need this disquiet secluded Time with God so that you can more clearly think and process And remember the sin that Is in you That you need to be cleansed of and to repent of The direction of the mind Section three when we draw near to God we should come in faith Ryle had a section in here that I wanted to read about this We we you know we tend to we tend to put God in a box of the box of our little minds and the box of our finite world And limit God Don't do that. I mean to the extent that you can Because no miracle is impossible And You know in talking about this he says it's it's it's a practically a miracle that even the words of your mouth Can ascend to heaven? but Ryle and and giving us examples of What prayer has accomplished he says Prayer opened to the Red Sea Prayer brought water from the rock and bread from heaven Prayer made the Sun stand still Prayer brought fire from the sky on Elijah's sacrifice Prayer turned the council of Ahithophel into foolishness prayer overthrew the army of Sennacherib well might Mary Queen of Scott say I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men Prayer has healed the sick prayer has raised the dead prayer has procured the conversion of souls Prayer pains and faith can do anything Nothing seems impossible when a man has the spirit of adoption so Common faith McIntyre says our Lord confers on us his own rights and privileges as he makes intercession for us The prayer of faith is the divinely appointed means by which the Unutterable groanings of the spirit who dwells within his people as in a temple are conveyed and committed to the exalted Mediator who ever liveth to make intercession for us the engagement Chapter 4 the worship So he's got three three chapters on engagement one is worship Confession and request but in worship he Commends first of all the acknowledgment of Daily mercies that seem to us common but are great The the ten thousand thousand daily mercies You know just to the your ability to breathe and walk and think our Mercies that not everyone has and enjoys And we just take them for granted Just on my way in this morning I was Reading a message about you know someone who is showing real memory issues and It's alarming, you know, it's but you know You really are not you're just not guaranteed the next second none of us is and so As as you know as God is giving you life Thank him for it and don't waste it Worship should involve Thanksgiving for redemption and so he has a section where he encourages us to think back to our lives before Christ and how Christ worked in our lives and And how our lives are different and to thank God for it And to remember how the waste places of our life became fruitful and then contemplation of divine perfection of the one who died for our sins who rose for our Justification and now awaits us at the right hand of God There's so much to contemplate there to think That a man could be sinless That he rose from the dead Conquered death That he that that there is a human being in heaven now Who we have the promise of being with and glorified bodies like his is glorified There's a lot to To generate a worshipful heart and just thinking about these amazing realities The engagement confession I think I mentioned this be explicit This is a turning the page. I I have done this evil That is David's prayer in Psalm 51. It's not just kind of a general. I know I'm a wicked man You know, there's a place for that but you needed to Confess specifically You know first John 1 9th says if we confess our sins and the senses that they're specific Not that we confess that we're sinners, but we confess our sins He gives a bit of a Warning here too that we yield to the Comforter so you can get Like I Think the word is morose You can dwell so much on your sin that you don't you don't worship God and so it's important to confess but It's we need to Have an understanding and awareness that atonement has been made and Rejoice in that not As he says, you know seek for a deeper humiliation constantly And then he has a section in here of why deadness of sin a deadness of heart And I think this gets back to the whole issue of the secret of holiness If if you are if you are careless if you are Sort of insensitive to eat to your sin that sins of omission and you are not like Dealing with God in those specific things You're likely to backslide There's a whole section and JC Riles called a prayer This these things are very closely connected your lack of diligence in prayer Really opens the door for you to sin more You're not walking in the spirit. You're not living In a consciousness of the presence of God that comes to you by you know a steady Diligent prayer life and so you Rationalize and justify sin and it just it becomes a lighter and lighter thing for you I Don't I haven't done a whole lot of counseling some you know But it is in it's just I haven't seen a case yet where the The problems that the person was having weren't accompanied by a lack of diligence in prayer Chapter 6 is the engagement the third section Talk and he talks about really what to pray for and And so he mentions, but you know Matthew 21. I'm gonna read some of these. Let's see if I can find my notes Matthew 21 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer believing you will receive It's a lot like Matthew 17 20 which says I Say to you if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain Move from here and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you And then John 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you You will ask for what you desire for what you desire and it shall be done for you Those are amazing promises That are You know grossly abused And so this section in his essay Really the the the issue is when in what context and you know when are when are when is this true? Like this isn't like the blanket. Yeah, just you know pray for whatever you want and bam You'll have it. It's not you know, like God is some sort of a genie But it you know if you have as he says a disposition conformed to Christ And he elaborates on several points That Your prayers are subject to the divine will and restrained within the interest of Christ and Instructed in the truth and energized by the spirit interwoven with love and mercy accompanied with obedience and so earnest that Denial will not be accepted You know if those things are true about your prayers Then these promises apply some of the some of the commentary on these Passages was so rich. I wanted to share some of that with you Matthew Henry and speaking of Matthew 21 22 and whatever things you ask in prayer believing you will receive He said Faith is The soul prayer is the body Both together make a complete man for any service Faith if it be right will excite prayer and prayer is not right if it does not spring from faith This is the condition of our receiving. We must ask in prayer believing The requests of prayer shall not be denied the expectations of faith shall not be frustrated We have many promises This report from the mouth of our Lord Jesus and all to encourage faith The said this is the faith is the principal grace and prayer the principal duty of a Christian So if you're if you are if you're diligent in prayer if you are in communion with God Regularly This is going to inform and affect the kinds of things that you pray about and they're going to be less about yourself and your sometimes petty little things and more about the glory of God and the conversion of souls and the The blessings of faithfulness There's another commentator on this Matthew passage RT France says it is important to observe here that it is not the amount of faith which brings the Impossible within reach but the power of God Which is available even to the smallest faith Moreover for Matthew the type of faith required always involves commitment to Jesus and obedience to his command which must Therefore always include praying that I will be done He goes on to say much is not accomplished for the kingdom because we simply do not believe God will adequately empower us or Else because we undertake various activities in our own strength rather than God's yet We must recognize the limitations of this promise in light of other scriptures and not use it to foist a Guilt trip on ourselves or others when faith does not eliminate every calamity from our lives and Then the last one on John John 157 if you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you Well, your desires will be Given to you by God if that's what you're if you're abiding in his word. It's not that These are your desires, but they're the desires that have been put in you by God they conform to God and Let's see who was this this was D. A. Carson To cast it in terms of prayer such a truly obedient believer proves effective in prayer Since all he or she asks for conforms to the will of God We got four minutes This is chapter 6 I think looking at section 3 reasons why we must pray By prayer are continued and humble dependence upon the grace of God is secured and and we you know The your approach to God in prayer is itself an expression of your dependence It's good for you to do it for that reason so that you will Remember And be mindful of your dependence It It's a practice that you need For the rest of the day If you don't do this You know in your quiet time with God You're not going to live that way the rest of the day you need to you need to Be reminded of your you need to remind yourself of your dependence on God Why we must pray the Lord desires to have much communion much to have us much in communion with himself This really was sort of the topic last week And it is a really to for me a powerful motivation to pray The Lord desires it of me It is a sweet smelling aroma to him for for me for us to pray He delights in our prayers And Then Hebrews 12 for you know, he endured the cross for the joy set before him which was the redemption of us and And you know it's a part of that last week, you know that my mindset often and I pray is It's like I'm just trying to hold on to God so that I can Persevere to the end, you know, it's it's Tends to be a very I hate to use the word, but it's true selfish in a way motive like I need it Persevere to the end of this life Yeah So Yeah, I need it's I mean it's It's good for me to pray. I guess is what what I'm trying to say. It's good for me and but it's also Pleasing to God, you know, and that should be a motivation for you to pray He says much very much has often been accomplished in us before we are fitted to employ Worthily the gifts we covet And so by prayer we are fitted For the things that we're praying for And equipped to receive them when they come and taught to be patient and waiting One of the testimonies in here was George Mueller recounted something that he had prayed about for 29 years Before it was given to him And the fourth one here in In prayer Self is forgotten and it's not entirely forgotten, but that you should your focus should move from Should it should not be entirely like your petitions it's not it's not wrong to petition But don't make that the whole content of your prayer time, you know, I need this I need that I need this Well, we're done where we're at the end of our time that the there's the the the last two chapters and since our Couple of the richest things here But chapter 7 the the hidden riches of the secret place He really ties it back to where we began which is that the The the the blessing the the benefit the the Largely the good that comes to you from prayer is that You grow in holiness Communion with God is the condition of spiritual growth The habit of prayerfulness produces a singular serenity of spirit Those who continually exercise themselves in prayer are taught to rule their lives according to the will of God and Through the acceptance of the will of God for us. We are led out into richer influence and wider usefulness Anyway, I hope you'll Pray more Let's pray father in heaven. We're grateful for Just this amazing privilege to be able to speak to you and to cry out to you and to praise you and Just to Have fellowship with you. It is an amazing grace and we experience it Deeply in our Prayer life of communion with you and so We just thank you for the privilege and the blessing of prayer and Your love for us in Jesus name. Amen