Often when difficulties come, I have problems or there seems to be an insurmountable need in my personal life, I meditate on how powerful God is. And I just have to say, Lord, with you, there's no lack. With you, there's no need. You could wave your hand, all my problems be gone. And we need to believe in a God who answers prayers, amen? Our God is able. Our God is able. And tonight, I want to talk to you about conditions that we need to meet to receive answers to our prayers. Conditions. Our God's not a genie in a jar. He just, poof, does anything you want. You know, He's not your servant. We're His servants. But remember how powerful He is. He is able. There's nothing insurmountable with Him. There's no problem you're dealing with that He could not solve in an instant if He chose to. He's that kind of God. But remember this, that you've got to pray, you've got to ask. The Bible says in John 16, 24, He said to his disciples, hitherto you've asked nothing in my name. Ask that you may receive that your joy may be full. The Bible says that receiving answer to prayers will produce joy in our lives. If we ask for nothing, we receive nothing. When you ask and receive, the Bible says it'll produce joy in your life. There's nothing like the joy of receiving answered prayer. Yet sometimes we ask and do not receive because we do not meet the conditions required for God to answer our prayers according to our will. I wanna outline tonight three conditions necessary to receiving answered prayer. Three conditions. Condition number one, we find in Psalm 66 and verse 18, if you'd like to turn there, Psalm 66 and verse 18. I should say this condition will prevent us from having answer to our prayer. And if this be the case in our lives, we will not receive the things we ask. In Psalm 66 in verse 18, it says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If we want our prayers to be answered, we need to keep our hearts right with God. If we regard iniquity in our hearts. Now, the perfect example of a person who lost which I say, who lost communication with God, ceased to have his prayers answered, fell from the grace of the Lord, The perfect example is King Saul. King Saul is the perfect example in the Bible of how we could get our prayers lost. Saul is an example of us all how God can stop answering prayers because of our wicked and rebellious heart. All right, I'm gonna give you some examples of the decline in Saul's spiritual life. It started when he first became king, he was humble. He was filled with the spirit. God brought victories through his leadership. Things seemed to be going well for Israel. And then we read in 1 Samuel 13, 18, he was having a little issue with the Philistines. And Samuel set up a time where he would come and they'd offer a sacrifice. and make petition to the Lord for the victory of the battle. And it says in 1 Samuel 13, verse eight, you wanna follow, we'll be going in Samuel here to look at the life of Saul. We'll be jumping around a little bit. 1 Samuel 13, verse eight. He's a perfect example of the person who fell from grace to the Lord and God ceased to answer his prayers. And in fact, he became a child of chastisement. ceased to have victory, 1 Samuel 13, 8, and says he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. In other words, Samuel said, wait seven days and I'll come. We'll make our petition before God. We'll offer a sacrifice for the victory of the battle. But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings, and he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of the offering, the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. And Samuel said, what hast thou done? And Saul said, because I saw the people were scattered from me, and thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. Therefore I said, said I, the Philistines will come down upon us to Gilgal, and I have not made my supplication of the Lord, and I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly, Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever, but now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord had sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord had commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded. This is where it all started, where Saul acted capriciously. He took it upon himself to make this offering. He acted rashly. He jumped the gun. He disobeyed the Lord, and he should have known, of course, according to scripture, it was only a priest who could offer the sacrifices. He was not allowed to do that, even as the king. You remember, there were other kings that tried to usurp the authority of the priesthood, and that didn't go well for them. And this is where it all started, with this one sin, this one sin. Violation and I see this in so many people's lives where it's that satan gets a foothold in their life And one thing leads to another, and to another, and to another, and before you know it, they're in spiritual darkness. Their lives are ruined and wrecked. And this was the beginning of that with Saul. Not only did he rashly and capriciously make this offering, but look at 1 Samuel 14, verse 24. Not only did he act rashly, but he spoke rashly. You know, and one leads to the other. When we become hasty or become, should I say, not careful in our actions, we become not careful in our words. And here we read in 1 Samuel 24, the men of Israel were distressed that day, because Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until the evening, that I may be avenged of mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. Now here he makes a stupid vow and commands that nobody could eat anything. Now, when you're working, when you're serving the Lord, when you're doing things, you know, when Jesus, the Pharisees came to him and they said, why is it that your disciples don't fast? He said, well, they'll fast later, but right now we're busy. We're going here, we're going there, we're witnessing, we're, you know, we need our strength. And this is not the time to fast. There's a time to fast, there's a time not to fast. And, you know, when you're in a battle, when you're fighting a battle, don't, that's not when you fast. You need your strength. And he made a rash vow. And he said, if any curse would be, he's not gonna kill, he cursed his whole army who were fighting this battle, needed strength, were tired. And so he made this foolish vow. Well, as it turned out, Jonathan didn't hear his vow. Look at verse 27, chapter 14, 27. And it says here, then Jonathan heard not his father's charge to the people with the oath, wherefore he put forth the end of his rod that was in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb and put forth, put his hand to his mouth and his eyes were enlightened. And, boy, nothing will do that like when you're really hungry and just eat a little bit of honey. A little bit of honey just sparks you up, you know? Then answered one of the people and said, thy father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint, and John had said, my father had troubled the land. Say, I pray thee, how mine eyes have been enlightened because I tasted a little of this honey. how much more of happily the people had eaten freely this day of the spoil. So here he makes a rash vow. First of all, people fall into disobedience to God. The next thing you know, they're trying to make it up with stupidity, hypocrisy. This is religious hypocrisy, that's what it is. Thinking you could, you know, be righteous by doing things God has not commanded. And that's the sin of the Pharisees, as you know. And of course, that got the nation in trouble. All right, he was self-willed and rebellious. Finally, because he didn't repent and didn't see the error of his ways, we read 1 Samuel 15 and verse 19, where he was commanded to kill all the Amalekites. And you remember the story, but he spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. Again, a show of religion, a show of religion without obedience. And this tends to be the case with so many people that fall out of grace with the Lord. And in verse 19, Samuel rebukes him and says, wherefore didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and this evil in the sight of the Lord? And here we got Saul arguing with Samuel. And Saul said to Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. Yeah, well, look at this. And have gone thy way, which the Lord sent me, and I have brought Agag, the king of the Malachites. In other words, what's the difference? All right, so, I mean, I did do what he told me to do, and I just kind of, so I kept the king, and so I kept the best of the spoil, and I've utterly destroyed the Magi. The people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, sheep for the things which should have been utterly destroyed. He said it with his own mouth, should have been utterly destroyed. But I thought different. And you know, this is the whole thing. When we start reasoning away with obedience, well, God's gonna understand. God's gotta understand my situation. You know, God, no, He, listen, I didn't not only destroy these things, but I wanna sacrifice them to the Lord. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to be is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of Lord, he also rejected thee from being king. All right, it gets worse. It gets worse. And any point in time Saul could have repented. Saul could have gotten right. So God, it gets worse. Saul is chastened by the Lord. Look at 1 Samuel 16 and verse 14. Because he did not repent, because he truly did not get right in his heart, words are cheap. He says, yeah, I sinned. Yeah, I sinned. Well, he got caught. Everybody, when they wind up in jail, are repentant. You know that? Jailhouse repentance. They get caught. And now they're suffering for the consequences. But as soon as they get out of jail, they'll do it again. Look at 1 Samuel 16, 14. But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and the evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now the chastening hand of God was upon him. Saul became afflicted with a tormenting spirit, an evil spirit. His condition just kept getting worse and worse. Worse and worse. And let's look at 1 Samuel 28, verse 5. 1 Samuel 28, verse 5. You remember those words of Samuel when he said, to obey is better than sacrifice. He says, for iniquity is as the sin of witchcraft. and so stubbornness as idolatry. Look at 1st Samuel 28 and verse 5. Now when Saul saw the host, after he's persecuted David, he's tried to kill him, I don't know how many times, never repented. The spirit, the glory of God left him. Spirit of God left him. He's afflicted by a demon. First Samuel 28 in verse five, it says this, when he saw that the host of the Philistines, you know, he saw his adversaries, he saw the battle was gonna be great. It says he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. When Saul inquired of the Lord, what does it say here? The Lord what? answered him not. In other words, this is a condition for answered prayer, that our hearts gotta be right with God. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear us. And what does it say here? The Lord answered him not. Why? Because he harbored the bitterness. What was the proof he harbored bitterness? He tried to kill David. How many times did David, in fact, David could have killed him, but he spared his life and said, oh, you know, oh, David, you're more righteous than me. All right, I'm not gonna come after you anymore. And then what happens? He forgot that real quick, didn't he? You know, see, true repentance is a turn of heart and mind. I mean, he really never humbled himself. And God stopped answering him by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. The prophets couldn't even help him. His condition just got worse and worse and worse. And then finally, in verse seven, he says, Saul said to his servants, servants, seek me a woman that had a familiar spirit. "'that I may go to her and inquire of her.' And the servant said to him, "'Behold, there is a woman "'that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.'" And you see people get out of the will of God. They get out of the will of God, and then they start going to cults. They go to this thing and this thing, and then they go to this, they go surfing on the internet for answers, and they come up with all kinds of crazy things, amen? When the answer was right there before them, they needed to repent. And instead of repenting, they go crazy and they get into things. And some of them even get into superstitions and they get into all kinds of stuff. They get into witchcraft, they get into new age stuff. They start dabbling with this and dabbling with that. Why? Because God's not answering their prayers. Why isn't God answering their prayers? Instead of saying, why isn't God answering my prayers? Instead of that, they go seeking witches, witchcraft. Fortune tellers. So in this case, Paul never got any better. In the end, he seeks witchcraft. People seek good luck charms, cultish trinkets, instead of repenting to the Lord. And the end of all of it is this, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now, if we dispel iniquity and repent of sin, that we've harbored. We can be restored. God is always desirous of hearing a prayer of repentance. God will always hear a true prayer of repentance. Saul refused to repent, therefore God refused to hear him. His repentance was on his terms. To get right with God, we need to humble ourselves and pray and cry out to him. In Ezekiel it says, If a man who lived a good godly life sins, Then he died in his sins. Therefore, O son of man, speak to the house of Israel. Thus speak, saying, if our transgressions or our sins be upon us, we pine away in them. How then should we live? Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And by the way, God doesn't. Do you think God was happy about Saul? Do you think God was rejoicing in his failures? No. He has no delight. But that the wicked turn from his way and live, and turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore thou son of man, say to the children of thy people, the righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. And this is why the Bible says, if we sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we confess our sins. If we confess, He, you know, and if we say we have no sin, we're a liar. This has gotta be a daily cleansing, amen? How often do you take a bath, shower? Once a month? Amen. You do it every day, right? You know, it doesn't take long to get dirty, amen? Huh? Therefore, son of man, if he transgresses and he doesn't repent for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall fall thereby in the day that he, but in the day that he turneth from his wickedness, neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. when I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, if he trusts in his own righteousness and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered. In other words, it's saying, it is not what you did, it's what you're doing. Paul said, I could be a reprobate tomorrow. I keep myself in subjection, lest by any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be a reprobate. That's the great, I believe the greatest, Apostle ever lived, the greatest Christian ever lived was Paul. I believe that, it's such a testimony. But even he himself said, it's possible, it's possible that I could become a reprobate. So this righteous man who sins, if he doesn't repent, he shall die in his sin, that's what it says. But again, I say to the wicked, and by the way, this totally rebukes Those who say you can sin and grace will abound. People really teach that. You sin and grace abounds. It doesn't matter what you do. Now, I believe God will keep his own, but the thing is, if his own are not kept, it's because they are not his own. Thou shalt not surely die. And again, when I say to the wicked, thou shalt surely die. If he turned from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right. If the wicked restored a pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall live." In other words, he said, just because you did right all these years, now all of a sudden you do wrong, you don't repent, you'll die in your sin. And here's a guy who did wrong all his life, and all of a sudden, he has a turn of heart, he repents, Now he'll live. There's a lot of people that don't understand that. You know, I've had people that would look self-righteous. They're like self-righteous. They've lived good lives. They've always paid their bills. They've always been upstanding citizens. They see some person get saved out of a wretched background, and now they're saved, and they come to church, and they look down their nose at them. They do. You know that? There are some people like they're self-righteous. To them, they can't understand it. Well, they didn't read the Bible, because that's exactly what God said. Not what you were doing, it's what you're doing. It's where you're at now. And you know what? He that is being forgiven much, the same loveth much. Right? Amen. So don't ever look down your nose at somebody. If they repent, and we want them to repent, if I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me. What happened with Saul? His case grew worse and worse and worse because he did not truly repent. Now, to get our prayers answered, not only we need to repent, but we gotta be people of faith. The Bible says, whatsoever is not of faith is what? Sin. You gotta believe God. You've gotta believe God. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. If any man lack wisdom on a mask of God, and who giveth men liberally, in other words, pray, he upbraideth not, but let him ask what? In faith, nothing wavering. He that wavereth is like the wave of the sea. So in other words, the condition is that your heart's gotta be right, and your heart's gotta be filled with faith. You gotta be a person of faith, you gotta be a... Now, faith is humility. Faith is humility. And the problem with Saul is he was not humble. He became proud. He became arrogant. And pride is a downfall of us all. So condition number one is our heart's gotta be right. We gotta have a humble heart. We gotta have a heart that believes in the Lord and trusts in the Lord. A heart that repents of our sin and iniquity. This is not something we just do once a year. You know, the Jews, they have the Day of Atonement. They think that's the big day where they're gonna get all their sins taken care of for a year. Well, I got news for you. My Day of Atonement's every day, amen? I gotta get on my knees every day and say, Lord, help me not to fail you and forgive me for the times I have failed you. Help me to do better today than I did yesterday, amen? I mean, you think you've arrived, you haven't, amen? Let's not be like that. that Pharisee that said, thank God I'm not like him. Condition number two. The second condition to getting our prayers answered is to understand God. Let's look at Romans chapter eight. Do some turning here. Does us good to turn, you know, amen. Turn in the Bible. Romans chapter 8 and says this in chapter 8 verse 31, 31 to 33, it says this, what shall we say to these things. If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not freely give us all things? Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? You see, let's turn to John 15 and verse 1. So we need to know Him. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Only God's elect can know Him, really. All right? We know Him because we're His. What goes along with that is John 15 in verse 1. In John 15 in verse 1, we read this, I am the vine, we all know this, most of us could just quote it, right? I am the vine, ye are the branches. As every branch that in me beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except you abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth more fruit, much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. For if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask, here's the, look at this, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. So he says that the secret to answered prayer is to know him, to abide in him. to abide in him. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it'll be done to you. Look at verse eight. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. Isn't that beautiful? Let's jump down to verse 16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name, he may giveth you." Again, knowing him, abiding in him is the key to getting the condition necessary to getting our prayers answered. My question is, how do you know God? We get to know God by reading his word. You know, he says, abide in me and I in you. Well, John 1, this is John 15, but John 1 says, in the beginning was what? The beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. So you want to abide in God? You abide in his word. All right? This is the vine, we're the branches. This is the trunk, you know? Morning, we're talking to David White about trees. I tried three times to plant a peach tree. The last one seemed to be doing pretty good. And then one of my workers took the weed whacker and hit the bark. It was just a little thing like that. And just hitting that bark, that thing died. Amen? Because that's where the life is, in the trunk of that tree. Boy, how fragile they are you know and Ray was talking about his babies his his His fig trees. He says they're like babies. You got to treat them gently you know I mean he's he's doing all this and you know what and Thing is that you know we're the branches you don't abide in that you know you don't abide in that vine and We could be grafted in, but you don't cling to it. You don't get the life-giving sap of that vine. You'll die. You know, we get to know Him by reading His Word. We abide in Him. We get to know Him by observing how He deals with people. We learn of Him by reading the Bible. We read the Old Testament. We observe how God reacts to people who please Him. and how he reacts to people that displease him, and that's how we get to know him. We observe how he deals with us in our lives. We learn through our mistakes. You know, I was thinking this morning, most of my message was talking about my mistakes. You know, how I learned through this, and I learned through that, and I learned through this, right? Do we not learn? We learn of God through our mistakes, through our chasing, amen? We observe how he deals with us in our lives. We walk with God. We get to know to God by his spirit that is in us. Look at John 14, 13. It says here in John 14, 13, and whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in him. That sounds like a blank check to me, doesn't it? I mean, whatever you ask. If you ask anything in my name, I'll do it, verse 14. If you love me, keep my commandments. But notice in verse 13, what's where we ask, in my name that what? The condition that the father, what? Be glorified in the son. You ask anything. that glorifies the father and the son. So you don't regard iniquity in your heart. Your heart's cleansed. You're abiding in his word. You're learning who he is. Now, he says, whatever you ask that the father be glorified in the son. He said, whatever it is, I'll do it. The spirit shall be in you. We are one with God. His spirit abides in us. And then, As we learn of him, we learn what pleases him, and we learn what his will is. Condition number three. In having our prayer successfully answered is to pray according to his will. Turn to Matthew chapter six and verse seven. We need to learn to pray according to his will. according to his will. Look at Matthew 6, 7. And when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard of their much speaking. You know, we don't say the rosaries and say so many hard fathers and hail Mary's and blah, blah, blah, blah, go through those little beads and repetitious prayers as if God's gonna hear us for that type of thing. God doesn't want that kind of prayer. I mean, look at verse eight. Be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things you need before you ask him. Isn't that amazing? Could you think of such a God who knows what we need before we ask? Isn't that amazing? After this manner, have you ever experienced that? Have you ever experienced where God answered your prayer before you prayed it? I've seen it happen. And you just know that God brings something to pass. And then you say, Lord, that's you, you did this. This is what I would have prayed for, but you brought it to me before I even prayed it. This is your handiwork. I love when things like that happen. It brings joy. It's exciting to know God's with you, amen? It's exciting to know God's with you. And after this manner, therefore pray, your Father, which is art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. And the next phrase? Thy will be done. Hey, you pray according to his will, he'll hear you. He'll do it. Now, Jesus, before he went to the cross, Matthew 26, 39. He sweat as it were drops of blood. And he cried out to his heavenly father. He said, if it'd be possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. See that even Jesus himself had to pray according to the will of God. And 1 John 5 verse 14, let's look here. In 1 John, it says the same thing. The Bible doesn't have to repeat itself, but if it repeats itself, it's because it wants to reinforce it in your hearts and minds that this is the case, this is true. This is something you need to remember. 1 John 5, 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us and we know that he hears us and whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Now, what do you think of that? Put that in your shoe and wear it. Notice what it says here. And if we know he hears us and we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Whatsoever we ask. As we make sure we're doing things that are not an offense to God, we get to learn who he is. We understand his person and how he works. We learn what pleases him and what doesn't please him. And we want to do things that please him. Then we will have our prayers answered. We don't wanna wind up like Saul where he prays his prayers are blocked by God. So in conclusion, what are the conditions for us to receive answer to our prayer? Number one, dispel all unrepentant sin. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, he'll not hear us. Any unrepentant sin Just like Saul, when he made those rash vows, then he tried to inquire the Lord, the Lord didn't listen to him. Not by Urim, not by Thuman, not by priests. The Lord said, no. You know, it was a hindrance. It's a blockage. There could become a blockage in our life. Cause there's some secret sin, some little thing in the nooks and crannies of our life that are hindering us from being pleasing to God. And then secondly, so to avoid these sins, and maybe second should be first. Because a lot of times we sin and we don't even know we sin. Because we don't know God. We don't know his word. How do we know if we sin? We only know it because we know him. We know his word. We know what displeases him. Amen? So maybe number two should be number one. As we get to know God, we learn what pleases him and what does not. We showed how Saul is an example of a person whose prayers were stopped from being answered because he regarded iniquity in his heart. He really thought he was doing the will of God, was he? The truth is as we love God, learn about his character, we can be the kind of people that please him and are less likely to wind up like Saul. Why was David a man after God's own heart? Because I think many, many hours he spent meditating on who God is. How do you think he wrote all those Psalms? The deep theology of God. He wrote them meditating on who God was, getting close to God. And then finally, when we pray and ask things in his will, we cannot but receive the answer to prayers. This is the confidence we have. If we ask anything according to his will, he hear us. And we know that he heareth us. And whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. Folks, he wants to give us these things. And he's just waiting for us to ask for them. So he wants us to ask for these things. We don't get them because we don't ask for them. But When God works in our hearts, we learn of Him. We learn what pleases Him. We'll learn to ask for things that please Him. For whatsoever you ask in my name that the Father may be glorified in His Son, if you ask anything in my name, I'll do it. In other words, if it's according to His will, it's what He wants, He wants this to get done. He wants to answer this prayer. How can he not but answer the prayer if we ask for the thing that he wants? But we don't receive because we ask amiss. We missed the mark. We don't ask for the thing he wants. We ask a mess, to something we want, to consume it upon our loss. And we don't get it. Our problem is simple. We don't know his will. We mostly, we want what we want and not what he wants. We want what we want, not what he wants. Now, if all of a sudden we'd want what he wants, it would please him. I always joke about Jessica when we're in that little motel room and we're watching TV and I wanted to watch the news and my kids were all wanting to watch cartoons. And little Jessica points her little finger at her brother and sister, says, me and daddy wanna watch the news. In other words, she wanted what I wanted. Yeah. What did she really want to do? She wanted to please me. Amen? She wanted to please me. You see, our problem is simple. We don't know what He wants. We don't know His will because we don't know Him. Remember, it is the will of the Father that Jesus die on the cross. And that Jesus, the night in which he was betrayed, sweat as it were drops of blood, saying, nevertheless, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. If he had to pray, not my will, but thine be done, how much more do we have to pray that, amen? If he had to pray that, how much more do we have to pray that? Think about what that saying means. Our will and his will are two separate things. When they become one, he cannot but answer our prayers. When his will and our will become one, what he wants and we want are the same thing. Our prayers will harmonize. This is when we become like Christ, amen? And think about the power, the power of that. the power of answered prayer, what God could do in and through us that the Father may be glorified. So the three conditions, don't regard iniquity in your heart, confess your sins, be cleansed, confessed up, get to know him, get to know what pleases him, learn to pray in his will. And he said, whatever you ask in my will, I'll do it. All right? But see, problem is most people's wills are not his will. What we want and what he wants are two different things. So people pray. They pray, they pray out of, they just pray crazy things, you know? I mean, I've seen people pray in anger, getting mad at God. Could you imagine that? They get mad at God. They hold their fist up to God and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Bunch of idiots. Huh? Stupid. Let's stand. Lord, thank you now for the opportunity to share these things with your people. Three conditions of prayer. Three conditions. that we not regard iniquity in our hearts, that we be confessed up, we not be harboring sin. Number two, that we get to know you and your word and what pleases you. And number three, we do pray according to your will. These three things are true in our lives. We'll see answer to prayer. Now bless the message to the hearers, and we'll thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Hymn number? 414. 414. When we walk with the Lord, in the light of His name, the glory He sheds on our way. While we do His will, He abides in us still, and no one will trust in no way. Think about this, Paul prayed three times that he'd be healed. And what did God say? Uh-uh, not my will. It's not what I want for you. For my grace is made perfect in weakness. Think about this, if God answered everybody's prayer all the time for healing, none of us would die, right? None of us would die. There's gonna be a time where the Lord's gonna say to each of us, not this time, not this time, that's it. This is my will that you leave this planet. Imagine that. There'll be a time. There'll be a time. It won't be our will, but it'll be His will. Let's trust and obey Him until that day. Let's sing it on the fourth. Then in fellowship's feet, we will sit at His feet. Oh, walk by His side in your faith, while His steps lead you through. where He says we will never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Lord, dismiss this blessing, bring us back safely at the next appointed time. We'll thank you for this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you, dismiss.