Welcome to the Hedgemaker broadcast. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to the nation of Israel many long years ago. He hath not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge, for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. He also said that the Lord sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries, located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is attempting to stand in the gap and make up the hedge in these days of spiritual compromise and theological apostasy. Our biblical and historical Christian heritage challenges us to fill in the gaps left by those who have moved away from their biblical foundations. Listen now as we build up the wall and make up the hedge through sound preaching from God's Holy Word. My message tonight is the conditions for prayer. I have nine of them. We've already talked about some of the conditions of prayer, like praying in Jesus' name. John 14, 13, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. We've talked about that a little bit, but let's think of this as we look at these conditions. I'm going to call them conditions for prayer. The key verse, of course, would be here in Matthew chapter 7. I guess I didn't ask you to go anywhere, did I? Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7. Let's look at that start there. Matthew 7, 7. Matthew 7, 7. This is really, if you want a list, the first in the nine conditions, the first condition would be to ask. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. for everyone that asketh receiveth." How many that ask receive? Everyone that asketh receiveth. "...and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Now the idea is, if you don't ask, you don't receive. And yet, doesn't God give you things you don't ask for? But no, the Lord gives us good things even though we don't ask for them. These conditions are not a works mentality to say, well, hey, if I don't have faith, or if I don't ask in Jesus' name, or I ask not according to the will of God, I'm not going to get the right answer. And so then we walk our Christian life, a nervous Christian life, like as if we're on eggshells. Well, I don't know whether God's hearing me or not. I don't know whether He's pleased with me or not. And that's not the way it should be. So when we talk about these conditions, it's not that God is there waiting for us not to meet the condition. Now I don't have to answer that prayer. God wants to answer. So there's three things here, of course, in this verse. Asking, seeking, and knocking. Three little illustrations about getting things from the Lord. Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. You're looking for something that you can't find. Knock, and of course the context is prayer. on the door, and it shall be opened unto you." Sometimes you pray, you don't know really what to ask for. Romans brings that out, Romans chapter 8. We don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit helps us. We talked about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in prayer. So, asking, seeking, and knocking. And then the explanation in verse 8, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. and to him that knocketh it shall be opened and then he gives an illustration or two of that or what man is there of you whom if his son asked bread so here's a son asking bread of his father and the father's not going to give him a stone something he did not ask for the father would give him the bread if he asked a fish he wouldn't give him a serpent he'll give him the fish So our Heavenly Father is the same. It's been ye being evil, we're human beings, we're evil, we're not good and perfect like God. We know how to give good gifts unto our children, verse 11. How much more shall your Heavenly Father which is in heaven give the good things to them that ask him? So ask. Ask and seek and knock. And of course we read in James chapter 4, James is talking about wisdom. Wisdom in the first chapter anyway. Well, let's go to James 4. In James 4, he's talking about the fightings and the wars and things like that, and the reason that we have the fightings and the wars among us is because of the lusts of our flesh. Let's read verse 1 to get that context. For whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? At one point, the Lord is going to say, in fact, the next verse there, Verse 3, when we do ask, we ask Him so we can consume it upon our lust. Verse 2, ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. So you don't have something, you can't obtain it, ye fight and ye war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. James' context is not actually prayer, but we often use this in that application You have not, because ye ask not. And so we need to ask. We need to pray. It's one of the biggest lessons in prayer. I don't know about you, but that's my biggest lesson, just to pray. Not necessarily how to pray, but asking. Doing the asking. And the promises are clear. Ask and ye shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. So the first condition for prayer is to ask. Once again, If we don't ask, the inference is that we don't receive, and yet, God often gives us things that we don't ask for. In fact, exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. That's how the Lord gives, that God is able to give above all, well, let's put it the whole way, exceedingly, abundantly above. Ephesians 3.20? So even if we don't ask, the Lord can give, because He knows what we need, and He will give us what we need, even if we don't ask for it. But ask. He wants us to ask. He wants us to be like little children. Like the context of Matthew 7 says there, asking of our Father bread, or whatever our need happens to be, and the Lord will meet that need. So that's the first condition for prayer, ask. The next condition is found there in James 4, verse 3, we need the right motive. He says, ye ask, okay, we're doing the asking, and we still don't receive, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lust. So, the next condition would be to have the right motive in prayer. Again, these are not things that God holds over our head, that when we pray, He's trying to make sure that we're praying right, and if we don't pray right, and don't have the right motive, that He's not going to answer our prayers. These are promises, additional promises that God has here, not absolute conditions that makes prayer a works mentality, okay? There's works in the Christian life, all right? We are to work, we're to serve the Lord. But our problem is, we as Christians, we want to think God is this big ogre that measures things by us. And what that really does That puts all the emphasis on us instead of on God. It shouldn't be turned around the other way. For instance, when we get to faith, faith is an easy one to illustrate. We think, well, I didn't get what I asked for because I didn't have enough faith. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever said that? Now, how much faith does it take to trust God? What did Jesus say? Faith as a grain of mustard seed. God is not measuring how much faith we have, and he doesn't have a big stick there, or one of those things at the carnival where you, you know, you have, boom, enough faith to get there. Faith is a grain of mustard seed. How many times do you have to ask before the Lord gives you something? If you keep on asking, like the Syrophoenician woman did, the answers to our prayers are not based upon our works. The answers to our prayers are based upon the grace of God. Put the emphasis upon God, not on you. So that's what we do with these conditions. Yes, I believe they're conditions, and I'm going to call them conditions, but they're not limitations to what God can do. God is not limited by your lack of faith. God is not limited by your lack of obedience. Yes, God honors your obedience. He honors your faith and all the other things we're going to talk about tonight. But God is God. God is unlimited with grace. He wants to give. Ask and ye shall receive. That's the giving of God. Does God not have enough to give? He does. So our prayer life needs to zero in on the bigness of God. When we emphasize that they are conditions, We have, in our human thinking, have the tendency to think that we are now limiting God in our prayer life because we don't have enough of whatever. And our motives aren't right. Ye ask and receive not, James says, because ye ask amiss. Well, I don't know whether you've ever thought through this or not. How do you know whether you have the right motive on prayer? The right reason to pray? And maybe you don't. You're not perfect, right? You ask a myth. Have you ever asked a myth? Yeah, we all have. And so, is God limited by that? No. What if a child asks bread, or maybe we could put it into an ice cream cone or something. That sounds more selfish than a piece of bread, doesn't it? Okay? And the child asks the father for an ice cream cone. But the child wants the ice cream cone so that he can smear it in his sister's face. He's got a wrong motive. Or maybe he wants an ice cream cone, or maybe he got the wrong kind of ice cream cone, the wrong flavor, and he says, Dad, I wanted that one. And so the father gives him another flavor instead of the other one. Somebody else has to eat the other one. And so the child asks the miss, does the father not give the ice cream cone? Well, no, he would. So God does the same thing. God knows our motives. You and I may not always have the purest of motives. Now I'm not talking here about, and I think that's what we look at with these conditions, we're not talking about the fellow who's expecting God to do things for him when he is purposely going against the will of God and disobeying and things like that. Purposely asking amiss. You and I ask amiss because what does James say? James says you ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Have you ever fought a war or a battle or had a fight in verse 1? Well, James tells you where that came from. That came from the lusts in your own members. That's why you fought. What about prayer life? Did you ever ask a miss in your prayer life? Where did it come from? So that you could consume it upon your own lust? See, we're all like that. Our prayers are not based upon us. We can pray and still have the wrong motive, and God can answer. So, God's answer to prayer is based upon His grace. So, yes, but yet the truth is there. You ask, you receive not because you ask a miss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." And of course, if we do have an ulterior motive, a wrong motive, God is not pleased with that. Then there's another one, obedience. We've been talking about that one. Let's go to 1 John chapter 3, verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, and then here's the condition for prayer, because we keep his commandments. and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments. And of course, we can have human illustrations of this. If a child doesn't obey his parents and he's asking the parent for something, maybe not a need, but an extra thing, the parent withholds that extra thing from the child because the child was not obedient. But we have the mentality from the Santa Claus picture, right? He supposedly knows who's naughty and nice, and he only brings presents to the children who are nice. And so we get that impression about God as well, that God only answers our prayers when we are obedient. And yes, that's a condition for prayer. I'm not minimizing these conditions, but at the same time, God is wanting. Now, why would you be praying? Well, here's a thought. Why would you be praying for any of these things? You know, if you want to consume it upon your lust. I mean, James says that. Yes, you ask and you receive, not because you want to consume it upon your lust. Why would you be asking the Father for something if you're disobedient? The Father knows you're disobedient. We tend to shy away from the Father when we're disobedient, don't we? So really, what we're doing in prayer is we're supposed to be already meeting these conditions. So obedience. And then let's go to the Gospel of John, John chapter 15. John 15 verse 7, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you. I think I have another message coming up about what it means to abide in. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Basically that's the same as what we've been saying from 1 John, obedience, keeping God's commandments. Abiding in the Lord and the words of God abiding in you, that's obedience. And ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." So, of course, if we're willfully disobedient, the Lord doesn't answer our prayers. See, there's two types of individuals I'm trying to hit here tonight. Some of us, some Christians, would not be meeting these conditions. They'd be disobedient. They would be asking with wrong motives. And then there are others of us who, we're not always obedient. We're not always asking with the right motives. This group of Christians is beating themselves up because they're not doing things exactly right, or being perfect. And the tendency would be, well, I don't get my prayers answered anyway, so why pray? And I'd want to encourage that individual to keep on praying anyway. Yes, you're not perfect, you're not obedient completely, or don't always maybe have the right motive or you hit and miss what you're asking, not persistent as the Saffronitian woman, but keep on asking. God is God. The answers to your prayers, I'm saying, is not based upon your works, but upon God's grace. And so pray. Pray. So two different views and ways to look at that. One would emphasize the conditions for the prayer. If we have a believer who's trying to pray and absolutely against all these things, they need to emphasize the conditions. Get right with God before you pray. But for Christians who are basically obedient, yes, we're not perfect, let's realize that our answers to prayer are not based upon our works and our complete obedience to the Lord, but on God's grace. So let's look at these conditions then for that person as more of an expansion of the promise, ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. The person who is already in that mode of asking, seeking, and knocking is going to have the tendency to have and want to have the right motive or want to have obedience and please the Father. So you see where I'm going with this? Two different ways to look at these things. And then we hear hard preaching toward the sinner who is disobedient, and when we are basically obedient, we want to be hard on ourselves and say, okay, well that's where I am. And again, what we tend to do then is base the outcome of our prayers on us. I don't have enough faith. I'm not obedient enough. I'm not this, that, and the other thing. When the answers to our prayers should be based upon the grace of God, God is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Then we also have the will of God. Back to 1 John. 1 John 5, praying in the will of God. 1 John 5, verse 14. 5-14 of 1 John. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Now, if you're like me, how do you know that something is the will of God? Don't you find yourself praying sometimes, Lord, if it be thy will, do thus and so? Because we don't want to be guilty of asking something that would be against the will of God. Well, again, for the Christian who is basically doing the will of God, let me give you some encouragement and comfort. Maybe you don't have the will of God down perfect. Because you don't know tomorrow. You don't know God's tomorrow or future. And maybe you're praying for something that wouldn't necessarily be God's will, It's not against scripture, you understand what I'm saying, we're not praying for something evil and wicked to take place, but we don't know what tomorrow holds. Well, you have the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We read and studied about that in Romans chapter number 8, when we don't know how to pray, or when we pray amiss, the Holy Spirit comes along and says, because He's your advocate, your second double advocate in the ministry of prayer, And he will interpret that prayer and say, Father, this is what this person really needs. And that's a comfort. That's a great blessing. Paul Little wrote a book years and years ago. He said, if you're looking for the will of God, you won't miss it. I think that's a pretty good, I don't know if I have a Bible verse for that, but I think that's a pretty good thought. If you're looking for the will of God, you're not going to miss it. I mean, because what you're doing is you're going down the road and if you're going the wrong direction, the Lord has a way of stopping you and moving you in another direction because your attitude is whatever you want, Lord. You don't have this haughty, proud, rebellious attitude. Well, Lord, I'm going down this road and you better bless it. It's not that attitude, it's the attitude, well, I don't know which way to go, but I need to go somewhere, and so you start somewhere, and the Lord says, no, that's not the way you want to go. And maybe you even get far down that road before the Lord begins to show you otherwise. So, what I'm saying is, you don't know the perfect will of God. And yet John says, we have this confidence, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Of course, the hearing of us is the Lord answers our prayers. So, once again, comfort there. If you pray amiss or against the will of God, the fellow who is out there disobedient, and there are people who do that, God's not going to answer that prayer. But if we basically have this attitude, we want to do the will of God, even if you don't put on those magical words, Lord, according to your will, the Lord still does that. I know I've found times in my life when I've been praying or asking for something and the Lord will do it. Now, and this is one of the reasons why I have a little bit of problem with, I guess I call it charismatic type prayers, where we tell God how we want our prayers answered. Maybe we're praying for money for a certain thing and we say, Lord, send the money in the mail. The Lord doesn't send the money in the mail. He sends it some other way. I'm just not like that. Some people pray that way. The Lord may have a will of doing it some other way. And that's okay. Again, the answers to your prayers are not based upon your prayers, but upon the grace and mercy and will of God. Rest in the Lord. Hope in the Lord. And then there's the praying in Jesus' name. That's in John, chapter number 14. We've spent some time talking about that. Let's look at this passage, John 14, verses 13 and 14. This is basically the same as saying we ought to pray in the will of God. John 14, verses 13 and 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it. So we have the condition of asking in the name of the Lord. Look also here in John 15, 16. ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you." And then chapter 16, verses 23 and 24. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Once again, as John of Rice says, these are expansions to the promise. Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. There's another one, and that is praying in agreement. Matthew 18 and verse 19. Another condition for prayer. I'm up to number six if you're numbering yours. Agreement in prayer. Matthew 18 and verse number 19. Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Verse 20 then also says, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. What happens when we emphasize the conditions of prayer? We say, OK, well, I've got to make sure that this prayer is in the name of Jesus. I need to make sure this prayer is in the will of God, that I'm not asking a miss. So I have this checklist to go through while I'm praying. And we have the tendency to think, OK, well, I didn't get answers to my prayers because I only had eight of the nine conditions marked instead of all nine of them. Well, here's the case in point where John Rice is bringing this out. The two of you pray. We don't pray that way, do we? We don't pray and ask somebody else to pray with us about certain things. What he brought out in his book is this is an expansion of it. There are times when I need to go with someone else and pray together with them. The ask and ye shall receive, the seek and ye shall find, The knock and it shall be opened unto you is still there. The going with another, a prayer partner, holding hands as it were, as we walk to the throne of grace, is just an expansion of asking, seeking, and knocking. Prayer is asking. More of a promise than a condition. And then there's delight. Psalm 37, 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." What I like about that verse, and the whole context there of Psalm 37, is that when I'm praying in this mode of not asking amiss, not to consume upon my own lusts, and I'm asking according to the will of the Lord, I'm concerned about the will of the Lord, I'm concerned about praying in Jesus' name, my delights become changed into God's delights. And so that's why the promise is there. When you delight yourself in the Lord, you can ask what you will, and it shall be given unto you. God will give you the desires of the heart. Your heart's desires become God's heart's desires. And so delighting in the Lord, again, not necessarily an emphasis upon a condition, but an expansion of this promise that we're delighting in the Lord. Faith, number eight. James 1, verses 5 and 6. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed." Of course, the context here is that of asking for wisdom. But it's still prayer. Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. And then Mark chapter 11, verse 24, Jesus taught, Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. So faith is a condition for prayer. And then the last one is forgiveness. Mark chapter 11, let's go there. It didn't turn to the previous verse, but let's go to Mark 11, verses 25 and 26. The prayer of faith is found in verse 24. Mark 11, 24. Now, forgiveness. Mark 11, 25 and 26. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if any have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses, but if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." Of course, this is utilized in the Lord's Prayer as well, right? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So, forgiveness is a condition for prayer again. But I still ask myself the question, why would I stand there and pray and ask God to do certain things when I harbor bitterness in my heart hatred towards someone, unforgiving spirit. Now maybe I don't know I have that and I think that can be brought out by an active prayer life. So again, God answers prayers whether we have a forgiving spirit or not. So yes, the conditions for prayer and for getting these answers to God But in another aspect, they are expansions of the great promise, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. And so the conditions then become promises that God will indeed answer our prayers. This is Dr. Lee Hennise, and we want to thank you for listening to the HedgeMaker broadcast today. Most of our broadcasts are portions of a sermon that I have preached the church. HedgeMaker Baptist Ministries is the preaching, teaching, and writing ministry for myself. You can visit us on the web at HedgeMaker.org. And let's be encouraged to stand in the gap and make up the hedge until Jesus comes again.