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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

What is prayer? If you had to give me a definition of what is prayer, What would you tell me? Give me your definition of prayer. What is prayer? You just led somebody to the Lord and you explain to them what prayer is. Prayer is what? Talking to God. All right? Is it any more than that? Praise in the Lord. Okay. What else? You think you have exhausted the meaning of prayer. What else could prayer mean? Praise. Yeah. Talking to him.

Yeah. Talking to him about what? Thanking him. Okay. Thank God. Those are examples of prayer, but prayer is asking and receiving. So if you’re asking and not receiving, something’s wrong with the asking according to the Bible. God says He hears our prayers. Well that’s good. But how do you know that prayer works? How do you know? If you get what you ask for, but I want to be specific, I don’t want to say, Lord bless me because then I won’t know if He did or He didn’t because I didn’t ask for anything specific.

So should prayers be more specific? What are you asking for? So you know whether He answered it or not. Lord, I want a can of Brunswick stew, overcomes a can of Brunswick stew. Now, if you do that about five, 10 times, you just liable to believe there’s somebody on the other side of that wall. True? But what if, after all of your years, and you prayed, but you prayed such general prayers, that you really don’t know if he ever answered them or not?

Have you ever asked for something specific? and God gave it to you. And yet when you read the Bible, it’s not that God wants us to pray in generalities. He wants us to ask for something specific. We now go to Walmart, y’all walk in there and go up to the manager says, would you please give me some items? I need some merchandise. And then when you walk out of that store, you feel like you’re supposed to have got what you went for.

And yet when it comes to prayer, I don’t know if people really understand what it is. What’s it based on? Whoever told you that prayer works. Who told you that? How do you know it does? Your daddy told you. So the basis of prayer is my daddy. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. In the Bible, the word prayer is mentioned over and over and over again. Many, many times the word prayer is used in the Bible. So you find out what is prayer, and it talks about people who pray to God.

That means they talk to God, they ask God for something and God answered. So people by prayer can move the Almighty God and get God to do something He was not going to do. Some people say that praying is just asking God to do what God wants to do anyway. But if you didn’t ask, you wouldn’t do it, but He wants to do many things. So it’s just you lining up. Do you think how you live helps to influence God concerning your prayer?

Yes. So, how you live makes a difference with whether God answers your prayers or he doesn’t. Look at Jeremiah 25. Now there’s three words that we want to look at tonight. One of these words is the word prayer. The other one is called promise. And then the other word is possibilities. Prayer, promise, possibilities. So we want to talk about prayer and promise and possibilities, but take your Bible and look all the way over there into the book of Jeremiah, chapter 25.

In Jeremiah, chapter 25, look there in verse 11. This is a prophecy. Remember this, there has to be a basis for prayer. One, you have to understand who is the one who told us to do it. pray to start with. All right, God. Well, then you’ve got to understand what is prayer. All right, it’s asking and receiving. So if you ask God for something, you are expecting to receive. That’s where faith comes in. If you don’t really believe it, why waste your time praying?

But if you do pray, really believing, then you should expect receiving. True? I have had a very difficult time in my Christian life trying to figure out prayer. I don’t always understand it. It’s like electricity. I don’t like to mess with that electricity because I don’t understand it that much. But prayer, I don’t understand much about it. All I know is God says it works and I know that we’re supposed to do it and I know that He says that you have not because you ask not and God says you don’t have something because you asked it amiss or you asked it to consume it upon your own lust.

So there are rules. And I don’t know all the rules. I wish I had it very simply laid out where God says, these are the rules concerning prayer, but you can’t find it that way. You’ve got to study the Bible. You’ve got to study all the stories. You’ve got to find out what God did in this case, in this case, in this case, in this case, like a lawyer who builds a case off of the cases. And I just wish that sometimes it was just a little bit simpler, but God wants us to study.

He wants us to read. He wants us to search, wants us to knock and keep knocking. And then we says ask and keep asking and seek and keep seeking. Not one time and stop, one time and stop. No, we’re supposed to stay at it. So we’re supposed to live in an attitude of prayer. Here in verse 11, he said, In this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the King of Babylon seven years.

And it shall come to pass when seven years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon, and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Calvians and will make it perpetual desolation. God said, this is what I’m going to do right in a book and blah blah blah blah. So that’s what Jeremiah did. So this was written 70 years before they were to come back out of captivity. Now take your Bible and look all the other in the book of Daniel, look at Daniel in chapter 9.

Daniel was a young Hebrew lad that was taken into captivity along with a bunch of others. So time has passed, they’ve been taken into captivity. He might have been a teenager 14 years old, something like that. So 70 years has passed, so you know the man’s got to be an 85, 90 years old. So Daniel’s got to be an old man. And so it says one day that he was reading the prophet Jeremiah, and it says there in verse 2 of chapter 9.

He says in verse 2, he said, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years where of the world of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. So he had the Bible, he had those books, those Old Testament scrolls, and he said he was reading them. And he saw that and he understood by reading what Jeremiah had already written that this thing is going to put the last seven years.

Prayer must, must be based upon a promise. promises something and so when you pray you’re basing your prayer up on a particular promise God made. So when it tells us in the book of 1 Peter he talked about the exceeding precious promises, then your prayers are based upon promises God made. If there’s no promises you have no basis for your prayer because God never promised this this this this this this this this so why should you pray for this and this and this and this.

You don’t have a basis for it. You’ve got to have a basis for the prayer. So God has given us precious promises throughout the world of God. The more promises you know, the more things you can pray to God for. And you are simply reminding God and is based upon His Word. Keep us in mind. If you had a garden, you had some corn, put it in the ground, and you’ve had some oaks, and you put it in the ground.

You had some tomato plant, you put them in the ground. You had this and then you put them in the ground. What is one thing? The promise is that they are going to grow if they get something. They’ve got to have something else. What is it? They’ve been planted, put it in the ground, covered up. What? do they now need? Water. They got to have water. Water in prayer is the same thing to the promises of God. Those promises that God made are the seeds from the word of God that’s been planted and it’s only waiting for something.

And see these seeds are promises that God’s made to his children and only a few of of his children will ever put water upon the plant and see something grow. So if this is true, a Christian should wanna find out one of the promises and then apply the water. And the water is him praying. God says, if you will pray, I will do this. Remember all the things that happened to Israel. God has said is, if my people, which are called by My name shall humble themselves and forsake their wicked way and call upon me and so forth.

I will forgive their sin, heal their land.” Didn’t that what he said? Chronicles? What he said? That’s a promise. So if you know that promise, you can do something. Do you know what Daniel did? Because he knew what God had promised about the nation of Israel. And how God does this, I’m not sure. that God can look down the road and see that here’s a man who’s going to read the prophecy that he had Jeremiah right seven years in advance and yet this promise is fulfilled because of his prayer.

And boy you ought to read his prayer. Look in verse three and I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting sai cloth and I prayed unto the Lord my God, made my confession and said, Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God. And goes through here and talks about what we as a nation have done, how wicked they had been. And he speaks for all of Israel, poor side his heart, whole chapter.

And he talks about how just God wants. And God says, this is what the people have to do in order for the promise to be fulfilled. So here’s Daniel, 70 years later, and how does God, he has to get him the message to the prophecy and he’s going to pray but God knows that he’s going to get the message. He’s going to pray and God can make the prophecy a court to his prayer. It just bogs my mind. I can’t figure it all out.

And yet God says because of prayer but God can make a prophecy in advance before you ever read the prophecy or before you ever pray. But what if Daniel had to pray? Well there probably wouldn’t have been the prophecy. But I don’t know see God knows what would have been had you done something else yesterday He knows all the possibilities of a Possibilities of all the options of every decision fee you’ve ever made don’t that blow your mind? Just think how different your life would be if you just made a few different decisions in your life but anyway as You go down through here.

You see many things now what I want you to do is look there in chapter nine and look in verse 12 and he hath confirmed his words which he spake against us and against our judges that judge us by bringing it upon us a great evil for under the whole heaven have not been done as had been done upon Jerusalem because they were destroyed as it is written get this as it is written in the law of Moses all this able has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.

Did you know that one of the biggest cures for a wicked life is prayer? If a man truly believes in prayer and talking to God and you know you’ve got to be right with God in order for God to hear and to answer your prayer, it cleans up your lungs? The wickedness of God’s people is a dead giveaway that they’re not praying. Christians worry always in despair and distress to sign they’re not one. They ain’t praying. No, they know prayer.

Believe in prayer but not praying, not really praying because there’s certain things that prayer does to a person. He says they’re in verse 14. Therefore, half the Lord watched upon the evil, brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obey not his voice. Do you believe that if they had prayed, all that would have been changed? A lot of things would not have happened. Jerusalem would not have been destroyed.

The temple would not have been destroyed. None of that would have never, never, never come in there and destroyed them. And if we’ve820 been takenillance in captivity, 1000 miles from home, none of that would happen if the people had prayed. Because if you pray, you keep everything else right in your life if you really believe prayer. Because you know you’ve got to live a certain way. You’ve got to be right between you and God. You have to confess what you’re doing that’s wrong.

You have to desire from God like holiness. It’s the key. Why do you think in the New Testament Christ told his disciples to pray? He was always telling them to pray. When Christ was here, did he pray? He’s the son of God, and yet he prayed. Even when he went into the garden, there’s gonna get him that night. He told his disciples, pray for me. They didn’t pray, and he said, could you not have bear with me one hour?

You could pray for me one hour. What were they supposed to pray for? Him? What do you pray for? If prayer doesn’t work, Why waste your time doing it? Who’s listening? So when you do pray, do you really expect somebody to be listening to you? I expect God to be listening when I’m talking, but you know what God expects? He expects me to be listening when he’s talking. When you read the Bible, that’s how God speaks to you. And when you pray, you’re talking to God.

And it’s not to be a one-way conversation. You’re supposed to talk to him. He talks to you and you have a communication going on. what’s supposed to be. Have you ever prayed for something and then you say, well, you know, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. And then you begin to question and doubt or if God answers your prayers, you don’t even thank them for it. Did you know that Daniel prayed the Bible says, three weeks before an answer ever got to him?

And it says that the angel had been hindered. You see, there’s a spiritual war going on. That’s why you’re not supposed to stop praying. Keep praying, always believe it. Take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, there’s a scripture talks about praying. Now look there in verse 25 of chapter two. Verse 25 of chapter two. Here’s another story about an old man. If you had lived in that day and you knew the scripture, You really believed him.

Then you should have been looking for the son of God to come. Because he knew how long it was supposed to be, knew where the king was supposed to be born. They knew all of this. A few of them did, a handful of them, and they prayed. Have you ever asked the Lord, Lord, I want to be alive when the rapture comes. I don’t want to die of old age. Did you know that there’s some people that are going to pray and they’re going to get their wish?

I want to be in that number. I have no desire to die down here, and I want to be changed in a moment, the twinkling of a, only a handful of people are gonna get that honor of all the people that have ever lived. It ain’t gonna happen to everybody. A lot of people are gonna die. I don’t wanna die. I wanna be caught up with the Lord in the air. Now, is it wrong for me to pray that prayer?

I pray that. I want the Lord to come back in my lifetime, but he don’t have to come right now. Just long as this is with him and I like him. Just don’t let me die until the time. I want to do some things yet for the Lord. I feel like I still got a little time left. I still got a few good years maybe in this old body and I wanna accomplish this whatever I can. Now get this.

In verse 25, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout. If he was a just man and a devout man, do you think he was a praying man? Evidently he was a praying man. And it says here, and the same man was just into about waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was about waiting for the consolation. I wonder who he waiting on. In the context, you’re talking about Jesus Christ being born.

He was waiting for the Son to be born. He did not want to die until He laid his eyes upon the Son of God. And he asked the Lord, Lord, don’t let me die until I see the Messiah. They’ll think they were some people that believed and they prayed and God answered their prayer. Now, a lot of people have the same promises and Christ was promised to come. Didn’t God promise that He’s coming back again? Promise about the translation of us being caught up in the wrath.

All that’s true. Well, why can’t I pray for that? Did you know the last promise in the Bible is in the book of Revelation, the last chapter? even that says was a prayer because John prayed, even so come Lord Jesus. Even so come Lord Jesus. Now he’d come in his lifetime, but it might come in hours. But give what he says here. It says in verse 20, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

And he came by the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of a law, which was to be circumcised. That’s mentioned right there in verse 21 to 24. And so he says, then took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let thou by servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.

And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. What in the world was this man talking about? How did he know? But he had been waiting and looking for the Messiah. And he prayed, and God answered his prayer. I think it’s awesome. Look over there in the book of 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. New Testament 1 Peter chapter 3. And then look down in verse 12. Look in verse 12. There’s a lot of things about that.

Prayer where we don’t have time to cover in one meeting. I simply want you to know that prayer is based upon promises of God. So you need to know the promises which is in the Word of God so that you can base your prayer upon what God promised And if you do that according to Israel then you have possibilities unlimited possibilities But when you don’t know that and you don’t really believe that you will be very limited in your prayer And this is where I am I feel like I am so limited in my prayers because there’s so much I don’t know about the Bible.

So many promises that I don’t know or I can forget. I can read the promise and it’s gone out of my mind. And sometimes I will try to figure out a way to do something instead of one of the greatest things that we have that I just suppose it is praying. We can pray. When everything else seems to fall apart and there’s no hope, no other way, have you ever seen somebody that goes to the hospital and all they got was bad news and it’s terminal and there’s no solution and people get into, Hey, call all the churches, get everybody prayin’.

Why do they want everybody to pray? Because they believe that somehow God may override whatever the doctors say. Whatever my body is sayin’ and the limitations of it, maybe perhaps by prayer God may change it. That’s why it’s you when I go to the hospital or I meet with someone. I don’t mind praying. I believe that God may intervene and because of my prayer, how much is my prayer work? How much is the prayer of a righteous, godly man worth?

Well, to a man that’s dying, it might be worth everything. What if you need something bad? See, the greatest thing I’ve ever asked God for is to learn lessons, to learn values, to build my character. Everything that our church has gone through. Go through it, just go through it. Don’t worry, don’t start to figure out everything you can. We’ll never live long enough. And what’s gonna happen, I don’t know. I don’t care. Just keep praying and give God a chance to do something that God can do.

Something that’s beyond your ability to do anything about. Faith is born in despair. When you’re totally at your wit’s limit and you have no way of knowing, then you have the idea, prayer based upon promises that’s based upon unlimited possibilities. And that’s where you gotta find out what does God want to do. seek the Lord with all your heart. But look what He says here in the first 12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears are open unto their what?

Now if there… It’s nothing to pray. There’s nothing to that verse. If there’s really no God up there to hear, and it’s not going to change anything, why go to the motion? Why play the game? Unless there is something that is of magnificent, wonderful power at our disposal, and we don’t avail ourselves of it. Well, he says this, his ears are open under their prayers, but get this. The face of the Lord is against. against them that do evil.

So what you do can it affect your prayers and whether God will answer enough and just to give you a clue look up there in verse 7. Now above this talks about the woman but this verse talks about the man. In verse 7 likewise he husbands dwell with them talking about the the wife according to knowledge if you can. If you can understand them, you’ll be doing great. That’s why I says maybe you have to be an old man before you figure that out.

Anyway, he says, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Now they say that the woman is the weaker vessel, the man is the stronger vessel. But I really think that the man is the weaker vessel because of his weakness for the other vessel. Anyway, There’s another sermon in here. Get this. He says, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, in other words, the gift of eternal life, your bold husband and wife, your heirs together of eternal life.

And you are going to be with each other forever in heaven. Of course, there’s going to be a few other people there too. But get to the last part of the verse. He says that your prayers be not one. Is it possible that you can do something that would hinder your prayers? Now there’s something in the spiritual realm that can hinder our prayers. There’s things that you can do personally that can hinder your prayers. But it can also hinder the husband and wife, their prayers.

So does things need to be right between husband and wife for their prayers not to be hindered? Yes. If this is all true and the person really believed it, it would make you want to keep things right between husband and wife, right? Well, they’ve been with it. This is the greatest benefit. Power of prayer, that’s better to be able to do that. Then to have social security, money in the bank, health insurance, life insurance, all that security is better to have God through prayer, that’s better to have.

Because when that falls apart or when the doctors can’t do anymore and they have their limitations God is unlimited and you’ve got greater possibilities Now I’m not saying you got to throw the other way about it. You ought to be strong in prayer a Man who is not strong in prayer is not strong You’re only as strong as your prayer life, and if you have no prayer life you are not strong. You don’t have a spiritual life You may come to church, you may even read your Bible, but you are not strong if you do not pray.

You must pray. That is the word of God. And yet I still don’t understand everything about prayer. I can tell you all of this. And I don’t know whenever God’s going to answer your prayer, if not going to answer your prayer. There’s promises that you have to know and you have to believe. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr.

Arnold’s book, The gospel-driven man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

God of God can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, we just keep looking up.