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God’s Plan for Your Prayers · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: A week ago, we looked at how to break free
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  Speaker 1: from prayer ruts, getting free from what happens so often
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  Speaker 1: when we just get stuck in a loop of praying
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  Speaker 1: for the same daily needs and same stresses over and
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  Speaker 1: over and over again every day. Today we look at
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  Speaker 1: your prayer's purposes in God's plan. Your prayers purposes in
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  Speaker 1: God's Plan, because it's a question that stops a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people write in their tracks. If God is truly
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  Speaker 1: in control of everything, I mean he definitely is, And
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  Speaker 1: if he already knows everything about what is going to
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  Speaker 1: happen according to his decree, and he does, then why
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  Speaker 1: should we ever bother asking him for things? Doesn't an
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  Speaker 1: all knowing, all sovereign God render all of our prayers pointless?
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  Speaker 1: Today I asked Pastor John God's plan for your prayers?
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  Speaker 1: The question is from an anonymous listener to the podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, and I have a question which, as I
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  Speaker 1: read it out, may seem really basic to you, but
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  Speaker 1: it's a very new insight for me. In First Chronicles
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine, verses ten to twenty, which is coming up
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  Speaker 1: soon in our Bibble reading, David offers a hugely important
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  Speaker 1: and powerful prayer that acknowledges God's absolute sovereignty over all things.
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  Speaker 1: He says, Yours, O, Lord, is the greatness and the power,
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  Speaker 1: and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For
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  Speaker 1: all that is in the heavens and in the earth
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  Speaker 1: is yours. That's verse eleven. Very powerful. He just states
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  Speaker 1: this fact. David doesn't focus on his own achievements or
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  Speaker 1: on Israel's wealth and city. Humbly recognizes that everything they
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  Speaker 1: give has first come from God's hand. For all things
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  Speaker 1: come from you, and of your own have we given
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  Speaker 1: you verse fourteen. His words overflow with reverence, gratitude, and
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  Speaker 1: dependence on God. So how important is God's sovereignty in
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  Speaker 1: shaping the content of all of our prayers?
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  Speaker 2: In Ezekiel thirty six thirty seven, God says to the
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  Speaker 2: people of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, this also,
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  Speaker 2: I will be sought by the House of Israel to
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  Speaker 2: do for them, to increase their people like a flock,
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  Speaker 2: so the way cities will be filled with flocks of people.
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  Speaker 2: Then they will know that I am the Lord. Now.
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  Speaker 2: Earlier in the chapter verse ten, God had promised he
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  Speaker 2: would do that he would multiply the people he would
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  Speaker 2: fill the cities with his flocks, his people. But now
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  Speaker 2: in verse thirty seven, he tells them how he's going
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  Speaker 2: to do it. How he's going to do it, namely,
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  Speaker 2: I will be sought to do it. Now, that's that's
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  Speaker 2: my literal translation of the nithil form of the Hebrew
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  Speaker 2: verb darash to seek. I think it says in Isa,
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  Speaker 2: I will let my people seek me, or something like that,
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  Speaker 2: which is fine. But he's telling them here's how I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to do it. I will be sought by you
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  Speaker 2: to do it. That's means I will be prayed to
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  Speaker 2: this also, I will be sought, I will be prayed
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  Speaker 2: to by the House of Israel to do for them.
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  Speaker 2: That is one of the instances in the Bible, one
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  Speaker 2: of the clearest think of how God's purpose to do
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  Speaker 2: a thing and his way of doing it are brought together. Namely,
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  Speaker 2: he purposes to do a thing, and he aims to
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  Speaker 2: do it through our prayers. I plan to do it,
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  Speaker 2: and so I will be sought by them to do it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to ordain the thing. I'm going to ordain
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  Speaker 2: the prayer that will cause me to do what I
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  Speaker 2: have ordained to do. That's the fundamental relationship between the
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  Speaker 2: sovereignty of God and human prayer. God plans something, and
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  Speaker 2: then he ordains what the means will be he'll use
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  Speaker 2: to bring it about, and one of those means is prayer.
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  Speaker 2: And you can see it again in Matthew six, verses
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  Speaker 2: seven and eight. When you pray, do not heap up
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  Speaker 2: empty phrases, as the gentiles do, for they think that
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  Speaker 2: they will be heard for their many words. Do not
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  Speaker 2: be like them, for your farther knows what you need
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  Speaker 2: before you ask him. Now, I think that means, at least,
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  Speaker 2: at least in part, that our father in Heaven knows
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  Speaker 2: what's good for us and has a plan to do
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  Speaker 2: it through our asking, so that our asking does not
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  Speaker 2: need to be eloquent or long winded, as if we
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  Speaker 2: need to twist his arm to do what he has
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  Speaker 2: a good father aims to do for us. But let's
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  Speaker 2: not make the mistake of drawing the false conclusion. People
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  Speaker 2: think it's a logical conclusion. It's no, it's not a
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  Speaker 2: logical conclusion. It's false logic, namely that God, because he's sovereign,
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  Speaker 2: and things are going to happen the way he intended
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  Speaker 2: because they're going to do that, you don't need to pray.
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  Speaker 2: It's pointless to pray. That's false, ungodly, unbiblical logic. That's
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  Speaker 2: not the way it works. Is not always the case
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  Speaker 2: because God often plans that they human means are not decreed,
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  Speaker 2: and so neither is the result decreed. As soon as
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  Speaker 2: you realize that outcomes and means to those outcomes are
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  Speaker 2: both in the mind of God, then you won't fall
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  Speaker 2: pray to that false logic of saying, well, since God
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  Speaker 2: is sovereign, it doesn't matter whether we pray or not.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, James chapter four, make sure that we don't
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  Speaker 2: make that mistake. He's saying if the Lord later on,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, in verse fifty, he says, if the Lord wills,
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  Speaker 2: we will live and do this or that. So he's
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  Speaker 2: clearly a total believer in the sovereignty of God, meticulous sovereignty.
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  Speaker 2: If the Lord wills we will live and do this
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  Speaker 2: or that, that's sovereignty and providence. But in verse two
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  Speaker 2: he says, this you desire and do not have, so
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  Speaker 2: you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight
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  Speaker 2: and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask,
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  Speaker 2: you do not have because you do not ask. Whow
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  Speaker 2: could the value of prayer be elevated anymore highly than
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  Speaker 2: for an inspired biblical spokesman say, the reason you don't
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  Speaker 2: have is because you didn't ask. Things don't happen because
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  Speaker 2: we don't ask for them to happen. That's true. That
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  Speaker 2: does not mean that everything you ask happens. We're not God.
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  Speaker 2: He's a good father fathers. Good fathers don't do that.
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  Speaker 2: They don't give everything to their children that they ask for.
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  Speaker 2: He gives good things. If we ask for bread, he
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  Speaker 2: doesn't give us a stone. If we ask for a fish,
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't give us a snake. What does he give?
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  Speaker 2: Jesus says he gives good things, good things to those
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  Speaker 2: who have a like every good father does, only much more.
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  Speaker 2: If a child asks for something harmful, a good father
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  Speaker 2: gives him something beneficial. I think there are two basic
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  Speaker 2: things that we can say in answer to this question
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  Speaker 2: that the sovereignty of God does to our prayers. Number one,
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  Speaker 2: it provides a tone and conviction of submissiveness and reverence
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  Speaker 2: and worship. And two, it provides a deep confidence that
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  Speaker 2: nothing is too hard for the Lord, so nothing can
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  Speaker 2: stop him from answering our prayers when he sets himself
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  Speaker 2: to do it. You can see the first effect of
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  Speaker 2: sovereignty in the prayer of the Church and Acts four
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  Speaker 2: twenty four to thirty three. It starts like this sovereign Lord,
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  Speaker 2: who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything
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  Speaker 2: in them. And then it goes on quote Psalm two,
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  Speaker 2: about the futility of the nations raging against the sovereign God.
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  Speaker 2: And then it goes on to testify to God's predestining
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  Speaker 2: pilot and Herod and the Jews and the Gentiles in
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  Speaker 2: the killing of Jesus. It's just an amazing prayer. Only
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  Speaker 2: after all of that acclamation of God's sovereign rule over
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  Speaker 2: the world does the prayer finally, in verse twenty nine
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  Speaker 2: get to a request. And now, Lord, look upon their
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  Speaker 2: threats and grant to your servants to speak your word
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  Speaker 2: with all boldness. That's an amazing way to pray, and
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  Speaker 2: it's all shaped by the sovereignty of God. More than
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  Speaker 2: half of the prayer is simply exulting before God in
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  Speaker 2: the absolute rule of God over his enemies. So that's
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  Speaker 2: the first effect of the sovereignty of God on prayer.
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  Speaker 2: It gives a tone of submissive reverence and worship and
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  Speaker 2: exultation in God. The other effect of the sovereignty of
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  Speaker 2: God on prayer is to give us a strong confidence
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  Speaker 2: that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Job says
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  Speaker 2: in Job forty two to two. I know that you
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  Speaker 2: can do all things, Lord, and no purpose of yours
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  Speaker 2: can be thwarted. And when the disciples were dismayed that
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  Speaker 2: Jesus said, the rich can't get into heaven, or at
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  Speaker 2: least it's hard for the rich to get into the
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  Speaker 2: Kingdom of Heaven, they were just blown away. And they said, well, then,
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  Speaker 2: who can be saved? And Jesus responded with man, this
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  Speaker 2: is impossible a me to save people. But with God,
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  Speaker 2: all things are possible. That's our confidence in prayer for
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  Speaker 2: people who look impossible to save. In fact, Paul said
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  Speaker 2: that the hardness of the Jews in his day was
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  Speaker 2: owing to God's sovereign decree Romans eleven eight, but he
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  Speaker 2: prayed for them anyway. Roman's ten one. Brothers, My heart's
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  Speaker 2: desire and prayer to God for them is that they
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  Speaker 2: may be saved. So I would encourage all of us
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  Speaker 2: to pray without ceasing for the things that seem to
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  Speaker 2: be impossible because they're not impossible for God. Because God
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  Speaker 2: is sovereign. The sovereignty of God is the great ground
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  Speaker 2: of our hope for answered prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, as soon as you realize that the outcomes and
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  Speaker 1: the means to those outcomes are both in the mind
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  Speaker 1: of God, then you won't fall pray to that false
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  Speaker 1: logic that assumes, since God is sovereign, it doesn't matter
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  Speaker 1: whether we pray or not. No, He purposes to do
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  Speaker 1: a thing, and then He aims to do it through
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  Speaker 1: our prayers. Such a great oord, Pastor John, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: That's absolute sovereignty doesn't cancel out our prayers, or our deeds,
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  Speaker 1: or any of the means that God intends to use
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  Speaker 1: to bring about his sovereign ends. He means to use
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  Speaker 1: the means of my prayers, your prayers. He's going to
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  Speaker 1: use them. He intends to use them. He plans to
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  Speaker 1: use them. Such a beautiful play that brings dignity to
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  Speaker 1: all of our spiritual lives. Everything that we do in
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  Speaker 1: our spiritual lives is given new value by what you
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  Speaker 1: shared with us today, Pastor John, Thank you and thanks
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  Speaker 1: for joining us today. If you have a question to ask,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, find a link to email us and find
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  Speaker 1: our complete episode archive at the same place askpastor John
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  Speaker 1: dot com. Twenty two hundred and seventy APJA episodes now
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  Speaker 1: all archived and fully transcribed for you to search and
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  Speaker 1: browse and find your way through. I am tony Ranky
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, and I will see you back here on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.