Calvary Chapel Staten Island

Denise, Leigh, and Shelly: For over 30 years, Point of Grace has shared music, faith, and friendship with listeners across the country. Now Denise, Leigh, and Shelly are inviting you into their circle. Welcome to Circle of Friends, the podcast. Each week, they are talking real life, current events, stories of true friendship, wisdom from God's Word, and all their favorite things. If you're looking for a little company, a few laughs, and a lot of Jesus to hold it together, Circle of Friends, the podcast, is waiting for you. Subscribe now wherever you listen or watch podcasts, and circle up with Point of Grace.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to God in Our City, the daily edition. Your host and Bible teacher is Pastor Dave Watson. Pastor Dave has been the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island for 35 years. In addition, he is the co-founder and president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies. To receive a special downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, please go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. That's CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Now here is Pastor Dave and our show.

Pastor Dave Watson: Welcome again to the program. Thank you for joining us. I'm Pastor Dave Watson. I have the privilege of being your host and Bible teacher, also the incredible privilege of being the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island and an equally great privilege of being one of the co-founders and the president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies. We're glad that you found your way to us today. If this is your very first time, welcome. If you haven't been for a while, where have you been? We missed you. If this is your regular spot, thank you. I hope and pray our program is a blessing to you.

We are so, so, so close to concluding our series which we call The Theology of Prayer. Calvary Chapel has been involved in prayer all month long. We are in 21 days of prayer. We have small groups of prayer. We had an in-person prayer meeting with everybody there. We have just a lot of stuff going on: prayer at the 10:00 hour in terms of study, prayer in the sermons. It's just been a really, really prayer-filled month, and that's just a good way to start the new year.

We want to provide you with any resources that we can to help you along in your prayer life. For instance, you can download The Theology of Prayer study guide. It's all the things that we have gone over. It's actually a course that I taught at the New York Institute for Biblical Studies. You can just download it. It's free. It's for you. Also, and this is going to run out at the end of the week, we have the book *Praying the 21 Greatest Promises in the Bible*. We encourage you to fill in the little spots at CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Fill in the little blanks and we'll send you the book free of charge, postage and handling on us.

You can download at that website the Theology of Prayer notes. You can get the book free. You can get this resource; I love this resource. It's Praying for Others sheets. It actually has sheets to fill in names of people to pray for in various categories, and then actual prayers from the Bible to pray for them. Again, that's a free download. We'd love you to have it. Also, while you're there, for just three more days, we'll be seeking our matching fund challenge. We'll be sharing that with you. We're falling considerably short of it. So if God is putting it on your heart, don't resist Him anymore. Just give, and every gift is appreciated, tax-deductible, makes a difference, and until Friday, doubled. So please make sure that if God is talking to you about that, you obey Him.

Let's get into our scripture reading today and our prayer. Our scripture today is going to come from the book of Luke, the 11th chapter, the 9th through the 13th verse, a verse that we read last time we were together yesterday. Luke 11:9-13: "And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."

Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank You that You are God who gives good gifts. Lord, You give us the Holy Spirit. You give us, Lord, not just the Holy Spirit, but You give us a ton of other spiritual blessings. Lord, we are so grateful for all that You give us. Help us, Lord, help us, Lord, to be appreciative of all that You give us. And Lord, as we study Your Word today, be our teacher, be our guide, be our help. Lord, as we think about the needs of our listening audience, we pray You will meet them as well.

Help all of us, Lord, to be real disciples of Jesus: authentic, changed, Christ-like, fixed in our thinking. Please help us tonight, tonight, this study that we're doing on prayer. Help us to understand and help us, Lord, to know these truths and put them into practice and may they, Lord, make a difference in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Before we leave this verse and move to the rest of our study tonight, I want to just help you to maybe think about this verse a little bit differently. Please note the asking, the seeking, and the knocking. You see that in the first verse, verse nine, of Luke 11. Ask, given to you; seek, find; knock, open to you. And then the promise that if you ask, you receive; if you seek, you find; if you knock, it's open.

And then He gives a couple of illustrations here. What father among you, if the son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Nobody would do that. If he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? You wouldn't do that. He says, if you then, who are evil and in comparison to God we are evil, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Now, what is He saying to us here? What is He saying to His disciples?

Well, Luke wrote another long book. Luke writes the most of anybody in the New Testament. I don't think he could compare anybody to Moses' words, Genesis through Deuteronomy. But it's interesting that Jesus says to His disciples in the fifth verse of Acts, chapter one, He says to them, "For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." He had said to them in Acts 1:4 to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said you've heard from Me.

So the disciples are told that the Father is going to give them what He has promised. What has He promised? Well, John chapter 14, He's promised the Holy Spirit. They're told to stay in Jerusalem until they are endued, endowed with power from on high. And they are then in Jerusalem in the upper room and they're praying. They're praying. The early church is born out of a prayer meeting. So they're devoting themselves, chapter one of Acts, verse 14, to prayer.

What are they asking for? I submit to you they're asking, they're seeking, and they're knocking for the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit does shortly thereafter come down and fill them. I don't think we need to ask for the Holy Spirit that way anymore. I think at salvation, you and I get all of the Holy Spirit. But I think we need to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit on a continual basis, and that is critical for our Christian experience.

But to understand this verse, I think if you understand it in context, He's actually telling the disciples to pray for the Holy Spirit and the Father will give them the Holy Spirit. We find that fulfilled in Acts chapter one, shortly after verse 14. What happens? Chapter two and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.

Well, gives you something to think about, right? And as we move forward now, we want to continue our thoughts on prayer. We talked about the person of prayer, the necessity of praying in Jesus' name. Then we talked about persistence in prayer. What we want to hit on today is this incredible power we have in prayer as we pray in the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:18 says to you and I, "Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints." We read in verse 20 of the book of Jude, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit." These are two instances, and I don't know of any others, where we're told to pray in the Spirit.

The context of the Ephesus passage is Ephesians 6:18 as part of spiritual warfare. We must put on the whole armor of God as we're praying or by our prayer. What's the old hymn? "Put on the gospel armor, put on each piece with prayer." It doesn't mean that we pray in tongues. That's not what it's saying. It says pray in or by the Spirit. While you're being controlled by the Spirit, pray.

It means we're praying depending on the Holy Spirit for the words in our prayers. Ephesians 3:1 and 14 through 21 talk about us being strengthened with inner might by the Holy Spirit, by the Spirit in the inner man. And as I've already alluded to, it means praying under the control of the Holy Spirit. Praying under the control of the Holy Spirit. It also means letting the Spirit bring us into the presence of God. It tells us in Ephesians 2:18 that we have this position, we have access to God because of the Holy Spirit.

It means that the Spirit also is giving us a sense of sonship as we pray. Because we have the Holy Spirit, we know we're the sons of God, the children of God. And it means we are sensitive to Him so we don't grieve Him. All those things, I think, are in line with what it means to be praying in or by means of the Holy Spirit. In the sphere of a place where I'm depending on Him, where He's in control, where I know He's the one who's gotten me in, He's given me access with a sense that I know I'm a son or my daughter because of Him, and I'm doing my best not to grieve Him.

Two passages regarding this might indeed need some clarification after we finish this idea of praying in the sphere of the Holy Spirit. One passage that has caused angst among believers is Mark 9:28 and 29. It says, "And when he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting.'"

This is a story when Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration. He went with Peter, James, and John. They were up there and Jesus is transformed before them. They make their way down and the disciples are powerless against this boy who had a demon. And Jesus says to the father, "If you believe all things are possible." The father says, "I believe, help thou my unbelief."

Then after Jesus casts out the demon, the disciples a little bit later, not wanting to embarrass themselves, said, "What's the deal with this?" And Jesus says, "This kind comes out only or doesn't come out by anything but prayer and fasting." So some have drawn the conclusion that fasting is a necessary part of deliverance from demons. I don't really have a problem with that, but I would tell you that the word "fasting" is in doubt here. It's found in the King James but not in the earliest Greek manuscripts. So I'm hesitant to make a doctrine about it.

But clearly prayer plays a role in dealing with the demonic, dealing with the supernatural. So we don't want to throw that out, but we want to be keenly aware that that word "fasting" may in all likelihood not be there.

A second passage that may need clarification is Matthew 12:28 through 29. It says, "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house."

This particular verse has led rise to people who want to bind Satan. They want to bind him and they feel like that's a ministry that is viable. But when we read the text a little closer, what does it tell us? It tells us there is a necessity for binding the strong man in order to plunder his goods. But what does that mean? Who does the binding?

Well, I think it's clear that in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, He defeated Satan. He bound Satan. Jesus bound the strong man. There's no need for us to do it. So please don't say, "I got to bind Satan." Satan is already on a choke collar. He can only go as far as the Lord allows him. He's already bound, so his kingdom can already be spoiled, can already be messed up.

Hope that gives you some clarity. I remember when I first came here to New York, I had a beautiful deacon. I loved him praying for me. But he would pray for a hedge of thorns to be around me for protection. And that kind of freaked me out a little bit. I'm not really big into thorns, and I know I'm not big into pricking my fingers on thorns. And I didn't really understand what he meant.

I think the hedge came from the concept in the book of Job where you prayed a hedge, or Job had a hedge around him. And Satan said, "You put a hedge around him. How am I supposed to get at him?" So I appreciated that, but I'm still a little confused about the idea of thorns. So if you know some about that, maybe you should send me an email: DWatson129@gmail.com, or drop it in the Facebook or YouTube feed.

Let's now talk about the plurality of prayer. There is just something that happens when people come together to pray. And I mean physically. In every text I'm about to read, it always has the sense of plurality. When He says that we in Colossians 4:2 through 4, that we ought to pray and be steadfast in prayer, the thought here is praying with each other and for each other. It's all in the plural.

In Acts 4:31, there's that prayer meeting and when they had prayed, the place was shaken. Listen to Acts 4:31: "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."

In Daniel 2:17 through 19, we find Daniel with his friends. It says Daniel went to his house and made the matter known. This is the need to have the understanding of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. He needs to be able to interpret it without even knowing what is in the dream. But Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. But note that these guys are pushing Daniel to gather together to pray so that the vision might be made known to him.

Well, tomorrow we're going to spend our time talking about the biblical idea of fasting in our prayers, or fasting with our prayers, and how we can become proficient at that. But let's take just the things that we have looked at over the last few days, sink them down in our hearts. What do we want to be doing?

We want to be praying in Jesus' name that the Father may be glorified in the Son. We want to be, in addition to that, persistent in our prayers. We want to be people who keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And then we want to be people who have this power in prayer because we're praying under the control of the Holy Spirit. And then finally, we want to have plurality in prayer. We want to pray with others.

And that's just so powerful. And one thing that we have been in some ways robbed of, or we've allowed ourselves to be robbed of, is in-person prayer meetings because of COVID. I encourage you not to let that go. Show up. If there's an in-person prayer meeting and you can get there, get there. Get there. It's important. There is nothing, there is nothing like praying with other believers. And the presence of God, the manifest presence of God, is seen there where two or three are gathered. I'm uncomfortable saying it's seen or it's experienced in the same way when we're on Zoom.

All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word. Help us, Lord, to both understand, appreciate, and apply it. And help us, Lord, to be consistent in applying it. Help us now to remember the need to pray in Jesus' name, pray persistently, pray in the power and might of the Holy Spirit, and pray with others. As we, Lord, obey, please bless. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Please go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Consider making a gift to God in Our City. Thank you so much for joining us. Please join us again tomorrow for another edition of the daily edition of God in Our City. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to God in Our City with your host, Pastor Dave Watson. We hope the show was a blessing to you. Again, to receive a downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. That's CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Please check out Pastor Dave's blog at NYCShepherd.com. That's NYCShepherd.com. Please invite a friend and join us every weekday for another edition of God in Our City.

Denise, Leigh, and Shelly: For over 30 years, Point of Grace has shared music, faith, and friendship with listeners across the country. Now Denise, Leigh, and Shelly are inviting you into their circle. Welcome to Circle of Friends, the podcast. Each week, they are talking real life, current events, stories of true friendship, wisdom from God's Word, and all their favorite things. If you're looking for a little company, a few laughs, and a lot of Jesus to hold it together, Circle of Friends, the podcast, is waiting for you. Subscribe now wherever you listen or watch podcasts, and circle up with Point of Grace.