Every Prayer Matters

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:02

Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there'll be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:47

So if you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation five eight. The Revelation, very straightforward book. Clear as clear as the day. Yeah. So this is, of course, a picture of the lamb. If you look at six, I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he came and he took the book out of the right hand of him who sit on the throne. When he taken the book, the four the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a part, and golden bowls full of incense, which are Oh, What the heck does that mean? What does that mean? Think about it.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:46

So what's incense mean? What's incense a picture of? Perigible. Yeah. Sweet smelling aroma as unto the lord. A sacrifice. Right? Sacrifice coming up before the Lord. Sweet smelling. And what is it? It's a golden bowl, bowl of incense, and it's filled with Prayers. Prayers are the same.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:07

So we're gonna pray here, but I need to ask, what do I really think about prayer? What do I really think about prayer? Does it work? Does it not work? Should I pray? Should I not pray? Right? If god is sovereign, is it, you know, is it Doris Day, k whatever will be will be. Right? And that somehow sovereignty of God is the same as. Like, nothing matters. Whatever will be will be. Well, it's not the same. How does God sit in sovereignty over all things, and yet you and I are operating, right, within our daily, choices, right, making decisions, praying for for guidance and moving forward. This reminds me of what does it mean. I don't know exactly what it means, but there's a couple of things we can tell it means that our prayers are like incense before the Lord.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:08

Is that good? Mhmm. Yeah. Our prayers honor the Lord. Our prayers honor the Lord. And I I love John Piper gave me that, picture of God. Our God isn't like a trough. In other words, we go to a trough and, you know, we take water out of a trough, but the trough needs to be filled, so we fill it. That would be one kind of god.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:32

Our god is a spring, and so he doesn't need our we don't need to bring the water to him. Don't need our prayers in that sense, but our prayers rise before him as incense. And what would it mean for you if there isn't one prayer that you prayed that didn't get into the bowl and didn't rise before the Lord as a sweet smelling offering. Right? Is there, right, is there a time when I can pray too much or too often? Is there something too small that I can bring before the lord? Not at all. Not at all. I remember mister Rogers. He would just sometimes, he would just speak people's names to the lord. He just right before the lord in prayer.

Scott Keffer [: 00:04:25

Sometimes you don't know what to pray. Right? I don't know what to pray. Right? I don't know what to pray, but we can speak forth. Right? So combination of what do I pray? Well, I could pray scripture. Right? I don't know what to pray. So he says, if you wanna have confidence in prayer, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Right? If we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request, which is why I often pray scripture. Sometimes, I don't know what to pray.

Scott Keffer [: 00:04:56

So I can just say, I don't know what to pray, Lord. Sometimes the spirit of God will lead me in prayer, but we know that the spirit when we can't even put a word to it in groanings. Right? But this this is a great encouragement for me to pray because it's it's all in a bowl. It's never not heard. It's never not valuable to the lord when we cry out to him. The more you need him, the more he's honored. The more you need him, the more he's honored. We tend to think I gotta be all these things for God.

Scott Keffer [: 00:05:34

Right? I have to be all these things to earn God's favor and his love. The more you need him, the more he is honored. So can you outneed him? Right. No. You can't. The more I need him, the more I need him throughout the day. What should I what should I be in prayer for? What did Paul say? Pray without ceasing. What does he mean? Just, right, in in constant prayer.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:02

But you cannot out ask God. You just can't. And sometimes we wonder, well, does it matter? Right? Does it matter? God's gonna do what he's gonna do. No. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. What does it mean? I don't know, but that's what it says. The effectual fervent prayer. And he gives that picture, right, of the the the man and the woman in the same bed because it's cold and somebody knocks on the door and you say, hey.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:35

We're in bed. Go away. He said, because of their importunity, right, he gets up and opens the door. So just a a fresh encouragement for you to pray. Don't stop praying. Whatever you've maybe given up on praying for, maybe a person you've you've stopped praying for. Right? Stack the prayers because they're all being caught in the bowl of incense, and they're a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. And it could be Craig.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:06

You know? I've been praying for him for a million years. Well, keep praying. Keep praying. Keep praying. Mueller, George Mueller, pray I think three of them after he died came to Christ. I think three of them after he died. One of them at his funeral, supposed to this story. Right? Will everyone you pray for come to Christ? No.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:30

Will someone you pray for come to Christ? Yeah. Likely. The more people we pray for, the more likely. That make sense? So keep praying. Alright. I'm gonna close in prayer here. Yeah. Our confession honors him.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:41

Right? Our confession honors him. Samuel said, far be it for me that I should sin against the lord by ceasing to pray for you. Really? He said, far be it for me that I should sin against the lord by ceasing to pray for you. Where is that, Scott? Where's that verse? The address. Yeah. Or what book? I'll look it up. First Samuel. Oh, okay.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:09

First Samuel. Yeah. Yes. Yes. In fact, what's interesting because we're studying through that, at home, and, I'd forgotten about that verse. And and then I remembered, I know that verse. So there are folks in your life that you're standing instead. You're standing before the Lord for those people.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:30

Uh-huh. And maybe they can't stand for themselves. Maybe they won't. We told the kids, look. Here's our blessing. When you can't, you won't, or you don't, we're standing for you. We will stand for you. Right? Far be it from me.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:43

Sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. First Samuel think about the address. Thank you. 1223. First Samuel 1223. See? They're not far away. While the memory fades, hopefully, the verse remains. I I lose the address, but long as the verse stays in there.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:06

You did. Alright. Let's pray. Father, you're backing us to Andrea, and what a privilege. To him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. Because of you, lord Jesus, you've inaugurated a new and living way. And so here we stand because of you, and so we bless you, my father. What a gift it is.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:43

And encouragement to know that our ramblings and our rumblings and our prayers and our concerns and our dreams and our fears and our sins, all of them, father, come together in a a sweet smelling sacrifice aroma to you and that we would be in a position to honor you with, with our lives and, with our stuff. Grateful for that. Grateful for that. So you say that you help in our weakness because we don't know how to pray as we should. So going forward, I pray that you help each of us pray. Lord, help us pray. Help us with the faith to and, guide us in our prayer. Just reminder what a what a gift it is, how grateful we are for the for the gift you've given us in prayer.

Scott Keffer [: 00:10:36

And so, lord, we're grateful that we pray to you, and you already know. So it's not like we're informing you, but we get to, join you in the work that you're doing in the lives of other people. And so so we pray wisdom for healing, for peace for her in the midst of it. Her her sister as she, as she goes through this hard place, Lord, again her body to heal her, that you give the doctors and, folks who are treating her, supernatural wisdom. She would have great peace great peace that she's in your hand. Just that, peace that surpasses all comprehension that you are, the god who's sovereign in this and even are using this and all things for good, right, for the headaches and just wisdom about what that means. Break the flu again for your healing touch. Again, in it, that there would be a time of rest and refreshment, rough road that they are on.

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:42

We pray for healing for her body. The the comfort that she would continue to have, great confidence in you like she does, Lord. So I pray that you bless them as they walk through this walk through this, Lord. Thank you that you are the lord of the whole earth and that you've shed your blood for men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. As the team goes out for Thailand, we pray for your favor to go before, to unify, take care of the, details and the blind spots, and to bless them to be a blessing wherein, when they go forth, Lord. Thank you for the good word. I pray that it would indeed be a, just a deepening of his, love and do as he goes through being baptized, and we thank you for the gift of baptism, lord, and the work that you do in our heart as you baptize us in our souls, Lord, the baptism of the spirit. Pray for our brother, and we would pray with him, Lord.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:54

You know, he he wants to be out and he wants to be in, and you know which is best. So I pray, again, deep, deep peace for him as he struggles with all that, and yet we would pray that you would open the door for him to to be out. And in the midst of it, that you would bear, much fruit or continue to, bless him, to be a light, in that place. But give him encouragement today, I pray, from your word, fresh promise, promise you made for it. Think about it. The struggles that he has, Lord, for you to just give wisdom and and help with what to whatever is going on, in his body as well as a place for him to really be able to, to shine, to step in a a role where he could bring great value. So helping with a a job and kind of what's next and the details of childcare and all of that. Travels to Mexico.

Scott Keffer [: 00:13:58

Just pray. Be a time of rest and refreshment despite golf and, and that you would use him. Let him be the sweet aroma of the knowledge of you in that place as, as only you can do, that you would heal her as she goes through the appendicitis or for skill for the doctors and wisdom. And, again, Lauren, what a great thought that every, you know, even even in my clunky prayers that they all end up in that bowl of incense, that they all are a sweet aroma, that the spirit is bringing them before you, and, they're they're going through Jesus. And I but thank you that, my mutterings, can be something that honors you, sweet aroma to you. So we bless you. Bless you, for all that you do, in us and through us and for us. Now to him, he was able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church mostly in your son, the lord Jesus, both now and for all eternity.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:16

And all your people said, amen. And may he bless you. May he keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you. May he lift up his countenance and give you shalom deep in your and may the love of, may the

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:32

grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the father of

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:34

the earth be

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:35

a greater holy spirit with confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the Bible in his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.