In his sermon titled 'Praying with Arguments,' Peter Allison explores the importance of integrating arguments into prayer, focusing on Matthew 6:13. He discusses the reasons for examining Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer, highlighting the absence of certain verses in various Bible translations due to textual criticism. Allison argues that the last part of verse 13, often missing in critical texts, is crucial for understanding prayer as it teaches confession of faith, doxology, and argumentation. He explains that confession of faith involves agreeing with the truths of Scripture and acknowledges God's authority and power. The sermon emphasizes that bringing arguments in prayer is not about disputing with God but rather providing reasons for requests, which helps believers examine their motives and align them with Scripture. By using examples from biblical figures like Abraham, Jehoshaphat, and David, Allison illustrates how prayer can be structured around God's attributes, past dealings, promises, and reputation. He argues that such a practice deepens faith, sincerity, and fervency in prayer. Ultimately, Allison encourages believers to adopt a more thoughtful and strategic approach to prayer, drawing on biblical examples to enhance their spiritual conversations with God.

Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Matthew 6. Matthew 6, we'll be looking at verse 13, but I'll read verse 8. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. In this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Blessed are those who hear this word of God and keep it. Heavenly Father, we ask now that your word that we have heard might be mixed with faith in us, that it may teach us, that it may guide our thinking, that it may transform our thinking where it is like the feudal way of the world. We ask that, Lord, we may see you this morning as you have revealed yourself in this word.

May we see your beauty and your wisdom May we see your love for us your children in Jesus name. Amen Well, we're leaving our study in Luke to spend one week in Matthew's account of the Lord's Prayer. And there are a couple of reasons for us momentarily, leaving Luke this morning, to look at Matthew's ending and conclusion of the Lord's Prayer. One reason, one more minor reason of the reasons, is that many of the translations based on the critical text, and that would be translations like the ESV or the NIV or the New American Standard and others, most many others, these translations don't have the last half of verse 13 in them. It's simply not there.

They end this verse at, but deliver us from the evil one. Because, and the reason it's not there is because it's not in the manuscript that lies behind all of these translations, or I should say it's not behind the text that they have created on which all these translations are based. There are slightly more than 5, 000 manuscripts, these are things that are written by hand, of the New Testament that we know about today. Many of these are books or parts of books and are not the complete copy of the entire New Testament, but of the ones that contain this text from Matthew, only about 1% or so are missing it. And so this critical text on which these translations that do not have this verse are based, this critical text was based on roughly a handful, roughly five, of these manuscripts, which also gives some evidence of corruption and certainly represents the manuscripts themselves certainly represent a low view of scripture.

And so one minor reason then is I didn't want to leave any doubt as to whether I accepted these conclusions by not looking at this concluding clause of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. This clause is not in the Luke's account that we've been looking at. So I didn't want to leave that question ambiguous, but rather bring this clause in, especially in our day when it is missing in so many of the texts, the Bibles that are being used in Christian churches today. But secondly and far more importantly, we have been taking an in-depth look at prayer as we have gone through Matthew, or Luke, we have paused at this Lord's Prayer and spent some time looking at what Christ has taught us in about prayer. And so I wanted to include this closing phrase of the Lord's Prayer in our study, As a study of prayer would definitely be incomplete without it.

For this conclusion, this last part of verse 13, teaches an aspect about prayer that is far too often missing in our praying. Namely, it teaches us the art of argumentation in our prayer. And this conclusion shows us at least three things about prayer. It shows us confession of faith, doxology, as well as argumentation. And confession of faith is literally to say with.

To say with. And so to confess our faith is to verbally come into agreement with what the Scriptures teach and say about Christ. What they say of Christ. And so to confess means to to declare something to be true or to admit admit or to assent to that truth in words. That's what confession is.

And so this prayer teaches us confession of faith in prayer. God has authority. God has authority. Yours is the kingdom. God said that all authority on heaven and earth have been given to him, Christ said to Pilate.

And in saying, yours is the kingdom, we are expressing our agreement with this truth. We are acknowledging it. We're coming into agreement with what the Scriptures say. In speaking this to God, then we are confessing our faith that He has a perpetual and uncontestable authority to justly dispose of everything that happens in the world, and that as He alone sees fit, for He alone is the sovereign. And we are confessing that not only does He have the right or authority, but he also has an undefeatable and irresistible power to do whatever seems just and good to him.

He has the power and the authority to do all his holy will. See, those two are closely related but different. You can have authority to do something, but lack the power in the moment to do it. Our policemen are like that. Anytime the bad guy gets away, the police have the authority to deal with him, but they just lack the power in that case.

You can also have power and not authority, and we see that in our police as well. They do all sorts of things that they have the power to do, but they lack the authority to do. And we call that, that's, then they're breaking the law, then that's, they're being tyrants. So, but we're confessing the faith, our faith, we're coming into agreement with what the scripture says about Christ and God that he has all authority and all power to do all his holy will as he and he alone sees fit. So Job could express That the Lord gives and the Lord takes away Blessed be the name of the Lord because he has all all power and all authority to do as he sees fit and We seek our help We're also confessing that we seek our help from God alone.

That we rely upon Him and seek help from Him and only Him. Because the Kingdom and the power are his, we can address ourselves to him with confidence and with a certain hope in his ability to supply all of our needs, all that we are asking. This is also, this last conclusion is also an expression of praise, right? Just as we saw in the opening of the prayer, hallowed be your name, an expression of praise. This is a concluding expression of praise.

All glory belongs to Him. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever world without end as it says in the glory of Patriot or or For eternity these things are true into eternity that that word there forever for yours is the kingdom And the power and the glory forever is a is literally into the ages, but it's the way the Greek expresses forever into the ages into all the ages But what I would like to focus Most on this morning is the third thing that Christ is teaching us in In prayer about prayer in this conclusion Not only a confession of faith and a doxology, but that in our prayers we should bring arguments. We should bring arguments. We need to argue. Now you might be wondering, is it right to argue with God?

People do it, but it's usually in their times of doubt or perplexity. I believe that it is proper to argue with God. And we ought to argue with God in our prayers. Now by argue I don't mean disputing with God, I mean the other meaning of the word argue. The more classical meaning of the word argue.

To reason, to offer reasons to support or overthrow a proposition or opinion is the way Webster defines it. It's to offer reasons to support or to overthrow a proposition or an opinion or a judgment, as to argue in favor of a measure or to argue against it. It's to offer reasons why something ought to be done. And my goal this morning is very simply to show that this is the way all the saints of the Bible prayed. This is the way the prayers that are recorded in Scripture of the saints of God, this is the way they prayed.

This is the way that Christ is teaching us to pray when he says, for, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For, that word is because. You could also say because. We are asking all these things because there's a reason for what we are asking this and these are the reasons. Your kingdom your power and your glory.

Now when we make a request of other people, whether that's a court in a formal complaint, which we call a lawsuit, or whether that's an appeal to our civil magistrates in a certain situation such as we do around legislative season like now. Or whether it's an informal appeal to somebody in our family or to our parents if you're a child or to your employer if you're an employee. Whenever we make requests of people, we attach reasons for why it would be good for them to do it. How it will save them money or make more money or how it will benefit them in some other way or or how it will benefit us and we know that they want to do things that would benefit us. See we do this we do these reasons for the benefit of whoever it is we are trying to persuade.

It's for their benefit that we do it. We do it so they can understand something that they might not understand But that's not why we fill our mouth with arguments when we pray. We're not trying to Tell God or convince God the Lord of something that he didn't already know in fact that this verse this text says in verse 8 that the Father already knows the things that we have needed before we ask Him. But we're still to ask Him because the Lord wants us to ask Him of the things that we need. It's for our sake that we need to ask the Lord, and it's for our sake that we need to bring these arguments in our prayer, these reasons, we need to attach reasons to the things that we are requesting.

Not for God's sake, not trying to convince God of something he didn't already know. We're not trying to change his mind. God doesn't need to be persuaded of what we need, just like he doesn't need to be informed of what we need. Rather, rather, This is for our sake. And supplying arguments reveals our motives for asking, why do we want the Lord to do thus and so?

See, when we have to provide arguments, then it reveals what is motivating us. It reveals our purpose in asking. It requires us to articulate these reasons and in articulating them to examine them in the light of scriptures. Do we find scriptural support for the things that we are asking? Are they proper things that we are asking?

Have you ever if you parents have you ever listened to the reasons your children give when they ask for something? The reasons that they give for asking for something reveal what they are thinking, what they value. Or if they're more sophisticated, older children, it will reveal what message our children are receiving from us about what we value and what we think is important. And then they will parrot that back as their reasons. You see, supplying arguments ensures our sincerity and our interest in what we are seeking.

It makes us care about what we are seeking. That we are willing to put some thought and effort into the request. It attaches importance to what we are asking. And it causes us to evaluate our request in the light of Scripture. But it also stirs our hearts and builds fervency in prayer.

It builds devotion, It builds diligence, it builds persistency, it builds tenacity and perseverance. Supplying arguments or reasons for a petition is really second nature in most of what we do as people, whether it's formally in work, in the government, or just in our family, when we truly desire something, we think about what we want, why we want it, and what arguments would be most persuasive and convincing to those that we are petitioning. And we really ought to take the same, give the same regard and thought and work and diligence in our prayer. After all, our requests of our creator and king ought to be far weightier than anything we might ask of our fellow people. And So what arguments then are proper in prayer?

The text gives arguments that are based on the attributes of God. That is one big area of arguments that are very proper, the attributes of God. And I'd like to look this morning, just look at the prayers of the Scriptures and how the saints whose prayers are recorded in the Bible, that's what they have done. And so in Genesis 18, Abraham pleads the righteousness of the judge of the earth as a basis for his request that Sodom and Gomorrah not be destroyed. He doesn't just say, dear God, please don't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and keep Lot safe and spare Lot.

He never mentions Lot in his prayer, but I suspect that is the basis. That was one of the motivations for his prayer was that he knew Lot was in those cities. But he never mentions Lot's name. He doesn't argue on the basis of Lot and that Lot is a great person and Lot ought to be saved and Lot is his Nephew and you know that would the Lord save his family. That's not the basis of his argument Abraham's argument in Genesis 18 23 is is based on the attributes of God.

He says in verse 23, And Abraham came near and said, Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were... Now why is he asking that question? Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? He's setting up an argument based on God's attribute, God's righteousness.

Would you destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" See his argument there? Well, he's speaking to the Lord, he's praying to the Lord, and he's saying, shall not the judge of all the earth judge with perfect righteousness? And would it be a righteous thing to slay the righteous with the wicked He pleaded based on the righteousness of God that God would not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people in there because God is righteous and he would not do such an unrighteous thing and then notice How how his success God says no he would not destroy it?

For the sake of 50 righteous and notice how his success in the first petition then gives him the encouragement to continue He asked He then humbly proceeds He goes all the way to ten before stopping He goes cautiously from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 and then to 10. But never, never in this whole time does he presume on God's grace. Never is it the arrogant argument of one who is demanding something because he deserves it. But it is just the opposite. It's the contrite and humble argument of one who is asking for something he doesn't deserve.

It's the argument of one who is in dust and ashes. He said, Behold, I have taken it upon me to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes. That was his position, that of humility, as he brought these arguments these mighty arguments About the justice of God Is God ever going to do something that is unjust? Absolutely not. Because God's justice, His righteousness is immutable, it's unchangeable.

God will never do something unjust. So Abraham pleads on this basis that God would spare the city of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were but 10 righteous people in that city. Jehoshaphat Pleaded based on the sovereignty of God in 2 Chronicles 20 in verses 3 beginning in verse 3 Jehoshaphat pleaded the sovereignty of God when the Edomites, the Moabites and the Ammonites invaded Judah. These are all relatives you might say of Jehoshaphat. Edom are descended from Esau.

Esau was the brother of Jacob from whom from whom Jehoshaphat is descended through the tribe of Judah, Jacob's son. Moab and Ammon are the children of Lot, who is a nephew of Abraham. So they have a common relative in Tira's father. 2 Chronicles 23, Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court. And he said, O Jehovah God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the earth? And is and in your hand is there not power and might so that no one is able to withstand you? See, he's setting up an argument here based on the sovereignty of God.

He rules over all the nations. There is now power and might that's able to withstand him. Are you not God who drove out the inhabitants of the land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham your friend forever? There he's arguing based on on God's dealings with His people. And they dwelt in it and have built a sanctuary for it in your name, saying, if disaster comes upon us, sword, judgment, pestilence, famine, we will stand before this temple and in your presence For your name is in this temple.

He reminds the Lord and cry out to you in your affliction and you will hear and save He's arguing here God's past dealings with his people and now here are the people of Moab Ammon and Mount Seir whom you would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt But they turned from them and did not destroy him and here they are Rewarding us by coming to throw us out of your possession which you have given us to inherit. Oh our God, will you not judge them? See, his basis there is first the sovereignty of God. You are sovereign over all of these people, these nations. There is no power that cannot withstand you.

And in the past you didn't let us destroy this nation and now they are rewarding our kindness toward them with Seeking to throw us out of the land that you gave us. He's arguing God's past dealings with his people. And now all Judah with their little ones, their wives and their children, stood before the Lord. He reminds God that it was God himself who had not allowed Israel to destroy the Edomites. He was providing reasons here.

He appeals to the tender love of God for his children in pleading the plight of God's people and their inability to defend themselves. Because God is a God of loving kindness and tender mercy. That's another attribute of God in addition to His sovereignty, in addition to His righteousness. And He says, we are helpless we are defenseless against them He builds a case Much like a counselor at law would build a case before a judge or a jury there is passion there is fervency in his pleading with God. We also see the saints not only pleading and arguing on the basis of the attributes of God and God's dealings with his people in history but also on the promises of God.

The promises of God. David pleads the promise of God To establish his house in his prayer that God would establish his house in his kingdom He but before he begins that prayer before he gets to that petition He begins with lengthy praise that is focused On the attributes of God in 2 Samuel 7, beginning at verse 18, he begins with prayer, the specific arguments of his prayer in verse 21. He says, For your word's sake and according to your own heart, you have done all these great things to make your servant known them. Therefore, you are great, O Lord Jehovah, for there is none like you, nor is there any God beside you according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people?

You're like Israel, the one nation on earth whom God wants to redeem for himself as his people. Who is like them? To make for himself a name, and to do for yourself great and awesome deeds for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, the nations and their gods. He's reminding the Lord of his prior dealings with his people But also of what God what God has done and intends to do what he has promised to do He's promised to make this nation a great nation For you have made your people Israel your very own people forever and your Lord your Jehovah have become their God." See he's simply praising the Lord at this point, ascribing to the Lord the glory that's due his name, remembering his glorious works and his mercy, past mercy, to his people. And it's only then after this lengthy praise that he gets to his request that God would bless his house, and he argues for that on the basis of God's promise.

See we ought to pray very boldly and confidently for God to do the things that He has promised to do. We ought to be very confident to pray that God would do the things that He has promised to do. God has promised to do them. We bring those promises to the Lord and ask Him to do as He has promised. Does He not know the things that we need?

Of course not. He knows. He knows. He wants us to ask Him. And He says that we don't have because we don't ask.

Now if there are prerequisites, we should be willing to do those, and we should be sure we are fulfilling those. But then David goes on to get to the heart of his request. Now Lord God the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning this house establish it forever and do as you have said." There is the basis of his prayer. There is his argument based on God's promise what God has said he would do. So let your name be magnified forever saying Jehovah of hosts is the God over Israel and let the house of your servant David be established before you For you Oh Jehovah of hosts God of Israel have revealed this to your servant saying I will build you a house He's just praying back to God what God had told him he would do.

He doesn't say, oh God has said he's going to do that so I'll just wait around and wait for God to do what he said he's going to do. No, no. David takes those very words and turns them into the basis of his prayer, a prayer that he offers with fervency, with passion, with intensity. He pleads with the Lord to do as the Lord has said he would do. See this is one of the great bases that we have for prayer with regard to our children.

Our children who have received the sign of the covenant that in that sign God promises to be God to us and to our children. And so we can plead on the basis of the covenant promise in baptism that God would be a God to our children. That's what David is pleading here on the basis of God's covenant promise. See, and that's a great disadvantage in the sense that those who do not have God's covenant sign upon their children cannot bring that argument. He says, and now Lord God, you are God and your words are true and you have promised this goodness to your servant.

He keeps coming back in his request to that God has promised to do this and God is good he brings to God's Attributes in there if God is good and God has promised to do this and Lord God Please do it now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue before you forever. For you, O Lord Jehovah, have spoken it, and with your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed forever." That's verse 29. Notice the fervency of his prayer, but also how all his arguments focus on God. It's who God is, He's good. It's what He has done and it's what He has promised.

That's the heart and soul of his prayer. It's nothing about himself. It's nothing about, Lord, I need this, or I would like this. His arguments are for God's glory, that God would do as he has promised. Jacob, likewise, pleads the promises of God when faced with Esau's possible destructive vengeance on his return to Canaan.

You remember Jacob had deceived Esau and stolen away the birthright from their father Isaac. And Esau was bent on revenge. And Jacob had to flee to Rebekah's home in Syria. And now he is coming back probably 20 some years later. He's coming back.

And Esau has come out to meet him. And Jacob is a different person than the one that went out there. And Jacob is afraid. He is afraid of what Esau might do to him for what he did to Esau years ago. And so he pleads to the Lord for deliverance.

But he pleads on the basis of what God has said earlier that he would do, that he would make his descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea. You see, if Esau wipes out his family, Then there would be no family left to make as numerous as the sea and so in Genesis 32 verse 9 Jacob says oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac Jehovah who said to me return to your country and to your family and I will deal well with you. He's going right back to Lord you promised this is what you told me to do this is what you promised you promised that you would do well. I am not worthy of the least of all of the mercies or of the truth which you have shown your servant for I Crossed over this Jordan with my staff and now I have become two companies Deliver me I pray from the hand of my brother From the hand of Esau for I fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children." Here's his argument, "'For you said, I will surely treat you well, and I will make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

And God delivered him. And God delivered him. And their reunion was amicable. And Esau received the gifts that Jacob brought him. Moses argues another reason, another argument that we can use in our prayer is the name of God.

The name or the reputation of God. He argues based on this name or reputation of God, if you will, when Israelites sinned against God in the matter of the golden calf. Moses pleaded that God would not destroy them because of His name. And what the Egyptians might say if the people he delivered from their land perished in the wilderness. In other words, he comes to the Lord and says, Lord, if you destroy these people as you've just said you're going to do for this wicked sin that they've committed against you, if you do that then all these nations are going to lose respect.

They're going to think, well, you delivered them out of the land, and then you couldn't keep them in the wilderness. After these ten plagues that you did upon the land of Egypt, They have a great fear of your name. They fear you. They've seen what you've done. You've brought their nation to their knees without one sword, without one person lifting a hand.

And now they all die in the wilderness They're gonna say they're gonna lose that fear at reverence of your name that awe of your name He says now there God said now therefore Let me alone that My wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you, " he said to Moses, a great nation. And Moses pleaded with the Lord, with Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why does your wrath burn against your people whom you have brought out of Egypt with a great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say, he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountain, to consume them in the face of the earth? Hezekiah says it brings a similar argument. God's name when Assyria marched against Israel.

His prayer is recorded in Isaiah 37 beginning at verse 15. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, O Jehovah of hosts, Lord sabbathoth, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim You are God you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth you have made heaven and earth See he opens there with praise Praise warms our heart to the greatness and the glory and the power of God. It goes on, incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear, open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see, hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. You can read all those words earlier in this chapter about what he said in his letter. It was a proud and blasphemous letter.

Truly, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands. They have cast their gods into the fire, for they weren't gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, that's why they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, save us from Sennacherib, that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that you are Jehovah, you alone. See this basis there wasn't our families or you know we're going to be destroyed but Lord do this so that all the nations might know that you are alone are Jehovah. See alone are Jehovah.

See, Hezekiah took that letter and he laid it out before the Lord, the letter that Rabsheka sent. He laid it out before the Lord and he used that as the basis, the argument, why God should destroy the Assyrian army and deliver Israel. Elijah does the same thing in Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Verse 36, Elijah prayed To God to send fire from heaven that everyone who assembled there might know that Jehovah is God He says Remember all day the priest of Baal have been cutting themselves and drawing blood and crying out to their God, O Baal. They're praying to a demon.

They're cutting themselves because that is what demons require of them. They require blood sacrifices of those that worship them in a blasphemous mockery of what Christ offered. So they have been doing this all day praying to their demon Baal. Then Elijah at the time of the evening sacrifice says, Lord Jehovah God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me that these people might know that Jehovah is God.

And God answered his prayer. Elijah was a man of like passions with us. And he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain. And he prayed that it would right after this. He prayed that it would rain.

And it did rain. And James says, the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. And the fervent and effectual prayer of the righteous is a prayer that is filled with arguments Now Jeremiah pleads on the basis of the sorrow of God's people. That is another reason that we see the saints lifting up to God as an argument in prayer, the sorrow of God's people. In Lamentation 5, that whole chapter, Jeremiah pleads for the Lord's mercy on the basis of the sorrow of his people.

He spends that whole chapter listing the sorrows of God's people. Sorrows that came because of their sin. Sorrows that God had promised to send if they disobeyed. Nevertheless, Jeremiah recounts the sorrows as a reason for God to bring salvation. He says, look on our reproach.

Our inheritance is given to aliens, our houses to foreigners. We've become orphans and waifs. Naves, our mothers, are like widows. He's recounting the sorrows of God's people. We pray, we pay for the water that we drink.

That's a sorrow. That's in Jeremiah's eyes. That was a sorrow. Many of us pay for the water that we drink. But see in that day when everyone had their own well, paying for the water you drink would be like us paying for the air that we breathe.

We might be coming to that. It's the sorrow And it's a sorrow to have to pay for the water we drink too, in some ways. Meaning we have to get it in measured amounts. He says, we labor and we have no rest. Servants rule over us.

People, in other words, that are not of noble and dignified character. Sounds like our politicians. We risk our lives for bread. Our skin is hot with famine. Our women are ravished.

Princes are hung up by their hands, a sign of shame that those who rule are treated in an undignified way, strung up by their hands, like Saul and his sons were hung up. Young men grind at the millstones, hard drudgery. Boys stagger under loads, child labor. These are the lamentations, these are the sorrows that Jeremiah lifts up. The elders have ceased gathering at the gate.

There is no more civil order. The young men don't gather at the music. There's no more music, which is often a source of joy and comfort of pleasure The joy of our heart has ceased our dance has turned into mourning the crown has fallen from our head woe woe into us Yes, we have sinned And because of this our heart is faint. Because of these our eyes grow dim. Because of Mount Zion which is desolate with foxes walking about on it.

You O Lord remain forever. You're thrown from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever and forsake us for so long? Turn back. Turn us back to you O Jehovah and we will be restored.

Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and are very angry with us." You see, There's His prayer, turn us, revive us. And He lists all of these sorrows of God's people. Now the other thing that we ought to argue in our prayer is the suffering, the death, the merit, and the intercession of Jesus Christ. It's on that basis that we have everything that we have. And Jesus taught us that whatever we ask in His name, that whatever we ask on His account, that whatever we ask because He is righteous, because He is holy, because He is worthy of everything that we ask, we can ask in His name.

So we ought to do that. David calls all of this that we've been talking about, these filling our mouths with arguments, he calls it ordering our cause. David put it in Psalm 5-3, In the morning, I will direct my prayer unto you and will look up. Which means that he composed himself. He gathered his thoughts so that he focused his prayers on a specific target like an archer shooting arrows He's aiming at something specifically It wasn't just a random prayer wasn't just random things but rather he he directed there was a focus to his prayer.

Job says in Job 23, beginning at verse 3 and 4, Oh, that I might know where I might find him, Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat. I would present my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments." That's Job's prayer. Job didn't have the spirit of a slave in bondage. But Job had the loving reverence of a child, not a sassy child, but a teachable, obedient child honoring his father and therefore asking earnestly, but with boldness and confidence, filling his mouth with arguments. He had the spirit of sonship, the spirit of adoption.

A teachable, obedient child, boldly, confidently asking of God, filling his mouth with arguments but with a deferential submission to his father's will maybe remember he said the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord whether he's giving or he's taking away. That's the deferential submission to his will, but he also had that spirit of adoption that he said, oh, that I might find the Lord, that I might fill my mouth with arguments. May we then learn to plead the justice, the mercy, the righteousness, the patience, the tenderness of God, to find every attribute to be as it were a great battering ram with which we may open the gates of heaven. The gates of heaven. See, ordering our cause puts together this deep humility which recognizes prayer as being real conversation with an invisible God who dwells in unapproachable light, with a much distinctness in what we are asking for, asking for what we want, much fervency, believing that our petition is necessary to be determined, and that it will lead to the glory of God.

And adding to that great boldness that we dare to ask great things of God. Things that are too hard for us to imagine because we worship a great God who has given us great and precious promises to do great and mighty things. And yet all of this in submission to the will of God. This is what it is, brothers and sisters, to order our cause before the Lord, to fill our mouth with arguments. May God enable us to do this in our prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for these examples of prayer. We pray that you would, through them, encourage us to greater boldness and greater confidence in our prayers that you would encourage us to greater Aggressiveness and to seek greater things of you indeed things that are far beyond our imagination to do, nor they are not beyond your power. So we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to your power and to the great things that you have promised to do, and that you would encourage us through these examples to copy them and to imitate them. For these things have been written for our examples, that we through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope. These have been written for our learning.

We ask the Lord that you would teach us this morning through Jesus Christ. Amen.