Sometimes we get to thinking that the disciples and the apostles and the people of the New Testament as well as the Old were something very special, that they had some kind of magical charismatic quality that solved problems before they ever happened. We tend to canonize them and make saints out of them and revere them and worship them. But they were regular, everyday people, as are we. They had problems, just like we have problems. One day the disciples came to Jesus. In the 11th chapter of Luke, you need not turn, for I'll read just one verse, and said, Master, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Now most commentators say that this means that the disciples wanted the Lord to give them the desire to pray. Teach us to be men of prayer. I don't think so. I think that they wanted to know what to say. I think they were like most of us, who plan to pray an hour or two and pray a minute or two and run out of soap and don't know what else to say. If I go to a golf pro and say, teach me to play golf, I'm not saying teach me to want to play golf or give me the desire to play golf. I already have that. That's why I went. I'm saying show me how to do it. They were not saying teach us to want to pray. They wanted to pray. They said teach us to pray. Show us what to do. I find it difficult to believe that those who lived and walked and ate and prayed with Jesus themselves had a problem at knowing how to pray. But indeed, they did. I was in my office Wednesday night after a church with a fine young man. He said when I told him, let's have a word of prayer. Preacher, I don't know how to pray. Tell me how to pray. Teach me what I ought to say. Today, I am going to do a little book review, frankly, and for the next two or three Sunday nights, talk to you about some of the high spots from my little book on prayer and see if we can learn well anew how to pray. Now, Brother Frank, I'm not going to conclude my prayer, my soul winning series Wednesday. As a matter of fact, I'll need to have two or three more Wednesday nights. But I am concerned that there are three or four or five things as a church that become very basic with us. We are going to have to read and study and love the Word of God. We'll not get far until we are a people of the book. And beginning Genesis on the first Sunday of September, College Sunday, I'm going to start just preaching through the book verse by verse and chapter by chapter. We are going to have to become a people with whom God can trust blessings from the financial standpoint. And we need to be tithers. We need to have a solid financial basis in our church. We need to be witnesses, and we're talking about that on Wednesday nights. Then we need to become a great church of prayer. And so in these first months and early years of what I hope to be a long ministry with you, I want us to solidify and crystallize some things that are basic to our faith. We need better to learn how to pray. I do not set myself up as a grand teacher of how to pray. I wrote a book on the subject once, and it has met with great success. I think the reason, however, is that it's sold over 100 ,000 copies is that it has a unique title. It's called The Power of Positive Prey. And most people pick it up, and they say, Norman Vincent Bassano, who's that? And they get all the way through before they find out that I wrote it. And I'm not going to tell them any different. Incidentally, I have in my files a letter from a woman in a hospital in Massachusetts saying that her Catholic priest recommended it to her, that it was a good book. Well, when I got that, I went back and re -read it trying to see if I had made a mistake or something. But anyway, I want to share with you probably for two and maybe three Sunday nights in a row beginning tonight, a little bit about prayer. Now, I find that if I'm going to be qualitative in prayer, I must personally be quantitative in prayer. The Bible says we are not heard for our much speaking. It also says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, emphasizing the quality of the prayer. And frankly, in most people's lives, that is an excuse not to pray very much. You may have a different way, and if you do, I am glad. Maybe you can remain in an attitude of prayer, and that is good. But I have found in my own personal life that for me to have power with God, I must spend time in prayer. I just cannot get the job done in a minute or two of the right quality of prayer. I hope that my prayer is the right kind of prayer, but I also have to spend some time and have some quantity in prayer. But the truth of the matter is that most of us are relieved when we have a great prayer meeting and only two or three pray and the clock rings 745 and it's time to go home, and I'm glad they didn't get around to me because I wouldn't have known what else to have said. Indeed, most of us pray something like, Lord, we know we're not heard for our much speaking, and I agree with all these others. Lord, you know I feel like it just about like they did, and I say a great amen to what Joe and Bill and Tom and Bob said, and we hang up the phone on the royal line to heaven and say amen. Wouldn't you really like to know how to pray? Wouldn't you like to be able to spend time with prayer? The Bible promises that we can do great things as we become great people of prayer. Our Lord himself has said that we shall do the same things he hath done and greater. I made a statement in passing last Sunday night that I'm sure some of you have been mentally hung up on through the week. I want to augment it a little bit tonight. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. He was, however, limiting himself, though he didn't have to. He was limiting himself temporarily to the powers of the flesh. Now what can the flesh do? What can redeemed flesh do? What can a born -again human being? I'm not a God. I'm not God in the flesh. I'm just a sinner who has been saved by grace. And so I cannot draw on any particularly godly qualities that are innately mine. I must, as a human being, as a physical person, pray to God. You see, I am living in the physical confines of a physical body. Jesus could have acted as God if he wanted to. But for 33 years, he was acting as a man depending upon God. Are you with me? You see, Jesus Christ limited himself. He could have spoken divine words. He did not have to just say, Lazarus, come forth. He could have said, come forth, and acted as God, and everyone in the graveyard would have come forth. But he had to exercise faith in God. And the same kind of faith I can exercise. And I can pray down the power of God. He was not doing anything that was innately his because he was God. He was acting as a man depending upon God. Why did he pray all night? Because he had to pray all night. He was living as a man. And I submit to you that that must be the case or else the words of Jesus Christ were a farce when he said to his followers, you can do the same thing I'm doing. Although you are not gods, you have the same power of God at your disposal. If you'll pray as I pray, if you'll live as I live, if you'll believe as I believe, if you'll depend upon God as I depend upon God. So if God, if Jesus Christ prayed all night and drew on the power of God and says to us, there's no need for us to be spiritual beggars. This town is ours for the taking. It can be one for Christ. We can pray down the answer to every problem we have. When he says to us, you can do what I've done and then some, he must be teasing us and joking us unless he means it. And I don't believe he was doing that. And I submit to you that the world has yet to see what God could do with a group of people who would pray and pray and pray. Oh, what God will do. We must learn to spend time in prayer. I have found in my own personal life that there are some frameworks, there is a framework upon which I can hang my prayer, so to speak. There are some steps, there are some plans that I try to follow, and it helps me. The first step when I try to pray is to praise God. The second is to thank God. Most people begin their prayer by confessing their sins. Now the Bible says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And so we think that this means if I have any sin in my heart, God won't hear my prayer, so I've got to confess my sins the very first thing. The word regard does not really mean if I have iniquity in my heart, God won't hear me, else we could never pray because we always have sin in our lives. None of us are perfect. It means if I have literally a regard for sin in my heart, if I love that sin, if I retain it in my heart, if I covet it in my heart, if I desire it in my heart, and uncompromisingly keep it there, unwilling to forsake it, then I'm wasting my time. In other words, I'm going to have to come clean with God. And I believe that if God knows, and He does, that we're going to confess our sin further down in our prayer, it's just as good to do it there as at the beginning. And I suggest that and recommend it for this reason. What you do the very first thing when you begin to pray is going to help get you in a good attitude and a good frame of mind where you'll enjoy praying. And if you start off by the confession of your sins, something that is pessimistic and negative and distasteful and unpleasant, you will not enjoy your prayer, and it'll be hard to spend much time in prayer. I like to start off with the most exciting, wonderful, grand thing in all of the world. I found that a service is like that. You can start off slow and quiet, and it's kind of hard to ever build up. I like to start a service off exciting and on high. I like to do anything like that. When I'm meeting someone, I like to be my best. I'm glad to see you. God bless you. We're glad you're here. Don't start low and try to work up. Start up high and just take off and keep on going from there. Now, the most wonderful thing in prayer, the grandest launching pad of all, is the wonderful experience of praising the Lord. I want you to notice by turning in your Bibles over to the Psalms, very quickly to Psalm chapter 100, the 100th Psalm, verse 4, that there is a difference in praising God and in thanking God. Psalm 100, verse 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless or praise his name. In David's day, they lived in a home, a castle, an area that was surrounded by a courtyard. Now, there was the inner court and the outer court. In the outer court, there were the gates. People could come in through the gates. Merchants could pass through the gates. Traveling salesmen entered through the gates. Strangers trespassed easily through the gates. Anyone could do that. He says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is very normal, you see. It's very easy. It's the natural thing to do. We even have prayers of thanksgiving that we memorize and teach in the schools. We have, or used to. We have national holidays set aside for thanksgiving. Everybody thanks God. So he is saying, I think, in a sense, that you can come into his gates with thanksgiving. You can be a peripheral Christian with a generalized relationship. But he said if you want to come intimately in the presence of God, if you would go a step further, then, he said, you're going to have to come in to the court. That's where the king lives. Not just anybody can go into the courts. Not just anybody can get into the inner circle. It's a little bit special. It's a little bit beyond entering in to the external gates. He says that you do this with praise. In other words, it is to go a step beyond thanksgiving. Now the second step of thanksgiving must follow the first of praise. What does it mean to praise God? Well, there are several things. I believe the best definition of praising God is one that I heard an old country preacher over in Arkansas once say. He said, praising the Lord simply means to brag on Jesus. It just means to brag on Jesus. Now I can brag on Frank and Frank can brag on me and we can brag on each other and we can just lie like 60 and flatter ourselves to death and get it all out of proportion and say things that aren't true. But you know, when you're bragging on the Lord, you're on safe ground. Who can extol the Lord beyond measure? Who can pronounce all of his benefits? How much can you say? Brother Gerald, the greatest music in all of the world to me is music about Jesus Christ. It's music that honors the King. It's music that says, praise God. That's why I love to God be the glory. That's why how great the Lord has become so popular, Lou. It praises God. It focuses on God in Christ. It magnifies him. Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. Now to magnify means to pull out of proper proportion, but you and I cannot over magnify the Lord to extol him, to increase, to praise, to brag on him. Look with me over in the 34th Psalm. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast. That means to brag in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Now look back there again in that second verse. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. What a wonderful opportunity it is for the Christian to magnify the Lord, to begin by praising God. Now you say, preacher, how do you praise the Lord? What do you do? Do you just get out on your knees and start saying, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord over and over again? There are three things that help me in praising the Lord. And you know, it's a wonderful experience. You can't frown to save your life when you praise the Lord. People go to church and they sit there sometimes and look like a calf looking at a new red gate. Did you ever see a calf looking at a new gate? I'll tell you the only thing worse than that is a horse looking at a bunch of water. I went riding yesterday and we came up to some running water and that horse just stood there. I mean, he wouldn't go. And when we started backing up, friend, it was Katie barred the door. That thing wouldn't move. Now a lot of Baptists come to church like that. They just won't move. They look like they've been weaned on sour pickles or they look like they've been drinking buttermilk out of a churn or they've lost their best friend. And they sing, day is dying in the West. And look at them. That isn't all that's dying in the West. And they just sit there. You know, if some of you folks would learn to praise the Lord, if you'd start off your day praising the Lord, if you'd come to church praising the Lord, it'd change your life. It'd cut down your ulcers. It'd cut down your bunions. It'd cut down your pity for pity rust formal valley. That's dandruff. It'd just do everything for you. If you'd learn to praise the Lord. A lot of people I learned, boy, I hadn't been in this man's town, Frank, five days till I learned. There are some folks at First Baptist, you just don't ask, how you doing? They'll tell you. Oh, my soul. Some people, I wouldn't ask, how are you, before I came in to preach for all the money in the world. I'd come up here dragging to death. Some people look at a glass, and it's half full. Some of them see it half empty. Some people, you say, isn't it a great day today? Yeah, but I'll bet it'll be lousy before it's over. Isn't the sunshine beautiful today? Yes, but remember, it rained yesterday. They're just that way. You know how the best way is for some of you all, some of you sourpuss Baptists who need to get sweet, to learn to praise the Lord. Some people get up in the morning, as I've said. They look out the window, and they say, good morning, Lord. Some look out the window and they say, good Lord, morning. Now, how do you start off? The way you approach things. You aim at nothing, you hit it right on the head. You expect trouble, you're not disappointed. You come not expecting a blessing, you don't get it. I wish everybody in this church would come to every service we have at First Baptist with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. And when Gerald says it's time to begin singing, don't get up as he said and lean on your bum leg and lean on your arm and mumble through the song. My, for heaven's sake, stand up. Pull those books high. Open up and sing to God be the glory. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You ought to start off your services like that. You ought to start off your day like that. Ought to start off your morning like that. Ought to start off your prayers like that. That takes 67 muscles in the face to frown. And some of you got wrinkles on your wrinkles from frowning. It only takes 19 muscles in the face to smile. Oh, it's so much easier. Learn to smile. And you know, you cannot frown and say, praise the Lord. Lord, I want you to do it. Come on, look at me now. Get that scowl on there like you do when I announce that we're going to take up another offering. Come on, get it. And say, praise the Lord. Oh, you just can't do it. Come on, let's all frown. Praise the Lord. Say it. Come on. Pray. See, it won't come out. It just won't come out. It just gets stuck in the middle of your throat. Ah, but when you get up with a smile on your face and say, praise the Lord, it'll come out like that. Say it, folks. Praise the Lord. Christians need to praise the Lord. Now, you can't have trouble doing that. You can overdo it and get in trouble. Heard about a fellow who bought a horse from an old Baptist preacher. Now, he said, fellow, before you take this horse, I want you to know that I've taught him a little bit of religious talk. He doesn't say, giddy up to start and, whoa, to stop. When he, you want him to get up, you say, praise the Lord. When you want him to stop, you say, amen. So I remember that. He got on his horse and he said, praise the Lord. The thing took off. He said, boy, this is wonderful. He got going and he got about 100 yards from the edge of a cliff. And he got to 50 and he said, whoa, whoa, and he was scared to death, didn't know what to do. And he finally remembered he was supposed to say, amen. And that thing came skidding to a halt right by the edge of the precipice. The old boy walked his brow and said, shoo, praise the Lord. Our erstwhile departed friend never said that again. So be careful. Do it right. But learn to praise the Lord. Don't let anything make you mad. Praise the Lord. Don't let anything get you down. Praise the Lord. Don't ever get sour at folks. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Three things I suggest and we close. Number one, praise the Lord with the Psalms. With the Psalms. The Psalms are the songbook of the Old Testament. They are the pump primer for worship. Almost anywhere at random you can turn in the Psalms and find a scripture that will praise our Lord. You need to do it on your knees. Take a Bible with you when you go to prayer. There on your knees, thumb almost anywhere through the Psalms and read a verse of Psalms. Then close your eyes and memorize it. Say it aloud. Repeat it. Say it again. Over and over. Use the Psalms in helping you praise the Lord. My soul doth magnify the Lord. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Oh, come let us magnify the Lord together. The Psalms are a wonderful resource in praising God. Secondly, praise the Lord in your own words. Now, you can tell me that I did well on something. I can say something nicely about what you have done. We can praise each other. So learn to praise the Lord. Now, remember that praising God is not thanking God. If I have you over for lunch and you say, thank you, preacher. That was a nice lunch. You're thanking me. But if you say you cooked those steaks just right, you're bragging on me. You're praising me. There is a difference in thanking God for what he has done and in praising him. So begin by praising the Lord with the Psalms, with your own words. And then a third way that I found that really helps me in praising the Lord is in music. Oh, I like good music. How I love the singing of the choir and the playing of our great musicians and the wonderful direction of Gerald. And I just can't wait for the months and years to go by and know what I know is going to happen. Some of you don't really know this man and know what we've got down the line, but it'll just get gooder and gooder and gooder every day. So with music, when we come together, that's good to praise the Lord. But on your knees, alone, by yourself, in private, praise the Lord. There are many songs that I just kind of say privately and sing quietly in my heart to say the words of to the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Think of it. All of the manifold blessings of God coming down. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. And think of the angels and the seraphs and the cherubs all joining in praise to God. Praise Father. Praise Son and Holy Ghost. Now there's another song that helps me. It's Revive Us Again. We praise, just pray that to the Lord. Dear Lord, we praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love. That means the fruition, the product, the result of the love of God was Jesus, who has died and praise Him for His death. And now go above. Praise Him for His resurrection. Praise Him for His intercession. Praise Him for His return. Praise Him for His reign. Praise Him for everything He's done. We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of Light, the Holy Spirit, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. That means had not the Holy Spirit come and scattered the night of sin revealed Jesus to me. I would have never seen the Savior. I would have never been saved. And oh, how life would have been dreary. How overshadowed my life would have never been with the flooding joy of God. But only in dreary desolation I would have lived had it not been for the Holy Spirit of God. Praise God for the saints. I thank God every time I come for the saints of God that sacrificed to put every brick in this church down through the years and decades that have gone by in the great history of First Baptist Church. I thank God for our deacons and our teachers and our staff and the blessings of God. We see sometimes as many people saved in a Sunday as a church does in a year. You know we had 7 ,000 Southern Baptist churches that didn't report a convert all of last year. Oh church, are we aware how good God is to us? Can we just helter -skelter go away and eat and laugh and TV when God is so good to us on Sundays? We ought to be serious when we get home and remember and to pray and thank God for what he's doing. You ought to praise God, man, for your little wife, for those precious children, for that good job in your country. Praise God for all of his goodness. I like this one, Gerald. Praise him, praise him. Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing on earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Now church, we're a good singing church. We're not a great singing church yet. I look forward to the day that people walk in here and the power is just bouncing off these walls. We're singing, praise him, praise him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. And a man's hair stands straight up on his head with excitement, with the joy and the thrill and the exuberance. Boy, when you go to a football game, there's a zest and a verb and a vitality and a lift. I believe if you can get excited over 22 men bouncing heads over a little pigskin, we should come and sing extolling praises to the God of glory. Praise him, praise him, praise him, and make the walls reverberate with the glory of God at Sundays on First Baptist Church. I hope you'll stand up Sunday morning. Get those books, get a smile, put your head back, and sing praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, praise him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing on earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him, hail him. Highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor unto the Lord proclaim. Christ is coming over the world victorious. What a day, what a day. Can you stand up and sing coming? I can't do it. I want to sing praise God. That's why I like that ending. Boy, I just come off the platform sometimes. Praise God, the Savior is coming again. Praise him for his second coming.