One Absolute Necessity

One Absolute Necessity: NV 2/6/05 a.m. (Luke 5:12-16/Jm 4)

OS: 1 & 2 Text – Luke 5:12-16

I.       3 How can I be a better disciple of Jesus?

A.     We see His compassion – grasps the man.

                       1.       Picture – the man is on the ground in front of Jesus – it appears to me that Jesus reaches down, lifts up the man, probably puts His arm around him drawing him close as says, “I am willing – be clean”.

B.     Notice verse 16, Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness to pray.

                       1.       Here we find the #1 absolute necessity to be a disciple of Jesus.

                       2.       If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray!

II.    Have you ever read through the Bible in search of certain facts about a specific subject?

A.     Unimportant Facts?

                       1.       The first roll of toilet paper was introduced in 1871.

                       2.       A stack of one dollar bills one mile high would be worth more than 14 million dollars.

                       3.       Americans send 900 million Valentine’s Day cards each year.

                       4.       The celebration of Valentines Day started in the time of the Roman Empire.

                       5.       A Quarter has 119 grooves on its circumference. A dime has one less.

                       6.       The sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.

                       7.       It is humanly impossible to lick your elbow. After hearing it is humanly impossible to lick your elbow 82% will try to lick their elbow.

B.     4 Important facts about prayer:

                       1.       :You don’t have a failure in your life but what it is a prayer failure.

                       2.       :You don’t have a sin in your life but what prayer could have prevented.

                       3.       :You don’t have a genuine need in your life that couldn’t be met through fervent believing prayer.

C.     5 If there’s anything that everyone needs to do, it is to learn how to pray.

                       1.       The man who can pray can do anything, - prayer can do anything that God can do, and God can do anything.

                       2.       Our desperate need in these days is to link our lives with the omnipotent God, who has called upon us and told us to pray.

                       3.       Jesus said, “Ask and ye shall receive,” and James says, “You have not because you ask not.”

III. This morning we will focus on the #1 Absolute Necessity for being a disciple of Jesus.

                       1.       If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray.

                       2.       Text: 6 – 8 James 4:1-10

TS] 9 If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray, and to pray you must…

I.       :You must first get rid of Pride. (vs.2b, You do not have because you do not ask.)

A.     Thought: We don’t ask because we think we don’t need any help. Pride.

                       1.       God wants to give us what we need. But we’re so presumptuous. We’re so proud. We’re so self-sufficient that we go about in our own strength: fighting, warring, scheming, planning, hating, killing, conniving, striving, trying in our own way to get the things we think we need.

                       2.       We cannot be a disciple of Jesus by ourselves! We are in the people business and the people business takes power that is beyond what we have in and of ourselves.

                       3.       Prayer links us to the omnipotent power of God.

B.     As a little boy was playing he was trying to move a big rock. He strained, grunted, worked and heaved. His little muscles were bulging and there was perspiration on his face. And he was biting his tongue and just trying to move that big rock. His father was watching and said to him, “Son, are you giving it all you got?” And the little boy said, “Yes, Daddy, I’m trying my hardest” And his dad said, “No you’re not. You haven’t asked me to help you.”

                       1.       Sometimes we are burdened down with weighty problems and we strive and we cry and we fight and we war and we wrangle and we’re saying I’m doing everything I know to do.

                       2.       Have you asked your Father to help? Have you linked your life with His?

                       3.       Could it be that God wants to bless you and the reason that God is not blessing you could be so simple?  You do not have because you do not ask.

C.     When we get to heaven, if we are allowed to know, we will be surprised at all the pain we endured simply because we didn’t ask.

                       1.       Song, Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

                       2.       10 “If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it, you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.”

                       3.       Consider the example of Jesus – Critics, “He is out there by Himself, when He could be healing the sick.”

D.     There is no substitute for prayer – not energy, not enthusiasm, not eloquence, not intellect. Not even ministry. There is no substitute for prayer. Your life and my life is no greater than our prayer life.

TS] 11 If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray; in order to pray you must get rid of pride, and secondly…

II.    :Pray the right prayer. (vs. 3, “you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend in on your passions. Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God?”)

A.     The language here is very strong. He is not talking about marriage with each other, but our marriage with God.

                       1.       Illustrate with the picture of marriage: A young man and woman are married. Then the young woman finds another man and begins an adulterous relationship with that other man. Then she comes to her husband and says, “I need the car this weekend” or “I need some money”, etc.

                       2.       If your life is consumed with the lust of the world don’t expect God to subsidize your sin.

B.     12 James 1 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

                       1.       Trying to mix the world and God is double-minded.

C.     God will provide what we need, and that is sufficient.

TS] 13 If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray; in order to pray you must get rid of pride, pray the right prayer, and finally…

III.  :Pray in submission. (How can we pray and know that our prayers will not be denied?)

A.     Notice the text: Be close to God, draw near to Him, submit to Him, and humble yourselves before the Lord.

                       1.       Do you know why sometimes our prayers are not answered? We are saying not thy will but mine be done. Prayer is not some exercise where you talk God into doing what he doesn’t want to do. You’ll never do that.

                       2.       Prayer is not bending God’s will to fit your will; 14 prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it.

                       3.       How many times is God saying, “If you’d just come closer you wouldn’t even be asking for that.”

B.     Text: Resist the Devil

                       1.       The devil doesn’t mind if we meet here this morning, not at all. He doesn’t mind our worship. The devil doesn’t mind if you do everything except pray.

                       2.       The devil mocks our schemes. The devil laughs at our organization. The devil sneers at our building. But the devil fears our prayers.

                       3.       The devil will do anything he can do to keep you from praying. The devil will even encourage you to read the Bible if it will keep you from praying. The devil will encourage you even to go to church on Sunday morning if it will keep you from praying.

C.     How can we pray and know our prayers will be answered?

                       1.       Let go of this world and take hold of God with both hands? Then, you’ll know power in prayer.

                       2.       15 James 5:16b, “The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.” (why? – because a righteous person has gotten in on the will of God)

TS] 16 If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must learn to pray, and to pray you must get rid of pride, pray the right prayer, and pray in submission - total and complete submission to God.

The baseball game was tied with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The batter stepped into the batting box and made the sign of the cross on home plate with his bat. Yogi Berra, Hall-of-Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, was behind the plate. A Catholic as well, Berra wiped off the plate with his glove and said to the pious batter, "Why don't we let God just watch this game?"

Letting God just watch. Whatever the theology when applied to the outcome of a baseball game, it's terrible theology when applied to the way we live our lives and carry out the work of the church.

If you are living your life without prayer you’re living your life by chance. Don’t leave God out.

$1 yard sale illustration

Every day we have 24 hours. We spend many of our hours on frivolous things, yet we are offered priceless opportunities, such as time alone with our Heavenly Father. The "price" for an hour with him is the same as an hour wasted.

What are you spending your life on?