A Life of Prayer

Intro:

When we were at camp many years ago we had a couple of siblings who came to Sr. High camp which is supposed to be for High Schoolers who are between the ages of 14 to 18. These siblings had recently been adopted from Russia and the boy was 16 and his sister was 15, however the two of them looked like they were 8 or 9. They weren’t little people they had just lived very hard lives. Back in their home country they were severely malnourished and because of this their height and weight was drastically affected. It has always stuck with me how hard their lives had been and how it will affect them both for the rest of their lives. When something like food and water is withheld the body cannot thrive.

I want to make a correlation to our topic of Prayer today. Prayer is a gift granted to us by Christ. We are allowed to go before our Holy God and speak directly to him because Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross tore the veil separating God and Man and Jesus’ spilled blood covers our sins and allows us to confidently come before God. Do you ever find yourself in Awe of that truth. You should. You have the right to stand before a Holy God and speak. A speaker this past week at a conference that Rachel and I attended made this exact point. We often get so apathetic in our prayer lives that we aren’t wowed by the mere fact that we horrible sinners that we are can approach and pray to a Holy God. But Prayer isn’t just a privilege it should be a necessity. When we don’t pray it affects us. We can be so malnourished in prayer that we are actually stunted in our spiritual life, and it doesn’t just affect us in the here and now it will affect us for the rest of our lives if we don’t change the way we look at prayer now.

Today’s common church practice, at least across this country, is for a hour to an hour and a half church service. Some churches go slightly longer and some slightly shorter but the majority of them are about this long. We here tend to try to keep the service from about an hour to an hour and 15 so it is pretty normal as far as time goes. But this has not always been the case historically.

We really have no way of deciphering how long church services were in the early church and we also don’t know specifically what all was included or the time given to each aspect. We know there was some singing, some teaching and some praying, but beyond that it is all speculation.

It is not until the reformation that we start to see church done in a similar way to how we do it today but even then it was far different.

The reformers wanted a clean break from their Catholic upbringing so they attempted to rid themselves of much of what they did. One of those ways was in the prayers prayed. Catholics then and even now pray a series of prayers given them through the Book of Common Prayers for any number of things, Baptism, Communion, and morning prayer, evening prayers etc. This list also included praying to the saints which rightly so the reformists wanted to get away from entirely.

It’s not till the Puritans though that we start to see a real change in the service and specifically the corporate prayer in the church. A Puritan service usually lasted between 2 to 3 hours on Sunday morning and often that amount of time again on Sunday Evening. The service would open with a pastoral prayer usually lasting about 15 mins then a psalm was sung, Scriptures were read and explained and then a hour to two hour long sermon would be given. Then it was closed out with another prayer usually around 15 to 20 mins long.

So today we are going to practice the Puritan Order of Service. Starting Now. I hope you don’t have lunch plans cause we are going to be here till around 1:30. I’m kidding.

Prayer was a big thing in the early church, the Catholic church, and still in the Puritan Church. And there is a reason for it. It was modeled to us by Jesus Himself.

Turn with me to Mark Chapter 1 and read with me verses 35-39.

Prayer Of Jesus

How Jesus Prayed (vs Mark 1:35, Matthew 6:5-8)

Jesus went out early in the morning and prayed. This is a fairly ordinary thing for Him to do, we have lots of examples of Jesus going out to pray. But have you ever really thought about this. Jesus is God, God is Jesus, think about that in reference to Jesus going out to pray. If Jesus is God then who is He praying too? The answer is simply; His Father. Jesus in His humanity needed to pray to His Heavenly Father. This is why we often find Jesus Praying. Prayer for Jesus was like air or water for us. He needed it, it sustained Him. The Authority of Jesus was sustained through the power of Prayer in his life.

Jesus oftentimes departed from the crowds in order to find a place of solitude in order to pray. The Bible records 25 times where Jesus went and prayed. Prayer was a significant part of Jesus’ life and ministry. Here in our passage today we see that it starts out his day. He gets up before the sun is even up in order to spend time in prayer with His Father. And if we are to follow along the line of thought in this passage this act of consistently spending time with His Father is what gets Him ready for what comes next. Namely for Peter to come and say to him that “Everyone is looking for you” and then Jesus moving past this statement to the real act of the day preaching in the next town. And that is what He did. Jesus used His prayer time as a way of replenishing His spiritual readiness and to not pray would mean that He wasn’t ready. Jesus never let Himself become malnourished in prayer.

The Application we should take from this is; if Jesus needed prayer in order to start His day, If Jesus required prayer in order to prepare Himself for the next task on His list, If Jesus yearned for talk to His Father, then shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we feel the effects of our malnourished prayer life? I want to feel the need for prayer in this way. I need to see the effect of my malnourished prayer life. Do you?

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 we get to hear a little bit about how Jesus expects us to pray.

Read Matthew 6:5-8

First off we are not to be like the hypocrites who stand in public places and pray so that they might be seen by men. Instead we are to go into our homes our rooms find solace and then pray. We aren’t to use repetitions or chanting but we are to pray from the heart.

This stuff on prayer is so very simple. There are no rituals to do, no special words to say. There is only talking to the Father who hears our needs and knows them even before we say them.

This is exactly why next he gives us what is labeled as the Lord’s prayer. But let's turn to Luke to read it from there. Not because it is significantly different but because it is used there as a lesson he teaches to the disciples. Those whom Jesus is closest to and whom His relationship is strongest.

Read Luke 11:1-4

What Jesus Prayed (Luke 11:1-4)

Many of us have this prayer memorized. My extended family used to pray it at holidays and most of the kids would just mumble through it but it isn’t just a prayer for special occasions nor is it a prayer which should be prayed daily but instead it is a model of what we should be praying.

The real joy found here is that Jesus doesn’t just leave and pray but He comes back and teaches those around Him how to do it. One author said that Jesus provided them and us with five areas of focus:

That God’s name be honored – the focus on his everlasting glory (“Father, hallowed be your name”);

that God’s kingdom come – the focus on his eternal will (“your kingdom come”);

that God’s provision is given – the focus on our present (“Give us each day our daily bread.”);

that God’s forgiveness is granted – the focus on our past (Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.);

that God’s deliverance will be provided – the focus on our future.

Jesus knew that prayer was “life giving” to Him in His humanity but He also knew how powerful it could be for those whom He was teaching, His disciples. This prayer as I said earlier is not just something for the disciples to recite but it was an example of how to pray to God. And for these disciples this was a brand new concept.

The God that Jesus was expecting them to pray to was a distant God to them, they weren’t priest’s or Levites so they really didn’t have a reason to have a relationship with God but Jesus changed that here in this prayer. First they were to praise God, then seek out His will in their lives, Depend on Him for their every need, Ask for forgiveness and then remember that He delivered them from the evil one. The lesson that Jesus was teaching these men was that God, who seemed so distant from them all their lives, actually wasn’t distant at all. Quite the contrary God loved them, provided for them, and wanted them to talk to Him.

Hebrews 10:19–20 states, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” This means that through the blood of Jesus we have the right to stand only where only the Priests were allowed to stand in the presence of the Holy of Holies before God Himself. But the author of Hebrews declares something special, we are now consecrated as priests. We are now members of the Priesthood by no effort of our own but by the Blood shed by Jesus Christ, and because of Christ’s atoning blood we can stand before our Holy God and speak directly to Him.

So who here feels like a priest? You may not feel like a priest but if Christ Blood covers your life then guess what? You are a priest so you need to start acting like it.

Prayer Today

We in our modern church culture have diminished the role of corporate prayer. I don’t say that to bring us down or cause us to feel guilty it is just a statement of fact. We see the world around us daily choosing to forget God and His truth and we shake our heads wondering when God is going to do something about it. Well have you asked Him? Have we as a church raised our voices and talked to God. And if you have are you also ready to be the change that you are praying about? However, not only is our own prayer lives malnourished but our churches continue to be living off the bare minimum of prayer as well. We tend to look at prayer as bookends. We pray to begin and we pray to end but never consider it much in the middle.

Jesus spoke about going into your quiet places in order to pray privately but we are as a church called to pray out loud and together. Acts 2:42 says, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Did you hear that? THEY continued steadfastly.This wasn’t the prayer of a few really good prayer’s this was the prayer of the entire church. They gathered and they prayed.

We as a church need to corporately pray in this manner. Mark Dever, the Pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC says, “Participating regularly in corporate prayer begins to take out the individualistic assumption that Christianity is only about me and my relationship with God...Participating in corporate prayer helps us discover that our lives as followers of Christ are tied up with one another’s. It helps us discover how God cares about the congregation as an entity.” You aren’t a solitary Christian, Your faith does not grow stronger without the fellowship of believers and we should not only lift each other up in prayer but we should be praying with each other.

We need to be praising God in prayer, for He is good and greatly to be praised. We should be confessing the sins of our world before Him asking forgiveness for those who don’t know what they are doing. And Then we should be asking for the granting of boldness in order that we might share the word of God with those around us.

Today I want to take the time to do just this. This might be awkward it might seem unnecessary or it might seem pushed but it is right. We need to pray as a congregation and that is what we are going to do.

Prayer of Praise.

These believers here in the early church chose to praise God for His creative attributes but that is not all we can pray for. I have a list up on the screen of just a few of the things we can praise God for. Lift up your voice let it be heard not so that you will be lifted up among men but that it might glorify God. Pray from your heart and when we are finished I will close it out.

Finish with Isaiah 25:1-8

Prayer of Confession

It is hard enough to take responsibility for the sins we know we have done personally but to ask for forgiveness for the sins of our world. That is a daunting task, but one which we can accomplish.

This time instead of an spontaneous public prayer lets pray a prayer together as a congregation. The prayer will go as a responsive reading. But don’t just read the words off the screen get yourself in the right frame of mind. Don’t even just read them as your own words to Him but lift up your voice with the person on your right and on your left, Our world is falling headlong into sin and corruption and it needs forgiveness this is the reason why we need to pray.

Read Prayer from screen.

Finish with reading 1 John 1:8-2:2

Prayer for Evangelism

Lastly we need to pray for the winning of souls and for the boldness to go out and tell others. Listen as I pray for this in our church here but don’t let them just be my words but let them be a rallying cry for us all to speak His truth in love to all those around us.

Prayer for Evangelism.

Finish with Matthew: 5:13-16

Conclusion:

Today take some time to reflect on this prayer of Evangelism. There are slips of paper at the end of your Pews and pens in front of you. On your paper write out the name or names of those in your sphere of influence who don’t yet know the Lord. We want to take the command to share the Word of God seriously so we as leadership and as a congregation will be in prayer over the names you put down. Leave them in the buckets at both doors and we will compile them and add them to our Salvation Prayer list. Come on Wednesday nights and pray with us as we lift up the needs of our church and our community to God.