Do you pray in front of people?

Intro: Hygiene is a private habit that isn’t a secret

brush your teeth

take a shower

wash your clothes

Main Point: Prayer should be a private habit that isn’t a secret

Last week:

Main point: prayer brings strength

1: His Baptism

Prayer Brings power

2: After healing the sick all day he woke up early to pray

Prayer brings vision

3: After healing the Leper caused a ruckus

he frequently would slip away to the wilderness and pray

the tighter the tension, the more time there must be for unhurried prayer

4: prayer all night before choosing the 12 and the sermon on the mount

power flows out of us when we spend time in prayer

The fifth mention (after the feeding of the 5k)

is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel.

It was about the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service.

Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great throng coming and going incessantly.

The startling news had just come of the tragic death of His forerunner.

There was need of bodily rest, as well as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition.

So taking boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake.

But the eager crowds watched the direction taken and, spreading the news, literally "ran" around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering thousands, waiting for Him.

Matthew 14:13 NASB95

Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.

Mark 6:31–32 NASB95

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Did some feeling of impatience break out among the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure?

Very likely, for they were so much like us. But Jesus wasn’t impatient.

Matthew 14:14 NASB95

When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

But He was "moved with compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in teaching, and then, at evening when the disciples proposed sending them away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the bodily cravings of as many as five thousand.

There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and all centuries as free food

Literally tens of thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry.

Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in the wilderness to turn the rocks into bread

It was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him.

Matthew 14:22–23 NASB95

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.

"And after He had taken leave of them"—what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His irrevocable decision—

"He went up in the mountain to pray," and "continued in prayer" until the morning watch.

A second night spent in prayer! (not in a row)

the first being the night before the sermon on the mount and choosing the 12

Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing habit of getting off alone to pray.

Time alone to pray; (more time to pray) was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, and all needs.

MORE Prayer is often the answer to our circumstances

How much more there must have been in prayer as He understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know.

followed by walking on water

Matthew 14:32–36 NASB95

When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick; and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.

power flowed out of him.

Deepening Shadows

We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry,

the acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the final break.

The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across His path.

The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser.

The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put.

The inability of the crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked.

Many followers go back.

He seeks to get more time for intercourse with the twelve.

He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the outside, non-Jewish world.

The coming scenes and experiences—the scene on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall—seem never absent from His thoughts.

The sixth mention (demonstrating prayer to disciples)

is made by Luke, chapter nine.

They are up north in the neighborhood of the Roman city of Cæsarea Philippi.

Luke 9:18 NASB95

And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?”

"And it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him."

Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing these twelve nearer to His inner life.

Some of these later incidents seem to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love for the fascination of secret prayer that He had.

How much they would need to pray in the coming years when He was gone.

Possibly, too, He yearned for a closer fellowship with them.

He loved human fellowship, as Peter and James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew.

And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship in prayer.

Jesus taught prayer by demonstrating it to those he loved

The seventh mention (transfiguration)

is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a third night of prayer.

Luke 9:28–37 NASB95

Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. And as these were leaving Him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles: one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not realizing what he was saying. While he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent, and reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen. On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him.

Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration scene,

but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain to pray,

and that it was as He was praying that the fashion of His countenance was altered.

Without stopping to study the purpose of this marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time when desertion and hatred were so marked,

it is enough now to note the significant fact that it was while He was praying that the wondrous change came.

Transfigured while praying!

And by His side stood one who centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that the glory-light of that presence transfigured his face, though he was unconscious of it.

A shining face caused by contact with God!

In the same way we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me,"

we should get alone with Him and His blessed Word,

so habitually, with open or uncovered face,,

with eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking

, that mirroring the glory of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our faces?

There is something within us that changes when we spend time with God

Like glow in the dark objects exposed to the light

The eighth mention (after sending out the 70)

is in the tenth chapter of Luke.

Luke 10:1–2 NASB95

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Luke 10:17–21 NASB95

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.

He had organized a band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to visit.

They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their work;

and standing in their midst,

His own heart overflowing with joy,

He looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him the gladness of His heart.

He seemed to be always conscious of His Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him.

They were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking terms.

Prayer was so close and natural to jesus that he broke out in praise and prayer to God before all his followers.

Your prayer life should overflow into your public life for others to see and hear

The things you think about the most; grow the Most

Redirecting road rage (genuinely)

The ninth mention (lord’s prayer)

is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to the sixth mention,

Luke 11:1 NASB95

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

Without doubt these disciples were praying men.

He had already talked to them a great deal about prayer.

But as they noticed how large a place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results,

the fact came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination,

some power,

some secret in prayer,

of which they were ignorant.

This Man was a master in the fine art of prayer.

They really did not know how to pray, they thought.

How their request must have delighted Him!

At last they were being aroused concerning the great secret of power.

May it be that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request.

For the first step in learning to pray is to pray,—"Lord, teach me to pray."

And who can teach like Him?

The more you pray, the more you realize your need to pray

the more you realize your need to pray, the more you want to pray

Our Father, who is 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 sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power

and the glory,

forever and ever.

Amen.