Genuine, Intentional, Devoted Prayer

Luke 11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

PRAYER

NEW SERMON SERIES: Teach Us to Pray

SERMON TITLE: pt. 1 - Genuine, Intentional, Devoted Prayer

The goal of this series will be to help us grow in our prayer life, ultimately to help us grow in intimacy with Jesus, that we may walk in His will in our lives—-> MISSION-MINDED: Fulfill the will of God through an intimate relationship with Jesus

If you’re a note-taker, I’m going to go ahead and give you my sermon points…they’re right in the title here: Genuine Prayer, Intentional Prayer, and Devoted Prayer. Through His words and His actions, Jesus shows us that the prayer life of a disciple is genuine, intentional, and devoted.

In Luke 11, Jesus’ disciples ask Him how to pray, and that’s when Jesus gives us the model for how all disciples of Christ should pray – we know it today as the Lord’s prayer.

When we look in scripture at what we know as the Lord’s prayer, we see Jesus teach it on two separate occasions..once in Matthew and once in Luke..The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is teaching His disciples as well as a large crowd… and in Luke chapter 11, it’s a more intimate setting where Jesus is teaching His closest followers. And each of these teachings, as they were then, are relevant and directly applicable to all followers of Jesus today. And they’re not the exact same, but they’re pretty close. Throughout this series on the Lord’s Prayer, we’re going to focus on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew because it’s a bit more thorough…and we’re really going to discover the treasure that is every word of this model for prayer that He’s given us.

Matthew Pray then like this: “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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Luke When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

If you grew up in the church, especially if you grew up in a liturgical church, then you learned to memorize the Lord’s prayer from Matthew, likely KJV version (arts and thys)...that’s okay…that’s actually great. That’s how I learned to memorize it, and the KJV Lord’s Prayer from Matthew is something that I keep in my mind and something that I rely heavily upon in my prayer life.

Can y’all recite the Lord’s Prayer without looking?

It is incredibly fruitful for us to memorize any scripture that we can, especially the primary model for prayer that Jesus gives us… but what we’re going to see tonight, according to the teaching of Jesus, is that if we are simply memorizing and reciting words, then we are missing the point of prayer completely.

The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 begins in verse 9, when Jesus says, “pray like this.” Tonight, we’re going to look at what He said just before that..and it’s going to show us a lot about praying right. If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 6, beginning in verse 5:

Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him

Okay, in these few verses, Jesus reveals to us a few markers of a healthy prayer life..He shows us a few things we should do as disciples who pray. First and foremost, He makes this point obvious: We should….be genuine.

Prayer = petition, supplication, and praise…NOT JUST ASKING FOR THINGS

Be Genuine (do it with pure intentions)

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

At the center of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 is Jesus’ teaching on prayer, but if we zoom out a little bit, Jesus is not just talking about prayer here. Verse 5 says “when you pray.” But if we back it up, verse 2 says “when you give to the needy”. And if we look ahead, verse 16 says “when you fast.” So, Jesus is telling His disciples, He’s telling us, that we SHOULD give to the needy, we SHOULD fast, and we SHOULD pray…But He’s really clear in telling us HOW we should do each of those things.

He gives us clear DOs and DON’Ts. For all 3 – giving, praying, fasting – Jesus says “DON’T BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES” who do all those things to be noticed and praised by other people…But He says “DO” each of those things in “SECRET”, and the Father who sees will reward you. (Put scripture for each on screen)

So why is Jesus steering us away from acts of performance and towards these secret acts? Because if we’re doing these things for God and no one else, then our intentions will change. The heart behind what we’re doing will change. God wants us to act with pure intentions…He wants us to pray with pure intentions…more than anything, He wants our heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ And He wants our true, vulnerable heart to be expressed in prayer. The hypocrites - Pharisees - self-righteous..they’re only concerned about what others see. Jesus calls us to be primarily concerned about what God sees, and God sees the heart.

Y’all ever hear somebody you know pray and they start using this prayer tone that’s just totally unlike them? And then they start using these words that you didn’t know were in their vocabulary? And you’re just like…man, that is not how you talk. You’re not fooling me. You think you’re fooling God? The Bible says that He knows our very thoughts. Why would we be anything but real with Him?

Picture and quote“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”

I read recently that Martin Luther (explain who he is) would sometimes cuss when he prayed… which is wild… and when I first read that, I was like, WOW, what a lack of reverence and respect for God… but then you read about his life and the incredible work that the Lord did through him… (and I am not advocating for cussing when you pray…just so we’re clear. I do not cuss when I pray. Okay?) but looking a little closer at who he was and what the Lord accomplished through him, that was just an example of his passion, his vulnerable heart for the Lord.

These hypocrites that Jesus is referring to – they say all the right things, do all the right things, cross all their t’s, dot all their i’s, but their heart is not in it.

You know who comes to mind that stands in direct contrast to these guys? A man named David from the Old Testament. The Bible says that he was an adulterer, a murderer, a polygamist, and not a great dad.

And God calls these self-righteous religious folks hypocrites. You know what God’s Word says about David? It says he was a man after God’s own heart.

Complaint - Psalm 142:1-2 "With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him”

Despair/Frustration - Psalm 22:1 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest."

Pleading/Repentance - Psalm 51:1-2 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!"

Vulnerability - Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

God’s Word shows us that despite his screw-ups, despite his terrible failures, he had a heart for the Lord. And that heart is evidenced by his prayers to God. If you want to see what genuine prayer looks like, spend some time in the Psalms. Look at the sincerity, the thankfulness, the frustration, sorrow, the praise, the real heart in David’s prayers. That’s how we’re called to pray…genuinely, from the heart, with pure intentions. THAT is the heart that the Lord wants us to bring to Him in prayer.

And the way we do that is by confronting the temptation to just enter our prayer time as a box to be checked so we’ll feel like we’ve done something good. When we spend time with God, in the Word or in prayer, we’re not going in to get a pat on the back from God, to earn God’s approval..we’re going into that time for deep, intimate connection with our creator……and Jesus warns against praying with the wrong motives:

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. (+ v.8 on screen)

Jesus is telling us that there is not always a correlation between the power of our prayers and the length of our prayers. And He’s warning us to not just go through the motions in our prayer life.

Have you ever gone to pray, and you want through your handful of prayers that you always pray, and at the end, you say amen, and you don’t even remember what you prayed about?

Ironically enough, this verse comes right before the Lord’s prayer, which is recited throughout the world in churches every week and it has become so routine that we don’t even fix our minds and hearts on what we’re praying.

Jesus is reiterating that point here that our prayers should come genuinely, from the heart.

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him

If the Father knows what you need before you ask Him, what’s He after? He’s not after an eloquent performance. He’s not saying, “Well, if you say it just right, then I’ll grant your request.” He’s not desiring polished prayers. He doesn’t desire that you check a box and do it just the “right way.” What He desires is our vulnerable, honest heart. What He wants is communion with us. That intimate relationship that we aim to cultivate, God wants it too…and it comes through genuine prayer. When we come to the Lord in prayer, if we come with any type of hesitation, like we can’t just be real with God, then we limit the effectiveness of prayer life, effectively limiting the intimacy in our relationship with God.

Genuine prayer deepens our relationship with God, it demonstrates a dependence on God, and it aligns our heart and our will with His heart and His will.

So what Jesus is establishing in this teaching is that we have to be genuine in our prayer lives, number one…number two, He shows us that if we are going to have an effective prayer life that cultivates an intimate relationship with God, then we have to BE INTENTIONAL

Be intentional (strategic w/no distractions)

What do I mean? I mean that a life-changing, kingdom-changing prayer life, that draws us closer to God and moves God into what we do in our lives, that doesn’t just randomly happen. It takes intentionality. It takes strategy. The good news is that Jesus lays out that strategy pretty plainly for us.

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

That word for room means inner room or store room, the KJV translates it as closet…it’s a secluded chamber within a building. That’s where Jesus says to pray.

And yes, the Bible does say that we should pray about everything, at all times, without ceasing…so that means that we should pray in the car, we should pray when we walk, we should pray at work, we should pray as we go about our day…we should be in a constant state of prayer. The Bible also advocates for corporate prayer of the saints…that’s why we pray in church…God desires that from us…

But what Jesus is teaching here is that we should all have a quiet place that we can go and just talk to the Lord. If you don’t take anything else from this sermon, please hear this… If you don’t have a physical, sacred prayer space that you can go and talk to God without any distractions, then you make sure you have one by the time we see each other next week.

That’s harder in some seasons of life than others. If you have to get away from the kids and go lock yourself in the car to pray, do it. If the only uninterrupted time you get is in the shower, God heard prayers in there too. Maybe there’s a private place at work that you can go on your lunch break. Whatever it takes, find that place.

Put yourself in an environment where it’s you and God and no one else. Don’t take your phone. Don’t take your work. Tell whoever else is around that you need to be left alone, and just be with God.

There are multiple examples of our heroes of the faith having private prayer time that God responded to by doing incredible things through them and in the lives of those around them - MOSES, DAVID, DANIEL, and so many more.

There are multiple examples of individuals who shaped today’s church who devoted themselves to a lifestyle of private prayer, and God did incredible things through them - LUTHER, WESLEY, SPURGEON, BILLY GRAHAM - all those guys would tell you that their private prayer life was an essential part of their ministry.

And there are multiple examples of Jesus withdrawing by Himself to pray alone. His priority was to fulfill the will of the Father in His time on earth…(our priority is to fulfill the will of the Father in the time that we have here on earth) and if Jesus relied heavily on prayer to do that, how much more should we rely on prayer?

When we do that, when we’re intentional in putting ourselves in a setting that cuts out all the distractions, then we’re able to focus on God and God alone and we’re able, like we talked about before, to be totally open and vulnerable – real and transparent, before the Lord. We have to be genuine in our prayer life. We have to be intentional in our prayer life.

And we can all be genuine in our prayer life and we can all find a quiet place and be intentional in our prayer life, but this last component is the hardest part…because it’s not a one-time thing. If we are going to have the effective prayer life that Jesus has called us to, then we have to BE DEVOTED.

Be devoted (a consistent priority)…

We talked about how the gospels reference multiple times when Jesus went to a private place to have a time of prayer with God the Father. Look at this example.

Mark 1:32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

The Bible says that the whole town was there, and He healed those who were sick and He cast out many demons. And when does this scene start? Verse 32 says Sundown. That means, presumably, that Jesus is up all night healing these people. We know that Jesus is fully God, but we sometimes take for granted the fact that while on this earth, He was fully man. The Bible shows us that Jesus got hungry. He got thirsty. He experienced emotions like we do. And He slept and rested just like we do. I take that to imply that here in Mark 1, after He had been up all night healing people, He was tired…He had to be exhausted.

But verse 35 says that despite that, He got up the next morning before the sun came up...why? To devote His morning to a time of prayer. He made prayer a priority.

Paul said in Corinthians to imitate Him as he imitates Christ. Well, we know that Paul had a devoted prayer life…and there are many areas of our lives where we cannot/should not try to imitate the ways of Jesus…but this is one where we can imitate the ways of Jesus and we should imitate the ways of Jesus. We should devote ourselves to prayer, making it a consistent priority.

And that means that if we have to rearrange our daily schedule in order to work in a devoted time of prayer, then we should.

We work our schedules around our jobs, our hobbies, outings with friends.

We’ll compromise our sleep for things that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really matter. I know people who will stay up hours past their bedtime just to watch their favorite team lose. (me)

Why do we do those things? Because they are important to us. They are priorities in our lives.

James says that the Word of God is like a mirror - it shows us who we really are. Hebrews says that the Bible cuts us open, shows us what the true thoughts and intentions of our heart are. Here’s where the Word of God is calling us to examine ourselves:

Where does our prayer life fall on our list of priorities? Could it be higher? I KNOW THAT MINE COULD..and I know that mine SHOULD.

And let me just say that that’s not a word of condemnation or judgment…it’s a message of exhortation - an urging to walk in what God has called us to walk in…to be who God has called us to be. If you aren't as devoted to prayer as you can be, God is not mad at you. God is not disappointed in you…The love of God for us is not dependent on what we do…if it was, it wouldn’t be unconditional love.

The grace of God on our lives is not dependent upon our performance as Christians…if it was it wouldn’t be grace.

BUT, when we hold back in our prayer lives…when we choose not to live a life of genuine, intentional, devoted prayer, we hold ourselves back from intimacy with God that could radically transform our lives and the lives of those around us.

Because Jesus teaches us here that when we pray this way, our Father in heaven will reward us.

Your Father in Heaven Rewards Genuine, Intentional, Devoted Prayer

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Gk. Reward lit = (verb)

repay, pay back. That means that in our prayer lives, there’s a principle of getting out what we put in. There’s a reaping-and-sowing principle in how we pray.

Prayer changes things. The Bible says it, and I’ve seen it…anybody else? Having a strong prayer life will change us radically from the inside out…and will change the people and the circumstances around us. I feel led to spend several weeks on the topic of Jesus teaching us how to pray because who we are and what we become will depend on how we pray.

I want us to take on the attitude that our lives literally depend on how we pray..

That our marriages depend on our prayer lives.

For the singles, that finding the right spouse literally depends on your prayer life.

That the future of our children depends on our prayer lives.

That the destiny of The Way Church depends on our prayer lives.

That our careers, where we’re gonna live, what we’re gonna do, and who’s gonna be impacted is dependent upon our prayer lives.

Our lives as Christians are stronger than we can imagine when they’re devoted to genuine, intentional prayer. AMEN?