Teaching Sermon: Intro to Prayer

When you look at your personal spiritual disciplines, what do your prayer habits look like?

· Where do you land on this spectrum?

· Where would you like to be?

· How will you get there?

Prayer is one way to connect with God. Maybe praying sounds intimidating. At root, prayer is nothing more and nothing less than talking to God.

It’s the privilege our first parents enjoyed in the Garden of Eden, walking and talking with God in the cool of the day. It’s the privilege Jesus enjoyed as described by his disciples in the gospel. Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father often:

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 5:16 (NIV)

Because of Jesus, Christians enjoy the same privilege of talking to Jesus’ heavenly Father.

Faith in Jesus opens the door to a renewed relationship. Jesus’ heavenly Father rebuilds the connection with his dearly loved people. Like Jesus, you are God’s dearly loved children.

One reason I think prayer is hard for us is because it’s hard to balance God’s transcendence with his immanence.

Here’s what I mean: God is bigger, more holy and glorious, and more powerful than you can imagine. When the OT prophets Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel or the Apostle John in the NT saw God’s glory, it overwhelmed them. They can hardly find words to describe the experience. Isaiah:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Isaiah 6:1–3 (NIV)

God is holy, majestic, and powerful.

On the other hand, God is full of love, compassion and concern for people. The Apostle John expressed his wonder at God’s love this way:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:1–2 (NIV)

The Bible reveals how approachable, fatherly, compassionate and altogether loving God is.

Jesus tries to explain his Father’s character while teaching his disciples about prayer in the gospel of Luke:

What dad would give his kid a toad instead of a ham sandwich? Or a spider if he asked for a lollipop?

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:13 (NIV)

There’s a tension there: God deserves our respect, our reverence and our humble worship. He’s God Almighty.

But God also invites his dearly loved children to just talk: Hey God, I’ve got strong emotions today. This might come out a little raw.

In my experience, God is okay with us approaching him. Like a good dad, our heavenly Father is ready to listen and quick to understand where his kids are coming from.

How is that possible?

Some of our discomfort with God in all his majesty and holiness is that it makes us a little self-conscious. In Ps 63, the psalmist speaks of God’s majesty vs 2:

I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

Psalm 63:2 (NIV)

Perhaps you feel embarrassed or ashamed in the presence of God’s majesty, holiness, and goodness. I understand. Nobody is worthy to enter God’s throne room and address God.

Isaiah the prophet was overwhelmed with his unworthiness and guilt:

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 6:5(NIV)

Maybe you feel that way too. I’m aware that I don’t measure up to God’s standards of goodness and obedience. I’m not perfect in my love for God and neighbour. My guilt is a barrier between me and God.

Yet the psalmist reminds us of who we’re talking to:

Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

Psalm 63:3 (NIV)

God’s love for people is great.

How did John put that in his gospel?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16–17 (NIV)

God the Son has come into his own creation to rescue humankind from sin and shame. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is 100% God and 100% human, without sin or guilt. He’s perfectly poised to rescue us from sin and death.

He rescued us by dying on the cross. Our guilt and shame was put on Jesus. His resurrection on the third day assures us that we are raised to life with Jesus. As the psalmist says:

Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;

they will go down to the depths of the earth.

They will be given over to the sword

and become food for jackals.

Psalm 63:9-10 (NIV)

Isn’t it awesome?

As a result of Jesus’ sacrificial death, you are welcome to talk to God. You’re invited to address God the way Jesus did.

You can call him your heavenly Father. Whether you’re asking for forgiveness or singing his praises, our Father in heaven listens to you when you speak. It’s a privilege offered to all God’s children; to all who profess faith that Jesus has rescued them from sin and guilt and death.

Now that Jesus has rescued us from sin and guilt, the door is open for us to approach God in prayer.

Perhaps you have a yearning to be close to God. The psalmist capture that feeling:

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 (NIV)

It continues:

On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63:6–8 (NIV)

Honestly, it’s not always this way.

The spiritual autobiographies I have read describe the way these feelings of closeness with God is like the tide: it rises and falls, ebbs and flows.

But prayer is one of the ways we get to enjoy God’s closeness and bask in his love.

If you have that longing for God, how can you build your habits of prayer?

As I grew up, prayer was tied to mealtime. It was unthinkable to start eating a meal without praying. When I was a child, my parents prayed first. Each of the 4 of us said, “Lord, bless this food for Jesus’ sake, Amen,” one after another in order of age. If there were cousins visiting, they took turns with the rest of us.

Same with bedtime. It was unthinkable to crawl into bed without kneeling at the bedside and praying – first a memorized prayer, later choosing our own words. Habits are powerful because they’re hard to break.

Christian monasteries have set times for prayer during the day. The bell rings and monks or nuns gather for prayer. I thought of that last summer when I was in an ONroute parking lot. A Muslim man pulled his car into the lot near me …

You could set an alarm on your phone to remind you to spend 5 min. in prayer.