Jesus and Prayer: The Teachings
Pursuit in Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
Recap Prayer Season: Last week - Jesus’ patterns and habits of prayer
Introduce this week: Jesus’ Teachings about prayer
We echo the words of Jesus’ disciples in Luke 11:1
1 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…”
At this point in the Gospel of Luke, the disciples have seen Jesus do many miracles, feed 5000 people with a few loaves and fishes,
Peter and John saw Him transfigured on the mountain,
heal the woman with the issue of blood just by her touching the hem of his cloak,
they were there when he raised a girl from the dead,
cast a legion of demons out of a man who lived in the graves,
calmed a life threatening storm with a word…
They watched as Jesus stopped a funeral precession and raised a young man from the dead out of his coffin.
He had even healed the centurion’s servant without even going to him.
All the while, he is teaching and sharing truths of the Kingdom of God with them…
So when they have the chance to ask Him, they stopped in this verse and asked for one thing:
Lord, Teach us to pray…
It’s no coincidence that they asked this after he had prayed…
Just like we did last week, they had been watching the patterns and habits of Jesus’ prayer life and realized that’s where the power was cultivated and the relationship with God made more intimate.
What’s interesting is that they had been taught all kinds of prayers in their jewish upbringing.
It was common for men to be expected to memorize large portions of what we now call the Old Testament…
They would recite prayers from the scrolls of Isaiah, quote the prophets, and even pray daily, weekly, and the expected prayers on feasts and holidays.
So when they ask Jesus to teach them to pray, it’s not that they haven’t been taught how to pray in some manner…
Rather, they had seen what the prayers of Jesus wrought and when they went to Him, it was more than just a general request to learn how to pray…
It was a request to learn how to pray like that… Like Jesus prayed…
We don’t want to just pray ritually, but to pray in the way you pray…
It’s at this point that Jesus gives them the pattern we call the Lord’s prayer… but before we get into the pattern as a breakdown, I want to look at all the explicit instructions about prayer Jesus taught them throughout the Gospels…
The first thing we can acknowledge from what Jesus taught about prayer is that not all prayers are created equal…
There are prayers that are called effective… There are prayers that are heard… There are prayers that are fervent..
But there are also prayers that yield nothing from God…
5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
In other words, because it was their goal to be seen in prayer, that’s all they will get out of that prayer.
Which means, it’s not just about the words you pray, the tone you pray in, the amount of scripture you can quote, or how long your in prayer…
It’s about the intent of your heart when you pray…
Because Prayer is not Performance..
Prayer is NOT Performance
Prayer is NOT Performance
The moment you make prayer a performance, I hope you get everything out of that performance you need, because that’s ALL you will get…
What’s the contrast that Jesus provides for this:
6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Prayer is intimate. Prayer is between you and God. And God sees what is done in secret…
If you have to put it on Instagram or make a video on TikTok every time you pray, I hope the likes are worth it, because that’s all you will get out of it…
Social media is the street corner of our day where we can stand to be seen by people from all over, but Jesus says, once you’ve done that, you’ve already received your reward in full….
That’s it. Hope the likes got you what you wanted…
Jesus says it’s better to go into the inner room, close the door and pray in secret…
Start a conversation between you and the Father… And Pray…
Don’t sound a trumpet, or blast it on every social channel you can, or call three people and tell them you were in prayer, or bring it up in every conversation for the rest of the day…
Pray in secret and keep it that way, so that God will answer what you told him in confidence!
There is benefit to prayer together as believers, but if that’s the only time you pray, you’re not praying, you’re performing.
I just wonder if the reason the church has lost so much ground in the past century is because we have become good at performance, but lost the secret place…
It’s the secret place that will sustain you… It’s the secret place where you find refreshing…
It’s the secret place where God meets with you… It’s the secret place where you intercede…
It’s the secret place where needs are met… It’s the secret place that gives you strength…
Without the secret place, prayers are performance, worship is just music, and the microphone is just motivational…
This generation is in dire need of someone to lead them from what they’ve found in the secret place…
In a world of performance, and recorded bits, and endless options to watch for entertainment, what the world needs is not another performance, not another concert with “Christian” lyrics…
What the world needs is for the Church to find the secret place again and pray!
Look at the next two verses:
Replace Gentiles with Pentecostals
7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
I’m going to let you in on a secret: God isn’t impressed by your vocabulary.
If you go into your prayer time and repeat the same phrase 978 times in order to fill time, you’re not praying, you’re performing.
Prayer isn’t performance.
Prayer isn’t built on vain repetition. It’s built on intamacy with Him..
If you get into prayer and run out of things to say, it’s perfectly acceptable to just sit in His presence and spend time with him!
In fact, it’s often when you’ve ran through everything you need to get out, run out of words to say, and are willing to just dwell there that God will speak…
He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide in the shadow of the almighty…
Dwelling and abiding do not require you to repeat yourself over and over as if God didn’t hear you the first time.
His name or title isn’t a filler word.. You can take a breath and pause when you need to.
It doesn’t make you less spiritual to have to think about what you want to say…
It’s funny because we feel that pressure when we pray, but not when we talk to each other. Just stop and sit in it for a minute!
Maybe just maybe God will speak to you if you would just take a breath!
Here’s another thing Jesus taught about prayer:
Prayer Requires Forgiveness
Prayer Requires Forgiveness
God isn’t a vending machine that you can just ask things of and so long as you have the money you can get what you want.
And prayer isn’t just a way to request things of God.
Prayer is as much about positioning your heart before Him for pursuit as it is about the answer.
And if we approach God in prayer, but harbor unforgiveness, it actually hinders our prayers…
25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.
26 “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”
Here’s what happens, when you begin to pray you are positioning yourself in a place not only to talk to God but also to hear from Him…
And when you’re engaging with His presence, you will begin to see or sense things that you need to do, such as forgive.
You know when you’ve got something there. If you deny it and pray anyway, it negates the effectiveness of your prayer.. If you don’t forgive, neither will God for give you. That’s what this verse says.
Prayer requires forgiveness.
Matthew repeated this verse in case you missed when reading Mark:
14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
Here’s a few more things I’ll just drop with you about prayer that Jesus taught:
Prayer isn’t just about you and what you care about. Prayer is also for your enemies and those who persecute you…
44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
And he doesn’t mean to pray boils on their forehead!
Although my flesh would like to pray things like that sometimes… I would even use biblical language, but that’s not what God desires…
Who needs an encounter with God more than those who hate you and persecute you…
We see all the hate being spewed all over the news and social media, but we are called to a different expression… Pray for them!
Pray that God get a hold of them.
Pray that they have a road to damascus experience with Jesus that changes them forever.
Pray as Jesus prayed,
34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
They are actively torturing Jesus, and care more about what his clothes were worth than Him being in agony, but Jesus prays, forgive them…
I think there are a bunch of politicians that need an encounter with God in a way that rocks them to their core…
I think there are artists and actors that need the light of the gospel to shine in their hearts and illuminate the darkness of their lives…
And there are those on your job or in your family or in your community or at your school that the only thing that will do anything for them is if God would reveal himself in a mighty way to them…
Think about it, if the ones who have done you wrong, persecuted you, made fun of you, hurt your feelings would just get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, it would change them forever!
We need to pray for them and forgive them and not wait for something to happen to forgive them.
Forgive them right now and pray for them from now on.
Call Worship Team
Prayer requires humility not entitlement…
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
God knows what you need. Don’t be afraid to ask:
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Therefore, we can ask believing God will answer!
22 And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.
23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.
24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
I wish I had time to go through every parable and story about prayer Jesus used, but it would take the rest of the year…
Here’s the reality: We aren’t left without instructions on how to pray…
If you feel like you need help praying, find the words of Jesus and follow them.
Read through the Gospels and let Jesus teach you to pray, just as He did His first disciples…
Next week we will break down the words of the prayers of Jesus, but this week, let’s agree to pray togther this week…
Pray in the way Jesus taught. Pray with sincerity, not as performance, but in persistence…
Pray with humility. Pray for your enemies. Pray for your friends. Pray for our leaders. Pray for those around you.
Just pray and see God show up with your answer…
