Recharge: Plugging in to prayer

I. Intro

What happened 10 years ago: Pokémon go, stranger things, trump election, clowns, capnsmerica civil war, fantastic beasts, rogue one, zootopia, can’t stop the feeling iPhone SE and 7

Story - Have any of yall gone on road trips? Have any of you older guys ever driven for a road trip? What is one thing you really need when driving for a road trip? Directions! and where do we typically get our directions? Yep, this thing right here. Well recently, Maddie and I were driving to Oklahoma, and somehwere in the middle of arkansas, my phone died. I was not too happy. How on earth would I ever find my way to her grandmas house? How did I even find myself in this situation? It was because the night before, I forgot to charge my phone. I didnt charge my phone. And becuase of that I was not prepared for the trip. Now thankfully in this situation I had Maddie with me and she knew the way, but if she wasnt there I would have been stuck.

Have you ever felt stuck in life? Have you ever felt like instead of being charged to 100% you’re constantly walking around on Low Power Mode? I know I have. And I think our problem is that we forget to recharge. Just like we recharge our phones every day, we have to recharge ourselves, and when we don’t we run the risk of being on 0% when we most need it.

Recharge Intro

So, what charges us? How can we recharge? If you would turn with me to John 15:4–5 “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”

Jesus says when we remain in Him we recieve life. He is the vine. A vine is what carries life to the branches, it is the source of life for the branches. Another way of wording this is that Jesus is our “outlet.” We have to be plugged into Him or else we will never have life or be charged. He says a branch without the vine cannot produce fruit. Similarly, a phone without being plugged in can’t have life. When we aren’t connect to Christ, when we aren’t recharging in Christ, we will never be fully charged. But how can we do that? How can we recharge? Well that is what we will learn this month, through praying, fasting, and digging into His word. These are the three key things we have to be doing if we want to get charged to 100%. This week, I want to take a look at how and why we can recharge through prayer.

Recharge with prayer

How often do we neglect prayer? How often do we decide we don’t have time for prayer? I know for me work gets in the way, or school, or sports, or the things I want to do, and what happens is prayer kinda gets put on the back burner. We live like prayer is an option. When do we usually pray? We can tend to think that the only time we need prayer is either if we have lots of extra time (which in that case we usually spend our time doing other things) when we really really need it (which even then we tend to just get mad at God) or before we eat (which usually lasts 5 seconds at most).

And so prayer has become this extra thing that we do when we remember or feel like it, but this isn’t anywhere in the Bible. If we are gonna recharge, if we want to get to 100% battery, we have to be praying. I get it, it’s hard, life gets busy. Life gets in the way and we kinda push prayer to the side. Well let’s take a look at Jesus. Jesus was an extremely busy man. He was constantly asked for. People came from all over to hear him speak, to be healed, to see his miracles. He was a celebrity. He had probably become a household name. Everyone knew who Jesus was.

Because of this, Jesus was extremely busy. So we would assume that because Jesus was busy, He neglected to pray right? well lets look at our super long passage tonight.

II. Plug into Prayer

Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.”

Jesus Prioritized Prayer

We would think Jesus neglected prayer because he was busy right? NO! It says Jesus got up early to pray. Jesus prioritized prayer. Jesus made sure to make time to pray.

We clearly see that Jesus took prayer very seriously, and if Jesus did, so should we.

You see, something interesting about Jesus is that instead of His business pulling Him away from prayer, it drove Him into it. He knew that His humanity needed prayer to get through the day. Prayer wasn’t just an option, it was a necessity. He HAD to pray to get through the day. And I think thats something we need in our lives.

We NEED prayer to get through our day. If Jesus needed it, how much more do we. We have got to stop prioritizing all these many other things over communing with God. If you never charged your phone, you couldnt use it. We prioritize charging your phone right? Well in the same way, we’ve got to prioritize charging ourselves so God can use us, and that comes through prioritizing prayer.

Jesus Prayed Alone

The second thing I think we can see from this verse, is that Jesus prayed alone. Now look, there is nothing wrong with praying in groups, in fact, I think thats great! But we also have to pray alone. Jesus showed us this. Not only did He prioritize prayer by waking up before the sun to go speak with His father, but He often did so alone. He prioritized His relationship with God, that He wanted to make sure it was just Him and the Father, no distractions, one on one.

Prayer alone is so important for your relationship with God. If the only time I ever spoke to my wife was in groups with other people, or while driving, or from stage, or for five seconds before a meal, we would not have a very good relationship right?

Similarly, if we want that closeness to God like Jesus had, if we want to get to know God better and better, we’ve got to not only prioritize praying, but do it alone. Just like I need to have a good relationship with my wife, I need to have a good relationship with the God of the universe. That’s how I recharge. AND just like inorder to have a good relationship with my wife I need to spend time alone with her, in order to have a good relationship with my Father, ive got to spend time alone with Him.

Jesus Prayed to Recharge

Lastly, I think we see that Jesus prayed in order to recharge. Remember how busy He was? But remember how because of that business, He prayed. He let prayer bring Him back to 100%, so He could minster to all the people around Him. We can see how he used this habit of prayer to recharge all throughout the gospels.

In Matthew 14:23 “After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone.” After feeding the 5000, He went alone to pray and recharge.

Luke 5:15–16 “But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.” We see hear that as more and more crowds came to see Him, as he got busier and His battery depleted, the more He went off alone to pray.

Luke 6:12 “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.” When Jesus had a decision before Him, who to choose as His apostles, He spent the night praying. Jesus prioritized prayer, He made it a priority in His life by doing it often and doing it alone. He relied on prayer to recharge and so should we.

So how should we pray?

III. Application

Pray For Others

We get an example of this in John 17. Jesus is about to be taken by Roman authorities, and He spends time with His disciples and prays over them. Look what He says in verses 17-21.

John 17:17–21 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.”

Jesus prayed for those around Him. He knew the power of prayer, and so He prayed for the peopel around Him. Do you believe in prayer? Do you believe it works? Then why don’t we pray for the people around us. When peopel need help, the most important thing we can do is pray.

Pray Authentically

Jesus prayed authentically. Look at what He said when He prayed in the garden before the soldiers took Him.

Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”” Matthew 26:42 “Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.””

Jesus didnt say what He thought He was supposed to. If Jesus did that, His prayer here would have probably been more like, “God I cannot wait to go through this torture for the world.” But no, He asks if its possible for this cup to pass, But then submits to God’s will. When you pray, do you sometimes say what you think God wants to hear? We put up a fake face in front of God, and wonder why we never have an authentic relationship with Him.

God wants you to pray to Him authentically. He wants you to voice your concerns. Maybe you’re mad at Him, maybe you’re upset with whats going on in your life. You don’t have to hide that from God. He wants you to bring it to Him, just like Jesus did.

Pray in Jesus’ name

John 16:23–24 ““In that day you will not ask me anything. Truly I tell you, anything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”

illustr: Imagine you are a beggar, you walk up to the kings palace and the guards at the gate get tensed up because they can smell the stench off your clothes. They ask what it is you want, ready to turn you away and you ask for an audience with the king. They laugh in your face, but then you say in Jesus’ name. They immediately get serious, and bow and open the gates. They guide you to the throne room and the king runs to you with open arms. That is what praying in Jesus name is like. Because of Jesus, not because of us, because we are a filthy beggar, but because of what Jesus did we have instant full access to the throne room of God.

Before Jesus, you had to go through a priest to get to God. Now, because of Jesus’ name, we can go directly into the throne room. We have direct access to the Father, we have direct access to the ultimate power source, to bring us to 100% every day. And it all starts with prayer.

Do you want to recharge? do you want to abide in Christ? it starts with prayer. Will you commit to prayer? Will you prioritize praying? Will you prioritize praying alone? Getting one on one with your father to talk to him authentically, to talk to him for other people? to come before Him because of the name of Jesus?

I know I want to be on 100%, do you?