Year Of Prayer - Pre-Sermon

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- This morning is going to be a little more unique in terms of the message today.

- This morning, rather than have one specific message that I’d like to give you, I actually want to give you approximately 52 messages that I hope you’ll look forward to.

- We’ve been mentioning this here and there, giving little hints of what is coming, but today I wanted to give a special sneak peek of our 2025 Year of Prayer and what some of the plans are that we have.

- So, in order to do this, it would maybe be best to start with a simple question.

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- “Why?”

- Why are we planning to spend 2025 devoted to prayer?

- Why are we planning to make such an intentional, and long focus of this subject, rather than any of the other ones that we could choose?

- And I suppose, that the first reason I could give would be this.

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- Because I want to.

- But seriously, I like preaching on things that I am interested in.

- Preparing sermons takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and I spend a whole lot more than 35 minutes a week invested into the subject that you hear about on a Sunday morning.

- And so, when I want to learn more about something, when I want to get better at it, I preach about it.

- Because then I have to learn.

- So if I want to get better at sharing the Gospel, I preach about sharing the Gospel.

- Because it makes me spend hours and hours (for weeks) learning and reading and growing in that area personally, so that I’m ready to talk to you about it.

- So, if I may be completely transparent and honest with you: I want to pray better.

- I want to be better at prayer.

- I want to pray more.

- And that’s not always true, but then I want to want to pray more.

- I want to have better conversations with God.

- I want to hear Him speak to me more, and more clearly.

- At no point in my life have I ever reflected on my prayer life and though to myself “Man, I’ve got this prayer thing down! What’s next on the spirituality checklist?”

- And prayer seems too important to just give it a 6 week series.

- So it gets a year!

- You know, if you think about the disciples who followed Jesus, day in and day out, for years.

- They saw a lot of amazing things.

- They saw miracles.

- They saw healings.

- They saw the dead raised back to life.

- They saw thousands fed with a lunch box.

- They saw so much.

- And yet, as far as we know, there was only one time – one time – in all of those experiences, where the disciples saw Jesus doing something that couldn’t help themselves, they just had to ask.

- “Jesus, can you teach us how to do that?”

- “Jesus, can you show us how we can do that?”

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- Luke 11:1

o Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray”

- Apparently there was something about watching Jesus talk to God the Father, that made those closest to Him think “Man, I’ve gotta learn how to do that!”

- And so, quite simply. I want to learn to pray.

- I want to grow in prayer.

- And then, in addition to all of this, as we consider the “why” behind a 2025 Year of Prayer, I feel safe in assuming, that if I want to be better at praying, then maybe some of you do as well.

- Because, in the last two years, we have tried evening prayer.

- Morning prayer.

- All day prayer.

- Sunday before the service when you’re already on your way here prayer.

- We’ve tried a few different things.

- And none of those were received with incredible enthusiasm, passion, and commitment.

- This is not condemnation, this is not guilt or shame.

- This is just a reality.

- We have never announced a prayer time and wondered “I wonder if we’ll have enough seats for everyone!”

- And perhaps, some of you, like me, hear about a “prayer meeting” and we think “I hope something comes up on my calendar, because I know I should want to go, but I really don’t see the point.”

- “I’m too busy.”

- “I can pray at home.”

- “I’ve got more important stuff to do.”

- Whatever the reasons are, Life Centre has not been bursting at the seams, no matter what day or time we ask people to pray.

- But that hasn’t always been the case.

- I can remember being a teenager in the youth group here, being invited to a men’s all night prayer meeting.

- And I thought to myself “Pray? All night? About what?”

- But I can still remember seeing my friends’ dads on their knees at the altar, praying for their families, their coworkers, themselves, and everything else.

- That has stuck with me.

- I can remember when Life Centre would have people go out to the corners of the city where there was a “map of Weyburn” posted for visitors coming into the city (remember maps, there were like these paper copies of a GPS? Nevermind, ask your grandparents about it sometime).

- But Life Centre would cover all the corners to pray over the entire city.

- Some of you remember those days.

- Some of you wish that Life Centre still prayed like that.

- That when there was a prayer meeting, that you actually expected to see everyone who came on Sunday come out.

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- And so, if anything even remotely close to that is going to happen again, then it can’t just be me wanting to be better at prayer.

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- It needs to be us wanting to be better at prayer.

- Not better at boring little gossip sessions that we call prayer meetings (I’m not saying that’s what has happened here in the past, but for some of us when we think of prayer meetings this is what comes to mind).

- But better at Gospel fluent times of prayer, repentance, confession, talking to God, listening to God, hearing God, and then going out and putting into practice the leading of the Spirit as He guides and directs us.

- This is for all of us – myself included.

- And so, you’d better believe that in 2025 we are going to pray together.

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- At different days, at different times, for different lengths of time.

- In different settings, with different focuses and emphases.

- In smaller groups, as one large group, in different age groups.

- In our church building, in our homes, walking around in our community.

- In person, online, through different apps.

- We are all going to be asked to give up some free time, to rearrange some things on our schedule and calendar, and come together to pray together.

- And yes, I do hope that at least once in 2025 we have an all-night prayer meeting.

- Yes, you heard that right, the guy who is often in pajamas before his 2 year old is actually thinking about staying up all night to pray (and I don’t even drink coffee)!

- In addition to different times of prayer together, we are also going to have some different prayer-themed events and trainings.

- We are going to put on the “Secret Church” from 2019 that was done on the subject of prayer. We’ll probably hold it more than once throughout 2025 so that everyone is able to attend it at least once.

- We’ll have some times of coming together simply to sing together, because sometimes the words that connect me the most to God are lyrics in a song, and I love to pray the words that I am singing.

- We will do Bible reading plans together on the subject of prayer.

- We’ll have memory verses (similar to what we did this past summer) on prayer that we all (kids included) will memorize together.

- We will have prayer stations, with different options and ways to connect with God (engaging different senses for those of us who find different feelings and experiences impactful).

- We will have times of calling us to pray for our own families, neighbours, friends, coworkers, classmates.

- We will have times calling us to pray for our city, province, and country.

- And we will have times and resources to help us be better at praying for the Gospel of Jesus advancing to the ends of the earth (especially where it is not yet known).

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- I know I’ve said it before, but it really is quite important, that if you want to stay up to speed on all of the announcements, you really need to be in our “Remind” group (and if it isn’t working when you try to join, please talk to me and I will get you added or personally text you every announcement).

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- Because, and you need to hear me on this, NO ONE is expected to make it to everything.

- I can guarantee you that I am not going to be at everything we do next year (and neither will my family).

- I know what I’m talking about sounds like a lot, but this is all going to be spread out over 2025.

- 12 months.

- 52 weeks.

- 365 days.

- The goal is not to make everyone feel so overloaded, busy, and stressed, that prayer actually pushes us away from the Good News of Jesus, and into a legalistic system of “I need to do everything my pastor and church expect of me otherwise I’m not a good Christian.”

- And so, please hear me, when we have a “All night Friday” prayer meeting, and you have already committed to going to visit your family that weekend, please know that I understand.

- When we have a lunch hour prayer time, and you have the opportunity to have lunch with a coworker who you feel God is giving you an opportunity to grow closer to and share the Gospel with, then please go and do that instead!

- But, here’s the problem of where we’ve been.

- If we just do one thing for prayer, and it’s not on a day or at a time that works for you, then you can’t make it to any church prayer time at all.

- And so, in 2025, by having a whole bunch of different things going on, in different seasons, for different lengths of time, on different days, the goal is that you don’t come to all of it, but you do come to some of it.

- If I may be so bold, let me say it this way.

- NO ONE is expected to make it to everything.

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- But, EVERYONE is expected to make it to something.

- Outside of the normal Sunday service, we should have so many different options available throughout 2025, that none of us will have any excuse if we get to the end of December next year and we didn’t make the time to come out to one single prayer meeting.

- I’m a dad with young kids, and my family will be at some of the things we do next year.

- All of us.

- Together.

- And it will be loud.

- And it will be distracting.

- And my wife and I will get less out of it because we are too busy keeping our kids from rudely running around saying “I’m bored! What else is there to do!”

- And we will wonder if it’s even worth it to do it together when it’s such a hassle.

- But we will still do it, together.

- Because it matters that we pray together.

- It matters that our kids see (and hear) us pray together.

- It matters that our kids are invited to pray together with us.

- So we won’t be at everything.

- But we will be at some of the things.

- Other times, it’ll just be me while Chantelle watches the kids.

- Then again, you’ll also see Chantelle here while I’m at home watching the kids.

- Then again, maybe one of us will bring one or two of the kids to one prayer time, while the other stays home with the rest.

- We are going to make it work for our family, but we are going to be involved.

- All I am asking you to do, is the same.

- And, it’s at this point in our morning together, that I want us to take communion together.

- Because I think it would be fitting, as we consider what it means for us to come together in prayer, for us to remember the One who truly unites us.

- Because I pray differently than you do.

- I like different songs than you do.

- I think differently than you do.

- And why would we possibly want to spend even more time together?

- Because Jesus’ body was broken, and Jesus’ blood was shed.

- Not just for me.

- Not just for you.

- But for us.

- For His Church (His “capital C” Church).

- For all followers of Jesus to be able to come together, in spite of their differences, and say “we are family”

- “Our love for Jesus, flows through us into love for one another”

- “Our desire to talk to Jesus, brings us together to talk to Jesus as a church family”

- And different people connect with God in different ways.

- But God calls us, to join together, to remember Him, to draw close to Him.

- Not as a separated group of individuals.

- But as a neighbourhood shaking, life-changing, turn-the-world-upside-down movement known as the church.

- And so, we come together, on Sundays and all throughout the week, because Jesus unites us.

- He brings us together, so that we can be closer to Him as a family.

- And however we make that work, however it looks for us in our day-to-day, week-to-week, month-by-month lives, we are committed to Jesus, and also committed to one another.

- ***Take communion

- And so, with all of that in mind, with all of the possibilities for what it might mean for us to pray together and grow in prayer together throughout next year, now what does this mean for Sundays?

- Well, in addition to having a memory verse that we will always be working through together (changing every month), every sermon, every series, throughout 2025 will be about the subject of prayer.

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- And so, to hopefully wet your appetites for what is coming, and maybe to help convince you that you maybe want to make some of your holiday time a “staycation” so that you don’t miss out on too much, here is a brief overview of what we will be covering on our Sunday mornings together in 2025.

- And so, immediately after December, with the first Sunday of January, we are going to kick off our first series on prayer.

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- And this first series will be about how we can use the Bible to help us pray more effectively.

- Followers of Jesus believe that God has revealed Himself throughout history, and that those revelations have been written down and recorded, and we can know God better as we read about Him.

- So, how does reading about God change the way that we talk to God?

- For example, some of us are familiar with praying these words “God, please place a hedge of protection around this person at that situation.”

- I’ve often heard it prayed when people are driving and you want to sound a little extra spiritual rather than just praying something boring like “God, please give them a safe drive.”

- I mean, is the hedge moving with the car? I’m confused.

- But, did you know, that the language of “hedge of protection” is Biblical language, it is found in the Bible.

- It is found in the book of Job.

- It is found, out of the mouth of the accuser – the Satan – as he challenges God’s goodness, saying “Job only follows you because you’ve placed this hedge of protection around him”

- When I found that out, I thought to myself “Maybe I shouldn’t quote the devil when I pray?”

- Maybe there’s a way to pray better, pray deeper, talk to God about the same situations, without using the accusations of the accuser.

- A better understanding of the Bible, should change the way that we pray.

- That’s what we’ll be diving into in January.

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- Then, starting in February (and likely taking us until the middle of March) we are going to look at some specific prayers that are two things.

- Simple, and life-changing.

- The shortest, most life-altering things you can say to God.

- For example, as it’s been said that you need to be careful if you pray to God for patience, because He is going to answer it, and it’s not just going to magically zap you with more patience.

- No, He’s going to give you opportunities to be patient (which, ironically, are also opportunities to be impatient).

- So there are some simple, life-changing prayers that we are going to look at one-by-one.

- We’ll talk about them near the end of winter (some of you just got a smile on your face as we think about the “end” of winter).

- Following this, and heading into the Easter season, we are going to look at something that we absolutely have to consider if next year is going to be worth any of our time.

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- We’re going to wrestle with unanswered prayer.

- Actually, to take it a step further, we’re going to struggle together through those times when it doesn’t just seem like God isn’t answering, but it seems like He is completely silent.

- Like He’s not just saying “no” to us, but maybe He’s ignoring us.

- That will last until Easter Sunday, when we consider how the resurrection of Jesus addresses the silence of God and why our prayers aren’t answered when we think that they should be.

- I don’t promise answers to all of your questions and issues and struggles (I can’t even promise I’ll find answers to my own).

- But I do promise a safe place to talk about these things.

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- Following this, through the spring months, we are going to take things right back to the basics, as we wonder “How do we talk to God?”

- Specifically, using the Lord’s Prayer as our guide, when those first disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, what did He say?

- What model? What example? What template for talking to God did Jesus provide for His followers?

- We’ll look at that after Easter.

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- Then, in the summer, we are going to look at the prayers written throughout the various letters found in our New Testament that are all written by the Apostle Paul.

- We’ll spend a couple of months looking at a different prayer of Paul each week, diving deep into the prayers that he wrote to different audiences at different times facing different issues.

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- Then, when we get into next fall (as the leaves are changing and school is starting up), we are going to consider one big question “Does prayer matter?”

- If God already knows everything, why do we need to pray?

- What difference does it make (if any)?

- When we’ve got so much other stuff that needs to get done, why would we possibly take time to stop and pray?

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- And then finally, at the end of next year, our final preaching series will be the second half to our spring series, as we consider not only how to talk to God, but how we can listen to God.

- The simplest, perhaps best, definition of prayer, is that prayer is a conversation with God.

- And a conversation involves two things.

- Talking.

- And listening.

- So, in order to truly pray, we need to not only know how to talk to God, but we also need to know how to listen to God.

- How do we know when God is speaking to us?

- How can we hear God (especially since He is invisible and usually doesn’t speak in an audible voice)?

- And then, in one final Sunday before Christmas, we will look at the prayer of Mary that she prays right after finding out that she is going to give birth to the long-awaited Saviour of the world.

- And so, as far as Sunday mornings go, that is 2025 at a glance.

- Now, with all of that said, I do need to give a little disclaimer, a little footnote or asterisk to all of this.

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- “Subject to change”

- I like to plan and brainstorm and dream about what’s coming down the road, but those plans often change along the way.

- For example, I’ve known since before I moved to Weyburn that I wanted to preach on Gospel fluency, and when I became the pastor here I quickly put it on my calendar (back in 2023). But it kept getting bumped and pushed as God placed different things on my heart, until finally it fell into the right spot for these past couple of months.

- So I do want to recognize that this may change.

- This may be tweaked.

- A new topic might be added (which means that maybe one of these series will go away entirely).

- But, as I have sat in front of a calendar, a stack of books on prayer, a Bible, and a prayerful attitude, this is what I am expecting (to the best of my knowledge) that we will be tackling next year.

- And so I want to invite you, to do what you can to make it a priority to be here.

- When you are away (or sick), please stay in the loop by watching our services online.

- Please make a weekly habit of going to the “Now What” website and spending some time going through that content (alone or with others) to get the most out of each and every week.

- Make sure you are getting the Remind messages, and seriously try your best to come out to as many special prayer times as possible next year.

- We are intentionally going to try to not overwhelm our calendars at any one given time, but we are going to try to have different things happening on a week-by-week, month-by-month basis.

- And it would be so great if we would all be a part of it.

- And also, if you know anyone who is interested in prayer, wanting to get better at prayer, or wondering what the point of prayer is, please invite them to join you, and to join us, as we take this journey together.

- And, next week, we are going to have an additional sneak-peek at one particular thing that is coming at the start of January, and we are also going to be considering what I think is a very helpful hint (a “cheat sheet” you might say”), in growing better at prayer.

- Close in prayer

- (*) Now What

- Lord’s Prayer

Scripture:

- Luke 11:1-13

- Matthew 6:5-13

Prayer:

- Take a moment (or longer) to pray these simple words: “Jesus, teach me to pray.” Put this request into your own words and repeat them over and over if you want. Spend some time asking God to teach you, and then listen for His voice.

- Look at your calendar, or write out your plans (schedules, holidays, etc) for the next year. Pray about how you can rearrange some of your time to prioritize prayer over the next 12-13 months. What does it look like for you (and your family, if applicable) to make a more intentional effort to pray together with others in a way that works best for your and your current stage of life?

Discussion/Reflection:

- If you could ask Jesus “teach me to do ______” what would you ask Him to teach you? Would it be a miracle, would it be walking on water, would it be multiplying food, would it be prayer? What does it tell us that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray?

- How satisfied are you with your current prayer life? What do you think is going well? What do you want to see improve?

- When you hear about a “prayer meeting” happening, what is your honest gut reaction? Do you really like attending prayer meetings? Why or why not?

- What is one topic on prayer you would like to see addressed in the next year? Maybe it’s a question, struggle, issue, or just something you want to learn ore about.

Now What Next Step:

- What is one topic on prayer you would like to see addressed in the next year? Maybe it’s a question, struggle, issue, or just something you want to learn ore about.

- Go to the following page: (lifecentreweyburn.ca/ama) and fill out the form to submit any question, topic, issue on prayer that you would like to see addressed in the 2025 year of prayer.

- You can submit it anonymously if you’d like.

- You can submit more than one if you’d like.

- Pastor Matt will do his best to give some time for everyone’s requests in some way over the 2025 year of prayer.