Spiritual Disciplines (2)

I don’t know about all of you, but I really enjoyed traveling through the 2018 Christmas season doing our Advent Series. Now with the advent season behind us, and a brand new year in front of us, we dive back into our series on the Spiritual Disciplines. I believer this is as very key series for us and an excellent way to start 2019.

This morning we continue on the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer. Next Slide

Leonard Ravenhill said, "No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few prayers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

Simply put, if you look at his list, many of the items he listed are good items! We need organizers in the church, we need singers, we need pastors & writers. All of these are key roles, but if the individuals filling those roles ignore the importance of a devotion to prayer, they operate solely on their own power and greatly diminish, if not completely eliminate their ability to accomplish anything of eternal significance. And isn’t it Next Slide a top priority of the church to make an eternal difference in the lives of those who are a part of the church?

The top priority of the church to make an eternal difference in the lives of those who are a part of the church.

So if our top priority is to make an eternally significant difference in the lives of people, and if we can’t do this without a devotion to prayer, why is it we struggle so much with that devotion?

I believe that a big part of it is, we don’t really know how to pray. Our prayers are stagnant and stale with very little if any change from one day to the next. Truth is, for many of us, we simply don’t know how to pray.

With that in mind, this morning we are going to look at Next Slides.

Spiritual Disciplines-Prayer-How to Pray

If you have been to the adult Sunday school class lead by Julie Spencer, you have probably noticed a prayer acronym she has on the white board with the letters for PRAISE. The acronym gives us a good guideline on how to pray.

Praise

Repentance

Acknowledge God’s Lordship in yoiur life.

Intercession for others and their needs

Supplication for myself

Equip me for Christian service.

We are going to use this acronym this morning as a guideline on how to pray. Before we do, one thing you may notice is there is no “T” for Thankfulness. Yet we read in

Philippians 4:6

Philippians 4:6 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

The reason for that is that thankfulness should be a part of each aspect of our prayer life. As we spend time praising God, we can express thankfulness to Him for Who He is and what He accomplishes. After a time of repentance, we can thank Him for His provision of forgiveness. As you go through each of these aspects of prayer you can include thankfulness.

Now let’s take the time to look at each aspect of prayer. The first one is: Next Slide

Praise & Adoration

For the most part, this is how we should start our prayer time, yet for many of us, a time of praise and adoration of God is largely missing from our time of prayer. We quickly move to our to-do list for God, our expectations for what we want Him to accomplish for us. Yet in Psalm 22:3 we read: Next Slide

Psalm 22:3

Psalm 22:3 ESV

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In Psalm 22:3 we see that God inhabits the praises of His people.

I love what Beth Moore writes in her book Whispers Of Hope. She writes: “Sincere praise from your heart will invite God to pull up His chair and become your audience.”

While Steven and Brittany were with us, we invited Stan and Jan Whitehead over to watch the movie Hoosiers. Now I have seen the movie at least 10 times, but neither of the kids had ever watched it. What made this viewing more interesting for me was watching it with 2 people who were actually in the movie. As we watched it, I kept the remote control in my hand and paused it on a regular basis, getting the inside scoop from people who had been there. We even got to see where Liberty Chapel was in the movie. Before the movie started, we slid our couch over so we were all sitting close to one another as we watched the movie.

If I am reading Beth Moore’s quote correctly, that is the picture she wants you to have here in reference to our praise and God’s presence. When we sincerely spend time praising God, He pulls up His proverbial chair and sits down next to us. Can you to picture that in your mind for a moment. Use your imagination and picture the God of the universe pulling His chair up right next to you and spending some one on one time with you.

Now there are many different ways you can give God praise and adoration. One of the ways may take some effort initially, but later this can be done while physically doing something else. In fact for me, I did this while riding my bicycle to work in the mornings. Part of the year I was riding to work an hour before the sun came up and I was always on the rode long before there was much traffic. As I rode to work I began to praise God by going through some of the many names of God while I rode. Next Slides

Praise God while reviewing the Names of God.

I praised Him:

As Elohim, the Strong Creator.

As Jehovah, the Self-existent One.

As Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who provides.

As Jehovah Shalom, the God Who gives peace.

As Jehovah Rophe, the Lord Who heals.

As Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord Who clothes me in His righteousness.

This is just a partial list, but I had little problem spending a considerable amount of time praising God as I reviewed the Names of God.

Another way we can spend time praising God is by: Next Slides

Praying through the Psalms.

For this, turn in your Bibles to Psalm 23. Next Slides

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That gives you a couple ideas on ways you can spend time in praise and adoration.

This brings us to the next aspect of prayer in the P.R.A.I.S.E. acronym: Next Slide

Repentance

Matthew 6:9 & 12

Next Slide

Matthew 6:9 ESV

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

I added verse 9 to show you why we start with praise before we move to repentance. When Jesus was teaching the Disciples to pray, He instructed them to begin with praise to God “hallowed be Your Name” before moving into repentance, we do the same. I believe a huge part of why we spend time praising Him first is that it gives us a reminder of how truly incredible God is, and as a result a more accurate assessment of how deeply sinful we are. Next Slide

Matthew 6:12 ESV

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

I’m really not going to spend a lot of time on repentance this morning. I just want to point out 2 important keys. Next Slides

Repentance is more than confession, it is an about face.

Forgiveness from God is a by-product of our forgiveness of others.

Jesus, Himself makes this very clear in verses 14 & 15 of Matthew chapter 6, where we read: Next Slides

Matthew 6:14-15

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Let’s now move to the next aspect of prayer, in our acronym this is the letter A for: Next Slide

Acknowledgment

There are 2 areas of acknowledgement taking place here:

1. Acknowledgement of God’s rightful place as the ruler of your life.

2. Acknowledgment of God’s goodness to you in the past.

When we acknowledge God’s rightful place as ruler of our lives, we are acknowledging His lordship over our life, it is a daily surrendering of ourselves to Him. Beth Moore writes:

“Any day not surrendered to the authority of the Holy Spirit will automatically be lived in the flesh.” Beth Moore-Whispers Of Hope

To look at the area of acknowledgement of God’s goodness to you in the past, Pam is going to share with us a couple things she has been doing, one of which she has been doing for over 27 years, that haver paid significant dividends in this area for us as a family.

Pam’s sharing from her journal and prayer box.

As you have listened to Pam, share, I trust you have come away with a couple key lessons. First, we have an incredible God Who still answers our prayers, and He isn’t just listening to and answering the prayers of those who are in the full-time ministry. If you have a heart for God and a devoted prayer life to Him, you can count on Him moving in incredible ways. Second, taking a few moments a day to write down your prayers, and later the ways in which God answers your prayers, can be a source of unparalleled encouragement. As you look back over at the way God has moved, the way He has been with you every step of the way, especially those times you thought you were on your own, He lifts your spirits, as well as well as the spirits of others as you do what Pam did this morning. Share with others what God has done.

The next aspect of our prayer life we are going to look at today is the aspect of: Next Slide

Intercession

Specifically this is the time we devote to praying for others. As I spend time talking with others, and as I am made aware of their prayer needs, I am amazed at the incredible prayer needs of others. A couple things happen as I listen to them share their prayer needs. One, I am reminded how fortunate I really am. Most of the time my true prayer needs pale in comparison to the needs of others. Almost to the point where I develop a since of gratitude at how faithful God has been to me. Two, I am profoundly aware of the great privilege as well as the responsibility it is to be able to pray for others. Because of that, I never want to forget to pray for someone when I am asked. Unfortunately this happens all too frequently among believers. Not purposely, but more by accident. Someone asks us to pray and we say we will, but then as we move on with our busy schedule, we simply forget.

Pam mentioned our Pastor Jake when she was sharing earlier. Pastor Jake was one of the greatest shepherds I ever had the privilege of serving alongside. He and Pastor Allen have been friends for decades. One day, a member from our church asked me to pray for them. Like any good youth pastor, I assured them I would. A few moments later, Jake quietly pulled me to the side. His challenge was that at every opportunity I had when someone asked me to pray for them, to pray for them right there on the spot. The best way to not forget to do something is to do it right then and there. I have sought to make a habit of that ever since. I simply ask, “Do you mind if I pray with you right now?” I have been doing it now for 27 years and so far have yet to be turned down. In fact on many occasions the individual has been in tears before I was finished praying.

Can I challenge you to do the same? I would love it if Liberty Chapel became known as a church that intercedes for the needs of others.

Ok, so here we are on the last 2 aspects of prayer, and only now are we getting to praying for our own needs. Next Slide

Supplication for Self

I don’t want you to think that I put it here because we shouldn’t be praying for our own needs. By all means we should be. The Psalmist makes it pretty clear in Psalm 62:8 that we should be pouring our heart out before Him. Next Slide

Psalm 62:8

Psalm 62:8 ESV

8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

There is certainly nothing wrong with bringing our personal requests before the throne of the very God Who has the power to answer our prayers. I am just wondering if we don’t have a tendency to put our personal requests a little high on our prayer list? In many instances the only requests we have on our prayer lists are personal ones. I also wonder sometimes if we don’t put more emphasis on our wants than on our needs. Again, I don’t want you to think you can’t bring your wants to Him, you certainly can and should. What I am saying is that if day after day your prayer requests to God are filled with.....things…possessions, that raise you really feel you need…I’m pretty sure most of you could add quite a few things to this list. If we spend most of our time praying for things and no time praying for our spiritual needs, something is out of kilter. At the top of our personal prayer list there4 should be things like.

God help me to love You more today, help me to live a life today that is pleasing to You, to honor You with what I do and say. God I have really been struggling with my attitude towards Jonathan lately and I know my attitude isn’t pleasing to You. Would You strengthen my resolve today?

I honestly believe that the more our personal prayer requests are like the one I just shared, the more we are apt to see God answers those other personal prayer requests. You know why? Because the more our prayer life is filled with those significant personal spiritual needs, the more our life becomes in tune with what is pleasing to God. We got a good picture of that when Pam was sharing earlier. As she prayed she began to see God go way beyond just our needs.

This brings us to the last aspect of our prayer life, the aspect of Next Slide

Equipping

In many ways this is actually tied to the previous aspect of Supplication. You see the more our personal supplication is transformed from giving God our personal shopping list into Him moving in our lives in the ways I mentioned earlier in my example, the more natural it will be for us to seek Him to equip us to serve Him more fully.

God, will you give me eyes like yours today, so that I won’t miss opportunities today that You have placed before me to share Your love with others. Give me ears like yours that can hear heartache as people speak, that I might be used of you to encourage them. And God, don’t let me make it through 2019 without sharing the Good News of you love with others, and being used by You to see at least one person put their faith and trust in You.

I want to close our time today, and the topic of the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with a quote out of the book Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life:

“Prayerful people become godly people, for prayerfulness with God cultivates godliness in all of life. My ministerial experience concurs with the words of J. C. Ryle: “What is the reason that some believers are so much brighter and holier than others? I believe the difference, in nineteen cases out of twenty, arises from different habits about private prayer. I believe that those who are not eminently holy pray little, and those who are eminently holy pray much.”[23] Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 100). NavPress. Kindle Edition.

He finishes the chapter by writing:

“Would you be like Christ? Then do as He did—discipline yourself to be a person of prayer.” Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 100). NavPress. Kindle Edition.