Core Series Meeting with God 4
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Core Seminars—Meeting with God
Class 4: Meeting with God in Prayer
A quiet time is the part of the day that we set aside for the worship of God, for the reading of the Word of God and for fellowship with God so that we would know Him more, know ourselves in light of Him, and know the world according to His perspective.
A quiet time is the part of the day that we set aside for the worship of God, for the reading of the Word of God and for fellowship with God so that we would know Him more, know ourselves in light of Him, and know the world according to His perspective.
Prayer is the Spirit-given, Word-saturated response, through communication, to dwelling on God.
Prayer is the Spirit-given, Word-saturated response, through communication, to dwelling on God.
A – Adoration
C – Confession
T – Thanksgiving
S – Supplication
For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.
1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.
2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.
5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.
10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God— God of my salvation— and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.
18 In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
I. Prayer: A Trinitarian Framework
I. Prayer: A Trinitarian Framework
It is God’s attribute to be a relational and communicative God.
It is God’s attribute to be a relational and communicative God.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.
A. The Basis of All Prayer: The Sonship of Jesus
A. The Basis of All Prayer: The Sonship of Jesus
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Three reasons to have confidence that we can draw near to God:
Three reasons to have confidence that we can draw near to God:
1) Jesus is our high priest.
1) Jesus is our high priest.
2) The acceptance that Jesus has with the Father is the acceptance that we now have in Him.
2) The acceptance that Jesus has with the Father is the acceptance that we now have in Him.
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
3) If God hears the prayers of Jesus, He will also hear our prayers through Jesus.
3) If God hears the prayers of Jesus, He will also hear our prayers through Jesus.
34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
– Jesus intercedes for us
– Jesus intercedes for us
– Jesus intercedes for us
13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
– Praying in the name of Jesus
– Praying in the name of Jesus
– Praying in the name of Jesus
B. The Source of All Prayer: The Fatherhood of God
B. The Source of All Prayer: The Fatherhood of God
2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come.
God the Father gives good gifts
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
C. The Enabling of All Prayer: The Power of the Holy Spirit
1) The Holy Spirit draws us to a saving faith in Christ.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:
9 About sin, because they do not believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;
11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
2) The Holy Spirit assures us of our adoption in Christ.
16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
3) The Holy Spirit intercedes for us before the Father.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
II. The Word of God and Prayer
Why isn’t prayer alone enough to sustain our fellowship with God?
“If prayer is not addressed to God in terms of what is real, it is a fantasy. The prior word of God is established from the outset as the ground for any human understanding of reality.” - Graeme Goldsworthy
- Graeme Goldsworthy
A. Reading God’s Word makes us God-centered in our prayers
B. Reading God’s Word helps us to pray according to His will.
Jesus, Our Example
1 He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
The Example of George Mueller
“And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. Now what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a piper, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.”
- George Mueller
Praying Scripture
9 And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment,
10 so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.
2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.
Two Practical Suggestions:
1) Read through a Psalm a day.
2) Use Scripture to pray for other members of the church.
What do you do when you feel like your prayers are going nowhere?
Do you ever get overwhelmed in prayer?
Questions?