We are here to be a people of prayer.

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, a

but deliver us from the evil one. b ’

Now turn with me to *note 13 and 14 – the narrow way is how we can come to a Holy God – name of Jesus and illus.

Ask, Seek, Knock

7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Now turn with me to

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”

6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

And finally – turn with me to .

1Answer me when I call to you,

my righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress;

have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

2How long will you people turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods b c

3Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself;

the Lord hears when I call to him.

4Tremble and d do not sin;

when you are on your beds,

search your hearts and be silent.

5Offer the sacrifices of the righteous

and trust in the Lord.

6Many, Lord, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”

Let the light of your face shine on us.

7Fill my heart with joy

when their grain and new wine abound.

8In peace I will lie down and sleep,

for you alone, Lord,

make me dwell in safety.

WE are here, on this earth, to be a people who are in prayer.

So let me just hit a few points from the passages we just read and then I will move to the place that is the burden for my heart as I considered this message for today.

In we learn WHY WE NEED TO PRAY that God knows what we need before we ask. God is all knowing and in the Greek that means God really knows what you need – because He knows everything.

In we learn how to pray.

Here is what we know as “the Lords Prayer” as it is delivered in versus 9-13.

Join with me –

HAVE ALL SAY LORDS PRAYER IN UNISON.

Excellent – now we will get into this some other time – but I want to make mention that there are many who do not call this the Lord’s prayer – rather they call this the Disciples prayer and the Lord’s Prayer is find in John chapter 17. And I tend to agree with them.

At any rate – we have here what Jesus models for us as a prayer and it is in a few parts that I want to touch on briefly so that you get the meaning of what Jesus is teaching here.

First – “Our Father in Heaven – Hallowed be Your name.”

In other words – call upon the Lord of heaven and earth as a Father – not some distant unknown. This is a relationship – not a religion.

In the English language this would be stated as:

“Dear Daddy – I know you are Holy and above all things. But you are my Daddy.”

Next, we see the words – Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven.

This is seeking God to come – not in the sense that He is not here – but in the sense that we seek Him to come more continually until He is here and His work is fully completed – as we have seen in previous messages – we are still not yet what we will fully be at the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Next we ask for our daily bread.

This is a work of faith asking God to provide what we need for this day. We are always at risk of getting lazy and faithless if we have a stock pile – so we aren’t asking for the delivery of a multimillion-dollar lottery – but asking Him to meet any need we have for the moment in which we live, and trusting He will care for us.

And then we see that we are to trust the Lord to give us the power and the grace to be forgiving. That God would keep before us - what He has done on our behalf - so that we may do the same for others.

– forgive as Christ forgave.

And finally, we see in verse 13 that we should be seeking Gods protection from the temptation or the testing that will come. It is when we are weak that we see the greatest need for His strength.

So that is the prayer in a nut shell.

It is so much more than a bunch of words to memorize and recite – it is better to think of it as a framework that models how we are to pray – because this ALWAYS will put God in His proper place before we start down our Christmasy wish lists.

Now we look quickly at Matthew chapter 7.

This shows us what prayer is.

Prayer is the Asking and Seeking and Knocking. Prayer is us calling upon God to do what we cannot.

We also learn here that God’s people receive, and find, and have the door opened. God responds to those who truly seek Him.

And that brings us to the passage in .

Jesus teaches us here that we ought to be persistent in our prayer life – we ought to exercise “Importunity” – That’s the King James version that means we ought to be diligent and continual in prayer. We ought to be long suffering and not give up!

And now we will turn again to . Here is the prayer of David. And this will help us to clear up any confusion about prayer in light of what we already have seen.

Understand that prayer is not a thing that makes life full of rainbows and sunshine.

Prayer is a way of seeking from the Lord what we need and what we want from Him – because He is God.

The problem is that many believe that prayer is a way to get what they want, when we want it, the way they want it – and if they don’t – they simply stop.

They take an attitude that God doesn’t really care. God doesn’t want what is best for them in their minds – and some even believe because their prayer is not answered in their time, or as they wished for it to be – then they think God isn’t really God – and so they seek to find their own happiness apart from God – and yet, continue to blame God they didn’t get things that they wanted – when they wanted - and how they wanted.

WE must understand that the goal of prayer is not, to give me what I want as I am – but the goal of prayer is to be in a trusting relationship with God, and that as I am – and as I pray – I will be transformed by the renewing of my mind and accept Gods Will, and Gods Way, and Gods wants, for my life, with the joy that He gives as I follow Him and trust Him.

David Jeremiah said it well when he wrote:

“The truth is that in His infinite love and wisdom, God always knows what to give us in answer to our prayers. Prayer does not always change our situation – but it should always change us. In prayer, we bring our anxieties to an all wise, all loving, and all sovereign God, and we ask Him why these things have happened and how we can cope. His answer never changes: This world and its answers will never be enough. Only He is enough” (p.708 commentary).

So, we have surveyed how to pray, why to pray, and what prayer is, and what prayer does.

And I know that many of us have been taught and been told what the Bible says about prayer.

I can tell you that I have preached everyone of the passages addressed here so far (except ) in great depth – even to the point of preaching series that were no less than 5 weeks long.

So as I prayerfully considered what we should see, so that we understand we are on this earth to be a people of prayer – I wasn’t burden to tell you the what and how and purpose of prayer. Most have already been told and have studied it to some degree.

But my burden was to ask the question – How come so few really practice the life of prayer that the Bible lays before us? Why so few? I don’t say this to blame anyone – I don’t say this to hurt you or to beat you up.

But I can say that there are only a couple in a hundred – who when I ask them about their prayer life – THEY tell me how intentional they are with prayer and how purposeful they feel about being in daily prayer.

So let me spend the rest of our time today addressing the reason that most people in the church today do not pray as they ought to – because I think this will be encouraging and challenging to us - to consider one overarching theme.

And that theme is not about what we do or don’t do. That theme is not about what we say or don’t say.

But rather the overarching theme that speaks to a person’s prayer life is what they really believe.

Because right believing leads to right living, and if there is something that we are not believing as we should – it will affect the life of prayer that we do or do not have.

So the question some of you may have for me is “Joel – where in the world did you get such a crazy notion like that? The idea that believing is the at the heart of a person’s reason for praying or not praying?”

And I would answer “From Jesus.”

Turn again to .

Jesus tells a parable of the persistent widow and He wants us to see the need we are to have – the perseverance and the faith - to keep coming again and again and again to seek the Lord for what we need from Him.

And Jesus tells us that

READ VERSE 7-8a

And then look at what our Savior says: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

A prayer life, or a lack of a prayer life, is not a matter of time. It is not a matter of money. It is not a matter of work schedules. It is not a matter of greater knowledge once in the church.

A prayer life – or the lack of a prayer life - is a matter of faith!

And faith is a matter of what we really believe.

So let me share with you some things that must be believed if we are going to have a prayer life that Glorifies God.

First – We must believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it is truth that is for our lives – absolute truth!

14But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them. 15From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

If we do not

Believe that the Bible is the Word of God then what foundation do we have for prayer?

Why not exercise pray as the Buddhist or the Muslim people and recite little diddys that hold to strict traditions of men?

To believe the Bible is the word of God is to know that God loves me and God cares for me and God wants no man to perish.

To know the Bible is the Word of God is to have a firm foundation and a pool to drink from in times of trouble as we see how others prayed in times of Joy and persecution, and times of trials and temptations!

To know the Bible is the Word of God is to know that there is a work that is to be done on our part in being obedient to the God we pray to.

The Bible is witnessed as Gods Word because Even though it is really sixty-six individual books, written on three continents, in three different languages, over a period of approximately 1500 years, by more than 40 authors who came from many walks of life, the Bible remains one unified book from beginning to end without contradiction. This unity is unique from all other books and is evidence of the divine origin of the words which God moved men to record.

In Mark Jesus tells us the importance of believing in the Word of God because He says:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (). That is the rock we stand on that calls, and encourages, and demands, that we obey in exercising a prayerful life.

Second – We must believe that God is God.

That means we must believe that God is ALL. The fancy church word is OMNI.

We must believe God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.

The Bible tells us that God is omnipresent.

That means that God is everywhere – all the time. He is not a piece of Him here, and a piece of Him there – but rather He is all the time in ALL places.

The Bible also tells us God is Omniscient. That means God knows everything about everything in every way! We are told by the prophet Isaiah that God not only knows all of the past and all of the present – but that He knows all of the future that is yet to be.

And the Bible tells us that God is omnipotent. That means God is all powerful.

There is no one who can stop Him. No one who can detour Him. No one who can push Him off the course He has set.

When the posse showed up in the garden of Gethsemane – we know Jesus only spoke to the band of men and the Bible tells us that they all fell backwards.

When God determined to set Israel free from Egypt – He moved a sea of water.

When God determined to set His people free from sin and unshackle them from sin – He had the power to choose the nails.

And no man woman or power on earth had the capacity or ability to make Him do otherwise.

You will find verses for your personal study in your handouts to look over concerning each one of these points – but I will summarize them all with .

(READ )

We need to understand, and we must believe, that God is God. And because He is - He is all present, He is all knowing, and He is all powerful, if we are going to have purposeful prayer lives.

Next – in light of the size and scope of God – we must believe that we have access to Him. Personal – one on one access. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 and look with me at verse 18.

(READ )

Paul is telling the church in Ephesus that because Christ has come and Christ has died and Christ has risen – Christ has made a way of access to the God of heaven and earth.

This word access in the Greek is the word Prosagoge.

Tony Evans illustrates what this word means as he shared a story about a man and he said:

A young man sat on a park bench, bawling. A little boy saw him and said, “Sir, what’s wrong? Sir, what’s wrong?”

The man told him the story about his brother who was in prison. His brother was on death row and would be executed in the next few days. The man desperately wanted to see Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, and ask for a pardon, but of course regular people can’t just walk into the president’s office. The man was hopeless.

After hearing the man’s story, the little boy said, “Sir, would you come with me?” He took the man by the hand, walked him into the presidential office through the guards, past the secretary, and nobody mumbled a word. The man couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t have gotten in to see the president if he had tried and this little boy was walking him straight past everyone into the president’s office.

President Lincoln stood up as the young man entered with the boy. He looked at the boy and said, “How can I help you, son?” You see, the reason the man could get into Abraham Lincoln’s office is because he had run into the son of Abraham Lincoln, and the son could walk past all the opposition.

You can’t walk into the presence of a holy God unless you are escorted by the Son. That’s why we pray in Jesus’ name.

This is our access – this is what the author of Hebrews is telling us when he says in

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We must believe we have access to a God who is everywhere and who knows everything and has all power – if we are going to have an intentional and purposeful prayer life!

Now let me make a few more observations briefly of what we must believe.

Next If we are going to be a people of prayer, we must believe that there is more than this world. See versus to set sights on heaven above – foreigners in this world etc.

We must believe that God delights in hearing from us in prayer and that God is moved by our prayers.

Another significant thing that we must believe if we are to be a people of prayer, is that we must believe we are to be selfless.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 1 We are told that Solomon was the sitting King of Israel and the Lord appeared to Solomon and told him to “ask Me for whatever you want Me to give you” and Solomon prays for wisdom and knowledge to lead the People of Israel.

And God tells him – “Since it is your hearts desire to have knowledge and wisdom – something that was sought on behalf of the nation and not something that only served his own selfish pleasures and desires – God granted all Solomon asked for and much much more.

If we are to be a people of prayer – we must seek Gods heart and ask what God wants for this place and time in which we live. And we will be encouraged tremendously as we see God deliver what we ask for that is not merely for our own happiness and desires.

As we close, I want to touch on a few more points to help us see the need to be a people in prayer – specifically for the lost.

First – we must believe there is a judgement.

ESV

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

Second – We must believe there is an enemy.

ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Thirdly - We must believe there is a hell.

ESV

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Finally - We must believe that the lost are really lost.

ESV

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

At the bottom of your hand out you will find two seasons that are found in Scripture.

One season is when there was no one who was found to stand before God and believe Him for what He said. Those seasons ended in utter desolation.

The other season is when men took God at His Word and believe that He would do as He promised. Although there was much destruction – there was a work of mercy on Gods part that helped the people of God.

The question isn’t whether we like what we see in the world today?

The question is, will those who believe God and take Him at His Word – call upon Him in prayer and seek His face, and cry out in the day in which they live?

Abraham sought God for Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot was saved.

Moses sought God for a bunch of stiff-necked rebels and Israel was saved.

We are here on earth to be the intercessors – those who believe in God so much that we constantly cry out to Him and have our hearts changed as we are moved to love, as God Himself loves.

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