Untitled Sermon (3)

Transforming Prayer - part 1

Lord teach us why we should pray?

Luke 11:1–12 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Introduction

· Why Pray? – Jesus Commands it – He says When not If

· Why Pray? – It recognise our position as a child of God and God as the Good Father who cares for his creation!

We are created by God for it! Right back in the creation account, Humans (Adam and Eve) were in perfect relationship with God. Prayer was initially for relationship and not based on need. There is nothing wrong with praying for our needs (I’ll talk more about that next week) Prayer is about fellowship ad friendship with God first!

New Creation – God’s promised Kingdom is now here – but it remains still to fully come! I have reminded us of this a number of times. This is genuinely the reason why we are to pry “your Kingdom come”.

Christianity is not primarily concerned with us getting out of here in the rapture before the antichrist comes to invade and rule. Anything like that will only be very temporary. No, we have a much bigger picture that seeks to bring God’s kingdom to Earth in us and through us (This kingdom is an upside down kingdom that serves and redeems rather, than rules and oppresses). BTW God’s kingdom doesn’t come with human force! It comes with Holy Spirit Power to transform our lives.

I believe in a number of ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives as Christians – The first one of these is a once only occurrence, the others happen throughout our Christian lives as we ask God for the Holy Spirit.

1st is Salvation – (and even here I could point out that God has Saved us, is saving us and will save us as a continual work of God in our lives) But let’s just define it as a born again experience that happens once! :

God’s Kingdom comes every time someone surrenders their life to Christ and accepts him as Lord and Saviour! 9If you want to do this, we will be providing an opportunity to d this at the end of todays message.

· The next way that the Holy Spirit works in us is one is one that Paul speaks about a lot. It is the Sanctifying work of Holy Spirit. It is the way that God is saving us throughout our lives – it is the transforming work that is a process. It starts the day that we become Christians and finishes the day that we move from here and into eternity!

Paul speaks of such a work as the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of the believer . Such fruit demonstrate God’s Character and his goodness through the lives of his people. Those who have been truly born again into the family of God. says to as many as received him, he gave the right to be called the children of God!

A third work of the Holy Spirit in our lives according to scripture is to empower us! We need it if we are to witness for Jesus in the face of persecution. Truthfully, a very real reason that so many of us do not share our faith is because we do not live with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And One that I’ll come back to later in the message.

Lord Teach us to Pray – Teach us why to pray!

· Why Pray? – Pray to be saved! What does that mean?

– well first of all, We are saved from Sin and its ultimate penalty of Hell. Hell is a real place and Jesus really died (and rose again) to rescue us from Hell! Why would we not want to gratefully receive Jesus’ forgiveness and rescue from the penalty of our sins, from the damage of our sins has brought along with the shame we feel because of them and just by being part of a broken world.

· Why Pray? – We pray to be strengthened against temptation

A praying man will stop sinning, but a sinning man will stop praying! Leonard Ravehill

If you want to know why I believe, practice and preach about prayer, well….

I pray because of how much I need God’s help! – cure for inadequacy

I pray because of how much I need God’s company! (hear presence) Cure for loneliness.

I pray because the Holy Spirit teaches me from His word! Cure from foolishness

I pray because of how much I need God’s strength and power! Cure from insufficiency.

We are powerless to preach adequately, powerless to pray for the sick effectively, and powerless to believe sufficiently or even to live faithfully! Prayer says to God, I need You! And Not praying actually says the exact opposite. In effect its saying – its alright God, I got this! Our lack of prayer says to God, I don’t need you. Such an act of independence often results in God taking his hands off our lives so that we can learn the lesson! We see this in individuals and also in whole nations!

You see, prayerlessness is our ultimate declaration of Independence from God! Rather than saying to God – “Thy Will be done” – we actually say “My will be done!”

If you’ve been living without praying much – I want to encourage you to find some time or times throughout each day to talk with God. You don’t need secial religious words. You need heart talk – openness and honesty to the God who already knows!

Friend, I actually want us to follow the same principle both in our church and in our private personal lives! I want the reality of God in my life that transforms and helps me to live a life that reflects the Love and the Goodness of God. My Family need this kind of husband and father; and our church and our community need those kind of Christians.

I mentioned to our Leadership committee that if we were to grow our church by good management without prayer, that would actually be worse than to be a praying church without growth.!

As a church, I really want us to be a word Fed, Spirit Lead, Worship based prayer times once a month on a Sunday night here at Church.

Friend we must not live this way – God is worthy and we are needy! That is why we pray – and next week, we’ll discuss that this is the model Jesus gives us for How we are to Pray! The following week, we’ll look at the where and the who of prayer! In the meantime – let’s look at our last point and then come to a prayer time

· Why Pray? – I pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit!

It is so good to know that our sins are forgiven and so good to know that God takes an intimate interest in our lives. Because of this – we should let others know of how good God is! The only problem – so many people don’t want to know that they are living their lives in a way that is contrary to God’s best plan for their lives.

Jesus promised that He will give us the words to speak in that very hour – the hour that our witness is being demanded

Jesus promised power – power to be a witness for Christ.

Jesus promised his Presence – this is the Holy Spirit in our Lives

He also promised that the Holy Spirit would work in the lives of people to draw them to God before we even start sharing our faith. This is one reason why we should pray because when we are walking closely with God, we are lead by the Spirit and find ourselves talking to someone, living the truth of Christ’s message before them. The Holy Spirit stays after us as we pray and keeps speaking in the lives of people who he is drawing to Christ.

I want to follow the same principle both in our church and in my private personal life! I want the reality of God in my life that transforms me and