Prayer, Reaching for Him, Spiritual Disciplines
Notes
Transcript
Prayer, Reaching for Him, Spiritual Disciplines
Prayer, Reaching for Him, Spiritual Disciplines
Rough Draft
Turn in your Bible to Luke 18:1-8.
We are in the 2nd week in our series called “Reaching for Him”.
Answering the question, How do I get more of God?
Last week we covered worship especially personal worship.
How personal worship plays a roll in reaching for God and experiencing more of Him in our life.
We know this, to get more of God you need to reach out to Him.
You need to reach for Him.
17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.
If you came today thinking a regret in your past may keep you from God, wonder no more.
If you seek Jesus diligently, you will find Him.
Prayer
Jesus said this,
Summary
In our parable we have 2 characters
First we have a widow.
We have a widow who has been taken advantage of (most likely with money or property) and she needs help.
It appears that she is destitute without having this resource that has been stolen from her.
Maybe what was stolen was money, a home, or a field grow food.
It appears that she was destitute without it. She needed justice.
There was a problem.
In Bible times, courts were only for men, not women. Women could not bring a case to court alone, a man had to represent you.
This appears to be a slam dunk case for her.
This woman has no family and no man to represent her. She can’t afford a lawyer.
She needs justice from the court.
The 2nd character in this parable is the judge.
This is a godless judge. He is proud that He does not fear God or man. He has no love or compassion on this widow - or anyone else.
Of all people who need an advocate widows like this need special consideration.
There is none
The widow is simply been ignored by this terrible judge.
The woman is desperate.
She stays after him - day after day - again an again- asking for justice.
Maybe she attends court as a bi-standard and yells out in between cases.
Maybe on court recess she finds him and hounds him.
As he walks home, she follows him not leaving him alone.
He is getting beaten down with her constant berating.
The widow being so desperate for what is hers, will not leave the judge alone. Because she pleads and pleads - not giving up. The judge begins to feel beaten down by the widow.
Out of his own self preservation the unrighteous judge gives her justice.
He gives her justice, not because he has compassion, but to keep from going crazy.
She wins the case & receives what she so desperately needed. Pause
The secret to knowing the spiritual meaning of this parable is in verses 1 & verse 7-8.
In verse 1 we see the key to the parable hanging on the door.
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
SLIDE (1st Truth for today) - Pray, Pray, Pray and don’t stop praying.
Even when it seems like your request is getting no where do not give up.
God is working in the deep waters. In ways that you cannot see on the surface
God works through your prayers.
The second place we see the meaning to this parable is in verse 7-8.
7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Slide (2nd Truth) - God will answers His people who faithfully pray.
(This parable has its context stretched back into chapter 17 and speaks a great deal about the 2nd coming of Jesus. We don’t have time to unpack that today.)
We see a God who desires to answer the prayers of His elect.
I want you to hang on to 2 verses. 1st verse is in I John 5
SLIDE
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
SLIDE When I pray according to His will He hears it.
When I pray according to His will he gives us our request.
2nd verse I want you to hold on to is
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
God desires to bless you with spiritually good things.
When you pray according to His will, He desires to give you what you request.
If a bad selfish judge will give justice to a widow that he has no use for, how much more will your Father in heaven who loves you, give Him the spiritual help and blessings He asks.
So pray spiritually rich prayers for those in your life.
-It is God’s will for believers that you know to grow deeply in their relationship with Jesus. Ask for it.
-It is God’s will for you to love the Lord with all of your heart and follow Him.
-It is God’s will for your marriage to be healed from the ugliness that has entered it.
These are slam dunk prayers.
These are prayers that Jesus promises to answer, “Yes”.
And yes, the answer may take time, sometimes even years.
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
???Friends we are not talking about asking for riches, or popularity, or power.
This is not some kind of selfish praying. This is talking about asking God for things that bring Him glory.???
We are talking about asking God to transform people’s lives beginning with yours.
Illustration - I lead 2 mission trips to the slums of Brazil with 45 students and leaders.
At the end of one of the trips I got a 24 hour bug with mild fever. It was at the end of the ministry week and I had to stay back while the team had their 1 fun day and do some site seeing.
I had a good and needed day of rest, but also purposed to spend some quality private time with the Lord. I had some great time with the Lord that day.
One of our faith filled Brazilian helpers saw me at group worship time that night. She asked me how my day went. I said, It was restful and I had some good time with the Lord. She responded, I knew you had good time with the Lord. That’s exactly what I prayed for.
Like, Duh, it was obvious to my faith filled friend God was going to answer her prayer.
She asked something that was clearly God’s will. God heard her. It happened.
Transition - ??? The sermon takes on a different direction right here. You need a big transition for people to follow.
Because we dealt with our text in Luke 18 we got a little ahead of ourselves in the message today. Let’s take a step back for a moment and answer this question...
What is prayer?
-Prayer is the means by which God changes hearts and lives.
Hose illustration -
We are all familiar with an outside water hose - Hose Pipe.
You have a desire for God’s power to help someone spiritually.
Your prayer is the hose.
God is the water.
Your loved one is the plant.
You point the hose to where you desire God to work.
God’s power flows through the prayer.
A life receives God’s loving work.
Question - Can God work without me praying?
Yes, but prayer is the means by which God invites you to participate in what He is doing.
If you will not pray, God is very capable of raising up someone else to pray and be rewarded in heaven for their ministry.
In fact, the dirty little secret is this. God is so much in control that He even gives you the desire of who to pray for.
-Have you ever had someone come to mind in an urgent way - or have an unusual strong desire to pray for someone?
That is God, moving in your heart to point the hose toward a certain person so His grace can flow through it. It’s how He invites you into what He is doing.
10(N) Truths about prayer
1. Spiritual change happens through prayer.
-If you care about spiritual change in others lives, you will pray for them.
-God has the ability to overwhelm and change a persons hard heart.
-He changed your dead and hard heart. He can change their’s.
-Those who you love the most you will pray for.
2. There are 2 kinds of prayer:
-Spontaneous prayer, You hear of someone who needs prayer. Or you have an urgency in your spirit for someone, and you pray on the spot.
-Spontaneous prayer is wonderful. Keep it up.
-Spontaneous prayer lacks consistency.
-Daily prayer time - Brings consistent focus on those people and needs that need regular prayer
2. Prayer is hard work.
Prayer takes time, care, focus … ask God to help you pray.
Find what works for you. Because of how distracted my mind gets, I find that my most focused times of prayer are when I walk.
3. Consistent Prayer Needs Structure
-Prayer will only happen consistently in your life when you do 3 things;
a. Ask God for the desire to pray. “God help me pray.”
b. Choose a regular time to pray.
-You wake up, eat, go to work, do home work, exercise and go
to sleep at the same time. Find your prayer time.
-Create a regular prayer time. (It doesn’t have to be long.)
c.Create a prayer list, (or make a prayer journal)
a. Start by Praising & thanking Him,
b. Confess your sin,
c. Requests
1.Pray for your spiritual growth
2.Other’s spiritual growth. Who needs to grow spiritually
& who is lost?
3.Sick
-Prayer is the greatest ways I love my enemy.
-Prayer is one of the greatest ways I am personally transformed.
-Prayer is as much for the prayer as it is for the receiver.
-Prayer is a thermometer of your spiritual pride or humility before God.
-If you aren’t praying, it’s because your heart doesn’t think you need Him.
-Prayer is an expression of your humility before God.
-You go to God in prayer because you need Him.
-You need God to do something that you cannot do for yourself.
-Prayer is an admission before God that “I don’t control this.”
-Prayer is a way you lift God up in your heart and mind.
-Prayer takes the focus off the horizontal and places it on the vertical.
Gospel Prayer of Jesus.
For the soldiers that crucified Jesus, He had compassion on them.
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
What does this tell you about the heart of Jesus?
Maybe you came today wondering if Jesus could ever forgive you for that nasty sin that you cannot forgive yourself for.
Jesus shed His blood to make a payment for your sin.
He loves you.
Jesus was more than willing to forgive those who nailed his hands and feet to the cross and treated Him with such disrespect.
Jesus is more than willing to forgive you right now.
Will you say “Yes” to Jesus.
Will you with full faith and trust make Him your Savior and your king?
Let’s pray
