1-Prayer Revised

Prayer

Thoughts

Points I’d like to make:

1. Lots of Questions, Not a lot of answers.
2. God’s concern is having a relationship with me.
3. Jesus thought Prayer of Primary Importance!!!
4. Prayer can change our perspective and align our minds with God’s.

Intro:  Mike asked me to finish one series then asked me to do a stand alone series then asked me to begin a series on prayer.

I’m glad he asked me to begin the series because to be honest with you I have more questions than answers when it comes to prayer.

I got Philip Yancey’s new book “Prayer:  Does it Make Any Difference?”  for Christmas.  Before I knew I would be preaching on the topic.  I like his books because he has lots of questions too.

In it he quotes a recent Gallup poll that suggest that:

·         More Americans will pray this week than will exercise, drive a car, have sex, or go to work.

·         9 in 10 of us pray regularly

·         3 out of 4 claim to pray every day.

 Yet behind those impressive number lies a conundrum.  When he interviewed ordinary people about prayer the results went like this:  Is prayer important to you?  Oh, yes.  How often do you pray?  Every day.  Approximately how long to you pray?  Five minutes—well maybe seven.  Do you find prayer satisfying?  Not really.  Do you sense the presence of God when you pray?  Occasionally, not often.

One of my questions then is, “How can our prayer life become more satisfying?”  I can’t wait to hear Mike and Josh’s answers.

But here is what I do know.

God’s primary concern is having a relationship with me!!!

Imagine that, the creator of the universe wants a personal relationship with me and with you.  But you may ask, “Luke, how do you know God wants a personal relationship with me?” 

TEXT:  Matthew 22:34-40  The Greatest Commandment

 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

 36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Jesus was asked, “What is the most important command?” and his response was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.  And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

I believe that this is at the heart of why Prayer is so important to God. 

RELATIONSHIP  is to God more important than anything else. 

What makes a relationship? 

What makes a healthy relationship?

Discussion Question:

What are the visible signs of a relationship?

·         Time spent together

·         Communication

o       About dreams, hopes, failures, challenges

·         Life lived together

·         Touch

·         Honesty

To Jesus prayer was of Primary Importance:

But remember

• In Jesus we have a man with the Power of the Universe in his hands.
• In Jesus we have a man with all the wisdom of the ages.
• In Jesus we have a man who could personally heal all illnesses.
• In Jesus we have a man that could resurrect dead people.
• In Jesus we have a man that could turn water into wine and turn 5 loaves and 2 fishes into enough to feed 5000.

And yet in Jesus we find a man that prayed all the time. 

If most of us had power like that what would we pray about?

Jesus didn’t need to ask God for many of the things we spend our time asking God.  But he spent time with God. 

1. Jesus placed primary importance upon prayer.
1. He often skipped other important things to pray:

                                                              i.      Sleep to pray

                                                            ii.      Eating to pray

                                                          iii.      Ministering to the needy to pray

                                                          iv.      Preaching to pray

1. All the major events of his life were bathed in prayer

                                                              i.      His baptism

                                                            ii.      His ministry

                                                          iii.      His choosing of the 12 apostles

                                                          iv.      His crucifixion

One other interesting thing to me is that Jesus was never asked by his disciples to “teach us to preach.”  But they asked him to teach them to pray.  I believe that they saw him his life how important it was.

Jesus BEGGED God for some things in his life as well.  And as strange as this might sound “I am comforted that God sometimes said no even to Jesus.”

·         His prayer at Gethsemane

·         His longest recorded prayer for unity for believers (the latest count I’ve seen suggests that today there are over 35000 denominations and religious sects calling themselves Christian.)

In the end it comes down to this.  Our relationship with God is a choice.  He chose to build a bridge of love to us by coming here and showing us what a relationship with him looks like.  He chose to pay the ultimate price for our lives by giving his own life. 

We must choose to respond.  We must choose to love God on his terms.   

What hinders that?

It is hard to have a relationship with someone you can’t see.

It is hard to have a relationship with someone that seems never to talk back.

It is hard to have a relationship with an infinite being when we are very finite.

I believe strongly that the reason God doesn’t show himself now is that he wants us to choose freely to love him.  The only way we can choose freely to love him is for him to remain hidden.  Because Once we see him choice will fade away.  His presence will so overwhelm us that we will have no choice but bow down and worship him.  But he wants us to LOVE HIM. 

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT WAS NOT FOR US TO WORSHIP HIM, BUT TO LOVE HIM.  LOVE IS A CHOICE. 

Finally, I believe that Prayer helps to align our hearts and minds with God’s own heart and mind.

• Prayer should remind us that this vast universe does not revolve around us.  * Prayer should remind us to look at those we pray for the way God looks at them.
• Prayer gives us the opportunity to stop being God ourselves and to crawl up into our Father’s lap and give all our worries and concerns to him. 

Conclusion:

I don’t know why God says yes to some prayers and no to others.  Perhaps Josh and Mike will be able to explain that to us in the coming weeks.  I don’t know why God said no to some of Jesus prayers.  I don’t know why he has said no to many of mine. 

I don’t know why I lost the battle to stay at the church I helped plant.  I certainly prayed about it.  I don’t know why I run a building products company instead of living in fulltime ministry, I certainly prayed about it.  I don’t know why my prayers of mercy on my family when I found my daughter not breating and I tried cpr and rode with a police officer following an ambulance to the hospital weren’t answered.  I’ve never prayed more fervently.  I don’t know why my wife has been unable to rebuild her life since all those things happened.  I’ve certainly prayed about it.  I beg God for strength and wisdom everyday and feel as though I barely make it through many of those days.  But I am here. 

I believe God’s heart breaks with mine. 

I believe that He LOVES Me more than I have ever loved anyone else.

I want GOD to know that I LOVE HIM. 

And so I continue to talk to him.  Everyday, many times a day I talk to him. 

I Believe God still has HOPE FOR ME IN THIS WORLD and that is why I am here.