Praise & Purpose

Shrimp Boil & Baptisms…today, in The Well Network…we will get witness here the 100th baptism.

Starting today , we are beginning a new series on prayer from Luke 11.

Introduction (establishing the WHY to lean in the next four weeks)

Every great move of God begins by not moving. - Robby Gallaty

Where in Christian History, when you look back at the most profound moments of people experiencing God, seeing people saved, disciples multiplied, and people sent… “D.L. Moody says it can be traced back to a kneeling figure.”

In other words…it goes back to someone praying.

The Fulton Street Revival Story

In 1857 there were 30,000 men idle on the streets of New York. Drunkenness was rampant, and the nation was divided by slavery. God raised up a praying businessman, Jeremiah Lanphier. On September 23, 1857 he began a noontime prayer meeting on Fulton Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. Out of a city of 1 million people, six people showed up a half hour late.

The group decided to meet the next week and there were 14. The next week there were 23. The following week there were 40. Within weeks there were thousands of business leaders meeting daily. God moved so powerfully that the prayer meeting spread across the nation. It is estimated that nearly 1 million people were converted out of a national population of 35 million, including 10,000 weekly conversions in New York City for a season.

And all of this began in 1857 from one man, who wanted to pray. No idea what his prayers were on the threshold of a city-wide revival and then nation-wide revival.

I desire that TWC will not just be a church that prays, but we will be a praying church.

I have a labrador that I like to train and spend time with prep for duck hunting. But there is a HUGE dfiference between a hunting dog that can be a house dog and a house dog that can sometimes hunt. See, my dog ,as much as I wish she was, she is not a true hunting dog. She is a house dog that can hunt. 330 days a year she in my backyard chilling. Unlike professional dogs, that 80-90 days of the year are in the woods hunting, its was they live for. And so I have had to learn to handle a dog that truly is a house dog but can do a few tricks in the water when I need it.

The difference from a hunting dog that can be a house dog versus a house dog that can hunt as an example of a person that can pray versus someone is a person of prayer . See, we can’t be church members that can pray (like a dog that can sometimes hunt), but we have to a praying Christian (in other words, its who we are).

If we refuse to pray, and to allow that to be the heartbeat of our church, we might as well be a dead church.

We can’t be a church that prays just once a month. But we have to be a praying church, where the default is prayer. Where Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 says “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you.”

So, what we are going to do over the next four weeks is examine Luke 11 where Jesus teaches the disciples How To Pray. This passage is famously known as the Lord’s prayer, but for this series we called it the Disciple’s prayer because in actuality this is what the disciples are to pray, not what the Lord prays specifically. You’ll see what I mean next week with that.

And over the next four weeks, my hope for you is to become captivated by prayer. I know this a spiriutal discipline that we all can grow in. One that we do not need to settle or become complacent on, but it is one that we can thrive even more so then we do now. You are going to see how to pray, why we pray, what to pray for, and along the way, we will pray that God will begin a movement in this church, on this campus, in this city, by us not moving.

So look to Luke 11, and let’s read it together.

11 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.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

In this opening section, Jesus is praying. Notice something here, and its simply this. Jesus prayed. And he prayed often. This indicates something pretty important to us here: That Christ himself spent time in prayer communning with the Father. It was important to him. Just in the Gospel of Luke, there are nine different sections of Christ praying to the Father. He would retreat in isolation to go, he would pray over his disciples, he would pray to the Father on behalf of those he meets, his life is saturated with prayer.

I simply say this to suggest, that if Christ prays, you and I should too. Is that fair? That if the Son of God prays, how much more so, should all of creation call to to God?

And what happens next is profound. Its actually one of the most important sections of the text. As he completes his prayer, one of the disciples say, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

He wanted to know how Jesus prayed. So let’s think about that. If we want to learn how to pray, the best way is to go to the son of God himself, and see how he prays to the Father. More often than not, we don’t know to pray. You have may never been taught how to pray! Do I repeat a set of Words? Do I remain silent? Do I go short, long? What do I pray for? Its a great question, because there are many ways to pray, and without reading this passage, we would struggle with a place to begin.

What stands out to me most though, is this disciple had a desire to pray.

He wanted to learn. He wanted to grow. Do you carry this same desire? That Lord, I want to grow in this discipline! I want to learn your ways! How often do we go by in life with no desire, no yearning, to grow in the ways of Jesus? See, this whole process begins with a genuine, desire to grow. I’ve prayed for this moment, that you will truly have a desire to pray. One of things that you will continually lay before the Father, is that you will cry out calling that God will make you desire him more and more.

Psalm 42 says it best “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God”.

Do you desire more of God? Do you desire deeper communion with him? Do you desire to know his peace, his presence, his withness in your life, then PRAYER is your PATHWAY. You must yearn for this, before you begin the journey as the disciples did here.

Rooted in this humble, hungry, desire for prayer…Jesus begins to teach them. I want to give you to main ideas of prayer based on this next verse. Praise and Purpose.

Let’s see the prayer of praise the the purpose of prayer.

Two Main Ideas....

We pray to Worship. (Verse 1)

- Prayers are expressed to the Father.

Who is the recipient of the prayer? It is to God the Father.

So when you are praying, you are specifically praying to the Father.

Illustration: Throwing a random lure in the water and hoping someone gets it. That’s not prayer. You are calling upon the Lord and in Christ you have assurance that he hears it. There is no guessing, there are no unknowns. They are aimed to God.

What about the other person’s of the trinity. I really appreciate what John Piper says about that, “So the pattern that you find almost uniformly—I say almost uniformly—throughout the New Testament is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - John Piper

So generally, we pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit.

- Prayers are exalting of the Father

What is the chief aim? To praise the Father.

Notice the first thing he says. Hallowed by your name. Hallow here means to regard one’s name as Holy. Its a worshipful line of prayer acknowledging who God is and worshipping him for who he is.

Illustration: Telling Lexi that I shought she was amazing, incredible, beautfiul…and she would say “thank you”. But I wanted her to know that in my eyes and heart, she was set apart. She was dfiferent than everyone else in the world.

See, not in a romantic way, but in a honoring way, praying to the Father and seeing him as set apart over everything else in the world.

Psalm 8 is a perfect example of this.

1  O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

David is saying, Lord you are so majestic. Your glory is above all things. Hallowing his name.

Folks, when we pray, we are to worship through prayer, by exalting his name. Make sense?

Heading to Part Two

Now, we see the disciple’s prayer other times in the New Testament, specifically we see the more famous account in Matthew. These are not the same exact moments, but there are two distinct, separate ones. And in Matthew 5, this is what he says.

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10  Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

In other words, there are two additional lines found in the Matthew account. Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. So principally, the truths are the same, they just have slight differences in their variations.

So not only are we to pray to worship him, but #2, we are to pray for his will.

We pray for his Will. (Verse 2)

You are to pray for his will. See, praying is not to to alter the will of God. But for you to align with the will of God. And your hopes and desires reflect the one’s of God. There are three components to understanding this, and its rooted in this Matthew text of your kingdom, you will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

- His Kingdom is being advanced.

We live inbetween the resurrection of Jesus and the return of Jesus. One day, he will come, and his Kingdom will be established perfectly and eternally. As in-between his time, his Kingdom is being advanced to the ends of the Earth. Where’s God Kingdom, his rule and reign, grows.

Illutsration: When someone announces something HUGE, like a baby on the way, our an engagement, a new job, etc…the news travels pretty quick. Its exciting, people are engaged, it affects people lives. Its advancing.

See, God’s rule and reign, his kingdom is advancing acoss the Earth. As the Gospel is shared and people trust in him, darkness turns to light.

And so we pray for his Kingdom to come now, and to come fully for eternity past.

- His Plan is being accomplished.

We are to pray for his desires, his plans, not our own will.

And this is easier said than done! Because how do our prayers usually go? Its our needs, our desires, our wants. Yet, here, Christ is saying, pray for His will.

Illustration:

So a mature Christian, will lay down their own diesire and will and call upon the Lord for what he wants.

- His Earth is being altered.

Where will this be done? On Earth. And in this in-between time, the Earth will change and look more and more like a reflection of Heaven.

See, when’s God redemptive work enters a place, it is renewed and restored. What’s its being restored to? Like God’s original creation! A perfect Eden. So his Earth, will change as his kingdom is advanced, and his plan is being accomplished, in places all across the Earth.

Illustration: When someone receives medicine for a sickness, and their body begins to heal and recover.

You have a community, a place, where both tangingly and spiritully you see restoration begin to occur. Where neighborhoods that were dark are filled with the light and hope of the Gospel. Neighbors caring for one another. College students displaying the love of Christ both in word and deed on a college campus. Where the place you dwell looks more and more like Heaven as it restored back to God’s original intent, just as it in Heaven.

So what do we do? We pray for his Kingdom. Lord, advance your kingdom, your rule and reign across HSV. We pray for our hearts to aligned to your will, not ours. We pray for these things to happen here, as it is in heaven. That it will grow into a greater reflection of Heaven until he finally returns.

Conclusion

Gospel Presentation - What is God’s will? I believe he desires for all who are here to be saved. His Kingdom is coming. He desires for it to grow. And he is inviting you to be a part of it.

As one pastor shared with me recently ..”We can not send the wind of revival in our church, but we can set the sail. We cannot spark a fire of revival, but we can stack the wood.” So let’s get to stacking.

I PRAY THAT YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE, IN HSV AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.