Spotlight on Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Daily Bread Devotional
shares the following story,
“A man took his small son
with him to town one day
to run some errands.
When lunchtime arrived,
the two of them
went to a familiar diner
for a sandwich.
The father sat down on
one of the stools at the counter
and lifted the boy up
to the seat beside him.
They ordered lunch,
and when the waiter
brought the food,
the father said,
“Son,
we’ll just have a silent prayer.”
Dad got through praying first
and waited for the boy
to finish his prayer,
but he just sat with his head bowed
for an unusually long time.
When he finally looked up,
his father asked him,
“what in the world
were you praying about all that time?”
With the innocence
and honesty of a child,
he replied,
“How do I know?
It was a silent prayer."
End Quote
I love the child’s honesty.
When it comes to
truly understanding how to pray,
many of us
are like the little boy-
we are a bit lost and confused.
Author Donald Whitney explains,
“Despite the importance of prayer, statistical surveys and experience seem to agree, that a large percentage of professing Christians, spend little time in sustained prayer.
While they may offer a sentence of prayer here and there throughout their day, they rarely spend more than a very few minutes—if that— alone in conversation with God.”
End Quote
But church,
Prayer
is important to Jesus.
When on earth,
He did it all the time.
And He wants us
to do the same…
And I mean, a lot…
So,
if you are following along
in the sermon notes,
our first point this morning is,
SERMON POINTS
1. To best reflect Jesus in your own frontline you must develop INTIMACY with God by COMMUNICATING with Him.
Throughout the gospels,
we see time
and time again
where Jesus prayed…
often, He was in
solitary places.
Just like Jesus,
we need to communicate
with God consistently.
Why?
Because,
every healthy,
intimate relationship,
relies on quality
communication
and your relationship with God
is no different.
This morning,
we continue our sermon series:
Mirrors to Windows.
Like a mirror’s reflection,
God wants us
to reflect Jesus –
and not
just within the four walls
of this church-
but in the places
outside these windows-
in the ordinary,
everyday places
of our lives.
To do that,
we must allow Jesus
to saturate every aspect
of our lives,
moreover,
as we learned last week,
we must develop
intimacy with God
through spiritual discipline.
There are several spiritual disciplines,
such as experiencing the Bible,
prayer,
private and cooperate worship,
acts of service,
and percentage giving.
Last Sunday,
we explored the first
and perhaps
the most important
of these disciplines,
experiencing the Bible.
Today,
let us focus on
what I feel is
the second
most important discipline-
prayer.
That brings us
to our next point this morning,
2. To best reflect Jesus in your own frontline, you must allow Him to CARE for you through PRAYER.
When preparing for this sermon,
I came across a message
by Dr. David Jeremiah,
that I found so moving,
I wanted to share part of it with you.
“After the death of former President George H. W. Bush, at the age of 94, the media began discovering a lot of activities that he had secretly pursued during his life, and in some cases, it came as a surprise to those who knew him... Turns out he had been quietly helping many people using the name "G. Walker" so that they wouldn't know he was the President.
For example, for years, Bush sponsored a Filipino boy named Timothy through the nonprofit organization Compassion International. He made contributions toward Timothy's support and regularly wrote him letters. The two started corresponding when Timothy was seven, and in his first letter, Bush wrote, ‘I wanna be your new pen pal. I'm an old man, 77 years old, but I love kids and though we have not met, I love you already. I live in Texas. I will write to you from time to time. Good luck, G. Walker.’
Well, occasionally, Bush would drop hints about his real identity. In one letter, he sent a picture of his dog, saying, ‘This is Millie. She's met lots of famous people.’ Another time, he wrote, ‘We're goin' to have Christmas this year with my son at his house, and, oh, he lives in a big, white house.’ But Timothy never caught on. He would write Mr. G. Walker, and Mr. G. Walker would read the letters and reply, offering encouragement.
After Timothy graduated from the program at the age of 17, a Compassion International worker flew to the Philippines to tell Timothy the true identity of the man who had been such a blessing to him. Timothy was dumbfounded. ‘I knew he was a kind and encouraging and wonderful man, but I had no idea he was the President.’ It was hard for him to grasp that the President of the United States would know his name and care so much about him.
Like Timothy, we find it difficult to believe such a great man would care about us. We too can find it difficult to believe that Jesus cares for us. Sometimes we know he's there, but we don't know that he cares. We don't know for sure that he cares. People sometimes tell us that he does, but it's hard for us to believe that he could really, I mean, there's so many of us. How could he care for us? Yet, when you survey the life of Jesus, you find a man who cared for the people around him in surprising ways. He touched lepers. He cured the sick. He befriended social pariahs. He cherished children. His last acts were to pray for the forgiveness of his murderers, and then, to look beside him and feel compassion for a dying thief whom he encouraged and assured of salvation.
The more difficult Jesus's life became, the more people crowded around him with demands, and the closer he moved to a torturous death, the more loving and caring and forgiving he became. When Jesus saw broken humanity, he reached out to care for them. And I don't know about you, but one of the first verses I learned as a little child was 1 Peter 5:7, ‘Cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you.’ Although Jesus is no longer walking beside us in the physical realm, his concern for us is no less real, and the Bible tells us that one of the ways he chooses to care for us is through prayer.”
End Quote
Isn’t that powerful.
Prayer is vitally important.
The simplest definition of prayer
is that prayer
is talking to God.
Anyone
and everyone
can do it-
no matter who you are,
where you’ve come from,
or what you have done.
Anyone can pray.
In 1972,
Joan Baez
was a singer and activist,
who was always working on a cause.
During the Vietnam War,
she traveled to Hanoi
with a peace delegation
and was there
during an American
bombing campaign
that lasted 12 days.
She shares,
“We spent the whole time in the basement of our hotel. I have never been so afraid in my life. I thought I was going to die. But I learned something—when the flames start coming towards you everyone starts praying, even the atheists and the agnostics.”
You see church
Anyone,
can call out to God,
because communicating with God
does not require special litanies
or a special spiritual status.
It does, however,
require a sincere heart.
But don’t take my word for it.
Instead,
listen to what Jesus
has to say on the subject
in Luke 18:10-14 (NIV),
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Friends,
there is a difference between
the way each of these men
prayed
and as it turns out,
that “something” different
is actually really important,
not just for these men,
but for the people
Jesus shared this parable with-
us His followers.
That “something”
is the difference
between
really communicating with God
and wasting your time
with a bunch of hot air.
Our next point this morning
hints to what that “something” is.
3. To best reflect Jesus in your own frontline you must develop intimacy with God by PRAYING with the right MOTIVES.
One day,
the disciples
were watching Jesus praying
and it led them to ask,
“Lord teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1, NIV).
After having observed Jesus
as He prayed,
perhaps they concluded,
that they had been doing it wrong.
Do you ever feel that way?
Jesus’ disciples
grew up praying
but perhaps they realized
that there was something different
about the way their Messiah prayed-
something was going on
between Him and God-
it was more intimate,
less scripted,
and more authentic.
So, they asked,
“Lord teach us to pray.”
Jesus could have responded,
“I thought you would never ask.”
But graciously,
He doesn’t.
Instead,
in Matthew 6:5 (NIV),
“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.
He begins by teaching them
how not to pray.
Man,
one thing I love about Jesus,
is He didn’t hold back.
He had no patience
for inauthenticity
and He told it like it was.
Jesus knew
what was inside a person’s heart.
What the hypocrites of Jesus’ day
and the hypocrites in our world now
don’t understand
is when every single person
comes before God in prayer
They come before him
on equal footing.
The Apostle Paul puts it
in Romans 3:23 (ESV),
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
“for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.”
We are all sinners
in need of God’s amazing grace.
The hypocrites
are just like the Pharisee
in Jesus’ parable that we read earlier-
they are no better
in the eyes of God
than the tax collector…
They are each sinners,
the hypocrites and pharisees
are blinded by their pride
and self-importance-
they wanted attention
when they prayed their scripted
and pretentious public prayers
and they got it,
from the people around them
they got attention-
ah, but the sad thing
is they did not get the attention
of the One to whom they prayed.
On the other hand,
the tax collector
is also a sinner.
He is dirtied by his greed
and dishonesty.
You and I,
We are not much unlike him,
Because you see…
we are sinners too-
and we have been dirtied
by our own sins…
and it is only
by the grace and mercy of Jesus
That we are set free
from our past wrongs.
The tax collector
in Jesus’ parable
knew that he was a sinner
and so,
he came before God
with sincere humility of spirit.
Just like the tax collector,
let us remember
our humble need
for God’s grace,
and therefore, choose
to come before God in prayer
with a humble and sincere spirit.
Returning to Matthew 6:6
Jesus asserts (NIV),
“But when you pray,”
Let us pause there for a moment.
Friends,
when do you pray?
We are learning
about the spiritual disciplines
and so I ask you-
do you pray?
Is communicating with God
a part of your daily routine?
Why do you pray?
And Where do you pray?
These are important questions
as we will soon see.
Do you pray?-
Sadly, many people don’t
and one of the reasons for this,
is because they feel
as though their prayers
go unanswered.
Is that you today?
Perhaps well-meaning,
but misguided people,
have told you this before-
‘God does answer prayer,
but God can’t hear your prayers,
because you are not holy enough,
not obedient enough,
or you just don’t have enough faith.’
Pastor Andy Stanley explains,
“Maybe somebody at some point said, ‘you need more faith and less sin, more faith less sin.’ Before long, in your case, God was reduced to basically the equivalent of an instant cash machine. And you found yourself scrambling to find the correct pin number to get from God what you wanted.”
End Quote
Ouch.
Friends,
that is not how Jesus
teaches us to pray.
He says (Matt. 6:6 NIV),
But 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.
Now church,
it is true
that you can talk to God
anytime and anywhere.
In fact,
later in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
the Apostle Paul tells us to,
Yes,
we can have an attitude
of gratitude
and a heart
that communes with God
throughout the whole day,
but here in Matthew 6,
Jesus is teaching us
about the spiritual discipline of prayer.
The kind of prayer
He modeled for us
when on earth.
Jesus isolated Himself
Consistently…
so that He could focus
solely on His Heavenly Father
and align His spirit
with the will of God.
“But when you pray,”
He says,
“go into your room,
and close the door.”
As Andy Stanley explains,
“Close the door? Why? Isolate myself, why? In my room not at church- not in traffic, not just before a meal- why is that even necessary? I though we could pray whatever we wanted to pray anywhere we wanted to pray? Jesus tells us why it is so important for you to find a place and to find a time- to isolate yourself from everything and everybody else around you. Because Jesus instructs us to address our unseen God in relational terms. He says, I want you to pray to your Father who is unseen. – Our heavenly Father… Friends, He was saying, look, I want you to find a place where you can have a private conversation with your heavenly Father. I want you to find a place where you can say what needs to be said in whatever tone you need to use, whatever words you feel are appropriate- I want you to pray in private so you’re not distracted. I want you to pray in private so you can pour out your heart. And then your Father, who sees what is done is secret will reward you.”
End Quote
Private,
sincere, prayer
is rewarding
because you are seen
by your Father in heaven
who knows you
and knows your needs.
Next,
Jesus gives us another
“not to” instruction.
He says in verse 7 (Matt. 6:7 NIV)
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Church,
long winded prayers
or repetition
does not impress God.
He is not moved by human eloquence.
He isn’t up there going,
“oh wow that was poetic,
I think I’ll answer that prayer today.”
God does not equate length
with merit.
No,
in Jesus’ parable,
it was the heart attitude
of the tax collector
that moved God.
So, there is no need
to be like the long winded,
pompous Pharisee.
What Jesus says next
in Matthew 6:8 (NIV),
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
may surprise you.
Many people pray
to tell God of their needs
or the needs of their loved ones,
but Jesus says,
“Do not be like them,
for your Father
knows what you need
before you ask him.”
God already knows what I need-
I confess
that sometimes
I am surprised by that,
but why should I be.
I mean God is God.
He should already know
and if I have to tell Him,
well then,
is He really GOD?
But here comes
one of your great questions-
But Pastor…
Since God already knows what I need-
why should I even pray?
I am so glad you asked,
and I think Jesus
intended us to ask that very question.
In this passage
Jesus gets us to stop
and think about how
and why we pray.
So often,
we reduce prayer,
to telling God about our wants,
our needs,
our desires
or the wants and needs
of other people.
But if God already knows-
why should we pray?
Jesus isn’t trying to discourage us here,
Instead,
He wants us to realize,
that maybe,
we have been praying wrong.
Just as the disciples realized,
they needed Jesus to teach them
how to pray, we too need to learn.
Jesus says in verse 9 (Matt. 6:9-10, NIV),
“’This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Andy Stanley comments,
“This is the part that we often skip, ‘Hallowed by your name.’ Jesus’ point is this, that when we pray, we should pause and acknowledge who we are addressing. The great God who has no equal, no rival, the uncreated Creator- who by the way, has invited you to address Him as Father. Think about it, infinite and intimate. When we pray, we should pause right there- we don’t usually, but we should. When we pause to reflect on who God is, we gain a better understanding of who we are and why we’re here.”
End Quote
In that private moment with God
we can recenter our lives
around the bigger picture-
of God’s story
and our place in it.
It is only when
we take the time to remember
that we are addressing a Holy God
that we can really
hear and acknowledge
Jesus next statement.
We may even resist it.
But this next statement
is WHY we pray.
Without it
our prayers are predictable
and ineffectual.
This,
my friends
is the purpose of prayer.
Listen… (Matt. 6:9-10, NIV),
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
YOUR kingdom come,
YOUR WILL be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”
We pray
to align our will
to that
of our heavenly Father’s.
As E. Stanley Jones explains,
“Prayer is surrender--surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat-hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.”
End Quote
When we pray,
you don’t have to start with your needs
because as Jesus said,
“your Father knows what you need
before you ask him.”
Instead,
we start with acknowledgment
of who God is,
“Hallowed be thy name.”
Then we can focus
on the real purpose of prayer-
aligning our will
with the will of our heavenly Father.
Once we get this,
our prayer time
will be transformed
from “my will”
to “thy will” be done.
There are many circumstances
that bring us to our knees-
prayers of repentance,
deliverance,
healing,
provision,
restoration,
salvation,
perseverance,
thankfulness,
praise,
and on and on the list goes.
But once our motivations change,
how we pray for these things,
changes with it-
our heart attitude
changes from “my will” be done
to “thy will.”
Do this God
Be this God
Give me this God
Act like this God
Me, me, me,
my, my, my-
It changes to
You God,
Your will,
What are you doing?
How you are doing it?
And what is my place in your plan?
Once we get this,
our prayer time
will be transformed
and we will look for God’s answer
and be gratified by it-
no matter what that answer is-
be it- “no”,
or “not yet,”
or “yes”-
each answer
is an answer to prayer
as it reveals to us
what God is doing
and how we can join Him in it.
This week,
when you pray,
follow Jesus’ instruction.
Start with Hallowed by thy name-
thy will be done,”
then turn to your other prayer requests.
There is a simple Acronym
that was taught to me
by my friend Dan
I hope it will help you this week
It is
A.C.T.S.
Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, Supplication
Which practically lines up directly
With the Lord’s prayer,
In fact,
let us say it together right now-
If you do not know the words,
They will be up on the screen for you
Would you please stand,
and join me as we pray,
Our Father,
which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.
