Praying with Right Motives
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning.....
It was wonderful to be with everyone. Today we begin our series on prayer....looking at what the Bible specifically says about it…and it has quite a bit to say on the topic. We will take a couple week break as we observe Palm Sunday and Easter.
As we begin I want us to look at some quick facts regarding prayer-
There are 650 Prayers listed in the pages of Scripture.
There are approx. 450 answered prayers in Scripture.
It’s first mentioned in Genesis 4:26.
26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
We see 25 specific moments of Jesus praying.
Coming off the book of Colossians where we saw him reference prayer several times....throughout Paul’s letters, prayer is mentioned roughly 41 times.
We commonly look at prayer as just sitting, folding our hands, but Scripture paints a much different look at prayer and posture. Scripture lists five specific postures-
Sitting(2 Sam. 7:18)
Kneeling(Luke 22:41, Eph. 3:14)
Face down to the ground( Mark 14:35)
Lifted hands ( 1 Tim. 2:8)
Standing (Mark 11:25)
Amen, which means to so be it or let it be out of trust appears for the first time in Numbers 5:22.
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Prayer is obviously important to God as our main communication with Him. And Scripture certainly has much to say in how we pray, why we pray, our types of prayer, where scripture falls into our prayers, and what we will be talking about today…our motives when we pray.
Our time covering this topic will not be exhaustive but I think it will give us great insight into God’s plan for prayer.
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Prayer has to start with our hearts in the right place. As we become new creations....all the things Jesus taught…Paul taught…have to start taking root because if they don’t our prayer motives are misplaced.
And the beginning point for this is......
We must approach prayer with a spirit of humility.
We must approach prayer with a spirit of humility.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.
Pride is a terrible thing that can absolutely ruin us. Here is what the Word of God says about Pride from the book of Proverbs-
2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
10 Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
5 Everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
18 Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
It should be clear to us what Pride can do. Pride gets in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It condemns us in such a way that it makes us unforgiving, arrogant, blinded to our own sin, without fault in our own eyes, and a people who rely on our own strength, not crying out to a Holy God to sustain us, but looking inward at ourselves, saying “ I can do it on my own.”
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But what we see in scripture time and time again that God is calling us to is the opposite of pride.....Humility.
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In Philippians chapter 2, we see Paul calling the people to humble themselves, telling them to find their complete joy in Christ, to do nothing out of selfish ambition, to elevate others above themselves, looking out for the best interest of those around them.
He goes on to put the full highlight on Jesus, exalting Him and showing us this perfect example of humility......and then, after ALL that he is giving us, he gives us these instructions-
12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world,
Have we been a reflection of the charge Paul puts before us? Without grumbling, arguing, Be blameless, pure. Shining like stars as a beacon for the only Hope their is. Jesus..
And that all begins by humbling ourselves before the Lord as we cry out to Him in prayer with the intentions that the Lord Himself has laid out for us.
Stand...
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Prayer
Fighting, Quarreling or Arguing does not reflect who God wants us to be as it comes from our own Pride and Selfishness.
Fighting, Quarreling or Arguing does not reflect who God wants us to be as it comes from our own Pride and Selfishness.
It’s by no coincidence that the sections preceding this one are about watching what we say and understanding where wisdom and ambition should come from.
So, James immediately comes out in verse one to pose a question. What is the source of wars and fights among you? Your translation may say “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”
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I don’t know about you but I love movies that have epic battles in them.....
Lord of the Rings
Here’s the thing, James isn’t talking about epic, seige the stronghold battles here. Though, it has the potential to blossom into an all out war...... he’s referring to our personal relationships.......and ultimately the battle we have with ourselves. Humility vs. Pride…God’s desire vs. our wants..
It should be our goal, objective and mission to avoid conflict at all costs. That is not to say that we are to avoid it or hide from it or run from it when it happens but we are to face it and deal with it according to the plan God has laid out.
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It is difficult for those who do not believe to see our love for one another and ultimately for Christ, if we are always at odds and fighting amongst ourselves.
Our personal pride can result in us holding our ground just so we are right and others are wrong, even if we are wrong. This will surely cause strife within the church.
Christ’s purpose for His church is for it to be unified, not in disarray.
And when we do find ourselves in a moment of fighting or arguing, we must take a step back, HUMBLE OURSELVES, seek the Lord in prayer ASKING for His Spirit to move within us to offer forgiveness or accept forgiveness, breaking us of the pride in our lives that causes us to sin, repent of that sin, restore the bonds of fellowship and continue on in the mission of the church.
The great reality for us is this.....WE MUST BE BROKEN. Why? Because when we are broken, we realize we have a need for something more than us....and we need to be restored.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
The relation here is this....Our humility has to make us realize, this is bigger than us and our egos . It’s always about Jesus. And in the end…it doesn’t matter if we are right or wrong....when we place winning above unity, peace, love, forgiveness, chasing after Christ....we have already lost.
And the only losing we are to do is lose OUR life, for the sake of Christ, because when we know Him, it’s His life now, not my own.
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We only function as the church when we are humbled before God, keeping the bond of peace and loving one another.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Verse 2-3
God does not honor the prayers of those who are out for selfish gain or focused on earthly desires.
God does not honor the prayers of those who are out for selfish gain or focused on earthly desires.
Throughout the book of James, James continues to point his readers towards this one basic truth: Ask God. But yet, we continually struggle with it. We ask for things selfishly, in a state of pride or earthly pleasures that don’t benefit us or the kingdom.
The thing is our prayers must be focused on God’s will.
We must ask God because true wisdom only comes from God.
We must ask God because true wisdom only comes from God.
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We see in chapter three that James was dealing with individuals who sought positions of prestige within the church but yet lacked the ability to ask God.
In chapter 1 in verse 5, James tells us:
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
We are being told here to seek wisdom by going to God in prayer and asking for it, swallowing any pride we have may have and humbling ourselves.
So when we see the context of James 4 that is dealing with our immense pride, it suggests that, if we are not actively seeking humility, it should not be a shock that our prayers and petitions are laced with prideful requests........ Or we aren’t even asking at all.
Too often we pray selfishly, outside the will of God and expect answers that will not come because God does not honor those prayers. He in turn honors the prayers of the righteous.
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
Verse 3- Spend
Greek Alert
δαπανάω (Dop-a-now) - the Greek word to spend, use up or squander. (verse 3-so that you may spend it)
δαπανάω (Dop-a-now) - the Greek word to spend, use up or squander. (verse 3-so that you may spend it)
We see this word used by Jesus when he’s talking about the
parable of the prodigal son and how he wasted his inheritance in Luke.
Now if you are not familiar with this story, there is a great lesson in that parable for us.
The man gives his two sons their respective portions of the inheritance. One stays and works, the other leaves and wastes all his money on useless things.
Here’s even more of a lesson for us. It’s found at the end after he had returned, his father welcomes him with open arms but his brother questioned this decision and here is what the father says:
“We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
“We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
This is the same for us. We are never out of the reach of the father. Our pride may be immense, but all we need do is go to Him, repent of our sinful pride, ask forgiveness of all the prayers we have prayed in vain and he is always there to welcome back in with His forgiving, open arms because of His immense grace.
Be honest with yourself:
Is your prayer life laced with prideful, selfish prayers? wrong motives...
Or do you chase after the will of God? Asking for his blessings on things with a heart that is completely sold out for Him?
Do you pray for God to fix other people but never ask for Him to fix you?
How often are you praying? Just when you need something or praying without ceasing?
Our prayers must be made with the right motives. And those motives must be completely focused on the perfect will of God that produces righteousness in us. If not, they are in vain.
Politicians/Cinci
We must ASK with the correct motives.
Verses 4-6
If we want to be a people after God’s heart, we cannot become attached to the things of this world.
If we want to be a people after God’s heart, we cannot become attached to the things of this world.
James comes out swinging at the beginning of verse 4, bringing clarity to us as a result of our disobedient pride.
He uses a term typically used to refer to a spouse that has broken their marriage covenant.
YOU ADULTEROUS PEOPLE!
He is showing us the spiritual infidelity that we show God and His Word by puffing ourselves up with pride, being consumed by our own desires and finding more joy in earthly delights then in the Lord.
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We live in a fallen world that is consumed by sin. If we allow ourselves to love this world, not the things of God, but this world, the things it stands for, earthly pleasures, the human delights then we are going against the very nature God created us for.
When we attach ourselves to the things of this world, we are attempting to peacefully coexist with evil and are abandoning our great love for the Father.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
Did you catch it? The things of this world create a pride in our life......and the tragedy is that all of it is going to fade away to nothing but yet we are investing so much of ourselves in these things. Whether they are activities, hobbies, attitudes, possessions, ambitions…the list goes on and on. They will one day be gone but the will of God in our lives is eternal.
James tells us this and ends in verse 5 by reminding us that God is a jealous God.
Why do you think He is a jealous God?
Because He knows that He is worthy alone to be praised, not this world but also He knows what the world has to offer is a facade and not true and not real and immensely temporary. It’s of no real benefit to us.
But with all of this struggle.... what is the silver lining for us, especially as we all struggle with this.
GRACE. It is a wonderful gift from God.
James reminds us in verse 6, God gives more grace. Meaning when we humble ourselves, set aside the pride, He will give us grace. But do not think that a prideful spirit will find grace in the Lord. It tells us here very clearly. He opposes the proud.
We must humble ourselves.
Verses 7-10
When we are lacking in humility, when our pride is front and center, we forget our sinfulness, we are blinded to it. Therefore we do not mourn and weep over it but we continue to revel in it. And the result is a life apart from God, we do not commune with Him, we do truly speak to Him in prayer and His words are foreign to us.
We either are not asking to begin with or we stop ASKING HIM for His will to be done in our lives.
BUT, when we humble and submit ourselves before the living God......everything changes. Scripture declares to us that we are a new creation......we have to act like it!
And the result is approaching Him with the right motives....
We must seek God’s will and wisdom as we humbly approach Him in prayer.
We must seek God’s will and wisdom as we humbly approach Him in prayer.
Church, we must ASK! We cannot do this all on our own. To truly humble ourselves shows our reliance on Him.
If you are not speaking with Him daily, seeking Him out, ASKING for HIS WILL to be done in your life, what dependence do you have in Him? .....You don’t, it’s in yourself.
Gospel-
And in yourself there is no hope. The only hope that we can have comes solely from Jesus. Christ’s purpose and why He came was so that things like pride and the sin in our life would be conquered and that the grip that it has on us would be defeated. We still sin at times, but in eternity it has no claim on me. It was Jesus’ immense love for the Father and the people that led Him to the cross....that He himself, fully man and fully God humbled himself by dying on a cross so that the penalty of sin could be paid. That’s why my life is not my own anymore…it’s his…because it was saved by being bought and paid for.
Jesus loved God and us so much that He sacrificed Himself on the cross even though He never did anything wrong. He is the only one in history who can make such a claim.
But He did it, so that when we believe in Him and who He is, that He is God in human flesh and that He reigns supreme, we will be forgiven the debt of sin in our lives and Heaven will become our eternal destination.
Nothing else is expected for salvation, just belief and calling on the name of Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Then we you become a new creation. The old is gone, then new has come. Which means, the bondage of sin that held you is no longer there and you can start walking on the path of righteousness.
This is free to anyone, who feels the spirit of God urging them to accept.
I implore you today, if you feel that and have never surrendered your life to Christ, please see me or see the deacons. Come down at the end of the service during our prayer time. If you are online, call us, email, message us…let us know. Let’s celebrate together.
For us who believe-
We have been granted grace abundantly, receive it, humble your pride, repent of your sin and revel in the righteousness of God.
Because our prayer time with God matters....and how we pray....with the right motives…matters. He wants to hear from us.....He wants to bless and honor our prayers but they have to be filled with His wisdom because He knows what’s best for us.
I wish to end today with a verse that is a reminder for us of what needs to be happening in our lives and what should motivate our actions, words and prayers.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
How we pray matters and what we pray for matters....ASK for His will to be done in your life today and He will answer!
Pray