The Intricacies of Prayer

Good morning Church!

Announcements:

The last week of July will be our VBS. Our theme this year is Zoomerang!

We want to thank those who donated school supplies. We have counted all of the supplies that have been brought in and there is an updated list in the foyer.

We also need boxes to build up the scene for VBS. All different sizes.

There is a VBS volunteer sign-up sheet in the foyer. Please be getting your names down as to where you want to serve this year!!! We truly need all the help we can get.

VBS shirts are in. We will plan on handing out the shirts on July 17th. If you know that you will not be here on that day, all you have to do see Keshia, and she will be sure to get your shirts to you at some other time. We were able to get the shirts at a great price this year. They were only $6.00. If you would like to donate towards the cost of the shirts, you can bring that money to Mrs. Gail, or Keshia, and they be sure to account for it.

Praise Reports:

I want to thank God for the huge steps that have been made within the Supreme Court over the past couple of weeks.

Prayer Requests:

Supreme Court

Safety during our vacation.

Tithes

Children’s Church

Doxology:

This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart that I might not sin against God! Amen!!!

Open Bibles To: Luke 11:1

Last week, we started a new topic within our journey of our series “Building T.E.M.P.O.”.

That new topic is prayer, and we began our journey by speaking on “The Importance of Prayer”.

We are going to continue that journey today as we speak on, “The Intricacies of Prayer”.

As I began to study on this topic of prayer, I wanted to do it justice. I sat down, pulled up a blank screen on the computer, and simply started to type in as many questions that I could think of regarding prayer. I want to share a few of those with you today, in hopes that at least one or two might peak your interest for the upcoming weeks:

What is prayer and why should I do it?

How do I pray biblically effectual prayers?

Is there a model of prayer that we should follow?

What is the significance of the Lord’s prayer?

Who do I pray too, and what are the roles of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in prayer?

Should I say “In Jesus name”, every single time I pray?

Should there be a time of preparation before I pray, and what should that look like?

Does God hear the prayers of those who are not saved?

What are the roadblocks, or hindrances, to a healthy prayer life, and how do I get passed them?

How do I know if I am praying in the will of God?

Now I don’t know about you, but some of those questions, or most of them if I am being honest, are questions that peaked my interest, and hopefully yours as well!!!

My hope and prayer is that as we journey through this series on prayer, we will all come into a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father through biblical prayer that is in the will of God!!!

The aim of the message today, is to show you the roles of each member of the trinitarian Godhead within our prayer life. After we are done today, we should know who to pray to and who to pray through. Amen!!

Context

Luke 11:1 NKJV

1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

I wanted to start with this verse today, because it sets the precedence that we must have in our approach to God, if we are to become faithful prayer warriors.

Notice the verse once again: “Lord, teach us to pray...”.

I find it absolutely fascinating that the disciples never asked Jesus how to walk on water or calm the storms, but they did ask Him how to pray.

I want you to imagine for just a moment, the importance of that statement. When considering all of the miraculous things that Christ accomplished while on this Earth, I would venture to say that prayer probably would have not made the top ten on most of our lists. All be it, their was something particular about Jesus’ prayer life that intrigued the disciples to the point to where they had to ask, “Jesus, can You teach us to pray like you?”

I shared some of these verses last week, but for the sake of context, I am going to share them once again. Listen to these verses and how they describe Jesus’ prayer life:

Mark 1:35 NKJV

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

Luke 6:12 NKJV

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

I wonder if it was the fact that Jesus would sacrifice sleep in order to pray?

I wonder if it was the amount of time Jesus spent in prayer?

I wonder if it was the priority that Jesus gave to His time in prayer?

I wonder if they saw His perfect obedience unto God and somehow correlated that with His prayer life?

For some untold reason, the disciples were so captivated by the prayer life of Jesus, they had to know more.

Content

If you are like most Christians, including myself, at some point in your walk with God, you have had some questions regarding prayer. You have wondered how to do it, when to do it, and who to address it too.

If you can relate to that, can you say amen?

See, if you have some of those questions here this morning, you are not alone!!!

We are to Pray Unto God

The first thing we want to unpack this morning, is the question of “Who do we pray to?”

Matthew 6:9 NKJV

9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Romans 8:26 NKJV

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

John 14:14 NKJV

14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

When taking all of these verses into consideration, and so many more like them, it can be confusing to know who to address when praying, and who to ask for what.

Matthew 6:5–8 NKJV

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

“Go into your room and shut the door”

We must come into the presence of God.

We must separate ourselves from everything else.

“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.”

Shopping list prayers are vain repetition

Our prayers are to be precise, not vague.

How to Pray Chapter 2: Praying unto God

Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit’s power, so we should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God, and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there.

We are to pray in the leadership of the Spirit

Ephesians 6:18 NKJV

18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Romans 8:26 NKJV

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

“For we do not know what we should pray for”

How to Pray Chapter 5: Praying in the Spirit

When we come into God’s presence we should recognize “our infirmity,” our ignorance of what we should pray for or how we should pray for it, and in the consciousness of our utter inability to pray aright we should look up to the Holy Spirit, casting ourselves utterly upon Him to direct our prayers, to lead out our desires and to guide our utterance of them.

How to Pray Chapter 5: Praying in the Spirit

Nothing can be more foolish in prayer than to rush heedlessly into God’s presence, and ask the first thing that comes into our mind, or that some thoughtless friend has asked us to pray for. When we first come into God’s presence we should be silent before Him. We should look up to Him to send His Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray. We must wait for the Holy Spirit, and surrender ourselves to the Spirit, then we shall pray aright.

“The Spirit makes intercession for us”

We must use words to pray but as we have seen, it is not so much about the amount of words used, not their eloquence, as it is the position of our hearts before Almighty God.

“With groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Prevailing prayer in the presence of God is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, stretching out before God with intensity and agonizing before Him.

Hebrews 5:7 NKJV

7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,

Romans 15:30 NKJV

30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,

We cannot rush into God’s presence, recite a string of requests, say its all in Jesus name, jump up, run out, and call it prayer. This is not the example of prayer we have from scripture. Matter of fact, the Word of God tells us this is not praying at all.

True prayer is an unhurried time with God. We must allow the Holy Spirit enough time to reach into the depths of our souls, prepare our hearts and minds to come into the presence of God, and teach us what to pray for and how to pray for it.

We are to Pray in the Name of Jesus

John 14:13–14 NKJV

13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

There is truly something special about praying in the name of Jesus. All power and authority in heaven and earth have been given unto Him, so to pray in His name, is to pray with authority.

But what exactly does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Is it simply to tack on to the end of our prayer the words, “In Jesus name”, or is it more than that?

Imagine if you will, that I walk into the bank tomorrow with a check, signed by me, in the amount of $1,000.00 dollars, and ask to have the check cashed. Let’s pretend that my account only had $500.00 in it. They would check the account balance, see that my funds were not adequate, and refuse to cash the check.

Then imagine if i went into the same bank tomorrow with a different check, signed by Jeff Bezos, in the amount of $1,000,000.00, and asked to have the check cashed. I am coming to the same bank. I am asking for a check to be cashed at the same bank as before, but this time, I am not coming in my own name. This time, I am coming in the name of Jeff Bezos. Now, it is absolutely irrelevant how much money is in my account. If I have zero credit, it would not matter, because my name is not on the check.

It is the same thing when I go to God in prayer. I am entering the bank of heaven. I have no money there. I have absolutely no credit there, and if I go in my own name, I will get absolutely nothing. Jesus, on the other hand, has unlimited credit in heaven, and He has granted us the privilege of coming into the storehouse of heaven with blank checks, and all of them are signed by Him. When I enter into prayer in the name of Jesus, my prayers will be honored to any extent.

To pray then in the name of Jesus is to pray on the grounds, not of my merit, but of His. It is to renounce the thought that I have any claims on God whatsoever and approach Him on the ground of Christ’s claims.

Therefore, praying in the name of Christ is not merely adding the words to the end of a prayer. I may put that phrase in my prayer and really be resting in my own merit all along. On the other hand, I can omit that phrase and rest in the merit of Christ as i approach God the Father, and be praying in the name of Jesus.

When I truly come to God, not in my own merit, but in the merit of Christ, God will hear my prayer.

How to Pray Chapter 4: Praying in the Name of Christ and according to the Will of God

Years ago when Mr. Moody was young in Christian work, he visited a town in Illinois. A judge in the town was an infidel. This judge’s wife besought Mr. Moody to call upon her husband, but Mr. Moody replied:

“I cannot talk with your husband. I am only an uneducated young Christian, and your husband is a book infidel.”

But the wife would not take no for an answer, so Mr. Moody made the call. The clerks in the outer office tittered as the young salesman from Chicago went in to talk with the scholarly judge.

The conversation was short. Mr. Moody said:

“Judge, I can’t talk with you. You are a book infidel, and I have no learning, but I simply want to say if you are ever converted, I want you to let me know.”

The judge replied: “Yes, young man, if I am ever converted I will let you know. Yes, I will let you know.”

The conversation ended. The clerks tittered still louder when the zealous young Christian left the office, but the judge was converted within a year. Mr. Moody visiting the town again asked the judge to explain how it came about. The judge said:

“One night, when my wife was at prayer-meeting, I began to grow very uneasy and miserable. I did not know what was the matter with me, but finally retired before my wife came home. I could not sleep all that night. I got up early, told my wife that I would eat no breakfast, and went down to the office. I told the clerks they could take a holiday, and shut myself up in the inner office. I kept growing more and more miserable, and finally I got down and asked God to forgive my sins, but I would not say ‘for Jesus’ sake,’ for I was a Unitarian and I did not believe in the atonement. I kept praying ‘God forgive my sins’; but no answer came. At last in desperation I cried, ‘O God, for Christ’s sake forgive my sins,’ and found peace at once.”

Commitment

What is prayer?

It is an unhurried private time in which I allow the Holy Spirit to prepare my heart, I come into the presence of God, and I speak in the name of Jesus.

I make my requests known unto God, by leadership of the Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus Christ.