Prayer - Week 1

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Our dear Heavenly Father, we have gathered in your house to seek your face and to call upon your name. We open our hearts to your spirit. We ask that you would do that good work in us. That only you could do that will prepare us to abide with you forever. In Christ's name, Amen. Jesus was a great storyteller. People would walk for miles to hear Jesus tell a story. And one day he told this story. So there was an unjust judge, and he didn't fear God, and he had disdain for people. And one day a widow came to his court for justice. But he didn't feel like hassling with it, he didn't feel like bothering with it. So he just told her to go home. He thought that was the end of it. But the next day, there she was in line again, demanding justice. And again the unjust judge said, go home. I'm not in the mood for this. And the next day, there she was again, standing in line, demanding justice. And this happened week after week, until finally it dawned on the unjust judge. This lady comes here every day, and every day she asks for justice. And now everyone knows her story because she comes here every day and says it again. And if I don't give her justice, she's going to come here until, ah, ah, everybody knows I'm a loser. And so he said, I'm not giving her justice because I fear God or I care about people. I'm giving her justice just to get rid of her. It was an odd story, and I probably wouldn't have understood it if Jesus hadn't explained it himself. He said, if this lady, if this widow was persistent enough in pursuing justice until she finally wore down the guy, don't you think God is much better than that? And if you cry to him day after day that he'll hear your prayer and meet your need? And then Jesus ended the story with a question. He said, I wonder, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth? He said, I wonder if as the years of Christianity pass, people will more and more grow weary of prayer and in the end not have enough faith in Christ to be people who persist in prayer every single day. That's what that parable is about. Ah, I'm sorry Christ would ever have to ask such a question. But since he did, what does your prayer life look like? What does your prayer life look like? Do you have the persistence of the widow? Do you have the daily engagement? Or do you find that your prayer life is very hit and miss? And when you feel desperate, you Pray, but otherwise you just don't feel compelled. We're studying the first chapter of Ephesians, and in the verses 3 through 14, Paul tells us that the blessed God blesses. And we studied that. And then in the next paragraph, this is what Paul said, because of what I've just told you, that the blessed God blesses. I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints. And I have not stopped giving thanks in behalf of you, making mention of you in all my prayers. Paul said, because the blessed God blesses, I pray for you every single day. Prayer is a strong confidence that the blessed God wants to bless us and has totally committed himself to blessing us. The lack of prayer is an evidence that we think we can get the best stuff in life from some source other than the blessed God. You see, if I pray, it's evident that I think the very best things in my life come to me through God. If I don't pray, I believe I have other avenues to get what I need out of life other than God. You see, the seven things we just studied, the seven spiritual blessings. Every single one of them is a motive to pray. Because we pray because we are elect by the blessed God. He chose us to be the ones that he had conversation with. God can pick to have conversation with anyone he wants, and he picked you. Are you keeping up your end of the conversation or do you feel like God might feel ignored from time to time? We pray because we were predestined to pray. Remember, there are boundaries through our lives, and in these boundaries we meet God. You can meet God every single day of your life in quiet prayer, or you can go weeks at a time and never encounter the living God. We pray because we were redeemed. Christ bought us back from sin so that we could pray to God. We pray because we know the mystery of God's will. We know what God is doing in the world. We know his purpose. And because we know his purpose, we pray. We pray because it's one of God's ways of preparing us for our internal inheritance. We pray because we are people who hope in God. We pray because we are sealed and prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray. You see, everything God has done in blessing us has equipped us to be people of prayer. Everything he has done has moved our souls to make us not only competent to pray, but efficient in prayer and committed to prayer. Then Paul said, we pray because we have faith in Jesus. He said, I've heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, the church At Ephesus had a reputation for being a church of great faith. They trusted in God. I wonder with your friends and your co workers, would they say that you are a person of great faith? Have they seen you living a life in relationship with God that shows how much you trust in Christ and what place he has in your life? Or I wonder if you'd have a reputation for something far, far away from faith. I wonder about us as a church. When people talk about us as a church, do they talk about us as a church that has a great reputation of faith? To people who just know us marginally say, it's evident that that church is a church of great faith. Every year, twice a year, in the spring and in the fall, we have a week of prayer. And we have a week of prayer because we have faith that God hears and answers our prayer. Almost everything you see around you here was once just a prayer on our lips. Almost everything that is happening here was once just us gathering together at the week of prayer, at six in the morning, at noon or six in the evening, and whispering out our hearts to God, pleading with him to be the blessed God who blesses us. Some of you are here this morning and you don't know it, but you're here because somebody prayed for you. Somebody whispered your name again and again and again to the Lord until His spirit moved in your heart and. And you sit here today in answer to someone's prayer to God. I wonder who will be sitting here this time next year in answer to your prayer to God. I wonder whose life might be changed in the coming year because you had enough faith in Jesus Christ to whisper somebody's name to him in prayer day after day after day until God changed their hearts. I suppose we should ask ourselves, what do we mean by faith in the Lord Jesus? The author of Hebrews defined faith by saying, faith is a foundation for hoping. It's a proof of facts that cannot be seen. Why do we pray? Because we stand on a foundation of hoping in the Lord. It isn't wishing. It isn't. It isn't. It isn't trying to get lucky. It is a firm relationship to God that fills us with the expectation that God loves us and wants to bless us. And because we have that expectation, we pray. Faith is also a proof of facts that cannot be seen. I've shared with this with some of you before, but some of you are new and you've never heard it. This was once an open field, just an open field. And we would gather here. We were renting the high school then. And we would gather here and we would stand in little groups and we would plead with God for everything you see here. We would stand in the mud. There was very little dry land except when it got in August or whatever. We'd stand here in scrub brush, mud in the spring. People would get their car stuck when they come here for prayer and would have to push them out. Turns out God gets a car unstuck a lot quicker if you pray and push. We were praying because in our hearts we could see facts that weren't yet visible with our eyes. Church this summer, West Campus is going to break ground for the new campus on Chestnut Ridge Drive. Now it's an unseen fact, but someday it will be as visible that God responded to our faith as it is here. Can you hear this, church? We pray because we sense the proof of facts that we can't see. Faith is a strong reason for hoping. I wonder what you're doing right now. I wonder what hope you have right now. Simply because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is your expectation for the coming week? Because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is your expectation for the next month? Simply because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is your expectation about the kind of person you're becoming, the kind of family you are becoming? The things that are happening in your career? Does your faith in Christ affect your expectations in life? Faith is a proof of facts that can't be seen. What unseen reality do you live by because of your faith in Christ? What's happening in your life right now that's only happening because you believe in the goodness of Jesus Christ? What are you doing that you otherwise wouldn't be doing? Simply because you have a great faith that the blessed God blesses you and he's looking for opportunities to bless you in this coming week, this coming month, this coming year? You see, prayer is an act of faith. What is it that we believe? When I pray, I am absolutely convinced that God is listening. I'm not talking to myself. I'm not talking to the people around me. I believe in the core of who I am, that the blessed God that we learned about in Ephesians chapter one, he's the one who's listening to what I say, and it's not annoying to him to listen to me. He finds joy in listening to my prayer. And I believe he finds joy in listening to your prayer. When I gather here, I'm a 6 o'clock in the morning guy. When I come here every day at 6:00 in the morning, I'm gonna sit in a group of people and I'm going to talk to God out of full conviction that he's listening to me. Why do I believe that? Because I've been coming here for 43 years and praying. And there is all kinds of proof that, that God hears and answers prayer. He has heard my cry. And there are many, many. And many of you can say the same thing. He has heard your prayer. Prayer is an act of faith because in prayer we are convinced that God is good and desires to bless us. I don't have to talk God into blessing me. I don't have to guilt trip him into blessing me. It is the desire of his heart. And when you pray in faith, you are praying from the position. I believe that God really loves me and really wants to bless me. And so today I. I'm calling on his name. I'm asking him for blessings because I believe that's who he is and that's what he really wants to do. Prayer is an act of faith because we are convinced that when we pray, our souls are enriched. Prayer makes you a better person. Your soul is enriched by prayer. Some of you are saying, you know, I really don't. I don't know what to say. I'm not comfortable. Prayer is not about what you say. It's about where your heart is. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Church. [00:18:21] Speaker A: When I was a boy and my mom didn't like my friends, she would say, birds of a feather. Well, guess what? I want to be flocking around the Almighty. I want him rubbing off on me. I want something of who he is touching my spirit. And often prayer isn't what I say to God. It's what I sense that God is. When I'm in His presence, when other people are praying and I'm simply sitting there, something in my soul is reaching out for God. And I'm saying to him, I just want to hang around in your presence for a few minutes. I'd just like to sit around with you for a few minutes. I know what happens to my soul when I sit in the presence of God. And it's always good. We pray because we are convinced that God directs us when we pray. God changes the way I think when I pray. See, prayer isn't me talking God into doing what I want. Prayer is God changing me into who he wants so that when I pray, I become a different man and God has a different relationship to me and he directs me to do things otherwise I would never know to do. All right. Are you convinced enough to Pray. I know I've been doing this a long time, Doc. It's just not convenient. You see, I have this to do and I have that to do. And you don't know how busy my life is. That's my whole point. That's my whole point. Conversation takes time. Conversation isn't always convenient. You can't always have the conversations you want to have when you want to have them. [00:20:22] Speaker B: Church. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Are you convinced is there is. Is the Holy Spirit whispering to you in any way that convinces you that it is worth every minute you spend talking to God in prayer or sitting quietly in his presence and just letting his spirit nurture your inner self? See, if you are convinced of that, you'll find time. It's not that we don't have time. It's that we don't manage our time well. We all have all the time we need. We just need to use it for the things that have the most value and the things that that are most lasting. Because we love the saints, we pray. The church at Ephesus had a reputation for being a loving church. Do you have a reputation for being a loving person? Would your family say you're a loving person? Would the people you work with say you're a loving person? Would the people in your life group say you're a loving person? They had a reputation. Paul said, I hear about what kind of church you are, and every time I hear people talking about you, I hear how loving you are. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Church. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Do we have a reputation for being a loving church? I want to. We have done some remarkable things by faith in trying to show our love for others. We feed families every month, literally hundreds of families, probably about five or six hundred families every month from the Christmas offering. We feed children on the weekend. And we're doing all of that to express our love for God. We. We do our love week every year and we go out and do projects and we're trying to show the love of God. Listen, listen. Are you loving? Can you smile at somebody you don't know and say hello? Can you let somebody in when everybody's trying to get out of the parking lot? Or are you Mario Andretti and not one person is getting ahead of me? [00:23:09] Speaker B: Church Ah. [00:23:15] Speaker A: You know how I feel about the children in this church. When was the last time you talked to a kid in this church in a kind and loving way? When was the last time? Do you remember how hard it was to be a teenager? When was the last time you said something encouraging to a teenager? Church it's easy to complain. It's easy to criticize. Ah. Ah. But a loving church, they find ways to encourage, to inspire, to give hope. Paul said, I know the love you have for all the saints. Now, some of you grew up believing that the saints are these special people and they have special merit. And some of you might even wear one of the saints medals. All right, that is a misunderstanding. The word saints comes from the word sanctify and it means the ones who are purified from sin. If Christ has forgiven your sin, you are a saint. It means those who are consecrated to God. If you have come to a time in your life like I talked last week, about a moment of faith where you received the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, then you have consecrated yourself to God. The saints are all Christians. Now, some Christians are getting it better than others. But we are all the sanctified ones. We are all the consecrated ones. Listen what Paul said to the church in Thessalonica. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctify means to make clean, to make pure. Now may the God of peace himself make you clean and pure completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of the Lord. That's something that's worth praying for. Church, do you love anyone enough to pray that prayer for them? Do you know people in your life that you would like to once every day this week pray the Thessalonians prayer that God would sanctify them completely, that he would make them everything he wants them to be in body, soul and spirit, and they would be blameless at the day of Jesus Christ. I have family members that I pray for the Lord to have a breakthrough in their life every day, Every single day. Dear God, could today be the day that the light of Christ shines in my loved one in a way that is brighter than it has been and they could give you another chance in their lives? I think that's a prayer worth praying. Yes, sir. Some of you have very dear friends. Do you love them enough to pray earnestly for God to do something beautiful in their soul? You just. You care for them enough that it's worth it to you to pray once a day and say, dear God, would you please do your beautiful work in my friend's soul, my co worker's soul, my neighbor soul? You see, prayer is an act of love. When you love God, you like to talk to him Church we like talking to the people we love, right? Well, I do anyway. I like talking to my family. I like talking to my friends. It is when you, when you share conversation with people you love, it's enriching to you. Church Prayer is an act of love. If you love someone, you ought to be willing to talk to God about them from the best part of your heart. But you ought to love God enough to want to talk to him too. He ought to be a good enough friend that, that you miss his company. And you say, today there has to be special time in my life that I can spend in conversation with my Lord and my God. Prayer is an act of sanctification. God purifies our hearts when we pray. He drives out that which is not pleasing to him and he strengthens that which is pleasing to him. Prayer is an act of consecration. How are you saying to God, I value you and I appreciate you in my life? How are you saying to God, this is evidence that you have a high status in my life? Church well, one of the ways we do that is we pray and we say to God, in this act of prayer, I'm putting you first in my life. I'm consecrating myself to you. I'm saying, this is one of the evidences that you mean everything to me. And a lack of prayer is just the opposite. It's saying to God, I've given myself to something else that I think is more important today, and I just can't fit you. In Church we pray because we're thankful. Listen to what else Paul said to the church at Thessalonica. But we are always obligated to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's something worth saying thank you for. Church we are obligated to say thank you to God. Thanksgiving is an obligation. We owe it to God to be grateful. Since the blessed God blesses us, we should never grow weary of saying thank you. Do you have a thankful heart to God in prayer? Some years ago, when I went to Jerusalem, I went to the Wailing Wall. It's probably one of the most famous places of prayer in the world. And I had this prayer list that I wanted to pray. And so I was standing by the Wailing Wall and I put my hand on those stones that many people Believe are all that's left of Herod's temple, the temple that Jesus himself was in. And I was ready to ask God for all this stuff that I had lined up. But when I got right down to the moment, I couldn't ask for anything. All I could do is stand there and tell him, thank you. All I could do is stand and tell him, thank you. First of all, I never believed I'd ever get to get there. And there I was. Thank you. Then I thanked him for the gift of being able to pastor this church. And I thanked him for my family and I. I thanked him for the many ways he blessed us. And I thank you. How he saved our lives, Sharon and I's lives when we were in terrible accidents. I thanked him for how good my kids were practicing their Christian faith. All I could do was say thank you. The moment was too holy to ask for anything. All I could do is say thank you. [00:31:49] Speaker B: Church. [00:31:55] Speaker A: I wonder. I wonder, are you paying close enough attention to your life to see how good God has been to you? And if you're seeing how good he has been to you, doesn't it arise in your heart? How do you restrain yourself from saying to the Almighty, thank you. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you for the promises that you've given to me. Thanksgiving is a blessing. We remind ourselves of how blessed we are when we give thanks. Do you. Have you lost sense of how blessed you really are? I know you all look around as somebody who has more than what you have. I know there's always a bigger boat. I know somebody's always making more money. Okay, that's not the point. You're blessed. And if you don't know it, you better sit quietly for a minute and you better look at how most of the people in the world live because they don't live as well as you do. [00:33:09] Speaker B: Church. [00:33:13] Speaker A: Most of the people in the world do not know the blessings that we know. And because we have been blessed so richly, isn't it the. Isn't it the right response of the human heart to take time and say to God, thank you? Thanksgiving is an act of worship. You worship when you tell God thank you. Psalm 86:12. I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. The psalmist worshiped and he said, this is my act of worship from everything I am on the inside. I'm telling you, thank you. I see how good you've been to me, and I Also glorify your name. I say you have to be awesome. If you bless people the way you have blessed me. Thanksgiving is an act of encouragement. If you are discouraged, give thanks. It will lift your spirit. I have never. I have never overcome discouragement more quickly than. Than by abandoning the despair and going to Thanksgiving and just start going down the list. Ah, just start going down the list. If you have to start with physical things, start with physical things. Dear God, thank you for my Harley. It's a start. It's a start. Church and then we can pray ourselves to Thanksgiving for things that are really the heart of God. Because we have so much to talk to God about, we should pray. How often do you talk to God about your life? You see, talking to God about your life is much more profitable than complaining. And people will like you more, too. Church, when was the last time you sat down in God's presence and you just talked to him about your life? The very same way you would talk to somebody who was a good friend. When was the last time you just. You just said quietly, dear God, I can remember when I was a teenager. And when I look at my life now, compared to what I thought when I was a teenager, you have been so good to me. Church thank you. Now, if you have made a bunch of knucklehead moves like I have you, you can say to God, thank you for saving me from that knucklehead move. Thank you that I didn't ruin myself doing this. All right? Talk to God about your life. Talk to God about what is blessed in your life and what is broken in your life. Talk to God about what you find joy in and what you find misery. And he is your friend. And prayer is the privilege of talking to a friend about your life. Talk to God about your life. He's wiser than you are. See, when I talk to God about my life, I'm telling him my ideas. But when God talks to me about my life, he's telling me his ideas. Whenever I talk to God about my life, he gives me better ideas. How to handle what I'm facing and how to overcome what I have to overcome and. And how to appreciate what I should appreciate. He's wiser than you are. You ought to talk to him. Talk to God about your life. He's safe. Anyone you ever talk to somebody you shouldn't have talked to, they took what you said, twisted it, sent it back to you, right in the middle of your shoulder blades, stabbed in the back. [00:37:34] Speaker B: Church. [00:37:36] Speaker A: Talk to God. He's safe. I've told God the ugliest thoughts I have, and he's never, never, never made me regret it. In fact, just the opposite. He said, son, we need to go to work on that. You need to think better than that. That's not healthy thinking. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Church. [00:37:58] Speaker A: The burden that you carry on your heart, God is safe. Talk to him about it. The disappointment that you face, God is safe. Talk to him. The shame you feel, God is safe. Talk to him. The worry you feel, God is safe, Talk to him. We pray because we need someone healthy to talk to about our lives. Paul said this to the church at Philippi. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Prayer is the talking cure for the human soul. You see the talking cure, it turns out when we have stuff that's wrong with us on the inside and we keep it bundled up, it gets worse. But something healthy and human happens when we talk to someone else about what is broken on the inside of us. Many of you have been to counseling, and many of you know it helped you very much to talk to somebody about issues that you couldn't get over in your life. Ah. I myself went for five years to get something worked out of me that I didn't want in me. He didn't wave a magic wand over me. He didn't give me any secret things. The talking cure is a divinely divine idea that something healthy happens when we get it out of us. All right. Prayer is the talking cure for the Christian soul. I talk to God about the soul that he created. I talk to God about his best idea for who I am. I talk to God where I'm not happy with myself, where I'm incomplete. I talk to God where I feel great joy that he's done good work in me. If you feel anxiety about anything, pray. If you feel worry about anything, pray. If you feel anxiety, don't roll it over and roll it over. Make your request to God. Say, God, I feel anxious about this. Could you please help me? God, I'm feeling anxious about this. Could you show me a better way? God, I'm feeling anxious about this. Could you connect me with someone healthy who I might. Who might help me put this in a different perspective? On the other hand, if you're not feeling anxiety and you're feeling joy and life feels good to you, pray and give thanks to God. Christianity is not just for us when we're miserable. It's also for us when we're doing good. If you're feeling good and the joy of the Lord is in your heart. Pray and give thanks to God. Ah, sing a prayer to him. Whatever condition you find yourself in, life talking to God is worth it. [00:41:15] Speaker B: Church. [00:41:18] Speaker A: I want to remind you what Jesus said, okay? If you've lost, if you slipped away, come home to me. I'm going to tell you something Jesus said. This is what Jesus said himself. I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Those are the words of Jesus Christ himself. Now, some of you say, doc, I. I used to believe that, but I've prayed and God didn't answer my prayer. Could I speak to you for a minute? Is it possible that he did answer your prayer, he just didn't answer it the way you wanted it? Church Is it possible he did answer your prayer, but it wasn't the answer you wanted? And because it wasn't the answer you wanted, you weren't satisfied? Is it possible that we have said prayers that really weren't good for us? [00:42:33] Speaker B: Church all right. [00:42:35] Speaker A: You don't have to admit it. I will. I have prayed for things that I thank God he didn't do for me. You know the song I thank God for Unanswered Prayers? Huh? Thank God he didn't answer some of my prayers. The point is, am I praying as a way of manipulating God into doing something that I want? Or am I praying with an open heart that says to God, I trust you, you know what is best. And if this happens the way I want it to, I will give thanks. If it doesn't happen the way I want it to, I'm going to ask you to help me to understand so I can become a better person. If you pray with that kind of heart, every prayer makes you a better person. This is our spring week of prayer. I'm asking you to reorganize your life and come here once every day. 6:00 in the morning, noon, or 6:00 in the evening. I'm asking you to sit quietly and let the blessed God touch your soul in prayer. I'm asking you to let the blessed God fill you with good thoughts about the person he wants you to be. And then pray and ask God to make you that person. I'm asking you to let the blessed God fill your mind with thoughts of what your family can be and then pray your heart out for your family. I'm asking you to let God whisper to your heart about what might happen in your career and then plead with him to bless you in your career. I'm asking you to think about other people in your life who have lost their way. They've gone astray. They're the sheep that strayed from the foal. I'm asking you to plead with the blessed God to be the good shepherd and go find your lost loved one and bring them home the way the good shepherd brought his sheep home. I'm asking us as a church to pray to God for the lonely people who are empty and need God and live within driving distance of this church. Could this be the year that we help them reconnect with Jesus Christ? I'm asking that we come together, we open our hearts, we let the Holy Spirit have his best influence on us. And then we do the very thing that God takes great delight in. We pray our dear Heavenly Father, may your spirit work his good work in us. May we hear your call to prayer. May we make this a special week where we reorganize ourself and we call upon your name. And then Father, I pray that you would give us eyes that are open to see how you answer our prayers so that we will not cease to give thanks. And I ask this in Jesus name, amen.