Have you, at any time, for whatever reason, ever said a prayer? I suspect that’s 99.9% of us.
Now, who here would say they are good at praying? It’s OK to say you’re good at praying- I really hope we have some good prayers in our church. But even if there are several, I’m betting most of us would say, not so good.
Some of us might have the gift of prayer, but all of us still have a lot we can learn. I fact, let me begin with with this point- of all the stories we have of Jesus, we only have one recorded incident where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them something. That’s not to say they didn’t not ask him to teach them other things, but we have recorded for us in the bible only one account where the people closest to Jesus ask him directly to teach them something. The one thing we have recorded that they asked was, this, “Teach us how to pray.”
It wasn’t anything we might consider practical- leadership skills, preaching skills, conflict resolution, or anything like that, though Jesus taught on those things.
It wasn’t anything spectacular or miraculous- teach us how to heal the sick, control the weather, perform miracles, feed multitudes, though Jesus demonstrated all those things, and said we, his followers, would do even greater things. Many people might think that a wasted question. If you had only one question to ask Jesus, why throw it away on that!
But I’m going to suggest to you that we have this question and answer recorded for us because it really it the best question that could have been asked. If YOU could ask Jesus one question, you would want to ask this question. The great thing is- you can, and you can get the answer!
This is the best thing for Jesus to teach us. This is the thing that will lead to every other thing! Getting this right gets us access to ask all the other things we want to ask and talk to God about. This disciples got this, and we need to get this. There was something about the way that Jesus prayed that they must have seen, they must have known, this is the source for everything that Jesus does. Before something big happens, Jesus prayers. After something big happens, Jesus prays. Early in the morning, Jesus gets up to pray. Later at night, Jesus sneaks off to pray. There is just something about Jesus, and prayer, that we need to know more! We want to pray like Jesus.
So we are going to learn the very prayer Jesus taught his followers- next week. Today we are going to start begin but looking at what prayer is really all about. We’ll actually look at the too biggest prayer mistakes. Then I’m going to issue you a great big giant audacious challenge that I hope everyone of you will take me up on. Then next week we are going to pick apart the actual model for prayer that Jesus gives us.
Now to put this in context- Jesus has gone through his whole set up for this sermon on the mount. He talked about the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. He’s called us to a unique, a set apart kind of life, a life that’s like salt and light in a rotting and dark world of sin. He’s smashes to pieces some old ideas about being religious and invited us to go much deeper into relationship now with him. Now he’s talking into the actual disciples of devoted follower of his. First he talks about giving. I talked about this a few weeks ago in our series on money. You can go back and listen to that message online, May 10th. Suffice to say the first thing that jesus says the serious follower of his will do- give money to the needy. It’s assumed, no matter what your age, stage or income level, that you will give. So Jesus teaches about giving. The next thing tackled- prayer. He says...
5"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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But 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. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
First thing- the assumption here is that the fully devoted follower of Jesus will cultivate a prayer life. The assumption is that everyone has the potential to be a great prayer, to have a great prayer life. This is not some spiritual discipline reserved for monks and missionaries. This is at the heart of a life, any life, every life, devoted to God. It is within your grasp and you ability to be a truly incredible prayer! I hope that is incredible exciting to all of you. You can be a great prayer because prayer is simply communicating with God. It’s engaging in a genuine communication with God.
So you want a simple definition-But anyone, with any amount of life experience knows that communication, real communication, good communication, clear communication, is not easy. It takes time, it takes work. It needs to be practiced. It needs to grow and mature. It needs to seek understanding. Communication, we know, is key. It is key in any relationship, especially any genuine relationship. A counselor was once asked what the key to a successful marriage and the expert said three things are vital for any marriage to thrive- communication, communication, communication. Folk, three things are paramount, they are vital, for us to have a thriving relationship with God, and I’ll give you three guesses to what they are...Let me say three things here about communication with God.
prayer is communicating with God.
First, communication takes at least two living parties. I can talk all I want to an empty theatre, but it would not be communication. The empty seats are not going to receive, process, evaluate, apply interact with my or my words. Communication takes to living, active engaged beings. So this is really the first incredible thing to acknowledge regarding prayer- that God is living, active and engaged with us. The living God of the universe hears our prayers. More so, he is interested in our prayers. He wants to foster a relationship with us.
Second, communication involves giving and receiving. Genuine communication means that the two living parties have a kind of give and take, a back and forth. It’s not one sided. That’s just giving a speech. The communication of prayer is much more like a conversation. We need to speak, and we need to listen. We need to listen, and we need to respond. Prayer changes us, and prayer changes God! It moves us, and it moves God- that’s amazing!
Third, communication is multifaceted. Prayer happens in a multitude of ways. Even the briefest overview of prayer in the bible shows numerous ways that men and women engaged God in prayer. Morning, afternoon and through the night. Spoken prayers, and silent prayers. Eloquent prayers, and sometimes just a sigh, and sometimes, just being quiet. There are thankful prayers, and angry prayers. Prayer of confession, and prayers for vengeance. Happy prayers, and tearful prayers. Moses spoke to God like a friend. David sang songs of prayer to God. Daniel went to his bedroom, opened his windows, got on his knees faced Jerusalem, and talked with God. Jeremiah wept prayers before God. Job argued with God in prayer. All this to say, as complex, and frankly, as sometimes complicated communication in any relationship can be, so our prayers, our communication with God, can be complex, varied and diverse. But all of this is about a genuine communication, a genuine relationship, with God.
Prayer is essential to our relationship with God. Prayer, is assumed, expected even, by Jesus. And since we are going to be a praying people, Jesus wants us to pray in the right way. But first, he says, let me tell you what it doesn’t look like. Don’t pray like the hypocrites, and don’t pray like the pagans. Jesus is so sweet and nice sometimes.
You’ve heard the expression, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question...only stupid people.” right? Well folks, when it comes to prayer, that expression doesn’t hold up. There is such a thing as stupid prayers. There are some very bad, very wrong things we could pray. There are many awful prayers! The bible records some really stupid prayers as examples. Jonah, the guy who got swallowed by a fish. That guy prayed some really bad prayers. A guy named Job, some real winners where he drones on an on trying to defend himself before God. Elijah, he prayed to die once because he was afraid. Abram, he prayed for Sodom, and that didn’t work out so well. Moses, he just sounds like a whiner half the time.
I would bet that there might be a lot more bad prayers, than great prayers. Now that’s NOT to say that they aren’t honest prayers. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t keep trying. Can I be the first to say that I’m the most guilty of praying a lot of stupid, immature, selfish prayers. Prayer so bad, that God in his incredible love and grace didn’t answer them, he didn’t smote me on the spot, he didn’t laugh and write me off as a lost cause, but that God has been, and continues to be incredibly patient with me as i pray some horrendously bad prayers, but, more and more, I actually get some good quality communication going. I’ll go so far as to say that I think it better to pray a bad prayer, a stupid prayer, than to not pray at all. Because if you are at least giving it a try, if you are at least acknowledging God at some level, entering into a communication with Him, asking something of Him, then you might very well be on your way to becoming a great prayer. But, you can not, you will not, say great prayers, be a great prayers, enter into a genuine communication with the living God if you simple continue to pray like the Hypocrites or the pagans.
Who are the hypocrites- actors. The term came for the actors that put on masks, and put on a show. And the title became an adjective for the kind of people who in the very act of going to God, put on a mask, and put on a show. How many of you, when you pray, go into prayer voice, or prayer words. For some reason we go down an octave or two, we suddenly speak in old english and words with 4-5 syllables. “We beseech thee great God of all the universe, the all powerful pantocrator of the pantheon of all peoples...” Come on, get real. Really, get real. When we come to prayer we need to take off the mask, we need to get off the stage, we need to get real.
Now I’m not saying dumb it down. Trust me, God is more intelligent than you. He knows more languages and more big words than you know, don’t dumb it down, but don’t feel the need to spruce it up either. Get real. And I’m not saying don’t some reverence and respect. Definitely show reverence and respect. Definitely know your position as you come before God. But get real.
I think of it like this- when we come to the prayer room, as Jesus here says for us to do, getting real means the only thing that is going to impress God and move you deeper into a relationship with him is gut level absolute honesty. There was an expression a few years back, it came out of a song, and it was simply this- pray naked. Pray naked, because God sees you for who you are anyways. So why not embrace the fact that God may be the one person in your life who knows you, who really really knows you, know everything about you, knows you inside and out, your beauty and your blemishes, knows everything you’ve ever said or done or even thought, and who still loves you and accepts you and takes you just as you are. That is an awesome thing, a freeing thing, and incredible thing- finally- someone who can truly bear my naked being. Don’t pray like hypocrite- pray naked before God.
Second, don’t pray like the pagans. The pagans were the folks who chased after every form and fashion of spirituality that they thought they could use to advance their position in the world. If they wanted crops, they prayed to a rain god. If they wanted victory, they sacrificed a child to a war god. If they wanted sexual gratification, they worship with the temple prostitutes. And the thing with the pagans was that they figured they could just pray or do what they had to do, no matter how long it took, to eventually get what they wanted.
Jesus says God knows what you need before you pray it, so don't waste your breath trying to win God over to your position. I’ll let you in on a trade secret I use as a pastor. When I go to visit someone ...
Just get to the point, and then start praying that point through with God. Just cut to the chase- he knows already, he knows your heart better than you do, but through prayer, you’ll start to know you own heart in ways you can’t now imagine.
Prayer isn’t for hypocrites who want to put on a show. Prayer isn’t about entering into a negotiation with God. Prayer takes us to the heart of God, and it begins to reveal our own heart to us. Prayer is about entering into a conversation, a dialogue, a relationship with God. And that is what Jesus says next is so important. Really, it is so incredible important. What Jesus is about to say changes everything. Nobody ever heard this before. Nobody was taught to pray like this. In fact, if anything, they were taught to pray NOT like they. What Jesus was about to say changed everything. It is paradigm shifting, no, that too weak, it is a kind of earth shattering revelation on par with saying the world isn’t flat, that we’ve replaced the gourmet coffee we usually serve with folders crystals- we didn’t, don;t worry.
Jesus says, when you pray, pray like this- our father in heaven. The word there, father, is Abba, and might also be translated Dad, or even daddy. Without being childish, it was the most endearing and intimate expression of the parent/child relationship. It is in this way, like a child coming into the presence and into the arms of their daddy, that we enter into a relationship with God.
Jesus is about to springboard from this radical new revelation in how we relate to God, in how we understand God, in who we see God to be in our lives, into a model for what real communication, real prayer, with our father in heaven, is going to look like. We are going to go through this prayer movement by movement next week. But as I promised, I want to wrap this up today with a challenge for you. Perhaps challenge isn’t the best word. I want to invite you to experience something in prayer that perhaps you’ve never experienced before. Like I said at the very start of this series- this who section of the bible is about doing. It’s about applying this stuff to our lives and making a difference in our lives. So I want to invite to experience the difference that real prayer can make in your life. So let me put it this way:
Do you have any answer to prayer stories?
Most of us have probably heard about answer to prayer stories. I’m asking, do you have an answer to prayer story. I hope all of you do. And I’m inviting you to get yourself an answer to prayer story. Because if you don’t, the problem isn’t God. it’s you. It’s because you’re praying like a hypocrite, it’s a show, so you are praying all the wrong things in the wrong way. Or it’s because you are praying like a pagan, you are trying to negotiate something with God, and it just doesn’t work that way. You have to start learning to communicating with God like your heavenly father.
Now if you are going to have an answer to prayer story you need to pray enough to actually know what you are praying about, and you need to pray enough to specifically know what an answer to prayer would look like. So here the challenge:
Prayer sometime, somewhere about something.
When and where are you going to pray? You can pray all the time everywhere unless you pray sometime somewhere. I want you to pick a time an place that you can do this. They you keep the appointment. You keep all you other appointments- keep this one.
How long? Keep it short. Because I don’t want you to fail and feel more guilty, make it 5, maybe 10 minutes tops. If you’re a long time prayer, you have this disciple down, go right on through and keep praying. This is for us beginners.
Now, lastly, what? You will need to get specific here. You need to work through what going on in you enough to be able to articulate in writing what you are praying about. You need to know, because only then, when God answers it, will you be able to recognize that God has answered your prayer, and then you will be able to give thanks.
THIS IS NOT putting God to the test. I’m talking about putting you to the test. Because real prayer never puts God to the test, real prayer, honest prayer, open prayer, always leads to a real relationship, and real communication with God, and that put sus to the test. I’m serious about this folks. I’ve learned now that real prayer doesn’t test God, it tests me. It tests my faith. it tests my strength. It tests my character. It tests my values. it test my beliefs. It tests me, NOT God. And I want you to rise to the occasion, and put yourself to the test, because I know God is real, and God is alive, and God is active, and God is ready to meet you in prayer, and do some incredible work in your life. You’ve got to put yourself to the test.
Maybe you need to pray for a relationship...
forgiveness...
a job...
a way out...
an opportunity....
What is going to be your answer to prayer story? I don’t know. But I can’t wait to find out. Because God if we start praying some real prayers, not the prayers of a bunch of hypocrites or pagans, not putting on a show and not babbling about stupid stuff that God already knows we need, We are going to see God move in our lives, in our church, in our community, on phenomenal ways.
There are now stories, already, in this church, in our lives, of answered prayers and incredible things that God has done. The very fact that we are here, that Connections launched, that Connections exists, that people have come to know Jesus, that relationship have been formed, that relationships have been healed- they are stories to answered prayer...
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