Prayer

[00:00:00] Today I wanted to share my journey of what God has been saying to me, particularly over the last 12 months. [00:00:10] So he's been telling me that I need to talk to him more and to pray more. [00:00:16] I need to be more submitting to him his will. [00:00:21] And he led me to, to study a bit about. More about prayer and what it means. [00:00:31] As the slide says, it can be simple, it also can be complex. [00:00:37] So let me just start with a word of prayer. [00:00:40] Father, we just come before you now. [00:00:42] We recognize who you are. You're Lord of Lords, King of Kings, you are here amongst us. You're omnipresent. You're within us, around us, also elsewhere. [00:00:54] We just ask your spirit to come and talk to us today. That's within. Rise up, talk to us. Help us, Help me to speak clearly and to speak your words. But if not my words, then your words from the spirit directly will talk to those amongst us today. And those are along the line as well. So just go before us now I ask in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:20] Okay, let's just start with. It's a bit of an overview. [00:01:23] I could speak here for an hour or two, but I just want to just go briefly and concisely. [00:01:29] So what is prayer? Prayer to me is when we talk to God, it's relational between him and us. [00:01:37] It's when we talk to God, we ask or tell him about the wonders. We tell him about what's going on, what's going on in my life, what's going along in the church. He already knows, but he wants us to talk to him. He also wants us to ask. [00:01:56] He wants us to ask about what we need or what we think he needs for his kingdom here on earth. [00:02:06] When we listen to God, we also need to listen to God. We, we need to listen, we need to pause and seek. [00:02:14] Jeremiah says in 29:12, then when you call me, sorry, this is what God is saying to Jeremiah. [00:02:24] Then when you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. [00:02:35] Important that we seek with our heart. [00:02:42] Here's what some famous people have said about prayer. [00:02:47] So St. John of Damascus in 750 A.D. [00:02:55] says this prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or requesting the good things of God. [00:03:05] So it's about bringing our mind and our soul to God in prayer. [00:03:12] Mother Teresa in about 1950 says this God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. [00:03:29] Charles Spurgeon, a fairly famous preacher says this true prayer is neither a mere mental exercise or nor a vocal performance. [00:03:42] It's far deeper than that. It's a spiritual transaction with the Creator of heaven and earth. [00:03:49] It's a supernatural occurrence that happens when we pray. [00:03:59] That led me to what is the purpose of prayer? [00:04:03] Here's some of the things that I think the purpose of prayer is. [00:04:07] I'll just read them out to connect with God, to listen to God, to know God, to humble me, to unjustify and rationalize my thoughts so when I pray I can actually think about what I'm thinking. [00:04:23] It brings it to life when I speak it or ask for help or something, to know something, to give thanks. [00:04:32] What glory he's given here on earth drive me to do something. [00:04:38] So when I pray, I may be led to move or I hear someone praying that might lead me to move and do something. [00:04:47] And of course it's to praise and glorify God. [00:04:52] The list goes on. [00:04:53] But that's part of my list. [00:04:58] How do we pray? [00:05:01] We pray corporately. In other words, together as a group. As a church. [00:05:06] We pray individually with our hands clasped. [00:05:10] Do we give God and stand up and praise God for who he is? [00:05:15] Do I get down on my knees and raise one hand or vow down? Or is it just merely when we give thanks around a meal? [00:05:27] Let me go on to what Alistair Begg gave me in one of his sermons recently. [00:05:35] It's the prayer of Cyrus Brown. [00:05:38] Let me read it to you. [00:05:40] By Sam Walter Floss the proper way for a man to pray, said Deacon Lemuel Keyes, and the only proper attitude is down upon his knees. [00:05:52] No, I should pray that way, said Rev. Dr. Wise. It's standing straight with outstretched arms and raptured upturned eyes. [00:06:03] Oh no, no, no, said Elder Snow. [00:06:06] Such a posture is too proud. [00:06:08] A man should pray with his eyes fast closed and head contritely browed. [00:06:14] It seems to me his hand should be austerably clasped in front with both thumbs pounding down to the ground, said Rev. Dr. Blunt. [00:06:25] Last year I fell down Hoskins well, head first, said Cyrus Brown with both heels up, sticking up and my head pointing down. [00:06:36] And I made a prayer right then and there. [00:06:39] The best prayer I've ever said. The prayest prayer I ever prayed are standing on my head. [00:06:46] So I don't think our posture needs to be a certain posture. It can be where we're at right now, right here, whatever. [00:07:02] Where should we pray? [00:07:04] Okay, so Matthew 6 most of you are familiar. Unless you're new to a Christian, you would probably know all this. Don't pray like hypocrites on the street. [00:07:16] But as it says further in verse six, but when you pray, go into your inner room and close the door and pray to your father in secret. [00:07:25] And your father who seeks in secret will reward you. [00:07:32] That also can mean going into our inner heart. [00:07:37] Our inner mind is our inner room. [00:07:41] I'm going to talk about the temple in a minute. We are a temple. The room within our temple is within us. [00:07:47] It is here. So it's also about our mind. It's going into our inner being, our inner room. [00:07:55] I think about not being in a cupboard. [00:07:58] So a room, a prayer room. [00:08:01] It would freak me out probably to close the door and be in a little cupboard. [00:08:08] I also questioned and I'm not going to answer it to a great deal, is it appropriate to pray in the bathroom or the toilet? [00:08:18] So in some thoughts I think if you're in desperate need, then perhaps do your business, then pray. [00:08:29] But I don't know. [00:08:31] It's one of those things I think if you need to cry out to God and it's like if you're a busy mum with seven kids and the only place for privacy is the toilet. Well, maybe, but I don't know. [00:08:46] Okay, here's what Pete Gregg, who's the founder of one of the co founders of Prayer 247 Movement and also Lectio 365. [00:08:56] He says a prayer room is first and foremost a living room. A place where the father waits for a child. [00:09:02] Child would come and climb in his arms. [00:09:05] God is omnipresent. He's here right now. He's waiting for us to communicate with him. [00:09:11] It may be a place like this war room. [00:09:16] My house is not big enough for a war room. [00:09:20] I live in a modest house, but I could set a spare bedroom perhaps, I don't know. But it's a place where you meet with God regularly. It can be a place of study, a place that helps you to know what to pray. [00:09:37] Why we pray together. [00:09:39] Okay, so I'm probably rushing this a little bit but as I say, I'm trying to keep it succinct and it's a bit of an overview why we pray together. [00:09:51] It brings us together, togetherness. It also gives us an agreement. So when we pray and we agree with that prayer, it also gives affirmation of that prayer. [00:10:04] So it's telling, it says okay, I think that that prayer is okay, yeah, as I've also put here to learn and know about each other. [00:10:16] So if you come to the 3:30 prayer meeting, you'll probably discover things that you don't know about people. [00:10:24] It helps me to listen, but also to pray for those people, their needs, their wants, their celebrations, their happiness as well. It also is scriptural about praying together. [00:10:39] I've put up there. [00:10:41] So I just googled about why pray together. It come up with a hundred different verses. [00:10:48] It also has a little voting there. You can vote on it, and that's the top six or so. [00:10:54] Okay, so there's a lot of verses about why we pray together. [00:11:01] So here's what I was talking about before. [00:11:04] Jesus calls the temple of house of prayer. [00:11:09] Okay? So he says, in Mark, is it not written, my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations. [00:11:17] And that is coming out of Isaiah 56. [00:11:21] I'll bring them to a holy mountain. I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray. [00:11:40] Okay, so is that us here? [00:11:43] I don't think we're in a temple. [00:11:46] Or are we? [00:11:49] So this leads me to Ephesians. So our men's group is going through ephesians and Ephesians 2, which Stewie just cried it a little bit about. But a little bit further on in 22, it says, in him, the whole building is joined together. [00:12:06] It rises up and becomes a holy temple in the Lord. Make sense? [00:12:12] And in him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God's spirit lives. [00:12:21] So it's saying that I am a temple. [00:12:26] We collectively are a temple. [00:12:30] So that brings into light today. [00:12:34] So I'll just say that again. I'm a temple, and God's spirit lives in my temple, which is me. And he lives here together as well. [00:12:47] Now, I also was getting in there, and I was thinking about Amen. [00:12:52] Amen. And I thought about the origins of it and where it comes from, what it means. [00:12:58] So its root word, amen, is about faith and trust. [00:13:05] It says, when we say amen, it says, let it be. [00:13:09] Yes, Lord, we agree. [00:13:12] May it come to pass. [00:13:16] Which begged the question to me. [00:13:18] When I hear someone pray and I don't agree with it, why do I say amen? [00:13:25] Okay, so what do I do? [00:13:28] Do I say amen because I'm just polite? Or do I say amen, God, but I don't agree with that bit. [00:13:36] Or do I not say amen at all? [00:13:40] So there is a challenge for us today. [00:13:46] What do we say when we say Amen. [00:13:53] We also have been going through the Lord's Prayer, and it starts with Our Father. It's a guide. It's a guide. And it says, like so people say, can you pray to Jesus? Can you pray to the Holy Spirit? Or should you just pray to the Father? [00:14:08] So Augustine had this prayer, pray to the Holy Spirit. Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit. My thoughts may be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work too may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love. [00:14:26] But what is holy? Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen. [00:14:39] So here's a prayer that Augustine, St. Augustine used regularly, became famous. [00:14:47] So I feel that you can pray to any part of the Trinity at any time. [00:14:53] So that's my thoughts. [00:14:57] What do we pray? [00:15:01] Pete? Greg says this, pray what you got. [00:15:08] So we should simply pray what you got. [00:15:11] Have you have gratitude? Pray that. [00:15:13] If it's grief, then pray that. If it's anger, pray that. [00:15:17] So God wants to hear us where we're at at any time. [00:15:24] He wants us to hear our thoughts. [00:15:28] I also have to be respectful and think, he is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. [00:15:36] So I probably don't want to shout at him and say, it's not fair, God, you've done this. And it's probably, lord, I understand that this is happening. [00:15:49] I'm angry about it or I'm not understanding what's going on. [00:15:59] But we need to bring our heart, our soul, our mind to. To God with what we are at the current time. [00:16:11] CS Lewis says we must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. [00:16:21] Okay, here's another way. As I mentioned before, the Lord's Prayer, we're going through that at the moment, so I'm not going to elaborate on it as we know this, six series, six sermons in that. So I'm not going to go there. But it is a guide. It is a. Is what Jesus said, how to pray. It's a structure. [00:16:44] John, Mark, Homer. So Mattie used to say about practicing the way and likes he's saying, here's some of the things we can use in our prayers. [00:16:54] The Lord's Prayer, we just talked about the Psalms. The Psalm is full of prayer and it's been put to song by sons of Korah. We can use Scripture so we can actually pray through or read it to God and say, oh, I don't understand this. God, help me to understand, or praise God for what you're saying here. [00:17:17] So that's scripture. [00:17:19] We can sing in prayer, believe it or not. [00:17:24] So, yeah, liturgy. [00:17:28] That's a funny word, isn't it? [00:17:30] So that's about us together, praying together. It could be prayer, walks together, praying together. It could be my wife and I praying. [00:17:44] Another thing that is put in here in practicing the way is the apps. [00:17:51] Here are some of the ones that I'm coming to be more accustomed to. There's many Lectio365, which I know. [00:18:00] There's probably. I know of about 10 people here that use Lectio365 daily. I use it most days. If I'm honest, I don't use it every day. But most days I do pray first. [00:18:14] It's an American one. It has devotions in it. It has prayers, preloaded prayers. It has the for a prayer list. So you can put your prayer requests in there on your phone and then check if they've been answered or not. [00:18:32] Prayer on demand is similar. It's on your computer. [00:18:36] So there's three, but there's many more. [00:18:41] When shall we pray? I was thinking about this. I was thinking about the Muslims. They pray this many times a day. Their main prayers are five. [00:18:52] Jesus was a Jew. [00:18:53] I looked in, I thought, well, what do Jews pray? How often do they pray and when do they pray? [00:18:58] So they pray three times a day. [00:19:02] So Jesus would have practiced this. [00:19:06] So I'm saying this is the main structure of the prayer. So they talk about, can I say it? [00:19:13] Sharat, Mincha and Meribut. Okay, okay. So that's the three structures. [00:19:21] I also thought about, what do they pray? And I found out that Psalm 145 is in their midday prayer. So it's recited like we recite the Lord's Prayer. [00:19:35] They also recite, I think, Psalm 30 as well. [00:19:39] So that's what Jesus would have been praying along with his other prayers. [00:19:48] Here's the challenge, what I've started with first, Thessalonians 5, 16. [00:19:55] Always rejoice, constantly. Pray in everything, give thanks, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus. Do not extinguish the Spirit. [00:20:07] I'm assuming they are all linked. [00:20:11] So I need to rejoice. [00:20:14] I need to pray constantly, which is. That was my challenge. What God has been saying to me, pray first is that's their challenge also, is that we pause and pray first. So we might even halfway before we start something, we stop and pray. [00:20:36] Okay. It's like me. So today, well, before this sermon, I have prayed. [00:20:43] I've prayed and prayed and prayed. [00:20:46] I prayed this Morning. I have also just prayed during this sermon. [00:20:52] Of course God is present all the time. [00:20:56] Do not extinguish the Spirit. Not going to go into that too much. [00:21:01] But does it mean if I don't pray constantly or if I don't pray often, if I don't rejoice, if I don't give thanks, am I doing something to the Spirit? [00:21:12] I'll leave that one with you. [00:21:16] A listening prayer or finding God's response Psalm 46 we all know be still and know that I am God. [00:21:28] So there may be times that we don't understand or know. [00:21:34] But pausing and being still in a place where we can be, we will know God. We will know what his will is. We will know a bit more about his character. [00:21:52] Here's Carl Barth. [00:21:54] When we're at our wits ends for an answer, then the Holy Spirit can give us an answer. [00:22:00] But how can you give us an answer when we're still well supplied with all sorts of answers of our own? [00:22:08] Again, for me it's trying to ascertain what God is telling me and what God's will is here on earth more so than what my wants and personal needs are. [00:22:26] Or it could be even the needs of this church. [00:22:30] So as a chairman of leadership, I am frequently praying for the needs of the church. [00:22:40] But how does that align with God's will? [00:22:43] Sometimes difficult to discern. [00:22:51] Finding God's Voice Jesus is speaking to change our life this is what James Montgomery voice said. Jesus speaks to change the life and thinking of his people. This happens supernaturally when we hear His Word preached or read, it becomes personal. [00:23:12] So again, what I'm saying today, maybe God might be speaking to you, which will also guide your prayers. [00:23:24] Unanswered prayer maybe it's a sermon or two on unanswered prayer as Jan Jan told me. [00:23:35] Has God not answered? [00:23:40] When he doesn't answer, is that an answer? [00:23:42] I don't know. [00:23:44] Pete Gregg which a book that I'm reading at the moment or audiobook says God on Mute. [00:23:51] He goes through, I think, 18 reasons why prayer isn't answered. [00:23:58] The other thing I was mindful of was the Serenity prayer. [00:24:02] So it's part of God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And on it goes. It's also a prayer of I didn't realize that Alcoholics Anonymous so I've been praying for people with addiction. [00:24:22] I also work with kids with addictions and I suppose I want them To. To change their circumstance, their outcomes. I'd love them to come to the Lord, but maybe I can't change that. It's what God does in us. [00:24:46] So let's just sum up things to consider. [00:24:50] Here's some of the things that I'd like you to consider. [00:24:53] Who are we praying to? [00:24:55] God, Lord of Lords, provider and sustainer of all things. [00:25:00] He is in all and all. He is everything. [00:25:07] Think what we should pray. If there's time to pray for the big things. [00:25:12] Try and work out what God is wanting. [00:25:16] His will here on earth as it is in heaven. [00:25:21] Before we pray. [00:25:23] There's times in my life I've prayed things and I thought, it's God's will. [00:25:27] And I thought afterwards, careful what you wish for because he might answer exactly what you've asked for. But in this way that doesn't suit what I thought the outcome would be. [00:25:43] Remember, God is present. He's omnipresent. He's right here, right now. God is with us. He's ready for our prayers anytime, anywhere. [00:25:53] Here's another one. Should I join others to pray and to unite, encourage and to engage? [00:25:58] We have prayer meetings. We have life groups that pray often. Should I join that and learn about others so that I know how to pray for them? [00:26:09] Do I need to intentionally pray more? [00:26:14] So, like me, I've been told by God that I need to talk to him more, more often, more frequently. [00:26:22] That's where we'll leave it today. [00:26:24] I'll just pray and then we'll hand it back to the team. [00:26:30] Father, we just come before you right now. We lay things bare. We ask you to intervene, to change, to mould, to make us better men and women. [00:26:43] We thank you that we're on a road to holiness and that you are here. Your spirit is amongst us and well, alive. Well, thank you for the things that you're doing in my life and the life of others in this church. [00:26:56] We just pray that you'll continue to help us to pray, to talk to you regularly. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.