Date: Jan. 15th, 2012
Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder
Title: What Does Good Prayer Look Like?
Text: Matthew 6: 5 - 14
INTRODUCTION
I downloaded an application for my phone after Christmas that has about 25 workouts. –
- better beach body (how do you think it’s working?...Don’t answer that)
- better abs
- better arms
- better legs
- better chest (trying to get Joyce on that one)
- Get rid of that gut
- Sculpt a V-shaped Torso
- The Hard Body Express workout
- speed up metabolism
Each workout is very intentional about helping you toward a specific physical goal.
2 words to note: intentional & goal
i.e.
Alice in wonderland
Where are you going?
Not sure.
“If not sure any road will you get you there.”
Charlie Brown was once shooting arrows & then went and drew target around them.
Goals & intention are key components to change.
Question Today in regards to Relationship With God:
Do you have a goal for your relationship with Christ? What do you want it to be like? What kind of person do you want to be?
What are you intentionally going to do to reach that goal?
Apostle Paul says:
(1 Tim. 4:8) “For physical training is of some value but godliness has value for all things holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
In Scripture we hear some goals:
- Jesus gave disciples a target –
Target: “I will make you fishers of men.”
Means: “Come follw me…”
- Paul states his goal in Phil 3:12
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me.”
- Jesus set before the Rich Young Ruler 2 goals:
A. Love God with all your heart, soul & mind
B. Love neighbor as self.
- In Eph. 5 Jesus set a goal for us as husbands: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
- Jesus drew some pretty clear targets.
Here at East Side, we have tried to summarize those targets into our mission statement. We have increasingly sought to become intentional about creating people who are growing
To love God
Love people
Become more like Christ
and live his mission.
- Our Spiritual Development Plan is an intentional plan to help you grow to be those kinds of people….to go from here to there
- This series on prayer is an intentional step to help us to achieve that stated priority/need/goal from the REVEAL Survey: “Help me develop my prayer life.”
And so I ask you this morning:
- What is your goal?
- What do you want your relationship with God to become?
- What are your goals?
I dare say if you don’t set some you will reach them. If you don’t have a goal you will not be intentional….rather you will vaguely hope you arrive somewhere.
When the disciples looked at Jesus they saw something that attracted them. There was something unique about Jesus prayer life as opposed to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees prayer life was difficult.
- It put lead in the boots not wind in the sails.
- It wasn’t attractive.
And the disciples saw that Jesus was fuelled and directed by his inner life. There was strength, focus, release, repose, power …that came out of those prayer retreats with the Heavenly Father.
And they attributed these things to his praying life. ..to his connection with the Heavenly Father. And so they asked Jesus: “Teach us to pray.”
Their goal was to encounter and have that relationship with God they saw in Jesus
Jesus taught them the Lord’s prayer as a pattern.
1. GOALS
Perhaps all of us could say: “I want that!. I want to have this close, personal relationship with God. We want a relationship where we connect. Where prayer is something that brings wind to my sails, lightness to my heart, fuel for the journey, and power to my resolve. I want to have that hidden stream that brings life, and peace and strength to the journey. “
Jesus praying life put…
1.1 FUEL IN THE TANK
Mark 14:36
36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Abba – term of endearment, closeness. This prayer was in the garden of Gethsemene. Jesus honestly prays what his body and humanity desire….to avoid the cross. But in the pray he trusts so completely his heavenly Father. And out of that prayer time comes a calmness, a repose in the face of chaos & suffering. The battle of the heart was settled there. The strength needed for the road ahead was gained there.
i.e.
Ceramic tile – difference between cheap $.99 tile and more expensive porcelain – glaze over….chip it the red brick color shows through. Whereas a porcelain or more expensive tile the color goes through more.
Goal is that when we are hit with something heavy we don’t bleed a different color than what we project. Goal is that the color of Christ goes deep into our lives.
Jesus praying life …
1.2 LIFTS THE BURDENS OFF THE HEART
Exodus 33:11 – “God would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to a friend.”
After this passage it says Moses would come out the tent with his face glowing. He had to cover it because it glowed with the glory of God.
Moses countenance, his attitude, was all affected by his prayer life. He shone brighter afterwards.
In Acts 4 we read a phrase “They took note these men had been with Jesus.”
It showed positively.
i.e.
McDonald : VIP’s, VNP, VDP’s
VRP’s = people that put energy into us
VNP’s = “it was nice”
VDP’s = people that need something from us….”power goes out of us”
Question: What is your prayer life like?
Meeting with a VRP, VNP, or VDP?
For Moses and disciples it was a VRP encounter. The anxiety lines on their faces were lessened. The burdens were lifted off their hands.
Why?
Prov 12:25 –
“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.”
Phil 4:6 (The Message)
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Prayer is the means of replacing anxiety with peace. Go in anxious, come out with peace …
- cuz you have cast your burdens on the Lord.
- cuz you know you have a heavenly Father that cares for you.
Jesus praying life …
1.3 RECALIBRATES THE FOCUS
Luke 4: 38 – 44 – directed not by pressure, or needs but by God’s direction
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
He finds the goal and focus of his life re-clarified.
When we connect our priorities get reset. We hear the voice of our Father and the pressure of all the other voices diminishes.
Jesus praying life …
1.4 ACCESSES DIVINE POWER.
One person said:
“When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.”
Prayer becomes a secret weapon, an added tool in our toolbox.
Paul describes it as a spiritual weapon that has “the power to demolish spiritual strongholds.”
Prayer effects change where we can’t.
i.e.
Africa – at end of every service always be a time of prayer.
People would line up for elders to pray for them …virtually everyone… and they would wait rather than carry that need home with them for another week.
Contrast: Every week we have Deacons who will pray with you after service and word I get is sometimes weeks go by where no one comes.
Why such a difference?
Do we have less needs, worries, fears….maybe….but not by what I hear and see of marriage troubles….wayward kids….health issues….stress leaves….financial anxieties…..
Today :
Sally – prayer cards for Soup kitchen guests…How would you be with having your picture given out and focus of strangers prayers?
Why not?
I think the reason is, to be blunt,…pride. We value being independent, able to handle it, don’t need it ….and so we carry it rather than leave it with Jesus…and tapping into his power.
- We try to parent without tapping into prayer.
- We try to do kingdom tasks without tapping into prayer.
- We try to fix things without prayer.
- We try to change others without tapping into prayer.
We try to do these things ourselves and wallow in our ineffectiveness.
Jesus praying life … Accesses Divine Power
1.5 INTEGRATES LIFE.
Prayer is like a 3 way intersection where God, and life, & self inter-connect.
Good prayer does not segment God into a spiritual box…
Last week – talked about with car illustration how we can keep areas out of discussion.
End up with material self & spiritual self
But goal is to interconnect and integrate our lives.
Where God’s presence is brought into all the arenas of our lives.
We all have a story. We are all living a story in this life. And prayer is where God enters this story of our lives and our lives become caught up in the bigger God story of what he is doing. And prayer is where these stories are merging and becoming connected.
Transition:
So if that is the goal… and what we see come out of a praying, connected life….how do we access that?
What intentional steps will moves us towards that?
2. MEANS:
If those things are our goals then what are the means? What do we intentionally do to get there?
2.1 FOCUS ON JESUS, NOT PRAYER
Miller:
i.e.
Windshield on car
When driving down the road , do we focus on the windshield?
No, we look through the windshield to see what is in front of us. Our focus is what is out there.
Prayer is like the windshield. We don’t focus so much on it but we focus what is beyond. We focus on getting to know him & becoming increasingly transparent with Him.
i.e.
Sometimes we tint window so can’t see in…. & to keep sun out.
Law now against too much tinting.
Sometimes we try to tint our prayer window to keep SON out & we think to keep God from seeing us.
Tinting can be sin…fear…avoidance….
Remove the tinting….Seek for the window to become increasingly clear so don’t even notice it.
2.2 TAKE IT TO ANOTHER LEVEL
Levels of Communication
Cliché
“Hi, how are you?”
Factors that move us into deeper communication:
a. Trustworthiness – Do I trust this person? Are they trustworthy?
b. Self- disclosure – Do I dare trust myself to another? Am I willing to be open or hide behind a mask?
c. Time – date night, hard to get there on the fly…
Apply to prayer
What is your goal level? Where do you want relationship to be? To get there need to take it to another level. Can’t achieve intimacy with clichés…
And to get there it takes:
a. Self-Disclosure:
Miller describes this as “Come messy”
Do we dare to put down masks & be real with God? Quit hiding behind clichés, images, fears, other people’s expectations expectations.
In M atthew 6: 5 – 13, Jesus tells us the road to intimacy is not a formal exercise, ritualistic, filled with verbiage, made better by repetition, a cause for pride….not road Pharisees would lead you on.
But Jesus in the Lord’s prayer says the road is to …
Bring your will and desires and submit them
“Thy kingdom come thy will be done…”
Bring your needs
“Give us our daily bread…”
Bring your failures & wrongs
“Forgive us our trespasses…”
Bring your wounds
“…as we forgive those who trespass against us”
Bring your weakness and vulnerabilities
“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…”
Bring all the things we tend not to bring…
b. Trusting God
Do we trust God or have we given way to cynicism? Is he trustworthy?
Do we dare trust our needs to God?
c. Carve out time.
Some focused time in our day to talk & listen.
Conclusion:
i.e.
bible School – academic pride and spiritual pride that can quickly take root. You are learning and see how everyone else has it wrong. Head grows faster than our gracious spirit. And this pride would often show up in our guys dorm devotional nights.
I remember one of the upper classmen who every time he prayed he shamed the rest of us with his humility and transparency. When he prayed God just seemed to show up.
And his prayers were so simple.
Often start:
“Hey God, this is Brian. I didn’t have a very good day today. I said some things I’m not very proud of. I didn’t treat some people like you would have treated them. I spent much of my day anxious as if you weren’t present or cared. I want you to know God that I do love you and want to do better. I need your help. Help me tomorrow as I write that test to remember what I studied. Thanks. Amen.”
At the end as this Holy hush would come over us, we often were left with these thoughts…”Lord, teach us to pray.”
Prayer Exercise:
Self- Disclosure: Where are you at today?
Bring your will
Your needs
Your failures & wrongs
Your hurts
Your weaknesses and vulnerabilities
Trust
What do dare ask God for? What will you step out and request and trust him for?
Commitment:
What will you do to carve out a time for God this week?
(Not long…morning, walk at lunch, evening… but carve out some time this week.)
Click here to return to sermon page
The New International Version. 2011 (Mk 14:36). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Peterson, E. H. (2002). The Message : The Bible in contemporary language (Php 4:6–7). Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.
The New International Version. 2011 (Lk 4:38–44). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.