Sermon Central
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Experiencing The Prayer Of Jesus Series
Contributed by Christian Cheong on Sep 16, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus teaches us the right attitudes as we approach God in prayer. (1) Let His concerns be our concerns, (2) treasure our connections to the Father, (3)acknowledge His ways, and (4) acknowledge His worth.
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INTRODUCTION
· By now many should have seen Passion of the Christ. For me, the most impressionable scene was the praying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
· I’ve not come to see a person prays with such intensity. Have I ever prayed that way? Maybe when one of my loved one is dying away...
· It was so intense. No wonder people say praying is the "outpouring of one’s soul."
· Heb 5:7 - During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
· I saw intimacy. I saw the strong bond He has with the Father.
o We’ve read about Jesus going off to quiet places frequently to pray…
o And we’ve read about the long hours He was away praying…
o But now I see something that I admired.
· I admired people who give prayer a priority in their lives. Prayer is one of the most difficult disciplines of my life. It has been more intermittent than persistent.
THE PRAYER LIFE OF JESUS
· In the life of Jesus, prayer was the work, and ministry was just the reaping…
o He wasn’t discouraged because He made connections with the Father daily.
o Miracles happened because the power of God was flowing through Him.
· For me, prayer is the preparation for the ministry. But for Jesus, it was the battle itself.
Having prayed, he went about doing His ministry, healing the sick, delivering the oppressed.
· His prayer time was the real thing… the real battle, the real fight.
o When we look at His intense prayer at the Garden, we may ask: “If He is so broken up when all He is doing is praying, what will he do when He faces a real crisis?”
o Why couldn’t He approach this ordeal with the calm confidence of His 3 sleeping friends (disciples)? They were much calmer than Jesus.
o Yet when the real test came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and His 3 friends fell apart and fell away.
· That’s why I admire those who PRAY… and pray and pray… That’s the real thing!
THEY SAW JESUS’ PRAYERS
· His disciples were so inspired by the way He prays.
o Luke 11:1 - One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
· They have been with Him for more than 2 years now. Jesus was a great teacher, a good counselor, an excellent preacher. Yet they wanted Him to teach them how to pray.
o When we’re with a successful banker, we ask, “Teach us how to invest.”
o When you’re with Tiger Woods, you ask, “Teach us how to play golf.”
o When you’re with Michael Jordan, you ask, “Teach us how to throw the ball.”
o Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
THE LORD TEACHES US HOW TO PRAY
· It would be nice if we could have a record of Jesus’ personal prayers. But that wouldn’t be possible, because He prays usually alone, up in the mountains and quiet places.
· But He left us few words we called the Lord’s Prayer. Better called Jesus’ blueprint for prayer because it is not His personal prayer – He need not say, “Forgive us our sins.”
· We must take note of these few lines, because therein lies the important principles about prayer that we need to know.
· Obviously it is not a prayer for us to simply recite. Just before this, He said in verse 7: "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."
· We pray that at the end of these sessions, we’ll go away with a stronger conviction and motivation to pray.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
· The prayer falls quite neatly into 2 major sections:
o Approach Him right – we are talking to our Father, about our Father’s concerns!
His Person, His program, His purpose…
“Hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done…”
o Then we talk about His children – our need for provision, pardon and protection…
“Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our sins… lead us not into temptations.”
1. Jesus showed it in His life – that the over-riding purpose & motivation of His life – to see God’s will done. He prayed the same way in the Garden – “Not my will, but yours be done!”
2. When we commune with God, our over-riding focus and concern is Him! Not us.
