*** This sermon begins with a short skit on prayer. If you do not want to use it, scroll down to where the sermon begins and you can use it without the skit.
Melody is a lady who is praying.
The pastor is the voice of God.
Melody is standing at the pulpit, with her head bowed as she is praying. (This script is in front of her.)
The pastor is in the back of the sanctuary, with a microphone.
- - - - - - - - BEGINNING OF SKIT - - - - - - -
Melody: Our Father Who Art In Heaven.
Pastor: Yes?
Melody: (looking around – somewhat startled) Who are you?
Pastor: I am God. You called me.
Melody: I didn’t call you – I’m praying. Now, go on and let me pray. Our Father who art in heaven -
Pastor: There -- you did it again!
Melody: Did what?
Pastor: You called me! You said, "Our Father who art in Heaven". Well, here I am. What’s on your mind?
Melody: I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just saying my prayers. I always say the Lord’s Prayer. It makes me feel good - like I am doing my duty.
Pastor: OK. Go ahead and pray then.
Melody: "Hallowed be Thy name”. .
Pastor: What do you mean when you say “hallowed”?
Melody: It means, it means ... I don’t know what it means. It’s just a part of the prayer. By the way, what does it mean?
Pastor: It means honored, holy, sacred, and wonderful.
Melody: Okay, I just never thought about it before. It was always something I just said in the prayer. Now, let me finish praying. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."
Pastor: Do you really mean that?
Melody: I guess so.
Pastor: What are you doing about it?
Melody: Doing? What do You mean ‘doing about it?’ I can’t do anything about it. It would just be nice if You would take control down here and clean this mess up.
Pastor: Speaking of Me being in control - do I have control of you?
Melody: I go to church.
Pastor: That isn’t what I asked you. What about your temper? And then there’s the way you spend your money – it’s all on yourself.
Melody: Now hold on a minute! Stop picking on me! I’m just as good as the rest of those people at church!
Pastor: Excuse Me? I thought you were praying for My will to be done. If that is to happen, it will have to start with - - well, with you - for example.
Melody: Oh, all right. I guess I do have some hang-ups - now that You mention it.
Pastor: I could name a lot of them, but we will start with those.
Melody: I haven’t thought about it very much until now, but I really would like to - you know, be better.
Pastor: Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. We’ll work together -- You and Me. I’m proud of you.
Melody: Look, Lord, if You don’t mind, I need to finish up here. This is taking a lot longer than it usually does. "Give us this day, our daily bread."
Pastor: You need to stop eating so much bread, too.
Melody: Hey, wait a minute! What is this? Here I was doing my religious duty, and all of a sudden You break in and start picking on me!
Pastor: Praying can be a dangerous thing if you aren’t careful. You just might get what you ask for. Remember, you called Me -- and here I am. It’s too late to stop now. Keep praying. ( . . . pause . . . ) Well, go on.
Melody: (trying to say it fast to avoid another interruption) "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."
Pastor: What about Ann?
Melody: See? I knew it! I knew you would bring her up! Lord, she’s told lies about me, and she never did pay back the money she owes me.
Pastor: But -- your prayer -- What about your prayer?
Melody: I don’t know. All I know is I am still very mad at her!
Pastor: It’s quite a load carrying all that hate around, isn’t it?
Melody: Yes, but I’ll feel better as soon as I get even with her!
Pastor: No, you won’t. Actually, you’ll feel worse. You know how unhappy you are? Well, I can change that.
Melody: How?
Pastor: Forgive Ann. And then, I’ll forgive you; Then the hate and the sin, will be Ann’s problem -- not yours.
Melody: I know you’re right, Lord. And no matter how I act or think, I still want to be right with you. But it sure is hard sometimes. All right, I forgive her.
Pastor: There you go! How do you feel now?
Melody: Actually, not bad. In fact, I feel pretty good! You know, I don’t think I’m as uptight as I was a little while ago.
Pastor: I am proud of you, but you’re not through with your prayer - go on.
Melody: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
Pastor: Then don’t put yourself in places where you can be tempted.
Melody: What do You mean by that?
Pastor: You know what I mean. When you go out for a few drinks, or when you decide to hang out with unsaved friends instead of being around other Christians!
Melody: Yeah. I know! Okay, I promise I will try.
Pastor: Go ahead. Finish your prayer.
Melody: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen."
Pastor: Do you know what would bring me glory -- What would make me happy?
Melody: No, but I think I’d like to. Look God, I have really made a mess of my life, but I really do what to make you happy now. So tell me - how do I make you happy?
Pastor: You just did!
- - - - - - - - - - END OF SKIT - - - - - - -
(On my way to the pulpit, I walk over to Sam and tell him that we thank him for coming and singing for our church. I tell him that any time he wants to come back, he is welcomed to do so, and I tell him that we are having a luncheon after church and that he is invited to stay for it. You can go over to anyone and thank them for something and then inform them of something.)
(Then I cross the sanctuary and go to Diana. I tell her how glad I am she is here this morning, and how much I love her and how glad I am that she is my wife. Then I ask her if she enjoyed this skit. Then I ask her if she would like for us to have more skits from time to time.)
Then, from the pulpit, I begin my sermon.
Do you see what I just did? I talked to Sam and I talked to Diana. But each conversation was done with a different agenda. When I talked to Sam, I told him we appreciated him coming to sing, then I told him he was welcomed back, and then I told him about the luncheon today.
When I talked to Diana, I told her how much I loved her, and then I asked her if she enjoyed the skit and then I asked her if she would like to see more of them in the future.
In one conversation, I did all the talking by saying what was on my mind. In the other conversation, I asked what was on her mind, and I listened as she told me.
Which type of conversation do we have with God most of the time? Don’t we tend to just go to God with a grocery list of requests and demands? Don’t we tend to go to God and expect Him to listen to everything we have to say, but rarely even think about listening to Him tell us what He has to say?
How would you feel if someone you loved very much called you on the phone but never gave you the chance to say anything? How would you feel if they only called you when they needed something from you? How would you feel if they ignored you the rest of the time? Would you feel a little like how God must feel when we do that with Him?
Some years ago, a painting was shown in a London art gallery. As you viewed it from a distance, it seemed to be a monk with head bowed and hands clasped in prayer.
But, upon close inspection, you would see a monk that is squeezing an orange over a small glass as he looks down upon it.
Could that painting be a picture of us? Could it be that when we pray, all seems right - from a distance - but upon closer inspection, we are actually doing something else?
Could it be that too many times, when we are praying, we are thinking about other things, or we pray with the feeling that God is not going to answer us? Too many times, I think we tend to utter the words of prayer but fail to have any heartfelt meaning behind them.
In our skit, I think we all agree that when Melody first started praying, she did what many of us do. She was just going through the motions of praying. We utter the words but our words do not have any real thought behind them; they have no heart and therefore they have no meaning.
When you pray, always remember it is much better for your heart to be without words than your words to be without heart.
When she first started praying, she was actually surprised that God was on the other end listening. When we pray, do we pray with the expectation of God hearing us, or do we just "say our prayers"? Too many Christians go to God out of habit; out of repetition; out of everything but submissive dependence.
We do that because we put our focus on the world around us: The world where our friends are; the world where many of our activities are; the world that God has told us to turn away from. But we do not turn away, do we? We have too many things going on in the world and it occupies our main focus.
Let’s talk about …
1. PRAYING WITH THE WRONG MOTIVES
MATTHEW 6:5, tells us,
"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."
When we pray, we should ONLY be concerned with God hearing our prayers. God looks into our hearts and He knows the motivations we have for what we do. When we have anything in our hearts other than wanting Him to hear us, we are committing a sin against Him, because we are praying with the wrong motivation.
JAMES 4:3 tells us,
"When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
How often do we ask God for things that have nothing to do with glorifying His name, but would only give us something we want?
EPHESIANS 2:10 explains our purpose.
"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Our purpose is to do good works. What kind of good works are we talking about? We are talking about doing things that exalt the Most High God, not those things that are only meant to give us satisfaction. For example, a person might be praying for a promotion. But what is the motive behind his wanting it in the first place?
If the motivation for the promotion is to have more money to buy a better car, that may not exalt God in any way, but if the motivation is to make more money so he can do more things for God, then that is a perfect motivation.
As a side bar, let me say this: Think about what you spend your money on. Does it glorify God? Let me rephrase that: How much of your money is spent on things God would not really approve of? And, what do you plan on doing about it?
When we pray with anything other than the right motives, we are committing a sin against the Most High God. The right motives are only those motives that end up glorifying Him by our receiving the answers to our prayers.
Now, let’s talk about …
2. PRAYING WITH THE WRONG FEELINGS
Many of us actually pray out of habit. We know we are supposed to pray, but the churches we have gone to haven’t done the best job of teaching us how to pray, so we just end up going through the motions. We pray the words, but have other thoughts in our minds.
The problem is when we pray out of habit, we aren’t praying out of love. We are performing what Melody referred to as a "duty". That is not praying; it is just uttering a bunch of meaningless words.
Is that how we really want to approach God?
Every person here today has spent much time in their lives, and in some cases, way too much money, trying to make their life here on planet earth better – more comfortable, if you will. And we do tend to spend our lives making sure our families have everything they want and need, don’t we?
But how much time or money have we spent trying to make our relationship with the Lord better? How much thought have we given to what would bring us closer to God?
We treasure our parents, spouses and children. They are very important to us. But, let me say that - as important as they are to us, our relationship with Jesus as Savior should even be more important. The truth is, just like with those we love here on earth, we take our relationship with Jesus for granted, too.
We hate to admit it, but when we pray with the wrong motives or without the proper feelings for the Lord, we are being lukewarm. That is a very bad thing to be. The church of Laodicea was lukewarm, because their focus was all on what they wanted, not on what Jesus wanted. And Jesus gave them a warning.
REVELATION 3:14-17.
"And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: ’these are the words of the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Ruler of God’s Creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of My mouth!"
Now, on the surface, being lukewarm doesn’t seem to be that tragic, does it? Some people like iced-tea and some like iced-coffee. My wife likes hot tea and I like hot coffee. But something you will notice about all of us. No matter how we like our tea and coffee, none of us like it room temperature, do we?
Have you ever reached for a cup of coffee or tea, took a big mouthful, just to realize that it was neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm? If you have, you know how nasty it tastes and how quickly you want to spit it out! That is how Jesus finds Christians who are lukewarm in their feeling towards him.
We are talking about praying without feeling. Did you know that when you pray without feeling you are being lukewarm? And when we have no feeling for Jesus, we are committing a vile and evil sin against Him. That is what Jesus finds so distasteful that makes Him spit us out of His mouth! I guess you could say that lukewarm Christians make Jesus sick.
The feelings we should pray with are those that show a passionate love for our Father through the Son. Without that passionate love in our hearts for Him, it is impossible to be a dedicated follower for Him.
So, what is our only recourse? We must …
3. STOP BEING LUKEWARM!
I mentioned how the church of Laodicea was lukewarm, and they were lukewarm because they had changed their focus. Now, I want you to listen to this very closely.
The reason the people in Laodicea became unfocused was because they were involved with too many things of the world. They had a lot of things happening outside the church that they were involved in. They had many friends that were not believers and churchgoers. And they hung out with these friends. This stole their focus from God and when their focus left, so did their passion and love.
They were much like we are, today: Too many things going on to be too devoted. And it seems that there are so many things we want God to do for us, we just don’t have time to do anything for Him … even listen to Him as He tries to get our attention.
REVELATION 3:21 says,
"To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne."
How do we overcome? How do we stop being lukewarm? How do we make sure we are safe?
By making the effort to turn our minds and hearts away from the world and the people in it and turn them once again towards Jesus.
A friend once asked me how she could tell if what she was doing was okay in God’s eyes or not. I told her that if what she is doing will bring glory to God somehow, someday, keep on doing it. If, on the other hand, it would not bring glory to God in any way or at any time - stop doing it immediately! Is what you do on a daily basis going to bring glory to God? If it isn’t, don’t you think you should stop doing it?
In 1986, there were two ships that collided off the Russian coast. Hundreds of people were thrown to their deaths in the icy waters. When the authorities investigated the cause of the accident they did not find any mechanical or technical problems. They found a human problem.
Seems that both captains had time to steer clear from one another, but neither wanted to be the first to yield. Pride is a sin because it keeps us from seeing the need to react. It keeps us from seeing the need to react for Jesus Christ.
And pride is one of the biggest problems for Christians, because to be a true Christian, you have to humble your heart and that means you need to get rid of your pride.
And pride is the biggest stumbling block to prayer. Pride will not allow you to humble your heart to anyone but yourself. And without a humbled heart, you cannot have Jesus in it. Without Jesus, you cannot even speak to the Father in prayer.
1 JOHN 2:22-23 says that we can only access the Father by accessing the Son first. If we offer up prayers without fully humbling ourselves to Jesus, our prayers don’t even leave the room, and they are surely not heard by God.
Let me give you the entire story of pride in three short sentences:
· Pride began in heaven … in he devil’s heart
· Pride continues on earth … in our hearts
· Pride will end in hell ... where it belongs
But God does hear every prayer His children pray. In PSALM 17:6, it even says that God hears and will answer our prayers. Of course, He may not answer them in the way or the time that we expect.
· When we pray and the prayer is not right, God will say “NO!”
· When we pray and we are not right, God will say, “GROW.”
· When we pray and the timing is not right, God will say “SLOW.”
· But, when we pray a prayer and all is right, God will say, “GO.”
So, when we pray, do not try to hurry God to give you what you pray for. Tell Him what you desire and then stop worrying about when you will get the answer. Just have faith and know you will get it.
For example, if I had a dull pocketknife, I would take it to a knife-sharpener and tell him to sharpen it.
If he told me it would be done some time this week, and that he would call me when it was done, what would I do?
I would agree with him and then go about my business knowing that when the job was done, I would get a call. I would not get mad at him, or become impatient, and I would not end up believing he could not sharpen my knife.
Likewise, when I give a request to my Father, I must be willing to go about my business and let Him do the work that He is best at – taking care of me in the best possible way.
We are getting ready to go into a time of personal invitation. It might be a time of decision for you this morning - a decision you have been putting off, but know you cannot do that any longer.
If you only take one thing from this message with you today, let it be this: Please start putting the passion of love back in your prayers as you talk to the Lord. It is okay for you to tell Him what you want or need, but you must also be willing to listen as He tells you what He wants and needs.
God hears the passionate prayers offered up by His children. His children are those who have made the decision to receive Christ as Savior, and who are now devoted to trying to live with the same moral turpitude as Christ did.
In HEBREWS, it tells how God holds the hands of His children so He can lead them. I am going to give you the chance right now to be included in the family of God. To be one of His children so He can hear your prayers.
INVITATION
