“Disciple: Following the Path of Jesus”
Part 2 – God Talk
NewSong Church – 09/09/07
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**NOTE: THIS IS A CONCEPT OUTLINE FOR THIS MESSAGE, NOT THE FULL MANUSCRIPT. GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA ARE AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT THIS SERIES.
Video Clip: “Prayer – Live Richly”
[full clip]
Dropout
Have you ever experienced something like that - a dropout in the conversation? Have you had those situations where you spend however many odd minutes shouting into your phone, then straining to hear what’s being said, and finally the call is lost and you are left staring at your phone, wondering what just happened? It’s one thing when you’re just chitchatting or shooting the breeze, but it’s a whole other issue when you’re in the middle of business or an important conversation and you really need to be able to communicate.
I know that there is a stretch of road going down Route 2 where no cell phone signal is able to penetrate. I know that the commercials tell me that no matter where I go, my signal will remain strong, my calls will be clear, and with one push of the little green button I can be in touch with anyone I desire – but more often than not I experience dropouts, the conversations are filled with static and breakups, or the person I’m calling hasn’t turned their phone on.
We live today with some of the greatest advances in communication and ways to connect people to each other, but even so, our actual communication efforts experience dropouts, or glitches, or sometimes complete failure. Despite all our great technology, the best communication happens face to face.
Disciple
This morning we are continuing our series on discipleship. Today we are looking at prayer and what part it plays in our spiritual life. Much has been said about prayer. There are countless books and teachings on the subject of prayer. There are various different types of prayer and equally numerous ways to pray.
Today we will look at the initial stage of prayer in the life of a disciple of Jesus, and how our faith and pursuit of Christ is impacted by prayer and to shed some light on key principles of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ, following His teaching, and living our lives for Him.
Lines of Communication
There are a few different ways that prayer has been defined throughout history, but the simplest, and I believe the most accurate definition is “communication.”
Prayer is communication between ourselves and God.
• Prayer is the ordinary interacting with the supernatural
• Prayer is the regular coming into connection with the incredible
• Prayer is the physical communicating with the spiritual
• Prayer is you and I experiencing the awesome presence of the Almighty God in our everyday lives
• Prayer is God in heaven participating in our lives here on earth
C.S. Lewis, contemplating the connection between prayer and the presence of God, wrote:
“Prayer is either sheer illusion or a personal contact between incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete Person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In prayer God shows Himself to us.”
Some people have called prayer a conversation with God, but it goes well beyond words and spoken thoughts that we direct heavenward.
• Prayer is a way to live
• an attitude to adopt and grow into
• a lifestyle to consciously and willingly enter each day
Someone once said,
“When we pray, we receive the gift of God Himself - prayer is communion with God. He wants us to know Him. As we grow in prayer we discover that prayer is more than simply asking God for things, a selfish means to an end. Prayer is not an attempt to force the hand of God, but an act of submission to Him, with the understanding that God’s answers are wiser than our prayers. Prayer is to impress us with God more than it is to impress God with us or our needs. If we never gain anything from prayer but the opportunity to commune with God that should be sufficient for us.”
Standing in the Need of Prayer
In Luke chapter 11, we find Jesus’ disciples, these men who have decided to follow his ways and teachings, coming to Jesus. They had been following him for a while now, they had heard him teach, had watched him perform miracles. They had been part of his ministry and at this point, they became aware that they were lacking something.
And so they come to Jesus, and they ask, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
I believe the disciples were motivated by something that we can relate to even today – a desire to experience the presence and power of God in our everyday lives. Jesus was the greatest example of prayer – Scripture tells us that he often would take time by himself to go and pray and have fellowship with God the Father. There are a couple key things that we can see in this passage:
1) Being a disciple creates in us a desire for the presence of God. The disciples realized that there was more than just listening to teachings and watching miracles – there was an opportunity to interact with God in a way they never thought possible.
The disciples were Jews – they had been taught prayers and passages of the Law to some degree since they were small children. But religion is so much different than relationship – and they saw that Jesus was not merely reciting a prayer or reading and then doing whatever he wanted. He was communicating with God and then doing what the Father wanted.
2) Being a disciple creates in us a desire for the purposes of God. Prayer allows us to communicate with God, to discover who he is and what his plans are. Prayer builds our relationship with God, we can fellowship with God, and we can get to know God in a close and personal way.
The disciples are following Jesus, and they come to this realization that there is another level of knowing God and serving him, and that it is based in this practice, this discipline of prayer. And so they come to Jesus, and they ask, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Spiritual Fraud
Matthew 6 tells us that before teaching about prayer and giving us some guidelines for praying, Jesus first warned his disciples and those listening to him teach about two things. The first was spiritual fraud.
Matthew 6:5-6
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
Jesus is telling his disciples, “Don’t be insincere when following me. Don’t pray for show, or to let people see how “spiritual” you are.”
We are creatures of habit – once we have done something enough, it becomes process without thought. And while on one hand that can be a good thing – Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing, pray continually” meaning to be in communication with God at all times – if we are not careful, it can become a routine without meaning, empty ritual that we do because it’s “what we’ve always done.” We forget the purpose, the motivation, the desire, the reason. Jesus is teaching his followers that prayer is a conscious decision, a voluntary action, motivated by a desire to know God.
Spiritual Babble
Next, Jesus says, ““When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Prayer is not magic. It is not an incantation. It is not an ancient spell or sacred rite that once spoken traps God as your personal genie – recite this prayer and now all your wishes will come true and your every desire will be met.
The Lord’s Prayer
This brings us to Jesus’ answer to the disciple’s need. Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:
“Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon.
Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”
The Lord’s prayer is more than just a prayer to be recited, and it is even more than just a model for developing our own prayers – it is a challenge that Christ gave to those that would desire to experience the presence of God in the middle of their seemingly ordinary lives.
It is not spiritual fraud, to be recited without sincerity or understanding in order to look good, be noticed, or appease God. It is not spiritual babble, trying to say the right words in order to make God work on our behalf.
But it is a way to connect with God. It is a way to experience God’s power in your life. It allows us to communicate with God and to gain guidance and direction in life. Because prayer focuses on God, not me. It seeks to know God, not me. It seeks to please God, not me. It wants to hear what God has to say. In praying like a disciple, I am the last priority, God is first.
And that can be difficult for us to understand and to act on
• Because we want to get right to the business of telling God what we need
• How our kids are impossible and in trouble
• How our finances are short and bills are due
• How our relationships are failing, or health is failing, or faith is failing.
But a disciple’s prayer sets those things aside – they can wait. And it chooses to focus on God and his holiness, and his love, and his grace, and his Kingdom.
Our greatest challenge in prayer is learning to pray with God, rather than just praying to God. Allowing God to communicate with us, to talk to us, to teach us, to encourage us, and challenge us; to teach us discipleship.
John MacArthur wrote this about the Lord’s Prayer, and I find it to be a great illumination on this prayer that Jesus gave us; he writes:
I cannot say "our" if I’m living only for myself.
I cannot say "Father" if I don’t try to act like His child.
I cannot say "Who art in Heaven" if I am laying up no treasure there.
I cannot say "hallowed be Thy Name" if I am not striving for holiness.
I cannot say "Thy Kingdom come" if I’m not doing my part to hasten that day.
I cannot say "Thy will be done" if I am disobedient to His word.
I cannot say "in earth as it is in Heaven" if I’m unwilling to serve Him here and now.
I cannot say "give us this day our daily bread" if I’m not relying on Him to provide.
I cannot say "forgive us our debts" if I harbor a grudge against someone.
I cannot say "lead us not into temptation" if I deliberately place myself in its path.
I cannot say "deliver us from evil" if I haven’t put on the whole armor of God.
I cannot say "Thine is the Kingdom" If I am not loyal to the King as His faithful subject.
I cannot attribute to Him "the power" if I fear what people may do.
I cannot ascribe to Him "the glory" if I am seeking honor only for myself.
I cannot say "forever" if my life is bounded completely by the things of time
Connecting With God
• In prayer we are able to proclaim our revelation of God and communicate our understanding of who He is
• In prayer we are able to petition and make requests of God our Father, bringing to his attention our needs and burdens
• In prayer we pronounce our confession and repentance, and we gain forgiveness and redemption from sin, and deliverance from evil
• In prayer we dedicate our lives to his purpose and to his kingdom and continue our journey of living as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Finding God in the Little Things
As part of our everyday life, and as part of our lifestyle, we need to pray in order to experience God in the little things that we go through each day. Prayer does not have to be an over-the-top production; simple is good. And whether you use the Lord’s prayer or another prayer, whether you create your own form or just speak freely, what is important to remember is that prayer is communication – honest and sincere, focused on God and his purposes.
Reading of the Lord’s Prayer
