Let’s look at the theme verse for the last Retreat.
• 1 Peter 4:7 says, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.”
• There is an end to this world. And we are now nearer its end than before.
• And therefore, Peter says, there are some important things we need to be doing.
The number one thing he mentions here is prayer.
• He says, be clear-minded (understand what time it is) and watchful in prayer.
• Peter connects the nearness of the end with the need for prayer.
Jesus did the same thing in Luke 21.
• He was telling the disciples the signs of the end times.
• Luke 21:34-36 "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."
The point of praying is so that we “may be able to stand before Jesus”.
• We are to pray for strength, so that we can stand strong in the difficult end times.
• If we are not careful, verse 34 says we can be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life.
• Jesus says they will come on us like a trap. These are end-time traps.
And He says, pray that you would be able to escape and not be trapped by them.
• Prayer gives us the strength to stay righteous and not be spiritually and morally corrupted by these end-time stresses.
• Jesus said to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation....” (Matt 26:41)
So both Jesus and Peter connect prayer with drawing near to the end times.
• This is not coincidence. Both of them knew that, unless we are praying, we will find it hard to stand strong in the last days.
• The temptations are great, the distractions are many. Unless you are praying regularly, you will find it hard to stay faithful to God.
For Peter, this need was something close to his heart.
• He had first-hand experience of this failure.
• Jesus asked them to watch and pray with Him while they were at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was at a crucial time before Jesus was arrested.
• But Peter slept, along with the other disciples. He did not pray. He could not stay awake with Jesus.
• When Jesus returned and found them sleeping, He asked Peter, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? 41Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matt 26:40-41)
And that very day, after Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Him three times.
• He was afraid. When the real testing comes, he failed.
• He could not find the courage to stay faithful.
Look at Jesus. He prayed throughout the time in the Garden, while the disciples were sleeping. He was tired as they were but he chose to pray.
• He knows that “the end of His work (or life) is near. Therefore He needs to remain clear-minded and self-controlled, so that He can pray.”
• No wonder He was able to remain calm and composed throughout the trials.
• No wonder He has the strength and courage to face the cross and finish the job He needs to do.
Haddon Robinson [professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary] expressed it very well:
“Where was it that Jesus sweat great drops of blood? Not in Pilate’s Hall, nor on his way to Golgotha. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he ‘offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death’ (Heb 5:7). Had I been there and witnessed that struggle, I would have worried about the future. ‘If he is so broken up when all he is doing is praying,’ I might have said, ‘what will he do when he faces a real crisis?’ Why can’t he approach this ordeal with the calm confidence of his three sleeping friends?’
Yet, when the test came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and his three friends fell apart and fell away.”
If we do not want to fell apart and fell away, then we need to watch and pray.
• Even Jesus needed to invest time in prayer, regularly, in order to keep His calling clear, to avoid mission drift, distraction and temptation.
• If He needed that, then all the more we need it today. Our strength comes from God. Paul says in Phil 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
• Let us make an extra effort to pray. Whether it is long or short, in the morning or at night, the forms are less important. We need to start, and keep at it.
We do not have to follow someone else’s pattern or style of prayer.
• Find your own way to pray. A person who is ill will pray differently from a college student preparing for final exams. A young mother with 3 kids will pray differently from an executive who puts in 12 hours at the office.
• The forms are not important. The important thing is to DO IT. Start praying.
The Lord wants us to lean on Him. Prov 3:6 says “…in all your ways acknowledge Him.” We are called to “trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” (Prov 3:5)
Life today works against a regular prayer time. There are many distractions.
• We are bombarded with noises – mobile phones, television, SMSes, iPods, chatrooms, internet devices – and prayer simply gets drowned out.
• On the streets, you see business people walking around with Bluetooth earpieces permanently attached to their ears, waiting for the next interruption.
• Frankly, people are more concerned about hearing from clients and friends, than they are hearing from God.
• We find it easier to put an earpiece on and talk to our friends, than to have a conversation with God. Even a short one is not easy.
We need to make an extra effort to do that. Resolve today to talk to Him.
Make a commitment to do that every day. Set aside a time to do that.
In the past, the only way to make contact with someone is to write a letter.
• You have to put it into an envelope and paste a stamp. It will take a day, and a few days or weeks if the person is overseas.
• Now there are many ways to make contact. When you look at a business card, you have the postal address, and many other numbers – home, office, a direct line, a mobile phone, a fax number, and then an email address, and a website address.
• There are so many ways to make contact now and so much quicker.
But we don’t always make contact. We are too distracted by many other concerns. We are too busy. We don’t have the time.
• People are meeting less and less. At home, family members are spending less and less time together.
• Technology supposes to make life easier and save us time. But even with so many high-tech gadgets today, we are getting busier than the generations before.
How can we fit God into our schedule? We have to make an extra effort.
• Heed Peter’s advice. “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” He is speaking from experience.
• We do not want to make the same mistake Peter made, when he was caught unprepared and in fear, and denied knowing Christ.
Testimony by Pastor Ben Patterson:
In the spring of 1980 he suffered two slipped discs in his lower back and was in great pain. The prescription was total bed rest. But since the bed was too soft, the treatment ended up being total floor rest.
He said, “I was frustrated and humiliated. I couldn’t preach, I couldn’t lead meeting, I couldn’t call on visitors to the church. I couldn’t do anything but pray.
I did not start off praying. It took two weeks for me to get so bored that I finally asked my wife for the church directory so I could at least do something, even if it was only pray for the people of my congregation. Note: it wasn’t piety but boredom and frustration that drove me to pray. But pray I did, every day for every person in my church, two or three hours a day. After a while, the time became sweet.
Toward the end of my recuperation, anticipating my return to work, I prayed, "Lord, this has been good, this praying. It’s too bad I don’t have time to do this when I’m working."
And God spoke to me, very clearly. He said, "Son, you have the same 24 hours each day when you’re weak as when you’re strong. The only difference is that when you’re well you think you’re in charge. When you’re sick you know you aren’t."
… Excerpted from Leadership Journal, 2001 Christianity Today. Also quoted in Philip Yancey’s PRAYER, p.169.
Could this be our problem today?
• We do not pray that much because we feel that we are in charge. Everything is under control, my control, that is.
• Unless and until we realise that we are not in charge, we will not pray.
Learn from Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane.
• He said: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matt 26:41)
• He overcame the devil. He finished the job. He won the battle. He claimed the victory.
• We need that resolve today, to spend time with the Lord in prayer, because the end of all things is near.
