WHAT?
Luke 18:9-14
Last week we began a series of messages on Prayer which I called: The 5 W’s of Prayer. We started with the WHO questions of prayer. Today we will continue with the WHAT questions. This may take two weeks.
1. What are the types of prayer?
There are several types of prayer. Basically there are the 5 Types of prayer. These 5 types are taught and/or exemplified in the scripture. The best way to remember them is to use a pneumonic device called ACTS. Each letter stands for a different type of prayer. Now, for those of you who are really quick, you notice that ACTS does not have 5 letters, for the five types of prayer. That is true but let’s look at it anyhow.
a. Adoration
Adoration, according to the dictionary means: The act of worshipping, paying homage, reverent esteem.
Jesus essentially taught us the same thing in the Lord’s Prayer, which begins, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name” (Matthew 6:9).
This puts things in perspective for us.
A good example of this type of adoration is found in Psalm 95:1-7. Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
When we take time to praise and worship God in our prayers, we are placing God where He rightfully belongs. As a result, our problems and needs come into their proper perspective.
What too often happens is that we come to our prayer time and immediately launch into our shopping list of requests.
It reminds me of the rabbit in Alice In Wonderland… I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date. No time to say “Hello” “Goodbye”, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.”
There is often no time to even say “Hello God, How are you?”
This does not honor God. It does not lift Him up and give Him praise.
We treat God like we do the person at the fast food drive-thru. You don’t tell them Hello or ask them how their day is going. That is not what you are there for. It is not a relationship. You just want your Big-Mac and fries.
When we skip adoration in our prayers… it is treating God like the voice in the speaker.
Stop and spend some time just talking to God. Express your love and your awe. Praise Him for His awesomeness.
b. CONFESSION
David said, “If I had known about and ignored sin in my heart, God would not hear my prayers.”
If you skip this step… you are just wasting your time.
It is just like this… God is not listening.
Do you want your prayers to be received and answered? DO THIS… examine your life, allow God to show you your sin, and then FESS UP… ADMIT IT AND REPENT!
What is the #1, absolute most important way God chooses to show you your sin… to examine your life?
Now this is a great place, to explain how reading the bible and prayer go hand in hand.
The main reason God gave us the Word (bible) is not to be a policeman to discipline you or punish you.
>>>> Imagine that you went to lunch and were leaving the restaurant to go back to work or shopping. As you walk out you notice several people looking at you, some even smile. You wonder why they are looking at you. Then a woman reaches in her purse, pulls out a cosmetic case, opens it and hands it to you. You look at it and see in the small mirror that you have a noodle hanging off your chin and some marinara on your cheek.
Was the mirror a bad thing because it showed a problem?
Was the woman a bad person because she gave you the mirror?
The mirror is the bible and the woman is God.
If you don’t look in the mirror, you can’t know what is wrong.
If you don’t read the bible, God can’t show you your heart/sin
Read the bible and it will help you to CINFESS your sin.
c. THANKSGIVING
Surely I don’t need to explain this type of prayer.
Thanksgiving is just giving thanks to god, SAYING thank you for His many blessings in your life.
Why is Thanksgiving important.
First, it is just good manners to do it; and bad manners not to do it.
Secondly, it makes God happy. Do you need any more reasons???
Thirdly, if you do, it reinforces in your mind, that God is the source of your blessings.
Can you thank God for all of His blessings? NO!! You don’t even recognize most of them.
But you can thank Him for the ones you can thank of. And you can thing of a lot if you will just take the time and try.
It seems only natural and right that thanksgiving would come after confession. Right after we have admitted and confessed our sins we should be thankful that God has forgiven our sins. That should be the first thing for which we give thanks.
4. SUPPLICATION
Now there is a strange and new word for many people. What does it mean?
It means: entreaty or petition.
Oh boy, preacher, that was helpful. Now tell me what entreaty and petition mean.
It means ASKING FOR SOMETHING
Now we said earlier that ACTS did not have five letters and could not teach 5 types of prayer. Well, it sort of can.
See, supplication (asking) can be divided into two parts…
a. Asking for SELF…
b. Asking for OTHERS… intercession
I guess you could use ACTS I but the I does not stand for the Roman numeral 1… it stands for Intercession, asking for others
It is OK to spend time on these two things.
Someone said, “If we are faithful in the first three steps, the last step will not degenerate into some spiritual shopping list.
If you just spent time in God’s word, allowing God to speak to you about what is important.
And you Praised and adored Him for His greatness
And you realized and confessed your sin and then gave thanks to God for forgiving your sin.
Don’t you think your requests might have more of a spiritual nature to them?
That may keep our supplications for our self and our intercession for others from becoming trivial and selfish?
I do.
So those are the five types of prayer
A C T S I
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
Intercession
Next week we will look at some more WHAT? questions
