Matthew
6:5-15, Philippians 3:10
Going With Jesus Series #4
August
7, 2005
First Presbyterian Church Carson City
Pastor
Bruce Kochsmeier
In each
new season of life I learn more about prayer and the need to pray. I resonate with the words of D.L. Moody who said, “I'd
rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught
his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.”
It
occurs to me that prayer and this particular teaching on prayer by the God of
the universe, Jesus the Christ, is something we could spend a season of worship
around. And I think perhaps as we
head into this fall that we should do this, but for this morning as we prepare
to come to the Lord’s table; as we continue our focus on what it means to
follow Jesus, I think we need to consider Jesus’‘ statement, “…for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
The
question before us this morning is whether we believe this and if so what role
does prayer play? I’m going to
assume that we do believe that God knows
what we need before we ask so that we can explore why we don’t ask him in
prayer what we need.
If
we don’t ask is it because we don’t believe God will give us what we need?
Or do we fail to pray because we’ve been disappointed?
Or have we become too busy trying to get life on our terms that there
isn’t time for prayer? Whatever
the answer I think the reality is that we don’t really understand the purpose
of prayer.
As I
ponder this passage I become more and more convinced that prayer is for one
purpose and that is to be conformed to the will of God.
In fact that is really the only prayer we ever really need to pray.
And I would do this except…LIFE gets in the way.
I believe God knows what I need before I ask except for the times God
isn’t giving what I KNOW needs to be given.
I would pray except someone is being stupid and I need to do something
about it. (It couldn’t be me!?)
I would pray but the sanctuary isn’t getting built, the person who hurt
me isn’t apologizing, the illness I want healed isn’t changing, the
relationship I want isn’t happening or is going away, people aren’t going
along with my great ideas about life. See,
I WOULD pray, but you know how it is.
Isn’t
this ironic? God knows what we need
and offers to take us there as we let him lead us in prayer to his perfect will
except…except we aren’t sure it is perfect.
And that again is the role of prayer.
And in
case we don’t get this Jesus even gives us a model of what he is describing.
He says when you pray keep these things in mind.
And he says keep it simple. Don’t
use too many words. Don’t keep
begging. Remember, God ALREADY
knows what we need. He doesn’t
need our shopping list, he wants our hearts turned over to him.
That doesn’t take a lot of words.
We don’t need to explain it to him.
God calls us to pray because we need to tell God we need him; not a
particular outcome, but that we simply need him. And all we have to say is, “Lord, you are in charge.
Here’s my heart”. That really what the Lord’s prayer is all about.
Prayer is about praising God because he loves us more than we know and
letting him show this to us as we wait upon HIS WILL for our lives.
When we give God OUR shopping list we don’t let this happen.
You see,
this is part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus gives the foundation for the
Gospel. And the first thing he says
about prayer is make it real. He
says, “Don’t be a hypocrite because a hypocrite is someone who is just
playing a part. What they are doing
isn’t really them.” If prayer
is to be real it needs to be genuine; it has to be a part of us.
Jesus says if we are going to do this we need to go to that secret place.
He doesn’t mean that it isn’t right to pray in public, but as we do
pray, publicly or privately it needs to come from our most honest selves.
Prayer
changes us. It transforms us. The situation may or may not need to be changed, but we
know that we need to be changed. Jesus
knew this. One of my favorite
leaders of prayer is my friend, Pastor Ronn Garton.
When Ronn leads in prayer he says for us all what we need to say, but
often won’t let ourselves be honest enough to say – things like, “Lord,
we’re greedy or lazy or selfish or unimaginative.
We haven’t let you surprise us Lord.
We’ve been telling you how it ought to go rather than listening.”
Led by God’s Holy Spirit Ronn invades those places so secret that we
don’t even let ourselves enter.
But
enter we must if we are to discover the peace of prayer that leads to renewed
and renewing relationship with God. Prayer teaches us to wait and to believe
that God really does have something better.
This waiting begins with simple words like these from Chuck Swindoll,
“Lord, this is your problem to fix. You
take control. Let me know what you
want me to do if I’m to be involved in the solution.
By leaving it with You, I will consider it solved.”
Chuck goes on to say, “As you wait before God, He will direct your
thoughts to the next step you should take.
If there is nothing God leads you to do, do nothing more he will take it
from there.”
This
means we get to pray all the time, not rambling but calling upon the Lord in all
times; praying without ceasing –
when times are good or confusing or painful or frustrating or disappointing or
wonderful or boring or mundane. We
are to pray on the mountains and in the valleys for everything one and
everything in our lives.
Prayer
is for praise. Prayer is its own
reward. The outcome is incidental
because as a wise saint once said, “God will always act in our best interests
whether we behave [or pray] correctly or not.”
The gift that comes to us in prayer is that no matter what happens we can
know BEYOND CIRCUMSTANCE that God is taking care of us and be at peace with
whatever means God uses to bring us to this place.
For example, God may tell us NO to something we ask for; something that
seems to us wonderful; something not even really for us, because God knows that
by telling us NO we are led to something better.
Here is
that something better. (The
Lord’s Supper) Jesus gave up his
life as he asks us to, so that he can lead us to that something better and that
something better is learning every day to let God have our hearts in prayer very
simply. Prayer is the act of
surrender. It is openness to
intimacy. It is trusting God with
our secret places. It is bringing
EVERYTHING to him in prayer.
Do you
need to call out to God? Do it
here. Do you need to know that God
hears you? Come here and realize
that peace that we can’t find anywhere else.
May we together come in a spirit of prayer as God leads us to call out to
him. Amen.