Teach us to Pray

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished one of his disciples said to him Lord Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples and he said to them when you pray say Father How it would be your name your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and Lead us not into temptation And he said to them which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him friend Let me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived in a journey and I have nothing to set before him And he will answer from within do not bother me the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his impudence He will rise and give him whatever he needs and I tell you ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and To the one who knocks it will be opened what father among you if his son asks for a fish will instead of a fish give him a Serpent or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? This is the word of the Lord Thanks be to God Father in heaven we We take a moment and pause and come to you in prayer Asking that your Holy Spirit that which you as truly the only good father have given us We ask that the Holy Spirit it would open our eyes and our ears our minds and our hearts and we might see and understand the Beauty of this passage We ask the Lord that you would transform us as only you can Indeed even as Brent said in this brief announcement regarding vacation Bible School and only you can do the work only you truly are the hero We come Jesus in your name and we ask that you would teach us to pray We ask that you would teach us to pray as we've never prayed before We would be made different We trust that you will for you died And I believe you died though not that we would grow in frustration of prayer that but you would enable us to pray more boldly and Passionately with greater wisdom praying for your will we ask all of this in Jesus name Amen I'm not sure what it looked like to see Jesus praying But it certainly wasn't like anything you've ever seen What did it look like to see him in the garden communing with his father praying Dialogging listening what did it look like for the disciples who walked for three years within to see him go off alone in silence to pray What did they hear we know that they heard a lot and we know that they saw a lot and in this one moment one of the disciples says to Jesus Jesus Lord Teach us to pray Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples and Jesus did He taught them who they were praying to What they were to pray for and how they were to pray Over the next three weeks we're going to be looking at this the Lord's prayer and this parable that follows it I shared with you in February that as a church we have five statements of identity Five statements that describe who we are in Christ the first one is this that as members of Park City's Presbyterian Church we long We long we we desire deeply to worship God together which we have been doing this morning Secondly, we long to know and live his word We don't just simply know it and understand the deep riches of the reformed faith the word of God But we actually live it it doesn't get stuck in our minds But it moves from our minds to our heart and it exits through our hands and our feet And so we've been looking at the Psalms and the parables to teach us how to worship and how to know and live the word And now we come to our third statement of identity which we're going to spend the rest of the summer looking at and this statement is this That we pray The people of Park City's Presbyterian Church, we pray we pray bold and dependent prayers And so for the next three weeks, we're going to be looking specifically at this text and then we're going to be looking into the Psalms Continuing to learn about prayer. I want to read a quote from JC Ryle regarding prayer It's a lengthy quote, and I know it's not the best technique to read something that's so long But it's so rich and beautiful that I want you to truly lean in and listen to what he's saying In 1852 in a little track title, do you pray? JC Ryle ask the following question I ask whether you pray Because a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian Over the last few weeks as we spoke of the parable the soils We're reminded that we must examine our hearts. What kind of soil are we in? One of the surest marks that we're in the good soil is that we are a people who pray He writes on all the children of God on earth are a like in this respect From the moment there is any life and reality about their religion they pray Just as the first sign of life and an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing So the first act of men and women when they're born again is praying This is one of the common marks of all the elective God. They cry day and night unto him The Holy Spirit who makes them new creatures works in them the feeling of adoption and makes them cry Abba Father it is as much a part of their new nature to pray as it is of a child To cry None of us would disagree with what JC Ryle is saying But many of us would say That really is foreign to my life. I Don't really Pray that way That's not what my life looks like I can tell you that's true Because of the assessment of my own life and the 20 plus years of known Christ And how many times I've heard Christians say I really struggle in the area of prayer This summer my prayer is that that would change That's something would happen in our congregation to every member and every friend those who visit regularly That we really would begin to know how to pray to pray the way Jesus taught us to pray and So for the next several weeks we're going to be looking at this with one humble prayer in mind Lord teach us to pray You see the request that the disciple ask Lord teaches to pray is actually a prayer He's going to God the Savior Jesus Christ and he's saying Lord teach us to pray He doesn't say Lord teaches about prayer Which is the temptation of so many he says teach us to pray for to teach us about prayer simply makes us have an Intellectual understanding of prayer without actually doing it There are many books and good books that have been written on prayer But the books that are the best that are written on prayer at some point tell you to stop reading and start praying Lord teach us to pray You know in the summer Students take a break from school But some can't get away from it because they have to go to summer school Others are driven to get ahead so they go to summer school Spiritually speaking I wonder if during the summer your relationship with Christ grows in its intensity Or if in some ways you take a spiritual vacation Two or three weeks away or months away from Bible study regular small group meetings In consistency and worship because of travel do you view the summer as a time of Kind of relaxing not just in the academic world, but in every area of your life Won't encourage you that it has to be different This summer we're going to learn to pray I'm praying so and I believe we will I believe every one of us will we will grow In ways of learning to pray and it should be the joy of your heart If you were a student who struggled who had to go to summer school summer school never sounded fun But if you were ambitious to learn to get ahead it might have seemed fun every one of us Every one of us are not in position to say I'm so spiritually strong that I will pursue everything I can To pray we're all in common week in prayer No matter how well you pray I've never met a man or a woman who thought he prayed or she prayed enough and So this morning we began with a humble prayer Lord Teach us to pray You know, it's interesting. You're not that prayer It fits so well with our identity. We pray bold Independent prayers To start with a simple prayer. Lord teaches to pray. It's both very bold and incredibly dependent We can't pray Lord without you teaching the disciples saw Jesus pray so many times Certainly he taught on prayer other than this moment yet one of them looks at him after he prays and says Lord Will you teach us to pray? So I begin this morning with the question. Do you want to learn? I do And I have much to learn, but I want to and I want to learn with you But learning Learning can be so difficult Last week we were on vacation We were in Santa Rosa Beach in the Gulf of Mexico. They're on the Florida Panhandle and I wanted to learn something I wanted to learn something primarily because my son wanted to learn something and because he didn't know how to do it I needed to learn how to do it so I could teach him how to do it and what was it? Well, he watched these young Late high school early college students walking up and down the shoreline on a little skim board There is the water moves into the coast very shallow They throw this piece of wood down or plastic or fiberglass or some other composite and they jump on it And they write it for a few seconds and then they either fall off or do a flip or something really cool Kaden eight years old looks at that and says that's what I want to do So we used his well the money that he gets to spin for a souvenir and we bought him a skim board I didn't go into it without investigating first as I was being a man building a sand castle on the beach I saw these two young boys walking by I walked over them and said How do you do that? He said oh it takes a lot of practice Where do you get a board and what kind of board do I need? What don't look at me and said oh you can get them at Publix or you can get them at you know Alvin's Island or any Sunsensations whatever how much do they cost he said well 15 20 25 bucks for a wood one Maybe 30 for fiberglass, but mine cost 330 Wow, what's that made of He began to speak of some composite material that I've never heard of and he went on his way So Kaden and I made our way to Sunsensations and we bought his skim board. I've never done it barely seen it done But I begin to teach him what I do not know Kaden you take the board you throw it in the shallow water and you jump on and ride daddy will you show me? Glad to I throw the board in the water. I hit it with my feet and my feet go up and my head goes back And I land on the soft sand of Santa Rosa Beach my first question was this I wonder who saw me My second thought was this I probably should have brought the $330 skim board I had no idea what I was doing and he was growing frustrated because he couldn't learn My wife who was sitting on our deck at the condo we stayed and looked down Taking your iPhone she Googled YouTube skim board instructions and hour later She showed Kaden a little video of how to do it and hour later he was doing it and I never did I Never learned I looked Terrible an old man out on the beach trying to do something that my body clearly Passed the prime of doing a long time ago, but yet I was determined to do it But that determination didn't matter. I couldn't do it. I never could many of us Look like a middle-aged man Trying to do a child's game when it comes to prayer We've known Jesus for so long yet we struggle. We're awkward. We're falling off the board yet We're trying to teach people that which we ourselves do not know you need summer school You need to be taught you need to be taught just as I do how do we pray and so this morning we're beginning We're beginning by looking at the simple request that the disciple made. That's it today Next week we'll begin to look into the parable that follows and the Lord's prayer specifically the following week Who is it we're praying to what is it we're to pray and how are we to pray is the billboard of what we're going to be looking at the next few weeks But today it's the simple request Lord teach us to pray I want to begin by asking you to evaluate your prayer life I want to ask you to do a check-up so to speak we all do them We know at a certain point in our life. We need to go to the doctor every year for a check-up We go to the dentist twice a year But what about your prayer life this morning? I want to begin by asking you to write down four questions that I want you to spend time Talking about with the Lord and prayer and with your spouse with your small group The four questions are very simple and very convicting the first question and checking up on our prayer life is this When and how often do you pray do you wake up in the morning with the first thought on your mind prayer? Falling out of your bed on your knees or finding a place in your home that's quiet Do you prioritize your life around prayer or do you wake up anxious seeking to fight the day on your own strength? Or is it in a quiet posture of dependence before the Lord as you go through your day? Do you pray as Paul taught without seizing or do you simply grow anxious all day long? Do you wait till the end of the day to pray and then you pray simple maybe routine prayers that lack passion and fire and zeal? When and how often do you pray? Be really honest Give it a time. Is it more than ten minutes a day? an hour less more Just be honest. No judgment here. Just be honest. The second question When you pray What are you praying when you pray? Do you begin by adoring God for who he is? Do you take a moment just to relish in the fact that his love is beyond measure? It's so wide so deep so long so high Do you look at creation and think about the wonderful ways? He's made it and like the psalmist in Psalm 139 you say his thoughts are too wonderful for me. I cannot attain it Do you adore him? And for how long? Do you take time giving thanks to the Lord for the specific things that he's done in your life? The the spouse he's given you the children he's given you the home that you live in the job you have or his faithfulness He will provide for you even if now you're out of work. Do you thank him for the tough circumstances that you're going through as well as the good? Do you confess your sins? Like the psalmist again in 139 do you cry out Lord search me and know me if there's any way that's offensive show me Do you pray that prayer? Do you sit long enough for the Holy Spirit to work in you to convict you of sin that you might as we did this morning publicly cry out God Forgive me for this overwhelming measurement of sin in my life Do you intercede for other people when you pray? Which leads to the third question in evaluating your prayer life. Who are you praying for regularly? Certainly we pray for our families, but I want to ask you this question. What do you pray? Moms and dads, what are you praying for your children? Are you praying for them to be happy? And if you are do you realize that the only way they will be ultimately happy is if they're found in Jesus Christ if he is the center of their life and do you know that if you're praying that prayer and longing for that that they will Certainly come under great attack from our enemy who wants to confuse them and distort the truth that they would never believe that Jesus is the way the truth in the life or they wouldn't believe that he's the only way the only truth the only life Are you begging for salvation in your children's lives? Are you interceding on their behalf? Which takes time asking God to give you insight into the very things that would That would tempt them that would destroy them What about for your spouse? What are you praying for one another? Do you pray together? I doubt many of you do Are you praying for coworkers? Do you think about those you work with each day? Either those you work for who work for you? Do you think about their lives? The events in their lives the needs in their life do they know Christ? Are you praying for their salvation? What about for your neighbors? How about your enemies? Jesus said pray for those who persecute you Are you praying for our president other world leaders to have wisdom and ultimately have a relationship with Christ? Are you praying for missionaries that this church supports and others that you support? Are you praying for them? They need your prayer more than they need your money? Are you praying for the pastors of this church? I know many of you pray for me. I hear it almost every day and the days that don't hear it I still feel it and I tell people who tell me they're praying for me never Stop our enemy wants me dead. He wants me destroyed and all of our pastors and all of the people of this church Are you praying for Sunday school teachers small group leaders our elders and deacons those who lead our women's ministry? And you pray for those in our body who are sick There's a lot to pray for isn't there And you begin to feel I can see it even now Overwhelmed by how poorly we pray The last question and evaluating your prayer life is this how do you approach God in prayer? Do you come to him with great zeal finally? It's our time to be together Do you come with expectations? God? I know that you can do this. Do you come bored out of a sense of duty and not delight? Do you ever stand before him weeping or outraged as Robert Duval was in the Apostle shouting at God as some of the psalms seem to do Do you ever just fall on your knees or on your face and weep? Over who he is what he has done And what you desperately need him to do This week, I want you to take those four questions and I want you to do very serious business with the Lord You know and I know too well that prayer is difficult For difficulties, I'm going to introduce that we will unpack over the next two weeks Each of the difficulties begin with D so it'll be easy to remember and the first one is this One of the great difficulties we have with prayer is simply defining it What's going on when I pray? How does a sovereign God who governs and controls all of his creatures and all their activities? How is he moved by my prayer? What's actually taking place when I pray and doesn't really matter if I do or don't? One of the great difficulties we have with prayers we just don't understand What it is and what is happening? A second difficulty is simply distractions I think it's interesting in the context of this teaching that Luke puts it right behind the story of Mary and Martha Martha Martha you're anxious about many things Mary has chosen what is better to be still To be at the feet of her Savior a great posture of prayer We're distracted by so many things in the world is so noisy a third difficulty is simply desire Some of you I know to be true just no longer desire to pray You no longer desire the intimacy of that communion with God And you've tried before and you're afraid of trying again And lastly the difficulties that we'll be looking at is some of you are deeply disappointed in prayer You have prayed something specific That God has yet to answer and the way you would desire and you can't see why he would not desire the very same thing My friend Brian Chapel the president of Covenant Seminary a few years ago wrote a book called praying backwards Which is a very helpful book because in the book he tells you at some point to stop reading and to start praying But he speaks of this difficulty of disappointment He tells a story of a friend of his who was a nurse This nurse was on a floor of a hospital where people were being treated for cancer who were in the last stages This this family had gathered the grandmother was dying But they would met in the room and begin to pray and they prayed bold prayers for miraculous healing believing truly that God could do it He's capable of doing it, but it went beyond that It wasn't just that he's capable of doing it if you pray the right way with a enough faith with a enough sin confessed That prayer will be answered the nurse was somewhat concerned about the theology that seemed to be raining in the room But as a Christian she entered in and asked could she pray with them and so she did for weeks Finally the woman died Grandma went to be with the Lord She entered into the room and asked that woman's husband Can I pray with you once again? She was shocked when he said to following God says to pray and he will answer We did and he did not So we're done with that Brian chapel says Something in us knows that he was wrong But why wasn't he right to be disappointed in God or at least disappointed in Prayer prayers hard It's difficult. We all know it But there's hope The hope is that Jesus answered this disciples bold prayer Lord teach us to pray And I believe with all my heart that if the body of this church begins now to Pray that simple prayer That your life is going to be different in regards to prayer and if your life is different in regards to prayer It will begin to be different in every area of your life God will not necessarily take away the pain but through prayer He will remind you that he has given you himself that he has done everything necessary For you to have a relationship with him and as Hebrews teaches us that even now Jesus lives to Intercede on our behalf So the application this morning is very simple Begin praying this week Lord teach us to pray don't pray Lord teach me to pray Keep it corporate for this body Lord teach us to pray Use the four questions to evaluate your prayer life and then throughout each day pray Lord Teach us to pray He will he will Father I can say that with absolute confidence Because it's what you did in your word You didn't die on the cross so that we your people would grow frustrated Inelessly before heaven in prayer You died that we would have access to the throne yet our enemy works so powerfully against us in prayer So we pray a simple prayer that's bold Lord teach us to pray Remind us of your faithfulness Even in entering this prayer in your name Jesus we boldly and dependently pray amen So we pray in your name Jesus we boldly pray in your name Jesus we boldly pray amen