Family Prayers. Why! What good does it do?! He doesn t answer my prayers for Kim!

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1 Text: Colossians 4:2 Intro: Family Prayers Ill. Twenty years ago Pastor Paul Miller tells of taking his kids camping in my home state of Pennsylvania. He says that it wasn t long until he had to return to his car and help his teenage daughter try and find a contact lens she had dropped on the ground a near impossible task! I said, Ashley, freeze. Let s pray. To which she burst into tears and responded, Why! What good does it do?! He doesn t answer my prayers for Kim! Kim is another daughter with several disabilities. Now actually, Ashley s response reflects the unspoken sentiments of far too many Christians regarding prayer What good does it do? In fact, one study shows that 90% of church goers have no real praying life. Now I m not saying that they don t pray, but that prayer isn t a living, dynamic part of their day. Many of these same people can quote key Scriptures and tell you scores of Bible stories, but when it comes to personally connecting with God in prayer, He seems rather remote to them.

2 Well, This morning I want to try and dispel such pessimism and help ramp-up your desire to connect with God in a more meaningful and realistic way. To begin, let s review God s call to prayer. I. The Call To Pray It s unmistakable to God, prayer is as important as an engine is to a Corvette stingray fast car! Listen to this litany of verses on the subject and then ask yourself: Could Heaven have been any plainer? Devote yourselves to prayer. Colossians 4:2 Be faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 Pray continually. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Look to the LORD, seek His face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11 Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers. Ephesians 6:18 The LORD is near to all who call on Him. Psalm 145:18 You do not have because you do not ask God. James 4:2 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. James 5:13 I tell you pray for those who mistreat you. Matthew 5:44 Be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. I Peter 4:7 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Matthew 26:41 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Matthew 6:6 You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest. Isaiah 62:6-7

3 Now, Think about it shouldn t these verses explode into tremendous encouragement to anyone who takes the Bible seriously! After all, they come straight from the lips of the One who s committed to answer those cries! Remember Prayer is God s idea, not ours. God s invitation, not our ultimatum. It s for weak, feeble, helpless people; people who are facing problems far, far greater than they are! So, The sooner the child of God realizes that the Father never intended for him/her to handle life on their own any more than a 6 year old is expected to fend for himself, the sooner they will discover Heaven s intention for that life-line called prayer. It s The welcoming arms to run to. The calming lap to crawl in. And a refuge from the crushing sense of fate! It s our supernatural home while away from home. Meaning, We never have to wring our hands and moan: There s nothing I can do. I can always do something; yes something as great as Jesus did! I can pray! Using another analogy prayer is the secret weapon of the Kingdom.

4 It can be fired from anywhere to anywhere! Launched at the speed of thought. Flung with the force of Heaven. Hitting its target with the accuracy of an angel. Think of it The implications are staggering! There s no anti-prayer weapon in Satan s arsenal! Ill. For instance, the unbeliever has many a defense against our evangelistic efforts to reach him with the gospel: They can refuse to attend church when invited. If they show up, they can shift into neutral and count the cracks in the ceiling or play solitaire on their phone. You can go to their home, but they don t have to let you in. Hand them a tract, they can throw it in the trash without reading it. Call them on the phone, they can hang up. But there s one thing they cannot do, they can t prevent Jesus from knocking at their heart s door in response to our incessant prayers for them! People we can reach no other way can be reached via the never-busy prayer-line to the Oval Office of our King! Furthermore, Our prayers are not limited to the people we presently know this fact comes from the very mouth of our Lord the same night He was arrested.

5 Let me quote Him word-for-word: My prayer is not that You take them [the disciples] out of the world but that You protect them from the Evil One. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message. John 17:15, 20 The Church Fathers were included in that prayer. The 16 th Century Reformers were there as well. As were the Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in America. Then all the great evangelists Edwards, Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham also were involved as too. Yes even you and I had our name on His roster that night. In fact, every time someone s added to the Book of Life, that 2,000 year-old prayer of Jesus is answered again! Now how astounding is that? Are you impressed yet? You too can pray the future into reality! You can intercede for your grandchildren and even your great grandchildren! Jesus shows us that such a thing is possible; even more so, effective. Famous Christian psychologist, Dr. James Dobson, tell this incredible true story. Ill. My great-grandfather George McCluskey, during the last several decades of his life prayed specifically for the spiritual welfare of his children and for those yet to come. He devoted the hour from 11 a.m. to 12 noon every day for this purpose. Toward the end of his life, he said the Lord had made a very unusual promise to him:

6 Reverend McCluskey had been assured that every member of four generations of his family would be Christians. It is remarkable to think that a man in his seventies, whom I would not know until we get to heaven, was on his knees talking to God about his progeny. Now my great-grandfather s prayers reach across four generations of time and influence our lives today. In 2012, my son and daughter, Ryan and Danae, went with me to find the McCluskey gravesite for the first time. We located it in Placid, Texas, an hour s drive from Austin. There are only thirty-two people living in Placid today, most of them elderly. There are no stores or businesses remaining in that place. A small ramshackle general store has survived but is locked up tight. A rusted Conoco gasoline pump leans out front. We worked our way around to the other side of what used to be a town and found an abandoned cemetery. Eighteen members of the McCluskey family are buried there. Among them are the graves of my great-grandfather, George and his wife, Alice. We knelt there at the gravesite and each of us prayed because it seemed like holy ground. Each of us thanked the Lord for the influence of these godly ancestors and for the prayers of my greatgrandfather. As Danae was praying, tears flowed down her cheeks as she spoke from her heart. Ryan was the last to pray, and he thanked the Lord for the four generations of our family who have lived for Jesus Christ, each in their time.

7 Ryan said that George McCluskey would have wanted to know that he and Danae are also serving Christ, and as such, are members of the fifth generation. Ryan and his wife, Laura, are teaching their two children to love Jesus, too. They will soon take their places as representatives of the sixth. How powerful are the prayers of a man whose petitions have reached his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-greatgrandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren! Have you thought about the legacy you want to leave to your children and generations to come? That is a question every Christian parent should consider. The implications of it are breathtaking! If the objective of living is to pass on a heritage of faith to those you love and to be with them throughout eternity, I suggest that you be intentional about it now. In light of this, Let me stir up your desire to pray even more by pointing out the best way to approach God, in fact, it s the same way Jesus approached God when He prayed. Let s call it the Abba address. II. The Abba Address Now Abba is a foreign language word to both us and the Roman readers.

8 It is from the Aramaic or common language Jesus spoke daily. It simply means father or more personal, my father. Although it is a very affectionate term, it doesn t (as some have suggested) mean daddy or papa. It s true, little children would call their fathers Abba, but so would grow men. Even so, the idea of a close, dear and personal relationship is jammed packed into this word it is a deeply relational word full of emotion and attachment! Meaning, That the family-focused-prayer-address is what makes biblical prayer so alive, powerful and effective it s not: A citizen appealing to a president, An employee entreating to an employer, or A debtor pleading with a creditor. It s a beloved child talking to his father! In fact, there are 3 specific places that it appears in the Bible, and each of them stresses the Family-focus in a big way! The first one, Shows up on the lips of Jesus more importantly, it appears as He s addressing His Father while in deep distress over His upcoming crucifixion! Now just because we don t find Jesus using it elsewhere doesn t mean this was the only time He did so in fact, it makes perfect sense that this was His usual way of praying, because Aramaic was Christ s native language, whereas the N.T. was written in Greek.

9 That said, Here s what we have in Mark s gospel. It s even painful to read as we pick up on the abject horror He s feeling: Abba, Father, He said, Everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will. Mark 14:36 Notice, There s no disrespect in His approach. No edge in His voice, or passive-aggressive attitude lurking in His request. Just a honest plea to One who is closer than a brother. A request, not a demand. A submissiveness without a hint of anger or rebellion. A trust that can embrace even the worst and believe it s for the best. A closeness that s never been closer. A Father and Son who have the best interest of each other in mind. Now, Mark this down; pay close attention to it, for this is the basis of the other two references of Abba Father and its relationship to prayer. Just a quick side note, No doubt the reason Jesus used both the Aramaic and Greek was: 1. First of all, to emphasis His extremely close relationship to His Father and His Jewish heritage, He used Aramaic the language of His Israeli childhood.

10 2. And secondly, He used the Greek to stress that His prayer carried a much broader senses, seeing that He was called to die for all people, which the Gentile language represented. This should reassure us all that we too, who have been less than perfect, can approach Christ s Father accordingly. Here now, Are the other two references. Both come from the pen of Paul as he wrote to us non-jews: The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sons. And by Him we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Galatians 4:6 First of all, Salvation. Forgiveness. Pardon. And redemption happen the moment you turn from your sin and run to Jesus to save you. Immediately following your surrender to Christ, Father God sends the Holy Spirit into your heart, who in turn sets you free from fearing God and fearing death, and changes those feelings from one of dread to a peaceful, confident affection for the LORD as your dear Father!

11 Moreover, Because you now have the very Spirit of His Son living in you, just as He had the right to cry out, Abba Father, so now you too have that same privilege as well! In fact, Jesus within urges, motivates and compels you to do so! Furthermore, Since Abba Father is in the present tense, this is not a one-time thing, but an on-going way to pray all the time about everything! It is what make confident praying possible we are as little children talking to our attentive Father and telling Him all our needs. However, the very words carry with them the same respectful attitude Jesus had in the Garden when facing His worst day ever. Lastly and briefly, Let s talk about what it means to be children in prayer. II. The Prayer-attitude of a Child So, how do you begin to develop this child-like attitude when praying? Well, it starts by admitting your childhood helplessness. That is, the feeling that you are completely unable to do life on your own. To do life without Jesus! Meaning, God wants and needs to be active in all of the details of your life. Ill. What 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 year old child does a responsible parent allow to make any significant, life-changing decisions on their own?

12 You know, That could actually qualify as child abuse or neglect. Sure they can decide if they want to wear a red shirt or blue one today, or have carrots or broccoli to eat, but no parent worth their salt would ever let them decide if they brush their teeth or not, or if they can play with gasoline and fire together! These matters are just too important to allow them to make on their own! Well, The same goes for us and God. Yes, there are things that don t matter to Him: Dress pants or blue jeans, Hard wood floors or carpet, Pen or pencil. Hippopotamus or Elephant remember Adam? The LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. Genesis 2:19 Adam was given great freedom in this matter. But when it came to eating from the Forbidden Tree, there was no leeway! Think about it Nobody was more helpless and dependent than Jesus. Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John 5:19

13 Can you see, That Christ s life was profoundly enmeshed with the Father and dependent totally on Him like a child to their experience mountain-climbing dad, an on a dangerous and treacherous peak! If Jesus approached His Father in a childlike manner, why should you be ashamed to do so? If Jesus was content to be in the role of a youngster, shouldn t you also? If He always received a hearing, don t you think you ll be treated the same way? Why not adjust your attitude to fit reality is there any comparison between your knowledge and the LORD above? Is there a greater commitment than that of a godly Father acting in the best interest of His children? If this is so, don t you think you should be excited to pray, Abba Father and know there is no better relationship to have? Oh by the way, After Ashley and her father prayed, when they bent down to look for the lens, there it was resting on a leaf.