LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SERIES - PRAYER

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SERIES - PRAYER INTRODUCTION Today I would like to teach about prayer and perhaps spark your passion for communication with God. In fact the most difficult part of writing this sermon was the truth that I do not live up to the ideal life of prayer. That might be true for most of us, which is why many of us cringe when we learn that the sermon will be about prayer. We hear about and honor those people who get up at 4 in the morning to pray for hours. I am thankful for those prayer warriors who keep the devil off the churches back and help to bring God's blessings to our lives and this church. Right now my most powerful prayers occur when I am in the shower or as i am praying along the way. I also enjoy my time reading the bible and asking God how the passages apply to my life and our church. If it were not for prayer I could not preach or teach of do anything well. In fact when I am not prayed up I just sit there and stare and have no idea whatsoever to say or do. Then when I pray and make that connection with God's heart, I suddenly know what to do and what to preach and how to lead. Even though my prayer habits have changed along with the changes in my life and family. I acknowledge in a very real way that apart from prayer I would be lost in many ways. Today I do not want to give to you a specific pattern to use in prayer. I want to spark your passion and zeal for communicating with God. And I would like also to share my thoughts on the grace of God. Because our understanding of grace affects the way we pray. WHAT IS PRAYER So, what is prayer anyway? Simply put, prayer is communication with God. And the word communication assumes that there is a give and a take in our prayers. However, many times our prayers slip into mode in which we are saying things to God. We say prayers to God for meals. And we say prayers to God when we ask Him to do stuff for us. When we take God for granted our prayers turn into statements to the air. Before meals or bedtime often I catch myself saying things into the air and I suddenly am embarrassed because I realize that prayer is communication with our God who is alive and personal and I am acting like a person who is typing in a pin number at an ATM to make a withdrawal. Our prayers at times are reduced to a heartless and mindless ATM transaction. I wonder what God thinks of these prayers that are just statements in the air; these prayers that are like an ATM transaction that have no real heart connection to a very personal God. Think of the last time you were speaking to God and you really made a heart connection. You felt at least for a few brief moments (hopefully longer) that you were approaching God like a best friend. When you approached God that way and made that heart connection with God as you spoke with Him do you remember how much joy came out of that interaction? Would it surprise you to know that God also

experiences pleasure when we communicate with Him? Would it surprise you to know that God takes great pleasure in our prayers and with being close to us? PRAYER PLEASES GOD STORY: I CAN SMELL SOMETHING COOKING When I worked in the food service industry I had the privilege of experiencing some really good food. In fact one of the things that I remember about those days was the great smells coming out of the kitchen. By the aroma I could tell when my chefs were preparing roast beef. And by the aroma I could tell when my bakers were taking fresh bread out of the oven. Even when I was two or three floors away from the kitchen I could still smell the aroma of fresh bread and dinner rolls baking. I almost salivate now thinking of that wonderful aroma. Lock in the idea of the smell of fresh bread and connect it to the idea of prayer. Why? Believe it or not our prayers to God are like a wonderful aroma to Him. Rev5:8 (NIV) 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God s people. 8:4 (NIV) 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God s people, went up before God from the angel s hand. Psalm 141:2 Let my prayers be set before you like incense Our prayers are like a sweet aroma to God? When we smell a wonderful aroma we are drawn with a strong desire to go and see what is going on in the kitchen. We are drawn to see what is in the oven and we are distracted from just about everything else. Well, God is saying to us that our prayers smell pretty good to Him. He is eager to be with us. And for God, answering prayers are like a first bite of fresh bread after being tempted by the aroma. God loves it when you talk to Him. The things that God loves about prayer is that He loves you and wants to spend time with you. PRAYER REFLECTS OUR INTIMACY WITH GOD When my kids run in a cross country race or play a football game, I can't wait to review the game with them. I already saw the game. I watched each play. I dont need to be told that Schneider had a great tackle on special teams, or a ten year run. I saw it and he did it. And I do not need to be reminded that Natalie in one of her races was about 10 yards behind another girl. But she finished strong and just about passed up that girl at the finish line. But there is great joy in going over each play and reviewing everything together. It is so fun to do that with my kids. And we share the joy of their experience together as we speak and review things.

One of the most fun things that our family does it to review the stories of the past together. We all know the stories. But for some reason it is so fun to listen to story after story repeated and shared and re-experienced together. Because God is all knowing we often think it will bore God if we go over all the details of our day. But just like kids take joy out of reviewing and sharing their experiences with their mother and father, so also I believe God loves to hang out with His kids and talk through the events of our every day life. Sharing our life with God brings Him joy. And allowing God to speak and enjoying His presence in these times brings us great joy. I think some of the most powerful and intimate prayers that I have prayed are just talking through the events of my day with the Lord and sharing my feelings and telling God why I did what I did. And asking Him to show me those same events from His perspective. And as I am real and as I am honest in front of God about my life, God speaks. Great joy comes out of that very personal relationship. And the way that we speak with God tells us something about our relationship with Him. Intimate conversations with God means that there is an intimate relationship. Our relationships are expressed and measured in our conversations. You can tell how close two people are by the way they talk with one another. And you can measure your prayer life by observing your conversations with God And prayer is conversation with God. SO WHAT STOPS US FROM APPROACHING GOD THAT WAY? So if there can be so much joy and pleasure in sharing our everyday lives with our Father in Heaven, why do we so often fail to pray. Yes we pray out of obligation before meals and to open meetings. But why do we often fail to pray with our heart connected to God's heart in honesty and with intimacy? In short, why don't we just talk with Him? One of the most offensive things we can do in any of our relationships is to give someone the cold shoulder. To not speak with them. We can not see God. So if we are not speaking with Him there is not way that our relationship is going to get any better than it is now. So why don't we communicate with God more often? 1. WE DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT GOD LOVES US FOR FREE According to John Wimber; "It's hard to feel intimate with God when I feel unworthy. The devil knows this and encourages me to think about all of my limitations." And I think he has a point there. This was especially true when I was younger in my faith. After I received Christ I spent time talking with God all the time - everywhere I went. When I walked and I was alone I often kept a running conversation going with Him, sometimes out-loud. I talked about my day and shared what I was thinking and feeling and asked Him for guidance. I truly felt like God was my best friend. And when I was in the company of other people I kept a conversation going with God in my mind as often as I could. In fact there were times that i could not wait to get away from the people so that i could be alone with God and talk openly and give my Father my full attention.

This intimacy with God led to many God-sightings and a transformation in my life. No longer was I an insecure person who was one wrong word away from a fit of rage. No longer was I a person who was lost with no idea of what God wanted me to do in the future. God was transforming me through my relationship with Him. And the glue of that relationship was prayer. THE EFFECTS OF NO DISCIPLESHIP ON MY PRAYER LIFE However, I had no discipleship and no accountability. And because I ripped myself off from accountability I fell slowly back into bondage in one particular area of my life. Soon I found that my prayers were not as intimate as they used to be. In my mind I would think; "I can't approach God because I am not worthy." This took the power out of my prayer life for more than a few years. I want to pass along three things I learned coming out of this experience. Two of these things are worthy rabbit trails and the third relates to prayer. FIRST, accountability is the only way to get over some sins. God's answer to sin is not to hide from Him and then come back to Him after we get our life together. And God's answer to sin is not to hide from Christians and from the church until we get out life straightened out. The truth is there are some sins that some of us will never overcome without the help of other Christians. God provided people who have spiritual gifts inside the church. Through those spiritual gifts God gives His healing and counseling and encouragment and generosity and wisdom. Staying away from the church and from God's people until you get your life straightened out is like waiting to get over an illness before you go to the hospital. Don't wait to talk to God or wait to enjoin God's people in the church until you get your life straight. Your prayers will be the venue in which God will show you the truth and set you free. And the body of Christ is the scalpel God will use to cut away the cancer of sin in your life. Don't hide from the medicine if you are sick. Press in through the shame and stay engaged with God. SECOND, accountability exposes God's love. If you have never had a graceful accountability partner, then you have no idea how much you are ripping yourself off. When you can go to another person and confess your sins and ask for accountability and actually receive it, great things happen. You learn that people love you and do not reject you even if they know the real weaknesses you have. And you realize people know the real you and still love you, then you realize that God knows you and still loves you. So accountability exposes a picture of God's love for you. Accountability and confession of sins takes the power out of your secrets. The power that has been holding back your intimacy with God will be broken through accountability. THIRD, I learned to come to God in my time of need. Not after I straightened up my life. I learned that the only way that I "got in good" with God is through Jesus Christ. And the basis of my intimacy with God is through Jesus Christ. I have only made and kept one promise to God. I told God that the only thing I could promise is that if I sinned I would not hide from Him. If I fell in some way I would

get up. I would confess it to Him immediately and talk it through. And if I fell a second time then I would pull in an accountability partner. BACK TO OUR BASIS FOR APPROACHING GOD So let's go back to our basis for approaching God. Many people hide from God because they feel unworthy. They are about to pray and Satan brings to mind their failures. And our response, just like Adam and Eve is to hide from God. We hide because we are unworthy. But the truth is that we never approached God because we were worthy. While we were still God hating enemies of God, Jesus Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. John 4:19 says, We love because he first loved us. If God loved us while we wanted nothing to do with God. Then we must realize that God still shows His love for us through Jesus Christ even when we do not perform perfectly in the sight of a Holy God. Look, it is not on the basis of our good works that we ever approached God. We approach God in confidence only because Jesus Christ can approach the Father in confidence. QUESTION: Do you think Jesus Christ would ever have a problem approaching His Father? No, of course not. And the truth is, we are IN CHRIST. What does it mean to be In Christ? Let's put it this way; Let's say Jesus was required to take a test like you do in school. And on this test were questions to determine if you were perfect or if you had ever sinned. There might be questions like; 1. did you ever steal? 2. were you ever jealous of other people? 3. did you ever kill or hate other people. And Jesus Christ received a perfect score. He is the only person in history to score 100 percent. All of us failed because we have at least one red mark on our test. Or if we were honest all of us have lots of red marks on our tests. Because we are in Christ the Father takes our test paper and throws it away. Then He writes our name on Jesus' paper. The test score of Jesus now becomes our test score. We are a straight A student in God's eyes because we are In Christ. When we are "in Christ" we have the holiness of Jesus Christ miraculously applied to us. When we are in Christ we get the same score and the same love as Jesus and the point for today is that we get the same access to the throne of God in prayer. Matthew 4:17 This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. So we know that the Father is pleased with His Son. His Son is perfect and He is perfectly loved by the Father. John 17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and [you] loved them even as you loved me. In this passage we learn that those who are in Christ are loved even as Jesus Christ is loved. Never allow Satan to convince you that because of your failures God will not want to talk with you. Even if you are stuck in sin, God wants to talk to you

right now and help you overcome your weakness. Don't clean up before you go to God. You are in Christ. Go to God in your time of need. You are a child of God. In Christ you are a straight A student. If you are not acting like a straight A student then get an accountability partner immediately and don't pray less, pray more. Approach the throne of grace in your time of need. And bathe in the love of the Father for His Son. Because you are in Christ the approval and love that the Father has for His Son is given to you also. That is one reason your prayers are like a wonderful aroma to God. 2. WE HAVE FORGOTTEN TO PRAY EXPECTING AND BELIEVING Mark 11:24, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. One of the great tragedies of the health/wealth prosperity gospel is that because of abuses, we are afraid to pray big prayers with great faith. We are afraid to be bold because the abuses have made us swing the pendulum so that our prayers resemble more the deist than the man or woman of faith. QUOTE: William Carey said, Expect GREAT THINGS from God, attempt great things for God. Do we truly expect great things from God for our family, our church, our world? If the things we ask for are in His word, then we should expect them and ask for them with confidence. One of the ways to get your prayers answered is to experience a more intimate relationship with God. The more time we spend with God enjoying His love and sharing our everyday life with Him in prayer the more we will be in touch with the things that God want to do. That would be called having the mind of Christ. And when we are aware of what God wants to do then our prayer will more often be a request to do things that God Himself wants to do. If you are aware of what God wants to do and you pray that God has His way you are likely to get a lot of prayers answered. Pray God's will. But we must be more intimately acquainted with God in order to discern His will. Just like a husband and wife learn to know by the smallest glance or expression what the other is thinking and wanting, so we who bathe in the love of Christ can often tell what God wants to do. We don't always get it right. But that is one way our very personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ turns into answered prayer. Another way to understand the will of God is to read scripture and then as you read a few passages you take the time to pray over those passages and ask God to show you how this passage needs to play out in your life today. SUMMARY Our prayers are like a wonderful aroma to God. And when God smells that sweet aroma, the way He takes his first satisfying bite is by answering our prayers. God will give us the faith to know what He wants to do and then the faith to ask boldly for things in prayer that are bigger and bolder that we might ever imagine. Our prayers

can be as big as God's capacity. And we must never fall into the trap of the devil who gets us to stop praying by reminding us of our failures. We did not go to God in the first place because we were perfect. We went to God in the first place because we acknowledge our sin and ask for forgiveness. We have a right to go to God in prayer because we are "in Christ." Pray with boldness. Pray discerning God's will. Pray based on the love of the Father for His Son. Pray knowing that God can't wait to spend time with you and talk with you. Don't go to God just when you need something. Practice acknowledging and enjoying the presence of God all the time. If you do happen to ask for something. Stop Praying when; You hear "yes" from the Lord You have the burden lifted and have assurance that you have done your part You hear no from the Lord You hear "wait" from the Lord TAKING IT HOME 1. Have your prayers turned into a begging session with God to get the stuff you want? If so, do you want something deeper? 2. Has Satan reminded you of your unworthiness and taken the confidence out of your prayers? 3. If so, will you begin to approach God on the basis of the Father's love for His Son? 4. Do you need to get an accountability partner for some ongoing sin? If so, will you do that today so that you can have more confidence when you pray? 5. Will you actually live as though your prayers are a wonderful smelling aroma to God?