Obstacle Course
Notes
Transcript
Intro: When Jonathan broke through wall instead of going over it. Obstacle removed.
You ever had a hard time praying? Like you get to a certain point where you have hit a wall yourself, and instead of pushing through, you just walk away and stop.
If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Ephesians, chapter 2. We're going to start in verse 1.
This is week two in a two-week series on prayer that we've called He Hears. We're going to talk a little bit about a couple of different things this week than we talked about last week.
We talked about how prayer operates between praise and petition. We praise God in praying, and then in praise of Who He is and what He has done we might, by the Holy Spirit, become convicted.
That leads to confession, and then that confession leads to cries for help and for God to intercede on our behalf. Prayer continually bounces back and forth between praise and petition.
We know we should pray. Many of us even know how to pray, but we can't quite seem to know why we don't pray like we want to pray.
What I thought we would do in our time together today is simply look at what I think are the biggest hurdles to a robust, deep, vibrant prayer life.
If it is true for many Christians that we would like to pray more than we do, that we would like to spend more time with God than we currently are, what are the hurdles that stop us?
What are the hurdles that keep us from consistently and deeply communing with God in prayer?
If we're going to tackle that, if we're going to talk about that, I think what we need to do is have a very brief overview of the gospel, what we believe as Christians, the root of what makes us Christians.
If we can look at that, then I think we can get to the bottom of these hurdles that keep us from the type of prayer life we would like to have.
If you have your Bible, turn to Ephesians 2:1-10. If you memorize Scripture, in these 10 verses is so much of a clear definition of what the gospel is.
It is the root of what makes us Christians. Belief in what I'm about to read and in what we're going to briefly talk about is what makes us believers in Christ. Belief in what we're about to read.
Ephesians 2, starting in verse 1. The first four verses have to do with us. The last six verses have to do with God. Let's start with us. Read: Ephesians 2:1-3
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
This is fundamentally true about everyone in this room. Everyone at one time was this. Many of you, even now, still might be this, but for the believer, this is what we once were. It is not what we now are.
If you're not a Christian, have not professed faith in Christ, then you're in this category. You couldn't read this and say you were, but you could read this and see your current state.
The first thing he says (remember, we're just doing a gospel primer here) is we were dead in our trespasses and sins. This isn't some sort of ethereal gaseous kind of statement.
You and I have been in active rebellion against God. According to this text, we followed the way of the world, the way that seems right to man but, in the end, leads to death.
We've followed the prince of the power of the air. Maybe unknowingly, but we gladly did it. You and I bought into the lies of the broken nature of the world. We gave ourselves over to them.
One of the ways you can see that in our modern culture is every little aspect of restraint or subduing is now looked upon as the greatest infringement on your freedom and your happiness.
Throughout human history the opposite has been true. Restraint and subduing has actually led to better life, greater life, richer life, more enjoyment of life than no rules, "I do what I want. I decide for me."
We bought into that. Every one of us bought into that. We gave ourselves over to that. The Bible says this is sin. You and I gave ourselves over. We gave ourselves over to sin.
We have been rebellious against God. Therefore, we are objects of God's wrath. Everyone in this room at one point was an object of God's wrath. I know that's so unpopular and widely debated.
In fact, even a lot of those who would call themselves evangelicals would argue that God can't have wrath and he would never be wrathful. But let’s understand, if you have love, wrath is present.
Let me help you understand where I come from. Because I love my children the way I do, if you try to harm them, if you try to hurt them or take them, look out Jack!
I would feel wrath, and that wrath would be born out of my love for them. In the same way, the reason God has appointed wrath toward those who rebel against him is out of the well of his love.
His wrath is for the love and glory of his name, but also his love for those of us who will become children of God. We've all rebelled. How have we done that? We have thought we're smarter than God.
According to this text, take all the credit for good. We tend to generally flaunt our rebellion in front of God as though he did not exist and did not care.
One of the ways I think you can most consistently and easily see this is if you listen to people talk. People will blame God for everything bad and take credit for everything good.
Anytime anything bad happens they're like, "Well, if God existed, why would this…?" But anytime good happens they're like, "Nailed that. I did great at that."
This is a clear indication of flaunting rebellion against God. The Bible tells us that God has made us objects of his wrath because of that rebellion.
I know some of you are like, "I thought you said good news." Okay, remember, we're just talking about humans. We're going to get to the good news. That's what we see now starting in verse 4.
Here's God's response to this. Look in verse 4. "But God…" If you write in your Bible, I would circle, highlight, or do whatever you do there on those two words. Read: Ephesians 2:4-10
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
How crazy is that moment? That's why the gospel is good news. We're stuck in our rebellion. We're stuck in our sin. We are isolated and far from God.
We are by our nature flaunting rebellion against one who can destroy not just the body but the soul, and yet God's response is, out of mercy and a deep love for us, to make us alive together in Christ.
This phrase in Christ is where life comes from. You can talk about these things at length, but our purpose today is to set this so we can get to hurdles of prayerfulness.
In the end here, Christ comes, and he lives a perfect life. The life you and I could not live, he lives for us. Perfectly righteous, never sins, upright in God's eyes. Then he goes to the cross.
He is beaten severely, nailed to the cross, and the Bible tells us that the wrath of God.
As you were an object of God's wrath, God takes that wrath and pours it out on His Son Jesus, and Jesus absorbs that wrath fully until it is all gone, which is why Jesus says, "It is finished."
In that marvelous exchange, after the resurrection and the ascension, we are by grace alone, received by faith alone, through no act of our own, made alive together in Christ.
That's the good news of the gospel. That's why we proclaim it and go, "There's good news." It's so interesting to me that so many people stay on the bad news.
No, the good news is he has made a way. He has come and he has saved. He has opened up a door. He has laid down a bridge. He has invited you into eternal life by grace through faith.
No act of your own. You don't have to clean yourself up. You just get to come. It's an invitation to be washed clean. It's stunning.
Then on top of all of this, he plans on showing us, according to the text, the immeasurable riches of his grace and his kindness in the ages to come.
Since our God is infinite and eternal, the sheer amount of kindness and riches of his grace are immeasurable.
So, it's not just in this life that we begin to walk in and experience those riches, but it'll take ages, eons, to experience the fullness of God.
I don't know if you ever think about heaven, start thinking about eternity and get a little wigged out about what's going to be going on 10,000 years from now.
Since God is an inexhaustible well, what this text is trying to communicate is you'll never grow weary of the experience of the fullness of God.
That's hard for us to imagine here, because we'll get tired of any experience here on earth, but God is so deep, and so beautiful.
Therefore, the riches he possesses are so immeasurable it's going to take the coming ages for us to continue to experience these. In fact, it'll take forever.
Not only do you get to experience the immeasurable riches of his kindness and mercy and grace toward you, but on top of that, and this is big.
The Bible says that in his unique wiring you and unique placing of you, you get to be a part of good works that he prepared in advance for you. This is what's great.
I think people read this text and go, "Okay, now I'm saved; let's do good works," but really it appears that the good works have been created and now you'll walk in them.
I think that's a better way to read this text. I think it reads better that way in the original language. Here's something to consider.
However, God has designed you, wired you, and placed you, you're going to have the opportunity to be faithfully present.
Whatever domain of society you're in, you're now set up to do good works where you are. You don't have to go looking for them; they're right in front of you.
They're in your home. They're in your neighborhood. They're in your workplace, and you've been set free now to pursue these things for the glory of God.
It is faithful presence that Christians become the salt and light of the world. So why do we need to walk through the gospel again if we're going to talk about prayer?
Well, I think the major hurdles to a robust prayer life are tied to a misapplication of the gospel, and if not for a misapplication, a misunderstanding of the gospel.
I'm going to invert those and start. I want to start with the misunderstanding of the gospel. How does a misunderstanding of the gospel affect our prayer life?
One big misunderstanding is that the gospel saves us but doesn't necessarily sanctify us. If these are words you're not familiar with, sanctify is a very churchy word. It means cleanses us.
Maybe you think the gospel kind of forgives your past sins, but now you must clean yourself up. "I gave my life to Christ. I became a Christian. Now I have to work to stay saved."
That's a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel and will totally rob you from a robust prayer life because this means guilt and shame remain.
If you think of the gospel as it saved me, past tense, but it's not saving me, present tense, and holding me into the future, that means guilt and shame remain.
It means that although you would intellectually ascribe to what we read in Ephesians, chapter 2, you are not living as though you believe it. Guilt and shame remain.
Oftentimes in conversations with people here's what I've found. They don't pray because they don't pray. Here's what I mean by that.
They feel guilty because they don't pray, so they won't pray because they haven't prayed. That's silly, but that means guilt and shame remain.
It means I must earn the right to pray to God by praying to God. That's certainly not the gospel. The gospel says prayer is an invitation to inhabit God's space.
The judgment on your life has been done, and you have beckoned to come to him. I am spotless, blameless in his sight. I'm not showing up dirty; I'm showing up clean by the blood of Christ.
The second misunderstanding around the gospel is I think people have a tendency to think technically rather than relationally.
We hear the gospel, and we understand the gospel, but we're still not thinking in terms of relationship with God. In fact, it's the best relationship you'll ever have.
He knows everything. There is never a moment in your relationship with God where you should ever hide from anything that's going on in your heart. Think how amazing that is.
There need be no pretense, no pride. He already knows. You can go, "I hate this part of my heart. I wish I wasn't thinking like this right now. Will you help me?"
God is not appalled, because he's not surprised. You just don't have any secrets from him. He's the one relationship you have where there's nothing hidden.
He knows all and has not condemned you. So, when Jesus says, "Come to me," when he uses the illustration of the persistent widow who just kept pleading until the judge… He's inviting.
Prayer is an invitation to be relationally connected to God. "Come. Sit. Speak." He knows everything.
So, I think those are the two big misunderstandings: that the gospel saves me, but it doesn't necessarily mean God and I are cool right now.
I have to kind of gauge, "How am I doing right now? Am I doing well? Am I not doing well?" That's what leads to either prayerfulness or prayerlessness.
There's also a misapplication of the gospel. The first misapplication of the gospel is, If God is sovereign, if God knows everything, if he has already made up his mind, then why should we pray?
Well, a couple of things on that. What the Bible teaches us is that God hears and responds to his children. We clearly see in the Scriptures that God's expectation is for us to pray for people to be healed.
We want to ask God, "God, heal this man. Heal this woman. Drive out this disease. Repair their body." We've been called to pray that God would heal people. So, what if it does not happen?
We talked about how to pray as Jesus taught us to, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." God wants healing, right? Surely, he wants to answer a worthy prayer.
But what about when you feel the prayers are not being answered or they don’t work? "Prayer doesn't work; I've tried."
I've come across quite a few people who had this moment of their life where, with tears wetting the ground, they begged God to do something, begged God to make something happen.
After all the prayers and petitions to God, it didn't happen, so their conclusion is, "God doesn't hear us. God doesn't respond. God does not care."
I want to say this to you, and then I want to usher us into some time praying with one another. If we knew all that God knew, we would answer all our prayers the same way he does.
If we knew all that God knew and had all the facts in the span of eternity, if we knew what God knew, we would answer all our prayers the exact same way God answers them.
Not only would we answer them the same way he does, but we would have no use for him and no relationship with him. We would be empty and deprived of that amazing joy given to us.
Since we are not him and do not know anything in comparison to him, let’s take it all to him. Church, he hears us, answers according to his unfathomable knowledge, and walks with us through each answer.
I think the biggest obstacle to prayer for almost all of us is this though. We just don’t do it. We don’t make the time and we don’t do it.
I think, by and large, you learn to pray by praying, so we wanted to set aside a chunk of time to pray. We're going to do that here now.
I want to pray for us, and then we're going to begin to pray with one another for so many minutes or so. Here is what we want to pray for together if you are so inclined.
The Central Park neighborhood. The church leadership. The pastoral staff. The youth. Revival to come now, and right here. Revival starts with repentance though.