December 27, 2015 - Prayer with Humility

So I broke out from my grandparents old old records and downstairs. So I wouldn't disturb anybody and and and played them enjoyed them. Thank you again. I really appreciate that. I really do. Alright, well, thank you so much again for being here this morning that you've received the bulletin in that bulletin has a lot of information. There's a connection card in there. And if you would be so kind to put your name on that card. If you are a first-time guest with us today or it's been a long time since you've been here if you be so kind to put some contact information there so I can get a letter out to you and just express our gratitude for you being here today on the reverse side of that card. You can place your prayer needs or praise report. We want to Rejoice with you as God answers your prayer. We want to play with you and be a prayer partner with you and your need and believing that God is going to do incredible great things on your behalf. I want invite to attend all in one of our deacons if he would come and he wants I mean, we're not going to have any worry no more fears. No more challenges. We're going to just be in his presence worshipping him forever. So we just met her get used to it now on Earth.

What do you want? What do you need to see God do in your life and the life of your church in 2016?

A mentor of mine Pastor Ken Woods retired Pastor from Wichita Kansas had a saying that he would often vocalize. I'm getting a little ring in here. You said? If it's not written down, it's just a pipe dream that you told it to my wife many many times. As I approach 2016 I want to. I wanted to create a a written. prayer list something that I would petition God daily. In in in in doing this daily. I wanted to Ernest Lee. I want to Ernest Lee search the scriptures to give me Clarity on how I would intercede on behalf of these needs. Some are very specific others are very general. Here's my list. first Want to be consumed by the presence of God? I don't want to just view the presence of God happening on a Sunday morning at 1325 Airline Road. I want to be in the presence of God no matter where I am. Second as a husband and as a father, I want to leave my family in Godly example. I want to facilitate God's grace and power that would lead my family to Greater growth and deeper worship. Third on my list as a pastor. Then I would exercise my Ministry within the power and direction of the Holy Spirit and a deeper genuine compassion for the congregation. God has entrusted me. horse As a church. That we would maintain the unity in the spirit and the word. 5th at the church that we would experience effective. evangelism got mimie in 2016 would come to the Lord and experience his Saving Grace.

fake now, I'm at 6 That we would experience as a church the empowerment of his. Holy spirit with many saturated with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's my prayer. 7 but as a church, we would become more effective in helping one another with authentic compassion and genuine Fellowship.

Sub or H as a church that we would realize the healing power of God with many experiencing the miraculous work of God in their life. That's what my prayer is.

Nice as a church that we would have a greater hunger and thirst for God's word and experience real transformation and spiritual victory. And then 10 I had 10 on my list. That our nation would experience a Revival.

Now these are Big requests. And I don't know about you. But sometimes I wonder. Does prayer matter sometimes even this Pentecostal preacher wonder sometimes I shouldn't because I know what his word says that prayer does matter and prayer does change things. But in our Flash in our human this I think sometimes all of us Wonder does prayer make a difference. I like in prayer to that of a tool in a tool chest. Here's a tool chest. I actually made this tool chest for my son Ethan many moons ago. And it has different tools this to I remember I got this tool from my my wife's brother-in-law. Do you remember that? And he doesn't I do I got a hammer in here.

This Hammer is the hammer my grandpa used in his business.

Now with tools, I've learned something. You got to have the right tool. And you need to know how to use it to accomplish the things that you intend to accomplish. But not always put that in the practice. Sometimes I couldn't find my tools because they were misplaced. And so I use whatever I could and that could be a very dangerous thing.

Have many fingers to prove it mini damages many injuries. I also like him prior to that of a Frontiersman. Watch Wisconsin and All Points West 200 years ago.

That having the right clothing in the right equipment to successfully navigate through difficult and dangerous trains were absolutely not a necessity. These are some of my Frontier Garb right here. you had to have a rifle of some kind and know how to use it. I have a rifle. I don't know if I know how to use it. This is a Flintlock Pennsylvania long rifle you had to have your powder keep your powder dry because of it got wet. It was a no use whatsoever.

But you know, there's this gentleman by the name of Hugh glass who who was left for dead in the in the frontier lands of of of Nebraska South Dakota and and he he actually came to and he had nothing he had nothing except a piece of metal but that little piece of metal saved his life. You had your hair dog what they call a flint and steel. Yeah, I'm just flint and steel enabled you to have fire. If you know how to use it properly, I don't know if I know how to use a pulmonary go. Okay, and there you go. I scared some people.

What you mean to have fire so you can cook do you stay warm? In fact, most people died on the frontier because of disease and because of weather

but you needed to have the right stop to be able to navigate through all the the things you were going to experience.

the Apostle Paul 2nd Corinthians 10 3 and 4

also identified some Essentials for successfully living life God's way. In 2nd Corinthians 10:3 and for this is what Paul said. For though we walk in the flesh. We are not Waging War according to the flesh for the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. No, I looked at this from a paraphrase. And I really liked what the author said in this particular paraphrase some of your familiar with the message. The world is unprincipled. It's dog eat dog out there the world doesn't Fight Fair. We don't live or fight our battles. That way we never have and never will the tools of our trade aren't for the marketing or for manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

prayer is an essential tool a critical piece of equipment for the Christ follower to successfully navigate through the spiritually difficult and dangerous terrain of the World the Flesh and the devil.

C. I I think sometimes we approach the subject does a prayer as I know prayer? Check I find it interesting from an Anglican Pastor quoting a a statistic. He said that that 95% of people in the United States pray. What's interesting? That's more than believe that God exists.

But prayer is important. In fact, it is Jesus himself that grabs our attention to the importance of effective frame. In The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 he tells us that we need to know how to handle and how to properly utilize this tool called prayer. Truth or something that I can get across today and in the coming weeks as we talked about prayer is this limits approach prayer more seriously than maybe we've had in the past. What must not assume that that are our prayer for our food and and the occasional listening of somebody else praying is all that we needs.

It is this subject that I want to focus our attention on. In fact, let me give you a road map over the next couple of weeks today. We're going to look at the attitude of Prayer. Next Sunday the power of Prayer. Then we're going to look at the object of prayer and then we're going to conclude with the benefit of Prayer. So first, we're going to look at this attitude. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 5. Jesus is preaching. For that would be incredible to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear him preach. Matthew 6 verse 5 says and when you pray to Jesus the same when you pray not if you pray but when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites. For they loved the stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others truly. I say to you they have received their reward. Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter. our attitude Ore-Ida to do either helps or hinders our prayer. I want you to understand that our attitude either helps or hinders our prayers. It makes them either effective or meaningless it either Usher's in the power of God or it may in actuality serve to oppose the cause of Christ.

What Jesus is saying about prayer is that effective praying must always be approached with utter humility?

So I want to share with you a couple thoughts that I have concerning this passage of scripture and my goal is is that we will we will not only hear what Jesus is saying, but we will be able to say you know, what I want to do what Jesus says as a follower of Jesus. I want to do what he says. It's the first thing that I have thought about concerning what Jesus is preaching. Is that our Focus concerning prayer must not be to impress others? effectus must not be to impress

Jesus said you must not be like the Hypocrites for they love the stand in the pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

Jesus gave us a forceful command not a suggestion. What a clear roadmap on how we need to approach frame. He says don't be a play actor do not be a pretender when it comes to talking to. Because talking to. It is a serious thing.

The religious people of the day we're practicing prayer to affect people rather than to pursue God.

This kind of praying is not only ineffective. Not only can It can it give an adverse effect of leading people into an accurate picture of spiritual maturity, but I think it's a fence of the Gods.

No doubt those that witness this kind of praying in the synagogue.

No doubt, those that witnessed this kind of intersection view. These religious leaders is powerful Giants.

That these people were the ones we need to follow in imitate. If we wanted to be spiritual we needed to do what they were doing. They would give lost the prayers in the synagogue. They would go to the the noon prayers at the street corner and they would they would be so impressive and too often we would get our eyes off of God and we would focus on these people.

So people would be led astray.

We are always in danger of corrupting a good thing. Receiving the Applause of people is so intoxicating and it's so addictive. I don't know anybody that doesn't like a pat on the back and I'm not saying that we are not to encourage one another the Bible says that we are but if we are not careful, we begin to engage in the spiritual gifts of God with the aim at impressing people rather than as I said before pursuing God and we need to God as our first priority.

So we can quickly lose sight of God when we are looking for the approval and Commendation of those around us.

So so let's not our Focus be on impressing others that our Focus be on pursuing God. That leads me to a second thought I had as I was praying through and an indwelling upon what Jesus was preaching. And that is this our Focus must not be an attempt to manipulate God almighty. We are not to manipulate God.

faith and trust in rituals and methods can all too easily circumvent faith and trust in God. Did you hear me? The religious leaders of the day invoke many different rules to implement a religious way of life that all too often replaced a genuine personal relationship with God.

and I'm sorry I was doing some inventory and in my life as I was wanting the Holy Spirit to to to search me is that song that says That I can find even in my own life if I am not careful. I can put my trust and rely on the rituals and the spiritual habits. Rather than totally relying on God and keeping my focus on him alone. Moreover if I am not careful, I allowed those rituals those rules those habits those spiritual rats in our life. To begin to take over and somehow I can get into my mind if I could somehow do this right then God is going to give me what I want.

We need to be very careful.

Because God is Holy and he is sovereign. And we must approach to God on his terms. And not alone. I didn't look at this paraphrase the message and in Matthew 6:5. And this is what the author of this paraphrase said and when you come before God don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers hoping for stardom. Do you think God sets in a box seat? Wow.

Prince God is Holy. And when we pray to the holy God, we take it very seriously, I guarantee you. If you were invited to to have a conversation with a very famous person. or a government leader I would think that you would you would think long and hard how you what are you going to say? How are you going to say it? You would think about your mannerisms you even look in the wick you would think about how you look and how you're going to present yourself. Now don't don't don't read way too too much into this illustration, but I think if we're not careful what we do is we have we have a familiarity with God. That is not reverent. And sometimes we treat God as a buddy of ours. Rather than a creator. And the rescue of our souls.

So what should we do? What must we do what must our Focus be? Our Focus must be on God by removing distractions. We need to remove distractions in our life as we approach the Living God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 he said but when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

As a human being we are highly susceptible to distraction. Is it done?

Oh, there you go. You need to go back.

Go up a little bit more. more more

okay, stay there.

my God enters the scene and better illustrations and I can.

Yeah, I was a human being where highly susceptible distractions where we are bombarded with information.

I mean, I went downstairs yesterday to finish my message. And I mean it was a parade down there. Nobody goes down in the basement till I go down there.

They want to play and they want to goof off and they want to talk. I love that opportunity, but I thought the guys I got to finish this message. You want to eat? Let me finish this message. I got it. I got it. I got to work hard on this. You know, we're overwhelmed with facts and figures and voices and opinions. And as a result God is so easily pushed to the margins of our life.

He was relegated to The Leftovers of our time. And usually there are no leftovers.

Psalmist said be still and know that I am God. If we are going to have an effective prayer life if we are going to follow what Jesus is saying, we need to remove the distractions. So how do we remove the distractions? There you go. You can advance one slide.

We need to make it our priority. We need to make prayer Our priority. If it's not a priority, we're not going to do it or we're going to do it inappropriately. So it needs to be our priority second. We need to make an appointment. We need to set time aside if you don't something's going to crowd that time.

You need to figure out when am I going to pray? I'm going to pray in the morning. I'm going to pray in the evening. I'm going to pray 3 times a day. I'm going to whatever you're going to do. You make an appointment with Dodds. And you make sure nothing is going to hinder you from meeting that appointment. Make a place. Not only set an appointment, but you need to make a place. You need to find a place on where you are going to meet God.

Let me tell you. If you don't do this then again, you're going to be distracted. A phone calls going to come in. Somebody's going to have to want to see you urgently you find a place where you can get a loan with God. And forth make it you and God. Not you and God in your cell phone. Not you and God and your Facebook. Not you and God and anything else just you and God you can bring the word to. but you and I.

It said when you start doing that and you make it a spiritual habit.

You will begin to discover the joy and the beauty of praying with God. Did you hear what I said? I said praying with God. Prayer is not just a monologue friends. It's a dialogue. And we need to not just bring to the Lord our list. We need to have an ear to hear what the spirit is wanting to say to us in our prayer life.

And this leads to my fourth and final thought. Our Focus must be on the personal before it can be on the public.

The Bible is not saying that it's wrong to pray in public.

It's not Bible. Saying it's wrong to to to ask God's blessing and give thanks for the food. Stop wanting to seek God's help. But it is wrong to pray in public when we are not in the habit of praying in private.

Listen, very carefully.

It is wrong. To pray in public when we are not in the habit of praying in private.

C observers may think that we are practicing prayer when we are not and this is hip ocracy. I've heard it said you can't give what you don't have. If we're going to lead others in prayer or be utilized by God in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Play with others on behalf of their needs. Then we must develop a healthy frequent prayer time alone with God ourselves.

Because if not, we are not going to be prepared. We're not going to be ready for the needs that we need to bring before the Lord. We're not going to be prepared.

Because I'm going to tell you we are facing a generation. Two phones with we're we're we're we're we're facing generation. That doesn't believe in the power of God.

And secondly, we're also facing an element where all we have to do is pretend that we're spiritual in God fills in the blank. I will tell you it's not healthy either way.

If we're going to be used by God to intercede on behalf of others if we're going to be used of God in our prayer life, then we must have fell off a personal prayer life where we are in communion with God so that when we are in a public Ministry situation, we are prepared for not like the sons of skiva where they thought they can handle the demoniac but that's the demon possessed person rip them to shreds.

Tell Mom we believe God wants to pour out lavishly his Miracle working power. Did you hear me? We serve a loving gracious God that insurance. It brings Joy the God to bring you healing in our lives. It brings joy to God to Deliver Us from infirmities. It brings joy to God as he works his will in his way in our life, but I will tell you what hinders his jaw. Is unbelief.

Bible says we we don't have because we don't ask. And when we ask we ask with wrong motives.

And that's why we have to approach prayer and we need to approach god with humility. Because humility begins to help us line ourselves with right motivation as we pray and as we seek the Lord.

In our time alone with God. God will strengthen our ability to engage in authentic humility. There is something powerful when we begin to understand we are in the presence of almighty God. It changes our perspective of things.

It changes how we view what's it happening around us when we realize we are in the presence of God. I'll bet God wants to do work in a spin through us and when we're in the presence of God, he helps us to withstand against selfish Pride.

Comment would you come to the piano? But I sincerely believe God wants all of us to experience the life-changing power prayer.

I was listening to a a person that works with pastors and churches in developing. a more healthy environment in the church and one of the things that he said was that to be a healthy strong church the church needs to have a healthy strong prayer life. We need to be people of Prayer.

The problem is when we say a prayer. It's almost like a Tylenol PM.

We almost get exhausted thinking about it. When I say a prayer. I remember when I was in college. I wanted to do the spiritual thing. So I and II red and then I was told that you know, if you really want to meet God he's an early morning person. So you had to get up really early in the morning. So I'd get up at 5 in the morning. I'm not an early morning person. But I said, you know Lord, if you want me to get up at 5 in the morning, I will it we had a chapel in the dormitory and I would go to the chapel. I would make the mistake of turning on the heater. And within 10 minutes, I'm sleeping before the Lord not praying before the Lord.

Leonard Ravenhill Wrote in one of his books don't think it's why revival tarries? I think it's another book about Revival. He opens the book up talking about the prayer meeting as The Unwanted step-child of the church.

But I'm going to tell you this church when I say this church. I'm not talking about this building. I'm talking about each one of us all 300 and some of us. Need to be actively pursuing god with a healthy prayer life. We need to engage with God because God is wanting to do an incredible work in our life the lives around you the lives in this community.

And if we're going to be the church, God has called us to be we need to be people of Prayer. I stated about a year ago some of the things I would like you to do and I'm going to tell you one of the things that I want you to do. every Sunday is when you come to this place on Sunday morning. I want you to ask the lord lord. Who do I need to pray for who can I pray with? I want you to look for somebody to pray with I want you and that you may not know Lord. I don't know who the who the who to pray with I don't know who to pray for. Well. If God doesn't give you specific Direction it still okay to pray with somebody. Okay, but you know what one of these days you're going to come to church and the holy spirit's going to birth name in your Spirit and Holy Spirits going to speak to you and say I want you to pray for this person because you know what God does and I don't understand this all. But God chooses to work his power his might his grace through people. Did you know that? You may say that's no fair. I rather have a direct line to God and I understand that don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to add a layer that you got to go to as a mediator. We have one mediator and that mediator is Jesus Christ.

But God chooses the activity of Prayer. to move in people's lights and I wonder how many blessings have been robbed. Because his people chose not to pray. Friends, we need to engage in prayer. again

I want to do something this morning little different. Actually. It's about the same thing we did last Sunday. I'm not sure who is assigned to be on the prayer team today. December 27th, but if you are on the prayer team if you would be so kind to come forward and take your place as you would as we would do on other Sundays.

What we're going to do is we're going to pray for the prayers. Okay.

We have proteins that they are scheduled each Sunday, and I'm so thankful for these proteins. I really am.

God has done incredible and amazing things.

these proteins

and I want to pray that we would experience what the the king in the Old Testament wrote of what God Said in 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 and that it would start here and it would flow out there.

Solomon said If my people Who are called by my name?

Shock and pray and seek my face and turn from their Wicked Ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins. And heal their lands.

God is wanting to do something today. I believe there's miracles in the house today. We just need to be ready and prepared. So I want you to pray for these that have come forward as prayer teams. Let's pray for them right now Father in Heaven. I pray for our prayer. Lorde