A Better Way to Pray

Good morning. How are y'all doing this morning? All right. All right. Let me just look at all your beautiful faces today and say hello.

And yeah, I see some people waving back there. Hey, I'm seeing a lot of silhouettes. That's okay. I get a little blinded back from the back, but I know you're here. I see you.

I see. I know who you are. You want me to call you out? No. Oh, great.

Great to have you guys with us today. We are beginning a new series today called Pray Like It Matters. We're going to spend the next few weeks just talking about prayer. I want us to take this month and make it a month of prayer. And if you don't know how, hopefully this will help you learn how.

We are really wanting to focus, and y'all know this has been on my heart, focus on those who are not in church. In the coming season, we want to really start thinking about who we're going to reach, those particularly that are seeking God. And we're going to really, you're going to see some things. We're going to take some initiatives this coming up September, October. September, we're going to kind of lead into it, October.

And I want you to, I want to challenge you a little bit to think about those who don't know the Lord. And how to get them to church, and how to get them to church, and how you're going to invite them to church, and what you're going to bring, you know, bringing them in. But it doesn't happen unless we pray for God's power and God's presence, you know. And we need to be in the presence of God. And I want us to get that.

And if you're still kicking around the idea of Jesus, maybe you're not, maybe Jesus, you like Jesus, but you're probably, he's probably not your Savior, or he's not your God yet. That's okay. That's okay. Let's, you know, relax. But what we can say is that we can, by looking at Jesus' life, there's a lot of good things with Jesus' life.

Even if you're not a Christian, if you look at Jesus, there's a lot of benefits to being like Jesus, right? I think we could say that. So, we're going to look at his prayer life. And before I get started, I'd ask the question, how many of you struggle with prayer? You don't have to raise your hand.

Okay. Okay. Will, raise his hand. He's a honest, very honest guy. How many of you would say you struggle with prayer?

Or maybe you have a hard time setting aside the time for prayer. You don't do it as often as you should. I think a lot of people would say that. And, but for some of you, you believe in prayer, and you pray often, but you don't believe it works for you. That's another hard thing.

It doesn't work for me, so why am I even praying? If we look at the way Jesus lived, we see that he constantly prayed. He was constantly, consistently perceived. A prayer person. No matter what life threw at him, no matter what happened, no matter the demands, no matter what the Roman government was doing, no matter what was going on, Jesus always went to the Father.

There was something about Jesus and the way he lived that we all want to be like. That's because he persistently prayed to the Father. He prioritized the presence of God. He was able to overcome temptation. He was able to be faithful and obedient even to the point of death.

He loved those who were unloving back. He loved those who cared for those who were uncaring. He had the ability to do that. He had joy when there wasn't even any reason to have joy. There was nothing there.

He persevered against all odds. Even though everything was against him, he persevered. He went through. And he experienced peace when everything in life was going wrong. Absolutely nothing was going right.

I want what Jesus had. And if we want what Jesus has, we need to pray like Jesus prayed. We need to pray like Jesus prayed. And many of us don't pray. Why?

Why do we struggle with prayer? There's three things, I think, that are good reasons. And one of those is our lack of focus. We lack focus, right? Most of us have a lot going on in our lives.

For me, my ADD kicks in when I'm trying to have my little prayer time. You know, I'm thinking about the things I've got to do, about the kids, about school, about all these things. Okay. Oh, you know, the anxieties of life and all that. And sometimes it's just really, really hard to focus.

Focus on prayer. Or maybe we're bored. It's just boring. We're like looking at our watch every few minutes. You know, I'm going to put five minutes aside for prayer every morning.

And a minute in, you're like, oh, man, four minutes left, you know. Maybe we're just kind of bored. Or would we rather be doing something else? Let's just be honest. That's for most of us that are struggling with that.

That might be the case. Some of us just lack confidence. We lack confidence in our prayer. We don't know how to pray. Or we've prayed with one of those people that just prays every name of God, you know.

Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nessi, and we're like, Jehovah Nisan, you know. Is that how you do it? Jehovah Maximus, maximize God's power over your life, you know. We think that's the way we're supposed to pray, so we're a little intimidated. Or you have those people that are in prayer circles that can come up with any verse in the Bible on the spot.

It's just like, where did that verse come from? I've never heard that verse before. It hit right where it needed to hit. I can't do that. Why is that?

Am I doing this right? We don't really know how. So we lack focus, we lack confidence, and then some of us just lack faith. We just lack faith. It's because we don't really believe God hears us, or some of us say, well, I believe God hears me, but I don't believe He cares, because when I was young, I prayed, I prayed with all my heart when I was a child that God would not allow my mother and father to divorce, and they did, or I prayed with everything within me that my grandma wouldn't pass away, and she did.

Or my friend who had a terminal illness, I prayed, and nothing happened, it just got worse, and they ended up passing away. I prayed, and I just don't feel like God is answering my prayers, and for many people, that's where they are. They prayed over and over and over again for a stronghold, or for an addiction to be taken away, and it just hasn't been taken away. Does God really hear my prayer? Is God really there?

Is God hearing my prayer? Prayer might work for some, but maybe it's just not for me. So what do you do when you've given up on prayer? And that's what I want to talk about today. What do you do when you've given up on prayer?

Let me share with you what prayer is not first, okay? First of all, prayer is not a formal presentation, okay? It's not a formal presentation. It's not a wish list that we put together that we think that should be checked off, like an Amazon wish list, you know, like some kind of spiritual vending machine, cosmic vending machine out there. Like, this is my wish list, God.

Prayer is not a spiritual negotiation. How many people have had that spiritual, God, if you just get me out of this situation, I'll do this for you, or I'll give my life to you, or I'll serve you, or that's not how it works. It's not a spiritual negotiation. It's not a performance to impress God. It's not a show to impress others.

That's what Jesus got on to the Pharisees about, you know, praying in front of people so they see you and recognize you. That's not what prayer is. It's not about doing it in front of other people so they look at you and say, wow, how spiritual you are. And it's not just for the spiritual elite. It's not just for monks in, you know, monasteries or people in booths that you confess your sins to or, you know, there's people that are like next to heaven, we think anyway, and they just have a connection with God.

No, it's for everybody. It's not just for the spiritual elite. And Jesus teaches us in a wide frame of how to pray because prayer isn't just something we do. It's the way we live. Prayer isn't just something you do.

It's a way that you live. It's a way that you live. It is a life. And the way Jesus lived, he prioritized the presence of God. God in everything.

He often prayed. He prayed all the time. He went off to places to pray, the quiet places, before he did ministry, after he did ministry, in the middle of the day sometimes, he would go to lakes, he would go to gardens, he would go to mountains, he would go to secluded places, and in every step of life in ministry he prayed. He prayed all the time. He needed God's presence to make the acts and the decisions that he had to make.

He depended on God. He disconnected so that he could connect to God. And when we pray, we get some ideas of what it looks like. He connected to God. And how often did he pray?

All the time. How often do we pray? All the time. All the time. Well, that sounds kind of hard.

Well, look, you don't believe that Jesus prayed all the time? I've got twenty-five scriptures. Twenty-five scriptures about prayer. And I'm going to just bounce through a few of them, okay? Don't get scared here.

We're going to get, you know, scriptures up on the board or anything. So, in all the Gospels, just all the Gospels, I'll just share with you. At his baptism, he prayed. In the morning before heading to Galilee, he prayed. After healing people, he prayed.

All night before choosing his disciples, he prayed. While speaking to the Jewish leaders, he prayed. Giving thanks to the Father before feeding the 5,000, he prayed. Before walking on water, he prayed. While healing a death and mute man, he prayed.

Giving thanks to the Father before feeding the 4,000. Before Peter called Jesus the Christ, he prayed. At the Transfiguration, he prayed. At the return of the 70, he prayed. Before teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer.

Before raising Lazarus from the dead. Before little children, he prayed. Asking the Father to glorify him in his name, he prayed. At the Lord's Supper, he prayed. When Satan asked to sift Peter.

That was a prayer. For himself, his disciples, and all believers before heading to the garden. In Gethsemane, before his betrayal, he prayed. Right after being nailed to a cross, what did Jesus do? Father, forgive them.

He prayed. While dying on the cross, he cried out, My God, my God. He prayed. In his dying breath, Jesus prayed. Into your hands, I commend my spirit.

He blessed the bread before he ate it after his resurrection. He prayed. And as he ascended into heaven, he prayed. Jesus prayed, prayed, prayed, and prayed. It was his way of life.

It wasn't just something he did. It wasn't just a segment or a portion of his life. It was his everything. He prayed, he prayed, he prayed. And it's something we live out.

It's not just something we do. It's something we live out. But I don't have time to pray. Maybe you're asking. Yeah.

Pastor, it's just, I realize it's a practical world. There's a lot of things going on. I don't have time to pray. There's too much going on. So much going on.

Listen, let me just say this. You don't have time not to pray. We need to pray. We need to give our time to prayer. Because it's a tough world out there.

It's a really, really hard world out there. And how in the world are we going to be able to minister peace, joy, and be a witness to a world if we do not pray? Prayer makes it effective for us to work in the world. I mean, we've got division going on, we've got financial stress, we've got relational stress, we've got complicated decisions to make every day of our life. It's almost impossible to be effective in this world without prayer in our lives.

We all need prayer. I need God. I need prayer. I need God to help me make these decisions. I need God to walk this life out with.

It is a rough, tough world. We need prayer. And to be effective in this world, we have to disconnect. Because we need to disconnect from what doesn't last to connect to the one who does. Disconnect from what doesn't last to connect to the one who does.

We need to disconnect so we can connect to what's really important. So how do we do that? How do we do that? I'm going to give you really two things. And the first one's found in Scripture, Matthew 6.

1. It says, here's what I want you to do. Find a quiet place, secluded place, so you won't be tempted to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. And the focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense His presence.

The first thing is we need a daily time that we disconnect from everything else and connect to God. We need to block out the noise. We need to spend a few minutes with God. And I'm not telling you to spend a few hours with God. I'm just telling you that a good start is to spend a few minutes with God.

Just disconnect for a little bit from the world and connect to God. Eliminate the distractions. Get the distractions out. Don't carry the phone with you into your prayer closet, to your prayer chair, to your prayer back porch, whatever it might be. You have your place.

Identify your place. But don't carry anything with you, okay? I promise you social media will be there waiting for you when you get back. If you miss that latest post, it will be there, right? The latest conspiracy theory will be there, okay?

So if you're posting that, it's going to be there. I mean, you're going to not miss out on anything, okay? You got time. Put the phone aside. Put the text aside.

Those people can wait on you. It's not that urgent. The most urgent thing is to disconnect so you can connect to what really matters. And we need to be still. Be still before God.

Beschill your place to understand that. Be still before God. Be/. Be still. What's interesting about being still is that intimacy is never an accident.

We don't just stumble into being close to our spouse. Oh, wow, we're close now. Wow, okay, how did that happen? I don't know. We haven't talked to each other for a week, but somehow we're really close, right?

Or a best friend. I haven't called them in three months, but we're so close, right? No, no, no. It's intentional. It's an intentional thing.

You never grow intimacy by accident. And that's what it is with God. We've got to be still. We've got to disconnect. We've got to connect to God.

And I think the interesting thing about being still, in the Bible we see the Holy Spirit symbolized by a dove. A dove. And what I didn't know about a dove is that it never lands on something that's moving. It only lands on stillness. And when we see Jesus baptized, what do we see?

We see the symbolic dove comes down from heaven, right? The Father says, this is my son whom I'm well pleased. And then the dove comes and sets down. Jesus is still. And if we want to experience God, if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if we want the Holy Spirit to guide us, we need to be in a place of stillness.

If we're distracted, it's hard for the Holy Spirit to work in our life. It's hard for us to hear the Holy Spirit. To experience His presence, we need to be still before the Lord. Well, what do I pray about? When I'm still, what do I pray about?

Whatever you care about. Pray about whatever you care about. Philippians 4, 6, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Pray about everything.

Whatever is on your mind is on God's heart. So we share what's on our heart because God knows our hearts anyway. And we pray and we just talk to God. It's not some formal, put-together prayer. It doesn't have to be that.

It can just be if you have questions, ask Him. I have questions, God. I don't know what's going on right now. I feel like my life's falling apart. I need answers.

God's open to that. You're mad or you're hurting. I'm an angry guy. I'm hurt right now. I need to talk.

Tell me why. Tell Him. Tell Him how you feel. It's a conversation. It's a conversation with God.

It's not some elite spiritual thing that we do. It is available to all of us. And the second reason, why do we still struggle to pray? Well, we compartmentalize our lives. Prayer is only a part of our lives.

And remember, it's not something we do. It's a way of life. It's not everything. It was very stable. And what's interesting, I don't know, some of you might have this disease, but I had a friend who hated eating mixed food, like hated it.

If he had a plate in front of him, if the peas went over into the mashed potatoes, I'm not eating that. I just can't. I mean, almost to the gagging point. Some of you are laughing because you're like, that's me, right? I'm that person, you know?

But we often treat, you know, prayer and the Holy Spirit and God like a frozen dinner. A frozen dinner. And as you can see here, we have the frozen dinner. Isn't it delicious? We have here our mystery meat.

We don't know exactly what it is. It may be Salisbury steak. We don't know that. Looks like it, perhaps. We got our green beans.

I think it might need a little salt, but, you know. And we got our potato. And I think that middle part's a brownie. I'm not quite sure. But if it isn't, I would steer away from it because it looks a little scary there.

But this is how we treat life, right? We compartmentalize everything. We have our friend area. We have our family area. We have our church and God area.

We have a work area. And they're all separate. And if we mix them, no, we don't want to mix them. But God doesn't want some of your life. He wants it all.

He wants every piece of your life. God doesn't want to be a part of your life. He is your life. He is everything. And prayer isn't just an action we do.

It's the way we live. We live it out in every part of our lives. 1 Thessalonians says, never stop praying. Man, that was a scary thing when I first saw that. I said, how in the world do you never stop praying?

Out of context, that seems like a very difficult thing. We can't even pray for five minutes. We can't even, you know, how do you stop praying? And this, it induces some prayer guilt if you just read it for what it is. But 1 Thessalonians says, never stop praying.

In the NIV, it says, pray continually. And in the King James Version, it says, pray without ceasing. How do you pray without ceasing? What does that mean? What does that mean?

It means anywhere. It's not just getting along, talking to God. Yes, that was the first point. We need some time, some distraction time. But it doesn't stop there.

It's more than that. It's so much more than that. It's being with God all the time. Being in His prayer. Praying is living in God's presence.

It's praying, it's walking in God's presence. That we can go to Him anytime, every time. That prayer is living in God's presence. It's breathing God's grace. It's hearing His whisper, hearing His voice, and enjoying His power.

The power of God. Experiencing His peace. The peace that passes all understanding. Prayer isn't just getting. We need God to do what we want.

It's aligning with His will. It's walking in His will. And when you are walking in the Spirit, what happens is you hear the gentle and loving conviction of God, your Father. You overcome temptations in your life. You're comforted when you go through trials.

When you need direction in your life, you receive direction. You break. And here's what I would say. You break for the things that God's heart breaks for. I had somebody come to me after an evangelism message many years ago, Pastor Leon.

I love that message. It's inspiring. But I just don't have a heart for the lost. And my response was, well, you're not in the presence of God. You've got to get in the presence of God because when you're in the presence of God, you start understanding.

If you start connecting with God and His presence, you start knowing His heart. You know Him. That intimacy grows. You connect with Him. And it's rejoicing over the things that God rejoices over too.

When God is rejoicing and excited about something, you're excited about those things. You share the heart of God. Just enjoying, rejoicing, breaking with Him, and knowing the comfort that we have in times of trial. Max Lucado kind of explained it. This should give us a little ease of what it really means to pray without ceasing.

He gave three W's to praying. I want to share this and I want us to practice this. And I'll be honest with you, you know, this is something that I've practiced myself because I was one of those guys, just to be honest, I'm a pastor and I should be that guy who goes in his prayer closet all day, right? I mean, just pray, pray, pray, but I'm not that guy. Praying is actually really hard for me too because my ADD kicks in.

You know, I'm thinking about what to do and where to go and things like that. And I was the guy who was like, hey, you know, somebody in our church or in my youth group or whatever, let's have an all-night prayer. I'm like, oh, okay, y'all go ahead. I'm going to get some sleep, you know. Let's do the 40-day of prayer and fast.

What do they call it, the 40-hour famine? Oh, nope, nope, not me. 30-hour, 30-hour, okay. I was that guy who would be like, nope. Praying for that long, I just don't know if I can handle it.

So, you know, I felt guilty. I felt guilty often. Like, God, do I pray enough? Do I pray enough? But what I've learned is these four W's are to show us how to pray without ceasing.

What does it mean to pray without ceasing? And he talks about, first of all, waking. The waking, waking, these types of thoughts, thoughts that we give to God, these waking thoughts. That when we wake in the morning, we say good morning God. I rejoice that today is a good day and that you have made this day and I will rejoice and be glad in it.

I thank you for another day Lord. I want to speak words of life. I want to speak words of hope. I want to speak words of encouragement over people. I don't want to beat people down.

I want to lift people up Lord. Help me. Convict me of the things that are in my life and in my heart that might keep me away from doing those things Lord. Forgive me of my sins. Help me change someone's day to day.

Like may I be in a place in a position to change somebody's day to day. And I give them those morning thoughts. I was doing that this morning when I woke up. My dogs were barking in the background because they would hear me in the kitchen as I was making my coffee. I praise you Father.

Thank you for today. I know you're not getting out of your cage. I'm having my time with God and I'm just making my coffee and I'm just talking to God. Forgive me Lord. Thank you so much.

I want to encourage you. Let me scent your spirit today. Guide me Lord. You're waking thoughts. That's what we need to do.

We need to wake up. The first thing when we open our eyes in the morning we just say thank you Lord. Praise God. Just make just those two simple words. Just say praise God.

When you wake up in the morning praise God. Praise God. Thank you. It'll make a difference. And then he says there's the waiting thoughts.

Those are the things we're praying for that we haven't experienced yet. That we haven't heard an answer from God yet. It's maybe the salvation of somebody. You've been praying for years for somebody to be saved. And you're praying that their hearts and their lives will be changed.

And you're just waiting. And you're praying. You're continuing to pray for that. You're praying for a miracle in your life. You're praying for that miracle to take place.

Or some type of answered prayer. Or some type of breakthrough in your life. You're waiting. You're waiting on the answer to that prayer. You're waiting thoughts.

And then there's your whispering thoughts. Because we're challenged every day. We want to cry out to God. You know. Sometimes when we're confronted with something.

If there's some conflict or whatever. And you know. Whether it's a work issue or whatever. You don't want to yell out. God save us.

You know. Like you're not going to do that. Right. God save me from this person that I have to interact with. When they're right in front of you.

You're not going to do that. Right. So there's those whispering thoughts. You know. Just whispering.

God be with me today. I'm getting ready to enter into this meeting with this person. And God whispers to us. We can whisper to him. Just whisper those prayers.

Not out loud. Just whisper. Help me Lord. Help me Lord. Talk to my kids.

You know. About this. In the right way. In a respectful way. Where they'll listen.

Help me connect with this person in the way I'm supposed to. Help me make a decision Lord. As you're deciding what to buy at the fast food place. Lord help me make a decision that won't lift my cholesterol. Lord.

Praise God. Hallelujah. I'm waiting for that. Whispers. Whispers.

Help me encourage somebody today Lord. Let me. I've encouraged this person that I've been praying for. And then there's the waning thoughts. Those are the remembering.

You look back on your day. Oh man, God, you have done so much. You don't focus on what he's not done. You focus on what he has done. And you praise him for those things.

You see throughout your day that he's been here all along. He's put this together. He made this happen. And I'm so thankful that you brought me through this day, and you've answered some things and you've done some things and you've put some things together. You look back and you assess your day.

Here's where I was and here's where I saw you today, Lord. I saw you working this and I saw you working that. And then at the end of the day, you go to bed and you give your burdens to him, like he says, and you rest. You sleep and you sleep peacefully. And then you get up and you do it all over again.

Do it all over again. Living out God. And that prayer of guilt, let me just say this. Prayer of guilt, be set free in the name of Jesus, okay? You can be set free.

So take a place and a time and pray. Never stop praying. Pray without ceasing. It's a way you live. It's a way of life.

Never stop praying. This is why 1 John says it like this. This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. He hears you. He's listening to you.

And if we know that he hears us, which we should know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of him. Amen? And Paul in prison. He says this. Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition.

Prison, guys. Prison. He says this. And with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Don't stop praying.

Don't give up on prayer. Pray, pray, pray all the time. He will lift you up. He cares for you. He is always with you.

He gives you strength. He never leaves you or forsake you. He gives you power. He gives you encouragement. He gives you security.

He gives you hope. He gives you direction. He gives it all to you. And he is accessible in every situation. He is completely available to you.

He does hear you. It's not a mistake you're going through the things you're going through, but perhaps it's something to bring you closer to him so that you can reach for him instead of reaching to anything else, right? So give it to him. He is accessible in your waking, your waiting, your whispering, and your wanting. He is available because prayer isn't something you do.

It's the way you live. It's a lifestyle. We walk in his presence. We experience his presence. We hear him.

We hear you cry for him. The teeth come to you for wearing pants. And the teeth come to him. And with the teeth. And right besidegravity, we have to sing these teeth.

And we know Him because it's not just something we do. It's not compartmentalized to one piece of the plate. It is in everything, in everything we do, the way we live. And if you pray this way, one day you'll notice that you aren't just believing what Jesus taught, but you're living like Jesus lived. And I want the presence of God.

I want to be more aware of the presence of God. I want you to be more aware of the presence of God in your life. Let's make this church a church that is aware of the presence of God. Amen. That we depend on God's presence.

We connect with God's presence. And we walk in the direction that God is taking us. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, Lord.

Thank you so much, God. Even now, let us begin to pray and seek you. Seek you for a moment, Lord. Let us experience you. Let us hear from you.

Whisper into our hearts, Lord. Whisper into our lives, Lord. Because it's not something we do. It's how we live. Let it become a part of us, Lord.

Let us trust in you as we even leave this room today. Let us experience your heart. I want to know your heart, God. I want to be aware of where you're going. I want to know where you're going.

Because I want to be with you. And where you are is where I want to be. I want to walk with you. I want to talk with you. I want to live with you, Lord.

I want to be with you all the time, Lord. Because there is nothing this world can give me except you, Lord. My challenge today for all the people under this prayer, Lord, is that they know you like Jesus knew you, Father. That I know you like Jesus knew you, Father. That I continually pursue, that we continue to pursue your presence, God.

And as we walk into seasons of our church, where we're reaching more people, help us to have that heart, Lord, that breaks for those things that break your heart. For you love the world so much that you gave your son for it. Lord, let us not be people who sit on the sidelines and compartmentalize. We'll put God over here. We'll put you over here, Lord.

And then we do the rest of our lives. And maybe tomorrow we'll come back for a few minutes and do it again. And forget about you the rest of the day, but we can just continually throughout our days live for you. And for those who don't know you today, may they make a decision to receive you as their Savior. By receiving you, if that's you, just receive Jesus today.

Give your life to Him. Father, I make you my Savior and my King. I give you my life. I give you my heart. I'm yours.

In your name. Amen. Alright. Join us next week for part two as we talk more about strategies of prayer.