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Muskegon SDA Church

Steps to Christ

Kameron DeVasher

Repentance

Confession

Consecration

Faith and Acceptance

Royce Snyman

The Test of Discipleship

Daniel Jean-Francois

Growing Up Into Christ

The Work and the Life

A Knowledge of God

The Privilege of Prayer

What to Do With Doubt

In this series so far, we've emphasized the fact that not only that God loves us, that he communicates that love to us through creation, through his word, and of course in his word, the greatest revelation of his love and his will was Jesus Christ himself.

And of course, that's what the world is thinking about this time of year, is the gift of God to us in His Son Jesus Christ, and how He communicates that love to us.

But what we haven't particularly mentioned is that God expects the same level of communication in return.

Not only does He love us and communicate with us, He wants us to talk back.

And that's what we're discussing this morning in our message, The Privilege of Prayer.

But before we get started, of course, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you again that we can be here together now.

And at this particular time when we open your word to study this important concept of prayer, Lord we would ask that you would as the disciples ask of you to teach us to pray that we may have a genuine open and always growing relationship with our Savior.

There's a common misconception, at least in my ruminating about it, in my thinking about this issue, that prayer, because it is so personal, so intimate between you and the Lord, that it can't particularly be taught.

And if it were to be taught, it would be too formulaic, it would be too structured, and it would take away the spirit of prayer.

And so we don't often get into the nuts and bolts of how to pray, but we do talk about how not to pray and what to watch out for.

You'll be encouraged to pray and you'll hear platitudes like, pray hard, pray always, pray, pray, pray, And when you're done, pray some more.

Sounds good, but instructing someone to pray without instructing them about the process of prayer doesn't actually particularly help.

This isn't aided in the Christian environment we live in today, especially even in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Prayer has become a rather, believe it or not, hot-button issue.

You'll hear warnings against practices like contemplative prayer or meditative prayer, breath prayer, centering prayer, warnings against mysticism.

These are all rightly to be warned against.

We should watch out that we have a genuine relationship with the true God in the way that he has asked in his word.

But a danger that concerns me, even in these well-intended and necessary warnings, is that we accidentally end up denouncing the counterfeit, as we should, without thoroughly developing what the genuine actually is in the first place.

So we know that we should pray and we should pray hard and we should pray often and don't pray in those ways.

What should I do when it comes to my prayer time with the Lord?

First of all, and it might seem like a very small point, but I think it's very important to start with, that prayer can be taught.

It's not just a personal, whatever you feel like doing, whatever.

Luke chapter 11, in verse 1, Jesus was having his personal prayer time.

And again, when we're talking about prayer here, I'm not talking about in your personal devotional steps to Christ.

I'm talking about you and the Lord, your communication to each other.

Okay, Luke chapter 11 verse 1, Now it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that is Jesus of course, when he ceased or when he stopped, that 1 of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Is this implying that these disciples did not pray?

They probably grew up in homes where prayer was a part of it.

They went to church where prayer was a part of it.

But something about the qualitative nature, the way that Christ prayed, the sincerity, something about his personal prayer life was so significant to them, they said, Lord, whatever it is you're doing, teach us to do that too.

And again, I don't think that that's saying pray for the very first time, but Lord, it's almost as though we haven't been praying right all along.

And apparently, notice the implication that John also taught his disciples?

And they saw in Jesus' life something they wanted to learn.

So to their credit, when they didn't understand something, they asked for help.

Now this is not the only time that Christ would give instruction on prayer.

If you go back to Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, he addresses the concept of prayer as well.

Matthew chapter 5, I'm sorry, chapter 6, sorry, I apologize for that, starting with verse 5, Matthew chapter 6, starting with verse 5, Jesus addresses this concept of prayer.

And he begins with what not to do before he offers the model prayer of what to do.

He says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray.

They'll have a love for prayer, but what about the prayer was so significant to them?

In the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.

Clearly Christ is teaching prayer is to be heard by God not to be seen by men.

But their prayer life had become a public production.

And he says, the first thing you want to do when you pray is not do that.

They love to pray standing in the synagogues, on the street corners, that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly I say to you they have their reward." All they're going to get out of that prayer is the prayer itself.

But, now he goes, what to do, verse 6, but you, when you pray, go into your what?

Pray to your Father who is in the secret place.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Like your reward, the results of your prayer will be open in the rest of your life, but when you actually have that prayer communication with the Lord, it's private, it's personal, you go to your room, you shut your door, and you pray to your father in the secret place.

Notice this emphasis on personal, private, secret.

You should have a prayer life that's not just at mealtimes or in public things or whatever the thing, but you have an actual dialogue with your Heavenly Father, personally, individually distinct from all others.

And he goes on in verse 7, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions.

Vain of course means not just arrogant as we come to think of it, vain means hollow and empty, pointless, right?

Over and over and over and over and over.

But saying the same thing over and then saying the same thing again, saying the same thing again, And saying the same thing again, and saying the same thing again, and saying the same thing.

Well, according to Christ, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.

Did it ever dawn on your mind that heathens pray?

Do you remember the showdown on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and the prophet Elijah?

Back to Menu

Series

Steps to Christ

The Privilege of Prayer

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Antichrist: The One You've Never Known

Antichrist, Episode 2: Characteristics

29m

The Promise

44m

Opportunity Cost

39m

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

Reality Check

35m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 1

1h 8m

Stay in the Tent

42m

More Than a Weakling

44m

A True Witness

50m

The Parables

The Unjust Judge

38m

The Holy Spirit

Transformed By the Spirit

41m

Reprioritizing in the Last Days

Devotion to Agonizing Prayer

1h 4m

The NATURE of Happiness

57m

Sound Doctrine