Habits That Lead to Christian Maturity Lent 2002
Prayer
The goal in the Christian life is maturity.
Although we love little babies, we would be saddened greatly if they did not grow, learn, mature into fully functioning adults.
In the same way it is greatly exciting when someone first gives their lives to God through Jesus. We call them “babes in Christ,” “born anew,” “Reborn in the Spirit.” It is exciting, but we do not want anyone to stay as a baby. We want to see everyone mature in Christ.
Paul gets frustrated with the Christians in Corinth because they have stayed as infants. He says, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
We attain physical maturity by eating right, and waiting – it is something that generally just happens to us
We attain social maturity by the choices that we make – we choose to take responsibility, we choose to live as a grown up – we all know people who may be physically mature, even old, but have not yet chosen to be mature socially.
We attain Spiritual maturity by allowing God to shape us into the people he wants us to be.
Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O Lord , you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand
Jeremiah 18
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : 2 "Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord . "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
In this series called “Habits That Lead to Christian Maturity,” we are talking about habits that God uses to form us – formative reading, formative prayer, formative fellowship, Formative worship & formative service. It is not that we are forming ourselves like a body-builder “sculpts” his body, no, we are instead allowing God to form us – it is he who we are desiring to sculpt us – to make us into the people he wants us to be. It is by these habits: formational reading, formational prayer, formational fellowship, formational worship, and formational service that we are placing ourselves on the potter’s wheel and saying to God – go ahead you make me what you want. I believe that this is most real in prayer.
Richard Foster, in his book “Celebration of Discipline” says “To pray is to change. Prayer in the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ….
…James says: ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions’ (James 4:3). To ask ‘rightly’ involves transformed passions, total renewal. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves. Progressively we are taught to see things from His point of view.”
Prayer as Relationship
Bill Leslie pastor of La Salle St. Church in Chicago
- Evangelical, inner-city pastor, Church sponsored by Moody Church
- burnt out, goes to Catholic nun for counseling, says he feels like he is a pump, and everyone who comes by takes a turn at the handle, and the well has gone dry, its all been pumped away.
She tells him he is pumping of the surface: he has to dig the well deeper,
"Do you Know what you need? You need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
- Evangelicals can often put such a strong emphasis on conversion and theology that we forget about the relationship that we have been redeemed to.
Jeff & Judy
Jeff sees a picture of Judy, and says I’d really like to get to know that girl, his friend could have given him as many details about Judy as he possibly could, and then said, there: now you have a personal relationship with Judy Toman!
But this is the way that we often do discipleship - books like "Know What You Believe", "Know Why You Believe," "Know the Truth" - good books, and a good base for a relationship, but they are not the way that we develop our relationship with God
It is first and foremost through prayer that we develop our relationship with God. But it is not all types of prayer that help to develop relationship.
Doing business with God.
Many of you know the difference between a good friend and a business colleague. Good friends are the people that we share our lives with, we recreate with them, we talk about deep things, we listen to them. On the other hand the people at work, we may be friendly with, but our relationship is one that is based around the tasks of the workplace.
I think, especially for those who are in ministry, that we are often in danger of having a working relationship with God, and not a friendship.
We come to God with our lists of things that we would like him to do, tasks that we would like to have him accomplish, but we don’t spend the time to relate to him. Instead of being a friend of God we’ve just gone shopping at the God store.
Our prayers may even be answered, but that doesn’t mean that we have a relationship with God. When we call 967-1111 a pizza comes to our door, but that doesn’t mean that we have a personal relationship with the Pizza Pizza man!
Rick & Sam
Rick comes in to Evergreen and sees Sam, "Sam, this is what we have to get done today..." Sam says, "Good Morning Rick" Rick just continues, Sam again says "Good Morning Rick" until Rick finally says "Good Morning Sam"
Often times our prayers are the same way, we are running around in our lives and we stop for a second and say, "Oh, God, I need you to save my friend Susan, heal Aunt Bessy, and stop that stupid cat from digging up my garden. Now where was I..." And God says "Good Morning Mike"
Model for prayer
A- Adoration – praise and worship
C- Confession – dealing with our own sin & getting it out of the way
T- Thanksgiving
S- Supplication – asking for the things we need
Very good model, but it has an emphasis on talking, there is no letter for listening. Our most effective prayers will be the ones in which we are able to hear what God’s will is and pray it back to him.
"I am the ground of thy beseeching; first, it is my will thou shalt have it; after, I make thee to will it; and after I make thee to beseech it and thou beseechest it. How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?" - Juliana of Norwich
I am the ground of your asking;
First, it is my will that you will have something;
Second, I cause you to desire it;
And finally I cause you to ask for it, and you ask for it.
Why on earth would you not get what you ask for then?
Gary Wiens Burning Heart Ministries, International House of Prayer – Kansas City
Two models of Prayer: Two Stories from Scripture
Model one –
Luke 18
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ’Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ’Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ "
6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
This is what Gary says:
“What has emerged is a model of intercessory prayer that basically says, “We’re going to storm the Throne Room and throw our arms around the feet of God and not let go until He gives us what we require.” While this kind of persistence is commendable, it is not the kind of relationship Jesus had in mind for us with Himself or with His father. What Jesus is doing in this parable is drawing a contrast between the Father and the unrighteous judge. He is saying to us, “if this widow is able to get what she needs by unrelenting persistence, how much more will my Father give you what you ask for, since you are His elect ones, chosen with delight from before the foundations of the world, the Bride He is preparing for me?”
If you think of it, you may give in to your child if they whine long and loud enough in the grocery store, but it does little to improve your relationship with them
Model 2
Gary presents another model based on the story of Ester in the Old Testament.
Just to refresh your memories, The story of Ester occurs when the people of Israel are in exile under King Xerxes. Ester who is a Jewish woman is chosen to be Xerxes’ Queen, but she keeps her ethnicity and religion secret. Haman, who is the king’s deputy comes to hate the Jews, and he convinces Xerxes to proclaim a day when anyone could attack the Jewish people, kill them and take their possessions. It was like an ancient Kristlenaught.
Ester’s uncle Mordecai informs the queen of the plot, and tells her that she has to do something about it. Ester calls the people to fast and pray with her, and then she goes to see the king – a dangerous thing, for to come into the king’s presence unbidden was punishable by death. The king allows her to come, and asks her what she wants – up to half his kingdom! She doesn’t blurt out her problem, instead she invites the king, and her enemy to a banquet of wine that she will put on for them that evening. That evening after she has served them the king again says “there must be more you desire, ask what you want and I will give you up to half my kingdom!” Ester continues to hold her counsel and invites the king & Haman back for another banquet. It is only at this second banquet that she tells the king of Haman’s treachery against her people, and she asks that her people be allowed to defend themselves and that Haman be hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for her uncle Mordecai.
Gary Weins sees this as a model for our prayers. This is what he says, “This in my mind is the kind of intercession the Lord is offering us today – intercessory worship that is captured by the beauty and power of the King, knowing that as worship ascends before Him, He will invite our requests, …
The anguished petition of the widow-woman is no longer necessary. We have a Husband, and He is the King of the Universe, and is madly in love with us. Even the travail that happens is not from the perspective of getting Him to do something, but the joyful birth pangs that bring forth the result of fruitful relationship between a King and His Bride. The (Prayer) that emerges is rooted in worship and in joyful participation with the personal agenda of a King whose heart burns with love for his bride.”
It is when we can do this – set our person agenda aside, and come into the presence of God to serve and commune with him that we are able to enter into that wonderful that Juliana of Norwich was talking about. It is also then that our prayers become formative for us – not a time when we try to form God.
How do we do this?
Pray – it is a habit – often times begins as a discipline
Slow down! – be aware of the presence of God in your prayer before you open your mouth
Sit in quiet, worship, use releasing exercises to center on God and off yourself.
Give up your agenda
Listen
Learn – the disciples saw the marked difference between what they called prayer, and what Jesus did, and so the asked him to teach them how to pray.
Space For God – March 10
Seek His Face Night
Read a book on prayer every year.
