October 5 - Teach us to Pray
48% of churchgoers admit they haven’t experienced God’s presents in the last year! This must not happen here. This must be an alive place - it will be transformed.
Merve Griffith to Oral Roberts - is it true you’ve heard God speak to you?
Oral replies - Merve, God has spoken to you many times, haven’t you heard him?
Consider Jesus the worshipper - none like him.
Jesus learned to worship from His parents. Parents are you teaching your kids?
Jesus lived for God - intimacy Listening Trusting what he heard enough to do it
Prayer is essential to transformation - without prayer there will be no lasting change.
Prayer is to be rooted in worship and devotion, not rote memorization or mere correct theology
Modern - Postmodern battle over truth
Truth is not propositions - it is a person - I am the way truth and life
If truth was all it took we would be in trouble
Matt. 6:5-14 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
How not to pray
Most anyway you pray is OK as long as it’s real - don’t be phony
Mick Haase story
MT 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
Model - not Magic - Form not Formula
" `Our Father in heaven,
Relationship Lift up your eyes - focus on God.
Is your relationship with God intimate, personal, refreshing and delightful?
hallowed be your name,
Worship
We are too familiar with God. Indian tied himself to a tree in terror when he first viewed the grand canyon.
Remember the rush I felt when the tree fell - we need a Holy Rush brush with power.
Take time to be amazed by God - His creation, stars, miracles wonders
Be still and focus on God - do you hunger for Him? Do you see His majesty and wonder?
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Submission to God - what does your kingdom look like
I only do those things I see the father doing
What does the kingdom look like from your perspective?
How are you already working in my network of friends and family?
How can I be a servant in bringing your kingdom to my world
It’s all about God - it’s not about me.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
Simple needs CARE for Me - You already know my true needs, remind me of what they really are. Thank you for providing my daily needs so faithfully, so completely
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Where have I missed the mark
Take some time to develop Confession
God is so wise and smart - His ideas on any subject, my life, work, relationships, all are better than my own. Why don’t I listen more
Confession means I agree - you nailed it - I’m out of line.
Confess means to adjust to God - repent means to relinquish to let go - to forsake.
God where have I missed the mark.
Penance - Does not mean "Take a lap" - rather do things that strengthen your soul.
I am broken - I want to be mended - penitent souls are few
Forgiveness is the gift given to a broken heart and contrite spirit.
Take time for communion right now
Forgive me but also make me forgiving.
Is there anyone I need to ask forgiveness of right now?
How can I make restitution?
Husbands offer wives the bread - cup
Children offer it to parents. Let God mend your heart.
Kneel to feel my body in holy submission - adoration - I worship you
Taste to thank for the nourishment of soul -
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’
My personal experience with an attack from the evil one this week
Where is evil lurking in my life? What do I need to do to flee from evil
What are my temptations? Why are they tempting?
Expose the character flaws in me that allow those temptations to be a lure to me.
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Forgive me exactly the way I forgive my worst enemy - greatest betrayal.
Jesus was forgiving sins ’til He took His last breath!
How important is it in your life?
Conclusion
1. God will teach us how to pray
2. The Spirit will help us to pray when we don’t know the words to use
RO 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
3. God is faithful - when we pray as He teaches - He will answer our prayers.
JAS 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Begin today with prayer - can be silent, can be in whispers
You can pray with another in a circle of 2 or 5
We want to develop concerts of prayer
