Wednesday Bible Study- Spiritual Habits (Prayer) Associate Pastor Matt Passmore

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Hey, grateful to be here today as we continue our as we're going through uh spiritual habits, spiritual habits, and uh kind of basing it on out of 2 Peter.

And so if you have your Bible, open it if you will with me to 2 Peter.

Today, that the spiritual habit that we are going to dive deep in, and uh here here is prayer.

Um, it reminds me when I was uh in high school, my sophomore year, I was on the football team, and mind you, I didn't play.

I was a little bit scrawny, uh 115 pounds soaking wet, so they really didn't want me on the team, you know, as one of those, but all of the sophomores were kind of like that, so they keep us on the team to get us ready for future.

So I'll never forget we uh um my dad's a pastor, and so we go to play the very first game of the season.

So we go into uh the locker room, and a lot of the visiting locker rooms are real tiny, and so the the day would I I'd never been there before.

I'm carrying my stuff in, you know, and all of a sudden they go, Sophomores in the showers.

Well, then we didn't take showers, that's where we got dressed.

All the all the little scrawny sophomores were in the showers getting dressed.

So I'm in the so I'm in I'm in the shower area, you know, getting all dressed, and um, all of a sudden I hear Passmore.

That's all I went by.

I mean, that's what they call me, Passmore.

And it was kids, not the coach.

Where are you at?

I'm like, what in the world?

So uh there was this kid, this senior in high school, one of the better football players on the team.

He comes to me and he goes, Do you pray?

I'm like, Well, yeah.

He goes, Will you pray for my shoulder?

And I'm like, Okay.

And he looks at me and he goes, No, right now.

Mind you, all the sophomores are in the shower getting dressed.

Um he comes in there with all the sophomores, he goes, Can you pray for my shoulder?

And I'm like, Okay.

So I close my eyes and he goes, Can you touch it?

I'm like, okay.

I mean, and so I reach out and touch it, and then he goes, Can you pray out loud?

And I'm like, Oh, okay.

So I pray for this guy's shoulder, and I just, I mean, I just said, Lord protect, you know, just a prayer, and I said, Amen.

So, didn't think anything of it, got my uniform on, and we went out there.

Of course, I didn't play, and we won.

Then again, didn't he think anything of it?

Well, then the second Friday night, the second game of the season, all of a sudden, Passmore.

Here he comes.

Not only him, but another guy that got hurt the week before was wanting me to pray for him.

And so, uh, what do you do as a sophomore?

You know, I'm like, okay, so I prayed for him, and then it was time to pray for the whole, you know, the whole team to pray.

You know, and they're like, we want Passmore to pray for us.

And so this wasn't led by the coach, this was the players wanting to pray, you know, and so I mean, I'm just like, what, you know, I was nervous, right?

So we prayed, and um we did not win that game, and one of the guys that I prayed for got hurt, and they never asked me to pray again.

So, but you know how I mean, isn't it just what the picture of prayer is?

So many times we take it, we manipulate it to what we want to be, and when things are going well, we're like, oh look, we're doing a good job praying.

When things go bad, oh, we must be.

Let's try something else.

And so it's so easy to start just taking prayer and manipulating it to what we want it to be, to uh how we want it to be.

I'll never forget, a couple weeks later, you know, obviously we lost, so another guy needed to pray, right?

So this guy prays, and when he gets done praying, he goes, now let's go out there and kick their blankety blank.

And I'm like going, hold on, we're missing the concept of prayer.

You know, and so um, so that's what we're diving into today.

And let's pray and then we'll just get started.

Pray with me.

Dear God, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for a chance just to uh get into your word.

And Lord, just be challenged.

And Lord, as we are praying through just spiritual habits, Lord, um, and the reason we we want to be in a habit is something we don't necessarily have to think about.

We just do.

And Lord, we we we we want to be followers, believers that follow you do things out of habit because we are so ingrained in being in your word.

Lord, I ask you just to bless our time together.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Okay, as we get started, looking into in um 2 Peter, we're gonna start in verse 3.

2 Peter verse 3, and pastor's been reading this and kind of gone over it, but I want to read it again.

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who calls us by his own glory and goodness.

By these he has given us every great precious promise that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of the because of evil desires.

And this is one we're talking about today.

Because of these evil desires, it requires to know that's going on in prayer.

And so then we keep, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

And if we, in a way, look at that, it is a it kind of unrol it lays out for us even a prayer of what what we're kind of heading the direction we're doing.

In verse 8, for if you possess these qualities, increasing in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we've talked about what it looks like to have a spiritual habit.

And when we say spiritual habit, we want to develop the things that God wants us to be.

And we've talked about this as we've done this.

As a believer, we are called to be what?

Christ-like.

Do we ever arrive?

No.

But hopefully, in the things that we do, we look more like Christ today than we did yesterday.

And it's that continual journey.

And so today, one of them we're going to talk about is prayer.

So I was reading an article just the other day of just some.

Now, I'll be honest.

I did not look these up.

I did not proof them.

So the article I got them from is a trusted source.

And so we're just going to kind of, I don't think sometimes we realize we talk about prayer.

And I was talking just to the other guy, a guy the other day, and he says, Man, I get up in the morning and I read my Bible, but the one thing I lack is I spend all my time reading the Bible, and then when I'm done, I shut my Bible, and then I just don't have time to pray.

And honestly, in a way, if we're not careful, a lot of us can easily do that.

It's all about the Bible study, and sometimes the prayer kind of what?

Backs off.

So here's just some just some stuff I found that just to make you think about prayer.

Okay?

There are 650 prayers listed in the Bible.

There are approximately 450 recorded answers to prayers in the Bible.

The first time prayer is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 4.26.

It says they started at this time.

This is after Adam had another child.

And then it says after that they started calling on the Lord.

Okay?

We could say in the garden it was a prayer because what was Adam and Eve doing?

They were talking to the Lord Israel.

But when they actually called out to the Lord, the first time was in Genesis 4.26.

The Bible records Jesus saying 25 different times, I'm sorry, Jesus praying 25 different times during his earthly ministry.

The Bible, Paul mentions, in the Bible, Paul mentions prayer, prayers, prayer requests, prayer reports, exhortation of prayer 41 times.

Although prayer can and should be done from any bodily position, the Bible lists five specifically postures.

Sitting, standing, kneeling, with one's face to the ground, with hands lifted up.

So as we see, there's different, so so many times we get, hey, here we here, what prayer looks like, but have you ever tried to pray in a different position than just sitting in a chair?

Okay, God can listen to us anyway.

But sometimes the the uh the way we situate, the way we sit, are um can also set us up for a reference to the Lord.

Okay, the Bible lists at least nine main types of prayer.

Okay, I thought this was kind of prayer of faith, it was in James, prayer of agreement, also uh corporate prayer together, prayer of request, also known as petition and supplication, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of worship.

And then the Bible lists nine main types of prayer, okay?

All right, this continues, I'm sorry, number six, prayer of consecration, okay, dedication, prayer of intercession.

And then this one right here.

I'd never really heard this word, and Charlene had to help me.

We found it.

It's just a uh prayer of an oath, okay?

A promise.

And then praying in the spirit.

Okay?

Um when we when we look at prayer, and and we're gonna take some time to kind of look at the the model prayer, obviously.

But the idea of what does prayer really look like?

I I know there's and what when it comes to prayer, how easy is it to get to the end of the day?

And then all of a sudden you're like, man, I hadn't even prayed all day.

I'll just say this with a five-year-old, it's gotten to a point now we never forget to pray at a meal.

Okay, it's just a habit.

Because he's gonna what?

Hey, you uh we forgot our prayer, Daddy.

Um now I'll say, Well, do you want to pray?

And he doesn't never no, he doesn't necessarily want him to pray, but he says, we've done it.

And so part of prayer is the idea of, I think we could all say it's extremely important, but so many times what as we get going, as we start talking about prayer, a lot of it's just the idea of just getting to the point of doing it.

And so as we look into it today, prayer is an important part of a Christian life.

It is the way we communicate with the Lord and praise Him.

Now we all know that.

We all know that, or we should know that as believers, right?

But my question is this if we had a little survey, no one would see it but you and the Lord, if we were to say, How much time did you spend in prayer today?

Think about what you would write.

I want to think about what I'm writing.

This isn't about where are we at when it comes to prayer.

And a lot of, this is why we want to go back to it being a spiritual habit, is the idea, the habit of taking us to the Lord in prayer when it's not something that is planned.

I mean, I go through life different times.

There was one time I was uh when I was teaching, um, I was doing I was doing a church deal and I needed to get something out of my classroom.

In my classroom, I was in a portable, and I could almost drive up to my portable, and so I was in a hurry, school wasn't in session, so I went driving up to my portable to grab something, and they were about to have a choir concert.

Now, at our school, when you had a choir concert, they parked everywhere.

And so I knew I was in a hurry, so I pulled up, I got right next to my portable, I ran in to get my stuff, grabbed what I needed to do, I could start seeing people coming in, and I get in my car and I put my key in, and it goes click.

And I knew if I did not get out of there in the next five minutes, I was gonna stuck in there and I wouldn't be able to get to church, and I was the one leading the event at church, I needed to get out of there.

And how many times, this is my life, okay?

How many times do I instantly jump out of the car, start wiggling with whatever I I don't know anything about cars, so I can't fix anything, but you know what do you do if your car doesn't start?

You open your hood and look at it, okay?

That doesn't mean I know how to do anything, but I I know that part, you know?

And so you can get out, you can fix it, or you can get mad.

This is before cell phones.

I didn't even have a phone to call anyone.

But this particular day, now now hear me, this particular day, as I had been going through, I was in an area in my life that the Lord was doing things in my life.

Guess what's the first thing that came to mind when my car didn't start?

I wish it was all the time, but this time what was it?

It was pray about it.

I said, Lord, you know I'm about to lead a student, I mean, I'm about to go lead something at the at the church.

I've got to get out of here.

Put my key back in, and it started.

I get to church, and guess what?

It doesn't start and I have to get it worked on, but the Lord got me to church.

But do you see what?

Do you see what I'm saying?

When we talk about spiritual habits, so many times we can easily say, Well, I know I should pray, but the idea of are we in a spot in our life that we know the importance of prayer?

God could have, because he's God.

He could have at the school, I could have put that key in, it wouldn't have started.

You know, you know, I mean, it could have happened, it wouldn't have been his fault.

So I'm not saying I'm praying.

And so many times that leads me to where we take prayer and we the first thing we need to discuss here is what prayer is.

To understand the purpose of prayer, it is important to understand, first off, what prayer is not.

So I wrote some things down.

What I think prayer is not.

Prayer is not bargaining with God.

Prayer is not making my demands to God.

Prayer is not only asking God for things, prayer is not therapeutic and a exercise.

Like a meditation.

Prayer is not bothering God.

Here's here's here's I get phone calls at the church all the time that say, hey, I hate to bother you, but can I ask you this question?

This is what I do.

You're not bothering me.

And how many times do we say, God, I we're not bothering God by prayer.

Prayer is not bothering God.

Prayer is not a way to control God.

Prayer is a way, is not a way to show off our spirituality in front of others.

The best way to learn about prayer and the purpose of prayer is studying the example of Jesus during his earthly ministry.

If you will, take out, flip, flip it to your Bible to John seventeen.

To John seventeen.

Here is a the whole chapter is Jesus praying.

And the example of Jesus praying.

Um it blows my mind, which is that's not too impressive, okay?

I'm not I don't mind that.

That Jesus is God, and as I told the kids a lot of times, Jesus was God in skin.

He was a God, you know, and how much time he spent praying to his heavenly father, to the to God in heaven.

And we see here, Jesus in verse 17, or in chapter 17, just looking at the titles, it says, mine says, Jesus prays for himself.

If we look at it, it says, Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come to glorify your son.

So this is the end of his life, right?

Father, the hour has come and you're so uh to glorify your son, so that the son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

So he goes through and he's praying, knowing what's happening, and he's wanting God to be glorified.

Then if we skip down to verse six, he prays for his disciples.

I have revealed your name in verse six.

I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world.

Talking about the disciples.

Skip down.

I'd encourage you to read this, but just for time, skip down to verse 11.

He's praying for them.

Listen to what he says.

I am no longer in the world.

Because where is he?

He's about to die and go to heaven, right?

But they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me.

Keep going.

Skip down to 15.

Look at 15.

I am not praying that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

He's not praying to, hey, Lord, can I take them with me?

Hey, I'm about to leave them.

I've invested three years in these guys.

I they're ready, they're yours, they're trained, and we need them here.

So can you protect him from the evil one?

If Jesus is worried about the evil one, do you think it's important for us to pray against the evil one?

Now, Jesus wasn't worried about the evil one taking care of him.

He had his own.

But what he prayed that the Lord would protect the disciples from the evil one.

And then look in verse 17.

Sanctify them by the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

They're about to go out, Lord, protect them and use them.

Then if we look at the next title, verse 20 title, it says, Jesus prays for the believers.

That's us.

Listen to what verse 20 says.

I pray not only for these, talking about the 12, but also those who believe in me through their words.

I'm praying for the ones that have been changed by what the disciples have said.

And then in verse 23, I am I am in them and you are in me, so that they may, sorry, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

We see Jesus praying right here.

He prayed for himself, he prayed for his disciples, he prayed for his believers.

Or for the believers.

And then if we if we remember back, praying for that, remember um, well, let's go to this right here.

Jesus set the example as he prayed to the Father through his earthly ministry.

Luke 6, 12.

During those days, he went out to the mountain.

This is this is Jesus in his early ministry.

Okay, this is Jesus in his early ministry when he just finally got into his ministry.

It says, During those days, he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night praying to God.

Now remember, Jesus.

Had a connection with God that none of us have because he's God.

He still did what?

He went out and spent all night praying with him.

Then, Matthew 14, 23.

Now I want to take you to this one.

This, this, this is after Jesus.

Do you remember when Jesus fed the 5,000?

And when he was done feeding the 5,000, now I'm paraphrasing a little bit.

You can read the story, but when he was done feeding the 5,000, do you remember there were people there that were wanting to make him king?

I mean, think about all the things that Jesus had just that Jesus was doing.

He was healing people.

I mean, that's why there was 5,000 there, people there, men there, plus the wives and stuff, to hear Jesus teach.

Because Jesus was changing the world with his love, the things that he could do, he could heal people.

And then not only that, when he got there, he fed them all.

So they're like, oh, they were wanting to make Jesus what?

King.

And then you remember he went.

After he dismissed the crowd, he took the, or actually before he did that, he took the disciples, put them on the boat.

You remember he sent them on their way?

He dismissed the crowd, and this is where we're at right now.

After dismissing the crowd, he went up to the mountains by himself to pray.

Well, and tonight he was there all alone.

Have you ever thought about why at that time would Jesus need to pray?

Things were going well.

He just fed 5,000.

His disciples were on his side.

They were all heading that way.

And then all of a sudden Jesus says, Why don't you guys go ahead?

I need to take some time to pray.

No, I'm just talking out loud.

But it was important for Jesus to pray because what was he sent there to do?

He came to the earth to do what?

To die on the cross for our sins.

All of a sudden, all these kudos are going around, and oh, Jesus had to what?

He had to get back with Jesus.

So our prayer life isn't only when things are going bad.

It's when things are going good so that we continue to keep our eyes.

I can only imagine, hey, Jesus, or Jesus saying to God, now this is Matt Passmore paraphrasing, but the idea of, as Jesus was praying this night, Lord, thank you that we were able to do this.

Lord, help me, please keep my eyes on what I came to do.

And then we remember another prayer.

Remember the prayer that he took the disciples to the garden?

He goes to the garden, he takes the Peter, James, and John a little bit further, and then he goes in.

You remember the prayer he prayed there?

I mean, we know he did not want to die on the cross, even though that's why he came for.

Because why?

He said right there, he said, What?

Lord, is there any other way to get around this?

Can you take this cup from me?

But then he says, What?

But not my will, but yours.

Okay, so all these, the modeling of time he spent in prayer, the way he prayed.

But so many times we forget.

I can go up and say, let's pray.

And the first thing we want to do here, a lot of times, is we want to make a list of things we need to pray for.

And that is that is biblical, but it's a small part of prayer.

And um it's it blows my mind on Sundays.

We get, we Jessica compiles all these prayer requests, and it's like so-and-so needs this, so-and-so needs that, so-and-so needs this.

And so many times we forget the basics of why we pray.

And really the one reason we pray is to what?

To worship.

And what is worship?

So many times we think, oh, okay, we've got to sing a song because that's praise and worship.

But when we pray, worship is what?

When it becomes not about us, it becomes about Him.

And boy, isn't that hard?

Because the first thing I want to do when I start praying is what?

Lord, I need this, Lord, my family needs this, Lord, I sure could use this, Lord, I need your help here.

Lord, can you help so-and-so there?

And all of a sudden the prayer becomes about me and the things that I want, things that I think need to be done.

And we forget the importance of what is really prayer, and it's the time of what?

Stopping and remembering the God that we should be worshiping.

Here are some examples.

Some I thought was good enough that let's read some of these examples of a worshipful prayer.

A prayer and worship.

Here we go.

2 Kings 19, 15.

Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubims, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you made the heavens and the earth.

1 Chronicles 17, 20, Lord, there is no one like you, and there is no God beside you, as all we have heard confirms.

Psalms 86, 12.

I will praise you with all my heart, Lord my God, and I will honor your name forever, for your faithful love for me is great, and you rescue my life from the depths of shallow, which is Hades.

Okay.

Romans 11, 33.

O the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgment and untraceable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, and who has ever given to God that he should be repaid?

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever.

Amen.

When was the last time you sat down and there was a prayer of how great God is to you?

I mean, just like me, a lot of times I just start rattling off prayer requests.

But when was the last time you truly worship the Lord as you prayed?

And it wasn't about what you can do for me, Lord, but boy, how big you are, God.

How great you are, God.

On Sunday, the verse in Isaiah, just the idea of, it's just funny to me.

The idea of they collect all the gold, all the silver, and then someone makes a God, and that God has to be transported by man, but then man wants to worship that God that can do absolutely nothing.

And then the God that we're talking about, our God, the God we're talking about praying and worshiping to, spoke the words, and our world was created.

Spoke the world, words, and our world was created perfectly.

I was told if we were an inch closer to the sun, we had burn up, and if we were an inch further away from the sun, we would freeze up.

That's the God we're praying to.

That's the God we should be worshiping because of who he is and what he's done.

How we pray should reflect the purpose.

Our focus should be on the one who God is, not ourselves.

The Lord's prayer, we a lot of it can also be called the model prayer.

If you will, will you flip over to, let's flip over to Matthew.

Matthew 6.

There's two kinds of model prayer.

I mean, it's kind of in the same.

The one in Luke 11, one of the disciples said, Lord, tell us how to pray.

And so he pretty much the same.

It's a little different, but it's close.

But today I want to look at Matthew 6, 9 through 13.

Okay?

This is um right above it, Jesus, and I just want to read it to you.

If you look in Matthew 6, verse 5.

Matthew 6:5

This is during the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is teaching.

And then Jesus says this about prayer.

Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people.

Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to the Father who is in who is in secret.

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

When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words.

I don't like them because your father knows the things you need before you ask them.

That takes us back to the importance of prayer.

If he already knows what we need before we ask him, then what's the purpose of prayer?

The purpose of prayer is what?

So that we get right with him.

Okay?

So then that takes us to the Lord's Prayer.

People call it the model prayer.

My favorite part of the Lord's Prayer is the very first line.

Now it's all good, I don't mean that.

But the idea of Jesus doesn't just start rattling it off.

What's he say?

Right out of the shoot, he says, in this matter, therefore, pray.

Okay, here is how you pray.

Do it.

Here's an example of prayer.

So in this way, pray.

He just flat says it, and then he goes, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

Um, back when I and you've probably been around this.

Have you ever been around, hey, it's time to pray, and they pray the Lord's Prayer?

I mean, it it the Lord's Prayer was not given for us to memorize and say the Lord's Prayer.

Okay?

It is not to take the place of, it's the prayer of how to pray, not to memorize it and pray it.

Okay?

Now, is there anything wrong with memorizing it?

No, we encourage kids to do it.

It is valuable because it, but think about, he said, pray in this manner.

How easy is it sometimes to memorize something and get into the habit, or not in the habit, but just since it's memorized, you're not even really praying anymore.

You're what?

Just saying words.

And so pray in this manner, okay?

So let's just let's just walk down through the Lord's prayer.

And because Jesus Himself said, pray in this manner.

Okay, so here we go.

The first one, our Father in heaven is teaching us, and I'm trying to put a bullet point so you have it in there.

Many of you already kind of already know some of this, but so it'll help.

Our Father in heaven is teaching us to whom to address our prayers to.

The Father.

If you go to college events now and they pray, you have no idea who they're praying to.

We still have prayer.

I'm sorry.

We still have a public announcement that we call prayer in a lot of political events, but it's all of a sudden changed.

I went to one the other day and said, Oh, great one of the mountains.

I'm like, what in the world are they talking about?

You know, it's just, when they're done, it's just like, okay, that was a bunch of, I guess, good words put together, but it's not, it's there's no way, it's not even prayer.

Okay, we, if you don't start the prayer with knowing who you're talking to, it's not a prayer.

Hallowed be your name is telling us to worship God and to praise Him and who He is.

And that and Hallowed, He's the only one there.

I mean, He's the only one on the top.

We're not praying to, now, okay, I'm gonna say it.

We are praying to three people.

They're all three in one, so I don't, I don't, I don't want to get, I mean, if we want to, but you we're talking God the Father up on top.

Hallowed be his name.

He's the only.

He's up here.

There's not people up there with him.

Okay, so how is telling us to worship God?

Um, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Our prayer and through our lives should be what?

We should be praying that his kingdom come, his will be done.

And Lord, let me be a part of that.

Let me be where I need to be to be a part of your will.

Give us today our daily bread.

We're encouraged to ask God for the thing, we are encouraged to ask God for the things that we need.

But it still takes us back to the idea of, Lord, I think I need this.

But we have to be careful with the things we ask because we think we need stuff that maybe we just think we need.

Paul and his his his story just blows my mind.

I mean, how easy would Paul sit around?

You remember he cried out, Lord, please take this thorn from me.

And we see through the Lord didn't want to take it from him.

It was there for a reason.

I don't know exactly, I mean, we could talk about what we think it is, but the idea is sometimes the Lord's not going to take something from you because it's gonna remind you how much you need God.

Is that fair all the time?

I'm not saying that, but it's not about what's fair, it's about what, how, as a believer, the idea is I'm not mine anymore.

And you know what?

Sometimes when things go so great, it's amazing when things go so good, the first thing we get rid of a lot of times is the Lord.

Because, boy, that's pretty good.

Look, look what I'm doing.

And it's a it's a it's a shame when we're hurting the most, is when I don't want to say all the time, but a lot of the time, that's when the Lord works the best in our lives.

Because it gets to the point of the idea of Lord, I can't do it on my own, and I need you, and that's exactly where He wants us at.

So we wonder sometimes, my wife, we go through things and she says, Matt, I just wish you had learned what the Lord's trying to tell you because we keep doing the same thing over and over again.

Can you just figure out what the Lord's telling you so our family won't keep going through this?

And it's kind of comical, it's kind of something to think about, but in a way, I'm not saying it's true, but in a way it could be true.

The idea of the Lord keeps taking me through this so that I realize that I can just finally just say, Lord, I don't get it, but I'm following you.

I can be where God wants us, and it's it's it's the analogy too of if I'm out where I'm at spiritually is the idea of if I'm, and it's happened to me before, I'm working on the fence, I'm hitting my hammer, and all of a sudden I hit my thumb.

Why is it that sometimes I can hit my thumb and yes, it hurts, and I'm going, oh man, that hurts.

And then other times things are coming out of my mouth that shouldn't come out of it.

I'm throwing my hammer.

What's the difference in the two times?

I still hit my thumb with almost the same philosophy or velocity.

Why is it different those times?

Because it takes me back to the idea of who God is and who is in my life at that time.

Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

This is a big piece of prayer that I think sometimes we leave out a lot of times.

When we pray, we need to get right with the Lord.

We need to ask for forgiveness of our sins.

I was talking to a lady the other day, she says, I don't like to do that.

Well, who does?

Yeah, I'm serious.

It's the idea of I have to get right, and to get right with the Lord, is I have to do some self-evaluation of the idea of, Lord, what am I keeping from you?

What am I putting a wall around?

What am I saying, God, you can do anything you want in this area of my life, but do not touch this area of life.

But guess what?

This is the area the Lord wants a piece of.

So many times we we get so wrapped up in different things, myself included, that prayer is a piece of asking the Lord to deal with what's going on in my life, and I need him to forgive me of whatever it is, and I need to turn over to the Lord.

And in the process of thinking that it also takes us to the idea of there might be somebody too that we need to forgive.

The Lord works in miraculous ways.

And so the other day I was I was doing something and um on Thursday and I was preaching on Sunday.

I was just a little ramped up, and some things happened, and and I um I got into it with someone, and uh I was right, of course, but I didn't handle it in the right way.

And then Friday morning, I get up and you know I'm good to go.

It's Friday, and I read my Bible, and it says don't let the sun go down without you know, making the relationship right.

You know, it was just like, really, God, today you have to deal with that?

Can we not wait till Monday?

You know what I mean?

It was like, but but it's the idea of getting, it's it's just there is a time to get right in our prayers.

Not that we can ever be right to get God's attention, but the idea of, God, there is something in my life.

I got, there is an evaluation of our sin should be almost every time we pray.

And then the idea of the same thing is, Lord, okay, you've done this in my life.

Who do I need to forgive?

So forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, and then lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Sounds familiar?

He's prayed that for his disciples, but this is a plea for the Lord to protect us from the evil one.

And I it's real.

And I think in the plea for that too, I think a piece of this to help us from the evil one is the Lord praying out to the Lord to give us wisdom to understand what we read, to understand what we heard, so that we can help overcome this.

I honestly had someone in my office that say, this is just too hard to understand.

And I said, You're right.

If you're trying to understand on your own, it is.

So we set the Bible aside and we stopped right there and we said, Lord, give us wisdom so that when we read this, we know we can apply it so that what?

We can be delivered from the evil one.

And then prayer is an important part of a Christian's life, and one's prayer life should be developed.

So as we kind of close, um, I'm not as good as pastor as being on time.

He can go for an hour, an hour and a half.

So, but I do want to chat, I do want to challenge you this.

A prayer life is not something that, you know what?

I give my life to Jesus, and all of a sudden the prayer life's in my pocket and I've got it all figured out.

I will say this though.

I have learned this.

If someone comes, even a little kid or what, if a if a kid comes to me and they need to pray to receive Christ in the conversation, I used to say, well, here, repeat after me.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But I've started saying this.

Well, here's what the Lord's done.

You're a sinner, you need to ask God to forgive you your sins and come in and change you.

And I I I wish that I had started recording, started recording these prayers.

I had a little third grade girl one time at camp.

I mean, she was broken.

Lord, I have sinned and she's listing things she's done.

Lord, will you forgive me of these sins?

And Lord, I do not want to live in these sins anymore.

I want to turn from where I'm going and I want to follow you.

She's bawling.

She gets done praying and she looks at me and she says, Are you okay?

I was bawling.

Because it was, it was what?

It was her life of, I've given my life.

Isn't that what prayer is about?

She had no idea any rules.

She had no idea what the Lord's prayer was.

She just knew what?

She was calling out to the Lord to save her.

Then the other day, there was a girl that came forward in church.

We stayed afterwards and talked.

She says, I just need to give my life to Christ.

And I said, Let's pray.

And she says, I don't know how to pray.

I went through just the exact same thing.

I mean, just she prayed for probably seven minutes.

And she just told me she didn't know how to pray.

But see, the attitude of prayer starts with what?

I'm nothing.

Lord, you're everything.

And then as we think about that, it's developed.

When I say developed, it's a thing I'm going to go through, and it's a time.

Maybe you need to with your phone.

Now I'm not a big phone guy.

I wish we didn't have these phones, but we do.

Let's use them, right?

Maybe you need to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to pray.

And tell you what?

Get to have it.

We had a pastor one time come in, he gave everybody a little red dot.

A little red dot.

He said, put it in the middle of your phone.

You know, right where the that was back when the hands went around.

Now you couldn't do it, it'd be in the way of everything.

But you could put it right there.

And he said, when you look down at your watch, what do you see?

The red dot, what's the red dot going to tell you to do?

Remind you to pray.

Maybe you need to go, you look in the mirror all the time.

You need to put a sticker up there.

These two little people ask me why I have these bright.

My daughters gave them to me.

This is just a reminder to pray for my family.

In the process of doing this reminding me to pray.

Maybe you need to, as we look at developing, maybe you, you might be sitting here and saying, Matt, I agree with everything you said.

I know everything you said.

I just got to get in the habit of doing it.

And that's what we want to talk about.

What do you need to do in your life that sets you up, that requires, that reminds you, oh, I forgot.

I need to stop right now and pray.

And I want to challenge you in your quiet times.

When you're done, do not shut the Bible and think, okay, I'm done.

I've read my Bible.

The time, next week we're going to talk a little bit of how to pray through the Psalms.

Okay, and we're going to talk about what that looks like and praying through the Psalms.

But I want to challenge you today as we think about prayer.

And most everyone in this room, I didn't tell you anything that was new.

I'm just trying to encourage you, kind of just, but I do think, now don't get me wrong, I do think in this room we have some prayer warriors.

Okay, but I do think as we think talk about developing prayer, we can all, we can all do better.

We never completely arrive.

I think there's a day we will arrive.

Can you imagine the prayers?

I did a funeral today.

Can you imagine the prayers, the worship that's gonna go on when we're standing before the God of heaven?

I mean, what kind of work?

It's gonna be all kinds of prayers and worship and exciting.

And um I can't, there's no words I can.

I mean, it today really hit me as I was driving back about what heaven's gonna look like.

I have no idea, but I do know this.

It's gonna be better than it is here.

So uh, but hey, I just want to encourage you.

If you're not praying, get in the habit of trying.

If you're struggling with prayer, come talk to me.

Roger Haney will help you.

We got a lot of people in this room.

Uh Lee will talk to you.

If you need some help praying and chat and encouragement, please come talk to us.

We want to encourage you.

We want your prayer life to be better tomorrow than it was today and to continue to get better.

But let's pray together and uh thank you for being here tonight.

Dear God, uh wow, how awesome you are and um how great you are.

And it just still blows my mind of how how great and how mighty and how all-knowing you are, and Lord, you still want to have a conversation with uh with me.

And Lord, just how we can all pray to you and you can talk to all of us, Lord.

You are just that big of a God.

And Lord, as a church, Lord, as we're talking about developing habits, and Lord, help us be a church that is in the habit of prayer.

Um, the idea of when someone comes up and wants prayer, Lord, help us be engaged and willing to just pray.

And Lord, just thank you for that.

And Lord, help us as a church to continue to keep our eyes on you and make you number one.

Thank you again for all that you do.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.