Pray without Ceasing

Just grab our bibles. If you don't have a Bible with you, just

raise your hand. We're passing those out right now, So grab your bible

or lift your hand. If you didn't get a bulletin, also just raise

your hand. Keep it up. We'll find you as we pass out bibles

and bulletins. And if you would turn with me to First Thessalonians chapter five,

First Desalonians chapter five, and someone's going to say what happened to Romans?

It's coming next week, next week. If you're a part of this

church, you know that our steady diet, our nutritional intake is sequential exposition.

That's what we eat most of the time, right starting at the beginning

of a book of the Bible and working passage by passage through that book and

then picking another book. But every once in a while we take a detour

and spend a little time and the kind of a different type of message,

which this morning is based out of First Thessalonians five. And if you would

turn to five seventeen for Sessalonians five seventeen with me, and you can read

along as I read aloud for Sessalonians five point fifteen. Pray without ceasing.

This is God's word. I know. It's the shortest passage I've ever preached

from. I managed to get the whole passage into the title. What we're

going to do this morning is we're going to consider this text, this passage

of scripture, but we're also going to consider dozens of other passages of scripture

in relation to it as well as we look at what it means to pray

without season? What is that? Another question, what is the kind of

life that results from that? And maybe our central question, what do we

need to better grasp if we're going to grow in praying without ceasing. My

hope and my genuine prayer all week long is that in response to our prayers,

God would use his word by his spirit to do this work, this

work right here in his people, that He would grow us tremendously starting this

morning in praying without ceasing. And so if you're looking for a little bit

of a roadmap of how we're going to walk through this this morning, you've

got your bulletin there. There's some points and some blanks there. We're gonna

be looking at what it means to pray without rigidity right, pray all the

ways we're gonna be looking at what it means to pray without ceasing, right,

pray always, and what it looks like to pray without timidity. Right,

trusting that Christ is our way to pray. Right, we have a

basis. You can you could also talk about this roadmap differently. You can

talk about it this way. What do we need to grasp in order to

grow in this and I would I would say we need to grasp the variety

of kinds of prayer, the importance of constant prayer, and the basis of

confident prayer. So either way you want to think about that roadmap, we're

going to dive right in talking about the variety of kinds of prayer. Or

you can put it this way as I put on the slide and in your

bulletin praying without rigidity, pray all the ways without rigidity. I am convinced

that one of the main reasons for starving prayer lives, and specifically to pray.

One of the reasons we might fail to pray without ceasing is that we

get too boxed in on what prayer looks like. In other words, we

need to learn to explore and appreciate and enjoy the whole buffet of prayer that

scripture opens up to us. Right, So my whole effort in this first

point is to just make you hungry. That's my whole effort is to make

you hungry for prayer by being your tour guide on the buffet of the ways

that scripture opens up for us to enjoy communicating and communing with the living God.

All right, so I will be your buffet tour guide. I'll be

your banquet guide. Let's think about it. You don't have to write this

down like I'm not creating the menu. It's fine. If something pops into

your mind you're like, oh, that sounds like a tasty dish. I

need to try that. Go ahead, but I'm gonna be moving fast.

Let's think about, for instance, what the scripture opens up to us in

regards to the persons who gather for prayer, the way we gather for prayer.

For example, we have examples of public prayer. Public prayer. This

is the kind of prayer where an assembly gathers together and one person leads from

the front, and one person leads in prayer out loud, while everyone else

prays along with that person in their minds. We're accustomed to that kind of

public prayer. We have an example of that from Solomon, as he's dedicating

the temple. He prays a beautiful public prayer, and the whole assembly prays

along with him, and at the conclusion of that prayer God comes and fills

the temple in response to Solomon's prayer. It's gorgeous public prayer. We also

have examples of corporate prayer. Corporate prayers a little different than public prayer.

Corporate prayers when you're praying with and alongside and for one another. The Book

of Acts is filled with examples of corporate prayer, as the believers gathered together

and prayed for one another and with one another, alongside one another. I

had a former pastor who was He was used to say he was fond of

saying the Church of Jesus Christ was born in a prayer meeting, and what

he meant by that was it was when the disciples of Christ, the followers

of Jesus, were gathered together praying in corporate prayer, that the spirit of

God fell and the Church was born. And the Church, the live Church,

has been praying corporately ever since. Well. Not only do we have

public prayer and corporate prayer. We also have private personal secret prayer. Right

Christ instructs us in this way, saying, go into your inner room,

go to your closet where no one's watching, and pray to your father who

is in secret. And your father, who sees in secret, will reward

you all of these things, all of these ways of praying, delicious,

public prayer, corporate prayer, secret prayer. Don't miss out. If you're

missing out on any of those dishes, make sure you sample them, enjoy

them, come to feed on them. Well, not only the people gathered

for prayer, but let's also consider the length the length of prayers in scripture,

where we have a whole variety of lengths of prayers. There are short

prayers, there are long prayers. We have opened to us both and medium.

We've got medium, and let me just say pastorally, there are some

people who have only learned to pray short prayers, and we need to learn

to enjoy praying at length. And another thing, there are some who have

only learned to pray long prayers, and you need to learn to pray short

ones that some other people get to the buffet man, what about preparation what's

out on the banquet. When it comes to the ways that prayer is prepared

for, well, we have spontaneous prayer. That's very common. It's very

normal to pray spontaneous prayer. Something comes up and boom, you're praying.

You have this from Hezekiah. Hezekiah is he has an opportunity or sorry,

no, Neamiah. Neamiah has an opportunity to interact with the king about the

land, and he's just this opportunity's opened up for him and he just sends

up a prayer flair like okay, God be with me on this one.

Spontaneous prayer. You also have planned prayer, right, scheduled, disciplined,

calendard prayer. We see from Daniel as he has a discipline of praying three

times a day. He goes to his room, he opens up his window,

he faces Jerusalem, and he prays day after day. Even once they

make it illegal. He's like, I've got my calendar. I've got a

date with God. Yeah, spontaneous prayer. You have planned prayer. Also,

don't miss this one. When it comes to preparing the preparation for prayer,

don't miss this dish fasting and prayer fasting is a way to prepare for

prayer that beautifully, beautifully you you fast from physical food and learn to feast

on the banquet of communion with God that He has for you. He himself

is your nourishment when you prepare for prayer with fasting. Okay, so what

about wording. Lots of variety here when it comes to wording. You've got

extemporaneous wording in prayer. That's just whatever words come to your mind, the

words you use. It's just normal, right, Like when you talk to

a friend, you don't write it out and you just talk to a friend

extemporaneously. The words that come to your mind are the words that you use

to talk with God. Extemporaneous prayer see many examples of that in scripture,

but also written prayer, written prayer. Many of the songs are not just

songs to sing, but prayers to pray that have been written out for us.

And by all means, let's not read a prayer without our heart in

it like that. We've been instructed not to do that, but is right

and good to look at words that have been prepared for us and pray along

with them. In fact, most of the pastoral prayers that we start our

worship services with have been written by our elder team to lead this assembly in

public prayer. So you got extemporaneous wordy, you got written out prayer,

you've got journaled prayer, journaled prayer. I don't think there's an example of

this in scripture, but certainly script doesn't prohibit this. I think the only

reason why there's an example of it is because writing materials were so expensive during

biblical times. But I use journal prayers almost daily. It's some of the

most heated, intense, focused prayer time in my life is when I'm able

to. Not my mind is a wander, I just I'm able to write

out in a journal my prayers. So you've got extent perraneous wording, you've

got written prayers, you've got journaled prayers, you've got pattern prayer, pattern

prayer. Oh, let me just point out this dish on the banquet.

Okay, patterned prayer? What is it? I believe and most commentators do

that when Jesus instructed his disciples with the Lord's prayer, right, the disciples

said, Lord, teach us to pray, and he gave them what we

call the Lord's prayer, and I don't think that that was a prayer that

he meant for us to recite so much. There's nothing wrong with that.

There's something wrong with reciting the Lord's prayer as long as again we do it

with our hearts. But rather a pattern to pray right our Father, warden

Heaven, hallow'd be your name, right, adoration, your kingdom, come,

your will be done right, obedience, confession, requests. All of

these different subject matters are present in the Lord's prayer, And he's giving us

a pattern to pray by so that instead of our mind's just wandering off or

not knowing, you know, what we're what kinds of things we're going to

pray, we have that pattern to follow. And because it can easily fall

into just a rut, right, and the Lord has given us a pattern.

Now, if we're going to talk about groaning, sorry, if we're

going to talk about wording, we have to talk about groaning, right,

because all of all the different kinds of wording that there is to prayer,

there's also this one prayers where we don't know what words to use. We

got no words, and Roman says, but the Spirit helps us in our

weakness with groans too deep for words. There are times when we feel like

we can't pray because we don't know what to say, and the scriptures telling

us that's no time to stop praying. The spirit will help us. And

to quote John Newton, it is far better to pray with our hearts when

we don't have the words than to pray with our words when we don't have

heart. So, so many varieties of prayer to choose from. I hope

you're getting hungry, that's my aim. We've got preparation types, we've got

types of wording. What about this? Occasions occasions for prayer, Well,

you've got circumstance. It's occasions, right, So prayers that are occasioned by

circumstance. Hey, my friend's going to the emergency room. Let's pray.

Hey, this child is born healthy, let's pray prayers of praise. Hey

my kids aren't home yet, let's pray, right, Many examples in scripture

of circumstance occasioned prayers. But don't miss this dish. Don't miss this dish.

Scripture occasioned prayers. That's when we open up God's word and we look

into it, and we let it look into us, and we realize that

it is occasioning prayers of confession. Scripture is occasioning prayers of obedience. I'm

reading this right here, and I realized I need to step out in faith,

and I need the strength and the power and the discipline to do what

scripture is instructing me to do. Scripture is occasioning prayer in my life.

Don't miss that dish. What about posture? What about posture? I think

it was C. S. Lewis who said something along the lines of we

are creatures with bodies, and so how we posture our bodies affects us as

creatures. And it's true. There is a very big difference between kneeling in

prayer. You use a pillow if you're old, it's fine. But the

big difference between kneeling in a room with your hunch over your Bible, with

your prayer pages and your notes right there, and going to the Lord in

prayer in a posture of kneeling, then doing something very similar at the kitchen

table while you're just sitting there and your spouse is frying an egg. It's

different. Yes to both, right, You've getten that right, the variety

right, feast on both of those but then there's also standing. In fact,

the traditional Jewish prayer posture is not kneeling with head bowed, but rather

standing with head raised and arms up right, like my wife's favorite worship posture.

You see that. So you've got kneeling, you've got standing, you've

got walking. I don't know an example, and actually in scripture of prayer

walks, but I take a lot of them, and I commend that dish

to you as well. Just put in your headphone so people don't think you're

crazy while you're walking down the road talking aloud. It just looks like you're

on the phone. You got head bowed, you got head lifted, you

got eyes closed, you got eyes open, eyes open, please if you're

driving. What about voice? Saw that We've got variety when it comes to

voice as well. You got silent prayer, which is to say, we're

not using our voice around even sub vocalizing words. We're just praying in our

mind. It's one of the most difficult types of prayers that I can pray

because my mind wanders. But you know, whatever my mind is wandering too,

that's probably what I should be bring about. You got quiet prayer,

right, it's not silent. It's quiet. We are vocalizing. We're praying

aloud to the God of the universe, opening up our hearts and using our

mouths and praying to him either quiet, either secretly or corporately. But please

don't miss this variety of voice. I don't know that you've really tasted prayer

the way that you should taste prayer if you miss out on crying out with

your voice. And we are instructed in Scripture many times to cry out with

your voice in praise and cry out with your voice in desperation. That's why

God created automobiles so that you can cry out and nobody else has to hear

you. Un let's doing the car with you, and then that's weird.

Oh, and let's not miss the variety of subjects. And by subjects,

I mean this kind of thing. Prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving,

prayers of confession, prayers of lament, prayers of obedience, prayers of request,

prayers of intercession. So many different types of prayer in that regard,

and so often we just kind of get stuck with thanksgiving and request. Right,

thank you God for this food. Please let me do all in this

test. Right? But man, Oh, prayers of lament, so real,

prayers of confession powerful. Don't miss these items in the banquet that the

Lord has prepared for you to feast on, which is to say, to

feast on him, communion with him. That's all I'm trying to do is

make you hungry, at least with this point, I'm trying to make you

hungry, and alongside that, i'll probably I think I'm gonna give you three

warnings. I'm gonna give you three warnings, make you hungry, and then

warn you in these three ways when it comes to the variety. Number one,

don't ignore the variety. Don't stay stuck and boxed into one way of

praying that you're used to. Right, Don't be the Chicken nuggets kid.

You know, the Chicken nuggets kid. The whole family goes to the Indian

buffet. They got all the good stuff, they got ten Doory chicken and

Lamb Coorman garlic nun and the mom's like, oh well, he just eats

chicken nuggets. Don't be the Chicken nuggets kid. That's my first warning,

like feast, feast for crying out loud. My second warning is this,

don't mistake the variety for the idea that anything goes. Don't mistake the variety.

And there is a beautiful variety at God's banquet of prayer, But don't

mistake the variety for the idea that anything goes. We're actually instructed in many

ways how not to pray right. Don't pray with selfish motives. Don't pray

sweeping sin under the rug and just coming to God with requests when you know

that confession and repentance is what it's called called for. Don't pray for show

right, that you would that you would lead public prayer, or that you

would gather for corporate prayer and you would just pray for show. I mean

and public prayer are delicious dishes, but there are bones in there, and

Christ alerts us to them, saying, hey, be careful that you don't

pray for show when you pray with others. Don't pray just piling up empty

phrases. Don't pray with words and no heart. That His name would be

on our lips, but that our hearts are far from him. So those

are two warnings. Here's the third warning. Don't exploit the variety as an

excuse to not pray don't exploit the variety as an excuse to not pray.

In other words, to say, as some sort of biblical defense for a

thin and starving prayer life. Look, you pray in your way, I'll

pray in mind. It sounds like Ebene's are screwed. Right, you keep

Christmas in your way, I'll keep it in mind, which is to say

not at all. Don't say to yourself, well, hey, since silent,

spontaneous prayer is a biblical way to pray, then that's the only way

I'm going to pray, which is to say, I'm not going to pray

much. That's not what this buffet is here for. That's not what this

banquet is here for. This banquet is here for satisfaction and enjoyment all day

long and all life long, communing with God without rigidity, praying all the

ways. And if we want to grow in rich, fervent prayer without ceasing,

we are going to be helped by grasping the variety of kinds of prayer.

But also this, we're going to be helped by grasping the importance,

the importance of constant prayer. In other words, pray without ceasing, pray

always don't just pray all the way, it's pray always. That's what our

text here in First Sessalonians five says pray without ceasing. And I think I

think it's fair to say, although I hate to say that, we think

of this instruction as kind of unimportant. You know. I mean, for

one thing, it's really short, and we know it's from God, we

know it's in the Bible, but there's so many things from the Bible that

we're working on, and this instruction is sort of buried here and at the

end of First Theessalonians, with a lot of the others instructions, is it

really that important? Yeah, In fact, we're actually given this instruction or

something like it, this type of command a lot of places in scripture.

It's not isolated and think of From Philippians, but in everything, by prayer

and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. From

Colossians, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it. From Romans,

be constant in prayer. From Ephesians, praying at all times in the spirit,

with all prayer and supplication. From the Gospel of Luke. Christ instructed

them that they ought to always pray and not lose heart from first chronicles,

Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence, continually, pray without

ceasing. It's not a minor or isolated instruction. I mean, yeah,

it would be impractical if by this it was meant pray on your knees out

loud with a list without ceasing, right, that might be impossible. It

would certainly make business meetings weird. I mean that's it doesn't mean just that

type of prayer. Definitely that, Okay, don't miss on your knees out

loud with a list. That's delicious, more of that. But it's not

just that. It's the whole banquet of prayer that the Lord has provided for

us, and also a constant conversation from your heart to God that is honest

and worshipful and obedient and ready to repent, ready to receive grace, soft

to the needs of others, and aware of the grace in which you stand

in Jesus Christ. A constant conversation which is like the persistent digestion right of

this whole banquet that you enjoy of communing with God in so many different ways,

so many different varieties in praying, all the ways and also digesting as

you go in constant conversation with God. And the result of praying without ceasing

is Christ's likeness. To Christ's likeness, just a couple of elements of Christ's

likeness, just to serve as an example christ Like holiness. For example,

the result of praying without ceasing is a christ Like holiness because you are way

less susceptible to giving in to the types of things that would bother your conscience

when you are in constant conversation with the Father, an honest, obedient,

worshipful conversation, and when you do find that your conscience is bothered by something

you've said or you've done, like, you're not waiting for some far off

occasion of prayer. You're it's confession and repentance and the reception of grace right

now, right So we're talking sin and less and repentant faster because of a

constant conversation, and not just Christ's like holiness, but christ Like joy,

Christ Like joy. As John Piper said, praying without ceasing is key to

a life of joy. Praying without ceasing is central to the idea of abiding,

of abiding, and why did Christ teach us about biding? He says,

abide in me and I in you. Why does it? And he

tells us why. He instructs us to abide you. Remember why that my

joy would be in you and your joy would be full christ like joy.

That is the kind of life. There's a result of praying without ceasing.

And we don't pray without ceasing often because we've, like I said, we

haven't grasped the importance of it, or we haven't grasped the variety of prayer.

We lose sight of these things. But maybe also this we lose sight

of the Gospel. We lose sight of the Gospel, We lose sight of

the basis of confident prayer, which is why we need to talk about praying

without timidity, Praying without timidity, praying trusting that Christ is your way,

you know, because listen, it is fitting. It is fitting in a

way to be reluctant to come to God. There is a way in which

it is fitting to be reluctant to come to God. Did you realize that

as God designed the Old Testament system of worship, he created a place called

the Holy of Holies, which was meant to be a way for his people

to approach Him. But there was only one guy, the consecrated appointed priest,

who could do that, and only once a year. And he said,

listen, when you come to approach me, you better take it seriously.

You better do it as I have instructed and commanded you to, or

I'll kill him. Said, you need to understand my holiness. If you

don't understand holiness, you won't understand me. You want to understand reality.

So there's a sense in which the idea of coming to God should cause us

to say, woe to me, I'm a man of unclean lips. That's

a reality about God's holiness and our sin. And because of that, I

mean, we sense that, and I think that it is because of that

that we feel the need to pushure ourselves just writer say just the right words

or have just the right timing, and we find ourselves reluctant to come to

God. That's a mistake, because there is for Christians a deeper reality,

a more profound reality, than just the holiness of God and our sin.

And that is the reality that we have been made one with the high Priest,

the perfect high priest. Hebrews four puts it this way. We do

not have a high priest who is unsympathetic, who is unable to sympathize with

our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are

yet without sin. Let us, then, with confidence, draw near to

the Throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help

in time of need. Christ is your confidence in prayer, right, Not

your prayer's wording, not your prayer's posture, not your prayer's timing. Christ

is your confidence, not even your clean conscience. Is your confidence in prayer?

In fact, God says, bring what's bothering your conscience, Bring it

confidently to me, don't hesitate. In fact, that's that is a great

way to start prayer. If you're like, I don't even know where to

start pray, you can just start with these words, God, here's what's

bothering me on my conscience. It's a great way to start prayer and then

come and interact with the God of the universe with the confidence that can only

come based on your unity with the High Priest who is perfect. And he's

like, she's with me. I know, but by grace through faith I

have paid for it at all. She's with me. If you're not a

Christian. Do you realize that that's what Christ is offering to you. Christ

is offering to represent you to God, not just in prayer, but in

all things. He's offering to represent you and represent righteousness to God on your

behalf. Because he is God, he belongs before God, and because he

is human, he sympathizes with you. And because he's sinless, he made

payment for your sin. And he says to all kinds of people, and

trust yourself to me, and trust yourself to me. I will do this

on your behalf. This is the kind of faith that the Bible calls for

when the Bible says, put your faith in Jesus. That's the kind of

thing that the Bible is calling you to. And Christian, if we're going

to enjoy this whole banquet all our days, if we're going to enjoy constant

conversation with God, it will be because we have our eyes solidly fixed on

the High Priest. He is our confidence. Right, like the old hymn

says, your name is written on his heart. And you know that while

in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid you fence depart right. So

if Satan, if Satan accuses you, if he tempts you to despair of

coming to the Lord, in any kind of prayer, in constant conversation,

if the if the enemy accuses you, and and and and and tempts you

to avoid the Lord because you are guilty, you put your eyes on Jesus,

I'm with him. And then come, Come fervently, come all the

ways, Come, always enjoying his presence, without timidity, without rigidity,

and without ceasing Mhm.