Grace-Centered Prayer: What to Pray and How to Pray

Well, this morning we are in our fourth Sunday talking about prayer.

Each sermon has built upon the last, so I encourage you if you've missed one to go back and listen online.

Now, this week on Amazon, I ordered some shoo.

Does anybody use shoe goo?

Anyone else?

Like a couple of us.

It's a shoe goo is this special glue.

Like if the sole of your shoe comes off, you know, like it peels off, but you're not done with the shoes yet.

You get shoo and you can glue it and you put it back on.

I ordered that on Amazon.

Here's actually my orders from last week of Amazon.

Um some new bleacher seats.

It was time to up the game, you know, like at the bleacher seat game.

And so we got some new bleacher seats, shoe gu.

Uh one of my girls ordered a phone case, got some ink.

Uh my buddy Kurt, he texted me and said he had he had ordered and started using a weighted vest to work out in.

And I thought, you know, it's January.

I'm inspired to hit fit.

So I ordered a weighted vest.

Um, and so that's all incredibly exciting, real life, right?

Very incredible exciting.

Now, also this week I read that Jeff Bezos, with all the money that we're sending him, he uh bought three lots on Indian Creek Island in Florida.

Here that is, that private island.

He paid just 90 million dollars for the lots, pretty good deal, I think.

Um just 90.

You know, it was a good deal, could have been a hundred.

Uh so Bezos is mega wealthy, right?

We know that.

Mega powerful.

Um, and he is also involved in my life, right?

He helped Shugu come come to me this week.

Like he's involved in our lives.

So he's powerful, he's involved in our lives, but he is distant.

Jeff Bezos is not personal.

Now, back to my friend Kurt.

Here's a picture of my friend Kurt.

He's a pastor down in Florida.

That's us on a friend trip.

He's the one in the front with the beard.

Now, Kurt uh invited me this week to come down and play golf with him in Florida and go to the players' championship.

And I thought that was so nice.

What a friend just inviting you to come do something.

That's so great.

Um, but Kurt does not have uh wealth.

Kurt is not powerful.

Kurt lives in a very middle class neighborhood.

He drives a Nissan truck, he's just an ordinary guy in this world.

Uh so Kurt does not have power, but Kurt is personal.

So Matt was preaching last week, and Matt said, we pray to a God that is personal and powerful.

And I thought to myself, what if, what if Kurt and Jeff Bezos were the same person in my life?

I mean, I wouldn't be on Delta anymore, right?

Like I'm not on, I'm I would never be on Delta again in my life, right?

I'd just be like, yeah, I'll come play golf, send the jet up, you know, I'll come down for the day.

You can fly me back in the evening, right?

My life would change because personal and powerful together.

What would it look like for this person to be powerful, but then also to care about my anxieties, my family issues, my money worries?

What would it look like to pray to a God who is both personal and powerful?

So our question this morning is this how do we pray?

How do we pray?

And so I want to teach us through the Lord's Prayer, how does Jesus, what does Jesus teach us to pray?

I'm gonna do that quickly.

And then, second part, I want to quickly talk about practical ways to practice prayer.

All right, so what are we gonna pray?

Jesus is gonna tell us that.

And then how are we actually gonna do this?

Matthew 6, 9.

Pray then like this.

This is the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus is teaching us.

Our Father in heaven, the very beginning, puts us relationally in our positions.

We as children are praying to the Heavenly Father.

Point number one is that prayer is relational, a child speaking to the loving Heavenly Father.

That was our first sermon of the series.

We praise beloved sons and daughters of God, which means we are children.

Right?

And children are imperfect and they're needy and they're messy and they're little sinners, right?

I mean, this is just what children are.

This is who we are.

We are children in front of the loving Father.

God knows this.

Not as he knows this, he moves toward us, invites us to voice all those worries and that mess and that neediness we have.

Back to 6.9.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Hallowed be your name is ancient language.

We could say, May your name be sanctified, is us saying, Praise you, God, I praise you.

I'm your child, you're the loving Father, I praise you.

It's an affirmation of God's holiness and majesty into verse 10.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

So praise your name.

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

Point number two is this prayer is reverence to God, aligning our hearts with His.

So, you're my Father, I praise you, and I have all these plans for my life.

I have all these great ideas for my life, I have all these great ideas for all the people of my life.

See, I actually have a plan for all of your lives.

I could give you a plan for all of your life, right?

This is what we do.

We try to control everybody in life, and then we're praying it to God, all the great ideas, all the great plans we have for our lives and our family and our friends.

We're praying all this.

And God wants to actually hear all that.

He wants to hear all of our great, amazing plans we have for our lives.

But it's in this framework where we say, your kingdom.

Right?

It's a way to say, I'm gonna hold all this with open hands.

Praying something with tight hands is incredibly tiring.

You're not surrendering anything.

But open hands say, your kingdom come.

It's a way to say, God, I want your influence into all of this.

God's kingdom is God's influence in our lives.

In the book of Matthew, the kingdom is never spoken of as something we do.

In Matthew 6, 33, we seek the kingdom.

Matthew 12, 25, we enter into the kingdom.

But Matthew, Matthew never speaks of the kingdom as something we do.

For Matthew, the kingdom is connected to God's activity coming into our lives.

Your kingdom come.

In Matthew 12, 28, the kingdom overcomes us.

Matthew 18, 23, the kingdom is likened to God's forgiveness.

Matthew 13, the kingdom grows of its own accord.

Swiss theologian in the 1900s, Carl Barth, he said this.

The coming of the kingdom is totally independent of our powers.

We are as incapable of doing something toward its coming as creation itself.

So it's a way, when we say your kingdom comes, it's a prayer of saying, I welcome your influence.

I welcome your influence into the very concern, desire, anxiety.

I'm praying.

I think I have a great plan here, God, because I'm full of great plans, but I'm going to hold it with open hands.

And I want to align my heart to yours.

And I'm welcoming you to even change my heart.

A transition occurs in verse 11 to voicing our needs.

Give us this day our daily bread.

So point number three is this God delights to hear our needs, anxieties, and concerns.

He actually delights to hear it.

He wants to hear this from you.

Daily bread is speaking of all of our daily needs.

This is the asking for the very things that we would think He is below, is below him.

There's no way he could be interested in that.

There's no way he could.

He's God, He's the creator.

Our bills, our food, our friends, our stress, the way you're not getting along with your dad or your cousin or your neighbor.

See, God's greatness is shown in his majesty, his creativity.

Anybody see the sunrise this morning?

It was amazing.

I mean, God's glory is seen in that.

And God's glory is seen in his ability and desire to actually care about your anxieties.

What's more glorious?

For him to only care about the huge majestic issues?

Or is it more glorious that he can do that and he can also care about your heart, your concerns?

And so we get to voice those to God.

Verse 12.

And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Point number four is this as we live in confession, we live forgiven, and we live forgiving.

This is language that connects the idea of being forgiven fully in Jesus to the idea that we begin to live as forgiving people.

It's almost like the grace of forgiveness has like a tag-along friend who's just always around.

And that's us forgiving other people.

And the two just always go together.

You're not forgiven because you're forgiving, but as you're forgiven, it just starts to produce in you the ability, desire, willingness to forgive somebody else.

Last phrase, Matthew 6, 13.

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

This is a confession to say, I don't always think rightly.

My mental space is messed up, our hearts messed up.

I think things, I want to do things I shouldn't, I do things I shouldn't, I don't do some things that I really should do, all that's going on in my life.

God, I need your help.

Help me.

Help me resist the lies that attempt to take good out of my life.

Help me resist lies that destroy.

Help me to see these.

And as we pray that, as we slow down and we pray that, we speak those to God, God actually speaks to us and helps us and empowers us.

Okay, so that was Jesus teaching us what to pray.

The Lord's prayer.

Now I want to turn, I want to get very practical.

I want to resource you with 10 ways you can practice prayer.

I'm gonna move through them pretty quickly so you can take a picture of the screens with your phone if you want to.

I don't know if you'll be able to keep up with me by writing.

It's possible that you've never really practiced prayer.

It's possible you practice prayer, but it's just always been hard.

I think at the beginning of the series in sermon number one, I said, you know, who's been a Christian for five years?

Who's been a Christian 10 years, 20 years, 30 years?

And then we say, like, who is uh it's it's always it's it's can be hard to pray.

It can be difficult to pray.

There's been a season where it was hard to pray.

It's like everybody's hands go back.

It's just hard for everybody.

Prayer is just never gonna always be easy.

It's also possible that you do have a prayer practice.

You're pretty committed, you're dedicated, you're devoted, but it can feel stale, and sometimes it's just nice to switch it up and do something different.

So, ten ways to practice prayer.

And this is not an exhaustive list.

There may be a number 11, and it's your number 11, and I welcome that number 11.

So I don't want you to think this is the only 10 that exists.

Prayer practice one, pray your heart.

Bow, journal, walk.

I just want to begin by saying it's relational.

If it's in you, pray it.

If it's in you, pray it.

If it's going on in you, if it's a thought, if it's a concern, it's a desire.

Don't worry about the right words, don't worry about how selfish you are.

Just begin, just pray it.

Talk to God like He's a loving papa and you're the child.

Let's begin there.

Prayer practice two, the daily office.

This is the Anglican prayer guide for morning and evening prayer.

It gives you a scripture and it gives you a prayer.

The daily office is part of the Book of Common Prayer.

So you can buy the Book of Common Prayer as well.

There's an app for that that you can use.

It's a guide to help you to stop, to slow down, to pause to be with Jesus.

This is a resource, a way that you can pray.

Prayer practice three, acts.

We got any good Baptists in here, right?

This is how I was taught to pray.

The only way I was taught to pray was acts.

I didn't even know you could use something else to pray.

But this is the only way I was ever taught to pray.

All the Baptists know exactly what I'm talking about.

Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

Supplication is a big word for petition or asking for stuff.

And this is how good Baptists are taught to pray.

And it is a great framework.

It's a great model for how to pray.

Adoration, I praise you, God.

Confession, God, here's what's going on.

I messed up here.

Thank you that you fully forgive me.

Thanksgiving, God, thank you for this, and thank you for this.

Supplication, God, I need to ask for this and this and this is going on.

Do something here.

So that's prayer practice three.

Prayer practice four, John Calvin's four rules of prayer.

1500s theologian.

He taught these as four guides: reverence, a deep sense of need, humility, and trust.

So you can use that as a framework.

Prayer practice five.

Help, thanks, wow.

This is Anne Lamont's book on prayer, her three prayer method.

I love it because I just need things to be simple.

Like Calvin's four rules of prayer.

I'm like, that's great, man.

But that feel that can even that can feel a little theological for me.

Like, can we get it simple?

Hey, help, thanks, wow.

Help me with this, help me with this, I need help with this, I need help with this.

Thank you for this.

Thank you for this and this and this and this.

Wow.

Wow, God, I didn't see that you you started to do this thing.

Or wow, I thank you for provide.

Wow, that's an amazing sunrise this morning.

Help, thanks, wow.

Prayer practice six.

Pray the psalms.

The psalms are considered the prayer book of the Bible.

There are prayers of pain and sadness, there are prayers of joy, there's prayers of praise.

All the wildness of the range of your emotions that you have are in the Psalms.

Everything is in there emotionally.

And so wherever you're at, you can pray the Psalms.

You can pray your way through the Psalms.

You can pray sections of the Psalms.

Prayer Practice 7, the Valley of Vision.

This is a Puritan prayer book.

This is one of my prayer practices that I use.

I keep this book with me wherever I go.

And it's my morning devotion and my morning prayer.

Prayer practice eight.

Listening prayer or centering prayer.

This is also called Lectio Divina.

It's a practice of using scripture in prayer, where you read the scripture and then you sit quietly and reflect on it.

You read it again, the same passage, and sit quietly again.

And you're not just reading the scripture, you're letting the scripture read you.

And as you let the scripture read you, you're listening to what God is saying to you.

And a word or a phrase.

Lectio 365 is a great app, a guide for you to use for this.

Prayer practice nine.

Worship songs.

This is one of my practices.

I walk and I listen to praise music.

Here's my Rust Worship 24.

I made it at some point last year.

This four-song list, I go for a walk.

I listen to these.

They're very prayerful, worshipful songs for me.

You can make your own list.

You don't need my list.

You can make your list and you can make a list.

You can go for a walk, sit in a chair, ride in your car.

That can be a prayer practice for you.

Prayer practice 10.

Practice the presence.

In the 1600s, Brother Lawrence was a friar, and he discovered, he discovered that he could include God into the everyday parts of his life.

And so he wrote this book, The Practice of the Presence of God.

That God didn't have to be segmented to just these sacred church moments, but actually doing the chores, working in the yard, doing the dishes.

You can include God into your actual living.

And he is a welcoming us as this is a prayer practice.

Just welcoming God into that, to commune with you, to converse with you as you live your daily life.

Now I give that, all of that to you, not to put you to work.

Like I said, you may only connect with one or two of these, maybe three or four, maybe just one.

Maybe you have an 11th or 12th one.

I even think about.

I just give them to you as ideas.

But we cannot end there.

We have to have one more point.

Point number five: God delights in us, not because of our amazing prayer life, but because Jesus is enough for us.

Our faith walk is inside of the secure relationship that we have with Jesus.

Our prayer life is inside of the secure relationship we have with Jesus.

His delight is not going up and down, whether we have a great prayer life or poor prayer life.

God's delight in you is secure.

It's relational, it's not transactional.

A few weeks ago, our family went to Orlando to help my in-laws pack up their second home.

They'd had this home for 25 years.

It'd been a great retreat home for them, for family members, for friends would go to this home.

But the seasons passed, and so they sold the home.

They're giving stuff away, they're selling stuff, they're packing stuff up, and we went down to help them pack.

One afternoon, my father-in-law stood on the little dock and we fished in a little fishing lake that they have.

Here's a picture of that dock and that fishing lake.

And we stood there and fished.

And then the next day we stood and we watched some guys trailer the little pontoon boat and haul the pontoon boat off.

Now, my father-in-law is a man of very few words.

And so as we watched them trailer this boat, we stood there for like 10 minutes.

Total silence sitting next to this man for 10 minutes, total silence.

I've learned it's okay, is what I've learned.

25 years it took me to learn it's okay.

It doesn't mean anything.

It doesn't mean he doesn't like me.

It's just he's a quiet man.

And then he says, We were the last two to fish from that boat.

Translation.

Translation.

This place has meant a lot to me.

And I am grateful that we got to fish together.

That's the translation.

That evening, Christy and I went to dinner with them.

And we just talked about how God's been so faithful for the past 25 years.

And so good.

And then I got to reflecting on this prayer series.

Because what if my relationship with my father-in-law was only transactional?

Just asking for something and getting it or not getting it and getting upset and then asking again and getting something or not getting it.

Imagine if there was no fishing on the dock.

Imagine if there were no meals, no conversation, no relationship, no real honesty, just ask, get, ask, don't get, ask again, just transactional.

Well, that would feel incredibly surface.

It would feel incredibly cheap.

See, prayer's not just asking.

It is.

It's not just asking.

It's communion.

It's being with God.

It's including God into your life.

It's relational.

It's letting him into your heart and your life.

I close reading again Pastor Scotty Smith's words about prayer.

Prayer does not close the gap between us and God.

The gospel abolished the gap.

Prayer is where we risk believing there is no gap, just grace upon grace.

God does not love us to the extent we are like Christ, but to the extent we are in Christ, which is already 100%.

Prayer is the welcome, oxygen, landscape, surgery, feast, playground, ocean, horizon, and sanctuary, where we come alive to the God of love and the love of God.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you see us as your children, and while we are messy and needy and sinful, you fully love us as the perfect, loving Abba in heaven.

Thank you that you are not distant, that you are both powerful and personal, and that you are near.

Would you help us to pray more?

To include you more into the anxieties and fears that we have?

Would you help us to praise more, to thank more, to hold with open hands all of our great ideas?

Teach us to say, Your kingdom come.

Teach us to say amen.

To say so let it be.

And help us to rest all the more in Jesus, who is enough for us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.