On Prayer | Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11 | February 18th, 2026

This evening I am excited about um

something that God has laid on my heart.

You know sometimes when I'm preaching I

am preaching because this is what God

has led me to do for the church. And

sometimes a lot of times that is also

overlaid with what's going on in my own

heart. And I would tell you tonight that

as I have wanted to preach on prayer um

it's because I need to be reminded of

the importance of prayer and the

importance of some things here. This is

a sneak attack tonight. A bit of a sneak

attack.

And I'm kind of sad to say sneak attacks

are sometimes necessary. And uh that

this one is sometimes u viewed at this.

There's a portion of the church in

Christendom

that loves the concept of prayer.

and that portion of the church, you

don't have to preach to them on prayer

very often. Um, they have learned of it,

they love it, they love to go and

commune with God and they've learned to

do that. But unfortunately, that portion

is not very great.

Um, some people get excited about

prayer, but some people feel differently

whenever you announce a message on

prayer. So, I didn't send you a text

today saying that I was going to preach

on prayer. I didn't announce that

earlier um at any given point.

If we aren't exuberant

about prayer,

what are some reasons why

maybe our heart is hesitant? Maybe we're

not excited. Can we be honest? Why

sometimes is prayer a

>> Why [snorts] is prayer tempting to be a

yawn to us?

>> Guilt.

>> Say it again.

>> Guilt.

>> What do you mean by that?

>> He said guilt.

>> Yeah. If you're going to be honest

before the Lord, that's a tough thing to

do. So sometimes you just rather put it

off.

>> Okay. not to pray.

>> Okay. So, guilt maybe in that we are

choosing not to pray and if we're going

to hear a message on prayer, it maybe

could make us feel guilty, right? Okay.

Yeah. And maybe if we're going to talk

about guilt, it may be another whammy in

that what often keeps us from prayer?

>> Sin.

So let's go with sin just generally

first. But sin I I'm you know I know

this thing is in my life so I can't

pray.

I know my fight with my husband or my

anger toward my husband makes it so I

can't pray. my fight with my wife, my

thing [snorts] that's going on at work,

this issue of sin

keeps me from praying because God will

not hear my prayers because I'm

regarding this thing in my heart.

And then you're gonna boy, teach me

something about the wilderness or teach

me something about some theology that I

can get my head into, but don't talk

about communion with God because I'm not

real good with that right now. So an

aversion, maybe a boredom, something

like that.

Arl, I heard your voice. Pride. What do

you mean by that? How can pride keep us

from prayer?

>> Real loud, brother.

Yeah,

>> you said despair. Is that right? So

sometimes pride or sometimes despair

maybe makes us feel a lack of faith.

What are some other reasons that we

don't pray? Yes.

Okay. What do you mean by that? She said

ego. What do you mean by that? Real

loud.

>> What you guys were just mentioning about

I got this. So our own flesh,

right? It's hard to actually

be relusing.

>> Yeah.

>> And part of it may be just I'm really

busy.

>> I'm really I'm really busy and I I'm I

wake up tired.

and and you we talk about getting up

earlier and I wake up tired and I've got

this and these, you know, I think about

Danny or or Gabe or all all these

different things, these clients, these

whatever um employees that I got to deal

with or a boss that I have to keep happy

or a system that I have to keep going at

work and I'm tired and I'm overwhelmed

and we can go in our rat race, right?

These kids, my my children, I got to

feed them. I gotta watch them. I gota I

got to do all this stuff and it's it's

then I got to deal with the next thing.

So, none of this seems very peaceful and

some of the busyiness of it, whether

it's sin or whether it's pride or

whether it's busyness, there's all these

things that keep us from praying. And

then when a a sermon comes up on prayer,

we go, "Uh,

where am I with the Lord?

Why don't I pray like I should?"

Well, tonight I want to I kind of want

to start something to help us break out

of that a little bit and encourage you

with this. And when we when we look at

this, um, I believe from God's

perspective tonight, I believe that

you'll you'll find yourself encouraged

and move towards something. Now, I I

hope that we're prodded. I hope that

we're stung a little bit. The word of

God stings us sometimes, but it also, we

just sang this, and I think I brought

the lyrics of this sermon or this song

that we just sang. I love this. I mean,

the two songs that we just sang were

inviting us,

inviting us into the Lord, and we we

believe the gospel. The gospel is that

which comes and rescues us and and

invites us to him. He invites us. He's a

he's an all-consuming fire. But he

invites us into him.

Why do we stay away from him?

We believe he's a God of grace.

So, let's go ahead and live that out.

Let's go ahead and pursue him. Listen to

the verse four. It says, "Who else could

rescue me from my failing?

Who else would offer his only son? Who

and who else invites me to what?"

>> Just think about that. Who else invites

me to call him father? You know, we

could make another line here. Who else

invites me to come to him at any time?

Who else says, "Come and I won't condemn

you.

I love you so much.

My only son died in your place." And so

we stay away from him.

because of our sin. We stay away from

him because of our pride. We stay away

from him because of our ego. We don't

need him. We Why would we stay away from

that kind of God

when he says, "Come to me." And Jesus

would even say, "Come to me all you who

are weary and super busy."

Because that's kind of what heavy laden.

You're super busy.

And what does he say? And I will give

you rest.

>> Rest. You know, so often Americans

especially

crave rest. Now the Spaniards, who of

you come from Spanish blood? Anybody

come from Spanish blood? That Ivan, of

course. Yeah. All right. You Spaniards,

there was a report out Spaniards get the

least sleep on the earth. Did you know

that? I mean, I don't know what it is.

They're afraid of missing something or

whatever. But have you been to Spain? Do

you know what time restaurants open in

Spain?

At like 900 p.m. They open at 9:00 p.m.

As Americans living in Spain, we would

wander around cities looking for food

because they didn't even open yet. We

had two small girls with us, and we

would we would we would only find the

24-hour restaurants. Those are the only

ones we could eat at. If we found a

regular restaurant, we were their first

clients every single time. There was

nobody in the restaurant yet. A

restaurant, Spanish people will show up

at 11 or 12:00 at night to have dinner

with small children on a weekday.

Um, it's crazy. And uh, so it's it's

really kind of funny, but no wonder they

have to go home and take a siesta in the

middle of the day, right?

But, you know, Americans, we we're often

tired because we work really hard

typically. Um, quite honestly, our diet

is not that good. We're eating a lot of

poison. That makes you tired, too. It's

really true. I mean, I'm becoming more

the older I get, the more sensitive I

get to trying to take care of myself.

And the more I realize how much garbage

we eat and all of that stresses us out.

doesn't make us feel well and then all

of this stuff keeps us away and Satan

all the while

is lying to us,

lying to us about one of the greatest

opportunities that we have. Um then the

other song that we sang a few minutes

ago

in verse two it says, "Oh Lord, my rock

and my redeemer." What does it say

there?

>> Strong defender of what?

>> My weary heart.

You're my sword to fight the cruel

deceiver. He's the deceiver. He's lying

to you. He's trying to get you to sin.

He's trying to get you to stay away from

God. He wants you to do anything except

pray.

the cruel deceiver and he's my shield

against his what? His hateful darts.

That's when he's lying to you. He's

accusing you. The but Satan is called

the accuser of the brethren.

You're my song when enemies surround me.

You're my hope when tides

of sorrow

rise.

you know, things that make your heart

sad. He's he's the hope. You're my joy

when trials are abounding. You're my

faithfulness,

my refuge in the night.

So, if we're going to talk about prayer,

why why do we stay away from this?

Now, I have chosen a few pictures of

nature. I've chosen a few places there.

You guys, we lived and I didn't I didn't

really take the time to find the actual

pictures and maybe next Wednesday night

I may do that.

We lived in a city called Bezon, France.

It's hard to pronounce. Um, Bezon was an

interesting town. It was in a forest.

It's in an area called The Jurora. J U R

A. The Jorah is like the Shire. Any Lord

of the Rings fans? Anybody? Anybody

likes Lord? When you look at the Shire,

what

what comes to your mind when you look at

the Shire?

>> Green, right? Green grass, lush peace.

We lived in the Jurora of Bisonong and

that town. I mean, not not very far

anywhere in town is a forest. We lived

with trees in our backyard and there was

a winding

road behind our house

and um I would often go back I would

come back from the craziness of North

Africa for weeks

and busyiness of Alers 14 million people

uh crazy town I mean just hostile

I would be from the desert I would come

in. I would be down on the edge of the

desert for weeks sometimes. And I loved

it because of the guys there and I loved

it because of the people I was

discipling. But everything is hostile

there. Everything is grading and there's

when you're at the desert, it's hot and

it's dry and there's no trees. And then

I would come home to Pezon

and I would be I would I'd sleep for a

couple of days after those trips

typically

and um and we would we would just

restore in those places.

But when you see pictures like these,

I I want you to know that that's I think

the mind and the heart of God for you to

be with him.

a place of peace and beauty

and soloulless and refuge.

And so for a couple of weeks, I want us

to deal with this issue of prayer. And I

hope that as we wash through this a

little bit tonight, we're going to see a

lot of what the Bible says about prayer.

And then next week, we're going to take

some time to see what some great

Christians of the past have said about

prayer. Now, they're great Christians,

which means out of the millions and

millions, hundreds of millions uh of

people who have lived over the last

2,000 years, and we look at what they

say about prayer, I think that there's

something to gain from what

um Charles Haden Spurgeon believed about

prayer. I think there's something to

gain from what Augustine said about

prayer, what Peter Waldo said about

prayer. I think there's something to

gain from what Martin Luther and John

Calvin said about prayer. I think

there's something to gain from what John

Owens said about prayer and how they

structured their life because all of

those men were people of prayer and I

think that we can be people of prayer.

So you have your outline there. Let's

look and let's see what the first and

foremost person would say about prayer.

put out there to the side. We're we're

going to look at Matthew um 6:19

through13 for just a minute from of

course our Lord Jesus Christ. But put

out there to the side Luke 11. In Luke

11,

the disciples came to Jesus and they

said, "Lord,

teach us to pray."

Now, if you can help me out for a

second, why would the disciples, what

would have what would have prompted them

to ask Jesus

to teach them to pray?

What what was that, Kath? Yeah, Kathy

Kelly

and maybe it promps them to say, "Teach

us to do what you're doing."

>> Okay. So, they're saying they were

watching Jesus. Now, for those of you

who have been studying the Bible a

little bit, just tell us under what

circumstances did the disciples see

Jesus pray? When when

they were watching him pray, when when

did they see him pray?

>> Okay, somebody said all the time. That's

probably a good word.

>> Okay. He would he would pray as he was

breaking bread to eat. He would give

thanks to to heaven, right? When else

would we see in the gospels that they

would have seen him pray? When else you

started to say it, Robin?

>> Okay. So, he would go be by himself

>> in the 40 days that he was

>> right and the 40 days that you know that

was kind of before his ministry started.

But nevertheless, he they would have

heard about that. And then but he would

go up on the mountain would pray and it

would say there's a couple of places in

the gospels where it says and he would

go and pray early and listen to this it

would say as was his custom.

So Jesus's life was a life of prayer and

it was so much so that eventually the

disciples said okay Lord what are you

doing when you go off over there and you

pray?

So sometimes they would maybe hear him,

but sometimes they would not hear him.

But whatever it was, they were asking

him, "Lord, would you teach us to pray?"

And [snorts] we we see that in Luke 11

and is actually as you study the

gospels, you see that Jesus was talking

about prayer a lot. He had a lot to say

about prayer.

And there were times when he told us how

to pray and there were times when he

told us how not to pray.

Do you ever recall when Jesus corrected

them about prayers?

What did Jesus say in how not to pray?

>> Okay, so somebody said repetitious.

He said, "The Gentiles think that they

will be heard by God for their many

words."

And so the idea is this these prayers

that you're supposed to pray, he said,

"Don't pray like that. Don't pray

prayers that you're supposed to pray."

Can Baptists be guilty of that?

Our heavenly father, we thank you for

this food. We thank you and we bless

that you would bless it to the

nourishment of our bodies and we our

bodies to your service in Jesus name.

Amen. Okay. Attack.

By the way, the the French say attack

when it's when when it's time to eat.

It's attack. I love that. Um but you

know, seriously though, as evangelical

Christians, we can have prayers that we

just run through.

I would encourage you not to do that.

Now, Marcy will occasionally say, "Uh,

Andrew, please don't have your quiet

time at the dinner table. The food's

going to get cold."

So, you know, she's just being honest.

She's saying, "If you didn't pray

earlier today, then, you know, please do

that, you know, after dinner, but don't

do that. Don't make up all your prayer

right here at dinner cuz the food's

going to get cold. I've worked very hard

for us to have hot food." Now, my wife

is not that carnal. I mean, it's not

like she doesn't want me to pray or us

to pray,

but she's got a point.

How else does the Bible say not to pray?

Matthew,

>> we may not pray like hypocrites

to be seen on the street corners or be

seen in the places of honor synagogue.

>> Very good. So there's one particular

time or excuse me two particular times

where Jesus actually calls out people

praying to be heard in public to be

seen.

And Jesus in fact would say, "But there

was a publican that was in the back of

the temple, back in the synagogue, and

he's back there in the back of the

synagogue

beating on his breast, saying,"Lord God,

have mercy upon me, a sinner,

because

he

he doesn't deserve

God's grace and forgiveness." So Jesus

had a lot to say about prayer. He told

us how to pray. He told us how not to

pray. Let's see what he says here. Jesus

gives this model prayer for us. Um, and

he says, "Pray then like this. Our

father

in heaven,

holy or 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 also have

forgiven our debtors

and lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil. Now there's

different versions of this in the

gospels because he probably taught this

numerous times and that none of them

conflict with one another but they they

have different aspects that they

emphasize in the way Jesus taught them

to pray. Now this these words many many

Protestants and Catholics have memorized

these words and there are some churches

that every week they recite these words

and there's nothing wrong with that.

It's often a good thing to do. However,

for us to think that these were the only

words that Jesus prayed would be

completely false. He wouldn't go spend

all night with the father in prayer

saying this prayer over and over and

over again.

and nor should you.

But this becomes a bit of a a pi a big

picture of the perspective that we

should have when we're coming to God.

And there's there's many sermons,

there's many studies, there's books that

have been written on this prayer. And I

love that because there's so much to

glean from why Jesus would emphasize

these things. I mean, you could kind of

run through it. You could say first of

all Jesus said pray like this. He didn't

say pray this. So the first thing you

could start with is he said pray like

this. That means versions of this for

the rest of your life.

Secondly he says our father. So there

first of all there's a plural collective

coming there. When we come as a church

we come together as a church family to

pray. And so there's this picture that

we can come together as God's children

to pray our and then what father. It

doesn't say our creator. It doesn't say

our judge.

Here he's saying our father.

So it's part of that picture of the

relational

nature of God. He could be creator and

not have a relationship with you. He

cannot be your father and not have a

relationship with you. Father indicates

and intimates

relationship. And the one the word that

Jesus chose to show us in this example

is our father. It's not wrong to call

God creator. It's not wrong to call God

your holy judge. But it is interesting

that when he goes to teach us about

prayer and how we should pray, he brings

it all the way home to family and to

fatherhood. He brings it home to a

relationship between a child and a

parent. This is amazing. So, we're

starting to see the heart of God of

this. And he's not your earthly father.

We could break it down. We could go

through it just like that. He is our

father. And where is he? He's in heaven.

It's not your earthly father who's

flawed. He's your heavenly father who

comes from a different place.

He's your heavenly father who is the

holy father. And that's the next one.

Hallowed, holy be your name. So all of

who he is, all that he represents is

right and holy and just and perfect.

He's set apart. He's not like us. He's

not like your earthly father. He's a

perfect father.

and he declares right away, "Your

kingdom come, your will be done as it is

on earth as it is in heaven." That's a

good thing to pray um in so many

different ways. There's so many aspects

there of God being sovereign over all of

our life.

We look to him verse 11 for provision.

We look to him for forgiveness.

Um we look to him as the example of how

we should treat others into verse 12 as

we have forgiven our debtors.

And he leads us not in temptation but

delivers us from evil. And that

ultimately is exactly what he does

through the cross of Christ. So what is

prayer? Very quickly I want us to see.

Number one, prayer is calling upon the

Lord. It is calling upon the Lord. We

see it all through the Bible. Psalm 50

verse1 15 he says circle these three

words. Call upon me

in the day of trouble. When is the day

of trouble?

[laughter]

>> Every day.

We're in a fallen world. The world is

fallen into sin.

I mean, I I was sitting there at my

parents house, whatever it was, Monday,

and there's this guy that rides his bike

through the neighborhood every single

day. We see him multiple times. He never

has a shirt on. He probably weighs 85

lbs. He's super skinny, leathery looking

guy. He has a cardboard box out in the

front of his handlebars and he comes

riding by. He looks like

a 200-year-old version of Ernest

Hemingway. I mean, a Keys guy. This is a

Keys guy. He He comes riding through.

He's got these big Foster Grant

sunglasses on. He comes riding through

and he seems like the nicest little guy

and everything. And somebody kind of was

pulling into park. Just happened to be

right in front of him at the little

park. And the guy just put on his brakes

to park. And this guy comes riding up

behind him on his bike. And he erupts in

anger,

yelling and screaming as he goes riding

by and then gives him the finger as he's

riding by in front. And I thought, what

a nice little old guy all this time.

And somebody just kind of does something

that he didn't expect. It was no not a

dangerous situation at all.

And I I just see that and I and you know

you can see it in business, you can see

it in an airport, you can see it at the

DMV, you can see it at the post, you can

see people sometimes are just sitting

there angry.

We live in a fallen world. There's just

so much hostility.

People just lit, ready to go off.

Call upon me in the day of trouble. We

live in a day of trouble.

And look, what does he what does he say?

I will deliver you and you shall glorify

me. So he delivers us for the purpose of

bringing him glory. Why were you born?

To bring him glory. Why were you

created? To give give him glory. Why

were you saved the by the cross of

Calvary? To give him glory. So this is

all about calling upon the Lord. Look at

Romans 10:13. For everyone who what?

Romans 10:13

calls

>> calls on the name of the Lord will what?

>> The greatest need of your life

>> to be saved for eternity from your sin.

>> This is amazing.

So prayer is calling upon the Lord. You

see prayer is dependence expressed.

It is it is recognizing exactly of the

opposite of our ego as we said earlier.

our ego that we got this. No, you don't

have this.

It's recognizing that he is the Lord and

we need him.

Look at number two. Prayer is

approaching

God

as father. Then underline it through

Christ. We're going to see that this is

this is our coming before the Lord.

And we we just see it. We saw it at the

beginning. Matthew chapter 6:9. our

father in heaven.

So look at Hebrews 4:16. Let us then

Hebrews 4:16

with confidence with conf This is

amazing that he would even give us

confidence to draw near to him. Let us

then with confidence draw near to what?

The throne of wrath and justice. The

throne of holiness. Is that what it

says?

Now here he chooses to remind us that

it's the throne of

grace because if it wasn't the throne of

grace we could never come.

And then Ephesians 2 18 verse 18 says

for through him speaking of Jesus we

have we both have access in one spirit

to the father.

We have access in one spirit to the

father. This is through Jesus. Through

Jesus. That's the only way.

You could put out there to the side.

Beautiful passage that Jesus said, "I am

the way, the truth, and the life. No one

comes to the father except through me."

Except through me. John 14:6.

John 14:6

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father except

through me.

So, so what we see this this is

approaching God as father through

Christ. This is prayer is relational.

It's not mechanical. And that's why he's

against mechanical prayers. He's against

formulaic prayers. Now, that's it's not

to say it's wrong to use an acronym like

acts, adoration,

confession,

thanksgiving, and supplication. You

know, there's all these different things

that you can do to structure your

prayer. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm

sorry, but saying the Lord's Prayer as

if that's the only way to pray or saying

um

a bunch of Hail Marys

or saying other

wrote prayers as the way of God. God's

offended by that.

He's offended by your being religious,

thinking that this is something that

you're going to do to atone for your

mistakes, that it's going to make up for

what you've done wrong. God is offended

by that.

>> Amen.

>> There's only one thing that can solve

those things and it's the blood of

Christ.

So, it's not about being mechanical,

thinking that we'll be heard for our

many words. It's relational. Number

three, prayer is asking in faith

according to God's will. It's asking in

faith. He wants us to come and ask.

In Matthew 7:7 again, sermon on the

Matthew 7:7

mount, beginning of Jesus's ministry,

Jesus is speaking and he says, "Ask and

it will be given to you. Seek and you

will find. Knock and it will be open to

you." Just so you know, for in the

Hebrew mind, in the Hebrew mind,

which is what Judaism is, when it's

constructed like this, the number of

three is the idea of completeness. It's

a it's a it's a mature completeness.

Holy, holy, holy. That means he is

ultimately holy.

Here it's saying, ask, seek, knock. What

is the encouragement? You are to truly

truly do this. You're invited to ask.

He's pleased when we ask.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek

and you will find. Knock and it will be

open to you. This is the spirit of

Christ for us. Look at First John 5 and

verse 14. If we ask anything, underline

it. according to his will he hears us

and this is the importance of knowing

God's word so you can know what is his

will is in James it says you do not have

because you ask a miss you ask for the

wrong things for the wrong reasons

in James 1 we see the importance when

this is around the issue of wisdom ask

in faith

Ask believing. It says don't ask without

believing because if you ask without

believing, you're like a

you're like a wave being tossed about by

the winds of the the world and not

things not trusting in Christ. Look at

the very last line there. Prayer is

trusting petition. It is it is a

petition of trust. It's trusting

petition or request under submission.

And what we're going to see next

Wednesday night is really cool about

this.

There's different points along the path

through Christendom

where certain of our leaders, certain of

the forefathers of our faith and some of

the great

the great examples to us were very

concerned about things that they saw

happening in the church and in

Christendom. Namely, the idea of telling

God what to do.

And we have a real problem with that in

2025, in 2026.

We have a real problem with people

thinking,

I'm I'm gonna order God. I'm going to

name it and claim it. I'm going to tell

God what to do. I'm going to tell God,

and I'm going to tell him over and over

again, and I'm going to do it with

faith, and he has to do it because he

told me he has to do it.

friends, you can take scriptures out of

context and you can try to get into this

place where you're trying to get God to

do what you want to do instead of

ultimately coming to see what he wants

you to do and how he wants you to

believe.

So there's a there's a big deal there.

It's making [snorts] making requests

under submission. Very quickly go on to

number four.

Prayer is it's communion right above

their relationship again and right above

their the word unity.

So commun communion means with union

communion

communion means together. So prayer is

communion shaped by the Holy Spirit.

This is the Holy Spirit helping you to

come together to God.

You say, "Wait a minute. I thought

prayer is me." No. What we see

throughout scripture is very often the

scripture will even tell us and he

prayed in the spirit

or in the spirit he lifted his eyes up

toward heaven and prayed. We see that

with David. We see that with people in

the Old Testament. We see that people

with people in the New Testament.

The spirit is involved with our prayer.

And so, be encouraged with this. When

you go to pray, maybe it's difficult for

you to start doing that. Maybe you don't

always understand or you don't feel you

you feel all this load of of guilt and

everything else that's coming at you.

Listen to this. When you go to pray,

listen, the Holy Spirit is there to help

you.

God is so kind and he's so good and he's

so gracious that you can't even come to

him rightly on your own. And what you

can start to say is, "No, I know what

the Bible says." And the Bible says that

Jesus, excuse me, the spirit is here to

help me pray.

So enjoy that.

Look what it says in Romans 8 26-27.

Likewise, the spirit helps us in our

weakness.

And what is the inferred weakness here?

For we do not know what to pray, excuse

me, what to pray for as we ought. But

the spirit himself intercedes for us

with groanings too deep for words. And

he who searches hearts knows what is the

mind of the spirit because the spirit

intercedes for the saints according to

the will of God.

When we come to pray, the spirit is with

us and he can take our prayers and

refine them to that which is acceptable

before God. This is amazing.

It's really amazing.

So, it's not I mean, it's about

sincerity and it's about attitude more

than it is about precision.

Now, I'm not saying it doesn't matter

what you pray, but what I'm saying is is

that you're right. Andrew Coleman on his

best day with his best theology, my

words are not going to be truly perfect

before God ever. There's always a better

way to say it.

But the Holy Spirit through the grace of

Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit by his

power perfects my prayer to that which

is glorifying to God.

That's grace. [snorts]

But I'm I'm called to come. I'm called

to be there with my right heart. I'm

called to be there

in in proper belief coming to him. Look

at Ephesians 6:18. We are to be praying

Ephesians 6:18

at all times. What? In the spirit. Now,

there's some people that think, well,

praying in the spirit means speaking in

tongues. Glossalia. It's a gibberish.

And it's it's just an emotional feeling.

I don't really know what's being said. I

just know how I feel. My friends, that

is not a scriptural prayer.

I mean, we we just need to be very very

plain about that. We were we're not

going to go into speaking in tonesues

and praying in tonesues, but I'm just

going to say to you that praying in the

spirit does not automatically mean

speaking in an unknown language.

Praying in the spirit has to do with

coming before God under the submission

that we were just talking about to the

father and praying depending upon the

spirit to help you to pray as you

should. That is a beautiful and right

thing.

Um you see prayer is in its wholeness

prayer is trinitarian.

It's trinitarian. What do I mean by

that? We pray to the father through the

son by the spirit.

Um

that's the model that we see in

scripture

to the father through the son through

Jesus's blood on the cross that gives us

access by the power of the holy spirit

in our lives. Okay. Why prayer matters?

Why? Why does it matter? And we're going

to really look at that what Spurgeon

said about that. If God already knows

everything and if God already has

ordained everything, what Calvin said

about if all of this is is God's

sovereign will over the world, why do we

need to pray? And yet, we see from

Genesis to Revelation that prayer is

important.

And so we're going to look at why we

need to do that in in more detail and

how do we look at that. But let's look

at this first of all, why prayer

matters. Number one, because God

commands it. This is what the scripture

shows us. God commands it. 1

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without

ceasing."

That is a command.

Pray all the time. Luke 18:1 Jesus said

Luke 18:1

that we ought always to pray and not

what?

>> Lose heart. You know what that means?

That means to pray with faith. Pray

believing God.

So prayer first of all is obedience. Put

that down there at the bottom. Prayer is

obedience. Number two, we should pray

because God ordains it as a means.

Prayer is ordained as a means. God

answers our prayer. Ezekiel 36:37, I

Ezekiel 36:37

will let the house of Israel ask me to

do this for them. That's very

interesting.

We're privileged

to ask him and he is glorified by that

as we'll see. But it's it's part of what

God uses to bring about his will. This

is talk about relational. Talk about

interactive. God is interactive with us.

James 4:2 says, "You do not have because

James 4:2

what?

>> You do not ask."

Now, when I was in Mr. Anders, George

Anderson's Sunday school class in second

grade, I just knew that that meant I

don't have a minibike and a go-kart

because I haven't asked enough for it. I

got to ask. And if I ask and I remember,

"Dear Jesus, dear Jesus, give me a

go-kart. I really want a go-kart. I I

want to drive something." I I you know,

as a second grader, I just was intent

on, you know, we can be so

childish and ungodly

about our faith

in this. Um James does deal with that.

You ask for things because you want to

just spend it on yourselves.

It's not in accordance with God's will.

But God has designed it so that we can

be involved in prayer. Look at this. God

decrees not only the outcome, but he

also but also the prayers that lead to

it.

So it is God's will for you to pray. And

as you are learning to pray, I mean, I

I would say this. There's many times

when the Lord

leads me on how to pray about something,

what to pray for something,

he impresses upon me from his word or

from conversations or through counsel or

whatever that he just kind of reveals,

this is what I need to be asking for

about this.

And it's not in it's not in opposition

to his will. It's in conjunction with

his will. And then when we start praying

that, it's amazing that when God leads

you to pray for something and then you

start praying for that thing and then he

answers it, you go, he gets all the

credit.

Why is that important? Because we might

start to think,

I was smart enough to pray this or I was

creative enough to pray this or I was

whatever enough to pray this then I

figured it out and I asked God and he

did it and then it you know it all

worked out. But if when we come to

prayer we see that no God even uses the

prayer and sanctions the prayer uh leads

us in how to pray then God gets all the

credit

and that's really important. How about

number three? Because prayer glorifies

God.

And we go back to our Psalm 50. He says,

"And I will deliver you and you shall

what? glorify me.

So this this prayer leads to him being

glorified. When we call upon him,

he is glorified. The prayer says this,

"God, I recognize that you are the

source of all hope and deliverance.

You're the source of it.

You're the only hope for it."

And it's us recognizing that he is

glorified by that. Number four, because

prayer aligns us with God's will. You

know, far far far too often in prayer,

we have the mentality that I got to get

God to do this.

And what we really ought to be praying

is, Lord, show me what you want to do.

Show me what you want to do in my son's

life.

Show me what you want to do in my wife's

life. Show me what you want to do in my

work. Show me what you want to do with

the relationships in Show me what you

want to do with the sin struggle.

You see, it's not about us getting God

to do something. It's about us coming in

line with what God wants to do. Henry

Blackabe, a great Canadian um pastor and

um church planner and evangelist said,

"You know, God is at work all around us

all the time." And what we need to ask

God to do is let us see what he's doing.

It's not like it's not happening because

we're not praying. No, God's at work.

What real Christians need to do is

figure out what all God is doing because

he's at work.

Arian, he's at work with every patient

that you come across. He's at work with

every airboat client that comes along,

wants to ride on your airboat, God's

doing something with them.

Every client that Greg and everybody

that needs plumbing, God's at work with

them. Every student that you're dealing

with, Kelly, everybody who comes through

Chick-fil-A, God's at work with them.

God's doing something,

Lord. What do you want to do?

That's really what But that's very

different than how we usually approach

God. God, if you just let that new

client that I pitch to, if he would just

sign the contract, if he would just do

it and and that everything will be great

and our business will be better because

that new client came in line with

I I think we can pray. Certainly for

clients enough to keep our business

going and for things to go, Lord, would

you provide? Would you do this? But

Lord, would you be doing this in such a

way that we see that your hand is

providing?

We don't have to worry about trying to

get God to do something with with

certain people in a certain way, in our

way. What we need to be saying is, Lord,

glorify yourself with my life, with my

business, my work, my family, my

relationships. Show me what it is that

you're doing.

and he'll lead you. He'll lead you how

to pray for clients. He'll lead you how

to pray for students. He'll lead you how

to pray for the people that are in front

of you. But God is at work and he's

aligning us. Look at this. Um this this

is kind of amazing. Matthew 6:10,

Matthew 6:10

we saw it in the the Lord's prayer.

Your will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. You see, that's that's the great

place to be in prayer, saying, "Lord,

your will be done with this.

Not my will, but that's the opposite of

what Satan tries to get you to pray very

often. You're trying to get God to join

your will instead of you saying,"Lord, I

need to join your will."

Luke 22, Jesus prayed, and this is the

greatest example of all. Kelly was

talking about what an example he was in

prayer, but listen to what he actually

prayed. Nevertheless, not my will, but

yours be done. That's where he

ultimately came to the greatest

challenge a human being has ever faced.

Indeed, that's what Jesus Christ

endured. And no wonder he would ask if

this cup would pass from him. But he

said, "Nevertheless, not my will, but

yours be done." This is amazing. I love

Philippians 4 um 6-7.

And quite honestly, recently um the Lord

used this in my life a few weeks ago. I

was praying about some things and I was

thinking about some things. Um and it

was like this verse came home to my

heart. It was like the Lord said, "Yeah,

Andrew, you know that verse that you

learned when you were in like third

grade and you've heard it all your life?

Yeah, that one applies now to you."

I was like, "Oh,

yeah, it does. Do not be anxious about

anything, but in everything by prayer

and supplication with what?"

>> With thanksgiving, let your requests be

made known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all

understanding

will guard your hearts and your minds in

Christ Jesus.

We have a God of of prayer.

He invites us to be people of prayer.

It's amazing.

And yet so often we we run away from it.

Prayer often changes us before it

changes circumstances.

Um I remember hearing in

little hint uh for next week kind of the

type thing. Charles Stanley

made this statement and I heard it when

I was probably 20 years old. He said,

'You know, very often

we stop praying just short

of when we were about to really be

blessed by the Lord.

Very often we give up in despair. We

give up in in lack of discipline. We

give up in moving on to something else.

We don't live lives of great faith. very

often and because we we stop short of

what God wants to really bring us to in

trusting him

and asking him.

I think God is leading us along in our

in our faith. Um should be. But as we've

admitted tonight in many different ways,

prayer sometimes is a yawner or a sense

of guilt for us. And it it it does have

to do with a discipline that we often

sherk. But notice this,

prayer matters because prayer is an

expression of faith. It's an expression

of faith.

Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6

is an important passage and it it struck

me a few years ago in a very powerful

way. But the context around Hebrews 11,

what is Hebrews all about in Hebrews 11?

Do you remember what that chapter is

about? Do you have your Bible? Just turn

there. Look at Hebrews 11.

>> Okay. It's all about faith.

It's about faith.

He wants us to have faith. Look at

Hebrews 11. Um in verse one, it says,

"Now faith is the assurance of things

hoped for, the conviction of things not

yet seen."

Um this is this is amazing.

He goes through by in verse four he

talks about Abel and Cain. He talks

about in verse five, he talks about

Enoch

and how Enoch was pleasing to the Lord

and was taken up. And then look at verse

six.

And without faith, it is impossible to

please him. For whoever would draw near

to God must believe that he exists. And

then look what it says that you must

believe that he rewards

those who seek him or some versions say

that he is a rewarder of those who seek

him.

Faith is excuse me prayer is an

expression of that faith.

And so tonight I want to end with this

statement this challenge. If there's

little or no prayer, often it indicates

little or no faith.

If there's little or no prayer, it often

indicates that there's little or no

faith. And so, here's what I'd like to

do. I'd like to challenge us to consider

this. How's my prayer life? And what

does it say about my faith?

Now, some of you are saying, "I must

really believe God because I pray a

lot."

Some of us might be saying,

"Well, maybe I don't believe God for

anything."

Because if I'm really honest, I don't

ever pray about anything.

You know, in a church that teaches the

Bible,

the truth of God's word can lead us to

obedience and can lead us to victory,

can lead us to great faith.

A church who teaches the Bible can also

deceive us

into thinking that I know all these

things.

So I automatically believe all these

things

when in fact we don't.

Much knowledge does not mean much faith.

The demons know

and they believe in one sense but they

you you can know all kinds of things and

not be near to God.

So God wants us to be near to him. He

invites us to pray. He invites us to be

with him. And tonight, I hope maybe the

Lord is moving the needle in our heart

to say, "Why would I be too busy for

this? Why would I not be willing to

to love to get up and and be with the

Lord or steal away time to go be with

the Lord?

He's a lot better than whatever your

show is on Netflix or Hulu."

Hulu.

Where'd that come from?

I don't know. Maybe hell. Uh, Hell View,

Hulu, I don't know. Um, I mean, most of

all that stuff just doesn't I mean,

spending time with God in his word and

in prayer.

Yeah, it's discipline. Yeah, and and it

requires us to be engaged.

But friends, it's a lot better than

than dissipating our lives. And so I

just want to challenge you to to know

that the discipline of prayer is a

privilege.

And if you just read the passages that

we've been looking at tonight, he's

inviting us in

and we can run to that. Amen.

>> Why don't you stand and let's pray. I

know we're about to walk out of this

room, but let's pray in light of what

we've heard tonight. Okay, blood's going

to go down to your legs. Feel a little

lightheaded for a second. Okay, you've

stood up. Let's let's really pray right

now for just a moment. Let's pray.

Holy Father, it is amazing that you

invite us to close out the world by

bowing our head and closing our eyes so

we don't think about everything else and

we we can just really concentrate

on you

and you invite us in. You say that

you'll hear us.

You listen to us. You hear the prayers

of your children.

Lord, what an amazing plan you have

that we would walk with you by faith in

prayer and obedience now

so that we can be with you face to face

where faith will no longer be necessary

one day

where we will know as we are known.

Lord, this is amazing that you've made

this promise to us. But Lord, you're

glorified now that we walk by faith

in prayer with thanksgiving

and obedience.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to

grow in this area. I pray that we would

not run in anxiety. Even Philippians

says, don't don't be anxious. We're not

to run in anxiety, but we're to learn to

pray.

We're to learn to bring our lives to

you.

Our sorrows,

our hurts, our fears,

Lord. Our opportunities, our joys are

meant to be brought to you.

And so, Lord, I I just pray that you

would grow us in this. I pray that for

Marcy and for me. And I pray that for

our church family. I pray that as

tonight we think about our guys down

there in Colombia

meeting with all those pastors and

tomorrow they start and they'll be

teaching and through the weekend they're

going to be teaching hours upon hours.

Lord, that you've called us to to pray.

You've called us to lift before you

these opportunities of our lives. Lord,

I think about our children and our

grandchildren.

We need to pray for them.

We need to pray for wisdom on how to

relate to them and how to

parent them in all of their struggles.

Lord, we need wisdom on what to teach

them when and how.

We need wisdom on how to live before our

children.

right example.

Lord, we need wisdom on how to be the

friends that you've called us to be to

one another. How to be the witness, the

workers

that you've called us to be.

Lord, it's amazing that you invite us in

to ask of these things. And I pray that

as we grow in Christ that we would grow

in our our obedience in these areas. In

the wonderful name of Jesus who died on

the cross for our sins, we pray. Amen.