How do I Pray?

Before I speak to you, why don't we pray together as we sit, let's bow our heads.

Our gracious Father, we thank you so much for this amazing gift of prayer.

And Lord, we want to seek your forgiveness for the way in which we have either ignored or abused that gift.

And Father, we want to be able to pray like Jesus prayed.

Lord, like the Bible teaches us how to pray.

And so Father, we pray now that you give us open ears and open hearts and open minds that we might receive your truth.

And your truth would help us to grow more like Jesus.

In his name, Amen.

Jesus said this is how you should pray.

Anyway, the philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said, kind of classic overstatement in a way, but it makes a point.

He said, all of humanity's problems stem from an inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Wow.

Let me say that again.

All of humanity's problems stem from an inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

This year, in Virginia State University, an experiment was carried out with 55 people who were asked to go and sit in a room where there was absolutely nothing.

They were asked to sit there for 15 minutes on their own.

And the only thing that there was, was a pedestal with a button on it.

And if you press the button, you got a fairly bad electric shock.

So the choice is, you can either do what the researcher Tim Wilson says, and that is sit there doing nothing for just 15 minutes.

Or, if you want to do something, go press the button and do an amazing shock through your ankle.

Now, 67% of men, 67% of men went and pressed the button and took the shock option.

25% of women, yay, 25% of women did the same thing.

No wonder there was that book that sold a lot of copies in the 1970s, which is called What Happens When Women Pray.

We're still trying to find out what happens when men pray, obviously.

Through the majority of church history, people who were followers of Jesus had this very novel idea.

That trying to live life at high speed was a great enemy of the spiritual life.

If you want to live life in the fast lane, if you want to live life in a way that's microwaved,

then what you need to know is you will very likely undermine your ability to develop a relationship with God.

Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland has something to say about that.

You remember when Alice goes into the domain of the Red Queen.

And she has to run all the time just to stand still.

And the Red Queen says to her,

Now you see, said the Red Queen, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.

If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.

What a commentary that is on the world in which we live.

Even if you ask retired folks these days, how are you?

They'll say, I'm very busy.

Of course, there's another side to that.

And the side is that if some people, lots of people live life in the fast track,

then there are some people who live life in a way that simply wastes time away.

Daytime television, smartphones, social media, gaming, fooling about online.

Seriously, as much as racing, speeding can make a mess of your relationship with Jesus.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I don't today want to tell you so much techniques on how to pray.

But what I intend to do is to lay some foundations that you need to know about

if you are ever going to develop a fertile prayer life.

I'm not going to give you those smart anachronisms.

Some of us do Lectio Divina on a daily basis.

Their great acronym is PRAY, P-R-A-Y.

Pause, reflect and rejoice, ask and yield.

That's not a bad thing to hold in your mind.

Or act, adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.

I thought I wasn't going to be able to remember that.

It's my age.

I want to talk to you more about these foundational things.

And I want you to know that if you were to even appropriate 20% of what I say in the next few minutes,

your life, the life and ministry of this church,

the life of the nation and the life of the world might be changed by God.

And if I ask, you know, who wouldn't want that,

I don't imagine there'd be too many people sticking their hands up.

Church I was minister at.

I had one overriding mission in recruiting people.

And that is, if you're not very good, get people around you who are.

I had a marvelous team of people at different times.

Every Sunday, there were lots of people in church.

Giving was going up through the roof.

75% of our growth as a church was conversion growth.

People who'd not known Jesus before.

30 plus home groups, though some of them did little more than go skating together.

But in all that, there lay an amazing ministry to me.

Sorry, an amazing mystery to me.

And it's this.

With all those numbers, with all those gifts, with all those people,

our parish prayer meeting weekly could barely muster 30 people.

I used to sit and think to myself, what would God do in this place

if a few more people showed up?

If on the back of only 30, he's doing all this.

What if?

What if?

And I want you to ask yourself the question.

If you started to take prayer more seriously,

if you would come to prayer meetings and pray,

what if?

What might happen?

We had a church weekend once,

which a guy who became a bishop called Wallace Ben

came and spoke about prayer for a whole weekend

at some freezing cold place down in Sussex.

For the next month,

our prayer meeting was attended by hundreds of people.

Literally.

By three months, we were down to about 50 people,

and after three months,

we were back to the 30 people who came out.

Largely older ladies,

many of whom had been in the mission field.

Today,

in that church,

we did six or seven services every Sunday.

Today, there is one main service every Sunday,

attended by 150 people.

See,

the life of a church is not just a photograph.

It's a movie.

It's a story.

And if it's a story that continues

on minimal prayer input,

then I think it may come

to a rather abrupt end.

So here are three things

that I want you to take home with you

in your hearts today.

The first thing is,

you have to believe that prayer,

individually and together,

is important.

There's plenty in the Bible about that.

You remember in Acts chapter 4,

Acts 4 · chapter mention

that critical moment

when Peter and John

are hauled by the Jewish council

in Jerusalem,

and they're told,

you must not speak

in the name of Jesus Christ any longer.

Can you imagine

what would have happened

if they'd taken any notice?

Well, one thing would be,

you would not be sitting here today.

I don't know what you would be doing,

but you would not be in a church

on a Sunday,

worshipping the living God.

So what do the disciples do?

Do they decide to form a committee,

the anti-persecution committee,

with a chairman and a secretary,

and hold endless meetings

that go nowhere slowly?

No.

It said they went back to the believers,

and they gathered together in prayer

in one voice.

You can read that prayer

in its entirety

in Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

And at the end of that prayer,

we read,

the building they were in

was shaken,

and they all went out

and preached the word of God boldly.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you think the church today

needs a shaking like that?

Someone say yes.

Yes.

Yes.

How did that happen?

Because the believers

with one voice

pray together.

Prayer changes things.

And if you're ever going to get started

on prayer,

then the one thing you need to understand is

this is a worthwhile endeavor.

This should not just be

an optional extra

for kind of religious fanatics.

but an optional extra.

The second thing is,

and this is harsh,

I'm going to give you a trigger warning

at this stage.

Because some of you

have had prayers

that God didn't answer.

And I don't want anybody

to leave this church

feeling guilty,

but here's a point

that is really important.

It's in Psalm 66

and verse 18.

And the psalmist says this,

he says,

if I had cherished sin

in my heart,

the Lord would not have heard me.

Let me say that again.

That's a serious point, isn't it?

If I had cherished sin in my heart,

cherished it,

the Lord would not have heard me.

See, my problem with sin

and your problem with sin is,

unfortunately,

some of it's enjoyable.

Wouldn't be a big problem to it.

I've never seen that movie,

The Exorcist,

but somebody told me

at one point,

the little girl

who's supposed to be possessed

by the devil,

her head's racing around

at 360 degrees

while she's vomiting bile.

Luminous bile.

I mean, if that was sin,

you wouldn't have a problem

avoiding it, would you?

No.

It's attractive to us.

Gossip is attractive to us.

Lust is attractive to us.

These things that God says

won't do you any good

somehow have a lingering appeal to us.

Here's what God says.

If you had cherished sin in your heart,

the Lord would not have heard you.

You see, we go around saying

there's no such thing

as an unanswered prayer.

And last week, if you were here,

you heard a, I think,

majestic talk

from Russell

about why that is

and how

we should respond

when

it feels like God

doesn't hear us.

If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have heard me.

Unconfessed sin,

anger, bitterness, impurity

will have a negative impact

on my ability to pray effectually.

The third thing is,

prayer is for marathon runners

and not for sprinters.

So, you remember,

there's that very strange story

in Luke chapter 11,

Luke 11:5–8

verses 5 to 8,

where the keeper of the house

has gone to bed,

locked up,

turned off all the lights,

I guess in their time

that was blowing out

all the candles,

and he'd gone to bed.

At midnight,

there's a knock on the door.

I mean, who hates that?

I was in ministry,

you know,

there were two things I hated.

One was people knocking on the door

after 11 p.m. in the evening,

and the other was

shakily written notes

coming through the door

at a similar time.

Usually,

death threats

or something like that.

Okay?

So, this guy

hammers on the door.

The owner of the house thinks,

I'm going to play dead here.

You know,

just keeps going,

keeps going,

keeps going,

keeps going.

And then,

the moral of this parable is,

in the end,

the master of the house

gets up and does something.

Because he's sick to death

of the persistence

of the guy hammering on the door.

Well, he wants his loaf of bread

for crying out loud.

Why can't he wait

until the shop opened?

The message,

says Jesus,

is that we need to persist

in our prayers.

Most of the imperatives

to pray

in the New Testament

are in the aorist tense.

That is,

they are continuous verbs.

That is,

pray and go on praying.

Not the kind of people who,

you know,

say,

I prayed about that,

you know,

tick the box,

done,

finished.

No,

we hammer on the door of heaven

until God hears us.

I love that verse

in James chapter 5

James 5 · chapter mention

where the writer

of the epistle says,

I can only remember,

only ever remember

the authorised version.

The effectual,

fervent prayer

of the righteous man,

righteous person

in authorised version talk.

The effectual,

fervent prayer

of the righteous man,

availeth much.

Wouldn't you like your prayers

to avail a bit more?

Apparently not.

Would you?

Yes,

of course.

Of course you would.

And the thing about prayer

is we nearly always focus

on the outputs.

What happened when I prayed?

Did it work?

Didn't it work?

See,

what I'm trying to help you with

are the inputs.

What are the things

that you need to get sorted

in your own life

before you lock yourself away,

says Jesus,

on your knees?

Don't babble like the pagans.

Don't show up.

Don't start praying

in the middle of the high street

with your arms in the air.

I mean,

don't let me stop you,

but

don't do that.

It's the pagans that babble,

said Jesus.

I mean,

it sounds like the pagans

pray a lot more than we do.

So,

I've asked James

to put just another

short passage of Scripture

up on the screen,

which is from Mark 11,

Mark 11:22–26

verses 22 to 26.

And just very briefly,

three things from this passage,

which I think are really,

really important for us.

And the background

to what's gone on here

is that

you remember Jesus

is walking along

and

he goes to pick

some fruit

from a fig tree.

I mean,

this is so out of character,

isn't it?

So,

it's a fig tree

and the Bible tells us

it wasn't even

a season for figs.

So,

Jesus goes to the fig tree

and there's no fruit on it.

And gentle Jesus,

meek and mild,

curses the fig tree.

And they're walking

past it the next day

and Peter,

good old Peter,

you know,

both feet,

says,

look,

Master,

the tree you cursed

is shriveled.

Isn't it amazing

that we're amazed

when God does

what he says he'll do?

That's not my point.

It's then Jesus,

like,

goes off on one.

And he starts by saying,

have faith in God.

Pretty basic in a way.

He's teaching them here

about how to pray as well.

Have faith in God,

he says.

And what you need to know is

that the Greek syntax

of that sentence,

see,

a lot of preachers

put the emphasis

on the word faith.

But the emphasis

in the Greek language

is on the word God.

The issue is not

how big is your faith.

No,

the issue is

how big is your God.

That's why,

I think,

when praying,

we should spend

some time praising

and magnifying God

in our hearts

to remind ourselves

that this is a big God.

And this big God,

Jesus tells us,

nothing is impossible

for him.

Have faith in God.

I've heard of messages

in my life

where I've gone out

of the church

with my tail

between my legs

because I thought

I don't have enough faith.

What did Jesus say?

If you have faith

the size of a mustard seed,

go tell this mountain

to throw itself

into the sea

and it will.

Do you know how much faith

a mustard seed

would represent?

Truthfully,

your faith

and my faith.

It's not how much faith

do you have.

Most of us struggle

a bit with that.

It's how big

is your God?

How big is your God?

You need to go home

and think about that.

The second thing

about this passage

is this.

Jesus says

all this stuff

about making

cosmetic changes.

Incidentally,

I don't think

that Jesus intended us

to make cosmetic changes

to the universe

by rearranging mountains.

Mountains in the Bible

mostly stand for

massive problems.

So Jesus says

have faith in God.

I tell you the truth.

If anyone says

this man

go to throw yourself

into the sea

and does not doubt

in his heart

but believes

that what he says

will happen,

it will be done

for him

or for her.

Therefore,

this passage

is loaded

with conjunctions.

It's a flow

of thought.

It's not a stream

of consciousness.

It's a flow

of direct thought.

And Jesus says

therefore,

on the basis

of what I've just said

about your,

if you have

a big enough God

amazing things

can happen.

Jesus says

therefore,

I tell you

whatever you've

asked for in prayer

believe that you

have received it

and it will be yours.

Wow.

See,

I wonder

if together

as a church

we could start

to think like that.

Don't think about

the size of your faith

when I say that to you

but think about

the size of your God.

Do you?

Does anybody

in the house

believe that

with God

anything is possible?

Nothing is impossible.

Anybody believe that?

Yes.

See,

I think that's

a decent start.

A decent start.

So,

believing prayer

is important

as well as

faith in a big God.

But the last thing

and this,

you know what,

I wish I didn't

have to say this

to you.

I really wish

I didn't.

So,

you get

faith

in a big God,

faith

released by

believing prayer

and finally,

prayer

regulated

by forgiveness.

So,

again,

joined up

thinking here,

verse 25,

and when you

stand praying,

if you hold

anything against

anyone,

forgive him

so that your

Father in Heaven

may forgive you

your sins.

Seriously?

You think of

anybody just now

in your heart

who you

find it difficult

to forgive?

Maybe

you're the kind

of person

who can't even

forgive yourself.

Never mind

forgive others.

See,

Jesus says

we've got to

sort that.

You say,

wait a minute,

Mike,

the person

I'm feeling

mad about

is dead

now.

So,

that's not

the point.

The point

is God

wants to

know that

your heart

is right

in relation

even to

that dead

person.

some of

you have

undoubt

with issues

with parents

who are

no longer

with us.

Others of

us hold

on to

stuff year

in,

year out.

We even

feed on it,

some of us.

God says,

you want

to be

an effective

prayer?

Here's

the thing,

forgive.

In

Matthew's

gospel,

there are

two really.

Matthew says

in the

Sermon on

the Mount,

if your

brother sins

against you,

leave your

gift at the

altar and

clear off and

go and seek

forgiveness.

If your

brother sins

against you,

then in

Matthew 18

he says,

if you sin

against your

brother,

you still

go.

I mean,

that's asking

a lot,

isn't it,

of people

like you

and me?

People who

somewhere in

our soul

have a little

black book

and we keep

the names

of the people

who've crossed

us in the

past.

We have to

let go of

it,

friends.

Why?

Because Jesus

says,

that believing

prayer is

regulated by

our willingness

to forgive.

Our Father

who art in

heaven,

blah,

blah,

blah,

forgive us

our sins

as...

I thought

you'd know

it better

than that.

Yeah.

Amazing.

So,

how to pray?

Have faith

in God,

big God.

Secondly,

exercise

believing

prayer.

That is,

put into

your prayers

the idea

that with God

all things

are possible.

Nothing

is impossible.

But please,

don't forget

that to some

extent,

the efficaciousness

of your prayers

will be impacted

by your willingness

to forgive

others.

somebody once

said,

it's a kind

of rewriter

of the Beatitudes,

blessed are

they that

expect little

for they

will not

be disappointed.

Is that

us?

Do we have

a vision

for revival

in Clevedon?

Do you have

any sense

that God

wants to

work through

you to

make that

happen,

through your

prayers,

through your

willingness,

as Clive has

reminded us

to go and

invite people?

I wonder

how many

of you

will show

up a week

tomorrow,

that is

December

the 3rd?

4th.

December

the 4th,

where there

will be a

prayer meeting

for one hour

of your life

in this

building

somewhere,

might even

be in here

if enough

of you

show up.

and don't

come because

I don't know

whether my

prayers are

up to

public

exposure.

Listen,

there will

be no

pressure on

any soul

in this

church to

pray aloud.

I know

some of you

are terrified

by that.

Just come

along and

be there

with the

people who

show up

and pray

with a

heart that

says,

all things

are possible

with God.

What do

you think

might happen?

So in

my life,

just to

conclude,

I have

seen some

amazing

answers to

prayer.

But

unfortunately,

by my

standards,

not enough.

Okay?

I'm going

to tell you

one.

I just

told you,

you know,

my theory

in recruitment

was if

you're no

good,

get people

who are

good around

you.

I had

a youth

worker,

Duncan

Dyson

was his

name.

He runs

a charity

now in

Guatemala

ministering

to street

kids.

And I

learned a lot

from Duncan,

although he

used to

row a lot

as well,

truthfully.

Because I

didn't have

his faith

threshold.

It was my

problem,

not his.

Right?

So he

comes into

the staff

meeting one

morning and

says,

Mike,

we need

another

full-time

member on

the youth

team.

I'm like,

well,

you've got

four people

already.

He said,

well,

here's the,

gave me the

arguments for

another staff

person.

I could see it.

I said,

look,

Duncan,

we might

be able to

scrape

together another

30 grand or

whatever it

was to pay

this person,

but we're

living in

South

Buckinghamshire.

Housing,

you can't

buy a

garage for

less than

150 grand.

I said,

I'm doing,

you know,

I said,

you know,

do you have

a plan for

that?

He said,

yeah,

we'll pray

about it.

I'm like,

oh,

you know,

oh.

So I

smiled

sweetly at

him and

said,

yes,

of course.

Would you

like to

pray for

it,

Duncan?

Serve you

right,

you know,

him.

So he

prayed this

prayer that

was right

out,

you know,

in orbit

somewhere above

planet Earth

and

everyone in

that room

said amen

and very

few of us

meant it.

I said

amen,

I'm like,

yeah,

good luck

with that,

mate,

you know.

By the way,

amen doesn't

mean good luck

with that.

It means

so be it.

So we

prayed it.

That evening,

right,

that evening,

I get a

telephone call

from a guy

called Desmond

Waite,

sadly dead

now,

been converted

about three

months.

He says,

Mike,

I'm just

phoning you

up to

tell you

my dad's

died.

So I

went into

defensive

mode.

I was like,

oh my

goodness,

new Christian,

his dad

just died,

you know,

what the heck.

So I

started to

say,

well,

you know,

these days,

he said,

no,

no,

no,

no,

he said,

my dad's

been ill

for a

while,

he said,

I wanted

to phone

you because

he's left

me and

my brother

a house.

I'm like,

wow,

he said,

well,

it's quite

a large

house.

I'm like,

why is he

telling me

this?

He said,

it's got

14 bedrooms.

I'm like,

you sure

that's not

a hotel?

He said,

then,

we're going

to sell

it and

the proceeds

are going

to be

shared between

me and

my brother.

He said,

I don't

know if

you've got

any housing

needs.

But he

said,

if you

want to

get a

house,

buy one

up to

350,000.

With God,

nothing is

impossible.

Can we

start to

believe that

together?

Yes.

Can we

start to

pray like

we think

all things

are possible

with God?

Can we

start to

believe that

in this

town where

lots of

things feel

a bit

messed up

at the

moment,

that God

could become

the sovereign

Lord of

this town

that we

like to

live in

called

Clevedon?

Those of

you living

in it.

If you

live in

Portis

said,

good luck

with that.

Just

kidding.

Listen,

from today,

God's

whispering in

your ear

about any

of this

stuff.

From

today,

we could

start to

play our

part,

not only

in our

own

transformation,

I mean,

we're all

interested in

that,

aren't we?

You know,

millions of

books,

articles in

newspapers

every day,

you know,

go and

bury your

dog's

liver at

midnight,

you know,

at the

crossroads,

and you

start to

feel better.

I'm not

saying all

of that

stuff's

wrong,

but we're

all interested

in stuff,

but listen,

we need to

get a

bigger vision.

Town

transformation,

the

transformation

of our

nation.

and its

impact on

the global

world.

Friends,

let's pray.

Our

gracious

Father,

we thank

you so

much for

your

word,

and we're

immensely

grateful that

you encourage

us to

pray,

but Lord,

you do

put some

markers down

for us.

Father,

we want to

pray that

you'd open

our eyes

and give

us a

refreshed

vision of

yourself,

Lord,

that you

may become

bigger to

us in

such a way

that we

can pray

in the

faith that

Jesus spoke

about,

believing that

what we

pray for

might be

received.

Lord,

we want

to pray

for those

of us who

bear grudges

of God

unforgiveness

in our hearts.

Would you

this morning

give us a

fresh outpouring

of grace

that we

might be

the initiators

of seeking

forgiveness

and

reconciliation?

And Lord,

as if we

needed

reminding,

we say the

Lord's prayer

so often

in the

house

together.

Forgive us

our sins

as we

forgive

those who

sin against

us.

Lord,

pour out

your grace,

pour out

your spirit,

that we

might be

people of

peace,

people of

reconciliation.

And Lord,

we pray

to,

for those

who sit

here

uncomfortably,

when we

read verses

like Psalm

66 and

verse 18,

if I cherish

sin in my

heart, the

Lord would

not have

heard me.

Lord,

help us

to come

clean before

you today.

Lord,

we pray

that you'd

hear our

prayers now,

not because

we have any

merit,

but because

we bring

them in the

name of

Jesus,

who the

Bible tells

us sits

at your

right hand

and lives

to make

intercession

for us

with God

the Father.

Father,

we pray

these things

in the

precious

name of

Jesus.

And the

people who

agreed and

wanted to

give themselves

over to

prayer said,

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.