Lord, Teach Us How to Pray III and IV

This is North Way tape number 396, containing the third and fourth teachings in the series Lord, teach us to Pray. These messages were Originally delivered on March 24 and April 14, 1985. The speaker is Jay Passavant, pastor of North Way Christian Community. Study outlines may be obtained by contacting the North Way office. Matthew 6, 7. I'm going to begin reading. And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard. For their many words, be not like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then, like our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When you were ushered into the Kingdom of God and experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ, when you were born again, did you find that some terminology began to enter your life that you never knew existed before? Were there some things, some concepts and words that before you came to the Lord, you never had to think about? One of my favorite words like that is priorities. When you were living for yourself, what was your number one priority? Whatever pleases me. That's what I do first and best and with the most zeal, right? But when you come into the Kingdom of God, priorities become a fact of life. In order to live a fruitful and peaceful life in the Lord, how many of you found that it was not very easy to begin to reorder your life according to priorities, but rather you find yourself establishing them, setting out to better organize your life and order them according to God's priorities. And you failed anybody? I see about 16 honest souls and about 400 others that aren't alright. All of us who've sincerely tried to order our life according to the priorities of God have struggled. Am I right about that? It is not an easy thing to do. Now remember that we started last week. Let me bring you up to date. We started last week to examine the prayer of Jesus that he taught his disciples to pray as a pattern for prayer in our lives. And we said that they weren't just words that he picked out and said, say these magic words and you will have prayed, but rather these six or seven phrases in what is known as the Lord's Prayer are topics of teaching. Now this is important because if you miss this topical understanding, you'll just simply look at these words and say, well, if I just repeat them, I'll do what God wants me to do. And that's not it at all. We said that the rabbis of that Year of that era, I should say. Frequently taught like this, they put down a heading, and then they'd later elaborate on it. And we believe, and many scholars agree, that these are just tough topical headings. Now, as I was preparing for today, the Lord prompted me in my heart to say something to a couple of people here today. And I don't know who you are, but there's some who think that what we're talking about in these weeks on prayer is too basic for you. And the Lord urged me to speak to those who, by virtue of spiritual pride, would close your ears to hear what we're saying. And I only say that out of appreciation and love for the fact that there are many people here that have walked with the Lord longer than I have. I understand that you've received much revelation from God, but I want you to know that God is moving in this Word and his Spirit is brooding over it to quicken it. And if you will attend to it, if you won't cut yourself off and think that's too simple, it's too canned, God is going to release a miracle in many of your lives. He promised me that. And I believe it's for some of us today who maybe are seasoned Christians, prayer warriors. Now, last week we talked about what does it mean to say, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name? And we talked about the eight compound names of God, how they came out of the old covenant revelation of who God was, and if Paul would flash those up. We only have one from last week, so we went through these. We don't have time to go through them again. Your supplement sort of enlarges each of these names just a bit. I'm going to go over them for those who weren't here. We talked about the fact that as we hallow or adore or praise the name of God, we need to see him as this representation of who he is. He is Jehovah Sidkenu, our righteousness. Hallelujah. He is Jehovah Mekedesh, our sanctification. Those two names correspond to the covenant blessing of what? Forgiveness of sins. Now, listen, it doesn't matter how you feel on a given morning. Beloved, I walked into a time of prayer the day before yesterday, and I felt absolutely dirty because of an attitude that I'd had the night before. And I was able to come in and say, I hallow your name. I worship you. I praise you, Jehovah Sidkenu, you are my garment of righteousness. And I picture myself literally. You need to start using your Imagination, folks. Putting on that white garment, the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives you. And you know something? When you see that God looks at you with that robe on and not with your own stain of sin, because you're willing to come before him and confess it, it begins to lift your spirit and you're able to get into the presence of the Lord and begin to praise Him. And then I went on and I praised him that he is Jehovah Shalom, my peace. And this is the name of God that represents the fact that we have been made one with Him. The dividing wall of partition has been broken down. Write down Ephesians 2, 14, 15. He is our peace that has broken down every wall. Do you know that God, by His grace, when Jesus Christ was slain, the curtain of the temple that is was torn from top to bottom. What did that signify? That God had made a way into the holy of holies for you and me. You don't know what a miracle that is unless you study the word of God. To see only one man once a year could do what you and I have been given privilege to do every day of our lives. Isn't that glorious? And so I praise God that he's Jehovah Shalom and he's Jehovah Shamma, the God who is there. He is here with me wherever I go. He's my God. And how, by the virtue of His Holy Spirit filling me up inside. I want you to know by this time I'm really coming into us. Just a spirit of excitement. I'm enjoying God. I'm excited about who he is at this point. And my eyes aren't on me anymore, they're on Him. How many people tried this this week you began to use these names. Praise God. Now I hope that every one of you will not let Satan rob you of this truth. Get before God and begin to praise him according to his names, that he's Jehovah Rophe, your healer. And you live in the fullness of his covenant promise to heal. By his stripes we are healed. And then I go on and praise him that he's Jehovah Jireh. And boy, I like this one. If I'm not smiling by now, I'm in trouble. What does Jehovah Jireh mean? He's the God who provides. That's right. He's the God who provides. And remember we said last week that jireb is literally from the Hebrew word yire, which meant what to see. God sees your need and he moves to meet Your need as you come before him and receive his covenant, promise, provision. And then finally, as Jehovah Nissi and Jehovah Rohai, which has to do with his promise of security. And I hallow his name, that he's my banner, that there's a banner over you wherever you go. There's this banner that God's established and that's lifted up and that banner says Jesus is lord over it and that he's brought. Listen, the Bible says that Jesus abolished death and brought light and immortality to life. Isn't that exciting? Second Timothy. I believe it's chapter one, verse ten. Or chapter two and verse ten. God moves in the power of Jesus Christ to abolish death. One of our families experienced a real trauma this week. And most of you were praying for the Smiths as they had to go out to Chicago to comfort and console the family whose the father and the husband was shot to death unprovoked in the inner city ghetto after worship on Sunday. A man of God. But that isn't the end, you see. Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Rohai, my shepherd. That's the last word. And so they were able to minister that comfort and that strength and that assurance by the grace of God. Now this is what it means to hallow his name. And I just want you to know this is a time of tuning up our spirit. How many of you drive cars that get out of tune, Right? What's it like to try to get up Pine Creek Hill with a car that's chugging on six cylinders? It's awful. And I use these minutes and I don't know, it can be 10 minutes, it can be 15 minutes, it can be, in some cases, 30 minutes, just praising his name. And I'm tuning up my spirit. I'm preparing, as Fred said, to hear what he has to say because he wants to speak to us. And I bless him for the fact that it doesn't matter how I feel when I start. I want to emphasize that some mornings you feel great. Glory to God. Let me go, Lord. Other mornings I wake up and I don't feel all that spiritual. I know that shocks you, but I feel I'd rather just not do this right now. But my spirit controls my will, which is my soul. And I get before the Lord and I begin to praise him. This isn't just some magic thing, Church. God said he'll inhabit what? The praises of his people. And he begins to inhabit them. He begins to fill them up. And I'll tell you what. If you'll just spend these minutes before him. You're going to be changed as we praise him together. All right, and then I go on to the second part of the prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Now, this is a time of petitioning God, a time of coming before him and petition. Now, it isn't just simply a matter of begging God. And I want to get this straight. We don't beg God for anything. How many of you have children that you expect them to beg you for their needs? None of us. We want to give. God wants to supply. He wants to answer. He wants to direct. Now, when we say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, what are we saying under this category of prayer? The kingdom of God. Jesus came preaching, saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. Right. What did that mean? Well, that meant that the rule of God and the affairs of men had been established in Jesus. Say those words. The kingdom of God is at hand. Say them. The kingdom of God is at hand. It's present with us when we say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're saying, lord, your rule is to be established. Now, where I pray that it's to be established. Thy kingdom come, thy reign, thy presence come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How many of you know God has a purpose? There isn't any chance, folks, in God's kingdom, one of the things you need to grow up out of, those of you who are younger Christians, would you scratch the words in your vocabulary? Good luck. Would you? Now, don't dump on anyone who says that, okay? We can throw condemnation on people, but it isn't luck. When someone's going for an interview or something like that and you say, good luck, may the stars watch over you. God's not interested in that. He has an ordained purpose, doesn't he? He has a plan, and he's unfolding it towards you. And when we say, thy will be done, we're saying, lord, I want your purpose and your plan. And I rejoice that God is in the. He wants to order our lives. Now, I had Jen make an overhead, if you'll put that up, of the circle. All right? We have that. This is a picture, as it were, of our lives and how God wants to come in on the throne and order our lives. You see, we all have these priorities out there. Our jobs and our families and our other ministries and our involvement here in the church. And we have other needs around us. We need to have God ordering those things. Don't we? If we just hope that they're going to get done, they never do. If we just wish for the best, it doesn't happen. So when we pray, father, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. We're saying, lord, help us to order those things now, those little amoebas. There are the other things that you know. All right, I didn't know what you were working with. That's what that stands for. Not hoping for it. I'm not wishing for it. I'm commanding it. Now, would you look at those words? Does it say, lord, please, if it's at all possible, let your kingdom come. What does it say? Thy kingdom come? It's declaration. You're making a declaration. I want it to happen. God, by your grace, I believe it. I'm speaking it. We were saying the other morning after prayer, so many Christians, let the devil push them around. Let them just impose his own devices on their life. When God has given us an authority. In our last concert of prayer, we talked about the authority that we have to bind and to loosen the things of God in our lives. And we're going to say more about that a little later on this morning. I want you to know, when Satan seeks to tempt you off of the course of God or clutters your mind with confusion, what do you do about it? How do you stick to your priorities? I told this story a year or so ago, but it's worth mentioning just briefly again, a couple of summers ago when I was in Virginia beach with our family for our vacation there visiting Carol's mother. And we went down to the Naval air station because the boys wanted to see the jets taking off and landing. They have a pretty formal gate there. You have to go in to get on the base. And so cars were lining up, and I pulled in looking just totally unofficial, which of course was. And the sentry looked at me and immediately waved me off to the side. So I had to pull out of this. And he came tripping over. And I had tucked in my wallet. Now, don't tell anybody this, but I had tucked in my wallet an ancient history United States Marine Corps identification card. Now, all these sentries need to see is one little flicker of something that looks like an old officer's card. So I went like this, just flash that thing up there like that. And he saw enough of it to know that this guy sure doesn't look the part, but he's got the right credential. And he said, well, sir, what can I do for you? I looked in the car to see what he was talking. He said, where do you want to go in the base? And I said, well, we want to see the jets land and take off. I'll tell you exactly where you need to go. And he took me to a place where we just watched this for a couple of hours. It was just fantastic. It was the royal treatment. And I want you to know that God says, you've got a card. You're the child of the king. And when Satan comes up and wants to say, what are you doing here? What right do you think you have? You need to say, wait a minute, I'm a child of God. I realize this is an illustration that can be stretched too far, but too many of us just let Satan come and let him order our lives. And when you spend six or eight hours in front of the TV set over the weekend and don't have one hour to give to God, there's something wrong, folks. God doesn't want to rob you of your joys and your pleasures. He doesn't want that at all, but he wants you to get them right. And so we say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. What is the fruit of the kingdom? How do we know when the kingdom has come? Well, I have three things down there. The first one is we'll know the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I don't know where that is on your outline or even if it is. Okay, it's 1A on your outline. Thanks. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I begin by praying, Lord, I don't want anything today but your righteousness. Your. Your peace and your joy. I don't want any of the confusion or the anger or the frustration. I want your righteousness, your peace and your joy. And then I pray also that the kingdom of God would come and his power would be released. First Corinthians 4:20. The kingdom of God does not consist of words, but of what? Power. Power. And so I say, lord, I want your kingdom to come in power to do what you command. And finally, I want your kingdom to come and free me from worry. Oh, don't you want to be free from worry? God says, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all the things that we need will be added to us. Matthew 6:33. So that's the evidence. That's how I'll know when the kingdom is. Is coming in my life. Now, let me say again what I'm doing now. I've come before the Lord. I've entered into his presence. I've Hallowed his name. And I begin to pray. Thy kingdom come. This is all just in way of background. This is what I mean. Thy kingdom come. And here's what I, Lord, bring your kingdom in four areas. They're on your outline. Four areas. Number one, I pray for myself. Well, that's selfish, isn't it? No, I believe it's necessary. You see, until the kingdom comes in my life, I'm not good to God for just about anything else. You know that. Until his kingdom's in my life, there's no point in me trying to change the world. Is that right? God wants to change you first. And by saying, lord, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in my life. Listen, I am in the process of establishing my priorities for that day. The first thing I want to do is have God's rule come in my life. James 3, 5, 6 says, the tongue is like a rudder of a ship. And that little instrument guides the whole ship. And what I'm doing is I'm using my little instrument, my tongue, to guide my life through that day. Isn't that a blessing? We establish our course for that day. And so, Lord, I say my first priority is to you to be lord of my life. And I say, lord, thy kingdom come. In my thoughts, in my words and in my actions. I picture Jesus. Can I have the circle up again? I picture Jesus coming in and ordering my life once again, just like this circle, putting things in the right place. He comes and sits on my throne now. You need to see him doing that. Just see him coming and being seated right on the throne of your heart. He takes control of my life. So that's the first thing I pray for. Thy will be done. And I begin to agree with God that what his will is in heaven will be worked in me on earth. Do you think God has a will in heaven? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's already established. It's just a matter of getting in line with works church. It really works. Oswald Chambers says we spend too much time trying to find the will of God. He says that as we go into communion with God, we are the will of God. That's what I'm praying here. I'm not praying, Lord, I get all this and all that and all these things. I say, no, Lord, you be in control of my life. And I will be the word and the will of God wherever I go. And I lift up any particular concern I might have that day. God cares about what we're facing. You better believe I prayed about this service this morning. But, Lord, let your kingdom come through me. Let your righteousness and your peace and your joy come through me. That will change the way people see you. Do you know that if they see peace and joy and the righteousness of God in your life, it will change how they view you? It'll open them up. Now, the second thing I pray for is my family. Our families are our second priority, aren't they? And so I begin to pray for Carol. And I ask the Lord for blessing in Carol's life. And I ask the Lord for the things that I know Carol's struggling with. I say, lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. In Carol's life, Carol's been stepping out in faith and teaching the women's ministry on Tuesday mornings the last several weeks. I need to say there's something just a little bit unfair about that. I mean, she has over 100 women amening everything she's saying about me. And I've been praying for her, but I'm just about to stop now. And I lift her up in every dimension that the Lord brings to my mind. And I don't just say it real quickly. Listen, I'm not racing through this list. I don't have my stopwatch. There's 30 seconds on Carol now. I'm going to move over to the kids. I just let the Holy Spirit lead me in prayer. Every once in a while, I'll find myself beginning to speak in my prayer language as the Holy Spirit makes intercession with groanings too deep to understand. And it's beautiful. I don't know what he's praying, but I know he knows something about her that I don't know. And then I go on and pray for Amy and for David and for Jonathan by name. And I say, lord, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in their lives. Listen, you want parents, Those of you who have parents or kids now that are grown, those who have left the house. How many of you feel guilty today because you didn't pray for your kids when they were growing up? You know, if I'd only been different, Right? Now is the time to pray. Parents, pray for your children by name and let God direct you in their life and how to pray for their life. And then I pray for the other members of my family. I just ask the Holy Spirit to lead me, and then I go on to my third priority, and that's the church. Now, I don't want to shock anybody, but that's my third priority. Do you see that? It comes after my relationship With God and my family. But do you want to know why I enjoy being in this church so much? You want to know why I can spend the hours that I do here? Because I feel in my spirit that my priorities are right. I've established them in prayer. And I believe I'm being obedient to the Lord. And sure, I get out of whack sometimes and the brethren come around and say, jay, consider this, and have you done this? But I want you to know I enjoy it. It's not drudgery. If you find yourself complaining about going to another meeting, it's because you haven't established your priorities in prayer. It's a delight to come together. I enjoy it. I'd rather do it than do a lot of things that other people think are their right to do. And I begin to pray for this church. And I want you to make a couple notes here, would you? When you pray for the church and what God wants to do, pray number one, that God would cover your pastors and elders. Please hear me say, we need your prayers. We need to hear from God for you and for the direction of our fellowship. Pray for us. The attack of the enemy is heavy on those in leadership. I believe that Satan knows if he can discourage the leadership, he'll discourage the whole church. Pray for your pastors and elders. And then I go on and pray. I pray for all the leadership, many of them by name. I just sort of rotate them. I pray for different ones and different days. You need to pray for the leaders that touch your life. Your home group leader, the deacons, the music ministry, the counselors, whatever it is you pray. Pray for the children's ministry leaders. Pray for God to touch them, to speak to them, to direct them so that you can grow up in strength and in maturity. And then I go on and pray for the whole body. And you know what I pray? I pray, Lord, make everyone in this community faithful. Faithful, diligent to dispatch their calling before God. That's faithfulness. Diligent to dispatch their calling before God. Make us faithful in tithes and offerings, in ministries and resources. Lord, make us faithful. And I've been praying lately for the grace for this body, catch this word, to multiply. Not just add, but multiply. I'm believing God, that he's going to use you to multiply the impact of this body. And then I go on, and this next one is important. I pray for the harvest. I pray for the lost church. A year and a half ago or so, as John Wimber came to teach us on healing. One of the things that he shared with me at a breakfast meeting that we had was he believed that the reason why there was not more spiritual victory in the city of Pittsburgh was that we had conceded more much of this area to strong princes of darkness. And he believed that when there were believing people like most of you are here today, and we weren't seeing an outpouring of evangelism, it was because there was a strong prince. Now I want you to turn to Ephesians 2 and see what I'm talking about. Ephesians chapter 2. These aren't make believe terms. Ephesians 2, would you follow as I read? And you he made alive when you were dead. Through trespasses and sins. There's the condition of much of the world that you touch every day. Dead in spirit, alive in the flesh, dead in spirit in which you once walked. Look at this. Now following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Do you understand what you're reading? Do you see that it is a spiritual reality that prohibits people from coming in to the joy of God through salvation, repenting of their sin and turning to him. One of our brothers was just in India and saw massive darkness. And this was Ray Spiker. He saw millions of people lost. Why are they lost? Because there is a prince over the nation of India. A strong prince holding them back, causing darkness to shield the light. That's just an enormous thought, but it's true right here in the north hills. It's true in Pittsburgh and I don't have time today, but at our next concert of prayer, I'm going to talk to you about how you can literally begin to bind up the prints that would hold people from responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ and loose God in his holy Spirit. You say that's awful presumptuous. That sounds really weird to me. Well, Jesus said he gives us the power to bind and loose. What did he mean by that? In Matthew 16? That's what he meant. We have power over. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Put your hand up. How many of you believe that if this many people would agree and learn to move in prayer in that realm, we would absolutely see things shaken around us. And that's my heart as I come to prayer and I asking God for this whole church to grab that vision. Jesus said the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent. Take it by force. That's it. We just got to be violent against the powers of darkness. And then I go on and pray, number five, for the other ministries that we support and pray for. Eden Christian Academy, the North Hills Crisis Pregnancy Center. And I just go on and I say, any ministries, CBN and so on that God brings to my mind, I pray for them. Then finally, the fourth thing in my prayer time is, Lord, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in our nation. And I pray for the President, his advisors, and for the leadership and our local government. And then I go on and pray for the world. And I don't pray, Lord, bless the world. I ask the Lord just to put a nation on my heart. I always pray for Israel or try to pray for Israel because the Bible says there's promise and there's blessing in doing that. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Yesterday the Lord just had me pray for a while about our nation in terms of maintaining peace. You know, what joy it is to have the peace and the freedom to be able to move around and do what we're doing right now this morning. And so those are the ways that I pray. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Very specifically, I just declare them because God has promised them in his word. Can I say to you, three things happen. I conclude with this. Number one, my conscience is clear before the Lord. Don't you wish that you could start your day and head off to work or your other responsibilities and have your conscience clear that you've already met with God and established your priorities? That's what you can do. Number two, as I pray, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. There is an anticipation in my spirit that God is going to move things to get in order and people that would resist me and people that would get in the way. God's just going to put them in order. And it's exciting. You know what I'm finding when I've obeyed the Lord and done what I'm supposed to do when I'm held up when I'm late for something? I used to just get real. I used to get really holy. I get at a traffic light that just is always red when I'm there on the way to the prayer meeting. And that's my favorite time to have things click just right. I think it's not spiritual at all to have Traffic lights before 7 o' clock in the morning. But I'm sitting down at the bottom of Pine Creek Hill with that traffic light and I just know that I'm. I'm late and I've got to get there and I'm beginning to see if I've ordered my day before God, that He takes care of things on the other end. He lets it be the way it's supposed to be. Now, I'm not making an excuse for being late at all. I'm just saying I see God when I thought I had to do something, he does it because I've prayed it into place. And the third thing that happens is that I have seen a day seized for the glory of God. How many of you know every day is a winning day or a losing day? Every day you're making an advance in the kingdom or you're moving back. I've said before, the kingdom of God is like riding a bicycle. You're either moving ahead or you're falling off. And I rejoice that today is a day that we can just seize for the kingdom of God. What have I done now? I've hallowed his name, I've worshiped him, and now I've said, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. I've prayed. And you know what? It's not uncommon for this to be 45 minutes right now. Now, the Lord prompted me that some of you are discouraged already. You feel like this is just too much for me. Can I urge you just take 10 minutes to start out? 10 minutes. Every one of us has 10 minutes in the morning and just do these two things and you will begin to see God changing your expectations, changing what's happening in your life. Just want to urge you in that. Don't be discouraged. Give it a try. Use the sheets to pray through those things which God gives you. Now in a couple of weeks we're going to go on to the next part of our prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. How many of you want to learn how to pray in your finances? The rest of you need to see somebody. Alright? God wants the supply and we're going to talk about that after Easter. We're going to spend some time hallowing the names of the Lord in resurrection power in the next couple of weeks. But we're going to come back to this. So hang on. Practice these disciplines. Let's just close our books and come before him right now and give him praise. Matthew 6, beginning in verse 8, verse 9. Let's make it pray then like this. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy 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. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. What you're receiving is the third installment in your booklet, Teach Us to Pray. And if you're visiting today and you don't have one of these booklets, you can acquire one at the rear of the chapel before you leave or call the office. We are taking seriously the word of the Lord. Teach us to pray. And some people say, I don't like all these papers. It confuses everything. Well, how many of you have kept these notebooks? How many still have? Put your hands up. Look at that. See, most Sundays, the teaching outlines last about five days before they find their way to the hidden recesses of an old Bible or notebook, or sometimes the teacher, top of your desk. I believe that you're going to keep these, and I trust that you'll use them. And if you didn't get one, we're happy to supply you with one. Then hang on to it. Put your name on it, so when you leave it somewhere, someone can mail it back to you. This is going to help you. Many people are reporting, sharing that they're being helped by the exercise of praying as Jesus taught us to pray. All right, everyone's set. Now. Let's pray together, Lord. Now, as we just have done all of our administrative preparations, we ask you now, Holy Spirit, to come move on the logs of our heart that are now placed on the altar that you've built, Lord, here in our praise, and allow your Holy Spirit