Lord, Teach Us to Pray I and II

You are listening to North Way tape number 395. This tape contains the first two messages in the series Lord, teach Us to Pray. The speaker is Jay Passaven, pastor of North Way Christian Community. The scripture lesson begins in Luke chapter 11. Additional notes and outlines are available through the North Way office. Okay, Luke 11. Are you there? Let's read beginning in verse one. He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, lord, teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, father, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. Now, in the sixth chapter of the Book of Matthew, you find the more complete version of the Lord's Prayer. And we're going to start this morning at the point of more or less being refreshed in where the Lord's taking us from the last couple of weeks. How many of you love books that lie in their titles? Books like Income Tax Preparation Made Easy Right or How to Guarantee a Lush and Fruitful Garden. I read those books and planted their gardens and wept most of the summer. I picked up a book on Vacation last summer, which was one of those really promising books with the lying titles. It said, Six Weeks to Better Tennis for the Intermediate. I picked up the book and flattered myself, first of all for being an intermediate, and then realized that what the thesis of the book was. And Dennis Raulston was the writer of the book. He used to coach some of the US Tennis teams and so on the Davis Cup. He said that the reason why people don't get better playing tennis, the average kind of player, is because they don't know how to stick to one part of their game until it's improved. And so what they do is they get out there and they try to improve everything all at once instead of finding one weakness at a time and working on it. Well, I didn't have any problem isolating one of my weaknesses. And so I said, well, I'm going to work in my backhand now for the next six weeks. And his thesis was, in six weeks. If you just work on that one point, you'll significantly improve your game, and then you move on to the next point. And he said, in about a year, if you do that consistently, you're going to be a much better tennis player than you were a year before. The only thing is that you've got to be Willing to put up with the grief that you're going to get by all your playing partners while you're getting whopped for that year. You're running around chasing your backhand all the time while they're just smashing you on the forehand side. Well, I realized that in order to be better at playing tennis in six weeks, I'd have to get creamed by the guys I was playing with, and I wasn't willing to put up with that. And so I'm still an average player. That's the bottom line of that story. But I wonder how many of us as Christians have the same problem. The reason why we don't grow is because we're not willing to look at one part of our lives and say, holy Spirit, change me right here, and I'm not moving until you do. How many times have we heard someone give a teaching, or you heard something on the radio or whatever, you read a book and you said, I need that in my life. Anybody have that happen? You say, oh, that was great. And the next week you hear something else, you say, oh, that was great. And that was great. And it isn't long before everything's great, but you haven't changed at all. I want you to know that I believe that the Lord God is saying to us here at North Way that it's time that we begin to deal with a few things that he's showing us by his spirit and not leave them until we've changed. And I want you to know it's going to require of us a discipline. You say, I don't know about discipline. I'm not a very disciplined person. How many of you would say you're disciples of Jesus? Okay, most of us. What does disciple mean? What is the definition of a disciple? It's one who is under discipline for learning. Is that right? So we're called to be disciplined people. We're called to be people who are willing to deal with portions of our life and bring them under the lordship of Jesus Christ and move on. Now, last week, we. We talked about this principle that God Almighty wants us to be temples of His Holy Spirit. And we use the passage in Matthew 21 to teach about the fact that Jesus said that these temples would be called what? Houses of prayer. Temples of prayer. And we told about the fact that if Jesus came and walked into our lives at this point, the chances are that he wouldn't just kind of pat us on the head and say, well, I know that, you know, there's a lot of things out there that are pulling you away. And he wouldn't be mealy mouthed and real little sweet, it's okay if you don't pray at all this week. I know there's a lot of TV to give. But he'd come in and he'd say, wait a minute, what are your lives? And he'd throw over the tables of the money changers and he'd run out the pigeon sellers in our lives. And we all said one to another. And I'll tell you something, I have to say, more people fed back to me last week of the fact that that teaching struck them right where they live. I had more calls and more conversations with people saying, that's where I am. But I have a question for you. How many of you left here last week saying, that's me, but this whole week's gone by and even though you felt, that's me and I want to change, this last week was exactly the same as the one before. Does that describe anybody? You see, that's the way we are. We know we should, but we just find it difficult to change. Is that right? Am I the only one that way? Okay. We find ourselves struggling with, Lord, bring me around to where you want me to be in one area so that I can establish it and move on. And I want to say to you, I believe that God is going to take our resolve at this point, beloved, and he is going to make something of it. Remember we said that God wants to make us temples of prayer so that we can enter into the revival of his spirit that's going on in this day. Remember we said that we believe that God is moving by his grace around the earth. And I had lunch this Friday with the area director of Christian broadcasting, a new fellow in the area, about six months, really delightful guy. And he said, you know, I came here from out of state and I didn't know much about Pittsburgh, and I really wasn't sure I wanted to come here, but the position opened up. He said, I can't tell you what I'm sensing moving around the city. I'm sensing that God is preparing to really move by his spirit. Well, I just, you know, I choked on my tomatoes at that point. Terrific. The same exact spirit that he'd been sharing with us, that God is moving, that God himself is putting things in order to move and to sweep in a harvest of those who are lost and separated from him. And I went, this came from someone who doesn't have any real affection for the city like many of us do from out of state. And he said, God's really doing something. And he said, you know, I feel that God's called me to come here to be part of this just now. And I said, lord, make that be in all of our hearts that we're part of something that you're doing. Now. The way you're going to do that is by making room in your heart. We don't just do it by wishing that it would be so. You know, the good intentions of all of our lives just fall apart, don't they? So often. And God's requiring of us. Let's bring our lives in order. Let's get discipline before God, and let's learn how to pray. Let's learn how to pray so that we can see God do something with us. I believe, my brothers and sisters, that prayer is the key to communion with God. And communion with God is the key to living a full and abundant life. Do you have personal problems? We have a diagram there, Gina, don't we, of the average Christian life? Yep. Do any of you look like this? If you would chart your life, I'm sorry about the overhead, but you can get the idea that it sort of looks like a lightning bolt. And sometimes, you know, if you were. If you're right here when someone talks to you, you're doing great, right? Praise the Lord. But if somehow you've had a bad week or a bad time and they meet you right here, watch out. Right? And we find ourselves. These are pulse Christians. Good and then bad and then good and then. And God said, no. The way I've ordained for you to walk is in a steady communion with me so that circumstances can come and go, but you'll never change. You know, it was Paul who said, have no anxiety about anything, but in all things with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. And the what peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds as you rest in Christ Jesus and so beloved prayer. Our prayer life is at the core of what we want to do. And I want to say something to you. We will never be an easy place to belong. North Way is never going to be a place where we just kind of throw, you know, our 2 cents worth in and come as we please. Ken Hobbs gave me this little cartoon, which I thought was cute. It's called the Light Church. There's a little cartoon with a church that has. It looks a lot like this one, in fact. And there's a billboard out front that kind of looks like the North Way billboard. It says the light church. You've seen the things you know for the light yogurt and light beer and all that. Here's the light church. 24% fewer commitments. Home of the 7.5% tithe. The 15. Minute sermon with two points. No amens there. 45 minute worship service. We have only eight commandments, your choice. We use just three spiritual laws. And we have an 800 year millennium. Everything you've always wanted in a church and less. Right. Well, that's never going to be us. Lord willing. I hope that that's what you feel, that God said no. We're called to be wholeheartedly his. I believe that the Lord is doing it. And I want you to know this same spirit of prayer is striking all around the country. I received some encouraging reports from a church, for example, outside of Dallas, 35 miles northwest of Dallas. I believe it is where God began to move by his spirit. And a group of just 13 believers in five years became 7,000 believers on the basis of prayer and seeking the Lord. Some of the things I'm going to share with you are principles that they've been using in their life as a church. There is a drawing together. The spirit of the Lord is saying the same thing around the world. And that just confirms in my heart that we're on the right track. Now, where do we begin with this? Okay, you're saying, Jay, what are you saying we're going to do? Well, here's what we're going to do. I have a goal. And here it is. Here's our goal for the next, I don't know how many weeks. And if you don't want to hear about prayer, you better visit somewhere else for a while because that's what we're going to be talking about. All right. You say, how can you do that? That's pretty biased. I'm just being honest with you. We're going to talk about prayer, but it's going to cover so much more because you're going to see that prayer is so much intertwined in who we are in Christ. Our goal is to pray as Jesus taught his disciples to pray for one hour a day. Okay, One hour a day, he said, come on. I'm looking. I'm gaging some of the reactions here. This guy is late or something. He's really losing it here. I could never do that. I want to ask you, do you think there's any significance in the fact that Jesus said to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, could you not watch what say it one hour at the time of my greatest need, my greatest agony before my father, at a time when my life was in the balance. Could you not watch One hour? And I want to submit to you church that something really powerful happens when you watch for one hour. I've been praying with people together for five years now, just about every Tuesday and Friday. We started every day for one Hour. And I have seen something very interesting. I just want to share this. I forgot to say this in the first service, but do you know that sometimes when we start to pray, it's right away that God meets us and we're just right off the bat, we're in glory. I mean, the hour goes super fast. And there are other times like last Friday when we'll be there and we'll just be slugging along and you know, people are nervous and shifting around and it's 7:25, down comes the spirit of God and he'll lead us in things to pray and the Spirit will lift us up and we'll start to pray spontaneously. I don't know what it is, but there's something that happens when we pray for an hour. Do you pray for an hour? Can you pray for an hour? You say, well, you don't know my schedule, Jay. I have so many things going on. What's going on at your house at five o' clock in the morning? I heard that in the background there. And I'm not saying that everyone has to get up at 5 o' clock in the morning to pray, but there are times, you see, it's not a matter of we don't have any time, is it? It's a matter of we have other things to do that we feel are more important and God's going to teach us. And I want you to know, positively speaking, would you hear this? If you'll listen to what I'm going to say in the next weeks and you'll apply yourself to the word of God as we share it, you will find it easy to pray for one hour. Mark it down. He said it. The pastor said you'll find it easy to pray for one hour. And even, yes, even a delight to do it. Now, I'm not saying that it's going to happen instantaneously, but it's going to happen by the grace of God. Anyone here interested in that? Alright, praise the Lord. I believe it. I think we're going to see it happen. Now let's look and see what Jesus Christ himself said to the disciples. Aren't you glad that they asked the Same dumb questions. We would, right? I mean, if Jesus were standing right here, you would probably say to him, lord, I'm hurting. Would you please teach me how to pray? Teach me to pray. How many of us are waiting for that spiritual magic wand to wipe over us and suddenly make us men and women of God? I know I did that for a long time. I was waiting for just the right person to lay hands on me. And then suddenly I'd be spiritual. Have you done that? It doesn't happen. Forget it. God says, no, I'm going to shape your life. I'm going to teach you what you need to know. And I delight in the fact that the early disciples had the same questions. Let's look at them together and see what his response was. Luke, chapter 11. Here's what Jesus taught his disciples. He said, our Father, who art in heaven. Now, let me say right off the bat that I believe that what we have here is an outline, not just words. How many of you learned the Lord's Prayer as a child? Most of you. How many learned to sing it in the choir? Our Father, we learn all these words and we can say them, you know, just shoot them right off. But you know what? I don't think Jesus was just saying, this is all that you have to say. He was saying, as the early rabbis often did, this is an outline. This is what you'll want to pray in terms of categories. And he began by saying, pray, our Father. Our Father who art in heaven. I'll tell you what can you say today, my Father, and know in your heart that it's true? Can you say that to God? There's nothing to me today that's a greater joy than to be known as a child of God. I wouldn't trade that for anything. How'd you like to be the president of Egypt and be known, I'm the president of Egypt here in this country to borrow another billion dollars because my country is about to sink. How'd you like to be Nelson Bunker Hunt and be one of the wealthiest men in the world and be in court for bankruptcy? You know what I mean? You can have it all. But to be a child of God is to say that you can't, number one, ever change that, and number two, that it's the best thing that could ever happen to you. So the best thing that's ever happened to me has already happened. And it'll never change. It'll just get better. I don't know. I mean, this is a slow group this morning, but I get a little Bit excited about that. How about you? I tell you what, to know that I'm a child of God, to know that God is my father, does something to me. And you know, whatever you're here to pursue today, I know some of you are out to change forever your economic status, or perhaps some of you are athletes or whatever, some of you in school and college, you're doing everything you can to get ready for the real world. I'm going to tell you something, unless you have this down, the real world is going to pass you right by. Because I'm looking at people, many people who've already come to me and said I had it in the world and it didn't satisfy me and I praise God that to be a child of God is what really settles in and satisfies our spirit and who we really are. How do you know that God can be your father? How do you know that he can be your father? This isn't just some spiritual truth for a few people. We've got to know this because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter four that we are with confidence draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in our time of need. Let me ask you, is there anyone here that has a need today who has a need? You'd say, if I'm honest, I have a need. Okay. The rest of you just don't know that you have a need. We all have needs. And God says draw in with confidence. And you can't draw to confidence with someone you don't know. Is that right? I love it when one of my kids come to me and say, daddy would you, without any question at all that if it's possible, I'll do it for them? Are you like that with God? Do you go to God and say, daddy, would you, with confidence that God is going to hear you? And I want you to know that that's what he wants. He wants us to see him as our father. Now this didn't happen, folks, because God just said, well, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and we're all sort of, we are the world. It's all just diddy bop on into eternity with all the well intended people who in an expression of, I think, honest concern are trying to rally people around for a particular cause. But that doesn't have anything to do with who we really are. We are God's children. Are you God's child today? There's only one way you can be. You know what it is? It's through the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus. I don't know about you, but in my background I didn't hear too much about the blood of Jesus Christ. Did you? First of all, it's not a very. I mean, it's not an appealing subject, right? I mean, talk about the blood of. Jesus Christ and you get, ugh. I notice how children, oftentimes they're not sure how to respond when you talk about the blood of Christ. And then beyond that, we have this image in our mind. But the only people talked about the blood were the ones who rolled in the sawdust and screamed the blood, you know, and all that. But church, the Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1, verse 7 tells us that we've been redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. Are you thankful for the blood of Christ today? Does something happen in you that lets you know that because God was willing to send his Son to redeem us by his blood, we don't have to pay the penalty for our sin? The blood of Jesus. No, it's through the blood that we enter into what's called a covenant. Now I want to talk about on your green sheet, I said, what is a covenant? Let's talk about covenant. All this is what I do when I go to say our Father, alright? What I'm doing to you or for. You is telling you. When I go to pray, I say, father. And these things come to my mind. What is a covenant? Somebody. It'S an agreement. It's a binding contract. Someone said, now if you don't like business terms, just say it's a deal. Okay? A covenant is a deal. Let's make a deal. God said, I want to make a. Deal with you people. And here's my deal. God said this, you have a problem and I have a solution. And God said initially to Abram, I'm going to make a deal with you, Abram. I'm going to make you a nation greater than any nation on the face of the earth. I'm going to make your progeny like the stars of the heavens. And God made a deal. He made a contract, a binding agreement. Listen, that would never be broken. That's why the way, by the way, I might say that Israel has not fallen out of God's plan today because God made a contract. And God said, I'm going to make you a great nation. And there's certain promises that will go with that. And then secondly, he said, as part of that, if you'll respond, if you'll obey. All the people that I give you will also share in that old covenant. And then he sealed it by what is called cutting the covenant. Who knows what cutting the covenant means? Cutting the covenant was a. If you look in Genesis 15:18, you'll see that phrase in the Hebrew, cutting the covenant. What happened was they took an animal, the animal was slain and cut in two. And then the two parties would walk, as it were, in a figure eight around that slain animal. And that would be the beginning of the symbol of their binding together. And eventually they would mix blood and scar each other on the wrist to remind themselves that they had entered into a covenant with each other. This is very serious. You know, we don't understand that because we don't do that in our culture. But that's what God. That's what God was picturing when he said, I'm going to make a covenant with you. Now, in the New Testament or the new Covenant, the word is the same in the Greek. What is. What is the agency? This is the second point in your outline. What is the agency? It's the blood of Jesus Christ. It's that blood that God mingles with us. Are you hearing me? It's that that God mingles with us that gives us a new nature. First, Peter says, we've been ransomed, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with what? The precious. Say it. Blood of the lamb. I just bless God for that, don't you? We are new creatures in Christ Jesus, but with his blood. Now, all of this, you see, is in my mind how I relate to God as my Father. It's because of that he said, you have no hope. You are separated. You are out of my purpose and my will. But I have a deal for you. I'm going to make a covenant. I'm going to make a promise with you. And what do we have to do, Church? What. What do we have to do for the covenant? We have to receive it. God, how would you like to have a partner that said, I'm going to set you up in business and I'm going to give you all this and all that and promise you all these things, and all you have to do is accept it? You know what we do? We wouldn't believe it. And that's exactly what's happened. That's exactly what's happened. God has said, I'm going to do these things for you. And we don't believe it. And most of the world has snubbed God off and said, forget it. God I have my own way of getting saved, but it's the covenant of Jesus Christ and his blood. Now, I've listed there five things that that covenant brings and I'm not going to go through them all today, but just mention them and then I'll conclude five things that that new covenant promises us. Would you look at them? The first is forgiveness of sins. God has said that our sins, past, present and listen, future are forgiven because of his blood. I rejoice in that. I rejoice that no matter what I do, if I confess it, the blood of Christ is effectual. You know, there are some who think that God just sort of nods and kind of covers his eyes when we sin. Do you feel that way? Do you feel that if you don't obey the Holy Spirit when He says to do something, or if you know that you go into sin, do you think God just says, well, you know, you're one of mine and I guess it's okay? Do you think that's what happens? Can I tell you something today? Would you ask God to show you what forgiveness cost him? Would you ask God to show you that every sin has a penalty that will be paid and that if it wasn't for the fact that he sent his substitute, you would pay the price for that sin? Listen, God just doesn't wink at it. We evangelicals think God just sort of. No, no. God said there's a price to be paid. But glory to God who paid it. Jesus Christ. He became the substitute for our sin. You know that Galatians 3:10 said he became cursed with a curse. I don't know, I don't like that word. Do you like the word that goes along with blood? To me, those two words, come, he was cursed with a curse so that we might what, be freed from the curse of the law? And I want to encourage you, some of you don't know how vile that curse was. And we need to say, lord, show us what our sin cost you. Why? Because when we say our Father, then we're going to begin to realize what God has done. And you know something? Jesus himself said, he who's been forgiven the most loves the most. You know what? It's not that you haven't been forgiven a lot. It's just you don't know how much you've been forgiven. God help us to see how much you love us, how much you love us as our Father God loves us. So here I am, I'm before the Lord and I say, lord, my Father, and I think of this covenant And I think, first of all, I've been forgiven of my sin. I've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I don't know about you, but I start getting a little bit excited about that. That just starts to make me feel happy about the Lord. And it isn't long before it's, well, you know, I just start getting really happy. Most of you don't understand that, do you? Do you? We have so much to be happy for. I know you understand it. We just find it so difficult sometimes to let our emotions say that to God. Lord, I'm happy for what you've done. Happy now? There's four other things there. We'll do them next week because I want to come back to this and I want to say, lord, our Father, these covenant promises are mine. And because I'm going to learn to pray them, I'm going to learn to enjoy them, right? How many of you want to enjoy the covenant promises? Amen. I do too. And the Lord's going to show us together how we can do that. As we grow in prayer, when we see what God has done, it will launch us into prayer. I want you to know that after you said, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, you're going to be 15 minutes into prayer and feel like you just started. Alright? Trust me, it really, really can change your life. It's going to be exciting as we grow together. Let's pray. Father, how I love you for your word and the truthfulness of it. Lord, thank you that when I was helpless and Lord, when I was despairing in my own, you sent Jesus Christ to love me, that it was while I was yet a sinner that Christ died for me and for each of us. Lord, I thank you that when I can turn to you and say, my Father, who art in heaven. Lord, I know that you have committed yourself. You have done it. You have set yourself in a position to extend to me all the blessings of heaven. And so, Lord, I just thank you that it's your righteousness and it's your forgiveness and your freedom that we celebrate together here today. And it's of you that we sing. Bless your holy name, Father. Let's begin reading in verse 7 of Matthew 6, which is a parallel passage to Luke chapter 11. 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, do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Time does not permit me to go back and retrace the established framework that we have laid down the last two Sundays as we've been talking about. Prayer is the basis for revival and renewal in our own hearts. And I said last week, and I want to reiterate that what we have here isn't just Jesus saying, folks, if you say these magic words, suddenly you're going to be a great prayer warrior. But rather, we affirmed last week that we believe the Lord's Prayer is an example of the rabbi's methodology of using topical headings in their teaching, and then under each topical heading, elaborating the importance of what they were accentuating with those headings. And so each of these six or so phrases in the Lord's Prayer are a topic and not just a word to be said. How many of you have children? How many of you were thrilled when your children started to talk? How many of you wish later on that maybe, no. Have you ever watched a parent trying to teach their child how to talk? I mean, it's really. If they could get a video of them and not the kid, right? Say dad, da. Right. Really? They take it dad, da. And they take their lips. And of course, I think it's always cute that what's generally the first thing that a baby says? Dad. Nah, nah, not Mama, dad, dad. And Mama says, I can't believe that. Right? Wasn't dad, dad. That was up every night with Junior. It was Mama. But anyhow. And of course, the reason why we go to the greatest extents to just get that baby to start saying mouthing words and making phrases is not so that someday we can tell them everything they're supposed to say. Not at all. It's just simply our hope is to prime the pump and get them moving and help them to discover that they can communicate and they can talk in much the same way. Beloved, our goal here in the next weeks as we're learning this outline of the Lord Jesus in prayer is not to tell you what to say. And I want to lay to rest the idea that I'm going to give you a formula. And that formula is going to ensure that somehow you're going to be able to pray. This is not a formula. This is simply something that I believe that God gave in the Scriptures to show us how to begin to pray. And the goal of all prayer is communion with God. You may want to write that down. The goal of all prayer is communion, fellowship with God our Father. Now, I believe that you're going to think for a while, well, this is kind of basic. But would you see it not as some patronizing attempt to give you words and phrases, but rather as an act of faith to come, caused some of us to get past the initial dada's and googoos of our first prayer before the Father? Why am I doing this? Because I believe in my own experience. And you would bear this out. It's not easy to pray for any length of time. How many of you were taught when you first became a Christian, it's easy to pray, Just talk to God like you're talking to your father. Right, I was told that. But you know, what I found is that's true for the first minute. Then it becomes just a little bit more of a test. It becomes more, wait a minute now what do I do? And my purpose in these weeks with you is to literally show you what to do, even what to say to some degree in order that it won't be difficult for you to spend 30, 60 minutes or more talking with your heavenly Father. Won't that be exciting? How many of you want to learn to pray? You want to learn to commune with God. And I believe that really the reason many of us don't isn't because we don't want to. It's because we really don't know how to do that. I'm going to share it with you this morning, the first and beginning steps of this, so that when you become in touch with God, he will meet your needs. I think Fred would affirm this. 90% of the counseling and of the personal interactions that we face with people who have struggles is because people in general are not able to hear God for themselves. They're not able to hear what the Lord is saying to receive from God themselves. And so what they need counsel for, really what they're saying is help me to hear what God's saying because I don't know how to hear him myself. And so I'm not just doing this to build some sort of a prayer group. We're sharing this so you can get in touch with the Lord so that you can hear God for yourself and hear his will and receive strength and faith to go on and do what he wants to do. Does anyone want to do that? Besides a few of us? I think all of us do. All of us who yearn for the Lord's heart, we want to know what he's saying. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and they know the way that I'm calling them to now we