Myths That Make Us Miserable VII, Truth About Power Praying

Welcome to Lifeline Tapes, a ministry of North Way Christian Community in Wexford, Pennsylvania, where Jay Passavant is senior pastor. All of our teachings are available on cassette tape from the Lifeline's Resource Center by calling the church office at 412-935-6800. Today's message was recorded on December 12th, 1994, and is part 7 of a series of messages entitled, Myths That Make Us Miserable. Today's message is titled, The Truth About Power Praying. And now, here's Jay. Matthew, chapter 5, and then make it 6. I want to see if you're awake there. Working through the Sermon on the Mount, someone asked me, are we going to get a new podium? The answer is, I don't know. I hope so. That's one of those things that will come when we're ready. But I have two of these because my Bible weights them down, and it just mysteriously starts going down. And you're wondering, is that the kabod of God's glory? No, it's just stuff that's too heavy here. Someone wants to define character as what you do when no one is looking. That's your character. How you act when you're not under scrutiny, the kind of things you do when no one's looking over your shoulder. Character is who you are when you're not under the spotlights, when the cameras aren't rolling, when no one is watching you, who you are and what you do when no one's looking. Think of the people, public people, whose lives and destinies were altered radically when they did something and were caught. They thought no one was looking, but someone was, or listening. Think of the Watergate case. How many of you remember the image of Marion Barry, the Washington, D.C. mayor, being caught with that drug paraphernalia right in the cameras? He thought no one was looking. And you can probably put your own names and faces in there. In this passage, Jesus is talking about spiritual character. What separates the spiritual haves from the wannabes in the Christian life? Do you really live out your faith when no one is looking? Do you live your Christian life and play to an audience of one? Or are you more Christian when others are kind of watching? Is it possible that you act in a certain way when you feel like your own personal stock might rise a few points if you act sort of Christian? I mean, I had to chuckle, didn't you, at the number of people running for public office this last time who put on their little public resumes that they taught Sunday school? You know, wow. You never see that any other time. But yeah, well, I might add my stock a couple of points, and so they put that in it. See, Jesus, in these verses, as he has throughout this sermon, is raising the troubling questions about what's going on in our hearts when it comes to these matters. Giving, prayer, fasting, these different things we're looking at. What do you like when it's just God? You see, last week we looked at giving and the rewards and benefits promised to rightly motivated givers. And I want to just mention to you this morning that I didn't get a single letter from anyone thanking me for challenging you in your giving. I think you'd rather hear a message about root canals and how delightful they are. But nonetheless, I want to add one more point, because I believe it's to our benefit to understand this. Would you find it motivation enough to give to God? If no one else knew, nobody knew, nobody ever sent you a thank you note, not even the IRS, would you still give to God just because you love him? That's what Jesus is asking right here. But today we're not talking about that. We're talking about prayer. What a topic. I look back through my notes for the last 13 years. I've got a lot of messages peppered in there on prayer. This has been a wonderful praying church through the years, a great church where prayer has been taking place. But I have to tell you, folks, it isn't something you ever get comfortable in, is it? Isn't it just kind of like our whole physical bodies? It just seems to have sort of a gravitational pull south and away. And so we're looking at something today that's a challenge to us all. And I'm going to be real honest as I share, and I know this is going to be simple, but I have a sense that Jesus used simple analogies because he knew that the people there largely didn't get it when it came to prayer. And I've got to say, as far as I know you, and I've asked God to show me your hearts in this as well as my own, I don't know how many of us get it either. Three things that Jesus identified quickly on the overhead. Number one, he talked about wrongly motivated public prayer. We'll look at that for a moment. You know, people who just prayed to have someone say, Wow, aren't they spiritual? Then he talked about mechanical, sort of prescribed, sort of rote, sort of babbly prayers. You know, do this and God will be required to answer kind of prayers. And then self-centered or narrow-minded, me-centered prayers. Those three things. Jesus said, if you're praying that way, hey, you're kind of wasting your time because it isn't getting through. And I hope as we go through this morning and when you leave today, you have something, church, inside of you that can't wait for the opportunity to pray. Because what happens if you don't is you slip back into this sort of religious fog that just sort of doesn't ever change about your prayer life. Richard Foster, who wrote a couple of wonderful books, one of which was The Celebration of Discipline, says this, We today yearn for prayer and hide from prayer. We're attracted to it and repelled by it. We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do. How many people so far? That's me. It's something we should do and I even want to do. But it seems like a chasm stands between us and actually praying. And so we experience the agony of prayerlessness. Now, I'm very mindful that probably a few of us today will feel very guilty, as I share. Some of us today won't even be dented in our resolve. But I believe a few of us are going to leave today and you're going to be changed. Let's read what Jesus says, Matthew 6, verse 5. Got it? Look on with somebody. It's the Bible. Look on. It's going to change your life. Read it. Oh, I don't have my Bible, Pastor Jim. Slide over one. Get close to someone. There we go. Alright. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they've received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who's unseen. And then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans. For they think they'll be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. What a sentence that is, isn't it? Talk about a father-child relationship. Verse 9. And this then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. You see, the bottom line of prayer is very simple. Let's look at it. Number one, prayer that pleases God. Prayer that gets through is done, number one, in secret. Not to impress others. Now before you kind of write this off and say, well of course I'm not going to walk down into Ross Park Mall, you know, and pull out some kind of little, you know, prayer statue and make a big scene, right? Well of course not. But how many of you, this little poll here, way in the back, would you help me with this? How many of you will be asked in the next couple of weeks, whether because of the holiday or a wedding or some, you know, event at your office, how many of you, because you're the, quote, religious one, you'll be asked to say the blessing or some prayer? Yeah, hey, you know, hey Joe, Joe's got religion. Let him say the prayer, okay? And when they ask you to do that, how many of you really find yourself wanting to give a good one, you know? And part of you wants to give a good one because you hope that maybe all those pagan people that are around you, that somehow they'll get inspired to want to know God. But part of it is because you want them to know how well you know God. And the reason I know that is I get asked to pray a lot of times in public places. I'll go to my kids' basketball banquets or football banquets or Honor Society, this and that, and they always say, Reverend Passman will pray. And I have this fleeting thought, well, I want to make this a good one. Jesus said, what's that about? You see, and it's not only then. Sometimes you hear this, you see it in your small group, you know? Ever been in a small group where someone gets cranked up in prayer and just kind of goes, and on and on and on? And, you know, they raise their tone, and 15 minutes later, they're just starting to slow down. What's that about? Well, that's something, you know, that may be, it may be okay, but it may also be just sort of the need to somehow be authenticated as being close to God. Jesus says that's not what real prayer is about. Real prayer, personal prayer, effective prayer, Jesus says, is much more simple than that. He says get into a quiet place, go to a room, and very quietly just go through it and shut the door. Just like that. And no one needs to know what you're doing in the room. Don't make a big deal about it. Don't be like a seminary professor that I had that used to hang a sign, do not disturb seeking the face of God. I mean, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. Just secretly spend time with God. You know, secret places are precious to us. I want to really land on this because I almost want to have you stand up if you have one, but I'm not going to say that. I hear that most of us don't have a secret place. Now, I don't mean a place that no one ever can find you. I'm not talking about some cabin in the woods where only you go or some bomb shelter in your house. But I'm talking about a place that when you go in there, I mean, it's unhindered, undistracted. There's no phones. There's no pink memo reminders. There's no fax machines working through. It's just you and God. Because the greatest problem we have in a secret place is what Oswald Chambers calls his mental wool gathering. You just start, our mind starts wondering. And if you're in front of your desk and all this stuff's there, hey, I know what I'm talking about. All this stuff's there that you've got to do. Your prayer life is real short. The secret place needs to be a place where it's just God and you without distraction. Dear ones, this is so important. Oswald Chambers, who I mentioned, is this important? I might even have this on an overhead. Oswald Chambers says, It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite time, the secret place. He didn't say it's tough. He said it's impossible. And if the truth were known, some of us are trying to conduct our life as a disciple without any prayer time at all. Other than what we grab in the car or on the bus or maybe as we're kind of getting ready to go to bed. See, what's really amazing to me is that God wants to meet alone with me in prayer. Did you ever ponder that? Ponder it right now, would you? Ponder it. Think about it. God wants to meet with you. How many people in authority want to meet with you? Think about that. Do you think it's easy to get an appointment for you alone to meet with someone in authority? Try it. Try it. Call Mayor Murphy. Tell him, Hey, I really got to talk to you, Mr. Mayor. How long do you think he'd wait to see Mayor Murphy? Long time. I mean, it's hard to see your junior high principal. I mean, it's very difficult. People in authority, too busy for you. Too busy for me. You know, all the politicians that were kind of hanging around here in our community? They're too busy now. Can't meet with you. I got an invitation from President Reagan to have breakfast with him once. I have it framed. It's up in my office. Went down to the Sheraton in Washington, D.C. I wasn't surprised about this, but I was one of 4,000 having breakfast with him. I was in a room, I couldn't see him, but I was having breakfast with him. I had a video monitor. But you see, dear ones, it isn't just anyone that's saying he'll have prayer. It's the CEO of the universe. It's the president of the cosmos that's saying to you, I'll meet with you anytime, anywhere. You set the agenda. You talk to me. I'll be there for you. My heart, when I think about it. You read this and see Jesus says, My father who is unseen will reward you. Well, the problem, Jay, is when I sit down in that place, I don't think anyone else is there. I feel like it's kind of a waste of time. You see, the problem is, being unseen does not mean unreal. In fact, what is unseen is every bit as real as what is seen. You just have to perceive it. And there's a threshold that you cross in prayer when suddenly, how many of you have been there? You know that God's there. You know that he showed up. I want to urge you, don't leave your secret place until you know that God's been there. Don't get up until you feel warmed in your soul that you met with God. Because that's what changes you. That's what sets the day in order. That's what lets you know that what's going to happen in the rest of the day is going to work for the glory of God. It's a secret place. Dear ones, I guess my question is, do you have one? Can I give you a little preliminary New Year's resolution? Find a secret place where you meet with God. And one of the cutest stories, I'll never forget this. Susanna Wesley, John Wesley's mother, had 19 kids. Hello? Oh, man. Imagine it. I mean, talk about secret. You know what her secret place was? I guess you've heard me say that she'd been around a while. Her secret place was to take her apron and put it over her head. And the kids knew, Mom's spending time with God. Don't give God the excuse, I can't find any place. You'll find a place. It's so important. Number two, Jesus said, prayer that gets through to the Father is prayer that's not mechanical but sincere. Now, on this little table here, I've got just a couple of things. This is a prayer book. Now, some of you have grown up in traditions where prayer books were very important. I mean, this little book has all kinds of prayers in it. Here's prayer for a woman's world. I wouldn't need those, but some of you might. Prayers for parents. Here's prayers for the nation, for the armed forces, for school, for patriotism, and so on. See, great prayers, but you know what? Have you ever received a greeting card from someone that couldn't tell you themselves that they gave you a card? They couldn't say, I love you, so here's the card. You appreciate that, but what do you really want? You want to hear them say it, right? So it's okay, but probably not going to get you very far. In some traditions, you light candles. As long as the candle burns, the prayer goes up to God, right? Is that right? Is that candle an indication that prayer is being heard? When the candle goes out, the prayer is over? You ought to buy candles like this, and get your money's worth. Are there other things, other different deals? There's some religions, you put your prayer on a wheel, and as long as the wheel goes around, it's going up. I was reading the paper on Thursday. You see these things. Here's a little powerful prayer to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you who solves all problems, who lights all roads so that I can attain my goal. You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget all evil against me in all instances. You are with me. I want this short prayer to thank you. I wish to be with you in eternal glory. Thank you. The person must say this prayer three consecutive days. After three days, the favor requested will be granted, even if it may appear difficult. This prayer must be published immediately after favor is granted, without mentioning the favor. You see these? They're on the paper all the time. What is all this stuff? Well, Jesus said, wait. When you pray, don't keep on babbling. Don't just keep on saying things and going around in rows. Because what tends to happen, and this is, by the way, I mean, this is the broad spectrum of religious tradition here. What happens is, these kinds of things tend to become, number one, mechanical and lifeless, and second, meritorious. That is to say, you think God owes you one once you've done it. And I know what I'm talking about. I've been at the shrine of the Lady of Guadalupe down in Mexico City, where I saw men walking on their knees for miles to get to the shrine so they could drop some coinage and have a prayer answered. The Lord says, when you come in, let's just talk. Let's just put away the King James, Lord, forgive us, thou me, the worm of the sea. I mean, forget that. Talk to him like your father. Just talk. It's so important that you're just natural. Just natural. The Lord. Just sit with him. Catholic priest Brennan Manning, some of you have been reading lately as an author and speaker, and he says this, he tells about a time when he was alone one night and the doorbell rang and a young woman came to the door and said, Father Manning, my dad is dying and I can't find a pastor or a priest anywhere who will go and just spend a half hour with him before he dies. And so Brennan said, I will, and he gets up and he goes to the home. The guy was so bad that he decided to come home so he could die in his home. And he walks into the guy's bedroom and he sees a wooden chair right next to the bed. Well, he walks like he's going to sit in the chair and the ailing elderly gentleman motions to him to come around to the other side of the bed. And so Brennan does and they have a conversation. And they talk about the man's illness for a while and then the guy said, well, you know, the reason why I wanted to see a pastor or a priest is I just wanted to check something out. He said, you know, I've been a Christian for a long time but I've never been a very effective prayer. And I got so frustrated that a couple years ago I talked to a friend about it. And the friend suggested to me that, well, maybe what would help me in my praying would be if I would just take an empty chair and sort of sit opposite it and think of having a conversation with Jesus, the risen one. Just talk to Him. And he said, Father Manning, I've got to tell you that I started doing that. And I have this wooden chair right next to my bed and I talk to Jesus and sometimes I talk to Him for an hour and I tell Him how I'm feeling and I tell Him I'm worried about dying and I tell Him I'm lonely and I'm scared. And I talk to Him sometimes two hours and I just want to know before I die, Father Manning, is that okay? And he replies to the old guy, he says, you know, I think what you're doing delights the heart of God. I think you've captured what it means to really pray, to have a conversation with the living Christ. Thank you very much. And then he prayed together and he left. A couple of days later, Brennan gets a call from the daughter who said, my dad died. And they talked a bit about it. Just before the gal hung up, she said, by the way, the strangest thing, when I walked in and found my father dead, his head was lying on the empty chair next to his bed. You see, sincere prayer, it's communing. What prayer is about isn't getting a long list answered. Jesus said, your father already knows what you need. And you can pray that way at any time. It may be in your secret place, but you know what? It can be very spontaneous. I was driving down to a doctor's appointment on Thursday and an amazing miracle, I was a little bit early. So I pulled off on a side road somewhere in Swickly Heights, I was heading down toward the hospital there, found this quiet little road, pulled off to the side, no one there. And just sat there in my car, looking over a golf course. And I said, you know, Jesus, thanks for loving me the way you do. Thanks for the fact that you put up with all the stuff that I'm not doing right. Thank you for accepting me as your child. And I kind of sensed that Jesus said back to me, you know, I really do love you that way. And right there in the car, I had that moment. It was probably the most profound prayer I've had in a month. I just sensed he was there. He didn't talk to me about my driving or anything, he just said, I love you. Prayer isn't about bringing a list, it's about touching his presence. It just needs to be simple and sincere. Number three, prayer that really gets through is prayer that is scripturally balanced and not self-centered. It's secret, it's sincere, and it's scripturally balanced. You know, take an inventory of the last time you really prayed. Did you start by saying, first of all, Lord, forgive me because it's been so long since I've been here? And then did you say, by the way, please give me this or take care of that or fix her or fix him or cover me in this or guide me in that? And pretty soon, you know, if you look at it, there's a lot of me's and my's and all that. It's so easy to get focused on you, isn't it? And when we become self-centered like that, we're basically saying, God, you know, thanks a lot for being there for me at my disposal. Now go take care of my life, and I'll just keep living it. I don't think that's what God wants. In fact, if you were to act on your intention to want to get in shape in the new year, 1995, and you went out and hired a personal trainer, you know, joined a health club and said, I'm going to get serious about getting back in shape, what he or she would probably tell you is if you want to get in shape, you've got to take sort of the total body approach, you know? You've got to get a cardiovascular thing going, you know? You've got to start raising your heart rate and getting things flowing there. You need that. And then he would say, you know, and you've got to eat right, bran flakes, fruit, you know? Get things really going on the inside as well. And then start pumping some weights, you know? Just balance it out and do things and do all the right motions and get your whole body involved. Because if you don't do that, you won't get in shape. You'll get maybe some improvement, but you really won't be where you want to be weight-wise, conditioning-wise, heart-rate-wise. It takes lots of different things. Well, see, in Jesus' day, people weren't balanced. They were coming in. They were just doing this long list. Here's my stuff. I need it. And folks, how many of us do the same thing? God, you know, after all, I've only got five minutes. Here's my list. Jesus said, here's how you should pray. Here's the antidote for self-centered prayers. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Now, I've taught on the Lord's Prayer several times. There's some tapes in the library. What a wonderful... And by the way, it is a pattern. That's what that blank says in your outline. It's a pattern, not a formula. People say, well, why don't we just say the Lord's Prayer? Because Jesus didn't give it just to be said. He gave it as a pattern. If you understand Hebrew teaching, Hebrew teaching was always sort of an outline form, a didactic outline, not just to be recited. But Jesus said, here's the general outline. Begin with worship. Hallowed be thy name. The first thing to do in a secret time with God is to worship the Lord. I've told people many times, and we teach on this in Discovering the Keys. We teach 45 minutes on prayer, through the Lord's Prayer. Many times, in the secret place, I never get past worship. Because you just get caught up in loving God. And you worship His names, Jehovah Makedesh, Jehovah Shalom, and so on. And you just start enjoying His presence. And then you say, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. What's happening in heaven right now? There's joy, there's peace, there's the presence of God. How many believe we need some of that right here? And you say, so Lord, bring it here on earth. And my family, and my friends, my church, my community. Advance the kingdom of God. Then you say, give us this day our daily bread. Then you start saying, Lord, here's some of my needs. You see, by that point, you're communing. I found myself asking for things I didn't know I needed sometimes. Along with the stuff that was consciously in my mind. Just because God put it in there. And then you say, forgive us our debts. And how many of you know, without forgiveness, you're wasting your time. If you've got a whole lot of baggage towards someone, God said, I can't, there's no communion there. There's no intimacy there. You've got to get that cleared up. Lead us not into temptation. That's when you pray, God, I've got these things coming. I'm going to be in this setting where I know there's going to be some sexual temptation or some temptation to cheat or to shave some bucks or do something I shouldn't do or look at someone's test. And then you pray, Lord, for thine is the kingdom. You acknowledge his sovereignty. Lord, thine is the glory. Thine is the power. Lord, I want to be used by you. And that, you see, is a simple outline. Well, that's it. I mean, that's it. It's simple. I mean, if you wanted something more profound, I'm sorry. But I have to tell you, I think most of us live where I'm talking about. We need a secret place. Do you have one today? We need a sincere, conversational, Lord, I just want to talk to you kind of attitude. And we need a balanced sort of this is what my life and you's about, God, so we can cover those things that God brings into our minds and hearts. Where are you with that? If you find yourself right now feeling like, well, you know, I'd like to be there, but I'm just not there. I guess my only question is, how sincere are you about it? Someone said, well, you know, I really would like to be better at prayer than I am, but I guess I'm kind of destined to not ever get there. And I want to tell you something. Folks, it's a lie. It's a lie. And now is the time to examine your life and say, Lord, by your grace, by your life in me, I'm going to change in this new year that's coming. I want to change. And you know what? I don't believe prayer was just meant for a few people who got it together. Understand, that's the biggest lie of all. God just wants to commune with you. And it begins by your willingness to say, Lord, you do it in me. I mean, there's a little prayer. In fact, John 17, 26, I pulled out of the scripture. This is what it says. Read it with me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known. In order that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself may be in them. And that's Jesus talking. Here's a paraphrase that I pray almost every day. Father, grant me power from the Holy Spirit to love the Lord Jesus the way that you. That's what that word is saying. Father, tell the Holy Spirit, send him into my heart to give me love that I don't have of myself. That I might love Jesus the way you love him. How many believe that the Father and the Son are really connecting to that? That's what God wants us to share, a secret, sincere, and scriptural prayer. And I want to invite you right now to pray with me by sharing in the most profound expression of prayer that I know, which is communion. See, communion has all those elements in it. And so let's stand right now and prepare our hearts as we come to commune together and to pray.