Prayer.com IV, Touching The Father's Heart

I want to welcome our guests today and you're with us if you're visiting for the first time and want to encourage you at any time through the service to take a moment and use the communicator which is the little insert in your notes and let that be your offering. Fill that out and put that in the basket at the end of the service today and by all means stop at the welcome center in the middle of the foyer and pick up a cassette tape that we've made available to you just as a way of saying we're glad you're here with us. It's important that you know that and it's something we do every week here at North Way. We're talking about touching the Father's heart but so many of our lives are like this. We have that video clip. Is this? I think we might have a clip up here that will show you what our lives are like. We may not today either. That's the way it's set up there. There we go. Downsizing, reorganizing, maximizing, these are the times we live in. People working harder, running faster, starting earlier, staying later and what do they all want? We could use a vacation. How many of you could use a vacation? Our lives are moving so quickly that at times we don't know if we're coming or going. Ten days ago I had come back from a rather long meeting in the afternoon and I parked my car and was talking with one of our elders on my mobile phone and I was heading into the office and noticed a beautiful sort of rainbow kind of thing around the sun, a full circle, I forget what it's called, there's an astronomical term for it, but it was quite fascinating and then I got to work and probably around 3.30 or so that took place and at a quarter to six I was getting ready to come home to do a quick dinner and come back for the baptism that night and I started looking for my keys and I'm shuffling around, where are my keys, where are my keys, looking at all the horizontal surfaces, you know most times that's where you put stuff like that, right, and I looked at my table, desk, looked at my secretary's desk, I looked everywhere, I had the custodian, Greg came in and he was helping me look and I said, Greg I have no idea but I've got to find my keys, obviously I was getting more and more harried as things went on and I'm just thinking I'm not going to get back to the baptism, he said, well I'll go out and look and see if maybe they fell out of your pocket, and so he went out and about three minutes later he came back in and he said, well you know I didn't see him anywhere out there, I said, oh man, he said, but your car was running, so, that's a true story, that just happened to me, so at that point I said, you know, I just might be moving a little too fast, and one of the obvious consequences of this crazy pace of life is that we hurry our time with the Lord, of all the beings that complain about us ignoring them, about showing up late, about not following through, about not keeping our commitments, the Lord complains the least, so we just squeeze him out. Richard Foster says this in his book Celebration of Discipline, superficiality is the curse of our age, the doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem, that should be instant gratification, is a primary spiritual problem, the desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people, people that know their God, the goal of all prayer, prayer that we're talking about in this series, the goal of all prayer is to know God, that's the first blank in your outline, to know God, and this is such an important issue, in fact I could easily say that the goal of all religions, I've seen many religions of the world being practiced, the goal of almost all religion that I've seen is to know God, all the prayers that have ever been prayed, all the cathedrals that have ever been built, all the temples ever dedicated, all the hymns ever written, were in some way to express a hunger to know God, and Jesus came and said, I've come to reveal the Father, he came to show us what the Father was like, what the Father was like, that's the next blank in your outline, anyone who has seen me, Jesus said, has seen the Father, John 14, 9, I was contemplating that this week, could you just step out of our world and imagine the fact that Jesus was incarnated, he lived in the flesh, and imagine looking into the eyes of Jesus Christ, having a conversation with him, as a 32 year old man, and saying, so, you're telling me your claim is that you, you created all this, all this world that we look around at, these majestic mountains, we saw the photos just a bit ago of the mountains that the Lord created, and the incredible roaring oceans, and Mary, you're looking into the eyes of this person now, and he says, yeah, yeah, I did do that, and you're the one that created the sunsets and the sunrises, yeah, yeah, I did that, and all the beautiful things that we see throughout the world, you made those, right, he says, yep, and all these people that I see every day around here, that's you by the way, he created all of you, yep, Lord, you did that, yep, I did that, imagine it, could you imagine it, what would you think if the person said, yeah, I created all that, not just, you know, I painted it, but I created it, and the Lord says, I want you to have a relationship with me, and I thought about that this week, I mean, who would not want to have a relationship with someone like that, who would not want to know someone who could do that, and then I thought how we've so confused and contorted this whole thing, pride and fear and sin and hatred have come in and caused us to be so confused about how we see God, we fixate on the negative, on religion, on trying to make our way into God's good standing, and it makes him unpleasable, uncaring, uncommunicative, and it makes God oh so complicated when Jesus said, look, if you just see me, you'll see the Father, if you just know me, you'll know the Father. Now happily, you are not amongst the many millions of people in America that have bailed out on religion, you know, a lot of churches will be empty today because people have given up on it, it's too complicated, it's too rule-oriented, it's too condemnatory, but not you, you're here today because you are hungry for God, how many of you are hungry for God, you want to know more of God, in fact what's in your spirit is to be drawn closer to him, and prayer you see is such an important part of that process. How can we touch the Father's heart in prayer, in the midst of a world that's exploding with responsibilities and noise and busyness, and this could be, you know, very easily a series of messages in and of itself, but I just want to mention three things as we prepare for communion today. It's sort of a progression of prayer in my life, maybe it will be for you as well, the first thing that we do, we've already sung this a number of times today by design, the first thing I do in prayer is to come and bow at his feet, Psalm 95, verse 6 says, Come, let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before our Maker, now friend, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to get on your knees when you pray, but I want you to know that's not a bad practice, because it's a physical demonstration of what you're saying your heart is about, it's a posture of humility, it's a way of saying, you are God and I am not, you are Lord of everything and I am not, bowing down at his feet is a sign of submission to a sovereign Lord, and it's the beginning point of acknowledging that there's sin in our lives, when I kneel before God I'm saying, you know Lord, I am not you and I'm not able to live like you and I've made some major mistakes this week and some minor ones, I'm dogged by this thing called sin, isn't sin weird, it's always there, last weekend we went away with our elders for a wonderful retreat, a great time, I had mentioned it last Sunday, a couple of other elders joined Carol and I for dinner at this particular place where we were staying and we were waiting for our waitress and she came over, shuffled over a little bit late and she's a 60ish kind of gal and I looked over at her name tag, because I always like to call the waiter or waitress by their name and I looked over and I kind of squinted because there was two people down, she had a little name badge on and her name was Sin, S-I-N, so I'm thinking, ok, now what kind of message is this, is this about my diet or is God about to let me know that the dessert I'm contemplating is sin, and I asked the woman, I said, well, so your name is, and she said Sin, and I thought for sure she was going to say, well, it's short for Cindy or Cynthia or Sinclair or something, but she didn't say that, so I didn't want to make it sound like, well, that's a strange name, but I was sure thinking that, and I started going to all these different places, by the time our dinner was over, we were 20 minutes late and I came in, I told her, well, I was late because I fell into sin and all this kind of stuff, and I left a tip and I said, that's the wages of sin, and you can just go so many places with that, but you see, we need to bow at the feet of God, his feet represent, letter A, God's authority, Ephesians 1.22, and God has placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, so when we bow down, we are saying, Lord, we surrender to your authority in every part of our lives, we acknowledge your authority and we confess our sin, letter B, we confess our sin. The word to confess, by the way, homo legao is the Greek word which means to say the same thing, to agree with God, to agree that, you know what, we don't have it all together, to agree that we are prideful and full of doubt and fear and self-centered, and God, listen, God is always attuned to a person who is willing to confess, those of you who've grown up in a liturgical perhaps or some church backgrounds, I want you to know something, you don't have to confess to another person to find forgiveness, you can go directly to the Lord, your mediator came to this earth, his name is Jesus, now, it is not inappropriate to confess to another person, but it's not necessary. First John 1.9 says, look at your outline, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Friends, listen, the beginning point of really communicating to the Father's heart is getting cleansed of your sin and it's important that you don't just jump right into thinking, well, sure, I'll just show up, you know, and God's just been waiting for me all day long and he'll be so happy to see me, he won't even acknowledge the fact that my life's been kind of messed up, and the great thing about that is when you confess, when you align yourself with his authority, when you bow at his feet, the blessing of God, the plan of God begins to unfold to you. Chuck Swindoll says this, he says, I'm finally learning that his sovereign plan is the best plan, that whatever I entrust to him, he can take care of better than I, that nothing under his control can ever be out of control. I like that, nothing under his control can ever be out of control, that everything I need, he knows about in every detail. I'm finally learning that surrendering to my sovereign Lord, leaving the details of my future in his hands, is the most responsible act of obedience that I can do. So first things first, bow at his feet. Second, then we want to feel his hand in prayer. We want to feel his hand in prayer. Now in the Bible, the hand always represents blessing. Look at Exodus 15, 6. Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic and powerful. Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy. So often we know that God is with us, but we need to know more than he's with us in our head, we need to sense that he's with us by his touch. When a king granted blessing in the Old Testament, he lifted or extended his hand. We desire for God to extend his hand, his hand of provision and supply, his answer. David writes, look at the next verse, in 1 Chronicles 29, 14, But who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what, say it with me, comes from your hand. Circle that. When we take our offering here at the end of the service, you may be thinking that you're peeling off some dollars that you've earned and belong to you, and you're just, you know, giving God what you think you want to give him today, but I want you to know that you're only giving him what he's provided by his hand. If it wasn't for God working in you and through you, you wouldn't have anything to give him. And David recognized that. The hand of the Lord upholds us and sustains us. Turn your outline over. Though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. If you're about to fall into temptation, ask for the hand of the Lord to be extended to you, to hold you up in prayer. God's hand, letter B, represents relief from present troubles and hope for the future. Aren't you grateful for that? You know, in the Bible, there's so many instances. Jesus, in Mark 1, verse 40, he's walking along, and a leper comes up to him. And he begins to follow Jesus, and the leper says, Master, if you will, you can make me clean. And I've said many times on this platform that leprosy was worse than the AIDS epidemic. I mean, it was a disfiguring, terrible disease that killed masses of people. And Jesus looked at this leper, and he said, I am willing. And then the Bible says, and here's what he said, and Jesus stretched forth his hand and healed him. Friend, whatever it is today, some of you today are desperately needing a touch from the Lord. You need his hand upon you. When we receive communion, I want to encourage you to expect God to extend his hand of blessing. Come up for prayer afterwards. Have an elder symbolically extend their hand. When you prayed forward earlier in this service for the missionaries, we were extending our hand, speaking blessing. That's the meaning of that Scripture. And then the Bible says, you've made known to me the path of life. You fill me with joy in your presence, and eternal pleasures, circle the word eternal, eternal pleasures are at your right hand. So the blessing will last forever and ever. But the most important moment of prayer is when we seek his face. You know, I shared last week how the face of God was considered to be beyond knowing. In other words, when you saw the face of God, he revealed his full nature to the people of the Old Testament. The idea of even glancing at the face of God was unthinkable. The face of the Lord captures the fullness of his nature, the next part of your outline. And that carried all the way through the Bible, all the way even to the book of Revelation. The Apostle John in the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 12 says this, I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. I saw among the lampstands was someone like a son of man. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were blazing like fire. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. Even then, even at the end of revelation of the entire revelation of God to man and redemptive history, the Apostle John, who had laid his head on Jesus' breasts, could not bear to look in his face. Way back in the Old Testament, Moses was so frustrated leading the people of God, and they had just rebelled, they'd made this golden calf while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, and Aaron was doing kind of a lousy job filling in in leadership. And Moses said, Lord, I cannot lead these people anymore. I need your presence. I need to know that you're with me. And look at the next verse in your outline, look at it. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. All these blessings he's going to provide. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. The encounter with the face of God was the revelation of his fullness, the fullness of his glory, all that he is. It represented the complete experience of who Father God is. And yet, interestingly enough, over and over again in Scripture, we're exhorted to seek his face. Why? Look at the next verse. My heart says, seek his face. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Why? Because when you seek the face of God, you discover intimacy with God. You discover the heart of God. You begin to know him for something beyond his blessing, beyond his hand. You begin to know him for his heart. And we're called to do that. This represents the goal of all prayer, to know God intimately, to lavish the full measure of your love. Dear ones, listen, most of you know what love is about. Most of you have been loved by someone, are loved by someone. Most of you have love in your life. But I want to ask you a question. Intimacy with God is something that most Christians do not know. Do you know it? Do you know what it's like to be in the presence of the Lord and to sense that his heart is opening to you? Do you know what it's like to hear his still small voice into your soul? In the midst of this world, do you know what it's like to be still and know that he is God? Ultimately, that's called worship. How do we move into that? Well, let me just close with giving you a few suggestions. The first thing we need to do is to see the shallowness of our own souls. We have to acknowledge this. One of the things that concerned me was we would go through this series on prayer and not come to the point of realizing that for many of us, we don't take the time to do this. If you're in a lighthouse group, if you're praying every week, I'd like you to share that in your group. Have you taken time this week to really be still before the Lord? If you're in a beta group or a cell group, a men's group, our culture is so much about speed, isn't it? From the internet to the interstate, it's speed, speed, speed. The faster the better. The problem is, listen, God is never responsive to people in a hurry. I want to write that down. God is never responsive to people in a hurry. It's not on your outline, but I can tell you it's a fact. Four things I want to recommend to you if you want to experience intimacy with God. The first thing is, this is what I'm calling your language of love. Your next point on the outline. Number one is simply the name of Jesus. I love to hear that name, don't you? The Gaithers 30 some years ago wrote that simple little course, There's Something About That Name. And even the songwriters of today from all over the world continue to lift up the name of Jesus, the calming, focusing, life-giving name of Jesus. There's something about that name. So I begin every time of prayer, after I've bowed and after I've just presented my knees to the Lord, I say, Lord Jesus, I want to meet you now. I want to be here just for you. I just whisper his name. Chris Bowater wrote a song called Just the Mention of His Name. It stirs my heart within me. And then some of the little songs that we've learned over the years, the songs of worship. Praise the name of Jesus. No other name. Ferus, Lord Jesus, the great hymn. Knowing you. Jesus, name of all names. And we could go on and on. Friend, listen, if you don't have, people say to me, I can't sing worth a darn, Pastor Jay. Well, guess what? You live in a technologically enlightened age. Somebody can sing for you and you can hum along with them. I have found that those little CD players are wonderful ways to just focus your worship, to speak a language of love to the Lord. The third thing is his word. The timelessness of God's word makes it a wonderful help in the expression of our love and intimacy. Did you sense something when I just simply read God's word? No, God's word isn't getting old. It's not getting through. I've heard that before. I recommend Psalms as a place to grow in your expression of your language of love. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always be in my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Oh, come glorify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Psalm 34. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty. My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. I just so want to encourage you. Turn to God's word. Let that become part of your prayer life. And finally, I don't believe one can really know intimacy, and this is going to be the toughest one of all, without silence. It seems to be absolutely impossible in this culture. How many of you wake up in the morning to some alarm with music? Let me see your hand. I don't know what happens when you wake up. You're just suddenly conscious. Most of us, we do. Most of us wake up hearing something that starts at whatever it is, 5.30, 6, 6.30, whatever it is, and from that moment on, our lives are full of noise. There can be no intimacy without silence. Once again, I'm quoting Chuck Seundahl. In a world of restlessness, noise, words, and relentless activity, the challenge to be silent is almost insurmountable. Yet without it, can we really know God in an intimate way? Otherwise, why would the Scripture say, be still and know that I am God? I like the way Eugene Peterson says it in the Message Version. Step out of the traffic. Take a long loving look at me. You're high God, above politics, above everything. Silence is indispensable if we hope to add depth to our spiritual life. I am haunted by one Scripture in Mark 1.35. Mark 1.35 convicts me every time I think about it. It's the Scripture that says that very early in the morning, Jesus awakened and went out while it was still dark, off to a solitary place where he prayed. And I've often thought, I think every time, if the Messiah of the world, if the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of the world took time before dark to get away to a silent place, do you think that a CEO of a company, a pastor, a businessman, a salesperson, a laborer, a mom, a computer analyst, an accountant, do you think any of those people could also find time? Is any of us involved in a mission that's bigger than the mission Jesus had? Do any of us have more people pressing in on us than Jesus did? The answer to all that is no. And I am so convicted every time, if the Son of God made that a practice in his life, how much more do we need to make time alone with our Father? The goal of all prayer is to know God. And in so doing, have the longing of our heart fulfilled. We move from bowing at his feet to touching his hands, to seeing his face. Friends, this is a journey that we must encourage one another on. This is where life and intimacy, this is where transformation is found, at the face, in the eyes of Jesus. Let's stand together. We're going to receive communion in just a moment. I pray that the most intimate of expressions that we have known, given to us by the Savior, will be something that you'll celebrate right now with an open heart. Before we do that, I want to ask a simple question. I've talked about an intimate relationship, but you know, every relationship begins by an introduction. And I want to introduce you to Jesus today. If you're here today for the first time, or maybe you've been here, as I know some of you have, for months, and you get to this part of the service, and you say, well, I think I understand what you mean about being a Christian, Jay, but I'm not sure that I'm ready for that, or if I need to do something about that. And there's some of you today that are absolutely sure that you want this in your life more than anything. You know, the Bible says we must simply believe and receive. And there are a lot of us here today who believe in Jesus. You might believe in Him, and if you do believe in Him, congratulations, you're halfway there. But you've got to go the next step. You have to receive Him. You have to open your heart and say, you have to do what I mentioned at the beginning of the message. You have to bow before Him in your heart and say, Lord, I have sinned. I need to be forgiven. You need to receive Him, to acknowledge your need. And you know what? As soon as you do that, the Lord steps, as it were, off of His throne by His Spirit, and fills your life, and you'll begin to know His presence on the inside. Why wouldn't you want to do that? What's keeping you from doing it? Well, you know, I don't know if I want to get into all this stuff. I see so much that I don't like about Christianity. You know what? So do I. But I don't see anything about Jesus I don't like. And I want to ask you today, do you know Jesus? Have you received Him? Believe and receive. He's here today. You've sensed Him here. I want to invite you right now. Bow your head with me, everybody, please. Let's take a moment to pray together. And for those that have come today with a need, come to the One who anxiously waits to open His arms to you and receive you. And in His presence, you'll find fullness of joy. If you need the Lord today, if you want to get out of the confusion of trying to be the master of your own life, and you want to yield to the master of the universe, I want you to pray with me right now. Pray this simple prayer. Whisper these words to the Lord. Just whisper them where you are. Lord Jesus, let's just say the word. Lord Jesus, I need you today. I open my life to you. I receive you and ask you to forgive my sin.