The Dynamics of Devotion II, Devoted to Prayer

We'll try to move along and release you as soon as we can. Was it life threatening out there? Was it? If you haven't picked up your own name tag, you have one just like this back there. Now, if you come regularly north way or have started to come, if you just came today for the first time and you're going to be coming back, just put your name on a pad back there and you can get one of these in the next week or two. Aren't they nice? They have a super clip on the back of them so that you can wear them like the guys do at golf. Research. There's a place for your picture right here. Right there. Anyhow, get your name tag and then you're responsible for it. That's the scary part because you don't get another one this nice. If you lose this one, your next one's going to look, it's going to be a business card like my other one. Do that. And then someone suggested putting it on your Bible. When you leave here, then you can always remind yourself, this is who I am, Lord. Coming to read your word again. I don't know about that. I think that's risky too. But keep it handy. This is important. This is how we identify one another. And when there's a lot of people, it's easy to feel like a stranger. And we need to talk to each other, don't we? All right, let's turn our Bibles to Acts, chapter two. We are in our second teaching in the series, the Dynamic of Devotion. I'd like to read for you. Verse 41 and 42. So those who received his word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Pretty good start for the young church, isn't it? And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread. And the prayers and fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. By the way, even as we read the word about the young church and its fiery spirit. If you happen to be really chilly, come up here in the front because right here are the radiators. You thought these people in the front were just spiritual wanting to Be up near the action, didn't you? So really there are some seats up here and it is warmer by these things. Don't be embarrassed. Someone would probably just covet your boldness if you do that. The early church was a miracle. You know something? This church is a miracle. God has not ceased to do his great works. And sometimes we evaluate ourselves according to what we're reading here. And they say, lord, we're so far from where they were. And I expect that's really true in some ways. But in other ways, beloved, because of what happened here, we have hope to be what God fully wants us to be. Do you want to read bumper stickers and license plate frames? You can know a lot about a person by what they put on their license plate frame. You see someone that says, I'd rather be doing something sailing, I'd rather be golfing, I'd rather be skydiving. And then, you know, to stay clear of that person. I've never seen a license plate frame, though. Even in the most hallowed and spiritual places that I've been, even the parking lot at the open door, I've never seen a license plate frame that said, I'd rather be praying. And I really think that says it all. Because if there is anything that we would rather probably not be doing, most of the time, it's praying. How many of us know that we like to do just about anything else but pray? When we have prayer meetings, we like to talk, we like to share, we like to sing, we like to get into just being together. But boy, it also almost seems to be putting a little bit of a downer on the whole meeting when you start to pray. Finally, praying is not number one on our free time activity list. How many of you are going to go home tonight and cuddle up by the fire and pray? We just don't naturally flow into prayer, folks. Let's be just real frank about it. Now. Why is that? You know, we should pray. You know you should pray. I don't need to sit here and wail on this Bible and say, the Bible says to pray for this. You know it. There's not a person here that feels that prayer doesn't work or anything like that. We know we should. We know God's promised answer and all that. Why don't we pray? And I'm not talking about just shooting up some quick, Lord helps. I'm stuck in the parking lot again. Prayer. I'm talking about being devoted. Remember last week we defined devotion as what a clinging affection toward devotion is undivided attention in a particular direction. Being devoted means I'm committed to wholeheartedly. What does it mean to be devoted in prayer? Why is it so doggone tough? Because, beloved, it is tough to be devoted in prayer. Prayer is so unlike what we are like. You see, prayer is dealing with the unseen, and we like to seen things. Prayer is dealing with God alone, and we like to be. One of the things that really gets me going is when I'm with a group of people and I know the people there are praying for me and the rest of us so that we can hear their prayers and know that they're really getting on in the spirituals. Prayer is for God. Prayer is not for one another. Prayer is oftentimes not answered instantly. And we are now kinds of people, aren't we? Instant people. Prayer is often dealing with things and circumstances and when we pray. And yet the prayers that God is concerned about are the prayers of the heart, the prayers that deal with what's inside of us. And so all these things gravitate against our wanting to pray. It's just a foreign experience. It's something we just don't naturally desire to do. At least I don't. Do you? I find it really tough to pray. Now, I'm not saying that once I get there that I don't enjoy it, but everything in me most of the time says, come on, I'd rather be reading, doing something else. The other thing that makes it difficult for us, beloved, is who's going to teach us? How many of you have heard people on the radio or television say, the announcer comes on and says, now our great Bible teacher, dun, dun, dun, wow. And you tune in and he's a great Bible teacher. But, you know, you very rarely hear of someone who is a great prayer teacher. How many people do you know that really can teach you how to pray? There's a few people that have a ministry of teaching prayer, but most of the people that are true men and women of God in prayer, first of all, don't flaunt it. They don't make a big pronouncement about their capabilities. And so we may not know. You might be sitting next to a great prayer warrior. You want to ask him, is that person next to you a powerful person? They might be, but we don't have very many models of prayer. I know for me, there aren't that many people that I can look to and say, teach me to pray. How do you have such communion with God? I know this much. The longer I go with the Lord, the more I recognize that the seasoned believers are the ones that know how to pray. A lot of young believers start out with a great deal of zeal, I guess is the right word. You know, talking about fires and firewood. Ever have the experience of getting a fire all laid out there in the fireplace and you put on the first green logs of the season and you go to light those things up and they just sit there and chuckle at you, I'm not going to burn. And you throw newspaper on there, and after an hour of poking and trying, that thing just sits there and smolders and your lovely evening by the fire. Why is that? Well, because that wood was green and moist, and though it looked the same as the season piece, just about it was cut the same and everything. It hadn't gone through the time of hardening and drying out and being seasoned. I think praying is just a lot like that. People who've been through a lot, not necessarily age wise, but experientially and a lot of nurturing, they're the ones that you need to be with when it comes to learning to pray. The disciples came to Jesus and they said, lord, take teach us to pray. Notice they didn't say, as someone told me after the first service, teach us how to pray. Did they said, teach us to pray. You know, the word for teach is from the root word to learn. So the concepts obviously are related. But when I think of teaching, I think of someone standing up and talking, don't you? You say, well, Jay's teaching right now, but aren't there a lot of ways of teaching and there's a lot of ways of learning to pray. And I said, lord, what can we do in one little segment of time this morning on such a vast subject? It really is worth weeks and weeks and weeks of teaching. You know what the Lord said say to the people that devotion in prayer is a process to be learned. It's a process to be learned. It isn't just going to happen. You're not going to walk out of here today devoted, but you can walk out of here taking one step in the direction of devotion. And Lord willing, we'll all move together into what he wants us to do. To say to someone, Steve, be devoted is like saying, be happy when you feel depressed or like, be slim if you're overweight. You just can't be devoted. You've got to set yourself on a course. And that's what God wants to begin in us today, a process. Richard Foster said in his book Celebration of Discipline that to Pray is to change. I believe that if you don't want to change, don't bother praying. And if you start praying and don't change, it won't be long before your prayers will dry out and you'll feel like this is really a waste of time. Because see, basically what God does in prayer is to change you. Really. That's what he does. And we don't like that. He'll change what's out there. But first of all, he's in here working, he's ordering things, making it the way he wants it to be. And the disciples modeled for me more than anyone else what it means to grow in the process of prayer. What happened when Jesus took the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane? They fell asleep. And he goes to them and says he couldn't stay awake one hour at the most crucial moment of my entire life. He went away and he came back and they were sleeping again. Now, that might be a little bit of comfort in the fact that they feel the same way that we did. But do you know what happened to those same disciples? Just about six or eight weeks later, they spent 10 days in the upper room devoted, the Bible says, in prayer. So something happened in them. They went through a process of change from being unable even to concentrate for one hour to being able to stay 10 days in a posture of prayer. So I'm encouraged that it's a possibility today church, and that we can grow together in what it means to be devoted in prayer. Let me give you four steps in this process. And it's a growing process. The first one, just the first one, if we could. You might want to write these down and keep your fingers warm. The first step in growing in the process of prayer is to be honest with God. Be real with him. Admit your need, Admit that you need to grow. You say, well, that's easy if I'm honest with God. I mean, it's no problem telling mine. But you know something? I'm not so sure that you believe that. You see, we get on a track, brothers and sisters, something like this. We start, we pray one morning, we miss a day, we go back, miss a couple days, go back, and then we go for a couple of weeks and something happens to us. Generally, we do okay in business. Things are alright in our marriage. Our kids haven't left home, then we're doing all right. And you know what lie we adopt. We believe that somehow God's just going to keep us. He's just going to watch over us and keep us. And why worry about it really. After all, God's sovereign, why do I need to pray? And we believe it. And it isn't long before we don't really think we have a need. We just think that, well, if I just keep doing what I'm doing, God will watch out for me and things will work out. And I want to say to you, I think that the absence of devotion in prayer life has some very clear indicators. Here they are. Number one, these are some of the evidences. There's an uncertainty in your life all the time about God's will. I don't know how many people are always asking the question, I don't know what the Lord really wants now. A lack of devotion in prayer, a lack of consistency. More and more and more you'll be saying, I just don't know. I wish I knew. Doubt. Doubt begins to be the dominant. Listen, the dominant characteristic of how you're discerning God's will. Another evidence of the lack of devotion is struggles with your personal identity. That is to say, you're insecure in who you really are in Jesus. When other people say something to you, you just fall apart. Oh, God so and so said that I wasn't very kind and it destroys you or what? Don't be thinking about somebody else right now, okay? Saw some of you pointing. He's talking about you now. Another one. Unfruitfulness. You go for months and never share the gospel. We say if you go for months and never share the gospel, there's something wrong. You haven't led anyone to Christ in the last five years. You haven't prayed with anyone to minister to them. Unfruitfulness in your life. Another one is inconsistency and moodiness. Up one week. The next week I've got to see every pastor and elder and deacon and home group leader just to make sure I'm still in the kingdom. Listen, lots of people church are going through this right now, up and down. The reason is there's no devotion in your life. Devotion to prayer. Another one is sort of a constant sense of frustration. I'm really frustrated. Isn't there more to following Jesus than what I'm experiencing? And so you. There's got to be more. Are you asking that question all the time? There's got to be more. The last one is fear Now, Harold. All of us go through struggle now and then with fear about something. But I'm talking about occasional fear that begins to be more than occasional. That I'm always wondering, am I going to fall away? Am I going to be forever locked into this situation, which I can't seem to break, and we get afraid. Now, these six or seven things to me indicate that there's a lack of devotion in your life. Think about your life right now. Am I describing you? And the beginning point of the process of growing in devotion is to say, lord, here's where I am. I mean, honestly, God. You know, it's funny because do you think God really wonders where you are? Is he having to take a poll or something? He knows where you are. And the reason why we have to tell him is so we can open to Receive Grace church. It's the only way, the only way you receive grace to move on in this process is by saying, lord, here's where I am. Honestly, help me be what you want me to be. You know, those are the symptoms. You want to know what some of the causes are, why we're not devoted? Let me just rip through these real quickly. I jotted down five as I was thinking about it. There's five reasons why we get into a struggle, maybe a lot more than five. I noted. The first one is the inability to perceive the spiritual reality of life. Ever Notice how a 5 or 6 year old struggles with the whole idea of reading? When they're three and four, all they want to do is wrestle and jump around and throw the ball and all those physical things. They love it. But then when they get to be five or six, they begin to realize that there are some things that they won't be able to do unless they can use their mind. Because their mind isn't. They can't see it, but they know that there's something happening in there that's good because it lets them do something else that they want to do. So they say, all right, I guess I have to get into this reading business. Well, you know, prayer is a lot like that. It is. Prayer is a lot like that. We just like all the external things of being Christians. A time comes in our growth when we realize, hey, I can't go on unless I see that everything in the spiritual realm that's available to me has to be reached through prayer. There's another reason. It's presumption. It's the misplacement of our priorities. Because of presumption, we just feel like God, I've already said this, but I'll say it again. We just feel like as long as there's nothing wrong, I can just press on and kind of do my thing and God will be ruling over all. Another one is false confidence. In the flesh, hey, I have a college degree and a good job. I have a nice wife. I have just about. And we just begin to. We just believe that we can do anything. And we need God only when we need God for the things that we don't understand, like death, an illness. But a fourth one I think is very relevant to us. Church is burnout. We're so overextended that we cannot be devoted in prayer because what we end up doing is we get home from work and all of our activities and our different involvements, and we're too tired to pray and we just crash into bed. And when we wake up in the morning, the first thing on our mind is work, getting on with making the money. The last one is laziness. And I only say that because I know it's true of me sometimes. Sometimes I'd rather be. And so I'm lazy and I don't do what God wants me to do. How about you? Are any of those true of you? These are the causes for this lack of devotion. Let's confess them. We're going to have an opportunity today to confess. Lord, here's where I am. Meet me where I am and take me on. Now, the step two of this growing in the process of devotion is to be aware of what God wants, be reminded of his truth. Why does God want us to pray, Church? I think I've read a lot of books about this and maybe you have too. And I get all excited when we talk about Mighty Warrior, army of God things. And I think that's true. But you know why I think God wants us to pray more than anything else? Because he loves you. He loves you. He wants you to know him as he knows you. He wants to commune with you. That's why God wants you to pray. You know God in prayer. You know Him. You just know him. What he wants, who he is, what his heart is saying, his feelings. I was thinking about this in relationship to how we deal with each other. And you know something? In a lot of our relationships, we deal with each other on an event, a need, a things level, don't we? Think about your relationships here at North Way. How many relationships do you have in which you really are getting to know people? In the elders meeting the other night, we talked about how much time we spend in three areas, all of them with people. That is to say, the area of being in program, ministry areas, the area of problems, all kinds of different problems, and the area of just personal contact, which would be for edification and getting to Know. Well, some months ago, I realized that most of my time was being spent in the ministry program things and in the problem things. And I wasn't getting any time just to be with people, to know them, to share their heart and to be with them. And I began to say, that's not right. God wants us to know him and not have to worry about problems and all the things we're supposed to be doing, these great exploits. And I think that's what he wants of us. A while back, Carol and I went out to dinner with a couple, and there wasn't any agenda. We weren't setting them up to lead a home group. We weren't real concerned about the destiny of their children or something. We just wanted to be with them. I know that along the way, probably they were thinking, well, when is he going to give me the four spiritual laws or something? I just wanted to be with them and get to know them. And, you know, God wants that. In the last three weeks since the new year started, have you taken a half an hour or an hour and you say, God, let's just be together. Let me just hear what's on your heart today. And I believe ultimately, church. That's why God wants us to pray. Because you know, as you know him, what happens? Well, then the power of God just begins to flow over you and we begin to move in the works. You see Jesus. How many times did Jesus pray for the sick? Zip. None. Jesus ministered healing out of a power source. He was in touch with the Father. He just said, in Jesus. He didn't even say in Jesus name, did he? He just said, be healed. He had a lot of things going for him, really cranking here. He just had that intimate knowledge of looking at that person and saying, rise up, take up your bed and walk. He could do that. Why? Because he'd been with Father. He knew the Father's will. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for somebody, don't misunderstand me. But I'm just saying we are so far out of touch that we don't know that kind of power. Now, there's two ways in which that power flows. One is offensively, as I just illustrated, in terms of healing, you might want to jot down Acts 2. Well, we just read 43. Fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs. That's another way of saying miracles were done through the apostles. And so they were doing it because they were in prayer. Acts 3, 1, 9. That's where the man that was crippled Picked up his bed and walked and went walking and leaping and praising God. Acts 4:31. The place in which they met for prayer was shaken. God was moving powerfully. Number one, in offense, that is, to take from the enemy those who had been captive. But number two, prayer with God. Prayer with the Father is also a defensive protection from the enemy. How many of you have prayed to be spared from the evil one? Don't underestimate the enemy. Beloved. If you stop praying for the leaders of this fellowship, it won't be long before we'll go the way of so many other fellowships. Out of touch with God, snared by the enemy. You need to pray for us. We need your prayers. We need your covering of prayer. Colossians 4:2 says, Be watchful in prayer. That's the same word that 1st Peter 5:7 says, Be watchful of your enemy. The adversary who roars, prowls around and has a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. So offensively and defensively, let's learn to pray. The third step in the process is the last two are very practical. Be related somehow. When we set out on this matter of growing in devotion and prayer, doesn't it for you oftentimes become a well, these are my goals and this is what I'm going to do kind of a thing. It's very personal. But look in your Bible in Acts 2:42 again. Are you there? Look at Acts 2:42 again. It says, and they devoted themselves to what? Apostles. Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers. How many of those things are individual items? None. See, they were in fellowship together. They were breaking bread together. We read in homes. And they were devoted to teaching and the prayers together. As I began to look through this thing, every reference to devotion in prayer was plural. They devoted themselves. Acts 1:14, in the upper room, the elders and apostles. In Acts 6:4, they devoted themselves to prayer. In Acts 3, Peter and John, they were going to the place of the temple to pray. They went together in devotion. How many are involved in some kind of an exercise venture or some sort of personal discipline? Maybe it's in aerobics or running or lifting weights or something like that. And you have discovered the difference between exercising by yourself and exercising with someone else. I don't know what it is, but there really is something that happens there. Steve Smith called me the other day and said, you're going out to the park to run. Can I go with you? And I said, sure. And we tripped around that park, and I don't know whether it's the fear of being found out or what, that just motivates you to keep right up there and exceed your normal limits. That wasn't my problem. But I just. You just, you give more freely and more easily. Right? I mean, that's why they have aerobics classes. If you buy a record and put it on there and say, I'm going to work out every day, you play that thing twice and never use it again. But you get into class, you get encouraged because we need each other to hold up our hands to encourage each other when we're not going to make it. And prayer is no different. And I want to say to you before you launch out and say, God, I'm going to give you one hour every morning at 5:30, find someone to pray with. And I want to suggest the best place to look is right in your own household. If you're married and by the grace of God, begin small in that household and get to work. Now if you're not married, God by his sovereign wisdom here has put together a lot of opportunities. We have a lot of different prayer meetings where you can go where someone else is going to be there to help you get going in your devotion. And once you get going together, you'll find it's easier to get going on your own. That's what I found and I believe it's what the scripture reveals that the early church did. Step number four, be reasonable, be real, be reminded, be related, and be reasonable. I don't know what you think, but as I read the great masters of prayer, Oswald Chambers and David Brainerd and Praying Hyde, could you imagine being called, that's your name, Praying Ivan. Something about that sounds to be so identified as a person of prayer that they called you that Praying Jack. Those models of prayer are so challenging as to sometimes be intimidating, aren't they? I was reading this week a book called the Intercession of Rees Howells. Not the biography, but a book that was written by a woman who went to the Bible college that he was the director of in the late 30s and early 40s. And what incredible devotion to prayer this was. Right when the war was unfolding. And it says in here when they realized that the war was going to break out in England, where they were, they met every day. They had five prayer meetings a day, two hours apiece, and he led every one of them. Five meetings a day, let alone what his personal time was. All I know is that these kinds of things can be so intimidating as to say, what good is it? I'm Just never going to be praying, Mike. I'll just be just simple old Mike. But God isn't pleased. God just simply wants you to take a step. Let him be the one that raises you up. Now, I think the Scriptures show that some were able to be more devoted than others. Look at Acts 6, 4. Here's where the early deacons unquote were set apart. And notice verse four. Pick it up at three. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty, the duty of serving tables. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. So obviously the apostles and elders felt that they were to be devoted while someone else was attending the tables. Now, the people who were attending the tables weren't to be not praying, but they just couldn't be as devoted. Now listen, you may have a full time job, you might be a full time mother. And you say, my kids get up at 6 and go to bed at 9 and I'm wiped out. And I don't think God necessarily expects you to be devoted all day long, but he might expect someone else who doesn't have a responsibility like that to put in two, three hours a day in prayer. Be reasonable. Give yourself an expectation that you can meet if you're praying five minutes a day, believe God and say, lord, I want to pray 15 minutes a day. If you're not going to any prayer meetings, say, lord, I want to go to at least one prayer meeting a week. You know your schedule, you know your heart, but listen. You also know that your flesh will lie to you and say, I just can't do any more than I'm doing. I do listen to the radio on the way into work. That's my quiet time. Listen, believe God to help you to make that step in the process that will get you on the right track. Beloved, I know that North Way as a fellowship that was founded in a prayer meeting is not going to waver from our direction. But I wonder sometimes will we slip into an attitude that allows us to kind of put the prayer burden on somebody else? I trust that you know that these concerts of prayer that we're beginning this coming Friday are going to be a time when we hope that every one of you that are here today will be there that night for a time of being before the Lord, doing what the church is to do more than anything else. And let's pray together. Let's bow our heads. Lord, we ask this word now to be enlivened by your Holy Spirit, cause it to bring forth thirty, sixty and a hundredfold in our lives in Jesus name.