Pursuit: God's Presence

In the last of our series on Pursuit, Doug explores the transformative role of prayer in a believer's life. He unpacks stories from scripture while exploring practical ways to engage in meaningful communication with God daily. Topics include the importance of fellowship, Jesus's cleansing of the temple, and nurturing our personal prayer lives.

• Understanding the importance of continual prayer 
• Insights into community and fellowship in building prayer practices 
• The significance of Jesus’s actions in the temple 
• The need for a relational approach to God through His word 
• Exploring everyday dependence on God through prayer 
• Practical tips for cultivating a robust prayer life 
• Encouraging continual devotion to prayer in personal practices

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 9:57 Gratefulness for Fellowship
• 17:55 Pursuing God Through Prayer
• 1:06:55 The Power of Continual Prayer
• 1:51:51 The Importance of Daily Communication with God
• 3:10:27 Understanding Jesus and His Actions
• 4:04:29 Cultivating Everyday Prayer Life
• 4:34:33 Jesus Cleanses the Temple: A Lesson in Zeal
• 9:50:13 The Connection Between the Bible and the Spirit

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I mean, you look in the scripture where it talks about that mutual benefit and we feel like we've gotten much more out of it than anything we could have put in to just being here with you. So I thank you for the way you've received us and many of you we've had an opportunity to get together with, and it's just awesome. So thank you all so much. I want to obviously get rolling here on what I feel like God has given us here today. If I get excited, I'm trying to calm myself down, okay, because I may, and it may not only be God, I don't know but there's this representation of Jesus in the Bible where he's called the chief cornerstone, and there's only one NFL team that I know of that uses that word and I, anyway, this, this is getting at my idolatry because we're going to miss we'll probably miss the Superbowl because we're flying during the time. So, anyway, but so, okay, a little little levity there. I're not mad at me. All right, let's look into the word. Tom launched a direction here at the beginning of the year about pursuit, and we've been using Acts, chapter 2 as kind of a foundation for that, and it says that those that received his word, they were continually devoting themselves. I love that. This is in Acts, chapter 2. We won't read it, but they were continually those that were captivated, saved, born by the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, they began to live a life serving Christ and with one another. And it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer. It says, day by day they were living their life together, both publicly in the temple, but also from house to house. And what I want to hit on this morning is kind of in my part of this is I want to talk about that aspect of prayer. It's so, so important. Christianity is a way of life. It's not a meeting, it's not an organization. It's a life lived with the Godhead and with his family, and I'm thankful for that. Now you say, well, yeah, we know that. Listen, a lot of the church world, even though they may intellectually know that, they don't experientially live it, man, they may intellectually know it and acknowledge it, but they don't experientially live it. It's so important that we live it out, not just have the knowledge of it. So I want to hit on this situation of prayer and what God has called us to, so important if we're going to pursue him that we pursue him through his avenue of prayer. He ordained prayer. We didn't, and I want you to know that prayer is so important to Christ and so important to God and Holy Spirit that it was the only thing that led Jesus to do an unchristian thing. I'm letting that sit there. You know I'm teasing, it's the only. I want you to know something. I'm getting excited here.

Speaker 1: 3:12

This isn't about the Chiefs, it's about the Chief Cornerstone. But you know the Gospels. There's four Gospels and each one of them they wrote kind of with a certain audience in mind, and so you know, you've heard some of this John is primarily with the church in mind, and Luke and he was primarily with the wider audience, the Gentiles and Greeks. But there's very few things that all the gospel writers record, all of them that Jesus did, and one of the things I think there was like 10 or 11, depending on how you look at it, but there was only one unchristian thing that they recorded about Jesus and that's why it was emphasizing. So now I'm facetiously, obviously, but when I talk about an unchristian thing, I want to talk about him cleansing the temple. Okay, cause to many people it's like what he did. What now, if I would have done that? It would have definitely been unchristian. All right, but it wasn't unchristian for Jesus to cleanse the temple and the reason he did it was over the issue of what the religion of that day was doing with prayer. This make sense to you, all right, and I want to look at just one of the examples of this. All right, it's in Mark, chapter 11. And I wish we had time to really go into the whole background of this, but this will suffice.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Okay, and Jesus was going to the temple. It says this. Let's start reading with verse 15, all right. It says then they came the disciples and Jesus came to Jerusalem. And Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and seats of those who were selling doves, and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. Now, this is pretty phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 5:18

I want you to know I can be pretty fiery and in my unsanctified actions sometimes, sometimes I've done some crazy things like this. All right, you may not believe this, because you see me animated. One time I picked up a whole temple and I threw a temple, a pulpit, and I threw it across the room and a service. All right, my wife see me do crazy things. Okay, now, that wasn't godly, I just want you to know. It maybe had a little bit of God in it, in the zeal, but I probably shouldn't have thrown the pulpit across the room. I mean it just. It didn't lead people closer to Christ, it stunned them.

Speaker 1: 6:03

But in this case, when Jesus drove out, I mean all the gospel writers record it. I love now to bring the sanctified side of it. I love how John does it, because he kind of it says he sat down and braided a whip. That shows that it wasn't just this reactionary thing. But I look at that and say, but it was still a whip. Now, did he hit anybody? I don't think so. But he, you know, but he braided a whip and he kicked tables over and he, and he did that because of now, if we would do it, it may not be great. But if he, when he did it, he did it out of a perfect zeal of God about something he was witnessing that was contrary to what God intended for us. And in this one it says in verse 17,.

Speaker 1: 6:47

And this is after he drove them out, it says he began to teach and say to them Again he gave explanation for it. He said is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a robber's den. Now what was he getting at there? Well, he's obviously quoting from a passage in Isaiah 56. We will not turn there, but God was describing his house in Isaiah 56. And he said it's a place where foreigners, those outside distant from God, can come and join with the people of God. That's what Isaiah was talking about. He said it's going to be a great place and they're going to come because my house is a house of prayer for all peoples to come and communicate and touch me. That's what Isaiah 56, in a sense, said.

Speaker 1: 7:40

And when Jesus came into the temple and he saw all this craziness because if you get into the idea some of you maybe have researched this about what those money changers and stuff were doing, it was awful, it was circumventing. The very thing that the house of God was designed for was to be a place that encourages all nations to come and give their lives to God and seek him, but those money changers were doing things. That was dehumanizing. It was just tearing up the very reason that the house of God existed a place where people could come and find God and connect with Him through prayer. So, yes, he was angry, it was holy zeal, and he was explaining that to the disciples as why he did it. Now we say, okay, wow, that was wild. Have you ever, by the way, have you ever just answered somebody's question that brought that account up? How could he have done that?

Speaker 1: 8:36

Because he had what the Bible calls holy zeal, zeal for something in a purest form of what God intends. And I hope we have godly zeal at times. I'm not saying you need to turn over temples, but there should be something in you. When you see something that so takes away from what God intends, it's like inside of you it's like, oh, that is not right. It's okay to have holy zeal, amen. Just don't whip anybody, okay, if you're going to braid a whip, just snap it. Yeah, anyway, all right. So when we look at this the thing about authentic Christianity and what God's designed it's to be something in which we are able, through Jesus, to walk with the Godhead, to walk with the Godhead as he carries out his will on this earth through us. That's the idea of biblical, authentic Christianity, and the challenge to that always is the same. We call religion or dead religion, where things you can have an intellectual assent to God or belief in him, but not walk in the fullness of what God intends, in which we walk with him and with one another as we engage in his mission.

Speaker 1: 9:50

Now I want you to turn to John, chapter five. All right, john, chapter five. There's been a lot of talk in the prayer meetings and things like that, as I've been here, where we're talking about what's the connection between the Bible and the spirit, and I want you to know they must be connected together. If you disconnect the Bible from the Spirit, you're going to have some challenges. But also, if you try to connect with the Spirit and disconnect the Bible, you're going to have challenges. That leads to a religion that is not biblical and not authentic according to God, and John 5 expresses this so well. Again, I'm talking around prayer, boy, I'm feeling a little uneasy. Are you mad at me about the chiefs or is it about what I'm talking about? Okay, all right, but this is important, john, chapter 5. This is a great rendition of the idea of what religion does when it comes to the Word of God. John, chapter 5, 5, verse 37.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Jesus is talking. He says, and the father who sent me has testified of me. You have neither heard his. He's talking to religious people here. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. You do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he sent. He's talking about the word of God. You don't have the word in you. And then he goes on and says this you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is these, the scriptures, that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you would have life.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Now, this wasn't just a first century Judaistic problem, it's a problem today. These people, he said, you don't have the word in you. And it's like they knew the word. Many of the people he was writing to probably had much of the word at that time memorized, and not just the natural commandments memorized, but they would have probably had the oral interpretations memorized. Can you imagine how upset they would have got? What do you mean? We don't know the word? I'm sure they would. And Jesus said no, you don't have the word in you, but you search the scriptures. You know the scriptures but you don't have the word in you. Why? Because the word of God is designed not to be separated from the living God, who wrote them for us? All right, and we have to come to him to have the word inside of us. Does this make sense to you? That's why he said you got to worship God in spirit and in truth. Those things are together and I just this is a little bit of a deviation, but I wanted to hit on this because I think it's important this idea of a living relationship to God, because it has everything to do with prayer. I had a brilliant example of this in my own natural life. That caused me to see the importance of the relational dynamic with God and the word of God.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Okay, the last house my wife and I lived at lived in before we moved to Kansas City. We had lived there about 25 years, denise. Okay, about 25 years, roughly the last few months, I think I've got this right. The last few months a new neighbor had moved in. Our previous neighbor had lived there the whole time and the new neighbor moved in and they were from Guatemala and they had several family members we don't even know how to discern which ones were probably family or friends but they moved in just months before we moved out of the house. And it was crazy because I met the son when they were moving in, a son that didn't live there I don't even know if he lived in Pittsburgh and he came up and he said hey, I just want you to know, my folks are moving in here and you may see me around, but they're good people and stuff. I said, okay, I'm hearing about my new neighbor. It's going to move close to me.

Speaker 1: 13:44

They didn't speak a lick of English, not zero, and I didn't speak any Spanish and it was an interesting few months or however long they were there. Honey, I mean I would see them and it's like I'd wave at them. I mean I shook their hand. This is like a lot of people when it comes to Christ. You know they, oh yeah, you know you were introduced to him, or you know you got somebody said, hey, you need to know this guy. He's a good guy, you know right? Oh yeah, okay, I got close enough to see him. Well, that's what it was like with these neighbors I would wave to them. Every time I saw them, a grin on my face. But then, as the few months went on, there were some rubs, okay, and for example, you know I would.

Speaker 1: 14:32

I've been known to do some things and when I get in a bad mood sometimes I'll take it out on the trash. When I carry the trash out at night, right, so I'm hauling my trash can out, oh, I can't believe. God helped me. And then I throw the trash in the dumpster, you know. And then there's my neighbor and he looks at me and goes in the house, no words, because we can't understand each other. And then there were other times when they would have people over and there would be a bunch of trash on my side of the yard. And then I'd go out, you know, and pick up the trash and of course I'm upset why is this trash in my yard? And I look up at him, he goes. Now we, I'm in. In my mind it's like does he know that this trash came from his yard? And then, probably when I took the trash out, you know, and I threw it in the trash, can he probably thought, uh, I probably thought, well, he, he's okay with what I did. He smiled and waved at me. Right, so he's approving. He must be just like me.

Speaker 1: 15:30

But then I discovered the Bible in our relationship. I found the app and pulled it up on my phone. That translates it changed everything. Because it's like, oh, an, it happened. He looked at it. He didn't know it existed either, you know. And I said so. I was like, hey, man, how are you doing? And he would look at it, oh, and he would say Spanish, it's like, oh, we're communicating now, right, but before I was assuming something based on he didn't hurt me, so he must be okay with it, or I didn't hurt him, so I must be pleasing to what he did. That app changed everything. Then it's like, you know, he's like hey, by the way, he's this didn't happen. I'm going to extrapolate it.

Speaker 1: 16:21

By the way, when you took that trash out mad the other night, what were you thinking? Oh, I thought you were okay with the way I acted. Why did you think that? Because you waved at me and you didn't come over and try to correct me. This is what the Bible does for us. I'm trying to make a point here. I hope this is okay, but if we don't have a living relationship with God, we'll misunderstand the Bible and if we try to have a relationship with God without this truth, we'll assume things that God you understand. Does this make sense? I hope that helps you because that's a good way to see it.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Now, when we talk about this living relationship with God, we want to see through prayer. I want you to know that one of the most beautiful passages we won't read it that talks about this relationship in contrast to the old covenant is 2 Corinthians 3. And I just want to many of you know this passage, but it's a phenomenal passage 2 Corinthians 3. Paul is contrasting the old covenant with the new covenant, that's in Jesus Christ, and he talked about how in the old covenant only Moses could get face to face and interact with God and there was commandments and he would talk about Moses coming out of that place and then he would have to put a veil over his face because he couldn't maintain the glory. It would fade away because no one could approach God. He was holy and Moses could only do it because God gave him that special provision at that time.

Speaker 1: 17:49

But I love what Paul says when he starts to turn the corner and he says but we all, because of Jesus Christ. We all with an unveiled face can walk face to face in communication with Jesus Christ. Could somebody get a little excited? We can walk in communication with Jesus Christ and as we walk in a face to face encounter with Him all the time, not just once a week or not just once a festival, but all the time. When we daily walk face to face with Him, we are transformed from glory to glory by the spirit, because there's a dynamic in that personal relationship in which the spirit of God works in us and Jesus and father works in us in a way that you can't get just by you reading the Bible by yourself. And so that is why prayer is such an essential thing for the people of God we have to have. Prayer is the communication with God. It's the pathway in which we walk and have a living and abiding relationship. Does this make sense to you? A couple quotes. I love this.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Thomas Watson, who was an old Puritan preacher. He said Prayer is the soul's traffic way to heaven. It's where heaven comes to us and we go to heaven through prayer. I love that. One Prayer is essential to us. It's kind of like breathing. I think it was Corrie ten Boone that talked about that. It's like breath we can't live without it. So prayer is something so vital to our life, we cannot live without it, and we need to make sure we're just like they did in Acts 2, that we're continually devoting ourselves to prayer. You say amen to that. Now I just want to give a couple other things and then I'm going to make some points that I think will help us.

Speaker 1: 19:48

When we look at God's design for prayer, it basically hits and satisfies three essential elements to our life, and you kind of see this in the Lord's Prayer. Nick's been doing a little bit of the Lord's Prayer stuff on Wednesday morning. But these three vital elements we see it in the Lord's Prayer stuff on Wednesday morning, but these three vital elements we see it in the Lord's Prayer and our prayer life helps us to walk in these things. Three things just real quick and they're simple and you know them.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Number one is a relationship with the Godhead. Prayer enables us to walk in relationship with Father, son and Spirit. It's our communication with them, and prayer is the thing that enables us to do it. You can't do it any other way. There has to be that kind of communication with Father, son and Spirit. So prayer helps us walk in that element of our relationship with Father. That's why in the Lord's Prayer he said pray like this, because, how many of you know, the Lord's Prayer came while Jesus was away praying and they knew he did it all the time. And when he was coming back from praying they said hey, would you teach us to do that what you're doing? And I love how he did it. He says our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. He was trying to show them that relational element. This is what enables you to walk right up to the Father and to Jesus and to Holy Spirit and be able to communicate with Him, our Father who art in heaven.

Speaker 1: 21:10

A second thing it enables us to do. It enables us to join Him in His purpose. Right, when you look at the Bible, the first thing we're to petition for is for His purpose to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sometimes we can miss that. We think prayer is just about me getting what I want. Yeah, but first of all it's about Him getting what he wants and us joining with Him in that. Okay. He said Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you know what's important that we think of His will above even our needs? Why, of course he cares about our needs. But something happens when we consider His will first Is it puts us in alignment with His goodness and who he is.

Speaker 1: 22:07

When I'm thinking more about His kingdom than my kingdom and I better not have a kingdom but when I'm thinking about His will, jesus said if you lay your life down for my sake, then you will find the very life that you're looking for. When I lay my life and think of His purposes first and tie into those things and pray, that way my life gets more rightly in alignment. Because when I'm thinking about Doug's kingdom, I'm a rotten guy. Thanks, tom, for saying that. He said hey, that's right. No, seriously, when Doug's kingdom is ahead of his all the things that make me ugly and terrible and things that I do I tend to drift towards those things. But when His kingdom is first, I come into an alignment where it's like holy cow, I'm a better person. Am I the only one here? No, I'm not.

Speaker 1: 23:01

When you think about yourself first, you take on all the traits of the very thing that alienates you from people. When I'm in alignment with him and his will, I'm a better husband, I'm a better friend, I'm a better worker at my job. Why? Because I'm not just thinking about what am I getting out of this crummy job? I'm thinking about how do I honor the king and see his kingdom in my workplace. Thank you, brother. But it's really true. But when I'm consumed with myself first and my circumstances first, it's like, well, this rotten job, they don't pay me enough. That's why I'm in debt. No, you're in debt because you were stupid in what you did there, because you weren't thinking of God when you did it.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Okay, so prayer enables us to get His kingdom in the first place in our life and have that become our aim and our goal. First, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then the third thing is our daily dependence on him, out of me loving him and seeing him correctly, having his kingdom first. Then, yes, we do have needs, and in the Lord's prayer he says give us this day our daily bread. It's not that God's not concerned about your needs. He just wants to get you into the right alignment so that when you pray for your needs, you're praying for them in a right way. Okay, so those three things can only be accomplished as we walk in a consistent prayer life with God, and that's what I'm trying to hit on here this morning. Consistent they were continually devoting themselves to prayer. Say amen to that Now. When you look at their prayer life, when you look at the early church, they had corporate prayer, but then they also had individual prayer. I mean, you know, they went to the temple and prayed, okay, and they had prayer meetings together.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Jesus talked about the fact that there's a almost a multiplication effect when we pray with others. Are you thankful that you get to pray with others? I mean, I get so much good out of it myself. It helps me immensely. There's a multiplication of the effect. He said, where two or more of you agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it'll be done. There's a multiplication. One can put a thousand, two can put 10,000 to flight. We love that. But then there's also that benefit Sometimes I can get. If I'm just by myself, I can get focused on just a few things. But when I get around Nick or I get around Tom or I get around others, I hear another dimension of God and it broadens me, even in my prayer life.

Speaker 1: 25:49

So I'm going to say this you need corporate prayer and I'm thankful that this church has corporate prayer times, many of them in prayer schools. I would encourage you, get involved with it in your small groups. Get involved with corporate prayer. It's very important, it's a multiplication and an increasing kind of effect. But the thing I want to kind of end with this morning is I want to end with our personal everyday prayer. Okay, because this is important and to me, this is probably more where Christians get hung up and face the effects of deficiency than they do in corporate prayer. It's your individual prayer life with God, your everyday prayer, all right, and I want, I want to just give us some things that will help us. But first of all, I want us to read three passages that speak in terms. It's God's words speaking in terms of us, about our everyday prayer life. Because, again, this one's often guys.

Speaker 1: 26:51

I've been at this for 45 years now 46 years and I've seen this being one of the major challenges to God's people is learning how to cultivate an everyday devotion to prayer. It's getting quiet here, but this is so essential. I see some people. It's like you know they can come to corporate prayer. When you've got the background noise and you've got Nick praying for you, you know you just, oh yeah, I'm a host of God. Thank you, nick. But then we can't live here in this building, we have to go out, and most of the problems I encounter is when I don't. That thing that happens in the corporate prayer. I don't experience it this afternoon, god forbid if the chiefs lose. You're going to find out if I've got a prayer life or not. You'll see in the way I handle it. But seriously, what I've seen over the years is people can't walk out there. What they maybe experience occasionally in here, and that's not God's design, all right, so what I would do? This everyday personal prayer life?

Speaker 1: 27:59

I want to read three passages and then I'm going to make a few points that will help us before we close. Okay, philippians, chapter four. These are just some of the main ones that speak of our everyday ongoing prayer relationship with God in our prayer life. Okay, and there's elements that need so good. Philippians, chapter four, verse four.

Speaker 1: 28:19

He says this rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. This is a more man. I could go crazy on this one. He wrote this from prison. You look, in this short letter of Philippians, he says joy and rejoice. I think it's like eight times why? Because everything was going good for him. He had listened to that word of faith preacher, you know. And before he wrote that, and he was just feeling good and he got that thousand dollars in the mail, I mean no, he was sitting in prison not knowing whether he was going to get out. And he says rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be made known to all men. The Lord is near. And then he goes on Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And boy, this is important If you live this way, even in difficult times, he says and the peace of God, which surpasses understanding or comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. So again, this is talking more about our ongoing relational prayer life with God, whether it's in good times or hard times, as that was written in hard times.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Another passage I just want to read, three, is in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. I want us to look and read these together. That's why I'm giving a little time here. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. These things contain so much truth and nuggets that will help us in our ongoing relationship with God through prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16, very similar to what he said in Philippians rejoice always. We're going to get into this, but rejoicing is the backbone. It's like the first step in prayer. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. This is everyday prayer. Some translations say never be finished praying. We need to adopt that mentality in us, because that's what the bible teaches.

Speaker 1: 30:32

You ever met somebody? Hey, how was prayer? Man, I had great prayer time this week. Boy, it was awesome. God encountered me. Right, the when was that? That was Saturday night, man, I met God. The tears were flowing down, whoa. Well, how about since Saturday night? It's Friday and I just talked to your wife and she said you yelled at her and she was crying. Huh, yeah, I know you did that Saturday night, but what about Thursday night, when you blew up at her? How was your prayer then? You mean you didn't pray? How many times have you prayed since Saturday night? Well, I listened to a five minute devotional on prayer that I get online. No, how much have you prayed, boy? I guess I haven't since Saturday night Never.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Or pray without ceasing, never be finished with prayer In everything. Give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit. Prayer and Holy Spirit are so interconnected the move of the spirit and the spiritual dynamic. Again, going back to 2 Corinthians 3, it talks about that in our covenant. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully and hold fast to what is good. That kind of life can only be experienced if you're never finished praying, if you're praying all the time. We'll talk about that here in a bit. How can you pray all the time? You can pray all the time, Maybe not. You know you have to adjust. But come on man, never be finished praying. That's what it means. Oh, you're looking stunned, okay. Colossians, chapter 4. Colossians, chapter 4.

Speaker 1: 32:34

This is another one that I think encompasses this everyday prayer life, walking with the Godhead. He says this devote yourselves to prayer. I think encompasses this everyday prayer life walking with the Godhead. He says this devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Again, this is connected to that rejoice that's connected to prayer, keeping alert in it with the attitude of thanksgiving One of the things I've discovered when I was learning to pray 46 years ago and I've helped others a lot of times. They have a hard time in prayer because when they are by themselves, their mind starts wandering. None of you probably experienced this, but let's say, the church down the street, okay, but your mind starts wandering and you have a hard time staying alert and staying tuned in to God and then you're drifting. Well, there's help for that and he talks about it here Keeping alert in it with thanksgiving Sometimes, if my mind. Well, I'll talk about my prayer life here, but thanksgiving brings us into an alertness.

Speaker 1: 33:39

It's kind of like my wife and I. This morning we had this little, this thing. Sorry, honey, if I can get a little personal. I saw this little article about certain types of affection and what it does to couples and I looked it up and it was so blessing to me because I do all of them and I just thought I was weird. You know, I kiss her on the forehead, I kiss her on the nose Now, this may be kind of weird with you and so her and I are having this conversation before I come over here and they said that kind of love language is endearing. Well, I want you to know something Sometimes, how many of you know in your marriages you can just go along and you live in the same house but there's not that rejoicing in that relationship.

Speaker 1: 34:19

But I want you to know if you just give attention to that. If I just sorry guys, I know this may sound be weird, I don't mean to be, but when I go up and I look at her and I say, oh, honey, I am so thankful for you and I kiss her on the forehead, it puts a stimulation of alertness in our relationship that maybe in the busyness kind of let down a little bit. It's the same way with Christ. We're the bride folks. I mean this is like a marriage right. And sometimes that Thanksgiving it's how you remember again afresh oh, jesus, man, I've forgotten or I've let down how wonderful you are and what you've done for me and what you continue to do to me and how lovely you are.

Speaker 1: 35:03

I mean this thing in Revelation, when the Bible uses that word holy, holy, holy. There's a Hebrew background to it in Hebrew language, but it means like it's not just holy but it's like holy in a way that's beyond human. Holy, that's the idea. Well, you rekindle that through thanksgiving and through worship as you pray. All right, so we keep alert in it, with an attitude of thanksgiving Verse 3, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open a door for the word that we may speak forth, the mystery of Christ for which I've been in prison, this idea again of rejoicing and being thankful, things like that. It is so, so important.

Speaker 1: 35:49

Now here's what I want to do. I just want to give you a few tips as I close here. Is this okay? That, I think, will help you in your ongoing relational prayer life with God. You're ready. We're going to go through them quick. You ready?

Speaker 1: 35:58

Number one, number one? Did somebody say number one, number one you have to discipline yourself to pray. I'm going to. This is mind boggling. So can you hold on to your seats Because Holy Spirit may just pour out right here? Hold on to your seats. I don't want you to fall on the floor, but the only way to develop consistent prayer is to consistently pray. Okay, hold on. Some of you were shaking there a little bit. The only way to develop disciplined prayer is to consistently pray. There's no other magic pill. There's no other altar call. You know we've got to have, you know, breakthroughs, but we also have to have follow throughs, quoting a guy named Roger Moore. So the only way to learn how to consistently pray is to consistently pray, so you have to discipline yourself to do it.

Speaker 1: 36:57

Hello, okay, number two make sure, even though we're praying without ceasing, I would encourage you to make sure that you have a set-aside time, a regular time. It's just kind of like in a relationship with a spouse or something. Sometimes we used to have this thing called date nights. Remember those Like if I don't plan a date night with my spouse, the week will just catch us up. Well, it's an appointed time. I'm not trying to elevate date night, but it's an appointed time where we've set it aside. Can I encourage you Set aside a time in your day in which you pray every day.

Speaker 1: 37:39

That doesn't mean you don't pray all the time, but there is a consistent set aside time, and I heard a phrase in my early days that helped me Don't try to fit prayer into your day. Fit your day around prayer, so important. What do I mean by that? I have a set aside time and I do not deviate from it. I've been doing this part probably for 30 years out of my 46 years. There is a time I've set aside and I don't try to fit prayer into my day. I fit my day around that prayer. Now, for me it's early in the morning. Some of you don't get up that early, but there's a whole theology on morning prayer. If you want notes on that, I've done it all, but there is something about it's like the first fruits. That's what a set aside time is. So find a time where you can say, no, this is prayer time and I'll fit my day around prayer rather than trying to fit prayer around my day.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Number two all right. Number three use real language. Honesty and real language is so important for prayer. Jesus had that contrast where he was talking about the Gentiles praying and they think they're heard for many words. Well, there was all kinds of pagan things and that's what he was identifying Ma, ma, ma. You know, we just say the same thing. If I can say it 50 times loud, then it's going to happen. Or you try to have eloquence, some kind of religious eloquence, and Jesus is like saying no, just pray honestly. Just pray with your own words. Does this make sense? All right.

Speaker 1: 39:14

So have real language in your prayers and sometimes real language helps you even to go through like lamenting times where you're struggling. I mean, I do that all the time. It's like God man, I know, but I'm feeling this way. Well, me expressing myself helps him to come and say okay, you know that song. Oh, yes, I do. All right, come on over here. It's like Psalm 73. Remember, psalm 73 says surely the Lord is good to Israel, but for me, uh-uh, he's not been good to me. But fortunately he doesn't stop praying and he cycles through and then he comes around and he says who do I have in heaven but you and on earth? There's nothing I even want. So we have to use real language to have real relationship with him. Hello, another thing. Four we're going quick. Find a private place, find a place where you can be with God. All right, that's important. Jesus would often go away to the wilderness to pray. When he taught us to pray he said go into your inner room. That doesn't mean you can't pray when you're out doing everyday life, but there's something about that undistracted time where you're in that personal place with Him, where you can be alone with Him. We're almost done. Stay with me.

Speaker 1: 40:27

Fifth thing thanksgiving, praise, worship, lifting your voice is essential for alertness. Guys. I want to say this, I know I've alluded to it already is essential for alertness. Guys, I want to say this I know I've alluded to it already but thanksgiving, praise and worship and lifting our voice in that way is essential. I've told people this and somebody brought this to my attention. I spend over half of my set-aside prayer time thanking Him for everything that he's done that I can think of in my life. Do you know what that does for me? It puts me in a different place. It puts me. It's like oh man, you are good. Sometimes we forget he's good or we exalt our problem or the thing we're challenged with, and it shields him. It's like a. It's like a what do you call it when the moon kind of gets blocked, blocks the sun, an eclipse, and it can be like that. So Thanksgiving, praise and worship and lifting our voice this is something that stimulates alertness. That's why he says praying with Thanksgiving. It brings you to alertness in God. So make sure you do it.

Speaker 1: 41:31

Sometimes you've got to lift your voice in alertness Real quick. To lift your voice in alertness Real quick. I did this systematic study one time on all the expressions in the book of Psalms about praise and worship. The most prominent one is shouting and lifting your voice 265 times. It mentions that to God. The next most prominent one is playing musical instruments 58 times, 265, lifting your voice giving thanks 58 times. Playing musical instruments. You know what the most least mentioned expression is Silence. What does that tell you? Well, sometimes you have to lift your voice when I'm down and when I'm it's like okay, come on Doug, come on God, forgive me, I'm just mad at myself. And you know, when I start lifting my voice, all of a sudden an alertness returns. Okay, god's still on the throne. Have you ever forgotten he's on the throne, or is that just me? All right, Then the last two more quick ones.

Speaker 1: 42:37

Make sure, if you're spirit filled, pray in the spirit. Paul says I will pray in the spirit and I will pray with my understanding. Sometimes, when I don't know what to pray for, I start praying in tongues and what that does is I'm praying in a language that the spirit is working in and it reminds me and brings me back to a place where I can pray in my understanding. Pray in the spirit. If you don't have a prayer language yet, help join with the people here and they'll help pray you through If you're spirit filled, to help you develop a prayer language. Hello, are you with me? Pray in the spirit and pray with your understanding and then, lastly, just do it. Do you remember Nike?

Speaker 1: 43:19

They had one of the most spiritual advertisements. That's been very important and it was just do it. What were they trying to get at? You got to do it and you aren't going to learn to pray and you're not going to have consistent prayer unless you just do it. So they were continually devoting themselves to prayer. Amen, can we do that? I want to pray and I'm going to turn it back over to Tom here. Hallelujah. So they were continually devoting themselves to prayer. Amen, can we do that? I want to pray and I'm going to turn it back over to Tom here. Hallelujah, can we do this? Just for a moment, just stand up before we leave man.

Speaker 1: 43:52

The covenant that Jesus made, that Father made with us through Christ's sacrifice, was so we can walk in this kind of life with him.

Speaker 1: 44:05

Father, as we're standing on our feet, we're saying God, we don't want to have a religious experience, we want to have a reality with you. And you said never be finished praying and pray without ceasing. And all these things, father, I'm praying and we are praying here without ceasing. And all these things, father, I'm praying and we are praying here. Let us see an increase in this everyday walk in life with God. Father, we don't want to just have a corporate gathering prayer life, but we want to have a prayer life every day. So, just like the disciples looked at you, jesus, as you live this kind of life, and said teach us how to pray, lord, we're asking for the days ahead Teach us how to pray, lord, that we it wouldn't just be us trying to hijack and have a religion that we control, but it's about us coming under your loving Lordship and being led by you. So, father, help us. Can you just say this Lord, help me, increase my prayer that we would demonstrate who you are. Father, we ask that in Jesus' name.