07/18/10
Prayer
Summary
Pray to God about everything. Don't worry about anything.
Welcome
We’re continuing our Ritual series today... We have had a great couple of weeks talking about Sabbath and worship. The whole point of the series has been this. Let’s not forget why we do what we do. It is easy for sacred rituals to become empty rituals. So what we’ve tried to do is talk about why we practice some of these things.
It’s encouraging for me to see so many of you put these into practice. Several of you told me how you intentionally cleared some time in your schedule and calendar to slow down and delight in God’s gift of rest to you...
Last week, we talked about worship, and my hope is that we begin to see worship as more than what we do here, in this place. That when we gather to lift our voices and hearts to Jesus that this is really an overflow of the way that we worship God with our lives throughout the week. That the people we are becoming, and the way that we live and love and give becomes a response to God’s mercy. He deserves our best.
Today, we’re going to be talking about the ritual of prayer.
If you have your Bibles, go to Philippians 4. There are a lot of places that we could go on prayer...the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, but this is where we want to land today.
Philippians 4:4-7
It is one thing to say, ‘always be full of joy, but the Apostle Paul is writing from prison in the 1st century. Circumstantially, there is not a lot for Paul to rejoice about.
So these are weighty statements for a guy writing from the dungeon.
Very few of us are in a dungeon today...literally...yet how many of us are caught up in our own shackles of worry and anxiety?
I’m amazed by how worry and anxiety creep up in the course of an ordinary day. Today, some of you are worried about your finances...whether you’ll ever have enough while others are worrying about losing what you currently have. Today, you might be worried about a relationship...whether you’ll meet someone to spend your life with, or whether your current marriage will survive. Some of you are worried about being lonely... Maybe you’re worried about the future...some of us are worried about our past... You may be worried about your health or someone else’s heath; today you may be tied up with anxiety over the thought of death, or what comes after death.
Worry, or anxiety is this emotion that stems from the uncertainty we have about something in our future or something we can’t presently control. It’s a form of fear...
So...Paul says, “don’t worry about anything...
Don’t worry about...say that word with me...Don’t worry about...
Illustration (Anything) – When I had this surgery at the beginning of June, they told me, you’re not going to want to eat or drink anything from the evening before all the way until your surgery (many of you have experienced this). So...you know, I obeyed their instruction, even though I wanted to sneak something...and while I’m getting ready for surgery, I ask one of the nurses...what’s up with this. And she said, ‘well, if you eat something and it reacts with the anesthesia, then you could vomit on the operating table, and you could aspirate and die. Oh...that’s all? Don’t eat anything...anything... Don’t worry about anything.
This is one of those verses of Scripture that, at times, we just don’t take all that seriously, do we? Scripture says... ‘Don’t worry about anything.’ Worry will not make you aspirate and die? But worry will consume you and it will kill your joy and peace...and you’ll find it very difficult to live in the way that God designed you to live.
So...keep reading with me.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.”
Don’t miss this...God is not only inviting us...he’s commanding us to come to Him with our concerns, and our needs and to place those in his hands...which must mean that He’s interested in the areas of our lives that we tend to worry about.
I want to suggest that anxiety is really a gift from the Lord. For example, none of us like to feel pain. Pain is not fun.
When I had my tonsils and uvula removed...for the record, I didn’t even know that you could have your uvula removed, but my doctor said that it’s part of my ceasing to be a caveman. When they did all that they did, there was pain...and the pain was good for me because it forced me to take things easy. If it weren’t for pain, I would have eaten chips and cookies and my throat would never have healed.
If we didn’t feel any pain, we would never know when something is wrong. So pain is a tremendous gift because it forces you and I to address those things we need to take care of. Anxiety is a form of emotional pain. It reveals that something is unresolved.
What I want to say is that the more anxiety you experience, the more potential you have for prayer if you will allow those feelings to move you toward conversation with God.
What often happens is we just accumulate feelings of anxiety, we accumulate, accumulate until our souls are cluttered with things that we are anxious about...then we don’t have any clarity in our lives. Prayer is one way that we process those emotions and get in the place where we put it in the hands of God.
1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
Let me work backwards on this verse. Today, you may simply need to know that he cares for you...he cares...he sees your pain and cares. He sees your loss and cares. He sees your heartache and cares. He sees what you perceive to be your greatest need...and cares. His care isn’t this far-off, untouchable, unreachable, nice idea.
We experience His care by giving our worries to Him so that He can work in and through them? Prayer is the vehicle for this exchange.
Let’s be honest. Most of us are control freaks. If you don’t think you are, ask the person sitting next to you. Get married...your spouse will tell you. We have a hard time letting go of our own worries. We have a hard time admitting this kind of pain. We want to solve the problems by ourselves...which as a side-note is one of the primary reasons why we get addicted to things like sports or technology or shopping or substances...because they’re a way for us to temporarily control or hide or cover the pain...
When you give all your worries to God, you are telling Him that you trust Him. When you do this, God can begin to replace your anxiety with His peace.
His peace is different from our peace. Our peace is circumstantial; when we’re in control, we feel peace. His peace is providential...even when we’re out of control, we come to discover that our lives, our provision, our future, our ultimate well-being all lie in His hands.
Illustration: Lease Story – We’ve been working on this Renovation for over a year and half, and there have been moments where it has been very stressful...sometimes frustrating. If you know me well, you know that I don’t like to wait or go slow. Someone on staff kindly pointed this out to me this week.
Prayer is the only thing that has enabled me to hand the process and project over to Him. I’m finding that details that seem daunting to me are substantially smaller when I place them in front of God. And I can’t wait to see how God works this out...and how He continues to use this space to Help People Find Their Way Back to God.
Let me come at it from another angle. Some of you are in circumstances that you don’t want to be in right now. What I want to suggest is that maybe God wants to use those circumstances to teach you to pray and hand over your concerns to Him.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done...” 4:6
This is interesting on a theological level. Jesus says in Matthew 6 that God knows exactly what you need before you ask him...
Before a word is even on your tongue. He knows what you are going to say. He knows what you are going to feel before you feel it. So what’s the point? Why present our requests to Him?
Illustration: If there’s one thing I’ve learned about communication after being married to Beth for 10 years it’s this... Oftentimes, Beth wants to talk about something simply to work it out...to process it...not so that I will offer a solution.
It is important for us to be able to process and verbalize what it is we want and need and desire from the Lord. I think many of us have no idea what we want. We don’t have much of a prayer life because we have no idea what to petition the Lord for...
Paul isn’t specific...He simply says. Don’t worry about anything...Pray about everything...Tell God what you need...Thank Him for what He’s done... This is a pretty open-ended invitation.
“ Then, you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” 4:6-7
I’m not sure what you’re up against... I don’t know what’s worrying you today... Finances...a wayward child...your marriage...your job...your health or the health of someone that you love, loneliness?
Know today that none of that is outside the sovereignty of God. Matthew 6...your Father sees and knows the details of your life. You see what is right in front of you. God sees what lies around the corner. You see what seems to be an insurmountable circumstance or problem...God’s holds the solution to that problem. You see a need as large as a mountain... God is able to resource need... Your circumstances aren’t stumping God! It’s possible that he’s waiting for you to bring those things to Him in prayer.
Here’s the thing...most of us want God’s peace that exceeds anything we can understand, but we go on to bypass the mechanism whereby we get there. But we can’t do that. There’s a reason why it says, ‘pray about everything.’
Important here – His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
To live in Christ Jesus is to relate to Jesus as both your Savior...and your Lord... You are a child of God because of what Jesus has done for you...to know Him as Lord is to live in such a way that you follow Him in every area of your life. This doesn’t mean that we’re perfect...but we are single-minded in our pursuit.
Some of us want Jesus to be our savior...but we’re not willing to surrender to Him as Lord. We’re glad for Him to die for us...but not glad enough trust Him with our lives. We’ll call out to Him when we need help...but we don’t want him to intrude on certain areas of our lives. This is why many of us experience a lack of peace in our lives...there are areas that we’re unwilling to offer to Him.
In the same way that it would be an insult for me to say to Beth...I don’t want to love you, I’m simply interested in what you can do for me; it is an insult to God when we communicate...all I want from you here is what you can give me and what you can do for me...I’m not interested in knowing or loving you. That’s an insult to Jesus.
So Paul says that His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. To live in Jesus is another way of saying to walk in trust-based relationship with Him... As we trust Him in obedience, His peace follows.
Close
Let me wrap with this...one of my favorite texts in the Gospels comes out of Luke 18:9-14. Jesus is speaking to some religious leaders who the text says are confident in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. Jesus tells a story. Here’s the scene. Two guys are praying. One is a Pharisee who begins his prayer by looking across the room at another man praying, and thanks God that he’s not a sinner like him.
The text says that He says to God...I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery...I fast twice a week. I give you a tenth of my income. I mean...the room is thick with spiritual arrogance. We have words in the English language for this individual that we’re just not at liberty to use here.
Meanwhile, the other man, a tax collector stands before God, beating his chest in sorrow, and all that he can get out are these words.
“...O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.” 18:13b
Short prayer...not very impressive really. The text goes on to say.
“I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:14
Oftentimes we believe that prayer is for the pious and spiritual...the church-goer...those who know their Bibles and mostly have it together. Scripture says that prayer is for those who understand their sin and brokenness and recognize their need for God... As a result, they throw themselves on the mercy of God.
Our goodness and righteousness doesn’t compel us to pray. Our complete and desperate need for God and his mercy...and his willingness to offer it to us in Jesus is what draws us to communicate with Him...and to know Him as our Heavenly Father.
Here’s what I want to say as we close...because I love you. My hunch is that there are some people right now beating yourself up because you aren’t praying in the way God has designed you and called you to pray. Let’s flip it around. Is there anybody here who feels like they prayed too much this year? No! So I think all of us feel like we don’t measure up. But that’s not the motivation whereby to pursue God. We need to seek the Author of life because it is a wonderful privilege we have to be in conversation with the Almighty Creator of the universe who is always attuned to our prayers.
(Pray)
In our time remaining, we’re going to spend some time in specific intentional prayer. Around the Lord’s Supper...where we are reminded that we are loved... Jesus died for us.
We have other stations around the room. As you take communion, we want to invite you to offer up a prayer to God...maybe to bring a personal need before Him. Perhaps you want to light a candle for a person for whom you are praying. So as the music plays...feel free to participate in communion. And if you’re comfortable, please take time to light a candle and bring a need or concern to God...knowing that He hears you.
