3/1/26 - TEACH US TO PRAY / Various Scriptures

Teach us to pray. [music]

Teach us to pray, and that without ceasing, so we can share our lives with you moment by moment. Your presence with us deserving our whole heart's gratitude. Privilege of privileges. We are invited to walk with our Lord and to speak day by day. How can we forget your presence with us? May we not forget you promise to stay.

Teach us to pray, and that without ceasing, and we will cast our burdens on you. Sometimes the sorrows and fears of our lives are like weights that are overwhelming. Though it is good to remember that your love is greater than any and all our troubles have the same grace that saved our souls. His grace for today and tomorrow.

Father, we trust you. Yes, we trust you. And we pray in Jesus' name. We trust you. Yes, we trust you. You are ever more the same.

Teach us to pray, and that without ceasing. Teach us to pray and always believe. Teach us. Oh, teach us to pray. Amen.

We should, uh, begin with a word of prayer. Should we pray together?

Our God, now Father, we thank you tonight the privilege that it is to speak to thee. Who are we that you should hear our voice? And yet you listen for the prayers of every one of your people. And we're so thankful tonight that that's true, that you know every need of our lives. And so as we look at scriptures tonight that have to do with prayer, might you guide us by your spirit? And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, we've been going through for some time, uh, parables, uh, that the Lord gave, illustrations that he gave. And, uh, tonight I had in mind to look into that have to do with prayer. Uh, I'm not sure we'll get to them because I would just like to make some general observations about prayer.

Prayer itself is an expression of dependence and confidence. Uh, we're praying to God, uh, as an expression that we depend upon him, that we have no place else to go. Peter said in John 6:66 when the Lord asked him, "Will you go also?" because some of the disciples were leaving. He said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." And that's a dependence upon the Lord. And so when we pray, we're expressing dependence upon God. And secondly, since we're expressing dependence upon him, it's, uh, prayer is an expression of confidence because we're praying to him because we believe that he, God, is good, that he hears us, that he cares about us and will help us in whatever way that we might need help and how we might pray to him.

So we could also look at prayer as an expression of the outbreath of the new man. You know, when you get saved, then you're like a new babe. And, uh, a babe, when a baby is born, you know, you listen for that first cry of the baby. And so that's an expression that that baby's alive. It's a sign that he's living. Well, prayer is a sign that someone has truly come to know the Lord Jesus, that they have truly been saved because they speak to God. And how wonderful, how incredibly wonderful that we can speak to him just as we did in prayer when we opened.

But there's a difference in saying prayers and praying. Now, many people say prayers, but they've never prayed. An example of that is the Apostle Paul, uh, Saul of Tarsus. He was, before God changed his name, in Acts 9 and verse 11. Uh, there was a man named Ananias. And the Lord told Ananias, who was a disciple, to go to Saul of Tarsus and to speak to him. Now, in the first verse in that chapter of Acts 9, it says that Saul had been breathing out, uh, threats and murders toward, uh, the church, toward the Lord's disciples. And so that's why Ananias was a little fearful about going to Saul, but he went.

The last word that the Lord gave Ananias regarding Saul, in order to express that Saul of Tarsus had changed, that he had become a Christian, in Acts chapter 9:11, the Lord said, "For behold, he prayeth." Behold, he prayeth. That was the witness that the Lord gave Ananias that Saul of Tarsus was no longer this terrible, sinful, uh, murderous man, but that he had given his life to the Lord. What a powerful statement that is that Paul of, uh, Saul of Tarsus, he had prayed, or he had said prayers often. Uh, he was a Pharisee. They had many prayers that they prayed, uh, that they memorized.

And so when Saul of Tarsus, uh, prayed, he was repeating prayers just like many people repeat that so-called Lord's prayer. "Our father who art in heaven." They have no— that it says, "Our father who art in heaven." So it's for people that are believers that have God as their father. In other words, people that have been born again. You could say that prayer a thousand times, and if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior, you've not been born again. And it's amazing how many people that say they believe in God have no idea what it means to be born again when all you have to read is the first three chapters of the Gospel of John. And in that third chapter, well, in the first and in the third, you'll find out about being born again. So when people don't read their Bible, uh, they're ignorant of God. They're depending upon someone else to tell them about God. And that's a very, very dangerous place to be because your soul is of infinite value and it's eternal.

So when the Lord Jesus said, "Behold, he prayeth," that was a testimony that Saul of Tarsus had changed because prayer is the natural expression of the new man. Isn't that wonderful? It's like breathing, you know, breathing out. It's what prayer is.

Uh, when we think of the Pharisees, what Saul of Tarsus was before he was saved, in Matthew 6 and verse 7, uh, the Lord said, "When ye pray, use not vain or empty repetitions as the Gentiles do." Listen. "For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." That's in Matthew 6:7. See, vain repetitions, just, just empty words that they're repeating. Oh, my friend, that is not faith. Faith is not just saying, putting words together or reading them off a page. Faith is alive within the heart, within the soul when you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.

And again, regarding the Pharisees in Matthew 24:14, the Lord said, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Now listen to this. "For a pretense you make long prayers." In other words, in front of people. They said long prayers that they had memorized, and they only did it in front of people. They weren't speaking to God. They were just saying words.

I remember one time I left a funeral of a friend of mine and the, uh, uh, the one that had prayed was talking to his wife, and he didn't know I was listening because we're all walking to our cars, and I didn't, wasn't trying to listen, but he, he was right in front of me, and he was upset that they had asked him to pray in the last minute. In other words, uh, he would have prepared a prayer to read. That's what he would have done. But they called upon him in that funeral service to pray just spontaneously, and he didn't like that. Well, I thought, how sad is that? I wanted to say, "Do you even know the Lord?" Because anyone that knows the Lord can pray to him. But this man, he was upset about it.

You know, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17, it says to pray without ceasing. Hallelujah. You know what a privilege this is to be able to speak to God, to be able to speak to the God of the universe, the creator, and to be able to have continual fellowship with him throughout your day. You wake him in the night, you can speak to him. This is what it is to be a Christian. We're not talking about some outward religion that doesn't affect the soul. We're talking about the reality of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Then you know God, and you can speak to him without ceasing. In other words, it's like walking with someone. You may not always be speaking to them, but you know that whenever you want to speak, the person is there. That's the way it is with God. This is so incredible.

And, uh, um, uh, Luke chapter 18 and verse one, the Lord said, "And he spake a parable to them." I don't think we'll get further into this, but, uh, in verse one, it says he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought to pray always and not faint. In other words, not grow weary. So this is the admonition of the Lord that we are to pray without ceasing and whatever we're praying about, as he said, uh, always to pray and not to faint. In other words, not to be discouraged. Uh, we'll look at another scripture regarding that, uh, in just a moment.

But this is so wonderful. God is encouraging us to speak to him. Do you understand THAT? WHEN GOD SAYS PRAY, HE'S SAYING, "TALK TO ME. TALK TO ME." HALLELUJAH. This is, this is beyond belief that when, see, people think when they hear, uh, uh, "pray," it's something I'm supposed to do. Well, obviously, if you're married, you're supposed to talk to your wife. Wouldn't be much of a relationship if you didn't. Well, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, then you're going to speak to him because he's your Lord and Savior, God and Father who gave his son. You're going to speak to him because he's your father. Hallelujah. These things are so simple to understand.

Revelation 5:8, uh, we read that, uh, prayers are like incense going up to God. In other words, God treasures the prayers of his people. He treasures them just like a father loves to hear, uh, his children [snorts] speaking to him and calling him father and depending upon him, bringing their needs to him. This is what God wants. And, uh, so what a sad statement it is when we're not praying without ceasing, when we're not recognizing that if you're saved, you have a relationship with God. Hallelujah. And how, and the price that he paid so that we could have that relationship.

I'd like to look at five prayers just as an example of prayers that we might consider. And the first one is a prayer of confession. And this prayer of confession, we can make it in two parts. There is the unsaved, the confession of the unsaved. And then there's the confession of the saved who have wandered off. For the unsaved, in Luke chapter 18 verse 13, there was a tax collector and he stood afar off and he wouldn't even look up to heaven and he beat his breast and he said, "Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner." So you see that man in that moment met God. It was a prayer of confession that he was a sinner. He didn't look up because he knew that he was unworthy, and he was depending upon in that moment the grace of God, that God would have mercy upon him. You need to understand this. To speak to God is a privilege. It's an honor. And if you're not saved, God's not listening to your words because that's all you're doing. Like Saul of Tarsus, you're just saying words. No, God is waiting for this prayer. "God have mercy on me, a sinful man." He beat his breast because he was sorry for what he had done. The Holy Spirit was showing him the ugliness of his sin. And if you've never seen the ugliness of YOUR SIN AND CRIED OUT TO GOD FOR MERCY, I submit to you, you're probably not a believer. You're probably not on the way to heaven, you're probably on a road to hell. And I don't care how much you've, how many times you pray or how many times you read the Bible. It don't matter if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior. If you're not speaking to him, speaking to God your father, if that's not a natural relationship that you have with him, then something's wrong. Something is amiss.

Then there's another prayer of confession. And that is for those of us that are believers and we sin. We wander off from God. You know, uh, Psalm, uh, 23 and verse three, it says, "He restoreth my soul." So a Christian can sin, absolutely. Now his sin has been paid for by the precious blood of Christ. First John 1 and verse, uh, 7 tells us the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from all sin. Hallelujah. That, that this is, you know, this is something that the Old Testament blood of bulls and goats only pictured, looked forward to the finished work of Christ and his shed blood. Revelation one says we're washed from our sins through his blood. This is, this is what a believer has. The penalty for sin, for his sins have been paid for. The debt that we could never pay, Jesus Christ has paid on our behalf. That's grace.

Now I'm a believer and I wander off. I do what I shouldn't do. I have sinned against my Lord. And the picture that we have of that is David's prayer in Psalm 51. Now we know in Psalm 51 that this is David's prayer of repentance, of confession after he had sinned, committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. We know that because the heading of the psalm tells us that, and those headings in the psalms are inspired. But then later on in verse 12, he says this, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." You see, David had not lost his salvation. No believer can ever lose his salvation because salvation is a gift and you're born again. So you don't get unborn again when you're born again. New birth is an action of God. So someone that's a true believer—now this is a, you, we're not talking about a man like Judas who pretended to be a believer but he was a phony. We're talking about real believers like David. David was a real believer and he sinned grievously toward the Lord and he had great consequences that came upon him because of his sin. Terrible, terrible consequences. But God had mercy on him and did not take his life as was required by the law. Once you're saved, you're eternally secure.

But the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 13, he said, uh, uh, in verse 10, he made a difference between being bathed by water and he said you don't, if you've been bathed by water, you, you don't need to be bathed again. You only need your feet washed. So if you've had a bath, and that bath speaks of new birth when the old life is washed away and God gives you a new life, that's being bathed, the old life washed away, right? Because water does two things. It, it, it, it cleanses us, but it also, we drink it and gives us life. So he, he tells us that this water, once you've been bathed, you don't need to be bathed again, but you need your feet washed because when we walk in this world, our feet become dirty. And the Lord told Peter, he told them all, "If you don't, if you don't let me wash your feet, you'll have no part with me." So if you're not involved in the word of God, it's when you're in the word of God that Jesus comes. Listen to this. Jesus comes as a servant, the very son of God comes to you through the Holy Spirit, through the word of God, and he cleanses your mind. That's the thought of footwashing. Turns your mind back to the things of God. And you can then make your confession as David did here if you need to. And if you're here tonight and unsaved, you need to pray that prayer of salvation. "God have mercy on me, a sinner." And if you're saved and are here tonight and you've never made things right with God, you need to pray this prayer of confession, uh, for restoration. You need to do that without delay. You can close your eyes right now and speak to God, and you should without delay.

So, uh, the first is that, uh, prayer we want to speak about is prayer of confession. Next is the prayer of thanksgiving. Well, certainly we should be thankful that God heard our prayers of confession, whether we're first saved or whether we are being restored. How good of God. And we read in Colossians 4:2, [clears throat] "Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving." Continue in prayer and watch in prayer with thanksgiving. See, when we pray, we're to be a thankful people, thankful that we can speak to God. "Oh God, thank you for hearing my prayer. Thank you for what you did for me through Christ. And I want to present to you some concerns that I have." But first, we want to be thankful to him.

And next, and this is probably what we're most familiar with, is when we pray for personal help. We have situations, so many situations in our lives that we pray for. And most prayer really centers in ourselves. Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing." Don't be anxious for anything. You know how many people are so worried? They're taking drugs. Uh, they're doing things, uh, to try to get over their anxiety. Anxiety is fear. Uh, the Lord Jesus said, "Fear not." It's been said that there's 365 "fear nots" in the Bible, one for every day of the year. God doesn't want people to live in fear. If you know God as you through Jesus Christ, why should you fear? Why should you worry? Why should you fret? And so Paul says, uh, here in, uh, uh, Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer with thanksgiving, make your request known unto God." So he says, "Let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God." Now the peace of God is when that anxiety is removed. When you can, you know, a lot of times we express it physically when something has changed and we're relieved and we go, [sighs] that's what it is when we pray. "And the peace of God which passes all understanding guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." This is so, so wonderful. This is prayer. Whatever your situation is, if you're a believer, you can come to God. Peter said to cast your cares upon him in 1 Peter 5:7. "Casting your cares upon him for he careth for you." Well, why do I pray to God? Because I have confidence in him. I have confidence in him that he hears me, that he loves me, that he spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not freely with him give us all things? You see, God is for us. He's for you. He's not against you if you're a believer. Well, even if you're an unbeliever, he's not against you. But you're against yourself. If you won't come to Christ, you're your greatest enemy. You want to know who your greatest enemy is? Go look in the mirror when you leave. That's your greatest enemy if you're without Christ.

And so, uh, there's the prayer of confession, of thanksgiving, praying for personal help from God, and then for wisdom. How often in situations of life, we just don't know what to do. We don't know what the right, you know, course of action is, what direction we should go. I mean, there's a thousand things in our lives that we need wisdom in order to make right decisions. In James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all generously without finding fault, and it shall be given unto him." If you lack wisdom, who are you going to go to? I mean, you going to go to your homies? Are you kidding me? Uh, uh, you know, you, you can go to, uh, your pastor, that would be good. You can go to a Christian man that or woman that you know that is walking with the Lord and they can turn you to the word of God and give you godly counsel, but ultimately you need to decide what is the right thing for you to do. And it's one thing to get knowledge. Knowledge is an information bank. But wisdom is using that information for the betterment of your life, the betterment of your life, the betterment of the lives of your family if you have them. It's wisdom. It's to know how to make right choices. May God grant it to all of us, myself first.

And the next is the prayer of surrender. And in Luke 23:42, the Lord Jesus said this, and everyone's familiar with this when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." This was our Lord Jesus' prayer of submission. Now, he was submitted to God his whole life, but now Calvary is before him. He will take our sins. He will be forsaken of God. Blessed Savior. And now he's weighing that, that cost of obedience. And you know, God has called all of us to be submitted to him. And maybe you're facing something difficult and hard. But whatever it is, we should not only be submitted to him, but we should pray that prayer of submission. "Father, not my will, but thy will be done. Not my will, but thy will be done."

In closing, just remember that prayer is the privilege that we have to speak to God and our father who has given us this privilege of prayer because he wants to hear from us. Now, he wants to hear not just words from our mouths. He wants to hear the expression of our hearts. And once again, if you're without Christ tonight, you can pray a prayer of repentance and confession. "God have mercy on me a sinner." And if you're still, uh, if you're a believer, but you have sinned against the Lord and you've walked away, remember the Lord restoreth my soul. And you can say, "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. I'm sorry, Father. I've wandered away. I'm like the prodigal son that has sinned against heaven and against you. I, I want to come home."

Let's pray together.

Our God, we thank you tonight for the privilege of prayer. Unbelievable that we can speak to thee in this moment, that you're hearing us. You're hearing not just my voice, but you're hearing the heart attitude and the expressions within the hearts of each one of these men. Oh, and women, oh God, if they're listening. And so we pray that you might move within the hearts of each one that is unsaved to pray that prayer. "God, have mercy on me a sinner." And for any of your people that have wandered away, may they come back that you might restore unto them the joy of their salvation. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.