27.The Right Way To Pray - Zac Poonen

one of the practices found in all religions is prayer there's no religion that doesn't teach prayer some type of chanting some type of repetition some type of appealing to God for usually for help Jesus also practiced and preached on prayer sometimes he would spend all night in prayer frequently he would slip away and praying particularly in the Gospel of Luke you read instances like that in chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 of times when he would get alone now we need to understand this clearly from the Lord's own mouth to find out how he prayed because when he prayed his disciples heard him once and said to him Lord teach us to pray we have never heard anyone pray like you there was an intimacy in the way jesus prayed so many prayers that people make are so formal have you heard the way Christian leaders sometimes pray from the pulpit they change their voice they become so artificial it's like a formal lecture they are giving to God and that's the type of prayer that the disciples had heard the Pharisees pray in the synagogues formal lectures to God like you know people would in the olden days go before kings and bow down and read out some statement but that's not the way Jesus prayed he prayed like a child talking to a father and he taught us to pray in the same way the best way to pray is to pray like your children talk to you as parents they don't put on an artificial voice they respect you but they speak freely so it's intimacy that is important in this matter of Prayer so I thought we could look a little bit at what Jesus himself taught on this subject because the way he taught us to pray could mean that we have to make some radical changes in the way we pray if we want our prayers to be affected there's a wonderful verse in James 5 verse 16 to 18 we read there the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much so if you are righteous in your life as we have been considering in our last sessions what that means that is not enough we also need to pray and persistent prayer and if we are fervent in prayer and we are righteous in our life it's going to make a lot of difference in fact the one thing that Jesus said we must do always was pray Luke chapter 18 verse 1 he said men should always pray and never give up and the two parables that he taught in relation to prayer one in Luke chapter 11 of a man who had a neighbor coming to him at midnight and needing food and his going to his neighbor's house a friend coming to his house and is going to his neighbor's house and knocking and asking for food persistently till he got it and the other parable in Luke 18 of a widow who went to the judge asking for justice until she got it both the parables teach one lesson and that is you must not give up you must be persistent even though it looks as if no answer is immediately coming it's only your faith being tested we may wonder why does God ask us to pray again and again and again why is that one isn't once enough as we heard our request once well as a matter of fact God knows our need even before we make one request you don't even have to mention it once leave alone once you don't have to mention it at all Jesus himself said in Matthew 6 your heavenly Father knows what you need even before you ask him so there's no need for you to ask in a sense so prayer is not in order to inform God about something he didn't know about it's not trying to make him have compassion on somebody who's in need for whom you think you have more compassion no God has more compassion he sent his son to die for their sins you didn't and I didn't so it's not the move God's heart towards them or to inform him about anything prayer is primarily to bring us into communication with God and it does a lot more in us then it does externally why does God ask us to keep on praying and to persist in it because that is what does something in us you know just like you like your children to come and talk to you which father doesn't like his children to come and talk to God also wants his children to come and talk to him I've heard numerous complaints of parents who say my teenage children don't seem to be interested in talking to me I think a Heavenly Father has the same complaint to a lot of my children don't seem to be interested in talking to me they want my blessings but they don't seem to be interested in talking to me just come and say give me this give me that give me the other thing and go away what would you think of your children if all the conversation they wanted to have with you was give me this give me that give me the other thing dad mom okay that's all wouldn't you be disappointed with your children it's the same with God God is a father he wants us to fellowship with him and if that will do a lot more good to us then it does to him I'll tell you that and in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus taught us about prayer very clearly and this is what he said first of all in Matthew chapter 6 he first of all told us how not to pray it's very important to learn first of all how not to pray before we start to learn how to pray because in Jesus time also there were all these religious people who were in the synagogue spraying just like religious people pray in all denominations of christening today formal you know lectures to God and Jesus was saying don't be like them because they are not actually praying to God they are praying in order to impress men they are praying to be heard by many said don't be like the hypocrites Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5 Matthew 6:5 when you pray you must not be as the hypocrites because they love to stand and pray in the synagogues or today we'd say in the churches and different places in order to be seen by men and heard by men most of the prayers I have heard in my life in whichever denomination it is in Christendom most of the prayers I've heard have been prayers pray to impress the audience particularly if you ask somebody to open a meeting in prayer and the crowd is a large crowd boy he's really interested in impressing that crowd with his prayer sometimes he's come out come with a written statement do your children ever come with a written statement to read out to you well they come out of the written statement to may call it prayer it's not a prayer they are preaching to the congregation and for name sake they call it a prayer so we see a lot of this that jesus warned against he said hypocrite means an actor don't be an actor when you pray don't act apart you know in a drama an actor gets up and says certain things he has rehearsed it and come there and he's rehearsed it many times so the presentation is nice and he says don't be like that when you come to pray I mean your children when they come to talk to you normally they don't rehearse what they're going to say they come and open up their heart to you that's exactly how you and I are supposed to pray to our Heavenly Father and that's why a lot of prayers prayed I believe that more than 90% of prayers prayed in Christian congregations by born-again believers is not even heard by God because first of all he knows these fellows are just acting and he knows that they're just trying to impress the audience how well they can pray or how emotionally they can pray some of them put a tremor in their voice when they pray just to impress people you think God is fooled by all that oh not at all he sees through all that hypocrisy and humbug and these people pray like that because they haven't read Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5 exactly how Jesus said we're not to pray and they go and disobey that and pray exactly like that to be seen by men now you need to ask yourself even if you are not a Christian leader and you're ever prayed in public ask yourself whether you don't pray like that when you pray are you conscious that so-and-so is listening and I must say something to move him and if two or three people say hallelujah you get all excited which proves that you're not really praying to God at all you're praying for people to be moved emotionally by your prayer your talking to people and then if you expect an answer you better next better expect an answer from those people you talk to you're certainly not talking to God don't be surprised if you don't get an answer the most sincere prayers that Christian pray that Christians pray are when they are all alone even then a lot of it could be formal but the most likelihood of a sincere prayer is when you're all alone in your room there's nobody around and you're praying to God then you pour out your heart to God you kneel beside your bed likelihood is your prayer is much more sincere than we're standing in public but we have to fight this battle in public prayer that we get rid of this acting before God get rid of pretending when we talk to God when we're really only trying to impress people it's a battle you won't overcome it in one day I know I've gone through it myself I prayed to impress people and I've gone back and repented before God and said Lord helped me help me and it's been a battle in over a period of years I've gradually broken free from trying to impress people with prayer and yet even now in some new surrounding I may still be tempted to do that but with constant battle I believe we can come to the place where we will never again pray to impress anyone when we shut our eyes and we pray it will be to our Father in heaven and that is should be our goal so this is a very important statement don't ever pray to impress people and the other thing jesus said about prayer we're not to do is empty repetition meaningless repetition he didn't say repetition is wrong because we read in Matthew 26 that in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed for maybe a couple of hours the same thing he went three times and prayed to the Father the same thing it was repetition and he told us to persist in prayer in the two parables it was repetition the widow said give me justice give me justice the man who went to his neighbor said give me food give me food does repetition but it was not meaningless repetition meaningless repetition many Christians are involved in meaningless repetition people say hallelujahs meaninglessly very often it's become a habit a tradition or ritual people say praise the Lord or whatever is the equivalent in your language meaninglessly as a repetition and Jesus said don't do that you can repeat something a hundred times a day if you mean it every time just like when we talk to people when you talk to people do you say meaningless things I hope you don't certainly we should not say meaningless things to our Heavenly Father we shouldn't repeat things in our prayer I mean it's all right to say a hallelujah and prayer but I hope you mean it what is hallelujah mean hallelujah means I want to praise you Lord good is it wrong to do that certainly not wrong but mean it every single time you do it there must be a reason behind your saying it and not just a time filler you know people when they are praying and they don't know what to say next they fill up the time by saying a few hallelujahs that's trying to play the fool with God it's better to pause when you're talking to someone and you don't know what to say next you pause okay there's nothing wrong in that we have to be very careful it's all of this is because people don't fear God they don't reverence God they just feel that this is some almighty king there he is but he wants us to talk to him like a father and not give him a lecture so that's the other thing he said because he says all the heathen people they also pray but it's meaningless repetition and they think that's the other mistake they make they think that they'll be heard verse 7 because they speak so many words and that's the other thing too don't think that God will hear you because you pray for one hour you pray for one hour and you think well God must certainly hear me because I prayed for one hour I remember in the early days when I was trying to understand how to pray and I said well Jesus prayed all night and I want to pray all night nice knelt down beside my bed and I was enduring trying to pray all night I was constantly looking at my watch hoping that morning would come soon because it was quite an endurance test and finally when morning game I had accomplished the feat do you think that was all-night prayer no it was just a form of asceticism which accomplished nothing and I believe that there is a place for online prayer if a man has a burden burden is the essential part of prayer if you don't have a burden you can't really pray you know prayer is like a circle it begins with God God coming and putting a burden in our heart that's half the circle my praying it back to God is the completing of the circle and I know to be answered because the burden came from God the things you pray for where the burden comes from you is if it's God given you can be absolutely sure it's an answer but if it's just your own opinion an idea you can't be so sure that you'll get anything from God as a result of that so here these are the warnings he gave both praying and then he said these did the statement which I just coated and we're Saint don't be like them the repeating words words words and praying for a long time thinking that God will hear you when you pray no he says you must believe something faith is a very important thing in prayer you must believe that your father knows what you need before you ask him what a statement before he taught what is known as the Lord's Prayer he introduced it by saying your father knows what you need before you ask him remember that when you pray everything that you're asking for he already knows you need it and why is he asking you to pray he wants you to express your need he wants to have fellowship with you he wants you to have the joy of knowing that you asked for something and got it and like James says in chapter 4 you do not have because you do not us jesus said how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him later on he said that in Matthew chapter 7 God will give to those who ask him in verse chapter 7 verse 11 in Luke chapter 11 verse 13 II said how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him people are not going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit without asking for it I mean there are rare cases like Cornelius who in their ignorance God meets with them but they were praying for other things to God even before but nowhere ever receives from God without asking God I mean really valuable things and God gives health and money and a lot of other things required for life on earth even to a lot of people who don't ask a lot of people who deny his name but the really valuable things of eternity in heaven you have to ask for you have to ask for forgiveness of sins you to ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit you have to ask for spiritual growth spiritual riches etc etc etc so it's good to learn to ask now we need to look at how we should ask jesus said when you pray he said pray in this way verse 9 he didn't say meaninglessly repeat this in fact he said earlier on as we saw in verse 7 don't meaninglessly repeat anything and yet many people take this Lord's Prayer and meaninglessly repeated every day sometimes I think I used to in my younger days repeated every day but I didn't know what else to say in my prayer so I just repeated repeated now there's nothing wrong and repeating it if you mean every sentence you can repeat it twice a day every day of your life if you mean every sentence the Lord is not against repetition the Lord is against meaningless repetition where you're saying something and it's just like a tape recorder playing a tape or a parrot just repeating something and you know this prayer we can memorize and it's in our mind after praying so often that we can automatically repeat it even when we are harvesty and we may not even be meaning a single sentence of what this prayer is so what Jesus said was all our prayers must be in this way or in this pattern Jesus was not putting words into our mouth saying just repeat this he was laying down a pattern for prayer this is all our prayer should be in this way and have you noticed something in this prayer I don't know whether you noticed it many of you are repeated and prayed it many times but I don't nobody have noticed that the words I Me Mine are not found in this prayer at all not a single time do you find in this prayer a prayer saying give me this or give me that Oh Lord I want this I Me Mine are not here because the Lord is trying to deliver us from this self-centered I Me Mine type of life we got from Adam one of the first things that happen after Adam and Eve sinned was they got separated from each other inwardly Adam began to accuse Eve saying she is the one who gave me the fruit and he began to blame the serpent then they became individuals each became I me mine it's one of the results of sin and notice here also that as soon as we begin to pray Jesus said we are to address God as our Father in heaven now this is very important we should stop here for a moment and think about it why did he say when you pray say our Father who art in heaven you see most people in the world do not know God as a father they think of him as a great terrible judge who's there to punish them in fact in the entire Old Testament all the greatest men of God there could never call god father they could only talk about the great and terrible and mighty God out there when they got pray to Jesus was the first person who came and said father he was his father and through his death and resurrection and especially the gift of the holy spirit coming into us he becomes our Father - God is our Father in fact it says in Romans 8 verse 16 when - when the Holy Spirit comes within he cries out saying Abba Father Abba is a Hebrew word and the literal translation of it into English would be daddy the Holy Spirit comes within us and cries out to the Father in heaven - God in heaven saying daddy do you believe that you can talk to God like that he's not a general manager of a company you're talking to it's your own father that's how we're supposed to talk to him that's the first thing that Jesus said in relation to prayer you must recognize whom you're talking to it is your own father if you're born again if you receive Christ as Lord and Savior of your life God has become your father I mean not otherwise but if Christ is Lord of your life you have trusted him for your salvation and ask him to forgive your sins confess your sin repented and believe that he rose up from the dead and is living you can come through him to the Father in Jesus name you can come straight to God needs your father and you can call him father means he you know his love for you his wisdom it's far superior to yours his love for you is intense proved by the fact that he sent his son to die for your sins and mine and that's what we need to recognize before we pray I'm praying to someone who loves me so intensely and like it says in Romans 8:32 if he did not spare his own son but gave him freely for us all how will he not with him also freely give us everything else he certainly will we just need to trust him so that first sentence is to produce faith in our heart the whole purpose of saying our Father in Heaven meaningfully is so that faith comes in our heart that I am praying to someone who loves me intensely whose wisdom is perfect and who's interested in helping me out solving my problem and blessing me in whatever way possible now that's not all Jesus also said when you pray you must pray saying our Father who art in heaven earthly fathers may love us a lot may have a lot of wisdom but they're not almighty your father and earth can't solve all your problems however much he may love you however much wisdom he may have and so that's the second thing that Jesus said when you pray remember you're praying to a father who is in heaven who runs this universe look out at the night sky and see the Stars and if you have studied a little bit of geography you know those stars are millions and millions and millions of miles away and light-years away and earth is a little speck of dust in this universe planet Earth is like a grain of sand and on this grain of sand is a still smaller speck called you or me and we are praying to this Almighty God who runs this universe a father who art in heaven beyond this universe is there anything he cannot do faith rises in my heart as I realize whom I'm talking to and it's very important for me to be focused in remembering whom I'm praying Tamar to my father who is in heaven who runs this universe one who loves me intensely one whose wisdom is perfect and one who has almighty power unlike my earthly father so the assurance of his love for me and wisdom because he is my father the assurance of his almighty power because he's in heaven is the basis for faith because faith is the leaning of the human personality upon God in total confidence in His perfect love perfect wisdom and almighty power those are the three things on which faith is based God's love for me is perfect his wisdom and planning my life is perfect and his power is Almighty that's what what we find in this expression our Father who art in heaven our Father perfect law perfect wisdom who are in heaven Almighty power so there we found a basis for prayer all prayer must come out of that thereafter we shall look in our next study about the rest of that prayer how he taught us to pray concerning God's needs first and then our needs let's learn how to pray god bless you

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Length: 25min 22sec (1522 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2017