A Better Way To Pray | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

if you've got a bible i want to open up to matthew chapter 6 if you've been at this church for any period of time you know this is my favorite chapter in the new testament and so i frequently on an annual basis talk about something in this chapter especially a particular few verses which since we're talking about one of my favorite subjects which is prayer you weren't here last week you can go back and listen to last week's message entitled the perfect time to pray that now is the perfect time to pray not the perfect time to post it's a perfect time to pray every time you see something new in the news it's not time to post it's time to pray and one of the reasons we're tackling this before we go into our new series where we'll spend the rest of this year our series entitled resilient one of the reasons we're covering prayer these two weeks is a people of prayer are a people with power but a people apart from prayer are completely powerless people now is not the time to neglect our relational conversation with the god of the universe the title of this week's message is a better way to pray now understand i am not saying that i know a way that you don't know for many of you i'm going to share some things that you've probably heard before but here's what i'd say in the same way that every once in a while i will just say a part of my vows to my wife that i haven't said in a really long time and it and it causes her to light up in her heart when there's an aspect of prayer that i have an experience with the lord in a really long time he lights up when i dive back into it and so we're gonna we're gonna talk about a lot of these areas but as we jump into this last half of the message here's my challenge to you okay i ended last week's message encouraging you to go a little bit further a little bit deeper in your prayer life with the lord this week in this message i want you to ask the holy spirit to illuminate one of the options on the menu this will make more sense in the second point i want you to ask the holy spirit to illuminate one of the options on the prayer menu i'm going to give you that you would walk out for the next seven days okay all right so that means take really good notes so that you know the options you have to choose from all right here's the first thing when we talk about a better way to pray and i'm really really big on this point number one decide where your special place is decide where your special place is if prayer is going to be special it needs to happen consistently in a very special place i remember when we bought our house here in scottsdale and the lord said there's a room in this house in this season of your life that i want you to make for just the two of us i don't want you to work in that room i don't want you to to study do messages i want this to be our space i said okay great said no emails no text no phone calls this is just our special space question have you ever had a special place with the lord did you even know he wants to have a special place with you now does that mean you can only have your prayer time in one place no but let me just kind of liken this to a very special thing in my marriage physical intimacy typically happens in one special place it doesn't mean if we're traveling it doesn't happen there it just means that my wife knows there's something special about this space that is not for anybody else but you okay i need to see wherever my special place with the lord is just like that this is our place matthew chapter 6 verse 5 jesus is teaching us as his disciples on prayer he says when you pray don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly out on the street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see or hear them i tell you the truth that's all the reward they will ever get but when you pray preston go away by yourself shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private then your father who sees everything will reward you it's a special place in private me and him your private place with him is his personal audience with you that's why it's not just meant to be special to you it's special to him in scripture in the old testament it's called the most holy place the place where god's presence was manifest and sometimes i think we take this too lightly that we can experience the most holy place in our own holy of holies in our own homes do you have a special place if you don't find a special place and here's what i would challenge you to do try and find a place that isn't used for anything else for instance if in your home you have a formal dining room you and i both know you don't use it formal living room what percentage of the year do you actually use it and there's a really comfortable chair in that formal living room that you paid big bucks for that's better than the chairs in your actual living room that you watch games on you could go into that make it a special place where even if that's where your thanksgiving meal is it can become your special place with him think about it like this if i never create a special place i'm sending the message that our time together isn't special you might see it a little bit differently but i would just say again that this is why the marriage bed is in one room not in a thousand rooms it's one room the marriage bed not marriage beds it's a special space in the same way god wants to have a special place with you here's the second point and there are there are six sub-points so we're going to be here for a while all right point number two discern what he wants on the menu in your alone time with the lord one of the best pieces of advice i can give you is to discern what god wants in that moment from the menu now i'm not going to give you an exhaustive menu just like every list i give you is not meant to be exhausted or to come across as such i'm going to give you some options in your prayer life now some of you might just see prayer as talking and you might say i'm kind of having a hard time in my prayer time it's just it just seems off it it just i it doesn't go very well preston i get distracted it's not that great because then i'd ask you some questions well what is typically your rhythm in your alone time with the lord what do you do how often does it happen and there's some important questions that can help kind of dig around in the soil to help you discern why things might be off a little bit and the answer might just be you're not even fully aware of all the options so let me give you a couple of of options here's the first one and this was an absolute game changer for me personally in my alone time with the lord worship worship okay how many of you would say i don't really have the best singing voice would you just be vulnerable enough to put your hand up okay that's awesome that's i love this church just honest okay well let me say this just turn up the volume a little louder get on youtube just put in worship there's some great churches out there that have great worship put in matt redmond there are all kinds of great worship leaders out there one of the things that changed my time with the lord was starting with worship now i'm going to give you an order that that has worked for me for many years but you don't have to do this in order and i really don't want you to see it as sequential but if if you're really struggling in your prayer life then you might try this sequentially and and you might find that it helps but no matter what if you're not presently worshiping in your prayer time i think you're missing something now you might be someone that says i can't go very long in my my time with the lord praying like i can make it like four or five minutes press in and then i'm i'm done here's what i would say a song lasts longer than that most songs like if you go to a bethel they're like 12-minute songs you just tripled your alone time with the lord just just from a mathematics standpoint you want to log a little more time and i know i'm kind of sounding sarcastic i'm not trying to be here's what i would say that my extended times with the lord and prayer usually start with extended times of worship writers get lost in his presence why because worship is mankind's love song to god psalm 100 verse 2 says worship the lord with gladness come before him singing with joy i personally believe that worship is one of god's love languages he loves it when you sing to him i'm going to kind of tell on myself a little bit but one of the things that i do every once in a while if john michael montgomery comes on the radio an old john michael montgomery song if it comes on in my truck and my wife is with me i immediately start singing it to her now if you were in the back seat of my truck you would probably making fun of me but for some strange reason she finds this to be sweet when i sing to her every once in a while okay i don't understand why the heart is moved by song but we've all seen it think about a movie where where they got to a certain scene in the movie and a song came on and it moved your heart i don't fully understand it i just know the heart is moved by song and let me go a step further as it relates to god his heart is moved when your song is devoted to him that's why sometimes when we come in and and for worship at the beginning of a service i just wonder if we've forgotten what is actually happening we are wooing the god of the universe and we are giving him glory and honor and praise and i really do think worship is one of his love languages beyond that worship invites god into the room it lets him know i want him here i want to be with him psalm 22 verse 3 speaking of god says yet you are holy enthroned on the praises of israel think about what this means i sit in this chair but god sits in my worship person i just feel like god is distant that i got a quick solution for you start your time alone with him in worship he is enthroned in the praises of israel and one of the reasons i love starting my time in worship is in the good times it gives him all the glory but in the bad times it keeps me from being too focused on my difficulty so i start off with worship psalm 42 verse 8 but each day the lord pours his unfailing love upon me those are romantic words and through each night i sing his songs praying to god who gives me life worship is a part of prayer here's the second thing on the menu number two confess confess you might like option number one better than you like option number two but this is an option that works i'm going to read a really strong passage here two verses psalm 66 verses 18 and 19. david says if i had not confessed the sin in my heart watch this the lord would not have listened that's really really strong some of us might not be hearing god's voice very clearly right now and this might be the reason why because we haven't confessed the sin in our heart here's another way to say it we're trying to hide the sin he's already fully aware of the lord wouldn't have listened to my prayer if i wouldn't have confessed but god did listen he paid attention to my prayer because david confessed what was in his heart you've probably heard me say this before what would a date be like with my wife if i had just done something horrifically wrong something against her sinned against my wife she saw it she knew about it and then i took her out on a date she knew what i did i knew she knew what i'd done and i try and spend the entire day acting like it never happened here's what you have to remember about unconfessed sin unconfessed sin is the elephant in the room and the elephant in the room isn't in the corner it's in the way when i hide my sin just like it would on a date it would get in the way if she already knew and i didn't address it and confess it you better believe we would have issues on that date okay why do we think god will be any different he knows every one of my sins why would i try and hide him and why would i waste our time together trying to act like i didn't do it i know this might sound crazy to you but there have been some breaking points and breakthrough moments in my time with the lord when i simply confess something i spent too much time trying to hide many years ago psalm 32 verse 3 if you if you need another reason if you're holding on hiding sin and not confessing it i'll give you another reason why it's good just to get it out and confess it to the lord even in your alone time with him psalm 32 verse 3. david said when i refuse to confess my sin my body wasted away and i groaned all day long day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me can i just say this for a second i just feel led too i think sometimes we think that people can't see what we're dealing with or struggling with we think it's not obvious it's passages like this where god reminds us preston when you're walking in sin you might be hiding it but it's a lot more obvious than you think it is so just confess it don't hold on to it don't hide it day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me david says my strength evaporated like water in the summer scottsdale heat finally i don't know why it took so long why takes us so long finally i confess all my sins to you and stop trying to hide my guilt i said to myself i will confess my rebellion to the lord and watch this and you forgave me all my guilt is gone well president i don't want to tell him i don't want to confess it because he's going to get angry and punish me is that what david is saying sure i have to take responsibility for my sin sure there are consequences but david's saying you you forgave me and there are some consequences to this sin he's talking about big one the life of one of his children but he says god you actually forgave me i confessed my sin and you forgave me and you wiped all my guilt away i think many times people don't confess their sin because they want to keep repeating their sin so they don't want to bring it up and here's what happens if i keep repeating sin and i keep hiding it without confessing it here's what happens at least this is what i've seen in my life and in some of yours over the years my time with the lord the gaps between my times with the lord get further and further apart because i know what i've done and nobody wants to go into god's presence after holding on to all of that so here's the solution confess confess some really sweet moments in our time together have come with me just saying listen i know you saw that that was stupid i was wrong and while you might think he yells and screams and gets angry here's his response typically now i'm not saying for really big stuff but you know there's there's some some punishment that he deals out but little stuff where if i got upset with one of the kids and i just go into my time and i say lord that was wrong i shouldn't have done it i'm sorry please forgive me instead of yelling at me here's what i feel like i get my guy that's what i'm talking about i don't want anything to come between us preston and when you hide stuff that you've done it creates distance between us so just confess first john 1 9 but if we confess our sins to him he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and watch this and to cleanse us from all wickedness my favorite part about confession isn't forgiveness it's the cleansing i'm a clean freak i can't go to bed without a shower some days i take three showers anybody else like to take showers so you just like to be clean okay put your hand up high let's stare at everybody else and make them feel unhygienic okay i sleep better after i shower okay that's a physical thing but i've also learned spiritually i sleep better after i shower confession is a spiritual shower and scripture says he washes he cleanses me from all wickedness any sin you hide you have to hold on to any sin you hold on to will always hold you back here's the third option read read i'm not talking about a book talking about the capital b book for me personally and my time with the lord i don't usually like to read books written by authors who aren't perfect that leaves me with one book i'm not saying other books are bad i'm just saying it would be like holly and i going on a date and and me bringing a business book and saying hey we need to talk about our finances shall i read from chapter four of my favorite new business book no no i want to hear what she has to say okay so for me personally my time with the lord i try to keep outside books outside of our conversation i'll read those at an another time of day but when it's us i want his book in the middle and here's a prayer that i typically pray that that if you read scripture and you're alone time with the lord this would be a great prayer for you as well psalm 119 verse 18. open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions this is such a sweet prayer that when we say to the lord god would you show me something i've never seen in this chapter before not because i want to tell everybody i know something they don't i just want you to show me a side of yourself in this chapter i've never seen a view before okay how do you think the god of the universe is going to respond when one of his children talks to him like that god would you open my eyes i've read this chapter 40 times would you just open my eyes as though i've been blind to your revelation in this chapter so that i can see something i've never seen about you before hebrews 4 verse 12 for the word of god is alive and powerful it's sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword cutting between soul and spirit between joint and marrow it exposes preston's innermost thoughts and desires one of my favorite things in our time together is when he uses his word to ring my bell anybody that's ever officed by me over the last 21 years can tell you what happens when the lord shows me something in his word i become like a little child annoying i run around the office i gotta show you this i gotta little listen to this okay i'm not trying to to make you feel any kind of way i'm simply saying you have no idea if it's been a long time since god's shown you something in his word when you were alone with him don't feel guilty about it just make up for lost time start cramming that book like ezekiel eat that thing like honey i'm gonna eat this book my best friend and i took a 10 year hiatus from any book not capital b we just read the bible we made a commitment to one another i'm not writing any other book for 10 years there were some years we've read thousands and thousands of chapters you're like preston you get paid not at 3 o'clock in the morning i don't you're not paying me for that besides i don't read that book just so i can talk to you the little boy in me loves to read that book that's his favorite book my daddy wrote that to me your daddy wrote that to you think about it uh some of us i think we just think we're supposed to go in and pray we pray the lord's prayer you know and then we're kind of done we may talk about a need or something when was the last time you took his word into your time with him sang you know this book is alive and active right lord like it breathes so if you want to start our time together breathing on and in and through me with this book here you go throw down charlie brown tell me what chapter you want me to read well preston i've been doing this for years okay that's great there may be something on this list you haven't been doing for a long time but for some people scripture intimidates them don't let a love letter intimidate you his heart is sweet for this book and when you fall in love with it it is sweet to your soul the more we value his word the more he will share his voice with us here's the fourth thing and this will come as no surprise on the prayer menu pray pray psalm 100 verse 4 enter his gates with thanksgiving go into his courts with praise give thanks to him and praise his name okay i'm going to give you three little sub points of this subpoint pray because i want you to have some specificity on this first he tells you exactly what he likes he loves it when you come through that door to spend your time with him with thanksgiving telling him thank you for all that he's done what you've seen him do what you've heard him say he's telling you i love it preston when you come into this room with thanksgiving but he doesn't stop there he goes further he says but preston come into my presence with praise i remember when he gave me a revelation of this one day he said when i was reading this thank yous are great but i love user better preston when you tell me thank you i had to do something to elicit that thank you from you but when you just tell me i love you just because buddy it does something in my heart that your limited mind can't understand thank yous i love yous okay please hear my heart i i know a lot of us are falling short in this area i'm not trying to to attack you i promise i know i'm asking a lot of questions that might be exposing for some of us but when was the last time you told him you loved him in your alone time with him more than five times in one sitting when was the last time you just started saying to him i love you i love you i love you i seriously am madly in love with you you don't need to know all the right words to say again just like i don't fully understand how music affects the human heart i don't fully understand how the words i love you affect the human heart but when i say to one of my children on a really tough day buddy i love you i don't understand why it has the impact that it does but it does i also don't understand why my own heart flips and turns and runs around the room when someone i love tells me i love you thank yous i love yous but then here's the third the sharing of needs philippians 4 6 don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need this is a part of prayer don't feel guilty when you tell god you need something when you ask him to meet a need don't feel guilty he said in his word preston i love it holly i love it when you have a need in your life and you come to me you don't just try and figure it out you come straight to me and tell me you have a need president i love in our time together when you're vulnerable enough to tell me daddy i need something and i really feel like you're the only person who can do something about it son i love it when you talk to me like that it isn't just pray some stale prayer tell him thank you tell him how much you love him and tell him how much you need here's the fifth thing listen we talked about this last week so i'm not going to spend much time this is an important part the more we value his words the more he will share his voice said that with his word but it also applies to his personal words to us jeremiah 33 verse 3 god says ask me i don't know if you do this but i personalize scripture i don't mean i narcig a text okay that puts the word narcissist and exegete together in other words i don't put myself in the scripture but i do personalize it because it's a personal letter so when god says something to someone act like he's saying it to me not because i'm them because i'm me and i just imagine god's saying to me preston asked me and i will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come ask me make room for me to talk son i'll fill the time making time to listen i when my kids were young and they they were they're all question kids i remember there'd be times where they'd come into my room and they'd say daddy i have a question and they would ask the question something like why is this guy blue daddy and before i could give an answer i have another question daddy why are roads roads why are they not just dirt before i can answer daddy i have another question why do you love mommy before i can answer daddy i have another question why do you love my brother question question question question questions aren't bad we just need to make room and have the patience required to make space for him to respond to listen we need to listen for his answer if we're going to have the boldness to ask god a question we need to have the patience to let him respond romans 10 17 so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god when he talks our faith explodes so make sure your alone time with him isn't just predominantly you talking like we said last week he wants to talk to you about you then here's the sixth thing and i think this is one of the most important things you need to respond respond and again i'd say this isn't necessarily sequential but if you've been struggling in your prayer life it may not be bad for you just to take these six things for the next seven days and just walk through them spend about a half hour with the lord every day let's just see what happens seven days from now listen i'll say this i'll give you a money-back guarantee if you can't tell the difference you're not giving me any money so i'm not giving you any back if you're having trouble in your prayer life just try these six things and just see see how he responds god loves for you to receive his voice but he loves even more to receive your response have you ever told someone that you love them go back maybe before you're married if you're married the first time you said i love you to someone and they didn't say it back have you ever been on a date where you finally got up the courage to say i love you for the first time and they're like maybe you've never felt something like that so i can explain to you what it feels like it feels like the first time i tried to kiss hollyann campbell who's now holly anne morrison and she laughed and i kissed her teeth because she didn't kiss me back okay doesn't feel good all right it doesn't feel good when somebody steps out in love and then they don't respond back you know what i'm saying okay so let me as one who's experienced it stand in the gap on god's behalf and say it doesn't feel that great when he says or does something awesome in his time with you and then you don't respond i don't respond accordingly psalm 27 verse 8 my heart has heard you say come and talk with me and my heart responds my heart responds lord i'm coming one of the scariest things jesus said during his time of ministry on the earth was that in the last days the love of many would grow cold i've never been more concerned in my lifetime for the bride that i am right now please hear my heart i'm not saying this directly to you i'm just speaking of the church it doesn't look like she's all that in love right now [Music] she doesn't look infatuated with them right now she seems infatuated with news channels who aren't even reporting facts anymore she seems more obsessed with the conversation god isn't in [Music] than being smack dab in the middle of a conversation where he's the only one talking it's scary and it's serious i don't want to be that kind of church and this season of my life my special place is right on the back side of that wall it's our place i don't even like when people come in yet it's a green room and so i have a lot of the pks come in and snacks for them because i want the pks but but the romantic side of me is like this is our space but i always want them to come in because i want it to be their space but it's our space and no matter who comes through there and no matter what they call it it's always in my heart going to be out of space until he calls me to a different space [Music] the most important thing i do in this church isn't sitting in this chair it's sitting in that room [Music] and i don't get excited when our giving is awesome i don't get excited like that means something it means we can help more people but it doesn't mean we're okay i have this sinking suspicion that our time as a church alone with the god of the universe is a little bit lower than it's been in a really long time and i don't want you to feel guilty i just want you to do something about i want you to hear him saying to you come away with me [Music] come talk to me i know it's crazy out there i know you're getting curveballs but forget about all that just come be with me i don't care how long it's been i don't care how well or poorly it went the last time [Music] he's always looking to experience a new moment with you i think one of the things that scares me the most in this job is of course people not falling in love with jesus and spending eternity apart from him in hell but the other thing is that there would be those who used to be in love and they're not anymore that's that's the parable of the ten virgins jesus says this is what it's gonna look like in the end half of them are gonna think they're with me preston but they're not and they knock on the door and it's too late this isn't about salvation this is about intimacy i'm begging you please he sent his son to die he made the biggest statement anyone ever will how much they love you just spend some time [Music] i'm sorry i'm emotional i'm just telling you [Music] this means so much to him you mean so much then [Music] i don't want our love to grow cold i want to be more in love tomorrow than i was today the best part of me is him i want to do better i want to go deeper i want to go further i want to hear clear i'm not coming at you [Music] i just gave you six things six options i just want us to take a few minutes [Music] i want you to send this moment to pick one maybe you've written a song in your heart and you just started singing it quietly [Music] maybe there's some things you need to confess and repent of [Music] maybe you're saying to pull out your bible [Music] say father would you speak to me using your word maybe you need to thank him maybe you need to tell him you love him praise him maybe you need to tell him some some of your needs [Music] maybe you need to it's listen he's been trying to tell you for the last couple of months that you've been trying to shut out of your heart [Music] no matter which of those options we're all going to do number six god is in this room and i know he's wooing you and i know he's pursuing your heart [Music] let's all take a few minutes [Music] let's respond in whatever way we feel that [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 300

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, Prayer, Sermons on Prayer, How to Pray, What is prayer, messages on prayer, When to pray, How do i pray, a better way to pray, how to pray better, practical prayer, prayer tools

Id: Rwu-9o00RnU

Length: 41min 37sec (2497 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021