He Hears | Obstacles to Prayer (Part 2) - Matt Chandler

hi Matt Chandler here pastor of the village Church just want to thank you for streaming this sermon on your device I wanted to just before we get going here just lay before you a deep conviction we have that this video sermon that we've prayed really stirs up your affections for Jesus and shapes you and mold you into the image of the son would just be supplemental to your relationship with the Lord and in no way would replace the church you should be plugged into or the pastor that God has put over your life to Shepherd and care for your soul and so please enjoy the next hour or so of this message we have prayed that God would use it in a profound way in your life blessings hey how's everybody doing well excellent if you that's always so awkward if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab them Ephesians chapter 2 we're gonna start in verse 1 this is a week two and in just a two-week series on prayer that we've just called he hears and and so we're gonna talk a little bit about some a couple of different things this week then we talked about last week so last week we talked about how prayer kind of operates between these two poles of praise and petition and so we we praise God in praying and and then in that praise of who he is and what he's done we can at times by the Holy Spirit become convicted and so that leads to confession and in that confession leads to cries for help and for gods to intercede on our behalf and so then then prayer just continually kind of bounces back and forth between praise and petition and so we talked about that last week and then we spent time praying with one another and for one another and in this place and was good kind of that that idea that that prayer has to be caught more than it's taught that we know we should pray many of us even know how to pray but we can't quite seem to know why we don't pray like we want to pray and so what I thought we would do in our time together today is simply look at what I think are the biggest hurdles to a robust deep vibrant prayer life if it is true for most Christians many Christians that we would like to pray more than we do that we would like to spend more time with God than we currently are what are the hurdles that keep us from consistently and deeply communing with God in prayer and so the if we're gonna tackle that if we're gonna talk about that I think what we need to do is have just a brief very brief kind of overview of the gospel what we believe as Christians really the the root of what makes us Christians and if we can look at that then I think we can get to the bottom of kind of these hurdles that kind of keep us from the KY type of prayer life that we would like to have and so if you have your Bible Ephesians chapter 2 1 through 10 if you memorize Scripture I would just encourage you that these 10 verses and in these 10 verses is so much of just a clear definition of what the gospel is now the word gospel means good news and like I said it is the root of what makes us Christians believe in what I'm about to read and in what we're gonna briefly talk about is what makes us believers in Christ belief and what we're about to read Ephesians 2 starting in verse 1 first four verses have to do with us the last six verses have to do with God so let's start with us and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we're by nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind so we just stop there now this is true fundamentally true about everyone in this room that everyone at one time was this many of you in here even now are still this but for those of us who are Christians this is what we once word is not what we now are but if you're not a Christian if not professed faith in Christ then then very much so you're in this you couldn't read this and say you but but you could read this and see where you're currently located and so let's let's talk about this the first thing that he says and remember we're just doing a gospel primer here is that we were dead in our trespasses and sins now now this isn't some sort of kind of ethereal a gaseous kind of statement it's not like this I this is on the ground that you and I have been an active rebellion against God we followed according to this text the way of the world the way that seems right to man but in the end that leads to death you you and I have followed that and we followed the the Prince of the power of the air maybe unknowingly but we gladly did it that you're not bought into the lies of the Fallen broken nature of though we gave ourselves over to them so one of the ways you can see that in our modern culture is every little aspect of restraint or repression is now looked upon as the greatest infringement on your freedom and your happiness when throughout human history the opposite has actually been true that restraint and repression has actually led to better life greater life richer life more enjoyment of life then then no rules I do what I want I decide for me so we bought into that every one of us bought into that we gave ourselves over to that and and the Bible says that this is sin you you and I gave ourselves over we were born sinful we gave ourselves over to some we have been rebellious against God and therefore we are objects of God's wrath so everyone in this room at one point was an object of God's wrath I know that's so unpopular and widely debated in fact even a lot of those who would call themselves evangelicals would argue that that God can't have wrath and he would never be wrath you see this oftentimes is you know God being a God of love and and so I've tried to press on this in my 13 years with you now that that love and wrath coincide if you have love wrath is present it's impossible like because I love my children the way I do if you try to harm them right if you you tried to hurt them or take them or something like yeah I would feel wrath and that wrath would be born out of my love out of my love for them in the same way the reason God has appointed wrath towards those who rebel against him is out of the well of his love his love for his name and the glory of his name but also his love for those of us who will become children of God so we've all rebelled how we done that we have thought were smarter than God according to this text we steal and get all the credit for good we tend to generally flaunt our rebellion in front of God as though he did not exist and did not care and one of the ways I think you can most consistently and easily see this is if you listen to people talk people will blame God for everything bad and take credit for everything good right so anytime anything bad happens well it's God existed why would this but any time good happens they're like nailed that I did great at that right I mean this is just a clear indication of flaunting rebellion against God and so the Bible tells us that God has made us objects of his wrath because of that rebellion again everyone in this room because you're not born a Christian has at one point in their life been brought forth in iniquity is a sinner has rebelled against God and had God set his face against you right this is the gospel and you're like oh you said good news okay we remember we're just talking about you right we're gonna get to the good news and and that's that's where we see now starting in verse four we're gonna start hearing about God's response to that and here's God's response to this look in verse 4 but God if you're riding your bottle I would circle highlight do whatever you do there on those two words but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing is the gift of God and not a result of works so that no one would boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them and so so we see that you and I are dead in our trespasses and sins we are objects of God's wrath we flaunt our rebellion in front of the most powerful thing in the universe and God's response to this even with his wrath present is if you look to what this says about the character of God that being rich in mercy and having a great love with which he loved us made us alive in Christ like how crazy is that moment that's why the gospel is good news we're stuck in our rebellion we're stuck in our sin we are isolated and far from God we are by our nature flaunting rebellion against one who can destroy not just the body but the soul and yet God's response is what out of mercy and a deep love for us to make us alive together in Christ and that's where in this phrase in Christ is where life comes from and so just to really just kind of simply again this is just a gospel primer you could talk about these things at length but our purpose today is to set this so we can get to hurdles of prayerfulness what we see happening in this exchange and I talk about this all the time here so if you're a consistent attender this will sound like every week here right which is good news that we covered the good news every week right and so in the end here now Christ comes and he lives a perfect life the life that you could not live that I could not live he lives for us perfectly righteous never sins upright and God's us and then he goes to the cross he is beaten severely nailed to the cross and the Bible tells us that the wrath of God that yeah as you were an object of God's wrath God takes that wrath and He pours it out on the Sun pours it out on Jesus and Jesus orbs that wrath fully until it is all gone which is why Jesus says it is finished and so then in that marvelous exchange after the resurrection and the Ascension we are by grace alone through no act of our own received by faith alone through a no act of our loan made alive together in Christ and that's the good news of the gospel that that's why we proclaim and go to know there's good news and so it's so interesting to me that so so many people like stay on the bad news I can't believe God is bothered by the know the good news is no no he's made a way he's coming he saved he's opened up a door he's laid down a bridge he's invited you into eternal life through grace or by grace through faith no act of your own you'd have to clean yourself up you just get to come it's an invitation to be washed clean it's stunning and then on top of all of this he plans on showing us according to the text the immeasurable riches of His grace and his kindness in the ages to come so since our God is infinite and eternal the sheer amount of kindness and riches of His grace are immeasurable so it's not just in this life that we began to walk and experience those riches but it's in the like it'll take ages right eons to experience the fullness of God it and that's why I don't know if you kind of ever thought about heaven and start thinking about eternity and get a little wigged out about what's actually gonna be going on ten thousand years from now but since God is an inexhaustible well what this text is trying to communicate is you'll never grow weary of the experience of the fullness of God now that's hard for us to imagine here because we'll get tired of any experience here on earth but God is so deep so beautiful the the riches that he possesses are so immeasurable but it's gonna take the coming ages for us to continue to experience these in fact it'll take forever so why why and actually one more thing here that I think it's important not only do you get to experience the immeasurable riches of his kindness and mercy towards you his grace towards you but but then on top of that that the Bible says that in his unique wiring you and unique place interview you get to be a part of good works that he prepared in advance for you so this is what's great I think people will read this text to go ok now I'm safe let's do good works but but really it appears that the good works have been created and now you'll walk in them and I think that's a better way to read this text I think it reads better that way in the original languages and here's something to consider however God's designed you wired you and placed you you're gonna have the opportunity to be faithfully present so if you're a lawyer or a businessman or a teacher an educator of some kind if you're in the domain of Ag wherever domain government whatever domain of society you're in you're now set up to do good works where you are so you don't have to go looking for them they're right in front of you they're in your home there in your neighborhood they're in your workplace and you've been set free now to pursue these things for the glory of God it is faithful presence the Christians become the salt and light of the world so now why why do we need to walk through the gospel again if we're gonna talk about prayer well well I think the major hurdles to a robust prayer life are tied to a misapplication of the gospel and if not for a misapplication a misunderstanding of the gospel so I'm gonna invert those instruct I want to start with a misunderstanding of the gospel so how does a misunderstanding of the gospel affect our prayer life here here's the first misunderstanding the first misunderstanding is that the gospel saves us but doesn't necessarily sanctify us and so maybe I can if these are words that you're not familiar with sanctifying things like that's a very church word so maybe you think that the gospel kind of forgives your past sins but now you got to clean yourself up so I gave my life to Christ I became a Christian now I've got a work to stay saved well that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel and we'll totally Rob you from a robust prayer life right because this means guilt and shame remain if you think of the gospel as it saved me past tense but it's not saving me present tense and holding me in to the future that means guilt and shame remain it means that although you would intellectually ascribe to what we read in Ephesians chapter 2 you are not living as though you believe it right guilt and shame remain like like oftentimes in conversations with people here's what I found they don't pray because they don't pray here's what I mean by that they feel guilty because they don't pray so they won't pray because they haven't prayed right and that's silly that means guilt and shame remains it means I've got to earn the right to pray to God by praying to God but that's certainly not the gospel the gospel says prayer is an invitation to inhabit God's space that's what it is prayers this invitation to inhabit God's space right that the judgment on your life has been done and you have been deemed spotless and blameless so come that's what the Bible means when it says approach the throne of grace with confidence God's gavel has been banged concerning me I am spotless blameless in his sight I'm not showing up dirty I'm showing up clean by the blood of Christ and it's in this misunderstanding of the gospel that so many of us are robbed from robust prayer lives he saved me he loved who he was crazy about me but now I'm just kind of a disappointment to him right it's like your best days were in yesterday it's just not how the Lord sees you rights this misunderstanding the second misunderstanding around the gospel is I think people have a tendency to think technically rather than relationally we think technically rather than relationally so so we hear the gospel we understand the gospel we're still not thinking in terms of relationship with God we're not thinking in terms of I've got a relationship we've got a relationship where I get to kind of spill my heart in fact it's the best relationship you'll ever have what about myself it's better than that relationship he knows everything there's never a moment in your relationship with God where you should ever hide from anything that's actually going on in your heart think how amazing that is so you might be in a conversation with someone else and think oh man I could never let him know that what would they think about well God already knows that so know there needs to be no pretense no pride he already knows you can go I hate this part of my heart I wish I wasn't thinking like this right now I will you help me and and God's not appalled because he not surprised right you just don't have any secrets from him he's the one relationship you have where there's nothing hidden and he knows all and has not condemned you so when Jesus come to me when he uses the illustration of the persistent Widow that just kept pleading until the judge gave he's inviting the prayers and invitation to be relationally connected to God I come sit speak he knows everything and so though I think those are the two big misunderstandings that the gospel saves me but it doesn't necessarily mean that God and I are cool right now I've got a kind of gate how am i doing right now am i doing well am I not doing well and then that's what leads to either prayerfulness or prayerlessness and then there's also a misapplication of the gospel and so let me give you two of those and then I three of those then I want us to spend some time praying the the first in regards to misapplication of the gospel is that that God is sovereign over all so why pray all right I've got sovereign if God knows everything if he's already made up his mind then then why should we pray well well a couple of things on that that what the Bible teaches us is that God hears any response to his children and there are some things and this is you this is from the scriptures there are some things that God has sovereignly decreed would be accomplished through the prayers of his Saints so God is going to accomplish something and he's going to accomplish that through the prayers of the Saints so he invites the Saints invites you and I to pray because he's going to accomplish these ends and so just as illustration I don't want to spend too much time here but when when I was diagnosed with cancer and then they were like hey you got two or three years to you know to live we're gonna poison you for 18 months of that so let's get busy and and really there were two types of people on the prayer spectrum they're really in a real way caused a lot of consternation in my own heart the first was that if I just had enough faith I would be healed which biblically is ridiculous don't have enough time to unpack that right now I think faith is involved in that but it doesn't guarantee any and then there are others there like well if it's the will of God that you'd be healed then you'll be healed all right now both of those has have smidge --is of the truth but not the full truth right like we clearly see in the scriptures that God expectation is for us to pray for people to be healed right so we want to ask I've got heal this man heal this woman drive out this disease repair their body dry right word have been called to pray that God would heal people right and so we even said last week in last week's sermon we talked about your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven I don't think I'm going against that right now we want God's will to be done but we don't know what God's will is regarding prayers for healing so we're gonna pray with open hands knowing God is going to accomplish what God is going to accomplish but maybe by His grace he has determined that he's gonna heal this person through our prayers and so we want to beseech him and bother him and plead with him to do that and he's never bothered by us bothering him that's awesome that's a misapplication of the gospel and then then again I think we can get to navel-gazing I can't do it and God knows I can't do it now here's what I want too so this misapplication of the gospel that I can and God knows I can that in and of itself is a prayer right and this is where understanding the gospel uh sure is un de prayerfulness when you understand the gospel even that I don't know how to pray becomes a prayer I don't know how to pray help me learn how to pray and then lastly and then I actually want us to pray and this is the one I think that's broken my heart the most over the years and I think it's birthed out of really bad teaching prayer doesn't work I've tried so I've come across quite a few people that had this season over the life of this moment of their life were just with tears wetting the ground they just begged God to do something begged God to accomplish something begged God to make something happen and it didn't happen and so they their conclusion is God doesn't hear us God doesn't respond God does not care so Tim Kelleher Tim Keller say this once and I want to say it to you and then I want to usher us into some time praying with one another Tim Keller wrote in a book about prayer that if we knew all that God knew we would answer all our prayers the same way he does if we knew all that God knew and had all the facts and all in the span of eternity if we knew what God knew we would answer all of our prayers the exact same way God answers them and so can I just passionately believe that prayer and if you think about I mean how often have you heard or read about prayer and you just kind of feel guilty and it because I don't I think you can teach some technical aspects of prayer but I think by and large you learn to pray by praying so we wanted to set aside chunks of time to pray and so we're gonna do that here now I want to pray for us and then we're gonna begin to pray with one another for the next 20 minutes or so okay let's pray father I thank you for these men and women and that right now you you hear what I'm saying that is infinite as you are as loud as the universe is with Suns burning and things exploding and the all the reaches of the universe with all the noise on this planet you hear my voice you know my thoughts you understand my heart and you delight to hear me cry out to you and so we transition now to us as a congregation as a group of your people and and some here not your people who will pray that you will hear our prayers we thank you for the gospel that we can boldly approach your throne of grace with confidence today your generous and good to us we love you it's for your beautiful name I pray amen hey friends so we're now I'm going to respond to the message on prayer with praying so what we do know is that is that this this context of Prayer could be a bit hard and awkward for many of us as it was Matt shared in his message our hope in our prayers that is that we all would pray until we pray that we would press past the awkwardness and and intentionally engage the throne of grace and and so for some of you this may actually be one of the first times that you may be pray with your family praise the Lord and that's okay and so we want to enter into this time with humble hearts to plead and beg the Lord to do things that we can't and so the points that I want us to pray about today is it's really coming from Colossians chapter 1 and so Paul writes something in verses 9 through 13 in response to the Colossians and their faith in Jesus Christ his law rights and so from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy given thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints and light he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins and so the first point that I would love for us to engage the Lord in is is really this point that Paul brings out here is is that in response to the faith of the Colossians Paul says that he's not ceased to pray for them and so I want us to really gather what our families were a spouse maybe with a neighbor next to us and really pray that in response to the gospel that we will have hearts that our posture in a way that we are unceasing and prayer so again that is in response to the gospel that that we would really ignite with a passion of prayer that is unceasing before the Lord and and so that is we remember we remember in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 that that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and which we used to live when we follow the ways of this world a ruler of the kingdom of air the spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient all of us lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and desiring its thoughts we were by nature objects of Wrath and so when we recognize and understand that friends we were dead we were apart from the family of God we were separated from the light of Jesus Christ may that provoke Thanksgiving in our hearts adoration to the Lord and really launched us and ignite in our hearts this desire to be unceasing in prayer why because now we're invited to pray and so friends let's pray let's gather and let's pray that in the response to the gospel that we would have a heart that is ignited with a posture of unceasing prayer let's pray so father I do echo the prayers that have been prayed right now and lord I pray God that in response to the gospel or that we would have a life that is ignited would a flame and a desire and a passion to have a posture of unceasing prayer Lord that as we remember your invitation through your grace and sending your son Jesus Christ that our hearts will be thankful and God that we would respond in prayer often and more and so Holy Spirit of God would you help us in that it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray amen and so one of the second things we see pulled out here in the context of Colossians chapter one is that is that Paul says that that he prays that they will be filled with the knowledge of God's will with spiritual wisdom and understanding and and so why why is it that Paul would ask for them to be filled with God's will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding well the reason why is because that which we have been delivered from is also what we still currently wrestle with and so as we have been delivered out of Darkness we have been freed from the bondage of sin we still wrestle we still wrestle with the flesh we still wrestle with desires that are contrary to the spirit and and so friends we need the wisdom of God spiritual wisdom and understanding to discern the ways of the Lord and so some of us here even now we're in a situation where we don't know what to do and we don't know how the Lord may be leading and so we have an opportunity right now to pray and plead and ask the Lord to guide us to give us his wisdom to give us his understanding so that we may but may be able to discern what he would have us to do and wherever we find ourselves as a friend let's pray for that let's pray that the Lord would would really allow us to know his will to have spiritual wisdom and understanding in order that we may navigate well throughout this life that we live let's pray father I confess that I don't always nor do I often ask for you to reveal your ways that you would give me spiritual wisdom and understanding and and so god I pray that for myself and I pray that for all of us here Lord that we um beg of you Lord to show us Lord what you desire to give a spiritual wisdom and understanding father that we may be able to navigate throughout all seasons of our lives looking to you to lead us looking to you to guide us got looking to you in order that you will be glorified through us and so help us Lord would you would you help us to understand your will all the more increase the spiritual knowledge that we have Lord in order that our lives may be lived out for your glory alone we ask that we plead that in Jesus name Amen and one of the other things that Paul brings out in this prayer is I see he says that he prays that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord as I love some twenty-seven for David writes one thing I've asked of the Lord and this also do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire of him in his temple and and so that is when we inhabit the space of the Lord we begin to look more like Christ that our ways begin to not look like selfishness like what we want but more of what the Lord wants and and so what Paul prays that that he prays that the classroom believers will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord what he's saying is that the context in which they live in does not represent Christ there are people around them who live contrary to the gospel so he's praying that they will live their lives in such a way that the faith that they would profess will also be the lifestyle in which they live and and so family may may we pray to the Lord that we will walk in a manner worthy of the gospel worthy of the Lord and and what that means is that we would not just say we believe that we would not just say we have faith but that we will be unapologetically and ferocious about the gospel in our own lives so let's pray that let's pray that people would not just hear Christ from our lips but they would see Christ in our actions let's pray to that father we do pray that we will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord God that our lives would echo God the message that we profess the gospel father would you help us to live our lives in such a way God - so where the message that we claim to be true that we profess I'm God would also be the way in which we live our lives so God would you reveal to us Lord opportunities where we may press forward got to speak truth to share the gospel in dark situations and gods exude Lord the fruit of the Spirit so we asked that we plead that Lord that that we would not just say we believe but they got our actions and what we do and what we think God would represent the faith that we hold - in Jesus Christ in Jesus name we pray amen and then lastly Paul would were then encouraged and pray for the Colossians that he would pray for power and strength for endurance and patience and and so if I was to ask all of you here how many of you need the power of God to sustain you when you're weak many of you will say Amen yeah if I was to ask you how many of you really need the strength of the Lord when you find yourselves in and seasons of life where you're broken or you're wounded and where you're weak many of you will say Amen I need that that falls to ask you how many of you need endurance and patience because sometimes you desire and you want to give up because life is hard sometimes you don't really know how to enter a knee you don't want to enter in many of you will say yes and amen I need that in and so friends we want to pray now lastly that that the Lord would give us his power that he would give us straight that he would give us endurance and patience and and His Word is true when he when Paul writes in Ephesians 3:20 he says now to him who is able to do far more than we can ever ask or think according to his power that's at work within us what that means brother or sister in the Lord is that we all walk around by faith in Jesus Christ we all walk around with the promised Holy Spirit of God in us a power that can do far more than whatever we could ask or think and so now we can ask the Lord for his power we can ask the Lord for his strength we can ask the Lord for his patience we can ask the Lord for his endurance because we can't do it on our own we can't and so we're welcome to the throne of grace to ask the Lord to help us to give us himself and so wherever you find yourself maybe right now you need the power of the Lord maybe right now you need endurance maybe right now you need strength maybe right now you need patience let's ask for that and let's pray for that let's pray father we need more of you God we ask for your power God we ask for your strength help us to endure with patience God that the Holy Spirit of God would permeate from us Lord that that we will be guided by your power that we will lean on your strength that we would endure because it's you helping us to endure and Lord we need patience got a fruit of the Spirit God we ask for that Lord give that to us father we pray in Jesus name Amen so friends this is what was encouraging as I looked out and I saw over a thousand people has humbly bowed before the Lord petitioning that the Lord would do something I think about the Upper Room discourse as the disciples of Jesus Christ and many others waited for God because he promised that he will come and he came when I think about revivals that's happened throughout our world they all started with a posture of prayer and so made today not be the only day that we linger in prayer but as we're driving it let's pray as we're taking our kids to school as we're laying our kids down any at night as we go to sleep at night as we pray over our meals let's use those opportunities to draw near to the Lord with this posture of unceasing prayer because we're invited to pray to encounter him to inhabit his space amen so let's stand and let's continue to celebrate the Lord in worship

Channel: Truth Endures

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Keywords: Matt Chandler, prayer

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Length: 37min 29sec (2249 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2016