New City Gathering NYC 2018: The Primacy of Prayer // Tim Keller

hi everybody now I'm gonna talk to you about prayer tonight I'm not gonna talk about sex social justice gentrification or contextualization I'm talking about prayer so I expect no hate mail how could you hate anything about prayer but that doesn't mean it's not important not at all I think originally one of the the way drew suggested me going at this would have been the importance of Church of Prayer for church planters and I'll just say I mainly want to talk to you about prayer what it is but something about church planning to start with if any weakness like prayerlessness any weakness you have if you're Christian it'll hurt you in your life but if you try to be at the you know some cutting edge ministry like church planning or something like that you're if you're trying to do church planning then prayerlessness will kill you it won't just hurt you it'll kill you here's some things that prayer does for example prayer is the only real way to know yourself you can't know who that heck you are until you see God you don't know how small yard so you see the ultimate big person the fact of the matter is that the more you know God the more you come to see who you are and actually you can't know God without knowing yourself if you can't admit who you are you can't know God if you don't know God you will never be able to see or admit who you are the knowledge of God the knowledge of yourself grow or atrophy together and what that means is there's no way to even know yourself about prayer secondly there's no way to change without prayer you know why because real change happens when your loves are reordered so if you're saying for example I need to stop a I do a and I do B and I need to stop a and B but if you love a and B more than you love God you will go back to a and B it doesn't matter how much accountability there is it doesn't matter the consequences it doesn't matter how much you try to exert your willpower the problem is unless you come to love God more than you love a and B you'll keep going back to a and B well now how do you change your love's prayer I mean in other words praying it's how you that's how you grow to love God you don't pray you're not gonna love God so personal way to know yourself prayer is the only way to change prayer is the only way to get all the gifts God wants to give you the Bible talks about he wants to give you a love and wisdom and joy and all kinds of things but here's the thing he it's not safe for him to give you those things unless you're a person of prayer it's not safe I actually won one of the things simple fact that matter is I might have talked to somebody not that long ago who became very wealthy early in life and he said was the worst thing that ever happened to him because he said he made a deal and it went beautifully and he made a ton of money and immediately instead of looking at that as you know either luck or the grace of God he said I am really hot spit I am really great I'm unbelievable I am smart I'm smart another people I have more money than anybody else that I know so I'm smart than anybody else I know and it was he said it was a disaster he's got a head got very big of course and he made all kinds of boneheaded decisions because he was he was so sure his gut was the reason why he got rich right so now his gut must always be right so you understand why if God gives you all the great gifts he's got ready for you if you haven't prayed it would be the worst thing for you you would take credit for this you know your heart you would say oh I'm doing well because I'm I'm better than other people that's why I'm doing better I must be better not I'm more blessed no no that's not how your heart operates meaning you're not gonna get the blessings God wants to give you don't pray you're not going to know yourself if you don't pray you're not gonna change if you don't pray you're not gonna know God if you don't pray you may know about God being Oh God you've got to learn to pray you have to there's no other way it hurts you not to be a person of Prayer just in life but if you're trying to do some kind of cutting edge ministry it'll kill you so now what do we do how do we learn a little bit about prayer and what I'm gonna do is how can you not go to the Lord's Prayer let me read you the Lord's Prayer and what comes right before it and let me just walk through it for a bit and I can't possibly cover everything we'll have a Q&A afterwards but it's awfully good sometimes to take a helicopter ride over a subject as wonderful as prayer and just look at all the parts of it at least even though you can't go into much detail but let me read you this is of course for Matthew chapter 6 and Jesus says and when you pray do not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others truly I tell you they have received their reward in full but when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen then your father who sees what it's done in secret will reward you and when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words this son is how you should pray our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for if you forgive other people when they sin against you your heavenly Father will forgive you but if you do not forgive others their sins your father will not forgive you your sins now let's just notice these things first of all there's a foundation for prayer then we'll look at the kinds of prayer and then we'll close with a just looking at a key to it the foundation for prayer is your relationship with God the reason I read you the part that you probably have memorized the Lord's Prayer you probably didn't memorize the part about babbling in public did you but it's immediately before and here's what's going on Jesus is saying I don't want you he's not saying these people pray these people don't pray there's everybody's praying here but there's a kind of prayer in which it says they it's public and they are babbling and they think that they will be heard because of their many words their rhetoric their their flowery prayers and here's what you here's the point you can have a relative of God in which he's sort of like a boss and the reason why you pray is you're trying to get control of it you're trying to get him to do things for you you're trying to show how virtuous and how spiritual you are so he will bless you in other words you want to be heard because of your rhetoric or because of your intensity because of your dedication because of your words you and and or you can pray to God as a response to free grace see God could be your boss meaning you're basically doing stuff to get pay or you can be your lover or your father in which you wouldn't conditionally love him and you're praying just in response to that grace and love now there's there's three ways to find out whether you've got a kind of boss relationship in which prayer is really one more way what you're trying to get control or whether it's a father child relationship in which you're just simply responding to the grace of the love of your of your father and here's the three here's the three marks of it number one if you have a boss relationship with God you may go to public prayer you may come to church you may go to prayer meeting but privately you don't have a private prayer life you don't have much of a private prayer life secondly boss prayer is filled with asking for things and it's very little adoration in it see when you're talking to somebody you're just in love with you know you know listen there's a place where CS Lewis talks about this that he says when you just love the beauty of something you love praising it used to you tell every you say listen to this great music look at this great thing you're praising it isn't that great isn't it wonderful why and he says when you just love the beauty of something the praise actually helps you enjoy it if the praise completes the joy you're actually continuing to enjoy it when you praise it and you also know that when you're in love with somebody you actually love telling them how great they are it just feels great why cuz you're actually in a sense enjoying them as you do that and here's his look if you have a boss relationship with God you don't have much of a private prayer life you're like you go to services you go to prayer meetings be not much of a proud girl and secondly it's mainly about what you want from him adoration is not the main thing you do it's not even maybe much of anything you do in the boss kind of relationship and then lastly of course it comes and goes depending on how you're doing see one of the ways you can tell that you're not responding to grace but you're responding to try to get control is when things go bad in your life then you start to pray and when things are starting to go well you stop praying oh I guess sorry that doesn't apply to anybody here I can just I can just tell by your response to say really I've never heard of that there are people like that yeah there are of course you see in other words if the prayer is really about you if it's a prayer is really about getting control of God or even getting control of what people think about you if God's sort of a boss and you're just trying to get wages out of them you're doing your duty you're doing what you need to do in order to get them to bless you now he's this great giant ATM window you're just figuring out how to in the sky you're trying to figure out how to push the buttons or is he your lover is he your father are you responding to grace are you praying because you love him so the foundation has got to be a response to grace not a boss relationship now the other thing that's great about Lord's Prayer and again I don't have to keep rereading it to it because you know it there's actually when I can tell five at least five kinds of Prayer in the Lord's Prayer and since Jesus was obviously giving them the Lord's Prayer si as a standard obviously we need to do all and we got to be careful if the planet cells not doing on fire and the five are adoring accepting admitting asking and rebelling against the evil status quo and somebody says why didn't the last one start with an A it's yours picky picky picky I just I couldn't think of one I couldn't think of an alien or adoring accepting admitting asking and rebelling against evil status quo hey let's just go through them one is adoring now we already talked about it briefly but here's the thing Jesus doesn't even let you get to your needs you don't even get to give us this day our daily bread so you're pretty much halfway done with a prayer practically the first part of the prayer is all about God and especially about adoration I mean when you say our Father who art in heaven you're saying your heavenly it means your infinite your transcendent your majestic hallowed be your name your holy your pure your perfect how it be your name your personal you've got a name you're not just a force you've got a name and so the very beginning at what you're doing is you're thinking he's personal he's infinite he's transcendent he's pure he's you you have to start with adoration and it's it's extremely important you know why because believe it or not I mean obviously the rest are important or they wouldn't be in the Lord's Prayer but the reason it's first is it frames all the rest I'll show you as we go along here a minute in other words you haven't spent time asking I mean adoring the other stuff you're not going to do well but it's still the main thing you need you know why the main thing you need is to the things you're telling God as you praise him for them they become real to your heart and if you don't praise Him they don't become real to your heart if you just run right into your petitions you're missing the main thing you need you say why do what what do you mean the main thing you need all right look do you believe we've got his look loves you he's sure I believe God was you loves me you believe he realized oh yeah he loves me then criticism come so you're devastated because the approval of people is so important to you you know or you know you have a relationship or it breaks up and you know you feel rejected and you're just devastated you know why because the love of the person that you've just lost where the approve of the person just lost is on video and you're on and God's love is on audio now if you're in a room and there's something if there's a video up you know big screen and then often this on the in the distance there's an audio or radio or something like that on which one is going to dominate the attention you know it's gonna be the video the video gets the attention you can just barely even hear the other one see when you say oh I believe God loves me that's abstract it's on it's on audio you know it's true but just on audio video means that this person who is rejecting me this person who's upsetting me this is the person whose love is real in my heart God's an abstraction what you need in prayer is got you've got to put Kozlov on video that's what happens in adoration it's got to be something that you sense something that actually affects the heart if it's not really your heart you're not going to be able you know the love of God is an abstraction is of no help you should be able to take criticism better and you will if you learn how to do adoration you ought to be able to take rejection better and you will if you know how to do adoration otherwise there's no hope there isn't because that's what you need the most why would Jesus put up front it's the most important kind of prayer and actually it's it's as we get to the rest you'll see it actually makes all the others possible so adoration first one you know just trying to like I said go across the top okay accepting unless you spend some time in adoration letting the love and grace and power and majesty of God just overwhelm you when you get to the accepting prayer yet it's crucial you'll never get the kind of deep rest that accepting prayer it can give you now was accepting prayer well it's that I mean I I you know I get goosebumps every time I get because I know what I'm saying and I say it thy will be done do you know what you're saying you know you think here's what you're saying I mean just think about the I will be done well what does that mean well I can give you at least two aspects what you're saying is Lord I promise to obey everything in your word whether I like it or not because that's one way to find guys well but here's the other one secondly so first of all what I promise to obey everything in your word whether I like it or not secondly I promise to accept everything you send into my life whether I understand it or not it doesn't mean by the way if evil comes we'll talk about this you shouldn't be resisting evil of course not but there's another there's a deeper level in which you say I do not know what's going on here but as what did what did justice say to his brothers Genesis 50 verse 20 you meant it for evil but God meant it for good see you know there's this sleep experts say that there's a to two levels of sleep there's just normal sleep but then there's what they call REM sleep you've heard about this rapid eye movement sleep it's deep sleep I've read for different people who say unless you get into the deep sleep for at least a couple hours every night you might sleep for eight or nine hours and wake up and you're not rested and let me tell you this if you're able to say that will be done if you're able to see through the it what you won't be accepting if you could really say that from your heart there's a rest there that will you there there'll be a deep this is kind of a deep REM kind of rest for the soul to say it's gonna be alright I know it's gonna be alright I don't get it but why should I I mean look imagine a six year old kid and he's in the car with his father and they're pulling up in the driveway and the kid says let me drive and the father says no no you can't you can this you can't do that you would know you know it would be disaster you'd kill yourself and kill everybody now you can't do it now there's two kinds of six-year-olds there's one kind of do you think the kid understands that no no I don't know one kind says I trust a head and they get out of car and they go into the house there's another kind of six-year-old who once they get out of the car the father was in the house he turns around runs jumps in there I don't know why the fight is for the illustration turns on the car and kills himself okay we are all like that second six-year-old kid we're not like the first six-year-old kid we're all the ones who safe the father's not letting me have these things I don't understand I don't get it it doesn't make any sense I have this scenario I can't see any good that God could possibly be doing well all right spend time adoring until you realize he's God and you're not so you can actually say lord I don't get it but thy will be done what you're saying is Lord I put this in your hands you know I I'm gonna do the right thing I mean in in which case in some case it might mean fighting against evil sure but what you're basically you're doing is you're saying father he'll my perspective he'll my perspective you're you're simply saying right now I'm struggling right now I'm mad at you but I put this in your hands I'm not scared anymore I'm gonna do the right thing I will be done you're getting in touch with the creature creator distinction but he's the creator you're the creature and the reason we struggle is we actually don't like that distinction we said I think I know as well as you do I can't understand you see what I would heal your heart you see how deep that REM sleep or the soul would be so there's a duration and then there's accepting you need to be doing that kind of prayer too then there's asking Oh finally our face is great give us this day our daily bread all right okay and by the way this is great the fact is you got Jesus wouldn't doesn't say and I'm a Calvinist by the way saying this Jesus doesn't say well you know he gentle eyes don't even ask father for anything because you know what's gonna happen is going to doesn't say that what he actually says is there's all kinds of things that you're not going to get unless you ask for them look at James says that now you know what even there's a funny story I got to tell you this evidently a true story maybe it's a legend but anyway it gets across the point I found this in a book on prayer it's a story about Ethel fruss who was the pagan Saxon King of Northumbria which was part of England you know fifteen hundred years ago and he was that he was a pagan he wasn't a Christian but there was a the Welsh were invading they're having a battle and the Welsh whether were Christians they're having a battle so the night before the battle Ethel first comes up on it some high mountain and looks down to sort of see you know where how the the battle lines are drawn and where people are and he asked one of his generals who are those people because there's this whole battalion of people that didn't have any weapons and he and the and the general says ah those are the monks those are the priests and the monks of the Welsh monks and they have come to pray for their army and a perfe though oh okay tomorrow kill them first because he knew that's dangerous and he was you know where it's used a pagan and the the person who tells the story was Austin Phelps who wrote a great book on prayer called the still hour he says Ethel Firth is a whole lot more faith in the power of prayer than most Christians and it's true so it really it obviously you wouldn't be there unless prayer was effective but I want you to put two things together thy will be done comes on earth isn't heaven thy will be done immediately before give us a stay why once your heart is sort of healed by the greatness of God I mean I've some years ago I remember I preached on the Lord's Prayer many many years ago at least 40 I was a great yeah woman in my church fact that's down in Virginia her name was Bessel e and Bess Lee came up to me after my we talked to the Lord about two or three weeks after I preached the Lord cried she said you know what I used to go right into asking give us this day our daily bread and you know when I was done with the asking I was more worried than I was when I'd started I talked about my children you know my you know my friends and I be praying for them and I just felt I actually when it was all done I didn't feel any burden come off for me I felt worse but he said when I started adoring God before I asked when I got to the asking I said oh yeah oh yeah he here and I just didn't have that fear that he wasn't going to hear me where I didn't have that fear that I was wiser than he was and so when I asked it really the burdens came off and what what some people would point out is if you say you should really ask you should really ask specifically repeatedly you know you should what the old teachers used to say you should you should pray with importunity you never stop you never let up and yet to say thy will be done is to remember there's a safety catch on prayer see many many years ago I I prayed like crazy that God would there's a girl that I wanted to be with and maybe marry and she was turning away from me I just prayed like crazy that she would turn back get engaged and of course that wasn't my wife Kathy at all and I realized that what God was doing with that prayer thank goodness was a safety catch on it thank goodness that God didn't give me what I thought I needed actually that prayer and most our prayers have got a good core and a stupid part so the core the prayer was word give me what I need to become the person I think I thought I want you want me to be this is what I think I need in order to become the person I want you want me to be so help me so that Court was fine the stupid part was and it's got to be her the wrong person so thankfully there's a safety catch thankfully if you put the two together and she's like this sort of takes a burden off when you put two together the Thy will be done with the you know storm the battlements of heaven to get the things you're asking for is you realize that God will give you what you would have asked for if you knew what he knew God will God will drop off the stupid part and give you the core part and thank God thank God so there's adoring and accepting and asking admitting it's obviously important you know forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and then Jesus goes out of his way to say and if you don't forgive your debtors you won't be forgiven now what in the world's that mean at first it looks like if I don't forgive my sister-in-law for something she did by the way my sister-in-law and I are fine but if I don't forgive my sister-in-law for some that means advice and I go to ask God he won't forgive me that's probably not what I'm saying effect almost certainly it's not what it's saying what it's actually saying is this you don't forgive without repenting right I mean you're not forgiven by God unless you repent you have to you have to repent and then God forgives you when you don't forgive somebody they've wronged you you don't forgive them you know what you're doing you cannot stay mad at somebody unless you feel a bit superior to them you can't so to be bitter just keep a grudge is to nurture your own pride which is makes it very difficult and warmer all this time goes on to repent you start to get defensive you start to see everything your way well it's it's absolutely critical that you forgive if you're going to get forgiven that's what it's saying and by the way john stott has a who was a great British preacher as a great book called the Sermon on the Mount scald a Christian counterculture and in his book on the Sermon on the Lord's Prayer he says that confessing your sin always means admitting and forsaking and he says the difference we did mitting enforce a key admitting is something you can just admit but not truly forsake and what he means is this I remember some years ago there was a guy who was always you know he was pretty pretty mean to his wife is in my church and at certain points she would just say I've had it and said they come on in and you know for counseling and as soon as she says I'm leaving he would just he would burst into tears say you're right I'm wrong I got a change I got a change and he would she she he would say what do you want me to do and she would give him a list I'll do it and they'd go home and for about six months maybe it's four months maybe it was okay and that we're we're off then he go right back to go away until finally she did leave him I'd say it was right I'm just telling you here's what we have there here's a guy who was sorry about the consequences of sin but not sorry for the sin our is he was sorry for himself he was sorry for that for that for the pain his sin was causing him not for the sin itself he wasn't sorry for the pain it was causing her he wasn't sort of this in the pain was about the grief that was causing God and as a result because he was actually self-centered that is if you repent and then you go right back to it as soon as the consequences go away you were sorry for it was he was self-pity not repentance and it was it was sorrow over your consequences not over the sin and if you want to actually change really change through adoration the reality of God makes you see what gee what David said when he had sinned of course against Bathsheba sinned against you we had murdered but he said thee against thee and the only have I sinned and what he really meant was not not that he hadn't sent against your Ryan Bathsheba but he says primarily you made me you created me you saved me and this is how I treat you and see that's how you're gonna change not just admitting but forsaking one last thing rebellion against a status quo deliver us from evil okay see the Pentecostals and room said I didn't think a Presbyterian would actually talk about this but this is this is saying there's evil out there and we're gonna pray against it there's bad things in the world there's injustice there's cruelty there's terrible things out there and we're gonna do something about it in prayer we're going to come against it we're gonna battle against it it's it you know God created the world and he didn't create it in this condition it's in now go back to Genesis you see he didn't create suffering didn't create injustice in to create ward and create racism didn't create those things the results of sin and so when you battle like that I do think that God actually directly works through your prayer to do something about that what's wrong but a the course of prayer also makes you an agent it also changes you it makes you a nation I gotta finish because we've talked about so much and we need to get to work you nee but let me just end with this idea ah the key to the prayer the Lord's Prayer I think is this Jesus of course the Lord's Prayer who's the Lord Jesus the Lord and he says here's the Lord's Prayer and when we actually think about it in fact everyone you know it's it's the sort of thing that we we hear all the time right you say it out loud you've memorized it you pray it and it kind of just you almost don't hear it anymore because it's so unfamiliar but if you actually think about what God's calling you to do and I hope even though what I just said was illuminating it could also be pretty correct a lot of you gonna say I try to adore and I'm bored I want to say that I will be done but frankly I don't trust God I want to a lot of things give us a stare daily bread but you know I just a fun I get busy and I find myself not doing it this is really hard this is really hard I can't pray like this well you can and you yeah you can't and you can't here's here's what you need to see Jesus Christ was not just the author of the Lord's Prayer he was the prayer of the Lord's Prayer where in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross remember he said my soul is crushed I'm I'm you know overwhelmed he done to death his son of God must have been under such pressure and he goes away from his disciples and he sits down what did you start by saying he says father and then he says I'm crushed by all this nevertheless I will be done and then on the cross he says Father forgive them now he the one part of the Lord's Prayer he cannot say is forgive me my debts because he didn't have any on the other hand when he was on the cross he was taking on our debts so in that sense in a way yeah I mean second Corinthians 5:21 says God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him now when it says God made him sin it doesn't mean it made him sinful like he suddenly became angry and selfish no he was treated as if he was sinful in other words all of our debts were transferred to him and he was crushed but he adored God you know my God my God why hast thou forsaken me my God my god that's the language of the Covenant that he still you know though he slay me yet will I praise him he's doing it he's the perfect man and what an incredible mean in other words he's accepting he's adoring you know he's asking for forgiveness and because he prayed the Lord's Prayer you can pray the Lord's Prayer not only does he inspire you to pray Lord's Prayer empower you to do it to say Lord if you did that for me then I can say thy will be done to you if you did all that for me then I can trust you and pray like this and of course when you fail to pray look towards Barry you know that he's died for you to cover that soon you have to pretty 1516 years ago when my wife Cathy was for the first time getting really really ill she said you know we need to I want you to pray with me more often and of course we you know it's got busy or we were it was we were tired at night or just wasn't happening and one night she actually pricked her finger and put some blood on the wall above our headboard in our on the it's gone now by the way you can't come and see it but we've repainted the apartment but she put it up there and then she told me the story she says if somebody said to you if a doctor said you have a disease it's gonna kill you unless you take a pill every night at 11:00 p.m. if you take this pill every night 11 p.m. you'll live but if you ever forget it take that pill by the next morning you'll be dead she said would you ever just say oh you know I'm too tired to take the pill tonight would you ever forget would you ever not get to it you'd never not get to it you'd always take that pill so she says if we don't pray every night together we're not gonna make it has that sunk in it's prayer and actually I was like that round that was like late 2001 I'm not sure we've ever missed since even if I'm in another hemisphere and it's you know why I don't know why I mean you say wow you must be so spiritual well we weren't you know I was you know for the first 30 years or marriage we hadn't done it the penny dropped and what's that penny we have to pray you have to pray you've got to learn to pray there is an alternative let's pray for a minute our Father we we you've given us the tools you've given us his gracious invitation you've given us not just an example in Jesus Christ but he is the key he he opens the door so now you can hear us though we're sinners you will hear us our prayers because he because he prayed the Lord's Prayer and said thy will be done and forgave us through his death on the cross and took our debts because he he saved us through praying the ultimate version Lord's Prayer now we know you'll hear us and we know you'll be with us and we know we can trust you and O Lord be reeled our hearts as we pray show us who we are change our lives do great things through our prayers and through us we ask in Jesus name Amen in light of like well I'll just read what I just wrote down oh I would say that there's sivash struggles with prayerlessness within the ministry many leaders struggle with keeping an attractive diverse prayer life in light of the velocity of ministry and so what would I think your talk was primarily addressing that but how would you counsel a pastor who says he's simply too Billy yeah well reason I told that last story was to try to show you I think I was 51 or 52 years old at the time so I'd already been in ministry for 25 years 27 years and the reason I tell the story is I'm trying to address the fact that this is a necessity and actually anything that you know is a necessity you will do and so you know I think I would say if you're not finding time for it then actually you don't believe it's important you don't really you actually do believe it's really up to you not up to God I mean this is one of those places where you think you need almost you almost need to pray in order to convince your heart that you need to pray which of course is a vicious I know but if it was if it was something you absolutely had to do you get to the things you have to do you absolutely do so it's a the reason I actually use the term penny drop it's kind of weird widen a drop before in some ways it was let's face it there was a crisis my wife's health was a crisis and I'm afraid most of us are too stupid spiritually to just do it because they heard a good exposition or they came to a conference almost always I hate to say it almost always something has to go wrong in our lives and we say we're desperate but do you at least see how much self somewhat a spirit of self sufficiency we have because if you say I just I'm too busy the only way that's a yeah okay what that means is people's approval and your productivity is more important to you than God's approval or even time with God I mean I know what it's like to feel too busy to pray it's because I promised these people these things I'm not going to look good if I don't get them all done or I know that if I do this I'm more likely to see more payoff in my congregation it's a you know it's a it's idolatry of productivity and people's human approval so basically at a pretty deep level there's a spirit of self sufficiency we don't really believe it's important if anybody here is just convicted down to their toes without there being a crisis in your life you need to act on it because why should you wait for the crisis generally when the crisis comes because your prayer life isn't very great you're really not spiritually prepared for it so if you're feeling the conviction now please act on it the other question just kind of hadn't read and somebody comes to mic to you while they're doing that how does one keep on encountering God and then afresh well right now I because I talk to talk about adoration and all that I prayer shouldn't just be a matter of duty you are looking for real encounter you are looking for refreshment of your heart and soul I I - this sounds really sound like I'm gonna cut I'm gonna sound what I'm gonna say sounds like it's contradictory but I don't think so if you listen carefully on the one hand I have very often found that sticking with something for a long period of time doing it over and over and over again even if I'm not getting much out of it very often six weeks in after doing it every day it starts to pay off so there are certain things that I find that because I've done them for years they mean a lot to me you know one of them for me one of them is that I try to get through the Psalms every month that is the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church ever you know for the last 500 years has a way of dividing the Psalms up so you read some in the morning some of the evening you get through it every every month now do I ever actually read in every single song every month no the good thing about it is when I have a evening I always pray with my wife but I may not get home in time to read the Psalms at night it'll come up next month in other words in a given year I'm just over and over and over again and when I first started at you you don't realize how many the Psalms are kind of opaque they're kind of more redundant you know they're supposed to be so spiritually rich and yet so many of them seem to say the same thing over enough freaking and you have your five or six favorite Psalms but most of them you know oh yeah but I found it by sticking with a sticking with a sticking with it virtually every part of it now is rich so on the other hand II need to change things up see I told you I was going to sound like I'm contrary to myself you need to you need to every so often alternate different devotional book different way of reading the scripture change things up but other things stick with them stick with them stick with them so that they really become rich over time so it's not easy and there's really no one way to do it so most of my faith training I have privately up in the last few years I've been able to get over me in which every morning so one of the things that I'm looking at is these are various a couple of times a month I'll fall asleep a couple of times a week I'll get distracted and I'll think about one of the kids or work more that church email and I just feel like you know I'm trying to be in the presence of God and I just I just have this attention deficit thing and so you know what would you say to someone well I I have a habit I am so used to praying in the morning after I have run or done some exercise so I can feel more alert because I've done the exercise makes makes a huge difference to me and so when I I've gotten into places where I couldn't do the exercise at that time sometimes I'm staying another part of the world and I don't have that access or I don't have the same you know opportunities it is real hard I get out of the groove and the it's very very very frustrating but I tell you what there's John Newton you know the amazing grace him right he says all I can tell you is if you're not getting anything out of being if you're not getting anything out of going to the throne of grace you're not going to get anything out of not going to the throne of grace I mean it just says he says if you don't think you're getting any anything in prayer you can't stop the best thing to do is try to find a new groove in your in your day or your week I think sometimes if you say well instead of doing this amount every day maybe I needed to dismount a munch in the day for various reasons physically or some other things that make and then I have a period where I make it make a deal with my family that I have a more extended time every week I mean that that no worries you that's what I mean by changing it up I used to I mean I've my schedules changed again there's this last year as some of you know but I used to take Tuesday morning for about two hours to repent so in other words I've got five or six I mean you probably can if you're married this is very easy you have to find what are your best setting sins what are the what are the things that keep coming back that you do over and over again what are they now if you're married it's no problem finding those five or six it might be a little hard to keep the list down to five or six by asking your spouse what are they but what I would I made a lot of print progress by having those two hours every Tuesday morning they've gone away and I haven't replaced them because I I have I have to work on Tuesdays now I can't take off so take a day off on Tuesday my wife often likes to sleep in later than me I had this great spot and then it's all going away so then you have to try to find one it's really like it's fighting it's like trying on a new pair of shoes they heard it first until the shoes come to you know fit the foot and when my schedule changes and maybe that's what's happened to you something's changed in your life the rhythm your work whatever and all I can say you have to fight for it and keep looking can you ask me to [Applause] is the electrical scaffolding they need to power of a lot of people praying together a whole community yeah yeah my in my study of the great revivals of the world as is the revivals are almost there's almost only one thing that that every revival has I mean like one revival has open-air street preaching the next revival doesn't do that at all I mean they're they're they're incredibly different except for prayer extraordinary prayer is usually the way they talk about extraordinary prayer does mean it doesn't mean you shouldn't pray for revival I do personally because but extraordinary prayer means not just your ordinary prayer meetings or your ordinary worship services or your ordinary devotional it does mean bringing people together to do kind of Kingdom oriented prayer not just praying for the needs that you have which is which is important so it's it's it's always it seems to be looking through history always a something extraordinary is always an accompaniment to any kind of revival you all know about the hundred years parent meeting Aaron hood some of you are yet nodding a lot of you aren't the the Moravians in 1727 at Heron hood which was a a an estate by one of the a nobleman who become a Christian he was in Moravian they started they started prayer meeting for revival and there was a there was a room in this this place where as it was always they had prayer meetings in there but there was always somebody praying 24 hours a day there's always someone in that room praying for revival even at least one person you know how long they've already given away that I gave it away the joke there was somebody there for until 1827 though it lasted 100 years there was always somebody in there praying for vows so that's extraordinary prayer and if you know anything about church history you know what happened between 1877 1827 a lot happened yeah I mean a lot so yeah absolutely it's crucial I'm glad you gave me an opportunity to to say something about it I'm uh I was wondering I I've dealt with people sometimes in my ministry where it seems like they're anemic prayer life is due to not like that they don't believe in God but because they're genuinely afraid of what it will cost them to see God really incredible things yeah so what kind of advice maybe would you have in encouraging people to not not be afraid of what they might lose because of God acting that's actually a big subject that is a little bit like see the interesting thing when you and I think of and I spoke about thy will be done usually it means I'm afraid if I say to the Lord you know use me anyway that they'll bring suffering to my life but you but that's a little different but you're right in other words people are afraid if I'm totally sold out for God he may ask me to be you know be a missionary and moved to another city or something like that yes well in the end I may have to be very careful about being too abrasive but you start to point to Jesus saying now wait a minute there's it's I think I've lost it now yeah but when I was a young Christian somebody gave me a cassette tape does any most of you don't know what a cassette tape is but I'm sure there's a museum around here somewhere where they have them and it was a cassette tape by a minister named dr. John Gerstner preaching on Romans twelve and he was twelve one and two and in the old King James Bible you know it says you know make your whole you know it says you offer yourself up as a living sacrifice to the Lord which is your reasonable service that's the old King James way and he played on that by saying how can you not by the way don't just yell at people but this is this is the basic argument how can you come to grips with somebody who gave himself utterly for you without you giving yourself utterly for him he says - not for me sir for someone to give you a self utterly for you Jesus Christ if you don't give yourself utterly to him he says that's as stupid as it is wicked it's unreasonable you say he says it's not just a it's it's not just a fence to them - the moral sense it's a crucifixion of the intelligence almost note by heart it's as stupid as it is wicked he says it's just it's just absolutely reasonable that if he if he went through and he went through far worse than you ever will go through I mean at the very least you'll die for him a martyr's death and immediately being glory you're not gonna be undergoing the incredible suffering he was on the cross where he experienced the wrath of God and who knows what he experienced experience everything we would have experienced in hell somehow as it's astounding so you just have to say how in the world he'll never he can't ask you for what you know to eat your cost to follow him it'll be nothing like his cost to save you so that's the only place you can go and you have to I don't think you can just just jump on I think you have to bring that out as you're speaking to them teaching them show them that and let God speak to them about it don't you say you know I don't think you're sold out enough Christian it's a very self righteous because you're not either even if you feel like you're ahead of them you know God knows you're not all there you're not all the way there so the thing would be it would be to show Jesus like that and talk about that kind of complete commitment make yourself a living sacrifice in fact you can if you want to you can teach on that and use all the stuff I just told you from John Gerstner from 1970 or so when he preached it there I think we Revere you in the sense of how you've done the church planning here with Redeemer so I was more curious about how you have seen experience oh well the maybe if Cathy was here she'll tell you this on the salt do it we kind of we kind of backed into a remarkable amount of of Prayer support because I'm in a denomination and every year back then I don't even know if they still do it anymore I don't think they do there was a the women in the church sort of a women's association across the country across the country in all the churches they always had what they got a love gift which meant the women the women in the church organization would get together and make a love gift and send it into the denomination and the denomination decided what to do with it each year and it usually went to missionaries or it usually went to various good causes but they to somebody decided that the year that we started Redeemer in nineteen you know 89 that the love gift went to Redeemer now it was partly because we're a southern denomination and the idea is starting a church a man hadn't seemed completely over the top and actually was pretty over the top and and but the idea that the love gift was went basically funded our church but and that's great that was money and money is very important but what but every church that gave then prayed for that for that cause all year and there were about 450 churches that gave so therefore 250 church is praying for one church plant and Cathy and I both look back on that and say you know that never happens there's always prayer but set 450 churches plant prank for one church plant for a year and then Cathy says maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised at what happened what role do you think fasting has as a fasting well on the one hand it hasn't I haven't used it much but I think actually it's a it's obviously in the Bible I mean there's some as you know there's some guidelines around it like be careful that you don't you know think of fasting as a virtuous way of getting God's favor which I do I have seen people sometimes do that and there's actually there's some warnings about that but when it comes to concentration I mean that's what it means what fasting does is it reminds you because you're hungry and because you're hungry it reminds you of basically what you're about it just it puts God in the center it moves you to prayer in fact I've often felt I think the hunger is a it helps me say I'm spiritually hungry for the Lord - there's also the ways in which it can't help there's some ways in which it might it could be used legalistically but it's a it's definitely one of our tools ok journaling is a tool for example even though it's not in the Bible whereas fasting is deep mistrust of God's goodness yeah and this kind of systemic issue in the world trusting what I just love to know what you would do to help how do you encourage someone like me to disciple a young into trusting the the accepting piece of the Lord's Prayer of walking them into a place of not holding his character on trial because they have redefined what they believe it needs to be good yeah well first of all that's a great question first of all you're absolutely right that's gonna be a big problem with especially younger people certainly it's been a problem forever and it's problem for us but I just recently read a you know the Barna Group put out a profile of teenagers get what they call Gen Z and they and there they're like almost twice as likely if you ask them why do you not believe in God or why do you struggle with God they're twice as likely as my generation to say because of evil and suffering in the world so they are much much more which is interesting you know I think about my parents generation you know they went through the Great Depression in World War two and all that and yet my grandchildren are growing up much more sure that the world is not the way you know God is why is it God letting all these bad things so I can't trust God so it's pretty interesting I mean the better the life it's almost like with human beings the better your life gets the safer the life gets the the less you trust God very often than people who've had terrible lives are more trusting the ones who've actually had evil and suffering so it's a I don't know why but there we are we got it I mean I half the half of what I would say to you would be what I just said before you've got to go to Christ ultimately you've got to take them to the gospel and say you know Jesus made himself vulnerable to you for you you know not to you so much just for you and there is actually no way than to connect to him without you becoming vulnerable I mean he he didn't come in strength he came in weakness he let his guard down he made himself vulnerable and mortal and he did all that for us it was incredibly costly and therefore there's no way to follow a man who made himself vulnerable for you unless you make yourself vulnerable and trusting makes you vulnerable if you start to obey even when you don't completely understand why or you don't like everything he says in his word so you I think the first thing to do would be to go to Jesus I do think that's the best way by far because it humbles you more directly but I got to tell you what one other thing Charles Taylor a philosopher says that before 1700s when people experienced evil and suffering they it certainly they struggled with it but they nobody said well there can't be a god but he says starting kind of like in 1756 of the Lisbon earthquake in Portugal thereafter people in the West more and more said because of all the try can't trust God because so many bad things happen and he was saying why why would be what again why when people in the past actually had much more difficult lies shorter lifespans more troubles why as things have gotten better have we gotten you know more less trusting and he said it's because modern people trust them they trust them their own minds too much they other words they say if I can't think of a good reason why God would let this happen there can't be a good reason ancient people would say if there is a God why in the world would I be able to understand everything he does you know if there's a God big enough to be mad at surely just I got big enough to have some reasons for why he does things that I don't understand you can't have it both ways and so there is a I mean that's a little more pugnacious way to talk about it but I would sometimes say if we don't trust God it means because we trust ourselves too much we trust our wisdom we trust our agenda we trust we know how our life needs to go and honestly you know I always maybe some of you heard this you can always use the jerk you're a jerk today joke which is when you were 15 you remember your 10 year old self you were a jerk when you're 25 you remember your twenty fifteen year old self you were jerk when you're 35 you look back at what you said and thought when you're 25 you richer means you're a jerk now right now you're okay you're full now and and and in order to you you you can't trust God unless you realize that you actually don't see things right now that's a little more of a kind of confrontive approach I still would start with Jesus and because you're in charge you get to ask the question right okay well I mean you need it look you need to this is reminding me of something you said you know I'm not known to be for a prayer life well you know what why would I see that's what Jesus is saying there is that only God knows whether you pray or not there is no payoff for I mean there's no immediate payoff for prayer whereas if you're a good preacher if you're good leader if your church is growing pay off pay off pay off that's the reason why every day you know I could pray for an hour or half an hour or I could go do something that will help me with it something that will actually pay off more directly indirectly though and I guess this is I'm answering your question indirectly per has an enormous pay off just the ability to process things ability resilience is I didn't mention this as you know you're always getting clobbered in ministry you're getting you're getting you know frankly the evangelical church is kind of always middle-of-the-road people because you've got many more conservative you got menace on the side and liberals on this side and you're always getting clobbered it's also true just in every Church you know you guys we're multi-ethnic so there's always misunderstandings because it's just not the old days where everybody was mono-ethnic so you're always getting collaborate and the resilience comes from and being able to say I know I'll be okay if I get back to prayer I know this will not throw me for three days only throw me for one day because I got prayer so it's resilience it's generally wisdom it calms you down I mean it in the long run the payoff is huge that payoff is great for the long run because it just puts you in a position where you can make good decisions where you're you're able to pick yourself up again even when there's big blows you're able to come back and people are amazed you know it's amazing with that disappointment that you're still you know you're still talking about God you're still speaking this way it's a prayer so in the short run that's the reason why we don't pray is because it doesn't have an immediate payoff but and nobody will ever know whether you're a person of Prayer really if they do then why you know what are you saying maybe your son maybe your son rats on you fantastic color [Applause]

Channel: New City Network

Views: 101,176

Keywords: tim keller, prayer, pastor, new city network, nyc, new york city, redeemer, urban, church planting, church, sermon, new city gathering

Id: KeKWjd4fe5E

Length: 62min 7sec (3727 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 07 2018