Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit

I asked for a spirit of supplication a spirit of grace a spirit of deep humble childlike dependence on you that is not ashamed to stand in line for bread indeed considered it a high privilege to look away from ourselves in prayer to you again and again and again both in corporate and in private and for those Lord who find little pleasure in prayer and feel it as a great birdy burden and duty for which they often feel guilty I pray for a gift a surprise gift a gift of freedom and joy in fellowship with you this is your work it's not mine I can't make this happen but it's the deep thing so come and awaken our hearts desire for communion with you in prayer through Christ I pray amen so this is the first Sunday now of our year beginning week of prayer we call it and what I want to do is tackle a an issue that is raised by the very fact that we have such a thing as a week of Prayer and the question is much bigger than that but it is at least that the question is the relationship between discipline in prayer and freedom in prayer and spontaneity in prayer discipline freedom spontaneity how do those relate to each other so let me define my terms first what what do I mean when I say discipline in prayer I mean the thing that you do by plan so for example a week of Prayer that's a discipline we plan it we do a whole book about it here so this is a discipline this took some intentionality and some effort to do that or I mean prayer at mealtimes those usually aren't spontaneous we have chosen to do that we plan it we do it or prayer at an elder meeting before we start season of Prayer or getting down on our knees and praying after the vows of our wedding on the wedding bench the prayer bench right about there that was intentional you can just decide to do that on the spur of the moment or at the beginning of a sermon I don't think much about that that's a plan I need help therefore I do that or getting up early in the morning so that a dad can pray for his family before he meets them at breakfast and has some spiritual sense about him as to how to lead them in devotions or praying with your spouse before you get in bed at night kneel down by the bed that's not spontaneous that's planned or praying over the lunch hour in your little cubicle at work or coming to church on Tuesday morning and Friday morning to be in a prayer meeting or being like Daniel and setting aside three times a day Daniel 6:10 or setting aside seven times a day like psalmist in psalm 119 64 or getting up in the watches of the night like the psalmist in psalm 119 for 148 or during and after you read your Bible in the morning and on and on and on and on you see what I mean anything you plan to do that doesn't just pop into your hand at the moment I'm just calling that discipline intentionality a plan to pray a certain way you think about it you decide that it's a good thing and then you intentionally do it some people are very intentional people we call them disciplined people and other people are somewhat intentional and they're partially disciplined people and then there are other kinds of people that don't plan much at all they just do it comes next and and they're less disciplined people and and then there are hundreds of gradations in between and we are all different and there's no point getting bent out of shape about that it's just that's the way it's going to be till Jesus comes that's just the way it's going to be everybody's a little bit disciplined and some people are a lot disciplined everybody does something by plan and others do almost everything by plan so that's what I mean by discipline give you a flavor now here's what I mean by spontaneity or freedom alongside alongside at this no discipline you might put freedom I don't I don't put freedom alongside discipline because if I set it up that way I've said Kay there's there's the discipline way to pray and then alongside it there's the free way to pray I'm not going to do that because that implies that inside discipline you don't have freedom freedom is that thing you have when you're not doing discipline things that's the other thing and that's just not true that's not true in discipline there can be amazing freedom in the act you choose plan to do there can be amazing joyful want to type freedom so you plan to pray at your wedding plan to kneel down you even think about how help her with her dress whether you're gonna hold hands or not you think about it plant it when that moment comes there can come upon that sacred moment the most joyful happy free awesome prayer moment that you've ever known nobody would say I'm in bondage right now and bonds due to this plan huh let's get rid of plans like just decide at the moment where that'd be cool No you know you know from life experience that inside discipline there can be amazing freedom doing what you want to do being delighted to be there though you got there by plan and that's true of all the disciplines that I mentioned but it's mealtime or pray in the morning praying and I'm praying a prayer meetings praying in your cubicle it it can have freedom in it but it is also true as you know that because something is planned and has a lot of intentionality about it it can be enslaving it can feel very routine undesirable I'm just doing this and I plan to do it I've committed to do it I should do it I'm just doing it and that doesn't feel free at all you might plan that wedding prayer I'm gonna hold your hand I'll help you with your dress and as you kneel down you're so lightheaded and nauseated you just want this moment over quick because I just want to get out of here I'm feeling terrible right now I've been there okay seen this and I try to help it get over quick when I see it so I'm not pretending that all discipline moments are free happy joyful they're not same thing with meals right trade it meal so many times it's just nothing maybe doesn't have to be nothing some days is something some days is nothing some days it feels vital and alive and I'm feeling deeply how thankful I should be for this food and other times this is just why are we doing this so I don't put freedom alongside discipline it can be in discipline or it can vanish what about spontaneity I do put spontaneity alongside discipline by definition I'm gonna put it there what is spontaneous by definition I'm saying is not planned that's the meaning of spontaneous it's not intentionally thought out and done and here's some examples of what that would mean some situation awakens that need to pray or the Holy Spirit just prompts the need to pray whisper a thank you to God after a real close call on the highway every done that or ask God to help you in the middle of an exam you didn't plan to do you just need help or confess to God some sin very soon after you say a hurtful word to your spouse or child or dad or friend or when we do these open things in church you know and just take about three minutes here and whoever wants to pray and and you do it you can come to church planning to do it you just feel like this is my time to stand up and pray something to the Lord out loud in a service or praising God for a beautiful sunset that you turn a corner and there it is and there it is dear Lord for this beauty or silently ask him for wisdom in the middle of a very very difficult phone conversation that you didn't know is take this awful turn it just took and you don't know what to say next and you whisper God please some wise helpful healing reconciling word here or asking for wisdom at some elder meeting in the middle of the elder meeting and not at the beginning and the elder meeting the elders about to help do this a lot we always start that's predictable but where it's gonna recur in the council who knows just we need it let's stop let's go to God here guys we not making any headway on what we need to do or for strength when you're about to drop dead from weariness and there's just one more thing that has to be done oh god please give me strength here or for a missionary because you just called up the email and they're crying out for help and right then right there for that missionary you're going to God or or or right you get the idea these things are not planned they're just their situations promptings of the Holy Spirit and and we're going vertical and that's what I call spun taneous prayer and my question is how all that relates to each other Oh discipline you got freedom you got spontaneity in prayer so what does the Bible have to say about all of that that's where I'm going let me tell you why I think I was drawn to this the part of the evangelical church that I watch most closely seems to me could be wrong about this the pendulum of discipline and spontaneity that goes from generation to generation seems to me to be swinging toward resistance to discipline and disinclination to think in terms of discipline in in most areas of life and the reason is because of the rising the wonderful rising of the sense that we should be gospel driven not discipline driven that would be one way to say it will be gospel driven not discipline driven there was a blog I saw it probably pre pricked me let's be gospel driven not resolution driven in the new year and I thought I think I know what they mean I think that's probably a good thing but as I sniff around I have this little lurking concern that we may not be getting it right and it's not easy to get it right so that's what we're going to try to talk about that the Bible help us find where that pendulum should be in the relationship between discipline planning intentionality in prayer and and free and spontaneous and how does that all work I think there are a lot of people who would play off gospel driven versus discipline driven they would say that legalism is versus freedom and law is versus grace and they put all in that category I overall I think that's good it's good to set things up that way if we don't live on the gospel that is on the work of Christ for us all of our praying will be bondage all of our pray will be a stench in God's nose if it is flowing from anything other than gospel faith however there are half biblical ideas that make us get real excited for spontaneity and real excited for freedom in the gospel and lose touch with the role of discipline an intentionality and plan and willing willing something willing when our whole heart may not yet be there in it our experience with God may be so shallow that the only way we have of conceiving discipline is in terms of legalism but they're people like that if you say I'm going to do this I think you're legalist this is it's equal it strong intentionality against disinclination equal legalism that's very shallow very shallow it's as though intentionality that drives you to do a thing even when you don't feel like doing it can only be a work of the law can only be an act of merit can only be a way of earning salvation can only be a strategy to get God on your side really it's that true maybe not indeed any act of discipline no matter how good may be legalism any anything that you plan to do and make a decision to do and are intentional about doing may be a work of the law designed to get God on your side not the overflow of confidence that he's on your side oh how subtle well here's the trick here's here's the the glitch steadfast resistance to discipline in the name of spontaneity can be a work of the law and my vaunted commitment to be spontaneous is all about self righteousness life is very we are very vulnerable here the dangers of self-righteousness lurk everywhere the dangers of self-reliance rely on my disciplined willpower I'm one of those types or relying on my I don't like that stuff I don't do what they do I'm more free-spirited like the gospel said you should be really so whether you're coming at it from this one side or the other we're all imperiled here there are younger brother forms of self-righteousness and older brother forms of self-righteousness whether they look like it or not the heart of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins first Corinthians 15:3 that's shorthand it's shorthand for saying that the only way to be right with God is on the basis of what Christ is and has done not on the basis of what you are or do Christ died for my sins is shorthand for the only way to have God 100% on my side is to receive rest in as a gift who Christ is and what he did for me not Who I am and what I did for him that's the heart of the gospel and it's resting there where discipline can come from and resistance to legalistic discipline can come from and whether it comes from there makes all the difference as to whether we're operating in the freedom of the gospel now here's here's a biblical basis for that statement about the gospel 2nd Corinthians 5:21 God made him to be sin God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God so God takes our sin and imputes it to Christ and God takes Christ's righteousness and imputes it to us it's the 2nd Corinthians 5:21 one of the most glorious verses in the Bible forgetting at the heart of the gospel this grand exchange my sins go on him his righteousness goes on me and because of that and that alone am i 100% acceptable he is 100% not 99.9 percent on my side he is 100% on my side on one basis alone who Christ is and what he did for me I get in on that by child like yes yes I will have that receiving him my Lord my Savior my treasure I take if that's the deal yes but if we say I think I want to provide a little bit of righteousness oh no my kind of pray or I'm gonna resist all that legalistic prayer stuff and that count that would be the 1% the point one percent and he'll finish being on my side now I get him get him totally on my side by doing some stuff good stuff and that's called self-righteousness it's all of Christ the basis is all of Christ praying is overflow from that confidence or resisting legalistic praying is overflow from that confidence the opposite of legalism is not spontaneity the opposite of faith is not discipline spontaneity may be legalistic and discipline may be an act of faith so with that introduction the title of this message is prayer in the closet and prayer in the spirit you can feel where I'm coming from now to get in the closet you got to decide to go there you don't just wind up there like oh I'm in the clothes you go to the closet shut the door that's discipline in the spirit what's that so let's start with in the spirit and then go to the closet and just I want to know I want Bible help here or Bible help talk to me Bible about this issue of discipline and spontaneity and freedom so two passages about praying in the spirit Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20 I'll read them to you Ephesians 6:18 goes like this pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that and keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints so I want to know pray at all times in the spirit what's that or here it is in Jude Jude 1:20 but you beloved build yourselves up on your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit so question 1 what does it mean to pray in the spirit there is I think a very helpful clue in 1st Corinthians 12:3 listen to 1st Corinthians 12 verse 3 Paul says this no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit how was that mean that the same phrase you're talking in the spirit and you can't say when you do that Jesus be accursed why not well because evidently praying in the spirit means the Spirit controlling governing is energizing is animating you will let you do that if you say that you're not in the spirit you're not speaking by the spirit the spirits not controlling you at that moan he's letting you say something terrible and positive said no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the spirit that is you can't mean it you can't earnestly authentically say from the heart jesus is my lord unless the Holy Spirit is doing that in you so I take from that verse to speak pray in the spirit means under the control of the Spirit animated energized guided by the Holy Spirit so always pray that way Paul says that's the way you pray when you are praying out of the gospel here's the connection I'm gonna make now when you're praying that way that is the Holy Spirit is is energizing animating guiding informing releasing freeing for prayer you praying out of reliance on Christ in the gospel when that's happening we are trusting God to love us accept us help us by his Spirit for Christ's sake alone they're coming to pray and you think okay he died for me he provided me with the righteousness he took my sin he gave me his righteousness I'm totally acceptable to God in this moment though I've seen many times this morning and I'm gonna trust his love for me his acceptance of me his approval of me in Christ and in that trust the Spirit of God flows that's where he works he's moving along the channels of faith in the gospel the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ in the gospel therefore when your heart is leaning on the gospel praising Christ as taking you're seeing them providing your righteousness the Spirit is there so when you ask how do I pray in the spirit the answer is I pray in reliance upon God's love for me proved and purchased in the death of Jesus on my behalf listen to this key verse Galatians three five does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith and the answer is clear it's by hearing with faith not works of the law so let's make it a statement instead of a question God supplies the spirit to us and works miracles in US and through us not when we try to win that kind of power by works of the law that show ourselves meritorious and deserving but when we hear gospel promises and believe them faith the gospel is for Christ's sake alone God is for you for Christ's sake alone God purchased everything for you for Christ's sake alone he is 100% on your side you believe that because of Christ not because of yourself or your morning good morning no bad morning no that's not the basis Christ is the basis I'm believing it and at that moment the Holy Spirit is flowing in and through that faith and you pray in him in that faith this is how the gospel relates to our praying in the spirit we don't deserve his help do we we don't deserve the Holy Spirit to help us and Paul says he helps us in our weakness right we don't deserve to have his help well then how do we do it we get it because the gospel wound is there anything you know the reason we get anything good from God is because Christ bought it for us and we get it freely because of his purchase so not by works but by faith we look to God not as our enemy not as one who's frustrated father who can never be pleased this is a lot of you a lot of you us yeah he's on my side he's always upset with me because I'm such a loser there's only one hope at that moment God because of Christ alone is a hundred percent for me there's the war can you believe it can you believe it 100 percent for me my father disapproves of many things I do my Heavenly Father but when I think about him I think all of that must be loving fatherly corrective disapproval not contempt for me you had fathers who felt contempt for you you so frustrated them they would roll their eyes they would say spend angry things at you and you felt he just holds me in contempt my dad does God never holds his children in contempt he disapproves I see a lousy thing to Noel he doesn't like it but he's on my side 100% on my side he has to spank me I'll spank me and at that moment the challenge for me will be to believe the gospel is this a spanking or is this foretaste of hell is my father totally on my side here totally for me or is he just fed up with me and would like be done with me as soon as he can which is the way some of us have felt when our fathers disciplined us right oh this is so close to the core of what some of you are dealing with in 2010 so we pray in the spirit by believing that because of Christ alone not my past performances not my present whatever but because of Christ alone he's on my side I believe he's for me I believe he affirms me I believe he loves me I believe he's there for me I believe he's working for my good I trust him right now and I will ask him now that's what I think the Bible means about praying in the spirit it's a gospel way to pray it's the way you pray when you're resting in Christ because of the gospel now let's go to the last thing what about the closet that is what about discipline so here we are at Matthew 6 finally the text and just two verses Matthew six five and six I say closet because that was the old King James Version the word is uh it means inner room the one that doesn't have any windows where people can look in and see just kind of say totally Shh go in there and shot the door you know trying to impress the kids there Eddie prays in the morning you can hear him listen to him whoa I got a great daddy that when you pray is his verse 5 when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues on the street corners that they may be seen by others truly I say to you they have received their reward so if you if you love the good feelings that come from being thought a spiritual person you get it and that's all you get truly they have received their reward verse 6 but when you pray go into your room into your closet into your inner room and and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you so verse 6 is real plain do something that requires a little discipline here you have to decide to do this you have to be intentional about it go to a certain room shut the door avoid being seen and heard if you can be intentional now that simple command I think stands for all those others that I mentioned praying at mealtimes and praying before bed and praying at prayer meetings just anything that requires some intentionality there's a way to do it in a way not to do it and this is talking about private prayer and I think it would be right of me to say that Jesus would like you to do that this year how often I don't know one time a day three times a day seven times a day once a week three times a week we don't have any rules like that it's a good thing to do and I think you should build it into your life find your closet build your closet couldn't build a house this year you know forget the den build a prayer room forget the surround sound 52-inch build a prayer room just a thought here's the last thing I want to say about closet prayer intentional prayer discipline prayer it can flow from the gospel then I'm going to give you three ways and and this is so important I'm I'm trying to learn to live this way with you at age almost 64 I don't think you'll ever get this Pat the devil won't let you get it Pat your old nature won't let you you will be rediscovering how to be disciplined out of the gospel not disciplined as the gospel until the day you're dead the devil will already be trying to get you to turn discipline into the gospel because I do this God is for me instead of because he's for me I make this effort we will always be trying to switch it around so let us say three ways that it can flow a choice a plan like coming Friday night or coming on Tuesday or not coming and playing at home or whenever you plan the plan can be good it can be a gospel plan it can be a free plan it can be a god pleasing gospel honoring faith driven plan it is possible that discipline flow from the gospel rather than saying the gospel mixes all discipline and turns us into free spirits who never do anything by discipline and so here are those three three ways number one gospel based faith trusts Christ implicitly because of what he's done and who he is so that if he tells us to do something we believe him and we do it now that's the simplest connection it's not the most profound or the most important what I'm saying is when you look at the gospel and he says I love you I died for you I rose again for you I made you acceptable to the Father for my sake alone and my trustworthy everything in the believer says yes better than anyone and he says well sometime this year go to your closet and pray and don't leave ICU because you know then you'll do it for the praise of man just go and get more of God we're gonna say okay now at that moment you could turn it into legalism if you could oh I need to obey Him because I don't obey Him Cosmo can be on my side instead of saying because God is totally on my side he's totally trustworthy why wouldn't I do what he says okay so that's real simple and it's number one that because Christ has shown that he's done enough to get God totally on our side he is trustworthy and he's the one who says when you pray go into your inner room and shut the door hey okay you say so I'm doing it cuz you're so good and God loves me so much and why wouldn't I trust you when you tell me to do that number two gospel based faith has tasted and seen that the Lord is good and therefore gospel based faith is always eager to receive as much of Christ as we can gospel faith has looked at the cross look at this look at this the son of the Living God never having sinned goes there with my sin crushing him in torture so that I may be totally acceptable to God by faith alone look at this and what we see what believers see when they look at the cross is that's everything to me that person right there doing that is my life he is more precious to me than anything I want all of him I can have that's the way they talks once it's tasting and seeing that the Lord is good and where we see the Lord good most is on the cross we see God's love clearest on the cross we see Christ's sufficiency and coming to keeping love for us on the cross it's all most clear at the cross and faith says I will have you I will have you you are giving yourself I will have you and it keeps on saying more more more forever so when Jesus says here that we are to go into our closets not for the sake of the reward of human praise but for God we say of course that's what I want more than anything I want more God I want more Christ I want to be done with loving the praise of man oh yes I do I know how I'm luring it is that I want to be done with it and so I'm going in there for more of you and that's a gospel way to go what we you know what you see when you look at the cross is that Christ didn't just become the basis of all we need the basis of the receiving of all we need he became all we need Christ is all this is why we can die Christ is all and he satisfies so the second way that the gospel leads us into a disciplined prayer life is that we saw in the gospel that he didn't just provide the basis for everything that we need he became everything we need he satisfied our souls and he tells us that in a life of communion in prayer in private where nobody else can see he will come and reward us and what he rewards us with mainly is himself that's what we and if you don't if you sitting there saying I do I'm not writing you off and I don't think God is writing you off and I think he's inviting you at this moment to ask God to turn that around this year maybe this week I know some people hear those statements that I make Christ is all try satisfies the heart why wouldn't you want to go spend time with him when he promises to give you more of himself and you sit there saying I don't know why I just don't I'm not I'm not feeling ugly towards you I'm not feeling contemptuous towards you I want a model at this moment for you how I think God is is feeling toward you I think he's in this sermon and in this week saying I have something for you I'm pretty patient I really am you've been doing this for a long time and you're not in hell I'm on your side I want you to love me know me enjoy me I want you to delight in prayer and not feel like oh you told us we had to pray again I hate to pray I don't like to read my Bible I don't like to pray and I don't think God is rolling his eyes here at you in a contemptuous bothered way I think his heart is aching I think he is with a hand outstretched saying through my mouth right here in this room I have a gift for you I have a gift for you come on come on here lastly number three the third way that a an intentional prayer life can flow from the gospel and not be legalism is that because of the gospel that is because Christ died for us we know that everything we need has been purchased for us already therefore when we go we don't go to purchase we don't go to pay anything he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will they not with him freely give us all things that's Romans 8:32 I think one of the greatest verses in the Bible he did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how then having done that will he not freely give us all things all things that we need which means that because of Christ he see the logic because of Christ because of the gospel because Christ died for my sins and provided my righteousness God is totally ready to give everything I need he won't give you a stone he won't give you a snake he might not give you the very thing you asked in the very time you asked but he won't give you a snake he's always on your side he withholds and gives according to his great love for us all the promises of God find their yes in him 2nd Corinthians 1:20 in other words every answer to prayer that would be good for us Christ has purchased by his blood so when we go to our closet we don't go to purchase we go we don't go to negotiate we go because everything has been obtained it's been bought closing illustration if you're starving hungry starving and you know that the food that you need for life is in a well locked container and Christ gives his life to open the container gives us life he dies opening the container where the food is that will give you life you would not consider it I don't think an offense to him if you walked five miles to stand in line with tears on your face of gratitude and expectancy to get the food would that walk have to be legalism no it wouldn't he walked five miles all the way singing his praises he opened the bed he opened the container with his life I'm going to get in line stand in line all day if I have to ask and you receive seek and you will find God ordains that the goods purchased by his son that is everything that good for you the goods purchased by his son come to us through prayer don't try to write it another way like I'm just gonna stay here until it falls in my mouth when he says go into your closet and shut the door people are watching you with your mouth open shut your mouth go to your closet just a little something to do but the doing doesn't have to earn you anything nobody who stands in a bread line for free food thinks I'm buying it they don't and they're not so ask and you'll receive seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you so for your own soul for your family for your church for your vocation for the nation's plan in 2010 that you will pray that you'll be intentional about this because Christ died for you and through prayer God will give you what he bought for you freely especially himself let's pray Father in heaven I ask again as I did at the beginning that you would pour out a spirit of supplication prayer grace upon our church there are deep things deep spiritual things that need to happen in our hearts to turn prayer into a delight and not a burden deep things and and there are people who are gonna feel guilty when I'm done here because they don't yet feel that delight and they're supposed to and I pray that instead of wallowing in that guilt and letting it conquer them and giving the devil a victory that they will stand in the face of that bad feeling and say I don't care about you bad feeling my God sent His Son and died for me I'm trusting that he is totally on my side because of that and in due time my heart will awake so I'm going to my closet because he loves me so much so whether it's that way or another roundabout way take us Lord and give us I pray deep gospel faith as we are intentional about prayer in this year Jesus name

Channel: Desiring God

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Prayer, Holy Spirit

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Length: 53min 4sec (3184 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2018