Episode 183: An Invitation to Intimacy | Brian Morgan+

Introduction

Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. That was really quiet. So we are continuing this sermon series, looking at discipleship, asking ourselves what did Jesus say about disciples? What does that mean for the church mission? What is our mission of healthy disciples making healthy disciples?

So we've talked about what does it mean to be on mission? What does it mean to be a disciple in the family? And today and next week, we are talking about prayer in the life of a disciple. Next week, the Quickie is gonna go a little deeper about kind of the art and craft of listening to God as a disciple. And today we're gonna go with the basics. The basics of what is prayer? How did Jesus pray? Was he a praying person? What did that look like for him?

I'm convinced, and I think you will be too after I give you some examples, that all of us pray on a regular basis in some form or fashion.

See if you've prayed any of these prayers. Oh Lord, at Valley View today, help me to find that special parking spot. You prayed that one? I know you have, I have as well. Or there's this one when you're in fifth grade, Lord, may Sally wanna go to the dance with me. Or this one, Lord, I'm running late. May the Starbucks at Towers be a short line. Right? Or this one, these ones are a little more closer at hand. I've got a job interview today. Lord, help me to present my best self. Lord, I have a test coming up and I didn't really study as much as I would like. Or this one, Lord, it's Christmas Eve and I know it's 3PM and I don't have a present yet. Give me wisdom as I go to Belk's for my wife.

You ever prayed that prayer? No, I'm being serious. We all have this posture where we are calling out to God in the midst of life. Are you waiting for a note from the doctor? There's a family in our church and the mother's in a very difficult place in the hospital and they may have to say goodbye to her in the next day or so. I know they are praying, we are praying for them as a church staff. Or maybe you're in a difficult spot in your marriage and you're just saying, God, help us. We don't know what to do.

Let me ask you, when you hear the words prayer, a praying life, a prayer-saturated life, what does it do for you? When you hear that, do you get excited about prayer or does it stress you out? When you hear about the invitation to to pray, is it a burden? I just don't pray enough. Just some lousy prayer. Or when you hear the invitation to pray, does it does it, you know, oh man, I can't wait to do that.

In our culture, so often they say, well, nobody prays anymore. Who does that? God's not really real. Yet, how many times have you seen people take this posture? Why is this happening to me? What are we doing in that posture? Or maybe this one, I just don't know how I'm gonna make it through. The posture of our life says so much that we are reaching out for something beyond ourselves. That's the way God created us.

The Example of Jesus

So what did that look like in the life of Jesus? And what does that look like for us as disciples? But we should pray before we talk about prayer. So let's pray.

Lord, thank you this morning. You know us the best and you love us the most. Nobody else can do that. We pray and ask you bring scripture alive for us today. Shoot it like a fiery arrow into our souls to ignite, to give us new life. In Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus and Prayer: The Model

So let's begin with Jesus first. Right? There are over 23 times in the New Testament specifically that refer to Jesus and prayer.

Jesus prayed alone. Jesus prayed in public before meals, before healings, after healings, while he's speaking to the religious leaders. Jesus prayed before walking on water. I encourage you, if you're gonna go home and walk on water tomorrow, pray about it first. See what the Lord has for you about that. Jesus prayed before feeding 4,000.

If you ask my alpha leader, sometimes I'm just like biting my fingernails hoping we don't run out of food at alpha. I can't imagine having 4,000 to feed on that little. But what did Jesus do? Scripture says, Jesus gave thanks.

He had this posture of prayer that he was living his life into. Jesus was a 100% God. He was a 100% man. He was also 100% a praying person.

We could spend all month looking at it, but I broke it down into three easy categories for us.

Category number one: Jesus prayed regularly at the beginning and at the endings of things in his life. Jesus prayed at the beginnings, his baptism, the beginning of his mission. He had waited thirty years and now he gets commissioned, the Holy Spirit comes, and what does it say he's doing in Luke? He's praying.

The beginning of his ministry, he is praying. Turn over to Luke chapter six. If you got a Bible, turn over to Luke. We're gonna look at three key passages this morning. They're all in Luke.

The first one is this one, Luke chapter six verse 12. This is another beginning moment for Jesus, a really significant moment for him. He had waited thirty years, he started his ministry, and he gathers this team together, these disciples, ragtag group of people to continue his ministry on after he's gone. What's interesting is what he does as he starts and he gathers these folks.

In these days Jesus went out on the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God.

At one of the most significant moments in the early part of his ministry, what does he do? He stays up all night and he's in conversation, communication, listening to the Father.

And when day came, he called his disciples and chose with him the 12 whom we name apostles — Luke 6:12-13

And in scripture, it names them all. So Jesus prayed at the beginnings and Jesus prayed at the endings of his life and his ministry. Thomas Fuller, a great Anglican theologian, says this: "Prayer should be the key of the day and it should be the lock of the night."

Prayer should be the key of the day. We start our day with the key of prayer. God, thank you for today. Prayer is the lock of the night. God, thanks for today, and I go to bed and I'm in your arms.

So a question for us as a disciple, we've talked about a disciple is a learner, a follower, a student who's put our life and faith and trust in him. That's what it means to be a disciple.

So as a disciple of Jesus, where is prayer in the beginnings and the endings of our life? Of daily life, in and out, at the mailbox, at the grocery store, at the beginning of a hard day, at the end of a hard day, at the beginning of an easy conversation, at the end of an easy conversation. What does it look like in your life to have prayer be at the beginnings and the endings? That's the invitation we see from Jesus.

Number one: he was a prayer. He prayed regularly at the beginnings and the endings.

Number two: Jesus prayed at the highs of his life and the lows of his life.

Pray as you can and do not pray as you can't. — Luke 22:32

C. S. Lewis says it this way, same thing: "Lay before God what is in us and not what ought to be in us." Give to God the highs and give God the lows. Be in conversation at the great moments of your life, you're celebrating, and know that God is there to converse with you at the low points as well.

Turn over to Luke chapter 22. Again, Luke is pointing out for us, Jesus and the prayer-saturated life. Jesus and the prayer-filled life. You see in John 6:11, he's praying at this amazing moment, giving thanks before the crowd.

And then also, Jesus has this really low moment. He's invested his whole life in these men and women for that matter, but especially the twelve, especially the three, James and John. And what does Jesus know? They're all gonna run at the end. He's invested everything in them, and they're all gonna scatter. And Peter in particular is gonna deny him. I would consider that a pretty low moment for Jesus.

And what does he say to Peter?

"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you — Luke 22:31

Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

Jesus praying this incredible moment of feeding all these people and then praying in communication at the lows, thinking himself, everything, my team is gonna disband, but I am praying for them.

FB Myers has a great book on prayer. He says this: The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. The great tragedy of life is not that God says no to prayers, and we don't understand them, we don't see them, but we don't offer them.

The reality is most of us think, I can't ask God about that. I can't be in conversation with God about that. I can't lift that concern to God. That's totally muck. Look at the mistakes I've made in my life. F. Meyer, F. B. Meyer, is saying the real mistake is we never offer any of those.

Are you at a spot this morning and you're saying, look, I am down in the lows. God's right there with you. Richard Foster expands and he says, it's the notion almost universally among most modern high achievers that we have to have everything together just right in order to pray.

That is before we can really pray, our lives must need some fine tuning or we need to know more about how to pray or we need to know the philosophy around prayer or we need to better grasp the great traditions of prayer before we can pray.

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something that we master like algebra or auto mechanics. Foster says, that puts us in the on top position where we are competent and in control. But when praying, we come underneath where we deliberately surrender control and we become incompetent.

Have you ever felt like you were incompetent at a low point in your life? That's a great place to pray. Emily Griffin says, to pray means to be willing to be naive.

Jesus says, come to me when you have it all together. He says, come to me like a child, helpless, needy, you don't have it together. Jesus prayed at the highs of his life. Jesus also prayed at the lows of his life. The invitation for us this morning as a disciple of Jesus Christ, how are you and I hearing and responding to God's invite, his invitation to communication with him in the midst of the highs and the midst of the lows.

When's the last time we had a really great celebratory moment in our life and the first thing that came out of our mouth was, oh, God, thank you. I mean, that's what Sunday worship is all about. It's a celebration of God, you are so great. You are so kind. All these highs.

But worship is all about dragging in and saying, God, I am at a really low right now. God, do you hear my SOS? And the invite is absolutely. Jesus did it. The invitation is for us as well.

Prayer with Honesty and Trust

So number three, Jesus prayed with great honesty and trust in God the Father. We see this right at the end of his life. In Luke chapter 23, we see it a couple of different places.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." — Luke 23:34

What amazing honesty, what incredible trust.

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." — Luke 23:46

Jesus in his prayer showing amazing trust. Father, this is a mass murder, and I'm at the center of it. But I give myself to you.

Al Martin says it this way: What is prayer in its last analysis? It's the conscious spreading out of my helplessness before God. It's saying, God, I don't have it all together, I'm not perfect, twisted motives and all. God, here's my high, here's my low, here's my beginning, here's my end. I just come to you and say, God, here I am.

Reflection and Application

So what does it look like for you and for me? To be more honest and to be more open in our prayers to God the Father? There's incredible freedom.

Now, you may be saying, all right, Brian, that's great. You know, you seem like you have a lot of experience in that. Those are all great words. But listen, I'm just an average person in the Roanoke Valley. I'm just trying to figure out what does it mean to follow Jesus, what does it mean to be a Christian, how to get here on Sunday mornings, trying to be nice to my family and coworkers and all that stuff. What you're saying is, Brian, I just have a lot of barriers.

And I'm gonna say you are exactly right. We all have a lot of barriers in our prayer life. In specific, I think there's three that are really big, we gotta talk about them.

Number one: Busyness. Busyness is one of the massive barriers to a prayer-filled life. A life that is saturated in conversation, communication with a God that knows us, listening and talking, busyness will be a massive barrier for you and for me.

Is your life set up in a way that you can pray moment by moment or are you too busy?

Number two: An incorrect view of God. We have this picture, this skewed picture of who God is, and it's actually a repeller to be in communication with a God who knows us and loves us. Maybe you think God is like the Santa Claus in the sky, and he's got his finger pulled back. He's about ready to flick you off the planet because you're living a messed-up life.

If that's a picture of God, I wouldn't wanna be in communication with that God either, would you? What about it's a God who knows you? A God that came to rescue you? A God that knows you've turned your back on him, and he's running after you?

See, an incorrect view of God creates a barrier that makes it difficult to communicate.

And lastly: Sin. Sin is the barrier for communication with God. If you're here this morning and you are checking out Jesus, you said, I'm not a Christian yet. I'm not sure if he's real. I'm not sure if I believe in him. I'm here to tell you this morning that sin is the barrier. We've all been there. We've all been there before.

Sin is this barrier because we wanna live life our own way. And God said, I created you to live life with me. One of the greatest moments, if not the greatest moment in our life, is when we realize the sin barrier is us. And we say, Jesus, forgive me for my sins. And the floodgates open, and I'm telling you, you will consider it one of the highest moments of your life when suddenly the barrier is gone because of Jesus' life and death and resurrection.

So if you're here and you're exploring, you're saying, look, I know there's a barrier. This morning is an opportunity. Jesus, forgive me. I wanna be in relationship with you. Or maybe you're here this morning, you've been a Christian a long time, been a member of church, Holy Spirit a long time, and you feel like sin is that barrier. Let me say to you, just confess it. Ask for forgiveness.

Invitation to Prayer

So number one, Jesus prayed at the beginnings of his life. Jesus prayed at the endings of his life. Jesus prayed at the highs, some of the greatest moments of his life. He was in prayer. Certainly, some of the lowest moments in his life, he was in communication with the Father.

Jesus prayed with great honesty and with great trust. Philip Yancey tells a story in his book. I mean, it's, Richard Foster tells a story in his book about his friend was at the mall, and he was there with his, two-year-old son. And they were cruising around the mall, and the little boy was tired. He was hangry. He was having a rough time. And right there in front of everybody, the son had a major meltdown. Anybody ever had one of those meltdowns?

We know you do as an adult, but what I'm talking about, has your kid ever had that meltdown? Right? The kid begins to have a major meltdown in front of everybody at the mall. And the dad is right there in front of everybody deciding what he's gonna do. And he walks up to the little boy, and he reaches out his arms, and he grabs the little boy. And the boy is screaming and crying and kicking, and he picks him up, and he and brings the little boy to his chest and he begins to sing a love song over him.

I love you. I am your dad. You are my son. Could the dad sing? Not at all. Was the boy listening? Absolutely. As the dad sang this love song over the little boy, the little boy began to soften and curl up into his dad's shoulder. They walked out to the car. The little boy is just holding on for dear life. The dad is continuing to sing a love song over his son.

"I love you. I am your dad. You are my child." — (Story about the mall)

And he gets to the car and he opens the door and he puts the little boy in the chair and the little boy looks up and he says, dad, will you sing me that song again? Folks, that's the invitation of prayer. Because of Jesus' life and death and resurrection, we can know God as a personal Father. We can have this ongoing, intimate relationship with God no matter the high, no matter the low.

It's a gift to intimacy. It's an invitation this morning, right here, right now. Every Sunday, we have an opportunity to come forward to the rail. I'm inviting you this morning, come forward. Your Father is saying, come forward no matter where is going on in your life and where you are.

We have prayer teams at the straight rail. Maybe you're saying there's a barrier in my life and I cannot get around it. Come with a prayer team person. Confess it. Open the doorway for grace, forgiveness. Or maybe you're at a spot where you just need to come pray by yourself and say, God, here's the low I'm in. Help me to know you're there. Or maybe you need to come forward and you just need to celebrate. God, I'm coming forward this morning to tell you how amazing you are that you got me through.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we are so grateful that you gave us this pattern. We're grateful that you were a praying person. We ask you now to meet us. Meet us in our fear, meet us in our excitement, meet us in our dread, meet us as that lump in our throat is so big, we can't get away from it. Pick us up in your nail-scarred hands. Sing over us this morning, sing over us.