Episode 288: You Are Made for This | Brian Morgan

Introduction

Well, good morning. You'll see up on the screen, we have a very famous athlete. I'm sure he's a household name in your house. He was a very famous runner in the 1960 Olympics. And the reason he was famous, one, he won the gold medal. Amazing. He ran two hours and sixteen minutes for a marathon. If he can run a marathon in two hours and sixteen minutes, running 26 miles, drum roll, in bare feet. Look at it up there.

What made him really famous, obviously, was the gold medal, but what really was, he was the first major runner to run a marathon in his bare feet. I'm not sure about you, but when I go out in the morning or in the afternoon and I'm going to the mailbox, I'm wearing bare feet. It kind of hurts my feet. I can't imagine running a marathon in the middle of the summer on hot roads in Rome. They did the marathon at night, so he didn't scorch his feet. Well, I'm sure he still scorched his feet. Right?

So what's amazing is his feet are made for walking and running. Look at the stats on feet: 26 bones, 29 muscles, 33 joints, and a hundred tendons in this thing called your foot. Your foot is made for walking. If you see the way it works, it goes down and it goes up, and it works really smoothly. For most of us, though, we have foot problems, foot issues. So we think, man, that thing, you sure it's working the way it's supposed to be working? And when it does, it really is this amazing thing.

Some of us have too high of an arch, so your foot's hurting, or too low of an arch, or your foot's too wide. Hate to say that. Or your foot's too skinny, or maybe you have toe fungus. Raise your hand if you got toe fungus. Just kidding. Just making sure you're awake. Feet are made and created for walking. Now, you can do other things with your feet, but that's not what they're made for. You can paint with your feet. Have you seen that before? Folks that have lost a limb or limbs, and they learn how to put a paintbrush in their mouth, or they learn how to put a paintbrush in their toes, and they paint with their feet. True story. You can text with your feet, but it's difficult. But some people do. They figure out how to use their feet to text on a phone. That way they can communicate with their friends and family.

How about cooking with your feet? Alright. On the men's retreat, for one of the breakfasts, we ate 10 pounds of bacon. That's what I'm calling bacon bacon, not just bacon. Imagine trying to cook 10 pounds of bacon with your feet. Ridiculous. Right? See, the foot is made for walking.

Made for Prayer

We are made for prayer. Do you believe that? God made you to pray. That's the way you're designed. It's the way you're created. It's the way you're made. If feet are made for walking, you are made for praying. Let's pray as we dive in.

Father, thank you today that you never leave us alone, that you give us the Holy Spirit. And so we pray, Holy Spirit, help us this morning. Bring scripture alive for us. Do its work in us of growth and grace and guidance. Grow us up in Christ. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. In Christ's name. Amen.

The Role of Prayer in Jesus' Life

So we're continuing our sermon series asking the what behind the why. What do we do on Sunday mornings and why do we do that? And we've talked about three things so far. We've talked about the family table, the communion table, gathering every week at the family table for the family meal. We've talked about worship, singing as this opportunity to grow closer to the Lord, to celebrate and declare who he is. We've talked about scripture. Scripture is not just this knowledge to get in our head, but by the Spirit, it will get into our life, into our deep inner life and change us. It's made to be applied so we can be more like Christ.

And today, we talk about prayer. You were created to pray. So we're going to look at three things:

1. What did Jesus and Paul do with prayer?
2. What does that mean for us?
3. And what does it look like on Sunday morning?

What did Jesus do with prayer?

If we're disciples of Jesus, then we have to ask ourselves, what did he do with it? Does anybody know our mission statement off the top of their head? Ready, go.

Excellent. Experts say if it's too long, you can't put it on a napkin, you shouldn't have it. Ours is healthy disciples making healthy disciples in Jesus Christ.

If we're disciples of Jesus, then we have to say, what did Jesus do with prayer? Well, 23 times the New Testament describes Jesus in prayer. We're going to walk through a few of them. It paints this picture of what Jesus saw of prayer, what Jesus did with prayer.

First one is Luke 3:21:

For God so loved the world... — John 3:16

[Note: The transcript actually says he baptized and prayed, but the exact scripture reference was likely Luke 3:21]

Right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, what is he doing? Coming up with his strategic plan, now he's praying. Jesus has this posture of prayer right from the beginning of his ministry.

Mark 1: continues another example. That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick and oppressed by demons, and the whole city was gathered at the door. They wanted to see who Jesus was. They wanted to get into the action. Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he would not let them permit the demons to speak. Then Luke 1:35, and rising very early in the morning—while it was still dark—Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

So after a long night of healing and teaching and the crowd all around him, what did Jesus do the next day? Get up and have a protein shake? No. He got up and he prayed. He got alone by himself in a desolate place. Luke 1:36, and Simon and those who are with him searched for him. They said, everyone’s looking for you. He knew that, but he was out by himself connecting with his daddy, Father.

What we'll see for Jesus, he had this posture, this look about him of connection, of listening, of praying, of communicating with his Father. Martin Luther, the famous Protestant reformer, was asked one day about what he was going to do next week. He was known for saying that he would pray two hours every day. Can you imagine praying two hours every day? I would aspire for that, wouldn't we? And Luther was very busy. He helped plant churches, he wrote volumes of theology, he pastored pastors, and he would pray two hours every day. And then one week, he was asked this question. They knew he had a busy week ahead, and they said, what are you going to do with your busy week? And this is how Luther answered: work, work, from early till late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend three hours of prayer. For Luther, the busier he got, the more time he spent connecting with his dad, with his heavenly Father.

Next, Luke 6—all night. I love this one for all you morning people. Sorry. I'm a morning person. Luke 6, in these days Jesus went out on the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when the day came, he called his disciples and he chose from them whom he named apostles. At one of the most important moments in his ministry, he's gathering together his team that’s going to continue his Father's mission. What does he do? Get the spreadsheet ready? No. Do you do a character test of all the guys he had gathered up? Probably not. We don't know. But what we do know he did, he stayed up all night in conversation, in connection, in prayer to his Father. At these primary, really important moments, Jesus is praying, he's praying, he's praying.

Luke 11, this great famous passage of the Lord's prayer, they've seen Jesus pray, and now they're asking, Lord, help us know what this is. When Jesus now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Help us figure what he's doing. We see you do it all the time. As John taught his disciples, teach us. And Jesus said to them, when you pray, say, and then he lays out the Lord's prayer:

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us our daily bread. Forgive our trespasses. — Luke 11:2-4

They say, teach us. Jesus says, not when you get around to it, not when you've done your other ten things. He says, when you pray. The invitation is, you're going to do this. This is what you're made for. You were created for this. And when you do it, here's how you do it. Up all night, early in the morning, at the pivotal moments of your life, spend time with your Father.

Finally, the last two examples:

Luke 22, Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before they're going to crucify him and it's going to be a bloody mess. He has his disciples with him. This is Luke 22:40:

And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and he prayed.

This is the final moments before it all goes down. And he says, Father, communication, Father, Father. Paul says, Abba, Daddy—his most personal, most intimate relationship in the heat of the moment. Father God, if you're willing to remove this cup, man, I would love plan B, but your will be done. And if plan A is your will, then your will be done.

Then, Luke 23, on the cross. I mean, here he was, bloody, beat up, shamed, ridiculed. And what does he do? Thinks of all the things he could say to him, and he says, Father, forgive them. Jesus at the highs, Jesus at the lows, Jesus in the big decisions, Jesus at the final moment, Jesus at the eternal pathways of what could happen—he has this posture of prayer.

Richard Foster says it this way:

All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their life. For those explorers in the frontiers of faith, prayer was not a little habit tacked on to their life; it was their life. Prayer wasn't something they did, it was who they are. We don't do prayer, we live prayer. That's what Jesus did.

You'll see in the next slide, Paul picks it up and goes even a little deeper. 1 Thessalonians 5:

Pray without ceasing. Whatever you're doing, have this posture of prayer. Wherever you are, have this posture of prayer. Pray all the time. — 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Romans 8:

The Spirit helps us to pray. Whatever you're feeling, whatever your situation, the Spirit's job is to help you to pray. If you're at that spot and you're like, I just don't know how to make it through, I just don't know what to do. I am riddled with anxiety. I can't make it. The Holy Spirit's job is to help you. Father, let's communicate, let's talk, let's connect. — Romans 8:26

Colossians 4:

Continue steadfastly, keep it going, Paul says. Keep your prayer going—do it all the time, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Finally, he says, make your requests known to God. Let God know what they are. — Colossians 4:2-3

What does that mean for us?

The invitation is to do the exact same thing. What's interesting, in the beginning of the scriptures in Genesis, even in their sin and rebellion against God, what are Adam and Eve doing? They're talking with God. Mike Smith, a good friend of mine, was in the early service right over there. After the service, he said, oh, you said my name. I was like, I don't worry about it; the rest of us are doing the same thing.

Even in the midst of our sin, we're crying out to God. God, I'm sorry I'm doing this. God, help me in this. God, I want to get out of this. Prayer is this invitation to call out to God. That's what Adam and Eve were doing. At the end of the book, in Revelation, Jesus says:

Come to me, you who are thirsty. Come and pray and connect and communicate with me. — Revelation 22:17

So Paul is saying, Jesus is saying, not just when you're in church, not just when the market is low, not just in an emergency—you were created to pray. All the time, every situation, no matter who you are, no matter where you are.

Thomas Kelly says it this way:

There's a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level, we'll be thinking and discussing and seeing and calculating and meeting all the demands of our life. He says, but deep within, behind the scenes, there's a profounder level of life. And in that, we can be in prayer, in adoration, in song, in worship, and a general receptivity to the divine. That this calling is to live our everyday life at the mailbox when you're changing diapers, when you're at a work project. That's one level. The second level is in the midst of those things, talking, listening, communicating, connecting, praying. Jesus did it and we are made for it.

What does that look like on Sunday morning?

So what do we do on an average Sunday service? That's really what we're talking about today. If prayer looked like this for Jesus, and Paul describes it this way, then what are we doing? Sunday morning is just an extension of the rest of our life, which is to be about prayer.

Prayer at the highs, prayer at the lows, prayers of celebration, of declaration, of confession, of profession, of asking, of listening, corporate prayers, individual prayers. That's what the Sunday morning service is all about. The Sunday morning service is one massive prayer service. Did you know that? That's why we gather every Sunday morning; one massive prayer service.

If you don't think it's true, look on the screen. You can go to the next slide. The Anglican Church has left us this amazing service that has the golden thread of prayer all the way through. How does the service start? With this really weird saying that we have in the back. No. It's a prayer. Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Raise your hand if you heard us say that before. If you haven't, then you're asleep at the first part of the service or you came late. That's not a declaration because it sounds good. What is it? It's a prayer.

If you come in next Sunday, you've had a terrible week, then we invite you to join us as we say, God bless you, father. Bless you for all that you are and all that you do. Maybe next week you've had a really great week, and you can say the exact same words: Blessed be you, God, ruler of the universe. You know me by name. Bless you, father, son, and holy spirit. And then everybody responds, Blessed be God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. Good job. See, obviously, it's still hard to figure it out, isn't it?

Call to Purity

Next, call it for purity. This is a great prayer that we do every week. It comes from the tenth century. It's a very old prayer. Now you may be saying, why would we do a prayer that comes from the tenth century? Why would we do a written prayer? Well, the great thing is the church has been praying written prayers for about 3,500 years. The Psalms are written prayers. We pray them all the time. Worship songs are just really written prayers. When you're singing a worship song, just imagine yourself praying that song.

The call for purity is a great prayer that says, God, you know everything about me. God, I can come in today, and I'm going to try to hide who I really am and what goes on and the thoughts I've been thinking, and you don't have to. The call for purity is an invitation for you and me to leave our fake self in the car and bring in your real self. You know why? Almighty God, to you, all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you, no secrets are hid. It comes right from the Psalms. God, you know everything about me. Help me in the midst of you knowing everything about me to come and connect and communicate and pray and listen to you. That's how we start our service every single Sunday.

So you don't have to worry about some slick video that we're going to show. We may show one later, but that's not how we're going to start the service. You don't have to worry about if it's your favorite song every Sunday at the beginning of the service. It may not be, probably won't be. But you know what we will do? We're going to stand up together and we're going to declare: God, we're here for you. You know everything about me. Here I am. Then we move into worship through singing, just a springboard to celebrate who God is, to declare with our words these are the things about God.

Sometimes in worship, it's reminding us who we are. It's just a prayer. God, thank you today. Thank you today, God. Then we move into the announcements. Now, I know that you are praying during the announcements because you're hoping they go faster, right? So I know you're praying during those. Don't act like you're not. We as clergy also pray during those thinking, man, how would we get all those announcements in and all that kind of stuff? Right?

Next slide. Then we move into the sermon. Charles Spurgeon, one of the famous preachers—some say the greatest preacher ever next to Jesus—famously said the reason he was so successful as a preacher was because he knew his church was praying for him. It was the prayers of the ordinary people like us that led to his life-changing sermons year after year after year.

During the scriptures, pray. Ask God to help you understand what they're saying. Help it to go from your head to your heart. Pray for the person sitting next to you during the sermon. Pray for the preacher. We need help. Pray that you'll walk out and remember what you just heard from God's great story.

After that, we then move to prayer at the rails, and I specifically don't have it up there because I want everybody to look at me and not up there. Every Sunday after the sermon, we invite you to come up to the rails. Is it magic that happens up here or over there? Not a bit. There's no magic tricks. I don't have a bunny in my sleeve or anything like that. The rails are for folks on the prayer team to pray for you. Don't worry, there's no snakes up there. Raise your hand if you've seen a snake up there. Nope. No snakes up there.

You know what it is? It's ordinary people praying for ordinary people to an extraordinary, life-changing God. Every Sunday, we invite you to come on up. Do you have to come up? No. You don't have to come up. Does something happen when you stand up and you take those steps towards God as his Spirit is calling you and wooing you? Yeah. Something happens. So every Sunday, there's an invitation to come on up. If you didn't know it, the curve rails are by yourself, but come up as a family. Come up as a couple. If your friend comes up, come up and pray next to them.

On the men's retreat, it was fabulous seeing men praying for other men. One guy shared part of his testimony, and before he even got started, he was overwhelmed with the grace of God, and he just reached out. Raise your hand if you're on the men's retreat. He reached out and grabbed Bill Hauk, and he just started weeping because of what God had done in his life. A brother next to a brother—that's what the curve rails are about.

So every Sunday, hear the scripture. The invitation is to then come. Then we move into the prayer of the day—that's the prayer of the day. You'll hear the person praying. Those are prayers from the 1500s that we pray every week. And then we continue to move into our official prayers. We call it CATs—for all the cat lovers, that's the final shout out for you. Dogs get a lot of shout outs. There you go. I saw your hand, Gil. I personally like dogs better, but I grew up with cats, but that's all right.

During our CATs, we have a time of confession. We come and say, kneel at the rail or kneel where you are. We need to confess, don't we? We have a time of adoration to adore God, a time of thanksgiving, and a time of supplication. That's our prayers every week. It sounds just like the Lord's prayer, actually. Pretty similar categories to the Lord's prayer.

The Communion and the Invitation

And finally, our service ends with communion at the family table. What do we see as the thread going through all of our service? It's an invitation. You see, the core part of prayer—the core part of prayer—is actually coming under another. Instead of saying, I'm going to be the one on top, I'm going to be the one that has it together, the basic posture of prayer is saying, I don't have it together. I need help. I need to come under another person, another being outside of myself.

This conversation I had with a friend of mine about ten years ago, and we were walking into a room, and he very cockily said, I get in the room, I look around, and I figure I'm the smartest one in the room. And I thought, man, that is the opposite of what prayer is. Prayer is about saying, God, I don't have it together. Prayer is about saying, I am called to be under you. Jesus said, you want to be in the kingdom of God? Be like a child. Needful. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. God, I need your help.

Jesus did it at the highs and the lows, and we are called to do the same. So you'll see up on the screen a couple really heart-rending pictures from Ukraine. If you know the war in Ukraine has been going on for more than a year at this point. Reporters say 500 churches have been totally demolished in this war. Christianity Today did a great interview of Christians and pastors remaining in Ukraine. Some stayed, many left.

Some of them said, one of the pastors said, what used to be prayer for our congregation, for him as a pastor, was an occupation. It's now our lifeline. He said he prays when he's afraid, which is all the time. He prays when the bombs are landing near his church. He prays when the orphanage was totally destroyed and their church took in 46 orphans living in their basement. Calvary Baptist Church is the one that took in the orphans.

Another church down the street took in 200 people that live in the community, and their whole life has been destroyed by the war. When they gather for worship, it's not about the songs. It's not about a great sermon. The pastor said, when the war came, he had to look God in the eyes and say, what am I doing? James, one of the pastors, was asked, do you regret that you stayed? No, I don't. He said, don't regret that I stayed. He said, we are on God's front line. We are ready to meet God at any moment.

Friends, that's what we do on Sunday mornings. We are ready to meet God at any moment. And so we gather for worship songs, we gather to pray, to celebrate, to declare who God is. We gather to come under the one who died for us and lived his life because we couldn't live it perfectly. We gather every week because our life depends on coming to the communion table, eating and knowing Jesus Christ, our savior.

And the invitation is every week: come to me, Jesus says. I'm the author and perfecter of the faith. I’ve run the race for you. Churches in Ukraine now gather in tents, basements, in homes—to connect, to communicate, to bury their family and friends. But they gather to celebrate, to pray, to worship.

And so here we are again, today. We want to invite you: if you need to come forward and communicate, to connect, to listen to God, the curves rails are open for you. Come on forward. We'd love for you to come. If you need somebody to pray with you, the prayer team would love to pray with you.

Friends, we have a gift to gather on Sundays. Let's pray.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.

Cleanse our thoughts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that we may completely love you. God, you know everything about us. And we thank you that at the highs and the lows, at the difficulties and the celebrations, you hear us. Lord, hear us in our quiet now. Hear us as we call out to you.