The Discipline of Prayer

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We’re going to be in Matthew chapter 26 this morning. If you want to go ahead and turn there, Matthew chapter 26. When I left here last Sunday morning, I did something kind of dumb, and I know that won’t surprise anybody, because I seem to do things like that all the time.

But I left out of here, and I had Benjamin in the car with me, and I had buckled him in, And he was asking me lots of questions, and I was trying to answer some and deflect others. And so I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention to what I was doing. And I took my foot off the brake and hit the gas and went forward into the little ditch between here and the road to pull through.

And then just sat there and kept hitting the gas, kept punching my foot on that gas trying to get the car to go. And I thought, now I know it’s a 15-year-old car, but I just bought it six weeks ago and it’s already dying on me. What is going on?

I’m jamming the gas and I’m trying to get it to go. And I looked down and realized it wasn’t a problem with the car. It was operator error.

I had put the car in neutral. And y’all laugh, but who among you hadn’t done that at some point or another? and I thought okay well on one hand I’m glad that it’s just my stupidity but on the other hand I wish it wasn’t my stupidity you know having that car in neutral though it just wasn’t going to go any place I mean well I was wrong I’m wrong it did go some place I coasted down there was some forward momentum to it, but I was trying to get out here onto the road and trying to get back into town, and it just wasn’t working. I just kind of limped forward into the ditch.

And try as I might, and as hard as I jam that gas pedal, there was just no power and it wasn’t going to go anywhere. My spiritual life feels like that at times. And just, I know I say this all the time, but I suspect I’m not alone in that.

In fact, I suspect, if we’re being honest, we probably all feel at some time or another like in my spiritual life, I’m just limping along. Yeah, there’s a little movement here, but I’m not really going where I’m supposed to go. I see other people whizzing past me, getting to the destination, you know, God has for them.

But here I am just limping forward into the ditch and I sit there wondering why no matter how hard I try to push that car forward, I just can’t get it to go. Our spiritual life can get to a point where we just feel like we limp along. It’s not on track.

We can’t get where we’re going. It’s not functioning the way it’s supposed to. Do you ever feel like your spiritual life is not functioning the way it’s supposed to?

And that’s not necessarily a judgment on you. I think the strongest believers all have a point where just feel like everything is not where it’s supposed to. We’re human.

And then there are seasons of life where it feels like more often than not we’re just stalled. And no matter how hard we push no matter how hard we try to get things to go there’s just no power there. There’s no movement.

There’s no direction. We’re just stuck in neutral. Some of you out there this morning are already nodding your heads and I can see in your eyes that either you feel that way right now or you have just recently come through a season of feeling that way. Some of you may be better Christians than me and may not feel this way, but you probably will in the future.

And what I find, what I find in scripture is that when it’s just like with my car, it’s not usually a problem with the car, it’s operator error. It’s a problem with me. That if I feel like I’m far away from God, it’s probably because I am.

If you feel like you’re far away from God, it’s probably because you are. And guess what? God is not the one who moved.

God is right where he’s always been. I’ve heard the story and repeated the story several times about the older couple who rides in the truck. Now, I haven’t had a car in a long time that has the bench seat.

So I don’t know what it’s like to be married to somebody and have them sit right up next to me. Charla and I have our own seats in the car. And that just seems to be the way they make cars nowadays.

But my grandparents used to ride around together in the truck. And I say my grandparents. My grandfather died when I was young.

My grandmother remarried. Their wedding was the first wedding I ever got to perform. So they were in their 60s and they were newlyweds, which was kind of neat.

But she would sit right up next to him in the truck in that bench seat. And I thought, oh, they love each other. But I heard the story for years and told the story for years about the older couple who had the bench seat in the truck.

And the wife sitting on the passenger side says to the husband, I just don’t feel like we’re as close as we used to be anymore. And the husband who’s sitting right behind the steering wheel said, well, I’m not the one who moved.

it’s true isn’t it if we feel distant from God and we’re in the passenger seat he’s not the one who moved we are so a lot of times if we feel distant from God and we feel like our spiritual life is getting nowhere if we feel like there’s no power behind it it’s probably true it’s probably because there is a problem there’s probably a red check engine light going off in our spirit saying something is not right here I’m mixing all kinds of metaphors today aren’t I but it’s probably an indication that if we feel like something is wrong and there’s no power, there’s no direction, I feel distant from God and things are just not working, they’re not functioning the way they’re supposed to, it’s probably not our imagination. It’s probably because that’s true. And if we’re distant from God, we’re the ones who wandered away.

Where God is saying, I’m right here, right where I was supposed to be. You tell your kids in the store, stay with me. It is not my job to stay with you.

It is your job to stay with me. And they get on the next aisle and can’t find you. And they’re hollering out, Daddy, Daddy, I couldn’t find you.

Well, you didn’t stay with me. I was where I was supposed to be and you weren’t. We need to be in close, constant contact with our Father.

For our spiritual life to work, to function the way it’s supposed to be, for us to have the feeling of closeness, it’s up to us not to move. Now that’s not to say that we can get close to God on our own. God has opened the door for a relationship with Him.

God has made it possible for us to approach the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. God has made it possible to have forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ. God offers us forgiveness as a free gift through Jesus Christ. God has done everything for us except make us sit down and have a relationship with Him. He’s done everything but make us follow through on it. Starting today and for the next seven weeks after this, on Sunday mornings I’m going to be talking to you about spiritual disciplines.

You may have seen the pictures up in the entryway there talking about boot camp for, I’m sorry, basic training. Boot camp sounds meaner, doesn’t it? Basic training for believers.

And you see the graphic out there, the picture of the recruits doing jumping jacks. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you do jumping jacks. It’s not that kind of basic training.

on top of which I haven’t been in the military so I’d be the worst drill instructor you could possibly have. But spiritually, there are some things that are pretty basic that we all need to learn and hopefully those of you who have been believers for a long time did learn them when you started out. If not, you probably picked them up along the way.

But if you’re a new believer, if you’re somebody who hadn’t been a Christian all that long and you’re thinking, okay, I’ve trusted Jesus as my Savior, What am I supposed to do next? Well, spiritual growth is your job. Spiritual growth is your focus from here on out.

How do we do that? We’re going to be talking about spiritual disciplines for the next eight weeks, including this one. Spiritual disciplines that help us grow in Christ. These are the things that are just basic that we need to nail down.

These are the skills that are going to carry us forward in our relationship with God. And these are the things that God is going to use to move us closer to Him. God’s goal, God’s goal for us, is for us to be more like Jesus Christ. The Bible says that for those he did foreknow, he did also predestine to be conformed to the image of his son.

And I’ve told you before, some people interpret that verse to say God chose some for salvation and some for hell. I don’t agree with that interpretation. If you do, I still love you.

But my understanding of that is God is saying my plan all along, what I predestined, what I foreknew. My plan all along was to save you and make you more like Jesus Christ. That’s what I understand predestination to mean. That God had a plan from before the foundation of the world to save us and to make us more like Jesus Christ. And coming back to this idea that we sometimes just have a relationship that doesn’t feel like it’s as close as it used to be.

And there’s not this power in our spiritual life. There’s not this sense of connection. There’s not this sense of direction of where we’re supposed to go.

and we just kind of limp along and think, why is that? And we get to a point where we get stuck down in the ditch, and we think, well, this is just normal. This is just the way it’s supposed to be. One of the biggest reasons why we feel that way, one of the biggest reasons why we get to this point, is because we neglect one of these disciplines, which is the discipline of prayer.

The discipline of prayer, the importance of the discipline of prayer cannot be overstated. It can’t be overstated. If you feel like, well, I feel distant from God.

First question is, how’s my prayer life? How’s my prayer life? Are you spending time in prayer?

Do you have a prayer life? Because, see, a lot of times we’ll go through life and think, I’ve got this. I’m in control.

I’ve got my house. I’ve got my job. I’ve got my bank account.

There’s nothing that can come along that I can’t handle until, oops, something does come along that I can’t handle. And then we run to God and say, hey, can you fix this for me? great thanks, and then I go back to taking care of my own life without any conversation or input from God.

Folks, I’m guilty of that at times as well, so please understand I’m not saying this to be mean to you when I tell you that’s not a prayer life. That’s just running to God to fix things when we decide we can’t handle it. A prayer life is saying, I have a relationship with God where we’re in constant conversation, where I am every day going to the Father, and I’m asking Him what He wants from me, what He expects from me that day.

I’m asking Him to mold me that day into the person that He wants me to be. I’m asking for His wisdom. I’m asking for His guidance.

I’m asking for Him to take control of my life. You’ve seen those bumper stickers or those license plates on the front of the car that say, God is my co-pilot. I appreciate the sentiment, but rip that off your car.

if God is your co-pilot you’re in the wrong seat God needs to be the pilot as a matter of fact if we’re talking in a car metaphor we need to be going to God every day and giving him back control of our lives which he has anyway we just don’t like to acknowledge that and say God you drive here are the keys and I’m not even going to sit in the passenger seat and tell you which way to go I’m going to go lock myself in the trunk but we need to be going to God every day and having a conversation having a meeting with God having a sit down and getting ourselves on the same page with God. This is one of the most important truths that I’ve ever learned from God’s Word. And it took me years to do it.

Because I think, well, God has His will and aspects of it can’t be changed because He’s sovereign. How does all this work? Why do we even pray?

Prayer is not to change God’s mind and God’s heart. Prayer is to change our minds and our hearts and get us in line with what God wants. Prayer is to soften our hearts before God.

Prayer is a time where we sit down and we open our hearts and God says, here’s what I want you to do. Here’s who I want you to be. Prayer is a time where God works on us as we sit down and we open our hearts before Him.

So we need to have this daily time. We need to have a regular prayer life. So going back to that beginning story, when we feel like everything is just powerless and dry and spiritually we have no direction.

The first question we need to ask ourselves is, how’s my prayer life? Am I really investing the time to spend with God that I should be? Or am I just trying to take control over my own life and my own spiritual life?

Am I trying to push this when there’s no power there behind me and then just go to Him when I have a major problem that I can’t handle? See, the greatest example we have of this need for prayer is Jesus. I think we’d probably all agree, hopefully we would all agree, that you can’t find a better example in the Bible than Jesus that we’re supposed to follow.

I mean, there’s some good examples in the Bible, but they’re all human examples. They’re all sinful examples. Jesus never did anything wrong.

So if you want somebody to look at and say, that’s the goal. Now, I’m not saying we can ever become Jesus. I’m not saying we can ever become God. We’re still sinful human beings.

But if we want to know where the mark is we want to aim for, it’s him. If we want to see the perfect example, it’s him. And we look in Matthew chapter 26, if you haven’t already turned there, we look in Matthew chapter 26, and we see this example of the need for prayer in our spiritual lives.

We see how vital this prayer was, this time and this discipline of prayer was for Jesus. See, you read through the Gospels, and you can see any number of times where it talks about Jesus going to pray or Jesus praying with his disciples or sometimes Jesus even leaving his disciples behind and saying I need to go spend time and pray. There are many examples where it may not even talk about prayer time.

It may not use the word prayer but it would say Jesus needed to come apart or come apart apart from the people, away from the people. And he needed to have time by himself and folks that wasn’t just for meditation or just to, I can’t deal with these people anymore. I just need some quiet.

It was time with his father. It was time to pray. It was time to commune with the father.

And we see one example of this in Matthew chapter 26 again, starting in verse 36, where we see it’s the night before his crucifixion. It’s just after they’ve finished the last supper, the Lord’s Supper, and just before he’s arrested, Verse 36 says, well, I go on further and pray. And it says that he was sorrowful and very heavy.

He was distressed in his spirit. Verse 38 says, Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch with me.

So he says, you wait here. I’m going to go pray. He says, because I’m sorrowful unto death.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever been in that place. I might have been in the suburbs of that place, but I’ve not ever been in that place. But he was so overwhelmed and so burdened that other accounts in the gospel say he sweat blood, which I’ve told you before is a medical condition called hematidrosis where you’re under such extreme stress that the capillaries in your body begin to break down and blood begins to come into the lymphatic system.

But we don’t see that because it’s so rare because we’re talking an extreme amount of stress. But he said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Wait here.

Sit and pray. Verse 39. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed.

Now this has always puzzled me. We have God in human flesh. Jesus was God in human flesh.

He was God the Son. And we have him coming to pray then to the Father. God is praying to God.

And there’s a lot, I’ve told you before, I believe in the Trinity, but there’s a lot about it that I don’t understand because I’m not God. But it tells me that even as close as Jesus was to the Father, in his frail human state, he recognized that he needed this time of prayer. He needed this time of fellowship with the Father.

And he fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. he says that God if there’s any other way Father if there’s any other way he was looking forward to the crucifixion and said if there’s any other way that you can save them any other way that you can forgive them any other way that you can offer mercy Father don’t make me go through this if there’s any other way he says but nevertheless it doesn’t matter what I want it’s what you want and it becomes apparent that there was no other way if there was another way that God could have saved us without sacrificing his son, I believe he would have done so.

And Jesus, even though in his human frailty, said, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to go through this pain and this suffering. He still surrendered his will to the Father in this prayer saying, I don’t want to do this, but I’ll do what you want me to do.

It’s what I’ve called before being willing to be willing. I can’t always tell God honestly that I’m willing to do this thing that you’ve asked me to do. Sometimes the closest I can get is to say, God, I’m willing to be made willing.

I’m open to you changing my heart on this. And you’re going to have to change my heart because my heart is stubborn. But here he says, I’m willing.

Not just willing to be made willing. I’m willing if that’s what you want me to do. Verse 40.

And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, What? Could ye not watch with me one hour? And when he says watch, he’s not just talking about sitting guard, although there may have been some of that involved as well.

Sitting up watch, they were supposed to be sitting up praying as well. Couldn’t you sit here with me an hour? They fell asleep.

Well, it’s hard to blame them. It was the middle of the night. And he said, Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, it’s hard to blame them for falling asleep. It’s the middle of the night.

But Jesus was in human flesh as well. I’m sure he was tired. I’m sure he was exhausted.

I’m sure he would have loved nothing more than to lay down and go to sleep. And yet, there was this drive in him that said, I need this time with my father. That should show us how important prayer is.

I was reading a book a while back. I believe it was Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill. I think that’s the one.

And he asked the question about, you know, so many of us pray and we feel like our prayers have never been answered or particular prayers don’t get answered. And he asked the question, when was the last time you missed a night’s sleep in prayer? Sometimes, I won’t say this all the time, God designed us to need sleep.

Folks, sometimes we need more to spend time with our Father than we do to spend time in our pillow. Sometimes we need more to spend time with our Father than we do to spend time with a knife and fork. A lot of times we need more to spend time with our Father than we do with the television.

Or you name it, whatever it is that takes up our time. Sometimes we’ve just got to come to the point of realization that, hey, it doesn’t matter what else is on my calendar right now. I need some time with the Father, and that’s more important.

And so Jesus told them, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. He knew that they were about to go through the struggle of their lives. And he said, you need to be prepared for this in prayer.

He said, because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And how many times have we felt that? How many times have we felt like, I know what I’m supposed to do for the Lord.

I know what he wants me to do. And my goodness, I want to go do it. But I’m so tired.

I just don’t feel like it. Folks, I’m not necessarily talking about going to church. It’s not the only thing we do to serve the Lord.

there have been times I thought I really need to go to this maybe I’m supposed to go have lunch with somebody and encourage them a big part of ministry seems to be eating believe it or not and I know this person really wants to talk and maybe I’m supposed to go and we have plans but I just don’t feel like it maybe I’ll cancel you can put that almost anywhere where we know what we’re supposed to do and man we really want to do it but we just don’t feel like it. And I realize that sounds like a contradiction unless you’ve ever felt it. I want to do it, but I don’t feel like it.

The Spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. How many times do you think, well, I want to do the right thing, but I just couldn’t do it. That’s what I’m talking about.

So he went away again the second time and prayed, this is verse 42, saying, oh my Father, this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, for I will be done. So he’s coming and saying, Father, again, he doesn’t even say, take this cup away from me. Here he just says, if there’s no other way, then I will be done.

If there’s no other way to save him than for me to drink this cup, for me to go through this suffering on the cross, then whatever you want me to do. Verse 43, and he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.

Then cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now and take your rest. Alright, you’ve fallen asleep a third time. Might as well stay asleep now. Third time’s over.

Sleep on now and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed unto the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

And Jesus went from this time of this extreme sorrow unto death to these three times of prayer. and out of those times of prayer he goes from being extremely sorrowful unto death and asking God please let this cup pass from me to walking out and saying it’s time for me to go and be betrayed it’s time for me to go and do what God called me to do and we see Jesus with this determination even though he knows it’s going to be excruciating agony it’s going to be suffering it’s going to be shame and humiliation out of this time of prayer we see Jesus come with this determination to do what the Father has told him to do. So some things that we see that took place in this time of prayer, Jesus could not be dissuaded from going and praying.

Even though it was late, it would have been easier to lay down and sleep. It would have been easier to rest. It would have been easier to flee Jerusalem and the crucifixion. Any of these things would have been easier.

Jesus was determined, no, I need to go and talk to my Father about this before I make any kind of decision. Before I go forward with this or try to get the cup taken away from me, I need to go talk to my Father. And it didn’t matter that everybody else was falling asleep around him.

He was not going to be dissuaded. And so he went and he got rid of all the distractions, all the other voices that would have chimed in there too since. You know, Peter saying, no, we’ll never let them take you and cutting off people’s ears.

Jesus said, I don’t want to hear any of that. I want to hear from my Father. He got alone and got rid of the distractions, and he got honest with the Father.

That’s what’s sometimes lacking in our prayer lives. We need to get rid of the distractions, and we need to get rid of the pretense, and we need to get rid of pretending before God that we’re so spiritual, and we just need to talk to him and be honest. God, this is what I feel. This is what I need.

This is what I know you want me to do, but I’m having trouble here, and can you help me get on the same page with you? Get away from the distractions and get alone with the Father. He prayed because he needed comfort and he needed reassurance from the Father.

We see in verse 38 that he said he was praying because he was exceeding sorrowful even unto death. And he needed reassurance in that moment that only the Father could provide. He prayed to ensure that he knew and he did the Father’s will in verse 39.

mind. Before I go through this agony, I want to make abundantly sure. I want to make sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m doing this because this is what you want me to do.

And so he was praying and saying, thy will be done. I want out of this, but if this is what you want me to do, I’ll do it. Your will be done.

He prayed to keep himself strong for the Father’s work, when he was coming back from his in between prayer times and spoke to the disciples, he told them they too needed to go pray because of the time of temptation that was about to come and because the Spirit is willing. Many times, as I’ve already said, the Spirit is willing to do the things that God’s called us to do. The Spirit is willing to be obedient but the flesh, the flesh is weak.

And so Jesus, being God in human flesh, prayed to strengthen himself, to have the strength and to have the resolve to be obedient to the things that God had called him to do. So what is the point in telling you this story? The point is, as we talk about the discipline of prayer, it’s something we need.

It’s something we need to be disciplined about. It’s something we’ve got to do on a regular basis. But don’t take my word for it.

We have an example of Jesus himself. Saying God’s called me to do something that’s going to be hard for me to do. God’s called me to do something that part of me really doesn’t want to do.

God’s called me to do something that I’m scared. And folks, if God has never called you to do something that scares you or seems hard or that you don’t want to do, I’m tempted to say you may not be listening to what he’s really calling you to do. God has a funny way of not wanting to leave us in our comfort zones, I’ve learned.

And so if you’re listening to what God wants you to do, if he hadn’t already, he will call you to do something that’s scary, something that’s hard, something that may be costly or painful to you. And Jesus looked at that and said, I need him to strengthen me. I need him to guide me and direct me.

And hear me on this. Jesus was God in human flesh. He was God the Son.

He and the Father are like that. He said in the book of John, my father and I are one. He had this closeness already to the father that we can’t even fathom.

And that we will never have. And yet even with all that closeness, even with the fact that he’s God in human flesh. He still needed times of prayer with his father.

Which brings me to the point. The one point of this message. That if Jesus Christ needed times of prayer, to be obedient, to fulfill the Father’s work, then so do we, because I am not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. And I love you, I think you’re wonderful people, but neither are you.

I am not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. Say that with me. I am not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. I’m not trying to turn you into a cult and get you to chant things after me. But I want that to sink in for a minute.

Because I know, we all know that fact, don’t we? Walking in this morning, if I had stopped every one of you and asked you, are you more spiritual than Jesus Christ, you’d have looked at me like I was nuts. Of course I’m not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. I know that about me.

Boy, do I know that about me. Yet my attitude reveals something different because it’s way too easy to go a whole day without prayer if I’m not careful. It’s way too easy to jump in and make a decision without praying about it first. It’s way too easy to think I can get this myself without praying about it first. And you know what?

Sometimes I need to be slapped upside the head with the reminder that I am not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. If he needed prayer, how much more do I need that prayer? If he needed a constant, it’s not just this one instance that we’re looking at in the book of Matthew. It was all throughout his life and his ministry.

If he needed a constant conversation with the Father to stay on track, then how much more do I need that conversation? Because I am not more spiritual than Jesus Christ. So what do we do about this is that we need to realize, folks, that we were created for this relationship with God. We were created to be close to him.

We were designed for this relationship and for this contact with him. You look back at Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and even into chapter 3, and we see that God was in the habit of, and again, I don’t understand how all this works. It said that he would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day.

In what form he walked in the garden, I really don’t know. But what I know is that, those chapters illustrate to me that God had a closeness and a relationship that Adam and Eve, once they’d sinned, and they knew that God was going to pick up on this immediately, and they tried to hide. Because they were in such constant, close communication with God that they knew He was going to know immediately that they’d sinned.

And really, jokes on them, God knew they were going to sin wrong before it ever happened. But we see from the beginning of when we were created that God created us for a relationship with Him, to be in constant contact and conversation and communication with him. And Jesus demonstrated that.

We were designed for that. And you know what? Just like anything that’s designed to run off of a certain power, we’re not going to function without that power.

My car was designed to drive in drive. And it didn’t drive in neutral because it didn’t have that transmission powering it and getting it where it needed to go. These ceiling fans and lights are designed to run off of electricity.

And if they’re not plugged into electricity, they lack the power they need and they are not going to function correctly. And you were designed to run off of a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s how you were designed to function. Through a relationship with God.

And when we lack that relationship, when we lack that constant contact, we’re not going to function the way we’re supposed to. You can function. You can g