Learning How to Pray
Matthew 26:36-46
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
DATE: 20 April, 2008 AM
PLACE: BBC Ballincollig
I.
Introduction (Luke
11:1)
A.
Some fundamental truths
about prayer:
1.
There are no easy prayers –
praying is not chit-chat, it is a definite effort to communicate how you feel to
God, and a desperate effort to hear God reply! That doesn’t happen flippantly!
2.
You only learn how to pray
when you have to – they are not memorized words you pray, but words and feelings
that come out of need!
3.
There are no convenient times
to pray
4.
Real praying is borne out of
confident faith – it is not a guess, or a hope, or a feeling, or a
stab-in-the-dark – it is a firm belief that you are being heard in heaven, and
will be answered from heaven!
5.
Praying is the most
life-and-death act you will ever do as a Christian. Preaching, soul-winning,
loving, giving, caring, blessing, ministering, sacrificing… they all are empty
acts without prayer!
B.
Our Lord heavily emphasised
prayer in His life:
1.
Mark 1:35
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and
departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
2.
Mark 6:46
And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
3.
Luke 6:12
And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to
pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
4.
John 6:15
When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by
force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
5.
Everything He did was built
upon His walk with God in prayer!
C.
His life of prayer was NOTHING
like anyone else’s – it came so natural, and was so normal for Him, and He
seemed to get everything He asked for. Jesus’ prayer life was so awesome that
fishermen, carpenters, builders, farmers all wanted to know how to do it!
1.
Luke 11:1
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he
ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples.
2.
John 11:41
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard
me.
D.
Well, we are given a bright
glimpse into the prayer life of Jesus Christ. Here, in Matthew 26, we are given
a view of what praying should be like, and how desperate we should be to have
our own
1.
This is where Jesus prayed the
words of John 17 – His high priestly prayer
2.
This is also where Judas
betrayed Jesus into the hands of the Pharisees
3.
This is where Jesus defeated
Satan’s final and fiercest attacks against Him, trying to kill Him before the
cross
4.
This all gives us the
challenge to have such a time in prayer that the same kind of victories occur in
OUR lives
E.
I’ve called this,
F.
Most advice on prayer focuses
on specific methods of prayer. But I believe that most of us are “prayer
infants” and need to learn to walk before we can run. We will find a great
example of solid prayer walking in Matthew 26!
II.
Background
A.
Jesus had been earnestly
instructing His disciples; but as he neared
B.
Upon entering the garden
late that evening, Jesus said to his disciples, "Tarry ye here." Selecting
Peter, James, and John to accompany him, he proceeded farther into the dark
recesses of the garden.
C.
Every step that the
Saviour now took was with laboured effort. He groaned aloud as though suffering
under the pressure of a terrible burden; yet he refrained from startling his
three chosen disciples by a full explanation of the agony which he was to
suffer. His body convulsed with anguish, and his face expressed a sorrow past
all description.
D.
He went a short distance
from his disciples and fell with his face upon the cold ground. He was
overpowered by the realisation that God was removing his presence from him. He
felt himself being separated from his Father by a gulf of sin, so broad, so
black and deep that his spirit shuddered. He clung convulsively to the cold,
unfeeling ground as if to prevent himself from being drawn still farther from
God. From his pale, convulsed lips wailed the bitter cry, "O my Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou
wilt."
E.
So begins, real praying.
Praying that gets answered, and praying that transforms the weak into the
strong; the frail into mighty men; the sorrowful into singers; the lost into
found!
III.
Message
A.
The Place of Prayer
(Mt 26:36) -
1.
Prayer needs the anchor of
both a place and a set time
a.
Yes, we are to pray throughout
each day
b.
But there needs to be a place
that we pray
c.
Some people make that “place”
at a church – but it doesn’t have to wait until there
d.
For many it should be a
special place, near-by to your home, or maybe to your work
2.
A regular place (Luke 22:39)
a.
No good just praying on
occasion, or hit-and-miss style
b.
You don’t do that with eating
– and when you do, your health fails
c.
You MUST have a place that is
your praying place
d.
A place where you meet with
God!!!
e.
And a TIME where you and God
meet – He is there for you always, but He loves when we make time just for Him –
that’s prayer
3.
A place apart – a quiet place
that is special, and precious
a.
b.
There was a bit of lush green
growth all around, and large, olive trees
c.
These olive trees, when
unharmed, would last 2,000 years – there are some olive trees in the
d.
Do have a place that you can
call, your place of prayer?
1)
By your bed-side is a great
praying place
2)
In your car, before work
3)
In amongst the trees behind
your house is a great place for prayer
4)
By a river (Acts 16:13)
5)
The upper room was a great
place for church-wide prayer
4.
A place for pondering
a.
Thinking things through
b.
What you need, why you need it
c.
What sins are in your heart
and life
d.
Just how able God is to meet
your every need
5.
A place that you can weep, and
be real, and humble yourself, for as long as it takes to hear from heaven, and
be helped!
6.
Whether you realise it or not,
but THAT PLACE OF PRAYER will become a special place – a place you will flee to
very often! If you would just make time for it!
B.
The People of Prayer
(26:37,38)
1.
Jesus usually prayed alone,
but not this time
2.
Sometimes prayer needs other
people – not always, but sometimes you need someone to pray with you about
things (Mt 18:19)
a.
Not everyone will pray with
you – Jesus chose 3 out of the twelve to pray with Him
b.
Jesus called for Peter, James
and John to go deep into the Garden to pray with Him
c.
These three were known as
Jesus’ closest friends in his ministry
d.
The other 9, well, they hadn’t
grown enough yet for the Lord to draw them into His prayer times. He had taught
them to pray, but these three were who Jesus thought worthy enough to pray with
Him in this dark time
3.
Do you have anybody that would
pray with you?
4.
Isn’t it nice when you know
that someone is actually praying for you at any given time?
5.
We all need to be people of
prayer, for one another, and WITH one another!
C.
The
1.
There already was a fierce
battle going on – almost always is – a spiritual dimension that had a conflict
in it – between God and the devil – and we get caught up in it sometimes!
2.
There is always the battle
just to pray!
a.
It is designed to be the first
thing you do - As it was with Nehemiah (Neh 2:1-4), and with Paul and Silas in
prison, and with the
b.
The
single most important piece of advice I know about prayer is also the simplest:
Just do it!
c.
How to do
it is less important than just doing it. Less-than-perfect prayer is infinitely
better than no prayer; more perfect prayer is only finitely better than less
perfect prayer.
d.
So… Make
time for prayer
e.
Of
course, you will never find time to pray, so you have to make time to pray. You
will have to say no to something else, in order to make time to pray. The only
way to move in the tenant of prayer in the apartment building of your life, is
to evict some other tenant from those premises that prayer will occupy. Few of
us have any empty rooms available.
3.
Then
there is the battle IN prayer itself
a.
With your
faith – getting to the place where you can really trust the Lord
b.
With your
fears – they usually have all your attention
c.
With
impatience – waiting on God
d.
With sin
in our lives and hearts – not wanting to face them, and repent of every one of
them
e.
“Praying
through” is a big concept – staying in prayer until everything is dealt with,
and made right, and cast upon Jesus! Maybe we are too brief in our encounters
with Jesus in prayer to get the answers we know we desperately need!?
4.
And then
there is our battle with the will of God
a.
I have
found that God’s will is almost NEVER my will!
b.
I see the
things in my life as things “I” don’t need, and don’t want
c.
Jesus saw
things coming at Him that He didn’t ask for
d.
But… and
what a big act of acceptance… if THAT is what God wants to allow in my life,
then so be it!
5.
But learn
this… there is the victory that occurs FIRST while we are praying
before we ever experience it afterwards (26:45,46). Jesus rose from off His
knees and had the victory – He had the peace of God, and He had the
D.
The Purpose of Prayer
(26:39-41)
1.
To open us up to God
a.
The Bible opens up God to us –
reveals what is in His mind, and in His heart. Well, prayer opens
b.
Prayer is supposed to help you
to stop faking things, hiding things, and blocking things from coming out in the
open between you and God
c.
It is so important to be real,
and even hurt before God – we are so quick to seek revenge against people… yet
God says, seek my face, and tell ME all about it, and “I WILL REPAY!” (Rom
12:19)
d.
If you are aching inside, then
pray – tell the Lord all about it
e.
If you are sick, pray and tell
God about it – walk with God through it (Ps 23:4)
f.
If you are having a great day,
then pray, and tell God about it (Ps 100:4)
g.
How honest are you? Only as
honest as you are towards God!
2.
To
a.
Hey! Consider this…
1)
If you are really praying,
then you will not be demanding, but yielding!
2)
You won’t be commanding, but
contrite.
3)
You won’t be manipulative of
God, but rather clinging to His feet begging Him to act on your behalf, to help
you, and to give you the grace you need!
b.
Our boldness in prayer is not
to demand of God, but to just get access to God, and once there, to simply ask,
knowing that He will help (Heb 4:16)
c.
It is a good things to get to
the end of yourself so that you finally realise that you just CAN’T live the
perfect Christian life – that you just CAN’T do all the things you are supposed
to – that you just CAN‘T fight the good fight anymore in your own strength!
d.
You will only find strength
when you have finished running on your own steam, and that will only happen when
you find yourself praying!
e.
A Good
Example
1)
I read
this story about a man who saw something extraordinary one early morning during
a dear chase…
2)
"Rising early one morning," he
said, "I heard the baying of a group of deer hounds in pursuit of their catch.
Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making
its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well nigh run.
Reaching the posts of the fence I was sitting on, it leaped over and crouched
within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over,
and in an instant, the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my
legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round,
fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the world could
not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my
strength."
3)
So is it, when our human
helplessness appeals to Almighty God. When the hounds of sin are after my soul,
they will only wear me down until, at last, I run into the arms of Almighty
God." A. C. Dixon.
f.
Oh how powerful is the broken
will in the mighty arms of God!
3.
To prepare us for what lies
ahead (Luke 22:47-53)
a.
Jesus, even though God, was
living as a man, and had to pray for strength for the cross
b.
When was the last time you saw
prayer as the most important thing you will do today?
c.
Jesus throughout His life
teaches us that prayer was what he did first so that
d.
And I am not talking about
flowery prayers of
e.
Listen to how this time of
prayer helped Jesus
1)
It emboldened Him against
every temptation, against Satanic attack
2)
It sweetened Him, even against
Judas
3)
It enabled Him to forgive
absolutely everyone against Him
f.
Just how much might a good
dose of regular prayer help YOU?
E.
The Needed Persistence in
Prayer (26:42-44)
1.
Do you think God heard Jesus
the first time? Oh yes God heard
2.
But Jesus here is
demonstrating the need to stay praying
a.
To pray is not like a
drive-through window at McDonald’s
b.
To pray is to travel home to
your parents, and sit down at supper, and to stay a while – to let an hour pass
while praying!!! (26:40b)
3.
Listen to what Jesus wants in
Revelation 3:20… He has been kicked OUT of the lives of the people at the church
at
4.
What a sad picture of our
Christianity
5.
Oh how little we are willing
to “tarry” with the Lord (26:38) – it means to just linger, to wait, to not rush
off
6.
What was Jesus waiting for?
a.
The peace of God that passes
all understanding
b.
The answers to His questions –
what is God’s will?
c.
The strength to go on (2Cor
12:7-10)
d.
The defeat of Satan. Satan was
not defeated really on the cross, no. Satan was defeated on Christ’s knees!
Amen!
e.
You had better believe He got
everything He needed!
f.
Oh how few battles are won in
our lives simply because we have fought it too late, when we should have fought
them by our bedside, long before we came in contact with another person, or a
temptation!
7.
There is SO MUCH help
available to us, if only we waited for it when we prayed (Psalm 40:1)!
F.
The Path of Prayer
(26:45,46)
1.
This wasn’t the end. Prayer IS
THE beginning, Without prayer time, you are stuck in yesterday, in your
failures, in your own limitations
2.
Once you pray, and lean on
God, there is always a motion FORWARD
3.
To some people, they see
prayer as something that is a whole other life
4.
They believe people who pray,
don’t have jobs, or bills, or children
5.
Prayer is an engine that
drives us down a path – a RIGHT path
6.
Jesus had now prayed, and was
ready – no hesitation
7.
He was ready to go forward –
8.
There was NO backsliding with
Jesus
9.
No wonder we find it so hard
to keep going forward! We are pushing a trainload of care without the engine of
prayer!!!
10.
Hey… if you DO keep falling
out of the way, and never seem able to do what God is telling you to do, then
you need to
a.
Cut the anchors that are
holding you back from doing God’s will
b.
Whatever they are, in prayer
G.
The Plan for Prayer.
1.
You probably noticed I haven't
said a word about techniques yet. That's because three-quarters is preparation,
remember? But what about methods? Simple things to make prayer effective….
2.
Decide to Pray.
Deciding to do that is the first thing. And you probably won't decide to do it,
only wish to do it, unless you see prayer for what it is: a matter of life or
death, your lifeline to God, to life itself.
3.
Plan your Prayer.
Prayer is like a big dinner. It
takes one hour to eat it and yet several hours to prepare it.
a.
Make Time for Prayer
1)
Rearrange your lives around
it. Rearranging your time, preparing time to pray, is like preparing your house
to paint. As everyone knows who has done any painting, preparation is
three-quarters the work, three-quarters the hassle, and three-quarters the time.
The actual painting is a breeze compared with the preparation. The same is true
of prayer: the hardest step is preparing a place, a time, a sacred and
uninterruptable part of each day for it.
2)
So make time for it. And not
just 2 minutes! The first and most important piece of practical preparation is
scheduling. You absolutely must schedule a regular time for prayer, whether you
are a "scheduler" with other things in your life or not.
One quick minute in the morning to offer your day to God is better than
nothing at all, of course, but it is just as inadequate as one quick minute a
day with your wife or husband. You simply must decide each day to free up your
schedule so you can pray.
3)
How long a time? That varies
with individuals and situations, of course; but the very barest minimum should
certainly be at least fifteen minutes. You can't really count on getting much
deep stuff going on in less time than that. If fifteen minutes seems too much to
you, that fact is powerful proof that you need to pray much more to get your
head on straight.
4)
After it becomes more habitual
and easy, expand it, double it. And later, double it again. Aim at an hour each
day, if you want radical results. (Do you? Or are you only playing?)
5)
Reminder - You will have to
say “no!” to something else, in order to make time to pray.
6)
What time of day is best? The
most popular time—bedtime—is usually the worst possible time, for two reasons.
a)
First, it tends not to be
prime time but the worst time, when you're the least alert and awake.
b)
Second, it won't work. If you
wait until every other obligation is taken cared of first before you pray, you
simply won't pray. The horse has already left the barn – there is no good in
shutting the door AFTER everything has happened!.
c)
The most obvious and usually
best time is early in the morning. If you can't delay the other things you do,
you simply must get up that much earlier.
d)
Should it be the very first
thing? That depends. Some people are alert as soon as they get up; others need
to shower and dress to wake up. The important thing is to give God the best
time, and "just do it."
e)
Place is almost as important
as time. You should make one special place where you can be undisturbed.
b.
Make a List – sounds
mechanical, but most of us have very undisciplined minds that tend to only think
of our own needs, and to think of what has to be done today. So we need a list
of things and people to pray for so that we actually pray instead of wander
4.
Pray with Scripture, reading
and praying at the same time, reading in God's presence, receiving the words
from God's mouth.
5.
Pray out loud. I am not good
at all at silent prayer; my thoughts hop around like fleas on a dog. Praying
aloud keeps me praying, at least. And I find it often naturally leads to silent
prayer, or "mental prayer," or contemplation, but I had to first start with my
mouth
6.
Listen! The Lord will answer
you in the stillness of all that time you spend with Him!
IV.
Conclusion - Admonition
A.
We have seen a powerful
glimpse into the prayer life of Jesus Christ!
1.
This is where Jesus prayed the
words of John 17 – His high priestly prayer
2.
This is also where Judas
betrayed Jesus into the hands of the Pharisees
3.
This is where Jesus defeated
Satan’s final and fiercest attacks against Him, trying to kill Him before the
cross
4.
The challenge is for all of us
to have such a time in prayer that the same kind of victories occur in OUR lives
B.
I’ve called this,
C.
Most advice on prayer focuses
on specific methods of prayer. But I believe that most of us are “prayer
infants” and need to learn to walk before we can run. We will find a great
example of solid prayer walking in Matthew 26!
D.
There must be a Place of
Prayer in your life – your own
E.
You should have some People
of Prayer that pray with you from time to time
F.
You should expect to fight
your Battles IN Prayer
G.
There are vital Purposes
for Prayer – do you realize how vital?
1.
To open us up to God
2.
To
3.
To prepare us for what lies
ahead (Luke 22:47-53)
H.
Real Praying Requires
Persistence – not a once off event
I.
Prayer puts you on the
right Path
J.
Powerful Praying
K.
Have you come to
L.
Such a small sacrifice for
such victory