Communication between people – I mean real, meaningful communication is becoming harder to come by. Technology lets us be more connected – but somehow we communicate less. With people, and with God…

THE COMMUNICATION GAP

Now this week on the programme we are starting a new series that I’ve called, “The Power of Prayer” – the power of having a conversation with God – a relationship, an intimate, delightful relationship. But you know, the more technology we seem get in our hands, the more connected we become.

Way back when, the postal service was a major innovation, then came telephones and cars and then faxes and mobile phones and emails and these days my daughter communicates with her friends through websites like myspace.com.

And the other thing you notice is, the more of this stuff we have available in our lives, the busier we become, the more options we have. So we cram pack our lives full of doing and stuff and stuff and stuff. And the incredible paradox of all this is that the more communication devices we have at our fingertips, the less we communicate.

You know the sort of communication that happened when we went camping as kids or sat around a fire and just talked. Somehow we are so busy these days that that sort of comfortable, relationship building, affirming communication seems to have gone out the window, whether it’s with other people or with God.

This paradox is real; it’s alive; it affects almost everybody. Somehow, technology and work and all the entertainment options that people have these days, instead of opening us up to other people, closes down. You see teenagers who are wired to their ipods.

On the news last night, they were saying here in Australia that one in three adults has an MP3 player. And I proudly thought, ’well, that’s not me’ and then I realised that my mobile phone is also an MP3 player.

It’s all so seductive – cable television, internet movies, restaurants, on and on and on and ok, we can’t all afford all of those things all the time, but we all go chasing after some of that stuff and we want more and more and people are working longer and longer. And you know, those leisurely lunches with families and friends on the weekends are replaced with rushing around shopping centers, and buying stuff and trying to get this organised and that organised.

I’m as much a victim of this as anyone else. One of the things that I’ve had to do is to deliberately carve out time with people. To deliberately say, ’no, those emails can go unanswered today because I need to spend some time with my wife.’ I have this very good friend, his name is James. Once or twice a week, James and I will catch up for coffee, just to have someone to talk to and some friendship.

We need to decide in all this busy-ness, to stop the merry-go-round, get off and smell the roses. And these days it’s a deliberate decision – these days we almost have to go against the flow to get that sort of communication happening.

It’s true in my relationship with people and it’s true in my relationship with God. Lots of people know how wonderful it is to pray – regular communication with God – stopping and pausing with Him, just resting there with Him every day. But many of those people are just too busy to do it.

You get up, have breakfast, you commute to work, you’re flat-out all day, you come home tired. How do you fit in great family communication, let alone spending some real, wonderful time with God in prayer?

Well, that’s a good question. I spoke on this subject a couple of years back at a conference of Christian leaders in the field of media and communications. And I made the point that the most important thing each one of us has to do in our lives, is have a relationship with God.

A young lawyer came to Jesus and said to Him, “Jesus, what’s the most important thing to do in life?” and He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. This is the greatest commandment and the second one is just like it – love your neighbour as yourself.”

So on my ‘to do’ list and on your ‘to do’ list, the most important thing – THE most important thing – is to spend some time with Jesus every day and we call that ‘prayer’. And you know, one by one, at this conference, afterwards, these leaders came up to me quietly on the side, and said you know something, “I have such a problem with this. I’m so busy I don’t know what to do.” And it’s a really common problem – it’s not just me; it’s not just you; a lot of people have this problem. How do I find time to pray?

Most people know that a regular prayer time, most days, is one of the best things they can do. When I spend that time quietly each morning with God, the peace and the joy and the rest getting ready for the day, I seem to handle things so much better – it works! But we are so busy doing the urgent things; we don’t have time for the important things.

Priorities – we set our priorities; we allocate our time; we decide and if we don’t do this, what happens is a communication gap. It happens in a family; it happens in a marriage; it happens in work; it happens in any relationship you care to mention. If we don’t spend good time together, we drift apart and the communication gap gets wider and wider and wider.

You know what I’ve noticed? My fellowship with God gets deeper and richer when I regularly, every day, have this prayer life with Him. If I let it go a day here, a day there, then it becomes two or three days, then it becomes a week, then I sit down and try and pray and it’s like the conversation is bouncing off the ceiling. It’s the nature of relationships really, isn’t it?

We have a decision to make – do I want a rich relationship with God – I mean do I really want that – is that the most important thing on my heart? And if the answer is ‘yes’, then it has to translate into the priorities in our ‘to do’ list. We have to carve out that time and keep it whether it is quietly in the morning or on the bus or the train or in the car or in the evening, whenever it works for you and whenever it works for me.

There is power in prayer, real power and rest and delight and wonder but it just ain’t going to happen if we don’t set that time aside each day.

SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND

Prayer is such a funny thing. I mean it is based on this notion that we can talk to someone we really can’t see or hear, at least, not in the same way we see and hear the people around us. Sometimes people pray out loud, other times in their heads, so He can read thoughts too? And after all who are we praying to – this God, this Jesus – who is that?

It’s kind of like we go looking for someone – God – but do we ever find Him? And who is He anyway and do we want to find Him? Where do we go looking for Him in the first place? I mean they are all good questions. If you are going to be talking with someone you can’t see, then surely, first you have to seek Him and find Him don’t you?

I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey or whether you’ve ever pondered those questions. Maybe you’ve just assumed them, maybe you’ve never worried about them. Prayer is a wonderful thing but it’s a step of faith. It’s talking with someone that we just can’t see. Now, either He’s there at the other end and all that makes sense, or He isn’t and we’re kidding ourselves and then it’s a loopy thing to do.

This week on the programme and over the next three weeks, we’re talking about the power of prayer because I believe that prayer is a powerful thing. It is a wonderful thing to do. But before we can go there we have to go back to square one to seek out this God that we are praying to in a time of need. I did – life’s going along ok and all of a sudden – bang! And you think, “help and who do I turn to?” – I’ll pray!

It happens over and over again. Sometimes it seems the only way God can get our attention is in those times of need. And it happened to the nation of Israel. They were exiled in slavery in Babylon for seventy years and Jeremiah, the prophet – you can read about it in Jeremiah chapter 29.

If you have a Bible, grab it – we are going to Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. They were going through some really tough times in exile – wondering where God was and how come Jerusalem had been destroyed and here we are in slavery and whatever happened to all of God’s promises?

And God speaks to them through Jeremiah and He says this:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord; plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Now this is really interesting because here God links the two things I have just been talking about – seeking God out and praying. Have a look at it again, verse 12:

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.”

Verse 13:

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord.”

It kind of makes sense – before we can really have any deep relationship or communication with someone, you seek them out.

I mean, today, my wife Jacqui and I have a really close relationship and I communicate with her in a way that I don’t communicate with anyone else. It’s deep and intimate, but when we first met she was just a face in the crowd and our courtship was really when I went seeking her out.

And that’s exactly what I did – in a sense I had to go after her and she had to come after me. And we had to seek each other out before we could have the relationship we have today. And my hunch is it’s exactly the same with God.

One of my favourite books of all time – “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer – this is what he writes on the subject of seeking out God – he says:

“Where the modern scientist has lost God amid the wonder of His world, we are in danger of losing God amidst the wonders of His Word.”

You know, we’ve almost forgotten that God is a person and that, as such, a personal relationship can be cultivated with Him.

In this hour of all but universal darkness, one cheering gleam appears. Within the fold of Christianity, there are to be found increasing numbers of people whose lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They won’t be put off with words or shallow logic; they won’t be content to busy themselves with nervous activity, and yet still they know this inner emptiness.

These people are athirst for God and they won’t be satisfied until they have drunk deep at the fountain of living water. They desire God above all – they are athirst to taste for themselves, the piercing sweetness of the love of Christ, about whom the prophets wrote and the Psalmists sang.

They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, see with their inner eyes, the wonder that is God. And I want to deliberately encourage this might longing after God. Jesus waits to be wanted – too bad, that with many of us, He waits so long, so very long in vain. And that’s exactly what God said through Jeremiah:

“When you seek me with all your heart, then and only then will you find me.”

“Oh Berni, I’ve tried praying on and off, but you know, it’s empty and hollow and, I don’t know, it doesn’t work!” Ok, let me ask you a question – have you sought after God Himself, with all your heart – have you gone after Him? Do you want a relationship with Him more than anything else on this earth – with all your heart?

God says:

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Then I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.”

My hunch is that this is the starting point of a powerful, and rich and rewarding prayer life with God.

COMING JUST AS WE ARE

Whenever I speak with people about praying, you know, one of the most common reactions is ‘well, I’m not good enough; I’m just not good enough. I mean, that person over there, well, she probably would be and that one over yonder, well, yea, I think he would be, but not me.

You see, you don’t know me – I mean, the things I’ve said and done and thought … “no, I just can’t bowl up to God and start praying.” If that’s your reaction, in one sense you’d be right, but in another, completely and utterly wrong.

Because on the one hand God is a perfect and holy God and we fall well and truly short of that but on the other hand, He knows that and that’s why He sent Jesus Christ His Son to die for us, to pay for all our falling short, so that we can have free access. Jesus, it turns out, is the key. God is having a party and it is come as you are.

I’ll share a story with you – a few years ago I went to Government house in Australia where the Governor General, the Queen’s representative, the head of state, lives. His name at the time was Sir William Dean. And Government House is a beautiful old building, in a place called Yarralumla, just outside the national capital, Canberra. I’d asked him to do a short radio interview and his secretary rang and said, “yes” and so I drove there.

Now when you drive up to Government house, there are two gates – there’s kind of, you know the staff entrance or the servants’ entrance and then on the right hand side there’s this big gate with this sweeping drive and that’s where Prime Ministers and Kings and Queens and Presidents drive up to see the Governor General.

And I arrived and I went to what I thought the staff entrance and they said, “Oh no, sir, please go to the other entrance, the main entrance and we’ll let you through.” And you drive up this huge, sweeping drive and you pull up where Queens and Presidents have pulled up and James, the butler for thirty eight years, opens the door and ushers me in.

And as I’m driving up this driveway I look on the bonnet of my car, dark, beautiful car it was back then in those days, and there’s this big bird plop on the bonnet and I’m thinking, ’oh my goodness, you know, if I’d known I was driving up this driveway I would have washed the car.

I was so self-conscience and yet, when I met the man, when I met Sir William Dean, the Governor General, he was the most humble and delightful human being you would ever hope to meet.

He almost made me feel as though he was the one who was honoured by me being there. He is a small man physically, but huge in stature. He didn’t give a toss about whether I had washed my car – I don’t think he even noticed. And he even invited me and my wife and my daughter back the next day to have a wander around the grounds.

I mean it’s a great picture – I never forget it – it’s so ‘not’ what I expected and over the years I’ve discovered it’s exactly the same with God. He looks straight past the spots and blemishes and stains, to our hearts. He just takes us the way we are – He can because of Jesus – because of the price Jesus paid on the cross, if we believe in Him, you and I are wiped clean. If we just believe – just put our faith in Jesus and what He did for us on that cross – we have open access to God.

Have a listen to this huge, eloquent, well-structured, articulate prayer, prayed by the first person who ever went to heaven because he believed in Jesus Christ. He’s one of the two criminals who were crucified alongside Jesus.

Now one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Jesus.” We’re reading from Luke chapter 23, beginning at verse 39. “One of the criminals, who hung there, hurled insults at Jesus, “Aren’t you the Christ? Go on, save yourself and us,” but the other criminal rebuked the first one. “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? Here we are hanging on a cross – we’re being punished justly; we’re getting what we deserve, but Jesus, Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong?” And then this second criminal said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, before today is out you will be with me in Paradise.

This criminal is about to die – he has nothing to give Jesus – he couldn’t do anything for Jesus – you and me, we wouldn’t have given him a prayer, but that’s all he had and that’s all it took. From one cross to the next, out of his pain, hanging on the cross, about to die, all he says is, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Just a few short words – but you know what they were? They were words of faith; they were a prayer of faith. And Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, before today is out, you will be with me in Paradise.”

When are we finally going to wake up that that’s what prayer is – just a simple step of faith – right from where we are; right from who we are? God is having a party and it’s ‘come as you are’ and the key is Jesus. Just a simple faith and all my ‘yuk’ is paid for on that cross. I can come to God – you can come to God through that faith in Jesus in our time of need.

And that’s exactly what God says through the Book of Hebrews – have a look at Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14 and it says something like this:

Jesus isn’t just some God in heaven; He’s walked in our shoes; He’s been through every trial and temptation that we have to deal with, so He gets it; He understands exactly what we are going through and because of that, we can come boldly before the throne of grace, with a quiet confidence, that we’ll find grace and mercy, just in time to meet our very need.

He gets it! That phrase: “come boldly before the throne of grace” speaks of a confidence, not in ourselves but in what Jesus has done for you and me. And that’s why we can come as we are – that’s why we can say, “I’m going to seek out God through Jesus and I’m going to find Him and I’m going to spend time and I’m going to pray.” That’s why we don’t have to be afraid to sit down and pray, “Lord, I blew it today.”

I want to share with you a phone message, from a listener, that I received just the other day and it says it all. This is what he said; his exact words on the phone: “I’m only a new Christian and I’ve been with the Lord probably about ten weeks and I’ve been going great guns and then I had a night when I went out drinking and I told my friend, whose not a Christian, I wasn’t sure if I could be a Christian any more.

I felt real terrible about it and I thought I had really blown the whole thing with God. It’s only when you came on the radio tonight that I realised that that’s why Jesus died for me. I want to say, “God bless you guys and thank you for His grace. God bless you, man, it was really awesome tonight.”

And it is really awesome when we finally realise that we have free access to God through what Jesus did for us on the cross. We can get really busy and run around and chase after this and chase after that, but at the end of the day, you know something, there’s power in prayer. We are going to look at that power over the coming weeks. And there’s a joy and a peace that happens in prayer.

And we can come to Him just as we are, seek Him out with all our hearts, say, “Lord, I want to have a fantastic relationship with you and the way I’m going to start, the way I’m going to take my first step, I’m going set aside just ten or fifteen minutes every day, quietly, alone, just to spend with you.”

And you know when we do that, something awesome happens … Jesus shows up!

When we go to God to pray, all too often we head in with a shopping list don’t we? “I need this … I need that … oh God please help me with this … oh God please end my pain and suffering … oh God” … but what if I told you that by and large, at least according to Jesus, prayer isn’t all about me. It’s not all about … you.

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME

This week on the programme we are continuing in our series: “The Power of Prayer”. I don’t think we can really talk about prayer without looking at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. And of course, that teaching in the Lord’s Prayer has been recorded for us down through the centuries and it’s still available to us, here and now.

Now there’s no record of Jesus teaching them how to preach. You’d think, if He was getting all these disciples together and He wanted them to go out and form the church after He was crucified and rose again and ascended into heaven, we’d have some record of Jesus teaching them to preach. But no. The record that we have is of Jesus teaching them to pray.

And that makes sense. I mean it was pretty clear that Jesus had the most amazing relationship with His Dad in heaven. Of course, we believe in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three persons. One God for all eternity. But the incarnation was something special.

When Jesus became a man, He laid His glory aside. He became one of us. He had to establish a relationship with His Dad in heaven in just the same way as we do. And time and time again, you see Jesus stealing away on His own, to pray. When the crowds were after Him. When the disciples wanted Him. So often, He’d gone off quietly on His own to pray.

And obviously He had a really special relationship. In the Lord’s Prayer, He actually teaches us how to pray. Now we are going to look at that in a bit of detail today, so if you’ve got a Bible, grab it. Open it up at Matthew chapter 6. It blows me away – it’s such an awesome place. Jesus teaching on how to pray.

There’s got to be some power in that and there is. There’s power in prayer and there are some amazing gems in there that I think if we want a powerful prayer life, we need to unpack the Lord’s Prayer just a little bit. And that’s what we are going to do today.

Most people kind of know the words that we call the Lord’s Prayer. You know:

Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Those words were actually spoken by Jesus and they are very well known. But what we sometimes miss are the words that He spoke just before that. The teaching that He gave to His disciples that sets the context of prayer. Have a listen to what Jesus actually said – you’ll pick it up in Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 5. This is what He said:

And when you pray don’t be like the hypocrites – those people love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone. I tell you the truth; they’ve received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Dad who is unseen, because then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don’t keep on babbling like the pagans. They think they’ll be heard because of their many words. No, don’t be like them because your Father knows what you need even before you ask Him.

There are two parts to that – let’s take a look at them. Let’s see exactly what Jesus said and He seems to be talking about, “don’t think about impressing other people; don’t be like the hypocrites – those people love to stand up in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone.”

You know something; prayer is not about impressing other people. And it’s not about impressing God. Look, “Don’t keep babbling like the pagans because they think they will be heard because of their many words. Don’t be like them.”

I have listened to people pray, particularly when I’d just become a Christian and I’d listen to them and go, “wow! You know, those people can pray like I could never pray. I’m sure God’s going to listen to them; He’s not going to listen to me because I don’t have those sorts of words.”

And Jesus is saying, no, that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about ‘me’. I’m not at the centre of prayer – it’s not about me impressing anyone; it’s not about me impressing God.

And you know what I think we sometimes do? We start off in prayer with this underlying thing, it’s about me. Yet the first thing that Jesus taught people about prayer is that it’s not about us – it’s not about you or me, we are not in the centre of the universe. And how does He teach us that? You don’t have to begin by impressing anyone. In fact, prayer is not about impressing anybody.

What a blessed release! I don’t have to learn a formula; I don’t have to look good, or sound good or anything else. The starting point for prayer is not about me, it’s not about you. You know where the power is in all of this? The very teaching of Jesus about prayer is to get the ’me’ out of the way – my ego, my self, what other people think of me, what God thinks of me. Jesus is saying, “Wake up. No”.

Can I tell you? I think that this is one of the most important lessons to learn about praying. There’s power in laying the ‘me’ down. There’s power in laying our ego aside – when we do that we usher something new and something fresh and something powerful and something exciting in.

When you pray don’t be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone. I tell you the truth; they have already received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what you are doing in secret will reward you. And secondly, when you pray, don’t keep babbling – don’t think it’s about lots of words. The pagans think that they will be heard because of their words. Don’t be like them because your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him. Don’t try and impress anybody, just come and pray.

Well, if the ‘me’ is no longer at the centre of this prayer thing, who or what is?

HALLOWED BY THY NAME

Well, let’s have a look at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray – to pray with power. The first thing Jesus teaches us, as we have just looked at, is firstly, do it in secret. Prayer is a personal, private, intimate thing – it’s not for show; it’s not to impress other people. You think about husband and wife communication – the deep things, the important things. How do they talk about those? In private!

The second thing is it’s not about a lot of words. We talked just before the break about the fact it’s not some formula – we don’t have to impress God somehow; it’s exactly the opposite. We just get to sit down with Him, and tell Him in our own words, the way we see it.

Now let’s look at how Jesus teaches us to pray. He begins:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

There are two words in the New Testament for ‘Father’ – “Abba” – Dad – which is a kind of a close, familiar, tender expression. But that’s not the one that’s used here.

The one that’s used here is “Pater” – from which we get ‘patriarch’ or ‘paternal’ – it’s the more formal approach. “My Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” – what does it mean to ‘hallow’ – it means to make holy; to venerate; to honour; to bow down. So the beginning of prayer for Jesus is to worship God.

See, we said just before, “it’s not about me!” Well this is the very thing that Jesus is saying. “It’s about God first. It’s about worshiping Him.” It’s an amazing thing, when we worship God, when we reach into our heart and soul and spirit and gaze upon Him – our Father in heaven – and we honour Him and revere Him and worship Him.

I have to tell you, just that one thing in my prayer life, has transformed me from the tough, hardnosed businessman, with an ego the size of a small planet – always trying to feed that; always trying to impress people; constantly peddling harder and faster to be the ‘me’ I think other people want me to be.

In worship I loose sight of that. In worship I forget myself. I don’t have to do that anymore. I get the ‘me’ out of the road and just worship God and that’s an awesome thing. There’s a peace and a joy and a security and a sweet delight in that – don’t have to impress anyone anymore.

Worshipping God is the most selfless thing we can do. And when we can get the ’me’ out of the road – “Yipee!” – I have peace. I lay the ‘me’ down. I die to the ‘me’ and become alive to God, to the Father, with a joy unspeakable. I don’t know, I just can’t put it into words any more than that.

Prayer isn‘t first and foremost about me, it’s about You, Father. The needs, the shopping list – there’s a place for them. We’ll come to those later. But first God wants us to behold Him. to experience Him. And the way that we do that is by worshipping Him.

I used to start off with my shopping list but now I start off by focusing on Him. You know what happens? His power takes a hold of me and changes me and cleans away the rubbish and sets my heart at peace. Why did it take me so long to figure this out, I wonder?

And the very next thing that Jesus says when He’s teaching us how to pray – it’s kind of like … it’s like a physical outworking of that worship. Have a listen:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now that I’ve lost myself in You, Lord, come and reign in my heart; be my King. That is what ‘Your Kingdom come’ means – the reign; the rule; the Kingship of God in our hearts.

“God, I don’t just want to worship You now, I want to live out that worship. I want Your Kingdom to come. I want You to be my Lord. I want Your Kingdom to come, in me, in those around me, in every situation and circumstance and trial and temptation.

Every time I want to act up and criticise, and malign and argue or be dishonest. No, Lord, no, I want to hallow Your name. I want Your Kingdom to come. In fact, I want Your will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Not my will, not me, no – Your will – You.’”

So often we can skim over these words – ‘Your Kingdom come’ – because we know the Lord’s Prayer so well. And we think, “well, I hope the God’s Kingdom comes in that person’s life, because, I tell you, they need it. And that one over there. That one too for that matter. In fact, if God’s Kingdom comes in all their lives, my life would be so much better.” See what happens?

We put the ‘me’ at the centre of the universe again and the power of prayer that Jesus teaches is laying the ‘me’ down. In fact if God’s Kingdom comes in all those people’s lives, is my life going to be any better? No!

God’s Kingdom coming is seeing His will done in my life – it includes me. It includes when it’s not convenient. When it hurts. When I’d rather have my life on a padded sofa than on a hard cross. The power of the prayer that Jesus is teaching us here is it’s not about me – it’s about Him.

Can I tell you something? God’s Kingdom coming in my life and in your life is painful sometimes. It’s downright inconvenient. It involves me dying to myself and you dying to yourself and putting Him first. And if we want power in our prayer, that is where it comes from. Worshipping God and inviting His Kingship, His Lordship, His reign to be in our hearts, in our spirits and in our lives.

I NEED SOME BREAD

We are looking today on the programme at the “Power of Prayer” and all the stuff we’ve been looking at to this point is about putting God first. If we get that bit wrong – if we get it the wrong way round – we end up missing the whole point of prayer. Now that we have it the right way up, Jesus goes on to teach us that it’s ok to ask for our needs.

“Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”

I love this bit too! “Give us this day our daily bread”, says it’s ok to ask Him for the things we need. For strength, for wisdom, for home, for safety, for family, for work. “Lord, I really just want a special touch from You today”. He already knows our needs and we don’t have to heap up a whole bunch of words and impress Him.

Look how simple this is – “Lord give us this day our daily bread. Don’t be like the pagans – your Father knows what you need even before you ask Him.” It’s ok to ask God for all sorts of things but with Him first – His will, His Kingdom, His reign, His praise and His honour and His glory first, that’s where the power is.

It always sticks with me how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He was betrayed and crucified. He said, “Father, if this cup of suffering could pass from Me, then take it away, but not My will, let Your will be done.” And then He went on to allow Himself to be crucified.

The single most powerful act in all history, happened when Jesus laid His life down for you and me – when He put the will of His Father before His own will.

I’ve often wondered about this ‘give us today our daily bread’. I’ve wondered how that prayer feels to someone – one of the billions – who is starving on this planet? Just to be able to go to God simply and say, “Lord, give us today our daily bread” – to be able to make that request and at the same time to lay our lives down for God. There’s such power in sacrifice.

When we get the ‘me’ out of the equation, and put God there instead, in our hearts, then there’s power in that. That’s the place when we come and put our needs before Him. We have the power to ask for the things we need – the power to ask for help or guidance or just a special touch from Him today because that’s what we need.

“Lord, I honour You and I praise You and I want to be in the centre of Your will, no matter what the cost. And Lord, I need Your help putting food on the table for my family tonight. I need Your help paying the rent. I need Your help to do a miracle in my marriage. I need Your help at work, Lord. I’m struggling with this – I’m struggling with this temptation.”

That’s powerful prayer.

“And Lord, no matter what comes I’m going to honour You and put You first.”

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, and in that context, we can come to Him and say,

“Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.”

Forgiveness – to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us – a shear acknowledgement that we do make mistakes.

My pride says I don’t need forgiveness, but humility recognises I do. And notice something – the high premium that God puts on forgiveness. It’s a big deal, that’s why Jesus went to the cross and He wants to set us free not only from our sin, by being able to go to Him and ask Him for forgiveness but look at the second part of this. ‘Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors’ – in other words He wants to set us free from the sins of others against us.

If I’m carrying anger and retribution around in my heart toward those people, I may go to God for forgiveness but God’s saying, “I’m not going to forgive you because first you’ve got to forgive them. Get free from your un-forgiveness and then come to Me and ask for forgiveness.”

And finally, He says, “Lead us not into temptation.”

“Lord, I want to live my life for You. I want You to protect me from falling over all the time and I’m not going to do this in my strength because I can’t.”

The devil has been around the block just a few times more than you and I have. He knows all the tricks and techniques. He knows how to push our buttons. He knows how to drag us away from God.

And here is this humble prayer, saying:

“Lord, I can’t do it on my own. I need Your help. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but Lord, deliver us from the evil one.”

When we unpack how Jesus taught us to pray, it’s exciting; it’s dynamic; it’s powerful. In every verse we see how He calls us to lay the ‘me’ down and to call Him Lord. You know, even when we go to Him and ask Him for our daily bread, ‘Give us today our daily bread’, is an acknowledgement that our daily bread comes from Him.

‘Forgive us our debts’ is an acknowledgement that we need forgiveness. ‘Lead us not into temptation’, is an acknowledgement that I need His help to live my life for Him – that I can’t do it in my own self.

Every verse of the Lord’s Prayer puts God first. That is powerful. The Kingship and the Lordship and the praise and the glory of God are where the power is in prayer. And God changes us through that.

When you and I, with all our heart, invite Him to let His Kingdom come, to let His will be done – when you and I with all our heart, lift our hands and say, “Lord, I praise You, hallowed be Your name”, the Spirit of God does something in us that you can’t put into words. The Spirit of God does something in us that nobody else can do.

The skilful Surgeon’s hand comes and takes the sin away. The Healer’s hand heals our lives. The Lord’s Prayer is not something for us to just rattle off because we have memorised the words. The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus saying to you and me, “There’s power in putting God first.”

Jesus said this – you can read it in John chapter 15, verse 7:

“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”

You see, if we do it Jesus’ way – if we hang close to Him; if we honour Him; if we put God first, then we can ask for whatever we wish because He’s had the chance to change our hearts. And He says,

“This is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit and show yourselves to be My disciples.”

The Lord’s Prayer is about putting first things first. The Father’s glory and in that context we get to ask for whatever we wish. We will look at that more in next weeks programme.
There is power in praying the way Jesus taught us to pray.
There is power in laying down the ‘me’ and putting God first.
There is power in calling Jesus ‘Lord’.

Way too many Christians are way too timid in their prayer lives. Now, I’m not saying be belligerent and demanding, but let me tell you, if your faith is in Jesus … you have a lot more power in your prayer than you realised.

OUR FAITH IN CHRIST

Well, welcome to this last program in the four part series that I’ve called, “The Power of Prayer”. Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at this whole prayer thing – “Bridging the Communication Gap”. You know sometimes we’re so busy, we’re running around we’re running around doing things. We just don’t take the time to spend with God. Then we saw how Jesus taught us to pray, just a humble, simple communication. Not trying to impress God or trying to impress anyone else, just spending time humbly before Him.

And then last week we saw what it meant to pray with power. This is so important. Last week on the program we saw time and time again God’s Word teaches us to pray with boldness, not with arrogance, but with a confidence in who God is and who we are in Christ Jesus.

When we talk about prayer one of the questions that comes up is, “Well, what can I ask God for? I mean, can I go to God and ask Him for anything? What if I want a flash new car, can I ask Him for that? Or a pay rise, or healing? How come sometimes He answers some peoples prayers for things like that and not others?” We’re going to take a look at that on the program today, because you know something, it’s an important question.

On the one hand, absolutely, we should pray with boldness because that’s what God’s word tells us to do. But on the other, in our me-centric world, and we’re all a product of that somehow aren’t we, it’s easy to get things the wrong way around.

We put ‘me’ at the centre and then we expect God to dance around to our tune. On the other hand, didn’t Jesus say, “Ask for whatever you wish and it will be given to you. And you haven’t received yet because you haven’t asked. See the dilemma.

On the one hand God is God. He’s Sovereign, He’s almighty. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, His ways aren’t our ways. And yet He teaches over and over again to pray with a faith and a boldness and a perseverance and belief, as Paul puts it in Ephesians Chapter 1, “In the Power that we have”, with a capital ‘P’. Now how do we resolve this dilemma? How do we get it right? What are we missing here in our understanding about this apparent conflict? For me it starts and ends with a deep faith in Jesus.

I was just reading this morning in my own devotion time the Gospel of Luke Chapter 6. Grab a Bible if you have one and open it up with me. Chapter 6 verse 17:

Jesus went down with the people and stood on a level place. There was a large crowd of His disciples and a great number of people from Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon and they had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured and the people all tried to touch Him because power was coming from Him and healing them.”

See, power was coming from Him. The Greek word for power is ‘dunamis’ we get the word dynamite. We are talking serious power was coming from Jesus and people were getting healed. 

We have to look at what it says before then. You see it says that they had come to hear him and be healed from all their diseases. That’s verse 18 of chapter 6 of Luke’s gospel. And there’s the key. We need to be open to who Jesus is and what He has to say. Jesus said some outrageous things. Love your enemy for starters. Forgive people. Call God “Dad” which is very radical. He ushered in a power, radical love.

He hung around sinners and lepers and prostitutes and healed the lame, the blind on the Sabbath when he shouldn’t have. And criticised the religious establishment for its hypocrisy. This Jesus, this unconventional saviour, that you just can’t easily put it in a box somewhere. We need to be moved by Him. Influenced by Him.

These people were open to Him. Listen to it again:

A large of disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear Him and to be healed of all their diseases”. They were moved by Him, they were influenced by Him, they were open to Him and so they experienced His power.

Somehow, you know, this seems to happen the right way up. Instead of creating God in our image to suit ourselves, these people were experiencing God as He was and is and accepting Him and so His power manifested itself in that place. They experienced His power.

Just a bit beforehand, if you flick back a couple of pages to Luke Chapter 4 beginning at verse 19 and onwards, you read about how they rejected Him in His own home town of Nazareth. They drove Him out. He didn’t do any miracles there. There was not much power happening there. It turns out that we need to accept Him for who He is on His terms and not ours, and then the power of God flows.

The same is true in Prayer. This kind of “I’m-at-the-centre-of-the-universe” thing and “God-is-there-to-serve-me” attitude is not where it’s at. Sometimes teenagers can have that view. If you’re a parent you know it doesn’t always get them anywhere with you does it? If anything, that attitude causes the parent to withhold blessing rather than to pour it out. No, these people have come to hear Jesus and then they were healed of diseases.

Here was Jesus on a level place with a large crowd who had come to hear him. The question is, when we come in prayer do we come to hear Him? Do we give Him sway in our heart? When His word is hard to accept, painful even; when He tells us to forgive someone we don’t want to forgive; when he calls us to let go of our pride or to humble ourselves before arrogant people; when He calls us to sacrifice, do we put Him first?

Do we give Jesus true Lordship in our lives? Do we let His kingdom, His reign, His authority, His rule, His will override everything else? All of our selfish desires.

Do we come to Him in prayer? To hear Him? Have we got the creator/creature relationship the right way up? Or when He has something difficult to say are we like the people in His own home town. “Who the heck does He think He is?”

Jesus did some specific and powerful teaching on exactly this issue, when it comes to Him answering prayer. Right towards the end, just before He was crucified, we will look at this teaching next.

WHEN JESUS MOVES OUR HEART

There’s power in prayer? Absolutely, there is! There’s power when we come to Jesus. The problem is so often, even without realising it, we come to Him on our own terms. We want Him to do it our way, not His.

I was struggling with an issue recently. It was something in an organization, and you know something, I wanted a certain outcome. ‘I’ wanted! The question though, was for me, what did Jesus want? Well, what was His wisdom, what was His will? Was I prepared to go to Him and say, “Lord, this is how I see it, but actually, You know what I want more than anything else? I want Your will to be done.” Just like Jesus in Gethsemane, He prayed, “Father, if You can take this cup of suffering and make it pass from Me, do it, but not My will; let Your will be done.”

None of us likes to suffer, do we? Never fun – Jesus didn’t want to suffer, but sometimes that’s what we are called to. Sometimes we are called into situations where on the surface, we lose and we want our outcome but are we prepared to make Jesus Christ Lord and live with His outcome?

Have a listen to how Jesus taught His disciples on this issue – this paradox of prayer; this key that unlocks the power of prayer. If you’ve got a Bible, flick it open to John, chapter 5 – John’s Gospel, fourth Book in the New Testament – chapter 5, beginning at verse 5. “Jesus said:

“I’m the vine, you’re the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you’ll bear much fruit because apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone doesn’t remain in Me, they’re like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Branches like that are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned, but if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is to My Dad’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”

Isn’t that a great picture – the grapevine and the branches? Well, it’s pretty obvious isn’t it? Unless the branch is in the stem of the vine it can’t produce fruit. Grapes produce wine and there are symbols throughout Scripture of God’s abundant blessing and the vine is the place where they get their life. And Jesus says:

“Apart from Me you can do nothing. If you don’t remain in Me, you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to wither and die.”

What does that mean – ‘remain in Me’? Well He goes on to explain that – look at verse 7. “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you” – see there’s a big ‘if’ here – ‘if’ you dwell in Me, ’if’ you abide in Me, ’if’ you stay close in a permanent relationship and bond with Me, I’ll give you life.

“And if My words remain in you” – there is it again; just what we were looking at earlier – “My words remain in you” – if you give Me sway in your heart, everything I’ve taught; everything I am; sacrifice; if those things have sway in your heart and you are close to Me, then, “ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”

Why this caveat? Well, it’s about the Lordship of Christ in our lives. If we put Him first; if we grow in Him; if His Word is ‘the’ thing that sways our hearts, no matter what the cost, then we have the relationship the right way up.

Then more that anything, we’ll want His will to be done. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.” The very first part of what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer is getting the relationship with God the right way up. If that’s where we are, then we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given to us.

Why can Jesus make such a sweeping statement? Because it’s to those in whose hearts He has complete sway; it’s to those who call Him ‘Lord’ and truly mean it; it’s for those who have made Him Lord in their lives and will sacrifice their lives for Him. It’s for those who, more that anything, want His will to be done and those one’s He can trust with a promise like that.

I don’t know how it is for you but in my walk with Jesus, it’s a journey. It’s been progressively learning and growing and maturing and getting my actions in line with my heart. Putting this stuff into practise, takes practise and time.

And time after time He’s called me to lay things down along the way – to sacrifice things I wanted, so His will could be done. To leave my six-figure consulting salary and trade it in for a minister’s salary so that God’s Word could be proclaimed around the world. And you know each time I’ve done that, it’s turned out to be a great joy and a great blessing.

But you know, He tests our hearts – He give us an opportunity to live out what’s in our heart and now when I come to Him, I take great care in what I ask for. You know why? Because I want His will to be done first. I know I can ask for anything I wish, but above all, I want His will to be done and for Him to be glorified.

I know the reason for the promise is for His glory. See what He said at the end? He says, “This is for My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” See, it’s all about Him – not about me – it’s not about you. And so I ask for things that will bring Him honour. Sometimes I have needs – real needs – and I bring those to Him. Sometimes I see needs out there in other people or ministries or whatever, and I go and pray for those.

I take this promise really seriously, because I know that it’s for me. So I honour Him with all my will and my wishes. When we lay our lives down, that’s where the power is in prayer – when Jesus moves our hearts; when He’s truly Lord of our lives, that’s where the power is in prayer.

THE POWER TO CHANGE

Over these last four weeks we have been looking at prayer from God’s perspective and my prayer for you has been that you get a whole fresh perspective on what prayer is about. It’s not about you and me trying to weasel stuff out of a stingy God – it’s not that at all. God knows what we are going to ask for and what our needs are before we even open our mouths.

But you know, sometimes, old habits, old perceptions – they die hard. I believe God want’s us to do away with those right now – that He wants a people who know the power of prayer and have the power to change – the power to change their own lives and the power to change the world for the glory of Jesus Christ through prayer.

Before the break we talked about the Lordship of Christ. Have you ever done this – have you ever truly made Jesus Christ Lord – Lord of everything? Lord of every decision; the Lord at whose feet we lay down our pride and our anger and our un-forgiveness and our selfishness.

Not just believing in Jesus at a distance; not just some quick prayer when you need something – not that. The Lord of all in your life, of everything! Maybe you’ve laid your life down before Him, maybe once, a long tome ago, maybe never. Maybe it’s something you’d like to do again, now.

We are going to pray a prayer, if you want to make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life – if you just want to renew that in your life, why don’t you pray with me now.

“Father God, You know each one of us; You know our hearts; You know our strengths and our weaknesses; You know our failures; You know our insecurities; You know every hair on our heads. Father, as we have heard Your Word today; the beautiful words of Jesus, we feel Your Spirit calling us forward, to bow down our lives before You. Father, we just want to come right now and admit our own failure and our own sin and our own rejection of You. Lord, our pride, our arrogance; all the things that we just know aren’t from You. And Father, we just say please forgive us. We put our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross and we just ask that You would forgive us those things. Father we just invite You to be the Lord of our life. Lord Jesus come and rule and reign in our lives. We bow our lives down to You today, for all eternity, no matter what the cost; no matter what the sacrifice; no matter what You call us to, we truly want You to be the Lord of our lives. Father we just thank You that as we pray this prayer, You don’t leave us on our own to live it out. We thank You that Your Holy Spirit brings resurrection life to our bodies. Holy Spirit come and fill us; fill us to overflowing with the live of Jesus. Lord, let us carry the death of Jesus around in our body, so that we can experience His life. We know there are going to be hard days. We know it’s not going to be always easy. We know, Lord, that we are going to make mistakes and stumble along the way but from this moment on, Jesus, we make You the Lord of our lives. We pray this in Your name. Amen.”

That prayer is about making Jesus Christ Lord and when we do that – simply, gently, yet radically, day by day, walk with Him – what we discover is power in our prayer. First Peter chapter 3, verse 12, says:

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Prayer is the power to change. Without prayer there is no power from God. Doing things in our own strength – our own strength is so puny and so inadequate, so flaky, so tiny, compared to the unimaginably great power of God.

You know, I recently, in the ministry, produced a Newsletter that goes out to all the supporters of Christianityworks and we have a great team of people here – people putting together stories and pictures just to share with our supporters the wonderful things God’s been doing – testimonies from around the world.

One of our board members owns an advertising agency and a wonderful Christian designer, a lady by the name of Mel, did the layout and design and when I saw it, I was so excited. It was so vibrant and beautiful and inspiring and I looked at it with delight at what God had produced through the team here and as I did, I felt the Holy Spirit say this to me, “Now pray that your Father in heaven will bless all of your supporters with the knowledge of what He as been doing through their gifts and prayers.”

And you know, I would almost have sent that Newsletter out without praying that prayer. But you know, the Holy Spirit was right, because without Him, we can do nothing. I wanted that Newsletter to bless the people that support this ministry – how did I possibly think that we would do that without inviting God; without saying, “Jesus, You are Lord, this is Your work. Bless this into the hearts of all the people who support the ministry.”

It doesn’t matter what we do – it doesn’t matter how good it is in the world’s eyes, unless He’s in it; unless His Spirit goes ahead and opens hearts, it won’t deliver the joy of the Lord that it was meant to. And that’s true in everything in life! We can race ahead and think, “God will just show up.”
There’s power in prayer – prayer is the power to change – prayer is joining hands with the Lord to do His will. Think about it! The God who created all the stars in the whole universe – trillions of them – joining hands with Him to see His will done here on earth.

That’s what prayer is and part of His will is to bless you and me – part of His will is to provide for you and me – part of His will is to bring healing into relationships, to put food on our table. He wants to do all that, He’s our Dad, He loves us. But prayer is about joining hands with God and seeing His will done.

I’m not a great prayer – I’m not some super-spiritual prayer – you know, what I just try to do is, most mornings, I sit down with God. I just rest with Him and say, “Lord, you know, I’d love these programmes to be heard by more people. I just want to see Your Word change more and more lives”, and just through that simple prayer – no more than that – in two years we have millions of people listening to the programmes each week. That’s God; that’s prayer! It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? That’s the sort of prayer Jesus spoke about – that’s the sort of prayer the Bible talks about – it’s awesome.

We lay our lives down and just come to Him simply and humbly and say, “Lord, I want to join hands with You to do Your will.” We can ask for anything and it will be done for us.