The Houston Post captured this story. During a morning worship service, Ellen noticed a nice-looking man sitting by himself on the back pew. As a single woman, she had a vested interest in meeting him. She approached him and with an extended hand said, Hi, I'm Ellen. He took one look at her and bolted out the door without saying a word. The following Sunday, he returned to church and made this apology. He said, my name is Bob Price and I owe you an apology for my rude behavior last Sunday. You see, my deceased wife's name was Ellen. And I had been praying, dear God, please send me another Ellen. And when you approached me and said, hi, I'm Ellen, I lost it. Bob and Ellen have now been married 12 years and are both very thankful for the way God answered Bob's prayer. You know, I hear a story like that It warms my heart and humbles my soul that God would condescend to weak and feeble people like me and like Bob Price and graciously answer our prayer. This morning I want to talk about the subject of prayer. Directly out of the text of scripture. We're going to look at but before we specifically look at the text of scripture I Need to tell you this when it comes to the topic of prayer I'm very angry I'm angry for two reasons Now I'll need to explain that I understand There are some of course who like the philosopher Karl Marx, father of communism, who says that religion is the opiate of the masses, it's unnecessary. There are some that see themselves as an island unto themselves. so self-sufficient and so independent that they need nothing and they need no one and they certainly don't need God. I understand there are some people like that. Most of us are not like that. Most people understand that we are weak and that we are frail and there are times when we need somebody that has far more grace power, strength, knowledge, ability that we have to help us in our time of need. And you see that frequently in the way in which people pray. The Catholics, after the Fourth Lateran Council that took place in 1215, after that, they developed the system of the rosary and through a series of beads that are tied together, they go through a repetition of prayer. Well, they're not the only ones with prayer beads. The Muslims have a system of prayer beads called the mishbaka or pronounced something like that. Sikhism has prayer beads, Buddhism has prayer beads, Hinduism has prayer beads. All of those three have 108 beads in their prayer circle. All to remind them of mantras that they are to pray or deities to whom they are to pray. And so for many people there is this endless repetition of praying in order that the deity or the deities are aware of who we are and would look kindly on us and in our time of need would come to our aid. Jesus said this, well let me give it a little bit of context in In the book of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7, we have what is called the Sermon on the Mount. Those particular chapters have been very crucial to our understanding of salvation and discipleship. In chapter 5, Jesus deals with what does righteousness look like? Righteousness that honors God. Well, the righteousness that honors God is complete perfection. And in the last verse of that chapter, verse 48, Jesus says, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Is there anybody who is able to measure up to that standard of righteousness? No, not one. Yet, we try. We try. We really try. In chapter 6, Jesus talks about three religious deeds that are habitually practiced by people to put on errors that we are somehow righteous before God. And Jesus says, no, don't give like the hypocrites do. He says in the beginning of chapter 6, he says, don't fast like the hypocrites do. And he also says, don't pray like the hypocrites do. It says in verse 7 of Matthew 6, and when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard by their many words. So do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask them. Does God look more favorably upon us because of our voluminous verbosity? Does He choose to look kindly upon us and act on our behalf because we pray lots of words, though they be meaningless and endlessly repetitive? No. Howard Macy said this, to approach God with only an incessant stream of words is a filibuster, not a prayer. But you know, we as Americans are pragmatists. We frequently don't buy into the system of needing to placate God or win God's approval or His favor, to have him look kindly upon us by our endless repetition of praying words and words and words. No, we're a little bit more pragmatic. We think that God already looks at us with kindness. He's already going to be merciful to us because God loves everybody anyway, right? And so we simply just ask God what we need when we need it. We treat God as a cosmic bellhop. as an overqualified errand boy. One who receives our honey-do list. I put this quote in your notes. I don't know who to attribute it to. Men usually ply their prayers like sailors do their pumps when the ships leak. We pray when we have a problem. We pray when when there's a need? Well, in our shallow theology world, the truths that we embrace and the things that we say we believe can sometimes be put on a bumper sticker. And you've seen those bumper stickers that say, prayer works. Prayer changes things. Well, as a Bible teacher, as a preacher, as a theologian, I could, if you gave me enough paper and they were single-spaced and in ten-point type, I could validate those statements that prayer works, prayer changes things. It would take me a great bit of time to define and carefully articulate what that statement does and does not mean. What God does do and what God does not do through prayer. But most people don't take the time to distinguish and to carefully articulate. God is not a genie to whom we pray and rub our lamp and wish for the best and expect that he's going to answer our prayers. So I ask you, is it wrong for us to pray for a wife? No. Unless you're a girl or unless you already have one. No, it's not wrong to pray for a wife. No, it's not wrong to pray for the safety of your children while they were flying who knows where over around the world. It's not wrong to pray for somebody who is in the throes of a serious illness that might take their life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says this, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And he who knocks, it will be opened to him. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he not give him a snake? He will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him? And Paul says to the Philippians in chapter 4, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. One lady asked Dr. G. Campbell Morgan one time, do you think we ought to pray for even the little things in life? To which Dr. Morgan replied with typical British humor, Madam, can you think of anything in your life that is big to God? No, it is good for us to be praying about everything. Even those things that we think are big which are really little in God's eyes even those things that are small even in our eyes I'm I'm I'm angered when we talk about the subject of prayer a or number one first because we often treat God as the the the answer to to our to-do list, the worker that we're going to hire or to implore to work on our behalf. I'm angered when we treat God with such triviality as if he were a bellhopper, an errant boy for us. But secondly, I'm angry not that we treat God in that manner or we seek to manipulate God as pagans will in their praying. I'm angry when it comes to the topic of prayer because of me. I look at myself and I know the truth and I know who is true. I know the privilege that I have been given in prayer. And yet it's like I have an allergic reaction to God. And so there's a part of my being that does not pray as fervently as it ought. As though I don't pray as frequently as I ought. Or as pointedly as I ought. I put this note from Dr. John Stott in your notes. This is where I live. He writes, The thing I know will give me the deepest joy, namely, to be alone and unhurried in the presence of God, aware of his presence, my heart open to him in worship, is often the thing I least want to do. But the topic of Scripture, regardless of its abuses, the topic of prayer is throughout Scripture. And regardless of its abuses and regardless of the allergic reaction that we have sometimes to praying, that topic of prayer is throughout Scripture. Matter of fact, in our relationship with the Lord, there is nothing more important than the Scripture and prayer. It is something that all of us must clearly understand and eagerly wrap our minds around, our souls around on a daily basis throughout the day. This morning we want to look at the life and example of Jesus specifically as it comes through this topic of prayer. We're in Matthew chapter 5. Over the past few chapters as we've examined them, Luke has given us testimony after testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is none other than the Son of God, the Messiah, the forgiver of sins. And you would expect that having verified that by various testimony, there would then be some kind of proof, some kind of evidence that would say, yep, see? All these people were right in their estimation and their understanding of who Jesus is. And it's seen in this way, this way, this way. Beginning in chapter 4, spilling over into chapter 5, we find that Jesus defeats the devil. Jesus delivers demoniacs. Jesus destroys disease. And in these ways, proves, gives evidence to the fact that He is the Son of God, that He is the Messiah, that He is the One who forgives sin. Chapter 4, verse 40 reads this way. It's a summary statement of what Jesus was about. while the sun was setting all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and laying his hands on each one of them he was healing them there were many proofs many evidences that jesus was who all these people testifying said about him chapter five verse 15 we find another one of these summary statements the news about him was spreading even farther and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their diseases and again there was evidence after evidence proof after proof that Jesus was the Messiah last week we looked at the encounter that Jesus had with a leper and he cleansed him of his leprosy. Now, there are just a very, very few examples of anybody ever being healed of that kind of serious problem. Moses' sister Miriam, the Syrian general Naaman, on that very short list, Here Jesus comes and he says, now I want you to go and present yourself to the priest as a testimony to them. They would be examining the scriptures and they would be saying, this one who has this kind of a power has got to come from God. Indeed, he did and he was. immediately after these summary statements that I read in Luke 4 and in Luke 5, you'll notice that Jesus does something. In verse 42 of Luke chapter 4, this is what we read. When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place. Now immediately preceding this, the day before, it was the Sabbath day, Jesus spent the morning teaching, preaching in the synagogues. He went over to Peter's house and he healed his mother-in-law, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, who was sick with a burning fever. And then on hearing this, the people in Capernaum, whoever had anybody sick, came and waited out in the front yard of Peter's house, waiting for Jesus' touch. He touched each one of them, healing them. It was on the very next day that he left and went to a secluded place. What did he do there? It doesn't tell us in verse 42, but over in chapter 5, different incident, different time, Jesus is doing the very same thing and we find out what he is doing. I think it's the same thing that we find in chapter 4, 42. This is our text this morning, Luke chapter 5, verse 16. But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Now, Jesus is the unique expression of God. We might use the word Son of God. That doesn't mean that He's a generated being. That doesn't mean that He came after God. It doesn't mean that He was created at some point. It means that He had a unique relationship with the Father. Elsewhere in scripture we find that the Father is God, the Spirit is God, and the Son is God. So this one, before these people, Jesus of Nazareth, is both fully God and fully man. And yet he's praying. He is often praying. Here we have two examples in two chapters of Jesus going off to a secluded place, to the wilderness, and praying. Why? Why did He, who is the Son of God, the very expression of God, He who is fully God, why does He pray? My friends, to understand that is to unlock prayer life because prayer is much more than asking God for this and for that and for the next and we see we see what that is in Jesus's praying second page of your notes from Jesus's example we find three reasons three motivations why We are called to pray. And none of these have anything to do with our supplications, with our requests that we are also called to bring before the Lord. We are called to pray because, first, we love the Father. Secondly, because we depend upon the Father. Third, because we seek to glorify the Father. All of these we find in Jesus' life. Back in Luke 5.16, the text tells us that Jesus would often slip away in order to pray. Now that word, slip away, appears only one other time in the New Testament, in Luke 9.10. And it's there translated, withdraw. That's a more generic term. We could translate this, and Jesus would often withdraw to the wilderness and pray. Maybe the translation that you have there in your lap reads that way. That's a more generic way of translating it. I like the way the New American Standard translates it, using that phrase, slip away because it speaks of purpose. It speaks of ceasing from that which is necessary to do that which is enjoyable. If you are at work and your work is such that you can slip away, what do you do when you slip away? Some of you might slip away in order to Golf. I might slip away to go for a swim. If you're in the midst of yard work and you just want to do something else, you might slip away to go for a hike in the woods. If you've got small kids at home and you're caring for kids and changing diapers and you're fixing meals, you might want to slip away in order to have a date with your spouse. To slip away is to withdraw, but there is something more about that. There is a desire to cease from doing that which is necessary to doing that which is enjoyable and energizing. Jesus prayed to the Father, not because He was obligated, not because He had a to-do list. Father, these are the things I need You to take care of for me. No, Jesus slipped away to pray because of the intimacy He had with the Father. He prayed, not because He wanted the Father to do something, but because He loved the Father. He simply wanted to be in His presence. If you look over at John 5, verse 20 says, The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. Because of the love relationship that was there, the Son walked into the Father's presence regularly, habitually, often, in order to see and to hear and to enjoy what also the Father was doing. John 14, last verse of that chapter, Jesus says, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. Such love, such intimacy, such a unity together that Jesus says, in essence, using it in human language, I love this man. I want to do everything he tells me to do. Now, His love for the Father was fueled by Scripture. It wasn't separate from Scripture. There are some movements within evangelicalism today, particularly in the emergent church movement, where prayer is something that is emphasized, prayer is something that happens, prayer is something that is encouraged, but it is something that is apart from, distinct from, separated from Scripture and it cannot be. Because my love for the Father in prayer is fueled by a greater understanding of who He is that I am informed about from Scripture. The two cannot be separated. My growth in prayer, my fervency in prayer grows as my understanding of who God is. grows. I will have a greater love for the Father when I see the greater greatness of the Father. Second reason, we pray first because we love the Father, secondly we pray because we depend upon the Father. Now though theologians talk about Jesus being fully God and fully man, 100% God and 100% man. He is absolutely unique in having two natures. Common sense might tell you, you can't have 100% of one thing and have 100% of another thing in the same thing. But here's an exception. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. Nevertheless, His humanity does not commingle with His divinity. Meaning that God's human nature and His divine nature are separate and distinct. They don't blend over into each other so that He has, as a human being, a divine advantage, if you will. There was a real dependence that Jesus had in His humanity upon the Father for every breath that He took, for every beating of His heart, for every morsel of food that He ingested, for every drop of water that He drank. He was dependent upon the Father for all of those things. So He went to the Father. recognizing, acknowledging, confessing, saying again, He was in need for the work of the Father in His life. And so do we go to our Heavenly Father. He knows what we need before we do sometimes, oftentimes. And yet He longs for us to come to Him as our Heavenly Father in a sense of dependency, knowing that we need Him for everything. John chapter 5, in the verse immediately before what I just read, John chapter 5 verse 19, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing. He is dependent upon the Father. John chapter 8, verse 28, Jesus says, I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. He is dependent upon the Father. One of my favorite seminary professors, while I was going to school at Dallas, John Hannah, wrote this. He said, the end of prayer is not so much tangible answers as a deepening life of dependency. The call to prayer is a sweet, I'm sorry, the call to prayer is a call primarily to love. submission, and obedience, the avenue of sweet, intimate, and intense fellowship of the soul with the infinite Creator. Now if Jesus was dependent upon the Father, think how we are dependent upon the Father in a far more extensive way. Jesus didn't have to confess sin. Jesus didn't need to beg for forgiveness. Jesus didn't need to cry out to God for mercy. And we do. How much more must we be a people of prayer, expressing by prayer our dependence upon the Lord? Charles Spurgeon said this in his classic book, Lectures to My Students. True prayer is not the noisy sound that clamorous lips repeat, but the deep silence of a soul that clasps Jehovah's feet, clasps the feet of the Lord out of utter dependence. Third, we pray because we love the Father, we pray because we depend upon the Father. Third, we pray because we seek to glorify the Father. Scripture has many examples of prayer from the beginning to the end. In the book of Genesis, chapter 28, we have a very good example of bad praying. I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 28. The immediate preceding chapter is the account of Jacob stealing the birthright from his twin Esau. And in chapter 28, God graciously grants this young man a dream. God gives Jacob a dream of how God is through him going to fulfill the promise given to his grandpa Abraham that is going to bless the entire world. Verse 10, Genesis 28, and Jacob departed from Beersheba and came toward and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and laid down in that place. He had a dream. And behold, a ladder was set from the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you." At this point, Jacob is an unconverted man. He is a self-righteous man. He doesn't understand his dependence upon the Lord. He has not been broken. He has not been humbled. And this arrogant, young, unconverted man responds to the Lord in this Unconditional promise in this way verse 20 Next day Jacob made a vow to the Lord saying If God will be with me and if God will keep me on this journey that I am taking and if God will give me food to eat and if I God will give me garments to wear and if I return to my father's house in safety. How many times have you counted a condition here? Five. If the Lord will bless me in these ways and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. Wow, isn't that a gracious thing on Jacob's part? Listen to this. This stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you." Oh, wow. Now we have gotten super generous. And Jacob says, okay God, if in response to your unconditional promise that you were going to bless me and my descendants eternally, If you bless me temporally, that is, if you give me what I want, then I'll cut you in for 10%. Oh, what a gracious guy. When Jacob prayed, he prayed in order to get his own will. He wanted to ensure that he was somehow glorified by God. He wanted God to recognize him. Jesus didn't pray that way. There were no if-then clauses in Jesus' praying. When he prayed, it wasn't about his will be done, it was about the Father's will being done. Look with me over at John chapter 17. What we call the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. John chapter 17 verse 4. Jesus is speaking here. He's praying. We have an insight by means of revelation through the Holy Spirit given to John of what exactly Jesus said in this prayer. Jesus said, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Jesus said, everything that I've done is all about giving you honor, you glory, Father, not about taking glory unto myself. Verse 6, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. It all goes back to the Father. When Jesus prayed, He prayed out of a deep love and devotion of delight and enjoyment in being in the Father's presence. He prayed because he realized he was utterly dependent upon everything, even the breath that he would take. It was from the Father. And he prayed not that his will would be done, that he would be recognized. He prayed so that God, the Father, would be famous through his life. in everything that He did. That's why Jesus prayed. And fundamentally, that's why we also must pray. I'll put this quote in your notes from Arthur Pink, evangelist and theologian from the 20th century. How clearly then is the fundamental duty in prayer set forth? Self and all its needs must be given a secondary place. And the Lord freely accorded the preeminence in our thoughts and supplications. This petition must take precedence. For the glory of God's great name is the ultimate end of all things. Prayer is not about us. Is it wrong to pray for wives? Well, with condition, a wife. Is it wrong to pray for kids? Is it wrong to pray for health? No, no, no, no. But fundamentally, If that's the extent of our praying, we've missed it. Our praying is primarily an expression of love and dependence, all for the glory of the Father. Listen to the words of E. Stanley Jones. He says, Prayer is surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook, an anchor, from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me? Or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but aligning my will to the will of God. Jesus slipped away often to pray, to pray in this manner, out of love and dependence for the Father's glory. Can we, far more needy than Jesus, far more dependent, can we do anything less? It is in part by our interaction with one another and our exhortation with one another that we deal with this allergic reaction that we sometimes have to not praying as we must. Father, it is an honor for us to be here this morning and to listen to the testimony of Scripture, to examine the example of Christ that we might follow in His footsteps. Father, we are needing You to do the work of changing our desire that we do as our mind says we need to do, must do, indeed as we want to do. Remove that allergic reaction and the plethora of hindrances that stand in the way between us and that quiet communion with You. Draw us unto Yourself, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.