Broken Men Praying

And happy Father's Day to, to our, our dads. this is Father's Day, and being Father's Day, we want to take a moment to recognize the dads that are with us and to express our appreciation to you. One of the things that we say here at Cornerstone, is that if you are a father, welcome to the pastorate. And we believe that that is is biblical.

If you are a father, then you are the head of a household, and as a man who's in that particular position, you are to be a pastor of your household, of your wife and children, and the single best way that you serve the church body is by leading your household well and being a good and godly shepherd to your wife and, and children. In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4, the apostle Paul looks at all the children in the Ephesian church and ponders what needs to be done with them. And he then turns to the dads and says, Fathers, you bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

That calling is a calling that is God lays upon you, and that doesn't mean you're the only one who teaches them or even technically that you're their only Father.

We're taught in First Timothy that we are the household of faith. We're not just a collection of families. We are the family of God. And in 1 Timothy 5 we're told to relate to older men as fathers and older women as mothers and to our peers in Christ as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

So I, as a dad, I need to assume my responsibility to teach my children, but I should relish the fact that my children have other spiritual father and mother figures and brothers and sisters in the church that play a significant role in In their life. And so that's the balance that we try to strike here at at Cornerstone. And I want you as dads to be honored by the fact that God has chosen you to be the one who brings up your children. He picked you over your seminary trained pastor.

To be the one who trains and instructs your children in the ways of the Lord, be encouraged by that, and realize that God chose you because you have power. In the lives of your children, even the most fumbling and woefully imperfect attempt by a godly father to lead his children in the ways of God packs more punch and wields more power than the flawlessly executed ministry of a seminary trained pastor. That's the power that you possess. And so we celebrate you this morning.

And we've had ushers waiting patiently for me to finish this sermon to give you the gift. If you are a father, grandfather, expectant father, spiritual father, could you please stand so we can express our appreciation to you? And if you could remain standing until you receive the gift, and then you can, you can be seated. This is the book Gospel Meditations for Prayer.

It's written by the same men who wrote Gospel meditations for men, and gospel meditations for women, and gospel meditations for missions. And now they've come out with gospel meditations for prayer. This just came out a month or two ago. And this is would be a blessing to all believers.

but, given our theme for today, this, is a great gift for you men to put in your hands, be reading this. I think it's 31 readings, and, let God challenge you and encourage you in this, matter of prayer. And there are extra copies, ladies, and, the leftovers are going to be put in the information booth. And you can buy these for $2.

All right, but your husbands get them for free today. anyway, let me just take a few moments here, Dads, and pray. for God's blessing on, on you. Lord, we just come to you at this time, so thankful for you as our Heavenly Father.

We also thank you and praise you for the dads that are represented in this room. This morning, we thank you for the work that they do in providing for their homes and also the work that they do in molding the lives and the character of the children that are in their home. Lord, some of these dads are young and others are older, some have young children in the home and others have older children that are out of the home. Some of these dads have children that are bringing great joy to their heart because the children are making wise choices.

Some of our dads, Lord, have hearts that are broken. And hurting Because of foolish choices that their children have made or are making Some of our dads, Lord, here at Cornerstone, most of them have Christian wives by their side who are together with them in their efforts to bring up their children and the instruction of the Lord, but some of our dads, Lord, have wives who do not believe in Jesus. Making this journey, more challenging and some of our dads, Lord, have no wife at all.

By their side, and they must labor alone in many ways.

Father, we just ask for every dad that you would bless. Each in a very special way today and that you would Give to each father the grace that they need to be exactly the father that their children need for them to be at whatever stage of life they are at. We ask that you would help these dads to understand how important their ministry is, how they walk from day to day, just yoked with enormous power. I pray that these dads would get up in the morning recognizing that the Father power that you've given to them and that they would know just one word of encouragement or affirmation, just a simple pat on the back, just a little bit of attention paid toward their children listening or speaking, that they knowing this power that they possess that they would get up in the morning and ask, how will I use this power today.

For maximum good. Help us as dads, Lord, to mirror your image to our children, for better or for worse, Lord, from a human standpoint, there probably is no earthly influence any stronger in shaping our children's view of God than us. Who are their fathers. And so help us to mirror your image to our children.

Help us by the lives that we lead and by the example we set, by the things that we do, by the ways that we go about relating to our children. Help us through all of these means to show our children what you are like and where we fall short, Lord. May we know that there is grace and there is forgiveness and that Jesus died for sins. He died for Father's sins, and mothers sins, and that we can run to the cross.

And anyone who runs to you, Lord, for forgiveness and grace, you will never cast them away. May we walk in this grace, believe in this grace, and on the wings of this grace soar into becoming the dads. That you have called us to be. I pray that you would use all of us as dads together with the moms that are here today to raise a godly generation of men and women who will be champions of the faith, who will know their God, who will know their Savior and be confident in Him, and standing firm in Him, do great exploits in the name of Jesus.

And we ask all of these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen. let me have you turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 for our time. In the word this morning, First Timothy.

chapter 2. We're just going to look at one verse and we're not even going to be able to look at this verse in detail. 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 8, if you want to give a title to the message, it's Broken men praying, broken men praying. One final announcement this ties to the message, so that's why I'm saying it now.

This coming Tuesday, 2 days from right now, is the 3 year anniversary of our second day Man Forum, and The, the Man Forum started 3 years ago, the Tuesday after Father's Day 3 years ago, and, it meets at 6 a.m. on Tuesday mornings, normally in the modular building and it meets from 6:00 to 7:05. And the purpose of our Man Forum times is to discuss matters that are a particular, encouragement and application to men. And originally, when we started it 3 years ago, It was announced it's just something that we were going to do for 3 weeks, and the purpose of it was to meet for 3 weeks and figure out how we as a church could do a better job of serving our men.

And so we met for 3 weeks and at the end of 3 weeks, the guys who were showing up said, Let's, let's keep this going and here we are 3 years later. Last Tuesday there were 31 brothers that were in that modular building just talking about God's word and just thinking about how we could be better dads and better husbands, better men of God, confessing sin, confessing weakness, and Over the last 3 years, I've learned a ton from my brothers during these man Forum meeting times. but this Tuesday will make 3 years, the 3 year anniversary, and because of that, there are some brothers who are going to be getting up ridiculously early on Tuesday.

In order to be here and to prepare a breakfast for you men that are able to come.

So I want to invite you. It'll be in the fellowship hall at 6 o'clock on Tuesday of this week, for a breakfast, and we'll try to meet from 6 to 7:05 as normal. If you can't stay the whole time, that's fine. Just swing through, grab something to eat, and you can be on your way to work.

There'll be no offense taken. there we'd be happy to see you, but we'll eat, we'll fellowship. We'll also spend some time thanking the Lord for some lessons that we have been learning from those meeting times over the last 3 years. And also, I know there's a lot of venues to hook up with people.

The care groups are the primary one. but if, if you think there's any value in hooking up with your brothers on a Tuesday morning and your schedule would allow for that, consider making the man Forum, a weekly, a part of your weekly, routine. And along those lines, what I want to do is share with you, what we call in our Man Forum meeting times, the seven pillars of Cornerstone's men's ministry. We review these at least once a month in those meeting times, but I've never actually stood in front of the whole congregation and said, here's the seven pillars of our men's, ministry.

And these are the 7 things that we as men at Cornerstone have in common. These are 7 things that we rally around, because we share these things in common. These are 7 things that bind us together as brothers. People talk about male bonding.

Well, we bond around these 7 things that we have in common. You could also look at these 7 things as qualifications. that you would have to meet if you want to fit in well as a man amongst your brothers here at Cornerstone. If you're thinking about showing up at some men's event and you're wondering, I just wonder if I'm going to fit in with these guys, then use the seven things on this checklist to see if you qualify, to see if you'll fit in.

OK, you interested? All right, here's the seven pillars of our men's ministry. The first pillar that all of us as men rally around and have in common is weakness, weakness. The second pillar that we rally around that we as brothers have in common is ignorance, ignorance.

The third pillar that we as men rally around because we have this in common. is failure. OK, we review these every month. just so, how are you doing on these, men?

So you, you qualified so far? So weakness and ignorance and failure, and we're talking about sinful failure. But the fourth pillar of our men's ministry is a humble willingness to confess the previous 3. Is a humble willingness to confess.

our weakness and our ignorance and our failure. True manliness is not hiding our weaknesses and our ignorance and our failures. It's confessing those things. True manliness is not making excuses for our weaknesses and our ignorance and our failure.

It's confessing those things without excuses. And true manly leadership. is not confessing other people's weaknesses, ignorance and failures, but confessing one's own weakness and ignorance and failure. There are some men who, they get it in their heads, I've got to be a better, better leader.

So I'm start leading my wife, and so they sit their wife down, and they begin by confessing their wife's weaknesses and ignorance and failures. And then they wonder, man, that didn't go well. go figure, or they want to lead their family, they want to lead their children, and they're really good about frequently confessing their children's weaknesses and ignorance and failures. But true manly leadership is confessing one's own, looking at the log in one's own eye and becoming expert at confessing one's own weaknesses and ignorance and failure.

In fact, our opinion is you really have no business confessing somebody else's weakness and ignorance and failure until you have learned the art of confessing your own. So the 4th pillar of our men's ministry that we would hope that all of our men have in common is a humble willingness to confess. our weaknesses and ignorance and failure. And then the fifth pillar of our men's ministry is a great savior, a really great savior, who is Jesus Christ.

In fact, Jesus Christ, who died for us and was raised for us, who's now at the right hand of God for us and who lives forever for it, for us to save us to the uttermost. It is because he is a great savior that we have the courage to face our sins squarely, and to be open about them and to confess our sins, our ignorance and our weaknesses, because we know that we're loved, we know that we're not condemned. We know that he is a solution. To everything that is wrong with us.

We can confess our weakness to Him because he can take our weakness and make us strong. We can confess our ignorance to Him because he can take our ignorance and make us wise. We can confess our sins to Him because he can take our sins and render us forgiven and justified and free. And the 6th pillar of our men's ministry flows from that, and that is the pillar of prayer.

This is a great savior. So we come to him with our broken selves, and we cry out to Him and call upon Him in prayer, asking him day by day to be our Savior, the forgiver of our sins, the one who frees us and gives us the power to become all that God wants us to be as husbands and as dads and as men of God, and then the final pillar of our men's ministry that emerges from this great Savior to whom we pray is hope, hope for ourselves and hope for those that, that we lead. But understand that this hope is not a shallow hope that we, we traffic in.

It is a hope that comes to us on the far side, on the deep end of brokenness.

And so as we see our sins and the depths of our sin and ignorance and our failure and our weakness, and we come to our great Savior, and we cry out to Him, It is, it is hope that is birthed on the other end of such praying and crying out to him. And so we, we really want to emphasize brokenness. I sometimes I'll get an email or a lady in the church will approach me and ask me, what do you guys talk about in the man forum? What are you doing?

And And what I typically like to say is that when we get together as men, it's not a bunch of guys getting together and grunting., having a grunting, primal chest thumping, testosterone-filled rallying time where we rally around male dominance. We're men and no one else is. It's actually, it's actually the opposite. When we get together, we're seeking to foster an environment where brokenness is OK, where weakness is acceptable.

Because it's our belief that real manhood begins with brokenness. That's manhood and where it begins. Listen to what one writer says, manhood begins. Manhood begins in broken desperation and utter incompetence.

meekness and mourning and contrition and weakness define where I am to begin to walk as a man before the God who created me. Now, notice this writer is not saying that manhood is all about only brokenness. No, what word does he use there? He says it begins with brokenness.

And utter incompetence or the realization of our incompetence. That's where manhood begins. You think in Luke 18, where Jesus talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector who come into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee comes and to his credit, he wants to talk to God. He wants to pray, but there's no brokenness.

In fact, he's bragging about himself to God, Lord, look at me, and I thank you that I'm not like other people like this tax collector over here, and I fast and I give tithes and I do this and that and the other. And I'm way better than that guy over there. But the tax collector, Jesus says, was so broken over his sin, that he could not even bring himself to lift up his eyes to heaven and beating his breast, the only thing that he could wrench out of his heart were the words, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

That's all he could say.

And Jesus says that man. Went home righteous. And the Pharisee did not. And I'm sure that tax collector, the rest of that day was feeling quite joyful and hopeful for himself.

And in the years that followed, there was a lot of joy that he experienced, and productivity, and all of that came on the other side of brokenness, the beginning of all of that wonderful stuff. was brokenness. He would say, looking back, I would have never realized that at the moment. But when I was there at the temple, and crying out to God and brokenness, I was right on the cusp of greatness.

I was right on the cusp of righteousness and real manhood. Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Those who don't mourn will not be comforted with true salvation. But those who mourn, will And so what we try to foster Amongst our men is this brokenness that leads us to crying out to Jesus as a great savior, and we appreciate His grace all the more.

And in crying out to Him and experiencing Him as a great savior, on the other side of that experience, we have tremendous hope. We're bursting with hope for ourselves and for those that we are called to lead. Well, you'll notice among those pillars that pillar number 6 is the pillar of prayer, and that's what we're going to talk about with a little bit of time that we have left this morning. and, what we'll observe as we look at 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 85 things that God wants from men with regard to, to prayer.

I'm pretty confident that if God were to show up in This room this morning, and we were to give him the floor and say, it's Father's Day, Lord, could you speak to the men. In this room this morning. I'm confident that God would speak to the men about prayer. You say, Well, how do that?

I know that because of 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 8, where Paul literally calls men out and says, I want to talk to the men for a moment, not the women. I want to talk to the men, the males, for just a moment, and then Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks 15 words in the Greek text to men. And that's all he says. And guess what?

It's on prayer. That's what verse 8 is all about. and interestingly enough, he speaks 15 words to men, just one verse to men on the subject of prayer. And then Paul says, and now regarding the women, here's what I want, and he speaks 7 verses of instruction to women.

So 7 verses to women. One verse to men. OK, what does that mean? I have no idea, but I I'm just pointing that out.

But, but it should be significant to us that God is going to speak very succinctly to men. And so the words that come out of his mouth, two men specifically, are, they're loaded, they should have our rapt attention. There's a million things God could have said, but instead he chooses to say this. Therefore, I want the men.

In every place to pray. Lifting up holy hands without wrath or dissension. That's it. And then he moves to women to speak to them.

Let's just break this down 5 things that we observe here that God wants from men with regard to prayer. Number 1, God wants men to pray as a foundational habit of their life. He wants men to pray as a foundational habit. Of their life.

When Paul says, I want the men in every place to pray, that word pray is in the present tense. So Paul is saying more than just occasionally pray. pray once here and there. No, he's calling upon men to continuously be praying as the characteristic pattern of their life.

He's calling men to habitually pray to where one of their habits is the habit of prayer. It's something that they're identified by. They're known for the fact that they pray. Habitually, it's just their habit and a characteristic pattern of their life.

And so Paul is saying, I am wanting the men in every place to be continuously praying. This is what I want the men in the church to be known for. Now let's ponder just a moment the question, why in the world is this all that Paul says to men? Why, when Paul has a chance to speak to men, is this all that he tells men to do, and then he moves on and begins to give instructions to the women.

I would imagine that when this text was first read, First Timothy was first read to, the early congregations that, that it's being read, and then Paul says, therefore, I want the men. And I'm sure the men sat up and listened, and I'm sure the wives sat up and listened, like, Oh, finally he's going to talk to my man. here comes the list. I've been praying to God and pouring out my heart to Him on behalf of my husband.

And I got a list a mile long of things that need to change and my husband, and finally, my husband's going to get it here. He's going to get the list. And then to these wives chagrin, all they hear is, I want the men and every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath or dissension. And the wives are like, yeah, yeah, great.

And Then Paul says, and from the women, here's what I want. And I would imagine some wives would say to God, God, where's the list here? That's it. That's all you're going to say to my husband.

That's all. And maybe you feel that way. A little bit. It's not uncommon for me.

After a Father's Day sermon to have wives approach me with suggestions of what I could have said. Seriously, that happens. It's probably the one Sunday that I get the most feedback of what I could have done differently, and it's normally more that could have been said or I could have been a little harder on the men than than than I was. But I want you to think about this.

And don't give short shrift to what Paul is, what God is telling your man to do. He's calling upon men. To be praying continuously. If a man does that, what that means?

That means that your husband habitually is living with his face toward God. In the worship of God. That means that he's understanding that he needs prayer, that he needs direction, that he needs power, and that it's not enough to get through life on his own. And so he turns with his face toward God and he is worshiping this God.

He's living in constant dependence upon this God. He is crying. out to this God. And in every blessing that comes his way, great and small, he's giving thanks to this God, for God's goodness in his life.

And that's his habit. And my question to you, wives, is what more do you really want? And is it not true that anything else you want from your husband that's biblical lies somewhere downstream? of this.

If, if a husband is really living this out, is it not inevitable that many of these other things that you would want to see in him and that God wants to see in him will come to pass? See, God is, God knows what he's doing here. God knows that men need things in bite-sized chunks. Keep it simple.

Give me one thing to do. Don't give me a list. And so God, just, I'm going to give men one thing here. This is a surgical strike.

If men do this, 1000 giants get slain. Men, here, here it is. I want you to always be praying. Always be praying.

And men say, OK, I got that, and by your grace, I'm going to do that, and they have no clue what they're in for, right? That's the power of living with your face toward God. I would also, I think it's worth pondering the question of why does Paul just call the men to pray in here? Why doesn't he say, I want everyone, men, women, children, I want everyone in the church to be praying.

In every place he could have said that and we all would have thought that makes sense. All of us should be praying without ceasing, but instead he singles the men out and says, I want you praying all the time everywhere. And then he says, Now the women, here's what I want for you. Why does he single the men out and only tell the men to do this?

Well, we know it's not because Paul doesn't want the women to pray. But I believe that Paul is instructing the men to do this because in a church where the men do this, it's inevitable that others in the church will follow suit. In churches where men are praying, men habitually praying men in the church and in the home, you can generally expect by and large that the women will follow suit. Interestingly enough, the reverse is not always true.

There are churches where the women pray. In fact, in most churches, it's the women who are the ones who most readily see their weakness and their dependence on God, and they're the first ones to say, I think we need to pray. And the guy's like, No, no, no, hang on, hang on, I think I've got another idea here, and we want to do something, we want to fix something, and we don't come to that place of prayer as quickly as many women do, and this is to the credit. Of godly women, when I say that.

and so there are churches where the women pray and they get together, they have prayer meetings, but the men aren't praying. But what, I don't know of any church where the men habitually are crying out to God. And they're not just praying. Thank you for this day.

It's broken man praying. It's not just praying, it's praying like crazy. And churches where the men are leading the way and doing that. It is almost inevitable that the rest of the church will follow suit.

And so again, God is a surgeon. This is a surgical strike. If the men do this, it's going to address so many other areas in their life. And not only that, but if the men in the church do this, it will slay 1000 giants in the church as well.

As go the men, so goes the rest of the church. And as goes the church, so goes society. And so men, a lot is riding on us being habitually praying men. There's a second thing that we observe here that God wants from men with regard to prayer, and that is that God wants men to be motivated by the gospel to pray.

He wants men to not just pray, but to pray, being motivated by the gospel. To pray. Long story short, look at verse 3. Paul says, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved.

And to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying.

As a teacher of the Gentiles and faith and truth. In a nutshell, here's what Paul has just said, God is a savior. God desires all men to be saved. There is a mediator between God and man, and that is Christ, who mediates, who gives us God.

and His grace. This Christ has given Himself as a ransom. For all, for our salvation. And in giving up his life, he gave himself as a witness, or a testimony of God's love to us.

And Paul says, I myself was appointed a herald of this good news about Jesus. Therefore, Therefore, because of what I have just said, the truths I have just affirmed, and as one called by God to be a herald of this good news. Therefore, I want the men. And every place to pray.

It's interesting to me that Paul does not motivate men to pray. Through guilt or by shaming them, shame on you, men, for praying so little. How dare you pray so little? Don't?

Haven't you read these books on prayer that the great saints of the past prayed 9 hours a day? Shame on you for not praying, he could have said that. But instead, He tells us, hey, God is a savior, desires all to be saved. There's a mediator between you and God.

Christ has paved the way so that you could come into God's presence. And you can experience God through Jesus Christ, who mediates the love and the grace, the power of God to you. He gave himself as a ransom for you, and as a testimony to you of God's love. Therefore, pray.

And he seeks to motivate men to pray through the gospel. Ladies, Paul is modeling for you. He's modeling for you how to motivate your man. How to motivate your man to be what he ought to be.

And to do what he ought to do. Paul says, I'm, I'm going to minister to your husband and And get him to pray. And you say, OK, this will be interesting, and you're waiting for Paul to lower the boom and the shame and guilt your husband into praying, and instead, You hear gospel. You hear grace.

Apparently Paul believes. that men Can be motivated by the gospel. Apparently Paul believes that the gospel is a very potent motivation for your husband. To become all that he should be and do what God wants him to do.

And you want to learn from that, like, wow, this is Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit, and he's using the gospel to motivate my husband to pray. Hmm. I wonder if that means that I ought to use the gospel more often in motivating my husband to become what God wants him to be, as I affirm my husband in gospel truth and gospel grace, and gospel love, and as I seek to be a living embodiment of that in relationship to my husband, as I seek to be an influence in my husband's life that brings him more and more deeply.

Into a deeper persuasion of the truth and the beauty and the glory and the power of the gospel as I play my role as an evangelist in my husband's life, God can use that gospel impartation.

To do great things and to motivate my husband to be what he ought to be and do what he ought to do. So Paul is challenging men to pray, but he motivates them to pray through the gospel. There's a third thing that we observe that God wants from men with regard to prayer, and that is that God wants men to pray in every place. He wants them to pray in every.

he says, therefore, I want the men in every place to pray. Don't just pray, don't just pray habitually. I want you to pray everywhere in every place. So he's being very explicit to men who need clarity.

They need things to be made as clear as possible. And a man may say, All right, I need to pray habitually, but where do I do this? Paul says, let me narrow it down. Everywhere, pray in every place you find yourself, in the church, in the workplace, in the home, when you're next to your wife, pray, when you're next to your children, and in their presence, pray, when you're in the church, pray on your way to work, pray on the freeway, pray while you're working, pray in every place.

Make every place a sacred spot for prayer. The touching thing about the heart of God being revealed here is this, that wherever you are, God is saying, I want our relationship to go there. I want to be with you wherever you go, and every place you find yourself. Take me there.

And I want you to talk to me from every location that you find yourself. He's alerting us to the fact that everywhere you find yourself is a hotspot where you have a free connection to me. And you can talk to me. I want you to talk to me.

I have so structured the universe that there's no spot you'll ever find yourself where the connection is bad and you can't communicate to me or me communicate to you. Can we appreciate that? I am, at least once a week, I call my mom, who lives in Indiana, and, and it's normally while I'm driving into work from Moreno Valley down here. And, and I, it's, I got an earpiece, so it's not a handheld, so I'm.

Just so we're clear. The, but there's always a spot, I don't know why this is, but when coming down the 60 freeway, somewhere between Central and Martin Luther King, I always lose my mom. the connection gets lost between us and so we call that the Bermuda Triangle and I'll tell her, I'm approaching the Bermuda Triangle, so if I lose you just know I'll call you when I come out the other end and inevitably that's, that's what happens so. I have free connection to her when I'm in Moreno Valley and just coming out and when I'm down here in Riverside, but there is a spot where the connection is bad.

If I were stranded by the side of the freeway in that stretch of freeway waiting for a tow truck and I need someone to talk to, I would not call her because the connection there for some reason is bad. The beautiful thing is God is saying you never have to worry about that with me. I hear you from anywhere. And everywhere I've so structured the universe that no matter where you find yourself, you are always in a hot spot where you have free connection to me.

I've designed it that way because I want to be with you. I want relationship with you in every place and under every circumstance. And so Paul is saying, I want the men in every place to pray. So in trials, pray.

When you're encouraged over what God is doing in the lives of your children, pray and thank Him for it. When your heart is broken over what you're seeing in your children, pray. Again, when you, you're next to your wife and you guys are frustrated over something in your marriage over, just difficulties that you're both confronting in your life, pray, pray everywhere, pray. Imagine we have a church full of men who are quick to pray all the time, habitually and in every place.

What could God do with this church? If men did this, if men prayed in the church, in the workplace, and in the home, if men understood that I don't want to just pray when I'm with other people in the church or in care group, I want to pray when I'm at home. The home is a powerful venue for prayer. Your true greatness as a man of God will be displayed by By The prayers you pray at home.

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of over 100 years ago. He was a man who would preach to thousands upon thousands of people, and his sermons are still being published and recorded to this day. No one questions his oratory and his prowess as a communicator of God's word before the masses. And yet, if you talk to his wife, Susannah, she would say his real greatness was demonstrated when he prayed at home.

With me And with our family after he passed away, she shared that one of the things that she missed the most about her husband was she missed his prayers. She missed hearing his prayers and being prayed over by her. She describes after he passed away what he used to do with her and the family, and she said after the meal was over, an adjournment was made to the study for family worship. so I guess they would eat and then they would adjourn.

I don't know if they use that word, but that'd be funny. we're going to adjourn now from the dinner. But an adjournment was made to the study for family worship. And it was at these seasons that my beloved's prayers were remarkable for their tender childlikeness, their spiritual pathos, and their intense devotion.

He seemed to come as near to God as a little child to a loving Father, and we were often moved to tears as he talked thus face to face with his Lord. She missed that A visitor in their home who stayed with them for a few days, would sit in on their times together as a family, and he marveled at the version of Charles Spurgeon that he saw displayed in their times of prayer. And he's described it this way. Then, how full of tender pleading of serene confidence in God, of world embracing sympathy were his prayers.

His public prayers were an inspiration and benediction, but his prayers with the family were to me more wonderful still. Mr. Spurgeon, when bowed before God in family prayer, appeared a grander man even than when holding thousands spellbound. By his oratory.

That's where the greatness of his heart was displayed. Praying with his family, men, pray, pray with your wives, pray with your children. I understand that it's hard. Of all the things I ever have to do as a pastor, and as a man, the hardest thing to do for me is to pray with my wife.

It took me years to figure out why, but I'll tell you why, because prayer is pleading helplessness before God. And a man does not like to be helpless in front of his woman. That's hard, but the discipline of lowering yourself and crying out to God and admitting your weakness, your ignorance, and your failure, and your helplessness positions you in a place where God's grace can flow. God says, I dump my grace.

I lavish my grace upon those who humble themselves in this way. There's a 4th thing that we observe that God wants from Christian men with regard to prayer, and that is that God wants men to pray, lifting up holy hands. He wants men to pray, lifting up holy hands. We don't have time to elaborate on this, but let me, let me just say this.

That Paul says, lifting up holy hands, we do need to realize that it's not enough to pray and it's not enough to just raise our hands in prayer. We got to make sure that we are raising holy hands in prayer. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were praying and even raising their hands in prayer. And God says, I'm not even interested in your prayers, because your hands are full of blood.

iniquity. You say, well, how do I get holy hands to pray with? here's how, believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus, run to Jesus with your sin, the sin on your hands, run to him, believe in Him, confess your sins, ask for cleansing and salvation.

And let me say it another way, if you want to lift up holy hands in prayer, get into Christ, get into him. In Psalm 24, the psalmist asked some very good questions. He says, who will ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who will ascend to the holy place?

Who in the world could possibly be entitled to come into the holy place? And the answer is he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who's not lifted up his soul into falsehood. He gives a description. And what, when you read that description, not one of us are qualified.

There's only one person qualified to ascend to the hill of the Lord, and to enter into the holy place, and that's Jesus, who never lifted up his soul in the falsehood or iniquity. He truly has clean hands and a pure heart. So if you want to be able to lift up holy hands, get into Jesus, believe in Him. To where when you raise your hands, you're raising your hands in the name of Jesus who is the ultimately Holy One.

It's as if it's his hands that are being raised as you raise your hands in His name. But also, if you want to raise holy hands in prayer, live a consecrated life. That's what the word holy means being wholly devoted to God. You can't use your hands to send one moment and then turn around and raise your hands to God in prayer.

that's inconsistent. That's wrong. Live a consecrated life. View your hands as belonging to God.

In all of life, and then in prayer you raise those consecrated hands to Him in prayer. And when you do fall short, confess those failures to Him and receive cleansing from Him. Let me just ask you men some questions when your wife Seize your hands. What does she see?

When your children look at your hand, or your hands, what do they feel? Some women, when they see their husband's hands. They see instruments of abuse. When their husband's hand is raised towards them, they wince and they recoil.

Because those are hands that have slapped her. And have punched her and have wounded her. Those are hands that have flipped through pornographic magazines. And press keys on a keyboard.

On multiple occasions to look at sinful images, those hands have been instruments of sin. Some children, when they look at their father's hands, See instruments of physical abuse. And even sexual abuse. Would to God Would to God that when our wives and our children think of our hands, That one of the first things that comes to their mind is the visual of our hands being raised toward the God of heaven in prayer.

And even if these hands have committed sins in the past, that they see our hands raised toward God in confession. And in repentance and receiving that cleansing and that grace from Him. Where would our society be today? If you did a survey and virtually everyone, when asked the question, when you think of your father's hands, what do you think of?

Where does your mind go? If all of their answers were, oh, I The biggest visual I have is of my dad's hands being raised to God in prayer. Where would we be as a culture? It's because men have been doing other things with their hands.

That we are where we are in the church and And our culture Let's conclude with the 5th thing that we observed that God wants from men with regard to prayer, and that is that God wants men to pray without wrath or dissension. To pray without wrath or dissension, just in a nutshell, we come to God in prayer. And guess what? We're in a wrath-free zone.

There's no wrath from God towards us because Christ already absorbed that. It's a dissension free zone. There's no disputation coming from God towards us. and so no wrath from him towards us, no dissension from him, or disputation from him towards us.

It is a wrath free zone. And so how can we live in the good of that and pray in the enjoyment of that, and then turn around and show wrath to other people that have sinned against us, and bring disputation against others. No, it is through prayer that we realize I'm in a wrath free zone, and God is so not treating me as I deserve. And so in prayer, I turn to others and I grant forgiveness, and I grant grace like God is granting to me, and I treat them as he has treated me, and I thus mirror God to them.

And in all of my life, I mirror this image of God to other people. So that when I tell others that there is grace in Jesus, they believe me because they taste of that grace in me, as they hear me pray, and see how I go about relating to them. Let's pray together. And ask God through prayer to make us A praying people.

Virtually everything I have said in this message applies to women, and of course that. Dear God, we just come to you right now and ask that you would teach us to pray. Teach us to pray like this. I pray for our men that our men would, would be quick to say, let's pray.

That they would be the first to say let's pray, that they would be the first to say, I'm lost and I need direction. We need to pray. Lord, it takes a tremendous amount of doing to bring a man to a position of prayer. Normally, when a man is on his knees praying, he's praying for a miracle.

And he rarely realizes what a miracle it is that he's even on his knees praying. A man on his knees with head bowed and crying out to you, broken man praying is among your greatest signs and wonders. And may our church be full of such signs and wonders. Grow me, grow all of our men, grow our women and our children in this wonderful practice.

Of real heartfelt holy praying. And if there's any in this room this morning who have never believed in Jesus, Lord, touch their heart and bring them to you that they might cry out to you for the salvation that you will freely give them if they would but ask. We thank you for this opportunity we have to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds, Lord, and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We ask these things in his name.

And all God's people said, Amen.