Praying As We Should

Our Heavenly Father, we just gather before your throne at this time thanking you for the privilege that we have had. In the last few moments to worship you, to stare at you, to stare at your greatness, and to cherish you, to love you. To enjoy you singing over us and for us to sing in reply to you. We thank you for all that you have done for us through Jesus Christ.

We deserve none of it, but you have been so gracious and so kind. Lord, as we turn to look at your word, this morning, and we thank you for the fact that you speak to us. If you were to treat us according to what we deserve, we would never hear your voice. And if we ever did, it would be a voice speaking with condemnation and judgment and wrath.

And yet, for those who have believed in Jesus, you so kindly speak to us in mercy and in grace. You speak to us so helpfully, comfortingly, and lovingly. We thank you for your precious words to us. As we will enjoy them this morning.

Lord, I just begin, this message this morning and this series on prayer by confessing to you my weakness. And I ask you, Lord, to help me with my weakness this morning. for I do not know how to preach as I should. But I ask that your spirit would help me in my weakness and that your spirit would so govern and lead and guide and direct.

and influence Me as I preach that things would be said in this message that would have never otherwise been said were I to depend on my own strength in this sermon. Thank you for being here with us and for the help that you provide. May you do a work and all of us, and may all of us hear with the Spirit is saying to this church. And we ask these things, Lord, with thanksgiving in our hearts in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8. As you see on the screen, we're starting today, our winter seminar, praying as we should. And we're essentially lifting those words from the text of Romans chapter 8 verse 26, where Paul says in verse 26, in the same way the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we do not know how to pray as we should.

Paul in this verse makes a startling confession. In our hearing regarding prayer, and that confession is we, and he includes himself in this, we don't know how to pray as we should. And what we're essentially going to be doing over the coming weeks in December and the first couple of weeks at least of January, is we're going to enter into that confession of Paul and, and join him in that confession. In a way, I don't want you to view the next few weeks as a, we're taking some break from our series through Romans 8.

Actually, We're still inside of Romans 8, and we're going to enter inside of Paul's confession. We're going to join him there and saying with him, we don't know how to pray as we should, and we're going to open our hearts and we're going to allow God through His word to speak to us throughout the weeks, to, to come. That's the posture I want us all to have to come together, acknowledging that we don't know how to pray as we should. I don't think there's anyone here like this, but In case there is, there, there may be someone who's like, it's about time Cornerstone, talk about the subject of prayer.

This church is so weak on prayer, and I myself, I'm an expert on prayer, and I would love to teach this church a thing or two about prayer. I hope there's no one here like that. If there is someone here like that, I just want to let we're not really interested in hearing from you. we don't feel like we have a lot to gain from you.

But if you are willing to join us, and Paul, in speaking this confession that he utters in verse 26, if you're willing to join us in saying we don't know how to pray as we should, and you're willing to join us in opening your heart to God and allowing him to do a work in you, then you have much to contribute to our journey. And we welcome you aboard. We have a lot to learn and I feel intuitively that that the cement is really wet here at Cornerstone, and God's going to make an impression.

God's going to do something significant.

I believe our church will be different. And a notable way a few months from now and we'll be forever grateful for this month-long emphasis on prayer. Now why are we talking about prayer? Let me at least just throw 3 reasons at you as to why we're going to be emphasizing prayer over the next few weeks.

Number 1, because there is some of God's will regarding the road ahead for Cornerstone that the elders simply don't know. On behalf of the elders, I want to stand before you and confess that we, the elders, are ignorant. And we are weak. And there are certain things about our church's future that are absolutely clear, non-negotiable, and we're pumped and excited about it.

And then there are things about our church's future on the road ahead that we've been beating our head against the wall. We've been talking, we've been praying, and we've been researching, and people from the congregation have been helping us, and we, we just don't know. We don't know how God is going to lead and what he really wants, things like, does God want us to stay here at Linden Street? Does he want us to have occupancy of this modular and to take the steps that are necessary to get occupancy of the modular that we have invested in getting ready for occupancy?

There's obstacles to that. Do we try to overcome them? How do we go about doing that? Does God want us here?

Does he want us to go elsewhere? If we go elsewhere, does he want us to buy? Does he want us to rent? Does he want us to lease?

how do we go about, making that happen? Does he want us to plan a church? Does he want to just take us to take 100 people from here and send them away with one of the staff and, and, commission them to go plant a church somewhere, somewhat near to here? does he want us to have satellite campuses?

what, what does God want? Something needs to get somewhere. Our church is growing, and we're just, what we need direction from the Lord, and we don't have clarity right now. And so here's the deal.

There's some aspects of God's will regarding the road ahead for Cornerstone that the elders don't know at this point. But we have come to the firm conviction that we will discover God's plan inside of the prayers of His people. We will discover God's will for us as we assemble together in prayer in all the venues that we have here at Cornerstone. The second reason why we're going to talk about prayer in the coming weeks is because prayer is an area where many of us are weak.

Prayer is an area where many of us are weak. I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands as to how many of you would say that you experience weakness in prayer. I'll just share with you that two weeks ago at the M Forum, the Tuesday Morning Man Forum, that meets at 6:00 a.m. to 7:05, and any of our men, single, married, or invited to join us for this, hour and 5 minutes, together every Tuesday.

but two weeks ago, we were talking about Romans 8:26 and how the Spirit helps our weaknesses and how it's OK to be weak because the Spirit's attracted to our weakness and, and, how the Spirit prays for us in the areas of our weakness, and how that though we can never duplicate fully the prayer ministry of the Spirit, there are things we can learn from the Spirit and pray in the Spirit in a way that resembles the Spirit more and more as we learn to pray for one another. And we asked the men who were present, about 25 guys, how many of you would want to share an area of weakness?

How many of you are experiencing weakness in your life in some significant way, and you want your brothers to pray in the spirit for you? Immediately a hand went up and the guy confessed to a sin struggle in his life, a remarkable confession that took a lot of courage.

Immediately another hand went up and another guy confessed to struggling in the same area, and then another hand went up and he confessed to struggling in exactly the same sin area. And then another guy's hand went up and he shared how he was struggling in his prayer life. He was weak in prayer and wanted us to pray over him about his prayer life. And then another brother's hand went up and he said, I, I'm not, praying with my wife the way that I should, and it's an area where I need, I need to grow, praying together with my wife.

We then asked everyone present, how many of you would say that you're, falling short of what God wants from you in terms of praying together with your wife on a regular basis, and almost every hand went up in the room, including mine. And so we had a great time of coming together and laying hands on each other and praying for each other in these areas of weakness, and God showed up. And it was wonderful. And as I saw those hands go up, I just thought, the spirit is not repulsed by this show of weakness.

The spirit is looking for weakness to demonstrate his strength. The spirit is attracted to, he's drawn to weakness. But if the hands that went up that morning in the Tuesday Man Forum is any indication, I think it's a safe assumption that most people in our church would say, yes indeed, I am weak when it comes to prayer, and I want to submit to you that actually that's not a bad place to be. A lot of times we think, man, I want to be strong in prayer.

I can't wait till I'm strong enough spiritually to have a great prayer life. Actually, What you need is to be weak enough spiritually to have a great prayer life. It is weakness that drives you to prayer. You need a better understanding of your weakness to where you could come before God and prayer.

Calling out to him to show his strength in your area of weakness. God is looking for weakness. As he searches this room, his eyes are looking, he's not looking for the strong, he's not looking for strength to show his power and he's looking for weakness, because that's where he wants to show his power. That's why Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.

boasted about his weakness. I'm not going to boast about my strength, I will boast about my weakness, he says, because that's where the power of Christ is manifested. And there's a ton of weakness in this room for God to work with, right? So we can be encouraged by that.

There's a 3rd reason why we're focusing on prayer rather than some other topic, and that is simply because the devil doesn't want us to. How's that for a reason. the devil does not want us to talk about prayer. It's probably among the last topics that he would ever want us to focus on and actually practice.

Samuel Chadwick said this The one concern that the devil has is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless ministries. He laughs at our toil. He mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.

I believe the devil trembles when we pray. I also believe he trembles when God's people confess weakness in prayer. Because he knows the spirit is attracted to our weakness. And he will help us if we are honest enough to acknowledge that.

Well, I want us, and all of us as elders, our passion is for us to come together as a body and, and all of our venues and really grow in prayer. if we're going to do that, we need to learn how to pray as we should. It's not enough to just come together and pray. We want to pray as we should.

And so what we're going to look at this morning with the time that we have is 5 things that we must do if we wish to succeed in praying as we should. Now Paul acknowledges here, we don't know how to pray as we should. And you might say, well then, what's the use of learning about how to pray as we should? Actually, you'll be surprised.

Paul is teaching us how to pray as we should. And the very verse where he's telling us we don't know how to pray as we should, and we'll see most of the points of the message from this very verse. If we're going to pray as we should as individuals and as a congregation, the first thing we need to do is to realize that prayer is necessary, to realize that prayer. is necessary.

Look at what Paul says in verse 26. He says, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for we don't know how to pray. And now he describes prayer as is necessary. We don't know how to do this necessary thing.

We don't know how to pray. Which is necessary. One of the things that we're going to infer from this is that Paul views prayer as a necessary thing. literally in the Greek text, it reads the way you see on the screen.

The new American standard says pray as we should, but, but literally it's pray as is necessary, and even more literally, he's saying we don't know how to pray as is continuously necessary. So all I want to pull from this is the acknowledgment of Paul that prayer is a necessary thing. Jesus uses this exact same expression in Luke chapter 18 verse 1 when he says at all times it is necessary to pray and not to lose heart. Jesus points to prayer and he stamps upon prayer the word necessary and says this is a necessary thing.

And by the way, this same Jesus looked at his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and he called that necessary. All right. And Luke 24:26, he says, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? So think about it, guys.

Christ looks at his death, his burial, his resurrection and ascension. And he says, that's necessary. And it is necessary, right? We wouldn't have salvation if those things did not happen.

The same Jesus looks at us praying. He looks at prayer, and he points us to prayer, and he says, and this is necessary. And we need to simply trust him when he tells us that prayer is necessary. I think all of us would say, yeah, I believe that.

Prayer is necessary, but do we live like we believe that? There are many things in our lives that are optional. Prayer is necessary, and yet what happens is that our lives are so filled up with the optional that we don't have time to do the necessary. In fact, what tends to happen is, I don't think any of us, especially who know the Lord, ever get up in the morning and say, I renounce prayer.

I intentionally choose not to pray this morning. I will not pray today. I will not. I refuse to gather my family together and to pray with my family.

I refuse to pray with my wife today. I renounce praying with my spouse. None of us ever make that decision. However, what the devil structured it so that we never do have to make that decision.

What he does is he keeps introducing the optional, optional things that are not necessary, and we're like, Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, I'll do that. And before we know it, the day has gone by, the week has gone by, the month has gone by, and we've filled up our time with the optional, and we've not done the necessary.

In fact, I made a list this week. I'm going to quiz you guys. Help me out here, right? Your choices are optional.

And necessary, all right. watching your favorite weekly TV show. watching Tim Tebow play football. we, we need some teaching on that.

Health insurance. OK, at least for now it's optional. Owning a home OK. having drums on the platform as an instrument for worship.

Yeah. Mitch Varella, who played the drums this morning, came up to me and said, so I'm optional? And I said, no, you are necessary. The drums are optional, as is all of this.

owning our own church building. Optional surfing the internet. Playing our favorite computer internet game. Optional being on Facebook.

Listening to the radio while in the car. Watching hilarious clips on YouTube. Taking a shower once a day. Technically that's optional, but kids don't use that.

When trying to get out of a shower or a bath, do you guys see my point? This list of things, how much, how many hours of this past week was spent on those optional things and how much time did we spend on the necessary thing? What we really need to do is to To come into a day and say prayer is necessary. I will pray today.

Put that into your day, put that into your schedule, and then let your day get built around it rather than just saying yes to all these things and somehow thinking, I think I'll try to fit prayer in somewhere. Prayer gets the divine stamp. As necessary. And Paul states that and Jesus states that, and we need to agree with Paul and Jesus on this.

Also, let me give you this exercise. I was doing this this week. If we want blank, prayer is necessary. You think of all the things that you want in your best and noblest moments, all the things That you long for in Christ, all of those things that you long for and want in your life, those things, if you want them, prayer is necessary.

If we want cornerstone to achieve its destiny, prayer is necessary. If we want our marriages to be what God wants them to be. Prayer is necessary if we want to be the spouse that God wants us to be, prayer is necessary. If, if we want to experience healing in our relationships and in our marriages and in our relationships with our children or our parents, prayer is necessary.

If we want to do anything God's way, prayer is necessary. If we want to be holy, prayer is necessary. If we want to be sexually pure, prayer is necessary. If we want to be free of addictive patterns of sinful behavior, prayer is necessary.

If we want to be effective in our, in our ministry to other people, prayer is necessary. If we want to be effective in our parenting, prayer is necessary. If we want our children to turn out for Christ, prayer is necessary. If we want to preach the gospel to the lost with boldness, prayer is necessary.

If we want to effectively reach the lost, God says go preach to those people. And they're dead. They're spiritually dead. They can't even, apart from a miracle of God, even understand, comprehend, and then respond positively to the very message he's called us to preach.

If we're going to be effective in our ministry to the lost as a church and as individuals, prayer is necessary, and we're not just talking about I need to make sure I pray, but I need to solicit others praying for me. Paul wanted to preach to the lost and so he no doubt prayed. But he also asked others to pray. He confessed his need.

Guys, prayer is necessary if we're going to come together and pray as we should. We need to come together with the realization that this is not some optional thing. This is some nice thing. It's some spiritual thing to do.

No, it is necessary, and we are desperate. In our need of prayer. Paul Miller in his book, A Praying Life, And we've got some copies of this in the information booth, and we would encourage you to get a copy. We've got a few copies left.

But Paul Miller is a married man, has 6 children. One of his 6 children has autism. And he's experienced a lot of thrills and spills along the way somehow in the mess of family life and all the complexities of that. He has learned some things about prayer that he passes along in this book, but he shares in this book how back in March 19, 1991, he wrote this in his journal, Amazing it is how when I don't pray in the morning, evil just floods into our home.

Just noticing, man, when I don't pray. When I don't get up as as the head of this household and pray over my family, evil just floods into my home. He then goes on to share with us, the reader, and says this, it took me 17 years to realize that I couldn't parent on my own. It was not a great spiritual insight, just a realistic observation.

If I didn't pray deliberately and reflectively for members of my family by name every morning, they'd kill one another. You've been there. I was incapable of getting inside their hearts. I was desperate.

And so as he has aged and experienced the thrills and the spills of parenting and dealing with evil from within and the indwelling evil in his wife and in his children, how all of that intersects and all the problems and challenges that that creates, I think when he started off as a parent, he really didn't see the great need for prayer, but at this age and at this stage he's like, no one needs to persuade me that prayer is necessary. I get it. I get it. And if you want to know how necessary prayer is, maybe you're young, it's like, man, I really want to believe that prayer is necessary.

What should I do? Get married and have children, OK? You will eventually know that with certainty. Here's the second thing that we need to do if we want to pray as we should, and that is we need to realize that there is a particular manner of praying that is necessary.

Notice this wording here. He says in the same way, the Spirit helps our weaknesses, our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we should. If you really look at what he's saying, he's not just saying prayer is necessary, although that's implied. He's saying there's a manner of praying.

That's necessary. And so let's infer that from his wording that we need to realize that there's a particular manner of praying that's necessary. Guys, it's not enough to just pray, right? We need to pray, right.

The Pharisee in the Gospel accounts comes to the temple and begins to pray, and he says, Father, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I fast twice a week and I give of my tithe and I give to charity and I'm a good man, and then he looks over at a tax collector, a sinner, and he says, I thank you that I'm not like this man over here. Well, he's praying. But did God hear his prayer?

No, his prayer was an abomination to God. So it's not enough to pray, we want to get it right when we pray. And I would encourage you guys, if you wanna do a study that occupies your attention and your focus with prayer, go through scripture and make a list of the right manner of praying. There's a ton that's said about when you pray, here's how to pray.

let me throw 3 of them at you. When we pray, we must pray in faith in James 1:6. James says that we must ask in faith, nothing doubting. And if we're doubting and we're double minded, James says don't expect anything from the Lord.

And James 4:3, he says, You guys don't have because you don't ask. And sometimes you ask and you don't get because you're asking with wrong motives. So we must pray with right motives. And also we must pray according to God's will.

First John 5:14, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Now, we could add to that list, but let's just focus on these three for just a moment, because we would all say, yeah, that's clearly indicated in scripture, but what, if you stopped and thought about each of these 3 and examine yourself honestly, If you let it, it would leave you in a position of being utterly paralyzed in prayer. We must pray in faith, yeah, nothing doubting. You got to pray.

And when you pray, nothing doubting, there can't be doubt. And so you start examining yourself and it's like, I, I'm asking in faith, I believe I have faith, but is my faith strong enough? Is there any doubt in me at all? I'm coming to God and my need and I'm asking for God to do a work, but there's a part of me that's screaming out against it.

And I'm, I'm filled with doubt. I'm asking God to help me. I'm asking him. To deliver me.

And yet a part of me is doubting whether God can or will do that. And so is my faith meaningless? And so if you're observing that honestly in yourself, you could easily just say, what, I'm not even in a place right now where my prayer would go beyond the ceiling. We must pray with right motives.

You start examining yourself, what are your motives? Who can understand fully what their motives are? what? and we're thinking, what, I think I'm praying with right motives.

But what, I don't know my heart. Only God knows my heart. And I think about the prayers I prayed five years ago, in all sincerity, and I look back now and I laugh because I see how selfish my motives were. Am I going to be laughing five years from now at my prayer that I'm praying today?

Are my motives really pure, or am I being selfish? You think about that long enough, and you can just be at a point where it's like, why, why bother praying? God sees my motives and, and he's probably not even going to hear me. We need to pray according to God's will.

Good night. Well, what is God's will? In some ways it's clear. In other ways, do I pray for God to heal?

Is that His will? Or do I pray for Him to give grace in the absence of healing? Do I pray for God to deliver a person from death? Or do I pray for Him to give dying grace to this, this person?

If I ask for healing, am I being too presumptuous with God? or if I say, well, Lord, whatever, your will be done, am I copping out? You ever felt conflicted about that? Maybe I'm copping out and, and, and God's thinking, you don't have enough faith.

Why don't you ask me for healing? And then when we ask for healing, we're wondering if we're being presumptuous. Do I pray for God to remove this desire from me or a brother or sister that is hounding them and discouraging them and defeating them? Is that what to pray for?

Or do we pray for God to give overwhelming grace for them to say no to that ongoing? desire that may be with them to their dying day. Guys, I'm just telling you, here's just 3 out of many things. If you stop and think about these 3 things, and you examine yourself and get really introspective, you can reach a place of utter paralysis when it comes to prayer.

You're thinking, OK, prayer is necessary. And then it's like, but there's a particular manner of praying that's necessary. Hmm. And then you start thinking about it, and it's like, what, I can't do this.

I can't do this. And that leads right to the 3rd thing that we need to do if we wish to succeed in praying as we should, and that is we need to confess that we don't know how to pray as is necessary. How about starting your prayer with God, I don't know how to pray. As necessary.

I don't know how to make it happen. Paul says in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as is necessary. Paul, as an apostle who's known the Lord for over a couple of decades is including himself in this startling admission, saying, I, along with you that I'm writing to, we honestly in and of ourselves, left to our own resources, we honestly don't know how to pray as we should. And you might read that and go, I'm done.

Prayer is necessary. There's, it's got to be a right manner of praying that's necessary. And here's Paul who's way ahead of me and he's saying, I don't know how to pray as is necessary. How about some answers?

Why is this what we get? This is discouraging. Actually though, If you read this right, Paul is doing something really wonderful. Paul is giving us the answer as to how to pray the way that we should.

What he's saying is, you want to know how to pray as you should? Here's how you begin. Go into God's presence. And confess to him that you don't know how to pray as you should.

Start with that. Admit that. Confess that to him. Paul, as a prayer warrior is showing us how to pray as we should and involved in praying as we should is confessing to God that we don't know how to pray.

as we should. I really, I would encourage you guys to experiment with this. Just whenever you go to prayer, maybe you're praying with someone or for somebody or you're praying privately or you're praying with your family, start your prayer by saying, God, I, I don't know how to pray as I should here, and maybe that's easy for you to say because you absolutely don't know how to pray as you should, or maybe that's a challenge for you because you're thinking, wait a minute, I do know how to pray.

Maybe you're really confident and you come to prayer and your mind is full, your heart is full, and you're ready to rattle it all off, and you think exactly how to pray, even in your case, I would encourage you to stop.

And just say maybe I don't know how to pray. Maybe I just think I know how to pray. And maybe it's good for me to pause at the beginning of this prayer and to say in humility to God, God, I may not know how to pray here, and I'm going to embrace that reality and possibility. And that leads to a 4th thing.

If we want to pray as we should as individuals and as a church, what do we do? OK, prayer is necessary. We've got to realize that a particular manner of praying is necessary. We then need to confess that we don't know how to pray as is necessary.

Well, what do we do? Do we leave it with that? No, what I want to submit is that on the other side of confessing that, we then in prayer ask God and allow God to teach us to pray as is necessary. and to ask him that in the context of your prayer.

Look at Luke 11:1. It says, and it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us. To pray. Jesus, can, can you teach us how to pray?

Now this is stunning to me for a couple of reasons, one of which is if whoever this disciple was, and by the way he's speaking for all of them, teach us to pray, not just me, but I, I need help, and I listen to these other guys pray, they need help too, so teach us to pray. if you would have asked this disciple and all of the disciples, or most of them like 3 years earlier, do how to pray? Virtually all of them would have been like, don't insult me. I know how to pray, of course I know how to pray.

I've been praying all of my life. They would have been confident in prayer, but something has happened to them that has reduced them to a place where they're coming up to Jesus and saying we don't know how to pray. They've encountered something that has left them at a place of bankruptcy and weakness and where they're realizing, I don't know how to pray. See, before they met Jesus, they were probably real confident in their prayer and knew how to pray.

And after being with Jesus for many, many months, they're reduced to this place of not knowing how to pray. See, the closer we get to God, the more we get to know Him, the more we're reduced to this wonderful place of weakness. and need that we can then bring to God. I believe that these disciples, the primary thing that they've encountered that has helped them to see that they don't need to pray is that they've been spending time with Jesus and they've watched him pray.

We have that in the very verse, verse one. It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said, Teach us to do that. They've watched Jesus pray in a lot of different settings. They've seen God answer prayer.

They've heard him praise the Lord. They've heard him rejoice. They've learned, heard him cry out to God, and now they see him praying. And when he's done, they, they're realizing, I thought I knew how to pray, but I don't know how to pray like he knows how to pray.

And so they come to him and ask him to teach them. To pray. And then what's interesting is in verse two, Jesus begins to teach them, says, and he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins, and so forth. It's what we call the Lord's.

prayer. by the way, Jesus has already taught them the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount many, many months earlier. They've heard that, they've heard him teach on the subject of how to pray, including specific instruction on the Lord's Prayer. But what's touching to me is many months have gone by, and they're coming to Jesus saying, can you teach us to pray?

And Jesus is like, OK, let's, I've already gone over this, but let's go through it again. I love the patience and the condescension and the grace of Jesus. If you come to him saying, Teach me to pray, he may have gone over something with you again and again and again, but he's ready to go through it again with you. He's not put off coming to God, asking Him to teach us to pray.

God will never disregard such a petition. Now here's what tends to happen. we're reading a passage like Luke 11, Lord, teach us to pray. And then verse 2, and he says, OK, when you pray, say, and then we sit up and go, OK, here comes the instructive part of how to pray, as if it starts in verse 2.

What I want to submit is that verse 1, the prayer begins. OK, in fact, let me say it this way, the disciples prayer, we call it the Lord's Prayer, but it's technically the disciples prayer. because Jesus is, saying, forgive us of our sins, and he had no sins. So he's teaching us how to pray.

And so let's call it the disciples prayer. But let's say it this way, the disciples prayer does not begin with the words, our Father who art in heaven. It begins with the words, Lord, teach us to pray. Technically, these disciples are coming to Jesus, they're coming to God.

The prayer has already begun, right? And so they come to God, the Son and say, teach us to pray. So the prayers already begun, and it began with the words teach us to pray. They're embodied in that request is, we don't know how to pray.

We want to know how to pray. And you're the one to teach us how to pray. Lord, teach us. To pray.

And then the prayer continues with Jesus saying, OK, when you pray, say, so they come seeing their need to be taught. The prayer's already begun. It starts with a request, teach us to pray, and then Jesus responds to them by guiding them in how to pray. What I, what I really want to submit to you guys is like regarding our church's future, how are we gonna know what it is that God wants us to do as a church regarding the things that right now we're not sure about?

How, how do we discern that? and, and what I want to submit on behalf of the elders is that what we need to do is we need to, we need to assemble together and, and, and, and pray this way. Begin by saying, God, we don't know how to pray as we should, but as we pray over the next few moments, for however long, can you right now teach us to pray? See, when you come to Jesus and say, Teach me to pray, it's not teach me to pray, and then he teaches you, OK, I know the Lord's Prayer.

I now for the rest of my life know how to pray. No, the model here, in a way is, every time you pray, go to God and say, I don't know how to pray as I should. Can you teach me to pray right now? And I will pray in response to how you teach me and how you guide me.

How you move and prompt and govern my thoughts as I seek to pray and think your thoughts after you. See, prayer is responding to the leadership of God, to the moving of the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit, amongst other things, is letting the Spirit guide your prayer. To where praying is not simply just us talking to God, it's us being moved by God and responding to him moving and leading us.

As we seek to pray. God, we don't know how to pray as we should. Teach us to pray right now and then. He leads and we respond.

Last week in our care group we started our prayer time this way. They're sharing of requests and And prayer requests, and praises and when we went to prayer, we just set the stage with the very things that we're talking about here and just, we began the prayer time, Lord, we don't know how to pray for these petitions that have been brought, these needs, these requests, but can you right now as we're assembled over the next few moments, can you teach us to pray? And we'd encourage everyone in this prayer time, just, just, let the spirit move and as if you feel prompted by the Spirit to maybe read a passage of scripture or to pray for a particular need in a certain way, just seek to follow his leading.

And so there were pauses along the way, but as people prayed, they were measured in their tone, and there was this sense of, Lord, we're trying to let you lead us in what we say.

And it was intriguing to me. I've been living in the afterglow of that prayer time this week because there were visionary things coming out of the mouths of those that were praying, and one of the needs that was covered in prayer for a particular individual, I heard someone go up to that person afterwards and say, Did you hear what was said? When people were praying for you, and they were like, yes, I heard. In other words, like we were listening to each other pray.

Because we were, we were wanting to get a glimpse of the heart of God. How is God's spirit leading us to pray and our brothers and sisters to pray? We're divining something of the heart of God as he moves and our brothers and sisters as they pray. Now, that's not to say that every word that comes out of people's mouths is inspired by the Spirit of God and it's, it belongs in Scripture.

Not saying that, but guys, if we believe that the Spirit leads us, and that he can lead us in prayer, then we ought to believe that something of the heart of God is being manifested as we pray in the Spirit and responding to the Holy Spirit as we come before God in prayer. Listen to what Watchman Nee says about how God works. Like when God wants to do something great, listen to what he says. The first step is that God conceives a thought, which is his will.

The second step is that God reveals this will to His children through the Holy Spirit, causing them to know that He has a will, a plan, a demand, an expectation. The third step is that God's children return His will by praying to Him, for prayer is responding to God's will. If our heart is wholly one with His heart, we will naturally voice in our prayer what he intends to do. And then the fourth step is that God will accomplish this very thing.

Prayer must originate from God and be responded to by us. So we normally think of prayer originating from us, and God responds when The view of prayer he's advocating is where it originates from God, namely in His will, and our prayer is our response to His heart, our response to His will. Such alone is meaningful prayer, since God's work is controlled by such prayer. And I love that he's basically saying when God wants to do a great work, he doesn't often just do it.

He'll first lay it on the hearts of His people, a burden for that work to be done. They will then voice that burden in prayer to God for Him to do it. God will then answer their prayer. And do that work in answer to their prayer, they then praise God for being a prayer answering God.

And give Him the glory for what He has done. But essentially the whole thing originated from God. And when we pray, we can, we get, we get caught up in this movement of God in doing something really great. And if we try to pray in the Spirit as imperfectly as we do, we can begin to catch whispers of what it is that God is intending to do.

Charles Spurgeon, let me read this to you. I've had this in my office over the last couple of weeks, and it's just been rocking my world as I think about Cornerstone's future. He says, our prayers are indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence, believing supplications are forecast of the future. He who prayeth in faith is like the seer or the prophet of old.

He sees that which is to be. His holy expectancy like a telescope brings distant objects near to Him. He is bold to declare that he has the petition which he has asked of God, and he therefore begins to rejoice and to praise God even before the blessing has actually arrived. So it is, Spurgeon says.

So it is. Prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footfall of the divine decree. Now I had to look up footfall. OK, I had a guess as to what it was.

footfall is the sound of approaching footsteps. He's saying prayer is the sound of the approaching footsteps of the divine decree. It's the sound of the approaching footsteps of a great work that God is wanting to do. What that indicates is that if, if we're praying responsibly, as imperfectly as we will, but as we come together and we're praying and allowing, asking God, saying, God, we don't know how to to pray as we should.

Can you teach us to pray? Can you guide and govern our prayers? As we do that, and the Spirit prompts and the Spirit moves and the Spirit leads and governs and the heart of God is being impressed upon us, and we give voice to his heart through prayer. The point is, We will begin to catch the whispers of whatever that leading of God is, whatever it is that he intends to do.

The early footsteps of his great future work will be heard in the prayers of God's. People But this only occurs if we posture ourselves with humility. if we come and we're going to pray together and I already know everything we need to ask and I'm an expert on prayer, if that's, if that's how we do, we come into God's presence and we just got a million words to speak to Him, I'm not sure that this is going to happen, but if we come before God together in a spirit of humility and just say, God, we don't know how to pray as we should, can you teach us to pray?

And give us a heart that's ready to follow you as you teach us to pray.

And then we begin as the Spirit moves and leads and governs to, to respond to God's will and to give expression to the prayers that we're feeling prompted to pray. It won't be perfect, but eventually we're going to be able to pick up the heart of God. Even regarding the areas that right now we're not sure about. And we need wisdom on.

That's why we said at the beginning of the message that those things about our future that we're not certain about, we will discover those things inside of the prayers of God's people as we pray in community with one another in a way that's responsive to the Holy Spirit. Let me throw this at you and then we'll shut it down. a 5th thing that we need to do if we want to pray. as we should, as we need to savor the help of the Holy Spirit who prays on our behalf as is necessary.

See guys, we're not going to be perfect. We're going to stumble along and we're still going to be just falling far short of what we know is the ideal. But the comfort that we have is that even though our prayers fall so far short of being all that they should be, They're covered by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as is necessary, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words as we stumble along in prayer, and sometimes we're discouraged as it's just not coming out the way that it should be coming out, and And as we're seeking to give expression to the will of God through our prayers, and we stumble along and it's so imperfect, the spirit.

basically looks at us and says, I'll, I'll, I'll take this case. And he essentially intercedes for us to the Father, and He perfectly expresses with flawless execution exactly what our need is and with an intensity and a passion that if we could hear the Spirit praying over us, praying for us on our behalf, if we heard what he said in the passion, we would say that's it, that's it, that's exactly what I need prayed for me. That is exactly my need. And we can have the thrilling assurance of knowing that when the Father hears the Spirit praying those prayers, that the Father is saying, that's it, that's it, that's exactly what I want to be asked of me.

That is exactly my heart. That is exactly what I want to give to this child of mine in his or her weakness. And so this frees us up to learn and to grow and to pray, though we fall short, knowing that while we're growing, the Spirit is covering where there's weakness and failure, and he is praying with flawless execution. To our Father on our behalf, and thus verse 26, he helps us.

He helps us. In our weakness. We ask you to bow your heads this morning. If you're here today and you have no relationship with Jesus, No relationship with God through Christ.

Listen, God wants Prayer is not something we invented. It's something that God has invented and he wants people in his presence. Enjoying Him in prayer and learning and growing in prayer. He wants that so greatly that He sent His Son into the world to die on the cross, shed His blood.

Get raised from the dead so that The way for us into the holy place where God is can be purchased. Through the torn flesh of Jesus we have access to the presence of our Heavenly Father, and we can pray. And I invite you to Jesus. To come to him and to call out.

Upon his name for salvation. Let's pray together. Father, we, we have so much learning and growing to do. We thank you for your love, your compassion, your patience with us.

Though we ask you again and again every time you're available, and you happily say let's, let's go through this again. But on behalf of this church body, Lord, we just confess to you that we don't know how to pray. as we should. But we're asking you to teach us.

To pray Tonight in care groups teach the care groups to pray in their season of prayer. Teach us to pray when we get up tomorrow morning when we pray together as families. And may your heart be revealed through our prayers. Teach us to respond to you.

In our prayers We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, do much with the funds that are given for the glory of Jesus. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.