1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:06,080 Today we’re beginning a new series entitled with Christ in the School of Prayer. 2 00:00:06,720 –> 00:00:13,360 It’s a short series in which we’ll be learning from the Psalms, and although it’s only a short 3 00:00:13,360 –> 00:00:19,520 series, it’s one that I hope we will come back to from time to time in the coming years as we 4 00:00:19,520 –> 00:00:26,320 add more sessions as it were with Christ in the School of Prayer. Most of you will remember 5 00:00:26,320 –> 00:00:33,520 that earlier this year in the summer, I shared the burden of my heart that there are some areas 6 00:00:33,520 –> 00:00:41,840 in which as a church we need to grow spiritually. And you will recall that these were the depth of 7 00:00:41,840 –> 00:00:48,639 our praying, the proportion of our giving, and the enterprise of our serving. This series is 8 00:00:48,639 –> 00:00:55,439 clearly an attempt to address the first of these, the depth of our praying. 9 00:00:56,240 –> 00:01:01,599 Now one of the things that was very encouraging to me during this short trip back to Scotland was 10 00:01:01,599 –> 00:01:09,599 that a large number of churches there are engaged in a campaign these days that is called Try 11 00:01:09,599 –> 00:01:16,320 Praying. Try praying. You see these banners up on churches, there was a huge one just opposite 12 00:01:16,400 –> 00:01:22,440 where I was speaking for these four days in the north of Scotland and this enigmatic Try 13 00:01:22,440 –> 00:01:29,760 Praying, it drives people to a website and the basic idea is that even among folks who would 14 00:01:29,760 –> 00:01:38,400 never darken the door of a church at some time, most people at some time in their lives feel 15 00:01:38,400 –> 00:01:42,800 that they would want to pray or feel a need to pray it, maybe in a crisis in the family, 16 00:01:42,919 –> 00:01:47,599 maybe a hospital operation or whatever it is. But most people feel at some point in 17 00:01:47,599 –> 00:01:53,199 their life a need or a desire to pray. And so the churches in Scotland have come up with this 18 00:01:53,199 –> 00:02:00,120 campaign, there are signs on the buses, again driving people to this Try Praying website. 19 00:02:00,120 –> 00:02:03,239 If you’re interested you can check it out, you will see some good things that are happening 20 00:02:03,239 –> 00:02:09,679 in another country. It’s simply called TryPraying.org and the challenge to people, 21 00:02:09,839 –> 00:02:16,479 they can download a free booklet, and the challenge is try praying for one week, 22 00:02:16,479 –> 00:02:21,779 and see what difference it makes to your life. Very, very clearly within the materials 23 00:02:21,779 –> 00:02:26,880 that are presented they’re saying, and the whole point of this is to come to know 24 00:02:26,880 –> 00:02:33,039 God in a living way through Jesus Christ. Try praying, I like it. Here is something 25 00:02:33,039 –> 00:02:40,199 that the church has to offer. Christian people have something that at some point 26 00:02:40,199 –> 00:02:44,699 in their lives everyone in this community, or at least the vast majority of the people 27 00:02:44,699 –> 00:02:52,919 in this community, the vast majority of people in this country, at some point will want to 28 00:02:52,919 –> 00:03:03,119 pray, and Christians know how to pray, or at least we should. And most of us feel we 29 00:03:03,119 –> 00:03:08,360 need to know a little bit more about this, and that with this precious gift that we have 30 00:03:08,360 –> 00:03:13,960 been given, that others at some point will desire, that we would want to grow in the 31 00:03:13,960 –> 00:03:19,179 depth of our praying. Now, that’s the point of this whole series. 32 00:03:19,399 –> 00:03:26,380 Praying is a holy art. It is better caught than taught. That’s why being part of occasions 33 00:03:26,380 –> 00:03:33,639 like our Pray first on the first Wednesday here of each month is a marvelous thing to 34 00:03:33,639 –> 00:03:38,500 build into the pattern of your life, it’s caught rather than taught. But there are some 35 00:03:38,500 –> 00:03:45,919 things that can be learned, and I’ve been greatly helped here by Dietrich Bonhoffer 36 00:03:45,919 –> 00:03:53,820 who wrote a tiny little book, very, very short, simply called Psalms, the Prayer Book of the 37 00:03:53,820 –> 00:03:59,220 Bible. Psalms, the Prayer Book of the Bible. And Bonhoffer says at the beginning of that 38 00:03:59,220 –> 00:04:06,259 book that it is dangerous, a dangerous, and he says, surely a very widespread error, among 39 00:04:06,259 –> 00:04:13,800 Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself. This is a big mistake. It’s a 40 00:04:13,880 –> 00:04:20,200 dangerous error, simply to think that the heart can pray by itself. And he goes on to 41 00:04:20,200 –> 00:04:27,220 explain that prayer does not mean simply pouring out one’s heart. It means rather to find the 42 00:04:27,640 –> 00:04:34,640 way to God and to speak with Him whether the heart is full or empty. That’s very perceptive, 43 00:04:36,160 –> 00:04:39,899 isn’t it? If your only definition of prayer is the pouring out of your heart, what in 44 00:04:39,899 –> 00:04:44,200 the world are you going to do when your heart is empty? How are you going to pray then? 45 00:04:44,200 –> 00:04:49,119 And that is precisely the point at which you most need to pray. 46 00:04:49,119 –> 00:04:56,119 So how can you find the way to God to pray whether the heart be full or empty? That’s 47 00:04:57,899 –> 00:05:04,359 a very important question. Now the tradition in which most of us have been brought up or 48 00:05:04,540 –> 00:05:11,540 the tradition into which most of us have come is one that emphasizes the wonderful truth 49 00:05:11,619 –> 00:05:18,480 that we can come to God freely in the name of Jesus Christ at any time. We do not need 50 00:05:18,480 –> 00:05:25,480 an appointment to come to God. We do not need a priest to pray on our behalf. You do not 51 00:05:25,619 –> 00:05:31,200 need some special gift of words in order to engage in prayer. No through Christ you can 52 00:05:31,339 –> 00:05:38,339 come to God and you can say to him whatever is on your heart. And this is a wonderful 53 00:05:38,619 –> 00:05:46,420 truth especially when it comes to what I like to call arrow prayers. Arrow prayers, just 54 00:05:46,459 –> 00:05:51,220 these quick instant ones. So before I get up to speak I will shoot off an arrow prayer, 55 00:05:51,220 –> 00:05:56,880 Lord help me. I need it. I need your help. And you go into a difficult meeting or you 56 00:05:56,880 –> 00:06:00,820 find yourself in a situation you just do not know what to do, you shoot off a little arrow 57 00:06:00,859 –> 00:06:06,640 prayer. It’s like texting to the Lord, you know, instant, absolutely instant, and usually 58 00:06:06,640 –> 00:06:15,220 very, very short. And what a wonderful gift that is. But, just as texting is not the only 59 00:06:15,519 –> 00:06:23,119 form of communication, so arrow prayers are not the only form of praying. There is more 60 00:06:23,119 –> 00:06:33,859 to prayer than off the top of the head requests to God. And so, for all the value of spontaneity, 61 00:06:33,859 –> 00:06:39,359 it’s worth thinking about this that, while spontaneity is a marvelous gift, when we come 62 00:06:39,359 –> 00:06:47,899 to things that really matter in life, we rarely trust spontaneity. Some of you are in sales, 63 00:06:47,899 –> 00:06:52,940 so your work is to meet with clients and to understand their needs and to commend a product 64 00:06:53,019 –> 00:06:58,660 that is gonna be helpful to them. When you meet with a client, you want to go in prepared, 65 00:06:58,660 –> 00:07:03,220 what that means is you research their website, you learn about their business, you prepare 66 00:07:03,220 –> 00:07:07,579 a presentation, you may have offered a similar presentation many other times before, but 67 00:07:07,579 –> 00:07:12,540 this presentation is particularly adapted to that particular client with whom you are 68 00:07:12,540 –> 00:07:18,559 meeting. You put in all this preparation just to make a sale, just for one client. 69 00:07:18,660 –> 00:07:23,040 Why would you not put some preparation into prayer? 70 00:07:23,059 –> 00:07:28,760 Others of you are in the world of negotiating contracts. Some of you have been involved 71 00:07:28,760 –> 00:07:37,399 in fundraising. And your work revolves around key meetings. And when these come, you prepare 72 00:07:37,399 –> 00:07:44,980 for them really well. You have a presentation, and the presentation lays out the problem. 73 00:07:44,980 –> 00:07:51,339 And then it lays out the inadequacy of other solutions. And then it lays out what you are 74 00:07:51,339 –> 00:07:57,079 proposing. And then it comes to an ask that you have as part of the negotiation or whatever 75 00:07:57,079 –> 00:08:04,220 it is. You put in all this preparation to make the case. Why would you not think in 76 00:08:04,220 –> 00:08:11,760 the same way when it comes to entering the courts of Almighty God? 77 00:08:11,760 –> 00:08:18,540 In my own world, week by week, I have the privilege of speaking to you from the Bible. 78 00:08:18,540 –> 00:08:28,260 It’s a great privilege. So, what I say is never spontaneous. It comes out of 15 to 20 79 00:08:28,260 –> 00:08:35,179 hours poring over the Bible, trying to grasp what its verses are saying and then crafting 80 00:08:35,179 –> 00:08:40,679 to the best of my ability, asking the help of God sentence by sentence how this can best 81 00:08:40,739 –> 00:08:51,299 be conveyed. If such thinking goes into speaking to you, why would I not be thinking very, 82 00:08:51,299 –> 00:09:00,280 very carefully about what I am going to say to God? Now think about this really. Suppose 83 00:09:00,280 –> 00:09:08,739 you had a once in a lifetime opportunity for a direct audience with Almighty God. Suppose 84 00:09:08,820 –> 00:09:13,059 you once in a lifetime could come directly to God, you could ask Him anything you wanted, 85 00:09:13,059 –> 00:09:17,500 you could tell Him everything that matters to you. Suppose you had that opportunity this 86 00:09:17,500 –> 00:09:24,599 Thursday, this week. Well now you would prepare, wouldn’t you? You would say to yourself, 87 00:09:24,599 –> 00:09:32,900 I am going to speak to Almighty God on Thursday and this is obviously not only the most important 88 00:09:32,900 –> 00:09:36,400 event of the week but it is going to be the most important event of my life, this once 89 00:09:36,440 –> 00:09:41,900 in a lifetime opportunity. Suppose that your appointment with Almighty God were to last 90 00:09:41,900 –> 00:09:49,359 for fifteen minutes. Well, you would say to yourself, I have fifteen minutes with Almighty 91 00:09:49,359 –> 00:09:55,359 God. What am I going to say? What am I going to ask? And, you would begin to think, now 92 00:09:55,359 –> 00:10:00,500 I want to ask something for myself. What would you ask of God? Remember Jesus said, what 93 00:10:00,500 –> 00:10:05,940 do you want me to do for you? What is the thing that really is important? In terms of 94 00:10:05,979 –> 00:10:11,340 you being more fully conformed to the image of Jesus Christ right now. And then you would 95 00:10:11,340 –> 00:10:14,539 have some things if you were married that you would want to ask for your spouse or your 96 00:10:14,539 –> 00:10:19,940 children. We’d have things we would want to ask on behalf of our friends, and standing 97 00:10:19,940 –> 00:10:25,020 in the presence of God, we would not want in our fifteen minutes to say, Lord, be with 98 00:10:25,020 –> 00:10:33,260 them. As you think about this appointment, it might occur to you that spending the entire 99 00:10:33,299 –> 00:10:40,719 fifteen minutes asking for things would not be a very good idea. There is no other relationship 100 00:10:40,719 –> 00:10:50,799 in which any of us would be so self-absorbed. Imagine turning up for breakfast with a friend, 101 00:10:50,799 –> 00:10:54,940 and you sit down at breakfast and you say, Hi, Joe. Now, I’ve got seven things to ask 102 00:10:54,940 –> 00:11:01,219 you, and then I’m out of here. It’s just – you’re not going to do that, are you? 103 00:11:01,260 –> 00:11:05,020 So as you think about these moments that you are going to have with God, you will begin 104 00:11:05,020 –> 00:11:11,619 to think, Now, I do want to thank Him. What will I want to thank Him for? And you will 105 00:11:11,619 –> 00:11:17,179 want to confess to Him, and you will think, Now, what do I need to confess to Him. And 106 00:11:17,179 –> 00:11:21,119 you will want to deepen and strengthen your own relationship with Him. You will not want 107 00:11:21,119 –> 00:11:27,940 to wing it on these things. And so you will prepare. 108 00:11:28,700 –> 00:11:32,419 And what I am saying to you is I am just encouraging us to think about what it actually means to 109 00:11:32,419 –> 00:11:43,219 pray, is that you have a direct audience with Almighty God every time you come to pray. 110 00:11:43,219 –> 00:11:48,840 And we will pray it much better if we think about what it is that we are doing, and if 111 00:11:48,840 –> 00:11:55,900 in our minds and in our hearts we do not simply wing it, but seek to be more intentional about 112 00:11:55,960 –> 00:12:02,900 this immense privilege of speaking directly with Almighty God. 113 00:12:03,539 –> 00:12:09,780 Now, how then do we prepare to pray? How can we learn this holy art of prayer? How can 114 00:12:09,780 –> 00:12:16,380 we pray better than we have been praying in the past? Well, the answer, surely, is that 115 00:12:16,380 –> 00:12:24,239 God has given to us in the Bible an entire book of prayers called the Psalms. There are 116 00:12:24,280 –> 00:12:30,679 150 of them, and the reason that this book is in the Bible is that God has given us prayers 117 00:12:30,679 –> 00:12:37,679 to help us with our praying. Think of it this way, that the Psalms are a training manual 118 00:12:39,960 –> 00:12:46,960 for prayer. The Psalms give us model prayers for every circumstance of life, and they are 119 00:12:47,960 –> 00:12:55,159 all prayers, because they are Scripture, they are all prayers that have been breathed out 120 00:12:55,159 –> 00:13:02,159 by the Holy Spirit, so they show us how to pray in a way that is pleasing to God, and 121 00:13:04,119 –> 00:13:11,119 they are given to us for our use and for our instruction.And so when I invite you to enroll 122 00:13:11,919 –> 00:13:18,919 with me in the School of Prayer, I’m inviting us to immerse ourselves over time in the Psalms 123 00:13:20,599 –> 00:13:27,599 in order to improve the depth of our praying.And you will find in the Book of Psalms, model 124 00:13:30,119 –> 00:13:37,119 prayers, Holy Spirit inspired prayers that are particularly adapted to every imaginable 125 00:13:37,239 –> 00:13:42,599 success of life. And so for example as we move through this series we are going to find from 126 00:13:42,599 –> 00:13:47,979 Psalm 10 how do you pray when the wicked seem to be winning, which is something we’re talking 127 00:13:47,979 –> 00:13:53,400 about all the time these days. Darkness seems to be on the advance. How do you pray there? 128 00:13:53,400 –> 00:13:58,859 That’s what Psalm 10 is all about. Psalm 11. How do you pray when you feel like giving 129 00:13:58,859 –> 00:14:03,479 up? There will be a point in your life and some of us may be close to that point, experiencing 130 00:14:03,500 –> 00:14:08,919 the difficulties, just the sheer fatigue and the pressure, like I feel so exhausted I feel 131 00:14:08,919 –> 00:14:14,640 like giving up. Psalm 11 speaks to that. Psalm 12. How do you pray when you’re afraid for 132 00:14:14,640 –> 00:14:20,080 your children? How do you pray when you fear for your grandchildren? Oh, this world is 133 00:14:20,080 –> 00:14:27,000 going the wrong way. Psalm 12 is precisely adapted to that question. Praying for the 134 00:14:27,039 –> 00:14:33,440 young in an ungodly world. Psalm 13 speaks directly to how you can pray when you’re in 135 00:14:33,440 –> 00:14:37,919 an agony of soul. When you can hardly feel the presence of God at all. It’s all there 136 00:14:37,919 –> 00:14:43,219 and that’s just four Psalms. So we’re going to take a little course in 137 00:14:43,219 –> 00:14:47,159 the School of Prayer and then in future years, God’s willing, we’ll come back and we’ll take 138 00:14:47,159 –> 00:14:53,260 some more and just keep adding to what we are learning from this marvelous, marvelous 139 00:14:53,299 –> 00:15:00,479 gift that God has given to us, the training manual for prayer, the Book of Psalms. 140 00:15:00,479 –> 00:15:06,799 Bonhoeffer says if we are to pray aright, he says, perhaps it is quite necessary that 141 00:15:06,799 –> 00:15:11,359 we pray contrary to our own heart. In other words, if all you’re thinking about prayer 142 00:15:11,359 –> 00:15:15,479 is just you pray what’s in your heart, there will be times when you need to pray contrary 143 00:15:15,479 –> 00:15:20,419 to your own heart and that’s why you need the Bible. And he says it is not what we want 144 00:15:20,419 –> 00:15:27,940 to pray that is important. What matters is what God wants us to pray. And then he has 145 00:15:27,940 –> 00:15:34,159 this wonderful comment, it is the richness of God’s Word that should determine our 146 00:15:34,159 –> 00:15:42,239 prayers not the poverty of our own heart. Isn’t that helpful? I don’t want my praying 147 00:15:42,239 –> 00:15:48,239 to be defined by the poverty of my own heart. I’m so aware of the poverty of my own heart, 148 00:15:48,400 –> 00:15:52,780 often emptiness of my own heart. That’s the limitation if I only think that it’s the 149 00:15:52,780 –> 00:15:58,700 pouring out of my heart. The heart’s often empty. I want my prayer to be defined not 150 00:15:58,700 –> 00:16:08,799 by the poverty of my own heart but by the richness, says Bonhoeffer, of God’s Word. 151 00:16:08,799 –> 00:16:12,619 Andrew Bonner, Scottish pastor, who I’ve quoted on a number of occasions, one of the 152 00:16:13,419 –> 00:16:19,739 of prayer, and yet his own critique of his prayer life is quite extraordinary. He writes 153 00:16:19,739 –> 00:16:26,739 in his diary of his prayer, I am too short, I ask too little with too much want of forethought 154 00:16:29,700 –> 00:16:36,700 and too little meditation on the Scriptures. Was John Calvin who in a very famous phrase, 155 00:16:36,700 –> 00:16:43,700 in a very wonderful phrase, described the book of Psalms as an anatomy of all the parts 156 00:16:46,140 –> 00:16:51,000 of the soul. Isn’t that beautiful? Everything that can ever go in on a human soul, you’ll 157 00:16:51,000 –> 00:16:58,000 find somewhere in the book of Psalms. It is an anatomy of all parts of the soul. He says 158 00:16:58,140 –> 00:17:03,580 this, there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not represented here 159 00:17:03,659 –> 00:17:09,300 as in a mirror. The Holy Spirit has here drawn together all of the griefs, the sorrows, the 160 00:17:09,300 –> 00:17:14,300 fears, the doubts, the hopes, the cares, the perplexities, in short, all the distracting 161 00:17:14,300 –> 00:17:20,939 emotions that the minds of men and of women want to be agitated. Everything you experience 162 00:17:20,939 –> 00:17:24,099 you’ll find a way of praying through it somewhere in the book of Psalms. 163 00:17:24,099 –> 00:17:31,099 And so to immerse yourself in this book is going to be the number one way of developing 164 00:17:31,479 –> 00:17:38,479 the depth of your own praying. So with great gladness I’m inviting you, as it were, to 165 00:17:39,099 –> 00:17:46,099 enroll in the school of prayer as we immerse ourselves in the Psalms, so that we may grow 166 00:17:47,300 –> 00:17:54,300 in the depth of our praying. And there’s one other thing in the title and it’s this. The 167 00:17:54,859 –> 00:18:00,859 series is called not simply the School of Prayer, which would be a good title for the 168 00:18:00,859 –> 00:18:07,859 Psalms, it’s called With Christ in the School of Prayer. With Christ in the School of Prayer. 169 00:18:14,079 –> 00:18:21,079 Think about this, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in His growing up years, would have saturated 170 00:18:22,079 –> 00:18:29,079 his own mind in the Psalms. He would have known so much of that book, ingested into 171 00:18:31,979 –> 00:18:38,979 his own memory, how much his own prayer life, shaped by the prayer of the Psalms. So much 172 00:18:40,880 –> 00:18:45,780 so that in the moments of his extremity on the cross, in the last four words that were 173 00:18:46,079 –> 00:18:51,839 cried out from the cross, they all either directly quote or allude to the Psalms, the 174 00:18:51,839 –> 00:18:58,839 mind of Jesus saturated in the Psalms. And all Christian praying, Christian praying of 175 00:19:00,819 –> 00:19:07,819 the Psalms is through Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ. And I just want to conclude 176 00:19:08,380 –> 00:19:14,280 this morning with some simple observations that remind us that when we’re in the school 177 00:19:14,300 –> 00:19:21,300 of prayer, we are with Christ. And let me give you these encouragements from the ministry 178 00:19:23,359 –> 00:19:30,359 of Christ with regards to prayer. Here’s the first. Pray because Jesus is our 179 00:19:33,060 –> 00:19:38,119 great high priest. That’s the argument of the scriptures. We have a great high priest, 180 00:19:38,119 –> 00:19:44,079 Hebrews 4.14, who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore, verse 16, 181 00:19:44,439 –> 00:19:50,280 let us come boldly to the throne of grace. I don’t know about you, but if I have to engage 182 00:19:50,280 –> 00:19:54,839 in a strategic conversation, I’m often if it’s appropriate, grateful to have someone 183 00:19:54,839 –> 00:20:00,079 with me who knows more about the subject, or the environment or whatever it was. Remember 184 00:20:00,079 –> 00:20:07,079 when Moses had to go and speak with Pharaoh and he says, who will go with me? And the 185 00:20:08,060 –> 00:20:13,739 Lord gives Aaron to go with him. And what was the role of Aaron in the Old Testament? 186 00:20:13,760 –> 00:20:19,660 The high priest. I’m going to give you a high priest who will help you, who will go with 187 00:20:19,660 –> 00:20:26,660 you. And now taking up that story here is the writer to the Hebrews saying, we have 188 00:20:27,079 –> 00:20:32,260 a great high priest, a far greater high priest than Aaron, but we have someone with us when 189 00:20:32,260 –> 00:20:39,260 we are speaking, not to Pharaoh but to Almighty God. When you pray, by faith you ascend in 190 00:20:44,300 –> 00:20:51,300 to heavenly places where Christ is. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father 191 00:20:52,319 –> 00:20:58,920 and when you by faith pray, ascending by faith into the heavenly places, you are right next 192 00:20:58,920 –> 00:21:05,599 to Jesus Christ. And he is right next to you, and he is praying with you. The intercession 193 00:21:05,599 –> 00:21:11,420 of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? He is endorsing what you are saying. He is 194 00:21:11,459 –> 00:21:17,540 placing his name under what you are asking. Like someone else alongside you, making the 195 00:21:17,540 –> 00:21:24,540 case in an important meeting. A Christian never prays alone. You pray to the Father, 196 00:21:24,540 –> 00:21:30,160 you pray with the Son, you pray in the Holy Spirit. Again, Bonhoeffer is helpful here. 197 00:21:30,160 –> 00:21:41,099 Jesus Christ wants to pray with us. And he wants us to pray with him. So you can come 198 00:21:41,099 –> 00:21:45,540 to the father. He is a great encouragement to prayer. You can come to the Father with 199 00:21:45,540 –> 00:21:51,640 Jesus beside you. And he is there to support you in your prayer. He is there to back you 200 00:21:51,640 –> 00:22:01,479 up in what you are saying. To agree with your prayer because he is making it his own. Pray 201 00:22:01,479 –> 00:22:08,319 because Jesus is your great, High Priest. Pray because Jesus knows what it’s like. 202 00:22:08,660 –> 00:22:10,160 There’s nothing you can ever bring to 203 00:22:10,160 –> 00:22:16,500 God in prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ does not already know absolutely and completely. 204 00:22:16,500 –> 00:22:22,020 We do not have, verse 15, a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, 205 00:22:22,020 –> 00:22:28,540 but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. The one who’s praying alongside 206 00:22:28,540 –> 00:22:35,040 you, the Son of God, the intercessor who prays with you, and you pray with him, he’s been 207 00:22:35,040 –> 00:22:43,880 in a carpenter’s shop, he’s been by a gravesite, he’s seen evil and violence unleashed like 208 00:22:43,880 –> 00:22:52,099 no other. There’s nothing that comes into experience in your life that he cannot relate 209 00:22:52,099 –> 00:23:00,060 to because he knows what life is. This is our high priest, so pray because he’s there 210 00:23:00,060 –> 00:23:04,359 at the right hand of the Father, what greater encouragement could there be. Pray because 211 00:23:04,359 –> 00:23:08,900 he absolutely knows and understands everything you’re going through. He’s been betrayed. 212 00:23:08,900 –> 00:23:14,880 He’s known what it is to see someone he loved deeply go off. He’s been through it 213 00:23:14,880 –> 00:23:19,160 all. There’s nothing that you can bring that he’s not going to relate to entirely, 214 00:23:19,160 –> 00:23:26,319 fully and completely. And pray because God invites you to the throne of grace. 215 00:23:26,939 –> 00:23:33,420 Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, the writer to the Hebrews says. The throne 216 00:23:33,420 –> 00:23:47,219 of grace. John Bunyan has a wonderful phrase. He says, God has more than one throne. Beautiful. 217 00:23:47,239 –> 00:23:52,040 God has more thrones than one because you know what he’s thinking of? He’s thinking 218 00:23:52,079 –> 00:23:59,140 of the throne of judgment. How often would you want to pray if when you pray, God was 219 00:23:59,140 –> 00:24:05,479 seated on the throne of judgment? I don’t want to come near there. I don’t want to 220 00:24:05,479 –> 00:24:12,420 be judged every time I come praying. But, in hearing prayer, God is seated on the throne 221 00:24:12,420 –> 00:24:17,319 of grace. God has more thrones than one, says Bunyan. And this is the great incentive that 222 00:24:17,319 –> 00:24:23,300 we have that the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and that the Father, Himself, 223 00:24:23,300 –> 00:24:28,859 next to the Son, is by definition on the throne of grace because those who come through the 224 00:24:28,859 –> 00:24:34,920 Son experience grace, stand in grace, are received with grace. Wonderful. Why would 225 00:24:34,920 –> 00:24:39,900 you come and pray with such an invitation? It’s wonderful. 226 00:24:39,900 –> 00:24:47,300 4. Pray, because in this way you will receive help from God. You come here and you are struggling 227 00:24:47,300 –> 00:24:53,119 in life. You say, I need help from God. I’ve come to church. Well, you come to church, 228 00:24:53,119 –> 00:24:59,099 the Bible is opened and what are we being told? To receive help from God. Monday, Tuesday, 229 00:24:59,099 –> 00:25:02,780 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, what are you going to do? You come to the throne of grace. 230 00:25:02,780 –> 00:25:08,760 That is how you receive help in time of need, and sometimes folks who will say, no, I’m 231 00:25:08,800 –> 00:25:18,760 a Christian, God’s not helping me. My first question is always, do you pray? Are you praying? 232 00:25:18,760 –> 00:25:26,119 Because this is how help is received. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless 233 00:25:26,119 –> 00:25:33,400 pain we bear. Oh, because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. This is how help 234 00:25:33,780 –> 00:25:39,859 comes. This the offer that Jesus Christ is holding before us, the invitation that is 235 00:25:39,859 –> 00:25:45,300 given to us today. Number five, pray because this was the practice of Jesus. You read it 236 00:25:45,300 –> 00:25:49,900 all through the Gospels. He goes away to a lonely place to pray. He is the Son of God 237 00:25:49,900 –> 00:25:55,619 and He prays. If He does this, how much more do I need to do this. When he comes to the 238 00:25:55,619 –> 00:26:02,619 moment of extremity in his life, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays the same thing three 239 00:26:02,640 –> 00:26:08,760 times, we are told. So there is a working through of this agony 240 00:26:08,760 –> 00:26:15,040 in the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just, I said the prayer. He comes back and 241 00:26:15,040 –> 00:26:20,859 He comes back. And if the Son of God should have done that, why should I not do that also 242 00:26:20,859 –> 00:26:27,020 in the things that burden me most, and lift them before God. As often as they weigh heavy 243 00:26:27,020 –> 00:26:32,699 upon my soul. Number six, pray because in this way you 244 00:26:32,699 –> 00:26:42,180 will guard against temptation. Very clear the teaching of Jesus. Watch and pray, so 245 00:26:42,180 –> 00:26:50,459 that you will not enter into temptation. It is very easy, isn’t it, to slip into a lazy 246 00:26:50,520 –> 00:27:02,099 kind of Christianity in which one falls back into what we call a habitual sin, and we say, 247 00:27:02,119 –> 00:27:07,739 well, there we are, gone and done it again, and, well, thank God for grace, and, therefore, 248 00:27:07,739 –> 00:27:16,119 never really grow, never really change. You keep falling back into the same sin. Do you 249 00:27:16,239 –> 00:27:23,319 pray? When you fell back into that sin, was that a time when you could honestly say that 250 00:27:23,319 –> 00:27:29,000 you were praying, that you were watching? Let’s be honest about this. There is sufficient 251 00:27:29,000 –> 00:27:38,400 grace for you to prevail in the hardest battles of your spiritual life and there to be found 252 00:27:38,439 –> 00:27:46,819 through Christ in watching and in praying. In these ways you will be guarded against 253 00:27:46,819 –> 00:27:51,380 temptation, you will not fall into temptation, you will not be overcome. You will experience 254 00:27:51,380 –> 00:27:58,979 temptation, you will not be overcome by its power if you watch and pray, says Jesus. But 255 00:27:58,979 –> 00:28:02,300 without these two, of course, you’re going to just keep falling back into the same old 256 00:28:02,300 –> 00:28:05,800 patterns. This is huge, and this is the invitation of 257 00:28:05,900 –> 00:28:12,680 grace. If there’s grace, you can be different. But you need to learn to pray. And number 258 00:28:12,680 –> 00:28:18,000 seven, pray, because when you seek Christ, you will find him ask and it will be given 259 00:28:18,000 –> 00:28:23,119 to you seek and you will find knock. And it will be opened to you for everyone who asks 260 00:28:23,119 –> 00:28:31,439 receives and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks it will be opened. It 261 00:28:31,560 –> 00:28:36,400 will be opened. And here’s the great promise that encourages us to persevere. It’s in the 262 00:28:36,400 –> 00:28:42,780 present continuous ask and go on asking. Go on seeking, not go on knocking. And you will 263 00:28:42,780 –> 00:28:49,780 find. You will receive. I end with this. In my reading this week, 264 00:28:50,680 –> 00:28:57,680 came across a wonderful piece, really, by a pastor by the name of Andrew Grey. Again 265 00:28:58,359 –> 00:29:05,359 from centuries ago. And as he was encouraging his congregation to prayer, he just lifted 266 00:29:08,020 –> 00:29:15,020 his mind up to heaven and he asked the question, thinking about all that’s up there in heaven, 267 00:29:15,060 –> 00:29:22,060 if heaven could be our counselor, if we could get all the wisdom from heaven, what would 268 00:29:22,979 –> 00:29:27,979 that wisdom be for living the Christian life here? And I am just going to read this and 269 00:29:27,979 –> 00:29:31,280 you’ll help me with it because it has a rhythm and a repetition to it. 270 00:29:31,280 –> 00:29:38,280 Gray said this, Now I think if Adam were going to give you counsel, it would be this, be 271 00:29:41,500 –> 00:29:48,500 much in prayer. If Moses and Aaron were going to give you counsel, it would be this, join 272 00:29:49,459 –> 00:29:54,979 with me, be much in prayer. If David were going to give you counsel. Think about the 273 00:29:54,979 –> 00:30:00,520 lives of these people you see, if David were going to give you counsel, it would be this, 274 00:30:00,520 –> 00:30:06,459 be much in prayer. Then he thinks about the whole scene in heaven. If the four beasts 275 00:30:06,459 –> 00:30:11,900 around the throne of God, they’ve seen all human history, if the four beasts around the 276 00:30:11,900 –> 00:30:17,660 throne of God were going to give you counsel, it would be this, be much in prayer. If the 277 00:30:18,219 –> 00:30:24,119 elders, around the throne of God were to give you counsel, it would be this, be much in 278 00:30:24,119 –> 00:30:30,119 prayer. If the angels that are standing on the sea of glass were going to give you counsel, 279 00:30:30,119 –> 00:30:37,119 it would be this, be much in prayer. Last one. And if all the spirits of just men 280 00:30:37,119 –> 00:30:44,119 and women made perfect, all who are home in glory could give you advice with regards to 281 00:30:44,719 –> 00:30:51,719 living the Christian life, it would surely be this, say it with me, be much in prayer. 282 00:30:52,160 –> 00:30:59,160 Father, please as we enroll in the School of Prayer with Christ, grant that we may learn 283 00:31:02,199 –> 00:31:08,180 more of what it is to walk with you, and to speak with you, and to commune with you, and 284 00:31:08,219 –> 00:31:15,219 to intercede before you, and grant, we pray, that this may be a great distinctive not only 285 00:31:15,439 –> 00:31:22,439 of us as individuals, but of us as a congregation, that we are increasingly a praying people 286 00:31:23,140 –> 00:31:29,579 for the sake of Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.