11/4/13

From Ben Fronczek... Prayer That Pleases God







Prayer That Pleases God

Praying Without Hypocrisy
This morning I will have the privilege of continuing our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve been looking at the 6th Chapter. And this morning, we find ourselves in verses 5-8. (read) 5 

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “

Now any time you get into any discussion of prayer, you get into a certain area of difficulty. It’s hard to completely comprehend how prayer works within the plan and the sovereignty of the mind of God. And I’m not here this morning to unveil all the mysteries about prayer. But what we do know about prayer and what we must be committed to is that when the Bible teaches principles of prayer, God expects us to heed them. Whether or not we can fathom the mystery of how it works isn’t the issue. So we hear some teaching about prayer from the lips of our Lord Himself, concerning the dos and don’ts when we enter prayer .
Now let me give you some background. In the text, He is not only speaking to His disciples,  He is also speaking to the Pharisees and the scribes who represented the phony religious leaders of the nation, and also to the people gathered with them on the side of that hill.

One of the main points in that sermon on the Mt. was to show the difference between the true spiritual life and the false standards of the Pharisaic, Judaistic system of that time. He has already told them that their theology is inadequate in Chapter 5.  And we saw last week, their giving was hypocritical and now He deals with the hypocrisy in their pray life.

We will see that in every dimension of their religious experience seem to involved some kind of hypocrisy. They were phonies when they gave. They were phonies when they prayed and later we’ll see that they were phonies when they fasted. And Jesus lets his disciples know that God’s standards for His kingdom is more than what they were doing. And so He tackles them on this matter of prayer in verses 5-8.

Now, prayer was a major issue among the Jews. It was a tremendous factor in their religion. They were highly involved in praying. In fact, the rabbis said, “prayer greater than all good works.” The rabbis also said, “he who prays within his house surrounds it with a wall that is stronger than iron.” Some rabbis wrote that they regretted that they couldn’t pray all day long. Now no nation has ever viewed prayer higher than Israel. No religion ever set a greater standard of prayer than the Hebrew people.

But unfortunately as we have learned so far in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lets them know that what they are doing is wrong. As they’re giving deteriorated into a show, so too did their pray.
Now I want to share with you several of the faults that crept in to the prayer life of the Hebrew people.

#1. Their prayer became ritualized.
Ritualistic prayers replaced a pure outpouring of a heart to God. I think we all can identify with prayers that become routine, prayer that become a ritualistic, that become simply an exercise with little or no meaning or significance.
You see, every day, if you were a Jew, in the morning and at night, you had to repeat the Shimah. And the Shimah is basically Deuteronomy 6,  

“Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.”

 And they recited from Deuteronomy 6:4-9  and Deuteronomy 11:13-21  and then  Numbers 15:37-41. They recited all those verses together and they made this long prayer out of them, and the Jew had to pray this prayer every morning and every night. So every morning and every night this was the routine. And by the way, if the Shimah was a little long for you, they had adapted a summary that you could pray if you were in a hurry. Secondly, they had what was known as the   SHEM ON EH ‘ES REH. And the SHEMONEH ‘ESREH was another formulized kind of prayer. It was composed of 18 smaller prayers concerning different things. For example, I’ll give you prayer #12. “Let thy mercy oh Lord be showed upon the upright, the humble, the elders of thy people of Israel and the rest of its teachers. Be favorable to the pious strangers amongst us and to us all. Give thou a good reward to those who sincerely trust in thy name.”
And they had 18 of these individual prayers in the SHEMONEH ‘ESREH, that they had to recite each morning, afternoon, and evening in addition to the Shimah. They also had an abbreviated version of this if you were in a hurry.  So it became pretty much the standard that there was prayer at the third, the sixth, and the ninth hours of each day no matter where you were or what you were doing.

This is still quite common for the followers of Muhammad. They’ll stop, roll out their prayer matt at the prescribed time and say their prayers. So it pretty much became a routine. Prayer became a ritualized function. Unfortunately it ceased to be a personally meaningful communion with God. Now I’m sure for some it was a truly honest, a pure-hearted loving communion with God.  But most of the people probably weren’t in that category. They probably fell into one of the two categories. They became like the Pharisees, prayed to demonstrate how religious they were. And then I sure there was a group of  people who didn’t honestly pray, they just mumbled their way through those prayers just to get it through them. Whatever it was, they just went, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, muttered along, just to get through them so they could get back to whatever they were doing beforehand. So in one we see pride involved in prayer and these others they were indifference to it.

#2 The second fault that crept into the Jewish prayer habit, was the development of special prayers for special occasions. They had prayers for everything. I mean, it didn’t matter what it was, they wrote a prayer for it and when that thing happened, you prayed that prayer.
They had prayers for light and prayers for darkness. Prayers for fire, prayers for lightening, prayers for seeing a new moon, prayers for a comet, prayers for rain and droughts, prayers for a tempest, prayer for the sea, prayers for the lakes, the rivers, they had prayers when you received good news, they had a prayer when you received bad news. They had a prayer when you got new furniture. They had prayer when you left the city. They had prayer when you were on the road. And they had a prayer when you entered the next city. And that’s just a few of the prayers they had.

They had a prayer for everything, and so the common habit was to find out what the prayer was and learn it and whenever something happened, you rattled off the prayer that was fitting for that particular event. Now, I’m sure the original intention of the rabbis was to bring everything into the presence of God to make every part of life, every act of nature and every event in the world something that drew them to God. But instead, the Jews became a more committed to reciting prescribed, predigested, pre-developed prayers.

Now I believe that prayer is like breathing.  You don’t say it’s 12 o’clock, I’m going to breathe now. No, you breathe all the time. Prayer should be a constant inhale and exhale of communion with God that goes on in the life of a believer all the time. Not to pray as to hold your breath. But for them, prayer became a regiment of reciting a certain thing at a certain hours.

#3. A third fault that crept into the Jewish prayer pattern was that they seem to think it was more spiritual to pray long prayers.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with a long prayer as long as it’s really a heart felt communication with God. But you miss the mark if you think by saying a long prayers you are more spiritual than those who pray short prayers, or that God is going to be more impressed with you, or you do it trying to impress others.
The rabbis used to say whenever a prayer is long, that prayer is heard. And the implication is that you’ve got to spend the first few minutes just getting God’s attention. But is that true? Of course not.

#4. That lead to a forth fault in their prayers. They picked up vain repetition from the pagans. The pagan approach to prayer was you keep repeating yourself until the God gets so weary of hearing you that He does what you want. That’s basically it. Just keep doing it and doing it and saying it and saying it until He gets so sick of hearing it, that He finally reacts.
And so the Jews picked this up and we find some old Jewish prayers which ramble on.

#5. But the worst fault and the one mentioned in our text, is that they prayed to be seen by men. That’s a major fault.
Look at verse 5. It says that “they loved to pray.” Now at first glance that sounds wonderful, “for they love to pray.” But the question is why do they love to pray? Did they love to pray because they loved God? Did they love to pray because it ushered them into His blessed presence? Why did they love to pray?
Knowing the hearts of all men, Jesus said that they loved to pray to be seen by men. They wanted to be on the stage. The Word Hypocrite, or the original Greek work  Hu po kri tase originally referred to an actor. They were actors in a theater, in their case on the street corner. They were putting on a show for everybody to see. Oh look how holy they are.

That was the wrong motive, that’s what Jesus wanted to deal with here; the motive of our prayers. We may never unscramble all the mysteries surrounding prayer, but we can certainly deal with the issue of the motive as the Lord does here. Our prayers are not an exercise to puff up our ego, or to impress other. But rather its a talk with God.

Do you ever pray and pray, and after you pray in some group you think to yourself in your mind, ‘Boy I bet they thought that was a good one?’ Or perhaps you thought,  ‘Boy, I’ll bet the people enjoyed that.’       
I just want you to understand something about prayer, and you need to learn this, prayer is not so sacred that Satan can’t invade it. Did you know that? Prayer is not so sacred that Satan can’t invade it.

If we never learn anything more out of this text, we need to learn that there’s no holy ground that Satan doesn’t try to get in on. You’d think that when you are in your deepest devotion and walk into the throne room of God to commune with Him in His holy presence that we cannot sin, but we can.

Sin and pride can follow us into the very presence of God. And it’s so sad when it does. In those quiet moments when we try enter His presence and worship Him in purity, we can find ourselves being tempted to worship ourselves, or judge others, or pray selfishly.

There’s no sacred ground for Satan. He invades it all. And I believe that the two greatest times of temptation Jesus ever experienced in His life was in the wilderness and then in the Garden of Gethsemane. And on both occasions He was by himself, and in communion with the Father.  And it was there in that very private place of His communion with God in prayer that Satan invaded with temptations, probably stronger than any others in His life. If it happened to Jesus it can happen to us and unfortunately we give in and do selfish things.

Look at verse 5; and the whole passage will open to you now.  

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”   

These men gave in to their own selfish desires.
But when you pray, He says, don’t be like the hypocrites. Don’t be a phony.
Can we pray in public? Sure we can. Can I pray al long pray, and pray for the same things over and over. I truly believe we can. Want Jesus is addressing here again is our motive, our sincerity, the condition of our heart. Sometimes the only thing that will give us strength and courage in a time of need is to pray long and hard.  So do you really want men to hear your prayer or do you want God to hear? Do you want to be rewarded by God or by men?


As we pray I truly believe our prayers should not be pretentious, nor ritualistic but rather should always be a communication of words and emotion from our heart.  I believe when we learn to commune and pray like this, we grow closer to the Father. We bond with Him. We find comfort in having someone to talk to that loves us more than any man.

The sample prayer that Jesus gave when He tells them what to pray Honors our Father in heaven, recognizing His Lordship in all creation, and then Jesus lets us know that it’s ok to ask our God to help us with our needs. But in it He again reminds us that that we have to have the right attitude, a humble forgiving attitude.

And so today I challenge you to do your best to develop this kind of prayer life. And remember not to let Satan tempt you to sin as you talk with your Heavenly Father   

(Based on a sermon by John MacArthur)


For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566

From Jim McGuiggan... Damned For others?

Damned For others?

Maria White never enjoyed good health and she died at the tragically young age of thirty-two, but not before she had established herself as a poet of note and married James Russell Lowell, who, with her help, finally outshone her as "a name". She had a poet's heart and like all the truly fine poets she saw things the rest of us only grope after in part blindness. Speaking as a Christian I recognise that human loves share in the flaws that are part of our humanity but speaking as a Christian who has known more than his share of ignorance down the years I haven't seen the beauty and riches God has placed in these human loves. Too, I've underestimated their power even while I admitted that they have immense power. I haven't seen the beauty and richness of life because like so many others before me—people who've taught and shaped me—I've spoken almost exclusively of sin and forgiveness, of God's redeeming activity without connecting it with his eternal purpose to bless and give life and I've said more about leaving this life than truly living it.

Again, like millions before me down the centuries I've narrowed the meaning of the life and death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus to how they relate to and deal with sin. I can hardly make up for my failure by now saying nothing about sin and atonement for that would be tragic as well as a distortion of the meaning of Jesus Christ. He deals with our sin, thank God!

But he deals with our sin to gain God's ultimate and eternal purpose, namely, to bless the human family with fullness of life; a fullness of life that is holy and honourable in righteousness but a life that includes human loves cleansed of all of whatever that mars them. Redemption confirms God's creation intention rather than reduces or dismisses it. Redemption and blessing aren't two distinct stories running parallel—they're two faces of one coin, two themes in one drama.

I mentioned Maria White Lowell at the beginning because in one of her poems she stresses the depth and appeal of human love. She wrote four sonnets about her love for her husband, James Russell, and she makes the point that if Death came and took her to heaven that even there, in the midst of all the glory and with heaven's shining ones by her side she would tire of the endless blue if she couldn't look down on the earth and see the one she loved. No one should accuse her of heresy; they should simply pay attention to her way of expressing the beauty, glory and wonder of the love of one human for another. 

Here's what she says (quoted in H. E. Scudder's biography of her husband).

If Death uplift me, even thus should I,
Companioned by the silver spirits high
And stationed on the sunset's crimson towers,
Bending over earth's broad stretch of bowers,
To where my love beneath their shades might lie;
For I should weary of the endless blue,
If that one soul, so beautiful and true,
Were hidden by earth's vapours from my sight.

But what she implies about the depth of human love pales before what we hear from Moses in Exodus 32:32. God has threatened to obliterate apostate Israel and Moses, while freely acknowledging their great wickedness, begs him to forgive them, "but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written." What do you make of such devotion?

Then we have Paul in Romans 9:3 saying, "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." The scholars tell of various linguistic possibilities and niceties but Dunn is surely right when he says the search for linguistic options is fed by what Paul seems clearly to say and N.T Wright refuses to hide his astonishment at Paul's statement.

It would be foolish to think that Paul thought his being anathematised could save others and there's certainly no need to think he was actually saying to God what Moses did say to God. [There is more in Paul's statement than there is in Moses'—but that would be another discussion.] What seems clear beyond dispute is that Paul so loves his people that being damned, cut off from Jesus, wouldn't be too great a price for him to pay on their behalf. He knew what Moses felt toward them and he knew even better what Jesus felt about them and he here expresses his own heart toward them. Make what we want of it, Paul's love for his people and his agony over their loss leads to this outpouring of passion.

In Exodus 32:33 there is something of a rebuke—so I judge—in what God says to Moses; but there is no reason for us to believe that God is not pleased with the depth of Moses' feeling for Israel. Paul isn't offering developed theology in Romans 9:3 but he is revealing the wonder of the love humans can have for one another that they can feel to such depths and express such ongoing thoughts.
By the time some of us are done trying to get around the plain import of the statement we have Paul saying nothing worth saying. "If it was permissible for me to ask such a thing and if I thought it might avail something (though I know it wouldn't) I could see myself praying such a prayer."

That doesn't at all sound like what Paul said. James Dunn is right, "In cases like this it is always wise to ask not simply, What did the author intend to say? But also, What could the author have expected his readers to understand by his language?" It seems clear to me that Paul is saying something like, "I'd be willing to be damned for their sake; that's how deeply I feel for them."
I'm not the only one for who feels that there is a handful of people for whom I feel so deeply that if they didn't make it to the better world and life that is ahead it wouldn't be a better world for me.

I know that we're not to read the deep feelings of Maria White Lowell, Moses and Paul and "measure the speech of their hearts with the rules of logic." Humans are capable of feeling so deeply that they can contemplate losing all if their beloved gains. This is a gift of God.


©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Mark Copeland... Paul's Prayer For The Colossians (1:9-14)



                     "THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS"

                Paul's Prayer For The Colossians (1:9-14)

INTRODUCTION

1. In the epistles of Paul, we customarily find him telling his readers
   what he prayed for on their behalf

2. So it is in his epistle to the Colossians...
   a. Though he had not met many of them personally, he had heard of
      their faith and love  - 1:3-8
   b. Which prompted him to pray unceasingly for them

3. For what did he pray?  The answer is found in Col 1:9-14, and by
   closely studying this passage...
   a. We can learn not only what Paul desired for the Colossians
   b. But also what God would desire for ALL Christians, including us
      today!

[As we examine this prayer of Paul, let's do so with this in mind:  
THIS IS WHAT GOD DESIRES OF US AS WELL!

First, God desires that we be...]

I. FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL IN ALL WISDOM AND SPIRITUAL
   UNDERSTANDING (9)

   A. NOTICE SOME KEY WORDS...
      1. "FILLED"
         a. Not just a small measure
         b. But satiated, with a full measure
         -- It is not God's desire that we try to "just get by with as
            little as necessary"
      2. "THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL"
         a. This is what God desires us to be filled with
         b. The Greek word for "knowledge" in this passage is EPIGNOSIS
            1) Knowledge which is the result of practical and personal
               experience
            2) I.e., not just academic or intellectual knowledge
         c. Thus, our knowledge of God's will is to be something we have
            come by through practice and application in our lives
      3. "IN ALL WISDOM AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING"
         a. To possess a knowledge of God's will in ALL WISDOM requires
            prayer - Jm 1:5
         b. To possess a knowledge of God's will with SPIRITUAL
            UNDERSTANDING requires reading the word - Ep 3:3-5
         -- Therefore, prayer and Bible study are essential elements for
            the Christian!

   B. WHY IS BEING FILLED WITH SUCH KNOWLEDGE SO IMPORTANT?
      1. Because God's people have always been destroyed by a lack of
         knowledge - cf. Hos 4:6
      2. It is essential to our renewal in becoming like Christ - Col 3:
         8-10

[Is this prayer being answered in OUR lives?  Are we doing anything to
assure that it is?

Next, notice from Paul's prayer that it is evidently God's desire that
we...]

II. HAVE A WALK WORTHY OF THE LORD, FULLY PLEASING HIM (10-14)

   A. THIS IS THE OBJECTIVE OF BEING FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S
      WILL
      1. To conduct ourselves in a manner WORTHY of the Lord - Ep 4:1
         a. The Lord we serve, and the calling we have received, is
            certainly a "worthy" one!
         b. Our conduct should be one to honor Christ, not shame Him!
      2. To conduct ourselves in a manner FULLY PLEASING HIM
         a. There is conduct which displeases Christ - Lk 6:46
         b. But conduct coming from one who is first FILLED with the
            knowledge of God's will is more like to FULLY please Him!
            (note the play on words)

   B. CONDUCT WORTHY OF THE LORD, FULLY PLEASING HIM, IS ONE IN WHICH
      WE ARE:
      1. "BEING FRUITFUL IN EVERY GOOD WORK" (10)
         a. Not just "one", but "every" good work - cf. Tit 2:14; 3:1
         b. For this we have been "created in Christ Jesus" - Ep 2:10
         c. Why?  So that God may be glorified - Mt 5:16
         d. What sort of good works - cf. Mt 25:37-40; Jm 1:27
         -- Are we being fruitful?
      2. "INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (10)
         a. We need to grow in the knowledge of God HIMSELF, not just
            His will - cf. Jer 9:23-24
         b. How can one truly know God?
            1) Through CREATION - Ps 19:1; Ro 1:18-20
            2) Through inspired REVELATION (e.g., the Psalms and the
               Prophets)
            3) But especially through JESUS - Jn 14:7-9; Col 2:9
         -- Are we daily increasing in this knowledge of God?
      3. "STRENGTHENED WITH ALL MIGHT, ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS
         POWER" (11)
         a. It is God's desire that we be strong in our living for Him 
            - 2Ti 1:7-8
         b. There is "glorious power" available to the Christian, of
            which Paul often wrote:
            1) He experienced it in his own life - Php 4:13
            2) He wanted others to know about it - Ep 1:15-20
            3) He identified it with the working of the Spirit in the
               inner man - Ep 3:16
            4) He describes its greatness in Ep 3:20
         c. What is the purpose of such power?  Notice our text...
            1) "for all PATIENCE and LONGSUFFERING with JOY" (is this
               not the "fruit" the Spirit is supposed to produce? - cf.
               Ga 5:22-23)
            2) I.e., so that even as we experience trials in this life,
               we may do so with joyful perseverance!
         -- Are we experiencing this strength which God gives to those
            who do His will?
      4. "GIVING THANKS TO THE FATHER" (12-14)
         a. Christians should always have the "attitude of gratitude"
            - 1Th 5:18
         b. In our text, Paul mentions several REASONS TO BE THANKFUL...
            1) God has "qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance
               of the saints in the light" - cf. 1Pe 1:3-5
            2) God has "delivered us from the power of darkness" - cf.
               Ep 2:1-5
            3) God has "translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His
               love"
               a) In Whom we have "redemption through His blood"
               b) In Whom we have "the forgiveness of sins" - cf. Re 1:5-6
         -- Are we ever giving thanks to the Father for these wonderful
            blessings?

CONCLUSION

1. Such was the prayer of Paul for the Colossians; what can we learn
   from it?
   a. What God desires of us as well!
   b. What kind of conduct that is necessary to be fully pleasing to the
      Lord!

2. May this prayer of Paul be one...
   a. That we ask for OURSELVES
   b. That we ask for OUR BRETHREN
   c. Indeed, that we desire for ALL!

3. Have you been "QUALIFIED" to be a partaker of the inheritance of the
   saints?
   a. Has God "DELIVERED" you from the power of darkness?
   b. Has He "TRANSLATED" you into the kingdom of His Son?
   -- Through an obedient faith (He 5:9) and baptism into Christ (Jn 3:5; Mk 16:16; Ac 2:38) 
                           on your part, God is willing to do so to you today!

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

From Gary.... Mirror, mirror on the wall...




































I saved this "clipping" some time ago and thought I would use it today.  Why today?  Well, lately, I have been receiving a lot of compliments about the blog and frankly, I needed this to put things into perspective.  Now, I spend a few hours a day doing this work (although to some it might not SEEM that I put that much time into it) and for me, that is a substantial commitment.  The danger comes from pride in what I am doing and this humble self-description of Christianity is worth reading again and again.  In case you are wondering how the first followers of Christ felt about themselves.... here is one....

1 Corinthians, Chapter 15
  1 But, brothers, I reveal to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand,  2 by which you also are being kept safe, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.  3 For I delivered to you in the first place what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,  4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures,  5 and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 Then He appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, of whom the most remain until now, but some also fell asleep.  7 Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles;  8 and last of all, even as if to one born out of time, He was also seen by me.  9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not sufficient to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was toward me has not been without fruit, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.  11 Then whether they or I, so we preach, and so you believed.
Christians are special- because of Christ!!!  Today's message is simple: take a few minutes to reflect on the truth of the Gospel and what that means to you.  When you (and I as well) do this the words of Paul and that little graphic at the top will be motivation to do what you can to further the cause of Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ of God!!!  Also, if you are successful in what you do, remember that it is not your accomplishment, but rather the grace of God working THROUGH YOU!!!!!