is your prayer life actually doing anything?

What is the only prayer guaranteed to make it to heaven? Now, they all make it to heaven because you're praying as Christians. What is the only one that gets answered in heaven? It's a prayer that is initiated from heaven. Right, that's it, yeah. Now, watch this. Here's something off the cuff. I haven't done the research on this, but you just said this and it hit me because we're thinking about prayer this month. Could the reason be Jesus finishes the last line this way before he says, pray like this? Could the last line be, think about this, Robert. Could the last line be, your father knows what you need before you ask? Let me say it another way. God knows what's best for you if you ask. Maybe that's what he's saying. Think about this. I've never thought about this till now. God's saying, the father's saying, or Jesus is saying, the father knows what's best for you when you ask him, therefore, ask him, pray this way. And then he gets to, your kingdom come, your will be done. Maybe he's giving us a nod to say, if the father knows what's best for you, then why are you gonna tell him what you think is best for you instead of listening to what he has, what's best for you?

Think about that. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Adam French, here with Pastor Robbie Gallaty and Kandi Gallaty. We've got a special treat for you. We're doing a bonus episode because our entire church has been walking through a book called The Practice of Prayer, written by Robbie and Kandi. And just, we were just talking about this, responses have been unbelievable. I know in my own life, I've been praying, reading, crying, everything. I was thinking this morning, like, these people got me crying. My friends got me crying, but I'm crying to God. My friends got me crying, in a good way, in a good way. But my wife is doing it. We're actually, a little side note, we're cutting, I don't know if this is okay, I'm sorry. We're cutting off the... Binding. The binding, and we're taking them into the jails and prisons. Oh, yeah. So, you may see like a green one like this. So, we're cutting them off. They can't have hard back, and we try to get, Robert has tried to get us all back. Robert's been fighting for us, so we just said,

you know what, we'll just take a pair of scissors. Cut them off. Cut them off, and so anyway, we're gonna do a bonus episode and talking about prayer, silence, all the things that Robbie has been studying, I guess now, for six years, six or seven years, intensely on the silence side. And Candy, for the past three, four years, with the revival, maybe four or five years. Intensely, I mean, we've prayed and studied prayer, obviously, like a lot of people for years, but really just invested in trying to study. So, the book, if you're familiar, The Practice of Prayer, Candy came to me, I think we told this story before. Candy came to me and just said, hey, I feel like I've grown in my own prayer life, just through a tough season in our life, with one of our boys, and she said, I just feel like we could share some of these things with people. I feel like people will pray the same prayers the same way, the same time, and I'm like, wow, yeah, we all do that. So, I think, if you're listening, you have a desire as a Christian to pray, but the reality is, prayer is probably the least taught, least understood discipline in the Christian life. Think about this, Vivian. When you came to faith in Christ, they just told you, Ben, same thing.

Go pray. Read your Bible and pray. Here's why I say, Chris, same thing for you. The reason it's the least understood is, at least the pastor is teaching you how to study the Bible each week in a sermon. Think about this. That's what I try to do. Actually, I would say, expository preaching every week is showing you, wow, that's in the text, wow, that's in the, so I'm teaching you, when I preach, how to read your Bible. But we don't have, we don't do long prayers like they used to. We don't have time for it. Long hollow, I hate it, but the time. We don't have time. So, no one really knows how to pray. Think about that. And I think this is what's so amazing is that they're so, like God is so creative and the way we pray is creative. Like I always said, the way we like read our Bible and the way we journal, like all those things, we're all different human beings. We're all very unique. We're all specifically designed and created by God, right? And so, how we respond to him, even through prayer, is and will be different, right? We will find, even through the practice of prayer,

we're teaching different ways to engage the Lord in prayer and some of those are gonna feel really like almost natural and good. And then some are gonna be, okay, I'm a little out of my comfort zone because I maybe never have prayed like this before. But overall, I would say one of the things that I have just really learned to love and appreciate through a prayer is that it is such a wonderful way of releasing everything to the Lord. Like we carry and control so much in our life, but to be able to just go before the Lord and release things over and over and over again and process things with him, just much like you would kind of do with a counselor, you know? But being able to do that with the Lord- Holy Spirit, by the way, is called the counselor. The helper. The counselor. The helper. And he came to- You know what that means? The whole purpose of him coming is to help you. And to counsel, yeah, offer counsel. The word for that means, I think it's like paracletos or something in John 14. And it's, I've been studying this because I'm speaking in a couple of weeks,

but it's the helper is one who is called alongside of to aid someone in their journey. That's the exact, what it means. So the helper, the Holy Spirit is called alongside of us to empower us to do things that we would not be able to do by ourselves. It's the same exact concept in the Old Testament of God as our helper. Women actually were created as a helper. It's all the same. Yeah, and it's, and so being able to just release things to the Lord over and over again is very healing. It's where you find freedom. And so even the other day, like I was praying and it was the day in our book where we were praying about listing, I think it was listing needs, but it was not to like, or it was one of the days of gratitude where we were supposed to like not go to the Lord and ask for anything request wise, but we were supposed to just go and like write down things we were grateful for. Okay, well, backstory. I had been having a lot of pain in my hip and in my back for like probably four months. I've been waking up in pain and dealing with it every single day. So I've been, I've been doing chiropractic. I've been doing all the things to help myself, you know?

And that particular day I had been in a lot of pain and I was sitting there and we were doing the grateful part. And so I was putting things I was grateful for, you know? And I was like, Lord, I am grateful that normally I don't have this pain and I have a body that I can work out, you know? And I was just telling God I was grateful for health and just the things. And I am not even lying. The next day, my back was like 90% better. And I was like, holy fire. And I'm like- Stop whining and you started worshiping. All I did, yes. All I did was write down like things I was grateful for because on that specific day, we were not supposed to ask for like requests of anything. I don't radicalize your prayers. And I just wrote down things I was grateful for. And then I was like, the next day I was like, oh my gosh, like what is going on? Like I'm telling you, going from months and months of pain every day of my life, hard walking. I mean, it was very bad to 90% better where I was only feeling a tinge of something. And I'm like, Lord, come on now. Like, did you just like heal me for just being like grateful? You know what I mean? And in conjunction with all the things

that he's led me to do. But all that to say, there's just so many like elements and aspects of prayer where we can connect with God and practice that intimacy that I just don't think we always think of and know, which is why I felt like hopefully this is so helpful because it'll help pull that out in everybody and how to respond to the Lord. I was thinking this, and we talked about this last night is the value system in our culture and sad to say in our churches and Christianity has shifted. So when you think of help or you think I need counsel, prayer is not number one. You're thinking doctor, counselor, friend, medicine. You think of all these different practices. And the reason why is because we say prayer, that's unpredictable. Some would say, maybe it doesn't even work. But we read in Hebrews when it says, we can come to the throne of God boldly. Was it Hebrews four? Yes, it came. When that boldness is saying, listen, God has given us authorized access. We have a covenantal legitimacy with him because of the blood of Jesus. And it makes sense. If you have an issue in your life, which comes from your mind, your body, your spirit,

who created you? God created your mind, your body, your spirit, and he's in control of all of it. It's just like if you had a Cadillac, Cadillac breaks down, where's the best place to take it? Cadillac dealership. That's all they do all day. Not the Ford dealership. Yeah, they ain't gonna take it to the Dodge spot. And so it's like, and then this is how I know not only in my own life that I mean, it works, is when someone comes into recovery and they say, I'm an atheist, or they say, I've never prayed, I wanna get sober, I just don't know about the God thing. And it could, and there's all kinds of reasons, right? It could be the church, her, all this stuff, right? And here's what we tell them. We say, we just want you to practice, just try it. But we don't ever use the word practice. We say, just, we just try a prayer, just try a prayer. Put your shoes under your bed and just try it and see if it works. And you wanna know, just what you just said, you know what happens over and over again. Man, I cannot believe how I feel. I can't believe that I've been praying about this and this happened. And so we, and I think maybe We need to learn how, in the church,

to celebrate, not without celebrating ourselves, but celebrate all the ways that God answers prayer. I told you last night, our team has been praying, and yesterday we were able to, when we were praying, we were talking about three things that we've been praying for the last six months, huge things. We're talking about fertility stuff, we're talking about a ministry that we shut down, opening doors, like jobs, we got a job interview today for someone that we've been praying for. God is answering these incredible things. So there's a million different ways we could've went about seeking solutions to these issues, but the most important one was prayer. And so our value system has gotten out of whack, and I think it's, I don't know why that is, maybe it's a lack of faith, I don't know, maybe it's because what you said, we don't talk about the power of prayer enough. Yeah, well, and most people don't pray, and this is anecdotal evidence, not empirical data that I've found, but most people I've talked to don't pray because they don't think it works. If you thought it worked, then you would, if I told you, God forbid, JoJo, a writer, has cancer, God forbid, or he's dying of an illness, but if you pray all night tonight, God says, I'm gonna answer the prayer, he's gonna be healed. Would you go to sleep tonight?

Not a chance, not a chance, okay? The problem is, you're listening and saying, but I prayed all night and God didn't answer. Well, the reason, the thing is, you're putting pressure on God to do what you think is right as a child to the father. Think about this. If you let, now Stella's probably perfect, but if you let Regan Ryder choose at three, four, and five what their daily menu of food intake would be, what would it be? If you let Peyton back in the day, or Chloe, you let Chloe, what is she eating every day? Macaroni. And some mac and cheese. Mac and cheese, okay. Ryder would be mac and cheese, Rigg, chicken and fries. And chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets. But that's not what mine would choose. Mine would choose Skittles, gummy bears, and cotton candy, and ice cream. That's what ours would choose. Now, here's the deal. If you tell Ryder or Rigg, hey, Rigg, why are you doing that? He'd say, because this is what I like. This is that, no, you don't say, this is what I want. No, no, better yet, this is what I need. Would he be right?

Of course he'd be right. But he don't know what's best for him. Dad does. So this is why prayer for me has changed in my life. We talked about this. For years and years, my prayer life consisted of me going to God with an agenda item laundry list of ideas that I wanted him to rubber stamp to make my life better, or make the people around me's life better. And I'm not saying you can't do that or shouldn't do that. But as I sat with the Lord on the porch for hours and hours, years ago, leading up to the revival, and then still nightly with the Lord, I've learned and asked a lot of questions of God and sat for long periods of time trying to listen for the answers. And I'm gonna show you an insight in the life of Jesus that's gonna change everything, right? Because Jesus gives us the model. Not only are the words inspired of Jesus, but the method he used, the model he gave was inspired. So go to Mark chapter one, let's start in verse 16. If you have a Bible, you can follow along with us. And I want you to put a bracket from beginning of verse 16 where it says in my Bible, the first disciples, and then run that bracket all the way through verse chapter one, verse 38, where it says, this is why I came. That right there is one day in the life of Jesus.

It's a lot of stuff going on, but it's one day in the life of Jesus. So think about this agenda day for Jesus. He's gonna begin verses 16 through 20, just summarize it. We don't have to read it for time. What is he doing here? Calling his disciples. Calling his disciples to follow him. So the four guys he's gonna call are who? Let's see here. Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Yep, so four guys. So in a sense, Jesus starts the day by setting up the 501c3 ministry. Okay, gonna start that ministry, getting the ministry going, it's gonna be awesome. Here we go, messianic movement ministry. Then after that, look what it says in verse 21. Then right away he entered the what? The synagogue on the Sabbath. Now, so right away after he starts the ministry, they're preaching. I mean, this thing's rolling, right? And he walks in this worship service, and you have to realize this is a worship service that takes a real hard turn right away. Because right in the middle of preaching, all of a sudden this demon-possessed man decides to interrupt. If Big Jeremy was here, he would die from this.

Because this is a distraction in the middle of a worship service, and the guy stands up, look what it says, verse 24, Kandi, read that for us. What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Okay, basically gets up and says, Robbie, who do you think you are, speaking us? Who's who's gonna address this guy? Have you come to destroy? We know who you are now. Here's what's interesting The first people in the ministry of Jesus to recognize his identity are not the disciples not the Apostles not even the religious leaders remember who was the demons the demons the supernatural world Consistently reckon we know you are Have you come to destroy which is interesting They know exactly who Jesus is and Jesus Silences him and says be still or be silent come out of him and then the people are blown away And I we have never seen him by preached like oh golly or or perform miracles or speak the way he speak and here's what? They're saying I don't think they're saying man. We're impressed with his exegetical outline I don't think or when it's amazing how he knows his Old Testament a lot of rabbis did I think what they said is yes We heard his words which were moving but we felt something when he preached we were moved in our spirit Something clicked and you see I'm saying obviously it's the Spirit of God the power of God But it wasn't you see you can have all the words, right? Not move people because you don't have no power Jesus the power of the Spirit and the Word of God Okay, so right after the worship service Jesus is worn out. This is not only a preaching event. This is a healing event He heals he's battling on the front lines with Satan himself. They're going at it Okay, then verse 29 read this with me. I'll read this out loud 29 as soon as they left the synagogue they went Into Simon and Andrews house with James and John now you would imagine he's gonna get his shepherds rest his afternoon nap

Because he deserves it Vivian. He deserves it. He's been preaching Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever and they told him about her at once. Okay, so Simon's like, all right listen boss I know you're tired here, but We don't have any way to eat our afternoon meal unless my mother-in-law get I mean literally that's not what it was Maybe not but but apparently she had a serious sickness But no, but watch this this I get this no, but it's Joe I'm joking but not really it says he went to her took her By the hand raised her up the fever left and she began to serve or cook for them or Lee or serve them She was Joke I say again, this isn't flexion. That's how I felt when I was healed in my back the other day I was like on cloud nine. I was like, dude, I haven't felt like this in my ears like listen You've seen what I could do with in the kitchen. We need My mom, you know, we go to Margaret's house. We need more. We need that seafood buffet So anyway, okay, that's probably not what happened, but it's kind of funny So Peters like I know you're busy, but if you got it just a moment, can we go heal my mother what Jesus does? Okay, after that, it says verse 32 when evening came what happened after the Sun had set at Sun is that what now? Why is that important addition? You got to understand they don't have electricity nor do they have lights? They lived in that culture by a circadian rhythm of the world Which was you wake up when the Sun comes up and you go to bed shortly after the Sun comes down If anybody deserves an early night's sleep, it's Jesus and yet Who's that? Oh? Boss the whole town the whole town so word got out This is a man who preaches in a way that we never heard before This is a man who heals and battles the demons and overcomes the devil This is a man who just healed a fever that for a woman has been lying bed Why not try our luck and so what do they do? They bring all the seek sick and demon-possessed to his door the whole town was there and he healed many with various diseases and even held the demons by the way and Allow them to what? Speak because they knew him now. Here's the question Chris. We just talked about this in our D group, but here's the question

Why does Jesus allow? some people to speak about his miraculous works and his teaching and Then other times he doesn't you ever notice that Christian is the answer, but you can't say Chris because you just heard it but The question is you ever notice how sometimes Jesus heals and he says don't say word Don't tell anybody and then other times he says now you can go to whoever you want You ever know why it depends on who he's healing like where he's at in the person and then Depending on the time like what time it is because not like daily time, but is it he may not want it out yet Yes, because it's not his time right that now that's the truth He doesn't want it his time out But it's deeper than that if you look at wherever Jesus heals if he's healing on the west side of the Sea of Galilee Orange or in Jerusalem He basically says most of the time don't say a word Because the religious leaders like candy said we'll get ahead and want to take him before the time has come So the Jews are looking for the Messiah and he's basically saying hey keep it in a covert clandestine kind of way But when he goes to the Decapolis side the east side where there's Gentiles and Romans The demon-possessed man go tell everybody now. We know what happened with him He went and told everybody they killed all the pigs and they wanted to get rid of Jesus But the point is it depends on geography Write this down, geography is theology in the Bible. There's nothing that happens by happenstance in a particular town. If they mention the town or mention the region, it's there for a reason, by the way. Like when he did the Samaritan woman at the well. At the well, there's a reason he's at the well. Yes, it's a picture. She went and told everybody. Yes, exactly, there's another one. Okay, so the whole town's there, he's healing people. So you would expect verse 35 to read this way.

Very late in the afternoon, after Jesus woke up from a long night of sleep. No, that's what you would expect to happen. Watch this, very what? Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place and there he was praying. Okay, let's stop here. This one line is packed with insight, okay? I wanna give you a three-point insight from this one line, okay? First thing we know, I'll see if you can figure it out. What's the first thing we see right out the gate from Jesus? Very early. Very early in the morning, while. It was still dark. Okay, what does that mean? What do you mean? It means it's still dark. Yeah, you know what it means in the Greek? Dark. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark. It means Jesus had, you ready for this? Write this down, if you're taking notes. Jesus had a particular time he met with God. Yes. He had a particular time. Why in the world would Jesus wake up early when it was still dark?

And they make the caveat, it's still dark. So it's like, it's not any time close to sunrise. Why is that important? Okay, well. Think about it in your own life. Jesus had a pattern of this. This was like a pattern to his life. He was always withdrawing to a deserted place, either late into the evening or early into the morning, often by himself. Oh, you're getting ahead of all of us right now. I wrote about this. I know you did, but that's not where we're going right now. We're just going with. What do you mean? You asked about dark. We're just going with the first part. Oh, just the first part. Why is the time? Okay, what? You can preach the message, but I want to get to the rest of it first. Okay, go ahead. The first thing is, why is getting up early while it's dark important? Think of your own life. Before the world starts. Like before the day starts, you need the time. Yes. I was going to say consistency.

So making sure that you do it. There's a consistent time. Yeah, like you said, Jesus had a rhythm. This was the rhythm of his life. I believe he did this every day. Didn't miss a day. Chris had an insight? I mean, I was just going to say, no, honestly, no, I don't. You guys said it. That's great. Okay, I thought you were going to say something. I thought you were going to say something. Okay, no, I thought you were going to say something. Okay, so the first thing is he has a specific time. Okay, number two is he has a specific space he goes to. Yes. It says he got up and went out to a particular place. Okay, so what does that mean? A deserted place. Yeah, so what that means is Jesus knew Jesus had to get up and go. He had a particular rhythm. Space may not be the best word, but so you had a time and you had a space. So what that means is he got up and went. He got up and made time. He was intentional. He was intentional. That's the word I'm looking for, yeah.

So he had a time. He was intentional. It was a rhythm of his life. And then the third thing is he went to a deserted place. So it could be a time, space, or place. And here's the line I tell people. If you want to create a sacred space where you meet with God, which is what both of us have, you have your prayer closet. I have a sunroom that I sit with the Lord, or I have my office prayer closet at the office. Candy has her chair. She sits, you have your prayer closet. There's nothing holy or sanctified about that space. But when I say sacred, I just mean set apart. Special. Special. Like a special little place for you. Sanctioned, intentional, yeah. So I know that's where I meet with the Lord. Now watch this. If you want to create a sacred, the reason you don't have a sacred space in your life or house is because you're not getting up at a specific, or you're not creating a sacred, let me say it right. Sacred space is from a specific time and place. Okay, that's the line. A sacred space is created

when you designate a time and place. What do I mean? If you don't have a consistent time with God at a consistent place, then you can't expect to hear from God the way you should. Or you can't expect to spend time with God like the way you should. Jesus knew. I think he normally used to say a consistent place creates a sacred space. No, I used to say a specific time and place creates a sacred space. You could say it that way. That's the other way to say it. But I emphasis on sacred, but yeah. But it's the same thing. Okay, here's my point. My point is, if anybody didn't need to do this, it was Jesus. Why? Because he's God in a sense, right? Like if anybody could have hijacked, boycotted, or you know, Slept in. Did an end around. Yeah, slept in, it would have been him. But notice what it says at the end. He went to a deserted space, and there he was praying. That participle gives us,

you would think they would have said here in the text, Jesus went to a deserted place, and there he prayed. You would think that's what it would say in the Greek. There he prayed. That would have been right, but that's not what it says. It says there he was praying, which gives us the idea this was a rhythm of Jesus. This is like, he was praying today, he was praying yesterday, he'll be praying tomorrow. See the point here? And you know what gives that away? Like that he had a certain rhythm and I think he went to the same places because they knew where to go. They searched some different places. It says they searched and they found him. And we know, even if you look at the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas knew where to go because Jesus usually prayed there with his disciples, like the text says that. So it's like he had these places, just like we have tried to create like a space where we kind of go to regularly. He had those special places too, that he knew he was able to go out and be alone for a little while and pray so much so that they knew where to search for him and eventually find him. Okay.

It was definitely anti or against the culture. Because remember, we've talked about this a lot. Where were people praying? In the public. They were praying in public, to be seen. In the synagogue, in the street corners. So it was counterculture. So good. Everything was against, like that you've said, the time, you know, they picked a time when, they picked, he picked a time when no one is around. That's right. They picked a time when everybody was running around. Totally counterculture. They wanted to use a whole bunch of words so that everybody could see him. He wanted it to be private with the Lord and listening. So it was, and you can imagine the disciples like, what are you doing? Yeah, why are you alone? I'm praying. Why are you alone by yourself? And they're saying, wait, well, you're not dressed up. You're not out in public. Like it was totally against the culture. The fact that they searched for him shows. This in Jesus over and down the street. They're like, oh, there's Jesus praying. No, they had to find him. They had to go and search and search and find him.

When they find him, Jesus's response is the oddest response ever. Everyone's looking for you, Peter says to him, and Jesus says, watch this, read this response. Let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come. Okay, this is odd. This is the oddest thing in the world. Yeah, because here's why. If an American preacher, Adam, you're, okay, so you're down the street, your house, and I knock on the door early in the morning, and I've been looking everywhere for you, and I'm like, Adam, what are you doing? And you're like, what do you mean what I'm doing? I'm like, everybody's at the church. There's 3,000 people in the worship center. There's another 4,000 people on the Legacy Park. There's parking lots filled. Everybody's ready for you. The online ministry feeds ready to record. The band's already played the worship song. In fact, the mic's ready to go. The lights are on. The sound is up. You're ready to preach. Let's go, baby. Revival's happening. Normally, 99.9% of pastors would say,

let's roll, baby, get me there, I'm ready to preach. This is it. This is what we're looking for, some steam, some power. Jesus, Peter's like, hey, the whole town's ready for you. Come on, boss, you just have to get up. Jesus is like, it'd be like you saying, I don't think I wanna go. Let's go to Portland, Tennessee, and go. But there's nobody who knows this Portland, Tennessee. He's like 40 minutes, 50 minutes away, 40 minutes away. I would say, there's nobody who knows this there. Why would we start over? Jesus says, that's why I came. Now, here's the main question. How in the world does Jesus do something counter-cultural, or it's like the antithesis of everything you would think human nature. You have movement, you have excitement, you have rapport, you have respect, you have people. I mean, this is it. How could Jesus do that? Here's why. Once I learned this, it changed my whole prayer life. I don't believe Jesus's prayer life consisted of what we think it is. Before I answer the question, let me ask you to think about this, if you're listening. What do you think, let's take a snapshot. Let's say we had a drone 2,000 years ago, flying in the air, following Jesus on this morning.

Okay, think about this. I've thought about this a lot. What do you think Jesus's prayer life consisted of on that morning? What did it look like? If you're taking notes, looking at the drone, through the drone, filming Jesus, is it Jesus with a laundry list to the Father? Here's what we gotta do today, God. We need to do this, and we got, what do you think he's doing in prayer? What do you think? Me? You. I think he's asking God what he wants him to do. Adam? Well, I think it's Matthew six. I don't think he's saying a lot. Which I read your, I read that. Right, right, right, and we talked a little bit about, yeah, no, no, but you're right, though, but expand on that. You think he's doing what? I think that he's listening, because when he's telling us how to pray, he says, God already knows what you need. And it's kind of confusing, because you're like, wait, well, I thought I was supposed to pray. He's like, well, God already knows the prayers

you can pray, we don't need a bunch of words. That's what the pagans do. That's what the pagans do. They say a whole bunch of stuff. He's like, actually, God already knows what you need. You just need to be able to sit with him. And you taught us this last night. I used a phrase I thought was awesome. You were saying that we should only be praying heavenly prayers. So I'm stealing your stuff a little bit here. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. And you can expound on it. But you were saying, and this is probably where you're going, is that when you sit with God. you actually hear from God, and then when you pray back, you're praying back what you already heard. Well, no, that's the thing. And that's like, and that's really what prayer looks like. It's a, you've taught us this from the pulpit so many times, I'll never forget the first time you said, prayer is not a monologue, where it's, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, you know, you read a manuscript to God, it's a what? It's a dialogue, yeah. You can take it over now. Well, but you had, the thing I was saying last night is, what is the only prayer guaranteed to make it to heaven? Now, they all make it to heaven

because you're praying as Christ. What is the only one that gets answered in heaven? Is a prayer that is initiated from heaven. Right, that's it, yeah. Now, watch this. Here's something off the cuff. I haven't done the research on this, but you just said this and it hit me, because we're thinking about prayer this month. Could the reason be Jesus finishes the last line this way before he says, pray like this? Could the last line be, think about this, Robert. Could the last line be, your father knows what you need before you ask? Let me say it another way. God knows what's best for you if you ask. Maybe that's what he's saying. Think about this. I've never thought about this till now. God's saying, the Father's saying, or Jesus is saying, the Father knows what's best for you when you ask him. Therefore, ask him, pray this way. And then he gets to, your kingdom come, your will be done. Maybe he's giving us a nod to say, if the Father knows what's best for you, then why are you gonna tell him what you think is best for you, instead of listening what he has what's best for you? Think about that.

Does that make sense, what I'm saying? No, I like it, because he says, when he's rejecting the Gentiles' prayers, he says, they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. So they're thinking they know what they need to pray. Yes, that's good, yeah. It could move God, yes, that's a good point. But you're saying, and then he goes on to say, Father knows the things you need before you ask them. And then he says, therefore, pray then. So God already knows what you need. So we always think, we always thought, this is a little shift, but you see where I'm going, right? I always thought, it's almost like God's playing games with us. It's like, God knows what, I'm just waiting for you to ask me, son. I don't know, I don't think that's it. I think God's saying, listen, you could tell me, it's okay, it's kind of like kids. Daddy, I wanna eat cotton candy. And you're like, yeah, but that's not, no, but that's what I think what's best for me. Okay, that's not what's good for you. So you can eat it sporadically, but what's best for you is this. Because my goal is to mature you. Here's the challenge with most Christians. Most Christians, I like to say, are praying kindergarten prayers to God.

A kindergartner, you know, five, six year old, me, my, mine, that's their three favorite words. This is my toy, this is my food, this is mine, I want this for me. That's fine, you could pray like that to God. Most of you listening, that's how we've started to pray. God wants you to graduate into master's level prayers or high school level prayers, which are more of hearing from God what he wants to do in our life and then living that out through obedience. That's what I think Jesus is doing, as Candy said. The only reason Jesus could say, no, let's get the momentum going, let's squelch the movement, let's go somewhere else. The only way he could do that is if he heard it from the Father. So I think, listen to me, every day Jesus woke up, this is what I think happened, same rhythm. He went early in the morning or stayed up late at night and he said, all right, Dad, thank you for the day. I think he started with Thanksgiving. Praise God for you, bless you, Father. Thank God, that was, that demon possessed, that was pretty profound. God, I wasn't ready for that. Golly, you caught me off guard, Dad, on that one. Gratitude, yeah. Yeah, so he does gratitude and then he sits in silence. And he said, he takes out his ancient moleskin with a pen,

which is his mind. They don't have moleskins. The ancient moleskin was the mind. And he basically, with pen in hand, says, Dad, I'm ready, what are we gonna do today? And then he finishes hearing it. God downloads Heaven's Agenda into the hard drive of Jesus's heart. And Jesus takes it. And remember, he says in John five or six, I think it's five, he says, I don't do anything I don't see the Father doing. I don't even say anything until the Father tells me. That gives me the idea that he's listening to the Father. I wonder if you're listening, how different your life would be if you started listening to God more in prayer and stopped dictating to God in prayer what you think what's best for your life. That's what I think prayer has done for me. Prayer has changed in my life from me trying to tell God how to do his job better to saying, God, you know what's best for me. And bro, that is radically different way of praying to the Lord. To kind of like, as we're closing, like to think about, in my mind, the more we practice prayer, it also, it's like it helps us to practice our trust muscle of the Lord.

You know, and accepting things that he has for our life or whatever it is. And I've just learned that and have grown in my prayer life through trust in the Lord and what he does have. And when things don't work out the way that I want or what I think might be best, I am learning to trust Him in spite of it all. I love what Robbie's saying, because I've experienced this. Instead of me getting up and praying about things I think I need, if I sit with the Lord, and then all of a sudden it comes to mind where Josie was in the kitchen, she's making dinner, and then I went and sat on the couch and started watching Shark Tank, because it's my favorite show. And then I miss all that time. So then why would that come to my mind when I'm sitting in silence with the Lord? Or what is He trying to tell me? This is where you need to pray. Then I say, Lord, Lord, will you help me to not be selfish? God, fix my marriage. He's like, go spend time with the Lord. Instead of starting off saying, Lord, will you fix my marriage,

instead of I sit with the Lord, He points out, you know, well, you came home and just sat on the couch, or you came and did this. And then I say, oh, Lord, would you help me to have a better plan when I get home? Lord, would you help me to not watch TV? Would you help me to connect with my wife better, to make sacrifice? See how my prayer changed? You told me this. I'm gonna tell you how this works. I like this prayer, Adam. See how it changes? Adam, you're getting way too close to home. Yeah, I know, right? But Josie said, this morning, she said, she said, honey, can you sometimes just, when I'm here, because when she's not there, I'm doing all the, I'm doing everything. I'm doing the dishes all the time. She said, when I'm here, can you do the dishes, right? So she's telling me this too, right? So sometimes the Holy Spirit can be your wife. But the point is, so now like, hey, so look how my prayer changed.

Now my prayer is, Lord, you know, would you help me, help me when I come home to figure out, to see where Josie, what she's doing, and start helping her and connecting with her, because that's what she wants. Yeah, right. So before, I would have prayed something of what I thought I'd need, but God's saying, let me show you an opportunity you missed to connect with your wife, and that's gonna make your wife, that's gonna make your marriage better, and that goes back to where, how is Jesus burning, how is his yoke lighter? Because I'm thinking, I'm in prayer, I'm praying, I'm going, God, why aren't you answering this? Why aren't you fixing my marriage? I'm the Pharisees, I'm praying, and hey,

will you pray for me and Josie, when God's going, would you just shut up? I don't think God says that. I'm trying to catch my, would you just be quiet, listen to me, and I'll show you where you're missing it, and then your marriage will be so much better, and it'll be lighter, and you'll have all the stress off your life. It's good. We're missing it. Well, it's kind of like a guy in our group this morning, where Chris was saying, remember this? He was like, you're praying for God to reach your lost neighbor. God, save my lost neighbor. I wish somebody would minister my lost neighbor, and God's like, why don't you go talk to him? Yeah. No, I put you here to go talk to him. Two things before we close, which I thought would be beneficial as we think about this. One of the things Jesus shows us here in this prayer is that, or here's a model,

let me give you to pray. So if your prayer life consists of listening more, see, I don't have to convince you to ask God for a bunch of things on a laundry list. You do that every day without. What I want to do is swing the pendulum to the other side to have you listen more. So here's a threefold, and one of the guys in our group gave me this. I wrote it down. It's so good. Chris is laughing. First one is this. So he said, this is a model for prayer. I haven't dissected this, but this is how we wrote down. Number one is, start your prayer time by aligning your will to the Father's through listening. So, because if a prayer that is answered in heaven, initiated in heaven, then I need to download first what God wants me to pray for for my life. And I'm not saying you can't pray for things. Don't hear what I'm not saying. Not saying you can't pray for healing, and I pray for all those things.

But I want to know that my prayers are matching the prayer, the will of God, and praying in Jesus's name, by the way, is not tacking on his name at the end. It's praying according to his ways and his will, okay? So number one is, you start your prayer, try this. Align with the heart of God. Number two, ask the Father for your request, or ask the Father at your request. And then number three, you can have confidence to know that you're gonna get an answer from the Father. So align, ask, and you'll get an answer. This is the greatest insight for those in pastoral ministry, or really just Christians. Watch this. Have you ever noticed, or you ever wondered, why does Jesus wake up early in the morning after a busy full day of ministry? Listen to me if you're in ministry. Jesus knows when he empties himself out in ministry, he needs the Father to fill him back up through prayer.

Amen. Watch this. So true. Jesus knows when you're emptied in ministry, you need to be filled up in prayer. And you may, the greatest thing you may do is to start making time for the Lord. Martin Luther used to say, I've got so much to do in life, I can't help but wake up two hours early to pray. Now, or I can't help but, I can't help but spend the first two hours of my day in prayer. You would never think somebody would say that. You would think they would say, I've got so much to do, I have to spend the first two hours in planning and organizing and strategizing. That's not what he says. He says, I'm so busy. But I start the first two hours of prayer. Makes no sense. Because he knows that if he starts in prayer, the day goes by smoother. It goes by more effective, more efficient, more God honoring. So that's a great way to think about prayer. However you start the day is what you take with you. So if you start rush and all that stuff,

you're taking that into everything. But if you start it like you're saying, you're taking Jesus and peace and the spirit of God everywhere you go. So the practice of prayer, got some green books here and powerful. You can do it with a group or you can do it by yourself. And just thank you so much for listening on this bonus episode about prayer. We'll be talking more about that. If you are enjoying this content at all, please subscribe, like, share, comment. And really, I encourage you with your family members. Spouse, don't do it in a poking way. But with spouse, kids, anybody in your family, I'd love for you to share this with them. Because one of the most powerful gifts you can give anybody is teaching them how to pray. Thank you for tuning in to the Forgotten Jews podcast. Thank you for tuning in to the Forgotten Jews podcast.