The Truths of Prayer | Teach Me How To Pray (Class 2)

Well, hello, friend, I hope you are doing well, and I am beyond excited that we get to take the next few moments to talk about one of the most life-transforming practices that is a gift to our life, and that is the topic of prayer. My name is Charles, and I get to serve on our team here, and over the next few moments, we're going to talk about what does prayer look like in our life, and here's one thing I want you to know. Whether you're new to faith or you've followed Jesus for years, learning to pray changes everything. Prayer changes everything, and over the next few moments, we're going to talk about the value of this in our life, how practically we can use it every day, what the Bible says about it, best practices, things to do, to not do, but I want you to just take a few moments and lean in with me as we talk about the idea of prayer. I want to start off with this idea, write this down, put it on a sticky note, put it in your phone, whatever you need to do to remember this. This is so, so important, and I think it'll be helpful to you, and it is this. You can pray anywhere, anytime, anyhow, about anything. If you don't hear anything else I say, you need to know this truth. You can pray anywhere, anytime, anyhow, about anything. Sometimes when we talk about prayer, it can be a little intimidating. I grew up in church, and there are a lot of people who seemed really good at prayer. I would say they were in the professional prayer category. They use big words, and they have this tone, and their voice almost lowers like four octaves, and then they can get the room going. It feels like the air conditioning turns on all at the same time when they start praying. If you're not careful, that can be intimidating, that you start to make prayer this small thing that has to be done a specific way, and it's just not true of prayer. You can pray, first of all, anywhere. Prayer is not relegated to bad times of your life. It's not relegated to before you eat a meal. It's not relegated to, oh, before I do something spiritual, or even if I'm in a bad time.

Those are all great times to pray. You can pray those, but you can pray anywhere. You can pray at work. You can pray while you're working out. You can pray in the middle of school. You can pray while you're doing a sport. You can pray while you're talking to your kids. Anywhere you can pray. You can also pray anytime. There is not a specific time that is the right or wrong time to pray. You can pray anytime. This next one, I'll be honest with you. I've talked about prayer for a while now, but I added this other portion, which is you can pray anyhow. What I mean by that is, I think it's a little country to say anyhow. I don't know if that is. My grandmother said that all the time. But pretty much, I think people think there's a right and there's a wrong way to pray, and I've got to learn this specific formula and this specific way, and I've got to sound this way. No. You can pray however you pray, meaning however you talk, however you communicate, whatever you say, with loud voice, with a soft voice, with however you can pray anyhow. The last thing is, you can pray about anything. There is no prayer too small for our God. I think this is such an important truth for you to know and for us to embrace. If we're going to step into a life of prayer, it's to know I can pray anywhere, anytime, anyhow, about anything. In these next couple of moments, I want to give you three truths about prayer. Prayer is an infinite topic.

It is something that we could talk about forever. But I want to give you three ideas that I think will help you on this practical journey of how do we pray. And I want to start off, actually, by reading you a portion of Scripture. It comes out of the book of Matthew, and it's Matthew chapter number six. And it's Jesus teaching about prayer and fasting, and we're going to spend some time talking about it. Shout out to my little girl who gave me this amazing bookmark. But let's jump into it. It's Matthew chapter number six, and I'm going to read a little bit of the context of the story because Jesus is amazing. First of all, you need to know about Jesus. He's amazing because he's teaching about prayer, but he's also kind of like cooking certain people as he's talking about prayer. So I'll start off a little earlier, and then we'll land on something called the Lord's Prayer. You may have heard of it. It's very popular, but that's where we'll land. But I'll read a little bit before it. He says, when you pray, starting in verse number five, when you pray, don't pray like hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogue where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth. That is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father who sees everything will reward you. When you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don't pray like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need before you even ask.

Before we read the Lord's Prayer, I want to give you some context about these scriptures. Jesus is not praying and speaking against public prayer. Because he says this, like, you know, don't pray in public and you're like, Charles, are you saying we have to go in a closet every time we pray? What if I'm in public? What if I'm outside? What do I do? No, he's praying. He's talking against prayer that needs to be seen. There's a difference. Not public prayer, because we pray in public all the time. I'll be with my kids and before their soccer game, we'll kneel down and we'll pray that God will protect them, that they'll have fun and they'll do their best. No, it's not against public prayer. It's against prayer that is doing it as a performance to be seen by others. So if I was to tell you, Charles, is there any wrong way to pray? Yeah, one wrong way to pray would be to pray for the sake of other people. So I'm praying because I think, oh, when you hear me pray, it sounds special and it makes me feel good and you think I'm very important because of how I sound. God says, don't pray like that. Don't pray needing to be seen because you're already seen by your father. The next thing he says is don't pray like those people who they think their prayers are special because they repeat their words over and over again. One thing he's speaking to specifically is there were cultures around the people Jesus is talking to that their type of prayer was almost this specific repetition that got me a certain result. So if I pray this order, this way, this many times, then I'll get what I want. He's saying, no, you don't babble on and on trying to get what you want and thinking that your words are going to be heard because you're saying this fancy formula. No, no, no, no.

God already knows what you need. You don't have to pray like that. So the question is, how should we pray? Well, he gives us a beautiful, beautiful example. It's the Lord's prayer, says this, our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And do not let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. This is the Lord's prayer. And it's funny, I've heard that prayer my whole life and you know, if maybe you've been on a sports team or you've been around sports, but that's commonly said like the Lord's prayer. I'll never forget being on a basketball team. And at the end, right before we ran out, it was like a robotic instinct took over and everybody kneeled their hands. It's like our father who are in heaven, like everybody just said, and we didn't really think about what we were saying. It was just like, I think this is a prayer you pray to maybe just cover you and be good. But it's a beautiful, beautiful template. And again, I want to, I want to talk to you about what we can learn from this. So three truths about prayer. Write these down, make note of them, remember them, I'm sure and confident there'll be a help to you. But the first one is this prayer is a gift, not a grind. Prayer is a gift, not a grind. Think about it this way. If I were to tell you, yo, who is the most influential or well known person in your contact list right now? Some of you would be like, my grandmother, I don't know.

I don't, I don't, I don't, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's a random question, but I saw this interview where they were going to different actors and athletes and asking them, who's the most famous contact person you have in your contact list. And people were saying different names and, and it was kind of like, oh wow, you're really connected. Like, you know them. Oh my gosh. And the core of the idea was the access you had to talk to somebody, their level of status really spoke of how special and important you were. Well, I want to bring this to the context of prayer. It's fair to say that you have access to the person who created everything. The wisest, the smartest, the most creative, all powerful, all knowing God, the creator, the star breather, you have him in your contact list. That is a gift. A gift to realize at any moment I can access the divine God who was there when the seas were split, when stars were spoken, like at any moment I can talk to the creator of the universe. That is a gift. And I'm saying that because I think sometimes it can be so easy to feel like, man, prayer is, it's work. It's hard work we got to do and you got to get in there and you got to pray and you got You've got to make sure God hears you. And I'm not saying that those things aren't true, but I think sometimes we feel this pressure in prayer. Oh gosh, I've got to say it a certain way, I've got to do it a certain way. And the truth is, prayer is a gift. It's a gift from God to be able to talk to Him at any moment, to be able to have someone you can share your deepest pain with, to have someone you can share your deepest joys with, to have a God who hears you and wants to talk to you and wants to know how you feel and

wants to listen to the intricacies of your day. And it is a gift from God. When I get home from work and we, usually about the time I'm getting home, Abby is finishing up dinner and we sit down at the table and we all go around and we do a high-low grateful almost every single day. And it's one high from your day, one low, and then you end with something you're grateful for. And I am always so eager to hear a four-year-old express to me what their high, their low, and their grateful was because it has potential to be one of the funniest things you've ever heard in your life. Imagine a three-year-old who can barely fumble through the English language going, uh, so, one thing that, and my daughter Sunny, she's our youngest, and she, her high-low grateful takes 45 minutes. Like, it's like, she will talk forever saying nothing. But I sit there as a father, knowing that what she's talking about, here's the thing, listen to this so clearly, I don't even really know what she's talking about. I also know, even sometimes her low, my daughter Jade, this is her infamous move, her lows are very dramatic. And I wish I could say she got that from her mother, but she definitely got it from me. So when her highs are always like, yeah, you know, I laughed today. But then when it gets to her low, it's like an, like an org, like a deep organ starts playing in her heart. And it's like, dum, dum, dum. She's like, so today, as, and she goes into like this, like days of our lives monologue about like, she was walking. But when she actually gets to her low, it was like that she couldn't find her lipstick for three minutes. And then she found it. Like, here's the thing, as her father, even though I know her low is really not even a low in the scope of life, do you know, I sit there so intently leaned in, just waiting

and hanging on every word, why? Because I am obsessed with that little girl and it doesn't matter what she says. I am elated to hear her talk to me. I want to tell you, friend, prayer is a gift and your heavenly father is hanging on every word. I want to give you our next one as we move through this. So the first one, prayer is a gift, not a grind. The second one, prayer has a framework, but it's not a formula. There's a difference between a framework and a formula. This goes back to Matthew chapter six, what we just talked about, where he says, don't be like the people who think they can pray these certain things and get a certain thing. Prayer is not a slot machine. So it's not like, Oh, I say, Hey God, how are you? Thank you for this day. Give me this. Okay. Bye. That's not what, there's a framework. So the Lord's prayer is not a formula to get a certain thing from God, but it does have a beautiful framework laced through it. If you look at the scriptures there, there's this idea that he is presenting to us. That is a beautiful way of how we can structure our prayers. He says, our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Holy is your name, some translations say. So the first thing we have about this framework is prayer starts with acknowledging God and where he is. Why? Why is this important? Because when we go to prayer, we're realizing we're working under a different circumstance. I'm not approaching you from an earthly idea.

I'm realizing you are in heaven. You have a different perspective. You have a different idea. You are greater than me. You are more important than me. So I'm framing myself to understand, Oh, God is my father. He's in heaven and he's holy. So he's my father. That means he loves me. He's in heaven, which means he don't even like where he's, the streets are gold in heaven. So the frame of reference is a little different there and may is holy, meaning he's different than me. And then it goes on to say, even in our formula, may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is it? It's orienting my life around the values of heaven. God, not my will be done. I don't, I'm about to pray to you about this job and the truth is, I mean, the job is difficult. It's frustrating and I really think, you know, I need to take a step forward in this job. But what I'm realizing is God, ultimately I want your kingdom. I want what you want. I want your will. I want the job you want for me to be in my life. Give us today the food we need and forgive us of our sins. So he says, God, instead of me worrying about the future, which if we're honest, if I'm honest, a lot of my prayer is me coming to God, worrying about something that I have not lived yet that I cannot control. We're worried. And I'm not saying you don't have to be worried. What I am saying is prayer is a place where you come to realize all I need really is enough for today

All I need today is peace for today. I need wisdom for today. I need patience for today I need fresh love for today. And that's the beautiful thing we can get in prayer He goes on to say forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us again. This is a framework God I'm coming to you asking for something but also help me to be the thing I'm asking for So God I'm coming to you asking for encouragement and for this person to see me But God let me be somebody who sees other people God let me be someone who is a source of the thing that I'm asking for and he closes out Don't lead us into temptation, but rescue us for from the evil one I want to encourage you today that you don't need to feel pressure in prayer of some Formula that if you say it a certain amount of times and you do certain things that you'll get this thing back No, it's a framework. The last thing is and this is maybe my Favorite one this prayer is communion not just communication You know me and my wife we've been together for how long we've been together now I actually have to think about this 13 years is when I first met her 13 years ago and me and my wife Tonight we will go on date night and we will sit in the car. We will turn on Some music and we will drive to our favorite local place that we go to every Thursday night and We will definitely talk But on that car ride and over the course of that dinner, we will say a lot without saying anything at all That's because we realize our relationship has gotten to a point where our relationship is more than just the words we say It's looks we give it's the emotions we can interpret Abby Rose could walk in this room right now And I can tell you how her day is gone Why because our relationship is more about the communion meaning the space we hold with each other Not just talking to each other as a matter of fact early on in our relationship I was super obsessed with the communication meaning I would like prepare like what we're gonna talk about and write it down and that Was actually a sign of immaturity in our relationship as your relationship matures you get more. Okay with silence What I'm saying to you today is prayer is a gift there's a framework but it's also about communion It's about sitting with God being with God This is beautiful because it's displayed through all the different types of prayer. You may not know this but there's different types of prayer There's petitions which are I'm asking God for help

There's intercession where I'm coming to God and I'm praying on behalf of somebody else. So I intercede for my kids They don't know what to pray. But right now I'm praying for their spouse that God protect them right now, wherever they are There's prayers that are confession I'm coming to God saying God I need to admit this that I Did this or I felt this or said this and that's not who I want to be. There's prayers of Thanksgiving that the whole time I'm not here to get nothing from you. I just want to say thank you There's prayers of contemplation where I'm quietly just sitting with God where it's like I don't necessarily have words I don't know what to say, but I'm just with you all of these different types of prayer are different types of communion with God and for an I just I want to encourage you even as we come to the end of our time here that Prayer is a gift. God has given all of us It's a gift that you can pray and there's not a specific formula, but it's about communion with him You can pray Anywhere anytime Anyhow about any thing and here's one action step. I want you to take today I want you to go back through some of the types of prayers that we listed petition intercession confession Thanksgiving contemplation and today just think I'm gonna take one of those I'm gonna practically implement that into my life not with pressure not forced not overwhelmed not with a Performance of oh my gosh, am I doing it right or wrong? No, no, no No, this is your father sitting at the dinner table, and he wants to hear you as we close out I want to take some time and pray a prayer a blessing over you So would you pray with me right now God? I thank you for my friend. I thank you even right now in this moment As we Center ourselves We would realize that we have a father who is present and has given us the gift to pray with Him to talk to him to be with him lead and guide. My friends is my prayer in Jesus name. Amen Listen, we love you. We are proud of you. And like we always say go out and live a transformed life You you