Sermon Psalm 66:18-20 “Prayer”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon Psalm 66:18-20 “Prayer”
January 13, 2019

Listen to this sermon.

I am continuing today with our look at spiritual practices which is what we do to make us more like Jesus.   Last week we looked at the spiritual practice of worship.   In worship, we attribute supreme worth to God.   We do this with the reading, proclamation, and hearing of the word of God,  and the sacraments of baptism and communion.  We respond with offerings, prayer, and singing.   We do this every Sunday in our Service for the Lord’s Day.   And we can worship by ourselves or with our families during the week.   Do this and you will come closer and closer to God.

Today we will turn to another spiritual practice, prayer.   We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

What is prayer?   If anyone knew how to pray it was Moses.   He prayed all the time. Let’s turn to Exodus 33 and see what prayer was like for Moses

Exodus 33:7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. 11The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

So Moses would go into a tent and speak with God the same way you and I would talk to a friend.   It is that simple.   You just talk with God and tell him whatever you want.  You don’t have to prepare anything.   You don’t have to go anywhere special.   You just talk with God.

Jesus also prayed all the time.   He would often get up very in the morning to pray.  Sometimes he would climb a mountain to pray by himself.  He prayed from the beginning to the end of his ministry.  And he taught his disciples how to pray.

Luke 11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

  God created us to be his conversation partners.   He put Adam and Eve in a nice garden where God could come down and talk with them.  But when sin came into the world our ability to talk with God was disrupted.   Adam and Eve were too ashamed to talk with God so they hid.

Genesis 3: 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

And what do you think God’s response was when he could no longer communicate with his people.   Well, here is what he said.  9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

So we are to talk with God as we would talk with a friend, but sin disrupts the communication and so God is left asking of us, “Where are you?”.

The first thing we must do before we can have conversations with God is to confess any ongoing sin and repent, stop sinning.   Sin always disrupts communication with God.   But God still wants to have a conversation with you.  And he is wondering where you are.   So put the sin behind you, confess and ask for forgiveness and your communication with God will be restored.
I believe that there are three stages of prayer which I have experienced in my own life.   And I would like to go over these different stages.

The first stage of prayer I call intersession.  Whatever is on our hearts we offer it to God.   If our mother has arthritis we pray that God will ease her pain.   If we are having trouble at work we ask God to make it better.  If we have financial difficulties we ask God for help.  If we have a test coming up in school we pray for assistance.    Whatever is on our hearts we pray to God.  This is intercession.  This is what we do in worship.   You say what is on your hearts into a microphone and we offer it up to God. 

Intersession is the first stage of prayer, but there is another stage of prayer I call discernment.  With a discernment prayer, we ask God questions.   We want to know God’s will for our lives.   We ask God, “Should I marry this woman?”.   Should I take that job?   How should I respond to sin affecting my children?    We offer these questions to God and patiently wait for an answer.    This waiting is called meditation.  The answer from God could be verbal, but more likely it will be a feeling that what you are doing is right.  The answer could come quickly or may take days or years before God responds.   So you have to be patient and quietly meditate until God answers.

So far we have looked at two stages of prayer, intercession, and discernment.    Now let’s turn to the third stage, submission.    Once you have told God what is on your hearts and have sensed an answer to your questions you are now to submit to God’s will.   Too often we pray for a certain answer from God.   And when God gives us an answer we didn’t expect we usually resist it.    But with prayer, a conversation with God, we begin to accept God’s answer and submit to his will.

I have experienced all this.   For years I operated a business in Washington.   I would often pray that the business would grow.   Sometimes it did well.  Sometimes I needed to fix it.   But, with God’s help, I was able to keep it going.   I was also active in the church.   I served as a deacon for three years and for nine years I was in the Bethel Bible Series program as a student, teacher, and coordinator.  I offered up prayers of intercession for my business and ministries.

After teaching Bethel for four years the church decided to end the program and do something different.   For the first time in years, I didn’t have my own ministry at the church.  I didn’t know what to do.   So I began to pray prayers of discernment to ask God what I was to do next.   I had trouble hearing directly from God, so I went to see a pastor of the church.   We prayed for discernment and began talking about requirements for becoming a pastor.   I left her office with an application to become an Inquirer in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  And I prayed, asking God if this is what he wanted me to do.   I had a sense that the answer was yes.

So God wanted me to be a pastor.   I would have to spend three years of my life unemployed and in school.  I hadn’t been a graduate student in 30 years.   And my family thought I had lost my mind wanting to be a pastor.   But through much prayer, I submitted to God’s will, began the process of becoming a pastor, and moved to California to study at Fuller Seminary. 

As I went through these stages I found that I experienced great joy because I was doing what my creator wanted me to do.   This is available to you as well.   Just confess and repent any sin in your life, then offer up to God whatever is on your heart, discern God answers to your most difficult questions through meditation, and then submit to God will for your lives. 

You pastor search committee is doing this right now.  They started, a year ago, by praying for the wisdom to write a mission study and begin their search.  Then as resumes started to come in they had to discern which candidates God wanted to be considered.   The committee prayed, read sermons, listen to tapes, and viewed videos.  Now they are meeting candidates face to face and listening to them preach at neighboring churches.  They are doing this today.  All this is to discern which candidate is being called by God to serve New Covenant.

And some point your committee will submit to God’s will and announce that you have a new pastor.    This may be a difficult step because these are all really good candidates.   Members of the committee will like different candidates.   And they will try to push their own wishes forward.   But there is only one candidate whom God has chosen.   And once this choice is discerned then the committee must submit to God and bring God’s candidate to you.

Of course, I am going through another round of discernment for my own call.  As my ministry for this church comes to an end, I am trying to discern where God is calling me now.   I certainly have some preference for where I would like to go.   But ultimately I will submit to God’s will because God knows best about where I should serve.

So what have we learned today?   Prayer is a simple conversation with God.   Sin blocks this conversation so we must confess and repent for our prayers to be heard otherwise God asks, “Where are you?”   You offer up the concerns of your heart as intercessions to God.  You ask your deepest questions to God and meditate as you wait to discern the answers.   And once you discern God’s will you submit to it and do what God wants you to do.   This is prayer.  Prayer is a spiritual discipline that brings you closer and closer to God.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, you are our model of a person who prays.   We know you prayed often, sometimes early in the morning, sometimes high on a hill.   You prayed for and received guidance at each stage of your ministry.  Hear our prayers now and help us to discern and submit to God’s will for our lives.   This we pray in your glorious name.   Amen.