Wednesday, September 20th | The Doctrine of Prayer

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Wednesday, September the 20th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text, 252-5825028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going. You can support the show. You can share it online with your friends and family. Leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from Psalm 10-14. It says, But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you.

You are the helper of the fatherless. Sometimes we, you know, and I believe it's the image of God in us, we have this innate sense of justice and injustice, and we want to repay people for what they've done. I mean, we even quote passages in the Bible out of context, like an eye for an eye and all that kind of stuff. But God is the one who is the dispenser of justice. And the extension of that is he's also the one who helps those who have been wronged. He will never say for a moment that there is not wrongdoing that happens in the world, will never say that there aren't bad things that happen in the world. But God is the one who helps those who are in need. And he is the one who meets out justice to those who are deserving of it. And the way that it has helped me, because I've really I've really struggled with that over the years, is that is God is God truly just?

Is he truly loving? And it's because what I'm doing is I'm comparing to what I think justice is. And I'm saying, does God meet that characteristic?

So what do I understand love as? All right, now let me compare God sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. But then sometimes it's like he does things in the Old Testament that people will always bring up. It's like, oh, that doesn't seem loving.

OK, so. But what I'm doing is I'm defining love myself and then I'm comparing God to it. Really what it is and what he's saying here is that God is not loving. He's love. Yeah. What what love means is to be is like how close to it.

How close is love to God? Right. Like he's not just he is justice. Yeah. So if I'm looking for things to be just, I have to compare it to God's character. Yeah.

And that has helped me a great deal, because then those things that I've struggled with or those things that I felt like aren't lining up, it takes me and my understanding of the world out of the center, puts it in its proper place through God's kingdom. Right. That's a great point. I got I got I got one today from from Jackson M, who has been writing into the show. OK. Million dollars. And I hope he has one of these because I would really love to make this happen.

Million dollars. But you have to wear a propeller hat 24 seven for a year. So like if you've ever seen like like I've never actually seen a little kid wear them, but you know, like in cartoons, like little kids will wear like the little hat. Yeah. It's like a little cap.

I have seen propeller hats, but I haven't ever seen a kid like unironically wearing a propeller. Right. So you wear that 24 seven for a calendar year. Yes. A million dollars.

I would do it. So you're going to funerals. You're going to a wedding. You're going to sleep. You're taking a shower.

You're going to a library. One hundred percent. If this podcast goes global, we meet the president. You're going to meet the calendar year.

You better believe it. So we go to the Pentagon. You're wearing the propeller. I'm wearing the propeller hat. What happens if you like write a book or something and like, or yours and Dr. Shah's book goes, goes global.

You go on a book tour and you're like meeting celebrities signing books. I'll do you one better. I'll take my author photo like this. Yeah. That's got to go on the photo. That's going to go. Yep.

Really? A hundred percent. A propeller hat. Sure. Will you ever spin it?

Do you be like, absolutely. You don't wear a propeller hat, not spin it. I might even rig it to a battery pack. So it just spins on its own.

Absolutely. I've joked about this before, but I feel like I just spins perpetually. I feel like I want some sort of just over the top, just obscene, unbelievably unrealistic, bright colored, long, tall top hat. I'm going to call it my youth pastor hat because we are often in crowded places and I need to make sure everybody can see where we're going and where we're headed. So why don't I just got like a 10 gallon neon pink hat that maybe lights up and then easy.

No one else is going to be wearing that. The first year that I think I knew you, I went with you to Infuge. I think you were the Winter Jam.

Winter Jam. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. I was either your first or second year. You were you were very new here.

Not very new, but you were pretty new here compared to where we are now. And I remember walking and you had, cause you're Ryan, if you're, if you've ever watched the video episode, Ryan's quite tall. What are you, six three? Six three.

Yeah. Ryan's six three. And he's, he was leading a bunch of students with a Mountain Dew bottle just like this. He had the Mountain Dew bottle raised as high as he can easily. It was like seven feet in the air. And the Illuminate students just had to follow that Mountain Dew. And see, like, also, I think at that point you were a dad of three. Three.

So he did. He truly did not give a rip what he looked like. No, I don't care. I was, I was still kind of like, oh my gosh, like I would never like, like I have to look cool everywhere I go. That's the point I was in. The point of life that I was in.

I was like twenty three, twenty four. And so I was like, I still need to look cool. And this dude is just like marching high knees through a big crowd with a Mountain Dew bottle. A hundred percent. So you'll do that with a big floppy top hat.

Oh, absolutely. Neon pink top hat. Yeah, I'm actively looking for one, like a custom thing that I can just kind of wear. That's my youth pastor hat. And you just wear that. Would you wear that while you do the lessons and stuff? No, no, that's for crowds. So it's for big outings.

It's so people can know where I am and like, all right, everybody group up over here, find the neon pink top hat. Maybe there's, maybe there's someone out there listening who could kind of make that happen. Hey, if you can do that as a custom piece, I would really appreciate it. And you don't even have to, you don't even have to get a million dollars for that.

It's just like a personal favor to you. Yeah, that'd be great. All right. That'd be great. Let me know. Send me a text.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. We're going to grab Dr. Shaw. We're continuing our conversation on prayer today. So excited to jump back into that. If you guys have any questions or suggestions, let us know by texting in that number, or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

We'll be back after this. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck. Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 days to a new beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text. 2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. That's right. If today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we'll welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of Today Show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadonShah.com. Dr. Shah, you know that I'm a coffee fan.

Yes, you are. I love coffee, and I could not help but admire your coffee mug. Oh, you do? It is very, I love it. It's regal. It's very stately with the gold rim on there, the Harvard seal. It's a Harvard seal. I didn't go to Harvard, but I did get the coffee mug. That's very cool. For a million dollars, would you go in there? You remember those propeller hats, the little hats that kids would wear for a million dollars, but you go into Harvard and take a tour with one of the propeller hats? Yeah, I'll do it.

Like shaking hands with the professors? Of course. Well, how much did you say?

A million. Oh, yeah. I was put on a clown suit to walk around with that. You feel like it, you know, so you don't feel like a smart guy. You're at Harvard. I have to admit, it's not like so grandiose that I was expecting. Actually, it's older looking. It's an Ivy League school.

It looks older. So it was not like, oh my goodness, this place is so grand. I didn't feel like that. It was more like, wow, this is a very old institution.

It wasn't like University of Oxford or anything like that? No, I didn't feel like that. I got you.

Not there. The mug is pretty nice. Yeah, the mug is nice. It's got a gold rim on it. It's very nice.

Feels very fancy. Yeah. Well, in today's episode, guys, we want to revisit a conversation that we began a while ago talking about the importance of prayer. You know, that's something that gets kind of glossed over or even neglected in a lot of believers' lives. We want to talk about prayer, specifically the practice of prayer, not just the theology or the doctrine behind it.

We've recorded episodes on that, so go back and check those out. But how do you implement what you know or how do you implement what you believe? Right, because before you guys left for Greece, we were really hitting doctrine very hard. And I think it all started with that whole baptism thing. And that's kind of where we landed on prayer. And then, like you said, after Greece, it was like, let's bring this back and kind of bring this prayer idea into practice.

Yeah. Well, just because you begin prayer with dear God or end the prayer with amen does not mean that you have really prayed. That's true. You know, we think just because we have these parentheses around these string of words that somehow we have prayed. Prayer is a conversation with the living true God as our Heavenly Father. Amen.

It's a conversation. And I know if your relationship with your father or your parents is weak, I hate to say it, but you're going to have a little tough time praying because praying is talking to God as our Heavenly Father. Now, anybody anywhere can pray.

I'll go and say that. I know some people say, wait a minute, God's not going to answer it, though. Well, many times God does answer.

Read the Bible. The Psalms talk about who hears all prayers, to you all people will come. So God answers all prayers, but God is not their Heavenly Father. So if some person out in some pagan nation calls out to God and says, God, would you heal my child? Would you please heal my child? Will the living true God answer that prayer?

Yes. Yes, because people do heal in other parts of the world where Christianity is not their religion. So who is healing them? It's not their pagan gods. It's not the gods that are not gods. Who is healing them? Well, God is healing them. You see, God answers prayers, but the prayer he wants you to pray is the prayer of receiving his Son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior and Lord.

That's right. That's the prayer he really wants you. So he will answer your prayers hoping you would ask the second question, who are you? That's a good point.

That's an incredibly good point. That's why many times I think it's a mistake that Christians make in saying God doesn't hear the prayers of non-believers. And I'm like, you've just lost a great opportunity to witness. I was a non-believer when I prayed for that salvation. When I asked him to come into my heart, I was a non-believer.

It's not like he was like, what? What did you say? I didn't hear you. I'm not listening.

That's right. What do you say, David? Actually, the only reason that I really even wanted to say anything at this part is because one of my favorite things that I've ever heard from you, Dr. Shize, you were talking about the testimony of your dad, how he prayed, you know, show me who you are and I'll follow you. And through that prayer of, at that time, an unbeliever, you know, God showed him through the word, you know, somebody leaving a Bible for him. This is who I am.

You know, Christ. Look at it this way. If I see a child in the street and I'm talking about streets of India or maybe a street of a big city where we see homelessness and you see people begging. Let's say a little child comes up to me to beg and I have food in my hand.

What would I do? Well, if you have some heart in you, you would give it away to that little child. But doesn't mean that that little child is not going home with you.

Right. That doesn't mean that that little child now has claim to your wealth and your bank account. Doesn't mean that you're responsible for this little child. It only means that you have a heart of compassion. God is compassionate. God is merciful. He is the father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So he will answer according to his grace and mercy. But what he wants you to do is a second prayer, which is the prayer asking him, who are you that I may follow you? And that's when God says, no one can come to me but through my son. That's so beautiful. That's such a it's such a natural progression, too.

I mean, it's just an easy way to take the conversation. Like, does God hear my prayers? Well, yes, he does. And this is the prayer that he wants you to pray. This is this is the direction that he wants you to take. This is what can really satisfy you.

Yes, this immediate answer is what you're seeking. But what you're really seeking is a relationship with God. And this discussion, I know we're kind of deviating from our main topic right now.

Not at all. This discussion puts an end to the debate over the destiny of the unevangelized. People often say, are you telling me that God's going to send all these millions and billions and trillions of people throughout history and present time into hell just because they haven't heard of Jesus? And my answer to them is, how do you know they haven't heard of Jesus?

How do you know that? Could it be that when God says to them to the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come. What if they are having a conversation with God when they ask for food and they ask for health and they ask for peace? And God gives it to them and the Holy Spirit prods their heart to say, ask again. But this time, ask to see who is this God who answered your prayers.

Not the idols in front of you. Not the philosophy that you're espousing. Ask another question. And here's the question. Ask who is this God? And I would say in these cultures and among the peoples who have rejected the true gospel for years and years and centuries and generations are the ones who never ask the second question. Why?

Because it's too costly. To ask the second question means now I have to give up my family. I have to give up my comfort.

I have to give up my traditions to follow Christ. It's almost like they're scared to recognize who Christ is. Like they'll take that initial blessing, but it's like once I recognize who He is. Well, the word Christ hasn't even come in yet in many places. It's simply who is this God who answered my prayer? But they don't want to face that answer.

Because the answer means what you're worshiping, what your ancestors have passed down to you for generations, what you are now going to have to face because you're leaving your culture, your family, your traditions behind. Who's going to marry your son? Who's going to marry your daughter?

Who's going to let you live in their community? All this is going to fall away. So, you know what? Thank you for that answer.

I'm going to stick to where I've been all this time. Do you think that's something that people of different faiths who are living in those situations kind of choose to ignore even though they won't admit to themselves they're choosing to ignore? Absolutely. Absolutely.

The human heart is wicked. And on the day of judgment, every mouth would be silenced. No one will have the right to get up and say, but I never heard. Because at that moment, all lies will be put to rest. And when the names are called and the names are not found in the book of life, not a single one will say, but I didn't know. They'll all say, yeah, I did, but I didn't want to.

I didn't want you in my life. But for our discussion today, prayer is a conversation. So for us, we're not like pagans who are simply asking for what we need with no regard to following the one who is giving us our needs. Our prayer is a conversation with the living true God as our Heavenly Father. So when we talk to him, even if he didn't have a good relationship with your father, think about the ideal father. What would it be like to sit down with him and just talk to him, listen to him, learn from him, be corrected by him, be assured by him?

What would that feel like? It's one of those things that I feel like people are, they either fall into one of two camps. They either are afraid to ask God for what they want because it's like he's holy and I'm not holy, so he's too busy to actually spend time with me and to give me the things that I want. Or he's too judgmental to think that I actually need those things. Or it's the opposite extreme where it's like God is like a great vending machine to where anything that I want and need, I just input my prayers and hopefully he'll output the solution or he'll output blessings.

But I don't really know who he is. It feels like there's two extremes of how people actually pray to God. I've heard people describe it sometimes as you either view God as Zeus, who is kind of sitting poised... You mean Zeus. Yes, Zeus. That actually sounds way cooler than Zeus. Poised, ready with a lightning bolt, ready to strike you whenever you mess up, or Santa Claus, like you just ask for what you want.

And neither is true. Right. So we come to him, to our Heavenly Father, in sincerity and we speak from our hearts. And as we recognize who he is and express what we need, we receive the assurance that our Heavenly Father is already working the best answer for us.

Yes. That assurance is something I think so many Christians, myself included, so many Christians are missing. Because there was a time when you were doing our college ministry here at Clearview. Dr. Shaw, you were doing the Sunday night lessons. We actually did prayer for a while.

Yes, we did. And do you remember when we were talking about, what are some things that you just don't have in your life right now, practical things that you need? And most everyone was like money, a car, a house, a job. And it's like, we won't ask God for those things. Who in here has prayed for a car? And everybody's like, no, I'm not going to pray for a car.

Like why? Why would you not pray for a car if you need a car? And I think the way you put it too is he's your father. He's your Heavenly Father. Like what father looks at what their kids need and go, that's really inconvenient for me right now.

I really cannot do that for you right now. It's just not done. And so Jesus in Matthew 6, 5 says, and when you pray, if you notice something, he did not say if you pray. He says, when you pray means he's assuming that we will pray to our Heavenly Father.

That's right. And he expects us to pray to him. And prayer in a sense is our daily dialogue, daily dialogue with God in which we ask him for our needs and we receive from him the answers. I actually wanted to say something that, because this is something that I learned from you as far as church leadership goes, is that with the worship team here at Clearview, and really the overall church leadership, one thing that you've implemented that I think more churches should do is that you tell your staff or the people who are underneath you, you don't have to submit a log to me, you don't have to prove it to me, but I expect that you're praying. I expect that you're doing your daily devotions.

I'm not going to encourage you to do it. It's expected that you do it. And communicating that to the worship team has really transformed the culture. And I think that's what Jesus is saying too.

It's like, first off, you're not going to disprove it or prove it to me because I'm Jesus, I already know. But it's the bare minimum to expect your people to be daily praying and daily doing their devotions. And I think that culture has really helped us here. Yeah, same is true with our student ministry team and our children's ministry volunteers. We talk to them when we meet together, especially as we were leading up to the mission trip.

We were like, hey, you need to prep, you need to plan the lessons that we've given you, look over the curriculum. But most importantly, you need to make sure that you're praying. Well, since the beginning of time, men and women in the Bible have prayed daily. Even Jesus had a daily time of prayer. The thing about that, he is the second person of the Godhead, the second person in the Trinity, and he is having a conversation in the Trinity. I mean, you would think like he is one with the others.

Does he really need to talk to them? And yet Jesus, it says in Mark 1 35, now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, means he got up early in the morning to pray. Now we have our Tuesday morning prayer time for men at six o'clock. Jesus, I think, got up at like four.

Probably, yeah. He was up earlier than six, I believe. And he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. And so if the Son of God took time to get away to pray, we should as well. That's right.

We should as well. And something I want to say as leaders, if you're a leader, if you're a pastor, if you're a business leader, if you are a supervisor, if you're a manager somewhere, just know this, that your words go only so far. After a while, people are not listening to your words. They're following your example.

It's true. So even in a church, you'll have people who are coming to church because they're listening to what you're saying. But many of your leaders are not listening to you. They're following your example. So if you're not praying, they're not praying.

That's right. And so in the summer on the mount, Jesus offered three important guidelines for prayer. The first one is don't pray as a show.

Don't do it so you can impress people. It says in Matthew 6-5, and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. That's right.

For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. I think that's some of the most chilling words that Jesus spoke. Not chilling as though like I'm going to punish you. It's just like this is as far as you go. From this point on, I've given you what you wanted. You wanted recognition for men.

You have it. You and I are even. And I don't ever want to be even with Jesus. You know what I mean? Like, I think that really, really hits the nail on the head to say they have their reward.

I'm like, oh, gosh, that's a bad feeling. Yeah, this is going back to a little bit of context that may help people. You know, after the Jewish people returned from exile, they were very serious about religion. The priests and the scribes created an elaborate ritual of prayer and liturgy. And so their daily prayer was a long list of 19 petitions known as Shemona Ezra. OK, 19 petitions. And each of them started with this statement. Blessed are you, O Lord.

Then the petition. And it ended with the whole world is full of his mercy. And they had to pray this prayer standing up. Hence, the daily prayer is also called Amida. And you had to pray facing the Aron Kodesh, which is the ark that houses the Torah scrolls.

We went to the synagogue in Varia or Berea. And if you notice, there was that little closet where the scrolls were kept. Observant Jewish people would begin by taking three steps backwards and three steps forwards. And the steps backwards symbolized moving away from the material world. And the steps forward symbolized approaching the King of Kings. It's kind of like an intentional positioning of yourself, like spiritual blocking almost. That's kind of cool.

Yeah. And then during the prayer, there was a certain way of bowing. OK, the Baruch ata Adonai.

There was a certain way they would bow. And you had to come back when you came back up. You came back up when you said Adonai.

Baruch ata Adonai. So you would do that way. And then when you said Kodesh, you had to get on your toes about three times, with each time rising a little taller. And the reason for that is, I mean, not everybody followed all this.

You're trying to get close to God. So not everybody did this. And there were many variations in how they did this prayer. But when it was over, you would bow, you kind of bow to the left, then to the right, and then to the front. And then you said, He who makes peace in the heavens, may He make peace for us and all Israel.

And let us say, Amen. So some of the people would be on their way to the synagogue and be running late. So they would stop in the street corner. And they would do it on the... Yes.

Nothing new under the sun. Imagine if you're running late to church and you're like, Ah, we missed worship. And they just got out and started doing worship music on the street. Just running up to the stage.

So the Jewish people were not expected to pray in the streets, but some would do it anyways. I'm late for the service because I had to do this and that. So now I'm going to stand on the street corner and you have to watch me. In fact, it was forbidden to interrupt anybody praying the Amida unless it was a safety issue, like you're about to fall into a manhole. So, hey, oh, can't do this.

Can't rock back for that much. Other than that, they would stand there and do it. You have to walk around them. It was a big show. Wow.

So Jesus knew the hypocrisy of their hearts. I mean, I just wonder some of them on purpose were running late. I was about to say, like, it feels like it's like, I kind of, I kind of like doing it in the street. I kind of like the, when everyone sees it.

Yeah. Look how spiritual I am. Even now when I'm running late, I'm dead.

It's so dedicated. I'm gonna stop and pray. It's like when you see people and they're like peeking. So that's why Jesus said in verse six, but you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in a secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

So don't misunderstand. Jesus was not saying don't pray in public. Instead he was saying, don't pretend to pray only in public. That's right.

Don't make it to be where like you get really good at crafting these elaborate sentences so that you can sound good. Or these rituals. Or these rituals. But then you don't actually pray when you're by yourself. It's like your kids, right?

You got two kids. Gavin is at a better stage now, but what if Gavin only talks to you in public and it's like, Dada, I love you. Yeah.

But at home he's like, get away from me, old man. So one antidote for hypocrisy in public prayer is private prayer. That's right. So public prayer is like the edifice, the visible part of a building. But private prayer is the foundation.

If you don't have the foundation, no need to build the edifice. Yeah. So important for us. Now I know we've got some more to jump into.

Two more things here that Jesus warns us about. We'll get to those in tomorrow's episode. But if you guys enjoyed today's episode, with questions or suggestions for new topics, or you want to learn more about how to enhance your prayer life, text us at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. You can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.