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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. If you ever make it to Jerusalem, you will notice something that is practiced there. It's a centuries-old tradition. That is to go down to what's been called the Wailing Wall. It's really the western wall of the temple enclosure, where people go and they write little prayers on pieces of paper, and they stuff them in the cracks of the western wall. And so you'll see an entire wall with as far as a person can reach little pieces of paper that are stuffed in the cracks.
That practice has a new twist to it. You can now write on your computer your prayer, email it to Jerusalem, and there's an outfit who will print it out and put it in the wall for you. You can even tweet your prayers.
Get this. You can use Twitter. It has to be 140 characters or less, and they'll also print it out and put it in the wall. I even found an iPhone app that will put you in touch directly with Jerusalem. It's called Send a Prayer or the Kotel, which is the wall in Hebrew, and they will put that prayer in the wall. I loaded it on my iPhone.
I could have brought it to show you. But here's the marketing tagline. It says, the only iPhone app that gets you directly in touch with God.
Hard to beat that as a tagline, right? Well, we really don't need to email our prayers to Jerusalem. We don't need to tweet them across the world. We don't even need to write them down and stuff them in any wall anywhere. What we do need is honest, real, heartfelt communication between earth, our lives, and heaven.
We need that. We need not as much email as we need ne-mail. That's what the name of this message is called, how to send ne-mail. I did a little bit of research this week about email. Guess how many emails are sent on an average day on earth? How many emails do you think go out? 294 billion emails per day are generated. That's 2.8 million per second.
That's 90 trillion per year. The average American will spend 49 minutes per day managing his or her email. I just want you to think about that statistic. The average American will spend 49 minutes per day managing his or her email. Do you think the average American Christian spends 49 minutes per day managing his or her ne-mail? Do we pray that much every day?
No. Here's the stats. Sadly, the average American Christian will spend three, maybe four minutes per day in prayer. That's on a good day, by the way.
Between 15 to 30 minutes a week compared to 49 minutes a day with email. Now, I'm not saying that so you'll feel really guilty. I'm not saying that so you just start spouting a lot of stuff into the ears of God. But I am saying that my aim is that we would see what Jesus says about it and we would be raised to a whole new level of life as He describes it. Let's go to John chapter 16 and let's begin in verse 23. It's been an ongoing message that our Lord has been giving to His disciples on this final night before His arrest. Verse 23, Jesus speaks, And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name.
Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and believe that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.
Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. Whenever you mention prayer, there are some typical reactions that people have. Number one is guilt. I mention that. People feel guilty that they don't pray more than they pray.
Let's just face that. We all wish we had a more dynamic prayer life. A second reaction people have is fear.
Oddly enough, fear. And that's typically the fear of having to pray, especially in public, with somebody else listening to me. Because the fear is my prayer might not sound as cool as their prayer.
There's another response, however. When you mention prayer, some people automatically think of the word boring, and perhaps that's because they just really haven't seen much results in terms of prayer in their lives, or the whole activity doesn't sound very fun to them, so they think boring. It's my contention that prayer is not boring, but that we're boring in prayer. That in prayer, we often just sort of slide into commonly used phrases that we use over and over again, so that our prayers honestly sound like a rerun rather than a spontaneous expression in the ears of the Lord. I don't know if you've ever listened to a brand new Christian pray, but if you haven't, go find one and try that.
It'll spice up your prayer life. I will never forget being in New York at a retreat I was asked to speak at, and I was speaking to a young man. He was a metal worker, an iron worker from Manhattan. Thick accent, thick New York accent.
He worked on those high rise buildings as a welder. And so we talked, and I said, let's pray. I prayed, and I said, why don't you pray? And he goes, I don't know how to pray. I go, just try it. Just talk to God. Go ahead. Here was his prayer. Yo, God, I really need your help here, Lord. And he just sort of went on like that, and I thought, yeah.
Now that was cool. That was so refreshing because this guy, like a lot of new believers, haven't learned how to do it yet. They don't know Christianese yet.
They haven't had all the baggage that a lot of us have over the years. One author writes this. I dare you to pray without using words like bless or lead, guide, and direct or help so and so or thy will or each and every or any number of those institutionalized, galvanized terms.
I dare you. In this paragraph, John chapter 16, Jesus speaks about talking to the Father, asking the Father, praying to God. Now, he's already done that in chapter 14. It's very similar. It's the same night. It's the same message. Why does he repeat himself a little bit? It's a little bit more unfolding and a little bit more dynamic, and there's more details. But why does Jesus do it twice in the same night?
I think it's because he knows human nature, number one. We need frequent reminders of this stuff. But number two, everything's about to change for these disciples. Everything. They're going to wake up the next day, and Jesus will not be with them again.
He will have been arrested. They're going to need a new relationship, a new dynamic with their Father in heaven. So let me give you, based on this paragraph, four dynamics of sending effective knee mail. Number one, be confident. Be confident.
When you pray to God, as a child of God, you can be confident. There's a word that is repeated five times in our text. It's the word ask. Here's Jesus inviting his disciples five times to ask.
The word ask means to inquire about something or to request something from a superior. Now, that's where we spend the bulk of our prayer life, our prayer experience, our three to four minutes a day. I would venture to say that we spend the majority of it asking God for stuff. And what's beautiful to me is Jesus doesn't rebuke his disciples. He doesn't say, you guys are always asking for stuff.
You're so selfish. No, he says, come on, man, ask, do this. George Mueller used to say, prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but rather laying hold of God's willingness. Never think that prayer is like forcing your way into God's presence and prying something from his hand. He's the one who made the first call and says, come, ask. Further notice, he says, ask the father. You disciples don't have to go through me anymore.
You go directly to the father in my name. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, Nate Heitzig has written a children's book just in time for Christmas. And this month, we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Christmas Under the Tree follows the timeless story of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character, a humble tree. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip.
Now, let me give you some background that I think will be helpful. There was a Jewish tradition long ago where they believed that a pious teacher or rabbi like Jesus was could ask God for things and he would get them more than anybody else. That God would listen to that person more than he would listen to anybody else. But what Jesus is teaching them is they have direct access. He's saying, guys, I don't want you to picture God the Father up in heaven with his arms folded saying, I'm busy. I'm listening to Billy Graham, okay?
I don't have time for this. There's really important people for me to listen to. Go through my secretary if you want an audience with me.
But rather, you have direct access. Be confident. In verse 23, he says, and in that day, you will ask me nothing.
What does he mean by that? That's pretty simple. All these years, you've been asking me everything. I've been with you every day.
You'd wake up in the morning, you'd ask me a question, go to bed at night, you'd ask me a question. That's going to change. I'm leaving. I'm ascending to the Father. I won't be physically with you any longer.
In that day, you won't ask me for anything. You go directly to the Father. Just as you have asked from me and come to me, you now can go directly to your Father. You have access.
I want you to think about that for just a moment, access. Because in the ancient world, accessibility of mankind to deity was unheard of. Let's go to the secular realm for a moment. The Greeks believed in many gods and goddesses, as you know. They had a belief system where there were the gods in a realm and then mankind on the earth. It was their belief system that the gods were either jealous of man, hostile toward man, or indifferent of man altogether. There's even an old story in Greek mythology that has a god named Prometheus taking pity on mankind and giving them the gift of fire because he was generous.
And when Zeus found out that Prometheus had dared to stoop to the level of helping mankind, Zeus commanded that Prometheus be taken to a rock in the Adriatic Sea, bound by chains, and commanded vultures to tear out his liver. So the idea in the mind of the Greeks that the gods had any kind of communication with man at all was unheard of. Even in Judaism, there wasn't access.
You had to go through a priest. You couldn't run into the temple. There was a veil that separated the Holy of Holies where God hung out and the rest of the temple.
There were walls and courtyards. In fact, there was a wall in the temple that said, death to any Gentile past this point. So when Jesus died on the cross and tore the veil of the temple, in effect saying, you now have access. You can come as you are.
What happened on the cross in the tearing of the veil is exactly what Jesus is saying in his words. Come directly to God. Go directly to the Father. I grew up with a belief system, unfortunately, that taught that God was rather harsh, bent on justice, and not too compassionate. So that if you wanted to ask God for something, you really couldn't go directly to God. You had to go through some other saint or Mary, his mother. After all, who would refuse his own mother?
That's what was told me. That's the very opposite of what we're told here. In fact, the writer of Hebrews so understood this concept, this is what he said. Therefore, let us come boldly before his throne of grace that we may receive grace to help in time of need.
He didn't say come timidly or come shyly or come fearfully, but come boldly. Some people think, well, God is so busy and I don't want to bother him. He's listening to important people like Billy Graham and the Pope or the pastor. I love how Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to talk about prayer as being a bell. Remember those old bell towers? The bell's up top and the rope is down below and the people would ring the time or announce the church was about to start.
Spurgeon said this. Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell for they pray so languidly. You've met people like that.
Oh, God, we'll come before you, brother. Why bother? Others give only an occasional jerk on the rope.
You know that type. Only in an emergency. God help. He continues, but he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope and boldly pulls continuously with all of his might. Get the picture?
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Come boldly. So that's the first dynamic. Be confident.
Let me give you the second dynamic. Be intelligent. Engage the mind.
Use the wisdom that God gives you. Look at verse 25. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.
Stop right there. Do you remember last week's study? It's all in one chapter, but we're breaking it up. So I just want to remind you, Jesus says, you see me now. Later on, you won't see me, and then you'll see me again because I go to the Father, and they go, oh, we don't get what he just said.
What do you mean? Now you see me. Now you don't.
You'll be sad, and then you'll be happy. We have no idea what he's saying. Jesus addresses that. I'm speaking to you in figurative language. The time is coming.
That's not going to happen. Look at the next verse, verse 26. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me in a belief that I came forth from God. Now, Jesus knew that these disciples didn't understand everything he was talking about.
They were wondering about it. But he anticipates the day when they will understand everything he's talking about. And he says, in that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you, you can go directly. In that day, you'll understand.
You don't understand now. In that day, you'll understand. He anticipates the day when they'll get it. Do you realize that the disciples would understand more then after the resurrection of Christ, when they're filled with the Spirit, than they did even while he was physically in their presence? And so he anticipates that they will pray intelligently in that day.
They'll get it. Here's the principle. Prayer must never become a mindless activity. We should always pray intelligently. Some people think, well, I'll just repeat the phrase over and over, glory, glory, glory, glory, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
No, pray intelligently. You wouldn't sit down and write a letter without some kind of cohesion to it. You wouldn't write a meaningless letter. You wouldn't talk to somebody on the phone and just babble everything you see in your eye. I'm looking out the window now, grass is green, trees, birds just flew by, cool.
Oh, here's a cup of coffee. You wouldn't talk like that. You would think through.
It would be meaningful conversation. Don't pray in autopilot where your mind is on hold and your mouth is on automatic and it's like turning on the hose and letting it run. This is what Jesus said on the Sherman on the Mount. When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask them. Now, why did he say that? He said that because religion at his time, and in that time it was Judaism, had degenerated to such a low level in their prayer lives.
Well, let me describe it to you. At that time, prayer was pretty formalized. There was no spontaneous expression. Prayers were either memorized or read. It was sort of like, now I lay me down to sleep on steroids. There was the Shema, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, the Jewish declaration of faith uttered in prayer. But so many would pray that just droning the words without real meaning and others like it. It became formalized. Also, there were prescribed prayers.
Now get this. Prayers had been written and sometimes memorized for just about every occasion. When you light a fire, you say a special prayer. If there's lightning outside, like there was at about two in the morning last night if you were awake, you'd say a special prayer. When it rains, you say a special prayer. If you see the ocean, you say a special prayer, usually hallelujah. If you see a lake or a river, you say a special prayer. If you enter a city or you leave a city, there were prescribed prayers for all of those events.
Sounds good. Sounds like you're trying to bring all of life under the purview of prayer. But again, it had become something you just spout off.
Prescribed prayers. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.
Nate Heitzig's book, Christmas Under the Tree, with Forward by Levi Lusko, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
