Committing the Lord's Prayer to memory is good. Committing to do more with it is even better. Are you using the prayer for its intended purpose? Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah closes his series, Prayer the Great Adventure, with tools and insights to help you use the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for structuring your own prayers.
To conclude his message, Intersections of Prayer, here's David. When the Lord was asked by his disciples, Lord, teach us to pray, He didn't give them a prayer to memorize. He gave them a prayer to organize. And the prayer organizes the way you talk to the Lord. As we mentioned yesterday, It bookends with praise and worship, and in the middle of it are the things that occupy your your prayer.
and we're talking about how this works practically in life. I want to tell you it's a wonderful way to organize your prayer life. And I hope you will take it seriously and give it a chance in your life. If you're struggling with your prayer, If you're wandering around and sometimes you get lost, I mean, sometimes people tell me they fall asleep while they're praying. And I get how that can happen if you don't have a plan, if you're not organized.
And the Lord helps us with that as he teaches us this prayer. He tells us the various things we should pray for. And when we do that, we stay focused. We'll have more about that in just a moment as we finish up this message called The Intersections of Prayer. I do hope that you will get this series for your own.
You can get the series, the study guide and the C D's that go with it, from davidjeremiah.org. There's also a book called Called Prayer the Great Adventure. It's a contemporary discussion of this whole subject. In fact, this series is really based on that book. The book Prayer the Great Adventure, the Study Guide, the C D Package, these are the things you can use to share this information with others.
to facilitate a discussion in a small group. It's a wonderful set of tools if you're going to talk about prayer, and you can get all the things you need by going to davidjeremiah.org.
Well, I'm ready to finish up this discussion on the intersections of prayer as we open our Bibles together today. Let's begin. You know, every one of my children has been at the top of the list at one time or another, not necessarily because of problems in their life, but because of needs they have. How easy it is for us as Christian people, let me just say this, I know it's true. We're godly people and we don't pray for our kids.
Why? Because we don't have a place for it. We don't have any way to put it into the process. And if you don't want to pray this list of priorities, get your own. But somewhere, you are a parent and you have a responsibility to your children.
And then I changed this up a little bit because my friend told me that I could replace pastor with provider and it would work for everybody.
So we decided to do that. And that means I have a responsibility in my job. Do you pray about your job? Do you pray about your profession? You go to God every day and say, Lord, Here I am.
I'm going back into this den of wolves again, this den of thieves, or wherever it is you work. And I got to try to hold forth for you. And then the last thing on the list is your participation and other things. All I'm saying to you is this.
Somehow, in the process of your prayer, you have to work through your priorities. And I think that's what Jesus was talking about when He said to His disciples. When you pray, say this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Pray your priorities. The only way I know to keep my priorities straight is to pray them every day, every single day. I can have a great list and I'll make a new one when the year starts. I'll have some different things I want to do, but if I don't pray my priorities every day, They go away real quick. Have you noticed that?
They don't stay focused. I know about all the little day timers and the organizational charts and all these things you can do and how they tell you to write out your priorities and get a mission statement and all that. Let me just tell you, you can do that if you want to, but if you pray your priorities, you won't have to do any of that. Because every day before God, you will go through this list. and it will help you keep them in sync.
And if you don't do that, you'll have a hard time. your priorities will shift. to the pressure of life. Can I get a witness? You know what I'm talking about?
Your priorities will shift and they'll fit into the little space that life creates for them, and you will not be God's person. as you want to be. Then Provision. Intersection number three: I got some things, Lord, I need. Give us this day our daily bread.
Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. This is the time now, having worshiped God, having focused your priorities, you come and say, Now, Lord. Here are the things that I need.
I've been learning a lot about me. But I've learned, and maybe you'll identify with this, sometimes when there's a lot of things on your mind, The first thing when you wake up in the morning, those things are all there. Have you noticed? I don't know what there is about getting up in the morning, especially maybe you thought about them during the night or before you went to bed. And I've had to find a way to release those things.
And I release a lot of them right here. When I'm praying, if I'm using my journal, I will just sit down and say, Now, Lord, I got this sense in the back of my mind that there's some things that are bothering me, some needs we have. as a church I mean, we got a lot of places for needs to grow. In the church, in the college, in the school district, at Turning Point in my own personal life. And so I just started.
Lord, I'm going to release these things to you right now. And I get my little computer, and I got a little thing that makes bullets, you know, when you make the little bullet. I just put them all down. As fast as I can, I just write them all down. And as soon as I write them down and I see them, it's just like I'm giving them to God.
Now I said, Lord, here's my needs. These seem overwhelming to me, especially when I don't really crystallize and focus on them. But when I give them to you, they don't seem like that much, for you're the God of heaven. And I give my needs to God. And I say, Lord.
Give us this day our daily bread. And you remember when we studied this, we talked about the fact. that we have to distinguish between our needs and our wants. You know, God may want you to have a Hyundai. And you want A Cadillac.
And you might go to God and say, Lord, give me a Cadillac. And God's going to say, No, you need a Hyundai. I didn't promise you what you wanted, I promised you what you needed.
So drive the Hyundai.
Now does Hyundai get you where you're going? Yeah. It does.
Some people think that God's obligated to answer your fantasies. Lord, give me my fantasies. No, no, no. No, your wants. Give us our bread.
And when you pray this way, let me tell you something, it will keep you from worrying. I mean, we all have a tendency to worry some, but if you really get a hold of this, you won't have to worry. Why? Who's responsible for your needs? God is.
And when you bring your needs to him, He will help you. It's incredible to me how many Christian people I have talked to during this series who have come and said, well, Pastor, look at my needs. And I'll ask them. Did you ask God for them?
Well He knows, Dummy. That's not what the prayer says. The prayer says, you're to pray, give us this day our daily bread. Then when you do that You can give that to God. That's what happens when I release this list to the Lord in the morning.
I give it up to Him, I don't worry about it anymore. Do I get all those things answered in this day? No, but it's interesting when you go back and look how God picks those off in His own time, doesn't He? He just takes care of things in his own time. And then you go back and look at the list you wrote six months ago and you kind of smile and you say, Lord.
Look what you've done. It's wonderful. We do not have a great enough sense as God's people. of the way God provides for us. And you know what else we don't do?
If I can just get off on a side for a moment, when he does provide, we're not always really careful to thank him, are we? I used to say this in my prayers. I kind of grew up with this little phrase. I guess maybe I heard it in church somewhere. That's how we learn to say all these Christianese things we learn, you know.
I would end my prayer and say, and we will be careful to give you the praise. And I discovered something. I wasn't very careful. I wasn't doing that. I try not to say that because I find that in my own human realm, I'm not always careful.
God does a lot of things for me I ask Him to do, and I forget to thank Him. I'm getting better at it now that I'm keeping track of it in writing. But oh, what a wonderful thing it is to know that God is our provider. Harry Ironside, who was at one time church in Chicago, the pastor of the Moody Church. tells a story about one day going into a cafeteria to eat.
And when he took his tray and he looked around for a place to sit, there weren't any empty chairs except one chair at a table. And there was someone sitting across from him, and he went on and asked the guy, Can I sit down here? And he said, grunted something and so Ironside took that as a yes and he sat down. He took his food off his tray and bowed his head and Prayed. Give thanks to the Lord.
When he looked up, he saw the guy was looking at him with this weird expression. And the man said to him, What's the matter? Is there something wrong with your food? Einstein said, No, I don't think so. It seems all right to me.
And the man said, well, have you got a headache or something? Iron said, said, No, I don't have a headache. Why do you ask? He said, Well, he said, I noticed you bowing down, putting your hand up to your head, and closing your eyes. I thought maybe there was something wrong with your head.
Dr. Ironside said, I was just saying thanks to God for my food. Oh, the man said, so you believe in that stuff? You're one of those. And Dr.
Ironside said, Don't you ever give thanks? And the stranger responded, I don't believe in giving thanks for anything, I just start right in. Dr. Ironside responded, oh, you're just like my dog. He never gives thanks either.
He just starts right in. You know, that's not a good way to be, is it? Why can't we just Bow our heads and say thanks. For he's the provider in thee. He's the provider.
I can't spend time on the rest of these much, but let me just remind you again that when you're finished asking God for provision, then you deal with personal relationships. That's the next thing. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And we learned about that, didn't we? That if you pray this prayer every day, you'll always get along with everybody.
You'll never have any long-term relational problems because you won't be able to deal with them. Because every day when you pray this prayer, Lord, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You're saying, Lord, if I don't deal with my problems, you're not going to deal with my problems.
So, Lord, who is it? And you know what? It's interesting to me that when you pray this, if there's something a little bit wrong with somebody in your life, in your family or in your relationships, it comes right to the top, just like that. I can't get over how God does that. You may not even be aware that you've offended somebody or someone else's, and when you pray this prayer, God gives you this ultra-sensitivity of a relationship that's out of sync, and you have to go get it right.
And you remember, we talked about how we're to forgive because we have been forgiven, we're to forgive just as we are forgiven, we're to forgive before we need to forgive. And we're to forgive always 70 times 7. And we're always to forgive taking the initiative ourselves. And that's the way it works. One of the verse says this.
If you come to the altar and you know that your brother has aught against you.
Now watch this. Leave your gift at the altar, go get it right with your brother, and then come back and worship. The other verse says, If you come to the altar and you know that you have aught against your brother, Leave your gift, go get your brother, get it right, and then come back.
Now, watch this. If your brother has aught against you, you go. If you have ought against your brother, You go. Whose turn is it? It's always your turn.
And some of you married couples. You're leaning off this side of the bed. He's leaning off this side of the bed. You just had a big fight before you went to bed. And you're laying over here saying, I ain't talking to her the first time.
The last time this happened, I initiated it, the forgiveness thing, and I'm not doing it again. It's her turn. I hope you fall out of bed.
Now watch this, mister. You just go ahead and do it because you're the godly one, and the godly one always initiates you. Do you see what I'm saying? And you can just feel so good about the fact you have initiated the forgiveness, because what does it say? It's always your turn.
And you can do it too. Ma'am. Whoever senses that the relationship is broken, what do they do? They take the step to get it right. Who cares later on who initiated it as long as it comes back together and the forgiveness thing?
is wrought. Isn't that true? I guess when we get to eternity, we may be able to ask how many relationships have been destroyed because somebody was waiting. because they didn't think it was their turn. God has once and for all settled that issue when it comes to forgiveness.
So when you come to the Lord in prayer and you say, Lord, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and He brings to your mind somebody you need to take care of. Don't you sit around and argue with yourself that they may have done something to you that was worse than what you think you may have done. You just go get that person and get it right. That's what this prayer will do for you. personal relationships.
And then Protection. How we need to pray this one. Lord Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Oh God, today I pray. that you will not put me in the path of temptation and sin.
Lord, don't lead me in a direction where there's a possibility of my failure. Because I know whenever there's temptation, there's always two things that can happen. You can succeed and you can fail. And Lord, I don't even want to take the chance.
So keep me out of the way of temptation. And Lord, the evil one's ever around, seeking whom he may devour. Deliver me from the evil one. I need your help today. Lord, protect me.
Put a hedge around me. Put a hedge around my children. Keep me. Lord, I revel in this truth that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial.
So I pray this prayer to you, God, protect me today. Protect my loved ones. There's a story out of the life of Hudson Taylor. The great missionary to China that illustrates how important to pray this prayer. He was just a young man just getting started out as a missionary.
Certainly didn't know a lot of the things he knew later on. In his early days, he was on his way from Suatau to the great city of Shanghai. He was going to Shanghai because All of his medical instruments and medicines were there, and he needed them to go back to the city of Suatau.
so he could carry out his medical practice there.
Well He got to Shanghai and discovered to his tremendous disappointment that the building in which all of his medical supplies had been housed had burnt to the ground and everything that he owned had been destroyed. He didn't know what to do.
So he tried to plan what to do, and he decided that the best thing he could do was to go down the canals to the city of Ningpo, where he could buy some supplies from another missionary. He took this arduous journey. Down The canal, and it was terribly hot, and it was miserable. He worked his way down the canal. When he got to the end of the canals, he had to engage some coolies to help carry his baggage up over the mountains.
And he hired this group of coolies and started out ahead. At a given point, he had to wait through a long, hot afternoon for them to catch up. And it suddenly dawned on him that all of his coolies were opium smokers, and they had no energy to get anything over the mountains.
So he dismissed them all. There was one good one left. He hired him as his leader and told him to go out and get some other coolies. He went and did it. They took his baggage.
And he went on ahead of Hudson Taylor, and he never saw him again. They took his baggage and went to the mountains and kept it for themselves. He was having a bad day. He was completely discouraged and tired. He didn't know what to do.
He went to the city and tried to get a place to sleep. They finally directed him to this one inn. He got there. It was rat-infested, bed-bug-infested, and he had a terrible night. Didn't sleep at all.
The next morning he decided to press on to the coast and After a long and hot and terribly discouraging march, he entered a city to try to find a place to sleep. He was turned out of every single inn in the city, and the police began to shadow him. He didn't know what to do, they thought he was a crook or something. Finally, some young guy came up to him and said, I'll show you around and help you. Yeah.
Traped around the city with this, going nowhere. Finally, he sat down on the steps of a temple, and there were three thieves around him. He couldn't sleep because he knew as soon as he shut his eyes, those guys would rob him blind, and he wouldn't have one thing left even on his person. The next morning, the young man who showed him around the night before came back and tried to get an exorbitant fee from him for being his guide.
Now Hudson Taylor was a really spiritual man, but at this moment in time, he lost it. And he grabbed hold of that young man and he shook him. said a few choice things to him and told him to shut up and get out of his life. And then he was broken and weary and dispirited. He started the long journey back to Shanghai.
In his journal, he says that on the way back, he began to feel such a sense of defeat in his own life. Not only had all these things befallen him, but he had then lost his own testimony and the way he dealt with them. And he began to realize that at the core of this whole issue was that when these problems started, He had done everything except the most important thing. he had never gone to God and said, Help me. Show me what to do.
He had let his own human ingenuity take over and he started figuring out the plan.
Well, I don't know what to do here, so I'll do this and then I'll do this. And everything he had tried had failed. He never had given it to God. And in the process, let me tell you what happens when you do that: it's a given. When you refuse to give it up to God, there are three things that will always happen to you.
Frustration? Fatigue? and failure. They will always happen. I am Living testimony to that.
When you try to do it your way and you don't give it up to God, you can count on it. You will have frustration, fatigue, and failure. And Hudson Taylor had all of that. Finally he got to Shanghai. And when he got there, There was a letter waiting for him.
and the letter had a check in it for the exact amount to cover all of his losses. And he learned soon that if he had gone on to Swateau, he would have arrived just in time to be put in prison. and perhaps even executed. And all of the fretful worry and the gnawing fear and the despair and the perplexity that he'd experienced was totally unnecessary. The events might have been the same regardless of whether he prayed or not, but the emotions he experienced would have been totally different if he had just prayed, Lord, lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil, I give this up to you.
Then all along the way, he could have understood that God was at work. Ultimately, God had a plan. It had some detours in it that he had not understood because he had tried to do this all himself. I can testify to you that when you bring your life to God and you say to Him, I want you to take this. Lord, you lead me, but not into temptation.
You deliver me from the evil one, and I trust you to do that. You can live every day, and even when things happen. that you don't understand. You can say All things work together for good. those that love God.
who are the called according to his purpose. God doesn't make any mistakes. But it's in the process of giving that up to him at the beginning of the day, and then, of course, we come at last. to the end of this prayer. And praise again.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Prayers now come full circle. we find ourselves again at praise. Worship seals all prayers at the front and at the back.
And Jesus has taught us that we're to pray. and always to pray. with praise beginning and praise ending. Lord, I praise you for your sovereignty, for yours is the kingdom. I praise you for your authority, for yours is the power.
I praise you for your majesty, for yours is the glory. I praise you for your eternality. for you are forever. Lord, I praise you. You can pray this prayer.
You can take this, find a little notebook. Put a section for each of the six intersections. Start keeping track of the things that you think fall under those categories. And you know what? It's going to be right for you.
Because what did I say at the beginning? How do you learn to pray? You learn to pray by praying. You say, well, I'm going to study this for a little bit, Pastor, and I'm going to work on this and meditate. I'll try to get the tape and I'll listen to it again.
And then maybe as we get toward the first of the year, I could start on the 1st of January. No, start today. If not today, tomorrow. Find a place alone and say, God, I don't know that I know very much about praying, but I'm going to start where you told me to start. And I'm going to follow along the prayer journey, and I'm going to stop at every intersection along the way.
To remember the things you told us to pray about. I promise you that as you pray, You will learn how to pray better, and God will help you to learn how to pray with greater meaning. And then keep track of what He does. Write down the things He does for you, and it will encourage you to keep praying. For the world is waiting for God's people to get serious about prayer so that God can get serious about the world.
And reaching men and women to Jesus Christ is a matter of prayer. He's given his life, he's given his son, he's given the gift that we might have everlasting life. But he tells us in his word. That he limits himself to some degree because of the prayers of his people. If we do not pray, There will be those who will not hear.
Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he may send laborers out into the field, for the fields are white. The Bible teaches us, if it teaches us anything. That we will never know the fullness of the blessing of God in our lives until we deal with the issue of prayer. And I want to encourage you to do. This is not about guilt.
I haven't talked to you about how bad you are because you don't pray. I don't know how much you pray or don't pray. I don't want to make you feel guilty. Guilt doesn't motivate anyone. I want to tell you that you can do it.
I want to say to you with all my heart. This is a plan that'll work. And if you want to work another plan, get another plan. But get a plan for prayer. And get after it.
And if you need a little priming of the pump, go find a good book on prayer. The books by Becky Terabasi are great books on prayer. Read a chapter a day, take a few notes from the book, put it in your prayer journal, and then pray. Men, we've got to pray. Women, we've got to pray.
If we're going to be God's people today, that's the passion in my heart: to take this that we have learned. Put it in a package. A prayer kit. The prayer kit of Jesus. Will you do it?
Sometime down the road. after you've been practicing for a while. And God has done something real good for you. Would you come and tell me? Tell me what God's done in your life.
You say, Pastor Jeremiah, I'm 60 years old, man. I'm too old to do this. No, if you're 80, you're not too old to do this. Or I'm just getting started and I'm not even a teenager yet. Start wherever you are.
Isn't that the beauty of the Word of God? You start right now, wherever you are. Take what God has said, and start now. and be obedient to him. Amen.
You can always start. God will receive your New determination. especially when it comes to prayer. Tomorrow, we're going to listen again to the interview that we had with Sheila Walsh on the subject of prayer. And then.
on Friday. I'm going to give a special message on the warfare of prayer from a series of teachings from the book of Ephesians. That's how we'll finish the week together. In the meantime, if you haven't already asked for your copy of the book, Everything to God in Prayer, be sure to. Request this book when you send your gift to Turning Point during this month because it's our way of saying thank you for your faithfulness to invest in Turning Point and what we do together.
especially as we teach on subjects like this. Which so practical and so helpful to us in our walk with the Lord. Thank you so much for your investment and I hope this book will say that in a big happy way. We'll see you next time right here on Turning Point. The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr.
David Jeremiah. Has the Lord been moving in your life through this ministry? Tell us how at Turning Point PO Box 3838 San Diego, California 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life.
everything to God in prayer. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet. Or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as Dr. David Jeremiah and Sheila Walsh discuss Prayer: the Great Adventure on Turning Point.
