Priorities // The Priority of Prayer // Pastor Josh Evans

Listen, it is good to see you here today and if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, and hey, if you're looking still for a New Year's resolution on week number two of January, maybe it's bring your Bible to church, we'll see, and so not a bad resolution to have, and so Luke chapter number 11 here today, and like I mentioned earlier, we are continuing our series entitled Priorities.

Can we all say that word together? Priorities. Now, I know every single one of you, you have a thousand things to do on your to-do list, and we have to prioritize time for the things that matter most to us.

In other words, you know, you got family, you got a spouse, you got kids, you got all the extra responsibilities. You're not going to thrive in those areas if you are not prioritizing time around those areas, and I want you to understand this, that in our relationship with the Lord, and that's why we've gathered here today, in our relationship with the Lord, here's really the big idea, we cannot expect to thrive in our relationship with God, or you cannot expect to thrive in your relationship with God without prioritizing it, without prioritizing it. In other words, is that if you want a strong relationship with God, it doesn't just happen, right? You know, you take anybody who's been saved for a long period of time, and they've walked with God, and you look at them, and you say, hey, man, how in the world did that person, how in the world did they achieve just this righteousness, this holiness, or the life that they're living, and all this kind of stuff. It's just like they walk with God each and every day.

How in the world? I want that for my life, and all of us want that for our life, but here's what I'll tell you, is that they probably will go back and show you that they prioritize some things in their personal, private life that led to them having that type of relationship with God, and I want you to know God wants a relationship with us, but we have got to prioritize it, and so last week we talked about the priority of the word in your life, and then today we are going to talk about the priority of prayer, the priority of prayer. Now, think about this, you know, I feel like prayer is something, an area of our spiritual lives that all of us could really do just a little bit better with.

This is a discipline that takes time. Many of you might have awkwardly felt a few moments ago that long of just a silent moment with God was a stretch for some of you, and I understand that, but I'll tell you this, that there's a lot of reasons why we don't enforce or prioritize prayer. For some of us, we're just too busy, right? Just too busy, we feel like we have no time for a time of prayer, or for some of you, we don't value it the way that we should, right?

And by the way, you make time for what you value the most, right? We make time for the things that really matter to us, and so if we say we're too busy to have a time around God's word, or we're too busy to have a time around prayer that is centered to praying for certain things and talking to God, it just means that we don't value it. Or for some of you, the reason why you don't pray today could be this, you don't believe that it helps.

Why you don't believe that it makes a difference. Perhaps at some point in your life, you've prayed for something and it didn't happen the exact way that you prayed for it, and so by that, you decided, hey, what's the point in me praying for anything? Again, if it doesn't make a difference, or possibly this might be where you're at here today, the reason why you don't pray is you don't really know how. Possibly you feel intimidated and pressure to use big words or phrases, and you really don't know what prayer really means or how you are supposed to pray. And if you're in that camp today where you're like, man, I don't even know how to pray today, I want you to know you're not alone in that. In fact, the disciples are the ones who, in Luke chapter 11, they asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

Even the disciples struggled with this and they wanted, they walked with Jesus, they saw him, they talked with him, they were a part of miracles that they saw, and even in the midst of that, they could have asked him to teach them anything. And here they said, teach us to pray. And Jesus, he goes on, and we're going to break chapter 11 down, but there's another account of this in Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus was talking about prayer, and in Matthew chapter number 6, Jesus, he actually says, hey, here's how you pray. Pray, he actually says, pray like this.

In other words, there is a right way to pray. There's a right way that we need to approach, and he goes on, and I thought it was interesting that when Jesus is teaching about prayer, here's what he said. He says, when you pray, don't use vain repetition.

Matthew chapter 6. He says, don't use vain repetition. And so for some of you that feel pressure to really just make your prayers sound incredible, Jesus actually, when he was talking about prayer, he said, hey, listen, don't use vain repetition as the heathen do. In other words, pagans, you don't need to impress anybody during your prayer.

And then he said, they think, that's the pagans, he said that they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. In other words, if we just pray a really long prayer, then that's got to make the difference in the world. I'll tell you this, I've used some of my personal illustrations and stuff about my life over the years, but my background, we used to have, in the church that I grew up in, and these are great, and I think we probably should do more of those here, but we used to have all these big prayer meetings that my dad would take me to, and so I would go to these prayer meetings as a kid, and so I'd go, and half the time, you know, I mean, I didn't really know how to do it. As a kid, they didn't really ask me to pray very often, and sometimes they would gather and we would get on our knees and they would just say, hey, as God leads, you pray, right? And you just kind of, you know, people are praying all over the place and sometimes there were times people were all praying at the same time, and I'm kind of leaning in, listening to everybody's stories and stuff like that as a kid, but then when I became a youth pastor at this same church, it was right out of college, 2007, I go back to my home church, this church, and they have all these prayer meetings, so I'm like, man, I'm going to the prayer meetings, I'm going, and I kid you not, I was a youth pastor, so if you feel this way, I want you to know, I was full-time in ministry, and this is what I did for a living, and I show up at these prayer meetings, and in my head, here's what I was thinking, I'm not joking, this is me, and this is how shallow I was at the time, I guess, I would think, man, I can't wait till there's a gap where nobody's praying, and here I come, I mean, I'm straight out of Bible college, and I'm going to impress everybody with the words that I've learned in my prayer, and all this kind of stuff, and I was just ready for it, right?

And I wanted to impress anybody, I'm sure some of you have been there, we're not going to raise our hands because there's going to be a sin of judgment in the room, and we don't want that, okay? Well, listen, that's sometimes how we feel, when caught upon to pray, have you ever felt that pressure, right? Somebody asks you to pray, and you feel like you got to impress, you got to use the words, or possibly, have you ever heard somebody pray, and you're just thinking, man, if I could just pray like that person, then everything will be right. Well, Jesus tells us, and he gives us the model prayer here in Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter 11, he tells us exactly how we're here to pray. So if you're in here today, and you're like, man, I don't know how to pray, listen, Jesus, it's one of the things that he outlined for you. He outlined it for you. That's why today, I have no, like a lot of times I like to preach, like a typical Baptist, I preach like three point sermon type things, and we don't have a three point sermon, we're just going to break this prayer down for you, because Jesus already gave us the outline for how you and I are supposed to pray. We're just supposed to follow the model that he puts in front of us. And so here in Luke chapter 11, let's, we're going to read 13 verses.

So follow along. If you didn't bring your Bible today, it will be up on the screen here to help you out. Luke chapter 11 says this, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said into him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his, his disciples.

By the way, I think that this is worth mentioning. Out of every, the disciples were following him, they've left everything. They've left their nets behind, they've left their careers behind, they've left it all behind. And now they've been around Jesus, and they've watched Jesus perform miracles, and they've learned from him. And out of all the things that they asked him for, it was to teach us to pray.

They could have asked him for anything. Like I like to picture myself in that, right? Like I've left everything behind. I'm watching Jesus, I'm following Jesus, he's telling us all this stuff. And I know in my heart, it's like now my life is to tell people about him, about the Messiah has come, and that's my life.

You know what? When I think about it, if I was in the audience, I would have probably said, hey, teach me how to preach. Teach me how to teach like you.

Teach me that, because that's going to make the difference. But here's what the disciples asked. Teach us to pray.

And I think there's a lesson here. For some of you, you're just praying for God to use you in some big capacity. Like God, teach me to do this, teach me to be effective, teach me to sing like that person, teach me to teach like that person, teach me to do this.

You know something? Is that we can teach a lot of people how to preach, but the most important thing we can ever do is to teach someone how to pray. Teach someone how to pray.

Because that is the breadth of what's going to make an effective sermon. So they ask him, teach us to pray. And Jesus said, verse number two, he said unto them, when you pray, say this, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Then he said unto them, verse number five, which of you shall have a friend, he begins to tell them this parable, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. Have you ever showed up at your house and you weren't prepared for something?

Right, and you got to kind of throw something together? That's what the picture is here, is that a friend has showed up at midnight. Now I want you to understand something, that at midnight, they didn't have like the electricity. Some of you, you stay up to midnight already, right?

So you might have been up, right? But in this day, midnight meant, hey, it's the middle of the night, lights are out, there's no lights, you've already, we're going to see the kids are in bed, the whole thing, and in at midnight, middle of the night, somebody knocks on your door and they're asking for three loaves of bread, right? Wouldn't that be a weird request? I thought about just for fun, we should just have an activity at some point and just start knocking on random church members' doors at midnight and just say, hey, can I have three loaves of bread, just to see what everybody's going to do, right? And so, but here's the thing, this is a weird request because that's a lot of bread and it's in the middle of the night at the time, like nobody's knocking on anybody's door, especially like they're not knocking on anybody's door in the middle of the night.

And by the way, here's what I'll point out as well, it's not even an emergency. Like this is bread. Like the morning, it's coming.

You can find some then when things open in a few hours. You should be asleep. But here this friend is, he's not going to, and so Jesus is setting this parable up as he's teaching his disciples on how to pray and he's showing them something with this parable about how we approach him. And so verse number seven, and he, this man, this random person or this friend who's shown up at his house and he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut.

My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity. Now I'll tell you this, that word's very important because the way that that word is used here in verse number eight is important. If you look that word up in the Greek, it actually means this shamelessness. It means shamelessness or it means this persistent confidence about it.

In other words, what Jesus was saying is that in the middle of the night, you must have absolutely no shame to go to somebody in the middle of the night and ask for something. I remember one time in Florida, we had neighbors that lived across the street. They were friends of ours at our house in Florida. I can remember that we were making something. I don't remember what it was at the time, but I remember that we needed eggs and we didn't have eggs.

We had a deadline and stuff. We were making something for somebody. You had these eggs or we didn't have eggs and we needed them for whatever Abby was making. My first thought was, let's just go across the street and ask for eggs.

Let's just do it. I remember the two of us thinking like, man, how is that going to be perceived? I mean, we got to be desperate if we're going to go across the street and ask for something like this.

We had this whole conversation and finally we ended up going over there and getting some eggs and we were able to make whatever we wanted. We honestly felt somewhat shamed because we had to go and ask for something. Could you imagine this person showing up in the middle of the night at midnight needing loaves of bread? The point is what Jesus was saying is this person had absolutely no shame. They felt so comfortable to show up at the house that it was like, it doesn't even matter if it's the middle of the night or what we're asking for. That's what he's saying here. Verse number nine, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth he that seeketh findeth and into him that knocketh it shall be opened the son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father will he give him a stone I don't think that happens very often if you kids come up to you and ask for bread you don't say hey go outside and find you a good rock or how about this one maybe your kid asks for fish or goldfish I guess we could say well are you just going to hand him a snake that's what Jesus is saying now Jesus was the master communicator and if I was there I would be one of the ones chuckling a little bit in that like of course not Jesus like if my kid comes up to me and asks for cinnamon toast crunch I'm not like hey here's a snake instead you know and so I get your point Jesus and so he's saying of course not verse number 12 or if he shall ask an egg we offer him a scorpion Jesus is laying it on thick here and then he says if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him so he breaks this this prayer down and he's saying that in the middle of the night in the middle of the night the way that this this this man this friend shows up to Jesus or to this man's house in his parable is the way that you and I can show up to the throne of God no shame worst part of the night darkest part of the night quietest part of the night what Jesus is saying is that that is how we can pray to answer your question disciples this is how we can approach our father I want to break down this prayer for you that Jesus said the first thing I want you to see is the first phrase that he says in verse number two when you pray you need to say our father which art in heaven by the way the way that you approach God reveals what you truly believe about him the way that you approach him reveals what we believe about about the gospel and what Jesus was trying to communicate is that we can approach him as our as our father in other words my kids can approach me much different than anyone else in this room they can come in in the middle of the night in fact they do from time to time and I wish I could tell you that I'm like whatever you need kids a real accurate picture of what happens is Abby the kids are at the door and so they come to us and and they they ask for things at the worst time there's no shame right like when kids approach you because because you're their their parent it can be the worst time in the world yesterday my daughter had a gift card and Abby and I had a very busy day we had her two basketball things that we had with Cameron that morning and then the afternoon we had a moving party for some people in our church and and so we were slammed and in the middle of that we ran in the house for just a couple of minutes we ran in and and so we ran in to get something and then we were straight out the door and on my way out my daughter said hey dad do you have time to take me to this store that she had a gift card to and sometimes like isn't it wild as parents sometimes you're thinking like is now the really the best time like what do you not know what we we've done all day and like we're busy right and you would think like that's how we respond a lot of times but here Jesus is painting this picture that you can show up into his throne room whenever you want and he's gonna be there and he's gonna give you what you're you're asking for I when I was studying this there's a famous picture you've seen this picture before of John F Kennedy and his son you've seen this right John F Kennedy now I think he's like the 38th president I can't remember but he's something like that I know it's in 30s and John F Kennedy he he's sitting there and I love this picture okay because you have like he's reading something and his son is kind of you know just there underneath the desk and just kind of doing his thing or whatever and I love this picture and here's why and this is the point that I want to drive home like John F Kennedy I mean he's the president of the United States at the time like here's what I'll tell you like I like to think whatever is on that is like the fate of the country right the most important thing you could ever imagine is on whatever he's reading and underneath him is some kid probably grabbing on his pant leg dad can you get me this and the point is with this picture what I see here is that even the president of the United States with as busy as he is his kids his children can approach him differently than any body else and here's what I'll tell you is that for you think about your kids you know my kids can come to me and ask me for whatever it's you with the Lord is that we can come to him and know this that he's never too busy for our presence to come to him he's never too busy with our needs to come before him he's never too preoccupied for whatever it is that you are coming to him about that's the way that we can approach him because he is our father let me remind you God is your father if you know Jesus as Savior he is your father you can go to him as such forget trying to impress him with the right words he invites you to come to him as a child would come to their father but then he says our father so he's talking about how we approach God and recognizing who we are approaching but then he says hallowed be thy name hallowed that word literally means to be set apart here's what the word you could say there is no one like him in other words when you see that many of you could recite the Lord's Prayer when you see the word hallowed we don't use that word a lot here's what I want you every time you see that word I want you to think there is no one like him that's what Jesus is teaching us is that when you get the opportunity to come to him as your father and which is amazing in and of itself but I want you to remember that the one you're praying to there's no one that stands with him there's no one that is equal to him he's better than any request that we have he stands alone many of us use prayer as a means to an end we come to God to try to get stuff or we come to God to try to see our agenda past and here's what I believe Jesus is trying to say here when he says hallowed be thy name there's no one like him here's the thing what he's trying to say is the way that we should approach God when we pray is it's okay to bring your request to him it's okay to bring your needs to him it's okay to bring what you need to see happen in your life to him but at the end of the day getting him and that relationship is more important than it than whatever you were asking for in other words is that the relationship with him is more important than a healed body right he's better than that as much as as much as you would like a new job he's better than a new job as much as you would like a raise and it's okay to come into his presence and ask for a raise or ask for whatever it is you got to remember that when you're coming to him he alone is better than anything you could ever ask for it's remembering that he is the treasure of your life he's the treasure that you don't become a Christian so that you can get stuff you don't become a Christian so that wealth prosperity anybody that tells you that's not it you become a Christian so that you can come into the presence of God that's it he's the treasure he's the end he's the reason why we pray hallowed be his name thy kingdom come thy will be done let me tell you this life is not all about you accomplishing your agenda on earth some of us love our opinions some of us love our agendas and sometimes we approach a relationship with God as if life is all about us right and listen life is about him it's about his agenda and praying for his agenda to be done on earth and by the way the way that you know how what his agenda is here on this earth is found in the word of God it's what we looked at last week and so if you want to know what God's agenda what God's purpose is here on this earth it is right here laid out so clearly in scripture the way to find it out is to get into the word and then when you pray it's praying what you read back to him it's praying his agenda be done pray that God would use you and this church to bring more people to him that's his agenda when do you pray for that he goes on in verse number three Jesus says give us day by day our daily bread listen most of us aren't worried about where our next meal is coming from all week we kind of know that I mean the only time you really worry about where your next meal is coming from is during church on Sunday mornings right I remember what it was like to sit in a congregation and listen to a preacher every single Sunday about 15 minutes in I'm leaning over to whoever said what are we having for lunch like I need to look forward to something right but here that might probably is not you know when we say day by day our daily bread like we don't need him for our next meal we feel like we got that but here's what what Jesus was saying is that it's a reminder when you pray that you are totally dependent upon him that and by the way I'll say it this way the essence of sin and probably all sin the essence of it all is independence remember Adam and Eve Genesis chapter 3 and in the garden they felt like they could do life without God they felt like if they went out and did their own thing that they could know as much as God and listen the worst thing for you in your life is to think that you can do anything without him you can't you need him for everything Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication so remember as you pray that you are 100% dependent upon him for everything for everything and then he goes on by the way in verse number 7 of Philippians chapter 4 if you pray right if you bring everything to him in prayer and supplication he says in verse 7 then the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds you want to know why some of us don't have peace it's because we're not praying you see those that realize that they are 100% dependent on God for everything are the ones that will experience peace in their heart that's what Paul was saying to the church then he goes on verse number 4 forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us listen confession is something that all of us struggle with in prayer it isn't to add to the weight and guilt of sin it's to free you from that sin confessing something is not to add anything to you it's to free you of the pressure and guilt that you experience confession restores your relationship with God it's something that we see throughout scripture I could go on and on but Nehemiah remember when Nehemiah went back to see Jerusalem he confessed the sins of himself and his forefathers in his prayer to God Daniel chapter 9 Daniel prayed this prayer of confession for him and also God's people Psalm chapter 51 David prayed this prayer of confession after he was called out with a sin with Bathsheba you see the point is if you confess your sins first John 1 9 if you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive you of that sin and by the way he's just isn't he and in other words when you think of how just God is he cannot demand two payments for the same sin so in other words Jesus has already paid for the sin that you are confessing and so God will not hold it against you not because of your confession but because of the one who paid for the sin once and for all and that's what we need to know as we approach God he goes on in verse number four lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil I want you to know something that I believe the best of everybody in this room but here's what I know about every single one of you myself included all of us if left alone are going to wander astray you ever see the memes on social media that say something to the effect of when I get to heaven and I see Adam right you're going to lay into him right like Adam how dare you right here here's the thing that I think all of us need to realize is that if any of us were in his shoes in that day because of that that sin here's what all of us would have gone the direction Adam and Eve went right because all of us left alone are going to go astray we are desperate for him to guide us away from temptation I just want you to understand that we cannot live the Christian life on our own we're fully dependent upon him for everything for everything you are dependent upon him for everything including being delivered and not led into temptation Jesus is saying this I like to try to make things as practical as possible when we talk about certain things and sometimes I want you to know my mind works a little differently than a lot of other people's and that's a scary thought I just want you to understand but sometimes when you think about deliverance and you think about not being led into temptation and things like this when I was studying this this week I was like what does that mean what does that look like how can we make that practical and I was thinking you know it just popped up how many of you used to play or how many of you played video games raise your hand okay I'm not a video game guy my son loves it and sometimes when he needs to feel good about himself he'll ask me to come play him and then it's just like terrible and so he likes to play me an NBA 2k and stuff like that and I am awful at video games but I like to think that when I was a kid I was incredible on the Nintendo and I loved it and here's why I felt like I was good it was a much simpler time there's an up down side to side and an A and a B and a start button and that was it like all these other buttons I'm always like Cameron what in the world do these things do right but when I remember as a kid I got on Nintendo and I played Mario it's the greatest game ever and I played Mario and I loved it and here's what I'll tell you is anytime you were in Mario and you came to a difficult part in the game you came to a difficult part here's what I would always normally try to look for is one of these if you sit up here you remember those little tunnel things right I love yes thank you I feel you and so I loved it because when I didn't know what to do here's what I knew that I needed okay the original Mario Brothers I knew if I could get to one of these tunnels that would take me to some land that that you know everything was going to be fine or or if you got to the end of the thing and you saw one of the flag poles you remember and you just could launch onto the flagpole then you know you are safe and you are delivered from all of these little fiery flowers that just are after me and stuff like that right here's what I want you to know I know this is a really silly illustration but here's what I want you to know is that for some of you if you're in here today and you think I cannot have victory over whatever sin that you're committing if you are in Jesus here's what I want you to know he has provided you a way of escape from whatever it is that you feel bound in he has provided a way of escape if it's an addiction if it's pride if it is judgmental if it's a critical spirit it whatever it is that you say man I cannot see myself I want you to know that in a relationship with Jesus when we pray God deliver us from evil God lead me not into temptation it's as if he is providing a way of escape for for you it's there for us to just go through with it listen he died so that we can be delivered from temptation prayer needs to be a priority in your life it needs to be a priority in your life and today I know we had some time for prayer I want all of us to pray and ask God today to help us to make this a priority we're going to try to be intentional about making it a priority in our church services making this a thing I want you to every day to be not just reading scripture but praying to him and having a relationship with God you got to prioritize it it's got to be a part of your regular every single day agenda to do list let's make that a priority can we do this all heads bowed hearts lifted in prayer let's all stand I know there's several going to make their way out for baptism I know we went long here today but listen the instrument is just going to start playing here in a moment I'm not going to belabor this long but if you're in here today some of you probably could admit I know my heart was stirred if you're if you're like me and you say pastor I I need I need to improve my prayer life I need to to have a more consistent prayer life than what I do right now if that's where you are here today would you be honest before God and before me and just slip up your hand if that's where you're at listen there are hands everywhere in this place from some of the most spiritual people by the way so I don't want you to think that man my hands raised so therefore means I'm just a terrible Christian or anything like that here's what I want you to understand that's all of us every single one of us we admit that we need to make prayer a priority if that's you I'm going to pray for you and I just want to pray and if you need to come forward again and pray and commit to God to make that a priority in your life here today the altar is going to be open for a few minutes while we wait for the ones getting baptism let this be a time for you to make a decision with God Father speak to our hearts in this invitation time move in our midst for it's in your name God speaks to you come or you can pray right where you are here today but listen let this be a time for you to do business with God