Alone with the Almighty, Part 5

Today, Lord, as we continue our study in your book, the Bible, we pray that our hearts will be stirred, challenged, and changed. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. This morning, as we continue our time and our study in the special series, Alone with the Almighty, let me begin by quoting to you one of the gurus of modern times, George Barna, who quotes these words.

It is possible to argue persuasively that many Christians have been seduced by the power of the tools they have acquired. Born-again adults spend an average of seven times more hours each week watching television than they do participating in spiritual pursuits such as Bible reading, prayer, and worship. They spend roughly twice as much money on entertainment as they donate to their church. They spend more time surfing the net than they do conversing with God in prayer. Modern technology has seduced us.

In fact, we have been seduced by culture so much it has reduced our time with Christ. Modern technology tends to rob us of our time with God, not enhance our time with God. So much so that we spend more time surfing the net than we do spending time in prayer with God. Let me ask you a question.

Are you a prayer warrior? Are you one who battles from your knees? Or are you one who likes to control your environment? Are you one who understands the need to battle, to be a warrior on your hands and knees each day? Let me share with you something.

I gave to a friend of mine this week, and I'll explain that to you in a moment, entitled The Warrior. It goes like this. This morning, my thoughts traveled along to a place in my life where days have since gone, beholding an image of what I used to be as visions were stirred and God spoke to me. He showed me a warrior, a soldier in place, positioned by heaven, yet I saw not the face. I watched as the warrior fought enemies that came from the darkness with destruction for me. I saw as the warrior would dry away tears as all of heaven's angels hovered so near.

I saw many wounds on the warrior's face, yet weapons of warfare were firmly in place. I felt my heart weeping, my eyes held so much, as God let me feel the warrior's prayer touched.

I thought, how familiar the words that were prayed. The prayers were like lightning that never would fade. I said to God, please, the warrior's name. He gave no reply. He chose to refrain. I asked, Lord, who is broken that they need such prayer? He showed me an image of myself standing there. Bound by confusion, lost and alone, I felt prayers of the warrior carry me home. I asked, please, show me, Lord, this warrior so true. I watched and I wept, for mother, the warrior was you. The man understood, finally, that the warrior in his life was his mother, who prayed for him, having girded herself with the weapons of warfare, realizing that it journeys in, that there was someone who prayed for him every single day, who knew the necessity of communicating with the Father in heaven above.

This past week, I had a frame with this quote on it and gave it to my mother, who came to be with us this week during the birth of our seventh child, her 11th grandchild. She shared with me how, when I was just a baby, many, many years ago, she would pray that God would give me a wife that would love her. My mother has had two wives, two of my wives, that have loved her. My first wife died when she was 26.

She loved my mother. Now, Lori, my second wife, loves my mother. My mother has been a warrior from the time that I was born, before that time. She wasn't even saved until later in life, but she always was a woman of prayer. And when God revolutionized her soul by transforming it from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son, she understood more of what it meant to be on her knees and pray, and I learned what it meant to pray by watching my mom and my dad. My mother is a prayer warrior.

My mother prayed for me, prayed protection for me, prayed God's guidance in my life, she would pray that God would turn me and change me and be what he wants me to be. I am where I am today, not so much of my commitment to God as much as my mother's communication with God. My mother was a prayer warrior, still is today, and I praise God for my mom, who is my warrior. Do you have a warrior? Better yet, are you a warrior? You see, in order for us to be alone with the Almighty, we must understand what it means to battle on our knees.

We must know what it means to spend time alone with God on our knees. We've talked about the primacy of salvation, we've talked about the responsibility of preparation, we've talked about the centrality of revelation, now we're at the point where we understand the necessity of communication. There is a need in our lives whereby we must communicate with the God above. We must spend time with him as a warrior would do battle, so we spend time on our knees with God. Remember in Luke chapter 11, the disciples said, Lord, teach us how to pray.

Teach us how to do what it is you do. You do it so often, they realized that it was prayer that commenced his most unlikely ministry. Read it in Luke 3, 21, where he was being baptized by John the Baptist, and the text says, as he was praying, the heavens opened up. Prayer was that which commenced Christ's most unlikely ministry. Prayer was that which characterized his daily ministry. You can read about it in Luke chapter 5, and Luke 6, and Luke 9, because he was always going alone to be alone with his father above.

And so, because they understood that prayer would commence his unlikely ministry, and prayer would characterize his daily ministry, they saw that prayer would consummate his earthly ministry. For Luke 24, as he ascended up into heaven, the text says that he was blessing his disciples. He was offering a prayer of blessing for his disciples, and he ascended up into glory. And on top of that, prayer is that which constitutes his heavenly ministry. For Hebrews 7, 25 says, he lives to make intercession for us.

You see, the Lord Jesus Christ understood that prayer was essential to his life. He understood that that was where he would obtain his strength. He understood that in his humanity, he would learn to rely totally upon his heavenly Father for guidance and strength. He knew what it meant to be alone with his father, and that when he was alone with him, he needed to communicate with him. Do you know that? He knew the necessity of communication. What I want to share with you this morning are some principles, some principles that we could take weeks to talk about, in fact, we already have.

Many years ago, we did a series entitled The Disciples' Prayer out of Matthew chapter 6. If you want to know what we're talking about this morning in greater detail, I would encourage you to purchase that tape series entitled The Disciples' Prayer. But this morning, what I want to do is briefly cover that prayer for you and help you understand five basic principles that you need to understand if you're going to communicate with God. Five principles that will help you understand what you need to do when you are alone with the Almighty.

What you need to say when you communicate with the God of the universe. You see, I've come to realize that most of us, our prayers are so weak because we don't know what to say. We don't know how to communicate with God, and yet the Bible is so clear on how we communicate with Him. If we knew our Bible, we would know how to communicate with God. We don't know how to communicate with God because we don't know our Bibles. But the Bible tells us, disciples ask the Lord to teach us how to pray. Teach us how to pray like John taught his disciples how to pray.

How do we learn to communicate like you communicate with the God of the universe? With your Heavenly Father. And so for that, we'll turn to Matthew chapter 6, and I want to give you five very basic principles. Again, we're not going to go into detail, because if we did, we would never finish this series. Let me read it to you, Matthew chapter 6, verse number 9, Pray then this way, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen. Now, most of us could quote that verbatim. Most of us know those because, those words, because we were taught them from our early childhood. Yet although we can quote them, we don't understand them. Although we know the Lord's prayer, or the disciples' prayer, whatever you want to call it, we don't understand it.

But Christ, what he did, he gave us a pattern on how to pray. He taught us this is how you do it. When the disciples asked him, they wanted to know, Lord, what it is that we say when we communicate with God. And so by giving us this pattern, he gives us the principles that help us understand how to communicate with our Heavenly Father. That if we miss these principles, our prayer life will be so weak that we'll never have an answer to our prayers. So you need to grasp them. You need to get them. You need to understand them.

You need to seize them and ask the Lord to teach you to pray his way. The necessity of communication involves five principles. The first one is the principle of adoration.

The principle of adoration. It was E.M. Bounds who said these words, prayer honors God and dishonors self. Isn't that good? That's the best definition of prayer I've ever heard. It honors God and dishonors self. Now examine your prayer life. How much do you spend talking about yourself, your needs, your desires, your wants, your family, your health, your finances? It consumes most of everything, right? True biblical prayer honors God and dishonors self. If you are being focused on in your prayer life, you've got a bad prayer life.

Let me say that one more time. If you are being focused on in your prayer life, you have a bad prayer life because your prayer is about God. It's not about you. Your prayer is about lifting up God, not lifting up you before God. It's all about God and that's why our prayer lives are so weak. That's why we don't see God moving in and among us in a mighty way is because we don't understand prayer. So Christ gives us a pattern. He teaches us this is how you pray. Pray this way, okay? What way is that?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's the prayer of adoration, our Father. Do you know that only 14 times in 39 books in the Old Testament that God was referred to as Father? Did you know that? And never was he referred to personally as my Father. God never said, Abraham never said to God, my Father. Israel saw God corporately as their Father but not one individual saw God as his Father. So Christ comes on the scene in the New Testament and says, when you pray, I want you to pray this way, our Father who art in heaven.

Over 60 times in the Gospels, Christ refers to God in heaven as his Father, 60 times. Amazing. Christ wanted his men to understand that they have a heavenly Father, a Father who cares for them, who longs for them. In fact, if you go back to Matthew chapter 6, it talks about the Father in verse number one.

In verse number four, your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Verse number six, but when you pray, go into your inner room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Verse number eight, therefore, do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Oh, by the way, that's why you don't have to worry about praying for yourself because your Father knows what you need before you even ask him.

See? So if he knows what you need before you even ask him, you don't even have to ask him, do you? Because he knows. So if you pray this way, Matthew 6, God's way, honoring God, dishonoring self, you'll see great things happen in your time alone with the Almighty. So important for us to grasp the principle of adoration, our Father, he's your Father who is in heaven, who knows what you need before you even ask him, who when he sees you in secret will reward you openly because of your time alone with him.

He is your Father who is in heaven. Prayer is not talking about God, prayer is talking with God and that's what we do. Our Father who art in heaven. That's so good. You see, because the Jewish people saw God as very far away from them, not close to them at all. When Christ came on the scene, he wanted them to understand that he is your Father, he's your personal Father, you're a child of his, therefore you could communicate with him as a young child would communicate with his daddy. So now you communicate with your Father, but he is your Father who is in heaven to help you understand his transcendence, to help you understand that he surpasses everything, he sees all, he is sovereign.

You see, the Jews had it right, they saw God as far away and treated him with dignity and respect. We see him so close to us, we treat him as our buddy and as our friend. So when Christ comes on the scene, he says, wait a minute, he is your Father, but remember, he is in heaven, he transcends all, he is sovereign over all, he rules over all, he is a God who is in heaven. You say, well, wait a minute, I thought God was everywhere. He is, heaven is the place of his abode. He ascended up into heaven in Acts chapter 1 at his ascension, 1 Thessalonians 4 says he will descend from heaven when he comes back to take the church home to be with him.

Heaven is his place of abode, although he is omnipresent, he is everywhere, it's a recognition that God is supreme. And then our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy be thy name. It's a prayer that says, God, I want your name to be hallowed in my life. Lord, I want to be holy as you yourself are holy. I want your holiness to encompass my being so that all my unholiness becomes holy because I want to be like you. I want to be like you, Lord. I'm asking God to be hallowed in my life.

Listen, if you're going to adore Christ, if you're going to understand the principle of adoration, there must be a recognition of his paternity, a realization of his supremacy. And thirdly, you need to relish his purity.

Relish his purity. Lord, I want to be holy as you are holy. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 3.15, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Set him apart as holy in your hearts. God rules in our hearts. Our hearts need to be totally committed to him, totally consecrated to him that everyone would be able to know that we serve a living and true God. And so when we go to God in prayer, we are saying, our Father, we recognize who you are. You are our Father. We are your children. Not only that, we realize the supremacy of your being, that you are over all, you are above all, and we want to be just like you.

We relish the fact that you are pure and holy, so pure and holy that you don't even want to look upon evil. So Lord, make us like that. Make us so that we don't want to look upon evil. We don't want to be evil. We want to be like you, God. Folks, listen, if your prayer doesn't begin that way, don't pray. Don't pray. Don't even waste your time if you don't want to be holy as God is holy. Why? Because God's not going to hear you. You say, wait a minute, he hears everything. You bear with me, I'll explain it to you.

God's not going to hear you. God says, this is the pattern. This is how you do it. You've got to come in adoration. You've got to come adoring the King of the universe, bowing before him as your Father, bowing before him as King, bowing before him as the one who rules over all, and asking, Lord, I want to be just like you. I want your name to be hallowed in my life. I want to be as holy as you are holy, pure as you are pure, true as you are true. If that's not your heart's desire, then everything you pray is a sham.

It's a sham. God wants it that way. So you go from the principle of adoration to the principle of supplication. Supplication. Listen very carefully. Supplicate is the word most frequently used in the New Testament to describe our prayer life. It's a word that means when you bring an olive branch to a sovereign, you lay it at his feet and you bow before him and you make your petition known to him. Listen very carefully. You want to know what to ask God for? God tells you. And I bet it's nothing like what you asked him for this morning.

He says, if you want to ask me for something, you come. You bow before me as the King. And you beg and plead for these particular petitions. And then you're praying God's way. Then you're honoring God and dishonoring self. Here it is already. You go from adoration to supplication. Here it is. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here's what you ask God for. God, I'm asking for your kingdom to come. When was the last time you asked for God's kingdom to come?

Did you ask that this morning? Did you ask that this week? If you're not interested in God's kingdom coming to earth, let me give you this little hint.

Don't pray. Don't pray. Because God's people are concerned with God's program. And God's program is about His kingdom. His rulership. The word kingdom can be translated rule. Rule. That's the word. Rule. Thy rule come. We know that God rules in the hearts of His people. Why? Because Colossians 1.13 says that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. The rulership of His Son. So a Christian understands the rulership of Christ. You're asking Christ to set up His kingdom and to rule in your hearts.

We know that the Bible says that God is a ruler of everything. The Bible says over in Psalm 103, verse number 19, His sovereignty rules over all.

Jeremiah 10.10, the Lord is an everlasting King. Psalm 24.1, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. So we know that God is ruler over all. When we give our life to Christ, He becomes a ruler of our lives personally. But we are also asking God for His literal kingdom to come. We believe, as Isaiah 9.6 and 7 states, that one day the government will be upon His shoulders. His kingdom will be forever. We believe, as the angel said to Mary in Luke chapter 1, verses 32 and 33, that His kingdom will be established forever.

We believe the book of Revelation when it says when Christ returns, He will take this earthly kingdom from Satan, the usurper, and set His own kingdom up on this earth. Listen, when you pray, this is what you ask God for. God, rule my life. Be the King of my life. May I learn to submit to Your kingship. Everything You ask, Lord. You are the King. You are the ruler. Therefore, I give my life to You. I submit to You. That's prayer. That's the prayer of the warrior. That's the prayer who knows who's on the throne.

That's the prayer of one who knows who rules. That's the King of the universe. Is that the way your prayers are? Thy kingdom come. You see, the reason we don't ask for God's kingdom to come is because we're too busy setting up our own kingdoms. We're too busy ruling in our own kingdoms. God says you ain't got no kingdom.

It's my kingdom. And we're saying, naw, that's my kingdom. And God says, naw, it's mine. And I said, naw, we're having a battle with God. It's my family. God says, no, it's not your family, it's my family.

He said, no, those are my kids. God says, no, they're not your kids, they're my kids. It's my money. And God says, no, that's not your money, it's my money.

It's my church. And God says, no, that's not your church, that's my church. We're too busy setting up our own kingdoms. So God says when you pray, You pray with adoration you come to me with supplication and you say thy kingdom come number two Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Hebrew parallelism hollow would be thy name on earth as It is in heaven thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We want everything to happen to here as it happens there Now that's prayer man, I'm tell you that's how the warrior prayers He is so interested in God that he wants everything that happens there to happen here That the way your prayer life is See everything in heaven happens perfectly Instantaneously just like God wants it That's what the child of God wants thy will be done listen thy will be done But there's just so much here I didn't even give you today You see in order for us to be alone with the Almighty we must understand what it means to battle on our knees We must know what it means to spend time alone with God on our knees Father we thank you for today And the joy that we have to look briefly into your word and Say thus saith the Lord thus we do May we be reminded once again Of who you are and what you have done That would show us That we need to spend more alone time with the Almighty God of the universe in Jesus name