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Do you have doubt?

Are in a Battle?

Do you need healing in your life?

Let's put the bad things from our week at the door to His house

Put a hand up and Close Your eyes and repeat after me.

Say, "Lord you are welcome in this place."

Say, "Holy"

Say, "Worthy"

Say, "Thank you Lord."!

WORSHIP

Opening Prayer;

Lord, be with us now as we hear your message. Let it reach our hearts and our minds and make us grow. Holy Spirit fill us.

Prayer in the Context of Grace Luke 11:1 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray”

• We have set ourselves the goal of becoming more of a praying church this year so for the next month or so we are going to do a refresher on prayer

• Let me start by asking the question What is the purpose of Prayer?

Ultimately? • Before you answer this, I want you to put it in the context of your salvation?

• You have just come to recognize you are a sinner and deserved to die

• you have learned you need someone to save you as you can’t save yourself

• You learn that that Savior is Jesus Christ who left his throne of glory, descended to earth and died a horrific death on the cross so you wouldn’t have to

• He rose again on the third day picturing our new life devoted to Him

• He is going to return some day and we will spend eternity with Him

• Let me put it another way. You’re sitting on death row for committing a terrible crime, (which by the way is true of all of us) waiting to be executed when you find out someone has volunteered to die in your place. What would you want to do? Hopefully you would want to meet him so you could thank him

It is the primary way you and I can get to know more about this incredible Being who did this for us!

It

• Thank Him • Praise Him - The Hebrew word “Hallelujah” means just that - to give God our highest praise

• You may want to apologize to Him for putting Him through the crucifixion

• You may want to get to know Him better so that you can become more like Him • And you find out He has not only saved you from the executioner, but He can also help us out in other ways if we ask Him

• And He can also help out others if we ask Him

Think of the story of the “Pharisee and the Publican”

Luke 18:9-14 (KJV) 9 And he spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Comments? What are the differences in approach?

Notice these people was speaking to had two problems, they trusted in their own righteousness, and the second problem followed the first, they despised others

One went to let God know how good he was, the other came to ask for God’s mercy

The words of the Prodigal come to mind, “I am not worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:19)

Story of beggar in king’s court

We as Christians should never ever forget “where” we came from and “how” we arrived in the relationship

It is good for us to revisit the beggars room each day before we go before God’s throne • Each of us was a low-life sinner and if it weren’t for God’s grace that’s where we would still be • I hate to think where I would be today if it weren’t for God’s grace

Selling insurance, probably on a third or fourth or fifth marriage, drinking problem? Who knows?

This is what keeps us humble, and this is what prevents us from ever thinking we are better than anyone else including unbelievers

The dangerous mindset that afflicted this Pharisee is still out there - that pothole of thinking we have arrived where we are because of our own righteousness when in reality we had no part in making us right with God

When we read this story, none of us likes to identify with the Pharisee, yet when we look down on people in the world we are more like the Pharisee than the Publican

This attitude had a powerful effect on the prayer life of these two men

As I’ve said before, When God looks at mankind all He sees are His children, only difference is some, at this stage, are “saved” while some are “unsaved” • So we need to learn to love the people of the world as God loves them

So it is a healthy perspective to approach God’s throne recognizing our insufficiency and our need for Him rather than like the Pharisee who regarded prayer as part of his ritual of “staying in good with God”

So if we were to summarise the publicans approach to prayer how would we say he regarded God?

Remember he said, God be merciful to me a sinner.

So He regarded God as……His Savior

Even though we are saved and we continue to sin, how does God regard us?

As His children (Rom 8:16, 1 John 3:1-3) •

1 John 3:1-2 (NLT) See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. 2 Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. • So if we are His children, what would He like us to regard Him as? Our Father • Jesus set the example for us with the model Lord’s prayer in Matt 6 - He wanted us to address and therefore treat Him as our heavenly Father • What are father’s here for? To raise their children, to look after them, to provide for them, to teach them skills so they can function in the world •

I

What teenagers don’t understand is that most parents don’t want their kids to turn out like them either • One of the sad ironies of life is that as parents you try like crazy to prevent your kids from becoming just like you, then one day you turn around and they are just like you!

But with God it’s different. The better we come to know Him the more we want to become like Him So far we have come to see we God in two important roles He fulfills when we approach Him - As our Savior, and as our Father

But there is also a third way God would like to be regarded by us

John 15:12-17 (NKJV) 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

What do friends share with one another that bosses and employees wouldn’t share? • When was the last time your boss came and shared an intimate thought with you? • There is a special relationship between friends that doesn’t exist between a master and a servant

Friends share their most intimate secrets with one another • Here Jesus tells us He is sharing intimate details only known to the Father and Son on to us • So there is a special intimate relationship we enter into with the very Godhead when commit our lives to Him - a covenant of friendship

Verse 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

17 These things I command you, that you love one another. • So now we see a third dimension in our relationship with God as we approach His throne, friendship

• Just Checking In •

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day, Decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray. Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle. The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn’t shaved in a while. His shirt was kinda shabby and his coat was worn and frayed, the man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away. In the days that followed, each noontime came this chap, each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap. Well, the minister’s suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear. He decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?"

The old man said, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power. "I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away; as I kneel here talking to the Lord, this is kinda what I say: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I’VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER’S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. DON’T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKING IN TODAY."

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim that was fine. He told the man he was welcome to come and pray anytime. Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks." He hurried to the door. The minister knelt at the altar, he’d never done it before. His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there. As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim’s prayer: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I’VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER’S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. I DON’T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY." Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn’t come. As more days passed without Jim, He began to worry some.

At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill. The hospital staff was worried, but he’d given them a thrill. The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward. His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, were his reward. The head nurse couldn’t understand why Jim was so glad, when no flowers, calls or cards came, not a visitor he had. The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse’s concern: No friends came to show they cared.

He had nowhere to turn. Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile; "the nurse is wrong, she couldn’t know, that in here all the while everyday at noon He’s here, a dear friend of mine, you see, He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN. ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY, AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN TODAY." ~Author Unknown~

This humble person had a better comprehension of his friendship with God than the pastor did I don’t know what your concept of God is but what we think of Him affects the way we approach Him in prayer

If our concept of God is one of Hell fire, damnation and brimstone we will probably react accordingly

Fear, trepidation, and dread

But funny thing is, I don’t read a lot about that kind of a God in my Bible • The only ones who need to react this way is unrepentant sinners

However for those who accept Christ as their Savior, God wants us to regard Him as our Savior, our Father and our Friend

These are not titles to be fearful of, they are relational, they are inviting, they are engaging, they are welcoming

This is why Paul encourages us to come boldly before the throne of “Grace” because we are coming before a graceful God

Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV) 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Notice a couple of other things in this verse

We just discussed three roles God plays in our lives - Savior, Father and Friend •

Which role is God fulfilling when we ask for mercy and grace?

Which role is God fulfilling when we ask for help in time of need?

Which role is God fulfilling when we are frustrated and want to let off some steam? •

If we think about these titles it will tell us a lot about what we can go to God about • If we go back to our list here we see God fulfilling these roles for us as we approach Him in prayer

Sometimes we approach Him in His role as our Savior, other times as our Father, and other times as our friend So what did we learn about prayer today?

What stuck in your mind?

Any changes are you are going to incorporate into your prayer life

Let us bow our heads