Sermon preached by Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
March 15, 2009
Copyright 2009, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved

PURSUING GOD THROUGH PRAYER
(Fifth in a series)
Luke 11:1-11

This week I saw a video about prayer.

There was an actor dressed up as first-century Jesus sitting at a small round table at a Starbucks-like coffee shop. Suddenly, a young fellow in his early twenties rushes up to the table, pulls out a chair and sits down across from Jesus. He pulls out a legal pad with some requests and, in a somewhat erratic way, tells Jesus what he wants. The whole engagement lasts about a minute and a half, as Jesus sits there curiously, tentatively listening to the young fellow. Then as quickly as he began, the young man looks at his watch, realizes he’s late to an appointment and rushes off, hardly saying “Goodbye” to Jesus.

Does this sound at all familiar? Does it look at all like you? I ask you and ask myself, Does it look at all like me?

Prayer is one of the greatest spiritual disciplines that will deepen you spiritually.

We’ve already spent a couple of weeks talking about pursuing God through worship. James Melton and I walked through with you some of the individual and corporate dimensions of the discipline of worship.

Last week, Jim Birchfield opened us the whole theme of service. One of the great ways in which we are able to pursue and find God is through the service of others. Jesus stated it bluntly when He said, “Whenever you do it for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it for me.”

Today, we look at the importance of prayer—the privilege you and I have of talking to and with God.

Donald H. Whitney, in his book titled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, opens his chapter on prayer with an intriguing illustration.

He states that the largest radio receiver on the earth is in New Mexico. Pilots call it “the mushroom patch.” Its real name is the “Very Large Array.” This “VLA” is a series of huge satellite disks on 38 miles of railways. Together, the dishes mimic a single telescope the size of Washington, D.C. Astronomers come from all over the world to analyze the optical images of the heavens composed by the VLA from the radio signals it receives from space.

Why is such a giant apparatus needed? Because the radio waves often emitted from sources millions of light years away are very faint. The total energy of all radio waves ever recorded barely equals the force of a single snowflake hitting the ground.

Whitney notes the great lengths people will go to searching for a faint message from outer space, when God has spoken so clearly through His Son Jesus Christ and His written Word, the Bible. Straining through the eyes of telescopes and the electronic ears of the VLA, they search the infinite darkness of the universe for a word. All the while, we have God’s Word directed toward us. Second Peter 1:19 reads, “So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

Just as it is important for us to realize the place of worship, we are just as privileged to be involved in the practice of prayer. For even as there is the VLA in which scientists track those radio signals from space, there is the “VLE,” which is God’s Very Large Ear, that is continually open to us. Not only do we have the privilege of receiving His Word to us, we have the promise from Him that He will hear every prayer of His children, just as a good father is responsive to the voices of his children. Jesus declared this so clearly right on the heels of His teaching His Disciples to pray the format of what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” He puts the whole concept of prayer into extremely practical terms, as He says in Luke 11:9-13:

“ So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will you give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

It’s important for you and me to realize that God does have a Very Large Ear! God will hear all the prayers of His children, no matter how loud or how weak they may be in volume. Isn’t that encouraging to remember?

A friend of mine with whom I served on a board some years ago, Carl Lundquist, wrote these words:
The New Testament church built two other disciplines upon prayer and Bible study, the Lord’s Supper and small cell groups. John Wesley emphasized five works of piety by adding fasting. The medieval mystics wrote about nine disciplines clustered around three experiences: purgation of sin, enlightenment of the spirit and union with God. Later the Keswick Convention approach to practical holiness revolved around five different religious exercises. Today Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, lists twelve disciplines—all of them relevant to the contemporary Christian. But whatever varying religious exercises we may practice, without the two basic ones of Emmaus—prayer and Bible reading—the others are empty and powerless.
I am convinced, along with Carl Lundquist, Donald Whitney and many others that one of the main reasons for lack of godliness is prayerlessness.

Let me put the question to you this week in as straightforward a way as possible. Be honest in your answer. Are you a person of prayer? Do you regularly communicate with God?

During the past 31 years, the pastors here at St. Andrew’s have married hundreds upon hundreds of couples. Although I do not have the exact figure, it is probably somewhat beyond 2,500 couples. Each of these couples has been required to take the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis Profile. As individuals, each answers a whole battery of questions. They do it first about themselves, and then they answer the same battery of questions about their partner. We then share the results with them so that they know how they view themselves, how the partner views himself or herself, and how they view each other.

Two of the very important categories have to do with communication. We see whether a person is “expressive-responsive” or “inhibited.” This deals with whether or not they are free inside to share with another person who they are, what they are feeling, what their needs are, what their dreams are, and what their thoughts are. If a person studies communication theory, this would be seen as an arrow going from you to another person. If the person scores inhibited, which is the opposite of expressive-responsive, I will try to illustrate my point by asking this question of the partner. “Do you often find yourself begging him/her to tell you what he is thinking inside?” That’s usually accompanied by a knowing nod of the head and a smile of recognition by both.

The flip side of this issue is how good a listener a person is. This scale balances between someone who is “sympathetic” and someone who is “indifferent.” That’s the arrow in the communication diagram coming toward a person. How good a listener are you? How sensitive are you to what the person is trying to say? Communication diagram charts sometimes show scraggly lines cutting through both the outgoing and incoming arrows, implying interference that distorts both what is going out and what is coming in to the point that the two people are not in good communication. They may love each other very much. They may wish the best for each other, but somehow the two-way communication is disturbed by either a lack of expressive-responsiveness on the part of one or both or a minimal sense of the sympathetic responsiveness on the part of one or both. Do you follow me? Communication is very difficult if one of the parties is neither talking or listening. Both parties need to be engaged in meaningful conversation.

If you want a deepening of your spirituality, if you desire to know God, if in your heart you are pursuing Him, you need to be in conversation with God. The Bible tells us that God is a very empathetic and sympathetic listener. There is no indifference with God. And God has also expressed himself through the Scriptures and through the deep, tender, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. To put it bluntly, God’s score is 100 percent on the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis Profile when it comes to expressive-responsiveness and sympathy.

I ask myself and I ask you, “How are we doing in terms of listening to God and expressing our deepest needs and concerns to Him?”
Let me share with you five truths about prayers.

First: Prayer is expected by God. It is God’s will that you and I pray.

Jesus expects us to pray. I could list numerous phrases for you, such as: “And whenever you pray. . . .” (Matthew 6:5); “But whenever you pray. . . .” (Matthew 6:6); “When you praying. . . .” (Matthew 6:7); “Pray then in this way. . . .” (Matthew 6:9); “So I say to you, Ask. . ., search. . ., knock. . . .” (Luke 11:9); and “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always. . .” (Luke 18:1).
Just imagine that, sometime later today, Jesus appeared to you personally in a way similar to how He visited the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos recorded in Revelation 1. In this direct personal conversation with you, He tells you that He expects you to pray and He wants to have an ongoing personal conversation with you through your Bible intake and your prayer. What would be your response to this? I believe that you would take prayer quite seriously.

The fact is Jesus has told you that He wants you, He even expects you to pray.

There are many other places in the Bible that make clear this expectation that God wants you to pray. Colossians 4:2 states, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” First Thessalonians 5:17 urges you to “pray without ceasing.” This doesn’t mean that you do nothing but pray, but that you have an ongoing steady communication with God. It is what you do when you have “call holding.” You are on the line with the Lord, and yet throughout the day, there are many other people who genuinely need your attention. You never really stop conversing with God. You simply have frequent interruptions, and God patiently holds for you as you go about the rest of your business. Do you see Him as the primary caller, the One to whom your attention always shifts back, no matter what other matters come into your life?

Martin Luther expressed God’s expectation of prayer in these words: “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” I want to challenge you, as well as myself, to realize that this is not only God’s expectation that we pray. View this not just as a religious hoop through which you must jump to please God. But view this as a privilege you have. It is even more than the equivalent of a British subject receiving an invitation for an intimate, ongoing conversation with the Queen. It is even more than an American receiving an invitation for frequent phone calls and visits with the President. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Or perhaps, it would help you to see prayer as a kind of “walkie-talkie” dynamic, in which you and God are in constant communication as you fight your spiritual battles of contemporary living.

We now have a new President. We also have a new Secretary of State. We have some trouble spots around the world, such as the Middle East, Korea, the Sudan, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and the list goes on. The President didn’t simply assign the duties of the Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton and leave it there. At least, I hope he didn’t. The fact is the two of them have to stay in communication, or they will end up working at cross purposes with each other. No matter what their issues may have been during the campaign and how alienated they may have been from each other, they have chosen to be reconciled to each other and to stay in communication. Secretary of State Clinton must take the initiative to stay in communication with President Obama. And he must take the initiative to stay in conversation with her. Each one needs to talk and give their opinion as they brainstorm about strategies of international relations. And both need to listen. It’s in this constant walkie-talkie dynamic that people stay linked.
And it’s the same for you and me spiritually. You and I need to be in constant conversation with the God of the Universe who created us, who loves us and who is interested in a two-way conversation.

Frankly, it is so easy to lose communication with God. It is so easy for us to forget that true communication is a two-way street. God takes the initiative. But so must you. How tragic I find it when I am doing marital counseling that one of the two desires communication and the other simply either neglects it or intentionally refuses it. I urge you to see the importance, the privilege, the joy, the essential nature of this two-way communication between you and God.

So we see that prayer is expected.

Second: Prayer is learned.

Perhaps you are discouraged by the fact that you feel like you don’t really know how to pray very well. That’s okay. No matter how weak or how strong your prayer life is at this moment, you can grow stronger in it. Jesus’ disciples knew their own limitations. These people, who had gotten pretty close to Him and observed Him close up and watched Him as He prayed, finally put the request to Him, “‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Luke 11:1).

One way to learn how to pray is simply start praying.

Seminars on prayer are good. Reading books about prayer can be helpful. But nothing beats praying.
If you want to be a golfer, it helps to read books about golf. It helps to attend seminars and clinics about the game. But I can assure you of one thing. All the books, magazines, seminars and clinics amount to very little when it comes to playing the game of golf, unless you actually put down a ball, pick up a club and start playing.

The same is true for learning a language. All the book knowledge is helpful. But, finally, you’re going to have to start reading, start speaking and start listening. That’s what it is to communicate in that language. The same is true with the language of prayer.
Another way to learn how to pray is to meditate on Scripture.

As I have already mentioned, there is a direct link between biblical input, as God speaks to you, and your response to Him in the intimate conversation of prayer. Unfortunately, some of us play ping-pong with biblical intake and prayer. We assume that we simply can read the Bible for awhile, shut it and then begin to pray. I’ve found that there is a kind of linkage between biblical input and prayer, in which the two oscillate very close to each other in a synchronized movement between the two.

For example, David prayed in Psalm 5:1-3:

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.
Do you sense the rhythm of praying the Psalms? There is this “sighing” dimension to prayer. That word literally means “meditation.” Psalm 19:14 is one of the great prayers of Scripture:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
One of the great classics of the Christian faith was written by a Puritan pastor by the name of Richard Baxter. It’s titled The Reformed Pastor. Several centuries ago, he wrote these words:

Thus in our meditations, to intermix soliloquy and prayer; sometimes speaking to our own hearts, and sometimes to God, is, I apprehend, the highest step we can advance to in this heavenly work. Nor should we imagine it will be as well to take up with prayer alone, and lay aside meditation; for they are distinct duties, and must both of them be performed. We need the one as well as the other, and therefore we shall wrong ourselves by neglecting either. Besides, the mixture of them, like music, will be more engaging; as the one serves to put life into the other. And our speaking to ourselves in meditation, should go before our speaking to God in prayer.

Another of the Puritan preachers/writers was a man by the name of Thomas Manton. He emphasized the fact that meditation is the activity that links the biblical Word and prayer. These privileges go hand in hand. Meditation follows hearing and reading of Scripture, and it precedes prayer. It refers to people who just keep hearing and hearing the Word, stating that’s like putting a thing into a bag with holes. You need to meditate on that Word and then pray. Digesting the Word in meditation and letting it out by prayer. You become barren and dry if you do not keep a constant rhythm between biblical input, meditation, and prayer.
An additional way to learn to pray is to pray with others. I am not talking about memorizing several phrases of prayer from others. I am talking about observing the genuine ways in which people pray and the varieties of expressions which are present in vital conversation with God.

Another way of learning to pray is to read about prayer. I didn’t mention this first so that you don’t get stuck in just reading about prayer. But once you have committed yourself to a life of prayer, it is helpful to learn lessons from those who are veterans of prayer.
The writer of Proverbs wrote about iron sharpening iron. There is this mentoring dynamic which comes from studying the lives of those who have committed themselves to prayer and have years of experience talking to God.

And the final way of learning to pray that I’ll mention is to journal. This can be a whole spiritual discipline in and of itself. You might remember back in the early 90's when I preached a sermon on journaling, and then my wife Anne came forward to read excerpts from her journal covering a several-year period, from the diagnosis of our daughter Suzanne’s Hodgkin’s Disease, through her 18-month struggle and death, and then on for another couple of years. Many of you were touched with the authentic expressions of Anne’s inner emotional and spiritual wrestlings. What was that, if not prayer. In those moments when the heavens seem like brass, and I feel like I’m not getting through in my prayers or my prayer life is simply tired, worn, filled with cliches, I take out a journal and write a letter to God. Those prayers are pretty raw. They’re the most honest expressions of my life, my struggles and my yearnings ever put on paper. Every time I do it, I have the deep sense of connect with God, that He is honoring the heartcry of one of His children. He hears and will answer in the best way possible.

Third: There are various kinds of prayer.

On other occasions, I have devoted more time to developing this list. But let me quickly review these various kinds of prayer.
The first kind of prayer is adoration.

Through adoration, you acknowledge the grandeur of God, your relationship with Him and the wonder that He takes time to give you His promises. It’s a great starting point. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He responded by saying, “‘When you pray, say Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come’” (Luke 11:2). You’re exposing yourself to the magnificence of the God who is acknowledging the fact that you are finite and He is infinite. You and I are creatures. He is the Creator.
The second kind of prayer is confession.

Through it, you and I receive forgiveness. Is there any way that, without prayer, your sins can be forgiven? Without prayer, you and I are left alone in our sins. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). There’s a specificity to confession in which we come to grips with what we’ve done that is wrong and what we’ve left undone that breaks the heart of God. We are realistically able to then claim His forgiveness that is promised in the Bible.

The third kind of prayer is thanksgiving.
Through thanksgiving, you and I have the opportunity to express our appreciation to God for His many blessings. This is one of the most rewarding forms of prayer, when we take the time to do it. I’m so quick to build my little list of complaints. But I very quickly run out of arguments with God, as totally consuming as those arguments at times can be. My list of blessings goes on and on and on. How much there is for which to be grateful, which often we miss because we are so preoccupied with the negatives in our lives.
The fourth kind of prayer is intercession.

This prayer is for others. Often I am so concerned about myself that I lose my sensitivity to the needs of other people. I have a friend who, every time I see him, reminds me that he has prayed for me that day. Am I that faithful in praying for others, even members of my own family? How about you?

The fifth kind of prayer is petition.
I’ve been told that there are over 3,000 promises in God’s Word. You and I are privileged to know them, claim them, and to ask for God’s specific personal help in our daily challenges. There is no item too small or too big.
Try to combine all five kinds of prayer in your prayer life. Begin with adoration. Move then to confession. Then take some time for thanksgiving before moving on to those intercessions for others and those petitions for yourself.

Four: Prayer is answered!
The British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this:
I cannot imagine any one of you tantalizing your child by exciting in him a desire that you did not intend to gratify. It were a very ungenerous thing to offer alms to the poor, and then when they hold out their hand for it, to mock their poverty with a denial. It were a cruel addition to the miseries of the sick if they were taken to the hospital and there left to die untended and uncared for. Where God leads you to pray, He means you to receive.

Today’s text emphasizes the fact that God functions as doe s the closest of friends and the most sensitive of parents. It urges you and me to be persistent in prayer and to ask God for His help.

I will be the first to acknowledge that God does not always gi ve me the answer I want in the time in which I want it. At the same time, as I look back over 63 years-plus of following Jesus, I can give testimony to His faithfulness.

God’s answer is sometimes “yes.” Many times that has been His response. I’ve discovered that it’s His “yes” answers that I forget most quickly. I need to remind myself of His goodness.

God’s answer is sometimes “no.” I have gone through many h eartbreaking experiences. I have experienced severe financial reverses. I have had my heart broken as I was betrayed by people in whom I’d put great trust. I prayed for my daughter Suzanne to be healed of her cancer, but she died. And, as a pastor, I have anguished with the unrelenting tragedies, sorrows, doubts and disillusionments of those entrusted to my care for these last 47 years. I’ve not liked it when the answer was “no” for myself or a loved one. But I’ve learned to trust Him. He doesn’t play diabolical games with His children. Frankly, some of my deepest spiritual growth has come in those times in which He did not respond in the way I wanted Him to. A good father knows sometimes he has to say “NO!”

And there are those occasions in which God’s answer is “wait.” He is in the process of answering your request, but not necessarily on your schedule. I don’t like to wait for anything or anyone. I want what I want right now. Many of us are that way. I have also discovered it is out of the waiting experience that I’ve realized some of the greatest of my spiritual growth.
At the very deepest level, I’ve discovered that God’s greatest answers to prayer often have not been in God functioning on my timetable and my orchestrated agenda, but instead by my allowing my agenda and time schedule to be conformed to His agenda and time schedule. Jesus models this for me in His prayer at Gethsemane, “Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” That’s no cop out. What deeper, more beautiful prayer of faith is there than a prayer for God’s will to be transformational of my will. The bottom-line, key issue for me is not so much my being so persistent in prayer that God will conform His will to my will, but that I am willing to conform my will to His will!

I just want to be certain that I do not block God’s answers to prayer by allowing hindrances to stand in His way. I dare not insist on my timing. I must be a person who is willing to confess my sins. I want to search my wrong motives that can block my contact with God, my preoccupation with my own narcissistic needs for money, power, popularity, healing, which lead me to pray prayers that get the “no” answer, because they are designed around my own lusts. I need to make certain that, to the best of my ability, I am not living in a defective home relationship with my wife, my parent, my children. I need to be able to take that “no” from God, realizing that sometimes God is protecting me from what I want that could destroy me, like a good parent may be protective of a young teenager who wants to ride helmetless on that high-powered motorcycle, unaware of his/her vulnerabilities.
Let me conclude with this brief statement about prayer, which I received in a World Vision partner letter sent out to those of us who are Board members. The source is anonymous, but the message is powerful:
Prayer is. . .
. . . the first step to knowing Jesus Christ
. . . recognizing the presence of God
. . . the laying hold of God’s promises
. . . the path to strength and peace
. . . man’s means to touch God
. . . doing business with God
. . . God’s gift of power
. . . giving God access to our need
. . . the key to the miraculous
. . . the very breath of spiritual life

Benediction
MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH DISCOMFORT
AT EASY ANSWERS, HALF TRUTHS AND
SUPERFICIAL RELATIONSHIPS SO THAT
YOU MAY LIVE DEEP WITHIN YOUR HEART.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH ANGER AT
INJUSTICE, OPPRESSION, AND EXPLOITATION
OF PEOPLE, SO THAT YOU MAY WISH FOR
JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND PEACE.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH ENOUGH
FOOLISHNESS TO BELIEVE THAT YOU
CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD,
SO THAT YOU CAN DO WHAT OTHERS
CLAIM CANNOT BE DONE.
. . .A FRANCISCAN BLESSING