Participants: Floyd Bresee
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000366
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00:30 Hi, I'm Pastor Floyd Bresee
00:34 and I've been thinking, it seems to me 00:36 there would be a lot more Christians, 00:39 if Christians were a lot more Christ like. 00:42 Let's pray about it. 00:45 Loving Father, please teach us 00:50 something today that will help us become 00:54 more Christ like Christians, 00:57 in Jesus name, Amen. 01:02 Our emphasis, our focus today 01:04 will be on prayer, what really is prayer, 01:08 and what is praying all about. 01:11 Let's leave our Bibles open to Psalm 103 and I 01:15 will be using the new international version. 01:20 I must confess that I don't totally 01:23 understand prayer, it's been a somewhat 01:26 puzzling subject to me and I'm not alone. 01:31 On a website poll of 678 responded and only 01:35 23 replied that they were satisfied with 01:39 the time that they spend in prayer. 01:42 In a gallop poll 3 out of 4 say that they 01:44 pray everyday and yet they see prayer 01:48 quite often as more a burden than a blessing 01:52 and a pleasure, they feel it's 01:54 important but they feel guilty because 01:56 they neglect prayer. Why do we neglect 02:02 prayer? Let me suggest three reasons, 02:06 first of all I think one reason is because 02:09 of advances in science and technology. 02:13 In drought, the farmer used to lift his face 02:16 toward heaven and pray for rain, 02:20 now he programs this computer so that the 02:24 irrigation system will automatically come on. 02:28 I think another reason that we neglect 02:30 prayer is because of prosperity, 02:34 it's pretty hard to pray in sincerity, 02:39 give us this day our daily bread when we 02:41 already have a month supply in the pantry. 02:46 The third reason why I think we neglect 02:49 prayer is because we've become disillusioned 02:53 with prayer and the fact that so many 02:55 of our prayers seem to go unanswered. 02:59 My wife's first husband was diagnosed with a 03:03 brain tumor and my first wife was 03:09 diagnosed with breast cancer. 03:13 And when the doctor came out of surgery 03:16 and told me that the cancer had 03:18 metastasized. I confess, I went into 03:25 the back area in the hospital 03:28 where they were doing some remodeling 03:30 and there was nobody there and I 03:32 slipped in behind the, the plastic sheet 03:35 covering the door and I paced back 03:36 and forth and I cried. Why? It wasn't fair, 03:43 she was such a good person. 03:48 Both of our friends, my present wife 03:51 and my friends, they prayed. 03:55 People around the world prayed and yet both 03:59 of our spouses died, it's easy to become 04:04 skeptical when prayers don't seem 04:07 to be answered. Well, why do we pray? 04:14 One of the strongest arguments for prayer 04:18 is simply the fact that Jesus prayed, 04:22 it must be worthwhile even if we don't totally 04:25 understand all about prayer. 04:27 If Jesus prayed then as Christians 04:30 we want to pray too, in fact we're not 04:32 Christ like until we learn to enjoy prayer 04:35 as Jesus did. Maybe we just 04:40 don't understand what prayer really is, 04:43 I want to suggest a definition today 04:47 and there are lots of them but try this. 04:50 Prayer is friendship, ownership and 04:56 partnership. Friendship, ownership and 05:02 partnership. There is a well known 05:04 definition of prayer. Prayer is the opening 05:07 of the heart to God as to a friend. 05:12 Prayer is friendship, but it's, 05:15 friendship with a friend who is vastly 05:18 different from us. We have a God who 05:25 wants to be our friend and yet we have a God 05:28 who is a God of, of such majesty and 05:32 prayer must balance intimacy and majesty. 05:40 At sometimes throughout history, 05:41 emphasis been on the majesty of God, 05:44 emphasis in our society today is on intimacy, 05:47 but in proper prayer we must balance 05:49 majesty and intimacy. Psalm 103 and verse 1. 05:54 Praise the Lord, O my soul; 05:57 all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 06:03 Holy, he is Holy and when I pray I 06:06 come into presence of a Holy God. 06:09 Now, I know is verse 19 and Psalm 103: 06:12 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, 06:15 and his kingdom rules over all. 06:21 Our verse says that we have a God 06:23 who is a holy God, his throne is in heaven, 06:28 he rules over all. He's the creator 06:32 and the sustainer of the universe, 06:34 we have a majestic God. 06:37 But we have also an intimate God. 06:40 Notice Psalm 103 and verse 11: 06:44 For as high as the heavens are 06:46 above the earth, so great is his love 06:50 for those who fear him. His love is just as 06:54 deep as the heaven is high, 06:58 in fact the whole reason why our great 07:01 God bothered to create and sustain 07:04 mankind is intimacy, he longs to be close 07:09 to his children. He created us because 07:12 he needed someone to love and someone 07:15 to love him. Jesus taught the 07:19 intimacy of prayer, he called God, Abba, 07:25 which his intimate father it, 07:28 it's kind of daddy. Nobody in the Old 07:32 Testament called God father, 07:35 but Jesus did a hundred and seventy times. 07:40 And so unfortunately our selfishness 07:45 turns the relational, the intimacy that 07:48 God longs for, turns the relational 07:51 into transactional. You go to the clerk and, 07:58 and give the clerk some money and the 08:01 clerk gives you groceries. 08:04 We go to God and we give our lives 08:09 to him and we expect him then to give us 08:12 whatever we ask for. Please understand, 08:17 we need God himself a whole lot more than 08:20 we need anything that he could 08:23 possibly give us. Our God rejoices 08:29 over every intimacy that we express to Him, 08:35 it's like a, a loving parent, 08:39 here's the little baby in the crib. 08:43 Oh how it thrills the parents heart when 08:48 the baby reaches out his arms to 08:51 mamma or daddy. And the baby lies 08:57 there and just cueing or what are absolutely 09:00 nonsensical words, oh how it thrills 09:05 the parent, that's the way God is. 09:08 Prayer is reaching out to God and although 09:13 what we say in our prayers may seem 09:16 really to be nonsensical cueing, 09:18 our reaching out and out approaching 09:21 God with a longing for intimacy 09:24 is pleasing to our heavenly Father. 09:29 Now friendship requires dialogue 09:31 not monologue, Mother Teresa was 09:34 well known for her prayers and she said, 09:39 here's the way it works, she was asked, 09:41 what the secret of your prayer power? 09:44 She said it's simple, he speaks and we listen, 09:48 we speak and he listens. 09:52 When I go on a trip with my wife, 09:55 I normally call her at least once everyday 10:00 and I tell her about my day and she tells 10:03 me about her day. Intimacy requires 10:10 dialogue and if we don't listen there isn't 10:14 going to be any intimacy, you may have notice 10:17 that people who are not very good listeners 10:19 don't get very close to other people. 10:21 Because intimacy requires dialogue 10:24 and the friendship with God includes intimacy. 10:29 Morning prayer's an excellent tim 10:31 to commit our day to God, evening prayers, 10:33 a wonderful time to review the day with God, 10:36 how did we do there, thank you for that one, 10:39 forgive me for what I did under 10:41 this circumstance. How can I do 10:43 better tomorrow. So, prayer is friendship, 10:48 it's a balancing of majesty and intimacy 10:53 and prayer is dialogue. So, that's our first 10:58 word, prayer is friendship, 11:00 now our second word, prayer is ownership. 11:04 Prayer is admitting ownership of our need, 11:07 Psalm 103 and verse 4, verse 4 of Psalm 103: 11:14 Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns 11:19 you with love and compassion, 11:23 who redeems your life from the pit. 11:28 Now, if you wanna get out of a pit, 11:32 the first requirement is that you know 11:34 you're in one and the second requirement 11:36 is that you wanna get out off it. We, 11:39 all of us are in a pit of sin and of death, 11:44 unfortunately our short sightedness just 11:48 wants to be entertained in the pit, 11:50 to live luxuriously in the pit. 11:53 God is the only way out, we have no future 11:57 outside him and we must admit our need 12:00 that we're helpless with that, 12:02 we're living in sin and looking forward to 12:04 nothing but death except he helps us 12:07 out of the pit. Now we all of us 12:10 have a second self. My granddaughter 12:15 Katy is the student of the Japanese language 12:20 and the Japanese have two words for self. 12:24 There's the self that we let people see 12:26 and then there's the self that we hide 12:29 hoping they cannot see. And we do that too, 12:32 there's a self that people see and there's 12:35 a self that we hope even God won't see. 12:39 We hide that second self for fear that 12:41 God will be displeased if he finds out what 12:43 we really are like, so in fact the hiding 12:46 maybe the very thing that displeases 12:49 God the most. Prayer maybe hardest for men, 12:58 it breaks the male code of traditional 13:01 masculinity, macho, in control, 13:04 not asking for help. That's what prayer is, 13:08 it's asking for help, in prayer we seek God's 13:11 help in routing out hidden offenses like 13:14 selfishness and pride and pretense and lack 13:18 of compassion. Now, a denial of our need 13:23 can be disastrous, in the presence of the 13:27 great physician, our most appropriate 13:29 contribution maybe our wounds. 13:33 I have or did have a friend who was 13:35 an alcoholic. One night we rushed 13:38 her to the hospital and I stood by her bedside 13:43 as the doctor stood over her and he 13:46 asked her if she had been drinking, 13:48 she denied no, I don't drink. 13:51 She denied the secret of which the physician 13:55 was already aware and my friend died 14:00 of psoriasis of the liver. 14:03 The doctor might have saved her if she had 14:05 just confronted her problem and admitted 14:08 her need and the great physician can 14:11 heal us and save us and gave us eternal life, 14:15 but only if we admit our need, 14:19 so prayer is claiming ownership also 14:22 of God's grace. First of all of our 14:25 need but it doesn't end there, 14:26 it's also claiming ownership 14:29 of God's grace. We pray gratefully 14:32 Psalm 103 and let's pick it up 14:35 with verse 10, verses 10 to 14: 14:37 He does not treat us as our sins deserve 14:41 or repay us according to our iniquities. 14:45 For as high as the heavens are 14:48 above the earth, high as the heavens 14:54 are above the earth, so great is his love 14:57 for those who fear him; as far as the east 15:01 is from the west, so far as he removed 15:03 our transgressions from us. 15:05 As a father has compassion 15:06 on his children, so the Lord has 15:09 compassion on those who fear him; 15:12 for he knows how we are formed, 15:14 he remembers that we are dust. 15:19 Possibly the most important purpose of 15:23 prayer is to simply let our true sinful 15:28 selves be loved by God. When we admit what 15:33 we are then God's grace accepts 15:37 us just as we are, but that same grace 15:41 that covers our sins also strengthens us, 15:44 it shows us what we can become. 15:48 Twice I've had the privilege of going 15:50 to Rome, to see the Sistine Chapel. 15:54 And the first time I went and looked 15:57 at that beautiful ceiling, 16:00 the paintings didn't come through very 16:02 well because they were all covered with grime 16:06 and then if you remember your history, 16:08 you will know that they closed the chapel 16:11 down and they got up there and they 16:12 worked and they worked and they worked 16:14 and they worked, it took a whole lot of 16:16 time to finally get rid of that grime 16:19 and the second time that I had the 16:21 privilege of going to the Sistine Chapel, 16:23 it was absolutely beautiful, 16:26 but it took someone to restore it 16:29 and it took time. We need somebody 16:33 to restore us and we should be patient 16:36 if it takes God himself sometime to get 16:40 the job done. Those paintings 16:43 became what they were meant to be 16:46 and though God and his grace we can become 16:51 what we were meant to be. 16:53 Angry honesty I believe is better than 16:57 pious pretense. God's grace is not afraid, 17:01 God is not frightened by your anger, 17:06 I've never preached very much 17:08 from the Psalms, I'll have to confess 17:12 that they frustrate me. When David wrote 17:16 the 23rd Psalm, the Shepherd Psalm, 17:19 or the 103rd Psalm that we're looking at today, 17:22 the song of praise, beautiful but other 17:26 Psalms are angry and whiny and sometimes 17:29 downright vengeful. David was not afraid 17:32 to confront God, but maybe that's 17:35 how he became a man after God's own heart. 17:39 God is not turned off by our doubts, 17:43 Jesus prayed his doubt, "My God, My God, 17:47 why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 17:50 We should pray grateful prayers, 17:53 they're important, repentant prayers, 17:54 they're most important. But maybe sometimes 17:58 it's proper to pray doubting and angry 18:00 and confrontational prayers because 18:03 they're important too. Remember our 18:06 relationship with God requires intimacy 18:09 and intimacy requires the pain 18:11 of confrontation. I know of a husband 18:15 who said we never fight, my wife and I, 18:17 I just put on my hat and walk out. 18:18 It's called avoidance fighting. 18:20 And if we don't confront one and other 18:22 when we have differences, 18:23 when we feel pain we never get very 18:26 close together, that marriage hasn't 18:28 much chance of intimacy. So, prayer is ownership 18:34 of our need and ownership of God's 18:37 grace to answer that need. 18:40 And then our third word, 18:41 prayer is partnership, prayer is not just 18:46 giving assignments to God. 18:49 This really is an awful picture of God, 18:51 a God who cares about other people 18:54 only if we beg him to. Jesus said, 18:57 the Father knows what you need before 18:59 you ask, he already cares, 19:01 he already loves, he's just waiting 19:03 for you to care enough to work with him. 19:07 As matter of fact I think that prayer 19:08 is many times spiritual laziness. 19:11 We pray, bless my family and bless that 19:13 hurting lady down the street and then 19:15 our conscious relaxes because we put 19:17 God to work and we can spend our 19:19 time on ourselves. Oh no, 19:21 prayer is partnering, prayer is partnering 19:24 with God in the assignments that 19:26 he gives us. Psalm 103 and verse 21: 19:31 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, 19:34 you his servants, you his servants, 19:40 who do his will. We are his servants, 19:43 we are not his bosses, we are committed 19:46 not to having him do our will, 19:48 but our doing his will. 19:51 Prayer is partnering with God, 19:54 we trust him to do the right thing, 19:59 prayer is reporting for duty. 20:03 And we ask God how can you and I 20:06 work together to help my family, 20:08 to help that hurting lady down the street. 20:11 Prayer is partnering with God, 20:14 and partnering with God we can trust him 20:16 to give right answers at the right time. 20:21 Now, I hope I don't offend anyone, 20:27 but it sometimes concerns me, 20:30 I think we train our children to 20:33 disbelieve in prayer. The typical children's 20:38 story in Bible school goes 20:41 something like this, little Johnny is, 20:43 is walking and running through the tall grass, 20:46 tossing the key that his folks have 20:49 entrusted him with, tossing it in the air 20:51 and all of a sudden it comes down he doesn't 20:53 catch it and he looks around and he can't 20:56 find it and then he, he kneels and he prays. 20:59 And he opens one eye sure enough there 21:02 it is, it's found. Well, it does happen, 21:07 it can happen, but as that boy grows older, 21:10 he finds that sure doesn't happen 21:13 very often, there's either 21:14 something wrong with prayer or something 21:15 wrong with God or something wrong 21:17 with me. Now, God works miracles but 21:21 not often to upset human carelessness 21:25 and never to override the human will. 21:29 The God who created natural law is always 21:33 able but sometimes reluctant to suspend 21:36 it in what we call miracles at least 21:39 not unless we have a very good reason. 21:43 So, to put it all together, 21:48 I think we must confess that to totally 21:51 understand prayer we'd have to 21:53 understand God and out brains are just 21:57 simply not big enough to manage that. 22:01 We've learned that prayer is friendship, 22:04 intimacy, requiring dialogue 22:06 we speak to him, he speaks to us. 22:09 Prayer is ownership of our sins; 22:12 ownership of God's grace, 22:15 prayer is partnership, working with God 22:18 to answer our prayers. We have learned to pray, 22:24 when we have learned to trust God 22:26 for the right answers at the right time. 22:30 And I've learned through life that my 22:32 skepticism about unanswered prayer 22:35 has often been the result of simply 22:39 a short memory. Remembering God's 22:42 no's and forgetting God's yes', 22:49 my wife Ellen prayed four basic prayers 22:57 after she was afflicted with cancer. 23:03 Her first prayer was that she might be 23:06 able to finish her ministry with her 23:08 husband we were working together 23:09 at the General Conference of 23:11 the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 23:12 the World Headquarters. 23:16 And we were traveling together and 23:20 I was teaching ministers and she was 23:23 teaching minister's wives and she wanted 23:26 to continue our ministry together 23:29 until our retirement. That was her 23:33 first prayer, God said yes, 23:35 she lived five years beyond retirement, 23:38 second prayer was that she not have 23:40 to die with some unbearable pain 23:45 and she been told that death from cancer 23:49 can be terribly painful it can go to the brain 23:56 or, or to the, the lungs or to the 23:59 bones which can be a very painful death. 24:04 She asked the Lord if it were necessary 24:07 for her to die could she die without 24:11 unbearable pain. And the cancer 24:15 went to her liver, it was a painless death, 24:19 she was doing her housework just 24:21 eight days before she died. 24:23 God said yes, her third prayer was 24:27 that she be able to die at home with her 24:29 husband by her side. Hospice brought in a 24:35 hospital bed and we set a cot up along 24:41 side her bed. And I slept beside her, 24:46 rubbing her fuzzy head that was just 24:49 recovering from chemotherapy until 24:55 we hours of the morning she quietly 24:59 went to sleep. God said yes, 25:04 and she had a forth prayer and the forth 25:07 prayer was for healing. And God said 25:13 later Ellen, later, how forgetful and how 25:20 ungrateful of me to say that God 25:22 didn't answer prayer. Beside all of that 25:27 by the way, he eventually sent me 25:29 a wonderful dilemma, who loves me 25:33 and whom I love with all my heart. 25:35 You see we learn to pray when we have 25:39 learned to remember the yes', 25:42 when we have learned to trust God for 25:45 the right answers at the right time. 25:50 And may I suggest if you have 25:54 questions about answered prayer, 25:57 if you think that God is all the time 25:59 turning you down. Won't you create 26:02 a book of remembrance; 26:04 write it down if you must, 26:05 put it into your computer. 26:08 Write down the times that God says yes 26:10 and God says yes and God says yes 26:14 and then when it seems like God says no, 26:16 you can open that book and you can look 26:18 at all of the yes'. And having received 26:22 so many yes', you be able to trust 26:25 God with the no's. To give you the 26:30 right answer at the right time, let's pray. 26:38 Father, we pray today as your disciples 26:44 did that you will truly teach us to pray, 26:51 help us to form our own book of remembrance. 26:57 So, that we can remember the yes' 26:59 that will help us trust the no's. 27:03 And may we trust you for the right answer 27:08 at the right time is our prayer, 27:12 in Jesus name, amen. 27:17 Thank you for your time with 27:19 Faith Chapel today, try that book of 27:23 remembrance if you're having serious 27:25 doubts about answered prayer. 27:30 Remember, prayer is friendship with God, 27:36 prayer is ownership both of our needs 27:41 and of God's grace answering those needs 27:45 and prayer is partnership, 27:48 partnership, let as be partners with God. |
Revised 2014-12-17