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Jun 05, 2016

Prayer Workshop, Prayer 301

Prayer Workshop, Prayer 301

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Master Class: Prayer

Category: Prayer

Keywords: answers to prayer, confession, types of prayer

Summary:

Prayer is an action that builds relationship with God, not a topic to be studied. So this week we're engaging in prayer through a number of avenues as well as sharing insights and issues around prayer.

Detail:

Prayer Workshop

Prayer 301

Series: Praying with Jesus—June 5, 2016

 

Readings & Prayers for Communion: 

Hebrews 12

3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!

 

PRAYER

Holy God, Lord most gracious!

Rebuke us not in your anger, nor discipline us in your wrath!
Holy Father, you have called us to come to you.

We feel unworthy, for we have failed you again and again.

We feel like running away, yet you keep calling us to yourself.
Have mercy on us, O God.  Have mercy!

 

Holy God, Father most gracious!

Rebuke us not in your anger,

nor chasten us in your wrath!

Heal us from our sin, for we are troubled.
Deliver us for the sake of your steadfast love.

 

Our sins trouble us, O God.

We are troubled by how they have hurt others.
We are troubled by how they have hurt us.

Your ways are right! O righteous God!
And whenever we have refused to follow them

we have found out how right they are.

Have mercy on us, O God.

Holy God, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

have mercy on us for the sake of your Son,

who died to free us from our sins.

Hughes Oliphant Old,
Leading in Prayer,
The Book of Common Worship (1932),
Grand Rapids: Erdmans Publishing, 1995

 

Almighty Father;

we enter your presence confessing the things we try to conceal from you…

and the things we try to conceal from others.

We confess the heartbreak, worry, and sorrow we have caused,

that make it difficult for others to forgive us,

the times we have made it easy for others to do wrong,

the harm we have done that makes it hard for us to forgive ourselves.

Lord have mercy and forgive us through Christ. Amen.

Paul E. Engle,
Baker’s Worship Handbook,
Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998

 

INVITATION TO CONFESSION  [by Beth Merrill Neel]
To stand at the foot of the cross, to witness the suffering of an innocent man, is to be humbled in a profound way. Whether we think Jesus died for our sins, or whether we think Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, the truth remains that he died… and we are changed… and yet we remain unchanged in so many ways. For those ways in which we remain unchanged by that suffering and sacrifice, let us make our confession.

 

O Lamb of God, we remain unmoved by your tears, by your slow dying. 
We hear the taunts, and pretend our words are always sweet.
We watch you forgive, and yet we hoard grace for ourselves.
We know you died, and we go on about our usual way of living.
Forgive us for not stopping, 

for not weeping, 

for not acknowledging that we allow your children in our time to suffer.

Heal our broken, imperfect hearts, 

that we might love more fully and more wondrously,

following You, O Lamb that takes away our sin,

into death as well as into life. Amen.

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Merciful God, we offer you our lives, full as they are of shadow and light, of kindness and apathy, of hope and despair. Take what is broken and mend it; take what is wrong and right it; take what is destructive and disable it; take what is useless and make it useful.

Through Your sinless BROKENNESS, forgive and heal what is sinfully broken in us:

            Forgive and heal our broken words that wound others…and our broken silence that isolates others.

Forgive and heal our confused feelings that often fail to feel what we should towards others… and equally feel what we should not of jealousy, lust, hatred, envy and dislike.

            Forgive and heal our broken thoughts that depart from Your thoughts about ourselves, our family members, our neighbors, our church, our nation, other races and other peoples.

            Forgive and heal our broken desires of wanting what we should not desire, and not desiring what we should long for.

            Forgive us for our broken actions that have ignored our neighbors, hated our enemies, been unconcerned about the lost and have not loved sacrificially one another—the redeemed.

May the sinless brokenness of your body heal the sinful brokenness of our entire being.  May your bruised, battered and flesh bring healing to our weak bodies, our distracted minds, our confused emotions and stubborn wills. 

And may your heart, which broke for us under the weight of all our sin, replace and renew our hearts broken by so much in this world. 

May the treasure of Christ which we carry in these cracked and broken vessels of clay shine forth to Your glory and Your honor, both now and forever, Amen.

[PASS THE BREAD]

SONG

CUP

Leader:

God is light; in him there in no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him,
yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and son not live by the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, 
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we 
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (John 1:5b-8) 

Leader:

O Changeless God,
Under the conviction of the Spirit we learn that 
The more we try to do to feel good before you, the more we fail.
The more we think we know, the less we really know,
The more holiness we feel we have, the more sinful we are,
The more we learn to love, the more we learn there is so much more to love.
O wretched people that we are!

O Lord,
I have a wild heart,
And cannot stand quietly before You;
I am like a bird flitting about before a window.
How little I love Your truth and ways!

I neglect prayer,
by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly,
by knowing You have saved my soul eternally,

by thinking activity is a good substitute for intimacy.


Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be a spiritual hypocrite,
Who sins more indifferently because grace abounds,
Who hides my lusts in the shadow of the glorious cross,
Who reasons that God will not discipline me because I am forgiven,
Who prefers hearing Christian preachers, teachers and writers, than the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit.

My soul is a bucket without a bottom,
Ever-needy, grasping, going deeper for water that does not satisfy.

With no spiritual understanding,
Little desire for the Lord’s presence,
Ever learning but never reaching the truth,
Too little at the well that holds the Water of life.

My conscience is without conviction or contrition,
Far too often with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power of decision or resolution.
My heart is without affection, and full of leaks.
My memory has limited retention,
So I forget so easily the lessons learned,
And Your truths seep away.

Holy God, we admit to You that all is not right – in our hearts and in our world,

We look to the darkness and not to the light.

We look for what is broken, and not at what is being mended.

We look to criticize and not to praise.

We look at ourselves and not to You.

 

Turn us around so that we look at the cross of Christ, at hope, at promise, at grace, at healing, at love.

Give us broken hearts that yet carry about the water of grace,

Grace that can only be given…and received…at the cross of Christ my Lord.

We pray this in the powerful and loving name of Jesus Christ, Amen

 [Adapted and revised from The Valley of Vision edited by Arthur Bennett]

For the remainder of this morning, we’re going to do something very different.  Rather than launch into a time where you listen to my thoughts on God’s word, we’re going to turn the tables today. 

            A series on prayer is a lot like a class on marriage…or friendship…or dating.  Why would anyone take a class like that? 

            Sure, you do it because…you want a better marriage or at least you want your marriage to be a growing one.  If you do a study on friendship, you probably are interested in deepening your friendships in life…or maybe getting some!  If you read a book on dating, I hope you’re looking for a date or two—and hopefully a really good dating experience. 

            So here’s the question when it comes to prayer:  What do we really want to experience in prayer? 

Write down at least one answer to that question.  [Give 30 seconds...and then share some answers.]

Let’s figure out, at list for us today, what are the top _____ things we want to experience in prayer:  [Make list.]

Now, before we talk about HOW we can have these experiences in prayer, I’d like to hear WHAT you may have been experiencing in the last couple of months regarding this thing we call prayer.  Prayer is really all about communication between us humans and our God.  Reflective thought through language is one of the ways we are made in the image of God. Animals may communicate basic pieces of information through sounds.  But smart as they are, they don’t sit around and have philosophical discussions about the meaning of life…or political debates about the economy or how business is going in the jungle. 

            Communication on the human plain can radically shape friendships, families and even world history. 

            So what can communication between people and God do?  If human ideas and conversation has the ability to alter my life significantly, how much more communication between us and God? 

            Notice, I’ve been talking about communication between us and God.  How many of us have found prayer to be a 2-way street, a discussion or conversation between God and us?

            So this is what I’d like to take a few minutes to do right now.  I’d like to hear any way in which your life has been changed through prayer over the past couple of months. 

  • Seen God answer a prayer?
  • Sensed God speak to you about your communication with Him/prayer life…or something else in life?
  • Been moved to try something different? Change something up about your prayer life?

[Large group sharing—using mic.]

Let’s talk for a moment about different KINDS of praying.  We’re all made just a little differently.  Some of us love a crowd…and some hate crowds.  Some like sitting at a table with 1 or 2 close friends having 30 minutes of deep conversation… while others prefer hours of chit-chat… perhaps with a cast of dozens.  Some don’t like to talk at all but may like to listen to others.  Some don’t like to listen OR talk.  J

            Prayer can be the same way.  What are the different WAYS of praying that you’ve experienced that have been meaningful or helpful to you?

  • Walking and praying.
  • Prayer walking.
  • Running and praying.
  • Praying all day long.
  • Special/set times of prayer (morning, noon, evening)
  • Family prayer.
  • Prayer with your spouse.
  • Men’s/women’s prayer groups.
  • Prayer journaling/writing your prayers
  • Prayer list: how do you divide it?
  • Prayer box/file
  • Prayer retreats
  • Prayer maps
  • Prayer partners
  • Praying in tongues
  • Prayer vigils (Moody recently)
  • Prayer teams
  • House of prayer
  • Reading written prayers
  • Praying the Psalms/Scripture passages
  • ???

Some of these simply require that we individually make a decision to do something different.  Some require that others join us in an experience.  So let’s prayer over this list of WAYS of praying for a few moments and ask GOD if he wants to improve our communication with Him…and let’s tell God if WE want a change in our communication with Him?

Now, what 1 thing do you think has a high probability of actually growing your communication/prayer life with God?   Write that down!

Now, WHEN will you make that change?  Today?  Monday? This week? Next week? (I doubt it!) Next month?  (I highly doubt it.)

Now, IF you are ready to actually make a commitment to try this out for at least 1 month, write that 1 thing you will do to grow your prayer life on the “Connect Card” tear off and put it in the special benevolent offering we’re going to take in a few minutes.  

Now, let’s go BACK to the top things we want to experience in communication with God.  Just HOW can we experience those things? 

  • Invite feedback.
  • Point to appropriate Scripture.

Closing prayer experience:  There are several people and ministries that really need our intercession.  James 5:16-18—

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

  • Some of you are facing some kind of personal crisis that has the potential to dramatically change your life: health, finances, marriage/family/children, education, decision about the future, job/unemployment, housing.  If that is you…and you want God’s people praying for you, STAND.  Now I’d like the people who know you to gather around you and everyone else pick a group, join it and join in agreement with that group. 
    1. Person with the need: you have 60 seconds or less to explain the need.
    2. Several people in your group pray for that person as the Holy Spirit leads you.
  • We have some among us stepping out into some major change this summer—marriage (Derik & Zoe); ministry & move (Sam, Krista; Arturo, Andrew Bair, Eric, ???), other?
    1. Gather around them & PRAY!