The Bedrock Of Prayer
A Sermon On:
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
The Bible tells us -
Then there's prayer.
Between yourself and God,
consider, if you will, the following questions:
How often do you pray in
a typical week?
Each day has 1440 minutes
- for all of us. Typically we ensure that a certain amount is given to
sleep, to work, to eating. How many of those minutes are put aside for
prayer?
What topics do you pray
about?
Do you tend to pray alone
or with others?
What fills up most of your
prayers – Praising God? Confessing faults & screwups? Saying thank
you? Asking?
Murder 31x. Adultery 88x.
Sabbath 117x..... important themes.
Prayer...... 350x.
Wow!
Though you don't want to
weigh the importance of everything in scripture through mere statistical
frequency, it does tell you something, don't you think?
We're going to begin the new millennium by focussing our morning worship services here at Calvin church on the theme of prayer. In the coming weeks we'll consider topics such as:
Listen to these words from Psalm 119:9-16. If you want to follow along, you'll find them on p.697 –
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.If you were talking to a young person heading out into life, wondering how to set things up in the best possible way - where would you direct that individual?
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. (Psalms 119:9-16)
I seek you with all my heart.People say that if you want to know how to operate something properly, the best thing you can do is get the instructions from the one who designed it.
You.... the Lord.
I have hidden your word in my heart....
teach me your decrees....
I rejoice in following your statutes...
Did you see the commercial
that was on TV recently – featured a bunch of buddies in the backyard trying
to put a barbeque together? While they're struggling away on the deck,
muttering and trying to look like they knew what they were doing, the instruction
booklet is fluttering in the breeze on the grass....... The assembly??
It isn't happening.
We laugh when we see stuff
like that.
Or when we encounter the
other prototypical typical "guy" thing -
Perhaps you've seen the
little article entitled, "If The Three Wise Men Had Been The Three Wise
Women". In addition to cleaning the stable, and being on time, they
would have asked for directions.
"It's OK dear. No problem. Been this way once before in 1973. My mind is a steel trap when it comes to directions....... hmmmm - looks like they changed the road."
What's with that? Why not
ask for directions or reading the manual?
And ladies - before you
laugh too much, all of us as human beings have that very
problem when it comes to working our way through life;
when it comes to building
a decent, whole, fruitful existence here on earth.
Our Father in Heaven wrote
the book, drafted the plans, and created the whole business - what we call
the Cosmos.
But how often don't people
forget to ask for direction; forget to read the divine Instruction Manual
which is so readily available to us?
Our church is named after
one of the founders of our particular brand of Christianity - the Reformed
family of churches. His name was John Calvin. Starting point for Calvin
in living life was what he calls "the right knowledge of God." (Institutes
I.1.1).
Know God. Know
what He intends. Know Him personally.
You need that for life.
You need that for growing
as a Christian.
And you need that for any
semblance of a decent prayer life.
In a sermon entitled "The
Privilege of Prayer" Calvin declares -
This is the true fruit
of faith, to know that God is our Father, and to be moved by His love.
The way is open for us to run to Him, and it is easy to pray to Him when
we are convinced that His eyes are upon us, and that He is ready to help
us in all our necessities. (in Pray With Fire by Guy Chevreau
p.138).
How best can you know God?
And - for the purposes of
our upcoming series on prayer – how best can you lay the foundation for
developing a life of prayer that works, that moves in the right direction?
Pay careful attention to
God's Word as revealed in the Bible. That's right up front. We're going
to be doing an awful lot of that. In fact, that's a central non-negotiable
for all of our community life here at Calvin Church! If the Bible clearly
says "no" then its not something you'll see here. And if
the Bible says "yes you may.... you are encouraged to..... you must"
- well, if you want to say "NO - none of that here" please be prepared
to come up with some clear, sound explanation to support a "why not."
How best can you know God?
The Bible.... AND....
Think back to the season we're just coming through - the season of Christmas.
One of the passages I read several times in Christmas worship was this,
from John 1:
In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with
God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made..... In Him was
life, and that life was the light of men."
The Word, according to John,
is personal - a person. The source of life.
The Word
is Jesus.
To see God's promises personalized,
realized, full and true -
To understand the depth
of God's care for the human race -
To understand how full His
concern and love -
See and know His Holy Definitive
Word
The Word that became flesh
and blood human.
See.......
Know......
Jesus.
Let me quote our namesake, John Calvin, again. These are introductory words from his main teaching on prayer -
In Christ [God] offers all happiness in place of our misery, all wealth in place of our neediness; in Him He opens to us the heavenly treasures that our whole faith may contemplate His beloved Son, our whole expectation depend upon Him, and our whole hope cleave to and rest in Him. After we have been instructed by faith to recognize that whatever we need and whatever we lack is in God, and in our Lord Jesus Christ, it remains for us to seek in Him, and in prayers to ask of him, what we have learned to be in Him. (Institutes III.20.1)Growing in prayer involves not just reading the right instruction manual, the Bible, but getting to personally know the Maker, the Designer. And we have the awesome privilege of doing that personally through His Son, Jesus.
Through Jesus the power,
the life, the hope, the eternal peace of Heaven flows into us – into us
through the Holy Spirit. In that power and life and hope and peace we can
learn to grow in prayer.
Without Christ you have
none of that.
God remains totally other.
Prayer remains distant.
You remain an alien to heaven.
And no matter what all else
you may learn about technique, or content, or process of praying, it will
amount to absolutely nothing.
Life - including prayer
life -
begins, grows and depends
totally on Jesus.