John 14:13-14 (Praying In His Name)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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If you remember last week, we talked about the fact that Jesus has now huddled his disciples together for the last

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Training session that he is going to give them before he is arrested before he is crucified and Then before he eventually

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Goes back to the Father in heaven He's gonna be giving them one final talk Which means he's gonna be prepping them to do the work that he's called them to do and that work is to build the kingdom

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Of God he has called them to be his builders while he goes to heaven to oversee the construction

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He has called them to be his soldiers while he goes to headquarters to oversee the war And he's giving them one final lesson

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That's gonna comprise the most important things That he wants to tell them.

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We're in a season of graduation If you look at what the speeches that are given during graduation

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They're always trying to get at the most important aspects of now that you've finished with this degree

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Now what this is sort of what Jesus is doing. He's giving them the most important things so they can

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Go out and do the marching orders that Christ has given them now we've just barely gotten into the

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The upper room discourse, which is what it's called three week or two weeks ago We talked about Jesus's teaching on faith and what a blessing that was because we learned that that God is the one who saves us

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From all eternity. He elects us. He foreknows us. He draws us. He changes us.

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He adopts us He does every bit of the salvation process. So by the time that we call out to him

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Lord, I want to follow you There's been an eternity of work underneath that that's brought you to himself.

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You were dead. He made you alive That's what we talked about two weeks ago last week. We talked about from that now.

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What do we do? We're saved now Now what do we do and we talked about the works that Christ has given us to do the greater works and we talked about what?

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that meant Does not mean that we do greater works than Jesus Qualitatively because none of us here have risen from the dead.

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So if you ever risen from the dead You haven't done a greater work than Christ What Jesus is getting at is that we will take the work that he started in Jerusalem and we will take it to the ends of the earth

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That Christ by his spirit through the church Will overcome the world with his gospel.

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That's the greater work that he's talking about. We talked about that last week Today we're gonna be talking about the first great work of the

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Christian Which is prayer and if prayer is the first one that follows that topic of greater works

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And we ought to really understand how important prayer is It's central to the

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Christian life and really in many ways There's no greater labor than prayer because prayer is the admission that we have no power the greatest work we can do for our marriage the greatest work that we can do in our family the greatest work that we can

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Do in our lives is to admit to God. I have no power and I need you That's the greatest work that you and I could ever do

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So it's no Surprise that prayer is the first great work that Christ speaks about As we make disciples of the nations as we build the kingdom prayer is gonna be the lifeblood of the church

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Now we may ask yourself. Why is Jesus teaching on prayer? Well prayer is essential Out of all the things that he could teach on he's teaching about prayer because like I said earlier like a general's final address before The soldiers go into the battle

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This is going to be the thing that's going to help them and aid them in their mission Jesus viewed prayer is absolutely critical to the mission critical to advancing the kingdom of God If you're a marine it would be your bayonet

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If you were a samurai it would be your katana sword if you were a fisherman It would be your hook prayer.

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Is that essential to your life and it's important for a variety of reasons

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Prayer is our communing with God We could we could preach a series of sermons on this

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So forgive me if I'm gonna have to go quickly through the material. I don't intend to you know me But we are gonna go quickly prayer is communing with God You think about soldiers who are who are getting their marching orders from a general and then they leave and they don't have any contact

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With the general anymore. He goes back to the command tent. They don't see him anymore, but he gives them equipment

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He gives them radio so that they can call in and so they can get the marching orders and and be in contact with their

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General prayer is the wartime radio that Christ has given to the church to commune with him

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He has not left us alone Prayer is the definitive declaration that you are not alone in the mission that God has called you to but he is with you

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Prayer is about communing with the Living God Prayers also a means of grace

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If you've ever visited someone in the hospital who's hooked up to a set of IVs That IV is what is a conduit by which nutrients are getting into the body.

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Maybe they're in a coma Maybe they're unable to feed themselves, but they're still getting nutrients because of this intravenous sort of method that is what prayer is prayer is a way that God is taking his nourishment and He's bringing it into the soul of his people

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Prayer is a means of grace. It's a conduit by which grace flows to the believer

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If you want to live a grace less life live a prayer less life Maybe you didn't hear me

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If you want to have a grace less life than live a prayer less life Because it is a means by which

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God brings you grace Prayer also aligns our will to God You just as you pray you'll realize that your heart is changing its molding it's shaping you have new cravings new appetites as you pray in The same way that that a turkey becomes this beautiful thing inside of an oven

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It's baked in the oven. You are baked in the will of God by being in prayer Before that you're useless

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After that you're something exquisite the prayer bakes you in his will changes you the longer we pray

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The harder we pray the more that we pray The more we smell like act like think like walk like Christ There's other benefits of prayer it deepens our understanding of God It opens us up to receive from God.

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It's a humble acknowledgement that you are not enough It gives us strength and faith and trust it fosters humility.

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It becomes a witness to the own -looking world It is a weapon in our warfare It provides us a place to make our requests known to God and it's a place where we can intercede for the lives of others

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God has given us the manifold blessings of God through prayer but One of the important reasons why

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I think Jesus is talking about this is because it's not all easy

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When we think about prayer we think about all the benefits of it, but how often do you and I not pray How many difficulties are there with prayer you think about the things that God most richly blesses are the things that Satan attacks most fiercely marriage family prayer

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This great gift that he's given you is the very thing that Satan attacks and there's various different reasons Why you and I will neglect the discipline of prayer

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Maybe number one. We haven't thought that prayer is that effective? We pray and we feel like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.

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We don't see anything happening We don't we don't experience anything magical. Maybe we have neglected the discipline of prayer because we think it's not effective

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But what we often do is that we're the ones who are defining what effective is

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So that when we have defined that prayer means that I should receive this or prayer means that I should get that Oftentimes we're left disappointed because that's not what prayer is

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It's like us getting mad that we can't dribble a football down a basketball court We misuse prayer

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Often for our own selfish motives and we don't understand what prayer is I've seen so many people who've prayed and lost a loved one and they said my prayers didn't work

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Well, the object of your praying is not to rescue loved ones from death. All people are gonna die

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Your prayer is for something greater than that It's not it's not to save your grandma from death.

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Your prayer is so that you can know the living God So we mistreat prayer

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How many how many people have become frustrated at prayer because they they didn't get a raise or their marriage did not get saved or They treated prayer as if it were a vending machine

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Where God's rewards just need to be doled out to us if we push the right button say the right code

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Push it in sequence in the exact right way do the Harry Potter thing and then it's just supposed to work automatically

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We've misunderstood what prayer is. We're bouncing a football down a basketball court, and we're wondering why we look awkward and Why it's not working

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Now the question I want to ask is will God reward us for misusing prayer?

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If we're using it in the wrong way is God obligated to give us What we desire

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Or is there an obligation for us to understand what prayer is and to? Employ prayer in a biblical way to do prayer like the

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Bible says Because prayer is about God prayer is about spending time with God prayer is about receiving more of God If when you pray your desire is to receive more of God's gifts instead of the giver

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You've misunderstood what prayer even is Prayer is not about getting more stuff.

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It's about getting God because if we do that, we will be sorely disappointed

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That's number one. We don't know how prayer is effective because we've not defined effective correctly Number two a reason that we struggle with prayer.

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I struggle with prayer is because of distractions physical mental emotional spiritual

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The world the flesh and the devil Distracts us now. I'm gonna be honest with you. I write my sermons out in full.

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I write every word I don't say every word, but it's all here. You can look as I was writing this sentence this sentence two emails popped up one text message in a

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YouTube comment that a new Chess video had come out because I like watching chess videos because I'm that guy.

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I'm nerdy It happened all at once So I turned off all my notifications

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I repented of But the world is clamoring for our attention We see it all the time

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The our phones are blowing up all the time constantly in our pockets the news articles that everything is just clamoring for us to get off track and if we if we live that sort of moment -by -moment iterative lifestyle, then we will not

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Thrive in a discipline like prayer. We won't be able to slow down long enough Have you ever went away?

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I? Read this in a in a book. I think it's called creativity Inc. The guy's not a Christian But he said once a year he goes away and Then he spends time by himself and for the first three days.

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He can't accomplish anything because his head is just a mess. I Tried it. It's true it takes about two to three days just to Decompress from all of the stuff that you and I live in the moment by moment second by second interactions and and Notifications and all of that and by the time you've spent about three days by yourself

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You finally have peace in your mind and you can think I Think solitude is one of the most neglected

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Christian disciplines today We're always connected. We always have a light on we always have the phone nearby

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The discipline of solitude goes right in line with prayer Teaching ourselves how to not be distracted

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We have health concerns relational strains. We worry about our children We have events that are coming up playoff games to watch

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Performance reviews at work and then in the midst of all of the cacophony of all of that prayer gets choked out

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And it becomes almost impossible Number three another reason why we don't pray is guilt and shame prayer exposes us.

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Does it not? You can feel fine The moment you bow your head the moment you start praying that sin that struggle that pain that hurt comes

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Flooding over you and you feel like Adam and Eve in the garden all over again naked and ashamed So many people have avoided going to prayer going to God because they're ashamed of something in their past ashamed of some sin ashamed of some brokenness guilt

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Causes us to neglect prayer when in fact, it's the very discipline we should run towards Our busy schedules and our priorities cause us to neglect prayer

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Some of us when we pray it feels like a one -sided conversation we feel awkward like we're talking to ourselves I worked in a jail when people start talking to themselves.

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There's a problem, but we can feel that way

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We don't have a view of God interacting with us through Scripture and through the through prayer We maybe we go through spiritual dryness.

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Maybe we don't see the results. Maybe we don't know how to pray Many people don't know how to pray and they don't know how to ask because it makes them feel ashamed that they don't know

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How to pray the disciples didn't know how to pray and Jesus taught them What I found is

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That prayer is one of the most powerful and poignant blessings that God has given us and it's one of the most

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Easy disciplines for us to avoid for various different reasons. Maybe you have reasons that I haven't even mentioned But often is the case when

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God gives us great blessings it comes with struggle it comes with All kinds of things that make us want to avoid it

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And it's not just about prayer. It's not just about prayer. It's not just about prayer. It's not just about praying Jesus brings this into his final lecture because it's that important that we be a praying people

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It's that important that we love prayer practice prayer experience the presence of God in prayer and We know that this is true because the world and the flesh and the devil hate prayer.

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So it must be From God if that's the case Now today

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I want to go to John 14 13 through 14 just two verses. That's twice what we did last week

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So we're making progress and we're gonna talk about three things today We're gonna talk about what does it mean to pray in Jesus's name?

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We're gonna talk about what it means to pray like Jesus to have a prayer life that looks like his and then we're gonna talk about why all of that is

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Significant so if you will You already know we're in John 14 Meet me there in verse 13 and 14 and we will examine these scriptures together

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John 14 Whatever you ask in my name that will

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I do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son and If you ask me anything in my name,

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I will do it the Word of the Lord. Let's pray Lord Jesus.

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This is a passage that has been mightily misunderstood Lord I pray today that we would let your word speak

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That we would let your spirit work that we would grab hold of what it means to pray in your name

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That we would understand what that looks like and why that's so significant how that would be utterly life -changing if we grab hold of it

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Lord, I pray that we would see that the light bulb would go off the epiphany would happen Lord I pray that we would walk out of here

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More committed to prayer not out of legalism moralism or duty Because we want to increase our delight in Christ We want to receive more grace

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We want to know you more the power of your resurrection more Lord. Let us have that motivation To employ prayer as a way of experiencing more joy in you in Christ's name.

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Amen Now the question we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean to pray in Jesus's name?

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Is it just the thing that you say the postscript the sign -off tag in Jesus's name?

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I'm done Or is it more than that? I Believe it's much more than that.

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And John is the only gospel that actually talks about praying in Jesus's name The other

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Gospels talk about Jesus's name and what that means and we'll talk about that in a moment But John's Gospels the only one that talks about praying in the name of Christ So John has a specific point that he's trying to get across to us and it is not a tagline or a sign -off to your prayer

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It shows up actually three times in the gospel of John and every time it shows up is in the upper room discourse Which is fascinating First time it shows up is in our passage today.

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Whatever you ask in my name that I will do Shows up in John 15 verse 16

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You did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and That your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the

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Father in my name. He may give you final passages in John 16 verse 23 through 27 and that day

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You will not question me about anything Truly truly I say to you if you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you

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Until now you have asked for nothing in my name Asking you will receive so that your joy may be full.

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What a glorious verse that is These things I have spoken to you in figurative language an hour is coming when

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I no longer speak to you in figurative language but I will tell you plainly of the Father and That day you ask in my name and I do not say to you that I will request of the

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Father on your behalf for the Father himself loves you because you loved me and Believe that I came from the

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Father Three times in the upper room discourse. He tells us to pray in Jesus's name

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He even says that it's not because that I'm going to be representing you Although he is he's saying that you are going to be praying in his name to the

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Father because the Father loves you because you're in Christ Which is a beautiful thing Now again that tells us why it's important.

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It doesn't tell us what it is What is it to pray in Jesus's name? Well, there's some background on this at that particular time period in Israel there was what's called name incantations

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There were Jewish magicians believe it or not The Jews were not allowed to practice sorcery and witchcraft and incantations and divinations

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But we know that Jesus says that that generation was lawless and that the love of God had grown cold in that generation

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So there were men and women who were practicing magic. You can look at a man named Elamos in Acts chapter 13 who was practicing

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Magic He was rebuked mightily for that, but it's there We have record in history that there were

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Jews who were practicing this this wasn't just a Gentile phenomenon It was a Jewish phenomenon and they were evoking the name of God They were saying their prayers in the name of God why so that they could perform signs and wonders

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So they could lead the people astray We read in Luke 21 earlier.

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You can also read in Matthew 24 That There will be some who will perform signs and wonders to lead the people astray do not follow them

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This is what they were doing. They were performing signs and Wonders to lead the people astray.

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They were evoking the name of God They were trying to convince people that they were the Messiah But we know from the scriptures where God's power truly comes from it doesn't come from men and women performing signs and miracles and wonders in Fact oftentimes those who are seeking these sorts of witchcraft and stuff are said that they have the power of demons that are in them so these men were not finding their power in God and Jesus is not appealing to this custom to substantiate praying in his name

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Some scholars have argued that but if Jesus is appealing to this Jewish magicians custom

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Then he would be appealing to a sort of prayer that is common in paganism and that is not what Jesus is doing

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He would basically be saying that the disciples need to Tack on his name at the end of their prayer so that they can make sure that they get whatever they want

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Men do this all the time today Where they say you need to ask in faith believe and you will receive put

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Jesus's name on it the Ford Raptor will show up in your driveway The magic genie sort of prayer is not what

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Jesus was advocating for This was going on at the time, but Jesus is not endorsing it.

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He's he's actually creating a contrast to that Now there's also the

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Greek and the Roman Background which also had this sort of thing that was going on Matthew chapter 6

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Jesus tells you don't pray like the pagans who heap up vain repetitions You remember the prophets of Baal?

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They were cutting themselves and they were Repeating the same phrases over and over and over again because they were trying to get the attention of the gods and Elijah said your

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God Must be on the toilet Talk a little louder at that time

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Your only hope is that you could get the gods to notice you because they didn't really care for you

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If you read Greek mythology, they're flippant They're arrogant. They're sinful. They're ugly and You have to sort of manipulate them to get them to do what you want

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And what they would do at that time is they would say all the names of all the gods He would say oh dear

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Zeus Aphrodite and Athena and they would just start piling them up because maybe one of them will hear me

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Maybe one of them will listen and give me what I want They were sort of increasing their

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Chances of success sort of like a child who goes to the mom and asks for a piece of candy and then immediately goes to the father

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Trying to increase their chances. Have you asked mom? No, of course not Their motivation was to get

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God's attention because God was not omnipotent in the Greek culture God was not omniscient in the

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Greek culture. So they had to work really hard in prayer to get God to notice them That's not what

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Jesus is talking about either Because God hears all of our prayers God knows even the thoughts of our heart.

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So it's not a question of whether God hears us or not That's not what this is all about You don't pray in Jesus's name to get him to notice you like Jesus is in heaven saying they didn't pray in my name

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I don't even know if they're talking to me. Maybe they're talking to someone else. Maybe they're talking to something else That's not what

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Jesus is doing There's some funny instances of of this sort of Roman and Greek mythology playing out if a

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Roman temple priest Let his hat fall off of his head He'll be fired

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Because he ruined the prayer that sort of You know superstitious way

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There was also the magistrates who would read the prayers of the old poets and if they misspoke one syllable

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They would be taken down off of the platform because they ruined the prayer Do you see all of this is getting at?

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The Jewish magicians were using God to get what they wanted The Greeks and the Romans were saying we have to do all the work because our gods aren't really that powerful

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Jesus is not saying any of that Jesus is appealing to a biblical tradition of what it means to be in the name of God In the

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Old Testament when God evokes his own name He is appealing to his authority and to his power and to his character when

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God uses his name He is saying that this is who I am I am that I am as a declaration of his character and not necessarily the spelling of his name

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When God appeals to himself at shorthand for himself, it is his identity. It's his character.

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It's his power It's his glory that he's communicating. So when God uses his name, he's communicating himself for instance

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Psalm 23 3 He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness

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If we don't read on we could think well God's really into me He really loves me.

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He guides me He guides me by the paths of righteousness. He must be really into me

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He must really like me Makes me sit by still waters. That's pretty nice Nice and luscious green grass he's into me.

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He digs me. Why does he do it? Does it for his name's sake?

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He doesn't do it for the spelling of his name He doesn't do it for how his name is written on a page

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He does it for himself for his glory when he says that he does it for his namesake. He's saying that he does it for him

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God saves us and redeems us and brings us to himself for himself for his glory for his

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Recognition and fame God saves us to declare his own glory. That's what that means his name.

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His name just means him Exodus 9 16 his name showcases his power and his might but indeed for this reason

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I have allowed you to remain in order to show you my power and in order to proclaim my name throughout all the earth

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God is not interested in just telling people what his name is His name communicates relationship with him when his name redounds to the ends of the earth

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That's when people know him his name communicates him There's a

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Hebrew way of thinking here That when the name of God goes to the ends of the earth that declares his power his glory in his

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Relationship when you know his name, you know him in Isaiah 48 9 for the sake of my name

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I delay my wrath and my and for my praise I restrain it in order not to cut you off He's declaring again his character in his glory

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Deuteronomy 18 20 19 through 20 it shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words

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Which he shall speak in my name. I myself will require it of him But the prophet who speaks the word presumptuously in my name, which

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I have not commanded him to speak That prophet shall die He's not saying that just because a prophet says something and he tags on the name of God at the end

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That's the problem. He is spoken for God He's used God's name is speaking for him and because he's done that he must die

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The name stands in for who God is Psalm 9 2

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I will be glad and exult in you. I was seeing praises to your name None of us gather here today and imagine we had a big sign up here flashing lights

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It says God and we sing praises to this word God That's not what we're doing. The word represents the person

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We are singing praises to the name of God because we're singing praises to the God who has this name

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Matthew 18 20 for where two or three are gathered together in my name. I am there in the midst of them

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We're not gathered together Just in a name Physically speaking written down on a piece of paper that we're all holding

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We're gathered in the presence of Christ his name communicates his presence his name communicates his glory his name communicates his characteristics and attributes and who he is the name encompasses all of him

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So that when you say the name you're saying him When you say the name you're saying his character when you say the name you're saying the person

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Matthew 10 22 you will be hated by all because of my name You're not hated because of his name you're hated because you know him the name communicates him

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Matthew 18 5 whoever receives one child and my name receives me You're not receiving

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Christ by just receiving someone in the name You can go down to Mexico and receive someone in the name of Jesus spelled the same way

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It's not about the spelling When you receive a little child in the name of Christ you're receiving them as Christ would receive them

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Acts 4 7 through 10 ministering in his name When they had placed them in the center they began to inquire by what power or in what name have you done this?

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And then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said of them rulers and elders the people if We are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man as to how this man has been made.

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Well Let it be known to all of you and that to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the

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Nazarene Whom you've crucified whom God raised from the dead by this name this man stands here before you in good health

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They are not saying that the name is a magic formula that if you just sprinkle it over top of a dead body

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They will rise it is the power of Christ Communicated by his name that his person is the one that's the power

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So when God or when Christ evokes the name of God he is communicating himself

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He's communicating his power and his glory He is communicating those things

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The name is not a tagline that you add or a postscript at the end of your prayer It is not a vain repetition that oops.

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I Didn't say in Jesus name. My biscuits aren't blessed Praying in Jesus.

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His name is praying in the presence of Christ. It's praying with Christ. It's praying Knowing Christ it's praying in such a way that his character that his holiness

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That his person is involved Quite simply there's a lot of understanding in the

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Hebrew way of thinking of this that goes into this when you say that you're praying in Jesus his name You are praying with Christ and you're praying like Christ.

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You're praying as if Christ would be praying for you Praying in his name does not mean using his name as a magic formula to get a

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Ford Raptor or to get a a Model s plaid Tesla That would be nice.

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I could get to church like three minutes That's not what it means

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It's not a magic formula. It's the person his name is himself So that when you pray in his name, you're praying with him and like him his personhood

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His character is becoming your character so that you're now praying like him

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This is why when Jesus says whatever you ask in my name that I will do He is not saying that if you just add my name to it sprinkle a little bit of Jesus on the side of it

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Then I'll give you whatever you want. He's saying if you pray with me and If you pray like me

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Then I will give you I will you will receive If you pray like Christ and consistent with the will that's consistent with the will of Christ You will receive because Christ cannot deny himself

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He will accomplish his will if you want to have answered prayers pray in the will of Christ and you always receive

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The reason we don't receive is because we prayed outside the will of Christ. We prayed for something. That was not what

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Christ wanted so therefore prayer is about aligning our will to him and it's about getting to know him and Not about treating him like a slot machine where we can get the carnal treasures that we think we want

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Now the next question is if praying in the name of Jesus means praying like Jesus well, how did

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Jesus pray? We don't we can't answer that from John 14 we have to look at some other passages.

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How did Jesus pray? Well, we're gonna look at three things Jesus had a schedule to his prayer

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Jesus had a scope to his prayer Derek smiling. I'm doing Baptist now doing all s's and Jesus was communicating his significance to his prayer

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Jesus had a schedule to the way that he prayed he prayed all the time Out of all the activities that Jesus did prayer is one of the ones that's communicated the most in the gospel

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When the disciples needed him the most when they needed someone to be healed when someone was sick and they were looking for him when they wanted to hear a sermon or a parable

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Jesus would often slip away to pray and He wasn't really concerned that he messed up someone's schedule

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Luke 5 16 says but Jesus himself would often Slip away to the wilderness to pray.

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I can imagine the disciples saying where's Jesus? I think he's praying again We haven't really got a lot done today, you know our modern views of efficiency, but he's praying he's praying

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Jesus made prayer a priority. That's the point Jesus made prayer the most important thing that he did

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Jesus is calling us to the exact same Discipline to imitate him to spend time with his father

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Jesus the Son of God the perfect one the God -man Prioritized prayer in his life.

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How much more so do we who are broken need to be on our knees and prayer? Praying is the most important thing that you and I could ever do.

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It's a higher priority than our job It's a higher priority than the work that we've been called to do in a vocational sense

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It's a higher priority than anything to get before the Lord and pray. I love what Martin Luther says here

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Martin Luther says if I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory in my day

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And then he says I have so much to do that I cannot get on with it without spending three hours in daily prayer

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Did you catch what he said? I'm so busy that I have to pray How often do we say the opposite?

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I'm so busy. I can't pray He's saying my life has got so many things That I need wisdom that I need guidance that I need the

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Lord on I cannot afford to skip prayer I would be doing myself a disservice.

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I would be harming myself spiritually I cannot afford to neglect the discipline of prayer.

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Oh How often do we feel that way or not feel that way Jesus also prayed specifically?

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He prayed all the time, but he also prayed in specific moments. He prayed when he was baptized He prayed when he was tempted.

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He prayed when he chose his Apostles He prayed when he was teaching them how to pray he prayed when he performed miracles before meals and after meals he prayed during his

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Transfiguration he prayed when he raised Lazarus from the dead He prayed when he prepared himself to die and he prayed at his arrest and he prayed on the cross

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The most important moments of Jesus life. Remember he's the God man. He can handle it if anyone can handle life

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It's Jesus and yet he prayed He prayed all the time in general and he prayed specifically in important moments in his life

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How much more so is he setting for us a pattern? That we should pray Daily regular prayer and also prayer when things really

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When the heat gets turned up when the pressure gets turned up when important moments happen Morning and evening when we wake when we drink when we eat when we face challenges when we celebrate victories, whatever we do

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Blanketed in prayer like Christ That's the schedule of Jesus's prayer

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So if we want to pray in his name, which means we need to pray like him then we need to pray like him

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That's a very complex sentence. Let me say it again. We want to pray like Jesus way to pray like Jesus that complicated

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If we're gonna pray in his name though, we need to pray like him and he prayed all the time There's repentance that I'm looking at my own heart here.

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How much do I give myself to this? How much do you give yourself to this? It's not a optional thing it is a necessary thing

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Think about it this way if I told you to go outside here today and just not breathe for the next week or Wake up in the morning and have a quick breath and then wait to the end of the day to have your next

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How many of you would still be here next week? We look at the urgency and the necessity of filling our lungs full of oxygen

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Why don't we look at the necessity and the urgency of filling our soul full of prayer? Jesus did There's also a scope to his praying

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He didn't pray for himself only but he did that he did pray for himself Sometimes it's easy for us to forget that we should pray for ourself as well because it's a relationship between us and the

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Lord But he prayed for children in Matthew 19 prayed for his disciples in Luke 22 prayed for the sick and for the weak

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He prayed for Peter specifically so that he wouldn't be sifted like wheat. He prayed for his persecutors

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He prayed for his enemies. He prayed for the rulers. He prayed for future believers. He prayed for everyone

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From the smallest to the tallest from the from male and female he prayed for everyone. He filled his life full of prayer

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For all the people that he would come in contact with how often do we do that? I'm gonna be honest with you.

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The hardest one is praying for enemies Praying for those who are on Capitol Hill who are wasting

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Thousands of resources building transgender programs in Argentina Look at the spending bills.

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That's what we're spending our money on Pray for them Pray that they would be convicted pray that they would repent pray that Joe Biden would become a believer in Christ and he would repent

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Pray that all of those who are in Washington who their God is themselves or the bottom line or whatever it is

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Pray that they would repent How often do we do that? I? Know for me, it's easy to become frustrated and to complain and to talk about how awful they are

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That's true of anybody without the Holy Spirit of God. Why don't we pray for our enemies pray for those who persecute us?

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We will find when we do that it will change us Number three, there's a significance to prayer

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When Jesus says whatever you ask in my name that I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the

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Son He's saying if you pray like him, then you will have the results like him I think

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I'm convicted of this the reason my prayer seemed ineffective is because I'm not praying like Christ And he gave us a pattern on how to pray

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He told us how to do it There's three things four things that I want to show you number one prayer is communing with God Prayer and the purpose of prayer is us spending time with God is not first and foremost our opportunity to share our grievances

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How often have I started my prayers with it's me again. God. I'm mad about this I'm frustrated that look at that guy who just cut me off.

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You're gonna think gosh Kendall is bad road rage He's always talking about people cutting him off It's maddening

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God is the reason we pray God is the reason that we pray We're not praying to get more stuff.

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We're praying to get more of him We're not praying for more material we're praying to get to know the maker we're not praying for healing first and foremost

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We're praying to know the healer Prayer is not heavenly Amazon where you put in your order and God dispenses the product

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Prayer is getting to know the Living God and he teaches us this in the Lord's Prayer.

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He says pray in this way How how simple is that praying like this?

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Here's your pattern. Here's your formula our Father Who art in heaven

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He's talking about God's name and what I love about that is he's not saying

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Hey guys, I want you to pray. My father is in Jesus's father who's in heaven He's not saying pray that the high priest father who's in heaven or pray that your pastor's father who's in heaven

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He's saying pray that our father Come into God's presence acknowledging that he's your father

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That you have a relationship with him that prayers purpose the first part of prayer is coming into the presence of God The first thing

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Jesus tells us to pray is to acknowledge that we're in his presence Before we ever ask anything of God, why don't we acknowledge that we are with God?

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I Wish I could say to you that my prayers look like this that the first thing I did in every prayer

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Is say thank you God for being my father Just that simple posture of Acknowledging who he is and what he's done for me takes the focus off of me and off of you and puts it where it ought to be on him

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Prayer is coming into the fellowship of a gracious God The more you know yourself the more, you know, how gracious this

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God has been You've sinned you failed you were broken you ought to have been crushed in your iniquity and because of Christ you've been made whole and God can now be called your father.

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What tremendous grace So when you pray Come into his presence

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Acknowledging that you were there for communion with him You have a lot of problems. Okay, I do too

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But hold those problems for a moment set them to the side for a moment and Come into his presence to commune with him because your problems are not bigger than knowing him

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Your anxieties are not more pressing than knowing him the knowledge of God is more important than your problems

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The knowledge of God is more important than your pain the knowledge. I'm not dismissing it I'm just saying that the knowledge of God is better Come into his presence acknowledging him

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Prayer is also a celebration of who God is Jesus does this all the time in the

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Gospels. He celebrates who God is He celebrates that God hides the knowledge of God from the wicked.

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Do you celebrate? that That God confuses the proud that he gives grace to the humble that he teaches the infants who he is.

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That's praiseworthy Jesus praises God when he gives food to the hungry He praises

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God at the Lord's Supper that he's nourishing the soul of the believers praises God because God hears his prayer

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Look at what he says in John 11 father. I'm thanking you that you've heard me Jesus says

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I knew that you heard me. Of course he did But because of the people standing around me

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I said it so that they may believe that you sent me Do you ever praise God that he hears your prayers? One of the things that we haven't done in a while in our home

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But I'm convicted to do it again is is just praising God for everything God. Thank you for that doorknob

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God, thank you for the car that takes us to church. God. Thank you for the seats that we sit on God Thank you for for my daughter.

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Thank you for my son. Thank you for my wife. Thank you for my roof over my head Thank you for the shingles. Thank you for the solar panels that really don't work and I don't know why we have them

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But there is a purpose maybe Thank you for the grass. Thank you for the trees.

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Thank you for the oxygen that comes out of this Thank you God that you've made lungs that work that you've made me alive

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Thank you God for the gifts that you've given me that I often neglect Thank you God for the oxygen that goes into my lungs and I often forget to tell you praise you for God Thank you for my eyes that I can see your glory.

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Thank you for my lips that I can see in your praises God Thank you for my nose. Thank you for me. Thank you for all of us. How often do we do that?

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We go to God and we say God I need this I need this I need this I need this and we forget to say God Thank you for all of this

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Prayer is a wonderful opportunity To celebrate who God is look at Our Father who's in heaven hallowed be your name that word means to declare the sacredness of It means to declare his beauty

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When we go into God's presence we go in communing with him we go in praising and acknowledging his beauty

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You can share your needs you can share your desires, but for a moment Acknowledge that God is your greatest and chiefest desire

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Acknowledge that he's more beautiful than anything that he's better than everything It will change your prayer life

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Number three prayer is about being conformed to the Father's will Jesus continues in his prayer your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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I love that passage Your kingdom come in my life your will be done in my life.

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Not my will your will Your scripture come in a barrel my life my family my neighborhood.

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May your kingdom come in such a way that it looks like heaven He says your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it already is in heaven

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He is asking and telling us to pray that our life would look like a picture of heaven that the kingdom would come

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So fully in our hearts and in our minds that our obedience would be a picture of glory

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That our marriage would be a picture of glory That the world eventually will look like heaven because his kingdom has come on earth as It is in heaven.

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You want to know why I believe that Jesus is gonna be victorious you want to know why I don't have a pessimistic eschatology where we're just gonna come to a crash and burn end and Jesus is gonna

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Rescue us and and the whole thing is just about gonna fall off a cliff Because he says your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Jesus never prayed a prayer that he didn't intend to accomplish His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, even if it takes 10 ,000 years to do so Even if America has to fall because of it

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His will will be done. Do you pray that? Do you pray that his will be done in your life?

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Do you pray that his will be done in your family's life in your children's life in your neighborhood's life in your job? Do you pray that his will be done in your nation?

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Do you pray that your little patch of earth looks like heaven? That's the first thing that we request actually we come into God's presence and we acknowledge his beauty and we commune with him and we celebrate who he is and then we then

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We ask for his kingdom to come before we ask for our castle prayers We ask for his kingdom to come before we share our problems

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We ask for his kingdom to come before we share our griefs Do you order your prayer in that way?

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Do you pray like Christ in that way? The final thing is we communicate our needs to God God is not

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God does not ignore your needs and God cares about your needs. Absolutely, but God prioritizes your needs in a way that is consistent

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Let me give you an example. I call this triaging if you go to the emergency room today

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I pray to God this doesn't happen to you. But if you do Let's say you have a closed airway and you have a broken finger

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I don't know what you could have possibly gotten into to have those two injuries on the same day But let's just say that's the case

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And I show up there and I see what's happening and I see that the nursing staff there is

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Dealing with your finger, but they're leaving your airway closed. I Would likely harm someone as a pastor would

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For being so idiotic We triage things the airway is much more important than the finger they're both important They're they both hurt.

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They're both harming you one is more important than the other Jesus's prayer Model that he gives to us here is the most important thing that you could ever possibly do is you could commune with God?

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More important than anything the second most important thing that you can do is celebrate who God is More important than the other things

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The third most important thing that you could do is is and ask him for his kingdom to come that's more important and then finally

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When you've done that Share your needs with him because he cares for you

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He cares about your needs. He cares about your hurts. He cares about your desires, but he cares about them in the proper place

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They do not go above communing with him Now this leaves a lot of room

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For repentance, but let us wrap up When Jesus says to pray in his name, he's saying pray like me

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Pray in a way that's consistent with me. How does Jesus pray? He communes with the Father He celebrates who

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God is he prays for the kingdom to come and then he tells us to share our needs

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That is how to pray in Christ's name That is how to receive from the Lord as Christ received from the

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Lord and that is a model for you and I to pattern our prayer off of Prayer is the lifeblood of the

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Christian the one of the most important disciplines that you could ever engage in. Are you engaging in it? properly

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Have you made you? Your wants and your desires the subject of your prayer Or have you made

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God in his glory and communing with him the object of your prayer? Let us pray.

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Let us ask the Lord to help us with these things And let us have a thriving prayer life

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We know how to do it. It's been revealed to us in scripture. Let us have the courage to actually Employ it in Christ's name

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Lord Because of your great gospel We've been made christians

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It's not by our work. It's by your work and yet lord. You've given us work to do And one of the great works that you've given us to do is to pray and lord

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I hope today that That a pattern of prayer a model of prayer would be communicated so that we will know how to pray

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Lord we don't play golf with baseball bats We don't play basketball with footballs lord. Help us to use

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This wonderful gift that you've given us in the right and appropriate way Lord help us to desire you more than anything to come into your presence

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Communing with you spending time with you Eager to receive you

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And not just your stuff Help us to come into your presence thanking you

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Celebrating you praising you for who you are And lord, let us keep our mind and our eyes on the kingdom of god never

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Consumed with our life and our circumstances more than we are consumed with the advancement of the kingdom that it would overtake every tribe tongue and nation that the disciples or that the nations would be

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Disciple that your kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven that your government would know no end that the glory

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Of god would extend to the ends of the earth like the water covers the sea lord. Help us to keep the kingdom in mind

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And lord in that Let us also share our request Let us share our needs and our hurts and our desires because lord, we know you care for us