Tomorrow

Teach Us to Pray

Pastor John Talcott
Christ's Community Church

Read Part 1

(11/6) We are continuing with part two of our message series entitled "Tomorrow" where we’ve been studying in Matthew chapter six and our theme verse says,

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34).

And Jesus has been teaching his disciples all about the kingdom of heaven but they noticed that he would always slip away from the crowds to spend time in prayer. And so, finally they spoke up, because John taught his disciples how to pray, the Pharisees taught their disciples how to pray, and so they were like,

"Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).

We want to know what you do when you go up on the mountain by yourself. We want to know what you do; we want to know how to do that, whatever it is that makes you able to cast out demons and walk on water when you come back.

In other words, they had seen him isolate himself in times of prayer many times, they saw the benefits of prayer, but he hadn’t taught them to pray. And so, in chapter 6, Jesus began to talk to his disciples about prayer and in verse nine he gave them a pattern for prayer. It’s often been called the Lord’s prayer, but it really should be called the disciple’s prayer, because this was given to them as a model or a pattern of the way that we should pray. He said to his disciples,

"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:9-13).

Jesus responded to their request by giving them a template for prayer. It wasn’t just what he said, it wasn’t intended to be recited, but it was a pattern or a model of how to pray.

Some have said it’s a pattern of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, but Jesus said in this manner pray. And he began with worship, expressing our adoration, and our reverence for the holiness of God our Father. And then declaring our desire for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done as well as submission to that process. Finally, there is a petition for personal needs, confession regarding our spiritual needs, and an acknowledgment of our dependence on God in times of weakness.

And we know it wasn’t meant to be recited word for word, it wasn’t just what he said, because even Matthew and Luke record it differently; but he wanted us to know that prayer wasn’t about your eloquence, how articulate you are, or even the length of your prayers because he said, "When you pray, don’t pray like a hypocrite, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men" (Matthew 6:5).

In other words, he tells us that prayer is about inviting God into those moments when you go into your room and close the door. Prayer is not about informing God because he already knows what’s going on, but you are inviting him to come into your worries, your fears, and your regrets. Prayer is about inviting God into the uncertainty of tomorrow in your situation, your family, your job, your classes, and your home.

"He said, "'My house will be called a house of prayer" (Matthew 21:13).

And we are the temple of the living God who said, I will live with them and walk among them, I will be their God and they will be my people. And so, we are being encouraged to invite him into every moment of our lives, into our homes, into our worship, because we need his word to prevail over our thoughts. We need his peace and his guidance today, tomorrow, and forever, because our ability to rise up over the storms of life is a direct result of our fellowship with God.

Without that intimacy and connection with God we are like the disciples in Matthew chapter eight when they were in a furious storm, waves were breaking over the boat, but the Bible tells us that Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion, peacefully resting in the will of his Father (Matthew 8:24). And that’s what prayer does for you, it protects you, it insulates you so that you’re not always having a knee-jerk reaction to what’s going on around you.

In other words, when you have a lifestyle of prayer, everybody else may be screaming,

"Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" (Matthew 8:25).

But you don’t act like the crowd, because you were talking to God before the storm even came along, and so you have the peace of God in the storm, guarding your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

I know there are some of you here that know what I am talking about, you can’t explain it, it’s not in your nature, but you have discovered the peace of God which transcends all understanding. That peace comes from having a consistent prayer life, not just a Sunday morning prayer life, but a doing life together kind of prayer life. In other words, it’s just you talking to your Father when you’re going to work, when you’re making dinner, when you’re doing dishes or driving down the road.

Other times, your prayer is not nearly as articulate as it is urgent. It may be,

"Jesus, I need your help."

And it’s just honest as you are crying out for help like the Canaanite woman whose daughter was suffering from demon possession. She didn’t even have time to elaborate because she was in a fight with the devil, and so sometimes you just need to blurt it out like she did.

"Lord, help me!" (Matthew 15:25).

Now, your storm may be a health storm, or a financial storm, or a relational storm, or some other type of storm, but the benefits of prayer are best realized in the storm. And so, the benefits of that prayer come from a lifestyle of prayer, not something you do at the last minute, as a last measure, but you’ve already prayed ahead of the crisis.

Now, when you’re in the middle of it, you can stand steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV).

That’s one of the things that I remember about my mother when I was growing up, that she was a prayer warrior, and she guarded her quiet time. And so, she didn’t freak out in a crisis, but she would be like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Now, later that day or the next day, she may burst into tears, but in the midst of the storm she would take you on.

Some of you know what I’m talking about, you’ve got a mother like that, and so if I started to get mouthy, belligerent, or out of control, my mother would shape me up. I may have been childish, in turmoil, and without peace in the storm, but I would certainly get a piece of my mother, because she would give me a piece of her mind. And so, there wasn’t any sense in making excuses, but I just had to hold it together, being self-controlled, understanding that the Bible says,

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline" (Proverbs 1:7).

The problem is that today we live in a culture and among the generation of undisciplined people. They blurt out whatever they think, whenever they want to, but they don’t have a prayer life. In other words, they talk to other people like they should have been talking to God, because if you start talking to God it will change how you talk to people. The Bible says it this way,

"Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20).

And so, it doesn’t matter who was right or who was wrong because you’ve got a devil in front of you who is the instigator. In other words, you can’t change what happened yesterday, you’ve got to come out of your history, because you can’t fight a devil behind you and have your hands-free to take on the devil in front of you.

In fact, I want to share with you another familiar scripture, this one is found in first Kings, chapter nineteen, and I believe this will help illustrate this for you. In verse one, the Bible says,

"Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah" (1 Kings 19:1-2).

In other words, Jezebel sent a spirit of worry to Elijah, a worrying messenger, because she didn’t have the power to kill God’s prophet, and so she just threatened him.

Maybe you’ve noticed that there will always be somebody who brings news to worry you? The spirit behind the idolatrous Jezebel, deceptive Jezebel, lying Jezebel, faith destroying Jezebel will always send you a message. And so, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say,

"May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I don’t make your life like that of one of them" (1 Kings 19:2).

In other words, she threatened to kill him just like he had killed her false prophets, and the Bible says,

"Elijah was afraid and ran for his life" (1 Kings 19:3).

This great prophet Elijah who confronted 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah ran from Jezebel. He ran from worry and when he came to Beersheba in Judah,

"He left his servant there" (1 Kings 19:3).

He left his servant there, because sometimes like Jesus in the garden, when you come to the pressing place, the crushing place, to Gethsemane, you can’t take anybody with you. And so, the Bible says that Elijah,

"Went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die" (1 Kings 19:4).

There are some of you here today who have found yourself in that place or in that situation where you felt trapped. You were so worried about what happened yesterday that you wanted to die. In other words, yesterday is trying to convince you to give up on your tomorrow.

And so, it’s important that you get this, because worry cancels out your prayer, worry nullifies your prayer, and you don’t even know what tomorrow will bring. That’s why Jesus said,

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34).

In other words, this is not a request, it’s the command of the Lord, because you can pray really good, but if you worry better than you pray, if you worry more than you pray, you’re going to cancel out what you prayed.

You see, worry is faith reversed, worry is faith turned upside down, worry is faith turned inside out, worry is believing the voice of the enemy instead of believing the Word of God. Elijah heard Jezebel’s messenger say, "If I don’t take you out in the next twenty-four hours,

"May the gods deal with me…" (1 Kings 19:2).

And Elijah believed, and so he started running until he stopped under a tree and said,

"I have had enough, Lord. "Take my life" (1 Kings 19:4).

In other words, if I’m going to die, God, I want you to take me out. I’ve had enough.

I’m reminded of what Jesus teaches us in the garden of Gethsemane about submitting to the process. He took Peter, James, and John, his inner circle, deep into the garden so that he would be able to pray his way into submission to God’s will. Look at his prayer, Jesus said,

"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39).

You see, sometimes God’s will takes you down roads that you don’t want to ride on, to places you didn’t plan on going, but it’s still God’s will. In other words, you may not like the journey, you may not even like the destination, but this isn’t Facebook, God isn’t in your life for your likes.

Jesus goes into the garden of Gethsemane, going deeper and further than anyone else, demonstrating for us how to submit to the part of life you don’t like. He demonstrated the power of prayer as he prayed for grace for the cross, grace to resist the flesh, because the flesh will always resist the things of God. There are some of you trying to deal with a cross and the flesh will always cry out when the nails go in, but you don’t have a garden prayer. You don’t have a "not as I will, but as you will" type of prayer.

And so, like Elijah, your thoughts are all over the place, you can’t even think straight, because you’re worrying about yesterday, worrying about tomorrow, worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet. And like Elijah, you’re stuck, you can’t make a sound decision, and he so consumed by worry that he doesn’t even notice that Jezebel lied to him. Look at it in the Scriptures, she didn’t live up to her promise,

"By this time tomorrow, I will make your life like that of one of the prophets."

Meanwhile, Elijah, himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die" (1 Kings 19:4).

He doesn’t even realize that he is already in tomorrow, he’s still alive, and he’s praying to die when he ought to be praising God. Elijah should be rejoicing and worshiping God under that tree, because it’s been twenty-four hours and he is still alive.

Some of you are making yourself sick, anxious, worrying about stuff you ought to be praising God about, because if the devil could’ve, he would’ve by now. But the truth is, the enemy is a liar, all of hell is lying, because your tomorrow is squarely in the hands of God. The Bible says,

"The Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard" (Isaiah 52:12).

I wish there were ten people in this place that would lift their hands and praise God for tomorrow. Somebody ought to praise God, because Jezebel was wrong, and I know there are people in this room that have survived cancer, that survived heart attacks, and you’ve been through hell and back and you’re still here. That should be enough good news to praise him like you’ve lost your mind, because you couldn’t see tomorrow, you didn’t have all the answers, but the one thing you do know is that the Lord said,

"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

In other words, Jezebel was wrong, and God has plans for your tomorrow.

Do you understand what I am telling you this morning? Some of you are worried about tomorrow, but God has already taken care of tomorrow. Some of you are worried about world affairs, worried about Israel, but there aren’t any powers or authorities, bombs or terrorists, that can stop the plan of God.

And so, we want to go to God in prayer, I don’t mean like dialing 911, but a daily continual prayer in the mighty name of Jesus. And we want to cast down every spirit of worry, every demonic influence, casting down imaginations,

"Arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV).

And it’s that kind of prayer that will clean out your thoughts, clean out your spirit, clean out your heart, changing the way you treat people and changing how you react to others. And so,

"When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (Matthew 6:6).

In other words, what happens on the outside is determined by what happens when you go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father.

And so, I want to encourage you, if you want to be a success in public, you’ve got to be a prayer warrior in private, because that is your secret weapon. The Lord said, when you seek him, when you mourn and wail,

"I’ll give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair" (Isaiah 61:3).

And I’m not just telling you that to hype you up, I’m telling you what I know, because I am living in my tomorrow. I’m not saying that you might not have to go through a test. I’m not saying that you won’t go through trials. I’m not saying you’re going to get everything you want. But I’m telling you that God has numbered your days and his thoughts are for your good and not evil.

I know it seems like all hell is breaking loose, there is turmoil and uncertainty all over, it’s taking over our country, it’s taking over our schools, and you aren’t even safe to use a public restroom anymore. But the Lord said,

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I know we’re living in uncertain times, sometimes it can be scary, but there is no sense preparing yourself for something that may never happen. And so, don’t doubt God’s purpose or his ability to get you where he’s trying to get you tomorrow.

The Lord would say to you today, don’t lay down under a broom tree and give up. Stop listening to the lies of the enemy and tell me your troubles.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

I know tomorrow can be frightening, but it doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, rich or poor, you don’t want to face it without Jesus. Don’t ever think that you are strong enough or good enough to make it without Jesus. You need him in your life to keep you going, to keep you from losing your mind, and to keep you believing in tomorrow.

Read past sermons by Pastor John Talcott