Set Free in my Prayer Life

Grab your message notes as we continue with our series, Set Free. And as you're grabbing those notes, you'll also notice there's a little blank slip of paper like this, maybe more than one, in your bulletin. Those are there because today we're gonna be talking about being set free in my prayer life. And this piece of paper is there for you to write down a brief prayer request. You can either keep it with you or if you like, I'm gonna give you an opportunity in a little while to place it in one of the baskets that we have throughout the room. There's two down here in the front on either side of the stage. There's two more kind of midway there where that lateral aisle goes through. And then there's two in the balcony way over on the far corners. So balcony folks, make sure you...they're kind of hard to see, but they're there. Trust me. I'll give you a little bit more explanation about that in just a bit.

But first of all, speaking of prayer, ever go out to dinner with a group of fellow Christians and right as the food arrives, people around the table start doing this? Ever seen this before? The thumbs go up like that? And maybe, or if you were at a Christian college or worked at a camp around the table, people did this. Anyone know what this means if you are the last person to put your thumb up? What does that mean? Yeah, yeah, that's right. You have to pray. Which has always struck me as kind of odd because, you know, somewhere in Christian history, we decided that it was necessary to invent a game where the loser has to pray, right? That's kind of odd. I mean, you think that a game would have been invented like that for when we have to like, you know, get a flu shot or give blood. You know, it's like, "Go ahead, by all means, you first." But for prayer, I mean, a game that essentially says, "You drew the short straw, so now you got to go talk to God." Good luck with that.

A far cry from what we're gonna see here today. It also, my brother was telling me last night, he went to Biola University. It was a Christian college down in Los Angeles. And there was, at the time, this renowned Bible professor, a guy named Professor Curtis Mitchell. He was kind of this famous guy. And he was also famous for a tradition. At the end of every single class, he would call upon one of the students to close in prayer. And being good Bible students, these students, you know, resisted this moment like it was the plague. I mean, they would sit, just stick still, like hoping that they wouldn't be called on because then they'd have to pray. And, you know, this is the kind of things you learn at Bible school, I guess.

Anyway, one day, one of the students falls asleep right in the middle of class. I mean, he's just out. And so, one of my brother's roommates has this great idea. He pokes him on the shoulder and he says, "Hey, hurry, wake up. Dr. Mitchell just told you to call on you to pray." And this kid stands up and he's like, "Oh, Lord, we thank you for this opportunity we've had to learn today." People are just on the floor. Meanwhile, Professor Mitchell's just like this, like, "You're gonna go to hell, young man." No, he didn't say that. But, you know, there couldn't be a more different attitude that we're greeted with today in Colossians 4.

So, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Colossians 4. If you don't have your own Bible, feel free to grab one of those Brown TLC Bibles. You'll find Colossians 4 on page 835. Colossians 4, starting at verse 2, and this is our theme verse for today. So, I'm gonna ask you to read this out loud with me. It's gonna be at the top of your notes and on the screen as well. Let's read this together. Ready? "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Far from being something to be endured. Paul says, "Devote yourselves to prayer." In another instance, in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, he says, "Pray without ceasing." Pray without ceasing. I don't think that means that we're supposed to pray every single second of the day. I think it means is we're supposed to pray all the time, you know, while we're sitting in traffic or waiting in line.

To get a flu shot, that would be a great time to pray. Taking a walk, returning email, pounding a nail. In every waking moment of the day, we have the opportunity, the invitation even, to connect with the God of the universe in prayer. I mean, that sounds like a pretty amazing offer, doesn't it? Well, it begs the question, why don't we pray more? You ever think about this? I've never had a person come up to me and say, "You know, Pastor, could you please help me? I've got this problem. You see, I think I pray too much. Can you help me with that?" Never happen, never gonna happen. And I think that most of us wish that we did actually pray more, especially for other people. So, what's the problem?

Well, I want to suggest a couple common obstacles to an active prayer life. You might want to jot these down and see if you relate to any one of these. Why don't we pray more? Well, first of all, we're too busy, right? We're too busy. I'm going from one thing to the next and the next and before you know it, the day's over like some kind of frenetic blur just passes you by. It's like if you've ever been walking alongside the road or riding a bike and a big rig truck goes passing by and just goes, "Whoosh!" Right? And you kind of get caught up with the pressure of that going by and you're just kind of happy to still be standing, right? I think some days are like that. You know, they descend on us like a Mack truck and then whoosh! Like, "Wow, thank goodness that's over."

And because our lives can be so busy with so many different things vying for our attention, we can also have problem focusing. We just can't focus. That's another obstacle because we're bombarded with information and noise all the time and it's becoming increasingly more difficult to focus on any one particular thing for more than just a couple seconds. I mean, would you agree? It's hard to do sometimes. Next obstacle. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, thank you. Along the lines of not being able to focus, the August 2011 edition of Pediatrics, which is a professional medical journal, they raised a question that perhaps you've asked yourself at some point. They asked, "Do all our video screens have an effect on our attention spans?" What do you think? You know, the screens on our phones or in our homes, in our cars, in the grocery stores, and yes, in our churches. Man, we got screens everywhere.

Well, according to this article in a recent study that they cite, says the study found that exposure to screen media was associated with attention problems in a sample of 210 college students. This study contributes to a growing body of research that shows media may have an effect on attention, says Dimitri Christakis, MD, director of the Child Health Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Christakis goes on to say, "When you condition the mind to become accustomed to high levels of input, there's a chance that reality can just become boring." You know, in other words, I have a hard time focusing on things that don't come to me like some kind of eye candy. You know what I mean?

And that really leads to our next obstacle to an active prayer life, because if we're honest, sometimes the idea of prayer just seems boring. I mean, if we're being really honest here, when I was a kid growing up here, there was a much-loved pastor who was famous for his long prayers. And I know that the adults, they appreciated the depth, the profound nature of these prayers, but us kids, man, it was... I would cling to those pubic and just to hold myself. I don't know what it was. I mean, I could stand my feet for more than a few minutes, but he'd be going on, "Oh Lord, we also beseech thee," and he's just getting warmed up, and it's like, "I'm kryptonite or something, my knees are shaking, and I'm like, 'Oh, please.'" You know, the word "amen" never sounded so good. It was like, "Ah, I gotta sit down."

And, you know, maybe that's the way you honestly feel it sometimes. You know, it just seems boring to you. Well, another obstacle, and this kind of relates to the, perhaps, the prior one. Perhaps you just don't see the purpose to prayer. Like, what's the point anyway? I mean, isn't God gonna do what God's gonna do? Doesn't he already have a plan? What's the point of having to lobby him all the time? Again, these are honest questions that we have about prayer. Last one. Maybe you sincerely want to have an active prayer life. Maybe you want to develop this as part of your spirituality, but you simply don't know how. You don't really know anything about prayer, and you've been in, you know, one church, and they pray a certain way, and then you're in another situation, they're praying a different way, and you go, "Well, what's the right way? How am I supposed to pray?"

I found a funny video clip that I think captures this feeling of just being kind of disoriented when it comes to prayer, and I think that on one level or another, you'll be able to relate this. Check this out. I remember going to church as an adult, right, for the first time when I started going to church, and I walk in, and the pastor was like, he said, "I want you to pray with your neighbor," and I'm like, "Well, my neighbor don't go to this church. I don't know what you mean." You want me to call my neighbor on the phone? That's creepy. I ain't gonna do that. Right, then they explained to me, right, "Your neighbor is a person sitting next to you." Listen, I'm brand new at this Christian stuff. I don't, I didn't even know you're supposed to pray out loud, let alone with this lady. I don't even know this lady. What am I supposed to pray about? Lord, help these bumps go down on this lady's face. I don't know what I'm supposed to pray about.

I don't know what I'm supposed to pray about, right? She went first. She was praying all good, and she must have been John the Baptist's little sister or something. Praying. She was like, "Dear Heavenly Father, you say any word in the sixth chapter, third, third verse, of the book of Matthew, the 601st word on page 1248. Lord, you said, 'But seek, S is a search, E is an everywhere, E is an excellent, K is an kingdom. You're the Alpha, Nisi, Jehovah, Jairus, Jehovah, Raph.' I'm thinking, man, she even know his nicknames." Now, it's my turn to pray, right? But I don't got the spiritual vocabulary to just, "But I'm not going to let her out pray me." So I'm like, "Okay, God, first of all, you are good people. You know, you are good, Lord, you are good to the last drop, Lord. Because, Lord, I just got to obey my thirst, Lord, you know, because choosing moms choose Jesus. So, Lord, because, you know, as the rocket's red glare, Lord, it gave proof to the night, Lord. I believe I can fly a man."

Isn't that great? I love that. Any of you relate to that on one level or another? Okay, right now, I'd like you to turn, get together with your neighbor and pray, okay? Whether we're too busy or too scattered, we don't see the purpose, don't know how, these are all common obstacles to an active prayer life. So, I raise the question, why pray? Why does Paul actually command us to pray here in Colossians 4? When he says, "Be devoted to prayer," he's not like offering helpful advice or something that we might want to consider at some point. He's saying, "You pray. Do this." Well, if you remember only one thing about prayer this morning, I hope that it is this, we pray because prayer makes a difference. It's that simple.

Prayer makes a difference and that is great news when you think of how helpless we are in just about every single area of life. In the Apostle Paul, he was totally convinced that prayer makes a difference. Look at verses 3 and 4, when he writes, "And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should." Now, a couple of observations. Notice what Paul asks the Colossians to pray for, right? First of all, he says, "Pray that God will open a door for our message." And once that door opens, pray that I will proclaim it clearly. Would you agree that prayer has a way of exposing our priorities?

Think about the things that you pray about, the things you pray for. Those are your priorities, right? Those are the things that matter most. And I'm struck by the fact that even though Paul is literally in chains, he never prays, "Pray that God's going to get me out of this mess. Pray for my freedom." I mean, that's what I'd be praying, "Pray for me, me, me, me, please." Now, I think it would have been perfectly valid for Paul to ask that, but Paul's priority is all about the mission, isn't it? And he wants to get the message out. So when he writes the Ephesians from that very same jail, he says almost exactly the same thing. Ephesians 6, 19 and 20, he writes, "Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should."

René's been pointing out the similarities between Colossians and Ephesians, right? And this is a great example of this, the similarities between Colossians 4 and Ephesians 6 on prayer. And obviously, Paul's overriding priority, the thing he wants them to most pray for is that the message gets out, even if he never does, as long as the message gets out. Well, did those prayers make a difference? Whatever happened to the Apostle Paul? Well, according to tradition, he was eventually executed by Emperor Nero. But the last authoritative word we have from Scripture comes at the very end of the book of Acts in chapter 28. The last two verses of Acts give us one final snapshot of the Apostle Paul.

By this time, he's living in Rome under house arrest, and it says this, "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance." I mean, how cool is that? This wasn't written with an eye towards Colossians 4 or Ephesians 6. This is just the way it went down. Looks like Paul's prayer was answered exactly in the way that he asked. The message went out clearly with boldness without hindrance. You might be thinking to yourself, "Well, I mean, isn't that what God wanted to happen all along? Didn't God want to have the message go out? Why did anyone need to pray about that?"

Well, here's what I think. I think one of the reasons that God wants us to pray is because God wants to involve us in what He's doing. God actually wants us to be partners with Him. And when we pray, we're actually participating with God in a very real way. And it's pretty amazing when you think about it because God doesn't need to involve us, but He's chosen to involve us, chosen to partner with us. That's how much He loves us. So when we pray, we not only enter into the stream of what God is doing in not just like wishful thinking ways, not just for our benefit, but in really tangible ways we enter into that. Those prayers are actually making a difference.

I'll give you a very personal example of answered prayer. This is one that still stuns me to this day. I told you around Thanksgiving about the time when Laura was 20 minutes away from marrying someone else. Many of you remember that. And that was because... Well, wait, we were 20 minutes away from not getting married because she was 20 minutes away from marrying someone else. I got that right. I'm still trying to wake up. Got that? Good. All right. What I didn't have time to tell you in that moment was that on that very morning, on that day we now call the unwedding, on that very morning her mom and dad were on their knees in their living room praying that God would somehow intervene and stop that wedding.

And they were joined by Laura's grandfather who is now all of 109 years old, still on the earth. Okay. Back then he was a spry 93 years old. But what you need to know about her grandfather is that he is a heavy hitter when it comes to prayer. He's just a heavy hitter. I mean, first of all, he's got this deep, deep lifelong faith in the Lord. Secondly, he's practically as old as God. And so I have to think that comes with some sort of perks, right? But seriously, James 5:16 says, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." And I'm convinced to this day that it was the effective prayer of a righteous man and Laura's parents that accomplished much and made all the difference. And that blows my mind because I think about the existence of our kids and the destinies of our lives. And it's just, it's amazing to me.

And I'm telling you that if we're not praying, we're missing out on who knows what. And that's why this is so important. I mean, you expect your kids to ask you for things, right? Don't you? All the time. Well remarkably, throughout Scripture, God, our loving Father invites us to come and bring our requests to Him and to do so as much as we like. And no, He's not going to give us everything that we ask for. In some cases, that would be a disaster. In other cases, it's a mystery because there's times when honestly God doesn't answer prayers the way I think He should. But in every instance, those prayers are making a difference, not only in us, but in our world and sometimes in ways we don't even see.

Now you may be thinking, "Well, that's great, Mark. I believe all that. I'm on board." Well, how does the Bible tell me to pray? Well, we only have time today to just skim the surface. And I just want to kind of follow Paul's simple little outline here. But if you want to plunge deeper into this subject, you know, we did an entire series about this called "40 Days of Prayer" a couple years ago. You can find it on our website under the sermon archives or you can inquire more about that at the information desk. But here in Colossians 4, Paul has a few pointers for us. And the first thing he says is, "Be devoted." Be devoted, just like we read at the very top of the hour. "Devote yourselves to prayer," he says.

In other words, find a way to make prayer an ongoing habit in your life. And I have to admit I am not naturally a prayerful person. I'm just, I'm not, okay? I'm just not wired that way, so I need all the help I can get in this department. And one of the most helpful things occurred for me many years ago, I was reading through Matthew 6 where Jesus talks a lot about prayer. In fact, the Lord's Prayer comes out of Matthew 6, but right before that, he's teaching us how to pray and he says, "Oh, by the way, you know, don't pray to impress other people. You know, that's what hypocrites do, so don't be about that." And he says, "And don't babble on with this meaningless words." That's what pagans do, as if God is impressed by, you know, the word count of your prayers. And you can almost kind of feel like, you know, heaven gets kind of tired of this babbling on. So just, you know, keep it clear and to the point.

And he says, "In fact, go into your closet when you pray." Now, what does that mean? I think it means go find a private place because you'll never read about Jesus literally going into a closet to pray. But you will read on several accounts in the Gospels where he often withdrew to lonely places. His prayer closet was, you know, out in the wilderness somewhere, out on a hilltop or in the forest. The point is, find a place where it's just you and God, where you can be alone. Because one of the best ways to make prayer an ongoing reality in our lives is to find your prayer closet. You might want to write that down in the margin or something like that. Find your prayer closet and here's why this helps.

Would you agree that we are creatures of habit? I mean, there's all sorts of habits that we have that are triggered when we're in certain places at certain times, right? If you're in the kitchen in the morning, what are you thinking about? Coffee, breakfast. You know, that's a conditioned response that we've built into our lives. And we have all kinds of habits, so why not use this to our advantage, right? I mean, find a place that triggers prayer. That's your prayer closet. And you may probably already have a prayer closet. You just haven't thought of it this way. You know, for some of you, it's during your morning commute and you just find that when you're in the car, you just naturally start thinking about things to pray about. That's awesome. That can be your prayer closet.

For others of you, maybe it's in the shower or when you go for a walk. I know many of you, you set aside a specific place in your house or in your yard where you crack open your Bible, you read and you pray. You've turned that time and that place into your prayer closet. My favorite prayer closet, personally, is in my bed between the hours of 6 and 7 a.m. I mean, I just, it's like as natural as breathing for me in that time of the day. I wake up and I immediately, I want to pray. I do my most serious, passionate praying during that time. Yes, it's taken a long time to convince Laura that I'm not just being lazy, but that's my prayer closet. That's my story. I'm sticking to it at least.

Anyway, the point is, you can make just about anywhere your prayer closet. I mean, put a chair in your backyard or whatever it is, find that closet if you don't already have one. Okay? That's how we can make this a habit, how we can devote ourselves to prayers. Paul says in Ephesians 6, 18, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Circle that phrase for me on all occasions, not just special occasions, like, you know, right before we eat or before some, you know, ceremony, but on all occasions, make prayer a habit. And not just for ourselves, of course, but being devoted to prayer means we devote ourselves to praying for other people and their needs as well.

Paul gives a great example of this. Look at verses 12 and 13. He says, "A paphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Heropolis." Man, that had to be so encouraging for these folks to know that their friend, Epaphras, was praying for them all the time, wrestling in prayer on their behalf and for the sake of others. I mean, what an incredible legacy Epaphras has. What an incredible gift he gave to his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

And it challenged me to think, "Am I being in Epaphras for someone else? Who do I wrestle for in prayer?" We all have that opportunity. I have a number of friends who I know for a fact, pray for me every single day. That's humbling to know. How do you put a price on that? I mean, could you? And yet, that's what Epaphras did. That's what these friends have done for me. That's what we can do for others as we devote ourselves to prayer. So ask God to give you that kind of heart and that kind of desire to devote yourself to prayer in that way.

The second thing Paul teaches about prayer is to be aware. Be aware. Part of being devoted means being watchful, he says right there in the middle of verse 2. Well, watchful for what? Watchful for the needs around us, right? The needs of other people. Again, what Paul is getting at is expanded on a little bit more in Ephesians 6. So let's jump over to there. In Ephesians 6, 18, he writes, "With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." In other words, prayer is more than just thinking vague thoughts, you know, every once in a while, kind of sending them up to the universe as people say sometimes. Prayer is praying specifically about concrete realities going on in our lives and the lives of other people.

You know, it's for this reason that we have a prayer sheet that we make available in the office or out at the information desk. Dozens and dozens of very specific prayers that hundreds of people in this church pray over every single week. It's why the pastors take that same prayer list and every Thursday we get together and we pray over those lists and we keep those lists with us because this is how we remain aware of what we are to pray for. It's for this reason that in just a few moments I'm going to invite you to write something specific on that little piece of paper. Maybe you write something for yourself on one side and on the other side you write a request for someone else and then again I'll give you an opportunity to place it in one of the baskets that are scattered around the room.

This week the pastors and staff are going to pray over each and every single one of those requests. No one's going to call you, no one's going to bug you, but we would be happy to pray for those requests, for those that pertain to you and your loved ones. Finally, Paul says, "Remember when you pray to be thankful." Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful. Now it's not that God needs our thanks or we need to pat him on the back. It's that gratitude is one of the healthiest attitudes we can develop in our lives and not only that when we thank God we're reminded of the ways that he's already answered prayers, already blessed us.

Look what it says in Ephesians 5, 19 and 20, "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." I mean that's a great description of prayer right there, right? Giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? You may not have everything that you long for in life. I'm sure you don't. I'm sure there are things that you've prayed for and you just wonder what the Lord's going to do with it. But the fact that you were able to rise an hour early and arrive here today in your own strength or that you had someone who cared enough for you to do that on your behalf, to bring you to church, that in and of itself is a blessing not to be taken for granted.

I was reminded of this in a powerful way. Two weeks ago I was speaking up at Mission Springs to a group of about 200 first and second generation Russian immigrants. They were all between 18 and 30, an amazing group. You remember when the iron curtain fell? Well when that happened, a door of opportunity swung open that had been nailed shut for decades, right? And when the Soviet Union collapsed, Christian missionaries poured in through that open door. And these young people were the fruit of their efforts. It was so inspiring to meet them. They're bicultural, bilingual spoke English and Russian just with equal ease. In fact, all their announcements were in Russian. They sang some of their worship songs in Russians, but then they would sing a song like we sing right here in church with some of the very same songs in English and it would bring me to tears.

Not that they were all that demonstrative. In fact, most of the time they just kind of stood there like you would to salute the flag. But there was a depth of soul and gratitude that was unmistakable. You don't got to be swinging and swaying to have soul. There was a depth to their worship that brought me to tears because this is what I realized. They weren't just singing for themselves. They were singing for their parents and for their grandparents who never could. Weren't allowed to sing those songs, at least not without the threat of persecution. These are things that we take for granted so easily, don't we? So just being here today, just being able to worship, man, if you're able to sing and make music in your heart or just quietly thank the Lord, boy, be thankful. Count your blessings. Give God the glory for His goodness to you, for the privileges and opportunities that He gives you because bottom line is this, prayer makes a difference.

Well, didn't I already make that point? Yes, but I don't want any of us to forget it because here's the reality. If we're motivated to pray because we just feel guilty or out of duty, I mean, it's really never going to go very far. But when we are convinced to our core that prayer makes a difference, man, that fuels our passion for prayer because, man, we don't want to miss out. We don't want to miss out on the opportunity to see what God will do because, man, it changes my chair, it changes my puny perspective, it changes my heart, it changes my attitude, prayer changes outcomes, it changes lives, it changes relationships because prayer taps in to the power of God.

Someone said it this way, "When we work, we work, but when we pray, God works." So why in the world would we not pray? Will you do that with me right now? Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this amazing opportunity to just freely come before You, to bring our hearts and our requests to You, Lord. And Father, in moments, there's going to be all sorts of requests that are going to flow into those baskets, prayers that are connected to real life realities, people who have deep hurts and burdens and concerns or people who just want to praise and thank You for a specific blessing, whatever it is, Lord, I thank You that You welcome our prayers, that You receive them, that You hear them.

In fact, Your Holy Spirit intercedes even on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. And along those lines, Lord, I pray for those who have brought the same request to You, the same burden, the same hurt over and over and over again, year after year, maybe decade after decade. Father, I pray that You would help them to remain hopeful and encouraged, help them not to give up on at least the idea that You love them and You care about that burden and that You never tire of hearing from them. And so, Father, it is with anticipation, knowing that our prayers do make a difference, often in ways we don't understand, but they make a difference. We bring them to You with a sense of anticipation and gratitude. I pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.