Honest Prayer, Open Hands

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[0:00] Thank you, Jared, for reading and thank you everyone for letting Benji worship today. He probably wants to preach too, so we'll have to see. Yeah, I know that we've been in Romans the last couple weeks, but we're gonna take a pause on this while the Nelsons are on vacation. And I actually wanted to share about what I learned this past week. So this past week, Monday to Friday, I was in Chicago. I was in our denominational seminary, North Park Theological Seminary, and I took a class on how to teach and lead private and public prayer. And it was really interesting. I had classmates from, of course, the Chicago area all around. Some of us were from California. We had NorCal and SoCal, and then there are people from like Indiana and North Carolina and one fellow person from Madison, Wisconsin. So it was all these folks, all these pastors and students from all over, and we all had this one thing in common. We were wrestling with what does God do when he doesn't answer our prayers? Like what do we do with unanswered prayers? I think sometimes we can ask the question, why does God answer some prayers and not answer others? We can ask questions like, why do people we love not get healed? Why do they suffer? Why do they die? Why does God feel so

[1:24] absent in those situations? And maybe some of you have asked those questions in the past, and maybe some of us are currently asking those questions. I know in the Lou household, we are asking those questions. Every night, we pray with the boys to heal my mom of her cancer. We say, may grandma's cancer be, and Benji, you say, all gone. Both boys can say all gone. And I have questions in that, asking, is it wise to lead children in prayer, faithfully praying if that answer doesn't come true? I know there's a lot of wisdom in this congregation, and I know many of you have traveled this road of dealing with sickness and disease and cancer ahead of us, and I've left much to learn from each of you. So as we journey together, I want to also sit at your feet and learn from you from this journey. For today, I'm going to talk about what I'm learning, and then we can talk about it later. I'm going to talk about how God deals with unanswered prayer, and how we can learn from it. So I'm going to start with the first question. What is your prayer? I'm going to start with the first question. What is your prayer? I'm going to start with the first question. What is your prayer? Through the Bible school answer, Jesus.

[2:33] Every Sunday school, the Bible study answer is like, Jesus. So we're going to look at Jesus, and how he handled unanswered prayers. So let me just pray real quick. God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. And may we as a community grow deeper as a praying people. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

[3:02] So Jared already read the scriptures, and I'm just going to jump right in. I'm going to focus us on what are some of the key points that we can learn from Jesus's prayer, especially in this most trying time of his life. So the prayer itself. One, it's personal. He starts out with calling God, Abba, Father. Now, many of you know Abba is the Aramaic word for Father. And it's a term that adult children would actually use to call their father.

[3:34] But in this context, it was actually unique to pray in this way. It unique to call God Abba, Father. And what this reveals is a relationship that Jesus has with God, the father. It is this deep intimacy and knowing. The relationship is close and personal. And so, of course, you're at church. and so of course when they communicate from the beginning it's this beautiful intimate connection and so I wonder for the rest of us how do you address God in your prayers and how what does that say about our relationship with God second there's faith and belief and trust Jesus prays everything is possible for you Jesus is fully aware of God's capability and power he has faith in God the Father to be able to change any situation Jesus trusts in God's ability and power and he acknowledges it before he asks for anything Jesus is honest in his prayer that's the third thing he's honest and he's bold he does not hide from God what he is really feeling as if he could hide from God who is the creator and sustainer of the universe who is all-knowing he does not try to protect God from his feelings he doesn't try to hide or filter what his desires are he tells God honestly and authentically what he is feeling what his true desires are because that's what

[5:12] you do when you're in close relationship with someone you have the freedom to share openly not afraid of how they might respond even trusting that they will respond in a loving way and what are his emotions we see here in this passage that Jesus is distraught and it's important for us to see and know and be grounded in Jesus' humanity right unless we think that his deity his God nature nullifies the gravity of this task dying a humiliating death for the salvation of humankind is not to be taken lightly. Jesus is deeply distressed and troubled. His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. In Luke 22 4 it says that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. He's sweating blood. The sorrow is so great that he wanted to die and it was going to last until he dies. The grief is so great that it is almost killing him. In all of this, he does not hide it from God, but rather he shares it openly and even asks for the cup to be taken from him. It is not unfaithful to ask for your heart's desires. I'm going to say that again. It is not unfaithful to ask for your heart's desires. I can say it positively. It is faithful. to ask for your heart's desires. And the key is how we hold those desires. Do we

[6:48] grip it tightly in our hands or do we give it to God with open hands? Jesus submits his desires to God's will. He says in his prayer, yet not what I will but what you will. And this is not lip service. It's not saying, God your will be done, but secretly not willing to actually go along with God's plans if it were different. Jesus is humbly and reverently submitting himself to God. And we see that, right, as he faithfully journeys to the cross. He endures excruciating torture, persecution, and humiliation all for our sake so that we might have salvation if we believe. And what I love about Jesus's prayer is, you know, all of the above. That he is personal, he is faithful, and he is faithful. He is honest and submissive. And after God does not respond, he asks again two more times. So three times he prays this prayer. Jesus shows us that it is still faithful to keep asking God our heart's desires, especially when there is no clear answer. Sometimes it is easy to give up. It is easy to give up after asking once, maybe twice. But we learn, actually there's another story in the Bible in Luke 18 about this prayer. It's about this persistent widow, right? And she's constantly asking this unjust judge and bothering him to death, so much so that he gives in. In that story, Jesus

[8:19] uses that parable to say, we need to pray and not lose heart. So this is what Jesus is doing. He's not losing heart. He's honest with his requests. He's submitting to God's will. And he repeatedly asks God over and over again. Those things don't mutually exclude each other. Honesty, submission, and persistent repetition all exist together in prayer. Eventually, we see God answers the prayer by not interrupting, right? He allows the plan to unfold as promised. If we were just to look at Jesus' prayer, the individual prayer he has with God the Father, we'd actually miss out. Did you notice that Jesus brings his community with him in this challenging time. He doesn't have to. Many times he's prayed by himself in an isolated place, but this time he actually brings the twelve and then later he travels a little bit further and brings the three, Peter, James, and John. They come, they say in another gospel, a stone's throw away so they can hear his prayers and he asked them to pray with him. They're close enough to hear his words, this anguish in his heart. This group is Jesus's close community. This group is one that should be able to walk with him as he goes through the hardest moment of his life. And we do see how they fail him, right? In this

[9:47] particular moment they fall asleep and also in the preceding events after. And Jesus knows that. He knows that they will very soon abandon him and deny him, all of them. He just predicted it in the meal before and yet he invites them to be with him in this intimate process.

[10:08] Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? Will they ever be with him? for, then what is the purpose of prayer?

[10:39] We may be tempted to think that unanswered prayers mean that God does not care, or it's pointless to pray if God's just going to do his thing anyways. For my class, we read a newspaper article about a woman who was protesting outside of a church. So they had this prayer service after a mass shooting in Texas, and she was holding a sign protesting, saying, prayer is useless.

[11:06] And I can understand that in the midst of deep sorrow and frustration, it feels like talking to God may seem useless. It may seem like inaction to pray. However, another exemplar of our faith, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would say otherwise. So this book we read for our class was a book about Dr. King's prayer life. Which many of us don't know about, because it's hard to record or document someone's prayer life. But this one scholar gathered all of his prayers and all of his background, and they found that Dr. King believed that prayer was humanity's greatest weapon, even greater than guns, more powerful than guns. He would regularly hold prayer circles before events. He would pray during marches. He would rush into situations and then just start praying right away. That was the first thing he did.

[12:01] Honestly, I don't think he and other activists could have done nonviolent protest, nonviolent ways of doing justice without prayer. Because it is only through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit that would keep people from retaliation. When others are yelling at them, spitting in their faces, arresting them, spraying them with fire hoses.

[12:25] In this book, it did say that Dr. King said, the only time prayer is useless is if prayer does not result in self and societal transformation to change the world. I'll say it again. Prayer is useless if prayer does not result in self and societal transformation to change the world. When praying as God intended, prayer is resistance. And I think this is the purpose of prayer. It's not necessarily about the answers God gives us. To be in prayer with God, to be in communication with God, we cannot have. Help, but be transformed.

[13:02] When we pray, our hearts, desires, our hearts, our desires, our characters are transformed. And they're formed into more of the image of God, to be in line with God. And so, as God transforms us, He calls us, then, to faithful action, as we bring the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.

[13:24] If one diminishes prayer to be about saying empty words, or even just trying to do something to make themselves. feel better but not let God transform them, then is that really prayer? In this church, I learned a lot about prayer from Barbara Tom. She would never say that prayer is useless. She always faithfully charged us to pray, especially for our missionaries. She was relentless in advocating for them. She reminds me of that faithful widow with the unjust judge. She would just constantly make sure we were praying, especially for our missionaries. And I love that her prayers were bold and humble. That is a beautiful legacy to leave.

[14:07] God is gracious and patient. He walks alongside us in our prayer lives even when we are still figuring out how to communicate with God, even when we don't feel like praying or we don't have the words to say. So let's remember those lessons. I remember one of my friends who was a pastor who had a family of Christians from Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane who prayed in community, bringing his heart's desires to the Father no matter the results. It would be a disservice to just talk about prayer without actually practicing it, so I'm actually going to have us practice praying right now. I would like us to get into pairs around you. We are church community family together, and we can hold each other up in prayer. If you need more social distancing, feel free to stay with people you know, or keep your mask on. If you are online, feel free to pray with someone in your household, or even just pray out loud to God, honestly, if you don't have anyone to pray with. When you do pair up, first introduce yourself if you don't know each other, and then share some prayer requests, briefly. Maybe they could be longings in your heart that have gone unanswered. Maybe they are intersectional, like how your Ministries

[15:20] for friends and family members? Maybe there are pains that you and your community have been holding. So we're gonna spend time praying together. You're actually gonna have 10 minutes total to pray. And I'll do like a five minute warning so you can switch between people. So get up and move to these spaces. Get with someone you can pray with. I'm gonna set a timer.

[15:50] I don't know if you will tell me his heart's desire. Do the Eklins wanna split up? You guys feel good? Anyone need a pair? Deepak needs a pair. We good? Down here? Deepak, do you need a prayer buddy? Okay. You can form a group of three.

[16:18] Yeah? Oh, Andres is coming. Okay, great. All right, go ahead and introduce yourself, Cher, and then I'll call us back in five minutes, and then again after. Will you all be with us for the next few minutes with your Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Ministries Yeah, we're friends. We just talked about it a long time. We were talking about it. It's almost like the first of the list. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I feel like it has kind of happened to me over the last several years. I remember about 10 years ago, when I went to take care of myself, there was like a real disavow kind, because I had the man all the time to see what best that I can do.

[17:42] I think my heart's desire is for it to become real. Okay. Okay. What else can you be praying for? Yeah. What would you ask God to pray for you to do? I can do that. Pray for Mrs. Bell. Yeah. Okay. And roll up, we're for the timer. We pray for Mrs. Bell, Mrs. Susan, Mrs. Arianna, what's your name? Arianna. Arianna. Mrs. Bell. And Ms. Erica, that you would bless them and have them to be more loved. And you are real, so good, and you are awesome. You pray for Mama, Uncle, and you pray for me. Okay. Okay. That you have to have a safe life. Okay.

[18:51] And pray that you will be with me. Thank you for your time. Just been busy with it, yeah. We pray for Uncle Hunter, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Chris, and for your happy birthday party. We bless them all the time. Oh, and all of our family.

[19:08] Anaishe, Tara, Jenny, Amy, and Cameron. Bless them as they come for the wedding. We pray for Benji to have a good time, to be able to go to school. And you know that Mrs. Mommy, that you know, you know all the time, and that he's brave and wonderful and inspiring.

[19:30] We pray for Daniel to continue to grow. We pray for us to all be healthy. We pray for us to eat well, to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. And we pray for us to help sell into our house. We do Benji's new clothes. Thank you.

[19:53] Will Minist Minist Minist ! All right, it's five minutes, so switch people if you haven't switched about sharing and praying. Yeah. I think because mom came from Chicago, Carson's home, he's just really just depressed. Yeah. He's just actually sick. Yeah, yeah. I think until we actually have a fever. Yeah, we don't know. I ran a temperature. I was thinking, oh, okay. You're like, why did I go off? Yeah. Oh, he's sick. Mom's not around. I might have thought that I think he kind of stopped taking care of himself more or less, so he could become more susceptible to sickness. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[23:00] Yeah. I don't know what he had. He would throw up once a day, and it wasn't like a massive amount. Yeah. It was just like he suddenly was stressed. Yeah, I think he suddenly eats something after not eating for a long time, and I think he moved a combo of whatever. Yeah. Just because of the time and that. Yeah. He throws up whatever he immediately just ate, and then he just keeps going about life. And then he's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. But then when he was sick, he would just light up and throw up. Yeah.

[23:47] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Let's pray together. Thank you, God, for this time where we can be a community that honestly and earnestly seeks you in everything we do, in everything, in all that we are. Continue to shape us as a praying church. Help us to see it as action and help it to transform and move us.

[27:05] We long for more of you in our personal lives, in our church body, in our families, in our friendships, in our community, in our world. We need you, Lord Jesus. So come, Lord Jesus, come. We pray all these things in name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.