REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But 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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
REVIEW
LOGIC BEHIND PRAYER
(a) We pray because Jesus prayed.
(b) God is love and yearns for a relationship with mankind. Prayer is the vehicle he has provided to cultivate this relationship.
(c) God chose a partnership to run the world and prayer is the means to give us a role in the partnership.
SOME KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PRAYER
The “Parable of the Persistent Widow” shows us the need to be specific in what we prayer for, to come in total dependence / helpless, to be desperate / passionate, have confidence that we are being heard and will prevail, and persistent. We must remember we come to a loving father and not an unrighteous and uncaring judge.
PROBLEMS WITH THE PROMISES
When we claim God’s promises it is best to claim them as a group of promises so that we don’t forget the qualifiers. God, because He is love hears our prayers; God, because He is holy cannot answer all or our prayers. God has called us to reign with Him, to partner with Him in governing the world. If He granted all of our prayer requests He would be abdicating and letting us run the world. We have a hard time knowing and therefore praying in the will of God but the Holy Spirit prays in and through us, correcting our prayers. Delayed answers to prayers is one of God’s methods of helping us get His perspective.
INTRODUCTION:
*** “The godly are designed for unknown and inconceivable happiness.” – Jonathan Edwards
“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold I am wise.’ But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the . . . solemn exclamation, ‘I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.’. . . But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. . . . Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continuing investigation of the great subject of the Deity” (Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 1, 1855 [Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1975], 1).
I have been struck about how four of God’s attributes specifically relate to and in fact are primary in understanding prayer. These four attributes are either explicit or implicit in our text.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Omnipresence of God as It Relates to Prayer
2. Omniscient of God as It Relates to Prayer
3. Omnipotence of God as It Relates to Prayer
4. Omni-benevolence of God as It Relates to Prayer
TABLE ACTIVITY / FLIP CHART: At your table read quickly Mt. 6:5-13 and list on the paper provided both explicit and implicit references to each of the four attributes. Have each table list references to one of the four omnis and list it on the Flip Chart.
PRAYER & THE FOUR OMNIS
I. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD AS IT RELATES TO PRAYER
“But 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. … (Matthew 6:5-8)
Our Father sees what is done in secret because He is there.
There are few truths covered so well in the Scriptures as the omnipresence of God.
ILL: Jonah – “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.” …. “They (the sailors) knew that he was running away from the LORD for he had already told them.” (Jonah 1:3, 10).
ILL: Hagar, due to Sarah’s jealousy, ran away. In the desert God spoke to her. Genesis 16:13-14 says: She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is shy the well was call Beer Lahai Roi (The well of the Living One who sees me).”
ILL: Jacob, due to his deception and fear of Esau fled from his home. At night he slept with a rock for a pillow and had a marvelous dream of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. The LORD spoke to him a promise of future blessing. Gen. 28:16 records: When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
READING: Have someone read Psalm 139:7-12. David thought that if he could rise on the wings of the dawn (travel 186,000 miles a second) and settle on the far side of the sea he could escape the presence of God but he conclude, “Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
FLIP CHART: Refer to the flip chart and references to God’s omnipresence in our text.
Dallas Willard speaks of living in a “God-bathed” world. We cannot escape His presence. He is always near. God’s omnipresence is not the same as pantheism. Pantheism means Nature/World = God. Christianity says God created the world and is separate from the world. Our formula would be “God – World = God.” What we are saying is that God is everywhere present in His creation, but He is not the creation.
Quote from Donald Macleod:
God is always with us. We are never away from His presence. We are, as Jesus said in John 10:28-29, in His hand. ….. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
“This idea [of God’s omnipresence] pervades Scripture and is set forth in terms of virtually every preposition human language has to offer. God is with us (Matthew 28:20), around us (Psalm 34:7), in us (John 14:17), in the midst of us (Psalm 46:5), behind us (Psalm 139:5), underneath us (Deuteronomy 33:27), near us (Psalm 148:14) and before us (John 10:4). The metaphors used are equally varied: God is a shepherd, a captain, an encircling army, an indwelling garrison, a sentry at the door, a watchman, even a broody hen.” (Donald Macleod, Behold Your God, p. 66)
“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry …” (Ps. 34:15).
ILL: Footprints in the Sand
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” Mary Stevenson, 1936
PRINCIPLE: Whenever we pray, always remember that we are in the presence of our Dear Heavenly Father.
II. THE OMNINISCIENCE OF GOD AS IT RELATES TO PRAYER
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)
READING: Read the section in Psalm 139 that relates to God’s omniscience.
FLIP-CHART: Refer to the flip chart and references to God’s omniscience.
QUESTION: What is the positive and negative aspect to God’s omniscience as it relates to us?
The omniscience of God on one hand can be exceedingly frightening – He knows and sees everything about us …. We would be embarrassed if others knew everything about us. On the flip side he knows us so well that He knows exactly what we need.
“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind … to reward a man according to his conduct” (Jet. 17:10). “Nothing in all creation is hid from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to which we must give account” (Heb. 4:13). “I am He who searches the heart and minds and I will repay each of you according to your deed” (Rev. 2:23). “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered.” (Mt. 10:29-30)
QUESTION: Since God knows so much about us why does He tell us to pray? Why doesn’t He just give us what we need?
(1) He wants to lead us to real dependence on Him;
(2) He wants us to cultivate a relationship with Him;
(3) When we see answered prayer we develop more confidence in Him;
(4) He wants to protect our freedom.
ALTHOUGH GOD IS OMNISCIENT AND KNOWS WHAT WE NEED, HE RESPECTS OUR FREEDOM: “The Bible draws a contrast between the freedom-crushing style of evil and the freedom-respecting style of good. In a vivid scene of possession by an evil spirit, Mark 9 shows a young boy foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and throwing himself into fire or water. In every way evil possession transforms the boy into a caricature of a human being, forcibly overwhelming human freedom. Contrast that scene with possession by the Holy Spirit. Paul warns, “Quench not the Spirit” and “grieve not the holy Spirit of God.” The Lord of the universe becomes so small, so freedom-respecting as to put himself somehow at our mercy.” (Prayer, P. Yancey, pg. 85).
“By using prayer rather than other, more direct means, God [who is omniscient] once again chooses the most freedom-enhancing style of acting in the world. God waits to be asked, in some inscrutable way making God’s activity on earth contingent on us. Does the kingdom, or “God’s will,” advance more slowly because of that choice? Yes, in the same way parents slow their pace when the youngest child is learning to walk. Their goal is to equip someone else, not themselves.” (Prayer, Yancey, 144)
PRINCIPLE: God knows all, knows what we need and yet respects our freedom so much that He slows down waiting to give us what we need only after we pray.
III. THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD AS IT RELATES TO PRAYER
“Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. …. your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
FLIP CHART: Note the implication / statements on the Flip Chart that refer to God’s omnipotence. Two in the verse is that God is capable of rewarding and able to provide what we ask of Him.
READING: Read the section from Psalm 139 re omnipotence.
The Old Testament, when thinking of God’s power, focuses on the creation of the world as an illustration:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).
I Chronicles 16:26 – “For all the Gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
Nehemiah. 9:6 -You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything …
Psalms 8:3-4 – “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set I place.”
Psalm 121:2 – My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Isaiah 40:28 – Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary ….
Over the past thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that just about everything about the basic structure of the universe is balanced on a razor’s edge for life to exist. The coincidences are far too fantastic to attribute this to mere chance or to claim that it needs no explanation. The dials are set too precisely to have been random accident” …One expert said there are more than thirty separate physical or cosmological parameters that require precise calibration in order to produce a life-sustaining universe … The fine-tuning has conservatively been estimated to be at least one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion. That would be ten followed by 53 zeroes. That’s inconceivably precise. (The Case for the Creator, Lee Strobel, pgs 131-133)
In the New Testament, when referring to God’s omnipotence, the writers refer to the power of the Resurrection
For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you (II Cor. 13:4).
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead . . . . (Eph. 1:18-20)
ILL: Bill Hybels in an Easter sermon compared the power to open the grave’s door for Christ and the power given to us to open the doors that seem closed, i.e., doors of false identity, doors to freedom, doors to victory over sin etc. All the doors were on the platform and people were invited to come forward and walk through the doors expecting victory through God who has power to open all doors.
PRINCIPLE: When we pray, we pray to a God who is well able, since He is omnipotent, to answer every prayer that we pray.
IV. THE OMNI-BENEVOLENCE POTENCE OF GOD AS IT RELATES TO PRAYER
“Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. . . . Your Father knows what you need ….” (Matthew 6:5-8)
FLIP CHART – Check the flip chart to see what references to omni-benevolence have been noted.
READING: Read the section from Psalm 139 that refers to omni-benevolence.
Note – Mention that “to” in vs. 17 can be exchanged with “concerning” me” … thus, “How precious concerning me are your thoughts ,O, God!”
By omni-benevolence we mean that God is perfectly good, infinitely compassionate. He is the perfect Father. He wants to increase our well-being and decrease our ill-being.
We see this indicated throughout Scripture:
How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of all on those who take refuge in you (Psalm 31:19).
Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare (Psalm 40:5).
For 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).
We see His omni-benovolence in the Sermon on the Mount, e.g. He makes the sun shine and rain fall on the evil and the good; He rewards us; He feeds the birds, clothes the grass and feeds and clothes us; He gives good gifts and he Holy Spirit to those who ask Him; He gives us life; helps us bear fruit; welcomes us to heaven and enables us to stand firm in the storms of life.
*** If God is bound by the unchanging qualities of love and mercy, that is if he is omni-benovolent, he must hear our requests, and also, because of his omni-benevolence, must answer those requests that are for our long-term good.
ILL: I know someone who calls her Mom almost every night. You might say, “She must really be dependent on her mom,” or “That Mother ought to get out of her daughter’s life,” or “That girl needs to learn to call her parents only when she’s low on cash.” But when I asked this young women, “Why do you call your mother so much?” she replied, “My Mom is the only person I know who cares, really cares, about what kind of day I’ve had. It’s so much fun to talk to somebody who cares.”
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
PRINCIPLE: When we pray to our Dear Heavenly Father we must remember His attribute of omni-benovolence and that He longs to bless and reward us.
SO WHAT???
1. Whenever we pray, always remember that we are in the presence of our Dear Heavenly Father.
2. God knows all, knows what we need, and yet respects our freedom so much that He slows down waiting to give us what we need only as we pray.
3. When we pray, we pray to a God who is well able, since He is omnipotent, to answer every prayer that we pray.
4. When we pray to our Dear Heavenly Father we must remember His attribute of omni-benovolence and that He longs to bless and reward us.