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Life.Church with Craig Groeschel
Praying When You Don’t Know What to Say | How to Pray: Part 2
00:33:21
Bedtime prayers, dinner table habits, desperate car-ride moments—you probably picked up prayer somewhere. But are you actually doing it right? Let’s learn how to pray together.
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Pastor Josh
Foreign.
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Life Church Host
Welcome to Life Church. We're so glad you're here. Easter is coming soon, and we'd love for you to celebrate with us at Life Church. You can find service times and get a sneak peek of what you'll experience at Life Church Easter. We've got another encouraging message for you this week. Let's go to it right now.
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Pastor Josh
So I've got a question for you. How did you learn to pray? How did you learn to pray? I've been asking that question, and I've gotten different answers. But the reality is this, most people actually don't quite know. A lot of them can't quite remember. And many actually wonder if they're doing it right. Like, am I praying the right way? Unfortunately, many Christians have at best, a limited view on prayer and at worst, a skewed perspective or even wrong theology. So let me tell you about my journey in talking with God, because I grew up in church, and so when I was a little kid, God was scary. Okay? He was scary. I grew up in a church that talked a lot about Jesus coming back and taking his church. They talked about the Rapture, and they talked about the Antichrist. And they told you if you were sinning with when Jesus came back, you would be left behind and you would have to deal. Anybody else grew up like that, you would have to deal with all that persecution. It was scary. So I was confessing my sins all the time, praying to God, forgive me for that. Thought I just had, right? It was scary. In fact, there was this prayer that we learned. Some of y' all might know it. It went something like, now I lay me down to sleep. If you know it, say it with me. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. That's a scary prayer, right? Like this is as a kid, we're praying these prayers. God was scary. Then as a teenager, God was more like my homie. See, I grew up in Los Angeles around gangs. Drive by shootings were just a common thing. A lot of violence, a lot of drugs. But I also got to witness a lot of gang members give their lives to Christ. And so God was more like my homie. Because a homie's got your back. A homie lays down his life for you. A homie never backs down. He's with you. So God was more like my homie. I actually met two former gang members. They gave them their life to Jesus. They took that same prayer and tweaked it a little bit. Now I want to preface this. This was their prayer, not mine. Okay, Just put that in your mind because it went something like this. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul will keep me. If I happen to die before I wake, shoot the Antichrist with an AK Again, it's their prayer, not mine. Okay, so God was more like my homie. As a young adult, God became more like my friend. There was a famous song in the early 2000s that said, I am a friend of God, and God was more like my friend. And then when I got married, 22 years old, God became my 91 1. Like, I was dumb, I didn't know a lot, and I was needing God's help all the time. I was just shooting up emergency prayers to God. He was my 91 1. Now today, God's not scary anymore to me, but I still have a reverent fear for him. I still confess my sins. He's not just my homie or just my friend today. He's a holy king. He's holy. He's a holy king. And see, here's the problem. When Christianity is cultural, the king becomes common and your approach becomes casual. So let me just explain that just a little bit for you. When Christianity is cultural, what does that mean? When you go to church, whenever you get a chance, maybe say a prayer for your food, maybe you grew up around church, you're a religious person. When Christianity becomes cultural, the king who is holy becomes common, and your approach becomes casual. Today, I believe God wants to remind us that he is a holy king. Sovereign, separated, set apart. And our approach to the holy king matters greatly. It matters. So we're in a message series called how to Pray. And we're learning what does it look like to pray to a holy king? And each message builds on the previous one. So if you missed last week, you gotta go back and watch. It was an incredible message. Pastor Josh reminded us that God is our heavenly Father. Next week, you're gonna get to hear about a God who hears, and he wants to know your petitions, your needs. But today we're gonna focus on verse 10, the fact that he's a holy king. Now, every week, we are reading and reciting the Lord's Prayer through together. We're gonna do that today as well, but I'm gonna ask you to stand wherever you can. Those of you online, you can join us in this at all of our locations. If you're able to stand, please stand. We're gonna prepare to read the Lord's Prayer. But before we Read it. I wanna acknowledge something. There's something called the doxology, okay? Now, last week we didn't say this part. Some versions include this doxology. And some of you were wondering, like, hey, how come we didn't say that part? This is just kind of like a wrap up to this prayer. It just gives God the glory at the end of this prayer. So I want to show it to you now, those of you that know it, you know it. It says, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So now we're going to read the entire Lord's Prayer together. We're going to recite it, and then we're going to end with that doxology as well. Let's read this together. 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 and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat where you're at today. Last week we learned that prayer is simply talking with God. Today we're going to learn that prayer is submitting to a holy king. Today we're going to submit to him. In Matthew 6:10, it says, God's kingdom, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, and as it is in heaven. This verse reminds us of a higher purpose. It reminds us of his kingdom, of his will. It realigns our priorities. This is not about my plans. This is not about my purpose. This is not about my name or my kingdom. And this shapes our approach to him in prayer. So the journey that I shared with you, my journey with prayer, it turns out that's not just my journey. That's actually like humanity's journey. Humans have had this journey of talking with. And today I want to show you this, this weird way of how God actually talks to us and throughout humanity. And the verse says, your will, your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. So where does heaven meet earth? Where does heaven meet earth? Let's look at four different ways throughout the history of mankind. So the first one is the ziggurat. Everybody say ziggurat. Say it with some passion. Ziggurat. Okay, so the ziggurat is these towers, right? These towers that man built up to try to get up to God and then to bring God down. This was man's attempt and this is actually what I call the temptation. This is our attempt to bring God down, to manage God, to have him do our will, to have him fulfill our needs and our desires. This is. Is the ziggurat. Then the next one we have is the mountain. You might be familiar with this. In the Bible, you see multiple times where God uses a mountain. And this is what I call the invitation. This is God inviting man to come up to the mountain to meet him, to experience his presence, to speak to him. You know this about Moses, right? He comes up, there's the burning bush. God speaks to him, gives him his. His law. This is the mountain. Then we have the temple. It started as the tabernacle. This was God's specific instructions on how to build something. And this is the institution. Okay? This is how to build something where God's presence could actually inhabit, but it was limited. Only the high priest could go into the holy of holies and experience the presence of God and speak to him and hear from him. This is the temple, the institution. This would be like our church, the institution, the building. And then the last one is the upper room. The upper room was a very common room in a Jewish house that sat up top where people would gather and eat. This is where Jesus had his meal with his disciples, where he washed their feet. The upper room is actually the restoration. This is the original plan where God doesn't just hang out with mankind. He's not just walking with them. He's not inviting them. He's. He's actually living inside of man. These are the different ways. So let me ask you these questions. When you pray, who do you think you're talking to? Do you feel like you have to climb up to reach Him? Or do you try to bring him down to your level? Is there a right way to talk to a holy God? And what if he's actually closer than you think? I want to give you two thoughts to remember when approaching the Holy King. The first one is, this is God's kingdom is greater than my needs or my desires. His kingdom is greater than my needs or my desires. Because the truth is, is we all have needs, right? We all have needs. You got needs, I got needs, right? Turn to your neighbor, tell them, I got needs. Come on, turn to your other neighbor, say, I can't meet those needs, right? We all have things that we need. We all have things that we desire, and we all have things that we worry about. If you're young, you might be needing some things that you might be wondering, what will I do? With my life when I get old. If you're old, you're thinking, what do I do now before I die, right? Like, if you're single and you want to get married, you got some needs, and you're like, will I ever get married? If you're married and you're not happy, you might actually be worried, are we going to make it? If you don't have a job, you're worried. And you have a need, you need to be hired. And if you're hired, you're constantly worried, am I going to get fired? Things like, does she like me? Does he even notice me? And then the important things, like getting on Google Maps and thinking, where are we going to eat today? Or looking in your closet full of clothes and thinking, I got nothing to wear. Like, the important things, right? All joking aside, there are some worries and some fears and some needs that we are all experiencing in this world. Like, will we. Or are we experiencing World War iii? Or maybe it's a little more personal for you. Will this cancer go away? Or when will my child's addiction end? We have needs. We have worries. And listen to me. God absolutely cares. But he calls us higher. You see, we don't need a king. We desperately need the king, a holy king in our lives. Matthew 6:31 says this in scripture. It tells us what to do with our worries. It says this. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or. Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. And then it gives us the instruction. It says, but seek first. What? Say it with me. The kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you See, we have to choose kingdom over control. We gotta choose his kingdom. We gotta seek God's kingdom. So then what is the question? The question is, what's God's kingdom? What's his kingdom? Because it's different than our kingdom. It's different than the kingdoms of this world. See, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is actually upside down. It flips everything. The kingdom of God tells us to serve others instead of ruling over them. The kingdom of God says, being humble and gets you lifted up, being proud gets you knocked down. God's kingdom says that he blesses the poor and the weak, not just the rich and the powerful. His kingdom tells us, love your enemies instead of hating them. His kingdom says, use spiritual power, not weapons, and force. His kingdom tells us, lead by setting A good example. Not by pushing people around. And his kingdom tells us, don't just store up treasures here, Store up treasures in heaven, not on earth. His kingdom is upside down. It's different. It's upside down. So when you pray, put your needs and your wants aside, seek his kingdom and how you can be used to grow it here on Earth. See, our approach to the king matters. The approach matters. And there's no other relationship in my life that I see this more clearly than in my relationship to my wife, Liz. We've been married. May will be 24 years of marriage. Amazing. Best 15 years of her life. First nine were rough. I was a mess. I was a mess. But approach matters. See, I learned that in marriage, it's not about what you say, but it's about how you say it, right? I could go up to Liz and just say, hey, babe, how you doing? And she'll probably tell me how she's doing, right? Or I could go up to her and say, oh, yeah, Mommy, how you doing? Hopefully they'll get a different response with that. Right? Our approach matters. It matters. Now, in marriage, we've had our ups and downs. We've had challenges, and when the kids were really little, we didn't get into fights. We had discussions. Right? Now that they're big, we get in fights. Recently, we got into a pretty big fight. And let me just tell you right now, I was right. Why y' all laughing? I was right. I promise you. Y' all laugh too much, man. Listen, I was right. We actually had a really big decision to make, and I had all the knowledge, I had all the facts. She had a feeling I was right. This was one of those fights where we're like. We're sitting next to each other, but you don't touch. You don't look at you straight ahead. Just look ahead and you just fight for your right. You just don't back down. See, in my kingdom, I know I'm right, and I'm not backing down. But in God's kingdom, it's very clear what husbands are supposed to do. He says, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and laid down his life for her. In that moment, I was like, I'm right. I'm not backing down. And I'm listening to my wife describe this feeling. And I'm telling you right now, as clearly as I'm talking to you, not audibly, but as clearly as I'm speaking, I felt impressed on my heart, this conviction from the Holy Spirit, you're not loving your wife. And One of the signs of maturity in your spiritual walk with Jesus is the amount of time it takes from when God says something to you to when you do it. I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't always get this right, but in this moment like that, as soon as I felt that impression, I stopped and I recognized it. I confessed it to my wife. I confessed it to God. I repented of it. And I said, babe, let's go with your dealing. I did. I said, babe, you're right, I'm wrong. We need to do what you feel is right. See, God's kingdom is different. You gotta choose kingdom over control. You see, his kingdom is greater than my needs and my desires. The second thought is, his plan is better than my brand. See, we all have plans. We all have our identity, our brand. Scripture talks about this to us. It tells us what to do with our brand. It tells us how to realign it. This is what scripture says. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. See, culture tells you, build your brand, right? Culture tells you, establish yourself. Culture tells you, make a name for yourself. There's no one more important. Manifest your destiny. Make it happen. Build your kingdom. That's what culture tells you. And let me just tell you, it's okay. And it's good to make plans. The problem comes when pride sets in. That's when you get into trouble. When that pride shows up, we stop trying to meet God and we start trying to manage God. I want to point you back to the ziggurat. There's a story in the Bible about this tower. It's called the Tower of Babel. You might have heard about this story. Theologians believe that this was likely a ziggurat. The timing lines up, the location lines up. And this was a tower that was built. So let me give you the story and kind of paint the picture for you, okay? So all of mankind speaks one language, and they all decide, you know what? Let's do something with this. Like, we're all united in one language. Let's do something about this. And so they decided, let's build a tower. Let's get up to the heavens. Let's go up there and try to bring God down. In fact, in Genesis 11:4, it says, Come, let us build ourselves a city so that we may make a name for who for ourselves. God sees this plan and he's like, ho, Ho, who? Wait up. Wait up. This ain't about my kingdom anymore. This is about them. They're trying to establish their kingdom. And he had given humanity instructions. Go forth and fill the earth. They wanted to build their kingdom right there and then. So God does something. He actually comes down and he says this. Verse 7, Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. Verse 8 says, so the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth. So God confuses them and makes them speak other languages. They can't finish the project, so they get scattered everywhere. The ziggurat is man's attempt to go up, to meet and bring God down, to manage the blessings. The ziggurat abuse is about our name, our will to make the gods do what we want. How many times when you pray? When we pray, we say, God bless my plans. Open the door, shut the door. Prosper me. Do this for me. Fix my truck. That's an actual prayer. I prayed once. The transmission was slipping, and I was like, lord, you could do a miracle. Fix my truck. Turns out I just needed to change the transmission fluid. It was all good, right? How many times do we pray those prayers where we're trying to manage God's will in our lives? Next week, you're gonna learn how to petition God. But today, I want to remind you to seek his will. You, your kingdom come, your will be done. So what's God's will for his kingdom? What does he want? What does he call us? To be a part of God's will is to restore all things to himself, is to heal the brokenhearted. It's to bind up the wounded. His will is that all would be saved. Every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every race reconciled to Christ. That's his will. So you have the ziggurat, and then you have the upper room. The upper room is the restoration. This was God's original plan. Let me give you the context. So Jesus gets crucified, he gets buried in a grave, comes back to life. And then he starts speaking to his disciples. And he tells them, be praying, for my kingdom is at hand. My kingdom is coming. And the disciples are in this room, and they're praying constantly, daily, waiting for this promise, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. And then all of a sudden, this wind kicks up, and it's like fire. And then all of a sudden, there's these tongues of fire that are just sitting on top of each of the disciples. And the Bible tells us that they actually started to speak in other tongues. Now this Wasn't like spiritual tongues. These were actual languages. These were actual languages that existed. In fact, the scripture tells us this in it says now in Acts, chapter 2, verse 5, now there were staying in Jerusalem God fearing Jews from every nation under the earth, under heaven. And then verse 8 says this. Each one heard their own language being spoken. Each of us hear them in our native language. Verse 11, they say, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. So the disciples are just like speaking these other languages. See, in the upper room, they're recognizing this is about his will. What's his will? His will is about others. It's not just about you. It's not about your brand or your plan or your future. It's about him bringing all his children back to himself. In the Ziggurat, it's about making a name for ourselves, our plans, our kingdoms. In the upper room, they're waiting patiently, constantly praying, waiting for his kingdom to come. And people hear their language being spoken. They hear the goodness and the works of God in their own language. Like, I could just imagine the disciples, they're sitting there and they start to speak in different languages. Could you just imagine it? Like, this is how I picture the Bible. Like, I could imagine Matthew just all of a sudden coming out and be like, hola, mis amigos. Que paso? Como estan? Right? And then Mark is over here and he's like, he starts speaking like, he's like, how are you? Right? And then you've got somebody else speaking French. Bonjour, monsieur, mademoiselle. Like, I don't know, I don't think they spoke French back then, but they're speaking all these different languages. And people that are there from every nation start to hear about the goodness of God. And then Peter stands up and he preaches the message. And that day, 3,000 people are added into the kingdom. So here's the contrast. In the ziggurat, they spoke one language. They tried to build their kingdom to bring God down to man and establish their name. God changes their languages and scatters them. In the upper room, they're united in one spirit. They're seeking God's kingdom. The Holy Spirit empowers them to speak many languages. And then he brings his children back to him. Today in my life, nothing matters more than the kingdom of God, than His will to be done, that all would be saved, that every tribe, every tongue, every nation would come to know the goodness of God. We're called to seek his kingdom. And I wanted to give you just a small picture of what the Kingdom of God might look like. I asked some of my friends. These are all pastors and leaders that are on staff here at Life Church, and I ask them to share the Lord's prayer with you in their language,
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Life Church Host
But deliver us from the evil one.
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Pastor Josh
Amen. That's the kingdom of God. That's his kingdom. So I want to close with these four images back on the wall. I want to ask you, where are you at? How's your approach to the Holy King? Are you. Are you in a ziggurat type of place where you've been trying to bring God down to you, to manage him, to manage his blessings? For some of you, maybe you are new to the things of God, like, you just came here. You don't even know what. What you believe about God, but God is actually inviting you to experience his presence, to hear his voice. Or perhaps you find yourself more along the lines of the temple, the institution, and this. This is probably the most dangerous place to be. This is where I believe many of us can find ourselves. Because you're relying on the pastor, you're relying on the worship team to experience the presence of God. And that was never God's intent. This is cultural Christianity. This is casual approach to the King. And you think you're close to God, but you couldn't be further away. And what God wants, what he desires, is for you to have an upper room experience, to not just be around him, to not just be with him, but to let him live inside you so that you could do his will. You could seek his kingdom. That's the original plan. That's what he desires for you. I want you to remember our approach to prayer is kingdom focused, seeking his will above our own. So let me get a little practical for you, because I know some of y' all are like, this is great. What do I do with this? Every day from now till Easter, we're praying the Lord's Prayer. I want to invite you that however it is that you pray this week, as you pray this prayer, change your posture. Like, literally change your posture. For me, I usually wake up and the first thing I want to do when I talk to God is just. Is talk to Him. So I stay in my bed and I lay down and I just start talking to God. If you lay down, maybe, maybe, maybe this week, stand up and maybe just put your hands out and honor our Holy King. Maybe, maybe, maybe you take a knee to the Holy King, change your posture. Like, physically change your posture so that spiritually you can approach the King. Who's holy and approach him as he is a holy king. You see, the beautiful thing is you might bend your knee for the king, but the holy King bends his ear to hear your voice. That's the difference. So with every head bowed, every eye closed today, I just. I want to ask you this question. If you have allowed your prayer, your life, to be more about you and less about the king, if you're here today and you've actually allowed your prayers to become casual, your approach is casual to a holy king. And today you're saying, you know what? I don't want that anymore. I want to approach him as he is a holy king. I want my prayer life to. To be deeper with him, to seek his kingdom and his will. If that's you, would you raise your hand? I want to pray for you today. Hands going up all over this place at all of our churches. I'm praying for you today. Heavenly Father, I'm raising my hands with you. Lift your hands up to him today. Lord, we come to you today. And we repent of being casual with our approach to you. We submit to a holy king. Lord, let our lives be lives that seek your kingdom, that seek your will. As we keep praying with nobody looking around. I told you this. Our approach to the king matters. But what matters even more is his approach to us. This is what separates Christianity from all other religions, is that Jesus approaches us. And for many of you, that's actually why you're here. See, you might find yourself here, and you might have grown up in church. You might know about the things of God. You might check the boxes. But if you're honest, you're more of a cultural Christian than a true, truly devoted follower of Christ. For others of you, you just came here today and something's been drawing you, and that's God. That's his spirit pulling you towards him, inviting you into a relationship with him. So what we know is that God desires a relationship with all of us, but something gets in the way, and that's called sin. All of us sin. You and I sin. And that sin separates us from a holy king. And God's not okay with that. He wants a relationship with you. So he did something for us. He sent his son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life with no sin. And he died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. But he did not stay dead. He rose again so that you and I could have a new life and have that relationship with him and allow him to live inside of us. And for many of you, that's actually why you're here. You're here today to step across a line to say, you know what? I repent of my sins and I turn towards Jesus and I give him my life. Scripture says that anyone who calls on the name of Jesus would be saved. And for many of you, that's why you're here. Because today is the day where you enter into the kingdom of God by surrendering your life to him, by coming to a holy king and saying, I'm sinful and I need a Savior. I need to make you my Lord. And for many of you, that's why you're here. And so if you're here and you say, yes, that's me, I need Jesus. I want to surrender my life to him. I want to give him everything. I want to make him my Lord, my Savior. If that's you, I want you to lift your hands right now. Come on, raise your hand up. I see you right here. God bless you. Others of you that say, yes, I'm ready to surrender to Jesus. Lift your hand up boldly. I got you right over there. God is with you. Welcome to the family of God. Those of you online, just type it in the comments section. I give my life to Jesus Church. Would you help me pray with those around you? Nobody prays a little. Pray together. Pray aloud. Say, heavenly Father, Holy King, I give you my life. I surrender my heart. Today I declare Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. I am forgiven of all my sins. Fill me with your spirit so I can follow you and do your will. It's in Jesus name I pray. Come on, somebody get a little loud. Somebody celebrate today. Welcome people into the family of God. Come on.
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Life Church Host
We are celebrating with those of you who just made the decision to follow Jesus. Make sure you check out the show notes for helpful resources and next steps. One great next step is making plans to attend Easter services at Life Church. You can find all the info you need, including service times and locations at Life Church. Easter. We'll see you back here next week for another encouraging message.