Well, all right! How many of y'all are excited for this? Good, good, good! So am I.
Let me pray, because I just want to pray like Jesus. So why don't we just start this off with some prayer?
Um, Father God, I just thank you for this message. I thank you for, um, using me to just, uh, bring what you need your people to hear. Um, so I just thank you for that— all of you, none of me. And I pray that you will do, um, the heart-pricking; you will do the work of letting this sink into people's hearts. Uh, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.
So last week, Pastor Brent got us kicked off with "Look Like Jesus." How many of y'all enjoyed it? He’s in Africa, so if you didn’t, this would be your time to say, “Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that mess.”
"Look Like Jesus" was good! He said that the problem is when most people see Christians, they don't see Jesus. Um, he said that we need to be intentional about pressing toward the goal of looking like Jesus every day and in every area of our life. He told us that it requires five things. I'm not going to quiz y'all, but it requires knowledge, examination, surrender, work, and power.
Today's message is "Pray Like Jesus." We're going to look at and examine just the different ways that Jesus prayed.
Uh, the Bible is pretty clear on a few things. For one, we know that it says pray always. If you look at the stories of Jesus, you see him praying anywhere and everywhere. Um, he prayed in the waters of baptism; he prayed out there in the middle of the wilderness with the two fish and five loaves. He prayed wherever! He prayed on a mountain; he prayed in a solitary place. So Jesus prayed anywhere and everywhere.
Um, we see Jesus throughout the Bible praying for big decisions, um, to resist temptation, for healing for others, um, for forgiveness. On the cross, he said, um, “Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We see Jesus praying for protection, Thanksgiving—giving thanks to God. We even see him praying for his enemies.
So today, I want to focus on five other areas that we see Jesus praying in scripture. One of those is submission. The next is fellowship. We'll look at direction. We'll also look at the value of praying God's word and the importance of praying through hard times.
So let's jump into submission. This first look is at a story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, um, where he's talking to God about going to the cross that was happening soon. Um, and he prays this beautiful prayer of submission. And I say beautiful because anytime you can submit your will to the Father, it's a beautiful thing.
So let's start at Luke 22:41. It says, “And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.’”
Everything Jesus really wanted to do in that moment was opposite of what God had called him to do, but he still spoke those words: “Not my will, but yours be done.” Why was he able to do that? I think it's because he fully understood and trusted the fact that God's will is always right. It's always better.
When we talk about submission, saying it is one thing, but actually acting on it is another. Jesus said in Matthew 15, “These people draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
In a place like the Windy City, a lot of people think it's because of the wind, but some people say it's because we talk. We don't want to be that. You don't want to be like those people that are just talking it and not actually doing what you told God you would do.
So there came a point in time when Jesus had to get up and actually act on what he told God, and that submission was going to his death on the cross. So that's a big deal.
About six years ago, I made a similar statement, and I said, “Father, whatever you want me to do, I will do.” And I was a Christian, so that wasn't the issue. I was fully aware of the power of God; I had experienced it throughout my life, fully aware of his goodness. But I said, “Lord, whatever you want me to do, I will do.” But was I submitted as a Christian to that point? No.
So the question is, once I said that prayer, would there be evidence of my surrender to God? Were my actions following that prayer going to line up with the word of God? Once you pray that prayer to God, you must start taking steps toward God. And what does that look like?
That comes—now is the time—once you say that prayer to drop those bad habits, things that are clearly opposite of Jesus. You want to drop that. Things that are clearly sin, you want to start to drop that. Um, if you're unsure what sin is, let the Bible be the judge. Go to it; it'll tell you pretty clearly what sin is.
Um, it's time to drop those things that may limit you, um, the things that will keep you stagnant, the things that might be okay or might be good, but they're time wasters. A good gauge is: does it foster a growing relationship with Jesus? Does it bring you closer to the Father or further away?
Those gray areas—Proverbs 3 tells us, “In all our ways acknowledge Him, and He'll direct our paths.” So it's no excuse. Being like Jesus is being submitted even unto death. Pastor Brent last week said Heaven is the gift, and that's for those of us that receive that free gift of salvation. But Jesus is the goal.
That's good! Heaven is the gift. Hey, you say your prayer; you mean it in your heart—that's the gift of salvation. But then there's something that you got to push toward, and that's the goal of looking like Jesus.
I would say ask the Holy Spirit, um, with anything we do. Go to God about it. Talk to him. That's why he sent us the Holy Spirit—to lead us and guide us. So ask the Holy Spirit to point those areas out to you. You know, say, “Lord, what areas do I need to be more submitted in?” And when he shows you, and then you say that prayer of submission, what will you do next? Jesus followed through. Will you?
Now let's look at fellowship or communion. In John 17, Jesus prays this prayer, and this prayer is known as the High Priestly Prayer or the prayer of Jesus. At the beginning of the prayer, Jesus prays that his followers from now until the end of the age would come to know the Father. He talks about how God has given him authority over all people and that he will give them eternal life.
So let's pick up in John 17:3, and it says, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” And that word there, um, for “know” is the Greek word “ginosko,” which means to be aware of, to feel, to have experiential knowledge of, to perceive, to speak, to be sure of, or to understand.
So basically, Jesus's prayer was that he wants us to know God in a way that we are aware of him, we speak to him, we understand him, we perceive him, we're sure of him. How many of you can say that you're sure of Jesus? Amen!
So there's an experience that has to happen. It's not just that, “Hey, I'm a Christian.” There's an experience that you should have had if you're going to be a follower of Jesus.
So Jesus, um, he valued knowing God through experience so highly that he prayed that for all of us. All of those things really speak to a relationship. It speaks to communication; it speaks to communion.
I mean, I know in church when you think communion, you're thinking about when Jesus told the disciples, “Hey, this bread represents my body; this juice represents my blood,” and they took communion. We know that that's an act, and yes, that's a thing.
Um, but when I think about communion, after that point, when those disciples came back together and had dinner and thought about Jesus and the things he told them to think about, they also thought about the fun that they had with Jesus. They thought about the laughs that they had with Jesus. They thought about the tears, the lessons—all of the experiences that they had with Jesus.
It reminds me, um, of like when you lose a loved one. In my experience, when I lose a loved one, some of the most rewarding and most comforting times are talking about those experiences that we had together.
So that's what Jesus was praying for in regards to our relationship with God: a meaningful, unforgettable experience with the Father, which comes only through fellowship. It comes through, um, just talking to God, being in his presence, telling him how you feel, even if the feel is the ugly type of feel. Um, God wants really all of you—good, bad, and ugly.
So I love this quote from Andrew Wommack that says, “The major part of prayer should be communing with God, praise and worship, and blessing God.” And then Pastor Chris, who I was kissing up to in the first service, I love her quote that says, “Praise is giving thanks for what he's done; worship is giving thanks for who he is.” Amen!
So I took those two things, and I thought about this time where, um, I'm now walking out the submission that I've given to God. I've already said, “Hey, whatever you want me to do, I'mma do.” And I'm out jogging.
And I'mma pause because in the last service, there was somebody in the crowd hating, like, “Really? You jogging?” And I had to get on them, so I was just waiting to see who else was gonna fall into that trap.
So anyway, yes, I used to jog. Um, I was out jogging, and my pattern while I was out jogging would be to be communing with God. I would be doing those things that Pastor Chris mentioned—praising God, um, that Andrew Wommack mentioned—just communing, talking to God, telling him how much I love him, telling him how good he is, singing worship, listening to, um, messages, things like that. I'm out communing with God; that was my pattern.
And I'm out there, and I feel this scripture just rise up in my heart: Matthew 16:15, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” So I start running faster because I'm like, “I ain't really liking that sound. Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.” And I'm trying to get away from this because I'm like, “Lord, you trying to tell me something or what's going on here?”
So finally, I slow down, and I'm like, “Well, my mother taught me from this big, ‘Hey, follow your inward man. When the Lord says something, you're feeling in your heart, follow it.’” So I'm like, “Well, Lord, I think you talking to me. Um, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.”
So I said, “How?” And he said, “Go to Bible school.” So then I start running again a little bit faster, and I'm like, “Well, I'm not going to do that, so let me keep running.”
Um, and then he reminded me that I had said earlier, a few months earlier, “Whatever you want me to do, Lord, I'll do it.” It was like, “Oh, Lord, now I got to actually act on this? What is going on here?”
So I kind of ran for a little while longer and finally came to grips and went home and told my wife. I said, “I think the Lord told me I need to go to Bible school.” And she was like, “Oh, well, okay, if that's what you think he told you.” So I signed up for Bible school. So that's what I did.
Pause that. Now let's move to direction. Um, so now we're going to look at getting direction in prayer. Um, so we just saw me get direction from fellowship. I wasn't out there looking for nothing; I was fellowshipping with God, and he gave me direction.
But there comes a time where you actually need to go seek some direction, um, based on the things that's going on in your life. And I would say it's better to just seek direction all the time, and then he don't have to, like, interrupt your run and tell you what to do if you'll just be seeking it all the time.
Um, so let's see how Jesus did this and how he instructed the disciples to pray for direction in Luke 6. This is the story of Jesus going into the mountain before he picked his disciples or before he picked the apostles out of his group of people.
Luke 6:12 says, “In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. When it was day, he called for his disciples, and of them, he chose twelve whom he named the apostles.”
So Jesus went out, prayed all night in the mountain so that he could figure out who was going to be the twelve.
Um, so Jesus' whole purpose for being on that mountain was seeking direction. Now, if you're going to pray like Jesus, you must set aside time to actually go and get the assignment—whether that assignment is for that day, whether that assignment is for your life, whatever it is. You need to be in constant communication with the Father, getting direction on what you need to be doing.
And then as we look at, um, what he told the disciples on how to pray, um, we know about the “Give us our day our daily bread” portion of it, but he actually simplified it in Luke 11:9 and said, “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
So it's cool because as I was looking at that, and I'm like, “Okay, are you saying the same thing three times?” And then I said, “Ask.” Well, that sounds like, “Okay, ask. That's a simple one. Talk to God. Ask him for direction.”
But then the “seek” made me think of, “Now I'm looking for God's direction.” I didn't just ask; I'm looking for it. And then the “knock”—it's like, “Lord, I'm kicking on the door. I need your direction.”
So ask, seek, knock. That's what he's telling you to do. You got to do whatever you got to do to get God's direction. And when you do, rest assured, more often than not, you're going to make the correct decision. It won't be perfect because we're not perfect, but if you do hear clearly before acting, it'll be the right choice.
So now I get to the point where it's time to go to school—going to Bible school. I'm ready to roll; it's September. Um, school is starting next week, and the Lord blessed me with a wonderful marriage and a wonderful wife. And she said, “Ah, I ain't feeling good about this Bible school.”
And I'm like, “Now, time out! What type of Christian don't want me to go to Bible school?” But I didn't say that to her face. Um, so I'm trying to figure out what's going on and why she’s having issues. And she said, “You know, you dropped the kids off at school, then you got to pick them back up at 3. So you going to drive 45 minutes that way, go to three hours of school, drive 45 minutes back when you going to work?”
And I'm like, “It's a good question! God told me to go to Bible school; he didn't tell me to work trying to go to Bible school.”
So I stormed down to my basement, pouting. I was going down there to pray—to pout. I was going down there to pout. And I decided to just sit back and say, “All right, Lord, just—alright, Lord.” That's about all I can say.
And then there was this “Sford and Son” moment: “You big dummy! Look at your email!” And I'm like, “You send me an email like, ‘Look at your email!’”
And so I open up an email. The first email that's sitting there reads, “Caris Bible College: Complete your first year online—simple, affordable, and convenient.”
And I think, “Oh, all right, Lord! Well, I see what you're saying. Let me go back up here and see what Tracy thinks about that.”
So I go back upstairs, take the phone, slide it across the table to her. She looks at it, she looks up, she smiles, and y'all know the rest. I signed up for the Bible school she told me to sign up for, or that the Lord told her to tell me to sign up for. Well, however it went, that's what I did.
But I believe that was the best decision for me at that moment. Why is that? Because when God tells you something, there's a time and a place that you need to be, and you need to be there at that time and that place. And at that time, and that's what that did.
I had my heart was right—go to Bible school. I'm like, “Let me jump in the pool; I'm going to Bible school.” I didn't stop to ask God, “Okay, what Bible school?” or “When?” I didn't stop to do all of that. I was ready to go.
So I ended up at Caris Bible College. It was awesome; I loved it.
Um, so let's see where I am. I got a little excited there for a second. Why? Because it's about being where God wants you and what he wants you to do.
Okay, so all that could have been avoided. That's where I'm at. All of that whole “my wife is right” moment could have been avoided because when God told me, when I'm out jogging, he gave me the assignment, I needed to just stop and pray about the details of that assignment.
And that's what I didn't do. And then from that, that same thing—it could have really gone a whole different way because I could have gotten prideful. I want to caution you against getting prideful or emotional about a decision because I could have said, “Tracy, he told me to go to Bible school! I'm the man, and I'm going to Bible school!”
I could have done that, and I probably wouldn't be standing here talking to y'all right now. So I didn't do that.
Um, so when you pray like Jesus, always go to God first and stick with him through the process. Then for you married men, check with your wife, and you'll be decent. God and your wife, they should keep you in line. Amen, ladies? Amen, wives!
So now I want to move on to the importance of speaking God's word, um, in prayer. So stats show that Jesus—it's estimated that Jesus quoted scripture 283 times in the Bible. Another stat says that, um, 10% of the verses where Jesus is talking, he is either quoting the Old Testament verses or alluding to them. So 10% of the time, Jesus was talking God's word.
So in my opinion, if we're going to pray, we need to be praying God's word. So let's look at this story of the centurion, um, who had the sick servant in Matthew 8:6. It says, “And saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home sick with paralysis, terribly tormented.’”
And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant will be healed.”
And then fast forward to verse 10. When Jesus heard it, he was amazed and said to those that followed, “Truly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.”
I love that story because it just shows the value of speaking God's word, but then it shows kind of the premium, um, that Jesus puts on having faith when you speak God's word. Jesus got excited about his faith.
Um, the Bible says that faith comes by hearing God's word. Jesus said that when we pray, already believing, we shall have what we say. So when you pray, you need to already be believing. In other words, you should have got a word from God when you start praying. The word should be moving you to that prayer. You need to be believing already.
Jesus, um, Jesus would have gone to the man's house to pray for the servant, but he met him at his faith. The man's faith was, “Hey, speak the word, and he'll be healed.” So Jesus just met him right there where his faith was.
But the cool part is that guy showed up already believing. It was just good! He showed up ready. Prayer doesn't make faith work; it's faith that makes prayer work.
If you want to pray like Jesus, you have to get God's word in your heart. If you want to pray like Jesus, you got to get God's word in your heart. That—come on! I heard you! You want to hear that again? Get God's word in your heart! Be consistently hearing and reading and saying, and most importantly, doing his word.
So now I'm in my second year of Bible College, and I'm facing graduation. And I'm thinking, “Okay, graduation, but then what?” And then my wife would ask, “What's the plan?” She needs a plan; I don't need a plan. She wants a plan. “What's the plan? You about to graduate from Bible College; what's the plan? Where do you see yourself being?”
And I'm like, “I don't know! God told me to go to Bible College; I ain't got the next step! He said go to Bible College!”
And it's wild because the rule changed the year before it was my turn to make a decision. So you do two years, and you get your minister's license, but there's a third year that now focuses on where you want to go. If I want to be a worship pastor, it's a third year that focuses on that. If I want to be a pastor, campus pastor, let's do that. Then it's a school that sends you that way. If you want to be in the business world, it's a school that focuses on that.
But at Caris Chicago, they stopped doing that. And they stopped doing it for all of us. So now I either got to go to Colorado to finish or do nothing.
So I'm like, “Well, God told me to go to school; I guess I got to go to Colorado to finish. That's the only step I can think of.”
So we argued; we talked about it, um, a little bit. We had such a cordial discussion about where I should go. So we talked about it, me and Tracy, and we prayed about it, and we sought God about it. We did all these things, um, where we truly included God on, “All right, what's the next step? What am I supposed to be doing with this?”
So one day, we're out, and this is after now I just did my part. I'm like, “If we end up going, we need to know what we going to do.” So I don't research hospitals; she's a nurse. I don't research health clubs; I was a personal trainer. So I done done my job, Lord! I know what's up there; I know the housing market. But am I supposed to go?
So we're out walking and talking, and it was not about that, but somehow Colorado came up, and we both got a little frustrated. So I'm like, “You know what? The word tells us to cast our care on the Lord because he cares for us.” 1 Peter 5:7. I said, “We going to pray 1 Peter 5:7 and cast this care on Jesus.”
So we did. So a few months go by—silence. Not from her; we was good, but silence from the Lord. He ain't told me the next step.
Then one morning, I'm in my basement doing whatever I do. I was spending time in the word, probably worshiping. I just like to sing. That don't sound good, but probably down there worshiping. And out of the blue, I hear, “Your future is here.”
Whatever I was doing, I'm like, “That ain't right! Here? I don't know where that future is here is coming from.” “Your future is here.” And I'm like, “My future is here? My future is here, Lord? Your future is here?”
And I'm like, “Well, I guess that means I ain't going to Colorado. I think that's what he's trying to tell me.”
So I go up, tell my wife, “I think the Lord said our future is here.” I had no idea what that meant; I had no idea what here was, but it was here. That's all I knew.
So we acted on that. Our future is here; we bought a house. We’re like, “The future is here; we’re here!”
So now I'm standing here, so apparently the future's here. But God is good, and it's really just, “Hey, I didn't plan none of it. I just—he told me something to do. Yes, let me now spend time with you, hang out with you, talk to you, love on you, build me up, tell me something else to do.”
I feel like that's the simple part of prayer: just say, “Whatever you want me to do,” and then wait for the answer.
But we're going to move to some more stories, and we're going to move to some of the hard times—praying in hard times.
So now we're going to look at the triumphant entry to Jerusalem. This is when Jesus is coming back to Jerusalem; the cross is coming soon. Um, if you think of it on our calendar, Palm Sunday is the week before Easter. That's when the triumphant entry was happening, um, before Jesus was headed to the cross.
So a week later, he's going to the cross. So he's feeling that pressure. Um, he knows what's coming; he's actually faced with it. This is about to be his darkest moment.
So let's read in John 12, verse 27, and it says, “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? Instead, for this reason, I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”
So interesting because it seemed like Jesus is confused because it's like, “Save me, Father,” but “I came for this hour.” He wasn't confused; his flesh wanted to be saved, but who he was wanted to do what the Father wanted him to do.
And that's the same for us. If you're a believer, your flesh wants to do what your flesh wants to do, but you want to do what God wants to do.
Back to the story. So as the day got closer, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed a similar prayer in Matthew 26. Now it's really time; it ain't a week before; it's happening real soon.
And he said in verse 38, “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. Wait here and keep watching with me.’” He went a little further and falling on his face, he prayed, “Oh, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
That first part is so touching because Jesus said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” So the stress of that moment basically could have killed him. Sometimes we go through moments where we feel like, “I don't know if I can get through this stress.” I mean, it's so thick that everything's affected.
And it's scientifically proven that stress over a sustained period of time will kill you. That's right; like, that's a thing. So Jesus was going through stuff that we go through, and his word says that there's scripture for that.
But Jesus is going through some of the stuff that we go through. Um, so in that moment, it could have killed Jesus; it was intense.
Um, but let's look at how God responded. In Luke 22, verse 43, it says, “And an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him.” And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
And that's a lot! Um, I don't know that any of us have been there, but I'm sure we felt like we might have been there.
Um, and I just want to encourage you: you might be in that moment right now, but Jesus went to God, and an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.
So in the middle of sweating blood, the pressure is so thick, Jesus' response is to pray. Yes! So wherever you are, yes, your response is to pray. It don't matter what it looks like; it don't matter what you're going through—pray!
And in that moment, you will be strengthened. You got to let God know that it's his will, even through all of that. That's kind of the key.
I mean, I feel like we could have stopped and started at the beginning: “Not my will, but yours, God.” That's the key! I mean, the rest of this stuff don't work if you're not submitted to God's will.
The Bible says a lot of lofty things that actually are true because God said it, but we're not in position for those things because we're not submitted to God's will. And that's kind of the main thing: submit to God's will.
I don't care what you're doing; I don't care what you've worked for; I don't care what degree you got. That's right! Is it God-backed? That's the moral to the story. And if it ain't, you're wasting time.
To pray like Jesus is to submit—to submit to God's will in your words and in your actions. To pray like Jesus is constant fellowship with God. It's constant talking.
It's yes, sometimes I got to get on my knees and pray, but it's also, “I'm at Target, and Lord, look at this ugly shirt! This is the worst shirt! I've never seen a shirt so bad!” God is cool with all of that. He wants all of that.
He wants all of you—your personality. He wants all of you. He already knows it; he created you; he made you; he already knows it. He wants all of you. He wants constant fellowship. He made us in his image so that he can have somebody who he can constantly fellowship with, and that's you and me. Amen!
To pray like Jesus is to seek God's direction and seek it again and seek it again and seek it again and then seek it again. To pray like Jesus is to speak God's word, then align your life with God's word.
To pray like Jesus is to pray when times are hard. Jesus was on the cross already in the middle of it, and he's still praying, and he's still forgiving. Man, that's the awesome part! He's still forgiving!
I don't care who you are and what you've done; Jesus today is still forgiving. It's still forgiving!
So these different ways to pray—um, like I said, the key, the key to your future, the key to everything, the key to overcoming challenges is taking this stuff and actually doing it and start at submission. And that's the best way it's going to work for you.
The last scripture I want to read is Luke 22, verse 45, and it says, “When he rose from prayer”—and this is the same story—“when Jesus rose from prayer and had come to the disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you fall into temptation.’”
So the lesson from that is easy: don't get caught sleeping! Yeah, pray! Don't sleep! Sleep sometimes, but pray!
So I just want to close this message with prayer, um, because it's what it's about.
So, Father, I just thank you. Um, I just thank you for meeting each person where they are. I thank you for meeting them at their faith, but help us to build it up enough to say, “Speak the word only.”
We thank you for the Holy Spirit that you have sent to live in us, to lead us, guide us, to direct us, to keep us on track. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for your son Jesus, who was obedient unto...
on Mar 04, 2024
