Listening Prayer.

We are excited to be back today. Hopefully you were able to catch last week online our first message of this series on prayer and fasting. We love this time of year to really slow down and go back to some of those really formative practices for us as followers of Jesus. Things like fasting and especially prayer. We always say pray, talk to God, but to really take time to slow down and talk about what this looks like to actually practice being with Jesus through prayer and fasting this year.

That message is still available on our YouTube channel. We are inviting everybody to join us for these next few weeks until Vision Sunday to fast and to pray. We have daily prayer points available. Probably the quickest way to find that is if you go on Instagram, you can see all of that there. We would love for you to fast with us, whether this is your first time or you've done this before, to start this year with that practice of prayer and fasting.

Prayer as a practice

Today, we are going to continue with week two, where we are talking about prayer. This is going to be a bit of an introductory kind of message. I'm going to share some of the things that the Lord has really put on my heart. And then we're going to talk a little bit about the practice of listening prayer today.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to talk about the prayer of lament, and we're going to talk about praying for other people. How do we do that? Really quick, before we dive in, I just want to share with you guys a few different resources. One of the books that I read this year is by Tyler Staton. It's called Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.

I was a part of a cohort of pastors last year, and Tyler was one of the mentors for that, so I got to learn from him. And when he came out with this book, it was just so good that not only did I want to purchase it for myself, but we actually got a few extra copies that are available here today for you to purchase. If you would like to read more about prayer, we have those available at the welcome table for only $14, $2 cheaper than Amazon because we ordered in bulk.

So every single week we have our big so what. What is the one thing that we want to get out of this message? Today that is this: God desires to know us and for us to know him. God desires to know us and for us to know him. And then our now what is, what do we do with that? As we begin this year, we want to slow down and make space to meet with God.

The Bible says a lot about prayer. A lot. But if we start by looking at the New Testament, you see a lot of Jesus praying. And we know that as followers of Jesus, we want to pay close attention to the life that he lived. What did he do? So rather than saying, okay, did Jesus pray? We know yes, he prayed, but when did he pray?

A few different times, and I'm going to go through these quickly, so if you're taking notes, you can write down these references. In Luke 3:21, it says:

When all the people were baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, the heavens were opened.

Luke 3:21

So we see here that during his baptism, during this special occasion, Jesus prayed on special occasions. We also see Jesus in scripture in Luke 4, when after his baptism he goes into a time of fasting himself. This was a really demanding, strenuous time of his life, where he is going without food, he is in the wilderness fasting for 40 days on his own. And we see during this demanding time in his life that Jesus spent time in prayer talking to the Father.

In Luke 6:12, it says that he spent the night praying to God. And this is before the night of a big decision. Jesus prayed when he had big things that he was facing in life. When he had big, crucial decisions to make, he prayed. We also see that Jesus prayed in community with others. He often took his disciples to come to pray along with him.

When Jesus had moments when he was facing things in need, like in Luke 22 in the Garden of Gethsemane, before Jesus' crucifixion, he was praying to the Father, saying, Lord, would you take this cup from me? When he was in need, he prayed. When he was in pain, he prayed. When he was in suffering, he prayed. Jesus was in constant prayer, constant talking to God, constant communication with God. He was in constant communication with him.

When you think about it, Jesus often went away to be with the Father. He was so intentional to pray. Scripture shows us so much about the power of that prayer and all the ways that Jesus prayed. But what I want to talk about today before we dive into these few weeks of prayer is some reasons of why people do not pray. Why do we not pray? We all kind of know that as a follower of Jesus, prayer is something that we should do, that we should talk to God, yet for many of us, it's not a part of our daily rhythm of life. It's not something that we do often. Maybe it is something that you only do in times of crisis, or maybe it's only when something really good happens. That's the moment when you remember to thank God and to talk to him and to communicate.

Barriers to prayer

We have several reasons why we might avoid prayer. The first reason is that we have the fear of being naive. Today we live in this culture, this society of experts. We all want to be a master of something. So much so that we have often lost the art of asking questions, of admitting when we're wrong, of admitting when we don't know something.

Just think about this. What was the last time that somebody said something to you or they were talking about something that deep down you had no idea what they were talking about, but rather being like, I have no idea what you mean, you just nodded along in conversation. For me, I feel like it's with all these cool Gen Z words. I don't know what you're saying, but I'm just going to pretend. But the best is when you're sitting there in a group of ten people and someone's talking about something and everyone's like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then finally one person raises their hand and is like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And then eight out of the nine others are also like, yeah, me neither. I just didn't want to say it first.

We've all been there. Another place where I think that we see this is also if you go to the gym. In September or October, I got a gym membership and I hadn't gone to the gym in like two years. I remember it. You're back in that panic mode of that fear of, I'm not going to look like the dumb one. I'm not going to look like I don't know what I'm doing.

So I literally, before I started lifting again, I waited until the women's only gym was completely empty and nobody else was around because I did not want to look dumb. I did not want to look stupid my first time lifting again in a few years. But then yesterday, it was really funny. I took my mom with me to the gym. She was in town visiting and she just turns to me and goes, I can't stop laughing at people. I'm like, mom, stop it, be kind, be nice. But we were then laughing. She goes, like, look at that person over there. Do you think they actually know what they're doing? Or are they just making it up as they go? But the better part is, she's like, we'll never know.

You think of that where the gym is one of those places where sometimes we're so afraid to look naive and try new things because we don't want to look like we don't know what we're doing. But it's probably rare that every single person around you knows what they're doing. There's a lot of people probably in your same spot where they're just trying and they're doing their best. But just as many people will never try that new workout, will never show up to a gym for fear of not being the master or the expert.

For many of us, that's how we approach prayer. We just don't. We don't want to look like a fool, so we don't even try. But the thing is, prayer is not something that can be mastered. Prayer is not something that can be perfected. Rather, prayer is this beautiful invitation that we have to enter into deep community with our Father. The reality is that prayer is so much less about perfection and so much more about showing up humble, vulnerable. Every time we pray we are taking risks. It can be a vulnerable place. So there might be times where you have to face that fear of being naive and just pray anyway.

The next reason that we often don't pray is because we fear silence. The idea of being silent, of things being quiet, is just way too overwhelming that we just don't even try. In silence, we're faced with the reality of ourselves. In silence, we're faced with the reality of those things that we have been ignoring, of those things that we have been putting off, that we have been trying to silence with other noise.

When we really sit back, for many of us, we're probably addicted to noise. And we can thank the Industrial Revolution for that. Just think about if we had to go back and every time you stood in line, every time you got your oil changed, you could not look at your phone. Think about even more so if you couldn't have a car, you didn't have your own vehicle, you relied on public transportation and you would have to maybe talk to someone next to you. Or even worse, you might have to sit in silence and just enjoy the quietness of no noise.

For so many of us, that's so hard to even comprehend. Not having constant noise, constant voices, constant things going on all around us. And when we pray and we're silent, we have to face the reality of quietness, oftentimes facing the reality of ourselves. I remember when I was getting my driver's license and I was a late bloomer. I got it when I was 18, and so most of my friends had had it and everybody would always talk about like, oh, you know, you might take a class or go drive with an instructor.

I remember I wasn't doing so hot when it came to learning how to drive and my parents were like, we'll pay for you to have a private 75-minute session with an instructor. I remember like I'm getting anxious and I'm so nervous. Not because I was afraid I was going to be a bad driver, which I probably was at the time, but because I was terrified of having to sit in silence with another person for that long. I think I even asked my older brother, I was like, so when you did this, did you guys talk? Like, what did you talk about? Like, did you put on music? Like, this idea of not having anything but silence was freaking me out.

For many people, silence is what stops us from prayer. We don't know how to be quiet. We don't know how to just be, or we're too afraid to face the reality of what's going on in our mind and our head and around us. And we also face having to answer these questions of what happens if I'm bored when I pray? What happens if I don't feel anything when I pray? What happens if God doesn't answer when I pray? And because of this, many of us will never start.

The next thing is that we can fear selfish motives. We get so caught up in religiosity and what people have maybe said about praying. We're so afraid of, what if our prayers aren't godly enough? What if I'm doing this for selfish reasons? What if God really doesn't want me to have this? And yes, you can pray with selfish motives. Those things are all real. But that understanding whether or not we're praying for selfish motives is going to take us praying and talking to God and inviting him to come in and to show us where we're off in our prayer life or not.

Some examples might be is you might be afraid to pray for your coworkers or your friends to know Jesus. You might be afraid to pray and invite them to things because you might believe and start to think, okay, is this just because I want to win another soul for the Lord? Is this just because, you know, I want this for me? John Mark Comer, in his book Live No Lies, talks about this one concept that has completely changed the way I think about so many things. It's that every single lie is rooted in truth. Every lie from the enemy is rooted in some piece of truth.

So there might be some reasons in your life that you're like, yeah, I really want this person to know Jesus so that we can do more together and we can spend more time together. And it doesn't have to be bad, but the enemy will twist every single good thing and piece of truth and try to use it to prevent us from going closer to God. And so if you're afraid of, do I have selfish motives in some of the things that I'm praying for, whether it is that new job, whether it is that raise, whether it is that relationship, talk to God, pray, and let him work that out with you. Let him work that out through his word, scripture, through his spirit, through other people in community. So instead of avoiding prayer because you're worried about your selfish motives, consider finding the root of those selfish motives instead.

And then the next thing is that we fear just getting it wrong. And that kind of goes back to that first point too, where we were so worried, well, what if I'm not eloquent enough? What if I don't sound like I'm this mature, godly person? And so you don't pray, you don't talk to God because of that. But the reality is with Jesus is that he's not asking us for these lengthy, wordy, put-together type of prayers. He just wants us to come with a heart surrendered.

When you're in relationship with someone, there's times where you are going to be talking nonstop, and there's sometimes where you're just going to sit there together. And sometimes that's how you know you're really close to someone is when you can sit and enjoy that silence together. Jesus doesn't need your fancy words. He doesn't need all your eloquent talk. He just needs you and your heart surrendered to come.

And then finally, it's that we just don't know where to start. We often don't pray because we don't know where to start. We go, okay, well, I've heard about my whole life, maybe that I'm supposed to pray and I'm supposed to talk to God and I haven't started this far. Did I miss it? Is it too late? No, none of that. There is always time right here in this moment. You can start talking to God. You can start praying and there's always room to grow. There are always more ways that we can grow in our prayer life, which is why we have the prayer room in the back there.

Reasons to pray

When we look at the Bible, there's so many reasons that we see to pray, to talk to God. It's full of it from start to finish. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

This is Jesus speaking. It's an invitation to us to say anytime that you feel overwhelmed, that's a reason to pray. So think back and you're wondering, should I pray? Well, do you feel overwhelmed about anything? Have you felt overwhelmed about anything? Pray. Talk to Jesus. Let him take that upon him.

We also see this in Psalm 61:1-2, where it says:

Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 61:1-2

From Old Testament to new, there's this invitation that if there's anything that is overwhelming to us, anything that is heavy to us, that we can bring it to the feet of Jesus. The next reason that we really need to pray is because we need to continue to learn how to trust God. We need to learn how to trust God.

Now, we need faith as followers of Jesus. We need to learn how to walk by faith and to continue to take those steps, even when we can't see things and understand them, to walk towards God. But we can't really have faith until we understand how we can trust God. We can't really have faith until we fully trust God. And trust comes from knowing God, knowing his character, knowing his goodness.

It just so happened that today in my devotional by Paul David Tripp, he was talking a little bit about faith. Faith is not natural for us. Faith is not natural. Doubt is natural for us. Fear is natural for us. Has anyone else ever gone through, maybe before you go to bed, or I know some people talk about when they wake up, like the series of what if questions in your mind? Like, well, what if this happens or what if that happens? And next thing you know, you're like spiraling out of control with all of these what ifs.

Well, for most of us, living based on what is happening in our brain is going to be more natural for us than living in faith and trusting God. And so if you've been there, know that you're not alone. Know that it is more natural for us to lean into having questions and doubts and all of these what-ifs than it is for us to walk blindly and follow this God of the Bible that we read about.

So if you've been there and you have those what-ifs, you're not alone, but also there is a way that we can continue to overcome that. And it starts with trusting God, which starts with knowing God and spending time with him. And as we know his character we trust his character and we have a better foundation to walk out in faith. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that faith really is a gift from God, that faith is a gift to us. So it's something that we need to continue to ask him for and we need to continue to receive and pray for faith if we want to continue to walk in faith.

So if we want to get to the point where we can honestly say, I don't know what God is doing. I don't know what he's doing. And maybe there's times where you're saying, God, I don't know what you're doing, and I also don't really like what you're doing, but God, I trust you because I know that you're good. That is the place that we want to continue to walk towards. It's not this place of understanding everything that God is doing, but to this place of trusting in his goodness, even if we can't make sense of what's happening around us.

Another thing that we see a lot in scripture, and we're going to talk more about this when we talk about the prayer of lament, is we see a lot of complaining when it comes to prayers. And so if you're feeling frustrated and you don't understand what's happening and you feel like you just need to let it out, you can complain to God. Did you know that? Like you can be real and raw and honest with him.

The Psalms is the best place to learn from example. Psalm 142 says:

I pour out before him my complaint. Before him I tell my trouble.

Psalm 142:1

And David who says that then also says in Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.

Psalm 23:1

Like you see this back and forth of him being so raw and so honest with God where he's like, here's my complaint. What are you doing? And then it's like, but you're my shepherd. I lack nothing. I trust you. It's this constant back and forth in this real, raw, honest relationship that David has with him. And there's so much hope for us. And there's what a gift it is for us to be able to come to God in that type of way. We don't have to put up some sort of front. We don't have to fake it till we make it, but we can be real, raw, honest in those moments.

And then finally, we can go to God when we want to draw near to him. We can pray when we just want to be near. If you're feeling alone, if you're feeling isolated, if you just want more of God's presence, you can draw near to him. Jeremiah 29:13 says:

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

He's looking for a heart surrendered, not the fancy lengthy prayers, but just a heart that is surrendered to him. And then my favorite is we can pray when we need absolutely anything. Ephesians 6:18 says:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

Ephesians 6:18

And there's so much more in the New Testament that talks about whenever we have pretty much anything going on, that we can pray, we can talk to God.

Listening prayer

What we're going to talk about for the next few minutes is this idea of being still and listening to God through prayer. Listening prayer essentially is the practice of quieting the noise and paying attention to the voice of God. Psalm 46:10 says:

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

The thing about this verse is that we see that last part and we see that as God's vision, as God's plan, as his dream. To say that all people will come into relationship with me, that I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted among all of the earth. That's what we prophetically look towards. That's what we hope for is that day where every knee will bow down and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord.

But what does it say comes before that? Well, it says, be still. Be still and know that I am God. Be still comes before the knowing. Be still comes before him being exalted among the nations, exalted among all of the earth.

You see, much of prayer that we have been taught is all about talking to God. It's about giving thanks. It's about making requests. And yes, it is all those things. But how many of you love having friendships and relationships with people that do all the talking and you never get to say a word? Now there's some people where you're like, I don't even care what they have to say. I'll sit and listen. But if like that's all you had, every single place you went it's like, hey, I want to, and you're cut off. And you're kind of like, somebody's just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. After a certain point, you just sit there and be like, all right, cool. I guess you don't want to hear what I have to say.

What does it look like for us to make room for God to speak? To not just approach prayer as a place where yes, we can talk to God. Yes, we can bring our request to him, but also as a place that we get to listen, that we get to draw near in a way and truly believe and receive what it is that he's going to say to us. Believe that he wants to speak to us because he does.

So why should we practice listening prayer? Well, there's just a few reasons that I see in scripture. One is that Jesus did. Then the next is that it's going to lead us to hearing from God. And then it's going to lead us to knowing God and God knowing us in greater ways.

We see that Jesus did. Jesus often would go off and he would pray. This was a practice of his. He would go off and he would pray. And we see at different times that he brought his disciples along with him for that journey. But Jesus, when you think about that and you think about the times when he was off praying, I wonder how much of that was he talking and how much of that was he just listening? Was he just spending time with the Father? And unfortunately, we'll never know because he wasn't recording every single one of those conversations.

But Jesus spent time with the Father in a way that he was also listening, that he was also still and he was quiet before him. And we see that when that happens and we can still the noise and we can quiet our hearts that it will lead us to hearing from God in greater ways. You see, God speaks to us and we see this in scripture in a variety of ways. In Acts 1, there's moments where scriptures can come to mind. In Acts 10 and Acts 16, there's stories of God speaking to people through visions or a picture. We even see that in times that people would sing out in spiritual song as God would speak to them. There's all these different ways that God can speak to us.

But one of the best examples, and if you want to hear from God, one of the best practices that you can do is follow what is said in 1 Samuel 3:9, which is:

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

1 Samuel 3:9

This simple prayer has so much power. What would it look like if we practiced this throughout our days, throughout our weeks? Pausing to yes, bring a request to God, lay everything down at his feet, but then to simply pause and say, speak, God, your servant is listening. And then listen. Make room for him to speak. Make room for him to talk to you. And I truly believe that as we do this, that it will lead us to knowing God and God knowing us in greater ways.

I want you to imagine with me for a minute what your life would look like if you clearly heard the voice of God. What would it look like if you knew God? We see that it all starts with being still. It all starts with being still.

I want to talk about the stillness because I do think that it might be one of the hardest things that we can ever face. And I want to encourage you that if you are new to even praying and talking to God and this idea of quietness and stillness, to not focus so much on, okay, how long can I do this? But more on the consistency of, can you find consistent moments throughout your day, throughout your week that you're pausing? That you're just still before the Lord?

You see, David in the Psalms is a great example of someone who was known by God. And now, thanks to the recording of scripture, he's known by all of us. We know the ins, we know the outs, we know everything pretty much that David was thinking. I often read Psalms and I'm like, this is so beautiful to have this example of someone in their relationship with the Lord. And I also think, I'm like, can you imagine if that was you? And all of your intimate prayers are just out there. Everyone sees it.

And that's the Psalms where we get to see the ins and outs of someone really following God and learning to trust him, learning to trust his goodness, learning to trust his character. So do you allow God to know you like that? That's the question I want to ask you today. Or do you welcome it?

Like when you think of looking at the way that David could pray those hard things like, here's my complaint, here's all my troubles, and then he can also say the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. God, I trust you. God, I praise you. Like do you allow God to know you like that? And do you welcome it?

Because you probably know that God does know you like that. He knows all the things that you think and don't bring to him because you're afraid. He knows every single thought that you're thinking, every prayer that you pray or want to pray. He hears. So then for us, it's more of taking that position and that posture of, are we willing to be people that really fully welcome God to know us in that way? And I believe that if we can start to get there, that we will start to truly know God in more ways.

And so if you're here today and you still are like, I don't know how to pray, then I believe that the invitation for you is to pray the simple prayer of, Lord, teach me. You see, it's recorded in scripture that Jesus had this moment with his disciples. They came to him and they said, Lord, would you teach us to pray?

He wants to teach us to pray. And this is found here in Luke 11:1. And this moment with his disciples took place when Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he was done praying, that's when his disciples come to him. One of his disciples said:

Lord, can you teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples?

Luke 11:1

And what I think is so fascinating about this statement here is not only are they saying, Lord, would you teach us to pray? And they're honest. I'm just like, we don't know how. But it makes me wonder, were they starting to recognize that everything that Jesus did was rooted in prayer, was centered from prayer, was coming from the Father himself? Did they start to realize that prayer was necessary for the ministry that Jesus was doing?

So if you're here today and you don't know how to pray, then the invitation is that simple prayer of saying, Lord, would you teach me? If you're here and maybe you have fear about prayer, then the invitation for you is to be honest and say, Lord, I'm afraid. I'm scared. Go ahead.

If there's those big prayers that you're like, I haven't even asked you for those things because I'm so afraid of what your response is going to be, be honest with God about that. Tell him that. If you have doubts, the invitation is to pray, Lord, show me. Here are my questions. Lord, would you show me?

When you're in a place where maybe you're fearing getting it wrong, then the invitation for you today is, Lord, I surrender. And some of that surrender is giving up our pride and being humble and vulnerable before the Lord. You see this idea and this practice of being still before the Lord and opening ourselves up to listen.

Practicing listening prayer

A few just kind of disclaimers. Whenever we're talking about hearing the voice of God, it's always really good for us to filter the things that we hear from God through Scripture, the Word of God, through His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and through God's people, through community. See, sometimes where we get a little off with these things is when we're like, okay, I'm going to pray, I'm going to listen for God, and then it's like, yeah, God just told me to rob that bank. Like, no, he didn't. God did not do that. He's not going to do that. God's not going to cause you to harm people or to hurt people or to go against things that he said in Scripture.

So there are some basic practices of when you're listening to hear the voice of God. Confirm with Scripture. Confirm with the Spirit. Confirm with community what God is speaking to you. But here's what I want to challenge you this week, is to practice being still and listening to God.

Choose an ordinary place and let it become sacred. Choose a place, whether it's a chair in your home, whether it's a commute on your way to work, whether it's a place at work that you are going to be quiet. Maybe it's five minutes that you're going to set a timer for. Maybe it's two minutes that you're going to set a timer for, and practice being still. Practice saying, speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

And I believe that as you do that, that God is going to speak to you, and you're going to start to know him. He's going to start to reveal himself to you in greater ways. So how do we practice this? Well, one, we need to make space, and then two, we need to listen. It's really that simple.

So what I want to invite you to do is stand in this moment, and I want us to just kind of process one thing together. And that is, is today, what is stopping you from prayer? What is stopping you from talking to God more? Is it the fear of being naive? The fear of silence? The fear of not knowing where to start? The fear of not getting an answer? What are those things that are stopping you? Be real, raw, honest.

And so what we're going to do is just kind of practicing hearing from God and asking him to reveal to us. Maybe you know right away when I said that, and you're like, yep, this is why I'm afraid to pray, or this is what stops me from praying more. But maybe there's other things that God just wants to speak to you today. And so we're going to kind of walk through this practice together. We're going to have just the instrumental music going. And just for two minutes, I'm going to invite you to join me in just listening to God.

It might feel a little awkward. It might feel a little weird. Someone might, you know, creak the floor a little bit. That's okay. But to just take a moment, and if you would, oftentimes when I pray, I love to put my hands out and posture myself in a place ready to receive. And so if you're comfortable with that, you can just place your hands in front of you and close your eyes and breathe deep. And would you just pray, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. And we're just going to pause together for about two minutes.

Lord, we thank you for these moments where you come and you speak to us. We thank you for your word today that is alive, that is active, that continues to speak. And so God, I just pray for all of us here in this room that we would continue to lean in to this posture of prayer. That we would continue to not be stuck or kept back from you with fears of failures, of doing it wrong, of what if our prayers don't get answered. But that you would continue to teach us and give us a hunger and an appetite to just be in your presence, to come lay everything that we have before you, to make space to be still, to be silent.

God, we thank you that as we are still before you, as we just surrender, that we get to know you more. And that as we know you, that we will learn to trust you and your goodness even more. We will learn to trust your character and be able to walk in faith because we trust you, because we know you. And that is when you will be exalted. That is when your name will be lifted high.

And so we thank you, Jesus, for that gift. And that our invitation is to surrender and to just come before you and to pray. And so, God, I do pray for all of us here in this room that over these next few weeks as we continue to learn more about what it looks like to seek you with all of our hearts and to pray and to fast and to become more like your son, Jesus, would you just be with us? Would you draw us near? Would you truly help us to know you more so that you will be exalted? That is our desire, God.

We ask this in your name. Amen.