[Music] [Music] so let me give you a few practical suggestions these are going out of my life and out of my reading of the Bible just three brief practical suggestions because we're not doing as well as we should now suggestion number one in your life of prayer for 2009 set aside a time and a place each day and don't leave it to chance set aside a time and a place each day and don't leave it to chance the devil defeats most praying before it happens because we didn't make a plan if you don't plan believe
me oh I have been at this a long time and the devil hates me and my prayer life like you wouldn't believe how many good things keep me from praying not sin sin does not keep me from praying righteousness keeps me from praying answering holy emails and other holy things just checking out one more piece of relevant news to pray about at whatever news service you click on it's not evil that keeps us from praying it's good things and he is shrewd to the bottom so pick a place and pick a time and show up
number two I suggest that you combine your praying with reading the Bible and that you take what you read in the Bible and you turn it in prayer because your brain if it's a typical human brain will have a very hard time holding a train of thought while you pray with no help from the Bible try it for just 10 minutes without your brain flipping out onto the dust you see on the Venetian Bloods just try it he is wicked in his goodness needs to be dusted wouldn't be sitting up and dust it would it
use the Bible and turn the Bible into prayer read pray read pray read pray read pray as long as you want to or can that's number two number three I suggest that you pray in concentric circles you can either pray from the outside in or the inside out and what I mean by concentric circles is I'm the most needy spiritual person I know at least I know my sins better than I know anybody else's so I pray about me a lot have mercy upon me convict me kill me change me guard me humble me destroy
those aspects of me I pray about me a lot because of how sinful I am and then you move out from me to my family maybe but no L pray about telleth a all my sons all my daughters are not all my grandchildren that's another circle then I move out from there to the staff I can name the staff and the elders and then I move out to you the church and then I move out from there to the wider movement of Christ around the world our missionaries and the whole global cause of Christ and
they move out from there to the political historical arena of the of the world I didn't really don't play about pray about galaxies or anything like that but my my universe as far as prayers go stops pretty much at the plant I don't pray for the devil or angels don't see any reason for doing it in the Bible so or you could go the other direction move from booth from the outside in just whatever and at every every one of those concentric circles if you wonder well you put God at the middle because he's in
every circle and the main point of every circle is hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done and only then do you get - give me some bread today three big massive your name hallowed your kingdom arriving your will on the planet done the way it's done in heaven and in my life those are in every circle that's why he's not anywhere in the concentric circles so those are my three suggestions the hard truth is we Christians don't do very well we've done some surveys over the years at Bethlehem it's pretty pretty
sad when we do them I don't like to do them get discouraged we don't pray very much pray at meals maybe unless we were still stuck at the adolescent stage that thinks good habits are legalism we may whisper prayers before a tough meeting that we're walking into we we may throw in the kiss as we crawl into bed but we don't we don't set aside significant regular daily disciplined time to pray in those ways much and we don't think it's worth it to meet with others to pray by and large and we wonder what why
is my faith weak why is my hope feeble why is my passion for Christ small and meanwhile across these rooms the devil is whispering in your ear some of you the pastor is getting legalistic now he's moving into the legalistic phase of the sermon he's starting to use guilt now he's getting the law out now that's what he's saying to which I say to hell with the devil and all of his destructive lies be free Bethlehem is intentional regular discipline earnest Christ dependent God glorifying joyful prayer a duty a discipline do I go to prayer
meetings Tuesday morning Wednesday afternoon Friday morning Saturday afternoon Sunday morning Tuesday morning success mean do I do that because it's a duty out of discipline well you could call it that it's a duty the way it's a duty for a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater it's a duty the way pilots should listen to air traffic controllers it's a duty the way soldiers in combat should clean their rifles and load their guns it's a duty the way hungry people eat food it's a duty the way thirsty people drink water
it's a duty the way a deaf man puts on his hearing aid it's a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin it's a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey it's a duty the way Pirates look for gold so you call it duty if you want it is like that I hate the devil I hate the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it's legalistic to do regular set-aside disciplined praying I hate the devil and the way he's killing you telling you that it is legalistic to be as regular in
your prayers as you are in eating your food in sleeping in Internet use oh we struggle with those doing legalistic to eat three times a day I think it is sleep every night for goodness sakes mix it up he is laughing up his sleeve and how easy he can take out Christians the devil is he is laughing up his sleeve at what suckers we are for his worn out whose leader listen you should just look at him says I'm older than that I'm not in fifth grade anymore I've grown up a little bit get out
of my life I've got work to do because I am a sinner in desperate need of talking to my king every day and my sin inclines me to leave it over and over if I don't set a time in a place I'm a goner let's talk to the devil give him some information he might leave you alone for a while probably not folks God has given us means of grace you know that phrase God has given us means of grace if we don't use the means of grace like praying to the fullest advantage our complaints
against him will not stick it's amazing to me how many people get in God's face with complaints does it in a courtroom is this when God can be put in the dark by sinners who don't even use the means of grace it gives us amazing amazing if we don't eat we starve if we don't drink we die of thirst if we don't exercise a muscle it atrophies if we don't breathe we suffocate and just as there are physical means of life there spiritual means of grace it's so simple and you so many of you trying
to live your life without breathing eating drinking exercising and you wonder what's wrong it's your father his fault
