Prayer

PRAYER
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 6:1-15
JANUARY 8, 1995

In 1884, a young man from America, while visiting Europe, came down with typhoid fever and he died. His parents, who loved him very much, journeyed to Europe to retrieve his body and to bring him home. As they were bringing their son’s body back to the United States, in the midst of their tears, they resolved that they would establish some kind of memorial in his name. They decided that it would be an educational memorial because their son had been a brilliant student. They held education in high regard. So, when they returned to the United States, they immediately contacted Charles Elliott, who was the President of Harvard University. They made an appointment with him. This mom and dad met with him and said, “We would like to establish a memorial in honor of our son, something that would serve this university.” Charles Elliott said “Well, why don’t you consider endowing a scholarship so that every year a student could some to Harvard University in the name of your son?”

The mom and dad said, “Well, we were thinking of something a little more substantial. Do you need any buildings here at Harvard University?” They did need buildings, but Charles Elliott looked at this morn and dad and they didn’t look very wealthy. Their clothes looked very average. Charles Elliott said “Well I don’t think you understand, but buildings cost a lot of money. Why don’t we just stick with the scholarship thing.” So it was that he encouraged them to establish a scholarship. They were very courteous but they were a little bit offended and they walked out of Charles Elliott’s office and they gave no money to Harvard University.

Charles Elliott really didn’t think very much of it until one year later, in 1885. He was reading the newspaper and he saw that this morn and dad had indeed established a memorial to their son, a $26 million memorial. The memorial was called Leland Stanford University in California. Stanford University in Palo Alto, California would not be there today if Charles Elliott hadn’t missed that opportunity.

We all miss opportunities. Opportunities come and go. In the course of your life and mine, we’re going to miss out on many opportunities. God wants us to understand prayer is a daily opportunity. God wants us to understand that prayer is more valuable than all the money in the world.

I sometimes wonder why it is that as Christians we don’t avail ourselves of prayer. We don’t spend enough time in prayer. I don’t think it’s because we don’t know how to pray. Perhaps that’s a problem for some of us but I think most of us just don’t understand the value of prayer. We don’t understand the power of prayer. We don’t really understand the purpose of prayer. If we understood these things, maybe we wouldn’t let this opportunity pass.

This morning, I would like us to focus on the two primary purposes of prayer biblically. The first purpose of prayer is this: communion with God. You see, God has given us the privilege of prayer that we might experience communion with Him, fellowship with God, intimate relationship with God.

Kathy Lobenthal was born and reared in Alabama, and Ray Harshman was born and reared in Michigan. Ray and Kathy met in Washington, D.C. in 1941 as they both went to work for the federal government. They actually met at the Fourteenth Street Church in the singles department. They began to date and Ray and Kathy fell in love. In 1942, Ray and Kathy were married. At their wedding the minister spoke to them from Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, where the Bible tells us that “two are better than one but a threefold cord is not easily broken.” The minister explained to Ray and Kathy that as Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, their union was not simply the union of two people, but it was a threefold cord. It was the union of three people; their relationship with each other was important but they should not forget their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Well, that night Ray and Kathy made a decision. That night Ray and Kathy decided that every single day throughout their life, as long as they lived in this world, they were going to read a chapter of scripture together. They would start with the book of Genesis and they would read a chapter a day and just move through the Bible. As the years passed, they would just go through the Bible again and again and every single day they would also pray together and they would pray for each other and they would spend time in prayer with the Lord. If they were apart, they would still read their chapters of scripture wherever they were. They would still spend that time in prayer.

Well, one year after their marriage, in 1943, Ray was taken into the military and he was sent to Europe. This was of course, World War II. Ray and Kathy continued to read that chapter of scripture every night, and they continued to pray even though they were separated by an ocean. They continued to pray every night and they felt bonded and they communicated with each other.

In December of 1944, the horrible news came to Kathy that Ray (this was right after the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium) was missing in action. That night, in her tears, as she opened the Bible and read her chapter and as she spent time with the Lord in prayer, she did not know whether her husband was living or dead. She wondered if he was somewhere perhaps reading the scriptures and spending time in prayer too. The weeks passed and no word from Ray. The months passed. In May of 1945, the war in Europe was over. People began to come home, but no word of Ray. The United States government told Kathy not to be too concerned because there were 12 million missing persons after the war. Many people for months would not be set free.

The months passed and she continued to wait to hear from Ray. She continued to be faithful in the word and in prayer. She just sensed in her prayer times that Ray was alive, but a year passed and no word from Ray. People said, “Kathy, you need to get on with your life.” More months went by, and she continued to wait. It was October of 1946 when the great word came that they had found Ray and he was alive. In November of 1946 he came back to New York City. He came in on a ship to New York Harbor. Kathy was there. They held each other for the first time in three years, kissed each other for the first time in three years. That night, to their joy, they realized they were both on the same chapter in the Bible. He had been allowed to keep his Bible and they had both been faithful every night and they had both spent time in prayer.

Ray and Kathy live in Dallas, Texas today. They have been married for more than 50 years. Their relationship with each other, their friendship with each other, is extremely deep and yet it pales compared to their relationship with Christ, a relationship with Christ that has been cultivated over many decades and many hours in the word and in prayer. It’s the relationship with Christ that has seen them through it all. It’s the relationship with Jesus Christ, the communion with Him, that has seen them through the good times and bad and enabled them to endure valleys and mountaintops.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old and it doesn’t matter whether you’re married or whether you’re single. You need to cultivate this relationship with Jesus Christ. You need communion with God. If you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, communion with God is possible but you need to spend time in prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, and He told us to begin by saying, “Our Father.” Of course, the word for father is the word “Abba,” which is not the normal word for father. The normal Greek word is “pater” and the Hebrew word “ab,” but this is the Aramaic word “Abba” and it’s taken from the language of children. It literally means “Daddy.” Of course, it is true that in the time of Christ there were many adults who still used this word “abba” to refer to their parents, but it was an intimate word. It was a very personal word.

In all of Jewish literature, there is not one example of a prayer that began with the word “abba,” with the word “daddy,” with the word “dear father,” and yet Jesus taught us to begin our prayers this way. His Jewish audience had to be stunned when He told them to address God with “Abba,” but God wants intimate relationship with us. As His children, as believers in Jesus Christ, He wants communion with us. He wants fellowship with us. He wants us to know Him.

You know, when Jesus died on the cross, at the moment of His death, we read in the Bible, a lot of mysterious things happened. You can look at Matthew and Mark and Luke and you see how, at the moment of Christ’s death, the earth shook. Rocks were split in two. A mystery. We’re also told at the moment of Christ’s death the sun would not give its light and there was great darkness over the earth from 12 noon to 3:00 in the afternoon, a great supernatural darkness. We’re also told at the moment of His death, tombs opened up and some of the saints came forth by the power of God at the moment of His death.

There’s another thing that happened at the moment of His death and it’s recorded in Matthew, chapter 27; in Mark, chapter 15; and in Luke, chapter 23. All three of the synoptics record this event. At the moment of Christ’s death, the curtain, the veil in the temple of Jerusalem, that veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the holy place, was rent asunder. It was split in two; it just opened up.

What was God saying to the world? What was God saying to us? You see, the Holy of Holies, if you understand the tabernacle and temple, was the dwelling place of God, the shekinah, the presence of God hovered over the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. God’s presence was in the Holy of Holies, but because we are sinners and God is holy, no one could go in there; everyone was separated from God. No one could really know God. We were separated from God. Nobody could go into the Holy of Holies except the high priest, but as you know he could only go in once a year on the Day of Atonement when he sprinkled the blood of animals on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant and then he got out quick. Of course, they tied a rope around him when he went in, in case he died in there so they could drag him out without having to go in to the Holy of Holies because you couldn’t go into the presence of God.

But now, when Christ died on the cross and He paid the penalty for sin through Him and through faith in Him our sin is forgiven, and we can come into the presence of the holy God. That curtain, that veil, has been torn in two, and we have this privilege as Christians through this opportunity called prayer to just come into the heavenly Holy of Holies every day. Of which the earthly tabernacle and temple was a pale shadow, we can, through Christ, come into the heavenly Holy of Holies through this opportunity and gift called prayer.

God wants you to know Him. He wants you to have intimate communion with Him, fellowship with Him. You see, the apostles understood this. Nothing in your life, nothing in my life, is more important than this. The Apostle Paul, in Philippians, chapter 3, said he “counts all things as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.” He said he regards all the accomplishments of this world as refuse, garbage, “when compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Him.” Do you long to know Him? Nothing in your life is more important than that you might know Him.

The Apostle John, in the little letter of I John, tells us that the whole reason that he is writing that book is that we might experience “koinonia.” He says our “koinonia” is with the Father and with His Son. We’re writing this “that your joy might be full.” That word “koinonia” means communion. That word “koinonia” means fellowship. You see, the whole purpose is that we might have communion, “koinonia,” fellowship with the Father and with the Son. This is possible through this opportunity called prayer. If every day we would spend time in the Word of God and every day time in prayer, time in His presence, not necessarily talking, just sitting in His presence with an awareness of His presence that we might begin to commune with Him. This is a great gift and it is given partly for the purpose of communion.

There’s a second purpose. This gift of prayer, this opportunity of prayer, has a second purpose. The second purpose is transformation. Communion with God and transformation of self. Do you want to be changed? Do I want to be changed? The power of prayer is such that it can change us. The transformation of self.

I think a lot of Christians do not spend enough time in the Old Testament. I think it is wonderful to spend gobs of time in the New Testament, but God wants us to understand the Old Testament is powerful too. There are many treasures there. I think the Book of Exodus is one of the most powerful books in the Old Testament. You read the Book of Exodus and you read how God called the people of Israel out of bondage, how God raised up Moses to let His people go and how God supernaturally delivered them, how God led them through the wilderness. And you read in the book of Exodus how Moses went up on the holy mountain, how Moses went up on Mt. Horeb, how he went up on Mt. Sinai to meet with God. He went up there to actually meet with God. That was a scary thing. The Bible tells us it was a really scary thing, and the earth shook. There was thunder and lightning and smoke. Moses experienced a kind of meeting with God that was very supernatural and extremely rare.

Now in Exodus, chapter 34, starting with verse 29, we read something really interesting. You read about how Moses came down from the mountain and the skin of his face, the Bible says, shone. Literally, the Hebrew means “to admit rays of light.” Theologians and Bible scholars have debated and dialogued, what does this mean? No one knows for sure, but this is clear: having been in the presence of God, having met with God, Moses was transfigured in some fashion. He had been transformed and his face radiated light, so much so that he had to wear a veil because the people could not look upon him for days. He had been in the presence of Almighty God.

Now, it is safe to say that none of us in this sanctuary are likely to have an experience exactly like that. But through prayer we can enter the Holy of Holies. Through prayer we can enter the presence of God and you cannot enter the presence of God without being transfigured. You cannot enter the presence of God without being transformed. If you are entering His presence every day, it changes you. It has power to transform you.

Now, I think a lot of us, when we pray, are not so much concerned with transforming ourselves. We’re more concerned with transforming, changing, our surroundings and our circumstances. Is that not true? I think most of us when we pray, we want God to change and transform our finances. We want God to change and transform our health. Or we want God to change or transform our relationships or maybe to change or transform somebody else. All of these things are properly part of prayer, but God’s primary purpose when we come in prayer, into His presence, is to change us, transform us.

Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, came out of church one Sunday. They were in the midst of war. It was early in the war. The pastor said to Abraham Lincoln after church, “Let’s just pray that God’s on our side.” Abraham Lincoln smiled, and he said, “No. I would never pray that God is on my side.” He said, “The only concern for me and my constant daily prayer is that I’m on God’s side.” The purpose of prayer is not to bend God’s will to us. The purpose of prayer is to bend us towards God that we might be changed, that we might be transformed.

You know, Golding wrote that famous book called Lord of the Flies and it tells of young children who were stranded on an island. There, in the midst of nature, unencumbered by civilization, they became increasingly wild and increasingly savage. That’s because Golding believed that you take people out of civilization and all the restraints of civilization and that the sin nature begins to surface unrestrained. That which is evil in us begins to be unleashed. He believed that civilization was a restraint on the sin nature.

Well, Hollywood made Lord of the Flies into a movie, but Hollywood isn’t sure about the message of the Lord of the Flies. Of course, Hollywood has made a lot of movies. In some of their movies they seem to kind of imply that civilization isn’t really the restrainer on the sin nature, but civilization is the problem. So, in a lot of Hollywood movies, you kind of have nature as pure and civilization as evil. Even in recent movies, like the movie Nell, there’s a certain suspicion that Hollywood has toward civilization, that civilization is perhaps evil and maybe nature is more pure. But God wants us to understand it’s not nature or civilization. God wants us to understand we’re fallen. We are sinners. It doesn’t matter whether we live in a big city or we live in the boondocks. It doesn’t matter where we go. We take our sin with us. We are sinful at the core and we need transformation. I know I need transformation. I need change, and that happens in relationship with God as you come into His presence and He can begin to change us.

There’s a great passage in Philippians, chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul writes “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Do you want peace? Do you want the peace of God? Paul is saying the peace of God comes through prayer, prayer and supplication. Peace is one of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-contro. That’s the fruit of the spirit and it’s the nature of God. Those are His attributes. He is willing to give them in some measure to us through prayer as we commune with Him, as we spend time with Him.

Do you know what a contagion is? A contagion is anything that is contagious. The common cold is a contagion. It’s a virus that is contagious. AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is a contagion—not as contagious as the common cold but far more deadly. A contagion. God wants us to understand that there are good contagions. There are some good things that are also contagious. The fruit of the spirit is contagious. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control: the fruit of the spirit is contagious. In some small measure you can catch it from people, but its real source is God. Its real source and all of its depth is in God. All of the fruit of the spirit comes from God. If you want to catch it, you need to come into His presence. You need to draw close. You need to come near every day.

Do you want joy? In His presence, the Bible says, is fullness of joy. Do you want peace? He is the Prince of Peace. Do you want to be more loving? God is love. But you must take time every day to come into His presence that He might begin to change you and transform you.

Our time draws to a close. You know, there are many things I had wanted to say. There are many words in the Bible for prayer. One of the Greek words is the word “enteuxis.” “Enteuxis” is one of the Greek words in the Bible for prayer. It’s often said the word “enteuxis” means petition, and that it was used at time in ancient history for a petition to the king. So, it is said that prayer is a petition to the king and that’s the meaning of the word “enteuxis.” There’s validity to that and certainly prayer is a petition to the king.

But the word “enteuxis,” this Greek word, has gone through a change of meaning. We shouldn’t be surprised at that. Lots of words do that. I think many of you are aware of the fact that the word awful used to mean wonderful, full of awe, full of wonder, but it’s come to mean horrible. The word awful which used to mean wonderful now means horrible because words can change in meaning. Well, that’s true with this word “enteuxis” also because initially it didn’t mean petition, even petition to the king. Initially the word “enteuxis” simply meant communion, intimate communion—relationship so great that it transformed you. Transforming fellowship, transforming communion, that was the meaning of “enteuxis.”

You see, in a sense, what’s happened to this word is what’s happened to prayer. I mean, prayer in terms of its primary purpose is transforming communion, fellowship with God Himself, entering the Holy of Holies and knowing Him and being transformed by Him. We have reduced prayer to mere petition and intercession. Petition and intercession are important but what it’s really about is communion and transformation. Let’s close with a word of prayer.