Teach Us to Pray

as I speak to you on the subject,
teach us to pray. Now the person here who is not
vitally, personally interested in my subject must be woefully
lacking in any knowledge of the grace of God. And the person who feels that
he has no strong need in this area I believe is a stranger
to a knowledge of himself and of God. And the person who feels
that he's qualified to speak or teach on this subject reveals
his absolute and total ignorance of the subject. And the person
who fails to see the great importance of our subject tonight, teach
me to pray is certainly a stranger to God's ways and God's purposes. Here in chapter 11 of Luke's
gospel, this is the request. The disciples said unto him,
verse 1, Lord, teach us to pray. As I look strongly at this statement,
this question, this request, Lord, teach us to I determined
that it could be asked, and it is asked, by me personally in
three different ways. First of all, my request would
be, Lord, teach me the way to pray. Now, there's a way to approach
God. I don't know that many people are aware of it, conscious of
it, know anything about it. But there's a way to approach
God in prayer. There's a right way and there's
a wrong way. If you'll turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, now
this statement in Ecclesiastes, in
one form or another, is repeated again and again and again in
the Word of God. Lord, in His holy temple, let
all the earth keep silence. In Ecclesiastes 5, verse 1, listen
to it. Ecclesiastes 5, keep thy foot
when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to
hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not
that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing or any word
before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Let thy
words be few, for a dream cometh through the multitude of business,
and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words. Be still,
he said, and know that I am God." And then I looked over here in
the book of Exodus chapter 3. This came to my mind. Moses had
a face-to-face confrontation with God in Exodus chapter 3. And the Lord spoke to him in
Exodus 3. You remember he came to the burning
bush, the bush that burnt and was not consumed. And verse 4
of Exodus 3 says, And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside
to see the bush, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush,
and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he
said, Draw not nigh hither. put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." I don't know but what we need
to learn how to pray, and when I say how, I mean the way to
pray, the way to approach God, the way to approach the awesome,
holy presence of the living God in a spirit of humility and a
spirit of reverence, a spirit of fear, and yet with a spirit
of boldness, knowing that through the blood of Christ, through
the sacrifice of our Redeemer, we are admitted into the presence
of God. But as Moses came there to the
burning bush, he went through the process of putting off his
shoes, because he was God said, on holy ground. I wonder if we
wouldn't be wise to, as we came to God in prayer, no matter what
the occasion, to take just a moment to put off our shoes, instead
of rushing into the presence of God like we would rush into
the presence of a man. God said in Psalm 50, Thou thoughtest
I was altogether such a one as And I've heard people, sentimental,
emotional people, after someone prays, they say, wasn't that
a beautiful prayer? He talked to God just like he
was talking to one of us. I don't want to talk to God like
I'm talking to one of you, because God's not like us. He's not one
of us. My thoughts are not your thoughts
as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts
higher than your thoughts, and my ways in your ways, Satan. I don't want a son or a daughter
approaching me like they would approach one of their companions.
I'm the father, I'm not the buddy, I'm not the companion. I occupy
a position that is to be treated with more
respect than the playmate. And so it's really not complimentary
of your prayer or my prayer when someone says he's talking to
God like he would talk to one of us. And I want God to teach
me, the Lord Jesus to teach me, the way to pray. And then I would
ask this another way, Lord teach me the way to pray, and then
I would ask, Lord teach me to pray. Teach me to pray. We need to
be taught the importance of prayer, the place of prayer in God's
divine program, the blessings of prayer. Prayer is not only
a duty, it's a privilege. Prayer is not only a responsibility,
it's a fulfillment of a need. There's no way to have a real
relationship with God and not have a prayer life. It can't
be done. that prayer is the breath of the child of God. I'm really
not interested in organized prayer, I'm interested in spontaneous
prayer. I'm really not interested in
community prayer, I'm interested in communion prayer. That prayer that comes as a result
of a broken heart, that prayer that comes as a result of a burden,
that prayer that comes as a result of feeling not just my need,
that would be selfish, but somebody else's need. Not to call someone's
name in prayer because he asked you to, but because he didn't
ask you to. Lord teach me to pray. It's a poor report on any of
us if we can go through the day without crying unto God. It's
a sad, sad situation. It's a terribly dried-up spiritual
condition if we have gone through this day and not felt the need
of his hand. I wouldn't give you ten cents
for this thing of setting times to pray or length of prayer. Spontaneous prayer is what we
need. We need to be taught by the Spirit of God our inability
and insufficiency and our weakness, and the weaker we become, the
more we'll pray. The greater my need, the more
I'm going to cry to God. And the weaker I see myself,
the more I'm going to depend upon him. Peter only cried for
help when he realized he couldn't help himself. And then I think this request
might be presented another way. Lord teach me the way to pray.
Lord teach me to pray. And then watch this now. Lord, teach me to pray and not
to think. Teach me to pray and not to quit. Teach me to pray and not to lean
on the arm of flesh. Teach me to pray and not to solve
my problems with my own natural wisdom. Meant always to pray,
not to think. Now see if this is not true of
all of us. When we're faced with a problem,
when we're faced with a trial, when we're faced with a serious
conflict, how often do we give up, quit, resign, just leave,
rather than taking the matter to the Lord in prayer? And if we don't quit, run off,
throw aside our responsibilities, turn tail and run. If we don't
do that, perhaps we adopt this method. We take matters into
our own hands. We're experts at that. I'll deal
with it. I'll solve the problem. I'll
bring it to a head. I've already rendered a judgment.
I don't need to pray. White's white and black's black.
I don't need to pray. Or else, if we don't do it that
way, we sit down and figure out the solution in our wisdom or with wise men. We apply our common sense to
the problem. We apply our common sense to
the trial. And we're going to solve it with
human wisdom. Still no prayer. Lord, teach me to pray. And then to pray. And then to
pray. And then to pray. Charles Tindley,
T-I-N-D-L-E-Y. You'll find his name in your
hymn book out there. He wrote some great hymns. Two
of his greatest hymns are in our book. Charles Tindley was
a black man. He was born in 1851, born in
poverty, hard work, suffering, never saw a schoolroom, never
saw the inside of a schoolroom until he was 20 years old. He
went to Philadelphia and became a mortar carrier for a mason, and he was converted to Christ.
as a young man. So Charles Tinley began to study
at night, began to try to learn something. He never had any training
in his schooling, so he began to try to learn some things.
He took the job as a custodian of the Calvary Methodist Church
of Philadelphia. God gave him so many gifts and
so much wisdom that he became their pastor. And for 33 years
he pastored that Calvary Methodist Church of Philadelphia, which
was the largest Negro congregation in the entire world. He wrote the song, Nothing Between,
my soul and my Savior, so that his blessed face can be seen. Nothing preventing the least
of his favor, Jesus is mine, there's nothing between. Charles
Tenley wrote another song that reveals exactly what I'm saying
right now. And here's what I'm saying. Lord,
teach me to pray and not to solve things my own way. Lord, teach
me to pray and not to take matters into my own hands. Lord, teach
me to pray and not to quit." Listen to the words of the psalm.
Now listen to the words. You've sung it a hundred times,
but maybe you've never seen the words. I've been singing them
all afternoon. If the world from you withhold,
of its silver and its gold and you have to get along with meager
fare, just remember in his word how he feeds the little bird. And take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If your body suffers pain and
your health you can't regain and your soul is almost sinking
in despair, Jesus knows the pain you feel. He can save and He
can heal. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. When your enemy is assailed and
your heart begins to fail, don't forget that God in heaven answers
prayer. He'll make a way for you. His
way, not your way, His way. and he'll lead you safely through. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. When your youthful days are gone
and old age is stealing on and your body bends beneath the weight
of care, he'll never leave you then. He'll go with you to the
end. Take your burden to the Lord
and do what? Leave it there. leave it there. I've been pastor
of a church for a long time. I've made about every mistake
there is to make. By the time I get about 80, I'm
going to know how to pastor a church. But I've learned some things,
and one of the things I think that I have learned is to let
God govern his church, let God discipline his church, let God
direct his church, let God the Heavenly Father deal with his
church. And that's what I'm doing. I
take it now to God and I leave it there. And I know that sometimes
he moves rapidly and sometimes he moves slowly, but he always
moves. The wheels of God's purpose and
providence are always turning. Always turning. And God always
deals with people. Always. Now we need to learn
that. We need to learn to pray. Pray. Lord, teach us how to pray. How to approach these. Teach
us, O Lord, the importance of prayer. To pray. And then, Lord,
teach us just what we need to learn. We need to learn to pray. To pray. Take your burden to
the Lord and leave it there. Leave it there. Now, here are
four things that I want to suggest about prayer that have been helpful
to me. First of all, in verse 9 of chapter
11 of Luke's gospel, the authority, the authority for prayer. What I'm preaching tonight has
got to have some authority, hasn't it? Not just my words, not enough
to look at the Church Covenant and say, the Church Covenant
says to pray, or the Catechism says to pray, or the Confession
of Faith says to pray, or our mother was a woman of prayer
and our fathers taught us to pray. That's not enough authority.
Says here in verse 9, watch it, "...and I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given. I
say unto you, Seek, and ye shall find. I say unto you, Knock,
and it shall be opened there." That's our authority, I say unto
you. And that's all argument we need. He cannot err, he cannot lie. If he says, I say unto you, ask,
then the argument, the debate is ended. And this is the first
mark of a follower of Christ, a believer in the Savior, he
obeys the words of his Lord. He obeys the words of his Lord.
He believes the words of his Lord. Why do I pray? Because
Christ said, I say unto you, ask. and it shall be given. I say unto you, seek, and you
shall find. I say unto you, knock, and it
shall be opened. I know the world and my flesh
may present ten thousand arguments against prayer. The old natural
man says, Well, the laws of nature are unchangeable. Things are
going to go on just like they are whether we pray or not. sun's
coming up in the morning, it's going to go down tomorrow night,
and it's going to rain. It's not going to rain. Things
are going to happen. They're not going to happen.
What will be, will be. But I'll tell you this. God made
the sun stand still for a man called Joshua, who prayed. God made it rain for a man called
Elijah, who prayed. God made the sea divide for a
man called Moses, who prayed. Well, if somebody said, Preacher,
don't you believe in predestination? I certainly do. I'd be a fool
not to. I wouldn't call myself a Christian
if I didn't believe the Word of God, if I didn't believe in
divine covenant and divine election, divine predestination. I wouldn't
be up here. I'd be in the atheist chair at
the university denying God and denying his Word. I believe in
God's eternal providence and purpose and predestinating grace
in the Bible. I believe God's word, and I believe
that he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that's so. But he gave Hezekiah 15 years longer
to live when he He delivered Peter from jail
when the church prayed. Their pastor was in jail. They
believed in God's sovereignty and his purpose, but they didn't
sit over there in church and say, Well, if God wants him there,
he'll keep him there, and if God wants him out, he'll let
him out. No, so they prayed and God let him out. There was a lame man laying at
the gate called Beautiful, and Peter and John came by there
and prayed for him, and he got up and walked off. Old John Knox got on his knees
and said, Lord, give me Scotland or I'll die, and God gave him
Scotland. He prayed. He prayed. And the world comes back and
says, but God's so holy, God's so awesomely holy, and we're
so sinful, we're so unworthy. And that false piety that says,
oh, who am I to call on God? Well, the publican was sinful,
but God heard him, didn't he? He prayed like it was. He said,
Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner! God heard him pray, and God was
merciful. The Bible plainly says, Elisha
was a man of like passions as we are, but he prayed and God
heard him. That's what says in All these arguments and these
human reasons, there's nothing in the world but lack of faith,
there's nothing in the world but alibis of evil hearts, there's
nothing in the world but reasons to do something else, and all
of these arguments fall before his word who says unto us, I
say unto you, ask. I say unto you, seek. I say unto
you, not. I say unto you, that's the authority
for prayer. There it is, that's all you need.
I say it. I say it. The Lord Jesus Christ. In the second place, turn to
1 John 3. This will be a blessing to you
if you look at it with me. The conditions of prayer. This
is a This is a delicate area right here. Got to be real careful
right here. Got to be handled real carefully. Because all the fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him. He says, come, come. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. The basic quality and condition
for prayer is a broken, sincere heart. It's to approach God in
sincerity, not in a faint hypocrisy. But now, in this scripture here,
there are three conditions given for prayer. 1 John 3, verse 22. And it's not so much conditions
that will bring us to God as conditions that will keep us
from God. You see what I'm saying? Only
Christ can bring us to God. Only Christ can open the way
to God. Only Christ can give us an approach
to the Father. But there are some conditions
that keep me and you away from the Father. And this is what
they are. He says, verse 22, now look carefully
at it, We receive of him because we
keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing
in his sight. And this is his commandment. It is. First of all, that we
should believe on the name of his Son. Jesus Christ. That's the first condition, to
keep you from God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No
man cometh to the Father but by me. This will keep you from
God if you do not believe on the name of his Son, his Son
who is the divine prophet, his Son who is the great His Son
who is our King, His Son who is our Mediator, His Son in whom
we have all things. It's in Christ. We're complete
in Him. You've got to believe in Christ. Christ has got to
be your refuge and your strength and your hope and your all. If
you can't give Christ his rightful place, you can't come to God. That'll keep you away from God.
You rob in Christ of his glory. That's the reason we pray in
the name of Christ. They said to that man at the
temple gate, in the name of Jesus Christ, we command you to rise
up and walk. I am nothing, he's everything.
You needn't pray if you can't give Christ his rightful place. You want to know why Paul preached
Christ? You want to know why Paul gloried
in Christ? You want to know why Paul determined
to know nothing but Christ? so these people could come to
God. You can't know God apart from Christ, and you can't come
to God apart from Christ, and you can't rob Christ of his glory,
for he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father! That's right, that's the condition
that will keep you from God. You can go through the motions
of prayer, but you're not going to do any praying, because you
know who Christ is. You may go through the words,
and you may go through the motions, and you may feel real religious,
and you may do a whole lot of talking and call it prayer, but
you're not going to get an audience with the King until you know
who Christ is, so that you can plead not your merit but His,
not your righteousness but His, not your glory but His, not your
faith but His. See what I'm saying? God will
hear you for Christ's sake, but he's not going to hear you on
any other basis. He'll hear you because of Christ. You can plead
Christ from any direction, under any condition, under any burden,
but he's not going to hear you on any other basis. That in all things he may have
the preeminence. That's what scripture says. Here's the second condition that
will keep you from God. You may know who Christ is, but
he says, And this is his commandment, whatsoever we ask we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments, and do these things that are
pleasing in his sight. And here they are, that you should
believe on the name of his Son, and that you should love one
another. Brethren, I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can, We'd better make a study of this
little four-letter word that our Lord says is so important. Now about is faith, hope, and
love, but the greatest of these is love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. Look at verse 11 of 1 John 3,
right back there, and this is the message, this is it, this
is what we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Not like Cain who was of that wicked one, he was of the devil,
he slew his brother. Why did he slew him? Because his own works were evil
and his brothers were righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, that
the world hates you. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love. We know we've passed from death
unto life because we go to church on Sunday. We know we've passed
from death unto life because we made a decision. We know we've
passed from death unto life because we know some doctrine. We know
we've passed from death unto life because we're not Armenians,
we're Calvinists. We know we've passed from death
unto life because we believe in substitution. We know we've
passed from death unto life because we this and we that know, sir.
We love each other. That's how you know it. And he
that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Turn over there a minute. 1 Peter
3, verse 7. Verse 7, likewise, you husbands
dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto
the wife as unto to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered? That's the reason I say we approach
this thing of conditions of prayer carefully. The only way that can be opened
for me into the presence of God is Christ. You can't ride that
too much. But don't you ride that to the
exclusion of this. God won't heal you if you can't
give Christ his rightful place. And God won't heal you if you
can't forgive others. And God won't heal you if you
don't love others. God won't heal you. You forget
praying. You can go through the motions,
that's what I said. You can siege the throne if you
want to, but I'll guarantee you, you won't be heard. There is
something else, too, that's necessary, verse 24, and he that keepeth
his commandments, don't get sidetracked on that, you're not keeping the
Ten Commandments. I shall not steal, I shall not
kill, I shall not bear false witness, I shall not covet. That's
not what he's talking about. If a perfect keeping of the Ten
Commandments was required in thought, word and deed for us
to pray, I wouldn't even be preaching on the subject tonight. I'd give
it up as a lost cause a long time ago. And when he said he
hears us when we keep his commandments, he tells you, and this is his
commandment. This is it. This is his commandment,
that you believe on his Son, that you love one another. And
that you what, last of all? That you keep his commandment,
dwell in him and he in you, and hereby we know that he abideth
in us by his Spirit. Now here's the third condition,
the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I don't know the things I should
pray for, except God's Spirit should teach me. Charles Spurgeon
said this, listen to this, people sometimes imagine that a man who has power in prayer can pray
for anything he chooses. But I can assure you that is
not so. You may call upon a praying man,
a man who knows something about prayer. You may call on him and
you may ask him to pray about a particular matter and to ask
God to give a certain thing. And if he really knows God, he
will answer. I cannot promise you that I'll
pray for that, for I must seek the will and leadership of the
Holy Spirit in this matter. And if God does not give me faith
about this particular matter and reveal to me that it's his
will, I will not pray about it." Now, you think about that. We've got a little old silly
sentimental emotional idea today. that you just pray, you just
go to your knees and pray, and you just ask God, just ask God
for anything. Somebody says, Well, pray for
my boy. I sure will. Pray for my girl. I sure will.
Pray that I'll get a job. I sure will. Pray that I'll do
this. Now, wait a minute. Now, hold
on a minute. You might go to God and say,
God, I pray for Brother Sparks, or I pray for Brother Roach.
And Lord, Brother Roach has asked me to pray that he might get
a certain job. But Lord, I don't know whether
to ask you for that or not. Now, Lord, you let's show me
your will. I'm not going to ask you to give him that job. It
may not be the one you want him to have. It may take him away
from the house of God. It may take him away from the
people of God. It may take him to a place where he can't hear
the gospel. I'm not going to ask you to give him that job.
Now, Lord, if it's your will, You reveal it to me, but I ain't
fixin' to ask for it." That's right, isn't it? Not fixin' to.
Pray that God will make my mother well. I ain't fixin' to. No, sir. Not till I'm impressed
that that's his will. It may be God's will for mother
to die. We'd better find out about this.
We'd better find out what the leadership of God's Spirit is.
I know sentiment is heavy on the other side, but sentiment
will take you away from God. The wisdom of this world is foolishness
to God. And we're going to have to be
honest. When we're dealing with God, we let the potsherds of
this earth strive with one another, but don't let them mix company
with God and strive with him. I will pray about this matter
when God gives me his leadership. And when I feel I have it, I'm going to pray about it. And
when I feel I have it, I'm going to expect God to deal with it. I'm going to expect God in a
heavy-handed way with a heavy foot of judgment, to walk through
the field and crush the tares, when I feel I have his will." In 1 Kings, turn over there a
minute. Let's look at the place of prayer.
Now, this is something else. The place of prayer. 1 Kings
9, verse 3. He says to Solomon, 1 Kings 9,
verse 3, I have heard your prayer and
your supplication that you have made before me." You want to
know the place of prayer? You underscore two words there,
before me. The Pharisee went to the temple,
but he didn't pray. Israel kept the holy days and
the feasts, but they didn't pray. The old songwriter said, wherever
we seek him, he is found, and every place is hallowed ground. This place can be found in public,
this place may be found in private, but it is found when we seek
his face. Not there in the field, anyone.
God's out there. We don't have to have the burning
candles and the stained glass windows and the soft organ music. just need find him. Lord, we come before thee now,
at thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our prayer disdain? Shall we seek thee, Lord, in
vain, in thine own appointed way? Now we seek thee, and here
we'll stay. Lord, from here we will not go
till the blessing thou shalt bestow. True prayer, someone said, is
an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the presence
of God. That's the place of prayer. It's
not just utterance of pious words. If we could just be delivered
from the utterance of pious words, it's not just the desires of
the heart, but prayer is the praise and the thanksgiving and
the communion of the heart to the living God in the name of
Christ. true prayer is not just mental
exercise, it's not just vocal performance, it's communion with
God. Sometimes I wonder just how much we really pray,
don't you? Hebrews 4 verse 16, God answers
prayer. If I can learn to pray, God answers
prayer. Five words spoken under the power
of the Holy Spirit is worth ten billion words spoken under the
strength and energy of the flesh, no matter how religious or how
pious or how beautiful or how melodious they may be, just five
words. And in the study while ago, Charlie
read Psalm 8 and I looked over across the page and I saw these
words, Lord have mercy on me. Boy, that's, Lord have mercy
on me. What five better words could
a man utter under the power of the Holy Spirit? Just, Lord have
mercy on me. I want us to pray. I want prayer
to be a vital, living part of our lives and our worship, but
under God I want it to be prayer. If it's five words or ten words
or the Holy Spirit gets a hold of a man's throat and heart and
mind and makes it 500 words, it doesn't matter, but just if
we could learn Old Elijah stood on Mount Carmel
facing 350 wild, heathen, atheistic prophets of Baal and brought
the fire of God down with a 63-word prayer. And it went something
like this, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let these people
know that you're God. Let these people know that I'm
your servant. Let them know it, Lord. Amen. And the fire of God
fell. That's all there was to it. That's
all there was to it. Hebrews 4.16, look at this. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy. Find grace
to help in time of need. Here's the promise of prayer
in closing. Let us come that we may obtain. Let us come before the throne
of grace. Let us come that we may obtain. What? Mercy. Mercy. But I'm right, preacher, you
still need mercy. But he's wrong. You still need
mercy. And find grace to help. It says here that the
place we come is a throne. Let's don't ever forget that.
It's a throne. He's sovereign. He works all
things after the counsel of his own will. It's a throne, but
thank God it's a throne of what? Grace. justice has been satisfied. Tremble not, come bold, it's
the throne of grace." And one old Puritan writer says, thank
God it's grace enthroned. We come where grace is enthroned. Grace is not a servant boy at
the door. Grace is not even a high-ranking
officer in the court. Grace is enthroned. Grace is
enthroned. Watch this now and I'll close.
Grace is enthroned by conquest. Grace came down here to this
earth in the person of God's Son and met with sin. Head to
head and toe to toe and long and hard was the struggle, but
grace carried sin to the cross and nailed it there and put it
to death. Grace is enthroned by right. When God hears the prayer of
this old sinner, there's no injustice in his grace, because God is
just as just when he forgives a sinner as he is when he sends
a rebel to hell. Because the sacrifice of Christ
has enabled God to be just and justified. One man said, he who knows the
word substitution always spells the meaning right. And then last of all, grace is
enthroned in power, by conquest, by right, and in power. He says,
him that cometh to me, I let no wise cast out. I have the
power to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me."
I've got that power. Grace enthroned. Lord, teach
us to pray.

Teach Us to Pray

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Teach Us to Pray

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About Henry Mahan

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