West Side
Church of Christ, Searcy, Arkansas
Sermon
Notes, January 13, 2018 AM
The Prayer Life of Jesus
Steve W.
Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. Do you struggle with prayer? The American author, Samuel Clemons (Mark
Twain) was an agnostic who frequently expressed his personal views through the
lives of the characters he wrote about. In the character of Huckleberry Finn he
expressed his misgivings about prayer. In Chapter 2 Huck says, “Miss Watson she
took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every
day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a
fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks
three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked
Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I
couldn't make it out no way.”
1. Huck’s attitude is in stark contrast to what Jesus believed and taught about prayer.
2. If there is anything you and I need today it is to be able to pray with the
competence and confidence displayed by the prayer life of Jesus.
B. We do not have to guess about the prayer life of Jesus.
1. Prayer is one aspect of Jesus’ life consistently recorded in the Gospels. Luke
records the most prayers of Jesus. John records the longest prayer of Jesus.
a. Luke 3:21 – “Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized,
and while He was praying, heaven was opened,”
b. Luke 5:16 – “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and
pray.”
c. Luke 6:12 – “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He
spent the whole night in prayer to God.”
d. Luke 9:18 – “And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples
were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that
I am?”
e. Luke 9:28-29 – “He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the
mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face
became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.”
f. Luke 11:1- “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after
He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as
John also taught his disciples.’”
g. Luke 18:1 – “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they
ought to pray and not to lose heart.”
h. Luke 22:32 (speaking to Peter) – “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may
not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
i. Luke 22:41 – “And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt
down and began to pray.”
C. For what did Jesus prayr?
1. He prayed for himself.
2. He prayed for His disciples.
3. He prayed for us. I hope it touches your heart to realize that Jesus
was thinking of you as He prepared to face death..
D. What can we learn from the prayer life of Jesus?
I. THE POWER OF PRAYER
A. In James 4:1-2 we read, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they
come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so
you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You
do not have because you do not ask God.”
B. God is not a reluctant giver. The Bible pictures God as a Father who longs to bless
us. Jesus said, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him” (Mt. 7:9-11).
1. The problem of prayer is not on the giving end. It is not with God. The problem
with prayer is on the receiving end. That is us.
2. We are so proud, so self-sufficient and so boastful. We go through life
manipulating, fighting, warring, scheming, planning, hating, conniving, killing,
trying to obtain the things we want.
C. Jesus understood that prayer is a necessity for spiritual power.
1. Some people view God as a Divine Emergency Call System --- 911. The only
time they call on Him is when they need something. The 19th century
Congregationalist preacher, Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “Does it not vulgarize
and cheapen prayer to think of it only in terms of getting material things?”
2. Some ignore the Sovereignty of God and carelessly demand that God grant
every request. Then they become angry with Him when they do not receive what
they want.
D. God wants to hear from you. He wants you to ask Him for guidance, strength and
help in difficult times. He wants you to ask Him for the blessings we need.
1. A father watched as his son tried to dislodge a large rock that was partially
buried in the yard. The boy had dug around the rock and tried pushing on it with
all of his strength. The rock would not budge. The boy tried prying it out of the
ground it would not move. Exhausted, he sat down on the ground. The father
said, “Have you tried everything?” Frustrated, the boy said, “yes!” The father
replied. “No you haven’t. You haven’t asked me to help.”
2. A preacher in Florida was given several boxes of delicious oranges that he
stored in his garage. He was given far more than his family would eat. He gladly
gave them away to anyone who would eat them. One day he looked out the
window into his back yard. Two boys were in his yard picking oranges from
an ornamental orange tree. The preacher thought as he watched the boys
tucking the ornamental oranges into their pockets how bitter those oranges
were. “How sad,” he thought. They are stealing bitter oranges when all they had
to do was ask and I would have given them all of the delicious sweet oranges
they wanted.”
3. Isn’t that just like us? We grab at trinkets while riches await us if only we would
ask. “Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear, all
because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”
II THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER
A. Do you know why we do not receive some of the things we seek? James said in
James 4:3-4 “When you ask, you do not eceive, because you ask with wrong
motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous
people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God.”
1. Sometimes the problem is not that we aren’t praying but that we are praying with
selfish motives.
2. We pray for what we want rather than the will of God. We pray for our personal
glory rather than the glory of God. We pray with the view toward our own
interests rather than the interest of others.
B. When Jesus instructed His disciples about prayer in Mt. 6 He told them to pray,
“Thy (Your) will be done.” When Jesus prayed in the garden he said, “Not my will
but Thy (your) will be done.”
1. The problem of unacceptable prayer is when we pray, “My will be done rather
than Thy will be done.”
2. Why is that so difficult?
a. We think we know what is best. We think we know what will make us happy.
We think we know what the best course of action is for our future.
b. To pray, “Thy will be done” means that we relinquish control. We’re taking a
chance it might not work out the way we think it should, but ultimately, we
believe God knows what is the best. That is difficult to do.
C. James alludes to this struggle in verse 4 when he says, “You adulterous people,
don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God.”. Can you imagine a wife going to her husband and saying, “I know you want
me to be happy. I have found another man I want to live with. I want to remain
married to you and I want your protection but I want to enjoy a relationship with
this other man.” This is exactly what James says at the beginning of
vs. 4. “You adulterous people.”
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF PRAYER
A. Jesus said that there is a prayer that God cannot and will not deny.
1. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7 - “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
2. This is what John says in 1 John 5:14-15 - “This is the confidence we have in
approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask —we know that we have
what we asked of Him.”
B. If you and I will ask according to His will with a heart that draws near to God we
have His assurance that He hears us.
CONCLUSION:
A. “Oh, how praying rests the weary! Prayer will change the night to day.
So, when life gets dark and dreary, Don't forget to pray!”
B. If we may assist you with a prayer need in your life we invite you to come as we
stand and sing.
