Most things in life you can’t say you like until you’ve tried them…

This is true with the things of God.
Last week we challenged you to Try Faith. This week we want to ask you to.. Try Prayer. You’ll Like it.
The life of a Christian should be marked by Joy, Thankfulness & Prayer. (1 Thess 5:16-18) All Christians should pray, but yet not all Christians pray. Maybe we haven’t really tried prayer. Maybe we don’t really understand what prayer is.
Perhaps our prayer is SICK AND WRONG. That’s what James 4:3 tells us when it says we ask amiss. In the Greek it means Sick & wrong. It is possible to pray incorrectly… for your prayer to be Sick & Wrong. The sickness starts in our hearts – Our motives. These prayers don’t have good results…
Prayer is taking your needs to God’s throne and asking Him to be Lord over them. Prayer isn’t just asking for stuff.. There is a deeper benefit.. But we will never know that benefit until we TRY IT!
Try prayer. We think You’ll like it.

Try it You’ll like it 2 – Try Prayer from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

Try it You’ll like it 2 – Try Prayer

Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt

Try it You’ll Like It 2 – Prayer
**Bumper Video –
Most things in life you can’t say you like until you’ve tried them.
Happy Father’s day and welcome to Redemption Church. My name is Chris Fluitt I am the lead pastor and I am glad you are here today.
Dads have you ever tried to feed your child? Maybe when your child was an infant you would put that Gerber food on the end of that small spoon. There are moments where you have to get inventive to get that food in your kids mouth… The airplane move… Blow in their face and then find the opening… (not proud of that)
Dad’s, We know if we could just get the food inside their mouth… they would like it. If they would just try it…
And if it’s not something they would like we say… It’s good for you. It’s disgusting.. but it’s good for you..

Last week we challenged you to try Faith.
We told you that Faith looks dumb from the outside. We told the story of Naaman and how the prophet Elisha told him to dip 7 times in the dirty Jordan river. From the outside looking in you could say it looked dumb… but from the inside… From the inside it looked powerful, miraculous, holy, life changing…
This is a trend that continues throughout the Bible… From the outside the Tabernacle the Israelites carried in the wilderness looked like a makeshift tent covered in Camel hair… But from the INSIDE… It was beautiful… precious fabrics, sweet burning incense, gold… and most important THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
Living for God from the outside is difficult…
Living for God from the inside is beautiful!
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.(NIV)
You can’t get to the inside until you try God..
You have to taste and then see that the Lord is good.
Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.(NIV)
Living for God is beautiful from the Inside! Take refuge IN HIM.
Try God and you’ll see that He is Good! You gotta try Him.

This week we want to ask you to.. Try Prayer. You’ll Like it.

Prayer is one of the most powerful things a Christian can do. It’s powerful when we pray and it is powerful when we receive prayer.
PRAYER LINE
Would you like to be a part of the Redemption Church Prayer line? It is an interactive group where you can receive prayer requests from people wanting you to pray for their need and also a place where you can share your prayer requests. To join simply text prayer to the number 214 232 6315

The life of a Christian should be marked by Joy, Thankfulness & Prayer.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always;(NIV)
pray continually;(NIV)
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.(NIV)
All Christians should pray, but yet not all Christians pray. Could it be that we are living for God from the outside? Living a life of prayer – That’s stepping inside Kingdom Life!

Maybe we haven’t really tried prayer. Maybe we don’t really understand what prayer is.
Perhaps our prayer is SICK AND WRONG
James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.(KJV)
You will hear the phrase Pray Amiss or Ask Amiss… what does that mean… The word Amiss in Greek means SICK or WRONG.
James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.(NIV)
It is possible to pray incorrectly… for your prayer to be Sick & Wrong. The sickness starts in our hearts – Our motives. These prayers don’t have good results…

Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.(NIV)
Prayer is not repetitious babble. It’s not a lot of words. Your prayer can be short!
Matthew 6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.(NIV)
Prayer is not alerting God to your need.

Prayer is taking your needs to God’s throne and asking Him to be Lord over them.

Prayer isn’t just asking for stuff.. There is a deeper benefit

Timeout… before I tell you about that benefit you need to convince yourself that God can do something greater than give you what you want. That STUFF you have been praying to receive… You need to believe that God can do GREATER.
We pray amiss when we think prayer is about getting stuff. (James 4:3)
There is a deeper benefit to prayer than asking God to do stuff or give stuff.

Kingdom Agreement
Agreement is essential to God’s plan. He created the world and gave commands to Adam & Eve… be fruitful, multiply, name the animal, tend the garden, don’t eat of the tree… They were in Agreement. They had a relationship of Agreement.
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?(KJV)
When Adam & Eve fell into sin they fell out of agreement. God attempts to redeem and restore mankind through Covenant. What is a covenant… It’s an agreement. Agreement with God is essential to a relationship with God.
Mankind fell out of agreement in the garden… Prayer when done correctly brings us back into agreement with God.
Being in agreement with God and His kingdom is better than receiving any of the stuff we pray for.

When Jesus instructs the people on how to pray he tells them to pray
Matthew 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.(NIV)
This is agreement! God let your Kingdom come to my life… this Earth. Let your will be done.

In God’s Kingdom there is love… If you are praying in a way that doesn’t come into agreement with that love – You are praying amiss.
In God’s Kingdom there is righteousness… If you are praying in a way that doesn’t come into agreement with that righteousness – You are praying amiss.
In God’s Kingdom there is NO GREED… If you are praying in greedy materialistic ways – You are praying amiss… You are out of agreement with God’s Kingdom.
God’s Kingdom is about serving others… If you are the center of all your prayers… you are praying a miss

In this way… coming into agreement is WAY MORE POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT than receiving that thing you want.
…But when you are in agreement with God and His Kingdom you will receive what you are praying for… because now that you have the proper motive… now that you are in agreement with His Kingdom and will… the things you are praying for will receive the fullness of that Kingdom.
You are praying God’s Kingdom right into the middle of your problem and world.
When you are praying for someone to be healed… you are praying that God’s Kingdom, where there is no sickness and death… that Kingdom come into the life of my friend.
The power is in the Kingdom coming to Earth! Kingdom Come.

Try that! You’ll like it. Try Prayer. Try coming into agreement with God and His Kingdom.
Could it be we have made Prayer asking for blessing without ever asking God to make us Blessable people? Are we asking for Kingdom blessing without being Kingdom people?
Prayer doesn’t just bring change to the situations around us… It should bring change to us…

Forgetting to Pray is like forgetting to breathe
If you are a Christian you are a Kingdom person. You are supposed to live in agreement with that Kingdom and to interact within that Kingdom.
Prayer is your interaction within that Kingdom.
To say you are in God’s Kingdom but never pray is like forgetting to breathe in this world.
Do you pray? Are you lining in God’s Kingdom and interacting within it?

Dad’s are you praying for you family? Are you asking God’s Kingdom to come down in your home.

So we need to pray, but praying is hard.

If you feel that prayer is hard I want you to listen closely. It doesn’t have to be hard

Talking to someone you love and want to talk to isn’t hard.

Look at this heartfelt prayer from a priest named Saint Francis.

The Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

This is a beautiful prayer.
The “Make Me” prayer is so much more effective than the “Give Me” prayer.
If you are having trouble with prayer you could look to how others have prayed…
You could look over this prayer and pray it from your heart. As you read these words be aware of what the Spirit of God might do… As you pray you might feel drawn to something… You might feel drawn to pray it for someone else…

Use Scripture to help you pray.
I know a lady with a great testimony. She had come to know Jesus and wanted to be set free from her drug addiction. Chemical addictions can be very hard to overcome and at night she had trouble sleeping. She had fear and paranoia attacking her so that she felt like she was going to die…
She remembered her pastor told her to pray… She said she didn’t know any prayers… she didn’t know how to pray. He asked her if she knew any scripture… She only knew about half of the 23^rd Psalm… The pastor told her to talk to God and quote the scripture she did know as prayer…
Here she was alone at night. Scared & afraid. Tempted to fall back into her drug habit.
She literally felt like a demon was in the room with her… It was frightening….
She went to quote the 23^rd psalm… but all she could remember were the 1^st few words… The Lord is my shepherd…
She started praying those few words. She held on to them with everything she had. She wept as she felt God’s presence come into the room… and as she felt fear leave…
You can pray scripture… for yourself or others…
Psalm 23

Prayer is talking to God. We come to this altar every time we gather and talk to God. That is prayer.

MUSICIAN
EXAMPLES

Prayer in this altar
Praying for sick
Laying on Hands

Teach us to Pray
In Luke 11 people asked Jesus…
Luke 11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”(NIV)
If you don’t know how to pray then make your prayer “God show me how to pray.”
God isn’t looking for professional prayers who know all the words to say.. He is looking for someone to talk to Him and have relationship with Him… And this is so amazing.
God is in this place waiting to have relationship with you. Try it…