WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.280 Many years ago, the New York Times magazine ran an article entitled The Right Way to Pray. 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:10.800 Well that that would be really nice to know, wouldn't it? 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:12.720 Like right or what you're like, I need to read that. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:20.960 Because I I think a lot of us either you pray and you're not quite sure if you're praying in the right way or praying in the wrong way. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.079 I think there's others of us that keep praying in a certain way and we're sort of disillusioned with it. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.800 And then some others of us sort of like you just stopped. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:33.200 Like you wouldn't raise your hand if I asked you, but like really, if I just asked, like, do you pray? 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:37.840 You're like, yeah, not really, because you did it for a while and like nothing happened. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.240 And so this idea of the right way to pray, I mean, there's a title for an article. 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:48.479 And what's interesting is this guy, a secular guy, is not a Christian, not a believer in God and in Jesus. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:01:01.039 And what he does is he goes around and he interviews and he studies different traditional ways to pray, different religious ways to pray, different uh different types of churches, different theological bents. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:06.799 And what he decides at the end of it is he decides he likes how children pray. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:09.439 And here's a great little quote from the article. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.040 Here's what he says. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:20.959 They didn't pray to decenter their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.120 They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first name basis. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:28.560 And they believed their prayers gave them power. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:34.879 Straight up gimme on behalf of people who really need the help. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:36.879 Now, we all like the idea of a gimme, right? 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:38.480 I mean, who doesn't like a free t-shirt, right? 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.959 I mean, you've been at the basketball game or the football, they bring out the guns and all of a sudden, all of it. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:45.280 We love a gimme. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:54.799 But what I think what he's saying is that he liked the children's prayers, and it's why a child's prayer is always refreshing, no matter how absurd it is, right? 00:01:54.959 --> 00:02:00.239 It's so refreshing because it's it's honest and relational in terms. 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:02.959 It is not transactional. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:07.599 It's honest and relational in nature, it's not transactional. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.680 So we've been going through this Old Testament story of Jonah. 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:13.759 This guy was an Old Testament prophet. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.759 He was religious, he was very pious, he was sort of a well-known prophet. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:19.759 He gets a call to go to Nineveh. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.000 This would be a town, a different country. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:26.159 This would be the enemy, these would be people that have hurt his people, hurt people he knew. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:27.759 He so he ran the other way. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:31.120 Right away, he discovers what all of us discover, you can't outrun God. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:38.879 He ends up on a ship, and then he ends up in the sea, and then he ends up under the sea, and then under the surface, that's where he is rescued by a fish. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:44.319 And he keeps calling this the belly of Sheol or the belly of death. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:48.879 And this is where a couple weeks ago we talked about that we all need a death before death. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:52.400 And it's under the surface that we actually get rescued. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:55.360 I'll reread some of these verses and make some points as we go. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:59.120 Jonah 2, Jonah chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.280 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord as God. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:03.120 It's interesting, it said then he prayed. 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:07.199 So, like after he was under the surface, after he was rescued. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:23.360 Then he prayed to the Lord as God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you listened, or you heard my voice. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:26.560 And that is good news. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:36.159 If you are exhausted, or you are broken, or you're the end of yourself, you don't know how to figure out, you don't know the next step, you don't know which way to go, or you're just ashamed. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.400 And you heard my voice. 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:44.400 I can think back over my life. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:52.879 Many of you are older than me, you have many more stories than I do, but I can think back over it, and I can think of like, oh, that hurt or that thing I was praying for. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:04:05.360 I didn't get what I was praying for, but later on I look back, and the thing that was probably the most powerful in those moments is just that I had some measure of confidence of he heard my voice. 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:08.240 Here's point number one. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:18.800 Point number one is this is prayer is not the bending of God to our plans, but the death of our wills to a loving God. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:25.600 Prayer is not the bending of God to our plans, but the death of our wills to our loving God. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:34.079 You ever been going on a long trip, you pack your suitcases, say it's a long trip, and so you have your carry-on, you got your backpack, and then say you got two suitcases, right? 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:39.040 You have two suits, you have all your shoes in one and then all your clothes in the other, or whatever it is that fills these up. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:40.879 But you need two suitcases. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:48.639 Maybe you're with family, maybe you have kids with you, you get to the airport, you park at the back of one of those lots because it's the cheapest. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:54.079 You have a mile walk, put the backpack on, you got your suitcases, you're going through the parking lot. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:05:04.959 Every kid, you're real clear, everybody's got to carry their own suitcases, you're not gonna pick up any other baggage, and you're going and you're good for the first hundred yards, you're like row X, and then you get to M and you're feeling pretty good. 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:06.800 You get to like D, you're okay. 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:08.639 You get to the covered walkway. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.240 We know that walkway leads to under the parking deck, and that's where all the nice cars are, and you see those, oh that would have been nice. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:29.199 And then about there, like you have to resituate, and you know, it's the suitcase, you resituate, and then your kid decides they're not, they're tired of their suitcase, so you stack it on top of yours, you keep going, and it's about then you see what you needed to see the whole time. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:32.959 The terminal's up ahead, and the savior's there. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:34.879 Do we know who the savior is? 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:36.720 It's the baggage handler. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.199 It's the most wonderful thing in the world. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:44.000 You get up there and you lift that suitcase that better weigh 49 pounds, right? 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:45.040 Know that feeling. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:46.160 You ever been at 52? 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.639 Has anybody been at 52, 50, 51? 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:50.800 I mean, that is that's a moment. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:51.519 That's a moment. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:59.600 You're unzipping everybody's judgment over you, and they're seeing how you packed, and it's always the shampoo bottle and the you know, curling iron. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.079 I mean, it's it's stuff that weighs a lot, and you gotta move it. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:03.040 It's it's embarrassing. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:03.920 Zip it back. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.439 All they can zip back, most wonderful moment, right? 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.399 Is when you hand those bags over. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:12.240 And he tags them. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:16.240 You tip him some amount, you have no idea if it's the right amount, nobody knows. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:20.399 And you walk away, and you're you're free. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:25.120 Still your bags, still your responsibility, but there's been a handing over of control. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:27.519 Right? 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:38.399 Like take this job, this opportunity, the sickness, the future that I don't know, the future I'm hoping for, or the future that I'm really afraid of. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:44.240 The marriage that's not good, the finances that are not, well. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:48.079 Prayer is the death. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:55.600 Prayer is the death of control, of trying to control everything. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:02.879 So that you can possibly walk through any one thing in your life with grace and wisdom. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:05.680 Prayer's this that's the gift of prayer. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:12.879 The gift of prayer is not you bending God, it's that you get to surrender over all this you're trying to control. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:23.199 Point number two, prayer becomes freedom when prayer is no longer an assertion of the sinful controlling self. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:28.240 And I know about praying, controlling prayers, right? 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.399 You're praying a lot, but you never really have handed anything over. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:37.600 Jonah's had such limited sight the entire time through this story. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:42.000 He's called a Nineveh, thinks he can outrun God, doesn't work out. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:45.199 Boards a ship, thinks that's gonna work, doesn't work out. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.480 Thinks he can hide below deck, doesn't work out. 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:55.360 And the best thing that happens to him is he goes under the water. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.199 And then finally he's miraculously rescued. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:00.720 It's then he prays. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:02.720 So there's this wonderful ancient parable. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:03.680 I don't know where it came from. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.879 I heard it on some podcast at some point, but I loved it so much. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:08.560 It has stayed with me. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:12.319 And here's the story it's about a man in the village who owns a horse. 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:16.959 His neighbor comes over, he says, Oh, unbelievable! What a what a blessing. 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:18.160 You are so blessed. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.560 You have a horse, and the man says, What do I know? 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.439 That night the horse runs away. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:27.279 Neighbor comes back over the next morning. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:29.839 He says, How awful. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:32.799 This must be so hard for you to lose your prize possession. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:33.840 This must be so awful. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:35.759 The man says, What do I know? 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:38.720 The next day the horse comes back. 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:44.240 The horse had gone and corralled nine wild horses, brought all the horses back, and now this man has ten horses. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:45.519 Neighbor comes back over. 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:46.480 Unbelievable. 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:47.360 What a blessing. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:49.440 You're the wealthiest man in the region. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.320 Can you believe it? 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:52.240 And the man says, What do I know? 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:57.360 That afternoon, the man's son gets on one of the wild horses, gets bucked off, breaks his leg. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:59.279 Neighbor comes over. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:01.120 How awful. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:05.039 I mean, you you lost your only help around your land. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:05.919 I mean, what are you gonna do? 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:06.559 This is horrible. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:07.360 I mean, this is the end. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:08.559 I mean, you can't believe it. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:10.639 What do I know? 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:17.600 The next day, army recruiter comes by to draft boys for the war. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.639 The boy can't go because he has a broken leg. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:22.399 Neighbor comes over. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:25.120 My son got drafted. 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:30.480 You're so man, you're so blessed that your boy's leg was broken. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:34.000 What do I know? 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:36.159 All right, so that's the end of the story. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.159 It could keep going, it can go forever, right? 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.480 And you're like, oh, that's kind of my life as well. 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:42.240 That's how my life feels. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:47.519 Now, at first you could react to that and you should just go like, well, why should I pray? 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:52.799 Like, that just sort of sounds like reason to not pray anymore. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.679 But see, I actually think it works the other way around. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:58.559 I actually think it motivates us to pray. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.799 I think this is how Jesus prays. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.960 He's in the Garden of Gethsemane. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:08.879 He's about to be arrested and beaten and crucified, not for anything he did, but for our sin. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:11.919 And what does he pray? 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:13.360 How does he pray? 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.639 He says, God, take this cup from me. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:18.639 I don't want to deal with this. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:20.480 This is horrible. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:21.360 This is suffering. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:22.720 I do not want to go through this. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.960 He prays true emotion, true prayer, exactly what he wants. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:28.720 He lets it rip. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:35.840 And then at the end he goes, but your will be done. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:39.360 What do I know? 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:50.480 Jonah 2, verse 3 says, For you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:55.600 All your waves and your billows passed over me. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.200 Have you ever been praying for someone? 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:03.840 Maybe you've just really been praying for that couple, that couple you've seen in your life. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:11.279 You know, you're praying for that, you're praying for their parenting and their spending habits because you've seen it. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.360 You're concerned for them. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.240 Because you would never be like that. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:17.519 You would never be like that. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:19.840 You are praying for them and praying for them and praying for them. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:25.679 And then finally, it hits you that you are so self-righteous. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:31.600 And there we have a gift, don't we? 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:32.960 Even there we have a gift. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:36.159 Even when we've been praying self-righteously, we have a gift. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.639 We have the same gift, the thing that's happening to Jonah. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:44.320 He and his self-righteousness has been put in this position, and then he is buried. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:48.399 And when he is buried, he gets freedom. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.879 It's another way to say that the law has buried you. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.720 God's holy law buries you. 00:11:57.919 --> 00:11:59.919 God will bury you with his law. 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:05.440 We are all buried before the standards of holiness and holy living. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:12.159 No matter how much we want to live up to it, we are buried by it because we are imperfect, because we're sinners. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:16.799 And we need God's law to bury us, and then we need God's grace to raise us. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:21.600 This is the life of the Christian, death and resurrection, repentance and life. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:30.080 And God's grace always meets us in our death, taking our sin on the cross, giving to us his righteousness so we are secure. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.840 So I think Jonah gives us two examples of types of prayer. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:43.840 And I hate to get too prescriptive when it comes to different prayers in the Bible because we could end up with some model that's just like, this was just Jonah's prayer. 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:44.960 He was just letting it rip. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:51.039 And so it's not to build it out and get like a prescription for like, oh, and this is how you now pray forever. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:54.159 But I think there's some description here for us to learn. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:59.759 And how I've been thinking about it this week is I think first what we see here is we can see prayer. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:05.039 It doesn't feel like this is what's going on in this, but this is sort of like the opposite of what's going on here with Jonah. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.639 But it's just prayer that's sort of like, I can handle it, prayer. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.159 Usually this is where we give God announcements. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.919 You know, I pray for whatever at 6 p.m. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:16.879 on Tuesday evening. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:20.799 You just sort of like film in on the details, like as much details as possible. 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:24.320 Maybe you even praise him, maybe you even ask him for things. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.480 But all of it's in the context of our plan. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:36.559 Our plan for ourselves, our plan for our lives, our plan for our friends, our plan for our children, and we're asking it all in God's name. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:41.440 That'll be the cloak we put over it, so we don't have to face perhaps that we're just being controlling. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:45.120 But there's no surrender. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:50.799 There's no like, maybe I don't know everything in this world. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:55.919 Ultimately, it's a little bit like using God as a vending machine. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:14.399 I'll insert my behaviors, I'll insert key words, and if I insert enough key words and key behaviors, and perhaps a little bit of like my really good actions and behaviors of purity and moralism, I'll insert them and then I'll have God in a fix, and if I have God in a fix, then He'll owe me. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:21.200 And there's a problem with this, because the problem is what if your prayers aren't answered? 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:23.919 Well, then it's your fault. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:27.759 You're not a good person or you don't have enough faith. 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.039 Ultimately, it just doesn't work. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.000 And then three things remain at that point. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:35.200 I mentioned them earlier. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:37.840 Once prayer starts to not work, three things happen. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:42.000 Either we live in denial and we just keep doing the same thing forever. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:43.840 It's a very religious thing to do. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.279 Number two is we come disillusioned and we stop praying. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:47.919 We walk away. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:49.919 Maybe we walk away from faith totally. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:15:01.279 Or number three is we come to the end of our religiosity and transactional prayers, and we move into prayer of surrender and prayer of relationship. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:07.200 And then this is what I call not I can handle it prayer, but I can't handle it prayer. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.720 And the praying is not to bend God to your plan. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:14.559 The praying is that you need to voice it. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.639 You need to speak it out, you need to say it. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:30.559 And you're gonna be like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, just letting it rip, like all your emotions, all your thoughts, all your desires, all your wants, all your dreams, all your concerns, all your breakdowns, all you can let it, that's in the grace of God. 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:36.159 You get to let it all go, and the Abba Father of yours hears it all. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:40.000 But you're not like controlling him. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:44.960 You get to do that as his beloved children. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:52.639 It's this like, here are my bags, like let me just keep handing over these bags, that thing, and this thing, and him and her, and all that. 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:53.919 Have your way. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.399 Open the door or close the door. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.960 Give me wisdom, teach me, show me. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:12.080 It's the mind's attention and the heart's affection of surrendering aspects, all aspects of your life, so you might be able to walk through any one aspect of your life. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.879 Years ago, Christy and I we were newly married. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.919 This has probably been 13 or 14 years ago. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:19.840 I graduated seminary. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.600 I was working in the business world, I was not happy in my job, I didn't know what I was gonna do with my future. 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:26.559 I had an interview with an organization called Walk Through the Bible. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:36.000 Walk Through the Bible published all different materials and materials for churches and individuals and Bibles and all different stuff, and I had an interview with them to be an editor of a youth magazine. 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:39.919 Now I had no business being an editor of a youth magazine. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:41.279 Let's be very clear on that. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:49.120 But somehow I ended up with the interview, and I wanted it because it was the answer to my unhappiness. 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:52.080 In my limited sight, this was it. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:54.960 Nothing more, no other option. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.399 No more struggle, no more difficulty. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:16:59.919 I was done with that. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:11.200 And on one lunch break, I went over to their building, I parked in their lot, I walked around the parking lot, and I'm praying, God, open the door, God, open the door, God, you know, in Jesus' name and the kingdom, the Holy Spirit. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:18.400 But all the prayer, all the prayer was open the door, open the door, open the door, open the door. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:27.599 None of it was with any measure, and I can see it now, any measure of humility, of maybe this would be horrible. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:30.880 Maybe this would be the worst thing for me. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:39.920 God, you know, would you would you break my heart so that I will relinquish control? 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.599 All my prayers were of control. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:47.119 Most of them today are still controlled. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:54.319 And the prayers themselves is a process of transformation to get me to relinquish control. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:18:06.799 So that we can not just pray, I trust you in the openings and in the raises, but that we could also say, like, I trust you in the like closures and in the difficulty. 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:13.519 The psalms are filled with people praying. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.759 Ridiculous prayers. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:17.519 Have you read the Psalms? 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:18.559 You're like, what? 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.519 He prayed what? 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:22.079 Like, he's praying what to come down on who? 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:26.799 And that you're like, they're just letting it rip, they're just letting it rip. 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:29.759 They needed to pray that out. 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:45.279 Not because they're trying to bid, well, they probably were trying to bid God, but not because that was gonna actually happen every time, but because they needed to let that out and pray that for transformation inside of them to happen, for God to be working in them. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.160 So we get to pray for the stuff. 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:49.440 This is what's so great. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:55.839 In God's grace, we get to pray for the stuff, we get to pray for the opening, we get to pray for the thing that we think should happen. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.720 Hopefully, we're doing that in a measure of humility, praying for wisdom and praying for closures and openings. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.279 Hopefully, we have some measure of humility in that. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:08.079 But most of just no, you aren't in control, and I'm not in control. 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:09.920 See, it's better than that. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.480 It is better than the stuff. 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.720 If it's just transactional, eventually you are condemned. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:23.200 But if it's relational, you won't be condemned. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:28.640 You don't need God to answer every prayer exactly like you have preconceived that it should happen. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.680 And you either live in denial or disillusionment. 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:37.839 We get to pray, I can't handle this prayers. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:41.839 Jonah 2, verses 4 through 6, last few verses. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:48.559 Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:54.559 The waters closed in over me to take my life. 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:59.599 The deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:09.359 I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever, yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:11.279 Last point. 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:27.920 God lovingly uses difficulty to drive us under the surface, that we might move from transactional pious prayers to relational surrendering prayers. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:32.079 All the language here is language of death. 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:36.799 Going under the water, this is language of death throughout the scriptures. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:40.319 This is beautiful poetic language that Jonah's giving us. 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:42.160 This is poetry for us. 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:45.599 That's why we baptize. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:59.519 We pour water over people, or we dunk people, and it's the symbol that we are going under in death that we might be raised in the grace of God. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:06.880 It's why we say, buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:16.559 So, my brothers and sisters, you are buried with Christ, but you are raised to walk in newness of life. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:18.240 Let's pray together. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:29.680 God, thank you that we get to pray and that you hear us and you encourage us to pray, and you encourage us to pray what is on our hearts and pray our concerns. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:35.680 And the grace of God and your good grace, you just hear our voice. 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:50.240 God, would this morning not be about us re-evaluating every prayer we have ever prayed, but would it be about us knowing we are loved in every prayer we have ever prayed? 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.039 And you have always heard us. 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:03.839 God, would you release us into a freedom of surrender that prays more because we know we are loved more? 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:26.319 That relinquishes control to you more, that prays in a freedom that doesn't move into denial or disillusionment, but is empowered by the gospel that your good news for us is we're right with you and beloved because of your work for us. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:30.000 In Jesus' name we pray in all things and we live and we pray. 00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:30.880 Amen.