Quiet Times Search

Jesus deeply valued his time alone with God

Jesus sought out quiet time
"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" - Mark 6:31b
"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" - Luke 5:16
Occasional devotions are OK but should never replace our private time with God

Jesus found a quite place
"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father" - Matthew 6:6
If you have no quite place - your relationship will be shallow and limited

Jesus urged alertness
Jesus pleaded with them to be awake and alert in prayer - Mark 14:37-42
Be "clear minded and self-controller" so that we can pray - 1 Peter 4:7

How long? until a sense of peace and closeness with God

How much time in prayer and study? mix it up; our relationship should not become stale

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you" - John 15:4-8

• Your relationship with God does not depend how you have a quiet time
• We should learn to pray short prayers throughout the day
• If we don't remember God throughout the day, can become legalistic about our quiet times

We can not be close to God in prayer if we deal only in generalities
God indeed wants to answer our prayers - how will we know what God is doing if we pray in generalities?

Abraham - Genesis 18 - prayed to save the city if there were 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, even 10 righteous people

Our lack of specific praying reveals a distance in our relationship with God

• More specific in your gratitude - become more grateful
• More specific in confession - understand the sin you are commiting
• More specific in your requests for friends and family - see how God will work

We "should always pray and not give up" - Luke 18:1

Disciples who are not close to God are simply not being perisistent

Examples of persistent prayers:

• Elisha - prayerd 7x before the promised rainfall came down  -1 Kings 18:42-45
• Jesus - returned three time to the garden of Gethsemane to surrender to God's will - Matthew 26:36-FF
• Paul - prayed three times before given an answer he did not want - 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
• Early church - prayed all night for Peter's deliverance - Acts 12:1-17

Joy set before him endured the cross - Hebrews 12:2-3
Jesus was a joyful person; even at the cross - at the cross it seemed that everything was going wrong

Yet joy joy was still in the heart of Jesus:

• He knew God was in control
• He didn't agrue with God
• He didn't need explaination
• He didn't need to justify himself
• He entrusted himself to the one who judges - 1 Peter 2:23

When we try to take over God's role - there is no joy
Jesus prayed for his disciples to have the full measure of his joy - John 17:13

Even the violent scene of the cross brought about joy and hope
What will you allow to steal your joy?

1. He included people in his prayer struggle
2. He was totally honest with all of his feelings before God and other men - limiting Satan's power - John 3:19-21
3. Jesus stated his preferences to God very clearly
4. Prayed until his surrender was complete - surrender is not completed without this kind of prayer - Philippians 4:6-7

• Decisions - Nehemiah 2:5
• Plans  -Nehemiah 4:9-16
  
• Actions - Nehemiah 2:18

Reasoning with God in prayer is an expression of great faith
The Canaanite woman was one of two times Jesus said someone had "great faith" - Matthew 15:21-28

Persistent widow reasoned with the unjust judge - Luke 18:1-8

We cannot change the eternal purposes of God but we can change his mind on how his purposes will be accomplished

Abraham was a man who reasoned with God - his Son being sacrificed - Genesis 18:23-33

Moses was too - God decided to destroy the disobedient Israelites and start a new nation
Moses gave specifc reasons for not destroying them and God heard him and changed his mind
He prayed with great humility - Numbers 12:3

True humility is the key to the prayer of reason - not telling God what to do
Expressing our outlook and giving reasons to back up our thinking

Questions to ask meself:

1. How often this week have I prayed with someone?
2. Do I pray with others about critical decisions?
3. Praying together with others my custom?

If no, denying one of the most powerful aspects of pray

After Judas' sucide - two eminently qualified individuals were proposed - Acts 1:15-26
Disciples sought guidance (v24)

Peter and John were on their way to pray - Acts 3:1
They grouped together for prayer often - Acts 16:13-16
They raised their voices together in prayer - Acts 4:24
Church earnestly prayed for Peter; eventually released after angelic intervention - Acts 12:5

Addressing God as the Father seems pretty normal - not the case in Jesus' day

Sometimes David prayed:

• O God
• O Lord
• O my God
• O my Lord

...but nowhere will you find David addressing the living god as "Father"
Gabriel was sent to respond personally to Daniel's great prayer in Daniel 9 - yet he did not address God as Father

Patriarchs, the prophets, and the priests of Israel were all men of prayer - never addressed their prayers to God as "Father"
Jesus gave believers the right to become children of God

We begin our time in prayer with a father-child relationship

• Peter was arrested and thrown into jail
• Church's response was to pray for divine intervention
  • Not comfort
  • Not for Peter to accept his circumstances
• The church prayed earnestly
• God answered - a direct response to their prayers
• They did not believe Peter was at the door - we are like this

Jesus had to overcome unfathomable temptation - Matthew 26:36-36

If he chose to follow through with his Father's will: humiliting insults, excruciating beatings, and agoninzing crucifixion would follow

Jesus: If it's possible, may this cup be taken from me
He knew what we needed to do
He struggled to get his heart where it needed to be
He prayed until he found strength he needed to overcome

We should ask ourselves: How many hours have I wrestled with it in prayer?
We cannot expect to withstand tempation if we are not ready to wrestle in prayer until God gives us the strength

We must turn to God at the moment we are tempted - it may take hours but we will have great power to resist sin

• Not the kind of group you would expect to win the world for the Christ.
• Represented an average cross section of the society of their day
• Some already had joined the revival movement of John the Baptist
• Jesus can use anyone who wants to be used.
• Kept the group small enough to be able to work effectively with them.
  • More special than the twelve was the three – Peter, James, John
    • Jairus’ daughter (mark 5:37, Luke 8:51)
    • Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2, Matthew 17:1)
    • Waited Near the Lord when He prayed. (Mark 14:33, Matthew 26:37)
  • Choose twelve – Luke 6:13-17, Mark 3:13-19
  • Others – the 70 (Luke 10:1), Mark and Luke (gospel writers), James, His own brother (1 Cor 15:7)
• Rapidly diminishing priority given to those outside the twelve.
• Staked His whole ministry on them. Everything depended upon their faithfulness.
• Some believe that focusing on a few is favoritism
• Jesus however did not neglect the crowds.
  • Taught them
  • Healed the sick
  • Blessed the children
  • Wept for them
  • He died for them.

• Crowd aroused
  • Wanted to make him King by force - John 6:15
  • All men were clamoring for His attention - John 3:26
  • Pharisees admitted that the world has gone after Him - John 12:19
  • Frequently asked those that recipients of His healing to say nothing to prevent mass demonstrations
  • Own brothers and sisters did not understand him - John 7:2-9

• Reasons for departures:
  • Oppositions from Pharisees
  • Hostility of Herod
  • Jesus wanted to be with disciples without distractions
• In Gethsemane, disciples were only a stone’s throw away - Luke 22:41
• Family: near each other in a time of departure
• Every minute cherished because the growing realization of He would be with them no more
• He spent more time with His disciples than with everyone else put together.
  • Ate with them
  • Slept with them
  • Talked with them
  • Walked with them
  • Prayed with them
  • Worshiped with them
• Ministering to the mass – disciples learned the lessons and then got an explanation afterwards
• Jesus had little time to call His own
• Only exceptions was when He kept to His own personal devotions with interruptions - Mark 46-48
• He wanted to be with them
• They were His spiritual children

• Prayed for the power to heal and to change others - Mark 9:29
• In prayer in order to be at peace with God's will - Matthew 26:36-46
• Struggled in prayer to be wholehearted submissive to his Father - Hebrews 5:7-8
• Prayed by himself - Matthew 14:23
• Prayed before others - John 11:41-43
• Prayed with his face to the ground - Matthew 26:39
• Prayed looking up to heaven - John 17:1
• Prayed standing up - Mark 11:25
• Prayed kneeling down - Luke 22:41
• Prayed in early in the morning - Mark 1:35
• Prayed throughout the night - Luke 6:12

• If you pray
• Please, I beg you to pray
• I command you to pray

There is nothing greater than love - 1 Corinthians 13:13

If we don't know how to love, we don't know how to live
To live as Christ is to learn how to love
If love isn't growing will soon die

Those who are satisfied with the love they attained have really ceased to love
Paul prayed for the Philippians' love to abound more and more

God is love - 1 John 4:8
Learning to love is learning to be like God - who among us can say we have arrived?

• Jesus felt alone because of the selfishness of his friends (choosing to sleep instead of praying for him)
• Share: Jesus prayed so intensely that his capillaries burst and mixed with his blood (I have a medical account for you)
• Question: Jesus could have stopped this but he didn't. Why do you think he was willing to sweat blood for you  (He loves you)
• Afterwards Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss (they arrested him and his words came true; the disciples all scattered)

• They spit in Jesus' face and beat him with their fist. Have you ever been spit on?
• Jesus looked straight at Peter after the 3rd denial and the rooster crowed - He was that close to Peter - Luke 22:61
• How do you think this made Jesus feel? Why do you think Jesus continued to go to the cross? (He loves you)

• Had Compassion - Matthew 9:36
• Hungered - Matthew 4:2; Matthew 21:18
• Increased in Knowledge - Luke 2:52
• Learned Obedience - Hebrews 5:8
• Looked like a man - John 4:9
• Loved - Mark 10:21; Hebrews 2:14
• Prayed - Mark 1:35
• Slept - Matthew 8:24

• Omnipotent over Disease - Matthew 8:1-4; Luke 4:39
• Omnipotent over Men - Matthew 9:9; John 17:2
• Omnipotent over Nature - Matthew 8:26
• Omnipotent over Sin - Matthew 9:1-8
• Omnipotent over Tradition - Matthew 9:10-17
• Prayed To Him (Stephen) - Acts 7:59
• Saves - John 10:28
• Sinless - 1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15
• Worshiped as God by Angels - Hebrews 1:6