Youth Lesson on Prayer

PRAYER

• What is prayer?
  
  • Talking "to" God?
  • Talking "with" God?
    
    • Does He talk back?
  • Conversation with God
  • Listening to
• Is it a two sided "conversation" or a one way street?

PRAISE

• Is praise always a joyful thing?
• Ps 145:1-8
  
  • what is the importance of the words?
  • Do we need to be specific?
• Ps 88:1-9
  
  • A song FOR the choir director
  • Heman
  • Never "gets joyful" (ex. V. 18)
• Why is praise important?
  
  • Start with recognizing God for who he is
• Eldridge Quote: "It's not what we do when we're strong and feeling great that makes us holy."

THANKS

• Focuses on what God HAS DONE. Before we look into the future, we must be able to look confidently at what God has done in the PAST.
• List stories where God brought Israel "out of" something?
  
  • Egypt
• How do / can you keep track of what God has done in your life? Joshua 4:1-9 (pile of rocks on the bank and in the middle of the Jordan)
  
  • Rank them… Memory, pile of rocks, journal, myspace
• How important is this "step" (thanks)
• Psalms 107:1-2

CONFESSION

• What does it mean to "confess"?
  
  • "I'm Sorry?"
  • "I did it."
  • Do the words matter?
• Story of David & Bathsheba, plus the related Psalms (2 Sam. 11:1-5, Psalms 32: 3-5, Ps 51:1-4, 10:12)
• Forgiveness à Confession è Restoration (is this the right order?)
• Why do we need to confess if we're already forgiven? (Psalms 51: 16-17)

REVIEW

• So all of that is review… last week we talked about 3 kinds / parts of prayer
  
  • A big part of prayer is simply getting us on the right page with God – WHY?
  • coming to understand who HE is, and coming to understand who WE are,
    
    • both simply as creations
    • but also as people who have been adopted and are now full fledged sons and daughters of God.
  • Is all of that introduction to just getting around to the asking, then?
    
    • NO.

SUPPLICATION – THE PRAYER OF INTERVENTION

• What does "supplication" mean?
  
  • "intercession"
• Why is "getting things done" listed last here?
  
  • Psalm 55:16-18, 22
• "I prayed about it, and God said "no""
  
  • Closed doors?
  • Do we / should we just accept that?
• Persistant Prayer – can we "change God's mind?"
  
  • Moses – Sodom and Gomorrah
  • JC @ Transfiguration
• YouTube clip - David
• Is prayer just going to God "for help?"
  
  • Or getting our marching orders?
    
    • Are you "on task?"
    • What is that?
• What's the "biggest" thing you've ever prayed for?
  
  • Are there things you'd love to see happen but are just not comfortable taking it to God?
    
    • Like what? Why?
  • Is it a lack of faith?
  • Where IS the power? Is it in our faith, or in the power of what is behind our faith?
    
    • How much faith does it take to move a mountain?
    • Not really all that much… "faith of a mustard seed" Matt 17:20
    • The power is not in the FAITH… the POWER is in what that faith is placed into… He's just waiting for us to ask!
    • What holds us back then?
  • How big of something would you like to start praying for? Can you believe it could happen? Could it be YOU holding it all back?
    
    • Change the weather?
  • So, just WHAT IS FAITH?
    
    • Is it believing something to be true?
    • Is it where salvation comes from?
      
      • "For BY GRACE you are saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is a GIFT OF GOD" eph 2:8-9
      • Mark 2:5 – 4 guys faith gets 1 guy saved?
      • Were people like Abraham "saved" because of their faith, even in the OT? Gen 15:6, Gal 3:6 (Abraham)
    • So is faith and belief the same thing?
      
      • "confess with your mouth… believe….you will be saved." Is that all there is to it?
      • Can you believe something without having faith in it?
      • Salvation = gift. Faith = accepting it is for me and opening it.
      • Plane won't crash but I won't get on it.

IF GOD ALREADY KNOWS EVERYTHING, WHY PRAY? … GOD WANTS YOU TO DEPEND ON HIM AND TALK TO HIM.

• What are some of the reasons God doesn't answer prayer right away?
  
  • Yes, No, Wait
  • "I want you to TALK TO ME."
  • Spiritual Warfare - Daniel
• If God already knows everything, why do we even need to tell Him what we want?
  
  • Is prayer giving God new information?
  • How does this correspond with the way we go about our own prayers when we pray for "lists?"
    
    • "be with all the people on our prayer list."
    • Do we really, really, care?
    • Does prayer move God to action? Does it move US to action?

GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING

• What does it mean when we say that "God knows everything?"
  
  • Do we even have a say in the matter?
  • Or are we little robots?
  • "Freedom of causality" ß how it works here is impossible to totally understand, but that does not make it any less true.
  • When I am asked something I don't know at work, I often respond, "let me ask Google… Google knows everything." How is all the information that GOOGLE knows different from all the information that GOD "knows?"

WE DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING

• Where do you get your guidance from?
  
  • Trial and error?
  • Friends?
  • Parents?
  • Church?
  • God Himself?
• Does God WANT to see us come to understand?``
  
  • James 1:5 – if anyone lacks wisdom, ask of God, and he gives generously.
  • Solomon
• Is there a difference between knowledge and wisdom?
  
  • Compare…. Faith is putting belief into action. (believe + CONFESS) ß confess is where we put legs on our beliefs. WORDS MATTER.
  • Wisdom is putting knowledge into action.

GOD WANTS YOU TO TALK TO HIM

• Jer 33:3 "CALL TO ME"
• Third Day – Call My Name… I want you to "never doubt."
• God wants us to be confident in him. He wants us to trust him. He wants us to really "cast our cares on him."
• Do we really trust God? Do we talk to him about things as deep as we talk to our best friends? Do we let him talk back?

WRAP IT UP

• Have you ever asked God what to pray for before you even start praying?
• The Bible is not a book of exceptions. It is a book of examples.
  
  • James 5:13-20… Elijah was a man, "just like us."
  • There is POWER in the words of your prayers. If you feel like it's a waste of time, maybe it is.
    
    • But it's not because PRAYER is a waste of time, but perhaps the way you're going about it…
    • Maybe you're praying for something outside of your realm.
    • God has something, somebody for you to influence. For you to AFFECT CHANGE on. Do you know what it is? It may be small… there's nothing wrong with that.
• Prayer is an expression of a RELATIONSHIP between you and God.
  
  • If it's not close, it will be awkward.
  • It can be shallow, it can be intimate. It can be enjoyable, it can be painfully awful.