Regular Prayer

Luke 5:12 to 16. So it's only a short passage this morning, but it's probably a story that if you've been in church for a while, you will know. Luke 5:12 to 16. Luke 5:12. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.

When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said, "be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them."

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. This morning we join the story of a man that was suffering from leprosy, who was miraculously healed by Jesus Christ. And after the healing, Jesus commanded the man to not say a word to anyone, to go and be checked over by the priests who acted kind of like GPs in a sense as well, and would say that they were clean. But what happened, as we all know, is that he spilled his guts to everyone.

He just couldn't keep it quiet. And everyone in town came to know that Jesus was a miracle worker, a man with great power, and that he was in town. And so in verse 15, we see that huge crowds of people came streaming, came out of the woodwork towards Jesus to see him, to hear him speak, to be healed by him. But what does Jesus do? In verse 16, we see that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

And this is what I want us to meditate on this morning. Because it's a weird thing to say, right? It's a strange thing for Luke just to sort of add on to this story. Why is this statement written there?

Why did Luke want or choose to include this? Why did he want to show that while all these people came to Jesus to hear him and to see him, Jesus instead often withdrew to pray. Well, firstly, the author of this gospel, Luke, was actually a man of deep prayer. He was moved by prayer. Of all the gospel accounts, Luke mentions prayer the most.

He mentions Jesus praying particularly. Prayer was important for him. Secondly, and probably most importantly, Luke included this mention of prayer because Jesus made it a pattern of his ministry. In other words, he did it so often, Jesus did it so often that it was worth recording. It was his modus operandi, his way of doing things.

And obviously, if someone does something frequently in their life, someone is going to pick up on it. Someone is going to notice it. Notice here the word "often" uses. Jesus often withdrew. It gives us a very good insight into the prayer life of Jesus, and that is what I would like us to look at this morning.

Because a lot of what Jesus had to say about prayer and talking and communicating with God wasn't blatantly stated, but was lived out as an example. And if we believe as Christians that it's worth following Jesus, then it's something important that we must take into account. The first thing, the first lesson of Jesus' prayer life that I want us to see this morning is that regular prayer, as he was in the habit of doing, is important, first and foremost, for reinvigoration. Why is regular prayer important? Why is it important for us to pray regularly?

Why was it important for Jesus to pray regularly? To be reinvigorated. Prayer reinvigorates and refreshes us. It's like an icy cold solo on a hot, hot summer's day. You can just slam it down.

It's like jumping into a pool after having a steamy sauna. It's like having that first cup of coffee in the morning. Lots of people will say yes, amen to that. It refreshes and reenergises us. We notice in verse 15 of our text that the news of Jesus had spread far and wide.

And everyone came to see Jesus to be healed. Everyone who had an ingrown toenail to an upset tummy to a broken finger came to see Jesus. And it was so intense that Jesus withdrew from that. We see in other parts of the gospels and in Luke especially that crowds would come to see him and they were so big that they would squeeze up right against him. The lady that was healed with the bleeding was one of those cases.

In the gospel of Mark, we see that the crowds became so big at one point as Jesus was preaching at the Sea of Galilee that he got into a boat, pushed out into the water, and preached from there to the crowd. So these people were just everywhere and everyone wanted a piece of him. Crowds like that would have been very draining for Jesus. You can just imagine. But here we see that Jesus made sure he regularly reinvigorated himself.

He went back to the fountain of life, his heavenly Father. He made it a frequent custom to withdraw from the multitudes, to withdraw from the daily tasks, to withdraw from his ministry and from his work. He showed his disciples that this could give him new supplies of life and power from God. Thomas à Kempis, you may have heard, who wrote "The Imitation of Christ", how to live a life of imitation of Jesus, wrote in the fourteenth century, "In your closet of prayer, you will find what you frequently lose when you are out in the world. The more you visit that time of prayer, the more you will want to return to it.

If you are faithful to your secret place, it will become your closest friend and bring you much comfort." Friends, this morning, are you tired? Are you tired already? The start of a new year where we should be refreshed.

Pray. Pray. Are you struggling with bitterness and with anxiety? Pray. Are you feeling burnt out in your ministry to other people?

Pray. Why? Because Jesus himself prayed. Jesus himself got tired. That mighty servant of God, Jesus the king, the Lord that we just sung about, the one who rose again from the dead, he needed to be ministered to by the Holy Spirit.

If he did it, it must surely be good for us to do as well. Because the Holy Spirit comforts us and gives us rest. He gives us that peace which runs like a river through our life. Jesus prayed regularly for reinvigoration and so should we. It leads us to the second point to why Jesus withdrew often to lonely places to pray.

And that second point is preparation. Preparation. Before his extensive preaching crusades throughout the countryside, right at the start of his ministry, in Mark 1:35 to 39, we see Jesus in prayer. He had just been baptised. The Holy Spirit had descended upon him.

He got up. He went into the wilderness and fasted for forty days and nights, tempted and tested by Satan, and he came back. And Jesus called his disciples to him, and then he disappeared for a night, found a quiet spot and prayed that whole night. Now the disciples thought they lost Jesus. They thought, man, you know, they just hopped on board this great ministry, this great rabbi, and now he was gone.

He left them in the lurch. And they went searching for him everywhere, and finally, they found him on top of a mountain. And Peter comes to him and angrily says to Jesus, "Everyone is looking for you. Don't you realise what you've done? Everyone is looking for you."

But of course, Peter didn't realise what Jesus was doing. Why it was so important for Jesus to be in prayer. Jesus needed the supernatural support of the Father for the start of his ministry, and in particular, the choosing of the 12. See, Jesus had gone and spoken to people and as you can presume that there were many disciples, more than the 12. And Jesus needed to choose 12, and he spent that night in prayer.

Jesus needed the supernatural support of the Father for this next phase in the ministry. Jesus simply says to Peter, "Hi, Peter. Good morning. Let's go now to the nearby villages to go and preach there for this is why I've come." That's what he said.

"Let's go to the nearby villages. I have to preach there and this is why I've come." And so all of a sudden we see in Mark 1:35 to 39, Jesus preaches in the synagogues and he starts driving out demons. This is the first indication in Mark's gospel of Jesus and the power that he had. He is the Son of God, everyone says or realises.

We have two miracles that directly follow that story in Mark. A man with leprosy is instantly healed and even more amazing is the fact that a few days later, a man is told to get up and walk. And he does. Jesus knew how important it was to pray regularly in order to be prepared. In order to be prepared. There's a quote that I love.

"A person can give nothing unless he receives it first." A person can give nothing unless he receives it first. And no person can be successful in the ministry who does not constantly depend upon God, for power comes from God. How does your preparation routine look like? Is that morning coffee enough?

Does the Today Show really help you out? Can Karl Stefanovic fill your life with wisdom, with guidance for your day? He's good, but he's not that good. Personally, one of my greatest fears as I start this life of ministry is not being prepared enough through prayer. That's my greatest fear.

I fear that I might fall like so many other pastors have done before me. Why? Because they weren't filled with the love and the power of God for their ministry. A Christian minister by the name of Adam Clark wrote a long time ago, "Why is there so much preaching and so little good done? Why is there so much preaching and so little good done?

Is it not because the preachers mix too much with the world, keep too long in the crowd, and are so seldom in private with God?" Let it never be said of us, "He forsook all to follow Christ and to preach the gospel, but there was little or no fruit of his labour. For he ceased to be a man of prayer and got into the spirit of the world." For every person, and I'm obviously talking here about my own experience, but for every person, whether you are a pastor, a minister, or not, prayer is vital for our daily routines. Prayer is vital for our daily routines.

Not simply a prayer for an exam. Not simply a prayer in preparation for an interview or a first date that can go either way. Regular prayer prepares us for each day whatever may come. Whatever may come. And this leads us to our third point on regular prayer.

Regular prayer is a discipline for all situations. Let's face it, life can throw us some pretty mean curveballs. One day we can be praising God for a hundred things that he has done for us. A hundred good things he has blessed us with. And then a phone call comes and something could have happened to a family member.

Or someone has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Or an accident has happened at work. Prayer is our rock. Prayer is our rock. In the shifting sands of time, prayer becomes our fortress.

Prayer is a healthy discipline for all situations. If you remember this of the prophet Daniel, he prayed three times a day. That was his habit. Three times a day he prayed. And whether it was when he was prime minister of the whole of Babylon, the empire, and everything was good and he was wealthy and he was blessed and prosperous, or whether the verdict or the edict came that no one could pray to anyone except to Nebuchadnezzar.

He prayed three times a day no matter what. That edict was not going to change anything. My volleyball coach, when I was still playing, used to teach us a lot about visualising our games before we went into onto the court. Visualising our games before we went on. We had to imagine and visualise ourselves right in the heat of the battle.

We had to concentrate on all our senses, on our touch, our sight, the sounds. And whilst we immersed ourselves in that atmosphere, we had to work our roles out in the team. What we had to do when, what was expected of us, visualise our technique, and so on. But what was most important, what was most important in this visualising strategy is how we would handle various problems that arose. If this happened, how would you react?

If this happened, what would you do? If you were in a five set match on the last point, match point, and this is, you know, so true of this tennis we've been watching, what would you do if someone sliced you a volley over that net? How would you hit it down the line? Prayer in some sense is similar. It's a discipline.

It's a discipline. And it keeps us grounded in every situation that arises. Not only do we communicate with the living God, the God who is the source of all power and life, but when we pray, we also simply stop. We stop. Don't underestimate the importance of stopping.

Prayer, as much as it is talking to God, is also about finding a moment to reflect and to think. And when we make a habit, a regular habit of doing that, we find the ability to face every situation from a central location, a place of peace. A place of peace. And regular prayer keeps us balanced and ready for whatever may come, whatever may come our way. And we see Jesus, again, as our example of prayer, praying in all sorts of situations.

We see Jesus praying and saying thanks at a banquet, at a feast, saying thank you God for this beautiful food, this beautiful wine, these friends that I'm with. We see Jesus thanking God when his disciples come back from a successful mission trip and saying thank you Lord for being with them and blessing them. But we also see Jesus praying for the sick, praying for his friend Lazarus who had died. We see Jesus praying for his own deliverance the night before Jesus went to the cross. In all situations, not in just the bad ones, Jesus prayed.

Let's cut to the chase, friends. How can we expect to learn anything about prayer if we're not actively participating in it? If we aren't training ourselves in prayer, and I say train because it is a discipline like any sport, like any hobby. For me, it's a huge relief to know that I can become a better prayer if I continue working at it. And people have said to me sometimes, "KJ, I'm just not good at praying.

I'm just not good at talking to God in that sort of way. I don't know what to say in those situations." Well, my question to those people is, how often are you trying it? How often are you practising it? We won't always be stuck in a situation of struggling for words or losing concentration because prayer is a spiritual discipline, just like tithing, just like filling ourselves with good teaching, just like coming to church, it's a discipline.

And what's my first step to practising prayer life is to physically stop. To physically stop, mentally stop, and to come to God on a regular basis, even if it's short and sweet. Start tomorrow morning, for example, simply by saying the Lord's Prayer. Tomorrow morning, whilst you're having your cup of coffee. It's taking that time aside and choosing to make that time holy.

Not necessarily praying on the go, and we all do that and that's okay. Not sitting in the bus and praying or driving whilst praying, although that is all fine, but regularly going to a quiet place and sitting before God. There's a story that I love about some missionaries in the eighteen hundreds that were in Africa. And they tell a story of some early African converts to Christianity who were so earnest and regular in their private devotions, their private prayer life. Each one of these African converts had a special place in the thicket, in the bush, in the scrub, where he would go to pour out his heart to God.

And over time, the path to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass has grown on your path." The grass has grown on your path. Has the grass grown on your path?

Have the weeds of the world crept over that lifeline to God? The only solution is to start walking that path again. To start wearing down those weeds, trampling them down, crushing them under your feet as you walk down that clear channel to God. Why is it important to pray regularly? Because Jesus did.

But more than that, because it reinvigorates our aching souls. It reenergises our needs. It prepares us for our physical and our spiritual duties, and it becomes a healthy discipline in all situations of life. Let's pray. Lord, for some of us, our paths have been covered up a little bit.

There's some sneaky grass and weeds that are crawling across that path to you. And Lord, we want to come this morning to say, Lord, we want and we desire earnestly to be reinvigorated and filled with you. We desire to know you more intimately, more intimately than we have known in the past because we know, Lord, that with you there is fullness of life. God, pray and we, not only pray but we commit ourselves this morning again to make time, to choose to make a holy time each day to meet with you and to pray to you. Lord, and as we practise this, as we make it a healthy habit of our life, made a healthy habit at the start of the year of doing a bit of exercise and a bit of gym and all those things, Lord.

We pray that we may also make this part of our healthy lifestyle. God, ask that we may receive a sense of your peace and your grace within us and a joy that is unsurpassable. And we pray Lord that you will continue to remind us through your Holy Spirit, convict us Lord and remind us and bring us to that place of prayer as well. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.