Class Outline:

Sunday August 14,2022

Title: Ephesians 6:18; Truly seeking God and His life in prayer (and study, and living).

 

PSA 55:22

Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you;

He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

 

1PE 5:6-7

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.

 

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The Pharisee in the parable has a religion that is based on the Mosaic Law, but has missed the heart of the Law and that is why his own heart is like a dark, evil, stone rather than virtuous, compassionate, and filled with divine love.

 

The Pharisees are gone, but the error of religion remains. This is important to our study since it gets to the heart of why we pray and how we pray. We’ll get to the specifics of these very soon.

 

1CO 13:1-3

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

 

When Paul his great Hymn of Praise to Love, he began by distinguishing between the vital religion of Jesus Christ, as it had gripped his own experience, and certain more or less imperfect and unbalanced forms of religion, which from that day to this have sheltered themselves under the name of Christianity. Gifts and graces which God intended to be the adornment of the Christian community may cease to be its adornment, and become its snare. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels” - that is religion as ecstatic emotionalism. “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge” - that is the religion as gnosis, intellectualism, speculation. “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains” - that is the religion of working energy. “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor” - that is religion as humanitarianism. “Though I give my body to be burned” - that is religion as asceticism. All these one-sided and patently inadequate representations of the Gospel, Paul expressly repudiates.” [James Stewart, A Man in Christ, The Vital Elements of St. Paul’s Religion]

 

Each one of these is a part of Christianity, but when one is emphasized over and above the whole, and to the neglect of the rest, we end up with a religion that ruins the Christian life in believers, and what is especially devastating is that these individual types of Christianity convince their members that it is Christianity, while the other types, also neglecting the whole are not. Then we have individual denominations, having taken a part and not the whole, fighting with one another, when the whole lot are deceived.

 

Our Pharisee in the parable of Luk 18 has taken a part and not the whole. As for the tax-collector, he has not told us his theology, other than that he is a sinner in desperate need of mercy from God. That is a part also, but he does not profess to know all.

 

What Jesus signified of the publican was one virtue among many, but the virtue that leads to the rest - humility.

 

(Haldir to Legolas)  “Indeed in nothing is the power of the dark lord more clearly shown than any estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.” [J.R.R Tolkien , Lord of the Rings]

 

In prayer we are humbly seeking God’s guidance, wisdom, power, etc., for us and others, in order to live and accomplish our ministries and purposes.

 

1CO 13:4-8

 

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails;

 

If we truly seek the fulfillment of our ministries and the ministries of others, if we truly seek to fulfill the plan of God for our particular lives, then we will seek God’s voice, strength, comfort, understanding and clarity of His word, His peace in prayer and study and striving in practice. Of course, it is not just prayer alone that accomplishes this, but if it is not included, then there is something missing in our study and practice. Effective prayer goes hand-in-hand with effective spiritual living. This may be a call to some of us to enlighten the eyes of our hearts to deficiency in our spiritual lives. In other words, if I were to say, “Prayer is the weak part of my spiritual life,” would I be in essence saying that my spiritual life is weak? I am becoming convinced that this is true.

 

The solution is to take stock of our spiritual lives, completely isolated from our natural, material lives in the world, soberly and honestly. If we desire a true answer as to the character of our spiritual lives, we will find that only God can reveal it. This will cause us to look intently at the word of God rather than studying or reading it as a sort of task that we know we’re supposed to complete. This will cause us to seek God’s evaluation and truth about ourselves in prayer.

 

PSA 119:15

Open my eyes, that I may behold

Wonderful things from Thy law.