40 Days of Prayer – Part 1

Do you really want to grow up? ~ September 27, 2020

 Many problems in life come from spiritual immaturity. When we’re not spiritually mature, we make dumb decisions. We make decisions based on how we feel, which often is a terrible basis for making decisions. Mature people make decisions based on truth, not based on feelings. So many of the problems in our world today happen because of immaturity. People don’t know how to do what’s wise, what’s mature. They do what’s immediate and what’s expedient.

Scripture tells us that growth is God’s will for our lives. Babies are cute. Kids are cute. But a child that doesn’t grow up, that’s not cute, that’s tragic. It is possible to grow old and never grow up. We all know people who are spiritually and emotionally immature. They never grew up. They grew old without growing up. Growing up doesn’t mean our feelings change, it means our process for dealing with them changes.

 Growth is God’s will. Paul wrote that “then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth,” (Ephesians 4:14, NLT). We’re not meant to remain as children, we’re meant to grow up, we’re to grow up in Christ. What is the perfect picture of maturity? Jesus is the ultimate picture of spiritual, emotional, and intellectual maturity. To have the mind of Christ and to know how to respond like he did is the picture of spiritual maturity.

 Today, we’re starting a new journey—40 days of prayer. Before we get into the subject of prayer, I want us to look at why we’re doing what we’re going to do the next 40 days.

There are laws of spiritual growth we cannot violate. Just as there are physical laws that God created for the universe, there are spiritual laws God created for our lives. If we want to grow, we’ve got to cooperate with them.

1. We grow when we feed on God’s Word.

This book, this Bible, is our soul food. We know that we can’t be physically healthy if we just eat junk food all the time. We can’t be spiritually healthy unless we feed on the truth, unless we feed on the Word of God.

How healthy would we be if every Sunday we gorged ourselves at a giant brunch buffet and then ate nothing the rest of the week? We wouldn’t be very healthy, would we?

In the same way, you can’t spiritually healthy if the only spiritual truth you feed on is what you get on Sunday. That’s not enough. You’ve got to eat a little bit every day. You’ve got to feed your soul, not just once a week but a little bit every day. If you don’t you’re going to be a spiritual wimp who doesn’t even realize how spiritually unhealthy you are.

Matthew 4:4, Jesus says this: “People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on the Word of God.” God wants us to feed on it a little bit every day. We want to help you develop or renew that habit. The Apostle Paul shows us why this is important. Regarding Scripture, he said, “It is able to give you strength, and it will give you the blessings God has for all his holy people.” (Acts 20:32, NCV)

 Would you like to have all the blessings that God has for you? As your pastor and your friend, I want you to have all the blessings that God has for you. How do you get all the blessing that God has for you? You feed on his word. It gives you strength and helps you grow.

How do you do that? How do you feed on the Word of God? Let’s use a hand as an illustration of six ways to feed on God’s word. (Use each one to talk about gripping an object.)

1. Hear it, that’s your pinky finger.
2. Read it, that’s your ring finger.
3. Study it, that’s your middle finger.
4. Memorize it, that your index finger
5. Meditate on it, that’s your thumb. (Meditate means to seriously think about it.)
6. Apply it, that’s your palm.

For the next 40 days, we’re going to teach you, or reteach you, how to hear, read, study, memorize, meditate, and apply the Word of God, specifically in the area of prayer. We’re doing this so that you can grow up and have all the blessings God has for you.

Here’s the action step for the next 40 days: have a daily time with God and his Word.

The 2^nd law of spiritual growth.

2. We grow when we learn in different ways.

Let me explain. God made us all different. We’re all unique. There’s nobody in the world like you. You have a unique voice print, a unique eye print, a unique thumb print, fingerprint, hand print, unique foot print. You have a unique heartbeat and you have a unique learning style. You learn differently than the person sitting next to you learns. If you’re going to grow, you’ve got to understand your primary learning style and learn to benefit from other learning styles also.

Luke writes something interesting about John the Baptist, “In many different ways, John preached the good news to the people.” (Luke 3:18, CEV)

Why did John preach in different ways? Because we all learn in different ways.

• Auditory learners learn by listening. If you’re an auditory learner, you love church. Why? Because that’s the primary style way we use in most churches. It’s what we’re doing right now.
• Visual learners learn by seeing. Show me, don’t tell me
• Oral learners learn by talking. Oral learners love small groups and smaller study sessions because they get to talk, and that’s how they learn.
• Kinesthetic learners learn by doing. They’re hands on kind of people.

Over the course of this journey, we’re going to teach you on one topic, prayer, but we want you to engage with it in different ways.

• We want you to listen to the sermons.
• We want you to watch a video during the week.
• We want you to talk about it in a small group.
• We want you to read a a daily devotional.
• We want you to do some projects with your small group.

We’re going to use all four of these learning styles to engage with prayer during this journey.

Here’s the 3^rd law of spiritual growth.

3. We grow when we develop spiritual habits.

We grow when we develop spiritual habits. Our habits determine what we are and what we are determines where we go in life. Our character is the sum total of our habits.

• I can’t say “I’m a kind person” unless I’m always kind. If I’m only kind 25% of the time, I’m not a kind person.
• I can’t say, “I’m a person of integrity” if I’m only honest 25% of the time.
• If I were to tell Krista, “I’ll be faithful to you 28 days of the month” she’s not going to take that. Why? Because partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness; partial obedience is disobedience. I can’t say I’m a faithful husband if I’m faithful most of the time. It has to be the habit of my life.

 Now there are lots of habits we need to grow spiritually. During this journey, we’re going to focus on four specific habits. We’ll talk about those in a minute, but first I want to draw your attention to some Scripture that speaks to developing habits.

• John 13:17, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them,” (John 13:17, NIV)
  • We don’t get God’s blessing for knowing the right thing to do. We get God’s blessing by doing the right thing.
  • We want to help you develop some habits that you’ll use the rest of your life to help you grow and be strong spiritually.
  • Some of you have had some of these habits in the past, but you’ve dropped off. This is a time to go back and pick them up again.
• “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:14, NIV)
  • Mature people are have trained to become mature.
  • We determine our habits and our habits determine us.

 

Tom Brady may be the most successful quarterback in NFL history. This season, he is the oldest player in the league. (That distinction belongs to a kicker most years, but not this year.) He has teammates who weren’t born when he started playing football!

How has he been able to be so good for so long at such a demanding position? He is extremely disciplined when it comes to his workout regimen and diet. There’s a whole list of things he does to stay in peak mental, physical, and emotional condition. He’s willing to pay a price and has developed habits that have paid off for him.

Paul wrote some word to the to the church in Corinth that we should pay attention to: “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize,” (1 Corinthians 9:25, NLT). The habits we build in our spiritual lives are going to pay off for eternity!

There are a lot of habits we could teach you, but during this journey, we’re going to focus on these four:

1. The habit of weekly large group worship. That’s what we’re doing now.
2. The habit of small group fellowship.

Where’d we get the idea for these first two habits? Scripture. It’s how all churches were structured in the first century.

“They worshiped together at the Temple each day [large group gathering], met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity [small group fellowship] — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved,” (Acts 2:46-47, NLT).

• There are things we can do in large gatherings that we can’t really in do in small groups.
• There are things that can happen in small groups that we can’t really do in large gatherings.

3. The habit of a daily time alone with God where you talk to God and read the Bible and let him talk to you.
4. The habit of memorizing God’s Word.

The 4^th law of spiritual growth is that:

 

4. We grow when we help each other grow.

We grow when we help each other grow. We cannot grow to spiritual maturity by ourselves. It isn’t going to happen.

You cannot grow to be the person God wants you to be by yourself. You need me and I need you and we need each other. God wired us in such a way that nobody grows to maturity by themselves. If you try to grow by yourself, you will never become as spiritually mature as you think you are.

Listen to these beautiful words Paul wrote to the Christ-followers in Rome, “When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours, (Romans 1:12, NLT). We need other people in our lives. God wired us this way.

There are 56 NT commands we cannot obey unless we’re in a smaller group. Love one another. Care for one another. Help one another. Encourage one another. Pray for one another. It’s not practical to do those things well in a crowd. Serve one another. Share with one another. Build each other up. Be there for each other. On and on. Fifty-six times the NT writers point out the importance of growing in community with others.

Scripture tells us that, “The hand can’t say to the foot, ‘I don’t need you,’ and the ear can’t say to the eye, ‘I don’t need you.” A hand severed from the body of Christ is worthless. It can’t do anything. An eye severed from the body of Christ can’t see. An ear severed from the body of Christ can’t hear. We must be connected to God’s family in order to grow.

Why do we think being in a small group with other people is important to your spiritual growth? Because the number one thing God wants you to learn in life is how to love—how to love God, how to love people. And you can’t learn to love people in a cave. The only way to learn to love people is to be with people.

The most selfish person on earth is a baby. I, I, I, me, me, me,. It’s all about me and everybody exists for the baby’s needs. It is only when a baby grows up to maturity that it can think about other people.

Unfortunately, some people never grow up. They’re stuck and it’s all about me. My schedule, not your schedule. My needs, not your needs. My problems, not your problems. My priorities, not your priorities. It’s all about me and it’s wrong! We grow best when we grow in community.

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near,” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NLT).  By the way, this passage is talking about smaller groups, because in the those days, there were no church buildings. There were no church buildings in Christianity for the first 300 years. One hundred percent of the church was in homes, in small groups.

 

Here’s the action step: Join a small group.

The easiest way to do it is to just start one. How many people do you have to have in a small group to be a group? Jesus said, “Wherever two or three gather in my name, there I am with them,” (Matthew 18:20, NIV).  To start a small group all you have to do is approach a couple of friends and say, “Hey, you want to study this material on prayer for the next 40 days?”

 You don’t have to teach anything. You don’t have to lead anything. You just host, H-O-S-T.

• H – you have to like people. If you don’t like people, if you’re grumpy, we don’t want you to host a small group. You have to like people.
• O – open a spot on your calendar to gather at your home or your apartment or an office or go to Clatter or somewhere else.
• S – settle in to enjoy each other’s company.
• T – talk about the topic.

The 5^th law of spiritual growth

5. We grow when we expect to grow.

We grow when we expect to grow. This is the faith factor. Jesus said in Matthew 9:29, “According to your faith it will be done to you.” Do you realize that God blesses your life according to your faith? Whatever you believe him for he says that’s what I’m going to bless. You realize that God says you get to choose how much I bless your life. You get to choose how much I use your life. You get to choose how much your life succeeds. According to your faith it will be done unto you.

The question I ask, if you haven’t even thought about it until now, is what are you going to expect to happen in your life the next 40 days? If you expect nothing to happen, guess what? Nothing will happen. According to your faith it will be done to you. I highly recommend you go home this afternoon and you set a goal, a prayer request—this is what I want to see God do in my life in the next 40 days. I want to be stronger in this area. I want to see movement in this area. I want to see a breakthrough here. Because if you study Scripture you learn this, God does not move and bless you for your complaining. God is not moved by your moaning, by your griping, or your complaining, but God will move heaven and earth when you trust him.

Do you want God to do something in your life? What are you expecting to happen? Set a goal and say, “God, I’m expecting you to do this. I’m expecting you to work in my life. I’m expecting a miracle. I’m expecting a breakthrough. I’m expecting an answer.” You need to start this campaign with a spirit of faith. I am going to grow a lot in the next 40 days.

The 6^th law of spiritual growth is:

 

6. We grow when we commit to grow.

Spiritual growth is not automatic. Growth is a choice. You can grow older without growing up. You must choose to grow.

Let me ask a very personal question. A year from today how different do you intend to be? Do you intend to be stronger or still stuck in the same problems you are right now? Do you want to be more mature or do you want to still be the way you are right now? It’s your choice.

A year from today some of you are going to be different people, stronger people, more spiritually mature people while others are going to be exactly the same—still stuck; still walking around in diapers. Why? Because they never actually intended to grow. They weren’t willing to pay the price.

The bottom line that you’re as close to God as you choose to be. If you feel far from God, God didn’t move. You’re as close to God as ... Well if my husband, if my wife, if my parents, if my brother, if my sister, if my girlfriend. Stop blaming anybody else. You’re as close to God as you want to be. It is a choice and growth is a choice. Some people quite frankly are not willing to make the effort and take the discipline and build the habits in order to grow.

I go back to the question, which is the title of this message, do you really want to grow? If so, how badly do you want to grow? If so, what are you willing to do to grow? Are you willing to practice these habits for the next 40 days? If not, then you’re not really willing to grow. What you want is convenience. But God says, he puts it bluntly in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV).

When we say, “God I have to grow. I’m tired of being a spiritual baby. I don’t like being manipulated by my moods and by the opinions of others. I don’t like being a people pleaser. I don’t like the fears and anxieties and worries. I don’t like the problem I have with anger and sex and whatever else it is. God, I want to grow up. I want to be a woman of God. I want to be a man of God. I want to man up and be strong and steady and stable.” That’s a choice.

What’s the action step?

Covenant with others. You covenant with others.

A covenant, we grow faster when we make a decision with other people and we do it in community. It’s easier to change when other people are changing with you. It’s easier to go on a diet when other people go on a diet with you. It’s easier to exercise when you’ve got a partner. It’s easier to grow when you make a covenant with other people to grow.

Now this is a covenant that I’m going to encourage us to sign. And you say, "Well, I don’t know if I want to make a covenant with God." Why? You make covenants with everybody else. You can’t do anything in life without making commitments.

You can’t buy a car without signing a covenant and I’ll pay it off in 36 months. You can’t rent a house or buy a house without making a covenant. I will make these payments every week. You can’t get a job without making a covenant. I covenant to be there and show up and actually get the work done. You can’t get married without making a covenant, till death do us part. You can’t do anything in life without commitment.

The epitome of immaturity is the one who won’t commit to anything. The fear of commitment is the ultimate example of immaturity. The only way to grow is by making commitments and growing into them.

Some of you got married and said, “Let’s have kids.” You made a commitment to be a parent. Did you know how to be a parent? No. No one knows how to be a parent before they’re a parent. You just make the commitment and then you grow into it. I’m asking you to make a commitment to your own spiritual growth.

 

As your pastor, your friend, someone who loves you, I wish I could force you to grow. But I can’t. I can encourage you, I can teach you, I can put tools in your hands, but only you can make the choice to grow.

Why not make 40 Days of Prayer the starting point? When you study any revival or renewal movement in history, it always starts with prayer. Folks, our nation needs a revival. It’s in trouble right now. We need revival in our hearts. We need renewal. We need a fresh sense of God’s presence, a fresh sense of what he wants to do in our lives. I believe it comes through prayer.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that, “Our greatest wish and prayer is that you will become mature Christians.” (2 Corinthians 13:9)

That’s what I want for you! Are you willing to step up to the plate and develop or renew some habits? I pray you are.

Make sure to access and save today’s notes so you can follow the next steps.

 

Prayer