HYMN STORIES - #2 

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS

You're carrying a burden. You're facing something that you wish you were not facing. If that is not you, right now, certainly, it's somebody close to us. Somebody in our LifeGroup, a family member, somebody that we work with. We almost all know someone that's going through something very difficult right now. And what's interesting to note is, you may be sitting in front of someone or there may be someone just two seats behind you, they're smiling on the outside but on the inside, they're really, really hurting. I want to speak directly to that today.

We're in a message series called Hymn Stories and we're looking at some of the classic hymns from our Christian faith. Today, I want to look at the lyrics of a song called, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." And the first words of the song start with that very title, "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry," let's all say the next phrase aloud, "What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!" I want to launch this message today with scripture from Phil 4:6, we'll come back and spend more time in this verse. What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer. Paul said this, "Don't worry about anything." He said, "Instead pray about everything." 

My hope is that you will develop a true and sincere love for the presence of God through prayer. The reason I hope this, is because I'm afraid that far too many Christians don't really understand prayer. So many people think, "Well, prayer doesn't really work." Or, "Prayer is a chore at best, ineffective at worst." And that's why today I want to talk very specifically about prayer because so many people, I believe, have very real misconceptions about what prayer accomplishes and what it is. Let's talk about three misconceptions of prayer. First of all, so many people I think, believe prayer is complicated, it's very, very complicated. I think, growing up, I really believed prayer was complicated.

I honestly thought that to pray to God you had to talk in King James language. Like, you had to pray, "Oh Godeth in Heaven, we beseecheth thou to grant us-eth with your presenceth now." It was very complicated to me. And then when I became a Christian, I received some great teaching, but I became kind of legalistic and thought prayer was very much a formula. Someone said, "You have to pray early in the morning," which is kinda true but incomplete. Someone else said, "You need to pray for a full hour." I was like, "Oh, that's gonna be difficult, early in the morning for an hour."

Okay, so you gotta do that. Then somebody said, "You need to bind up the devil." I wasn't sure what that was or what that meant.

And before long, they said, "You need to pray to the Holy Spirit for some things and Jesus for some things." And I was really confused, maybe I'm not doin' this right? Maybe I should hold my hands like this? Maybe I'm pointing the wrong way? I didn't know, it was very, very complicated. Then, you go to your LifeGroup and there's always a professional prayer. They're so good they get paid to pray. In your LifeGroup, you know. When he prays, it's like God's goin', "That's a good prayer." He's quoting the names of God like, "God, I just call on you, you are Jehovah, we see the Lord is my banner." And they always start praying scripture and they know exactly where the verses are.

They're like, "God, if you say in your word in Isaiah 54:17. "Which is highlighted in green on the top right-hand of my Bible, 'That no weapon formed against me will prosper." And you're like, "Oh, man my prayers suck. That was so good, I don't know how to do that?" And so, I'm kind of a competitive guy, I'd never want to be outprayed. So, I'd try to get into the game. I'm like, "I'm gonna do the best I can and "God, you are Jehovah, Nissan."

A lot of people say, "Well, prayer is boring." It's kind of funny, one time Jesus said He's goin' off to pray, He told His disciples to sit there and pray. Whenever Jesus came back, do you know what His disciples were doing? They were sleeping. I understand that. If I can't sleep, I just pray and then I fall asleep. I get bored and then I have these kind of ADD moments, anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody here? I'm praying, "Oh God, I call on you......shiny thing, shiny thing."

"God, I pray for my friend, God make my friend come to Jesus, oh and I need cereal. Alexa, order Cheerios and toilet paper." And then I'm out, fast asleep. Many people think prayer is complicated. Many people think that prayer is boring. And then so many people have the misperception that prayer doesn't work. "If it worked, why didn't God heal my grandma?" "If it worked, why is my marriage still struggling?" "If it worked, and I have a college degree, why am I at a job that still doesn't have benefits?" "God, where are you?" "Do you not care, are you not listening? " "Is prayer just a waste of my time?"

So many of us have misunderstandings about what prayer is and what it does. We need to understand and embrace the truth that we're not praying to a distant, uninvolved, God. 

Jesus was accused by His haters, who said, "He's a friend to sinners." What a friend we have in a relational God who loves us and gives us access, to come before His very throne of grace to find help in our time of need. I want to tell you the story behind the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." It was written by a man named Joseph Scriven.

Joseph lived in the 1800s in Ireland and he fell madly in love, head over heels in love, with his childhood sweetheart. I mean, you're talkin' love notes, he's dedicating songs on the radio, he's massively in love. And on the day before they were gonna get married, the day before, they rode on horseback to meet one another. And tragically, her horse bucked her off, she hit her head on a rock beside a riverbed before Joseph arrived. She died and he found his fiance, dead by the river. You can only imagine, life falls apart for this guy. He has to leave Ireland, doesn't just want to face everything he knew there. Moves to Canada and encounters the powerful grace of Jesus. This guy falls massively in love with living for Jesus and he decides to devote his life to living out the teaching of Jesus, specifically living the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.

So, he takes a vow of poverty, and he's very handy and he works for people. But he wouldn't work for anyone that could afford to pay. If they could afford to pay, he wouldn't do the work, it was only for people that didn't have the means that he would do the work. Last week, we talked about the author to the song "Amazing Grace," who remembers his nickname? His nickname was the Great Blasphemer. Joseph Scriven's nickname was the Good Samaritan, always helping people who were in need. Well, a young lady saw this very Godly man and took an interest in him, and he took interest in her and he they soon were engaged to be married but weeks before they were married, at the age of 23, Eliza, his fiancé, came down with pneumonia and died just weeks before they were to be married.

Two times, not once, but two times the love of his life was taken from him. He never fell in love again. Years went by and when his mother was dying back in Ireland, he obviously didn't have the money to go and see her because he had taken a vow of poverty. So, he wrote a poem to her and he sent the poem to her. The poem actually started to become very well known, although he never took credit for it. Years later, by accident, a friend was in his house and saw the original notes of this, now hymn, and found the words to it. And he asked Joseph, Did you write these words?

Feel the power of the lyrics that this man wrote, knowing the story behind what he endured in life. He asked the question, "Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer." That's what we're going to do today. We're gonna take some things to God in prayer and we're gonna do exactly what the brother of Jesus, the half-brother of Jesus, James, said in James 5:16. James told us, "To pray for each other so that you would be healed." He said, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." What does prayer do? Your prayers can defeat the devil.

Your prayers can calm a storm. Your prayers can heal the sick. Your prayers can comfort the hurting. Your prayers can restore the broken. Your prayers invoke the power of God. Scripture says to pray for each other that there may be healing because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. We're not praying to a distant, uninvolved, God, we're praying to a close, intimate, ever-present, all-powerful God who cares for His children and calls He us, "Friends." That's why, today, we're gonna pray for one another and believe that God is going to do a work. 

So, I want to make it as simple as I can and talk about four very practical thoughts about how we actually pray to God. The first thing is this, very simply, sometimes you just talk to God. You simply talk to God.

You tell God what you need, and you thank Him for all that He's already done. Just literally, talk to God. Does it have to be early in the morning for an hour when you're binding up the devil? It can be, but it doesn't have to be. Paul said elsewhere, "To pray without ceasing." Now that's intimidating, pray all the time. I can't even pray for 20 minutes straight without losing my focus, so how do we do that? I've come to recognize for years I've felt guilty because I couldn't pray long drawn-out prayers, I couldn't stay focused. But I didn't understand that prayer isn't non-stop, petitioning God in a formal way, but prayer is a non-stop awareness of the presence of God that's always with you. It's an ongoing relationship recognizing that God never leaves you and that He never forsakes you.

Just kind of like I might be spending the day with Corina, we learn to spend the day with God. And a big breakthrough for me is talking to God like I would just talk to my wife on text. 

"God, I know I'm gonna see a lot of people that don't know You today, God, give me sensitivity to your leading, to reach out when

you want." Or "God, help me forgive this person." And it's an ongoing awareness of the presence of God. Short, consistent bursts of communication as if you were talking to a friend. This has revolutionized my prayer life. And so, this may shock you but I'll tell you right now, I never, ever pray for a long period of time. But I also never ever go a long period of time without praying. It's an ongoing awareness of the presence of God. Sometimes you just talk to God like you're talking to a very close and intimate friend. Then sometimes, you don't just talk to God, but sometimes you vent to God. Sometimes you just unload on Him.

I like the way Peter phrased it, 1 Peter 5:7, Peter said, "Cast your anxiety on Him, throw your cares on Him because He cares for you." Do you realize it's within fair play to say, "God, this makes me mad. "God, I don't understand!" And vent to God, because He cares for you. David did this sometimes in the Old Testament, "God, where are you, why aren't you stopping my enemies? "God, why are you letting this happen, this doesn't seem fair?  "God, where are you?" And God cares about you.

Sometimes, you listen to Him. You stop talking and you start listening. Jesus said this, Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice and I know them." Who is the Good Shepherd? Jesus is the Good Shepherd, we are the sheep. It is His job to guide us, our job to follow. He directs and we listen. Prayer was never meant to be us just asking God, telling God what we want Him to do. 

It's not just me speaking, but it's listening to God. I like in the Old Testament what Samuel said, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening." If you'll take that posture every now and then

and not just, "God, here's what I want. And God, do this for me." But you stop and say, "Speak Lord, I'm listening. "Direct me." I promise you God will speak to you. Oh, so he's gonna like call me by name? "John, "this is what thou should doest." No, not necessarily. Maybe He will do that, I don't know. He could show you what to do by writing on the wall, He's done that before. God speaks in so many ways, His methods of communication are unlimited. If you certainly, want a guaranteed way to hear from God, let me tell you how to guarantee you'll hear from God.

Open up your Bible every single day and spend a little bit of time in God's living word. And I promise you, God will speak to you, God will direct you. God will convince you.

Look for His voice through His word, God will speak to you through His word. God will speak to you through circumstances. Sometimes you're like, "Well, that door was open but now that door is closed and I don't know how it closed, that must be God saying I don't want this for you right now, I'm directing you somewhere else. And I just happen to believe, because you're a good God that somewhere else is going to bring You more glory and will be better for me." God will speak to you through His word and through circumstances. God can speak to you through a song. God can speak to you through the still, quiet, voice of His Spirit that's not necessarily audible and at that  same time can be even louder than audible.

How do we talk to God? How do we pray to One who calls us friend? Sometimes we just talk, we're just together. "God, I love you. Wow, man, you're showin' off, that sunset's amazing. God, thank you for Your goodness." "God, thank you that you provided. "God, thank you that you let me be a blessing." Sometimes you just talk to God. Sometimes you vent. "God, I'm hurting." "God, I'm confused? " Sometimes you listen. "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." But all the time, all the time, you give thanks to God. No matter what, you thank Him for who He is, for His faithfulness, for His goodness.

At all times you give thanks to God. And this is exactly what the apostle Paul did from a Roman prison awaiting his possible execution. In other words, he could be beheaded very soon. And under that threat, he penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He said, Hey Church, "Don't worry aboutanything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need," just talk to Him, cast your cares on Him, "and thank Him for all He's done." And when you do that, "Then, you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand." Don't worry about anything, pray about everything. Give thanks in all circumstances and then you will experience the supernatural peace of God. Peace from Heaven, which goes beyond our human understanding, we can't comprehend it, or we cannot explain it. It's God's peace in the middle of the storm.

It's His peace in the middle of the trials. 

One of the things I've realized about prayer is that prayer doesn't always change your circumstances, it may, it may not.

Prayer may or may not change your circumstances, but it always changes you. I want you to feel the weight of these words. "Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear!

And what a privilege we have to take everything to Him in prayer. 

There are those of you who recognize in your own life right now, there's a very first-hand burden, a trial, that's very difficult. For some of you, it may not be you directly, but it's somebody you know, somebody you work with, a sorority sister, somebody you play softball with, that's going through a real trial. Those who say, "It's either me or somebody that I love that's going through something and I want to take this before God in prayer."

Would you lift your hand right now? Just lift them high. Go ahead and put them down for a moment. What I'd love, if you'd just look up here at me, I want to ask you to do something. I want everybody to do this. Would you take a piece of paper, there's a little 3x5 card or such nearby. Grab a pen. What I want you to do, and let me just tell you up front, I'm gonna invite you to give that to someone else, this prayer card. So, put your request down accordingly. In other words, you may not want to go into a lot of details, there may be things that you don't want to put down, but please put down your burden.

I'd love for you to write your name, first name only. And then you might write down, "Peace for my husband," or, "Salvation for my wife."

Whatever it might be, just in a few words, I want you to write that down. I want everybody to do this and then we're going to exchange it. Then we're gonna pray for the next seven days. And we're gonna believe that God's gonna hear our prayers and work in a very powerful way. 

There are many of you, you're gonna recognize that you are not doing life with an ongoing awareness of the presence of God. You're not in a relationship with Him, you might believe in Him. You may have never been in church, that's okay. But you're being drawn to God right now, what is that? That is His loving kindness, that's His goodness, that's His Spirit.