Prayer - What is it and why bother?

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Good morning church. It's good to see you all here this morning. Welcome if you're joining us online as well, what a joy it is to be able to gather together, to sing songs of praise and to hear from God's word this morning. Would you join me as we pray? Heavenly Father, Lord God Almighty, our prayer this morning is simple. Would you help us to draw near, prepare our hearts and our ears to hear from you. Empower us and equip us to respond to your leading. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Are you alive this morning church? Yeah, we've got the young ones in here, little ones. Can you make some noise? Are we alive? Oh, it's alright. They're still warming up. That's okay. Can you actually turn to the person to your left or to your right and ask them if they're alive? Okay, what's the verdict? Are we alive this morning? Wonderful. It would have been slightly awkward if there was even one no in the room. But when we stop to think about it, isn't that amazing that right here, right now, each and every person in this room has the exact right mixture of oxygen and water, carbohydrates and proteins and vitamins and minerals circulating in our bodies at the exact right temperature in the exact right atmospheric pressure to sustain our lives. Praise God. That's phenomenal. Is it not? Wow. We're alive. There's so much that we take for granted, so much that we don't necessarily think about. I'm glad that everyone here is alive this morning. Everyone's breathing. Everyone's got their hearts pumping because it leads me to the real question that I want to ask here and now. Something that takes us a little bit deeper. Are you spiritually alive this morning? In other words, are you here still dead in your sin? Or have you received the good news of the Gospel? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour? And if so, are you living obediently and in close relationship to God this morning? Are you living as disciples of Jesus? Or are you just physically alive? There's a huge difference. This year, our theme verse for Kabuchah Baptist is John 15 verses 8. It's up there. I'm not going to ask because you should not. I assume that everyone's memorized it already. But if not, and you've got your Bibles there, it'll be up on the screen as well. Can you open up to John 15? We're going to read verses 1 to 11. This first part is going to very much be a recap of things that we may have already heard because it sets the scene for what is to come. John 15 verse 1 through 11. These are Jesus' words, his teaching. He says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like the branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. I don't know where you're at this morning, but happy February. We're into the second month of 2026. We've gone through January that weird mix of Christmas and then the lull and starting back. Kids, you're back at school last week. How'd you go? Yeah, unenthused faces. Parents, how was the week? Yeah? But church, I don't know where you're at for this year personally. I don't know whether you've even given much thought to what your expectations, your thoughts, your excitement level is for us as Kabbaltia Baptist Church, but I've got to tell you, I'm excited for this year. I'm excited for the work that God is doing that he's going to continue to do and I'm excited for the way that he's going to challenge us as a church to join him in the work that he is doing. See, it's been evident for some time now that God is doing great things. It's been evident for some time now that God is moving in our community. God is at work and church very truly, I believe that this year he's calling us Kabbaltia Baptist Church to grow deeper in our relationship with him than we've ever grown before, to grow in faith and obedience and trust and love. So that very truly, we would be a church of disciples saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to bear much fruit for the glory of God, our Father. That's our theme verse, that we would be followers of Jesus bearing much fruit for the glory of God. Kabbaltia, our mission field is growing. That's just the reality of it, you don't have to look far. With the development of Kabbaltia West, approximately 68,700 additional residents are moving into our mission field and that's not including any of the other development that's going on in and around us. That's one new suburb alone. And with this many people coming in, that means that there'll be two main categories of people. The first category will be coming in and they'll be seeking a local church. They'll be looking for somewhere where they can continue to worship God, continue to grow in their discipleship journey, continue to gather with brothers and sisters in Christ. Exciting. The second option is that there will be people coming in to this area, our mission field, with a God-sized hole in their life. They need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. And Church, why am I so excited? Because either way, you and I, Kabbaltia Baptist, have a role to play in the work that God is doing. He's inviting us into the work that He has already started, He will continue to do. He is inviting us, He is equipping us to share this good news, to grow with brothers and sisters in Christ, in obedience, in love, in trust. What a privilege that is. Over the last 12 months, we've seen it here at Kabbaltia Baptist Church. Over the last 12 months, we have grown numerically. We've had young families, children, people from all generations join us on a Sunday. And I just want to pause. If this is you this morning, if you've been attending here for less than 12 months, I want to welcome you. It's so good that you are here this morning. Praise God. Our prayer is that you'll continue to be connected in. Our prayer is that you would be able to grow in your faith here at Kabbaltia Baptist, that you would be able to steward well the gifts that God's given you for His glory alone. Brief recap. And of last year, we had our AGM, our End of Year Members meeting. And just an update for those who may not have been there. If you've been attending Kabbaltia Baptist for some time, if this is your local church where you've chosen to grow in your faith, to serve with the gifts that God's given you, can I encourage you to be praying about membership? Come see me, one of the team. We'd love to talk through what this means. But we had our members meeting at the end of last year. And there was a bit of an update there and a realization that very truly, our current facilities are reaching their maximum capacity. Look around the church right now. There's not many seats vacant. Praise God, this is good news. Our facilities are reaching maximum capacity here at Kabbaltia Baptist Church, which means the call is being extended not just to the leaders, not just to the pastors, because that's not how this works, to the whole church here at Kabbaltia Baptist, to pray, to seek God and His will for our local gathering. Because it's His church, not the building, we are God's church. We need to be praying with all these people coming in who need to hear the gospel, who need a place to grow in their discipleship. How is it that God's calling us, me and you, Kabbaltia Baptist Church, to partner in the work that He's doing, to make sure we can adequately share the good news of Jesus, that we can provide space and time and resources to grow not only ourselves, but others in our walk with Jesus? How will we faithfully partner in the kingdom work that He is doing? How will we ensure that we are living as disciples of Jesus and not just physically alive? And to do so, church, we must heed the warning and instruction of Jesus. Very clearly, He says, to be disciples that bear much fruit for the glory of God, we must abide in Him. For people up at the back, you may not be able to see this. I've got two plants up here that's pushing the terminology. This is Zali's handiwork. This is a mulberry tree, I think. It's not quite a vine, but let's roll with it. Okay, it's alive, it's healthy. This is my handiwork. This is a collection of the sticks from the trees that I've cut down in our backyard over the last however long, and it's just been pushed into some dirt. Okay, that's it. They were on the fire pile. I had to use them this morning. They'll be burnt later. Okay, two options for us as a church. Two possibilities that Christ presents in this teaching. To either be part of the vine growing, being pruned, bearing much fruit, and the danger church that as we approach this season of prayer, as we acknowledge the things that God is doing around us, that in our zeal to do Kingdom work in our own effort, in our temptation to live comfortable lives, in our sinful desire to be Lord of our own lives rather than have Christ our Lord, in our distractedness and busyness, we can become disconnected from our relationship with God. Very truly, we can be physically alive and yet spiritually dead rather than being healthy branches connected to the vine. Disciples of Jesus, a church sustained and empowered by God. The danger is that we become a building of impressive, albeit dead, and useless sticks. The danger church is we become spiritually stagnant because we have been cut off from the vine. We have been cut off from the source of life. We have cut ourselves off from our relationship with God. We seek our own will rather than His will. When we do that, there's a danger to no longer participate in the work that God is doing because, let's be honest, it's going to require sacrifice. It's going to require effort. We're going to have to be intentional as we partner with what God is doing. It's so much easier if we're being honest to just go, look at what God has done. In my personal life, in the life of Kibbutzha Baptist, isn't God great? Isn't God faithful? How He's grown His church? How He's moved us from location to location? How He's always provided? How He's always sustained us? Isn't God great? How amazing that at this point in my life, I accepted Jesus and all my sins were forgiven. At this point in my life, I was on fire for God. I was doing what He told me to. Man, that was amazing times, amazing things. That's true. It's good to reflect, to be thankful, but if our attention, our focus is only on past works of God. On the past things that He's done in our life, we become stagnant. We cut ourselves off from relationship with God, trusting in the relationship we once had, but no longer investing daily in the relationship that we should have with God. When we look at all the things we've done, there's a temptation to go, I don't need to do anymore. We no longer desire to participate in the work that He's doing. It requires effort and sacrifice. We lean on our own strength. We trust our own will rather than God's. And very truly, if we fall into that temptation, if we don't heed this danger, we as a church can become a bunch of impressive, albeit dead sticks, rather than branches of the vine that are connected in relationship to God, our Father. Physically alive, breathing and talking and going about our days, but not living as disciples of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit to bear much fruit for the glory of God, the Father. And so it begs the question, how do we ensure that we stay connected to the vine? How do we ensure that individually and as a church, we are obediently seeking and following Jesus? The answer is simple. We're going to highlight one aspect of it today. But we need to each and every day commit to this relationship. We need to seek God's revelation through scripture and communicate and to enter into deeper meaningful relationship with God through prayer. God is at work in our church, our community, our world. And this morning is just an introduction. Okay, over the next two weeks, we're going to unpack how to pray. Jesus has given us a model of how we as a church are to pray. And then over the following five weeks, after we've learned that, we're going to be invited immersed as a church to pray intentionally for God's leading, His guiding, His will for us as Kibbutzha Baptist Church, whatever that may be. There's going to be five weeks of intentional preaching and prayer. And the reality is that through this term, as we lean into prayer, as we lean into seeking God and His will, the reality is we may come out with the possibilities of a church building project. We may hit the end of this prayer time and go, God's calling us to plant a church or God's calling us to do multiple services or God's given us these new mission opportunities within our community. We may get to the end of it and we go, God has revealed this amazing, never thought of before idea. We don't even fully know how it's going to come together. We don't even know if this is possible in our strength. It probably won't be. But this is where God is leading us. This is what we will do. We will step out in faith according to His will. The purpose of this term for us as a church is to seek God. But we need to be careful as we do this. Because whilst all those things are possibilities, in order to be connected to the vine, to be connected in our relationship with God, in order not to become a bucket of dead sticks, we need to make sure we look at how we pray. But before that, we need to understand why we pray and what prayer is. Before we get focused on outcomes and future plans, we need to make sure we get the basics of what and why we pray. And so if you've got your Bibles there, I'm going to invite you to open up to Matthew 6 verses 5 to 8. This morning we're not looking at how to pray. We're looking at why we pray. What is this thing that we call prayer? Matthew 6 verses 5. Jesus' words to his disciples in the midst of his sermon on the mire. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Some important observations for us to take this morning as we try to understand what prayer is. Notice Jesus' words weren't, and if you decide to pray, or if you feel like it, or if three times in four verses in our scripture, the phrasing is, and when you pray. The assumption of Jesus, the expectation of Jesus as he's teaching his disciples is that they will pray. It's not an optional extra. It's an essential element of being a disciple of Jesus. So we see something of its importance, but what really is prayer? When I was growing up as a kid, we had this one prayer that we said every time before bed. As I got older, it grew out. It's prayer, just something you say before you eat. You rattle it off, and then go from there. What is prayer? It's helpful that Jesus gives us some clear examples of what isn't prayer in this section of scripture. If you look at verse 5, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogue, and at the street corner that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. What is prayer? Well, it's not a performance. Prayer is not a performance church. When we pray in groups, when we pray at church, when we pray for one another, prayer is not a performance. And I say this knowing how easy it is. Sometimes you're sitting there in group prayer, you know the circles coming around to you, and you start to formulate your prayer. Dear God, oh, that won't match up. Dear Heavenly Father, God Almighty, oh, I can do a bit more. Lord God Almighty, Creator of the heaven, and we start to formulate, not for God's benefit, but so that the others around us might think that we're slightly more holy, that we're slightly more connected, that we're slightly better at praying than they are. Church prayer is not a performance. We need to avoid that temptation. The second warning Jesus gives us, verse seven, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. Prayer must not be repeated and empty words, church. The effectiveness of our prayer isn't how often we recite the same thing again and again and again. It's not the word count that we're able to spill out over the course of the day. Prayer must not be repeated empty words. And so what is prayer? It's helpful to look at verse six, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who is in secret, who sees what is done, who sees in secret, will reward you. Jesus isn't saying here that it's wrong or unbiblical to preach, to pray in groups, to pray corporately. There's a heart in what he's saying here, that it's not about the performance, it's not about the words, it's about intimacy with God. Into your room and in secret with God. So what is prayer? Prayer is the intimate meaningful communication of our innermost selves with God the Father. It's an amazing gift of conversation with our creator and our sustainer, not surface level with the tongue, although we use words to pray. Prayer gets to the heart. God already knows our innermost being. He invites us to share that with him to draw into relationship and to listen to his response. Now some of you, when I read this passage in full, might already be thinking, well, if that's the case, verse eight tells us that our Father knows what we need before we even ask Him. So if God already knows what I'm going to pray, if He already knows the innermost being of me, if He knows everything that I could possibly lay at His feet, if prayer is this communication with Him, then why even bother? He already knows it. Surely God can just read my thoughts. He already knows my shopping list of all the things I want Him to do today. It's true, He does. But when we think like that, we've missed the purpose of prayer. Why do we pray? It's not for the outcomes. We don't pray because we have to have this, this and this. We don't pray to go, God, this is what I want. You better make this happen. We don't pray to convince God. He already knows what we need, what will be good, what is good and perfect according to His will. So why do we pray? The purpose of prayer has never been to get our will from God. That's never been it at all. The out-working's prayer, the results, the healing, the provision, the clarity are all by-products, good things, but not why we pray. The purpose of prayer is to draw us closer to God, to align our hearts, our will with His heart and His will. His good and perfect will, His good and perfect heart. The purpose of prayer is intimacy and relationship with God. He knows what we need before we ask, but as we draw near to Him, as we lay our requests before Him, as we share the innermost burdens of our heart, as we listen for His response, His revelation, we are restored and empowered, like branches interwoven into the vine. We connect with Christ and He, being the root, being the vine, changes us rather than the leaves changing the vine. Prayer is the assumed posture of God's people, because if we don't pray, if we don't intentionally draw near to God, if we don't accept His invitation to draw near, by consequence we disconnect ourselves from Him. If we refuse to draw near in prayer, to be vulnerable and to ask, to be vulnerable and to listen, we cut ourselves off from relationship with Him. We become a dying stick removed from the source of life, rather than a growing branch. See the thing about every single one of the sticks in this bit of soil here, is at one point they were connected to the tree, to the vine, to whatever it was that I cut them off from. At one point each and every branch here had life, had the opportunity to bear fruit of some sort. They're dying, they're dead, because they're disconnected from the source. Church, we cannot forsake our relationship with God. Why are we praying over the next term? Not for outcomes, not for results. They'll be a by-product. The purpose of us as a church drawing near to God in prayer is for our relationship, our deepening of faith in Him, the aligning of our hearts, our wills with His. So as we go on this journey together, I encourage you to remember that prayer is the intimate, meaningful communication of our innermost selves with God, our Father. And we don't pray for outcomes, we pray to draw close in relationship to God, and to align our hearts and our will with His. Over the coming weeks as a church, we will be led to pray. We will be seeking God together, His will for our lives, His will for us as brothers and sisters in Christ, the local church in Cabulcha. His will for how we are to partner in what He is already doing. And I want to encourage you not to become distracted by outcomes. If we lose focus of what prayer truly is and why we're called to pray, then we risk becoming a church filled with impressive, but albeit dying sticks. As you pray, there might be opposition. But I want to encourage you that even the smallest of these branches, even the most flimsy, unimpressive branch on this tree, has more life, has more promise of bearing fruit than any of those sticks do. So don't give up. Continue to seek God in prayer. And I want to challenge you this week to actually pray. However your prayer life at the moment looks, I want to challenge you this week to pray intentionally, but not from your tongue. Don't just rattle off things at God. Pray from your heart. Make sure you come intentionally to a time of prayer. If you've got a list of requests from God, make sure that's the last thing that you pray. If you even prayed at all. Ask God to align your heart, your will with His. Seek relationship and closeness with Him. Kids, I encourage you, ask Mum and Dad to pray with you. Parents, pray with your children. Discipleship groups. Pray with one another. Pray with your co-workers. Pray with whoever you can. Let's practice as a church, not just asking God for stuff and things and results, but asking that we would be drawn closer to Him. That our hearts, our wills, our actions would be aligned with His for His honor and His glory. So that very truly, we wouldn't just be alive, but we would be living as disciples, saved by the blood of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, bearing much fruit for the glory of God, our Father. John 15, 8. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Would you pray with me? Lord God wherever we are at this morning, we pray that you would help us to pray. Lord, if this is foreign for us, if this is an area that we struggle with, Lord, would you lead us and guide us? Would you draw us near to you, our God? Would you align our hearts and our will with yours? Lord, break our heart for what breaks yours. Make us mournful for the things that make you mourn. Lord, let us rejoice in the things that make you rejoice. Lord, as we pray, would you help us to steady our bodies, to spend just as much time listening to you, our God, as we do speaking? Lord, as we continue in this series on prayer over the course of the next 10 weeks. Lord, I pray that for each and every one of us, you would grow us deeper. Lord, would you grow us in how we pray? Lord, would you help us to draw near to you, that we might be disciples who bear much fruit for your glory? We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.