Title: Jesus Praying (Mark 1:35)
[Mark 1:35]
[35] ♠ In the early morning, Jesus got up and went out to a secluded place, where he prayed.
It may seem strange that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, prayed, who can accomplish everything with a single word. But Jesus prayed. He wants you to teach us to pray by showing it.
Jesus lived by prayer from the beginning. He was vigilant whenever an important event occurred, and he prayed in a secluded place during ministry. He prayed before he was crucified, and he prayed after he was crucified.
Watching Christ pray, the disciples learned to pray. Prayer is seeing and learning. ( Prayer is caught rather than taught.) Therefore, parents should show it to their children. As much as Jesus prayed, there are many expressions in the Gospels that Jesus prayed. When I was in seminary, the professors I respected told Koreans that they should learn to pray. We must show our prayers.
The morning prayer was created by Jesus.
If I don't attend the morning worship service, busy things overwhelm me. Early morning prayer is to give my first love to God before being overwhelmed by busy things. Morning prayer is a discipline. Just as it is important to practice a lot to play a musical instrument well, prayer training is very important to live a life of walking with God.
In the Bible, prayer is expressed as 'crying out to God'. When I looked up how many times this expression was recorded in the Bible, I was surprised at how many times it was. It has been used over 600 times. What happens when you cry? It shows our urgency and earnestness. It shows that you are completely dependent on God. In Exodus 17, we see Joshua fighting Amalek. Joshua is fighting Amalek, but the outcome of the fight is in the hands of Moses, who prays to God from the top of the mountain. God tells us that real victory can be achieved through prayer. 'Prayer determines war.'
Looking at the North Korean land from the river Yalu, I thought, 'It will only be opened when prayer is filled.' I thought that three generations should pray for the country and for the nations. 'I have come to realize that prayer is the key.'
Dear saints, I pray that you will become God's people who pray.
This verse surprises me. It surprises me because it says, “Jesus prayed.” But if you think about it, there was one person who didn’t need to pray, it must have been Jesus. I mean, one word, demons flee, one word, and the stone is carved, and with one command, the dead rises. Jesus didn't need prayer. But the Bible said, “Jesus got up early and he prayed.” Jesus believed in prayer. In Jesus' case, he got up early every morning to pray and before important decisions like choosing the 12 disciples, he prayed all night, and when things were getting out of whack and when so many people wanted his attention and when too many people were coming in, Jesus went up to a mountain and prayed. Before he died on the cross, he prayed at Gethsemane and when he was dying on the cross, he prayed, “Oh Father, forgive them. Receive my spirit.” Jesus prayed and because of his prayer, his disciples learned what prayer was.
Even till the last moment, Jesus prayed. Here is a very important lesson about prayer. Prayer is caught, rather that taught. You heard from the people that gave their testimonies that they learned to pray by watching their parents and grandparents. Think you can learn prayer through textbooks? We learn by watching somebody. That is what prayer is. That is why we bring it to morning prayers. We wake up at 3 in the morning so that you can catch the concept on how to pray. Learn this from us and catch this from us. When I was studying in seminary, all of my seminary teachers said to us Korean students, “You know, we American churches has something great to learn from you Korean churches, we want to learn how to pray. We want to learn to wake up early and pray like this, we want to learn how to spend all night praying just like you. My seminary teachers were my heroes but they came to me and said that they had to learn this from me. But as we go back to Mark 1: 35, here is an important thing, “Early in the morning, Jesus got up to pray.” Early in the morning, despite that “Mom, dad! Early?! This is crazy! 5 AM on Saturday?! Saturday is for sleeping in!! 5 AM in the morning and 3 AM on special early morning prayers?! This is crazy! This is child abuse! Let me call 911! This is child abuse!”
Do you know why Early Morning Prayer is so important? Because if you don’t spend early morning, the rest of the day catches up with you. Those of you who go to school, you get up, but if you don’t get up early enough, you barely have enough time to get your eye crusts off and head to school! And once you go to school and then home, there is homework, and then listening to your iPod, and the surfing on the Internet, and then watching your favorite TV programs, and then sports, and then music lessons, and then it is bedtime . The rest of the day catches up to you, that is why early morning is so important. Before the day catches up with me, I will spend my day with the Lord. That what Jesus did. First love was given to the Father, that is why early morning is very important. Many people from different ethnic groups joined us. And this all happened 2 months ago.
You know that Early Morning Prayer is a discipline. How many of you children take piano or violin lessons?? Those of you who take musical lessons, discipline is what, you keep on practicing and practicing. And as you discipline yourself, it becomes self-nature. Because you disciplined yourself, you can even do it in your sleep. When I was young my dad used to give me cold baths to discipline me. He said that cold water will strengthen you like a man. That was child abuse! At first I was like, “This is crazy!” but after a while I got used to it and it wasn’t cold anymore. Early morning is hard but when this becomes discipline, it becomes second-nature. We want to learn how to do Early Morning Prayer because that was how Jesus prayed, and we want to form a discipline of prayer.
In the Bible it said that people cried out to God. Do you ever wonder why, Esther even wondered, “Why do people cry out?” Is God deaf? Does God need hearing aids? Why do people cry out? This is silly sometimes. But you know, in the Bible, I tried to look for a term, “People cried out to God.” I tried to find it. And I was surprised. There were hundreds of Bible verses that told us that people cried out to God. I opened my mouth loud and wide and I cried out to God and he answered my prayer. The Bible teaches us to cry out to God. What happens when we cry out to God? It shows our desperation. It also shows our sincerity and honor and dependence to him. 1 million people gathered at Seoul and they cried out in thanksgiving and repentance and in petition to God. This is something that you got to learn.
It is from the Bible. Jesus exemplified this prayer. Until we catch that fire, the church will not develop all of its potential. In the Bible, God tells us that the real battle is fought on our knees. Joshua was leading his army to fight the Amalekites. And as he leads his army in this great battle, swords clashing, people shouting, that was where all of the action was. But God said, “That is not where the real action is.” And then he turns the land up to a mountain where three old men, Moses is flanked by Aaron and Hur are seen lifting their arms in prayer. And God says, “That is where the real action is.” Kids, see this. When you pray here, the spiritual battle being fought in the Muslim world, in Communist world, in Atheistic world, will be won right here as you pray. You know Jesus pointed to the house of God and said, “This house will be called a house of prayer for all people.” This house is personally called by Jesus a house of prayer for all people. Your prayer makes all of the difference in God’s Kingdom.