Feeling Distant From God? Try this | Phil Kniesel

We’re kicking off a brand-new series called Prayers of Jesus, where we’ll explore how Jesus prayed and what that means for us today. In this message, Pastor Phil walks us through a moment where Jesus praises the Father—and shows us that praise isn’t just a nice idea, it’s powerful and essential.

Discover how praise changes our hearts, draws us into God’s presence, and becomes a weapon in spiritual battles. If you’ve ever wanted a deeper, more consistent prayer life, this message is for you.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kniesel, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Well, good morning, hope City. Happy spring break to all the parents in the room with kids in school. . Yeah. This weekend marks the beginning of March break for the Edmonton Public School Board. It also marks the beginning of a new series entitled Prayers of Jesus. In the weeks leading up to Easter, we're looking at some of the prayers Jesus spoke to help us learn to pray better. And why are we doing this? Because prayer for many is hard. It takes discipline, it takes effort, it takes focus. Okay, show of hands across all our campuses, it's confession time. Okay? How many of you have ever fallen asleep while praying? Let me see your hand, . All right, you're in good company. Next question. How many of you have ever fallen asleep? While I've been preaching last month, pew Research Center in the US put out their findings from their latest study and they reported that 44% of people pray every day, and that includes all religions. 33% of people always pray before a meal and out of evangelical Christians, 72% pray daily, 21%, pray weekly or monthly and only 7% pray rarely. So here's the thing, it's not that most of us don't pray. My hunch is most of us wish we could pray better, and the Bible records some great prayers of Jesus that gives guidance and insight into how to pray better, how to build our prayer life. And why does this matter? Because prayer changes us and draws us closer to God. Prayer works on our hearts as we petition and call upon God to do what only he can do. Prayer is one of those things that when consistently done changes all things in our life. I often say prayer is the engine that drives our church, but it's true personally as well. Prayer is the engine that drives your life. Have you ever witnessed someone walk through an amazingly hard time and handle it well or seen steadfast character amidst stress and difficult situations? We all wanna be that person. And often it's the things that no one sees that brings the results everyone wants. And prayer is one of those things that no one sees. So let's go for a moment into the life of Jesus the disciple. Matthew records this incident in his New Testament book and Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people and he starts actually calling them out first for not heeding the message of a guy named John the Baptist, whose role was to prepare the people for Jesus's ministry. And second, for all the miracles he did throughout all their towns in that region and their lack of repentance, even though many witnessed the miraculous things Jesus did, they neither believed he was God nor the Messiah they were all waiting for. And so Jesus calls them out and then he says a prayer to God out loud for everyone to hear. And this is what he says, I praise you, father Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. So these things is what I just talked about. The signs that he was the Messiah, the wise and learned were those people who thought they knew better and were missing what Jesus was all about. Even though he was right in front of them, surprisingly many of them were the religious leaders who had deep understanding of the scriptures. Their knowledge blinded them, so they dismissed Jesus and friend. I pray that you aren't like that. God has made himself known through his word. This includes understanding who Jesus is and having this right in front of you. My prayer is that you don't turn a blind eye to what it says. Jesus contrasted the wise and learned with little children indicating the message he brought made sense to those without preconceived notions and to those who approach God with humility and dependence with a childlike faith. Ultimately, he was saying the condition of your heart matters more than the intellect. Intellect is not wrong, but it does not guarantee understanding God's kingdom. What does is the posture of the heart, humility, having faith like a child, faith to believe that Jesus came, died and rose to bridge the gap between us and God that was created from our sin and faith to believe that when we turn towards him, we receive his gift of eternal life. Now, this prayer would've been an eyeopener and a challenge for all those listening, but there's something I wanna highlight, something that allows our hearts to stay in the needed posture of humility before God. And so I just want to take you back to how Jesus started this prayer. This is what he says, I praise you Father Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus started this prayer with praise, is honoring God because of who he is and because of his acts, it's acknowledging his supremacy and authority in our lives. Praise states that he is God and we are not that he is strong and we are weak. And praise toward God is woven all throughout the Bible. It involves both personal and corporate prayers. There's musical expression, singing exhortation, exaltation, literary expressions, and worship for God's character. He's praised for his righteousness, his faithfulness, his goodness, his covenant keeping nature, his steadfast love. He's praised for sending Jesus. In fact, there's a whole host of angels praising God when Jesus was born. Now the book of Psalms in the Old Testament, it's kinda like in the middle of your Bible, is ultimately a book of praise. And throughout it we read things like this, praise God because he is our hope and salvation, praise God.'cause he is holy and his name is great. Praise him because he is righteous and his law is good. Praise him because of his wonderful works and his unending love. I wanna take you to Psalm 63. The writer says this, because your love is better than life. My lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live and in your name, I will lift up my hands. I will be satisfied. As with the richest of foods with singing lips, my mouth will praise you. Not sure if you caught that line. The writer said, I will praise you as long as I live. You know one of the best things you can do for your prayer life is to learn how to regularly and consistently praise God. Remember, it's often the thing no one sees that bring the results. Everyone wants to learn how to pray better. We must learn how to praise better. And you know, when I was young, someone once told me that a really good way to approach prayer is by remembering the word acts, which is an acronym that stands for adoration, confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. The first part of that sequence, excuse is adoration or praise. So it makes sense to start your prayers with praise. And so I wanna give you three things that will help you learn how to praise better. There's more, okay? But these three I believe are worth noting. And the first one is this, praise is not a feeling but a choice. Church, here's a reality. You're not always gonna feel like praising God. Life scenarios, life's difficulties. They can hammer us, we can be hurt, we can be down, we can be jaded, we can be sad. But praise isn't circumstantial. Praise is chosen. And one of the best examples we have in the Bible is when these two guys called Paul and Silas were put in prison for telling others about Jesus, this is what we actually read. It says this about midnight. Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. They were praising and the other prisoners were listening to them. Now these guys had every reason in the book to be discouraged. And yet while bound in stocks, they chose to praise God. And you can't tell me that came easy. That wasn't their first inclination. And so hope said, you don't matter what is going on in our life, it is our choice to praise or not. It's not based on how we feel. It's based on what we know is real. And that is we have a God who hasn't changed. Even if our situation has. Think about you coming to church maybe even today. You don't always feel like praising. Listen, I don't always feel like praising either. Some weeks there are things going on that I would rather not praise. And to top it off, I do this service four times a weekend. But no matter what my week has been like when we start singing, you know what I choose to do? I choose to raise my hands and praise God because it's not about what I feel. And here's why this matters. When we praise, we shift our focus from our problems to God's power. Do you hear that? We shift our focus when we praise from our problems to God's power and this transforms our hearts, it transforms our minds. It replaces heaviness with joy. And maybe you've experienced that before, during worship you you felt your heart change. Maybe for the first time in a long time you felt a little lighter like you can make it through, you can carry on. Maybe you even cried in worship. Why is that? Because praise shifts your focus from the problem and puts it toward a God who is all powerful. King David wrote it this way in the Psalms, praise the Lord my soul and all my inmost being praised this holy name, praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals our all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. Here David is telling himself literally to praise the Lord. He's choosing praise above all. He's also giving himself some reasons why everything that is within him will praise the Lord. And that is a choice that supersedes what is going on. It supersedes feelings, supersedes circumstances, situations, dilemmas and fears. Praise chooses amidst all those things to say, bless the Lord my soul and all that is within me. Praise His holy name. Listen to how, how the prophet Isaiah put it. He said, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me to be bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. The oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, a garment of praise, meaning praise is something that you put on with praise you can put on joy in your life. Instead of carrying around a spirit of despair, praise changes. It transforms us. That's why in Psalm 150, which by the way is the last chapter in the book of Psalms, 150 chapters of praise, even the laments in this book, one third of them are laments. They also include elements of praise. And as this book comes to an end, it builds to this remarkable crescendo of praise and the whole world is summoned to praise God. You wanna know the last words of this book? You wanna know what they say? Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. This is a command. If you've got breath in your lungs, praise 'em. It doesn't matter how you feel. So that's the first thing I want to tell you. Praise is not a feeling but a choice. Secondly, praise brings us into God's presence. Psalm 100 says it this way, enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Praise acts like a gateway to the presence of God. So here's the deal, man, if you feel like God is absent, not present and you have a hard time recognizing what he's doing, praise his name. If you feel like you're distant and you can't hear him, praise his name. If you feel like you've gone way too long without spending time in his presence, praise his name. It's like the song we just sang. Come on my soul. Don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song 'cause you've got a line inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. Like when you feel like God is distant, absent, quiet and your heart feels cold and jaded, friend, get up and praise the Lord. Praise is the threshold into the presence of God. And when we are in his presence, he brings fullness of joy, peace, life, and hope. Psalm 16 says it this way, I will praise the Lord who counsels me. You make known to me the path of life. You fill me with what joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand. And so if you are lacking joy, if you are feeling like you have no hope or peace in your life, let me tell you, get up and praise the Lord. Because when you do, we're ushered into God's presence and he fills us with those very things. That's why scripture tells us the joy of the Lord is our strength. So praise is not a feeling but a choice. Praise brings us into God's presence. And thirdly, praise is a weapon against the enemy. Friends, listen, there's an enemy of your soul. His name is Satan, or as Jesus once called them thief, he comes to steal, kill and destroy. Steal your joy, kill your ambition, and ultimately destroy your life. Praise is a weapon against the enemy. It helps you fight your battles in the spiritual. And how can I say this? There was a moment as recorded in the Bible, in the life of Judah where three nations had banded together and were coming to attack him. You can read about this in the Old Testament book of two Chronicles chapter 20. The king at that time was a king by the name of Phat. And this is how he responded when he found out that news, it says it's alarmed. No kidding, right? Phat resolved to inquire of the Lord and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord. Indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. And so we read that everyone gathered literally the men, their wives, their children, their infants, everyone stood together before the Lord. And then the Lord spoke to them through an individual by the name of Al. And this is what he said to the people, do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours but god's. And so the next day as Judah approaches the battle lines and they see this vast army in front of them three different nations, instead of freaking out, this is what the king did. Let me read this. Pha appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness. As they went out at the head of the army saying, give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever as they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of am. Amen. And Moab and Mount Sr. Who were invading Judah and they were defeated. Praise is a weapon against the enemy in your life. And here's the thing, you don't even know what God can do in the spiritual realm or what God is doing When you start to praise our role is to praise God. His role is to take care of the battle. So praise is not just worship, it's warfare against the evil one, against the schemes that try and take your life out. Praise can confuse the enemy and bring victory. And remember the words that were spoken over Judah that day, and I wanna speak them over you hope city. The battle is not yours but God's the battle belongs to the Lord, but it can only belong to him when we are in a posture of surrendering it to him. And praise puts us in that posture. Praise takes the hardest challenges, your moments of tension and hands them over to God releases them. And so friends, do not be discouraged. Do not be afraid. Do not doubt whatever you are facing, whatever feels like a battle. And it could be that loss, it could be that diagnosis, it could be that want, it could be that need, that relational struggle. Listen, the battle belongs to the Lord. Don't get weighed down by it, rather praise God. And in those moments you're gonna notice it not only strengthens your faith, but it becomes a weapon. See, most of you pray regularly, but do most of you praise regularly? Make praise a habit, not just a moment. In church, you know, most mornings when I wake up, I put on my worship playlist, I put my earbuds in and I do that while I'm exercising and I'm praising the Lord. Maybe for you it's gonna be while you're commuting to work in the morning. And listen man, who cares what people think. If you're singing at the top of your lungs at a red light, who cares? Find ways to put praise into your schedule. Make it a part of your prayers. Do the things that no one sees that brings the results. Everyone wants to learn how to pray better. We must learn how to praise better'cause remember, praise is not a feeling but a choice. Praise brings us into God's presence. And praise is a weapon against the enemy. And in a moment across all our campuses, I'm gonna ask you to do just that, to praise. Maybe you're like, yeah, Phil, but I don't feel like it. I don't care. Tell yourself to get up and praise the Lord. Maybe you're sensing distance and separation from God. Praise will bring you into his presence. Maybe you're fighting a battle and you haven't surrendered it to him. Praise is your weapon. But before I do that, I wanna read you something by Linda Schubert called a litany of praise. It's the reasons why we praise in the first place. Praise you, Jesus. You are my life, my love. Praise you, Jesus. You are the name above all names. Praise you Jesus. You are Emmanuel God with us. Praise you Jesus. You are are the king of kings. Praise you Jesus. You are the king of creation. Praise you Jesus. You are the king of the universe. Praise you Jesus. You are the Lord of Lords. Praise you, Jesus. You are the Almighty. Praise you. Jesus. You are the Christ. Praise you. Jesus. You are the lamb of God. Praise you Jesus. You are the lion of Judah. Praise you. Jesus. You are the bright morning star. Praise you Jesus. You are the champion and the shield. Praise you Jesus. You are our strength and our song. Praise you Jesus. You are the way. Praise you Jesus. You are the only truth. Praise you Jesus. You are the wonderful counselor. Praise you Jesus. You are the prince of peace. Praise you Jesus. You are the light of the world. Praise you Jesus. You are the living word. And church, I'm only getting started. Praise you Jesus. You are our redeemer. Praise you Jesus. You are the Messiah. Praise you Jesus. You are the anointed one. Praise you Jesus. You are the holy one of Israel. Praise you. Jesus. You are the good shepherd. Praise you Jesus. You are the Lord of hosts. Praise you Jesus. You are the rock of ages. Praise you Jesus. You are my hiding place. Praise you Jesus. You are the savior of the world. Praise you Jesus. You are the strong tower. Praise you Jesus. You are the mountain refuge. Praise you Jesus. You are the bread of life. Praise you Jesus. You are the living water. Praise you Jesus. You are the true by crazy Jesus. You are my maker. Crazy Jesus. You are my fortress. Crazy Jesus, you are my deliverer. Crazy Jesus, you are my victory. Crazy Jesus. You are my salvation. Crazy Jesus. You are my righteousness. Crazy Jesus. You are my wisdom. Crazy Jesus, you are my sanctification. Crazy Jesus, you are my justification. Crazy Jesus. You are the great. I am crazy Jesus. You are the cornerstone. Crazy Jesus, you are the sure foundation. Crazy Jesus, you are our joy. Crazy Jesus. You are my portion of my cup. Crazy Jesus, you are my healing. And Holman crazy Jesus, you are the promise of the Father. Crazy Jesus, you are the everlasting one. Crazy Jesus. You are the most high God. Crazy Jesus. You are the lamb that was slain. And I've got more crazy Jesus. You are the just judge. Crazy Jesus. You are the mighty warrior. Crazy Jesus. You are my defense. Crazy Jesus. You are the bride group. Crazy Jesus. You are the solid reality. Crazy Jesus. You are my provider. Crazy Jesus. You are the resurrection and the life. Praise Jesus. You are the alpha and the Omega. Praise Jesus. You are the beginning and the end. Praise Jesus. You are all that I need. Praise Jesus. You are all that I want. Praise Jesus. You are worthy of all praise.- Yes, hope city.- We got a reason to praise the Lord. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. And so across all our campuses, we're gonna sing the song. And I want you to sing it at the top of your lungs. I want you to praise the Lord when we sing, it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. Let sing it together. Come on church,- Let's praise. We- Our- We. Yes our. Yeah.- Let- Again- Love our praise in- We just in a moment, a moment here. All the- Earth will shout your praise.- Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing. Raise arms.- You Lord,- We're all the earth in this place this morning right now. And so let's sing it to him. All the earth will shout your praise- In all the come. Let the name of the Lord let the name of the Lord- In our our we pour our your in pour. We pour our in love,- Man.- We got one more song. And as we sing it, I'm gonna ask you to raise the roof in this place. Why? 'cause praise is not a feeling. Praises the choice. Praise brings us into God's presence. And praise is a weapon against the enemy. And so hope city, I want to encourage you to praise the Lord in this song. And listen man, if you've never raised your hands in a song, can I encourage you to do just that? If you've never lifted your voice, come on man. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Let's go church- In the valley and on the mountain. I praise when I'm sure and praise when I, and praise when surrounded. Praise is as I'm breathing,- I've- Got a reason to- Pray. The Lord- Soul.- Praise the Lord- Oh my- Soul.- Praise when I feel it and I'll when I join, I praise because I know that you're still in control.- Because- My praise is some more than a sound. Hold my praise, the- That brings.- So as long as I'm breathing,- I Lord the Lord, soul. Soul inside. Inside won't.- Yeah. See, that's what I'm talking about. Praise fills you with joy. Praise brings you into the presence of God. And some of you fought some really big battles right now in that praise. That's what it does. Let me pray over you. God, I thank you that your word is so adamantly clear that we are to exalt you, to lift you to praise your name. And I thank you that as we do, it changes us, as we exalt you, as we declare who you are. We inside of our own hearts and lives are not only transformed, but we are changed. And we know God, that you are sovereign and in control. And so, Lord, I just pray over Hope City. May we be a church that praises the name of Jesus. May we be a church that lifts you up, not just on Sunday, but on Monday through Saturday, that we understand what it means to praise the Lord with all that is within me. We will bless your holy name. And so I pray for some of those who feel like you've been distant in their life today. God may praise enter their life and may they know God that you will meet them. I pray for some of those who are walking through some really deep hard battles. God, may they see the praise of you as the weapon to fight. And so God, may we move forward. May we praise you in and through all things you know. And maybe you're joining us here today and you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus said it earlier, friend Jesus went to the cross to die for your sins. He rose and he offers you life, both now and forever. And all we have to do is make the best decision of our life, which is to choose to believe upon him and follow him. And so if that's something you want to do, if you sense a, you know something inside you going, yeah, I, I need to make that decision. That's the Holy Spirit drawing you. And I'm gonna pray a prayer. It's just gonna help you put into words the beginning of that decision. If that's you, I'd love to pray with you and for you. Let's pray. Jesus, today I see my need for you. And so I ask you to come into my life. I thank you for going to the cross, for dying for my sins. I thank you for rising and offer me life and hope both now and forever. And so today I choose to put my faith in you, my trust in you, I believe in you, and I ask you to be Lord and leader of my life. Help me to follow you. Help me to know what it means to have a dynamic and personal relationship with you. And so I thank you that I get the chance to do this. And Lord, I pray over every individual, over couple and every family. I ask that as they go into this week, may they not only sense your nearness, your guidance, your grace and your strength. Holy Spirit, I pray that you cover them, surround them and empower them. But I pray that in whatever they do, may they lift their eyes to the heavens. May they say, yes, I will praise the name of the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, praise His holy name. And so I pray that that is a posture of their life and not just a point in time. So I pray this over and for these incredible people here at Hope City. Amen. Amen. You know, if you prayed that prayer of surrendering your life to Christ this morning, I wanna say way to go, I'm gonna ask you to scan the QR code that's coming up on the screen. We have a digital booklet. We'd love to get inside of your hands, talk a little bit more about knowing and following. Jesus helps us connect with you'cause we'd love to know you personally as well. If you're joining us in person at the Millwood campus here, we're gonna have a prayer team down at your front left. And if you want prayer over anything, they would love to pray with you. Hope city before you go, let me say this. As you go into this week, pray about anything and everything. But first, take the time to praise the Lord. I promise you it's gonna change your life. Thank you for being here today. Love you guys, praying for you. Have a great Sunday.