The Power of Prayer

9/04/22

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Sermon Transcript

Good morning. Jordan’s Stormy Banks. I feel like we’re on that bank looking across toward our promised building next week. It’s a good song. Today’s our final Sunday before we meet in our new building, and I think, you know, as we anticipate that long-planned move, the world that surrounds us, both here and when we’re in that new building.

You know, our location is about to change. Our mission is not changing. Our mission remains the same, to proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world, to go into all the world teaching, baptizing. So what can we say about that world that surrounds us?

Well, I think what we can say is that the world is in a mess. I don’t think I’m going to get much argument on that point this morning. You look around us, we’ve got a global pandemic, we’ve got fires, we’ve got floods, we’ve got famines, we’ve got wars, actual, threatened, involving superpowers, we’ve got economic uncertainty, inflation, recession, we’ve got riots, we’ve got unrest, we’ve got lawlessness, we’ve got crime, we’ve got immorality, and worse, the normalization of immorality. We’ve got religious confusion, we’ve got religious persecution. In short, it seems sometimes that the world around us is unraveling. The world is truly in a mess, what can we do about it? That is our question this morning.

What can we do about it? Well some say we should vote and I agree we should vote, but who do we vote for when when Nero is running against Caligula? And if we’re trusting in politicians to fix this problem, then I suggest that trust is badly misplaced.

Others say that our task, like Daniel, who we study in our Bible class this morning, and Joseph, our task is like them to just remain faithful and true to God in the midst of this pagan culture, and that is absolutely true. We must do that. If we’re ever going to reach the world with the good news of Christ, we must remain faithful and true to Christ ourselves. Absolutely.

There are many things we could do, many things we should do, many things we must do, but But I want to look this morning at one thing, one important thing that we can do and that we must do. One thing that this world cannot do without and that we cannot do without. What I have in mind has the power to overcome those seemingly insurmountable problems in this world. And it’s something we can do anywhere and at any time. In fact, it’s something we’ve been commanded to do everywhere and at every time. And I imagine you’re probably ahead of me by now. I want to talk this morning about prayer. And I want us to look at 10 facts from the Bible about prayer.

If we want to change things in this world that surrounds us then prayer can do that. E.M. Bounds wrote many books on prayer. I’m going to quote him a couple of times this morning but he said, “Men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.” So let’s look at what God has to tell us about prayer.

Fact number one, prayer is central to being a child of God. Central. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, “Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes to face to face with God.” Prayer is not something just on the edge of being a child of God. Prayer is right at the center.

Don’t we see that in the Bible? We look to the Old Testament, we see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel, the other great heroes of faith. We see how important prayer was to them. Daniel was nearly executed over his insistence on regularly praying to God. And of course Jesus is our perfect example when it comes to prayer in all things. Remember When Jesus tossed out those money changers, what did He tell them? Matthew 21:13, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’” A house of prayer. And what did Jesus do as the cross approached? Hebrews 5:7, “He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death.” What did the apostles do afterward? Acts 1:14, they continued with one accord in prayer, supplication.

Prayer is central to being a child of God. Why? Because God is our Father and our Father wants to hear from us. Our Father wants us to come to Him with our requests and our petitions and our problems and our concerns, with our praise, with our gratitude. And God knows how important prayer is for his children. God knows the benefits that come from prayer. God knows we are at war. We are wrestling with the powers of this world. God knows the importance of prayer in that struggle. Someone has rightly said that most struggles in a Christian’s life circle around two themes. Why God doesn’t act the way I want God to act and why I don’t act the way God wants me to act. And prayer is precisely where those two themes meet. So our first fact about prayer is that prayer is central to being a child of God.

And our second fact is related to that. Our second fact about prayer is that prayer is a requirement for a child of God. No one who reads the epistles of Paul can ever doubt how important prayer was to Paul. We see it all throughout his letters. And what did Paul command about prayer? 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray everywhere.” Paul tells us to pray all the time and to pray everywhere. That is a requirement for a Christian.

John Bunyan was very, very brief, but pointed on that issue. He said, “Thou art not a Christian that art not a praying person.” J.C. Reilly said, “I once thought in my ignorance that most people said their prayers and many people prayed. I have live to think differently. I have come to the conclusion that the great majority of professing Christians do not pray at all.” How sad. Prayer is not an optional activity for a child of God. It is a required activity. It is a commanded activity. Luke 18:1, “Men ought always to pray.” We must always be going to God in prayer. We must pray without ceasing.

Well, how often do I have to pray to be praying without ceasing? Jesus again is our perfect example. Jesus prayed regularly, Jesus prayed often, Jesus went to a solitary place to pray. Matthew 14:23, “And when he had sent the multitudes away he went up into a mountain apart to pray. He was there alone.” Luke 9:28, “It came to pass about eight days after these sayings he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray.” That is what it means to pray without ceasing. Prayer must pervade my life. Prayer must be a central activity in my life. Prayer must be a planned activity, a purposeful activity in my life. It can’t just occupy the margin. It can’t just be brief and sporadic. It must be planned.

And there can be no excuse not to pray to God, none. Some say, “Well, I don’t feel like praying.” The command is to pray without ceasing. We must pray whether we feel like it or we don’t feel like it. And you know what? The more you pray, the more you’ll feel like praying. And when I don’t feel like praying, isn’t that when I need to pray the most? Some say, “Well, I don’t know how to pray.” The command is to pray without ceasing and Jesus taught us how to pray. Model prayer. Good starting point on praying to God. “Well, I don’t understand how prayer works.” Command is to pray without ceasing. And if I’m waiting to understand all I need, all about prayer before I start praying, then I’m never going to start praying. We’re always learning more about prayer, the power of prayer. We know all about prayer that we need to know about prayer to start praying. We know that we’ve been commanded to do it. We know that God has promised to hear it and we know that God has promised to move Mountains in response to our prayers. What more do we need to know than that?

Others might say, “Well, you know, I just end up repeating the same thing over and over when I pray. What good does that do?” The command is to pray without ceasing. And for those who are worried about repetition in prayer, there is nothing wrong with repetition in prayer. The problem comes from Luke 18 when that repetition becomes a vain repetition. That’s Matthew 6:7. But Luke 18, I think, tells us that repetition is encouraged. Luke 18:7, “And shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him though He bear long with them?” There’s nothing wrong with making the same request to God every time we pray if that repetition is not a vain repetition. It’s made with sincerity, purpose, earnestness. Nothing wrong with repeating ourselves in our prayers.

Others might say, “Well, I just don’t get much out of prayer. My mind wanders. Prayer’s boring.” We could go on and on with the excuses, but the command is clear, “Pray without ceasing.” The question is whether we’re going to obey that command. There’s no good excuse not to pray. All Christians are expected to have regular, faithful, devoted, fervent prayers to God and the first step to having a prayer life like that is to pray. And as with most things, we’ll get better the more we do it. Prayerlessness has been called the worst sin. And isn’t it the worst sort of pride? Isn’t it the worst sort of self-sufficiency that “I don’t need anything from you, God? I can do it on my own. I don’t need to show you any gratitude.” But the more we pray, the more we’ll recognize the emptiness of those excuses, and the more we’ll recognize that that is part of Satan’s plan to keep us from praying. I like what Samuel Chadwick said on that. He said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless works, and prayerless religion. Satan laughs at our toil, he mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.”

But why does Satan fear prayer so much? I think it’s because because Satan knows the next fact about prayer. Fact number three, prayer is powerful. Prayer is powerful. That’s why Satan fears it. And you know what? Prayer would have to be powerful if it’s gonna combat the problems we’re facing in this world. And it is powerful. How powerful is prayer? Prayer, according to God’s will, can do anything that God can do. That’s how powerful it is. You know, Mary, Queen of Scots famously said, “I fear John Knox’s prayers more than any army of 10,000 men.” If we ever begin to doubt the power of prayer, then I think that’s the surest sign we have not been praying as we should. Because anyone who is constant in prayer understands the power of prayer. Why? Because they’ve seen it with their own eyes. They understand the power of prayer. They’ve seen it. They’ve experienced it. And the more I pray personally, the more we collectively pray as the body of Christ, the more powerful prayer becomes.

Over and over again in the Bible, we see God’s people collectively turning to him in prayer, collectively going to him. And we see God acting in response to those prayers from his people. Godless nations and evil leaders are judged and removed in response to the prayers of God’s people over and over again in the Bible. Again quoting Bounds, he said, “God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.” God works in response to our prayers. We should never doubt the power of prayer. God knows the power of prayer. Satan knows the power of prayer. Do we know the power of prayer?

I think one reason we may sometimes doubt the power of prayer is we kind of see it as just a passive activity. We don’t see it as active, as action. It seems sometimes it’s just something we kind of do as a last resort. We’ve tried everything else, why not give prayer a try? Wouldn’t hurt. Is that the example of prayer we find in the Bible? In the Bible we see prayer is the first thing God’s people do, not the last thing, and we see those prayers as a battlefield. Ephesians 6:12, read a moment ago, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world.” We are wrestling. We are at war. Hebrews 5:7, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Does that sound like a passive activity? Someone once said the greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray. You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you can’t do more than pray until you’ve prayed. Prayer is where the action is. It’s not a passive activity.

And that leads us to our next fact about prayer, fact number four. Prayer is rebellious. Now that may sound like an odd description of prayer, but it’s an accurate description. Prayer is one of the most rebellious actions anyone can do, but of course it is not rebellion against God. Prayer is rebellion against this world, the things of this world, and the prince of this world. Karl Barth said, “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” Prayer is rebellion against secularism. Prayer is rebellion against humanism, prayer is rebellion against hedonism, prayer is rebellion against materialism, prayer is rebellion against the status quo. When we are praying, we are swimming upstream against the tides of this world and this culture.

When we go to God in prayer, we’re reminding the world that the world is not in charge. When we go to God in prayer, we are reminding the world that the world will not have the final word. When we go to God and prayer, we are reminding the world that the world is not all there is. When we go to God in prayer, we’re reminding the world that the world is not eternal, the world is temporary. Instead, when we go to God in prayer, we are doing as 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “We are not looking at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen, things which are eternal.” When I close my eyes in prayer, I am looking at the things which are not seen, the eternal, and I am closing my eyes to that which is seen, the temporary. When I raise my hands to God in prayer, I am shaking my fist at this world and the ways of this world and the prince of this world. My prayer to God is a rebellion against ungodliness and worldliness.

But if praying to God is a rebellion against this world, what can I say if I fail to pray? What I can say is that I’ve thrown in the towel, that I’ve told the world, “you win”, that I put a smile on Satan’s face. Prayer is the engine on our boat that keeps us moving in the right direction. As soon as I quit praying, I start drifting. Paul explains how power is rebellion in the passage we heard earlier from Ephesians 6:12. If you keep on going down after Paul talks about wrestling with the principalities and powers of this world and putting on the whole armor of God, we get to verse 18 and we read, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” That wrestling back in verse 12, Ephesians 6, that wrestling occurs in verse 18 when we’re praying. We show the rulers of the darkness of this world that we know the true ruler. We show them that we have not been taken in by their deception. Alan Redpath said, “Much of our praying is just asking God to bless some folks that are ill and to keep us plugging along, but prayer is not prattle.”

So far we’ve seen that prayer is central, prayer is required, prayer is powerful, prayer is rebellion against this world. What’s next? Number five, prayer is a responsibility, a responsibility for a child of God. We have a responsibility to pray. Why? Because the world needs our prayers, because we need our prayers. James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” But what if that righteous man fails to pray as he should or what if his prayers are not effectual or fervent? We have a great responsibility to pray as God has commanded us to pray and we should all be striving to pray those effectual fervent prayers that accomplish much. Many are depending upon us to do that.

All throughout the Bible we see God acting on behalf of his people in response to their prayers. The liberation from Egyptian bondage, it happened in response to their prayers, Deuteronomy 4:7. The liberation of God’s people from Babylonian captivity, it happened in response to their prayers, Daniel 9:17. The victory of God’s people over Roman persecution happened in response to prayers. Revelation 6:10. God has promised to move mountains for us, but what causes God to do that? Our prayers. Our prayers. We are the reason those mountains are moved. In fact, so much so that we are the ones shown as moving them. Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place,’ and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Of course it is God who moves that mountain, but we are the ones who ask that it be moved.

Could God deliver his people without any prayers from them asking for that deliverance? Yes, God could do that. Does God deliver his people without any prayers from them asking for that deliverance? You’ll be hard-pressed to find that in the Bible. In many ways, God has chosen to act in this world through his faithful people. In fact, we are the body of Christ. Does it surprise us that Christ uses his body to act in this world? What am I saying? What I’m saying is that we limit God when we fail to pray as we should. If we never ask for that mountain to be moved with our prayer of faith, then where in the Bible is the verse that tells us God will move it anyway? If we’re oppressed, if we’re persecuted, if we’re surrounded on all sides, then we need to start praying. That’s the example of Scripture, and we see God moving mountain after mountain in response to such prayers from his people.

But it must be a prayer of faith. Jesus said in Matthew 17, “If ye have faith, it’s a grain of mustard seed.” What is a prayer of faith? A prayer of faith is praying for rain and then carrying an umbrella. That’s a prayer of faith. The prayer of faith believes in the promises of God, the prayer of faith believes in the power of God, the prayer of faith trusts God and trusts in the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God. That’s a prayer of faith and if we ever fail to receive a deliverance from God the reason may be very simple. James 4:2-3, “Ye have not because you ask not.” We have a responsibility to prayer. It is our great responsibility. God is standing by to move mountains, to fling open doors for us. But we must pray in faith, and when we do we should ask big. Is there any mountain God can’t move? Is there any door God can’t open?

Our new building is a great open door for us, isn’t it? And we should be praying We will be using it wisely and effectively. The world desperately needs our prayers. I like what Spurgeon said on that point. He said if sinners be damned at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

Fact number six, prayer promotes patience. Patience. I love Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” That verse is the beginning of all prayer, isn’t it? And it’s a verse about patience. “Be still and know that I am God.” We looked at 1 Thessalonians 5:17 already, pray without ceasing. What did Paul say three verses earlier? “Be patient toward all men.” Our prayer to God promotes that patience that Paul commands. Patience is often linked with prayer in the Bible. Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heard my cry.” Romans 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.” James 1:4-5, “But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” Patience and prayer go together. Patience and prayer go together. At the heart of all prayers, reliance on God. At the heart of all impatience is reliance on ourselves. By turning to God in prayer, we promote patience in our own lives. If we are impatient, the solution begins with prayer. “Be still and know that I am God,” God says. When we pray, we’re getting back on God’s timeline. And the more we pray, the less hurried, the less anxious we will be. 1 Peter 5:6-7, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. That is the God whom we pray.

Fact number seven, prayer promotes growth. Growth. Prayer is perhaps the surest indicator of either my spiritual maturity or my spiritual immaturity. Someone once said, “To discover the real you, look at what you spend time thinking about when no one is looking, when nothing is forcing you to think about anything in particular. At such moments, do your thoughts go toward God?” Jesus tells us our private prayer life is a test of our spiritual integrity. Rather than looking at what men can see, Jesus looks at what no one sees, what we’re doing. Matthew 6:6, going, shutting that door, praying in secret. What we do when others are looking is not always a good test of what we’re like but what we’re doing when no one is looking that tells us who we really are. If we want to grow spiritually we should start with our prayer life. No one can be or long remain a spiritually mature Christian without a healthy and vibrant prayer life. When a problem arises in my life, what do I do first? Do I take it to God in prayer or do I just try to handle it all myself? And what am I asking for? Just things related to my own personal comfort or am I focused on the bigger issues? The issues that can’t be solved except by someone who can move mountains. How I answer those questions tells me a lot about my spiritual maturity. The more I pray, the more I will grow. The less I pray, the less I will grow.

Fact number eight, prayer promotes faithfulness. Faithfulness. You know, I think we probably all know people who were once faithful Christians but who are not any longer faithful Christians. People who have walked away from Christ, people who have turned their back on the Word of Christ, people who have turned their back on the Church of Christ. You know, if we could ask those backsliders whether they could trace the starting point, “When did that start? When did that backsliding start?” What do you think they would say if asked that question? They ceased to pray as they should. Perhaps even pointing to a time when they just stopped praying or you know maybe because of neglect or maybe because of some event in their life that made them doubt prayer and the power of prayer. It’s hard to imagine anyone who prays without ceasing and backslides at the same time, isn’t it? That’s just hard to imagine. And likewise, it’s hard to imagine a backslider who continues to pray without ceasing. Those things just don’t go together. As someone once said, “A sinning man stops praying. A praying man stops sinning.” And we could also ask them when, at what point in time did that backsliding occur? You know it almost certainly began long before it became apparent to us. I mean we look around and we don’t see them here anymore and we think, “Well maybe they’ve begun to backslide,” and maybe they have but that probably started long before we noticed it. When did it start? As someone once said, “People are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly.” I also liked what Corrie Ten Boom said. She said, “When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.” The first thing, perhaps the best thing we can do to avoid backsliding, is to continue praying to God as we should, to let prayer pervade our lives, to pray without ceasing, to pray at all times and everywhere.

Fact number nine, prayer requires time, requires time. “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care, bids me at my father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and often escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return sweet hour of prayer.” Is that us? Do we enjoy a sweet hour of prayer or is it more like a sweet 30 seconds of prayer? Now there’s nothing wrong with a short prayer, nothing wrong at all. In fact, the model prayer in Matthew 6 is a short prayer. But if all my prayers are short, then that might have a problem, because the example of Christ shows us both long prayers and short prayers. Luke 6:12, Jesus continued all night in prayer to God. “Sweet hour of prayer,” that song has it right. Prayer requires time. Oswald Smith said, “Oh how few find time for prayer.” There’s time for everything else. Time to sleep and time to eat, time to read the newspaper and the novel, time to visit friends, time for everything else under the sun, but no time for prayer, the most important of all things, the one great essential. Prayer should be done regularly and persistently and resolutely and tenaciously.

Many people, I think, treat God like their lawyer. His phone doesn’t ring until they’re in trouble. But don’t just pray when you feel like it. We should have an appointment with God and we should keep it regularly. If we’re too busy to pray, then we’re too busy. And perhaps that’s the best indicator we’ve allowed this world to take precedence over God, if we’re too busy to pray. Psalm 63:1, “O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.” We can find time to pray, as we should. That should be our attitude when it comes to prayer. Time is one of God’s greatest gifts. How are we using that gift? Maybe we’re praying but just not praying to God. Maybe we’re praying to the false gods that speak to us from glowing screens. Maybe they have our devotion in our time. Are we going to God in prayer or are we going to Google? That’s a hard message to hear but it’s a message we all need to consider seriously. We live in an age of constant distraction. Prayer is the thing pulling us in the opposite direction. It’s our lifeline.

I started this particular fact by quoting a favorite song. Let me end this fact by quoting another favorite song. “Take time to be holy. Speak oft with thy Lord. Abide in him always and feed on his word, make friends with God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing his blessings to seek. Take time to be holy. The world rushes on. Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus like him thou shalt be, thy friends in thy conduct his likeness shall see.”

Prayer requires time. Our final fact about prayer this morning is fact number 10. Prayer requires Bible study. We cannot pray as we should if we don’t study God’s Word as we should. Prayer is part of a two-way conversation, and the other half of that conversation comes from our study of the Word of God. We did not come into this world knowing how to talk. Instead, we were all spoken to before we spoke ourselves. That’s how we learn to speak. All speech is answering speech, and God was the first speaker. The Bible provides the vocabulary of prayer. If we don’t know what to say in prayer, that’s probably an indication that we’re not spending enough time in the Word of God. There’s a great promise to us in the book of 1 John, 1 John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” But how do I know if I’m asking according to his will? There’s only one way for me to know that. I must know God’s will. And there’s only one way for me to know God’s will as to open up his word and to study his word. Without an immersion into God’s word, our prayers will be limited, our prayers will be shallow. And so if our prayers are limited and shallow, the first thing we need to do is open up the Bible. Quoting Bounds again, “The word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed and by which things are mightily moved.” And there is nothing wrong with quoting the Bible in your prayers. In our Bible class this morning, we’re studying the book of Daniel and we saw Daniel do that very thing in his beautiful prayer in Daniel chapter nine. There is nothing wrong with quoting the Bible in our prayers to God. I’ve heard some say, “Well, we don’t need to remind God about something he wrote. He already knows that.” Let me tell you something. If I can only pray to God about things God doesn’t know about, I’m not going to have much I can pray about. You know, other religious groups have these special little prayer books. We do, too. It’s called the Bible. The Bible is our prayer book, and we should use it that way. We should use it that way.

We looked at ten facts about prayer. Prayer is central. Prayer is required. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is a rebellion against this world. Prayer is a responsibility. Prayer promotes patience. Prayer promotes growth, promotes faithfulness. It requires time. It requires Bible study. We must, must, must be a praying people.

Yes, prayer is powerful, but can prayer save you? Many today in the denominational world would answer yes to that question. What does the Bible say? Cornelius in Acts chapter 10:2 prayed to God always, and that prayer was heard, Acts 10:3. But God sent Peter to proclaim the gospel to Cornelius and to tell Cornelius what he needed to do. Acts 10:6, “And when Peter told him that,” Acts 10:48, “he commanded him to be baptized.” Paul then Saul likewise prayed to God after his meeting with Jesus on that road to Damascus. Acts 9:11, “And yet even after that great event,” even after praying to God following that great event, Paul was still dead in his sins when Ananias came to him and told him what he needed to do, “be baptized and wash away those sins.” Acts 22:16. Prayer alone did not save Cornelius. Prayer alone did not save Saul. And prayer alone will not save you. But if like Cornelius and if like Saul you have been praying for deliverance, you have been praying for salvation, then God is answering that prayer right now as you hear the gospel proclaimed to you from His Word. You must hear it, you must believe it, and have faith in God. You must repent of your sins, you must confess that Jesus is the Christ, you must be baptized for remission of your sins, and you must live faithfully unto death to receive the crown of life. That was the gospel in the first century, that is the gospel in any century. It’s the gospel today. And if you need to obey that gospel or you need to return to Christ, if you’ve been drifting and not praying as you should and you need to come back to Christ, to the people of Christ, please come while we stand and while we sing.