Pastor Ed's Sermon on Prayer

Sermon 1-3-10

Last week, I talked about responding to God's Christmas Gift of His Son Jesus, and ways that we could go deeper in our faith and Christian Walk.

Today we'll be talking about prayer – the title of this message is and let me ask the question Are you a prayer warrior? How many here consider themselves prayer warriors? You probably are asking – what is that, what do you mean? What I'm talking about is having a more powerful, effective prayer life.

I know we're all carrying burdens and concerns as we come in this morning, but we'll be talking about the very thing that can ease those burdens – which is why it is so imprtant.

I want to take a fresh look at prayer this morning – to look at what the scriptures say about it. Then, I'll summarize some attributes of a strong prayer life – the life of a prayer warrior, and finally we'll look at a powerful answer to prayer in my own life.

There is a stunning picture of Jesus that appears in the Bible not once but twice.

We're used to the soft, gentle picture of the Baby in the Manger.

We're used to the Jesus who lifts the sheep up on his shoulders as he brings him home.

We see Jesus saying let the children come to me.

We see Jesus healing people and showing great compassion for them.

We see Jesus on the cross and we behold that scene with reverence.

But the scene described in Mark and John 2 don't seem to fit.

I'll read the account from Mark 11:

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said: Is it not written – my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers.

The interesting part of this story is that the merchants were just doing their job to provide the essential services for the worshippers. But they were gouging them with the prices. They weren't doing their services with the right spirit. Jesus said out with you!

Jesus was saying – the purpose of this place is prayer, not a place to make a buck.

He didn't say, my Father's house is a house of preaching, or a house of music. All of these, preaching, music, reading of scripture, fellowship are important, but they don't override the church's primary purpose, which is prayer.

The scriptures say one day, after Jesus finished praying, his disciples asked him to teach them to pray.

Did they say, teach us to build church progams? Did they ask for teaching them to as to which songs to play?

No, they asked Him how to pray!

Jesus went on to speak the Lord's prayer, and he went right into a parable about going to a friend's house at midnight on behalf of another person to get a loaf of bread.

Picking up Luke 11:7: Then the one inside answers, Don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children are in bed with me. I can't get up and give you anything. But I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.

Jesus also told the parable of the persistent widow to show the disciples to always pray:

He describes the scene where we have an “unjust” judge who doesn't even care about God or men, and a widow who just keeps coming back saying GRANT ME JUSTICE AGAINST MY ADVERSARY.

At first he refuses, but finally, he says that even though I don't care about God or men, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me I will see that she gets justice so she won't wear me out.

Jesus said that if even an unjust judge will reward this perserverance, will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

We have three important verses concerning prayer:

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 33:2-3 This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it- the Lord is his name. Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

James 5:16 – The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Dr. AT Pierson, a Bible scholar who lived during the time of DL Moody, said:

Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both the starting point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permant progress. Whenever the church is aroused and the world's wickedness is arrested, somebody, somewhere has been praying.

E Stanley Jones, a Methodist Missionary said – I am better or worse as I pray more or less. It works for me with mathematical precision.

How we live affects how we pray and how we pray affects how we live. How many believe that?

Dick Eastman is the President of Every Home for Christ, and his organization was headquartered in Colorado Springs. I was very fortunate to discover his classes he was teaching in his “school of prayer.”

He has raised up a prayer movement called the Change the World School of Prayer that he has been teaching for more than 30 years.

When I first starting attending the classes, I was shy about praying in front of others, and I didn't think there could be so many aspects to prayer. By the time I finished attending about 15 of the training sessions, I discovered that I could pray in a variety of ways with boldness.

I wanted to give you a sampling of this teaching this morning so that:

You can be strengthened by affirming something you already know about prayer and what God is doing in your life. Or this may set in motion something new in your Christian walk.

Here are a few examples of some powerful prayer lives:

Martin Luther said that he had so much to do that he couldn't begin unless he had at least 3 hours in prayer. David Cho is pastor of the largest church in the world – it is in Seoul, Korea, and has at least 830,000 members. Cho said he has to start each day with 3.5 hrs of prayer.

Daniel had a strong prayer life:

When the decree came forward to Daniel that since he prayed to God, that he would be thrown in the lion's den, he responded the same way he also did according to Daniel 6:10. He went home to his upstair's room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he did before.

Paul prayed for followers of the early church in Ephesians 1:15-17: For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus, the glorious father, may give you the the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

And before Jesus chose his apostles – what do you think he did?

The account is in Luke 6: 1-2. Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (the whole night!) When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Here are 7 attributes, we'll call them pillars of a strong prayer life, 7 things to keep in mind to go deeper in your walk.

Pillar One: For a powerful prayer life we need both an understanding of God and prayer.

When you think of God, is there a question mark there, or an exclamation point? In other words, when you hear about God, are there a lot of questions there or do you get excited?

We have what can be called the “Big Three” of the theological descriptions of God.

The scriptures describe the Lord as being Omnipotent – He can do anything he wants to do – He's all powerful.

Psalm 115:3 says that Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him. Job 42:2 says I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

God is also omnipresent – he is everywhere.

Jeremiah 23:24 says Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and the earth? Asks the Lord. According to this simple verse, he's here now. What a beautiful thought!

We also serve an Omniscient God - all knowing –
David looked up at the stars and in Psalm 147 said You determine the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is the Lord and mighty in power, his understanding has no limit.

Science tells us that there are 40 sextillion stars. That's 40 followed by 21 zeros – everyone say wow! But we don't understand what that number is. We can write the number down, but how can we comprehend it?

It is estimated that there would be 13 libraries for each of the 6 billion people on planet earth, with a million volumes each, each volumes having 500,000 names of the stars in them. And God knows every name- so guess what, it's not a big deal for him to know yours.

How big is your God? Our concept of God should drive us to prayer because we're excited! That should affect our concept of prayer.

The result of this is that can be excited that prayer is God's power – and prayer is power - released through man's union with the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

Pillar Two: You must have a strong conviction that you must believe that prayer works. Prayer is exercising faith.

Hebrews 11:1 says that now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Zechariah 13:9 says that I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say they are my people, and they will say, the Lord is our God.

Faith is the most challenging part of our Christian walk, isn't it? Especially when things are going wrong in our lives, and we wonder is God there? We doubt. But you know, God can help us with this too – in Mark 9, we have the account of the evil spirit in the boy that was brought to Jesus. The boys father says if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

Jesus said: if you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.

The boy's father said I do believe – help me overcome my unbelief! Lord, help us to overcome our unbelief!

Here's a statement about faith – faith is reaching into nowhere, grabbing a hold of nothing, and hanging on until it becomes something.

Prayer conviction is this -something happens when I pray that does not happen when I don't. Therefore, if I have not prayed today, something has been left undone in God's kingdom that could have had an impact on my life and the lives of those who could have been touched with my prayers.

Pillar Three: A strong prayer life needs a strong prayer catalyst. A catalyst is defined as a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction but does is not consumed in the process.
Our catalyst is Jesus' name. He's our authority.

We have a passage from John 14 that sums this up- Jesus said:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

What it means to pray in Jesus' name we pray within the limits of his power, his will, and his nature. To go into everything He is.

Proverbs 18:10 says that the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

Pillar Four: The Effect prayer life needs a strong prayer confidence – we must rest completely in the integrity of God's word. The pillar is God's word.

When we bring God's word into our prayers we bring energy!

Romans 10:17 Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the words of Christ.

Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God which is at work in you who believe.

Next time you are in a prayer session, pray over a scripture verse – it adds authority and energy to your prayer! Plead the promises of God – He can't turn you down because He said it in his word! This gives us a strong prayer confidence – the more you live in the word.

Pillar Five: The effective prayer life needs a strong commitment – we must develop and maintain a regular habit of faithfulness. Our prayer habit doesn't change us – Jesus did by what He did on the cross. But we may never grown to what God has for us if we don't cultivate a good prayer habit.

Mother Teresa said God didn't call us to be successful, he called us to be faithful.

Proverbs 16:3: Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.

Psalm 145:2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.

It's good to develop a regular appointment with the Lord. It's not too late to start this! There are 96 15-minute segments in the day that we could use for prayer and scripture reading.

Regular prayer time and scripture reading are a primary indicators of our walk with Jesus – it doesn't mean we're perfect!

Psalm 55: As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice.

Pillar Six: The effective prayer life needs a strong cause. We need to pray with focus and direction.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

This verse tells us to be specific in our prayers – the church has been praying for Ezra Mann to be employed and the way the Lord answered that prayer was to move him out of the state – he recently got a job in Oklahoma.

What are the things in your prayers? What are your passions? How much of eternity is in your prayers?

And Pillar Seven: An effective prayer life will show strong concern. We must develop capacity for compassion and involvement.

This is the part of our prayer life where we intercede for others.

Matthew 14:14 says that When Jesus landed and saw such a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

I see a lot of compassion in this church. And also those going the extra mile to be answers to their own prayers.

So these are the things that can help us achieve a stronger prayer life – Understanding God, Faith that prayer works, Pray in Jesus name, Pray the Word of God, a committed habit of faithfulness, Focus and Direction in our prayers, and Concern and Compassion for others.

I pray that you will consider this list and that you will grow stronger in your prayer life.

I'd like to see everyone in this sanctuary and in our fellowship to call ourselves , not in a prideful way, but a in a confident way – to call ourselves prayer warriors!

The thing about these qualities is that anyone can do them! If you have a desire to grow in your prayer life, all you have to do is try! It's work, but the end result will be to know the Lord better!

I'll close with a story about answered prayer which occurred during our time in Colorado. I want to tell you this story to impress upon you that this can happen to anyone who has a desire to go deeper in their prayer life.

Shortly after we moved to Colorado Springs, I met a man named Mark Truty – I met him at a prayer retreat hosted by the National Day of Prayer. He has had MS for about 10 years, and his wife indicated to me that he would welcome some fellowship.

We started having lunch – he was a sports fan, so we found a great many things to talk about.

At first, he would meet me wherever he would go, but I noticed that the MS was starting to get worse, and after a while, I started to go to his house, because he couldn't get out.
Around May a year ago, he received a wheelchair from a member of church because he was having trouble walking. And he talked about the need to install a lift on his car so that he could go places. We also talked about how great it would be if he had a vehicle that would contain a lift in it.

Over the next two weeks, as we talked, and as I prayed, it seemed like God was saying “You can do something for him. I'll tell you what I would like you to do.”

During one of our lunches the idea of golf tournament came into my head – probably because I'm a golfer but I had never organized a fundraiser before. The Lord kept saying – this is what I want you to do.

So I mentioned it to Mark – to ask his permission, secretly hoping that he would say that he didn't want the attention, or something. But he said yes, and I remember leaving his house thinking, ok, I have to do this now.

But the Lord would say – I will tell you what to do. I had a peace about it.

I had to go on a business trip to Orlando in June, and Andrea said – Ok , the first thing to do is to book a course and a date. The earliest we could get at the course we wanted wasn't until October, but that seemed ok, since the weather could still be good.

My goal was 40 players, which would bring Mark around $1,500 but in the back of my mind, I was really hoping that we could somehow purchase a new vehicle. I was trying to dream big, in other words.

My first challenge was the 40 players – we had just moved there, and I didn't know anyone – how could I get that many?

And we wanted to have a raffle, so we needed prizes to auction off.

I remember laying in bed, thinking Lord help me!

Listen to what happened:

The first thing was – they had the US Senior Open that year at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and I called the USGA office requesting some of the practice balls. Usually the pros hit brand new balls each day they practice.

They ended up sending me 20 dozen balls – and Brian will appreciate this – they were brand new Titleist Pro V-1's – which retail for $4.00 a ball. So they sent me $1,000 worth of balls right off the bat.

I started checking into vehicles and there appeared a flyer at the MS Agency for a '95 GMC van with a brand new wheelchair life. It was an old van, but it only had 40K miles on it. It turns out that the couple who owned it only advertised it at the MS agency – they said that something told them not to advertise it anywhere else. (As God is my witness)

I test drove it and thought it would work but they wanted $10K for it – where would that come from?

I started getting donations from family and friends for the raffle prizes and eventually ended up with $1,800 to buy things for our baskets.

I started going door to door to get restaurants, hotels, coffee houses, bike shops anyone I could to donate. I just stayed in the north end of town and ended we ended up with 8 baskets full of certificates. People were so generous. Each basket had a retail value of at least $200.

We had things happen like this – Lindsay and I would showed up at the Outback Steakhouse, which was closed, but the owner happened to show up while we were there, and he was one of our biggest contributors.

I was at a conference at Focus on the Family – they had a drawing at the end where we all threw in our business cards. The grand prize was a night's stay and breakfast at the Marriott Hotel on the hill overlooking Pike's Peak. It got down to the last drawing, and the winner was a girl named Lisa, who wroked with me at NDP. With tears in her eyes, she gave me the certificate saying to me that shw was praying that she could contribute something to the golf tournament.

The Lord brought the 40 players also. The church where we attended had people come forward and donate the entire foursome. Still, during the very last week, I counted 38 in total. We need 2 more. At the very last minute, I called one of my neighbors who had a son who played golf.

Not only did he say he could play, but he said that he happened to have a Broadmoor Hotel gift certificate that he wasn't going to use and asked if he could donate it. I said sure and asked him how much it was for - $300 was the reply.

The church also said we could run it through them, giving the donators a tax deductible receipt. We had enough sponsors that Andrea painted signs for all 18 tees.

Finally, God directed us to the donor who gave us enough money for the van.

The day of the tournament, as the weather in Colorado can be, it was cold and rainy – terrible for golf. Mark was wondering why if Satan was involved because it was so bad. I was praying that at least everyone would show up.

And you know, all 40 players did. Even the pastor from the church came unexpectently, giving us 41. And ironically, since the weather was poor, half the field only played 9 holes. But we got a credit from the course, and they even paid us more than they should have – but said it's not a problem, that was their donation.

So the bad weather contributed another $400 to Mark.

The biggest thrill was taking outside and showing him the van that was now his. He couldn't believe what God did. We ended up giving him $3,500 plus the van.

The whole experience taught me that God can use anyone. And he will direct you on the way you can go.

Before we sing a hymn of invitation – where you're invited to thing about recommiting your prayer life, let's read in unison the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.You can find it on the back of your bulletin.

Our Father...