Slide 1 We are concluding the fourth and final sermon in this series, ‘Prayer as a Second Language’ with a look at the vital prayer of supplication. Now, I ask you what does the word, ‘supplication’ mean? It means to request or plea for something and sometimes that is done on behalf of another person. Intercession is another name, I believe, for supplication.
Slide 2 To help us develop a frame of reference and understanding for this morning, I want to you ask you a question, ‘Who are you thinking about right now?’ Is it a spouse, a relative, a child or grandchild, a friend, a co-worker, someone in this sanctuary? Who are you thinking about right now?
What are you thinking about as it relates to who you are thinking about? Is about their health? Is it about their work situation? Is it about their spiritual life and condition?
In a recent article that he wrote, Incarnate Preaching, Gordon MacDonald listed a set of questions that he believes are asked by adults from age 20 on up to age 70 and beyond and which need to be addressed in preaching and teaching. Here are a few of them with the age segment MacDonald believes is asking them listed alongside them.
Slide 3:
Around what will I center my life? (20s)
Why haven’t I resolved all my sin problems? (30s)
Why are some of my peers doing better than me? (40s)
Slide 4:
Do I have anything of value to give any longer? (50s)
What does it mean to grow old? (60s)
Does anyone around here know who I once was? (70s)
As I think about these questions, I know that I have asked some of them (and still do) in my prayers over the years. This part of prayer we call supplication is a part that I believe all of us here are the most focused on. I have no doubt that as I am praying each week on your behalf from this pulpit (and throughout the week as well) that you are praying on behalf of others as well as your own personal concerns.
I like how David Mains states this issue of supplication, “How do I get God to pay attention when I say, “Please, Jesus, can you just do these one or two things for me?”
These are important prayers because we believe in a God who does great and marvelous things. We also believe that He cares for us and for the needs and issues that are important to us.
Slide 5 For a moment this morning, I am going to ask you to think of two prayer requests that you would like the Lord to answer and then you are going to have one minute to spend time in prayer for these people or situations. Ready? Begin…
Slide 6 I would like to suggest today that the key part of supplication is ‘agreeing with God in prayer.’
When Jesus, in response to His disciples’ request to teach them to pray, gave them a guideline for prayer, he included this line as we read in Matthew 6:10, “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.”
A businessman named Jacob finds himself in dire trouble. His business has gone bust and he’s in serious financial trouble. He’s so desperate that he decides to ask God for help.
He goes into the church he attends and begins to pray: "God, please help me, I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my house as well, please let me win the lotto."
Lotto night comes and somebody else wins it. Jacob goes back to the church: "God, please let me win the lotto, I’ve lost my business, my house and I’m going to lose my car as well."
Lotto night comes a second time and Jacob still has no luck! Back to the church again, Jacob asks: "My God, why have you forsaken me? I’ve lost my business, my house, my car and my wife and my children are starving. I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. Why won’t you just let me win the lotto this one time so I can get my life back in order?"
Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open and Jacob is confronted by the voice of God himself: "JACOB, MEET ME HALF WAY ON THIS ONE....BUY A LOTTO TICKET."
As I think about this humorous story, I have to ask, ‘Is this God’s will, God’s way for Jacob to get out of his financial crisis?’ I don’t think so.
Praying for God’s will to be done is very, very hard to do at times because God’s will is perhaps the opposite of what we are praying for. Maybe it was God’s will that Jacob’s business failed because he made some bad business decisions and had to suffer the consequences of those decisions. Or maybe the economy turned sour and his business took a big hit and the failure was the result of natural economic factors.
Does this then mean that God is a nasty who does not want us to succeed or have a good life? Mains makes a very good point when he says, ‘When making requests of God… Is what I am asking of the Lord just my agenda, or does it mesh with his as well?’
Slide 7 He illustrates this statement with a common request that we have asked God for from time to time, for either better pay or a better paying job.
He says, ‘How, in such a case, might you make a request for his help more in line with where God is coming from? I’m suggesting that you pause for a moment to look at your prayer request from his divine perspective. Will he see any reason to respond positively?
• What if you explained that you would honestly be more supportive of various ministries if you had a better paying job?
• Or you could spend more time with your kids, even pray with them at bedtime, if you didn’t always have to work the second shift.
• God, I want to be more involved in the life of the church, but I can’t if I’m always scheduled to work weekends.
• My spouse and I want to get involved with one of the small groups at church, but at the moment none of my weeknights is open.
A key part of developing and maturing in our prayer life is examining our motives as we pray and Jesus address this issue when he says pray like this... May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.
Jesus again reminds the disciples, and us, in part of our main text today, ‘if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!’ Think of it this way, if we want God’s power and more important God’s love and forgiveness in our life, then we must remain in God by obeying Him and praying, ‘Your will not my will, be done.’
Quite frankly this might seem rather harsh to some because it appears that there are conditions attached to God’s answers to prayer for after all, are we not to ask with faith believing? There are conditions to God answering our prayers. And the main condition is this one, ‘Is it in line with God’s agenda or not?’ Sometime it is and sometime it is not and sometimes it is wait.
Let me be honest and say that it is sometimes hard for me to pray for God’s will to be done on your behalf and the behalf of others. I hate to see people suffering. I hate to stand by small casket of children, like I did last week, with a couple who buried their stillborn premature baby.
I remember a time when as I was getting ready to graduate from seminary, I had applied for a position at the church I had attended in college. I really wanted to go back to that community and serve the Lord there.
But, I’ll never forget the conversation that I had with the pastor of that church. He told me that he had spoken with the pastor of the church that was seriously considering me and said something to the effect of you are more of a youth man than Christian Education and so we will be looking at someone else.
I was angry and devastated. I did not want to go to the church that we were to interview at a few weeks later. But feeling the pressure of needing to have something before graduation, I took the position. To this day over 20 years later, Susan and I, aside from the normal butterflies of interviewing and search, did not feel that it was the right decision to make.
Jesus’ words in our main text make clear a couple of important points as we seek His answers to our prayers.
Slide 8 When He says, ‘if…my words remain in you,’ He indicates the very important need to stay in constant communication with Him through scripture study and prayer so that we are able to ‘pause to consider whether [our] request is in line with his desires.’
The Bible clearly reveals the Lord’s desires for us from Genesis 1:27, ‘So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them:’ to John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life;’ to Revelation 3:20 and 21, “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends. I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.”
Being aligned with God in prayer requires us to live the Bible not just study it and talk about it! We need to, as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16, ‘Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other.’
God’s words to us, in the Bible and through the work of the Holy Spirit, must live in us. They must shape and cleanse and mature our soul, mind, and hearts. They are not just there for a mere mental study. They are there for life change which brings me to a second and final point this morning.
Slide 9 For not only are our desires to be inline with God’s will but so must our lives be in line with God’s will.
Again, we turn again to scripture to find this truth. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to not eat of a certain tree in Eden. There was King Saul who overstepped his boundaries as king and lost God’s favor as king.
In the New Testament there was Judas whose hopes and dreams for a political revolution (the most common view for his betrayal) caused him to turn Jesus over to be crucified.
As we engage in prayer for our concerns, which the Lord wants us to do as we read in Philippians 4:6, ‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done,’ we need, however, to make sure that we are truly inline with God’s will in all aspects of our lives.
As I conclude, I want us to take time to pray for the people and situations that appear on the screen in a moment. But before we do, I want to have us remember that God wants us to bring our concerns and our hopes to Him in prayer. He is interested in every area of our lives and He truly, truly knows what is best.
After we see this clip, we are going to spending time in corporate prayer and I will be inviting you to pray for those concerns and person that are important to you as part of our prayer time.
Slide 10 (Video clip, ‘Supplication’ from
Making Prayer as A Second Language)
MacDonald article can be found at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/003/14.48.html
Mains’ quote is taken from his sermon on supplication that is part of the ‘Prayer as Second Language’ series available from sermonview.com
Power Points for this sermon and this sermon series are not available due to copy write issues.
