Title- The Power of Prayer
Text- John 15:1-8
John 15:1-8 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
I. The Purpose of Prayer
II. The Parts of Prayer
III. The Priority of Prayer
Please open your Bibles to John 15…
I’m taking a short break from our study in Romans to focus our attention on prayer. This Thursday May 1st is the national day of prayer. Different churches from around Woodland and Davis will be gathering in front of the courthouse at 6:30 Thursday evening to pray together. I want to encourage you to join us.
I want to spend the next two week refocusing our attention back onto the importance of prayer. I think that we can often lose sight of just how important prayer is in our lives. It’s easy to fall out of the habit of praying on a regular basis. All the other pressures of life can sometimes choke out our prayer time.
So today I want to talk a little bit about the importance and power that is found in prayer. I want us to have a reminder of why we need to make time for prayer. And I want us to have a solid understanding of the different kinds of prayer so that we will have a full and rich prayer time with God.
PRAYER’S BEST POSITION
Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background.
One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
Our position in prayer isn’t as important as our heart as we pray.
I’m going to jump around to different passages, but I want to camp out on this passage from John 15. There are so many great illustrations and exhortations to pray in the Bible. I like this passage because it is a great illustration of our interdependence on Christ. It helps us understand just how completely reliant we are on Him for everything. Follow along as I read the first eight verses in chapter 15…
I want to start off today by talking about the purpose of prayer. Why do we pray? What are some of the benefits of prayer?
1. We pray because it is our lifeline to God.
Jesus tells us we are the branches and He is the vine, only when we are connected to Him can we bear fruit. If we are disconnected to Him we will soon wither and die. We’ll be worthless. Without maintaining a healthy relationship to God through Christ our life we be hallow.
Prayer isn’t just a command, it isn’t just a discipline, prayer is a necessity. It’s as vital to our Christian life as food or water or air is to our physical life. Prayer fills us up. It refreshes our spirit. It teaches us how to lean on God.
2. We pray because it is our means of growth.
Jesus said that apart from me you can do nothing. Neglecting prayer is the same as saying that we can in fact do it on our own. It is like telling God we don’t really need Him. Or we’ll let Him know when we need Him.
Prayer causes us to grow because it keeps us connected to Christ. It causes us to grow because it teaches us to rely on Him for everything. It causes us to grow because it deepens our faith. It causes us to grow as we learn to let things go.
3. We pray because God listens.
Jesus says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. This is huge! As we learn to live in line with Christ, we have the ability to ask God for whatever we want. Obviously God’s will is our ultimate desire, but it clearly says here that we have the privilege of asking for the things that we want to see happen.
I think that we sometimes view prayer as worthless or ineffective. God’s just going to do what He wants, so what does it even matter what I pray. Do you know what I mean? Do you ever get that feeling sometimes?
But what Jesus is saying here is that God listens, He hears us, and He answers our prayers. Now I don’t fully understand how God’s will and our will are reconciled through prayer, but I know that God listens.
In the OT when Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah, God listened. When God wanted to wipe out the Israelites in the desert, Moses interceded for them and God listened.
Prayer changes things. Prayer brings about results that wouldn’t be there if there was no prayer. Prayer is effective and powerful.
This is true for our individual lives, for our families and for us as a church. The growth and success of this church is more dependant on prayer than anything else. My success as your pastor is dependant on prayer. Our ability to reach our community for Christ is dependant on prayer.
New ministries are important, outreach programs are good things, web sites and advertising and staff are all important. But the moment we start leaning on those things instead of prayer we will fail. Success in every area of our life and in every area of this church is totally dependant on prayer. Because everything that we do has to be connected to the vine.
We pray because God listens. He hears us. He responds to our requests. He is ready and waiting to bless us.
4. We pray because it brings glory to God.
Verse 8 says…
8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
When we stay closely connected to the true vine, we will bear much fruit. When our lives bear fruit God receives the glory. People will look at our lives and see that God is truly at work. People will see our love and our joy and our peace and our patience and hopefully see God.
Our purpose in life is to bring glory to God. This is accomplished when we pray and stay close to Christ.
The list of reasons why we should pray could be a mile long. But when you break it down to its simplest components, the purpose of prayer is for our growth and God’s glory. The purpose of prayer is for our growth, and for God’s glory.
My guess is that we all know that prayer is important. This isn’t new information. We know we need to pray more, but it’s hard to make it a priority some times. I also know that sometimes sermons like this one just make us feel guilty because we don’t pray as much as we should.
My goal isn’t to make you feel guilty about not praying enough, but to give you a reminder of just how important prayer is. This is a reminder that all of us need from time to time, even me.
I don’t know about you, but I often find my prayer time turn into something that feels business-like and detached. I read through my laundry lists of requests, but sometimes forget that prayer is more than just asking God for stuff.
There are 4 different parts or aspects of prayer that we need to incorporate into our prayer time. These four kinds of prayers have been illustrated in a number of different ways, one way is by using the acrostic ACTS. Each letter stands for a different type of prayer.
A- The A stands for adoration. Adoration simply means love, respect, worship, praise, or high esteem. It is us worshiping God simply for who He is. Adoration is focused on the character of God.
God we praise you for your sovereignty, for your grace, for your love, for your holiness. Adoration is where we praise God because God is worthy to be praised.
C- The C stands for confession. This is where we open out hearts to God and ask for His forgiveness for our sin. Confession isn’t done to keep us from losing our salvation, it done to maintain a healthy relationship with God. When we only prayer for the needs of others, it can be easy to ignore the shortcomings in our own life.
It is very important to be honest about our sin with God. Sin that isn’t dealt with can often fester into bitterness or hard-heartedness. Unconfused sin will put a real strain on our spiritual life. We need to get that stuff out.
T- The T stands for Thanksgiving. This is the kind of prayer that is focused on praising God for what He has done for us. It is prayer that flows from seeing answered prayer, it flows from the good things that God does in our lives, it flows from our understanding that everything that we have is a gift from God.
This should be one of our main areas of prayer. We can thank God for our family, for our job, for our house, for our friends, for our salvation, for our security, for every good thing and even the bad things because we know God will work those things for our good.
S- Finally, the S stands for supplication. Supplication is when we go to God and ask Him for help. It is when we pray for healing, pray for peace, pray for guidance and direction, pray for our family, pray for our friends, pray for our church, pray for our government and for our neighbors.
In life we have real physical needs. We have sickness and circumstances and situations where we simply have to go to God for help. By praying for God to meet our needs and take care of us we are actively relying on Him. When we neglect prayer and just try to solve all our problems on our on we are in effect telling God that we don’t need Him. We need Him for everything.
These four aspects of prayer reflect the instruction on prayer that Jesus gave in Matthew…
Matthew 6:9-13 9 "Pray, then, in this way: ’Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ’Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
What kind of prayer is this? Adoration
11 ’Give us this day our daily bread.
What kind of prayer is this? Supplication
12 ’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
What kind of prayer is this? Confession
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
This would be more adoration and thanksgiving.
It’s important to understand that prayer isn’t like sitting on Santa’s lap asking him to bring us stuff we want. Prayer is about worship and communion with God. It is about hearing Him speak to us. Focusing on these four aspects of prayer will help keep us from selfish or dry prayers.
The last thing I want to talk about today is the priority of prayer. Prayer is an essential, foundational, vital part of our lives.
I firmly believe that my happiness, success, and contentment in life is directly dependant on how much I am praying. My relationship with God, my spiritual health, and my ability to make wise choices is directly dependant on how much I pray.
I also believe that the growth and success of this church is directly dependant on prayer. I read a ton of different ideas about how to help your church grow. I’m always getting things that promise if we use their service we will see 20% increase guaranteed. There are a million different philosophies on how to grow a church.
Some people think that programs, or buildings, or fancy advertising are the keys to growth and vitality. Those things are helpful, but I am completely convinced that our success as a church is completely dependant on how much we pray.
Pray for us pastors, pray for the different ministries, pray for unity, pray for financial stability, pray for guidance, pray for wisdom, pray that God would bless us and open up new opportunities to share His love with our community.
When pray becomes a priority to us we will see God bless our families, bless our ministries, bless our jobs, and bless our whole lives. Prayer is powerful. It is supernatural. It is something unique and special. Prayer is a privilege.
Jesus says, 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
We all know that pray is important. Let me give you a couple of concrete, practical ways in which you can make prayer more of a priority…
1. Develop a plan- You’ll be more successful finding time for prayer if you make an intentional plan. Don’t make it legalistic or complicated; just make it simple and concrete. Plan to pray every morning in the car on the way to work. Plan to pray for a few minutes when you first get to work. Plan to pray when you finally lay down in bed for the evening. Plan to pray when you exorcise.
2. Listen to the Spirit- There will be times in our lives when God will place a person or a situation on your heart. For some reason your neighbor, or a random person from church, or a family member will pop into your head. When that happens, pray for them. I know that sounds weird and almost mystical, but again, I believe that pray is a supernatural thing. The spirit speaks to our spirit. When He speaks, listen and pray.
3. Join the E-mail prayer group- When I first started I asked for someone to take on the responsibility of praying for me and for the church services and for our ministries. Judy took up the challenge. I send her a list of requests almost every week, and she distributes that list out to others who have committed to pray for me and for the church.
This is a simple prayer ministry that anyone is welcome to join. In the chair in front of you is a prayer and comment card- if you would like to be added to this E-mail prayer list simply write down your name and E-mail address and give that card to a pastor or usher.
I greatly covet your prayers. The more the better.
4. Face to Face- For a number of years our church has had a special prayer ministry. It’s called Face to Face. It is a group that meets faithfully every Wednesday evening. The meetings are short, only 1 hour long, and they work through each of these 4 aspects of prayer. They pray for the needs of the church body, they pray for special needs, they praise God and worship Him. They use scripture and worship music to enhance the prayer time.
I went to one of their meetings a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. It was very laid back, very refreshing, very comfortable, and very worshipful. I want to challenge every single one of you to go at least once. You don’t have to committee to every Wednesday night for the rest of your life or anything, just go one time. Find a babysitter, set aside one short hour, and check it out for yourself. I promise you will be blessed by it.
I also want to let you know about a few changes in how you can share prayer requests with us.
First, there are little prayer and comment cards in the pocket of the chair in front of you. If you have a prayer request, a note of encouragement, or some other comment you would like to make, you can use that card. Drop it in the offering plate, or the little wooden box out in the foyer.
Second, if you look at the top of that card there is an E-mail address- prayer@------------------------------.org. Anytime you have a prayer request you can send it to that E-mail address and it will automatically go to the pastors, and the leaders of the different prayer ministries here.
Third, you can always call the office and share a request with one of the pastors.
Fourth, if you are feeling worn out or just need some focused prayer, you are always welcome to stop in to the Face to Face meetings on Wednesday and they will pray you up good.
Ok, before I close, here is your challenge for the week, pray more. If you are not praying at all, start. If you pray a little, pray more. Make prayer a specific priority in your life this week.
The more we pray, individually and as a church, the more we will see God do great things in our lives.
