The necessity of Prayer
Good Morning everyone, glad you have joined in person or online.
We serve such an amazing God! A gracious God who cares far more about us than we could possibly ever imagine. This week I struggled with my message. Most times I have to eliminate topics and thoughts and this was one of those weeks that the message was hard fought to get.
Prayer-
We have begun the Lenten season and we are working our way to the cross and then we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus on Easter morning. Jesus was going to the cross, He was preparing Himself for what He needed to do for us. He was to be found in the Garden of Gethsemane praying that God the Father’s will would be done and Jesus wanted his disciples to pray while he was off praying. You know that story!
Numerous times Jesus came back to the disciples and found them sleeping and exhausted when they should have been praying.
Does that sound anything like where we are today in the church?
What we as believers are doing to bring about the kingdom of God to a dying world and most of us are asleep at the wheel.
Matthew 26:40-
“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, he said to Peter, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak”
Is that the problem today with most believers, our spirit is willing but the body weak, or do we struggle with a much more serious problem?
The garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mt. of Olives shows us the determination of Jesus to do the will of the Father and it shows the weakness of man to spend the time needed in prayer sleeping.
We desire to see Him do some amazing things but we lack the strength and power to accomplish them in our own strength.
What is Prayer?
Prayer isn’t a ritual… that depends on closing our eyes and putting on lemon faces and pleading with God to do something for us.
We don’t have to kneel or sit.
We can pray while walking, driving, or working.
God can respond to a two word cry for help just like He does to a focused prayer time after reading Scripture.
Praying doesn’t have to be complicated.
God delights in simple words we offer Him.
Mark 9:23
"Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe? All things are possible for one who believes."
Matthew 17:20
"Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 21:22
"And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."
2 Corinthians 5:7
"For we walk by faith, not by sight"
James 1:6
"But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."
John 20:29
"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Matthew 6:5-8
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We think all prayer must be done by the model prayer of Jesus-
Matthew 6:9–13
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
The bible is full of scripture showing us that prayer is communicating with a God who loves us and desires to communicate with us. He made the first move and yet while we were sinners He reached out to us.
I want us to look at three aspects within prayer and there are many more but for time we will look at three of them. The necessity of (1) prayer with faith, (2) prayer with trust, and (3) prayer with desire.
The necessity of Prayer with Faith
Faith is the foundation of Christian character
Jesus warned Peter before his denial that his faith would fail and he would deny him. That Satan if he had his way would sift Peter and destroy him.
“Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that thy faith fall not”…Peter spiritual life would be broken down.”
Jesus knew that if Peter’s faith was broken down his entire structure of prayer and communication with the Lord would break down. Jesus was guarding his faith by having him draw closer to Him that his faith would not fail.
2 Peter 1 records
We add to our faith… goodness
Goodness to knowledge
Knowledge to self control
Self control to perseverance
Perseverance godliness
Godliness to kindness
Kindness to love
These things by prayer will keep us from falling into temptation when we are not drawing close to the Lord.
Peter be careful guard your faith by prayer
Peter on the lake of Gennesaret casting his net where Jesus had told him after being unsuccessful just moments before but because Jesus had said it, he would cast his net out one more time.
Obedience helps faith and faith helps obedience.
Praying faith keeps the commandments of God and wants to please the Lord above all things.
Faith does not grow disheartened because your prayer is not immediately answered. (Some of us will have to say ouch to that including your preacher at times.)
Faith accepts the fact that God is working and that it is not our timing but His timing.
If Christ delays, it is for our benefit and He will come through at the right time with the right answer.
Rev. E.M Bounds say pray on and wait on!
“He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Faith in Christ is in praying!
All praying is done in the name of Jesus
“Have faith in God”
One preacher has said that we do not live in tomorrow.
As everyday demands its bread, so everyday demands prayer.
What does it look like to pray in faith?
Praying in faith means we go to Him as His beloved children, knowing we are loved, asking for His presence and power and whatever He wants to do in, for and thru us, trusting Him to care for us because He said He does.
Necessity of Prayer with Trust
Prayer does not stand alone. If we pray but never act on what the Lord is telling us…we lose the principal and duty that comes with praying.
Faith is believing in who we are praying too and then trusting Him who we are praying too!
We trust what Jesus has done-
We trust the word of God that records for us what the Lord has done and wants to do in our lives and through our lives.
Trust transmutes hope into our lives! His promises become truths that we hold onto when we are going through dark and unsure times with confidence that He will see us through and into better times. Trust becomes an anchor for us and becomes a witness to those around us of the loving and secure God that we serve.
Have faith in God….Trust in God! They begin to work together. You believe the scriptures because you believe in the one who wrote the scriptures.
Illustration
I did a word study awhile back on the word important- we know what that word means…it means something with urgency. But I also did a study on the word importunity…most don’t know this word. It is perseverance with urgency to the point of being annoying. You can go farther than important to the word importunity. Urgency to the point of being annoying, this is where we find the man that goes to the neighbor for bread in scripture and the man would not get out of bed to help him but comes to the realization that this man won’t quit until he gets that bread.
Also the scripture description of the women with the issue of blood fighting through the crowd to just touch the hem of Jesus. She was not going to be denied. She was going to touch Jesus at all cost and whatever she had to do she was going to do it.
Martha talking to Jesus about the resurrection of her brother says…I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus draws her close to himself…I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes in me, shall never die.”
Do you have faith? Do you trust me? And the last one this morning
Necessity prayer with desire
Prayer with desire is not just a wish list! It is a deep longing to do what God desires for your life.
One preacher has said that prayer is the expression of desire. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire unheard. The deeper our desire, the stronger the prayer life. Without desire, prayer is meaningless mumble of words.
Our conscious tells us we should pray.
To pray sometimes wither we feel like it or not.
We are not going to let our feeling dictate what we do when our feeling go against what the Lord wants us to do.
The absence of holy desire to pray shows us our heart.
For me, because I have a tendency to struggle with too many thoughts running through my head, I take time before prayer to gather my thoughts and engage with “what does the Lord want me to think about”. This increases my desire to pray and less about what my feelings are trying to do to me.
Jesus tells us that he desires for us to be either hot or cold. Not lukewarm, where most Christians line today in every aspect of their lives.
“I wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Let me close this out this morning-
Prayer is exercising our faith, putting our trust in Jesus, and wanting to have our desires be His desire.
And when it does not line up, we are asking him to move us into the right direction.
After we hear a message on prayer, we are going to pray together.
I am praying that we would have a sense of urgency to pray for this country and the direction we are headed.
I pray that the Lord would speak into our lives and the lives of our families.
I pray that if there is something that keeps you from doing something that the Lord would give you to strength to move forward- to take a risk and watch the Lord do something more than you would be able to do in yourself.
Time in prayer
