A.We’ve been talking about God’s faithfulness and our faithfulness.
1.We have been reminded of the fact that we are called to be faithful.
2. That call is not a call to perfection, but a call to consistency and reliability.
3. All of this calls for the need to be faithful in attendance and involvement with the church.
4. And as we talked about last week, the need to be faithful in service. God requires our faithful employment of the gifts and talents he has bestowed upon us.
B. Today we want to turn our attention to being faithful in prayer.
1. Prayer is something that develops as we grow in faith and understanding.
2. There are some childlike elements to prayer that we must never lose, and yet there are some childish and immature aspects of prayer that we certainly want to outgrow.
3. Listen to some of these prayers of children and see what insights you can gain from them.
4. Debbie, age 7 writes: Dear God: Please send a new baby for mommy. The new baby you sent last week cries too much.
5. Dear God: Who did you make smarter? Boys or girls? My sister and I want to know. Jimmy, age 6.
6. Dear God: How many angels are there in heaven? I would like to be the first kid in my class to know the answer. Norma, age 8.
7. Dear God: Thank you for the nice day today. You even fooled the weather man. Hank, age 7.
8. Lois, age 9: Dear God: Please help me in school. I need help in spelling, adding, writing, history, and geography. I don’t need help in anything else.
9. Natalie, age 7: Dear God: Do you have any helpers in heaven? I would like to be one of your helpers in heaven when I have summer vacation.
10. Diane, age 8: Dear God: I am saying my prayers for me and my brother, Billy, because Billy is six months old and he can’t do anything but sleep and wet his diapers.
C. So much could be said and should be said about prayer, but for our purposes today I want to say three things: Prayer is EXPECTED, is EFFECTIVE and should not be EXHAUSTED.
I. PRAYER IS EXPECTED
A. Jesus had so much to say about prayer, I cannot even begin to summarize it.
1. As he taught his disciples about prayer in Matthew 6, he did not say “if” you pray, he said “when” you pray. He expected them to pray.
2. Jesus repeatedly demonstrated the importance of prayer is his own life. We see him praying day in and day out. Not only at critical moments in his life and ministry, but in the everyday moments like giving thanks before meals.
3. So, even if we didn’t have so much of what he said about prayer, we could follow the example of what he did as he prayed.
B. The fact that prayer is an expected part of discipleship is obvious from the statements of the New Testament.
1. One of the Scripture readings for today is a concise example of what I’m saying: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12).
2. Similarly, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually” (NIV), or “pray constantly: (RSV), or “pray without ceasing” (KJV).
C. I don’t really think that any of us here today would argue the opposite.
1. I don’t think that any of us would seriously deny the place of prayer in the life of the Christian.
2. All of us know and understand that prayer is necessary and expected.
3. God desires that we bring our praises to him in prayer along with our confessions, our thanksgivings and our petitions.
II. PRAYER SHOULD NOT BE EXHAUSTED
A. What I mean by that is that we should be persistent in prayer.
1. One aspect of faithfulness in prayer is persistence in prayer.
2. This is another important thing that Jesus taught his disciples.
B. In our second scripture reading for the day from Luke 18, we heard the parable that Jesus told about the persistent widow.
1. Luke introduces the parable with these words, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
2. The parable is simple and straightforward. You have a judge who did not fear God and did not care about people. (probably not the kind of judge you want in power, right?)
3. The other character in the story is a widow who keeps coming to the judge for justice against her adversary.
4. This lady really had things stacked against her. For starters she had an unjust judge.
5. Added to that she was a woman and a widow. So, she had no husband or son of standing to help plead her case.
6. It also appears that she had no lawyer to represent her, which may say something about her economic status.
7. So, from the judges perspective, why give this woman anything? He is not concerned with justice, and she has no standing, money or power.
8. The only thing the lady had going for her was persistence.
9. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
10. She kept coming to the judge, time and time again, with the same request: “Grant me justice.”
11. In the end, the judge relents and gives her what she wants because she was wearing him out with her persistence.
C. So, what is Jesus’ point?
1. He wants his disciples to be as persistent in prayer as that widow was.
2. Not because God is as unjust as that judge was. Not because God doesn’t want to answer us. Not because God needs to be pestered into answering our requests.
3. But because we need to demonstrate determination and faith.
4. Jesus ended the parable with the question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
5. Will he find us, his followers, being persistent in prayer and faithful in service?
D. Prayer truly is an ongoing demonstration of our faith.
1. Prayer is not a passive act on our part, it is an aggressive and active ministry.
2. Prayer is not something to be done once, but something to be done without ceasing.
3. One person came up with the statement – “When I pray, I PUSH.” P.U.S.H. stands for Pray Until Something Happens.
E. I like the story that Paul Harvey told of the 3 year old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the store she told him: “You’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask.”
1. So, into the cart she put him, and up and down the aisles they went.
2. He was doing fine with her command until they came to the cookie section.
3. When he saw the chocolate chip cookies he stood up and said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?”
4. She reminded him what she had said and told him to “sit down and be quiet.”
5. He did so and they continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle and the little boy again stood up and said, “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She again said “no” and told him to sit down and be quiet.
6. Finally, as they approached the checkout lane, the little boy sensed that this may be his last chance, so he stoop up again and shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?”
7. The people who heard him laughed, and some even applauded. Due to the generosity of the others shoppers, the little boy and his mother left with 23 packages of chocolate chip cookies.
F. I know that many of us have experienced the importance of being persistent in our prayers.
1. Some of us have prayed for something for 10, 20 or 30 years before seeing the answer to our prayers.
2. That’s what God wants us to do. To be faithful and persistent in our prayers.
3. So, prayer is EXPECTED, should not be EXHAUSTED, and finally…
III. Prayer is EFFECTIVE.
A. James said it best when he wrote, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)
1. Jesus said it like this, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt. 7:7)
B. One of my favorite illustrations of the power of prayer is found in Exodus 17.
1. The Amalekites had come and attacked the Israelites.
2. Moses told Joshua to take some men and go out to fight while he went up on top of a hill with the staff of God in his hand.
3. In other words, while they fought the physical battle, Moses would be fighting the spiritual one.
4. The Bible says that as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
5. Obviously, Moses hands got tired. So, Moses sat down on a stone and had Aaron and Hur each hold up one of his hands.
6. So, Aaron and Hur held up his hands – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady until sunset and Joshua overcame the Amalekites.
7. God then commanded Moses to write this episode on a scroll so it would be remembered.
8. Then Moses built an altar and called it “Jehovah-niss”. The Lord is my Banner.
9. To fight in prayer under God’s leadership, and provision is to be assured of victory.
C. Brothers and sisters, real, spirit-filled, prevailing prayer changes things.
1. It is an exercise in faith and confidence in God – who is the source of all power.
2. Prayer is not a magic wand that we wave when we find ourselves in trouble.
3. Prayer is our connection to God, who is the source and supply of our every need.
Conclusion:
A. If you are like me, then you don’t need to be convinced of the place and power of prayer.
1. What I need it to be reminded to make prayer a priority.
2. I need to be careful to carve out time for prayer and to guard that time.
3. In order to be more faithful in prayer, I want to suggest three things to do.
4. First, set a time and a place for prayer. Prayer must be intentional. Have a plan.
5. Second, remove the things that interfere with prayer: distractions, disobedience and sin.
6. Third, pray with faith, persistence, and the right motive.
