CONSTANT PRAYER
The Power of Prayer – Sermon Central
By Rich Dunbar – 09.24.06
Intro and Illustration:
There’s a supposedly true story of a Welsh woman who lived in a remote valley in Wales. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home. However, after a couple of months, the electric company noticed she didn’t seem to use very much electricity at all.
Thinking there might be a problem with the hookup, they sent a meter reader out to check it out. The man from the electric company came to the door and said, "We’ve just checked your meter and it doesn’t seem that you’re using much electricity. Is there a problem?"
The lady replied, "Oh no, there is no problem. We are so thankful that we have your electric power whenever we need it. We turn on the electric lights every night to see how to light our lamps and then we switch them off again…we don’t want to be a bother…"
Silly but true story, but …
Question: Why didn’t this woman want to use her electricity more often?
• She believed in electricity
• She believed the promises of the electric company when they came and got her connected, and they told her all she needed to know about it
• She went to a great deal of expense to have her house wired for electricity
• THE PROBLEM WAS - she did not understand the potential of having electricity in her home.
AND SO, she used the new electric power sparingly
Proposition:
I suspect there are people who use prayer very much the same way.
• They believe in prayer
• They know of the promises God has made
• They’ve even read and have heard stories about how God answers prayers
• BUT they use the power of prayer only when they have to…sparingly
• Perhaps they do not understand how prayer really works…and need to have it explained…
This can even be the case for church-wide prayer…
Several pastors have told me that the first thing their church does in attempting to reach souls is to have lots of prayer. As a church, we probably have not prayed like we should for souls, and this is what I want to talk to you about today.
We have an example of this with the Local Church there in Jerusalem. They had Constant Prayer during a time of crisis in their church, and the result was that their prayers were miraculously answered.
As well, we have a crisis in our church. That is, anytime a church is not seeing souls being saved on a regular basis is a crisis time.
Text: Acts 12:5
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but Constant Prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
Here Peter is waiting for whatever Herod was going to do with him. Escape seemed impossible because he was guarded by 16 soldiers that worked 6 hour shifts in groups of fours. One soldier is chained to each side of him and the other two are standing outside the cell to make sure he can’t get out. As well, there are multiple guard posts and locked gates to get out of this prison facility.
But here is what made the difference. There was a group of believers fervently praying for Peter’s release.
Peter rested on the promises of God and he simply went to sleep. Psalms 121:3-4 says that He was resting in Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Peter knew God was in charge of his life and he could rest easy. How many of us would get a good night’s sleep in prison, sleeping on the floor, with two chains binding us to two guards?
Let’s look at four reasons why we can rest in the power of Constant Prayer:
1. DELIVERANCE can be found in Constant Prayer Verse 7
Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands.
Peter was bound under heavy chains with two guards on each side of him 24 hours a day. Yet God broke those bonds and allowed Peter to be set free. God has done something even greater for us in that He has broken the bonds/chains of sin and death.
2. DIRECTION can be found in Constant Prayer. Verse 8 – 10. Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals…and put on your garment and follow me.”
God gives guidance when we don’t know the way. V. 8-10
I doubt that Peter knew his way around this particular prison. He needed guidance to get away from the place he was bound. We also need guidance in our lives as we grow and mature in the Lord. If we do not follow the guidance the Lord provides we will likely be caught and put back into the chains that have already been broken for us. Left without direction in our lives, we will remain under the influence of the enemy.
3. DISCERNMENT can be found in Constant Prayer. Verse 11- And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”
God makes you completely aware of how he has delivered you from your sins.
Peter could have had his bonds broken and even had guidance out of the prison but unless he grasped the reality of his deliverance he might still have lived his life as though it was an illusion or a dream.
Sometimes we go through life not realizing the reality that we have been delivered from the enemy. We forget that we no longer are held captive by the enemy. We may not fully appreciate what all that God has done. God wants us to move forward in His freedom towards total deliverance from our past.
Verse 12 says that Peter came to the house of Mary…where many were gathered together praying.
Peter knew where to find the church. The people are the church, not a building. At that particular day the church assembled in Mary’s home. During those days the churches didn’t have a building to meet in. They went from house to house daily.
Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
Speaking of DISCERNMENT - Perhaps we don’t do enough of that kind of visiting to pray for one another’s needs. Some of us may not feel comfortable visiting unless we are invited over.
Others of us just want to be left alone….
Neither one of these thoughts are healthy for our church, and we need to have prayer to resolve this problem…
Continuing on…we need more prayer so that we can have…
4. DELIGHT comes from Constant Prayer. Verse 12 – 14
God will grant to you Delight and Gladness of Heart during the times of your conflict.
Here Peter is not the only recipient Constant Prayer but also a girl named Rhoda. She was so overjoyed that Peter was at the door and was free that she forgot to open the door. Even when she reported the news they said “she was beside herself”. It had been a long night of Constant Prayer and she must have been very happy to see and hear Peter’s voice.
There are times in our lives when the Lord can and does bring real DELIGHT and gladness out of our pain and conflicts. We may still have some feelings of sorrow, but Constant Prayer should give to us God’s hope and His peace.
With Constant Prayer your friends and family members will bring you home safely even if they don’t have much faith (at the time). Verse 16 tells us that his church was certainly praying for Peter and somehow they knew that God was able to deliver him.
But for some reason when God responded to their prayers they were “astonished” when they saw him. We shouldn’t be surprised when God does what we have asked Him to do. Too often we ask things of God that we know He can do but don’t really believe He will. We should live our lives understanding that the battle is not ours to fight, it is the Lord’s and the victory has already been won through Jesus Christ.
Closing and Transition:
In 1540 Luther’s good friend and assistant, Friedrich Myconius, became sick and was expected to die within a short time. From his bed he wrote a tender farewell letter to his close friend, Martin Luther. When Martin Luther received the message, he immediately sent back a reply: "I command thee in the name of God to live because I still have need of thee in the work of reforming the church -- the Lord will never let me hear that thou art dead, but will permit thee to survive me. For this I am praying …because I seek only to glorify the name of God."
(pause…)
Myconius had already lost the ability to speak when Luther’s reply came, but he soon recovered. He lived 6 more years - dying two months after Martin Luther did.
Martin Luther’s Constant Prayer changed the course of history and supplied Martin Luther with the friendship that was so important to him as he reformed the Catholic Church into Evangelical Christianity (as we know of it, today).
Likewise – we need to change the course of our church’s history for our children and our children’s children…
