Small People, Big Prayers - Praying With Excellence Series

TEXT: Numbers 11

TITLE: Praying with Excellence - small people…BIG PRAYERS!

SERIES: Being the Church with Excellence

TOPIC: Prayer

OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, March 10, 2013

PROP.: As a circle maker, it’s important that we are praying BIG prayers, because we serve a BIG God!

INTRODUCTION: Good morning! Please open your Bible to Numbers 11. Being the Church with Excellence is the name of our sermon series. Our theme verses are on the wall. And we have learned that the early church was devoted to prayer. This was why they were excellent.

Here’s what we’ve learned so far in being excellent about prayer:

1. Lord teach us to pray - Luke 11:1

2. Becoming Circle Makers - Joshua 6 (walls of Jericho)

Trust God’s promises…

Be specific with your prayers. Generic prayers, produce generic results.

As we continue in our efforts to be a church that is striving for excellence in the area of prayer by continually being devoted to it, let me start off by asking you this question this morning:

“What is the BIGGEST prayer you’ve ever prayed?”

It’s time we right size God. Do you know what I mean?

Sometimes, we make ourselves seem so much bigger than God, that we think we can handle the problems we are facing on our own.

Other times, we enlarge the problems and difficulties we are facing so much that they seem larger than God!

Listen, God is BIGGER than your Cancer. God is BIGGER than the stubbornness of your child! God is bigger than the hardness of your spouse’s heart! God is bigger than your checking account!

Why is it, we forget how BIG God is???

ILLUSTRATION: It was said that Teddy Roosevelt would often times go outside at night with a friend and look up into the sky. After a period of silence and reflection, Teddy Roosevelt would say: “I think we feel small enough now. Let’s go to bed.”

If you are facing a problem and you haven’t right sized God, you need to get a better perspective on how BIG God is. Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God is big enough to more than we possibly imagine. THAT is how BIG God is.

In Isaiah 55:8,9 we are reminded how far superior God is compared to us: “8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

One thing we’ve learned from Louie Giglio about the universe, is that it is big! It’s gargantuan! A light year is the measurement that is needed to get your way around in God’s universe! Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.

And a light year is the distance light can travel in a year. 5.88 trillion miles is the distance of a light year!

Here’s the deal…we don’t know how far the universe extends beyond the earth! Astrophysicists have discovered the edge of the visible universe is 93 BILLION light years away. That number is incomprehensible!

“As far as the heavens are from the earth, so is the distance between God’s thoughts and ways from our thoughts and ways.” Translation? Your best thought on your best day is far inferior to God’s thoughts and plans. God’s greatness and goodness is incomprehensible! Expect BIG things from a God who is BIG!

And so here is the ONLY point of this morning’s sermon:

I. Pray BIG!

That’s it. That’s the gist of this morning’s sermon in a single thought. PRAY BIG! How big are your prayers? When tragedy strikes…or difficulties come…PRAY BIG!

We just spent time reassuring you this morning that GOD. IS. BIG. So since you are praying to a big God…why are our prayers often times, so small? Shouldn’t we ask BIG things from a BIG God?

This morning, the Title of the sermon is: Small People…BIG PRAYERS! You see, I want to challenge you as an individual to pray BIG PRAYERS! God is a BIG God who can do BIG things!

And so I want to encourage you this morning in your prayer life to dream the impossible. To ask the improbable. To believe in the power of God who specializes in BIG.

The Bible is filled with small people who prayed big prayers!

Joshua prayed big. He was the leader of Israel and was engaged in a battle against the Amorites. In Joshua 10, Joshua prays a BIG prayer. You see, the sun was beginning to set, and Joshua didn’t want any of these Amorites to escape in the darkness…so he prayed big. In verses 12-14, Joshua prays for the sun and moon to stand still. That’s a BIG prayer. But you know what? God answered Joshua. The sun and moon stood still and Joshua was able to defeat the enemies of the Lord!