The Power Of Prayer Series

The Power of Prayer

Series: Setting the Table

Brad Bailey – November 5, 2023

Intro

Today we are going to begin a short focus on how we create space for such

connections...on what’s involved in creating the type of space for others to meet God

...the kind of space where people can experience God’s grace.

We may all have people we care about... some we have known for a long time...some may just

recently... and we may want them to know God... but we don’t know how to create a space to

really connect.

So today we are beginning a short series... entitled Setting the Table...about how to join God’s

hospitality.

When you are invited to come to someone’s home for a meal... what shapes the

experiences... from how you feel beforehand...to when you first arrive...to how you experience

those around you ...and how you feel when you leave...is not defined just by the meal...but

how wanted and welcomed you were... how included you were in the whole gathering.

This is what Jesus embodies.

Read the Gospels...that testify of Jesus...and what runs throughout them...are his sharing in

meals...and what is noted... is never the meal... but the guest list...and the welcome he

extended to those around him. It was the welcome that spoke.

You can have great food... without heart... no one is there because we didn’t invite them...

or people may gather and just be pretentious foodies...and no one is blessed. The nature of

hospitality... of a space that we are welcomed.

And...

Hospitality begins in the heart of the host.

As we’ll see over these weeks...it includes the heart to risk inviting...and to create space for

sharing.

But it begins with the power of prayer.

If we want to set the table that welcomes others to know God... it begins with joining with God

through prayer. In the Scriptures, the Apostle Paul instructs his younger apprentice Timothy,

writing:

1 Timothy 2:1, 3-4 (NLT)

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their

behalf, and give thanks for them.... . 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who

wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

God has a desire... and we join it through prayer.

God is extending something that we are either joining or not...and it begins with praying.

He says this is “first of all”... the first thing to do. And we should pray for others with

thankfulness...which means actually valuing people...caring about those who are lost. [1]

How does praying for those who don’t yet share a relationship with Christ shape us?

1. Prayer connects us to God’s compassion.

Setting the table for connection involves actually caring about people.

It’s not simply telling someone they NEED to be at the table...but that we want them at the

table...that we care about them.

Jesus [2]...

Matthew 9:36 (NLT)

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and

helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

He had compassion ....

Quite a difference from seeing people as just fine on their own...as people who have it all

together...or at least think they do.

Quite a difference from seeing people as those who need our judgment / condemnation.

Welcomed sinners....

What’s in our hearts actually matters.

You can tell someone you have the mumps...but if you have the measles... guess what

they will get.

If we love people... what we say will convey it...if we don’t...what we say won’t.

We cease to be salesman and saleswoman.

When we pray... we are inviting God to make us more like Christ...to form Christ’s compassion

in us.

Richard Foster

“If we truly love people we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give

them...and this will lead us to prayer.” - Richard Foster

2. Prayer connects us to the need for spiritual breakthrough.

The meaning of the Gospel... is that of good news...so we might feel confused when the

message about Jesus isn’t just heard as good news.

But Jesus knew that we have become enslaved to the powers of this world.

Jesus knew what he represented... and what he was contending with.

We need to do the same.

As we read in the Scriptures [3]...

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this

message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

When I was about 19 ...in college... a young women back here at a local high school who

was connected to the beach scene I was a par of of...who had begun to engage Christian