PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE

INTRO

Good morning! My name is Ryan, I’m one of the pastors here at Georgianna.

It’s so good to be with you in worship today…

[MENTION LIVE STREAM AT 9:45]

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A couple of things as we get started...

First off, congratulations to Chris and Sabrina Calhoun on their wedding last night! We pray God’s blessings on their marriage.

I know Corky and Deedie have had a wonderful time celebrating with them… as well as Kyle and Ashley.

ALSO… I want to express a huge thank you on behalf of myself and Pastor Corky… Thank you to Dave Winston, Tommy Enlow… and the whole team of Trustees for making sure we were ready for worship today.

They were out on Friday raking and blowing and getting the debris cleaned up and it looks great… thank you!

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So we are wrapping up a pretty amazing series on prayer.... has this been meaningful to you as well???

Corky has done a fantastic job and I have been tasked with not ruining the ending today :)

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If you read The Hook, our weekly email, you may have already seen a few of my thoughts on this...

To me, prayer seems like one of those “put your money where your mouth is” parts of our faith.

Like there is a whole lot of good stuff that a half-committed person can do… but PRAYER… prayer is where you’re vulnerable… prayer is where you finally admit that there might be Someone out there… Someone who hears you… Someone who can do for you what you can’t do on your own.

But what happens when we truly put ourselves out there in prayer… and it doesn’t go how you wanted it go?

You know that the God of the universe is capable of acting on your behalf… you seen it and read about it before… so why didn’t it happen?

What do you do when you prayed and prayed and prayed for a loved one with cancer… you went before a God who works wonders and miracles…

But they died.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT?

as we take prayer seriously through this series I think we have to ask ourselves… Well what do we do with what seems like unanswered prayer?

OPENING PRAYER

God our Father… God the Son… God the Holy Spirit… we pray for an encounter with You. We pray for You to make Yourself known in our lives, so that we may see how You act on our behalf. But, God, even when we don’t see You… even when You seem quiet and our prayers feel unanswered… help us to trust and put ourselves out there anyway.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight… O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Amen.

ME

Let me confess something to you… sometimes I feel like I have two sides of my faith…

I have the level-headed version. I mean, sure, it’s challenging.

But it’s challenging in all those ways that make sense. All those ways that make me a better person… or that help my family or my community.

I know I should serve others… help those in need.

I know I should give of my time and my money… I should be generous.

I know that we are all better together in community… leaning on one another. Building healthy relationships.

I know that if I’m really serious about this that I should probably study scripture…

But all of that make sense, right? Even if you encounter someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus… no one is really going to disagree with you on much of that.

They may not have the same convictions, but it makes sense to anyone that if you wanted to follow Jesus you would probably read the Bible and help those in need.

I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of any of this. It’s all good stuff. Everyone has their convictions. These are mine.

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There’s another side of my faith. I don’t talk always talk about it. I’m not sure what people will think. They may look at me like I have 3 eyes.

It doesn’t always come off as intelligent. In fact, people may assume the opposite about you.

But if you’re really going to follow Jesus, and you’re really going to take the stories about Him seriously… then you can’t have one side of this faith without the other.

My faith is a supernatural one. I believe in prayer. I believe in miracles. I believe that there truly is a divine being who created this world and that He loves you and me…

And I believe that He can hear us… and that He can act on our behalf!

I believe that He can part a sea… and that He can make a young boy victorious over a giant… and that He can preserve someone’s life in the belly of a fish if He wanted to.

I believe that He sent a part of Himself called Jesus… and I believe that Jesus was miraculous as well. He could open the eyes of the blind and heal the skin of the lepers… He could cast out demons… He could feed 5,000 people with a child’s lunch.

And, oh yeah, He could raise people back from the dead.

Now if you’re not a Jesus follower, let’s be honest… that’s going to be tougher to swallow than the first version of our faith that says help your neighbor and give money to good causes.

WE

Now you don’t have to answer out loud, but think about it… if someone asks you about what you believe… which version are you more likely to share?

Do you share that Jesus teaches me to live a better life and help those in need?

Or do you share that I’ve got Jesus on that mainline… and He hears all my prayers… and heals all my diseases… and He do the same for you, praise God!

Now don’t get me wrong… Jesus DOES teach us to live a better life and help those in need… and we celebrate the times when we are about that work.

But there is a fullness to our faith that says Jesus DOES heal… Miracles CAN happen. And God HEARS you when you pray.

GOD

In fact, one of the first things Jesus does in His ministry is he lets everyone know the kind of work that He is going to be about…

Go to Luke chapter 4 with me… we’re going to look at verses 16-21

And as you read you’ll see Jesus announcing the fullness of his ministry… and we clearly see version #1 and version #2 of our faith in Jesus’ announcement…

And I want to do something a little different today… will you stand if you are able, for the reading of Scripture.

PASSAGE

Luke 4:16–21 (NIV)

16 [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

[AND THEN HE READS FROM ISAIAH]

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

REFLECTIONS

So every part of this scene is completely normal… until the very end.

The way this is described, Jesus was probably a guest teacher at his hometown synagogue.

It was the custom to stand when reading scripture… like we just did. And Jesus reads from Isaiah in what is now our OT.

It was also custom to sit while you taught.

So it’s not like Jesus just read scripture and then went and found His seat.

No He sat down and took His place as THE teacher in the synagogue that day.

And everything about this feels normal on the surface… but you can tell that there might be something different when everyone’s eyes are locked in on Jesus.

Jesus chooses a scripture about the coming Messiah… but in Nazareth it was a bit touchy.

There was a neighboring city about 4 miles down the road that was now lying in ruins… because the people there got caught up in believing in another messiah… and a revolution began… a revolution that was quickly crushed by the Romans. And the city was destroyed.

And so they believed in a Messiah, in theory… but it was not without caution. They’ve seen this go wrong before.

Do they dare believe again?

And then Jesus just says it… “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

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And so we DO… we have this “put our money where our mouth is” part of faith. Well, do we believe it or don’t we?

As you read through this announcement you can see that Jesus IS going to be about how we live better and help our neighbors… as well as the sheer supernatural and the miraculous as He begins His ministry.

Are we willing to put this sort of belief behind our prayers?

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Now maybe we think that that stuff is just reserved for Jesus… of course Jesus is miraculous. He’s God and we’re not, right?

But before Jesus leaves this earth He actually tells His followers that they will do even greater things than HE has.

They can pray… they can call on God (like Jesus did)… and they will have greater results!

Can you imagine this? Greater things than Jesus?

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But they do! In fact there is one story in particular where the apostle Paul raises a young man back to life…

Now it’s not a story I would be particularly proud of if I was Paul… because the guy falls asleep while Paul was preaching, then fell out of a 3rd story window…

As a preacher… you don’t put that on your resume.

But the guy dies!

And Paul races downstairs and brings him back to life.

People you have to read this book… it’s wild.

Jesus’ followers, were about the supernatural… just like Jesus said.

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And so with the announcement of Jesus’ ministry… and many of the rest of the stories we know about His life… we may end up with a certain expectation about prayer and miracles and healing…

And then our reality looks a bit different.

When our expectations aren’t met… You may wonder… Does God really hear our prayers? Can He really heal?

This has happened to me a couple of times… You get caught up in a story on Facebook. Something incredibly tragic has happened to someone and their life is now in the balance.

When we were living in TN there was a 2 year old girl in town… and there had been an accident at a pool. And we didn’t know her or her family, but many of our friends did… and her life was hanging in the balance.

Around the same time, also on Facebook, there was a fraternity brother of mine… he collapsed while mowing the lawn. And his life was hanging in the balance

Both were in the in hospital… both were fighting for their lives… I was seeing updates on both whenever I got on Facebook.

I’m sure there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people praying for them.

And both didn’t make it.

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And listen… I know God moves supernaturally… I know He hears me when I pray… I have felt His presence in my life before…

But if you get involved to calm my anxiety… or to help me know the right decision for a job…

Then God, why wouldn’t you do something as important as saving someone’s life?

Have you ever prayed for something… and it didn’t happen?

I think these times can present a bit of a faith crisis for us. We want to believe in a God that hears and a God who heals, but in times like this we wonder if God just isn’t real… or if He’s not good… or if He doesn’t care…

In a series on prayer here’s an important question that we may need to ask....

How do you continue praying, to go before God if we believe that He can and we know that He has, but he doesn’t ALWAYS do what we know He could do and what we think He should do?

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Sometimes I feel like those ancient Nazarenes… Yes, I believe in this stuff… and Yes I know what the Bible says.

But they have seen this go bad. 4 miles away there was a town called Sepphoris… and it’s in ruins now because they chose to believe in a messiah… and the Romans crushed it.

And I’ve been burned before… I’ve prayed before… I’ve believed before… I’ve put myself out there… and it didn’t turn out like I thought.

Do I dare believe again?

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How do we keep our faith in a God who does hear our prayers and can act on our behalf… even when He doesn’t always do what we think He should?

Here’s a foundational thought for us today… maybe you know this to be true in your own life… but you may be surprised to see this in scripture.

***Our foundational thought is this: We pray to a miraculous God… but He doesn’t work miracles for everyone all the time.

We pray to a miraculous God… but He doesn’t work miracles for everyone all the time.

And we know this is true. We see it in our lives… but we don’t often notice that this is true in scripture as well.

But let me give you 3 quick examples:

Now these aren’t big stories… because why would you write a big story about when a miracle or a healing DOESN’T happen?

But there’s a letter that Paul writes to his protege Timothy… and toward the end of his letter he’s giving Timothy some updates on some of their friends and he says:

2 Timothy 4:20 (NIV)

20 Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.

This is Paul, right? I just told you that Paul raised a guy back from the dead.

I mean he DID kill him with his preaching… but poor Trophimus… just is what it is I guess.

Not only is Trophimus not healed. Paul just leaves him behind!

We know this… Paul knows this… God could have healed him… they’ve probably prayed for it… but it didn’t happen.

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In another letter that Paul writes to Timothy it seems like Timothy is ill… actually frequently ill.

Paul writes this to Timothy:

1 Timothy 5:23 (NIV)

23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Okay, number 1, how embarrassing for Timothy that this made it into the Bible, right?

Sorry about your IBS man!

And now it’s in the Book :)

But apparently Timothy is sick OFTEN… and I’m sure they prayed… but there is no mention of healing.

God could have… but He didn’t.

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Then there’s Paul himself. In another letter he speaks about having a “thorn in his side” or a “thorn in his flesh.” He says it’s a messenger of Satan that torments him…

People have debated, but it’s really impossible to know what it was. Things have been suggested like blindness or a speech impediment… or a having a short fuse…

I wonder if it was guilt… from Paul’s past.

But it doesn’t really matter… the point is that he prays… he pleads with God to remove it. And God doesn’t do it.

God could have… but He didn’t.

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Our God can, he often does........ but when he doesn't— how do we deal with that?

We see Jesus announcing work that is nothing less than miraculous…

But Church, what do you do with unanswered prayer?

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Did you know that Jesus had an unanswered prayer?

Just before His crucifixion Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane… and He is agonizing in prayer.

It’s so intense that the story says sweat is falling from Him like drops of blood.

I have to imagine that of all of the impassioned, honest prayers lifted up to God… this had to be one of the most sincere.

Jesus is sweating blood.

And He prays that this cup of suffering would be taken away from Him… and it wasn’t.

APPLICATIONS

As we wrap up this series on prayer today… I want to talk for a few minutes on unanswered prayer.

I don’t know about you, but God doesn’t always answer my prayers.

Actually… maybe more accurately… God doesn’t always answer my prayers with the answer that I would prefer.

***Billy Graham’s wife Ruth once said this:

“God has not always answered my prayers. If He had, I would have married the wrong man several times!”

Do me a favor… look at your spouse right now and say, “Thank God for unanswered prayer!”

So sometimes we can look back and with hindsight see what God may have been up to all along.

But sometimes it’s not always this easy.

Many times it IS with healing… or asking for the miraculous. Unanswered prayers are much harder to reckon with.

There are those times when it seems like it would have been so easy for God to move and it would have made such a difference for so many people… but it didn’t happen.

Why are those prayers unanswered?

I want to look at a few possible reasons that we experience unanswered prayer.

Of course, I don’t have an answer for every single time that we hoped God would act… and it didn’t happen.

But I want to share 3 thoughts that might help us on this journey of prayer… and maybe help us KEEP our faith as we do it.

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My first thought about unanswered prayer is this: ***Miracles are rare… because they have to be.

We don’t see miracles and healings happening every day because then they wouldn’t be miracles anymore.

The definition of a miracle is some sort of positive, sometimes life-altering event that defies any sort of natural law… those same natural laws that God put into place to begin with.

If miracles were the norm, then there wouldn’t be much of a natural law to depend on.

And we might take it for granted… but we DO depend on it!

And maybe, just maybe, God knows that it is more important for us to have dependable laws of nature than for us to escape personal suffering.

Over the past few weeks we have had 2 hurricanes that rocked both coasts of Florida. Could God have stopped them? Of course. Could God intervene in every destructive storm and speak the words “Peace be still” like He did in the gospels? Absolutely.

But this would compromise the dependability of nature and weather… and then whole climates and ecosystems would collapse… the tropics would only get hotter… the Arctic would only get colder… and the devastation would be exponentially worse.

***To quote C.S. Lewis:

That God can and does, on occasions, modify the behavior of matter and produce what we call miracles, is part of Christian faith; but the very conception of a common, and therefore stable, world, demands that these occasions should be extremely rare.

(The Problem of Pain)

Miracles are rare… because they have to be.

My second thought about unanswered prayer is this: ***Life is tough… because we made it that way.

We had a sermon series a few months ago called “Long Story Short” where we tried to trace the big story of the Bible.

And Corky had that lovely privilege of preaching about the chapter when humanity took a wrong turn… they defied God and we look back at that event now and we call it “the Fall.”

And I think sometimes when we go to God in prayer and we plead for an end to our struggles and difficulties… we forget that our home is this fallen world.

Sometimes we expect life to be like heaven now… And we forget that heaven is actually still on its way.

And here is the truth that none of want to hear… Right now we live in a world where imperfection is the norm.

Paul writes in Romans that this creation… this world is in bondage to decay.

Maybe instead of praying to be delivered FROM it… we can pray that God would help us THROUGH it?

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You remember those Jesus followers that I mentioned… you know the ones who were supposed to do greater things than Jesus did?

Despite having had a one on one relationship with Jesus… despite the Holy Spirit falling on them on the day of Pentecost… despite performing signs and wonders themselves...

Only 1 of them was able to escape the reality of dying for their beliefs.

The disciple Peter writes this:

1 Peter 4:12 (NIV)

12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Imperfection… Fallenness… this side of Heaven is the norm

When we only set our eyes on the miracles… we lose sight of the martyrs.

When we only expect blessings to fall on us… we forget that we live in a world that suffers.

We may pray and plead for a life without suffering… but the reality is that find ourselves on the lesser side of Heaven.

Author Pete Greig, the prayer coach that Corky mentioned a few weeks ago, has a whole book on unanswered prayer… It’s called God On Mute and I would happily recommend it to you if you’re struggling with this.

And in the book he talks about this perspective shift, where we begin to accept the reality that we are not in Heaven yet. That we will experience hardship as a part of what is normal in a fallen world.

And he says:

With a business-as-usual approach to life’s trials, the good times can become surprising and delightful. It will be our blessings more than our sufferings that provoke us to ask God, “Why?”

What if instead of asking “Why me, Lord” when something bad happened… we turned it around. And we began to wonder what we had done to deserve the sunny days… or the unexpected gift… or food on the table.

Life is tough… what if ANY blessing could be seen as a prayer answered?

One more thought about unanswered prayer is this: ***Jesus DOES heal… but as a part of a much bigger picture.

When we struggle with unanswered prayer we may look back at the miracle stories in Jesus’s ministry and wonder why they were healed.

Was this person closer to Jesus?

Did this person pray harder than anyone else?

Was this person more deserving?

And how do I achieve the same results?

But what if there is an even bigger picture going on Than just removing someone’s ailment?

When you take in all of Jesus’ ministry you get the idea that everything He says and does is an illustration of God’s Kingdom.

So Jesus heals someone, not just to alleviate their suffering, but because in God’s Kingdom there is no infirmity.

Jesus works a miracle with a blind man, not just to give him an easier life, but because in God’s Kingdom we will see things perfectly clear.

Jesus feeds 5000 people… not just so they will have full bellies… but because in God’s Kingdom it is God who satisfies.

Jesus DOES heal… Jesus DOES work in miraculous ways… but everything He does is, first and foremost, an expression of how God’s Kingdom works.

So when you go to God in prayer… and you plead for whatever is on your heart… and the miracle doesn’t come… REMEMBER THIS:

Jesus is far more concerned with making God’s Kingdom known on earth than He is about us avoiding suffering.

Jesus prayed the the cup of suffering would be taken from Him… but His death on the cross had a profound Kingdom purpose.

And I don’t want that to sound cold… I think it breaks God’s heart that hardships might be our reality in a broken world. But it is.

Jesus DOES heal… but as part of a much bigger picture. Revealing God’s Kingdom.

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Church I’m aware that this might be a sensitive topic.

I hope that some of those thoughts are helpful… but I’m also fully aware that every time a prayer isn’t answered it may not fit neatly into one of these categories.

Every time we face unanswered prayers we may not be able to make sense of it like this.

Whether we like it or not… God’s ways are not our ways.

But we can still trust the goodness of God because ***OUR FAITH IS BASED IN WHO GOD IS… NOT WHAT GOD DOES.

Our faith is based in who God is… not what God does.

I can lift up my voice and concerns and gratitude to God because He is my soul’s deliverer. Even if my body fails.

Even if I experience profound heartache in this world.

I choose to believe that a better Kingdom is prepared for me.

I’ve been invited to a perfect eternity… that waits at the end of an imperfect few decades.

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God may not answer every one of our prayers. Even the really important ones!

We may not always experience God’s healing… but there’s something FAR more important on God’s mind than just shielding us from suffering.

He’s far more interested in healing our souls, than healing our bodies.

Here’s the reality… if God heals you of cancer… you’re probably still going to die someday.

Jesus’ highest purpose isn't what happens to your body for 70 or 80 or 90 years on Earth. His highest purpose is that your life would glorify Him.

In good times… and bad.

In blessing… and in suffering.

In answered prayers… and unanswered prayers.

WE

Church, our faith IS a supernatural one. Miracles CAN happen… starting with the saving and healing of our very souls.

Nothing I said this morning should discourage you from praying for healing… or praying for a miracle.

Just because we may struggle with what feels like unanswered prayer does not mean our God is any less powerful.

Pray bold prayers… believe in a God of healing… but don’t forget- our faith is not in what God may or may not do in a moment… but who God IS.

A God who wants you to spend an eternity with Him… and there is no bigger miracle.

CLOSING PRAYER

Who You are, who we are, who You’ve called us to be…

BENEDICTION

So speaking of “putting our money where our mouth is”... as we end this series on prayer… Georgianna we are making a change… today.

We’re going to change some language around here to better communicate a heart for prayer.

Corky mentioned this last week… he said that it has long been a vision of his to return the Historic Sanctuary into a House of Prayer.

That has really stuck with me. And I’m a person that believes the language we use is very important.

Right now our beautiful little Historic Sanctuary is named after its past. It has stood there for over 130 years as a sacred space of worship for generations of Jesus followers.

But as important as that history is… I ran a different idea by Corky…

What if instead of naming it after its past, we named it after its purpose?

So starting today… the lovely little building in the front corner of our courtyard will now be known as the Prayer Chapel.

And it is our hope that it lives into that name… that it truly becomes a bastion of prayer.

For that to be a sacred space where we find ourselves in God’s holy presence.

We’ve done a couple of new things in there… go by and check it out.

Nearly every day since I’ve started working here, my mornings have started off in that chapel. It is my place where I find myself in God’s presence.

And so I would encourage you to take some time today. Head over there and be surrounded by walls and stained glass that have been a part of people’s worship for over a century.

And if you find yourself in a situation where you just need to fall on your knees before a holy God… come by any time during the week and we’ll open it up for you.

And let me go one step further… and I asked Allison’s permission for this one.

If you need that chapel and the office is closed… I live next door.

If you need to hear from God… I don’t want anything to stand in your way. If I’m home I’ll be happy to open the door for you.

Now… admittedly I’m taking a risk here.

Listen if you knock on my door at 3am because you’re praying for a raise… I’m not going to be super jacked about that.

But I’m taking a risk because I love this church… and I believe in the power of prayer.

I love you church… take a moment in the Prayer Chapel… and we’ll see you at Worship In The Park next week.