Prayer is Powerful

Introduction:

Welome

Continuing in our Back to Basics study

Today we’ll be looking at our fourth Core Value, Prayer is Powerful

It, along with all of our Core Values, comes from...

Acts 2:42 CSB

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

But let’s go ahead and practice what we are about to preach

Prayer

Context/Segue

Prayer is an interesting word nowadays. It has an odd connotation among both believers and non-believers

Prayer can be used to:

appeal to some supernatural force of nature - many non-believers say things like, “We could sure use prayer.”

suggest a last hope - “They threw up a final prayer.”

offer condolences - “I’ll pray for you.”

gently say no - “I’ll pray about it.”

Unfortunately, the word prayer and the action it carries with it has lost some meaning and been watered down both by non-Christian usage and poor Christian understanding of its purpose.

So, today I’d like to help us reclaim its significance and power by looking to what God’s Word says about prayer

The truth is… prayer is a popular theme and practice in the Bible

Prayer throughout the Word

We see the following people pray:

Abraham in Genesis 15,17, 18

Eliezer in Genesis 17 s

Jacob in Genesis 28, 32

Moses in Exodus 4, 5, 32, 33; Numbers 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 27; Deuteronomy 3, 9

Aaron in Numbers 6 d

Israel in Numbers 21; Judges 1, 10, 20, 21

Joshua in Joshua 7, 10 d

Gideon in Judges 6 a

Jephthah in Judges 11 a

Manoah in Judges 13 s

Samson Judges 16 a

Hannah in 1 Samuel 1, 2 a

Saul in 1 Samuel 14 a

David in 1 Samuel 23, 30; 2 Samuel 2, 5, 7, 24; 1 Chronicles 4

Solomon in 1 Kings 3, 8 a

Elijah in 1 Kings 17, 18, 19

Elisha in 2 Kings 6 a

Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19. 20; Isaiah 37, 38

Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4 a

Asa in 2 Chronicles 14 a

Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 a

Ezra in Ezra 7, 9 a

Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1, 4, 6, 9, 13 a

Job in Job 1, 7, 9, 14, 23, 40, 42 a

72 prayers in the Psalms by David, Asaph, Moses, Ethan, and many unknown people

Isaiah in Isaiah 6 a

Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1, 4, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 32; Lamentations 1, 2, 3, 5 a

Daniel in Daniel 9, 12 a

Amos in Amos 7 a

Sailors in Jonah 1 a

Jonah in Jonah 2, 4 a

Habakkuk in Habakkuk 1, 3 a

Jesus in Matthew 6, 11, 26, 27; Mark 7; Luke 23; John 11, 12, 17

Leper in Matthew 8 a

Centurion in Matthew 8 a

Disciples in Matthew 8, Acts 1

Demons in Matthew 8 a

A ruler in Matthew 9 a

A women in Matthew 9 a

Two blind men in Matthew 9 a

Peter in Matthew 14, Acts 3, 9

Another women in Matthew 15 a

A man in Matthew 17 a

A mother in Matthew 20 a

Another two blind men in Matthew 20 a

Another demon in Mark 1 a

Simeon in Luke 2 a

Rich man in Luke 16 a

10 lepers in Luke 17 a

A pharisee in Luke 18 a

A tax collector in Luke 18 a

Nobleman in John 4 a

Crowds people in John 6 a

Stephen in Acts 7

Paul in Acts 9 a

John in 3 John

Countless other examples

56 individual people, over 200 recorded prayers across 31 books of the Bible

We see the following things prayed for:

an heir

sparing of a life

a bride

a blessing

deliverance from an enemy

accompaniment on a journey

complaint for God’s inaction

forgiveness

God’s presence

healing

judgement

new leader

permission

for the sun and moon to stand still

guidance

revelation

victory

appearance of an angel

a son

gratitude

fulfillment of God’s promise

dedication

resurrection of the dead

death

fire from heaven

servants eyes to be opened

longer life

enlarged coast

confession

resignation

relief

for a fair trial

worship

to be remembered

cleansing

question God

accusing God

for the remnant

mercy

deliverance from hell

revival

help from drowning

to walk on water

exaltation

temporary freedom

boasting of righteousness

glorification

successor

boldness/power

enemies

instruction

second coming of Jesus

and… countless other examples in Scripture

For those of you counting, that’s 52 different topics of prayer!

We’ve seen who has prayed and what they prayed for, but what about how God has answered?

We see the following responses to prayer by God:

He answers exactly

He answers differently

He answers immediately

He answers gradually

He answers later

He doesn’t answer at all

Or lastly, all of our favorites, He answers no

We can see clearly that prayer is a significant, dare I say powerful, part of God’s written story of mankind

But what does all this mean?

It’s one thing to see this powerful thread throughout Scripture. It’s another thing to know what exactly it is and how we engage in it.

And those are the two questions I’d now like to turn our attention to

What is prayer?

How should we pray?

Let’s begin with the former

What is Prayer?

Let’s begin with a definition

According to Wayne Grudem, prayer can be defined as, “personal communication with God.”

Now… this is a good definition, but much too broad

We don’t just want personal communication with God, we want good personal communication with God

And what makes it good? When both parties understand the goal right?

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you both think you’re talking about the same thing, but you’re not? It leads nowhere

And some of us may be saying a bunch of words, but with no understanding of the goal of prayer - and then we wonder why it’s “not working”

Grudem effectively adds to his own definition when he talks about the purposes of prayer which are:

deepen our trust in Him - expound

deepen our fellowship with Him - expound

deepen our involvement for Him - expound

So… here’s our full definition then - “prayer is personal communication with God for the purpose of more deeply trusting in Him, fellowshipping with Him, and living for Him.”

But how do we do this?

We’ve seen examples of prayer all throughout the Bible, by many different people, with many different outcomes - we’ve defined what prayer is

Now, we’ll answer the question, “how should we pray?”

How should we Pray?

There is no better passage of Scripture on this topic than in Matthew 6:9-13

Matthew 6:9–13 CSB

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Several practical applications from how Jesus teaches us to pray:

Acknowledge who God is

“Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy...”

Prayer isn’t ultimately about us - it’s about God

Pray for His will to be done

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...”

We don’t pray so what we want will happen. We pray so that what God wants to happen will happen

And really, it’s going to happen anyway. Prayer is God’s way of inviting us along for the ride

Ask for what you need

“Give us today our daily bread...”

Ultimately God already knows what we need - Matthew 6:8 “...your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”

Confess and ask forgiveness

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors...”

There never needs to be a time we pray where we don’t confess our sins and ask for forgiveness

Ask for spiritual protection

“And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one...”

Expound

These 5 categories definitely aren’t a formula. You don’t have to time your prayers to make sure you spend equal time in each. It’s not even to say that you must hit all 5 of these every time you pray.

But they are a guide.

If you look at these and think to yourself, “wow, I only really pray for my needs” then maybe you need to focus more on each of the other areas

Because they balance us out.

Look at their order, and how they progress.

We start by acknowledging the greatness of our God

As we do that it makes us want to surrender our will to His, because He is the one that is great

As we subject ourselves to His will, we realize our need to depend on Him for all things

Our dependency on Him leads us to realize how often we fall short and our need to repent of those times

And then we close by asking God to protect us from succumbing to future temptations and sin

Closing Thoughts/Invitation:

Let’s go ahead and invite the worship team up as we get ready to close

But let’s do this.

Let’s pray together.

I’m going to lead us in a time of prayer, followed by an extended time of silent prayer.

If you’d like to stand, then stand. Sit, then sit. Come to the altar, then come. But we’re going to spend several minutes praying, then Spencer will lead us in one final song… to which you are welcome to stand and join in.