Prayer Changes Everything

Intro

Good morning, OneChurch. I am so glad that everyone is joining us online and from the comfort of home. The church is at its best when we are together, but we are thankful for days like today when you can stay home and still tune in for service.

This morning we are going to have the message, and we will give lots of time at the end for prayer, since it is our focus for January and February. Last week we kicked off our series by looking at Prayer as Praise and Thanksgiving, and how important it is to have an attitude of praise everyday, not just on Sunday. Praise reminds us Who is God in our relationship, and that He is worthy praise in every aspect of life.

This week we are looking at how prayer changes everything. We are going to be looking at Luke 11 again, and as you turn there, I want to ask.

Why does God ask us to pray?

Consider this: If God is all knowing, why do we have to tell Him something He already knows? If He is all-powerful, isn't God just going to do what He wants anyways? Why do I have to ask? Maybe you have asked yourself these questions and not having the answers has actually started to hinder your prayer life. Well this morning, I will attempt to answer this question, and maybe challenge some misconceptions about the power of prayer.

So to start, why do we have to pray? Well we have to go back to Genesis to answer that question. Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26 NLT

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

God gives man authority

In the beginning, God puts man in charge of creation. He doesn't give up ownership, and He doesn't remove Himself, but He empowers Adam and Eve to represent Him in matters of creation. It is the same way I delegate leadership of men's ministry to Paul Cameron. It is not that I have given up authority, but I limit my authority over men's so that Paul can lead it the way God has called him to. In the same way, God is still the supreme authority, but limits Himself to working through humanity

This is why Lot was spared when Abraham cried out on his behalf

Why God spared Israel through Moses' intercession

Why Peter was set free from prison when the church prayed

When you look at how the world is right now, have you ever asked why God doesn't do something about it?

when you consider that God has chosen to execute His will through His church, and you look at the way the world is right now, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn.

Isaiah 59:15–16 NLT

Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained him.

when Isaiah says intervening, he's not meaning physically intervening; he means that no one is interceding, no one is praying

While to world asks, “Why doesn't God do something about what's going on,” God is looking down on the world asking, “Why isn't the church praying about what's going on?”

E.M. Bounds, author of several books on prayer, says that the world is the way it is because God's people don't pray.

the church isn't doing the one thing God has enabled us to do. The church isn't doing to one thing that could really make ALL the difference

Which brings us to Luke 11:5-8

Luke 11:5–8 NLT

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

Be Persistent in Prayer

in verses 2-4, we see Jesus' teaching His disciples the model for prayer. The reminder I want to say about the model Jesus gives is that it is less a prayer to be recited verbatim and a structure that we should follow.

then Jesus continues his teaching with this story about these neighbours. The way the story is typically taught is to emphasize the persistance of the neighbor who has the visitor. Upon discovering he has no food, he goes next door and starts knocking on the door. Since he is persistent, his neighbour pulls himself out of bed to find some bread.

It is with this idea that it is our persistence that gets results, we move into the next passage

Luke 11:9–10 NLT

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Keep On

I appreciate the translation of the NLT because it most accurately captures what the Greek is saying. Keep on asking. Don't just pray once and expect results. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Pray the matter the through and don't give up until you get an answer. Sometimes the answer will be what we want, sometimes God will tell us to pause or wait, but He always answers. It is actually quite an entitled mindset to think we can go to God once and expect to get results.

But there is another angle you need to consider to this story, and it actually has a lot to do with the culture the story is written in, and the understanding of a certain Greek word that at times the English has trouble with.

So rewind back to the story about the neighbours. Let's say I am the one who has received the guest at midnight. I would actually be the safest bet because there is usually someone still awake at my house at midnight. Let's say they show up on a Friday, because that is usually the day groceries are a little low in my house. In the culture of Jesus’ day, this guest was not just my guest. This guest was a guest of the community, and it would be everyone's responsibility to ensure that this individual leaves, not just with a good impression of me, but of the whole village.

It is actually the same reason that Jesus tells the disciples, when you enter and town and no one takes you in, that you shake the dust of your feet off at them. If a couple homes rejected the disciples, the whole community is guilty of the the rejection, and thus the whole community is guilty of judgment.

So because it is the whole town's responsibility to welcome this guest, the host has no problems going to another home because the neighbour has a duty to help out.

So when the neighbour says, “Go away, the door is locked and family is in bed.” Jesus' listeners probably would have thought this story was impossible, even hilarious. For them, the idea of saying no wasn't even a possibility. The major reason is that the rejection would've opened his whole family to being shamed. Because what would've happened? If the first neighbour rejected him, he would go to the next neighbour, and what is the first question that neighbour will ask? “Why didn't you go to the first neighbour?”

“I did, but they refused to help.” Do you know what kind of news travels quickest? Bad news. By morning, the neighbour who refused to get out of bed would've been shamed by the whole community.

Which brings us to a very important Greek word. The word that is translated persistence is also translated as shamelessness. In fact, persistence is the positive translation, and shameless is the negative. The interesting thing here is that this is the only time in the New Testament that the positive translation of this word is used. It is almost always negatively used.

So what if the story isn't just about the persistence of the host, but about the sleeping neighbour simply trying to remain shameless? What if the point of story is that if the sleeping neighbour will help simply to remain shameless, how much more will your Heavenly Father, who loves you so much that He didn't even withhold His own Son, answer your prayers when you ask?

Then when we get to verse 9, it not only reads, keep on asking until you receive. It also reads, keep on asking and believe you will receive everything you ask for. Don't just ask about the big things, ask about everything. Don’t just keep on seeking answers about the big things, but keep on asking about everything! Don't just keep knocking on the big doors, but knock on every door and see which ones open.

Why do we keep on praying? Luke 11:11-13

Luke 11:11–13 NLT

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Because we have a good Father who loves to give His kids good gifts, the best imaginable gift being the Holy Spirit

Because we have a God who desires to answer your prayers

Because we have God who has promised to answer our prayers

Matthew 21:22 NLT

You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

In fact, He has promised to do more then we could imagine

Ephesians 3:20 NLT

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

The greatest tragedy in our walk with God is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer

The apostle James says that you don't have because you don't ask.

My challenge for you and us collectively is that we will start asking. I'm going to put the new prayer slide up on the screen. On it will be the things we are praying for as a church this year, and as these prayers are answered, they will be marked accordingly. Some of the things are big, bold prayers, but we believe that God has told us to ask, so we are asking.

We are praying to pay off the mortgage this year. The renewal is in August and so we are believing that we will just pay it and be done.

We are praying for more worship team members. We love our worship team, but we are believing for more instruments, more singers, and more leaders

We are praying for 12 salvations this years. Jesus commissioned us to make disciples, so we are praying for new disciples

We are praying for a culture of prayer to grow in our church. We want to be a pray first people, that we would be confident and dependent on prayer in our lives

We are praying for forgiveness to sweep across our church. There is some unforgiveness that has taken root in many people's lives and this is the year you let it go. When you have held onto unforgiveness for a long time, it takes the power of prayer to break those chains.

We are praying for wisdom about a new campus. One of the goals I set for our church was to plant a new campus every 5 years, and so this year we will begin praying about which community we put our next OneChurch campus. There are a lot of communities in our corner of the province without a healthy, Christ centred church, so we have opportunity

We are praying for another staff. As the youth centre and Redvers campus continue to grow and be viable, it only makes sense to bring on another staff to help provide leadership of all our ministries. So we are believing for another staff

My challenge for you is to not hold back. Be a pray first people and pray about everything. It is better to pray for something and have God say no or not yet, then to not pray and wonder what would have happened if you had. So let's be a people that pray, and pray without ceasing.

Let’s pray!