The Power of Prayer

Philippians 4:6–8 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Most of us would admit that we struggle with prayer. Even though we may struggle with prayer, this does not mean that there is no power in it. Maybe you struggle with it because there was something that you prayed for and God did not answer. We often think that we know better than God and that our will supersedes his will. We should not feel this way. Isaiah 55:8–9 “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither 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.”

So maybe you don’t pray because you have a lack of trust that God will answer it. But maybe you don’t pray because you don’t see a point in it. We preach about the sovereignty of God here. So if God is truly sovereign, then why would we pray for something since God has already decided what is going to happen? Often times, our prayers are less about getting what we want and more about tuning our hearts to who God is and what his will is.

If you have ever played a sport, you know that to get better at something, you need to have discipline. The same goes for our lives as believers. We must discipline ourselves in different areas so that we can grow in our walk with Christ. This would be things like reading scripture, journaling, worship, serving, evangelism, being good stewards, and prayer.

Maybe you feel like you are not good at praying. I understand. You feel like you don’t have the right words to say. Or you grew up in a background where people talked to God much differently than they would talk to another person. This is not prayer. Many times, this is due to them wanting to have the attention on themselves like the people that Jesus called out for doing that. Matthew 6:5 “5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

I think we can all agree that we don’t want to be hypocrites. We should all desire to want to get better at prayer. Maybe that means that we set aside a time on a consistent basis to pray. Maybe that means that we are being more intentional for what we are praying for. Maybe that means that we just want to simply pray because we don’t. All of these are good things to want.

Prayer Must be a Central Part of our Faith

This is so important for us. We should all be desiring to grow in our walk with Christ. To do this, we must prioritize pray. For this to happen, we need to look to scripture to see how important prayer is. Because if we do not see that prayer is something powerful, then we will never make a priority for it.

Do we truly understand the power of prayer?

As we dive into what Paul has wrote to the Philippian church, my prayer has been that we truly grasp the power of prayer in our lives. Let’s dive into God’s word.

Prayer Calms

We all have ways that we try to calm ourselves. Maybe you are one who likes to pick up a good book and sit in the recliner by the lamp with a nice cup of hot chocolate. Maybe you like to go outside and work in the yard or the garden and that really calms you. Or maybe you are one who likes to go for a run to calm down(that would do the opposite for me).

But we all have ways that we use to calm down. We all have the stress that this life puts on us. I can think back to times in my life when I needed to seek out ways to calm down. Especially when you have a job where there is a lot of pressure on you.

Pressure then leads to anxiety. And anxiety is a very heavy weight. Let’s be honest here, on some level, we all deal with anxiety. Proverbs 12:25 “25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down”.

Work, finances, relationship, kids, grandkids, parents, church even can cause us anxiety. Maybe there are times where we need to seek out professional medical help because there is chemical imbalances and we need help regulating them. But those times are in the minority. Our society always tries to seek out unnatural ways to overcome anxiety. In NC, drug overdose death rates have tripled in the last 10 years. In 2010, the US spend nearly $250 billion dollars on alcohol. Here is one that will really get us, 64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month. We seek out all of these other avenues to deal with worry and anxiety and to give us an avenue out of reality. But scripture gives us the answer.

Philippians 4:6 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Ask God. Paul is giving the church in Philippi instructions on how to pray here. Don’t be anxious. Anxiety gets in the way of our prayer life.

I played one year of football in high school(we weren’t very good). But, naturally, I played an offensive lineman. With my position, on some of the plays, I was what you called the pulling guard. Instead of me lunging forward to stop the defense, I actually pivoted and went down the line to be a lead blocker for the running back. It was my job to get in the way of the defense so the running back could move down the field.

Anxiety does that for us. It blocks us from growing spiritually. What we need to do it flip the script on it. We need to attack anxiety instead of it attacking us. So how do we do this?

Paul tells us in this verse. He tells us that by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we need to let God know what we think we need. So let’s break down these words that he uses here in this verse.

Prayer - simply, prayer is communicating with God.

Supplication - pleading humbly

Thanksgiving - being thankful to God for what he does

This is how we are to pray. Humbly ask God to do things. Know that he knows better than we do. Isaiah 55:8–9 “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither 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.” Be humble about what we ask God. At the same time, be thankful for what God has done. And more than answering any prayer that we have prayed, God has given us the way to salvation.

This is summed up in what we call the gospel. (gospel presentation - God, man, Christ, response)

Do you want eternal freedom from all your worries and anxiety? Repent and believe the gospel. If you have eternal freedom through salvation and you still suffer from anxiety, find freedom today through prayer. Prayer calms us.

Prayer Protects

Growing up, your imagination tends to run wild. I think it was worse for me because I had two older sisters who tried to scare me. You know, the normal stuff like things living in the closet and under the bed. Although, I was also the child who would clean my room by putting everything under my bed. So there might have been something living under my bed.

But there is this fear. When we are kids it might be monsters hiding under our bed. When we are adults it turns into other things like bills hiding in our mailbox. When we have fear, there is a need for both peace and protection.

It seems like many people do not have the capacity for peace. I went and lead worship at the Love Life prayer walk in Charlotte yesterday morning. This is a ministry that combats abortion. The abortion clinic on Latrobe Drive in Charlotte is the busiest abortion clinic in the southeast United States, and quiet possibly the busiest one in the country. Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, their business has went up nearly 300% because of other states becoming more strict on their abortion laws and NC legislature not making the same stand. So they come to Charlotte from surrounding states to kill their preborn children. We will be going to this same prayer walk in late September so over the next few weeks, you will hear more about it. When you go there, you are figuratively and seemingly literally marching against the gates of Hell. As we walk and pray around the block, there are people that are standing there, advocating for abortion. When women are pulling up, they are begging them not to listen to those who are praying and begging them to go inside and kill their babies.

But there is this one guy, who is there every single week. His name is Reggie. As we are praying, as we are walking, as we are reading scripture and praying, Reggie is on the sidewalk yelling hatred out. Reggie needs peace. And Reggie hears each and every week that the only place that he will find true peace is in Jesus Christ.

But if we are honest with ourselves, without Christ, we are not much different than Reggie. We needed Christ just as much as Reggie does today. Paul reminds us of this in the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We all need peace and it is found in Christ. We need protection as well. When we think of protection, we probably do not think of things like peace. With the thought of protection, I know that I usually think about weapons.

Let’s say that you are laying in bed in the middle of the night. Maybe the dogs start barking or maybe you hear someone trying to get in. Your first thought is I need to protect myself and my family. Maybe you have a firearm you grab, or a baseball bat, or maybe you have a sword or something. But you know that you need some sort of weapon to protect.

Prayer is our weapon for protection. Prayer is our weapon because it brings us peace. Like I said, this world has taught us that protection and peace are on two opposite ends of the spectrum, but this is a lie. For God, he has brought us protection through his peace.

Philippians 4:7 ESV

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We hate to admit it sometimes, but there are just some things that we do not understand. I cannot answer any questions you have about quantum physics. But just because we don’t understand it doesn’t mean that we cannot experience it. I don’t understand gravity, but I am experiencing it right this second. The same goes with the peace of God. We cannot understand it. It makes no sense when something bad happens yet we have hope. It makes no sense when someone is oppressive towards us, yet we smile and have joy. This makes no sense. No teacher can teach it, no professor can formulate it, and no doctor can prescribe it. It just makes no sense.

But what it does, is it guards our hearts. It protects us. As a father, I feel if I could instill this into my daughter, then I will not worry about her when she grows up and leaves home. I know that her heart will be guarded. She will be protected.

But not only our hearts, our minds will be protected too. I firmly believe that one of the greatest battles that we as believers fight is the one going on in our minds. Our decisions, our actions are determined by us, in our minds. I will say with full confidence that my mind needs protecting. The mind is where Satan attacks us. That is where he puts those little seeds of division.

Think back to Genesis with Eve and the serpent(Satan). Think about the question that he asked her. Genesis 3:1 “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”” When he asked this, he did not attack her physically. He did not even attack her heart. Satan attacks our minds. He sows seeds of doubt and shame and depression and worry.

So how do we protect ourselves from this? Through prayer. Going to God with thanksgiving and asking God to provide this for us. And he will give us peace that surpasses all understand to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Prayer protects us.

Prayer Leads to Praise

We come together each and every week and we spend time together in worship. This should never be the limitation to our worship though. Worship is not a time that happens on Sunday mornings but it is a lifestyle.

Worship and praise is not a genre of music but it is an action of our hearts and minds. We give God praise because he is God. He is the only one who is worthy of our praise. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He is the one who was and is and is to come. He is Yahweh, he is the messiah, he is the one who brought us out of darkness and into marvelous light. He is the one who authored our salvation, he is the one who secured our salvation, and he is the one who sustains our salvation. That is why he is worthy of praise.

Paul gives us a wonderful verse here is Philippians.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

All of these words are attributes of God. Scripture uses these words to describe God for us. I could pick each and every one of you out here this morning and I know many of you well enough that if I was asked to use 5-6 words to describe you, I think I could do a good job. I may would even flatter some of you. But I feel sure that I would not put the same words together that Paul uses here.

You may think, well Paul doesn’t say that he is describing God here. Look after he lists all of these. He says that if there is anything worthy of praise, to think about these things. There is only one thing, one person who is worthy of praise and that is God.

Paul tells us that if there is anything worthy of praise, to think about these things. Well there is something that is worthy of praise, God. So we need to think about these things. I want to quickly take us back to scripture to see that scripture actually uses these attributes to describe God. And when we are struggling with seeing these things in our life, we can go to scripture to be reminded of it.

True - In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, he is praying to God(what we are talking about here) and he says John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Honorable - Revelation 4:11 “11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.””

Just - Psalm 89:14 “14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.”

Pure - 1 John 3:3 “3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Lovely - Psalm 86:15 “15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Commendable(worthy of praise) - Psalm 145:3 “3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”

Excellence - Psalm 150:2 “2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!”

These attributes of God are all over scripture. And when we have our hearts tuned to God in prayer, it will cause us to praise.

Application

So this is good. It is wonderful to come to church, gather with the saints, spend time in worship and in God’s word. But, what do we do with it. You have been through the easy part of hearing me preach. Now you will have to come to the hard part of putting this into your life. So how do we do this?

I look at the Christian life like we are each building something. I spent many years in the construction industry. My main tool that I had was my tool belt. You may think that is silly for me to say, but without my tool belt, I could not carry my tools, so I would be slowed down and unproductive at my job. So I needed my tool belt. Each and everyone of us in regards to our lives have one, and I would call our Christian life is our tool belt. The next thing that I would need is tools to put in my tool belt. In the Christian life, this would be our disciplines. It would be things like scripture reading, discipleship, and prayer.

So I want to give each of us a tool for our tool belt today. It is a way to pray.

This tool is found in an acronym. ACTS. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Adoration is declaring to God the beauty of who he is. Confession is telling God our sins. Thanksgiving is us thanking God for what he has done. And Supplication which is us praying for ours and others needs. This is something simple each and every one of us can do. So here is my challenge. Grab a sheet of paper or a journal when you get home and I want you to write in it for this week…

A(Adoration) - 3 things

C(Confession) - 3 things

T(Thanksgiving) - 3 things

S(Supplication) - 3 things

3 things you can declare about God’s goodness, 3 things you need to confess to God, 3 things to thank God for, and 3 things to ask God for.

And I want you to grab that piece of paper or journal every single day this week and I want you to pray those things. Every single one of us can do this. Let’s do this as a church.

Conclusion

But maybe you are hear today and don’t have a prayer life because you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to give you an opportunity to do that. You heard the gospel message today (remind of the gospel). Now, I am giving you a chance to respond. If the Holy Spirit is drawing you into a relationship with Christ, you respond with what the bible calls repentance and belief. To repent means to turn. You turn from your sin but more importantly, you turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. And you believe. You believe that Jesus did all of that for you to have eternal life.

And when you do those things, your life changes. When you become a believer, you are just like Paul who says in Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

We as a church would never want anyone to try to live this new life on their own power. We want to step into your life and help you live a holy and obedient life. So if you are here today and have come to faith, please let us know by grabbing me on your way out or you can fill out the side of your bulletin. Or you can shoot me a text, my number is in the bulletin.

Church, it has been a great time in God’s word this morning. As we are closing our worship time, I want to remind us of the assurance of salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. You have all heard the gospel. If you have been a Christian for some time, it is to remind you what Christ did for you. If you have believed for the first time this morning, the Holy Spirit has brought you what this song calls blessed assurance. I am going to pray and I want to ask you to declare this blessed assurance that you have in Jesus Christ.