Sermon Tone Analysis

Send Me

Welcome today to the third week of a series that's actually stirring our church up in a pretty good way.

What we are doing in this message series is we're learning to pray some different types of prayers.

The prayers that we are praying, they're not predictable.

They are not benign.

They are not safe.

What we're doing is we're learning to pray some dangerous prayers.

In fact, I've been really blessed by just what I'm hearing from people who are taking a step of faith to pray some daring prayers.

Week one we learned to pray, "Search me God, know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting."

Last week we talked about a very dangerous prayer where we prayed together, "Break me God.

Break me of anything that keeps me from being intimate with you."

Today we're going to pray what may be my favorite of the three dangerous prayers.

We're going to pray a prayer of availability.

Here's what I've noticed, and this is just based on observation, every week many of you will turn in prayer requests, and we love it when you do.

We've got a team full of people who love to pray over your prayer requests, but here's what I've noticed quite honestly, and this is just from observation, that most of the time what people apparently want prayers for are things that directly impact them or those that they love.

It's, "God, would you do this for me?

God, would you heal my grandma?

Would you help me get into this school?

God, would you help me find a job?

Would you bless me as I do such and such?" Absolutely and completely we should continue to pray those prayers; but instead of just praying, "God, would you do this for me?", a dangerous way to pray is, "God, what can I do for you?"

Not just, "God, hey.

Do this, bless me, keep me safe," but, "God, I am your servant and I want to be available for whatever you might call me to do."

I call it a prayer of availability.

Let me tell you, when you pray this prayer, God could direct you in a lot of different ways.

He may lead you to go to a different city.

He may reveal a calling in your life that you never ever expected before.

He may lead you to stay somewhere when you just knew you were supposed to go somewhere else.

He may move you to break up with somebody and he gives you an upgrade.

Everybody can say, "I'm excited about that!"

He might lead you to a different job.

He might call you to serve somewhere.

He might move you from being a cat person to a dog person.

I don't know what it would be, but when you make yourself available to God it's an incredibly dangerous prayer we're going to learn to pray today.

Now, all throughout scripture if you read from the Old Testament through the New, you're going to see that God calls people.

What does that mean?

It doesn't mean your phone rings, but what he does, it means he speaks to people, he prompts them, he moves them, he leads them to say something, to do something, to go somewhere, to encourage someone, to speak truth.

God will call those who know him to do something that he wants done.

There are different responses to God's call.

I want to talk about those three responses

to the call. 2 are not what we want and the last one will be the prayer I am asking you to pray this week.

The first one, if you're taking notes, is this.

It is found in Jonah.

Jonah responded to God's call this way.

He said,

"Here I am, I'm not going!"

Some of you can relate.

"Here I am God.

I'm not going."

What did Jonah do?

Jonah ran away from the Lord.

He said, "Here I am God.

I'm not going."

I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience.

You've felt prompted to do something.

"Hey, I'm supposed to reach out.

I'm supposed to say something.

I'm supposed to help this person.

Here I am God.

Not today.

I'm not going."

What did Jonah do?

Jonah ran away from the Lord.

He said, "Here I am God.

I'm not going."

I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience.

You've felt prompted to do something.

"Hey, I'm supposed to reach out.

I'm supposed to say something.

I'm supposed to help this person.

Here I am God.

Not today.

I'm not going."

In fact, me, I am still haunted by a time that I felt prompted to do something.

I was sitting there in the waiting room over Vanderbilt hospital.

I believe it was the 4th floor.

I was waiting with Sheila, to get results for her.

As we were sitting in there, a young lady walked in with her family.

She was obviously battling as Sheila was.

I completely felt impressed and almost even told to go and pray for her.

But I was entrenched in my battle.

I sat there for at least 10 minutes telling the Lord I wasn’t going to do it.

If I am going to pray for her, then you need to heal my wife.

If I pray for her then you heal Sheila.

Lord if you want me to pray then she will be here when I get back.

Etc.

I just drove up to her thinking, "I need to stop.

I need to stop.

I need to stop," and I'm embarrassed to say I just kept on driving by.

I thought I needed to stop and I didn't even do it.

I just drove all the way home and didn't even stop to say, "Hey, can I help you?

What's going on?"

To this day, I feel bad about that.

I felt prompted to do something and I didn't do it.

I can guarantee you that all of you who are followers of Jesus, there are those times that God prompts you to do something and you think, "I need to.

I'm going to.

I should.

Here I am though, not today.

I'm not going to do this."

Jonah, "Here I am," say it with me, "I'm not going."