Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Impact Is Like Dominoes Falling

Rich Stearns, the president of World Vision, calls it the domino theory of spiritual impact.

Imagine a long line of dominoes.

When one falls, it starts a chain reaction that can cause dozens or hundreds more dominoes to fall.

For instance, Jesus set up 12 dominoes (his disciples), mentored them, empowered them with the Holy Spirit, and then sent them off to go and do likewise.

Now there are over 2 billion followers of Christ in the world.

That's a lot of dominoes!

Stearns provides the following story about the spiritual impact that one person can have.

In the 1880s, Robert Wilder, a missionary kid from India, was preparing to return to the mission field.

During college, he even signed a pledge along with friends to become a missionary.

But because he was so physically frail, he never fulfilled that pledge.

Instead, he encouraged others to take up the task.

One domino fell.

During a preaching tour that took Robert through Chicago, he spoke to an audience that included Samuel Moffett.

Samuel also signed Robert's pledge, and within two years he landed in Korea.

Another domino fell.

A few years later, Samuel shared the gospel with a man who had become disillusioned with his Taoist practice.

Kiel Sun-chu trusted Christ, and quickly another domino fell.

In 1907, Kiel was one of the leaders of the Pyongyang revival.

In January of that year, spontaneous prayer and confession broke out during regular church meetings.

Thousands of dominoes fell.

Those days of fervent prayer are now considered the birth of an independent, self-sustaining Korean church.

When Kiel died in 1935, 5,000 people attended his funeral.

The church in Korea now numbers about 15 million, and it sends more foreign missionaries than any other country outside the United States.

Millions of dominoes continue to fall.

Stearns concludes:

As Christians, we are all dominoes in the chain reaction set off by Jesus 2,000 years ago.

The amazing thing about dominoes falling is that the chain reaction always starts small—with just one, seemingly insignificant domino.

Whether you are sponsoring children, filling backpacks for children in inner-city schools, talking to your own children, or praying earnestly for [people around the globe], you have no idea what how big the impact will be as God multiplies your faithfulness

Prayer is the greatest privilege and most sacred duty of every follower of Christ.

Many people struggle with prayer.

People carry guilt around because they feel that they have not been proficient, efficient and consistent in their prayer lives.

Note: Many in our Christian culture have reduced prayer to merely talking to God.

But there is so much more involved than a conversation between two parties.

If we were truly honest most of our prayers end up being a one way conversation.

There are several things we must look at when we ask the question How do we Pray?

Why do people struggle so much with a consistent prayer life?

We must recognize that prayer is a sacred duty and only effective when it is vibrant and expectant of being answered.

We are called and commanded to be constant in prayer as modeled and taught by Jesus.

INTRODUCTION

Hannah’s Fervent Prayer

Hannah’s prayer for a child gives us a vivid picture into what proficient, efficient, and consistent prayer look like.

We learn at the beginning of 1 Samuel chapter 1 that the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb and caused her great sorrow.

There was a man named Elkanah of Ephrath who had two wives.

The name of one was Hannah and the other Peninnah.

Peninnah had children and Hannah did not.

Now, year after year Elkanah would go up to worship and sacrifice at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli were priests of the Lord.

When Elkanah would sacrifice he would give portions of meat to his wife Peninnah and and to all her sons and daughters.

But to Hannah he would give double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.

Now here we have a picture of the sovereignty of God in our prayers.

We will discuss more about God’s sovereignty in prayer during week 5 of our study on prayer.

However, it is important to note that it say’s God closed Hannah’s womb, which would indicate that God is in control of all things even the children we have or are unable to have for whatever reason.

Hannah was being tested like famous women before her.

(Sarai was barren, Rebekah was barren, and Rachel was barren).

This would appear to be the way God operated to reveal his sovereign plan and glory to the earth.

To make matter worse the name Peninnah means “fruitful”, and true to her name she has children.

Hannah was tormented by the reminder of her barren state routinely when they would go up to worship.

You can imagine the merry chatter of all the children of Peninnah enjoying their portions while Hannah sat in isolation and despair.

Peninnah is called her rival.

This is not a happy family picture, and this went on year after year; time and time again, Hannah suffered the humiliation and agony of her situation.

Till she wept and would not eat.

Big Idea: True prayer begins when we recognize our greatest need in Him.

KEYS TO RECOGNIZING OUR GREATEST NEED IN PRAYER

1. Prayer should be fervent not casual

We tend to turn our prayers into nothing more than casual conversations.

I have heard people say before, prayer is nothing more than talking to God like you would talk to your best friend.

Where in scripture do you find people talking to God like they would talk to their best friend?

This is not a Biblical concept.

*Fervent prayers are expectant prayers

Note: I think many times difficulties arise when we pray without expecting results.

Look at the picture of Jacob in his conversation with God.

He wrestled with God all night long and was persistent to the depth of His heart.

Hannah pray’s a silent prayer from the depths of her soul that resulted in her singing a song of celebration in response to God for answering her prayer.

For Peninnah, it is a reason to mock Hannah

For Elkanah, it is a reason to pity Hannah.

(Elkanah wants her to show more interest in him than her childless state)

For Hannah, it is a reason to pray.

(If God had closed her womb then maybe God might also open her womb.

God’s sovereignty leads Hannah to action.)

NOTE: notice that no one recognizes the kind of prayer that Hannah is praying, not eve Eli.

This also should show us the spiritual state of the people coming out of the Judges.

Prayers may have become routine and casual.

Possibly the fervent kind of prayer that Hannah is praying seemed out of place or foreign to anyone who would witness such a fervent outcry to God for mercy and action.

*Fervent prayers are needful prayers

TRUE PRAYER

There are some in Christian circles who would say that prayer is about quiet and contemplative prayer.

Sometimes the implication is that the more spiritual your are, the more calm and composed you will be in your prayer life.

However, this is just not true.

Hannah’s prayer which God answers is born out of:

deep anguish (v10)

bitter weeping (v10)

misery (v11)

being deeply troubled (v 15)

great anguish and grief (v 16)

If you are experiencing anguish or bitterness, then you are in a good place to pray well!

Perhaps the problem is that we struggle with our mind being all over the place, so we find it hard to concentrate in prayer.

But actually that is the kind of condition that produces good praying.

Prayer is not a technique that we need to master.

“It is pouring your heart and soul out to the Lord.”

One of the primary reasons that people do not prayer more is that they do not feel the need to pray.