(064) The Pillars of Community XI: Devoted to Prayer, Devote to Each Other
The Pillars of Community XI: Devoted to Prayer, Devote to Each Other
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
March 8, 2009
Prep:
· 2 Cor 1:8-11, Act 6:1-4
· Skim printed stuff
· Read Piper’s FADES and Concentric circles
Scripture reading (Dejah)
[Brandi: Title screen up as Dejah come up.]
From Saint Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 8-11: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
Intro
· Thanks Dejah. This is a new thing we are trying.
As I write the each week’s sermon, I frequently find God challenging me on the topic, whether it is confession, confrontation, or time alone with God.
· The way he challenged me on prayer was allowing me to be sick for half of my work week.
The temptation was to spend little to no time praying in order to make up lost sermon writing time, but even I couldn’t miss the irony of not praying while writing a sermon on prayer.
The result was I spent a larger percentage of time praying for the sermon, but finding I needed less time to write it, and realized how dependent I am on God to speak through me rather than striving on my own.
· Not that God encourages laziness: “A lack of planning on my part doesn’t constitute an emergency on the Spirit’s part.”
Double Devotion
The title of this sermon is “Devoted to Prayer, Devoted to Each Other.” I believe these two things are very much related; by being devoted to prayer, we can be devoted to each other in ways that far exceed our natural ability.
In this sermon, we are going to talk about the vital role prayer plays in community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for another, or collapses.”
Prayer has many different types, but the focus here is specifically on “prayer in community,” meaning prayers offered up in community (whether alone on in groups) for the community.
· When Bonhoeffer speaks of “intercession” he means praying for the needs of others.
· This all applies to personal prayers as well.
We will begin by looking at why God wants us to pray and close by looking at some suggestions of how to pray.
Prayer
Thank you for the privilege of approaching you in prayer.
Why prayer?
If we ask why prayer works, we can only answer “Because God wants it to.” He can run the universe without our input.
· Prayer is rather like when we let young children help us do a task – it increases our work load, but it teaches them.
· It is not for his sake, it is for ours.
That doesn’t mean prayer a game or an inconsequential exercise. Prayer works, meaning that God acts on the basis of our prayers:
James 4:2 NIV You do not have, because you do not ask God.
With this simple statement, James demonstrates that there are some things God won’t do because we have not asked. While remains in control and his ultimate plans will be accomplished, he has chosen to give some responsibility to us, through prayer.
Ä This is our sake, not his – so what is he teaching us?
Prayer changes us
This is a partial list, yet our prayers become more meaningful and “on task” as we understand “why”.
1. Deepens relationship with God.
At the risk of stating the obvious, relationships require time to grow. God wants us to pray because he wants to give us the greatest gift: Himself. In prayer we cultivate the belief that God is more precious than anything else.
· I ask Grace and Sarah to help me get the mail because after being apart all day, I miss them and don’t want to be apart.
God love to hear us pray. Proverbs says it is his delight, and Revelation says our prayers are as incense.
2. Develops dependency on God.
Prayer removes the illusion that we are in control. I say the reason I don’t pray is time. But I am really desperate, I find the time. Time is not the real issue – self-sufficiency is.
And that is why getting sick was a blessing – I was desperate for help on this sermon because I did not want to write it on during Graces’ birthday party, so I prayed.
· One of the greatest obstacles to prayer is a smooth, trouble-free, routine life.
2 Corinthians 1:9-11 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
· I would really like to learn without “deadly peril”!
What is true of us as individuals is even more true of us as a community. The more that we become a church devoted to prayer, the more keenly we will understand our dependence on God.
Ä This is directly linked to the next thing
3. Creates expectation of the impossible.
If we are a church are satisfied with what we can pull off in our human power, prayer may not seem so important. But if we want to see God working in supernatural ways, doing the impossible, we will pray.
Q Do we want the ordinary or extra-ordinary in our life, and the lives of our family, friends, and church?
· This not a promise of easy, but good.
Ä Shift from us and God to things among us as a community.
4. Allows us to participate in each other’s life.
In this passage and several others, Paul viewed the prayers from his churches as the best gift they could give. Their prayers meant more to him than any donations.
Prayer is an incredible gift God has given us that allows us to help anyone anywhere, regardless of distance or resources.
· When we can do nothing else, we can pray, and that is enough.
That’s not to say that prayer is an excuse for not helping in more tangible ways. But when we cannot, we always have prayer.
NIV Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
· Prayer is the most effective way to share burdens and joys.
5. Changes our heart towards each other.
As we pray for each other, we not only move God’s hand, we also move our hearts closer together. And as we pray for those we don’t like, we find our hearts softening towards them.
We stop seeing them as annoying, arrogant, stinky, or whatever, and start seeing them through God’s eyes: Children in desperate need of God’s love and grace – just like us.
Shown, not just taught
From this, we should begin to get a sense of why God calls us to be devoted to prayer as a community devoted to each other. It’s commanded throughout Scripture, but even more it’s demonstrated.
· The Psalms have more prayers than songs.
· Jesus got away to pray whenever he could.
· The apostles considered it one of their two responsibilities.
· Paul depended on prayers as we have seen and commanded his churches to be devoted in prayer.
But if I am honest, we are not a church fully devoted to prayer. I am not laying blame for that, because I know that I am not fully devoted to prayer. I am in process and we are in process.
As I said last week at the congregational meeting, there is more to be done than is time to do it, so we seek God and trust him to lead us in his timing.
Community FADES without prayer
I think all of us want to pray more, and hopefully not out of guilt but out of a real desire to know God, and experience him in this community, so I want to finish this sermon with some practical advice to help us improve our prayer lives.
· These are five “double sided” dynamics.
· You can see that prayer isn’t a “one size fits all” but multiple elements we craft according to where we are at now.
This is borrowed from John Piper, a great preacher and man of prayer. You’ll notice that the items form the acronym FADES. He says it doesn’t have a meaning, but I say that “without prayer, community FADES.”
1. F - Free and Formed
This means using both structured and unstructured prayers – both are valuable part of our prayer life.
Most of us are good evangelicals so free, unstructured prayers are the main thing we are familiar with. In fact we are a little suspicious of formal, structured prayers, for the good reason that they can become mechanical and stale.
Yet free prayers can be shallow, flippant, and wondering. Here are some types of “formed prayers” that can add depth, direction, and power to our prayers:
· Praying the Bible.
· Prayer lists.
· Prayer books (Henri Nouwen).
· Patterns (my tattoo): Move from yourself outward.
2. A - Alone and Assembled
Obviously we need to pray alone, but praying together is also vital. Corporate prayer fills the Bible.
Q Why is corporate prayer so intimidating?
Perhaps it is because prayer is so intimate, or because we are afraid of messing up.
· If it helps, I’m not good at praying publically.
In Children’s Church, they are writing prayer lists; I encourage you to pray through it with your kids.
3. D - Desperate and Delighted
· Desperate: In times of great need.
· Delighted: For the sheer desire of being with God and thanking him for his goodness.
4. E - Explosive and Extended
· Explosive: Quick prayers in times of need.
· Extended: Need to build relationship too. Marilyn enjoys the texts, but that alone won’t do it.
5. S - Spontaneous and Scheduled
· Spontaneous: Throughout the day.
· Scheduled: Setting times aside.
Q & A
Nate speaking
The longer I pastor the church, more sincerely I mean it when I thank people for praying for me and the church. Nate Kaplan is one of those folks who is consistently praying for the church and for the eldership.
Closing
As I said, I think that most of us want for prayer to be a bigger part of our lives. The challenge is making that happen. During worship, prayerfully consider what changes God would have you make.
Here are specific suggestions for praying more for our community:
· On the day that your community group, Bible study, or accountability group meets, pray for each person by name.
· Subscribe to the church’s prayer blog, pray and add yours.
· On Facebook: Pray for those whose status update catch you.