A Prayer of Power

[00:00:00] Well, as I indicated, as we began this morning, our topic today, the sort of overall theme is prayer. [00:00:08] And you probably could go into a bookstore and find all kinds of books on the power of prayer. Right. [00:00:19] In fact, that's probably a title of, I don't know, a dozen books, Power of Prayer. One way or another. I want to turn that around today and talk about the prayer of power. [00:00:32] Would you pray with me, Lord? Now open our ears and our hearts to hear your word and draw us near unto you through it. [00:00:43] Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. For you, O Lord, are our rock and our redeemer. [00:00:56] Amen. [00:01:03] So what comes to your mind when you hear these words? [00:01:08] Reckless, shameless, audacious. [00:01:21] What comes to mind? Strong words. Right, Strong words. [00:01:25] Well, actually, the best example of these strong words comes to us from our Gospel lesson today, from Matthew 11. I mean, Luke 11. [00:01:35] Listen again. Jesus praying in a certain place. And when he finishes, one of his disciples says, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples. And he says to them, when you pray, pray, say, father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we we ourselves. Forgive everyone who is indebted to us. [00:01:57] Yeah, right, right. [00:01:59] And lead us not into temptation. Now, this is Luke's version, kind of an abridged version of what we pray every Sunday in the Lord's Prayer. Right. Just a little more brief, but it's still the Lord's Prayer. He says it, and then he. But here comes. [00:02:18] He says to them, he says, which of you has a friend who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed, and I cannot get up to give you anything. [00:02:45] Pretty strong. [00:02:47] But suppose you are the one who goes to the friend at midnight and asks for. Whatever the impact here, it's something akin to that proverbial things that go bump in the night because the neighbors are going to be aroused and dogs will start barking and lights come on, alarm systems get activated, and somebody might even call the police. [00:03:17] What kind of a friend says, don't bother me yet? [00:03:28] Jesus calls it just like it is, he says, I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend. Yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And that's the key word to this passage, isn't it? Impudence, the word of focus. [00:03:49] You already know what it means. [00:03:51] Reckless, shameless, audacious. [00:04:00] Some translations will use the word boldness. As strong a word as boldness is, I think it pales in comparison to these others that we have in front of us today to define this impudence. By the way, the same sort of example was presented us today in that Old Testament reading from Genesis 18, where God told Abraham of his plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, Abraham's mind right away is gearing up because he has a relative over in Sodom, his nephew Lot. [00:04:34] And Abraham immediately impassions. God importunes God with questions whether God would really destroy the righteous along with the wicked. Wicked, he asks, what if there are 50 righteous people in the city? [00:04:56] Will you sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of 50 righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked treating the righteous and the wicked alike. [00:05:11] Far be it from you. [00:05:15] Won't the judge of all the earth do right? [00:05:21] Can you imagine talking to God that way? [00:05:27] So well you heard it. The Lord replied to Abraham, If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I'll spare the whole place for their sake. [00:05:37] But of course, you heard the text. Abraham doesn't stop. He keeps on asking God the same question over and over, each time, lowering the number, I mean, in the true sense of Old Testament bargaining, you know, between entities one way or another. [00:05:56] And it's actually almost like a reverse bidding war, isn't it? [00:06:02] 45 righteous, 40 righteous, 30 righteous, 20 righteous, 10. [00:06:26] And each time God relented and promised he will not destroy the cities if indeed they contain this ever decreasing number of righteous people living among the wicked. In fact, I have to wonder if we would still have Sodom and Gomorrah with us today if Abraham had not stopped praying. [00:06:50] Do you ever think about that? [00:06:52] And judging by God's response, I have to think that he would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah for fewer than 10 if he had just been asked. [00:07:03] And I'm not really criticizing Abraham. I've read different theological papers on Abraham caved in too soon. [00:07:19] I don't want to criticize Abraham, but what I do want to point out is his prayer life is incredibly rich and we can learn something from him. And that's why I bring up the story, because it illustrates for us this reckless, shameless, audacious approach to God when it comes to our prayers and Abraham, he challenges God. And it ought to impress us that this is exactly how Jesus is challenging his disciples and by translation, us as we come into God's presence. [00:07:57] What Jesus is really doing, however, is giving his disciples permission to approach the throne of God and take him the deepest requests of our hearts. [00:08:09] That is audacious, especially when you remember that in those days one had to approach God through the high priest. And the high priest would only approach God by going behind the curtain into the holy of holies. [00:08:24] But now Jesus has come on the scene and he's abolished the priesthood through triumphing over all sin and all death. And he is opened up the way for all believers to approach God directly in prayer. [00:08:48] How do I know? [00:08:53] You probably know this already. But whenever the scriptures want us to really pay attention to something, it will repeat that something two times or maybe even three times to kind of get our attention, to make the impact in our minds. [00:09:14] So back in verse nine of our Gospel lesson today, listen again. He says, I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. [00:09:26] For everyone who asks receives Everyone who seeks, finds everyone who knocks, it will be opened. [00:09:40] There's two times. Actually, there's two times three. [00:09:44] He really wants to get our attention on this. We're having trouble with our. [00:09:50] Is that true? [00:09:52] So shut that one down. [00:09:55] I think this is alive. Thank you very much. Mark, would you mind holding this for me while I. No, never mind. [00:10:10] Well, I can't talk without my hands. [00:10:13] I'm down one here. [00:10:22] And Jesus goes on to prove his point. [00:10:27] What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give a serpent? Or ask for an egg, will give him a scorpion if you, he says, then who are evil know how to give gifts to your children. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? [00:10:44] Those words, ask, seek, knock, we learn from the Greek language. They do things with verbs that give them extra punch. And these are those. They're called imperatives. It's not just ask, seek, knock. It's ask and keep on asking. It's seek and keep on seeking. It's knock and keep on knocking. [00:11:08] And what Jesus is trying to impress upon his disciples, and again us, is to persevere in prayer. Pray, pray, pray, and don't stop praying. There's not a believer here in this room today who would even think of questioning that God is All power and all authority. Am I right? Do you question God's power and authority? [00:11:31] Not a person, not a hand goes up. But if I ask you, well, how does God show his power and authority? [00:11:42] And you'd say, well, let's go out at night and we're going to look up at the heavens and we're going to see how God has spun the universe into existence with all of its planets and galaxies and amazing stars that bespeaks of God's power and authority. [00:12:05] Or another of you might say, well, step out here into my garden and look at these sunflowers that we have growing and the goldfinch that are coming and picking out the seeds and the squash that are growing here that are delicious food and God has provided for us are my tomato plants, which are outstanding. [00:12:26] And you'd be telling me all about the creative genius of God. And we would say, yes, that bespeaks for sure God's power and God's authority. [00:12:36] Question. [00:12:41] But do you understand that God also demonstrates his power and authority by answering prayer? [00:12:55] Look at it this way. If God had no power or authority, would he have triumphed over the powers and the principalities of Satan? [00:13:06] But he did triumph over Satan, as we heard in those words in Colossians. [00:13:13] Let's hear again. He says, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He's saying, sin and death, our two biggest problems. [00:13:24] He says, you who were dead, God made alive, together with him, having forgiven all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed these satanic rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them on the cross. The triumph came in the cross. [00:13:54] And if he had not triumphed over Satan, he couldn't answer prayer. [00:14:02] But because he has triumphed, he delights in showing himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are completely his. He specializes in prayer against the powers of Satan as he battles for the souls of all mankind. Our Lord Jesus thwarts Satan every time he answers prayer. [00:14:25] So now you can see why he says, pray why he says, ask, seek, knock. [00:14:33] Prayer is the power of God to make his will effective here on earth. [00:14:39] Let me say that again. Prayer is the power of God to make his will effective here on earth. [00:14:55] So I have to ask you, do you pray? [00:15:03] Do you pray? [00:15:05] And if you don't time to start right? [00:15:13] And if you do, keep it up. [00:15:17] Persevere in prayer. Pray and keep on praying. Pray, pray. Pray recklessly, shamelessly, audaciously. [00:15:25] You got some great examples in our lessons today. [00:15:33] And perhaps you are praying, praying for your health or praying for someone else's health, some loved one. [00:15:43] Perhaps you are praying for your business or for some challenge at your world of work or some complication on the farm or your city or our country. [00:16:08] Perhaps you're praying for someone to come to faith, or maybe someone who, you know, who has walked away from their faith. [00:16:18] Or perhaps you're praying for a family, or maybe a deep concern or spiritual need that you wouldn't even think of whispering to a fellow human, another person. [00:16:36] You can tell it to God. [00:16:39] You can tell it to God because He already knows. [00:16:45] And I need you to believe this. [00:16:48] God hears and answers, and he doesn't always answer in the way that we want, but he will never answer in a way that counters his will or would be bad for us, his children. [00:17:13] Therefore, pray. [00:17:16] Be bold. [00:17:18] Persevere. [00:17:19] Pray to our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, who makes that connection possible. Pray in such a way that is reckless, that is shameless, that is audacious. [00:17:37] Which takes me back to how we started today. [00:17:41] That's the prayer of power. [00:17:43] Amen. [00:17:45] Amen.