Prayer: The Faithful Do It! Psalm 100; Romans 12: 9 13; Luke 22:39 46

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1 Prayer: The Faithful Do It! Psalm 100; Romans 12: 9 13; Luke 22:39 46 Most of us know them. Many are intimidated by them. There are some might prayerful people in the world. And they can be intimidating. I mean if you are in a meeting of say the Worship Committee and the Moderator calls on you to open the meeting in prayer and you look across the table and look at her, one of those powerful prayers, well it s intimidating. Right from the start you stumble across your own words, wondering what she s thinking about your attempt and not able to focus on praying. Some of us know folks like Evelyn who is not only one of those powerful prayers but she even looks prayerful. Evelyn journeys through life as if it were one continuous prayer. Her very nature is peaceful, content, she is gracious and gentle her prayer are powerful yet so sweet that it s like honey drips from them. When you talk with her she has a way of grounding you in the beauty of life and God s created universe. She is never deterred by the seeming random unfairness of tragedy when strikes some and not others. She has a firm sense of God s providence in all things. She sees life s difficulties as an opportunity to engage faith and to trust. To be in her presence in times like these is to take a spiritual tranquilizer she is calm, peaceful, trusting. When Evelyn prays you know God is listening. You can witness the changing demeanor of the sick; calm seems to spread across a contentious meeting when Evelyn prays. If she were the Ambassador to the Middle East you are certain that she could bring warring parties together and usher in peace. Her prayers, you are certain, are flown to God s ears on angel s wings. But Evelyn s life has not been without the challenges that life brings. She has been visited by pain and loss. She has suffered. Her marriage has run the rocky road of distance and betrayal. She has faced the unthinkable loss of an adult child. So when people hear Evelyn pray, they know that all of life has visited her; pain a familiar companion. She doesn t come across as out of touch. She is not holier than thou. People know her as a prayerful woman ground in faith; a faith strengthened by life s experiences. In the closing chapter of A Farewell to Arms, Hemmingway wrote, The world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places. This defines Evelyn. The very fact that life had sent its share of tragedy and pain gives her credibility when she prayed; she d been there, they know it. So people are drawn to her; wanting both what she has and her prayer counsel. They Dick Powell Page 1

2 want a faith like hers and the ability to face life as she does. Especially, they wanted to pray like Evelyn. But most of the praying people we know are not like Evelyn, they re more like Luke. Luke tries to pray. He struggles with prayer. He knows he should pray and he does; but he just feels like it s not accomplishing much. He might come up to me and say something like, Pastor, I need prayin for and I m not too good at it so would you pray for me, cause I think it counts more when you pray. I had a fellow call me on the phone once, a good friend of mine, and he asked me to pray for a friend of his who had brain cancer. My friend said, It means more when the professionals do it. That s what he said, when professionals do it. Luke is a bit like that. Luke considers himself more of a doer than a prayer. He tells folks he s a working Christian. If there s a work day at church; he s the first there and the last to leave. He ll have a cooler of rewards for the gang when the work is done. He ll organize work groups and chairs an effective committee. He ll open every committee meeting with a prayer that goes something like this, God, it s Luke and we ve got this committee meeting tonight. You know what we need to do so help us. Amen. Praying was not natural for Luke. Yet, even though he struggles with prayer Luke is seen by most in the congregation as a praying man. His prayers were not composed of flowery language and the words sometimes were more appropriate for the instruction manual for a vacuum cleaner than petitions and intercession before the Throne of God. Unlike Evelyn whose prayers seemed to ascend on angels wings, Luke seem to take a freight train to heaven. Luke is a man who simply cuts to the chase. In contrast to Evelyn, Luke was rougher around the edges when it came to dealing with people. His demeanor was not always calm and peaceful and he, by his own account called it like it is. If you wanted to know what was on his mind, just ask and remember you asked for it. Luke was by his own admission not much of a prayer, he was a doer. i But people see Luke differently that he sees himself; most think of him as closely connected to God. People who know Luke know he had a firm commitment to follow Jesus. When Luke wrestles like Jacob did with either his faith or God or his particular church he wasn t shy about letting people know; but he was equally firm in his resolve to stay connected So unlike, Evelyn people are not so drawn to Luke but they never doubt his prayerful life ineloquent as it may be. Who do you identify with Evelyn or Luke or do you find yourself somewhere in between? The fact is this: people of faith pray. And there is great variety in how people pray. Some like Evelyn are eloquent and pray with confidence, their prayers have a certainty about them. Luke, well not so much. Dick Powell Page 2

3 However, regardless of how you pray if you want to stay close to God and in his will you must pray! Moses prayed. Jesus prayed and asked his followers to pray. When Jesus was on the cross he prayed Psalm 22. When David was found guilty of adultery, murder, and a litany of other sins he wrote and prayed Psalm 51. All the prophets prayed. A modern day prophet, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man deeply committed to praying. He daily prayed this prayer, Help me, O God, to see that I am but a symbol of a movement. ii Rev. King s sermons and speeches were built upon the solid foundation of prayer. In 1956 he had what was perhaps the most transforming prayer experience, after a midnight call from a racist who threatened to kill him and destroy his home. He retreated to his kitchen and poured his heart of to God. Later he preached a sermon about the experience, saying he had a vision of God telling him to stand up for righteousness and assuring him he would always have God s companionship. iii After his assignation the movement that he symbolized lived on. He was a prayerful and powerful symbol. The story of people of faith is a story of prayer the Bible speaks to it in various forms and we will look at many of them. But if you walk away today with nothing other than this you will have the key point: People of faith pray! So what is necessary for prayer to be effective? We will explore these in more detail in subsequent sermons but one of the first things we need to know is that we pray because God has acted graciously towards us in the gift of Jesus Christ who paid once and for all time the price of our sin and rejection of God. We pray because Jesus prayed and invited us to pray. He taught us to pray and his life demonstrated a commitment to prayer. And we pray because the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray. When we pray we stand boldly before the throne of grace (Heb. 4). The more we pray the more sensitive our ears tend to become to hearing and discerning the voice of God. We become equipped to distinguish between the voice of God and the clamoring of the world (video clip). So practice praying. Louis Zbendin, In ministry you are reliant upon the voice of the Holy Spirit always. So begin to distinguish that voice now so that when you really need to hear it, you will know what it sounds like. When we pray, we are emulating Jesus and in praying we are building a relationship with him. Jesus knew God intimately and knew God s voice; Jesus said to us that God will hear our prayers. These alone are reason enough to pray. Dick Powell Page 3

4 When we pray it is Christ who mediates our prayers serving as our great high priest iv and conforms our will to his own and Christ himself invites us to bring our supplications to God. As we pray the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to pray. Cole says, Think of prayer in terms of these features: God invites us to pray; Christ accompanies us in prayer; and the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray. So we pray to God in the name of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when we ask the question, Why do we pray? the Holy Spirit seals in our heart a firm assurance of three claims: God chose us out of love before we could ever choose God. God remains faithful to us in Christ, even when we, like King David, are not faithful. And God addressed us long before we knew to address God. In prayer there are great benefits which we will explore over the next couple of weeks. But to realize the benefits we have to be like the man who prayed to win the lottery. George fell to his knees and prayed with an earnest heart, Oh Lord, please, please let me win the lottery. Lord if you let me win the lottery I ll give half to you. Lord you know my needs and the needs of our church. Please Lord, let me win the lottery. Week after week George prayed this pray. Nothing happened. Finally in frustration George gave up and cursed God. He shouted at God, God why don t you let me win the lottery. Why, Lord. Lord I m through with you. I ve given up. Then George like Job heard God s voice. George, George God called, Meet me half way, buy a ticket. That s the way it is with prayer, to get the benefits you have to pray. Faithful people do it! Amen. Week 2 prayer: Prepare yourself by sitting still for a few seconds and breathe in a few deep breaths. Pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill me with your presence. O God of abundant grace, you seek us before we are ever even aware of you. I am truly thankful for both your love and promise to the world in Jesus Christ. I pray that you will tune my ear so that I may learn to discern your voice. May I live into a greater awareness of your presence and recognize your gifts. Help me to know how to share your love with others. I ask these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Dick Powell Page 4

5 i This sermon draws its shape and many of its illustrations from The Life of Prayer by Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. ii Baldwin, Lewis. Never Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. iii San Antonio Express News, Religion Section January 15, 2011 iviv per Cole: Hebrew 4:14 16; 6:13 20 Dick Powell Page 5