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Nov 21, 2021

The Power of Prayer

Passage: Romans 15:30-33

Preacher: Andrew Repsold

Series: Romans

Keywords: prayer, power, change, effective, ineffective

Summary:

Paul demonstrates in this passage that he actually knows prayer changes life. But do we really believe that? If we did, we would pray...and pray more. Listen/watch this moving and enjoyable message on prayer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDTs-UYvAFo The notes contained here are much abbreviated.

Detail:

Mosaic Fellowship

11/21/20021 Sermon

 

Text: Romans 15:30-33 (NIV)        Theme: Prayer

Story:  Letter my brother received from our Grandpa in his upper 90's encouraging him to believe in the power of prayer.  

Confess that I haven't always believed that prayer makes a difference, that reality changes because of God's work through our prayers.  

30 I urge (“appeal”…ESV) you,

brothers and sisters (Familial bonds/ties),

by our Lord Jesus Christ (the highest thing anyone can appeal by) and by the love of the Spirit (those two things are what make us as a family and enable us to do whatever he is about to request of us), 

to join me in my struggle (to bring the gospel to all people)

by (giving money? sending people with specific skills? sending a missions team? etc.)

praying (?? seems so easy and like I am not joining with him. Isn’t this what missionaries say when they actually need money but also want to give another option to those who don’t want to or cannot, or choose not to give to every missionary? “Hey, if you are unable to give…EVERYONE can pray so help me out that way)

to God for me. 

31 Pray that I (yes, give me instruction on what to pray for…many of us don’t know how to pray..it is awkward…do I pray before each meal? Do I memorize prayers and recite them every day like the Rosary? What do I tell God since he already knows everything?)

may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea (those who want Paul arrested or killed…just as Saul wanted before he was converted)

and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, 

32 so that I may come to you with joy (he is motivated by a desire for JOY in his life! He doesn’t want to be an anxious, bitter, cranky old apostle who arrives in Rome. Makes me want to ask you all to pray for us as your leaders to be kept safe from spiritual and physical attacks so that we can worship with you on Sunday with joy and be refreshed by your company),

by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

ILL:  Have heard so many missionaries growing up, asking for money and prayer, that I sadly and subtly believed that what they really needed was money and if you couldn't do that, then pray.  Paul has reversed that telling us that what he really needed was prayer.  He wanted them to "join me in my struggle through prayer."  

Prayer really does things:

1.) It joins us together:  if we are praying for a missionary couple and they are kidnapped by Muslim terrorists, we will be affected, changed, grieved, moved, etc.  Because prayer really does join our hearts and lives.  

2.) Prayer influences/changes circumstances.  

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. 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 again. 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.

Prayer really did deliver them...and many ended up giving thanks to God...and many blessings came.  

Just because God knows something will happen doesn't mean he caused it. 

ILL:  dropping something.  You can see me hold this and know exactly what will happen when I let go of it.  But your knowing doesn't cause me to drop it.  I cause it to drop by letting go.  

ILL:  Turning on a faucet:  you didn't dig the well, build the pump, create the filtration system, water lines, faucet, etc.  But your action to turn it on or off is a choice that determines when that water comes or stops.

This is prayer.  

Examples of God waiting to act in response to our prayers:

  • Job 42:7-9
  • 2 Samuel 24
  • Jonah 3
    • 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
    • 6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:  “By the decree of the king and his nobles:  Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth.
    • Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
    • 10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
  •  James 4
    • 4 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
  •  James 5:16
    • 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

…implying that the prayers of wicked people are not powerful or effective.

  • Matthew 6
    • 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

HOW should we pray?  There is a measure of "right" praying and "wrong" praying.

ILL:  As a small child, I was deathly afraid that Dad was going to die.  So he tried to help me reason/think through it in a way that would set my mind at ease.  He reminded me that Grandpa was a lot older than him and that Grandpa hadn't died yet.  While he could possibly die before grandpa, he probably wouldn't.  So as long as Grandpa was alive, he probably would be.  So I started praying 1.) that Grandpa would never die (because then Dad wouldn't, in my childish thinking), and 2.) that his teddy bear, "Christmas", would come to life.  (Yes, I was little.)  Did God answer either of those prayers?  No.  My Grandpa died...and my bear is still stuffed.  My prayers were not "right" though they were sincere and heart-felt. 

  •  Philippians 1: 19-20
    • Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

ILL:  this is how we should be praying for anyone we think may be facing a life-threatening issue (health, persecution, kidnapping, etc.).  

What was the "deliverance" Paul is talking about here?  Not necessarily deliverance from jail or death.  He fully realizes that death may be the means by which God is honored in his body.  So it can't be that.  It must be something like denying the faith or leaving a less-than-solid example, etc.  

We can pray assuredly for others when we pray for things like "full courage" in the face of challenges, a deeper experience with Christ in suffering or deliverance, that Christ is honored more through this experience, etc.  

Develop a PLAN OF ACTION:

  • Schedule a time in your week...preferably with other people.  This is how we win at dieting, at exercising, at school/classes.  The same works for prayer.  

It worked for Daniel: 

Daniel 6 10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 

It worked for Peter and John:

Acts 3 3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.

Acts 10    9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. (like he is going to work).

It worked for Jesus:

Luke 5: 16 So He Himself (Jesus) often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Here are some options at Mosaic to join others:

  • Wednesday Night Prayer Service:  7-8:00 p.m.  Come in person or join on Zoom:  meeting # 849 4579 2528
  • Thursday morning prayer:  6:30-7:30 a.m. @ Mosaic
  • 1-Church, 1-Day Prayer:  Mosaic has the 2nd Wed. of every month.  Pick a half-hour, join the team and get the monthly prayer bulletin.  Email  and let him know your email and what half-hour of that day you want to pray.
  • Emergency prayer team:  receive prayer request whenever there is an emergency.  Again, Email  and let him know you want to join that team.
  • Talk with your family, spouse, friends and determine to pray weekly at a set time.  

Benediction:   

Luke 18:1-8

18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

 

Interesting that he equates faith with persistent prayer.