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Sermon: Your Prayers Matter Date: November 21, 2021, Morning Text: 2 Thessalonians 3:1–3 Series: Awaiting Christ Preacher: Josh Sheldon Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2021/211121-YourPrayersMatter.aac
Our text for the preaching this morning is found in second Thessalonians in chapter 3.
I'll preach from verse 1 to the first few words of verse 3.
But I'll read from verse 1 through verse 5 again.
Just so we have some context and background of the Apostle Paul's train of thought.
So second Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 1 through 5, please stand in honor of God's Word as we read it.
Finally brothers.
Pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you.
And that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful.
He will establish you and guard you against the evil one and we have confidence in you in the Lord about you.
That you are doing and will do the things that we command.
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
May God bless the Reading and now the hearing and preaching of his word.
Please be seated.
And once again, let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his help our Heavenly Father.
You do pray that as your word is proclaimed that you bless your word that it would accomplish that for which
you sent it.
That sinners would be convicted of their sin and would turn in faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ your children here father would be edified and brought
ever closer to his in image in conformity with your will and what Jesus Christ
is and Showed us in in his life and in this word that we have before us
so once again May the words of my mouth made meditations of my heart in having prepared this message
for this people.
For the honor of God may be pleasing in your sight father and may you use it to your glory.
Who we ask it on Jesus name?
Amen.
So Paul says finally he says finally brothers.
He seems to be drawing this letter to a close and if you look ahead indeed He is there's not there that much more
to go, but he says finally, but he does not conclude.
He doesn't say finally and then give these few words that I read to you this morning for example and say
amen.
He goes on for quite a ways after that not only in the immediate context.
But then right after this at right after verse 5 more commands for the church more
ethical commands more commands for the administration of the church and so forth and.
So by finally he does not mean a quick end to the letter is coming by finally.
He means something quite different.
He means finally here's something you need to really pay attention to.
Finally as in of utmost importance finally as we say today, this is your take home.
Do you want to know what this is all about?
Do you want to know what to do with everything that preceded?
Finally brothers pray for us as.
Of the utmost importance the Apostle Paul Pray for us.
I Ask you before we even begin to tear into this text.
Where is prayer in your list of priorities?
For yourself personally.
For the families that you lead.
For the church that you attend.
Where does prayer stand in your priorities?
Where does it stand in your Christian life?
Where do you see prayer in your continuing conformity into the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ?
Well, the Apostle Paul puts a very high emphasis on prayer.
We know that from so many places in the scripture.
We're gonna stay focused right here in 2nd Thessalonians.
He puts an extremely high emphasis on prayer.
He habitually reminded churches to pray for him.
He habitually reminded churches of his prayers for them.
Prayer is the lifeblood of the church.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord must pray to God.
We are commanded to pray and prayers for our good.
By prayer we commune.
Communicate with God by prayer.
We lift up and edify one another.
Prayer is the lifeblood of the church without prayer.
We are lost without prayer.
We are not communing with the Lord.
We're not receiving from the Lord or at best we're receiving less.
E .m. bounds who died in 1913 was very famous for his books on prayer.
He wrote this What the church needs today and remember this was in night.
He died in 1913.
He probably wrote this in the latter part of the 1800s.
What the church needs today is not more machinery or better not new organizations or more and
novel methods.
But men whom the holy ghost can use men of prayer men mighty in prayer.
The holy ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.
He does not come on machinery, but on men.
He does not anoint plans, but men men of prayer before
we move on.
When I read em bounds there He means by men the same thing that paul meant in first second thessalonians
three when he says finally brothers.
Does he mean only the male people?
No, he means brothers and sisters in the lord.
He means the entire family of christ bound together by faith in christ praying to
god in the name of christ.
It's all about christ.
Jesus.
It's all about christ building his church.
But he's left the labor of building the church to us.
He is building his church.
But the hands and feet are ours.
The church grows not by programs.
The church grows not by our methods.
Not by the wondrous kind of a show that we can put on the church grows.
By faithfulness to god the church grows by prayers lifted up to the faithful lord and paul
sees no other way.
Where is prayer in your life?
Where do you see prayer in the life of the church?
Disappointment in your own growth in holiness and sanctification.
Do you pray.
Disappointment in perhaps the direction of your church or the progress of your church.
Whether it's this one or wherever you come from I ask again.
But do you pray?
Do you pray and do you join in prayer?
That's what the apostle paul would ask for as he goes into deeper and deeper
enemy territory.
So the verses before us this morning.
Are not so much a formal way of concluding the letter the importance placed on the duty of prayer Is of
such high importance that comes only after finally.
Only after all the doctrines have been laid out all the duties have been given to well.
Not all we have more to follow but those which preceded finally as a result of all that
finally brothers.
What does it all mean?
Pray.
I titled this message your prayers matter.
And I picked that title very simply because your prayers do matter.
Your prayers do matter.
They matter to yourself.
They matter to everyone who you're joined together with in your local fellowship.
They matter to god.
That he hears your prayers in the name of his son.
Jesus your prayers matter.
And so from second thessalonians 3 and the first three verses there.
Is that you should pray as if it all depends upon your prayer.
What do we find?
We find this we find that you should pray as though god's decision.
And the fate of the issue at hand depends entirely on your prayer.
You should pray as if it all depends upon you.
Whether you're praying for healing praying for salvation praying for your growth in the lord.
Jesus christ, whatever the issue at hand is.
You should go to god as though he is going to decide based upon your prayer.
Keep saying as if.
Through this message i'll say as though.
And then at the end of the message i'm going to say again I said as if because god is sovereign and god will do as he will we're going to make
that plain.
With some scripture verses, so don't be alarmed.
But the apostle paul says here to the thessalonians.
And to us he says brothers pray for us what that the word of the lord.
Can I summarize and say we'll have success?
That it will accomplish the purposes for which god sent it pray to the lord that that happens.
And I would add for this message pray as if it depends upon you pray as if as
if.
It wouldn't happen Without your prayer without your prayer.
This is the kind of prayer paul asks for for his brothers and sisters in christ to pray for him as though if they didn't Pray the
word of god would not speed ahead.
As if the word of god unless it is energized by your prayers would fall uselessly to the ground
as if.
Prayer is the lifeblood of the christian life and the church without it.
We're stymied in our growth individually and staunched in our outreach as a church.
Except for prayer.
We are floundering except for prayer.
We are trying to accomplish in the flesh.
What is possible only by the spirit of god?
And his chosen means.
Is prayer?
How important is prayer to you?
I Want to look at this first.
I want us to see first who is who's asked by the apostle paul to pray.
He says brothers and we'll develop that very quickly.
And second is the purpose of the prayers that paul requests.
What is he asking for?
Very directed very purposeful prayers.
And there's two things he asked for for the word of god to have success.
And that his partner silas and timothy and himself be delivered from enemies to of the gospel.
Enemies that they're sure to encounter and have encountered or I should say will continue to encounter.
And the third thing we need to look at here is faith.
Faith, especially the lord's faithfulness, but the faith that is needed in our prayers.
Brothers and lord have a common duty to prayer.
Brothers pray for us.
You know brothers by birth I mean brothers who are actually associated with one another by blood.
Can have different priorities and different agendas it can have completely different personalities as can brothers and sisters
together in the lord.
And this difference between brothers who are raised together by the same parents Is often the tension point in some of the
great works of literature some of the great movies you Probably don't remember a rich man poor man
was like that two brothers raised together.
But went totally different directions.
A river runs through it is like that two brothers raised by a presbyterian Pastor and they went in
completely different directions in life.
I once had the misfortune in eighth grade of having one teacher my home teacher.
Who had also taught my brother two years before?
My brother was then starting his high school career as i'm finishing my junior high school career that teacher.
He was amazed at how different we were.
He was just shocked to meet me and see how little I resembled my brother in personality in build.
In attention to studies.
I won't tell you who was inferior or superior, but that teacher was just amazed.
He couldn't believe we were actually brothers.
And combat veterans will speak of men and Who went into combat with
them?
They survived together.
They went through the dangers together and they call them brothers.
And this is one reason the apostle paul so often uses military motifs to describe the christian life
because we are in this together.
We're facing the dangers together.
And therefore brothers and remember, please brothers and sisters is what's meant every time that word or
brethren is used.
So what paul means is men women bound together by blood.
And still with differences among us but bound by together by the blood of jesus christ more than
our parents.
Brothers together in adam when he sinned brothers forever in christ when he obeyed brothers because by faith in christ.
We are his brethren and therefore each other's.
We have a common and equal claim on the lord as brothers together.
And so as that family of christ, we have a common and an equal expectation that we're all engaged in this
one great activity.
Which is prayer prayer.
Prayers for all who are in christ.
And you'll notice here that paul does not leave prayer to the elite few.
He does not say Okay brothers in the church.
I want you to find those few Who really know how to pray?
Those people who who have those words that just kind of draw you up and Bring you to the heavenly throne
and you can feel the eloquence and the biblical foundation of their prayers.
I want you to set those few aside.
Name them your prayer warriors and would you have them pray for us that the word of the lord might speed ahead?
And be glorified or be honored.
No, he doesn't do that does he.
Nor does he say to the church?
Well, you know you common folk out there.
You set your pastors aside and they will do all the praying for you.
And you can just kind of bow your house heads and and think these little arrow prayers as they pray.
But you all have to keep quiet because we're going to have the ones who are trained pray for you.
No.
He calls to the whole church.
He calls to everyone who is in christ.
He calls to you who you think you're so meek and mild you sit there and who would want to listen to you.
God would we would.
He speaks to you the well -educated.
He says yes, you pray along with them, too.
Because in christ we are all together.
And the prayer rises up to god as an incense as a pleasing aroma to him.
No, not just the few brothers and sisters pray is what the
apostle paul says.
The apostle paul directly inspired by the by the spirit of god.
Who knew as he wrote some of his letters?
He knew that they were the inspired word of god.
They were scripture.
As peter confirms for us the apostle paul who had visions and heard things in those visions that
cannot even be repeated.
The apostle paul.
Who met the resurrected lord jesus christ personally?
What a great man so often we hear of.
Analyses of him and people say well, he was a genius.
He was just an intellectual giant.
I can agree with that and most of you can if you've read his letters carefully.
He was a bright man.
Superior in many ways.
What does he say?
Pray for us.
Because without your prayers I'll just leave it at that.
That great apostle that mighty man who withstood beatings and shipwrecks and stonings.
Pray for the progress of the gospel.
Pray as though the success of the gospel Depends upon your prayer.
Pray as though the success of god's word.
God's word Depends upon your prayers.
He says pray for us that the word of the lord may speed ahead and be.
And be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.
Now paul's purposes he gives here for prayer.
They tell us a great deal about the true power of prayer.
As I call upon you to pray.
Think in terms of what paul's asking for prayer.
He's not throwing it out as a platitude.
He's saying this is the necessary prayer.
I need to know that you're praying these things for me.
Because there's power in the prayer not because of the prayer itself not because of the words we speak.
You timid one little one over there.
I mean to keep poking it on this side.
You timid one over timid on this side.
And you mighty one on the other?
No, the power is in god.
The power is in god who accomplishes his purposes.
And the power is in god who's accomplishing his purposes and he's chosen to accomplish them largely through prayer.
Let's pray that the word of the lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you.
So one he prays that the word of the lord as we would say today would have wheels that it would move ahead.
And then it would be honored and that word honored comes from the same word where we normally get glorified.
The word of god would be honored and glorified we could say.
And the enemies of the gospel would not succeed in halting its progress.
That the word of god would have Its success that it would succeed.
That it should have wheels again is the way to put it.
Paul would have the gospel salvation.
Jesus christ go forward without impediment.
Pray that the word of the lord may move ahead without impediment and receive its rightful honor.
The honor of the lord who sent it.
Now sometimes we have the fatalistic kind of thought That well god is sovereign.
God is going to accomplish his will.
God is mighty and I am not.
God is powerful and I am not.
All of it rests on christ.
Jesus christ is building his church and what god is going to do.
He's going to do.
So why pray?
Why pray if the sovereign god the sovereign and mighty omnipotent god is going to do his will anyway.
And we think of isaiah 55 10 through 11 one of the go -to places about the power of the word
God says for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return There but water the earth
making it bud forth and sprout.
Excuse me giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty.
But it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Pretty good words, right.
So Let's go home and relax and have dinner.
Maybe watch the sunday night football game because god is going to accomplish his purposes.
He sent his word.
His word's going to do what he sent it for god is mighty.
I am nothing so.
Why pray?
Because that word which he sends.
That word which he has sent Tells us to pray.
There's one good reason to pray.
We don't want this fatalistic view that says well if god's going to do everything and he is.
Therefore my prayers don't mean anything.
That's wrong thinking.
God makes certain that his word accomplishes what he intended and god the same god who will
accomplish what he intends by the word That he sent.
Says that he's going to accomplish it by means of the prayer of his prayers of his people.
Now how god's sovereign purposes somehow depend upon prayer is something I don't think we'll ever quite figure out.
That's a mystery.
It's not like god needs prayer.
God needs nothing.
God exists completely outside of anything.
Excuse me, excuse me.
Let's say again god exists outside of any without anything outside of himself.
His eternality is his own.
His holiness is his own.
He doesn't depend on anything.
Much less our prayer, but his ordained prayer.
And that should be enough for us.
The psalmist says all he does all that he pleases the psalmist says whatever the lord pleases he does in heaven
and on earth.
The prophet said zechariah not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the lord of hosts.
So it sounds like we're out of the equation, right?
We have nothing to do with it, right?
No, that couldn't be more wrong.
Why pray for what god already intends to do what god by his power will certainly do.
Well first god commands us to pray.
He commands us to pray in so many places.
Paul's word here in second thessalonians 3 is really in the command form.
But think of it this way.
Do we serve a good god?
Is there anything god does that is not good?
Of course not.
A good god sent his son jesus christ to die for your sins.
To go to the cross and there take the punishment for your sins.
That's a good god.
The good god resurrected him because he could be so you could be sure that your sins have been accounted for.
And the good god sent his spirit after jesus ascended to his right hand and sat down at the right hand of majesty
and power.
And sent his spirit to us to empower us to give us all that we need.
In order to accomplish his will and his purposes here.
He's a good god.
And a good god commands only good things.
Therefore prayer is good because it comes from the mouth of a good and holy god.
And think also of jesus christ.
When he walked this earth in the example, he said jesus christ fully man fully god.
And yet bent his knee and prayed in luke chapter 6 verse 13.
What do we find that jesus christ prayed all night long?
Before he went down from the hill and named the 12 apostles.
Is there any aspect of the god's will that jesus didn't know or doesn't know or?
Always didn't know.
And yet the lord christ himself prayed all night before naming the apostles according to the will of
god, which he knew.
So that's one reason to pray because a good god Commands it for our good.
A good god commands it for our good so that as we pray we're more like jesus christ who prayed.
Second reason is you and I don't know god's will not specifically.
We don't have the details.
We know it's god's will to save people.
We don't know who will be saved.
So we preach emphatically.
We preach enthusiastically.
We preach confidently.
That god will use the words that we preach.
And proclaim.
To bring about his will to save sinners.
But we don't know which ones right?
We know his will only in the general sense from what the word gives us.
So we pray.
We pray as if the incense that arises from our prayers actually accomplish what we pray for.
Knowing that it's god who accomplishes anything.
But we pray as if there's a great example of this in genesis chapter 18.
You don't have to turn there i'm going to summarize it very quickly, but this is where abraham stands before the lord.
And Bargains, if you will negotiates if you like for sodom.
Remember, he says if you find this many if you find 45.
What if you only find 40 would you destroy it for the lack of five and he goes down down down until he gets to 10?
Well.
What if the lord had found 10 righteous men in this men in the city?
Well, according to god's own word, he would have spared the entire city that he had come to destroy entirely had
he found 10.
So god always knew what he was going to do.
And abraham knew that god would do what he's going to do.
And yet abraham prayed as if his prayers could actually change the mind of god.
This kind of prayer we need to pray.
We need to pray as if I keep saying as if and as though because I want to be cautious here God is sovereign god will
do as he will and he will do it through his lord his son.
Jesus christ.
We need to pray as if it all depends on us.
As if.
You know in second chronicles 7 14, here's a well -known prayer often cited even today.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray.
And seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.
Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
What's god saying here?
Well god loves to save rather than condemn.
He loves to forgive rather than condemn.
Ezekiel 18 32.
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked second peter 3 9.
The lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.
But is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.
And I proved his patience with us.
He proved his desire to save rather than condemn when he sent his son.
That all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life.
Yet here in second chronicles 7 14 He says if if My
people will pray.
And if they don't pray if you don't pray.
If they don't acknowledge their need for healing and forgiveness.
Then what would have happened?
I just leave the question Unanswered for you.
Just consider it.
What happens if I do not pray.
Paul goes on says that the word of the lord may speed ahead and be honored pray.
That as the word hastens to god's purposes that it will be honored.
It will be glorified.
That it will be lifted up that people will hear it as the thessalonians did.
In the first book to the thessalonians that you heard it not as the word of men But as what it really is the word
of god.
As jesus said that men will see your good works and will glorify your father who is in heaven.
That the word of the lord may speed ahead.
They will have access that will have wheels.
That it will move Freely and quickly and leave in his path in its
wake nothing but sinners saved by grace.
Pray that the word of god might receive from men the honor and the glory that is due to its
author.
And pray as if if you didn't pray.
It wouldn't happen.
Pray for the safety of god's heralds.
He says and that we'd be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith.
But god is faithful.
Pray for the safety of our missionaries.
Pray as if it depends upon you and nothing else.
Do you pray for your pastors?
We have two pastors in this place and soon god willing.
We'll have three.
Right now you have me pastor josh.
You have pastor owens and pastor brian.
God willing we'll be here soon.
Do you pray for our safety.
Do you pray for our spiritual safety.
For our physical safety.
We'll let you know when pastor brian is starting his drive from wisconsin.
The apostle paul says pray that we've been delivered from wicked and evil men.
Pray that he delivered from weather.
From reckless drivers on the road or whatever the case may be.
There's so much to pray for.
And do you know that I don't believe for a moment that pastor owens or I would be able to stand
confidently at this pulpit.
And proclaim god's word To you if we didn't trust and know that you're praying
even as we preach.
Even as we proclaim even as we study during the week paul says pray for this
deliverance.
Pray for our protection from the enemy.
You know when you take on the position of being an officer in the church, whether it be pastor or deacon.
You just put a bull's eye on your back for the enemy.
Strike the shepherd.
And you'll scatter the sheep.
Do you pray?
Paul asked for prayer.
Deliverance from wicked and evil men which he had known so many times so many times he'd been delivered.
He says five times I received the 39 Lashes.
Do you know what that's from?
In deuteronomy says when you have to beat a man for his for his iniquities.
You beat him 40 times you give him 40 blows.
Well, the jews would then count to 39 and stop in case they missed a count somewhere.
So that's why he got 39 five times.
He was beaten with lictor's rods.
He was stoned and left for dead.
He knew the deliverance of god and yet he says pray that we were delivered.
Pray that we be delivered and that there's no impediment to the success of the word of god.
Pray as though it all depends upon your prayer as if as if.
If you didn't pray.
Nobody be able to come to this pulpit even make it here physically without your prayers.
Pray as if.
Without your prayers.
He says to the thessalonians We won't be able to do this and we won't have deliverance from our
enemies.
And what is it about having wicked and evil men stand in the way? of the gospel.
What is it about that.
There's something about the gospel.
It brings out the worst in evil and wicked men.
It brings it out in them.
They're already wicked.
They're already evil but something about hearing the goodness of god.
About standing next to that holiness as much as we are able to exemplify it.
Just brings out the badness.
The apostles of old Missionaries through the ages your pastors today would give all they have for the
gospel speed ahead.
And during all that men when they hear the word of truth.
That they are sinners that they're wholly unable to correct their position before god.
They're condemned to hell if they refuse to offer salvation it stirs in them the desire only to be entrenched in their
ways.
Only to see the mouths that brought the offense to them stopped.
The word wicked comes from.
An interesting word is apostas.
Excuse me atop us atop us.
Tapas is place and then they put the alpha in front of it and it negates the place.
Like an atheist the theist believes in god an atheist does not.
So atop us is something out of place something unbefitting something unbecoming.
Improper in the moral or the ethical realm and these are the men that paul asks to be delivered
from.
But this is what the opposition to the gospel is like it's out of place it's unbecoming.
By such men in whom the image Of god survives only as a dull glimmer.
Paul suffered stonings and riots and beatings and hatred and accusations.
You ever wonder why can't men just let it go.
Why can't they just as I often say just just shrug.
Just take a breath.
Okay, if you don't like it.
Just just pass on.
I'm not going to follow you home or anything with this.
Why can't they just shrug it off?
Well, you know no other religion no other kind of faith.
Convicts the way the gospel of christ does.
Other faiths glorify men by showing what they can do to better themselves.
Before men and before god you can decide to become a muslim.
You can decide to be a buddhist or even a mormon if it seems right to you if it fits your needs if you think.
It's going to improve you in the way you want to be improved.
The true christian faith takes away all that pride of choice.
By grace you've been saved through faith and it's not of yourselves as a gift of god not of works.
So no one should boast.
It's all of god, it's what we call monergism.
Mono monergism only god creates.
The new birth only god can give you faith to believe in the lord.
It's all of him.
It's none of you.
Other faiths you join because they seem right to you.
You become a christian because god is right.
You become a christian because god before all time before you even existed before the world existed.
Chose you to be in christ.
Jesus to have faith.
God not you not to him who runs or works says the apostle paul, but to god
alone.
So do you pray?
Do you pray in this place specifically for your pastors?
Our studies our spiritual health.
If we're not progressing in the lord we have nothing to give to you.
We need as much protection from the enemy as anyone does and more so because that bull's on your back as leaders in the
church.
Paul's immediate concern was for his work in corinth where his new converts awaited him.
And we know this because jesus told him in a vision.
Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent for i am with you.
And no one will attack you to harm you for I have many in the city who are my people a vision.
A direct revelation from jesus christ promising him that wicked and evil men in that place would be stymied
in their attempts to harm him.
That the word of god is going to have success.
That those people who are jesus's are going to hear the word of jesus from the mouth of paul.
So he says don't be afraid go on speaking.
And what does paul do with that?
Was he not afraid?
I'll bet he was not afraid.
Did he go on speaking?
We know he went on speaking because it records that in the in the book of acts.
But what does he do?
He tells the thessalonians Pray for me brothers that the word of the lord might have
success.
He was just promised success.
What does he say pray for success?
Jesus just told you you're going to have success paul.
All the people in that city who are his you're going to convert.
Right.
I heard that from jesus.
He told me that Pray for success.
Do you see how this works?
Can anybody nod their head and tell me they see how this works.
I got a nodded head.
Please tell me during lunch how this works.
Because honestly, I don't quite get it.
The lord jesus christ promised him.
He told him you're going to have success with the gospel.
Well, jesus is going to have the success.
And paul immediately says pray for the success.
I'd love to be able to put those together more eloquently than i'm able.
Let's pray like that.
Let's pray with our bibles open trusting the promises in the bible.
Trusting god's word that has the power that god sends it with.
That it will not return to him, but it will accomplish his purposes.
Every word jesus christ says he is building his church.
Yes.
He's building his church.
And what does he say pray?
For the church to be built.
Paul's promised converts in corinth.
What does he say that thessalonians pray for converts in corinth?
Pray like that according to the revelation of god in the scriptures with faith in the promises.
And Intensity that would make it seem as if the whole outcome depends upon you.
You great prayer warrior.
You timid little person.
All those prayers when they rise up to god are one and the same because they're in christ.
Jesus by faith.
And he says but god is faithful.
And here is the hope that keeps our knees bent and our spirits fervent and our hearts expecting.
It's god's faithfulness.
It's god who is faithful.
Not all have faith.
That's why there's wicked and evil men out there.
That's why there's such resistance to the gospel.
That's why men are convicted.
That not all have faith is obviously true.
Running them every day.
Friends and family who commune with god their way.
Decide i'm going to do it my way.
I can worship god on my own.
I can watch it on youtube.
I could do whatever always inventing ways that are out of step with the scriptures.
People for whom life is purely physical and they here and now.
With a there and then denied and mocked.
So they're here and now in this world, but there and then meaning heaven they deny it they deride it they mock
it.
Whatever resistance you have.
Whatever wickedness and evil you have to contend with.
As the apostle paul did.
Remember that god is faithful.
We're going to run into them every day.
At one point you had no faith.
But god gave the faith.
God is faithful to his word.
Do you believe in the power of prayer?
You know, my wife had a group of friends prayer warriors.
We could call them.
Who a long time ago started back in the late 80s?
Prayed earnestly for a particular person.
They just got together and prayed earnestly.
Some of them were very arminian.
Said oh lord that this one might choose you.
Some of them were more informed.
Oh lord that you might give faith.
It mattered not.
These people got together and prayed and prayed and prayed.
Years later in the middle of 1992 This one they were praying for stood before church and gave
testimony of faith in the lord.
Jesus christ and repentance for sins.
In 1999 began to go to a seminary be trained in the word of god and theology.
And then in the latter part of 2004 I was called to become the pastor of this church.
I can give you testimony of prayer.
And people who wouldn't stop praying.
You know in this very place a member of our church had a husband who had a glioma.
And i'm going to butcher the Preceding adjective of the glioma.
I think it was blastema.
Blastema glioma the worst kind.
And this one came to him from an expert at stanford.
And what that man told him what that doctor told him was get your affairs in order.
There's nothing we can do.
You are going to die.
And we prayed.
And we prayed as if his life depended upon our prayers.
Well depends upon god and his sovereignty, but we prayed as if it depended upon us.
And do you know.
Inexplicably.
At least to the doctors.
It's gone.
That was years ago.
I can't count how many years ago that was.
Do you believe in the power of prayer.
Is god who is faithful?
He gets all the glory.
It's not the power of our prayer, but there's power in prayer.
It's not the power of the one praying.
We have to make that so clear.
It's the power of him to whom we pray.
Not all have faith is exactly why we pray.
Jesus said the harvest is plentiful.
But the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest.
You know you look out at the world.
It could be pretty disheartening but jesus christ.
Who knows that god's going to have every one?
All that the father gives to me will come to me and whoever comes to me.
I will never cast out.
But what does jesus himself say?
Pray To the lord of the harvest.
Pray to god that people will come to jesus christ and jesus himself says they will come to me.
The father god the father who created everything Will bring them to him.
Surely bring them to him.
What does jesus say?
Pray for it.
How then do we pray?
We pray as though they're coming to jesus christ will come only by our praise as if Jesus said they will
come and he says to pray that they do come pray that god because pray because god is faithful.
And because god will surely draw to jesus each one who he determined for salvation.
Pray as if without your prayers to our faithful god, they won't come.
Pray as if without your affairs to our faith or without your prayers to our faithful god.
Your brother your sister your wife your husband your father your mother won't be
healed.
Well, let's finish up.
With a point of clarity.
I've emphasized the what if so that you know that I mean that we pray as if
God is what we call impassable impassable that means that his actions his
Determinations are not influenced by anything outside of himself.
His will is eternal.
He's determined in eternity past all things whatsoever shall come to pass throughout eternity.
And that's why i've been so careful to say as if as if as though.
As if as though it depends upon you.
And then when god marvelously answers He gets the glory and you get the bolstered confidence to keep
praying.
He gets the glory.
You get the confidence.
He gets all the credit.
We get the increased fervency in our prayers.
So what hinders our prayers?
What slows you down?
Paul says it's happened among you.
Did you forget about your own conversion?
Did you forget about your black heart your hatred of god?
And how god pulled out that black heart and gave you a fleshly heart as it says in
ezekiel 36.
That god himself made you able to believe this gospel of faith or gospel of
salvation.
Did you forget what you were?
Before he changed you and made you a new creation.
Do you remember the answers to prayer that you can read in the biographies of the great
missionaries who went to foreign lands and dangerous lands.
Forget the answers to prayer that we've had in this very place.
What hinders our prayers.
Is it disbelief.
Is it because god is too slow for you?
You need to repent of that God is faithful.
God will accomplish his purposes.
And he has said he's going to accomplish them through prayer and even jesus.
Knowing that god will give to him all who were determined to be given to him.
I said pray that they're given to me if I can.
Summarize it that way.
It's incredible that god actually listens to us and moves on our behalf or even because of our prayers yet.
This is what the scriptures teach.
Charles spurgeon put it this way.
Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.
Even your or my short or weak or faltering prayers.
Whether we like it or not.
Spurgeon again, whether we like it or not asking is the rule of the kingdom.
And did not jesus say asking you shall receive.
And james said you do not have because you do not ask.
Finally this quote.
Men and women are needed whose prayers will give to the world the utmost power of god.
Who will make his promises to blossom with rich and full results?
God is waiting to hear us and challenges us to bring him to do this thing by our
Brothers and sisters in the lord pray.
Heavenly father we thank you for this word for this encouragement to prayer.
For the faithful god who accomplishes his purposes even through.
The prayers that we offer up to you.
Weak and faltering as they can be.
But lord because they come to you in the name of the lord.
We thank you that we're sure by your word that you accept them.
And we pray that you would do your will in and amongst us we ask in jesus name.