Plug into the Power of Prayer
Romans 8:26-27
Sunday, March 12th, 2017- MRWC
We are in Part 4 of our sermon series called Plug into the Power of Prayer, which, we hope has been serving as a guideline, or a step by step model to help you “tap into” the power of prayer; which is a resource that is often under-utilized by Christ followers.
Many times we don’t pray enough; or we don’t know what to sat when we pray.
We’re good at little pop-corn prayers, the ones we say when were in a pinch, such as this one….
ILLUSTRATION- A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell.
On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall.
He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.
He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff.
So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.
“HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!"
He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him.
He was about to give up when he heard a voice.
“Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"
"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?
"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"
"That's Me."
"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."
"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."
"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."
"Okay. Let go of the branch.”
"What?"
"I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."
There was a long silence.
Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"
We’re good at praying prayers when we happen to be in trouble, and there is nothing wrong with praying those kinds of prayers; heaven knows I’ve sent off more than one of them…
If we truly want to plug into the power of prayer— a very real power that is at our disposal, then we need to have practical steps that we can put into practice so we can make the most of our time with the Lord in prayer.
Our key verse for this series says it the best… keep in mind that this is God speaking to His people: “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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chr .7:14, NIV)
God wants us to be a praying people; He expects us to be a praying people, He has even said He would do great things if only we would pray….
But how? More specifically, what do we say when we pray? Well, let me answer that question in a few different ways.
First of all, Just start talking.
Author and Pastor Keith Drury tells us that “Prayer is a conversation with God through which we come to know him better and develop greater reliance on him… prayer is a means of drawing near to God and sensing Him draw near to us.” (Drury, 2005, 125)
You can boil this quote down by saying that: “Prayer is a conversation with God.” This what prayer is. It’s not more complicated than that. It’s a conversation with God.
When you pray, you talk to God just as you would talk to your spouse or our BFF.. (assuming you talk to either of them….).
I will tell you though, that having an open and honest conversation with God doesn't happen overnight, it takes time.
ILLUSTRATION- My wife and I talk about anything and everything. (most of the time I listen, but that's another story…)
But, it wasn't always this way. When we first started dating, I wouldn’t have dreamt of telling her my deepest darkest secrets for fear that she would drop me like a bad habit.
As we got closer in our relationship, I could tell her anything, and she could tell me anything, and now, we're at the point, that nothing is off the table.
She even talks about my death as I’m sitting right beside her…
Our secret to marriage survival has been communication.
There have been days that I don’t talk to her, and our relationship suffers because of it, but we are where we are at in our relationship because of communication.
All of this is exactly like our prayer life with God. We should talk to Him as we talk to our spouse, actually, we should talk to God more than we talk to our spouse.
If, as Keith Drury says, “prayer is a conversation with God.”, then start talking!
I have talked to just about each and everyone of you and believe you me— you can talk!
You all have something to say— Even if it happens to be ‘God: get me outta here…” You need to start somewhere…
So keep in mind that, prayer, at it’s core is simply a conversation with God.
The first piece of advice I can give you about prayer is Just start talking.
Secondly, Don’t worry about the words you use. I think this one is really important.
Sometimes we can get caught up in trying to say just the right thing, that we actually end up saying nothing at all!
Sometimes we can get frustrated for not knowing what to say when it comes time to pray, so we get frustrated and don’t pray at all!
But I want to tell you, don’t worry about the words you use…
Look at Romans 8:26-27 for a moment…”And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.” (NLT2)
What is this verse saying? Though me might not know what to say, though we might not have just the right words, God’s Holy Spirit is praying for us on our behalf with heavenly words… words that we cannot comprehend.. “groanings”.
The Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf!
If we don’t have just the right words, The Holy Spirit is on the job and He is pleading our case before the Father!
Don’t get caught up in using big long words… In fact Jesus said: “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.”
(Matthew 6:7, NLT2)
Don’t get caught up in the words you use; just start praying…
If prayer is a conversation with God—and it is —and if we’re not to worry about the words we use when we pray— and we’re not— How then do we pray, or more specifically, what do we say when we pray?
Well, it almost sounds counter-intutitve for me to give you some words to use when you pray, just as I said don’t worry about the words you use, so I won’t give you words to use, I will give you a model that you can implement to help you pray.
If you use this model— or any other model of prayer— you will plug into the power of prayer and unlock some sweet time of prayer with God.
This is simply intended to be a guideline for prayer, something to help you talk to God, something to help you know what to say when you pray.
Many of you may have heard this model, or even used this model at one time or another. Its called ACTS.
The first part of this prayer is Adoration.
Jesus said: “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….” (Matthew 6:9, NIV)
This is probably the most important aspect of prayer. It shifts our attention on to God instead of on us.
Adoration is not us reminding God how great He is; it is us reminding us how great God is.
God alone deserves the praise. God alone is worthy, and when we begin to pray, we begin by adoring God, by basking in His goodness.
The Psalmist wrote as He was taking to God: “You are good, and what you do is good…”
(119:68, NIV)
As we being our prayer time, we being by praising God for Who He is: The Unchanging One. The One who Was, who IS and who IS to Come.
After Adoration, comes CONFESSION.
This part of prayer is asking God to search us deep, as the Psalmist asked in Psalm 139: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.(NLT2)
We not only ask God to go there in our heart and life, but we confess any unconfessed sin, because “unconfessed sin is a barrier to our relationship with God, blocking us from drawing near (to Him).” (Drury 2005, 132)
So we ask God to cleanse us, and we are reminded in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
(NIV)
As we spend time praying, we will ask God to remove any sin blocker that might be in our lives; but we also confess our need for Him.
We confess that without His involvement in our lives, we are sunk.
We confess that we need Him and His help to live the life that we have been called to live.
Remember what John 15:5 says? “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (NIV)
When we confess, we not only seek forgiveness of and for sin, but also for help to live the life we’ve been called to live.
After a time of confession, comes Thanksgiving.
This is where we take some time and think back over our lives and remember how God was faithful in the past, and how He will be faithful in the future.
The first couple verses of Psalm 138 read this way: “I give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart; I will sing your praises before the gods.
2 I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.” (NLT2)
David was giving thanks to God….
Psalm 136 has a major theme running throughout the entire Psalm… Can you figure it out? “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!”
(NLT2)
When we pray, we should spend some time thanking God for Who He is and What He has done. For how He has shown up in our lives. For how He has worked in our lives.
For sending Jesus; for freedom from sin, for guidance and direction, for being a friend who sticks closer than a brother..
If we have nothing else to pray for, we can spend all of our time in thanksgiving to God, because He is good and His love endures forever. (even when we don’t feel that way…)
After Thanksgiving comes “Supplication” or Requests, or petitions, or intercession)
In my opinion, this is our secret weapon.. When someone tells you off, you get to pray for that person!
When someone makes you mad, you get to pray for that person… (remembering that words don’t matter….)
When something happens around the world that doesn't make you very happy, you have the opportunity to do something about it: you can pray!
God invites us to pray for other people! Listen to just a few selected verses:
Eph.6:18- “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” (NLT2)
Paul wrote this in 1 Timothy: “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and pleases God our Savior…” (NLT2)
God’s Word tells us— rather compels us to pray for all people, the ones we like, the ones in authority over us, the ones we don’t like… We are to pray at all times and on all occasions.
We get to— not have to— but get to talk to God and pray for other people and ourselves. What a great privilege!
ILLUSTRATION- I enjoy praying. I think it’s one of the few things I do really well. (That and worrying…)
I tell God what is on my mind, I tell God what I am excited about, I tell God what I’m not so excited about; I tell God about the people and situations that make me mad. (We’ve had a lot to talk about as of late….)
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this great truth: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Heb.4:16, NLT2)
We are invited by God Himself to come into His throne room and pray, to bring our A-C-T-S of prayer before Him and step back and let Him do what He does best.. Be God.
So, what do I want you to do with what you've just heard? This one thing…
First of all, I want you to PRAY.
Jesus assumed His followers would pray. “When you pray…:” (Matt. 6:5, NIV) Jesus said….
The Master assumed His followers would pray, so I want to ask you to take one, two, or all 4 aspects of the A-C-T-S prayer model and spend some time praying.
Carve out 5 minutes for starters. Take a piece of paper with you if need be, and begin to Adore God, Confess your need of and for God, Thank-Him for Who He is and make your petitions known to God…. and don’t forget to Listen!
Listen to what God might me saying to you…
Don’t worry so much about the time frame and or the words you use, just as long as you get away and pray..
“When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you” (Matt.6:6, NLT2)
For us to Plug into the Power of Prayer, we must actually Pray, so take a some time this afternoon and begin praying… There are tons of people and requests for you to pray for in the bulletin; use that list to guide you.
You could even use our One for One challenge as a prayer model… Hopefully we all know one or more people who are far from Jesus so we want to pray for them, and see things through until they become fully devoted followers of Jesus.
Sometimes we need a Prayer- starter, so use this reminder:
I have copies of this prayer available, if you’d like to have it in print.
In order for us to Plug into the Power of Prayer, we’ve actually got to pray, so take some time this week and apply the A-C-T-S model to your life and see how God works in and through your time of prayer!
We’re going to spend just a few moments actually praying…. as the band comes back and gets ready for our last song, I want to invite you to take a few moments and pray…
maybe you know someone who is lost; you want to pray for them
maybe you know someone who is hurting; you want to pray for them
maybe you need some prayer; we want to pray for you…
The alters are always open for you to come and pray, so let’s come and pray….
