Mark 11:11-14; January 14, 2018 John 15:7 1 John 5:14, 15. The Mystery of Prayer Do My Prayers Even Matter?

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1 Mark 11:11-14; January 14, 2018 John 15:7 1 John 5:14, 15 The Mystery of Prayer Do My Prayers Even Matter? Introduction: Concluded first week of Prayer and Fasting (Today: We begin a 3-week series on prayer) Martin Luther To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Andrew Murray: O let the place of secret prayer become to me the most beloved spot on earth. F.B. Meyer: The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but un-offered prayer. E.M. Bounds: God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be; the mightier the forces against evil. A.W. Tozer: To desire revival and at the same time to neglect prayer and devotion is to wish one way and walk another. French Writer (1600 s-1700 s) Fenelon (fee-nee-lon) Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity, none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer. Opening Remarks 1. Prayer is likely the most important spiritual discipline yet may be the most difficult one in which to excel. 2. Our failure in the discipline of prayer is also one of the most significant sources of personal guilt. (Ashamed). 3. Teaching on prayer has generally landed in one of two camps two extremes: a. Prayer is a learned formula that if practiced correctly will move the plan of God and achieve our will. (Hyper-faith, and the texts I read are used). b. Prayer does not change God at all, only us, and is merely an act of obedience. His will is fixed by His sovereignty and prayer is just our participation in God s will. 1

2 NOTE: Leads many to abandon prayer altogether. Try to answer some important questions over the next 3 weeks: Do my prayers even matter? Does God answer every prayer? What if God says no!? Today: Do my prayers even matter? Am I wasting my time praying? Is God going to do what He wants to do anyway? To fully unpack this question: Explore our Sovereign God His nature His gift His invitation I. Our Sovereign God s Nature A. Two Definitions 1. Theology The study of the nature of God and religious beliefs NOTE: Everyone is a Theologian (what we believe about God is important) 2. Sovereignty of God His exercise of power or rule over His creation Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places. Psalms 135:6 NKJV But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. Psalms 115:3 NKJV 2

3 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,' Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV B. Extent of His Sovereignty revealed by His nature 1. Foreknowledge O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. Psalms 139:1-4 NKJV For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. Psalms 139:13-16 NKJV "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them." Isaiah 42:9 NKJV 2. Immutability (unchangeableness in relationship to His being, perfection, purposes, and promises, but He does feel emotion and can act and feel differently in different situations). Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. 27 But You are the same, And Your years will have no end. Psalms 102:25-27 NKJV "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Malachi 3:6 NKJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17 NKJV 3

4 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Psalms 33:11 NKJV 3. Pre-determined counsel "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. Acts 2:22-24 NKJV a. Pre-determined purpose (horizo-boule) to define or mark off boundaries regarding divine plan or purpose b. Foreknowledge (prognosis) knowledge that is before NOTE: Not the same He knows all before but does not necessarily pre-determine it all. 4. His will a. All things were created and exist by His will "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." Revelation 4:11 NKJV b. Jesus submitted to God s will in Gethsemane c. His will for all to be saved For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 NKJV The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV This is the nature of our Sovereign God Knows all (complete foreknowledge) 4

5 Unchangeable (immutable) by way of character, person, purpose, and promise Has pre-determined counsel/will and desires that none perish So again do my prayers even matter? OR IS ALL FIXED? II. Our Sovereign God s Gift to Humanity A. What is clear not all are saved though it is His will IMPLICATION: It is possible to resist the will of God in some ways at least B. There is a human responsibility to our salvation "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who "will render to each one according to his deeds": 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath, 9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. Romans 2:5-9 NKJV Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:7-9 NKJV I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8 NKJV C. We can resist God s will 5

6 "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Acts 7:51-52 NKJV And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 NKJV Do not quench the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 NKJV D. God s gift to humanity and possibly the greatest act of sovereignty was to grant us free will. (ILL) Garden Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:15-17 NKJV FREE WILL! E. Yes God is sovereign but He gifted humanity a free will 1. We make bad choices 2. He is committed to transforming our messes And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:28-29 NKJV CRUCIAL: Difference between foreknowledge and pre-determined counsel NOT THE SAME! III. Our Sovereign God s Invitation to us All 6

7 A. Prayer is a mystery but it is an invitation from our sovereign God to participate in His plan 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. 2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV B. Some have discounted prayer as only a means by which we are changed, not events, not situations, not people. C. Biblical evidence says something different 1. Intercession of Moses "Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.' 13 "Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.' 15 "So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. 17 Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. 20 And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Deuteronomy 9:12-20 NKJV 2. Hezekiah pleading with God 7

8 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'" 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 "Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."'" 2 Kings 20:1-6 NKJV 3. Ninevah repented Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." Jonah 1:1-2 NKJV Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah 3:1-10 NKJV D. Do my prayers even matter? 8

9 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16 NLT Conclusion: I don t have to pray, I get to pray. (ILL) Naps (conversation) John Drury Father spend time with Him (To Father) Son already engaged (with the Son) lives to make intercession Spirit finishes our sentences (by the Spirit) Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26 NKJV Next Week: Is every prayer answered? Final Week: What if God says no!! 9