Series: The Five Habits of Highly Effective Christians Part II: Standing in the Need of Prayer C. Gray Norsworthy Johns Creek Presbyterian Church January 17, 2016 They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. -- Acts 2: 42-47, NIV Last week we started a series of messages called The Five Habits of Highly Effective Christians -- the title of which comes from Stephen Covey's classic bestseller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This is the weekend we remember Dr. King and his work that made a difference in our world. I think that Dr. King is someone most of us would put in the category of a highly effective Christian. He is arguably the most influential Christian of the twentieth century with his leadership for civil rights in this country, and his work for freedom and equality for all persons. But, what made him so effective? Was it simply his charismatic personality? His ability as a great speaker? His profound intellect? Now, those are all factors that helped his effectiveness, but I think Dr. King s effectiveness was rooted in his relationship with God. Those who try to tell the story of the civil rights movement without recognizing the huge part the Christian faith of Dr. King played in his life simply miss the point. Recently I came across some words by Coretta Scott King, Dr. King s wife, in a book she wrote called Standing in the Need of Prayer. She wrote, Prayer was a wellspring of strength and inspiration during the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the movement, we prayed for greater human understanding. We prayed for the safety of our compatriots in the freedom struggle. We prayed for victory in our nonviolent protests, for brotherhood and sisterhood among people of all races, for reconciliation and the fulfillment of the Beloved Community. For my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. prayer was a daily source of courage and strength that gave him the ability to carry on in even the darkest hours of our struggle. I remember one very difficult day when he came home bone-weary from the stress that came with his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In the middle of that night, he was awakened by a threatening and abusive phone call, one of many we received throughout the movement. On this particular occasion, however, Martin had had enough. After the call, he got up from bed and made himself some coffee. He began to worry about his family, and all of the burdens that came with our movement weighed heavily on his soul. With his head in his hands, Martin bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud to God: Lord, I am taking a stand for what I believe is right. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I 1
stand before them without strength and courage, they will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can't face it alone. Later he told me, At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear a voice saying: Stand up for righteousness; stand up for truth; and God will be at our side forever. When Martin stood up from the table, he was imbued with a new sense of confidence, and he was ready to face anything. (Coretta Scott King from Standing in the Need of Prayer as published by The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster.) What made Dr. King one of the most effective leaders in history? I believe it was his daily prayer life that connected him to God. Today we are looking once more at the words from the book of Acts describing the first Christian church we know of. It was created in Jerusalem right after Peter preached his very effective message on the day of Pentecost. After he preached 3,000 people became followers of Christ and a church was formed. What we read earlier describes what these new Christians did. They first gathered for worship and to hear the apostles tell of the words of Jesus like we are today. It then tells us that they gathered together for prayer. It goes on to say they met daily in the temple courts, which I am sure involved prayer. They also gathered in their homes to worship, break bread, and praise God yet another form of prayer. Praying together was an essential, daily habit the first Christians practiced. And what was the result? The book of Acts said that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47, NIV) That is what I called being very effective -- and prayer was one of the keys. Last week, we focused on creating the habit of regular, weekly worship with others as the first habit of highly effective Christians. We said that if we do not choose to make weekly worship with others a part of our lives, we will limit our spiritual growth and our effectiveness in life. We challenged ourselves to make attending worship here every week we are in town and a priority for the next three months. In today s message on prayer, I do not want to focus on how to pray. That is very important. Some of us want to pray we just do not know how. I have included some resources on the sermon guide insert that can help you with that, but you can simply Google How to pray and find lots of helpful information. Today I want to focus on the prior question, Why pray? In other words, if we don t first see the value in praying, then we will never get to the question of How should we pray? Why pray? What difference does it make? We could spend hours talking about this, but I want to focus on one aspect of prayer. Some have defined prayer very simply as conversation with God. And like any other relationship, if we want to really connect with someone, then conversation is an important part of any healthy relationship. Now, because of our personality types, some of us may be more introverted or extroverted, but some type of healthy conversation is essential to any good relationship. If prayer is about having some kind of conversation with God -- whether that be through written prayers we pray with others in worship, or quiet time alone when we express our innermost thoughts to God, or any of a number of others ways prayer involves some type of two-way 2
speaking and listening. Yet, I think we are seeing a shift in our culture away from being able to have good conversations with anyone. MIT professor Sherry Turkle has studied the effects of technology on human beings and our relationships for a number of years. You can find her books online or view one of her excellent TED talks. Her most recent book, Reclaiming Conversation, tells of how technology, particularly smartphones, has changed the way we talk with each other. For example, she notes how children often do not have the full attention of their parents because mom or dad is looking at their smartphone and not really listening to what their child is saying. She documents that younger people have 40% less empathy than others. And if your response to that is Who cares? So what? then you may have just proved her point. She also talks about how merely the presence of a smartphone affects our conversation. How often have you sat at a table with a friend to have a conversation, and the other person pulls out their smartphone and places it face up on the table. Turkle suggests that even if the phone never rings or pings, its mere presence has a negative effect on the quality of the conversation. It sends a signal to the other person that no matter what we are talking about, there is the possibility that some message may come over my phone and it is more important than you. So, we are unwilling to be as engaged when the smartphone is simply present. I had this experience recently when I had coffee with a long-time friend. He sat down and put his smartphone on the table. During the course of our conversation, he shared with me some very personal struggles he was having. But, even in the midst of sharing these things, messages came on his smartphone and he stopped to look at them. One time he commented on some land deal that related to his work. My guess is that most of us have been on both sides of a conversation like that. Not only does it not feel good, it degrades the quality of the conversation and the relationship. It is why many companies are saying that when people gather for meetings, there are no smartphones, tablets, or laptops visible. This allows people to be fully present in the room and give their best creativity to making the decisions that need to be made. We have started doing that at our staff meetings here at the church. I think this also factors into our prayer lives. If we have been so conditioned that we cannot even carry on a conversation without having our smartphone visible, how might it affect the way we pray? Turkle says that we will now do almost anything to avoid being bored. There was one study in which students were left alone without the ability to connect with others through smartphones. They would actually choose to shock themselves rather than to do nothing simply in order to relieve the boredom. But, Turkle suggests that boredom is a signal from our brains that we need to focus on things that only bubble up when we are doing nothing else. Our most creative ideas only emerge when we are not doing anything. But more and more we find it difficult to simply be still and do nothing. Not too long ago, one of our kids had a friend visit from New York. The young man was in town and spent the night at our house. He is a bright, winsome guy who writes computer code for a living. The next morning we were all sitting around our living room when he pointed to a little sign we have in our house that says, Be Still And Know That I Am God. It is a quotation 3
from the Bible Psalms 46:10. He pointed to it and said, I like that but it is really hard to do. I need to work on that. I was impressed with both his honesty that this was something he struggled with; and his wisdom that this was also something very important. In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talks about things in our lives that are important. He has this grid made up of four squares or quadrants. Each quadrant relates to things that are urgent and important. The first quadrant contains things that are both urgent and important. These are the crisis in our lives that we all have to handle. Below is the quadrant in which we find things that are urgent but not important. These are often interruptions and things that others try to put on us. The fourth quadrant contains things that are not urgent or important. These are the time wasters in life like surfing the net for five hours. But, quadrant two contains those things that are not urgent but important. Covey says that these are the key activities that effective people focus on. This includes the building of relationships. As a Christian, I would put prayer in the not urgent but important category. Now some prayers might be urgent and important, the ones we offer in the middle of a crisis, Lord, help me! But most prayer does not seem urgent. Prayer is constantly being pushed aside by messages on our smartphones, the simple busyness of everyday life, or even time wasters. Yet, I believe prayer, like many other quadrant two activities that are not urgent but important, yields the greatest long-term results. Prayer can make us effective in life. When I look back on that prayer we read earlier from Dr. King in the midst of a genuine crisis, I do not see a panicked, last-minute cry for help from someone who had rarely prayed before. There was an intimacy, an honesty, a vulnerability, and a relationship there that has been cultivated over time through daily prayer. When Dr. King faced life-threatening challenges to himself, his family, and this movement to do what is right he had already developed a relationship with God. He had a deep reservoir of trust built up over time. He could say to God, I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. And God showed up. God gives him the words he needs to have the confidence and courage to go forward and the world was changed! The title of Coretta Scott King s book in which she tells that story was called, Standing in the Need of Prayer. It takes its name from a gospel hymn. Whenever I hear of that hymn, I think back on when I first heard it. It happened when my mother was near the end of her life battling cancer. She was living with hospice care at her house here in Atlanta. I would go by to visit her most days. Toward the end of her life, my sister moved here to take of mom, but we also hired a professional caregiver named Marjorie who was a God-send and helped us make it through. One day when I was visiting with mom, I was sitting next to her on the red leather couch we now have in our home. Marjorie was there and we were watching a preacher on TV. As I have shared with many of you, Mom was a very devout Christian who was very involved in her church. For example she went back to school after I went off to college to get her degree as a Christian counselor. She counseled others until a few months before she died. I know I am biased, but she was one of the most effective Christians I have ever known. As we sat there watching this preacher on TV, he was talking about prayer. He started to sing this gospel hymn, Standing in the Need of Prayer. If you don't know it, the words are pretty simple: 4
It's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord It's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord Not my father, not my mother But it's me, oh Lord Not my sister, not my brother... Not the people that are shoutin'... Not the members I've been doubting... Not the preacher, not the sinner... Not the deacon, not the teacher... But it's me, oh Lord As the preacher continued to sing, he invited everyone there in the congregation and those watching on TV to stand with him and sing along It s me, it s me, it s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And I looked over at Mom, only a few days from the end of her life here on this earth. She was pulling herself up to stand and sing. And Marjorie was standing and singing along. And I stood up and sang along, It s me, It s me, It s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Here s my mother of the most effective Christians I have ever known singing in her weakened voice about her need for prayer. Friends, I believe we are all standing in the need of prayer. We need prayer every day of our lives. It is what makes us effective in life as followers of Christ. Now, some say it takes 30 days to establish a habit. So this is what I want to invite and challenge you to do. For the next 30 days, spend 15 minutes a day in prayer -- preferably at the same time and in the same place. 15 minutes a day for 30 days. Then look honestly at whether it makes a difference in your life. Last week we challenged each other to worship weekly with others. Today we are challenging each other to pray daily for 30 days. Is prayer effective? Just look at the life of Dr. King. Can God use prayer to make a difference in your life and in the world? You bet he can! This past week I attended the funeral of Dr. Bill Self, founding pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church. Dr. Dee Shelnutt, the Senior Pastor from Johns Creek Methodist Church across the street and Bill Self were close friends. Dee said in the funeral service that when Bill was close to death, Dee went by to visit him at his home. Bill was confined to his bed by this time. He called Dee over to his bed and told him this: In the end, relationships are all that matter. And it is prayer that builds our relationship with God. In the strong name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 5