We Believe in the Power of Prayer (Luke 11:1-13)

Well, last week we started a series where we talked about the things that we believe, the things that we affirm as a church, the things that we believe are important to every single believer.

And last week, Evan kicked us off with a wonderful message on we believe in the authority of Scripture or we believe in the power of Scripture in the believer's life and that we should be committing ourselves to reading God's Word, diving deeper into God's Word, and letting God's Word transform us.

Well, today we're going to be talking about we believe in the power of prayer. And I just want to go ahead and invite everyone to come back tonight as well.

Tonight, right here in the bridge at 5 p.m., we're going to have a time of prayer where we come together as a church and we pray specifically for things in our community, in our state, around the nation, around the world.

We'll be praying for other churches in our community. We'll be praying for all kinds of things. And we're also going to be praying how our church can be used by God to reach our community, to reach our state, to reach our nation, to reach the world.

And so I want to encourage you to come back for an evening of worship and prayer where we bring these requests to God.

And so this morning, we're going to be discussing how we believe in the power of prayer.

I heard a pastor say one time, he says, if our prayers are not intimidating to us, they may be insulting to God.

If our prayers are not intimidating to us, they may be insulting to God.

Now, I don't want to minimize the fact that God wants to hear all of our prayers.

He wants to hear the things that we have going on in our life. He wants to hear all of those things.

But oftentimes, I think prayer just becomes the pleasantries for us, where we're just meeting somebody and passing in the hallway.

Hey, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Hope you have a great day type thing.

But God wants us to bring our requests to him. He wants us to pray big prayers to him, prayers that depend on him.

And so we want to be thinking through it in this way.

Think of it like this. If God were to say yes to all the prayers that you prayed over the last month,

how would the world be different?

If God just gave a blanket yes to all of the prayers that you prayed over the past month,

how would the world be different?

Would a different team have won a football game?

Would you have gotten all green lights on your way into work one day?

Would you have found that parking spot that you were looking for?

Would all of these things happen?

Or how would the world be different?

Would there be churches planted all over the world where the gospel has not gone?

Would your neighbor come to faith in Christ that you've been praying for?

Would God be working in this community in powerful ways?

Would we see revival taking place in this state that spills over into this nation that gives us a renewed sense of dependence on God?

How would the world be different if God were to answer all of our prayers?

Several years ago, as a church, we read through the book, A Praying Church by Paul Miller.

And this book was really transformative, not only in my life, but I know in many of your lives from the conversations that we've had about this.

But in one of the first couple of chapters, Miller talks about the decline of prayer in the church

and ultimately the decline of prayer in Christian homes throughout our country.

And much of the reason that he gives for this is there's a focus that has been taken off of God

and placed on things of this world where we are constantly consumed by trying to get more and more and more.

And we fill our lives, we fill our time, we spend our money and our resources on those things of this world.

We are busy and often wealthy people and we attribute that success to working hard, setting goals, and staying busy.

This is how our society tells us to find success.

And whether we admit it or not, praying sometimes feels like a waste of time, where we're just sitting around doing nothing.

In fact, Miller in this book points out, he says, but the church, he says, we aren't a yoga community burning candles to get in touch with our feelings.

He says, we're a praying community.

We're a praying community living in a personal world where the Father by his Spirit is constantly making Jesus come alive in our midst.

We are called to live lives that depend on prayer, where if God doesn't move, if God doesn't show up in a miraculous way, then our plans are going to fail.

We're called to live lives where we attempt great things for God and depend on God to work and to move in those things.

And when we begin to live lives like this, then we become dependent on prayer.

Then we become dependent on God to work and to move in our midst.

And so I hope and pray this morning as we discuss this and we think about the importance of prayer,

we're not just looking to God to say, help us to do some easy things that we feel comfortable doing.

But we're going to God and saying, God, we want to attempt great things for you.

Because we know that with you, we can accomplish this.

And so many of you may recognize the name Tim Keller.

Tim Keller was the founding pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City.

And he recently passed away just a few years ago after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

And at the end of 2021, he did an interview with World Magazine.

It was a pretty long interview.

And he gave some pretty long, extensive answers to some questions that they were asking him.

But there was one question in particular that the interviewer came to him and asked him that Keller gave a very short answer to.

And the question was this.

The interviewer asked him, he says, looking back, is there anything that you wish you had done differently in ministry?

And Keller answered, he said, absolutely.

I should have prayed more.

No question.

This is a man who had much success as a pastor, who had much influence in this country and around the world, wrote many books, had a lot of influence.

And he says, if I could have done something different, I would have prayed more.

I would have gone to God more.

Prayer should be essential to the Christian life because it was essential to Jesus' life.

Throughout the gospel accounts, we see many times that Jesus was praying.

And there was obviously something very different about the way that Jesus prayed.

And I say this because in our passage today in Luke chapter 11, we see his disciples asking him to teach them something.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And this is the only account where we have in scripture of his disciples specifically asking Jesus to teach them to do something.

Now, obviously, Jesus taught them to do many things.

That kind of goes with being a disciple of someone.

You have someone who is teaching you how to do things.

But this is the only time that we see recorded where the disciples go to Jesus.

They see him doing something.

And they say, teach us to do that.

Teach us to do that.

And so in this passage, we see they ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

And so if you have a copy of God's word, I want to invite you to open with me right there to Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And we're going to read the first 13 verses this morning.

This is what God's word says.

It says, now Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.

As John taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins.

For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.

And he said to them, which one of you has a friend?

Will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves.

For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within.

Do not bother me.

The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot give up to give you anything.

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend.

Yet because of his impudence, or some of your translations make his persistence,

he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks it will be opened.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Verse 1 here, it tells us that Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And one of his disciples saw him and said, Lord, teach us to pray.

One commentator notes, he says, that request means that prayer is not something learned automatically.

Prayer is not natural.

Effective prayer has to be taught and learned.

He says there's no shame in not knowing how to pray or feeling uncomfortable in prayer.

Prayer is not natural.

There's only shame if we don't ask to be taught and as a result,

spend years of our Christian lives ineffective in prayer.

And so I want to encourage us this morning.

Let us come to this passage as the disciples were coming to Jesus,

wanting to grow in our prayer lives.

And so the first thing that I want us to bring our attention to this morning

is that we see in this passage the pattern of prayer.

There's a pattern of prayer that is taking place here in these first few verses.

In this passage, there's going to be several observations about how to pray.

But to begin with, I want us to see that Jesus opens up with a bold statement about our relationship to God.

He opens up teaching us how to pray with this bold statement about our relationship with God.

He says, Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

This is how we are to come to God.

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Now in this abbreviated version of the Lord's Prayer,

we see Jesus teaching us to pray to God as our Father.

We're going to spend more time talking about this fact than anything else as we talk through this scripture

because I think it's important for us to understand and to wrap our minds around the significance of what Jesus is teaching us

right out of the gates when we are to address God as our Father.

We're to address God as Father.

Prayer is something that happens between a father and his children.

It's a family conversation.

There's a sense of intimacy that is associated with it.

And it's become so common for us today to start our prayers with Father or Heavenly Father

that we almost always lose the significance of what Jesus is telling his disciples here.

Kent Hughes made an observation that really brings this to our attention.

He says, you can search from Genesis to Malachi.

In other words, you can search the entire Old Testament.

And he says, and you will not find an individual speaking of God as Father.

Moreover, in Jesus' day, his contemporaries had so focused on the sovereignty and transcendence of God

that they were careful never to repeat his covenant name, Yahweh.

So they invented the word Jehovah, a combination of two separate names of God.

Thus, the distance from God was well guarded.

You can imagine the controversy that Jesus caused when he came on the scene

and pretty much only used Father when he was addressing God.

All of Jesus' prayers, he addresses God as Father.

The Gospels record him using Father more than 60 times in reference to God.

Jesus is clearly showing that his followers have the ability to experience a relationship with God

that is far different than anything anybody had ever known.

They get to address him as Father.

When we pray to God and address him as Father,

we need to understand the significance and the privilege

we have to address the eternal creator of everything in such a personal way.

Many of you know that one of my favorite books is Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

And in this, J.I. Packer says, he says,

You sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching in a single phrase

if you speak of it as a revelation of the fatherhood of the Holy Creator.

And he says,

In the same way, you sum up the whole of the New Testament religion

if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's holy father.

He says,

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity,

find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child

and having God as his father.

If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers

and the whole outlook on life,

it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught,

everything that makes the New Testament new,

everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish,

is summed up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God.

Father is the Christian name for God.

And it's so important for us to see God as our father.

Tim Keller once said something along the lines of,

he says,

Do you know the only person that's not afraid to wake up a king in the middle of the night?

He says,

The only person that's not afraid to wake up a king in the middle of the night is his children.

Because they have that unrestricted access to him.

As a parent,

I'm sure some of you can identify with this,

there have been many times where I've been sound asleep in my bed in the middle of the night,

and then all of a sudden,

I'm just,

I can feel,

it just feels like somebody is standing over me watching me.

And then you open your eyes,

and there's one of your kids right there in your face.

And you say,

What's going on?

And they say,

I can't sleep.

I'm like,

Well now I can't either.

Thank you for that.

Or they come to you,

and they're just standing right over you,

and they say,

I'm thirsty.

Can I have some water?

And I say,

Of course.

Go around,

wake up your mom,

and go get some water.

You know?

And so,

those kids,

they have this unrestricted access.

Now,

if one of you came to my house in the middle of the night,

and was standing over my bed,

and somehow made it into my house,

and into my bedroom,

and was standing over me,

and just,

I woke up to your face,

then all of a sudden,

I would probably have a lot of things that I'd have to ask forgiveness for later.

Some of the things that I said,

and probably the things that I did,

there'll be a lot of things that I'll have to ask forgiveness for later.

But not for my kids.

Those kids,

they have unrestricted access to me.

They can come to me at any time.

And so,

when we see Jesus telling us to address God as Father,

there's a significance to this.

There's a deep meaning to this.

There's power that comes in this.

My kids can come to me with boldness.

And this is how God wants us to come to Him as His children.

And so,

as we begin to recognize that we are praying to our Heavenly Father,

who is also Creator,

Sustainer,

and Savior of the world,

we begin to realize that ultimately,

we want His kingdom to come,

and His will to be accomplished.

And so,

as we recognize who God is,

our Father,

we naturally want His kingdom to come.

And this has a strong missions emphasis that goes along with this.

This statement is very both personal for our lives today,

and something that we look forward to it being complete one day.

I want God's kingdom to come in my life.

I want God's kingdom to come in my life.

I want Him to be King and Lord of my life today.

I want Him to rule and reign in my life today.

And also,

I look forward to one day when His name is honored among all the nations for all eternity.

And so,

when we pray to our Heavenly Father,

and we say,

Your kingdom come,

we are saying very boldly that,

God,

I want Your kingdom,

not mine.

I want Your name to be honored,

not mine.

I want my life to reflect the ultimate purpose that You give it,

and not what this world says it should be.

And this is really easy to say,

but it's incredibly difficult to mean.

Because closely tied to this,

Your kingdom come is Your will be done.

In fact,

when we see the longer version of the Lord's Prayer back in Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

this is what it says.

It says,

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard people come to me,

or I've said it myself,

where I say,

Lord,

God,

show me Your will.

Help me to find Your will for my life.

Well,

guess what?

It's not lost.

God,

it's not something we have to find because it's not lost.

So we have His word right here that tells us God's will and God's plan for us.

You want to know God's will for your life?

Pick up the Bible and start reading.

We know that it is His will for lost people to be told about Jesus.

In 2 Peter 3,

9,

it says,

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise,

as some count slowness,

but is patient towards you,

not wishing that any should perish,

but that all should reach repentance.

repentance.

And so what we are saying,

if we mean it,

what we're saying when we say,

God,

Your kingdom come,

what we're saying is,

God,

I want Your name to be proclaimed everywhere.

I want Your name to be proclaimed to my lost neighbors.

I want Your name to be proclaimed in this community.

I want to see revival taking place.

I want to see Your name being proclaimed to the millions of lost people that are right here in our state.

I want Your name to be proclaimed to those areas of our country where the gospel presence,

is minimal at best.

Lord,

I want Your name to be proclaimed.

I want Your gospel to go forth to places that have never heard the name of Jesus.

And when we say,

Your kingdom come,

what we're saying is,

God,

I want to be a part of that.

Not only do I want to see that happen,

but God,

I want You to use me to accomplish Your will.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done.

His will for your life,

at least part of it is proclaiming the name of Jesus wherever it is that He's called you to be at this time.

I'm afraid all too often when we pray,

God,

show me Your will,

what we are really saying is,

God,

here's my will,

and here's my plan,

and I need You to make me feel good about my plan and my will,

and act like it's Your plan.

And this is completely backwards to the purpose of prayer.

Packer,

reflecting on this statement,

Your will be done,

says,

Here,

more clearly than anywhere,

the purpose of prayer becomes plain.

Not to make God do my will,

but to bring my will into line with His.

Now,

I want to be very clear.

Praying Your kingdom come is a dangerous prayer.

And I encourage you to pray it,

but just understand that it will cause many changes in our lives.

It means that you willingly submit your life to be molded and shaped by another.

It gives control of your life to God.

And I also want to encourage you,

if you truly want to find God's specific plan and will for your life,

start by doing the things that you know He's called us all to do.

If you want to know God's specific plan for your life,

well,

a great place to start is what He's called all of us to do.

Look to God's Word and follow His call to all believers

and watch how God starts shaping and molding your life.

But parents and grandparents,

I want to encourage you to pray something that is even harder to pray.

We just had a lot of kids walk out of this room

and go back to children's church

and go back to studying God's Word and what it has to Him.

And so I want to encourage you something that's even harder to pray.

Pray for God's kingdom to come

and His will to be done in your children's lives.

But also pray that God will begin to work in your heart

to support wherever God may lead them.

We want our kids to follow Jesus,

but often we teach them to do that with parameters.

We say,

yes,

we want you to follow Jesus,

but here's some parameters to go along with that.

Many times in wanting the best for our kids,

we advise them to follow comfort and not God.

As we raise them,

what are we telling them is most important in life?

Yes, we can tell them,

we can say that Jesus is supreme

and that He is the most important,

but what are we telling them with our actions?

Are we telling them that money is supreme

or sports are supreme

or a certain grade is supreme?

Or are we teaching them

that following Jesus

is greater than all of this?

Next in this prayer,

we see Jesus teaching us

to ask our Father for our needs.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And through this passage,

we see Jesus is concerned with our daily needs.

The request for daily bread

is a reminder of the manna

that God provided for Israel in the desert.

If you remember,

they were instructed to gather enough manna,

to gather enough bread for that day.

And so this gave them

this deep sense of dependence on God

every single day to provide,

to provide over and over again.

And this is a foreign concept for most of us

because we've grown up in a first world context.

Because most of us not only

have what we need for today,

but we have enough stored up in our homes

that will last us for weeks.

And if you're like me,

even when that runs out,

you've got enough stored up

to last you a little while longer after that.

And so this is a hard concept

sometimes for us to understand.

But Danny Akinos, he says,

we must not let the availability of food

trick us into thinking

that we are self-sufficient

and do not need God

to provide for our daily needs.

Because we do.

We're reminded here of physical needs that we have,

but also of a much greater need

that Jesus is telling us to pray for.

And so the final observation

in this section that we're talking about here

is ask God to not only forgive us,

but to protect us from temptation.

He says,

And forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone

who is indebted to us

and lead us not into temptation.

And I must admit that this sometimes

can be a little bit confusing for us

because in the Bible,

we are told that as believers,

we are justified that our sins,

past, present, and future,

are paid for.

And now we see a need to ask for forgiveness.

Is this something that we need to do?

And the answer is yes.

As believers,

our sins are paid for,

past, present, and future.

And yes,

it is important for us

to ask for forgiveness.

Packer, again,

was very helpful in understanding this.

He says,

the Lord's Prayer is a family prayer

in which God's adopted children

address their father.

And though their daily failures

do not overthrow their justification,

things will not be right

between them and their father

till they have said sorry

and asked him to forgive the ways

that they have let them down.

So not only is our need

for forgiveness addressed here,

but we also see our need

to forgive others.

For the believer,

we must always remember

that we are to forgive others.

Ephesians 4, 32,

forgiving one another

just as God also forgave you.

Our Lord certainly does not mean here

that forgiveness of others

earns us the right to be forgiven.

It rather that God forgives

the penitent

and the one of the chief evidences

of this is a forgiving spirit.

And so finally, Jesus says,

lead us not into temptation,

but to deliver us from evil.

Obviously, God does not tempt anyone,

but the request comes from a place

of understanding our weaknesses

and our need for dependence

on God each and every day.

We need God's strength and power

to resist Satan

and the wisdom and the direction

to not be put into situations

where Satan can easily lead us away.

And so what we see

at looking at the Lord's prayer

is a need for remembering

who it is that we're talking to

and with that,

what an incredible privilege it is

to call God our Heavenly Father.

And from that place,

we begin to bring our requests to Him,

our daily needs,

our understanding of our greatest needs,

showing complete dependence on God

for everything.

And so after teaching them how to pray,

Jesus follows this lesson

with a parable

that is where I want us to spend

just the last few minutes

that we have together this morning.

I want you to listen to these words

from this parable.

And He says,

And He said to him,

Which one of you has a friend?

Which one of you has a friend?

Will go to him at midnight

and say,

Friend, lend me three loaves

for a friend of mine

has arrived on a journey

and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within,

Do not bother me.

The door is now shut

and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you,

though he will not get up

and give him anything

because he is his friend,

and yet,

because of his impudence,

he will rise

and give him whatever he needs.

And so in this passage,

we are reminded

to be persistent in prayer.

To be persistent in prayer.

Now, I'm not a Greek scholar

and I don't claim to be one,

but I did have a professor in seminary

who was one of the leading

New Testament Greek scholars

in the world.

And he was actually the one

who wrote or translated

the ISV,

the International Standard Version.

And he taught us

the importance of looking at verbs

and looking at the tense,

looking at the mood,

the person,

the voice when translating.

And so I want you to listen

to how he translates

verses 9 and 10 here.

He says,

And so I say to you,

keep asking

and it will be given to you.

Keep searching

and you will find.

Keep knocking

and the door will be opened

to you

because everyone

who keeps asking

will receive

and the person

who keeps searching

will find

and the person

who keeps knocking

will have the door opened.

Jesus is telling us

to be persistent

in our requests to God.

Just having a pattern

of prayer

doesn't make you

a prayer warrior,

we also need determination

to truly pray.

Jesus wants us

to understand

that we must be

persistent

in our praying to God.

Here in this verse,

the story is

of a persistent friend

who goes to his neighbor

in the middle of the night

after his neighbor

has gone to bed,

after his children

are asleep around him

and he begins

knocking on the door.

Clay, Josh,

can you imagine

if I came to your house

right now

with two new babies

that you had just gotten

to go to sleep at night

and I just started

banging on that door,

you would probably,

Clay,

yeah, yeah,

but yeah,

you would probably

be pretty annoyed with me

and you made

to begin with

by just ignoring me

and say,

please just go away.

If we ignore him,

maybe he'll just go away

and then I keep banging

on the door

and I keep banging

until finally you get up,

not because you're happy

to see me,

not because you're glad

to see me,

but because I'm persistent,

I keep banging on the door,

finally you'll give me,

get up and give me

whatever it is

that I'm needing

because of the persistence there.

Now again,

Jesus gives a very similar

parable later on

in chapter 18

where we are told

in Luke 18,

he says,

and he told them

a parable

into the effect

that they ought to pray

and not lose heart.

He said,

in a certain city

there was a judge

who neither feared God

nor respected man

and there was a widow

in that city

who kept coming to him

and saying,

give me justice

against my adversary

and for a while

he refused

but afterward

he said to himself,

though I neither fear God

nor respect man

yet because this widow

keeps bothering me,

I will give her justice

so that she will not

beat me down

by her continual coming.

How many parents in here

have made terrible

parenting decisions

because they've been

beat down

by their kids

coming to them

and asking for something?

Whoever thought

to put all of the candy

at the checkout line

is a genius or evil

all at the same time?

But we've all

made those terrible,

no you can't have

chicken nuggets

and macaroni and cheese

again tonight.

No you can't do this

and finally after they ask

and asking you like,

you know what,

I don't care if you have it

every single night

for the rest of your life,

here just eat

and be done asking me.

We've all made

bad parenting decisions

because our kids

come to us

and beat us down

and continue asking

and these are a couple

parables that Jesus

gives us on prayer.

Now it's important

to note that Jesus

is not,

he's not comparing God

to an irritated neighbor

or a unjust judge

but rather he's contrasting

God to these people.

He's not saying God

is like this

but he's saying,

he says,

if these people

who are annoyed by you,

if these people

who are irritated

that you're coming to them

or this unjust judge

finally gives you

what you want

because you keep coming to them,

he says,

how much more

will our heavenly father

who loves us

more than we could ever imagine

want to give good things

to his children?

How much more

will our heavenly father

want to give us this?

Persistence in prayer

is not the challenging part

in this message

to interpret.

The challenge comes

in verse 9.

He says,

and I tell you,

ask and you will be given.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened

to you.

There are obviously

many instances in life

where we can see

that God did not answer

a prayer

that we were praying.

I want you to listen

to how Martin Lloyd-Jones

describes this.

He says,

there is no difficulty

in showing

that this statement,

far from being

a universal promise

that God has pledged

to do for us

anything

that we may ask

of him.

It actually is something

very much bigger

than that.

He says,

I thank God,

let me put it more bluntly,

I thank God

that he is not prepared

to do anything

that I may chance

ask of him.

And I say that

as a result

of my own past experience

in my past life,

I, like all others,

have often asked God

for things

and have asked God

to do things

which at the time

I wanted very much

and which I believe

were the very best things

for me.

But now,

standing at this

particular juncture

in my life

and looking back,

I say that

I am more profoundly

grateful to God

that he did not grant

certain things

for which I asked

and that he shut

certain doors

in my face.

But perhaps

the best commentary

on this passage

and honestly

any passage

in the Bible

is the Bible itself.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 12

tells us that he prayed

for this thorn in the flesh

to be removed

multiple times.

Now, we don't know

exactly what this

thorn in the flesh was.

Some people think

it was a temptation

that he kept struggling

with.

I tend to think

it might be along

the lines of poor

eyesight that he was

dealing with

and that was

very difficult for him.

And in this passage

it tells us,

he says that he kept

coming to God

for the answer

to this prayer.

And we realize

and we know

that God didn't

answer this prayer

the way that Paul wanted.

And we may think,

well, God,

why aren't you

answering these prayers?

And I think that we

can probably all

safely say

that the Apostle Paul

was probably a little

further along

in his sanctification

than any of us

here today.

After all,

this is the man

who had a

handkerchief

that he had touched

was going around

and people were being healed

by touching handkerchiefs

that had touched

the Apostle Paul here.

God used him

in some mighty ways.

In this passage

it tells us,

it says,

he says,

three times

I pleaded with the Lord

about this.

And I don't think

this means

three times

like,

Lord,

take away this thorn,

take away this thorn,

take away this thorn.

Well,

he didn't do it,

I guess.

No,

I think this is

seasons

of pleading

to God

for him to

remove this thorn

in the flesh

where he desperately

went to God

praying for God

to remove this

from him.

And he says this,

he says,

three times

I pleaded with the Lord

about this

that it should

leave me.

But he said to me,

my grace is sufficient

for you.

For my power

is made perfect

in weakness.

Sometimes

what we need

on the other side

of our prayer

is not the answer

we are hoping for,

but what we need

on the other side

of that prayer

is God himself.

That we need

to know

that we have

a heavenly Father

who is walking

through this

with us

and we have

that assurance

that he

will be

with us.

And we can

always assure

ourselves

that his

grace

is sufficient.

So as we pray

and we believe

in the power

of prayer,

as we pray,

let us pray

boldly to

our Father

and let us

pray persistently

to our Father.

And I want to

encourage any of you

to come back

tonight

because this

is exactly

what we're

going to be

doing as a

church.

You know,

it's easy

for us to

say we

believe in

the power

of the prayer

and we

would all

check that

box and

say we

affirm that

statement,

but let us

come back

together tonight

and show

with our

actions that

we believe

in the power

of prayer,

that we

believe that

God wants

us to come

to him,

that we

believe that

prayer changes

things,

that we

believe that

God is

in using

this church

in some

powerful ways

and we

want to be

dependent on

him for

it.

So I want to

encourage you

to come back

tonight as we

come together

as a church,

sing praises to

God and go to

him desperately

asking God to

work not only in

this community,

in this state,

in this nation,

around the world,

but that God

would use us

and use this

church to

accomplish his

purposes.

Father,

thank you so

very much for

who you are.

Thank you for

your word,

for what it

clearly teaches

us about you,

for what it

clearly teaches

us about the

importance of

prayer,

something that

was important

to Jesus,

so important

that the

disciples looked

at him and

saw that they

needed to learn

how to pray

like Jesus was

praying.

So Lord,

help us to

pray as you

do.

Help us to

pray as being

dependent on you.

Help us to

pray right

recognizing the

great gift it

is to call you

our heavenly

father.

And so Lord,

help us to

pray bold

prayers.

Help us to

pray prayers

that seek

your kingdom

to come.

And Lord,

when we say

that your

kingdom come,

we mean that.

We mean it

that your

kingdom come,

and Lord,

we mean that

we want to

be used to

help bring

into us

in your

kingdom as

you see fit.

And so Lord,

we thank you

for all that

you do for us

each and every

day.

And Lord,

I pray

that if there's

someone here

today that has

never placed their

faith and their

trust in you,

Lord,

that their prayer

today will be a

prayer of salvation,

showing that they

are dependent on

you for everything.

Lord,

be with us.

Help us to honor

you with everything

we say and do.

And we ask all

this in Jesus'

precious name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.