The Empowered Life

Well, good morning, everyone.

So today we're going to be looking at what it is to have an empowered life that's fuelled by prayer and looking at part of Mark's gospel.

We're going to be looking at this question of what it means to be the church and to be empowered by the church.

The church, as I'm sure most of you know here, is not this beautiful building, as beautiful as it may be.

The church is not about the programmes we run or the courses that we run.

It's about the people.

You are the church.

You're the church gathered here on a Sunday morning.

You're the church gathered on a Wednesday communion.

You're the church when you go out into your communities tomorrow, when you go to work during the week,

and when you're in your small groups, whatever you're doing.

And one of the defining features that makes us different as a community is that we are a praying community.

So as I start this morning, I want to ask you this question.

How is your prayer life?

Is your prayer life your steering wheel or your spare tyre?

Do you turn to prayer when life gets tough?

When you face challenges?

What do you turn to?

When you need things?

When you're so desperate that all you can do is cry out to God?

Maybe you don't actually believe in prayer.

Maybe you don't think prayer actually makes a difference.

Maybe you don't pray.

Maybe you've been hurt by unanswered prayer in your life and you struggle to pray.

Or maybe you're just one of those people that likes to talk to God all throughout the day and pray continuously.

Something that I'm really always amazed at, amazed at continually,

is that through Jesus Christ, we all here have access to God.

It was Henry Newham, the theologian, who said,

Prayer is important because it's that place where you and I can hear the voice of one that calls us,

your beloved daughter or your beloved son.

So today we're looking at the passage in Mark's Gospel and I'd recommend that you read the whole book if you've got an hour to yourself.

Because it's an action-packed look at Jesus' life.

Just in the first 34 verses of this first chapter, we see that Jesus has been baptised,

he's been tempted in the wilderness, he's gathered his disciples together,

he's driven out evil spirits and he's healed Simon's mother-in-law.

Not bad for 34 verses.

His life was full.

And Jesus had lots of pressure on him in lots of different ways.

And I'm pretty sure now, as the holidays draw to a close,

we're thinking about the new term, when everybody's getting back in their old routine,

maybe we're starting work again, going to school again, starting college or university,

or maybe we just know that we've got various pressures going on in the next few months.

Maybe from work or from family, from friends, deadlines that we've got to meet.

But with Jesus, rather than just relentlessly driving forward,

he prioritised his time with the Father.

And we read in those words,

very early in the morning, while it was still dark,

Jesus got up, he left the house, and he went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

And that is where we begin today, thinking about prayer.

Because all of us here, as followers of Jesus,

prayer needs to be the foundation of all that we do.

It needs to fuel everything in our lives.

So we're just going to look at three things this morning.

When to pray, where to pray, and why we've got to pray.

So firstly, when to pray.

Now most of you here may have heard the expression,

larks and owls.

Larks are those people, which I'm not one of them,

who jump out of bed at six o'clock when the alarm goes off,

get their coffee, run out into the day, and have an amazing day.

But by six o'clock, they're starting to wilt.

And they better be in bed by nine o'clock, because they've had it.

And then owls, on the other hand, a bit like myself,

we just quite don't speak to me before 11 o'clock in the morning.

I just sort of start to wake up then.

And then by six o'clock, I'm feeling quite good.

And then I'm like ten o'clock at night,

I'm raring to go when everybody else is asleep.

So maybe a quick survey amongst us, there's no judgement.

Who is a lark here, maybe?

Put your hand up.

Lovely.

And who are the owls?

Okay.

So we don't know whether Jesus was a lark or an owl.

But what we do know is that he got up early in the morning,

while it was still dark.

Jesus got up.

He didn't only pray in the morning.

We know he prayed at night and during the day.

He prayed on his own.

He prayed with his disciples.

He prayed up the mountains.

He prayed at different places, different times, and in different ways.

And in Thessalonians, Paul reminds us,

pray without ceasing always, at all times,

steadfastly, constantly, night and day.

So we get the picture.

Prayer is to be a continual conversation with God throughout our lives.

There are times when we pray praise, we thank God for who he is.

There are times when we intercede,

when we pray for different people in the world.

There are times when we just cry out our hearts to God.

And also times when we are just silent and we listen.

There are times when we pray on our own.

We pray in pairs.

We pray in small groups.

But however we pray,

prayer should be as regular and as natural as breathing.

What Jesus is modelling here in Mark's Gospel

is the importance of you and I starting our day with God.

And on three occasions in Mark's Gospel,

we read about Jesus praying while others were asleep.

And I think that's what he's trying to demonstrate to us here,

is the importance of you and I going to our Father at the beginning of the day

to fuel and empower everything that we do.

Because if we don't take that little bit of time,

we risk that we just go into the day doing everything in our own strength.

We become detached from God.

Temptation becomes harder to resist.

People just generally really annoy us.

Relationships become under strain.

And work can seem like a battle.

And we lose our sense of direction,

why we're doing what we're doing.

And you and I know that this Christian life, in part, is about sacrifice.

We see that most with Jesus on the cross.

But what are you sacrificing to spend time with God?

Is it sleep?

Is it time on your phone or your computer?

Or time with the family?

Even if you are an owl and you absolutely hate mornings,

he's okay with you just spending five minutes

slumped in a chair with a coffee with him.

Make it a priority.

So I encourage you, as we're thinking about this new term starting,

think about how you can improve your everyday prayer life.

It may be just five minutes, or it may be just two minutes.

But Psalm 5 says,

In the morning, lay your request before God

and wait on him expectantly.

Wait on him expectantly.

And I believe that we'll see a difference in our lives

and the lives of those around us, if we do.

So next, where to pray?

So Jesus left the house, we read,

and went off to a solitary place to pray.

Now, in some ways, it doesn't matter where you pray.

The important thing is finding somewhere

that you can go each day to be with God.

Some people like sitting in their favourite chair.

Others like walking and praying.

Some people find it really helpful to kneel and focus on prayer.

Other people like myself know that if I kneel,

I'll never get back up, so I can't do it that way.

But Jesus is teaching us to find somewhere that is quiet

and where you can go regularly to meet with God.

The Bible says Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

And it was this routine that he had in his life

that we are to replicate.

And if we really want to discern God's will in our lives,

if you are desperate for God in your life,

then we have got to get into this routine

that the very first thing we do in our day

is to come before God.

Whether we're praying to him and listening to him,

it means finding somewhere where your phone is not on

and going to distract you.

Or it means somewhere, if you've got a family,

where they're not going to distract you either.

Jesus says these words in the message,

find a quiet, secluded place

so you won't be tempted to role-play before God.

So just go there, quietly and simply and honestly.

And gradually, your focus will shift from yourself to God

and will start to sense his peace and his grace.

And if you've got somewhere that you've been praying regularly for ages

and it's not working, then change it up.

Try something new.

And finally, and most importantly,

why we pray at all.

So before we try and answer this question,

we need to be clear that we don't just pray as Christians

out of a sense of duty.

We don't pray because that's what Christians do.

We don't pray because we've got a massive Christmas list

that we want him to deliver for us.

We need to understand, first of all,

why did Jesus pray?

He was the son of God.

He's God incarnate.

He performs miracles.

Why does he need to pray?

Well, we see in the scriptures

that there's a trend in the relationship

between Jesus and his father.

Jesus says,

Jesus says,

I can do nothing on my own.

And we see this connectedness between Jesus and the father.

There's a level of dependency between them.

Jesus could not do the life on his own.

He didn't want to do it on his own.

He wanted desperately to be in a relationship

as much as he could with his father.

He needed his father's power and his strength,

his authority to empower him in his life.

And it came from prayer.

And to be honest,

if Jesus needed it,

then I think we do too.

Only when you and I realise

that we can't do this life on our own,

prayer begins to make sense.

Because if we just have a life lacking in prayer,

we're prayerless.

We're telling God we don't need him.

Because we just start to live a life

that's independent from God

and based on our own strength,

making our own decisions,

what we think,

what we feel.

Or we're dependent on God

and we trust in him

and we lean with everything we have on him

with prayer.

It's often, I find,

when we get to the end of ourselves,

and I know this from my life,

when I've reached the end of myself,

I then have moved to God in prayer.

And I find that the most passionate

and heartfelt prayers that I have prayed

and I've heard others prayed

when they have reached the end of themselves.

We can do this no more

and we give our control over to God.

And these prayers aren't beautiful,

long-worded, well-crafted prayers.

They're roars of our heartfelt cries

that come from deep within us.

They reflect that true relationship

between us and God.

And throughout scripture,

people came to Jesus

who had reached the end of themselves.

They were helpless.

The blind man that had no sight in John.

The crippled man by the pool

who couldn't even get out of the water.

And the official son that had poor health.

All of them had reached the end of themselves.

I'm going to tell you a story now.

Probably most of you will be aware of this.

And I vaguely was.

But I've been amazed

as I've read through it more.

The story about something that happened

during the Second World War.

On the 26th of May 1940,

it looked like Britain had reached its end.

It was one of those moments

that was the most intense period

during the Second World War.

When the army was trapped at Dunkirk

and the Germans were fighting hard against them.

And it looked like we were at our worst

and darkest time.

King George VI

called the whole nation to pray.

He called this country to pray

through a broadcast

because he knew that the battle

was not just against flesh and blood

but it was against evil.

The powers in the holy realm.

And so he called this nation

to turn back to God

and to turn to Jesus in prayer for help.

And churches and cathedrals

up and down this land

were absolutely packed with people.

So just that in itself to me

was amazing that people

all over the country

on one day all got together and prayed.

But actually I don't know

if you know the amazing events

that happened after that day.

The following day of prayer

there were two miracles that happened.

The first was

that in the morning of the next day

the Luftwaffe had got

a bombing campaign planned for that day

and they were going to drop a load of bombs.

But there was a massive storm

between Dover and Dunkirk

and the planes couldn't fly.

So they just called off

their bombing flight that day.

And then the second thing that happened was

surely afterwards

the weather cleared

and that meant that thousands of boats

from the Royal Navy warships

right down to tiny little sailing boats

could cross the English Channel

and because of that

they saved thousands of men

and people who were trapped at Dunkirk.

In fact hundreds of thousands.

And it was Churchill who went on to say

that this was the miracle of Dunkirk.

And later on that year

on the 9th of June

the king appointed that day

as a day of thanksgiving

to say thank you to God

for all he'd done

in delivering the nation

out of their darkest hour.

All of those people

streaming into Westminster Abbey

and churches up and down this land

prayed because they believed

that prayer changes things.

The course of history was changed.

And for us too

I believe that when we pray

God acts when we intercede

when we call on him.

One of my favourite worship songs

is Waymaker

and what I love about it

is when it says

even when I don't see it

you're working

even when I don't feel it

you're working

you never stop

you never stop working.

And the more we pray

even when things are really tough

and you know

we're struggling with things

we become less anxious.

The more we pray

the less dependent we are

on our own strength.

And the more we pray

we also see things

from God's view

and see his priorities.

And this is what happened

here for Jesus.

We read in this

that the disciples

hunted him down

they came and found him

and said come on

come away from praying

the crowds need you.

But Jesus knew

what his calling was

and that was

to share the gospel

and he knew

how to differentiate

between the urgent

and the important.

He knew that he had

to spend time

with his father alone

if he was going to do

what God called him to do.

So as we look

to the new term

when we all know

that we're going to start

to get busy again

back to work

back to school

back to doing whatever

voluntary stuff we're doing

and then it will be Christmas

I want to ask you again

how is your prayer life?

Do you want to grow

in your relationship

with God?

Sorry.

And are you dependent

on your relationship

with God?

Or if you're really honest

do you actually depend

on your own strength

and your own ability?

And what are you going to do

to sacrifice some time

to improve your prayer life?

So in order to spend

some more time

with God in prayer

I'm just going to suggest

that we take

a couple of minutes now

to do what we've just

been talking about

to pray.

This isn't a solitary place

but it's going to be

a quiet place

for a couple of minutes.

And this is your opportunity

to come before God.

Maybe you need to praise him

to cry out to him

silently in your heart.

Maybe you need to admit

that you've been doing this

in your own strength.

Or maybe you're struggling

with an answered prayer

and it hurts

and you need to tell him that.

Whatever it is

let's do as Jesus said

just be there

as simply

and honestly

as you can manage.

And let your focus

shift from you to God

and you'll begin

to sense his grace

and peace.

And let's do this.

Thank you.