Foundations of the Church – Prayer!: June 29th, 2014 sermon

By Pastor Greg

          John was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up toward heaven, he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life and give up beer." Just then a parking place miraculously appeared! John looked up again and said, "Never mind. I found one!"

          Maybe we shouldn’t laugh quite so hard.  After all, don’t we pray just like John?  Don’t we offer thoughtless prayers to God?  Are we not guilty of shallow, meaningless prayers?

There have been countless books written about prayer.  I was walking through a bookstore a while back and discovered a whole section devoted to prayer.  One particular title caught my attention though.  It simply said “A Better Way to Pray”, and suggested that if our prayer life is not working, perhaps we should consider changing directions.  Well, that made me stop and think for a good long while, not that my prayers are ineffectual, but that somehow humanity developed the notion that an infinite God could possibly hear the miscellaneous thoughts of a people living on a planet tucked somewhere near the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

          Just stop and think about this for a minute.  Here we are, flesh and blood, with no supernatural powers to speak of, imagining that simply by thinking of God and putting together a few thoughts, that He would hear us, or that He would even care what we had to say.  And yet all through the Old Testament we read about men and women who believed that God did hear and that God did care.  Contrary to how some people prayed to a false god, a prayer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was really quite simple.  It was much like the way we pray today.  No magic tricks, no special posture, and certainly no need to get God’s attention (think back to the way Elijah prayed as compared to the prophets of Baal).

          So that day in the bookstore I wasn’t convicted about how I pray, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I can pray, and that God does listen and care when I pray; when you pray.  He hears us and He listens, that much is evident from the scriptures.  And without ever picking up the book and reading it, I came away changed because for a few short moments I allowed God to be in His rightful place.  He is infinite, I am finite.  He is Holy, I am filled with sin.  He is all knowing, I can’t even remember where I parked.  And yet God listens when I pray; when you pray.

          Consider what King Solomon says in 2 Chronicles.  Solomon had just finished building the Temple.  At the dedication he stood on a large bronze platform and prayed a prayer that asked instead of told (read 2 Chronicles 6:14-21). 

          Solomon confessed that even though God is not confined to a place, He could still hear his prayer and that He would listen.  But the significant part is that Solomon assumed that God would listen to these prayers even when the people did sin; even while being punished because of that sin.  This is significant because Solomon assumed that no matter what the people might do or how much they disobeyed God’s commands He would still listen to their prayers.  On behalf of those who truly repent, Solomon asks God to forgive.  He doesn’t tell God to consider a person’s sacrifice.  He doesn’t tell God to consider how a person’s good deeds out weigh their bad.  He simply asks God to demonstrate mercy, grace, and love to the person who has humbled themselves and repented of their sin.  In Solomon’s prayer I see a man who has a healthy understanding of who he is and who God is.

          This understanding of God is carried over into the New Testament Church.  The group of people who walked and talked with Jesus learned that He was no mere man.  He was and is God.  He was not simply some man whose teaching they all liked or whose ideals were appealing.  He was not just crazy in His commitment to God.  He was God.  He is God.  And this understanding affected the way this early church functioned.  With humbleness, this early church submitted and surrendered to the leadership of Christ.  He was the head of the church.  Nothing was done without first praying.  The church asked for the Lord to lead and guide; to show them what to do and where to go.  These early believers were more than just followers of Christ; they became His servants (Darth Vader got it right. “What is thy biding my master”?).  When the early church prayed, they prayed asking the Lord to lead, not telling Jesus what they were going to do or where they were going to go (Read Acts 13:1-3).

          I believe the truly repentant know that God is the One who has granted forgiveness.  It was given by grace, not earned nor deserved.  A person truly saved by grace understands that God is the exalted One.  He reigns supreme.  In our personal lives we are moved that our infinite God would hear and answer the prayers of sinful people like us.   But it seems that sometimes we forget this, and you can hear it in our prayers.  God is diminished when we spend more time telling Him what we want or what we need instead of asking God what He would have us do.  God is diminished when we pray to get results instead of pray to get instruction.  Likewise, it seems the church sometimes forgets this as well, and you can see it just by watching how decisions are made.  God is diminished by the church that makes plans and sets goals without once asking the Lord what He would have them do.  God is diminished by the church that tells God what they are capable of doing.  Somehow the balance of power shifts, and the Lord is told to sit quietly in the corner as the people go about the business of the church.

I point this out to you because I believe there is much we need to learn about our relationship with God.  God is supreme.  He is ruler over all.  A person must remain humble before God, keeping in mind that He is the potter and they are the clay.  If a person forgets that, then God becomes nothing more than some trinket or idol that sits in the corner.  And the only time they acknowledge Him is when He is needed to bless a decision or solve some crisis.  And this unhealthy understanding of God will affect that person’s worship, giving, and most certainly their prayers.

We have been granted what seemed unobtainable; that people like you and me would be allowed to stand before God and pray.  And it is this unusual privilege that defines us as a believer and as the Church.  And truly, the attitude of our heart can be heard in our prayers.  From a heart that has truly exalted God we hear asking, not telling.  So when we keep God where He belongs, and when a church remembers that Christ is the Lord and Master of the church, it changes our prayers.  We ask the Lord to lead and direct.  And when we pray, we listen with anticipated obedience; waiting for the head of the church to give direction and instruction.