Prayer
Sermon January 19, 2025
Bro Ryan Edwards
As we begin new year together, I want to start a tradition. Some of you, that makes you excited, and some of you are like, “Oh, no, another tradition.”
Traditions are good. They can be good when you insist upon them. They can be bad. But I want to start a tradition that we begin each year with prayer. We will be returning to First John in the future, and I'm eager to do so. But I've been impressed or burdened with a thought, and this morning I want to share the thought with you, share the idea with you, and hopefully give you that burden as well because I like to share things. My purpose in doing that is to hopefully motivate you to unite with me in prayer for the church. But the thought is this -
Nothing will be accomplished this year for the Kingdom of God in our Church or through our church without prayer. Nothing will be accomplished for the kingdom of God in our church or through our church without prayer.
Now that might sound extreme to you. That might sound preposterous or outlandish. It might be an overstatement to you, but I assure you it is not. I assure you that statement is 100% true. Yes, God willing, we will continue to meet every Sunday throughout the year. Yes, God willing, we will continue to have life groups. Yes, God willing, we will continue to have Sunday school. Yes, God willing we will continue to have Wednesday night youth group and Wednesday night kids ministry. But I am not interested in having programs for the sake of programs. I'm not interested in meeting just so that we can say we met together. I am interested in something greater than that. If all we are is interested in having self sustaining activities and religious institution and ceremonies, then nothing is being accomplished for the kingdom of God. And I am interested in seeing the kingdom of God come to Centralia. I am interested in seeing God's kingdom grow in Centralia. I am interested in seeing souls delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Christ being made alive together with him. I am interested in seeing lives transformed. I am interested in seeing people healed. I'm interested in seeing relationships reconciled, families made new and healthy again. Those are the things that I am interested in. And the only way they will happen is through prayer. And I'm not interested in these things for myself. Meaning I'm not interested in these things so that I can make my name great. I'm not interested in these things so that First Baptist Church of Centralia can be some kind of flagship for any kind of ministry. I'm interested in these things solely for the glory of God. Solely to make his name great in Centralia. And if the church is not about doing that, we can't call ourselves a church. So many churches are really just religious institutions. They're just spiritual businesses that are trying to make a name great. They're using God to make themselves known, to make themselves great. To get more clicks on the Internet to spread their own fame. May God save us from such foolishness. Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. None of what I said. I'm interested in seeing God's glory spread through Centralia. See families healed, see people saved. None of that is going to happen through our programs and our activities. None of it. All of it happens by the grace and power of God who listens and answers the prayers of his people. So that is why I say nothing will be accomplished this year for the kingdom of God apart from prayer. So with that being restated, let's pause and pray and then I'm going to share with you what I want to accomplish this morning through the message.
Lord, nothing can be accomplished for your kingdom without your help and praise your name. You are the God who helps. You are the God who hears, you are the God who answers. You are the God who moves and works to bring about your will in our lives. So Father, I pray that you would do that. Lord, if it means me covering my mouth and sitting down, then that is what I want. Lord, we ask that you be with us. We ask that you fill us, give us hearts to receive, put a passion within us to see your kingdom come. Build your church, O Lord. If it means we need to get out of the way, oh Lord, then let us get out of the way. We ask these things that you would make your glory great and for the good of your people. Amen.
So I want to start this morning with by providing you a definition of prayer. And then I'm going to share with you a problem or conundrum that I've had personally with prayer that I've had to overcome. And I'm going to end the message by giving you some exhortations that I hope will help motivate you in your prayer life. So first, a definition. The most basic definition of prayer is talking to God. Right? And it's a good place to start. But it's elementary meaning it's foundational, it's basic. Right. It's in a way over simplistic. It's a good entry level definition. This is the definition we would give to like a third grade Sunday school class, right? Praying is just talking to God. And so it's good, it's true. But the hope is that someday those third graders will go beyond that simple definition. Not that they'll leave it behind, but that they'll build on that understanding and definition. But unfortunately, many Christians don't. Many Christians don't grow beyond their Sunday school understanding of prayer. One reason that talking to God is too simplistic to be a solid full definition of prayer is because the Bible talking to God makes it out like you're just having a casual conversation with a sore client clerk. Surely that kind of praying is acceptable. Yes. But did you know that there are seven different Hebrew and Greek terms used in the Bible to describe prayer? Seven words like supplication, words like confession and intercession, pleading, seeking God's face, thanksgiving and Praise. Those are all words that the Bible uses to describe and define prayer. So talking with God is a good and true definition, for what it's worth. But if you want to develop a robust, intimate, life giving and powerful prayer life with God, then you must move beyond that thinking about prayer. Paul said, when I was a child, I thought like a child, but when I became a man, I put my childish ways behind me. If you want to grow in your prayer life, then you must move beyond or build upon that simplistic definition of prayer. And that's what I want to help you do this morning. One of the first examples of prayer in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 25. And Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and called his name Seth. For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. To Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh. At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Did you catch that out of context? This may be hard to see where or what the point is. So before I go on to explain the passage, let's explore the key phrase for a minute to call upon the name of the Lord. It does not mean that you just repeat the pass. You just repeat the phrase. Kind of like how we use praying in Jesus name. We just think, well, as long as I tack that on the end of it, I'm good, right? That's like the magic phrase to open up God's ears and answer my prayer. If I just say this phrase at the end of it. It's not about parroting the right phrase in the Bible. When someone calls upon the name of the Lord, they are appealing to God's nature, to who he is, his very person. It's an appeal to his character. So to call upon the name of the Lord is to cry out for help to the only one who can help you. He is our helper, and prayer establishes him as our helper. The question we need to ask ourselves in this passage is what are they calling upon the Lord to do? You see, the Bible is God's revelation of himself over time. And so what we often do is we'll read a passage in Genesis and we'll take everything else in the Bible and we'll try to pack it in there. And when you do that, you can't understand how the people understood this or what it meant in the theological implications. So what were the people in Genesis chapter four calling upon the Lord to do? What had God revealed to people about himself and his plan. What were expectations be? Well, the only promise that God had given in his word up to this point is found in the midst of God cursing Adam, Eve and the serpent.
In Genesis 3:15, God promised a child the work of the devil. He would reverse the chaos and corruption and depravity that the serpent caused and brought to humanity and creation. And yet, after all these years, humanity continues to descend into violence and wickedness. So as you read Genesis, it's like each child, you read through the genealogies, like, is this the child? No. Is this the child? No. Is this the child? No. Because this one died and this one died and this one died. So by the time Enosh comes along, how many children had been born who weren't the child? And then Enosh is born, and he also is not the child. I mean, it wouldn't take long to realize this ain't the one. But they remember. They remember God's promise and call upon him name to fulfill it. Send the one who will crush the serpent and put things back together. Humanity is becoming desperate, and they remember the promise. And so they call upon the name of the Lord to fulfill his promise. So what can we learn about prayer from this passage? What definition for prayer ought we use? There are many. There really are. But here's the one I'm going to give to you. At the heart of praying is this calling upon the name of the lord. In Psalm 145, 18, we read, the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him. In truth, prayer is calling upon God to come through on his promises. Now, you might think that seems a little restrictive, Brother Ryan. Yes, it can be. But when you understand the gospel, when you understand what God has done through Jesus Christ, it opens up a floodgate. Because when you are praising God, you are actually fulfilling a promise that God made to people. The Old and New Testament, that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That God will bring the nations to himself and they will praise him. Every tribe, tongue and nation will praise the Lord, will worship him. You are participating in the fulfillment of that promise, all because of Jesus.
Praying is a way of demonstrating our faith to God and rejoicing in his promises. When we believe his promises, when we bank on his promises, when we are relying upon his promises, it comes out in prayer. You express that prayer. So with that basic definition established, I want to move on and show you and share with you just a little bit about My personal journey in prayer. I don't say that or share this like, I've arrived. I'm still growing in prayer. And I have a lot further to grow in my prayer life than I care to admit. But I can. I can be sick. Okay? Some of you are like, yeah, we've realized that already. But thankfully, God is gracious and he's kind and he's patient. And because of that, I am able to share with you what he's done in my life in prayer. It's amazing how something so basic as prayer that you can teach to a child, someone can grow their whole life and continue to grow in their understanding of this thing. It's amazing how it can be so simple and yet so complex, so apparent and so mysterious. So let me explain to you my conundrum, my problem, and it occurs due to an apparent conflict of theological truths.
First, I am a huge believer in and an advocate for the belief in the sovereignty of God. I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God is all powerful. He is the supreme being in the universe. This means that every single molecule in the universe is under his complete knowledge and control. From every ray of sunshine to the movement of every flock of geese, he holds power and sway over all of it. That, I believe, is what the Bible teaches. Every roll, every roll of the dice in Vegas obeys the laws of physics. But he put them into place and he governs his creation and keeps it under his sway. In Proverbs 16:33, we read this. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord, the lot. Well, which lot? All of them. Any one of them. This is not distinct. They're saying this one obeys the law of God and this one doesn't. It's the lot. The casting of dice is thrown into the lap, but it's every decision, every outcome is from the Lord. Think about that for a minute. Every single time dice are thrown. It's not just physics at work. It's not just some randomized equation. God is over every single outcome. What is chance and probability to us is actually the sovereignty of God. God, the conception of every newly conceived creature is the result of his sovereign power played out in what we would call reproduction biology. Just because we have fancy scientific and intellectual name to categorize God's sovereign control doesn't make it any less amazing to think about God's power and control over his creation. I believe that the Bible also teaches that God is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations. He is sovereign over elections and he is sovereign over the hearts of every man, woman and child under his sovereign reign.
The second theological truth is a feature of God's sovereignty that specifically affects my understanding of prayer. That is that God is at work to accomplish his will. He is working out everything according to his perfect and nothing nowhere can thwart his purpose. Let me give you some key verses to establish this truth. Psalm 115, verse 3. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. There's only one being in the universe can say he does whatever he wants. You don't do everything you want. Lots of things you want to do that you don't do. Maybe you're concerned about what someone might think about it. Maybe it's contrary to something else that you want. Maybe you're limited. Man, I really wish I could do that, but boy, I just don't have the time. I don't have the intellect. I don't have the ability. Only God does all that he pleases. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. As if one verse wasn't enough to teach us. He said this wasn't a mistake. I'll say it again. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeds. Psalm 33:11 the counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his generation. Excuse me, the plans of his heart to all generations. There's not going to be a generation that's going to rise up and ruin God's plan, despite what the generations prior to it think, right? The plans of his heart to all generations. In Job 42:2 Job's in job's confession, he says, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Thwart is a word we don't use very often. It means to prevent or obstruct. Nobody is going to get in the way of God doing what he plans. God sets his mind to do something and it gets done. Proverbs 19:21 this blows my mind. Many are the plans and the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. What that means is that of all the millions and billions of people that have ever lived who've had plans in their heart, God uses the plans of man to accomplish his will, even when the men and women do not know that God is going to use their plan. Surely God is sovereign over everything when he can even use the plans of a non believing pagan king to accomplish his purposes. Isaiah 46:9 11 For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish my purpose. It's not that like God just looked forward to figure out what was going to happen and that's why he can share it. It's that he is going to accomplish it. It's like this is going to happen because I'm going to make it happen. He is sovereign over all things. He gives an example calling a bird of prey from the east, a single bird. He can call from across the countryside. The man of my counsel from a far country. I need someone to come do this over here in this geographical location. I will call a man from across the nations to come there and accomplish my purposes. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it. Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. How many rulers of the world wish they had that kind of power? They say this is what I want done and they give the order to their subjects and they misunderstand and they don't accomplish it right or something else happens that they can't control. God accomplishes his purposes.
But there's a third theological truth that causes me a problem. I believe the Bible teaches that God is all wise, which means he has never needed or taken any counsel from anyone ever. He is the one who decided where the seas would stop. He's the one who engineered the universe to hang stars on nothing. He is the one who thought it all up. He is the one who engineered gravity, electromagnetism and all other known and unknown forces of the universe. He does not need me to tell him anything. So here's my problem. How or why would an almighty, infinite, great, all knowing, all wise, perfect, holy God, who is the creator and stainer of all the universe, hear or heed the prayers of a finite, foolish, ignorant, wicked and vile sinners such as myself? And believe me, I'm going easy on myself when I say those. He has no need. I can't teach him anything. I cannot inform him on something that he does not already know. There is nothing I can tell him that he isn't aware of. Jesus says as much, doesn't he? He. He tells us not to be like the pagans when we pray, using empty words and trying to pile Words upon words upon words. Why did he say that? Because our Father in heaven knows what we need before we ask Him. So why ask Him? We can't fool God, nor does God. And it's not like God has like this empty place in his heart. Like, like, you know, a child would come and say, well, why did God create everything? Well, he was lonely. No he wasn't. God doesn't have just this empty place in his heart where he wants us. Let me rephrase that. Where he needs us to come and pray to Him. I've had multiple conversations about prayer over the past couple weeks. One of them was my children. And we were talking about prayer. And we don't pray because God needs us to pray. Pray. We pray because we need prayer. I can't make God better. I can't fill him or give him anything. He has no needs. He's already good, he's already great. Why would he ever listen to me? He's determined to accomplish all of his plans. So how could I possibly influence or change his mind? I hope by this point that I've dragged you in and tied you up with this problem. Now let's try to solve it. The solution is twofold. First, God is a God of love. And because we know that and we say it all the time, we actually don't understand the implications of what that means. He is a God in relationship and his relationship is one of love. God is not an equation. He's not a robot. He's not like a Spock or Data. He is a God who relates. He is a God who loves. He has revealed himself as a God in relationship with Himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this is hard for us to understand. At least it is for me. We only know love and relationship through our experience of need, right? I need other people. God does not need. And yet he relates. God just is love. He is in an eternal relationship. And the difference that God as love makes is between God being an egotistical, cold hearted tyrant, completely undeserving of our worship and adoration, and God being a sovereign king who adopts his enemies as sons, who pours out his unending loving kindness upon them and thereby demonstrates that he alone is fully worthy and deserving of our adoration, worship and praise. You see, when we just look at God through these theological truths and create the problem, we're actually overlooking the heart of God and who he truly is. Because you can't reduce him to a bunch of truths that you can put in an equation and get the true outcome so is that it? God just. God just being patient with me. He's being kind with me. He's so gracious to hear my prayers, and he's just up there enduring them. Oh, it's about time for Ryan to pray to keep his family safe. That's good, because there is going to be a wreck a mile up ahead. And if he hadn't prayed. No, that is not how it works. It seems like Scripture paints a larger picture of prayer.
The prayers of a righteous man avail much. James, chapter 5:16. Jesus says, Whatever you ask in My name, you will receive. He says it multiple places throughout the Gospel. Elijah prayed. There were three years of drought, and they prayed again and it rained. It would seem to me when I read Scripture that prayer does something. My problem arises more from the other side of the biblical picture of prayer, that when people pray, God moves. When people pray, God doesn't just listen, but he acts. The power of prayer is mysterious, but it's true. God is moved by our prayers to act upon our behalf. How does that work? In my efforts to understand prayer and the theological truths that I see presented in Scripture and the conundrum, the problem that I get tangled up in, the Lord led me to a book about prayer by Em Bounds. It's fat, all right. And I've only read about 30 pages of it, because in those 30 pages, I found an answer. E.M. Bounds was a chaplain in the Confederate army from Missouri, and he wrote treatises on articles on prayer. And I'm going to read you this paragraph.
He says, “Prayer puts God to work. God has, of his own prompting, placed Himself under the law of prayer. He has obliged Himself to answer the prayers of the saints. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby he will do things through saints as they pray, which he would not otherwise do. Prayer is a specific divine appointment, an ordinance of heaven, whereby God purposes to carry out his gracious will on earth and to accomplish his plan of salvation. When we say that prayer puts God to work, it is simply to say that the saints have it in their power by prayer to move God to work in his own way among people, in a way which he would not work in if those prayers had not been made. Thus, while prayer moves God to work, at the same time God puts our prayers into action.”
Let me sum that up for you. God has so designed our relationship with him that prayer matters. They make a difference. And all of this does not contradict or undermine his sovereignty, his rule over creation. This I find astounding. I find it magnificent, and I find it Beautiful. It motivates me to pray because I know I have a sovereign God. And I know that my prayers, if they're not in his will, he overlooks them. It's not as if this was really what I had in mind for you today, Ryan. But because you prayed this other thing, it's ruined. Praise God. I can't do that. There's so much comfort in praying when you understand this. There's so much motivation to pray to God because He listens to you, because that's the way he designed it. So what kind of God does this? A God who wants to have true, meaningful relationships with his creatures, with his people, with his children. And so you can grow in prayer in your relationship with the Lord. And. And through prayer, you grow closer to God because you understand him better. How many of you can love your spouse without spending time with Him? When you fell in love, you didn't want to spend a minute away from. And every minute you were away from them, you thought about them. How can we love God when we don't communicate to Him? When we don't spend time with Him? It's impossible. This is the greatest motivation to pray, but I'm going to give you a few others.
First is God's character. Psalm 145. We read. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. There are three greats there. Great, great, great. God is great. And it's not just talking about how big he is. It's talking about his moral character. It's talking about his quality. He is a great God. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. I could spend an entire sermon on just those three verses. But let me say this. You are praying to a great God. A merciful God, a gracious God, a God who's slow to anger. A God who is abounding in steadfast love. A God who is good to all. Why wouldn't you want to talk with Him? Why wouldn't you want to go spend time with him? The secret to success in the Christian life is prayer. Prayer is the secret sauce to having a successful Christian life. The weakest child of God becomes the strongest when in prayer. The lowliest in the kingdom of God becomes the mightiest in prayer because of who you are praying to. In Psalm 145, verse 18, it says, the Lord is near to all who call upon him to all who call on him in truth. That, honestly is a definition of prayer for me. God promises to be near to you when you call on him in truth. Why can't I feel the presence of God? How much time are you spending in prayer? No, this is also a promise. No prayer goes unheard, unheeded or unwelcomed by our Father. How many of you were shooed away by a parent? God will never shoo you away. How many of you went unheard? When asking for something or sharing something, God will always hear you. We all say that we believe that prayer is effective, that it will accomplish much. But we still have a feeling that when a man is praying, he's doing nothing. Like prayer is the last option. Like, while I'm praying, I don't feel like anything's actually being accomplished. And so this feeling makes us give an undue importance to work. As if I can accomplish more without prayer than God can accomplish in me in prayer. Martin Luther, he said, there is so much for me to do each day that I must spend the first four hours in prayer. We hurry over prayer because we don't know how to spend time with God. There is no voice crying to God that goes unheard or unheeded. Every voice that calls upon the name of God is heard. Every single one. That is a promise, whether you feel like it or not. Just two more.
The other part of God's character, that God is eternal. We may not think that that has anything to do with prayer, but it does. God shapes the world through our prayers. He listens. He does things through praying that we would not do otherwise. And prayers are deathless. Prayers are deathless. The lips that other them may be closed in death. The soul that pours forth. The prayer may no longer be living in the land where you pray, but the prayers that come from them live on before God's throne in heaven. God's heart is set upon them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who pray them. They outlive a generation. They outlive an age. They outlive a world. The prayers of God's people live on forever in the heart of God. When the world passes away, the time that you spent in prayer with God will remain.
And finally, think about God's willingness to answer your prayers. That we have a Father in heaven who's sovereign over everything, who is working to accomplish his purposes and his will on this earth. And he's willing to answer your prayer. It reminds me of the passage where the Father comes to Jesus and His Son is Sick, probably due to demonic activity. And he says, lord, if you will, you can heal him. And Jesus is like, if I will? What do you mean, if I will? Of course I will. Of course I want to. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Matthew, chapter seven. Starting in verse nine, Jesus is teaching. Or which one of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you, then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? When I say that nothing will be accomplished for the kingdom of God apart from prayer, I don't just say that because I want to see the Kingdom of God come to Centralia. I also say that because I want to grow in my life. And I want you to grow in your life and your connection with God. Because the truth of the matter is, I believe we as a church have an opportunity to plead with God to do great and wonderful things. And all we have to do, ask him. God is waiting and willing. He will accomplish his will irregardless. But he is not an equation. He is not a computer. He responds to the cries of his children.
Let's pray. Father, creator of the universe, the high king in heaven, whose counsel will stand. We are humbled that we can even address you. We are grateful that you've called us out of this world, that you've made us your children by the blood of Jesus and the work and power of your Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and make us alive with him. Father, would you impress it upon us to pray? Would you call us out from the hurriedness and busyness of this world to spend time with you in prayer? Oh, Lord, accomplish your purposes in us and through us. I pray that you do these things for your glory and the praise and worship and adoration and wonderment of your people. Amen.
You have an opportunity to pray this morning. I call it doing business with God. Because the truth is, all of us have something to pray about. And if you don't think you do, you need to open your eyes. There are so many needs just in this room alone, let alone the broken and lost and dying world that exists outside those doors. So perhaps the prayer you need to pray is to ask God to forgive you for not praying, for not having your eyes open to see the needs of others. Perhaps you know exactly what you need to pray for. You're gonna have an opportunity to do that. It also could be that you feel shy and timid to pray. So I would encourage you to go to another, maybe your Sunday school teacher, maybe a deacon, maybe someone in the congregation that you respect. You're welcome to come to me in the front and ask us to pray with you. When God's people pray together, he listens.