Power in Prayer — Acts 9

0:00 Dear heavenly father, we come before you thanking you for what you have done for us as we were reminded in the breaking of bread this morning of what you've done for us and how little we can do on our own. Father, we we thank you for sending your son. We thank you for redeeming us and saving us. We thank you for giving us your word so that we may know how we ought to live. So we ask that you would open our hearts and minds this morning.

0:36 We ask that you would bless this time as we study your word that we might become ever more like your son. In the lord Jesus name we pray. Amen. So, as I as I just mentioned, if you aren't here for the breaking of bread this morning, we talked a lot about salvation and and Jim opened things up for us this morning and who's paraphrase Jim but there's a thought that god is telling us, you still need me. You can't do this on your own.

1:14 You need me Jim's thoughts were on salvation specifically but we're going to talk about prayer today. And it was interesting as I was thinking about what all of the, what the men shared this morning. And it... Everything that that we need Christ for, everything that that that God has done for us in our in our salvation, in our reliance on him for salvation, it never stops. We come to Christ, we accept Christ, and and we are born again and nothing changes.

1:56 We still need god for everything and this is actually part two of a message that I gave in May of last year. I started a study on prayer and I had prepared two messages worth and then as it happened, I hadn't had a chance to get back to it until now. So, I think maybe that was, maybe or probably, that was divine intervention saying that we needed to let's spread this out a little bit and give everybody the refresher a year later. A study of this Greek word is how I opened this up last time. We're gonna do a little bit of review because I don't expect any of you to remember what I talked about last time.

2:44 Probably only remembered two or three parts from what I talked about a year ago. So, I reviewed all my notes. But, I wanted to give you a recap here. So, this Greek word, proskartero, it... I think it gives a very...

3:01 It it gives us a lot of idea and focus into the part prayer plays in the Christian life and the Christian experience. I think it gives us a very helpful and insightful meaning as we study prayer and what it means. So the dictionary says that this word, now it has nothing to do with prayer on its own, it's just but it means to be steadfastly attentive unto something or to give unremitting care to something or to someone, to persevere and not to faint, to show oneself courageous for something, to continue in constant readiness. And as this word is applied to prayer in the New Testament, we might put it together this way. To be steadfastly attentive with constant readiness and unremitting care that one might persevere and show oneself courageous in prayer, for prayer, and through prayer.

4:04 Now, the reason why I'm focusing on this word is because it only occurs in the New Testament 10 times and six of those 10 times, it is used with prayer. Nothing else in the New Testament has this degree of emphasis, not giving of money or attending church, showing of hospitality, exercising gifts, doctrine, preaching, none of it. Prayer does. So, when we think about what does this mean? What are we what are we supposed to take from this?

4:38 All six occurrences of this word are also in a continuous action sense. Never in past tense. It's giving us this idea this this concept of the continual responsibility we have and the continual need that we have to pray both corporately and individually. These six references are up there and you probably can't read them but they're three of them are in Acts one fourteen, two forty two, and six four, which I covered last year. And we're gonna look at Romans twelve twelve, Ephesians six eighteen, and Colossians four two in addition to some others.

5:26 Now by way of review, and if you can go to the next slide please gentlemen. I've only got two slides. So this is big for me. This is what we talked about last time and I and I'm I didn't really count on you reading it all but I'm gonna go through it all just to kind of get you into the mood and get your brain into focusing in on the many facets of prayer and what it is used for, how we see it used, and how it is important in our lives. So, prayer is the comfort of the church.

6:20 When they were replacing Judas in the choosing of Matthias, we see that bathed in prayer. Prayer is the place for the reception of divine power. In Acts two and we get the day of Pentecost, see prayer is the place for the reception of divine power. Prayer is the resource of the persecuted church. In Acts four, their prayers were answered promptly to have Christ, have god deliver them and to look on their threats, dealing with their adversaries and to give them boldness and we see that answered immediately.

7:03 In Acts six, we see the first word... The the... Sorry, not the first. The the the third use of the word in reference to prayer. And that is being used in prayer and also ministry.

7:18 And that's when the apostles were delegating to the others because they needed to devote themselves to the prayer and the ministry and that was the focus of the apostles which we now take as the focus of the elders. We spent a lot of time last year in Acts chapter nine because in Saul's conversion, it's the the whole thing is about prayer. If you really think about it and you look at it, every every single thing that happens in Saul's conversion is prayer. So, what we get out of it and this is a this is a summary if you want to find my recording from last year but here's what we get. Prayer in verse five in Acts nine.

8:00 It's the initial experience in salvation. This is the first thing that happened. Christ called to Saul and Saul answered. This is dialogue. Prayer is the initial experience in salvation.

8:13 It's instinctive and it's natural. It's dialogue with God. Prayer is accompanied with obedience and actually is required that prayer be accompanied with obedience. We see this in verse eight and eighteen. In verse nine, we see that prayer sometimes involves waiting.

8:32 It involves fasting. It involves isolation sometimes. We see the effectiveness of prayer in secret. In verses 10 through 15 of Acts nine, we see how prayer is how we can discern god's will if he has chosen to reveal it that way. In verse 15, we see how prayer is no contradiction to election and sovereignty.

9:00 Which is a kind of a big one but prayer can be a way that god chooses to act. He doesn't need us to ask him to heal someone. He can decide to do that on his own But we can be involved in that process. Verse 17 of Acts nine, prayer can result in being filled with the Holy Spirit. Cause we certainly don't fill ourselves, do we?

9:32 Prayer is a means to induce change. Verse 21. Verse 22, prayer produces growth and effectiveness because it gives us access to the source of life. Prayer and the filling of the Holy Spirit produce results. In Acts nine forty, so after Saul's conversion and we start moving on, we see Peter praying for Dorcas' life and there's a twofold response to that request.

10:01 One is Dorcas is raised to life, but two, the belief of many. Many accept Christ as a result of that. Prayer can be a means of individual deliverance. We see the prayer meeting and the believers praying for Peter's release from prison. This is another example of God choosing to use prayer in that.

10:29 He didn't require the believers to pray to get Peter out of prison. God handled that himself, but he used that. All of the the the believers were in earnest prayer for Peter. It was easier for Peter to walk out of prison than it was to get actually into that prayer meeting if you look at the at the text there. He had a couldn't get in.

11:20 You know, so prayer was in the atmosphere in the early church, and where the Christians were praying, God was working. That's that's what we studied last time and this was the big thing that we got. Prayer was expressing the complete reliance, the dependence on the Lord for worship, for guidance, for for preservation, and for service. So that wraps up my review. I made it...

11:49 That was not bad. Ten ten minutes or fifteen minutes or so. So we're gonna look at a lot more passages now starting in Romans. And I'm hoping to get through Romans through Colossians, I think. And cover, the other three uses of the word, proskatero.

12:08 Gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind going back a slide to put my Greek word back up there just so that we can, continue focusing on that. So we're gonna pick up in Romans chapter one, in verses nine and ten. Now, I have a lot of verses to throw at you, and I guess my point in all of this is bringing up all of these different things. We're we're not gonna spend a lot of time on each verse. What I wanna do is give you...

12:34 Is bring to mind all of the different places that we see prayer and how it's being used. And so if if if one of these things just happens to stick to you and it convicts you, well then praise the Lord for that. If I throw a 100 balls at you and only one of them sticks, hey, but that's it. But if none of them sticks to you, what you get out of this is shoot. Look at how overarching, how how all encompassing prayer is and how it needs to be used.

13:04 You know, maybe nothing specific, but let's look at the entire picture here. Romans one nine and ten. For god whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his son is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers making request. If perhaps now at last by the will of god, I may succeed in coming to you. So, since we're going to be...

13:28 These are all Pauline epistles that we're going to be going through. So, these are all Paul's prayers. Well, not all of them. Most of them but we see here the idea of the constancy and Paul is calling god to even witness that that he is always remembering the Romans in their prayers and and Paul's service was with the spirit. It wasn't a religious drudgery.

13:55 It wasn't ritual or reciting prayers or or liturgy by rote. This was just an earnest, caring, constant. Hey, these are the these are the Christians in Rome and I pray for you always. Fever, eager, tireless, prayers, caring. And and Paul's...

14:18 Paul had a passion for the saved and the unsaved. And and there were there were the Christians in Rome who, you know, who were dealing with the persecution, but then as as as he's praying for that church to grow, and all of the Jews who lived in Rome, all of the unconverted Jews who lived in Rome. And and so they're on Paul's mind here. The constancy of their prayer. Romans eight twenty six.

14:53 My hands are really cold. So turning these pages is kind of not working so well. Alright. Eight twenty six and twenty seven. We don't know how to pray.

15:08 We don't know how to pray. And in the same way, the spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So, as we look at this aspect of prayer, we're hopefully humbled, but also encouraged. We pray when when we remember to pray, when we think to pray, how often is it that it is selfish or narrow minded? We pray a little ignorantly.

15:52 It's it's a little narrow. We have we have an affliction. We have a trial. You know, and we can see, you know, this is what I am experiencing right now. And is it wrong to ask god to deliver you from that?

16:04 Of course, it isn't. But there's so much more than that. We have our own, yes, what we want, what we desire, and and these trials aren't fun. We know that. And there's a reminder here that, one, our groanings is sometimes all we can do.

16:35 And there's nothing wrong with that. That's the advantage of the private prayers. You know, when you're praying with other people, have to sort of string together a coherent sentence. You sort of try and sometimes we make it and sometimes we don't. But in your private prayers with God, when you've got nothing else to say but the groan.

17:01 We have comfort here that he knows and he understands and the spirit intercedes for us. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is. You know, we don't see the full picture or we can't see the full picture or we won't see the full picture of what's going on. We don't know how to pray and that's okay. The spirit intercedes for us.

18:05 Yet his most fervent prayer was that Israel would be redeemed. And we look at this and so what do we take out of this? Well, that's a reminder for us. So... And how important it is for us to be praying for the unsaved.

18:25 Praying for the salvation for others. Even those who have rejected the truth of the savior, we have a responsibility and a and a burden that all should come to Christ. God does not will that any should perish. And we can play a part in that in praying for the unsaved. In Romans 12, our Greek word shows up in chapter 12 verse 12.

19:04 Hey, I'll start in verse 10. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in prayer. Sorry, fervent in spirit, serving the lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted. Proseccotero, devoted to prayer.

19:30 It should be regular. It should be constant. It should be a habit. I have a quote that I had wrote down and I didn't write down who said it. So...

19:47 Sorry. But prayer brings power in our lives and peace to our hearts. When we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come. Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. When we pray in the name of the lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come.

20:22 Think about that for a minute. So the amount of power that we have access to through prayer. And as Jesus said, if only you would believe. That's such the... That's the kicker.

20:38 We have access to the all powerful God. And his spirit is in us, and we have access to that. Not so that we can show off to our friends and have the mountain turn upside down, but we have access. So as we come to the Lord in prayer, do we ever, do think about this? Do we remember this?

21:07 Do we realize that we're facing the impossible and we have access to what's impossible through prayer? Just a couple of pages over in Romans 15 verses 30 through 33. Paul is requesting some urgent, some eager, and and specific prayer. Fifteen thirty Now, I urge you brethren, by our lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to god for me that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints so that I may come to you in the joy, in joy by the will of god and find refreshing rest in your company. This strive together with me in your prayers.

22:05 This is... It's the Greek word that's that's used. It's it's talking about working together, being yoked together like in the arena, like it the gladiators. It was this kind of concept like, you guys, we can't do this alone. We have to do this together.

22:20 We can make it through this together. Strive with me. Bear with me. Pull this with me. Strive together in your prayers with me.

22:31 Struggle with me. And he's calling on them to do this based on their mutual union. Their union together as brothers and sisters in Christ. He's asking for deliverance here. Verse 31.

23:12 He's asking that the Jewish saints, the believers, the believers in Jerusalem would accept the gift from the Corinthian church that he's bringing with them because there was a little, you know, there there was a little bit of worry there. That Jewish believers and the Greek believers. So so Paul was recognizing that and praying for grace there. That that this would that god would bless this. He's also praying that the visit to Rome may be joyful and that it would be God's will and the conditions would be his will.

23:46 So he's also showing complete submission to God and his will throughout this. Hey, I've got a plan to go to Rome. I want all the conditions and everything about this to be according to god's will. So, we're showing complete submission through this. And he's also asking for rest.

24:04 So, this this we see as kind of a this is one of the it's a specific prayer and this is one of those more narrow prayers and we're going to see another one of Paul's prayers later that transcend beyond where he currently is and I'll I'll get to that in a minute. But our next book is first Corinthians. And we just have one portion in here that I want to highlight, and it's in chapter fourteen thirteen through 15. Chapter 14. 13 through 15.

24:47 Therefore, let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also. I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also.

25:06 The basis of this that I that I that I want to show is this is prayer in relation to our spiritual gifts. And this is prayer that our gifts may be edifying to others. That's the point of this. It's not just, okay, we we have a gift and we're supposed to exercise the gift, but then here's the importance of prayer in relation to your gift. God, this is my gift.

25:35 I want to use it. May it be edifying to others. It's edifying. You're serving the lord as you do it but may this gift be edifying to the body. Second Corinthians chapter one.

26:01 One eleven. And we should back up a little, though. This is mid sentence, I guess. Let's start in verse nine. Indeed, we have the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death and will deliver us, he on whom we have set our hope.

26:26 And he will yet deliver us. You also joining and helping us through your prayers that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many. Paul asserts here that their deliverance that that he's talking about here came as a result of the believer's prayer. Who delivered us from so great apparel, you also joining in helping through your prayers, and thanks may be given for the favor bestowed. This is another example, just like we reviewed in Acts, of the believers praying for Peter's deliverance, and we see God working through that.

27:15 And the Corinthians were praying for Paul and their deliverance from the persecution they were facing, and he credits them for their part in that and thanking them for that. In second Corinthians nine, we then see the results of his prayer a little bit earlier. In chapter nine, second Corinthians, verse 14, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing surpassing grace of God in you. So Paul prayed that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem would accept the gift from the Corinthian church, and they did. First, they did.

28:40 And they were recently, you know, the the Corinthians were the were the ones who were recently under prejudice, and and the the the Jerusalem saints are, you know, we're we're putting this away. We're we're we're not... This isn't even a factor. And now we yearn for you and we pray for you and there's a bond that results there. In second Corinthians 13 Paul is praying for the church as a whole there, the local church thirteen seven through nine.

29:21 Now, we pray to god that you do no wrong, not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we should appear unapproved, for we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong. This we also pray for that you may be made complete. He's praying for their holiness. He's praying that they be made complete.

29:50 He's praying for the building of their faith. When we think about the second Corinthians being in, being the follow-up letter to the first Corinthians and dealing with the sinning members in the church, and this is the follow-up. And he wants now that the... His prayers now are that the church be united and made whole and perfected in holiness and restored, and that God's will would be worked out through them. And it's not for his gain.

30:23 That's what he's... It's what he... It's careful that we point this out. He would rather they take the action themselves, and he would lose credit by the legalists for not showing up and enforcing with the rod his authority as an apostle. He'd rather lose the credit and just say, you work this out for yourselves, but I pray that you be made whole, that you be restored, that your faith may be built up.

31:00 Some really important lessons for us here. And it's it's convicting. I know it is to me. Let's flip over to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one in sixteen and eighteen.

31:31 Starting in verse 15, actually. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the father... That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. So, here, we're given a fantastic example that we are not to stop praying for our fellow believers and our brothers and sisters in Christ, that they will be intelligent and knowledgeable about who God is and what God wants them to do and what they have in Christ and how powerful he is.

32:34 Paul's not praying that they would receive the Holy Spirit, but a special measure of illumination. He's praying for the revelation, that's the imparting of knowledge. The wisdom is the proper use of it. Praying for one another. How often have we done that?

32:59 And maybe some of us are better at it than others. But here's, you know, so here's the example, you know. God, today, I want to pray for Bob, that he would receive a special measure of illumination today. That he would receive the revelation and then the wisdom to do what he should with it. It's those kinds of prayers.

33:29 And it kind of goes back to the idea of straining together and striving together that Paul was talking about earlier. It's, you know, you pray for your fellow believer because you know they're struggling the same way you are. And together, yoked together, doing this together, striving together, remember we have access to the power. So together, this can be done. Together, we can help each other.

34:28 And this passage right here is another one of those really encouraging ones like we talked about earlier when the spirit intercedes for you, when you're too miserable for words. This, Ephesians three fourteen through 21, do you ever get discouraged in praying? Do you desire to pray but you can't get over the discouragement or the the the depression that you have? There's a remedy right here. For this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of god.

35:32 Now, to him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly beyond what we ask or think According to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Paul prays that we would be strengthened, that Christ would dwell in our hearts, that we'd be rooted and grounded in love, that we know the love of Christ, that we'd be filled to the fullness of God, and then he hands us over to God to complete it. He hands us over to God and his omnipotence who can do exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we can even think. So we haven't even thought of it yet.

36:26 And he's already done it. He can answer before we think to ask the question but then sometimes he sometimes he answers way after a lot of requesting. Like, could be ten, twenty years or longer. And sometimes those answers are what we can see and we understand to be our benefit and for his glory but sometimes it's not. It, it reminds me of Hebrews four.

37:09 Four sixteen. Yeah, four sixteen, let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. In our time of need, Ephesians three fourteen through 21, this type of situation that we may find grace in the time of need. It's got grace to understand when we don't understand and when we can't understand or won't understand. I don't see how this is to my benefit or your benefit.

38:02 God, I don't get it. But do not lose hope. Do not lose faith. Be constant in the prayer. Ephesians six is the penultimate use of our Greek word six eighteen and nineteen.

39:36 And I'd like to think that he still was, but the lesson here, and for the Ephesians benefit and for our benefit is, okay, you're in a rotten place right now. Can we get a broader picture of this? Can you ask god for deliverance? You bet. But god, what am I supposed to do while I'm here?

39:59 How can I be used while I'm here? This is terrible. I don't know what you're doing but what can I do while I'm here? Proclaiming it, I I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. To make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

40:17 I just wanna be productive while I'm here. And I'm not sure I could tell you I've ever made that prayer. I've certainly asked for help. God, deliver me. I don't know that I ever have, honestly.

40:36 How am I supposed to be productive while I'm here? How am I supposed to glorify you while I'm here? And, okay. We're out of time. I'm really close to the end though.

40:56 Let's move on from here. I had a few more things to say here, but let's go to Colossians just because I need to give you the last use of proseccitero. And it's in Colossians four verses two through five. Devote yourselves to prayer. There it is.

41:17 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of Thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well that god may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned. In order that I may speak it clear in the way I ought to speak. There's... The emphasis here is on the Thanksgiving aspect. And Paul never seems to tire of the exhortations to pray, thankfully.

41:54 You know, as we've seen from the review of what I talked about last year and and here, Paul never gets tired of this, and praise God he didn't because we need this. He's praying for the the for the the work that they're doing, sustenance for opening doors, for effectiveness. He's not praying for release again of note. But there's Thanksgiving for past prayers that were answered. Thanksgiving for the current prayers that are unanswered.

42:31 Do we do we remember to thank God for those? Our current prayers that have not yet been answered, do we give thanks for them? That's the rub. That's that's the rub. This is hard stuff, but we have so much here, so many examples of prayer and that's what I want to show us all is there's so many callings for us to pray and to be diligent in it and how we need to rely on it and how, alright, God has accomplished our salvation because we couldn't do that ourselves.

43:13 Boy, our new Christian life sure is a lot harder without god doing it too. I'll close with a brief statement from mister George Mueller. It is not enough to begin to pray nor to pray aright nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray. But we must pray patiently believing, continuing in prayer until we obtain an answer. Let's think about that.

44:28 So, god, as we go forth today, may we take from this and and take the heart to the need that we have to pray continually for all reasons. And that a a continuous dialogue with you is the way that you have shown us that you will provide for us and give us the grace that we need every day. Help us now as we go. We commit these things to you. In Jesus name we pray.

45:00 Amen.