Sermon
The Power of Prevailing Prayer
Romans 12:12
July 10, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our notes today. During the summer months we have selected to preach from the twelfth chapter of Romans, and if you take time to read it you'll note that it's filled with a lot of very specific directives as to how we as Christians should live out our Christian life in our families, in our church, and in our world. And so we've gone through many of those verses already and last Sunday we were in verse 15 where it says, you are to rejoice with those who rejoice and you are to weep with those who weep. And we said that it's Christian to be sensitive to the needs of others and respond in loving kindness and in action.

But as I was thinking about this subject of prayer and knowing that our prayer teams are really praying that God would bless our church, I decided I would back up on the Scripture verses and go back to verse 12, because in going over that verse I didn't cover this one phrase. It reads: rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. And I want to talk to you just for a while on the subject of prayer.

We've included some other verses in our text in our notes. From 1 Chronicles we read: Look to the Lord and His strength; and seek His face always. Jesus said: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. And again Jesus said: Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Paul prayed: And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

It's a wonderful thing to hear great men of God express their souls in times of prayer. I remember as a young preacher I was preaching in Glasgow, Scotland, and I was so amazed as those great Scottish men would stand in the pulpit and their prayers would just seemingly move the heavens itself, and I would sit there just profoundly moved by their prayers.

When Jesus prayed His disciples were so impressed that when He finished, His disciples said, Jesus, would you teach us how to pray? And I think that one of the great experiences might have been to listen to the apostle Paul pray, and thank God he has recorded some of his prayers for us. I have put down here in our notes two of them.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Now here's his prayer: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.

And again another prayer, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And here is his prayer: that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. And I note, ah, what a prayer.

Prayer is personal communication with God. If we could only know and understand what happens when we pray, we might well have difficulty doing other things that now occupy our main attention. And I placed that there because one of the exciting things is when you go through the Bible and you have the prayers that are prayed and you see what happens when people pray, prayer can become an exciting adventure.

Back in 2 Kings chapter 20, King Hezekiah is visited and he is told that he is going to die, and he is to get his house in order. And it says that the king turned his face towards the wall and he began to pray: God I've been loyal to You. I have done that which was right in Your sight and I've tried to serve You. And as he prayed the Bible says that he wept.

And as Isaiah, who told him he was going to die, is going out into the courtyard, God stops Isaiah and says I want you to go back and talk to Hezekiah. There is something I want you to tell him. Tell him I have heard his prayer and I'm going to heal him, I'm not only going to heal him I'm going to add fifteen years to his life. You go back and tell him so. And you put some salve on his boil and it's going to be healed.

And when Hezekiah hears the comments from Isaiah, he says, how will I know that my prayer has been answered? And old Isaiah said, well, is it easier for God to move the shadow on the sundial forward or backwards? And Hezekiah says have Him move it backwards. And God put the sun back ten degrees so it changed the shadow on the sundial.

The power of prayer? Healed, fifteen years added to his life, and God changes the shadow on the sundial. That's why I say if we could somehow know and understand what happens when we pray, we might well find difficulty in doing other things that we do because we find prayer so exciting.

Prayer is a miracle. It is a happening that is not governed by laws of time and space. Prayer is an invitation to experience the boundlessness of God. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

What is prayer? Prayer is our need crying out for help. Prayer is the voice of faith to the Father. Prayer is the Living Word in lips of faith. Prayer is the channel through which all good flows from God to men, and from man to man. Prayer is a privilege, a sacred, princely privilege.

You know, when I think of prayer...you immediately realize what a marvelous opportunity we have as mortal men, just simply to bow our hearts and to say - Jesus - and as soon as you say that you're in His presence. That amazes me that the throne room of the universe is open to whosoever will, and when we say - Jesus -we're at the throne.

Look at the bottom of page 1. "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."

And thus, the veil of sense and space that hides Him within His temple-universe is suddenly removed as we pray, and we enter silently into His temple, and lo, suddenly we are before His throne. Only there do we discover the wonder of worship, that worship is before work, and that all His works are done in the spirit of worship. So as prayer looks toward God, it is worship.

There are only two ways by which we can get to know God, through His Word and through prayer. But the fact is that while the Word contains facts about God, only through prayer and prayerful use of the Word can we use it to get to know God.

What we call prayer includes prayers of request for others and ourselves, confession of sins, prayer contains adoration and praise and thanksgiving, and also allowing God to communicate to us indications of His response.

Now let's stop there for a moment. I think this may be one dimension of prayer that many of us have not reached because we are so quick to say our prayers and then rush off, and as the result of it we don't wait long enough for God to tell us what we ask Him; and thus I believe that part of the exciting experience of prayer is waiting before God. And when you begin your prayer time make sure that you apportion a time of your prayer where you can just sit before God and say, God, I want you now to talk to my heart. And sometimes He impresses us; sometimes He makes His way very clear in our minds, but one of the exciting aspects or dimensions of prayer is waiting before God long enough for Him to tell us what we've asked Him.

You know...and I told you this, I think, last Sunday...I had a wonderful experience. I had been praying about a certain matter within the church with regards to leadership, and so forth, and over the weeks I've just been lifting the prayer to God and finally I said the other night to my wife, honey, I'm going to spend the night in prayer because I want to get this matter resolved before God.

So I'd pray for awhile, then I'd sleep for awhile, and then I'd pray for awhile, and then I'd doze off. You understand that. And all through the night I was praying, dear God, please give me Your direction. And about 3:30 in the morning I wake up again and say, God, I'm really serious about this I need You to show me. And I told you, I dozed off to sleep and almost immediately there was like a photograph that just appeared in front of me. And I said, God, is that the answer?

If it is the answer, when I phone this person later on today, You will have done something on his side that makes it obvious that you harmonized our prayers and our needs. So this week I met with that person and almost with a tear in his voice he said, pastor, you cannot imagine what that phone call meant. We shared our story together and we realized that God was at work.

What I'm saying is that a part of prayer is taking time just to wait in silence; and God works in our hearts. He either just kind of just speaks to us in the sense that we have that sense of His direction or our mind becomes clear about a matter. That's part of the excitement of prayer.

Now there's one other aspect, and I want you instead of reading the newspaper when you go to lunch today, just read your sermon notes because I packed it with a lot of things about prayer, but go with me to page 5.

I make this observation: Prayer requires human decision and initiative. And when we do not know how to pray, the indwelling Spirit of God will help us. And Paul tells us, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

Drop down a few lines: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings (sighs) which cannot be uttered (too deep for words)." Now the word does not indicate that the Holy Spirit prays instead of us, but that the Holy Spirit takes part with us and makes our weak prayers effective. Let me explain.

There are times, and I'm sure you've experienced this, when you come before God, you just...sometimes the burden is so intense or the mind is so confused you just wait there; you can't verbalize how you feel. Sometimes in carrying the burden of pastoring the church I come before God and the burden is so intense and God knows how deeply I hurt, and the hurt is so deep, and the frustration so intense I don't know what to say, and I don't know how to say it.

Sometimes, just in God's presence, just like that Scripture verse, I sigh or I grown just to release that pressure that's inside. And I wait before God sometimes with tears and groanings, and I have the assurance by that Scripture verse that the Holy Spirit is taking my groanings and my sighs and my tears, and He's lifting them before the throne of grace and He's making my weak prayers effective in the presence of God. What a marvelous help folks in times of prayer, and sometimes you folks...we all carry burdens so deep that we say sometimes I don't feel like praying. That's the time to get down and just weep before God's presence, and if necessary just groan in His presence, because we have the assurance that when we do the Holy Spirit is going to pick up those tears and pick up those groanings and those sighs and lift them to the throne room of grace, and takes our weaknesses and makes them into an effective prayer.

A little girl was praying and her mother was listening, and she said, dear Jesus,.A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z amen! And the mother said, honey, what was your prayer? She said, look at, I gave God the entire alphabet and He can make any word out of it He wants to, and that will be my prayer. Isn't it wonderful we have a God who understands? The little girl didn't know how to pray, but she knew her ABCs and she knew God did to, and she knew God would take her ABCs and make a prayer out of it.

The Bible tells us that God wants us to come and He wants us to talk to Him. And I pray that we become praying people. You take your notes. I don't have time to finish this morning, but my prayer is that we become a church that's just filled and throbbing with vibrant prayer, seeking God's face to do a marvelous work in our community. And I'm just going to pray that God really does a marvelous work.

I'm going to ask you to stand as we close our time today.

Father in heaven, what a marvelous privilege it is that we have as human beings just to bow our hearts forever we are and to say Jesus, and commence a prayer knowing that we are in Your very presence dear Jesus. For the privilege of just coming to Your throne and know that You listen; that we can just talk to You any way our heart finds a way to express things. There are people standing here, Lord Jesus, with broken hearts. There are people who are dealing with broken families. There are people whose dreams are shattered at their feet. And sometimes we're so broken we can't find words to pray, but may we find ourselves on our knees weeping and praying in Your presence, and You give us the words oh Holy Spirit of God.

Thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you for being such a wonderful God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless you folks. God bless you.