Transcription
[Music] We're gonna be talking about one of the most important, one of the most powerful things we can do, and that is to pray. So the title of the message tonight is "Real Prayer Makes a Real Difference." Real prayer makes a real difference.
For the next few weeks, I want to talk to you on prayer because honestly, as Debbie and I've been away on sabbatical, and as we've been praying and spending time with the Lord, and and really just listening to what he has for James River Church in the coming weeks and months, one of the things we know for sure is that unless we pray, it's not going to happen. One of my concerns as pastor is that that somehow people would get into the mindset that says, "Well, you know, it's James River, so church is gonna happen because, you know, when James River does it, they do it right, and it just happens." I had somebody say it to me last night, and I appreciate the faith and the confidence both in the Lord and in leadership. But I can tell you this, what we're seeing here has nothing to do with James River doing it right, as much as it does with God's setting his hand on this church and doing something supernatural that only comes because we pray. The church prays.
And so I want to talk to you about prayer. The next few weeks, we're gonna be calling the entire church to 21 days of Prayer. You say, "What are we not doing the Daniel fast?" Oh, you knew the Daniel fast, but some of you have have said, "You know, that's difficult for me. I can't do it." And so we're gonna be calling, we'll be explaining 21 days of fasting and seeking the Lord and praying and calling on God, setting our hearts on God, setting aside extra time to look to the Lord, to seek the Lord, that we might see God work in an extra powerful way and in a unique and extraordinary dimension to do the things that will only come if we as a church pray. Prayer is the key to seeing God work powerfully in any person's life. Prayer is the key to seeing God do extraordinary things in any church or gathering of his people. In fact, I would simply say this, prayer is the determinative factor for God's work in anyone or in any group of people.
So we're going to talk about prayer, and what we're going to do is we're going to look at what Paul's prayers. We're going to look at Ephesians chapter 3, and and it will take a few weeks for us to get all that the Lord wants us to get out of that. And my prayer is that as we're immersing ourselves on Wednesday night in talking about prayer, learning some of the rudiments of prayer, that as we think of the power of prayer, that when we get ready to pray the end of the month and through the first part of August, that your heart will be motivated like never before to pray and to seek God because of the knowledge that you've gained. As well, we're going to be talking on Sundays about prayer as we come to the close of Sizzling Summer. So you're gonna, you're gonna hear about prayer. And my prayer is you become so energized about prayer that you'll pray to see God through the impossible things he wants to do in your life, and only he can do in your life, and that you'll join in praying as a group, as a church, and bringing others from within the church into this meeting. So the curtains open, so we're calling on God, so we're seeing God do more than we can ask or imagine.
So I want to begin by asking you this question, just a little diagnostic question. Do you enjoy prayer? Do you enjoy when you get up in the morning and you know, you know, what do you, you actually make time when you get up in the morning to pray? And when it is time to pray, like, "Man, I like this. The best part of my day is to be able to spend time with the Lord." Or is it, "Oh man, I got to do that because if I don't, it doesn't go well, and I felt guilty and I felt bad"? Or is it one of those things, "Huh, I didn't get it done today, and I didn't get done yesterday, and I didn't get it done two days ago," and you look back and you say, "Man, doesn't seem like I'm praying very much. I know I need to pray more." Listen, if any of those are true of you, it's because you don't enjoy prayer. Because we as humans make time to do the things we enjoy. Whatever it is that we, that brings us joy, that we find joy in, that we like to do, we do, and we set everything else aside. So you'd have to, you'd have to actually conclude that if you never really pray, it's because you don't really enjoy prayer. And in order to pray well, you have to enjoy prayer. When a person is mighty in their prayer life, it's because they love being with the Lord.
I want to ask you another question. Do you have confidence in your prayers? Not only do you enjoy, but you have confidence in your prayers. Because unless you have confidence in your prayers, it's not truly prayer. If when you're done praying, you don't have confidence in the prayers that you've prayed, then it's not true prayer, not in the powerful sense, not in the effective sense. I mean, remember James 1:6 says, "The double-minded man, he's tossed like the the wind and the waves, that person shouldn't expect to receive anything from God." I mean, if you come in, you're like, "God, I need your help," but you walk out, you're like, "I wonder if he'll help." You've just canceled out what you did. It's not, that's not how God wants any of us to seek Him.
So when you read the book of Ephesians, one of the things that's really awesome, and I think it speaks to the whole issue of how do we gain confidence, how do we, how do we, how do we enjoy prayer, and how do we gain confidence when we pray? As you watch Paul, here's what Paul does. He's writing to the Ephesians. He's writing from a prison, so he's going through difficulty. They're worried about him, they themselves are being persecuted, and Paul's writing them. And in chapter one, what does he do? He talks about our salvation. And doesn't just say, "Hey, guess what? God saved you." But he says, "Do you realize that long ago, in time, before time, God saw you? He willed your creation. He planned for your salvation in love. He planned to adopt you before you were ever born. He said, 'When she's born, when he's born, I want them as my child.' He talks about the blood of Christ shed for our redemption. He talks about how he's made known to us the mystery of his will." And then all of a sudden, as Paul is talking about all of these deep, very theological things, what happens? And this happens over and over again in the book of Ephesians, and it says something to us about prayer, is that when you and I think about what God has done, when you and I understand doctrine, and we understand truth, it will motivate us to pray. If somebody doesn't pray, it's because they don't understand doctrine. You say, "Oh, I know somebody who knows the Bible really well." If they don't pray, they don't know the Bible that well. Because you could know the facts of the Bible and have them in your head, but if you don't have the faith of the Bible in your heart, could you really say somebody knows the Bible? Absolutely not. If when the facts of the Bible are coupled with the faith exhibited in the Bible, that we begin to see the power and the miracles and the working of God that's in the Bible happen in life.
So Paul prays that chapter one, and maybe birth center prayer, and he says, "For this reason I pray." For what reason? All the things, all the doctrinal truths. Then you, you come to chapter two, and Paul talks about how we were dead in our trespasses and sin, how now we've been made alive in Christ, not only made alive in Christ, awaken to the spiritual realities, but we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. And our salvation is a display. Imagine this, when God was looking for a way for all time and eternity to display his wisdom and his matchless grace to principalities and powers, angelic beings, he said, "The only way I'm going to be able to teach them about what an incredibly gracious, wise God I am is if I take mankind and redeemed them from a fallen state." And forever, when the angels, when angelic beings want to know about the grace of God, the wisdom of God, God will say, "Look at him. Look at her. Look at them. That is an example of my incredible..." So angels, when it says angels long to look into these things, they're watching our salvation playing out, and they're like, "This is nuts. How did God do this?" Which simply tells you, if you question that, you don't really understand the amazing nature of salvation. But then Paul talks about that, and he talks about how, how he not only saved individuals, but he takes the Jews and the Gentiles, and he makes them one, and he makes the church. And and out of all that, Paul prays. It's very, very interesting. He gives doctrine, and the teaching or the presentation of doctrine prompts him to pray.
I would suggest that if you want to learn to pray better, the more you learn about God's Word, and the more you learn about the deeper things, as we go through Romans, as we're talking about Romans, that all of that, as we get it into our heart, as we get it into our spirit, it should motivate us to pray. It was the mark of how well we grasp the Word of God by how well we pray. You say this, if your doctrine does not make you a great man or woman of Prayer, then you've missed the whole point of the doctrine. If whatever you hear in terms of deeper things, and and this is the value of doctrine in a day when everything is surfaced and everything is "how to" and "feel mead driven," and listen, there is a place for that, but ultimately, that does not develop saints of God. Ultimately, that does not develop great men and women of Prayer. Ultimately, that does not lead to an extraordinary power of God upon the lives of people if they don't grasp, if we don't grasp as believers, the truth of God. Because the more you know about Him, the more you will want to pray. One since you could say that our prayer life is the single greatest indicator of our knowledge of God's Word.
So when you come to Ephesians chapter 3, Paul's going to launch into one of his great prayers. It's a fantastic prayer. And I was gonna launch into the prayer myself, but then when you start reading what's in front of the prayer and what's after the prayer, you're like, "Well, man, so I go up a few verses, and I'm like, 'Well, I really should start there.' But then I read the previous chapter, I'm like, 'Well, maybe I should start there.' But before you know it, I'd be back at chapter 1, verse 1, 'Paul, an apostle.'" But we're gonna not do that, okay? I'm restraining myself. I want you to see what motivates Paul to pray. Let's look at it. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 12: "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him." In whom? Who's he talking about? Well, he just in the verse before was talking about Jesus. He's saying, "In Jesus." If you've been with us in the Roman series, and just kind of to set the stage, then you know that at salvation, we are in Christ. That's a a critical term. It is the bedrock. It is the foundation of praying with power. It is the foundation for standing against the attack of the enemy when he says, "What right do you have to call on Him, given the life you've lived or the week you've had?" The answer is, "Devil, I am in Christ." If you don't understand that, then you spend all of the time that we would be praying, you spend all that time battling in your conscience, wondering if God will hear you. If you're like, "Well, you hear that person, but not me. You'll do this after that." Listen, when you understand doctrine, "I'm in Christ." When you're saved, you're united with Him. You're clothed with His righteousness. You're wrapped up in Him. You're identified with Him. Remember we said this in Romans? It says, "If what happened to Him happened to you." I mean, that is such a great and a powerful truth. When you think about, when He died to sin, you died to sin. Your sins are gone. He died once and for all, that purchased forgiveness for you. Sins gone. You're in Him. When He was buried, you were buried. When He was resurrected, you were resurrected. When He died to the law, you died to the law. So you're not under the law. It's not the rules you can keep. It's the relationship you have with Him that gives you the right to approach Him in prayer. He stands before their Father righteous. So if you're in Christ, you stand before the Father righteous. How righteous? Because you're in Him. As righteous as Jesus. Which should end every single argument concerning your unworthiness as a child of God to come before the throne of grace and seek what you need from Him. But if you don't know that and you don't understand that, you'll spend all your time battling things that have already been resolved. Do you see when a person has solid doctrine, it turns them into a great man or woman of Prayer?
Ephesians chapter 3, verse 12: "In whom we..." Oh, I love that. "We." Who's the "we"? It's Christians who have been saved. If you haven't been saved, this doesn't apply to you. If you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then nothing I say from this point on has any meaning to you until you come to Christ. I mean, it doesn't have any reference to, it's not true for you. You can't do this. It's not available to you. It's not, it's not there for you until you first come to Christ. So the "we" is not just Paul, it's not just the apostles, it's not stained-glass saints, it's not people who are, who are the most spiritual people you can think of. It's not for a select, you know, the "we" is me, and it's you. Turn to somebody and say, "The 'we' is me." Yeah. It's Christians. In whom we have, now watch the three things, because we're going to do this fairly quickly, because it seems nuts to me to talk about prayer and then not pray. I mean, come on, how can you talk about prayer and then not pray? In whom we have three things: boldness, access, confidence. Three things that are part of real prayer.
Now, before we look at this, I want to just make one clarification I think is really, really important. So this is a practical pointer to help you in your prayer life. The mistake, you know, hey, listen, you're in trouble, you're drowning, "Help! Jesus, help!" That's good. You know, you don't need a lot of other things, just get the word out, okay? But all things being equal, something that will help you when you pray is if you'll do what the early church fathers and the Puritans called recollection. What that, what that means is, if before you rush in, don't just rush with your laundry list, "Lord, I need this, I need that. Lord, you know, I've had a really tough day. I feel really awful." That all may be true, but before you do that, when you read the prayers of Scripture, when you see the prayers of Jesus, which are examples, they're models of prayer for us, what you see in, or when you read the Psalms, you see this recollection. What it means is, recollect who you're saying and who He is. For example, if, if you were going to go over and and you were going to see, you know, the Queen of England, and you were going to hang out with Megan and Harry and the Duke and the Duchess, you're going to do that whole deal. Here's what, here's what the way that would play, even if you were their friends, you would be briefed on, "Okay, when you come to their palace, here's, here's what you're gonna need to wear. Here's how you're gonna need to address them, and after the first address, then you can address them this way, depending on if they do, you know, their be all of this protocol that you'd find." You say, "Well, I get paying, we're Americans, we don't have that royalty." If you, if you're going to visit with the president, same thing goes on. So like, for example, several years ago, when George W. Bush came to JQH Arena, and I did the invocation, and like, "Hey, would you like a picture?" And I was like, "Yeah, that'd be cool." So they tell you, they have handlers that come back in there, and the Secret Service is around, and they say, "Okay, he's gonna come through that door. When he comes through that door, you will stand right here." It's not like, you know, I can't go lean against the wall, I can't sit down at shirt. No, you're gonna stand right there. If I want the picture, if I want to see the president, I'm gonna be right there. And then he's gonna come up to you, and he's gonna stand, they'll tell you which side he's gonna stand on. They tell you how he's gonna hold your hand, if they lay it all out. And he comes in, and it's boom, boom, boom, and it happens exactly like they said, because there is a protocol when you're dealing with someone who's more powerful than you. The same thing is true with the Lord. You say, "Well, I just like to think of Jesus my best friend." Well, that's good, and you should. But you're approaching the Father. Jesus said, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father.'" So you're coming to the Father through the Son, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit. You say, "Well, I like to do it this way." Well, you know what? It doesn't really matter how you like to do it. If it doesn't matter, it's just all the matter of, "Do you want an answered prayer or not?" And if I'm gonna pray, I like answered prayer. So there's a way, there's a way that as you're mature in Christ, you say, "I've always done it this way." Beautiful. And God is gracious in our ignorance, but that does not give us permission to continue in it. He gives us the Word to teach us.
So there's this recollection. Here's the way this, here's the way this works. You know, when you read the Psalms, what does it say? "Enter His gates with what?" Doesn't say, "Enter His gates with your big lists and let her rip, tater chip, just start going down." No, it says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving." What are you doing? You're thanking Him for what He's said. You're recollecting what God has done in your life that's been amazing, for which He deserves thanks. And there's courts with what? Praise. So you get up early in the morning, you hear the birds singing, even the birds start the day with a song. Says something about creation, they understand some things. So you're getting up in the morning, and you're thanking Him, and you're praising Him because He's the one who's worthy of praise. I mean, you look at the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father." What is that? A recollection of our relationship with Him. He is our Father. He has adopted us. He is a loving Father. You prayer is getting up on His lap and saying, "Father." And at the same time, He's just not a comfy couch, but He is the God of the universe. "Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." That's recollection. God, you're not like anyone else. You're not like anything else. God, you're amazing. You are totally different. Yeah, you're close to me. I can't understand it, but I love it. "Thy kingdom come." You're a King, and You have a kingdom, and You have a plan. "Thy will be done." A great reminder in all prayer, not my will be done, Thy will be done. God, I come to You as the King. I come to You as a Father on the one hand, but as a King on the other. I come to You in the closeness of personal relationship on the one hand, and yet in the sacredness of the hollowness of Your name, that name that is above every name. I come to You and I recognize You're a King, and You invite me to share my needs, but Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, just help me to remember, in heaven, Your will is constantly done. Recollection.
Now, that having been said, we're going to move really faster. Both, these two things are implied. The Greek word there is *parrēsia*, it's a great word, and and basically what it means is speak what's on your mind. It could also be translated plainly. If it's the idea of, for example, in John chapter 16, Jesus says to the disciples, "I will tell you boldly about my Father. I will tell you plainly. I'll tell you simply." In other words, when you come to the Lord in prayer, you don't have to flower it all up. You don't talk to your wife, your husband, your friends, your co-workers, or your kids with, "Thou likest bacon and eggs, I shall prepare them for thee." You don't talk like that. Why do you talk that way to God? The idea is plainly. Let's not make this complicated. In the sense of prayer is a conversation with God. And here's the beautiful thing, because we're in Him, because He loved us so much, He adopted us, He is delighted when we come and talk plainly. But as we recollect all those things, it sets the table in our heart and actually lifts us into the heavenlies with Him. So we speak boldly, we speak plainly. You approach the idea as well of boldness is you're free from any apprehension. You say, "What do you mean?" That means you come boldly. You're not thinking about Him rejecting you. I'm convinced that a lot of people never experience the joy that's involved in prayer because prayer is a battle with their conscience concerning whether God loves them, whether God will accept them, whether God's got it out for them. Or it's a recitation rather than a recollection of who He is and how awesome it is. It's a recitation of all their failures and all their failings, and why would God want to help them? And that battle does nothing to help a person. To come boldly is to say, "You know what? I'm coming to You. I, I am, I am free from thinking about, will You reject me? Will You answer? Will this work? I hope it works. I don't know if it'll work." To come boldly is to say, "God, I'm coming to You because of who You are, and You've invited me, and what I'm about to do is very, very powerful, and it is effective, and I don't have to be afraid of whether You'll accept me or not. That has already been solved at the cross. I come boldly. I come as Your son. I come as Your daughter. I come as the one You loved before I was ever born. I come to receive from You what only You can give because I desperately need it. But I come, and I'm not worried about the attack of the enemy and what happened and who I..." I'm coming to You boldly.
So He says this, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of our gracious God." Hebrews 4:16. We're going to move on to access, number two. Access. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 12. And I put all three because this is where the word "access" appears in the writings of Paul. This is a very big concept to Paul, and it always is used in the same way, always means the same way. 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and access." Earlier, he said in 2:18, "For through Him we have access to the Father." Romans 5:2, "Through whom we have also obtained access." You say, "What's that mean?" It, you could say "approach," but that really leaves out an important component. Literally, it's introduction. Do you realize that the minute you were saved, Jesus presented you to the Father? Jesus introduced you to the Father. Jesus said, "Father, this is one we put faith in His heart, her heart, and they are now justified, which means all their sins are forgiven. They are clothed in righteousness. This is your son. This is your daughter. This is Jody. This is Ralph ela. This is Anne." And I mean, Jesus is making an introduction. He's like, "This is my brother. This is my sister. This is your son. This is your daughter. You're with their family. I want you to meet a new member of the family." And the Father's like, "Awesome." Access, introduction. It's, it's suddenly we're in the King's palace, only to find out we're not a visitor, and we're not a cast, we're a resident because we're family. That's the idea. We come to a God who's more concerned about us than we are. We come to a God who knows us better than we know ourselves.
Number three. Now, ask the worship team to come. Confidence. Ephesians 3, "In whom we have boldness." We just come and speak what's on our heart, and we come without any reservation. You can't do that if you don't understand the doctrine of salvation. You just, you won't do it. You'll sit there and kick yourself. You'll battle your conscience. You'll fight the devil, and you're wasting all your time doing that and never praying a powerful prayer because you're too filled with self-doubt. And the enemy loves that. The enemy walks away and says, "Yeah, boldness. I tell him what's on my heart, and I know He's made a way for me to come before the most powerful person in the universe, and He already knows me." If you're a believer, it's not like, "God, I don't know you. See me in this big crowd." Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He can pick you out anywhere because He's been watching over you, and He loves you, and He cares for you. And He's, you know what? You came to the prayer meeting? Are you kidding me? He's like, "Wow, they came. They came because they believed it would make a difference. They came even when they were tired. They came. They came even when they had a hard day, but they came to understand the value of prayer." Man, His heart's thrilled. We have boldness, we have access, with confidence. With confidence. Praying, you're confident. You say, "What am I confident about?" Confident He hears. "We know that we have whatsoever we've asked in His name." We pray. If we lift our voice to Him, Jesus said, "Ask, and you'll receive." And you're coming to Him, and you're saying, "Okay, I'm gonna ask." "Knock, and it'll be opened unto you. Seek, and you'll find." I mean, it's like, "All right, I'm in on that." Confident that He cares. You said, "I don't know whether God really cares about that." No, no, no. When you know Him, and you know His intricacy of His cares, He's numbered the hairs on your head. He knows everything about you before you ever form a word on your lips. He sees it from afar. The psalmist says, "He knit you together in the womb. He loved you before you were created. He's been following you through. He planned not only for your creation, for your salvation, He's been watching over you, superintending you, and and He saved you because He has a plan in eternity for you." Do you think He's not gonna care for you right now? Again, good doctrine makes for powerful prayer. When you know good doctrine, you stop worrying about whether He cares or not. That's like, even, I mean, you're like, "Well, of course He cares." Confident in His power. "Our Father, He cares. Who art in heaven, He's powerful." Oh, Lord God, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by that great power and that I would stretch Him to it, created the worlds. He just breathes, and galaxies come into existence. So when you're praying, instantly you have a confidence. You know why? He cares, and He's powerful enough.
I want you to notice I, method, so interesting. Boldness is the beginning of prayer. Confidence is the end of prayer. Boldness, I dare to come before the One, believing, knowing that He accepts me. And I leave confident He's heard me. And this is the confidence we have. John says, First John 5, "If we ask anything according to His will, He'll do it." It's the confidence. It's, it's like this. It's like it's done. It's like you just know. You just know. It's just like when you ride a bike. You know how to ride a bike. I mean, once you learned, you know. You know how to ride a bike. You know. You might have an accident here or there, but you know how to ride a bike. It's just, and part of it is you just know. You know. Interestingly enough, when I learned to ride a bike, I had a dream. It's a crazy story. I had a dream, and in the dream, I was riding a bike. My dad had training wheels. You know, you grow up, but you know, a farm, you're a little, you're wired a little different. But I woke up, the sun was just coming up. I went out, got a wrench, took the training wheels off, got on the bike, and I, and my dream was so real to me, I rode my bike. Nobody was there. At first, I was like, "How'd you learn?" "I'm just practicing." But it's confidence. Confident. That's prayer.
I don't know what you need tonight, but I know I've told you enough on how to enter. And tonight is a moment. This is a time. This is a place. This altar is a place of power. It's a place where people meet God. This meeting is a place where God, you've come tonight, He's here.