Prayers - Safe or Bold
Notes
Transcript
Illustration 1
A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing. One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”
“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.”
She paused on this a moment, and asked, “Does He hear everything we say the rest of the time?”
“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters. However, his pride was quickly turned to humility at his daughter’s next question.
“Then, which does God believe?”
This morning we are going to venture into a new sermon series in three parts. There are going to be probably (3) different parts to this series throughout the summer, which is titled “Dangerous Prayers.” You might be thinking why would prayer be dangerous? Well, hang with us throughout this series, because I think God has some amazing things to speak to us individually and as the church.
Illustration 2
While crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner, F.B. Meyer was asked to address the first class passengers. At the captain’s request he spoke on “Answered Prayer.” An agnostic who was present at the service was asked by his friends, “What did you think of Dr. Meyer’s sermon?” He answered, “I didn’t believe a word of it.” That afternoon Meyer went to speak to the fourth class passengers. Many of the listeners at his morning address went along, including the agnostic, who claimed he just wanted to hear “what the babbler had to say.”
Before starting for the service, the agnostic put two oranges in his pocket. On his way he passed an elderly woman sitting in her deck chair fast asleep. Her hands were open. In the spirit of fun, the agnostic put the two oranges in her outstretched palms. After the meeting, he saw the old lady happily eating one of the pieces of fruit. “You seem to be enjoying that orange,” he remarked with a smile.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, “My Father is very good to me.”
“Your father? Surely your father can’t be still alive!”
“Praise God,” she replied, “He is very much alive.”
“What do you mean?” pressed the agnostic.
She explained, “I’ll tell you, sir. I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had not only sent me one orange but two!”
The agnostic was speechless. Later he was converted to Christ.
You see, we never know how God may answer our prayers. What may seem like a crazy prayer to some of us might just be how God chooses to work. As we get started this morning, I have a question for us to consider. “When you pray, do you pray safe prayers or do you pray bold and dangerous prayers?”
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Acts 4, starting in verse 23:
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
How many of you believe in the power of prayer? How many of you, even though you believe in the power of prayer, believe you could pray more consistently and with more faith? Interesting, right? We see several instances of this type of prayer by the believers in the early church.
What about corporate prayer? How many of us cannot fathom praying for an hour? How many of us clam up if we are asked to pray in front of others or never even volunteer? We can easily clam up or be nervous that we won’t say the right thing or worry about what others will think of our prayers.
You see, I think for some of us, we are afraid to pray anything more than what I would term as safe prayers. Things such as “be with us Lord” or “protect us Lord” or “Bless us Lord.” Now there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with these prayers, but if these type of safe prayers are all we pray, how well do we really believe in the power of prayer?
Why is it that we as followers of Jesus, know that we have access to go boldly before the throne of grace, that God hears our prayers, he's moved by our faith, and yet so often, our prayer life can be inconsistent, can be haphazard, and is often faithless in so many ways. Why do you think that is?
My theory is that there are a lot of us that even though we really do love and honor God, we don't feel like we're good at praying at all. It could be because some people are really, really good at it, and when we're in a prayer time with them we feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna pray out loud after that.
Ever been there? We get a little prayer envy. I don't know if you've ever been around someone that almost, they look like a professional pray-er. Meaning they're so good, like God probably goes, "Wow, that was really good!" You know? And it's almost like there's this implied point system to praying. Like, you get more points if you use a Bible verse in your prayer.
The Bake Encyclopedia of the Bible gives this classic definition for Christian prayer:
“an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies”
TALK ABOUT BOLDNESS OF PETER AND JOHN - describe scene from 1-22 (highlight verse 13)
The Sanhedrin had a dilemma on their hands. They didn’t like what Peter and John were doing..... But the man who had been healed was standing there! How could they argue with that? What could they do to these guys? They wanted to stop these guys. They were threatened! They commanded them don’t preach Jesus or else. They would have been threatened to be beaten, imprisoned, and maybe even put to death!
Then we get to verse 23 and 24.
Notice what they didn’t pray? The didn’t pray keep us safe or protect us, or give us comfy, safe, or trouble free! Don’t let anything bad! -
HIGHLIGHT THEIR BOLDNESS - WHAT DID THEY PRAY FOR
In biblical sense, boldness is not a personality trait! Normally timid, introverted, hesitant person—Can be bold Spirit! Generally outspoken, confident person—Shrinks back spiritual opposition.
29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
1) Boldness almost always triggers spiritual opposition.
18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
(Pray DP)—Bold—(Laugh) (Criticize) (Talk bad) (Make fun)
Live for Jesus—Home alone Sat night!
Witness at work or school—Not popular crowd!
Stand up for your faith work—Passed over promotion!
Not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God, You’re not ready to be used by God.
2) Boldness often releases God’s miracles.
19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
Luke didn’t make a big deal out of the angel breaking them out of jail. It was a big deal! We serve a God who is not constrained by anything - including prison cells!
When you walk in obedience to God, you won’t be surprised by the miracles of God.
3) Boldness always requires faith.
20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
I’m sure at this point they were saying, great - God you want me to go do what got you arrested twice before (Beaten—Killed) - YES
Pray DP—Doesn’t make sense—Risky (Details) Cost—FAITH!
We tend to have a plan that sounds something like this........Happily ever after—Settled down—Married—2 kids! Start consulting business—Lots $—Retired early—Vac Home Mountains
Boldness always comes with opposition! If you’re facing opposition, you are probably doing something right.
What Jesus has done for me—Can’t keep it to myself!
• Boldness to believe God answers prayers!
• Boldness to love enough to invite someone to church
• Share faith!
You will never fulfill your calling in your comfort zone!
We have no idea what God may set into motion through one single act of boldness.
Friends, are your prayers safe or bold? We need to reflect on this question and decide whether we are ready to truly pray bold prayers.....as we continue in this series we will dive into some of these dangerous prayers, but let me tell you this. We better be ready for the life changing results if we start praying bold prayers.
Next week, we are going to discuss the idea of the the Lord speaking to us - the message will be from 1 Samuel 3.