Sermons

Question: “Why should we pray in 2023?” 

Intro: Like many of you, the new year brings up some self-examination.  For me coming into the year 2023 I confess I need to recharge for my spirit in my discipline of prayer.  

For TMS I am teaching, Prayer and Pastor. We have 4 students and I need to be actively praying! 

I’ve heard it said that the way to come clear of spiritual lethargy is to work through a theological problem.  To break somewhat of an intellectual sweat and come clear on a seemingly unresolvable issue.   

[Question] If God is in control, ruling within his determinations, of everything, every event, every day, hour and minute then, why pray at all?   

• Isn’t prayer reduced to soliloquy or monologue, speaking words into the air with no one hearing? 

 

• Does passion for God’s divine decrees reduce pray-ers to merely being actors on a stage with a God who is a detached Play Master willing things irrespective of real life? 

[TRANS] First of all, I should state up front that the Bible is filled with verses telling us God is Sovereign.   

ESV  Psalm 103:19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.  

ESV  Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. 

 

ESV  Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. 

 

ESV  Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. 

 

ESV  John 5:19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (Joh 5:19 ESV) 

 

ESV  John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. (Joh 5:30 ESV) 

 

ESV  Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28 ESV) 

 

ESV  Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 

 

[TRANS] A few narrative moments illustrate God’s Sovereignty: 

 

ESV  Job 1:21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 

 

ESV  Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.  

 

Then the familiar and dominant sweeping verses coming from the mouth of God:  

ESV  Isaiah 46:10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’  

ESV  Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 

 

 [Illus] Many of you may know the theologian/pastor RC Sproul died at age 78 December 14, 2017.  His health declined in 2015 after a stroke, he was checked into a hospital, put on a ventilator, and 12 days later died of pulmonary complications.   

We’ll miss his gravelly, garrulous speech and most of all his sense of humor.  Back in 2015, after his stroke, when asked what he would want written on his tombstone he cheekily said to put: “I told you I was sick.”   

A more fitting epithet might be a quote like this: 

“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.” [RC Sproul] 

[TRANS] Once you’ve seen the truth of God’s Sovereignty in the Bible you will see it popping up everywhere in the Bible.   

[Question] So back to our question.  If this is how God determines our lives, then why do what has been called: “The work of prayer?”  

[CS Lewis – If God Is Sovereign, Why Should We Pray?] Since God is good and is going to do everything for his good then what difference does our praying make whatsoever?  In this case, you could argue that since God is sovereign why do anything at all?  Like breathing?  Or working to put food on the table.  The answer here is that these things seem natural to us.  The natural order of things, how things are, make chewing food, earning money, sleeping, laughing and everything else normal.  And this even for Christians who embrace that God is ruling our lives from his throne.   

[TRANS] As brilliant as Lewis puts this, he like many things leans more on logic and his imagination rather than faith.  At one point, Lewis makes sense sovereignty and praying by casting prayer as a magical superpower that God grants and refuses at his own discretion.  “When [prayer] works at all it works unlimited by space and time.”      

[Appl] Charismatic movements have taken this farther teaching that prayer as a means of manipulation.   

• Dominionists or hyper-charismatic movements emphasize a supernatural power to command things through prayer.  Speaking things into being.   

[Appl] Conservative churches reduce prayer to only being a discipline making this a matter of guilt. The blame for illnesses, tragic circumstances, or friends not yet converted are boiled down to not praying enough. 

[Point] These are man-centered approaches to prayer miss seeing praying in light God’s higher purposes.   

[TRANS] So, working toward resolution, I want to flip our question on the questioner.   

• Instead of asking: “If God is sovereign, why pray?”   

 

• Ask: “Why isn’t God’s sovereignty the best reason to pray?”  

 

Prop:  Why God’s sovereignty is the reason we pray 

 

1. We are commanded to pray 

[Key] Whether or not we can fully know how this fits together we are commanded by our God to pray.   

• Jesus told his disciples to “pray in this way.”   
• In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus assumed believers pray (Matt. 6:5 “When you pray…) 

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 

(Mat 6:9-14 ESV) 

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 

8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 

(Mat 7:7-8 ESV) 

• Paul in Ephesians 6 says, “Put on the full armor of God” finishing with verse 18. 

ESV  Ephesians 6:18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Eph 6:18 ESV) 

• Paul repeats this in 1 Thessalonians 5. 

16 Rejoice always, 

17 pray without ceasing, 

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 

(1Th 5:16-19 ESV) 

[Key] Praying always is a tall order unless taken as a normal disposition – a posture of humility and dependence on God. 

  

1. Jesus models an aggressive prayer life 

Jesus on more than one occasion is recorded as praying through the night.   

• Jesus prayed all night at the outset of his three-year ministry, selecting his 12 Apostles.   

 

• Jesus also on the on the night of his crucifixion.    

 

[Question] What fueled praying with this kind of endurance?   

• Jesus prayed for others as their intercessor. 

ESV  Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:25 ESV)   

• Jesus prayed for God’s will to be accomplished. 

[Illus] It’s important to note how dynamic and passionate Jesus prayed in view of the sovereignty of God.  Jesus knowing, he would die, rise, and be glorified still is seen praying passionately!  

ESV  John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (Joh 17:5 ESV) 

 

[TRANS] I’m not going to spend time proving this from the book of Acts but reading through it looking for the theme of prayer, shows its massive role.   

• Beginning with the 120 the upper room calling down Pentecost. 
• Acts is the story of the church raising prayers heavenward its mission to be completed.   
• In Acts 4 Peter and John were released from prison for preaching the Gospel and the church was seen as praying. 

ESV  Acts 4:24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, (Act 4:24 ESV) 

ESV  Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Act 4:31 ESV) 

[Note] Paul’s letters testify of his intercessory prayer life – see every introduction and conclusion… “always praying for you” – of his epistles.  Not to mention Paul regularly calling for the church to pray.   

ESV  Romans 15:30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, (Rom 15:30 ESV) 

[TRANS] These first two points could be enough but the Bible takes prayer into a deeper dive than mere obedience and modelling.   

 

1. We pray as the means to God’s sovereign ends 

[Key] Prayer is God’s way to involve us in his plan!   

• C.H. Spurgeon pictured prayer as “The slender nerve that moves the muscles of divine omnipotence.”   

[Key] I want to be clear that nowhere in Scripture teaches that prayer changes God’s mind.  Prayer changes things – not God’s mind or his will.   

[Key] God’s human-like characteristics like “repenting” after the Ninevites heeded Jonah’s warning, or God relenting on his promised wrath judgment on the straying Israelites, or how the Holy Spirit is grieved by our sins are anthropomorphic or human-like actions. 

This is simply God relating to us never us so we can understand him NOT changing him!   

ESV  Jeremiah 15:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! (Jer 15:1 ESV) 

ESV  Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Num 23:19 ESV) 

James 1:17 says of God that there is “no variation or shifting…”   

[Key] God’s immutable nature does not subtract from the fact that God has designed for us to participate in fulfilling his will!  Our prayers actually become the “means” to God’s divine ends!   

C.H. Spurgeon said: “our prayers are in the predestination, and that God has as much ordained his people’s prayers as anything else, and when we pray we are producing links in the chain of ordained facts.  Destiny decrees that I should pray – I pray; destiny decrees that I shall be answered, and the answer comes to me.”   

[Key – Application] Believing God’s sovereignty takes pressure off while inspiring me to pray all the while.   

This is It’s praying according to God’s will. 

ESV  1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 

 

[Key] Praying is communing with God – having conversation regarding his will.  This why the early church in Acts in light of severe threats and persecution for their bold faith addressed God as “Sovereign Lord” (Acts 4:24).  They were passionate while trusting God’s sovereignty. 

 

[Illus] Swimming.  This is one of the most aerobic physical activities I can think of and where your heart races and arms and legs are moving while the swimmer through mind and breath control relaxes himself both on the inside and outside. In fact, the more effectively the swimmer does this the more efficiently he swims.   

 

This duel dynamic reminds me of prayer.  While there is passionate work involved, your spirit literally rests, steadied on the rock of God’s sovereignty at the same time!   

 

[Question] How does this work? 

The story of Elijah is referenced in James 5 as one of the clearest examples of powerful praying while resting in God’s will.  

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (Jam 5:13-18 ESV) 

 

[Context] The practical context is for the church to call on elders to gather around to pray for someone hurting physically/spiritually, praying for their healing.   

[Question] What is “the prayer of faith?”  I think both the immediate context and the following illustration prove “the prayer of faith” is when praying is according to God’s will.   

• Confessing sins and being forgiving is always God’s will.  Being saved is promised to those who repent and this is also God’s will.   

 

• Now the illustration of Elijah in verse 17 says he was “a man with a nature like ours” meaning he was ordinary.   

 

• Elijah was esteemed by the Jews like a superhero or a demigod.  The ancient world made a statue for Elijah like Hercules.   

 

• Elijah took on the prophets of Baal at mount Carmel summoning fire from heaven.  He was God’s prophet.   

 

• James reminds us Elijah was just a man so what made him powerful?   

 

• [Key] A quick reading of 1 Kings 17 and 18 where Elijah confronts King Ahab reveals that at every point Elijah knew God’s timetable.  He had a direct line with God’s plan and will.   

 

• ESV  1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (1Ki 17:1 ESV) 

 

• ESV  1 Kings 17:2 And the word of the LORD came to him: (1Ki 17:2 ESV) 

 

• [Key] So, when he “prayed fervently” he did it with full knowledge.  He knew God would use his prayers to stop the forces of nature and to start up again!   

 

[Question] So, “Why pray fervently?”  [Answer] The sovereignty of God is where “fervency” comes.  We are never “fervent” enough or “righteous” enough to summon “great power.” God is!  He brings the power!   

[TRANS] One other example is from Daniel in Daniel 9. 

ESV  Daniel 9:1-5 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans– 

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 

3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 

4 I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 

5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. (Dan 9:1-5 ESV) 

 

[Question] Where does Daniel’s passion to pray come from?  A lack of knowledge?  No!  Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah and connected the dots – the timetable to the Israelites being freed from Babylonian Captivity! 

 

1. We are assured divine outcomes 

[Key] Praying according to God’s will does not mean we always receive the outcome we want.  

• Jesus garden prayed in the garden “not my will but yours be done”  

 

• Paul regarding his “thorn in the flesh” said “your grace is sufficient and your power is perfected in weakness.” 

 

• However, praying in a way that links our hearts with God’s sovereignty is a place to find rest.   

[Illus] Paul’s ministry of evangelism to Corinth illustrates this too.   

9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 

10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 

11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 

(Act 18:9-11 ESV) 

Paul had no way of knowing who would be the “elect” in Corinth.   

• Paul didn’t shy away from moving there for the next 6 months.   
• He didn’t say “Oh there must be a better mission field!”   

• Instead, he took this as God’s calling and he went boldly.   

“Nothing is more a stimulus to evangelistic zeal and effort than the assurance of success, which the truth of sovereign election alone can give.  So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless.  For it creates the possibility – indeed, the certainty- that evangelism will be fruitful.  Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel” (J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God). 

 

Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Antioch and there were rejected by the Jews.  So they turned their attention and preaching to the Gentiles and they were receptive.   

ESV  Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Act 13:48 ESV) 

 

1. It causes us to grow in our dependence on God   

[Appl] Praying in view of the sovereignty of God is casting your whole self upon God’s grace trusting his result is best.   

[Appl] Praying tests whether or not you believe God (and his will) is sufficient and perfect!   

 

[Question] What changes most through prayer? [Answer] Your own heart.   

 

Conclusion: 

It’s probably appropriate to close with another quote from RC Sproul.   

“Prayer is for our benefit…It is our privilege to bring the whole of our finite existence into the glory of His infinite presence.” (RC Sproul).  

 

We come to Jesus NOT to change his mind but to be in his presence.   

 

He will enter into your need and use your prayers as his means to bring about his sovereign ends in your life!   

 

Remember that in 2023 – his plan and will is perfect – pray through 2023 to see God’s will fulfilled in your life – all for God’s glory! 

 

[Appl] This is how I have a quiet time when I have a quiet time. 

 

I use the Robert Murray M’Cheyne study template (and have off and on for 20 plus years).   

 

I can put the template up on my computer and then type meditative prayers.  

 

I can type as fast as I can think, so it works for me to do it that way. 

 

Paul wrote prayers as the introductions to NT letters, but this is not the only way.  

 

Some people walking. Some people stand. Some people sit. Some kneel.   

 

The key is that you relate to God in reverential way and that you do pray. 

 

I have the accountability of studying the Bible to preach. 

 

“Don’t just read the Bible, study the Bible” [Sproul].   

 

Matthew 28 and 2 Timothy say we are to make disciples and to be studying the show ourselves approved, workmen who need not be ashamed… and we can give the Bible out of what we have learned ourselves. 

 

This is the accountability under God for why we read and pray, and through this process we grow, and so there is no magical formula.  

 

There’s not any one place or time that you’re supposed to go and pray in the morning in the evening or night. None of that is specifically prescribed.  

 

What is prescribed is that we pray without ceasing, but it is important that you have some kind of decided commitment to read and pray and study for what is part of your life so they will grow spiritually. Without it we will not be sanctified and truth, as the Word of God is truth. 

 

[Question] There is public, private, and corporate praying. “What is the goal!” 

  

[Answer] The goal of prayer is always Synchronization  

⁃ Your will with God’s will 

⁃ What Jesus always models  

⁃ Especially modeled in crisis 

 

[Illus] Awakened 3am – sister thrown out of car – life and death – forever altered. Prayers in small groups throughout the dorm. One leader out of genuine passion cried out to the Lord (as a misguided comfort) “No more Sovereign prayers!”  

 

As if to say, the outcomes are conjured through the efforts I lay down right now. No! This absolutely abusing the comfort we are given by praying according to Gods will. Knowing he is in control as we seek his face for help! 

 

[Illus] I remember swimming as a little boy (4 years old?) – pushed in by a bully from afternoon class. Struggled looking up to the surface, seeing light, fighting, somehow getting to the wall (picture of praying by our strength with an undetermined outcome).  

 

Then I saw this bully later sneaking in to claim new victims. I’m on the other side of the pool jump off the side to my instructor (Jim, built and bearded which made him the boss, I mistakenly called him the Gym). 

 

Learning how to effectively enter, turn, and get to the wall. He looked across the pool to the other end, seeing my friend Neal who was effectively drowning, having been pushed in, my teacher tucked me under his arm and darted to his rescue.  

 

Neal was drowning and fighting for the side of the pool but his outcome (from a human standpoint was sure). He fought for the side but there was another sovereign who was there, who was going to bring him the safety.  

 

Would Neal knowing help was on his way, make his struggle and effort to the side lesser or greater?  I think he would have been stronger, strengthened by a guaranteed outcome.  

 

Pray because God is Sovereign and Pray to synchronize with is involvement with you and your life that are playing out according to his sovereign plan.