The Power of Expectant Prayer

Grace Point already feels like home. I mean that. So, thank you. So, thank you so much. You You guys have done an amazing job of just pouring out love and welcoming our whole family.

We feel right at home here. Even though we’re not yet moved to Tiger, we are super excited to to be here this morning with you. It it’s it’s coming along. We’re we’re we’re going to find something that I’m sure of it. I was reading recently about a world champion bodybuilder who went on a tour to Africa to promote good health and physical fitness.

And he went from city to city and he ended up going to some villages and he came to this really remote village and as he was going into his spiel and kind of flexing his muscles and showing off his his physique, he got interrupted. It was the first time it had happened to him. And an older guy comes up to him, turns out to be the village chieftain and he speaks to the bodybuilder in a through a translator and he says, “You know, I’m very impressed. I have never seen so many muscles on one man.” And the bodybuilder kind of smirks and gives the crowd another show of his physique.

And he says, the chief says, “You know, I I only have one question for you.” what do you use those muscles for? And he says, “I’m a bodybuilder. That’s my profession. That’s my job.”

And the chief says, “So, you don’t use your muscles for anything else?” He says, “No.” And he the chief kind of shook his head and said, “What a waste. What a what a waste to have all those muscles and never use them.” Now, I share that story because it’s a bit of a parable for what it’s like when followers of Jesus don’t tap into the resurrection power that’s available to us by the Holy Spirit.

And the Bible talks about this. This power that’s available to us is is as close as the air around us. All we have to do is ask for it. God promises that if we will just ask, he will give his Holy Spirit. He will give us his strength, his resurrection power.

So, here’s the big idea this morning. The resurrection emboldens us to persist in prayer, fully expecting God to fulfill the promises given in his word. So, we’re going to jump right into the book of Acts, Acts 1, since we’ve got some good ground to cover here. So, Acts 1, beginning in verse 12. I’m just going to read this as you’re seated there.

It says in Acts 1:12, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivette, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath’s day’s journey away. And when he had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, not the Scariot, Judas the son of James.” All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. So here’s the context.

The disciples have just been through an emotional roller coaster. It’s been a wild ride over the the last 40 plus days for them. And so with the help of some emojis, I’m going to I’m going to walk us through some of the emotions that these disciples have experienced. Some really bright guy realized that it’s hard to convey emotions over text messages and so he he came up with the idea of emojis that we use those to make sure people know when we’re joking and stuff like that. But we’re going to walk through this.

So first of all, the disciples learned that one of their own, Judas’s Scariot, had betrayed Jesus. And when they learned this, they were of course mad. They were mad. You know, Peter was so mad that he was ready to whack off a guy’s ear. That that’s how mad they were.

They couldn’t believe someone was going to betray Jesus. Next, they had to watch Jesus, their beloved Lord and Savior, endure crucifixion on a Roman cross. And so, obviously, that made them sad. They they hid in an upper room. Well, before we get to that, they they were sad as they watched Jesus die.

And you know, they thought about this. We call it Good Friday. At that time, think about this. It was anything but good. This was the worst news possible.

Can you imagine someone you’d spent three years with and he’s gone just like that? But it dawned on them that if the Romans could crucify Jesus, then it’s only a matter of time before they came after his followers. And so now they were scared. They were they were scared. So they they went into the upper room in Jerusalem.

They locked the door. It says in the Gospel of John. They were they didn’t want anyone to find them. They were terrified. But on Easter Sunday, they got this surprising news from these women that went to the tomb early in the morning.

They came back and they said, “Guess what? The tomb is empty.” And now they were confused. What’s going on? Who who stole the body of Jesus?

This doesn’t make any sense. Why would the tomb be empty? They didn’t understand it. Of course, the truth is no one stole the body of Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead.

And so, this made them overjoyed because Jesus appeared to them alive in the flesh. He showed the proof that he was raised from the dead. This was the best news ever. Jesus is alive. But after 40 days, Jesus ascended into heaven, which meant that they were still happy but a little bit sad because, you know, Jesus, they they wanted Jesus to be with them.

And now Jesus was leaving them, physically leaving them. But Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit. And this was certainly an amazing promise. This was an awesome thing to know that God himself would dwell in them. But they’d never experienced this before.

So they didn’t know exactly what to expect. So now they were curious. Who exactly is the Holy Spirit? What does it mean that his power is going to fill us? What does that look like?

They had gone through all these emotions and and no doubt after all this this roller coaster that they’ve been riding on. They they’re they’re now going back into Jerusalem after Jesus has ascended into heaven. They followed his instructions. They’re going to wait. They’re going to wait for the Holy Spirit.

And so what do they do? They gather together in that upper room. They get together as 120 disciples, a group maybe a little bit smaller than the group we have here. And what did they do? They prayed.

Bible says they, in fact, in the NIV it says in verse 14, they all joined together constantly in prayer. So this was no five minute quick prayer meeting or a, you know, a meal prayer that you offer up, you know, just so you can get to the food. No, this was they were constantly in prayer. They were devoted to it. They understood this is what we need to be about.

It’s not about making plans or strategizing or anything else right now. We need to be seeking our Lord. Now, if you’re like me and you’ve had times in your life where prayer is a struggle, then I hope this message will be an encouragement to you. Now, if you have prayer mastered and and you never struggle with prayer at all and and you know it’s always pure delight 24/7 365, this message may not have a lot for you to be honest. But if you’re like me and and your prayer life has ups and downs.

There’s times where you’re just on fire and you’re ready to pray. And then there’s times where you’re, you know, struggling with what to say, how to begin, what where do I pray, where do I go in the midst of this? Well, then I think this message will be an encouragement to you. And I want to begin with that key question. Why is prayer sometimes a struggle?

On the one hand, it seems so easy. We get to talk to God. All we have to do is move our lips or or think prayerful thoughts and we’re talking to our creator. It seems so simple. And yet, Christians often struggle with this.

They they often have a challenge to stay focused in prayer. And I think the the answer is you and I have an enemy. See, there’s this deep spiritual reason why prayer can sometimes be a struggle for us. It’s it’s something because you know the devil who the Bible says is like a roaring lion. He’s looking for someone to devour.

He is doing whatever he can to cut off that communication line between God and his children. And so he will do whatever he can to discourage you from continuing in prayer. Maybe you didn’t have a prayer answered and so you’re discouraged to keep praying. He will do whatever he can to diffuse your energy in prayer. He will do whatever he can to distract your focus in prayer.

You and I have an enemy. The devil uses every resource he can. That’s why maybe you can relate to this. That’s why sometimes you get all set to pray. You’re ready for this beautiful prayer time with the Lord.

You get you get alone with him and then your mind starts to go off these rabbit trails. You get a little distracted. You want to look at your phone or maybe you start to feel a little sleepy like those disciples did in the garden. You know, there’s a reason for that. We are in a spiritual battle and there are forces, real evil, unseen forces that want to keep you from praying.

And here’s a secret I’ll tell you. The devil is terrified of your prayers. He is terrified because he knows that God primarily works in the world through his people and their prayers. And so if he can discourage you or if he can dissuade you from praying or think, “Oh, that’s not worth my time,” then the devil has gained the upper hand. So I’m going to give you seven reasons why we must pray.

Let these reasons be a motivator for you when you’re struggling in your prayer life. Number one reason because prayer glorifies God. Jesus said in John 14:13, “Whatever you ask in my name,” that’s very broad. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in the son.” When we pray, we are asking God to act on our behalf.

We’re asking God to do something that we cannot do. We’re asking him to get into spaces and go places where we can’t go, where where we can’t make a difference on our own. That’s why we pray. These disciples gathered in the upper room had no false pretensions about what they were capable of. They they knew this is something we can’t do on our own.

We need our creator to work in us and through us. We need him to invade our situation. They needed his presence. And remember, this is when the church was first being launched. So there weren’t church buildings like we typically think of today.

They were gathered in an upper room because that’s the space they had. And and as they’re getting ready to start the church, launching Christianity, if you will, they don’t make budget plans. They don’t make strategizing plans. They don’t do all this strategic work to think, okay, how can we raise funds or how can we get the word out? They start with prayer.

Because they understood everything begins with God. If God is not in this, it’s all for nothing. And so they prayed together. And followers of Jesus have held prayer meetings ever since. So why is it that we begin our meetings here at Graceoint in prayer?

Or why do we pray during the service? It’s because prayer glorifies God. James said, ‘You do not have because you do not ask. You do not have because you do not ask. God wants us to ask.

There are times where you’re not going to have something because you didn’t pray for it. That’s very simple. So when we ask God to intervene, he responds. When we ask, God supplies. And when God supplies, we get to thank him.

And when we thank God, he gets the glory. So prayer is ultimately about God being glorified through his work in the world. Second reason we must pray because without desperate prayer we grow self-sufficient. This is an absolute rule about prayer. When we aren’t praying, we’re self-sufficient.

We think we can do it on our own. But Jesus said in John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, then you will bear much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. In other words, nothing of eternal lasting great importance, nothing, no spiritual fruit can come apart from prayer.

We get a sense of how desperately these disciples were praying throughout the book of Acts. It’s like every chance they get, they’re gathering together and they’re praying. They’re seeking God’s face. This isn’t some religious obligation as if they have a box to check or you know some quotota to fulfill. No, they’re seeking the Lord because they know how desperate they are without him.

A great way to cultivate your prayer life is to spend some time in the book of Psalms. The Psalms is a great book. Just if you spend time going slowly through the Psalms, you get a sense of how desperate the psalmist is. You know, there’s there’s no wrote prayers. Let me just give you a sampling.

And as I read these, ask yourself between you and God, ask yourself, do my prayers sound like this? Psalm 102. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.

Incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call. Psalm 118:5, “Out of my distress I called on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free.” Psalm 142, I cry out to the Lord.

I plead for the Lord’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. Now, I could go on, but you get a sense that the psalmist is desperate. He is weighed down. He’s burdened.

And he wants to unload everything before the Lord. And see, this is what God wants us to do. He wants us to come before him as his children, not with cleaned up, perfect prayers. He wants us to come and show our hearts to be real with him about where we’re at. Sometimes the psalmist even sounds a bit brash.

Listen to Psalm 35:23. Awake, Lord, and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord. Now, I don’t know about you, but telling God he needs to wake up as if he’s been asleep, it sounds a little disrespectful to me. But based on psalms like that, I believe that what God most wants is for us to just come before him, to cry out desperately, to be real and honest with him, to passionately seek him. That’s what God wants more than these respectful sounding but ultimately wrote and repetitious prayers that aren’t from the heart.

God wants us to come boldly to the throne of grace. He doesn’t want us to grow passive or self-sufficient and think, you know what, I’ve got this on my own. That is anti- prayer right there. Third, why we must pray? Because through prayer, the church is united in the faith.

The church is united in the faith. Over and over in the book of Acts, the the church gathers to pray together and amazing things happen. And they’re united that there’s this supernatural dynamic that happens when followers of Jesus pray together. It’s awesome and amazing that we get to pray individually to the Lord when we’re off on our own on the way to work or whatever it might be. But when Christians gather to pray, there’s this extra special thing that happens because it’s all of us in it together.

Now, over the last couple years, I’ve been teaching my boys the basics of building a fire. It’s a pretty basic life skill to have, knowing how to build a fire. And what I tell them is the very first step is to gather a bunch of sticks, right? And and because if you have only one piece of kindling, it’s it’s not going to work well. It’s going to burn out quickly.

You need a whole supply of them. And in that same principle is true for prayer, corporate prayer, because you can think about this. What if someone in the church is going through something very hard, is discouraged, feels disconnected from God. Maybe he doesn’t even want to pray, doesn’t feel like praying. Well, that person is like a wet piece of wood.

Now, a wet piece of wood on its own doesn’t burn so great. But if you take that wet piece of wood and you and you put it in an already blazing campfire, eventually even that wet piece of wood will catch on fire. That’s how it is when believers come together in the power of the Holy Spirit to pray, to cry out to God. So these first Christians were acknowledging the church is not our idea. It’s not a human invention.

It is God’s idea. It’s all his doing. It’s his power that moves the gospel forward. They had no false ideas about that. Jesus said that the church is his.

It’s his institution. He will build. He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Unfortunately, many Christians today have downplayed the importance of gathering together for corporate prayer. And you know, I think about how we live in a a time when it’s there’s a lot of emphasis in our culture on self-expression and and you know, self fulfillment.

And there’s this radical individualism that pushes against this corporate nature of gathering together to pray. But these first Christians understood that we need to gather together to pray. We need to be one and united in this. If a church is marred by divisions and backbiting and rumor milling, the best possible cure is corporate prayer. It’s coming together because you know what?

If you’re mad at someone or you’re having an issue with someone, you know what’s going to fix that? You start praying for them. You start praying for them over and over and over and God will work on your heart through that. That’s the unifying power of prayer. Fourth, why we must pray?

Because when we persist in prayer, we get to experience the joy of seeing God at work. These Christians in Acts one were standing at a crossroad. This was after Jesus’s ascension and before the Holy Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost. And so they’re waiting. They’re in that waiting period.

And you could understand if they felt a little bit lost and confused and maybe alone during that time as they’re waiting. But they were committed to praying together. And they had learned this from Jesus. Jesus had modeled for them the power of prayer. Now think about this.

The son of God, fully God, fully man. And yet he had this regular habit of going off to be by himself to seek the father to be alone with the father. And and the disciples, I imagine them just watching this unfold, seeing Jesus go off on these prayer retreats. And that’s why they even asked him, “Lord, how do we pray? We want to pray like you pray.

Teach us to pray. Paul admonishes us to pray without ceasing. To be constant in prayer. Now some people say, “Now if God has already decreed the end from the beginning, if he’s already decreed what will happen, why bother praying? What what’s the point of praying?

God’s already decided what’s going to happen.” Well, in prayer, God invites us to have a crucial role, an essential role, in fact, in how his story unfolds. It’s true that God has said certain things will happen, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to pray. The simple fact is that while God has ordained the ends, he’s also ordained the means. And that’s through prayer.

There are certain things where scriptur is very clear on this. It says if you don’t pray, it’s not going to happen. You if you don’t ask it won’t come. It won’t be granted. The primary way God is advancing his kingdom is through his people, his church, and through their prayers.

When we pray, what we’re doing is we’re calling on heaven to invade earth. We’re calling on a supernatural reality to to come into our situation and change things that we can’t change. And when we see our prayers answered, we get to experience the joy of seeing God at work. Fifth, why we must pray? Because when we ask God for wisdom and direction, he is eager to grant it.

As these believers were gathered in prayer, you know who stood up and spoke among them? It was Peter. Now, Peter, that that seems pretty unlikely, kind of improbable given the fact that just a little bit ago, it was Peter that had denied even knowing Jesus. And and now he’s the guy who’s standing up. This would seem a little odd if it weren’t for the resurrection.

See, the only reason that Peter would feel at all qualified and at all have the boldness to stand up and say, “I’m going to be the lead spokesman here,” is if the risen Jesus had come to him, as in John 21, and restored Peter and said to Peter, “You’re my guy, Peter. I love you. I forgive you, and I want you to feed my sheep.” So Peter stands up. He addresses the elephant in the room which is Judas a Scariot.

They’re all aware there’s no longer 12 of them. There’s 11 because one of us that somehow we missed it. We did not see this coming but one of us betrayed our Lord. And so Peter interprets their situation with scripture. This is what we should do.

Says in verse 15, in those days Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about 120 and said, “Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” He says, “David wrote about a traitor back in the Psalms. He wrote about a traitor in his day.

But what was really happening is the Holy Spirit was speaking through David and telling us about Judas. See, that’s the amazing thing in the Bible is there will be times where without even realizing it, David 1,000 years before it happens is talking about a person who’s going to betray the Messiah. He’s doing that by the Holy Spirit’s power. Now, here’s the point. While every one of those apostles was completely taken by surprise when Judas betrayed Jesus, God wasn’t surprised.

God saw it coming not just from a thousand years ahead of time, from all eternity. Jesus even told them, “One of you will betray me.” But they never saw it coming. That’s a reminder for us that there will be times in life when we will be blindsided by something. Something that we never saw coming.

We never even imagined it could happen. But you need to take solace in that moment. God saw it coming. He knew exactly what was going to happen to you and he’s working out his purposes in your life. These apostles looked at the old covenant, the 12 tribes of Israel.

They said that number 12 is significant. We recognize that. And now for the new covenant people, we need that same number 12. 12 founding apostles. We’re down to 11.

We need a replacement for Judas. Peter says this in verse 21. So, one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. So, notice that allimportant qualification to be an apostle, you had to be a witness of the resurrection. Because the church was founded on the resurrection.

There was no message to share. There was no hope to proclaim, no gospel without the resurrection. And so these 12 founding members had to see the risen Jesus. Verse 23. So they nominated two men, Joseph called Barabus, also known as Justice.

Apparently that guy had three names. And Matias. Then they and what does it say? They did what? They prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart.

Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry which Judas left to go where he belongs.” That ominous ending there for Judas, to go where he belongs. Now, these disciples prayed. They knew wisdom comes from God. And they recognized it is utter foolishness to try to make plans in life and especially to try to move the church forward apart from prayer.

You and I live in the age of smartphones and access to the internet in the palm of our hands, you know, which is the world’s database of information, right? And you know, we’ve benefited so much from technology. It’s a gift of common grace that we’ve all benefited from technology in so many ways. And yet, I would also say that it’s very easy in our day and age to depend more on smartphones and technology than on prayer. It’s very easy to have that become a quick replacement.

I have a question. I need to get the answer to it. Where do I turn? These disciples recognize true wisdom is sourced in heaven, not on earth. No matter how much you pull all the masses of human wisdom, it will never compare to the wisdom from God.

Sixth, we must pray because prayer emboldens us to speak the gospel faithfully. So once again, these first disciples understood that the kingdom of God does not advance through clever planning or or clever strategizing. They understood the kingdom of of God advances through the power of expectant prayer. And this is how we see them praying. If you flip a couple pages forward to Acts chapter 4, look in Acts 4.

In Acts 4, Peter and John are arrested for healing a lame beggar in the name of Jesus. And they’re they’re taken in and they’re threatened by the religious authorities. But then after they’re released, they go back and they join up with the rest of the believers. And it says this in verse 24, they lifted their voices together to God. Now, when we pray for our missionaries or when we pray, when we go on a mission trip, u most often the things that we pray for, I would say, are safety and success, right?

And those are great things to pray for. I am not going to add all discourage praying for safety and success of our missionaries. I just want to point out that was not the focus of their prayer here. And in verse 29, e even after being threatened with persecution, this is how they prayed. And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.

And it says in verse 31, “And when they had prayed,” notice things happen when the church prays together. Prayer changes things. When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. Just imagine this whole building quaking and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. See, God loves to answer prayers for boldness.

You may not even think of yourself as an evangelist or someone who can talk to others about Jesus, but it’s worth spending some time meditating on Acts chapter 4, looking at that prayer, maybe even memorizing it, because when we pray for boldness and opportunities to share the gospel, I promise you they will come. Now, you may say, “I wouldn’t even know what to say.” But here’s the point. If you’re spending time with Jesus in your own personal life, if you’re spending time with Jesus, you’ll have something to say. And the disciples, they struggled with this one, too, because Jesus told them in Matthew 10, “Do not be anxious about what you are to say or how you are to say it, for in that hour it will be given to you what you’re to say.”

So pray for boldness. Seventh, we must pray because God often heals through prayer. God often heals through prayer. Something else we see in the book of Acts is this repeated theme of people being supernaturally healed through the power of expectant prayer. In the book of James is a great study on this.

James 5 says, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. 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.” which by the way reminds us of the importance of praying together as the body of Christ.

Now, the big question people have when they look at passages like this and elsewhere is why doesn’t God always heal? If you’re like me, you’ve had many situations where you’ve prayed expectantly and God healed and it was awesome. And you’ve had situations where you’ve prayed expectantly and God didn’t heal. And the question people always want to ask in that is why? And I’ll be honest, I don’t know.

But I do know that God is always willing the ultimate good of his children. So if you pray and God heals, that’s because he’s a loving father who delights to heal his children. If you pray and God does not heal, well, that tells you that God has a good purpose in that sickness, that suffering, or in that death. He has a good purpose in that. Imagine sitting down with Job.

You know, Job, you know, he’s sitting there. He’s covered with soores all over his body. He’s just a mess. He’s lost all his children. He’s lost all his property, all his possessions.

They’ve all been stolen or destroyed. He He’s left with a wife who says, “Hey, Job, why do you curse God and die?” Like, “Thanks, wife.” I I would imagine that, you know, after all that, Job is feeling pretty worthless, pretty hopeless. And yet, if we were to come along and say, “Well, Job, there must be a reason, you know, offer some kind of statement like that, I I’m guessing it wouldn’t be all that encouraging to Job.”

That’s what his friends basically did. There must be a reason. But imagine if the friends had instead said, ‘Job, I don’t know why you’re going through this, but I love you and God loves you and I’m going to stand with you through this and I’m going to pray for you. In other words, I can’t explain this, Job, but here’s what I can do. I can pray for you.

And that is an awesome thing when a Christian brother or sister comes along and says to you, “What you’re going through right now, I can’t explain. I’m not even going to try to explain it, but I can pray for you. That’s how I can show my love to you. Now, God often does heal, and it’s awesome to see someone’s life extended several more years or even decades sometimes. But if we’re honest, what we most want is not just an extended version of this life.

What we most want is for people to know eternal life. We want people to know the love of Jesus because that lasts forever. And so even in the midst of praying for someone, we need to keep in mind what lasts forever. Here’s my bold challenge to you. This is what we’ll close with.

What steps can you take to pray more fervently and expectantly in your life? What steps can you take to from this day forward pray more

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,602 words.