The Source of Power

My passion / my calling is reaching those who won’t walk into a church

Secular Humanism > religion of self

Sound nice on a bumper sticker

Confused, sexually broken, lonely, anxious

NOT statistics...people in YOUR life you care about.

So what do we do??

Look to the example of Nehemiah in the OT

Nehemiah 1:4

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days, I mourned and

fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

This is an intense response

His response provides crucial insight into how we actually make a difference as

followers of Jesus

A common mistake that people make is to think we just need the perfect approach.

We want to know the right combination of words to say, the perfect book, or video, or

strategy that will make the difference..

But ALL real change in people’s lives is the result of God’s supernatural power

That’s why the Apostle Paul said,

1 Corinthians 2:2-5

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him

crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message

and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration

of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s

power.

WHAT I’VE EXPERIENCED, AND WHAT NEHEMIAH IS DEMONSTRATING IS THIS:

God unleashes His power, not through technique or talent, but through those who pray

CONSIDER THIS PROMISE:

Hebrews 11:6 says:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must

believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him

EVERY MAJOR MOVE OF GOD, EVERY REVIVAL, IS BUILT ON FOUNDATION

PRAYER

And yet, most of followers of Jesus feel stuck in their faith, and powerless to

effect change in the lives of those around them

WHY? Especially since many of us don’t even struggle with believing in prayer. We struggle with actually doing it.

Elisabeth Elliot (missionary in the mid 1900's)

People who ski happen to enjoy skiing; they have time for skiing, can afford to ski, and

are good at skiing. I have found that I often treat prayer as though it were a sport like

skiing— something you do if you like it, something you do in your spare time, something

you do if you can afford the trouble, something you do if you’re good at it....

But prayer isn’t a sport. It’s work....

Seldom do we consider the nature of our opponent, and that is to his advantage. When

we do recognize him for what he is, however, we have an inkling as to why prayer is

never easy. It’s the weapon that Unseen Power dreads most, and if he can get us

to treat it as casually as we treat a pair of skis or a tennis racquet, he can keep his

Hold

Does this describe my prayer life? Our prayer lives?

According to a Barna study:

Average Christian: ~1 minute/day in prayer

Pastors: ~5 minutes/day on average

Typical prayer meeting? Routine, domesticated, devoid of passion and

Conviction.

Why? Why has our prayer life become so weak?

The first part of Hebrews 11:6 gives us a critical insight....

anyone who comes to him must believe he exists…

Surely we all believe God exists right?

The author is begging the question. Do you really? NOT WHAT YOU SAY…

Would a transcript of my prayer life reveal that I truly believe God exists?

Look, it’s easy to say that God exist but our actions say otherwise or maybe we did

once but now we’ve become realistic and cynical or maybe the God we believe in is of

our own making

One thing is for sure we all need to see God more clearly

describe God

If God is really who the bible says He is and then we read a promise like “God WILL

reward those who seek Him” not maybe, not sometimes, but WILL

would this not revolutionize our prayer lives?

You see having an accurate view of God changes everything.

The theologian AW Tozer wrote,

" Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "what

comes into your mind when you think about God" we might predict with certainty the

spiritual future of that man"

WHAT we think of when we think of God is EVERYTHING.

Small God = weak prayers - Big God desperate prayers

When we don't see God for who He is we turn to human solutions and strategies and

we are bound by our limitations…

"But God we are so small, we don't have a lot of resources..."

But If God is behind you aren't limited by human thinking because it’s not about you

and what you do or do not have!

It's about God and seeking Him with a desperate heart

So what does this look like to seek Him in this way?

Jesus illustrates it beautifully in Luke 11:5-8

5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at

midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a

journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one

inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children

and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he

will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your

shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

UNPACK IT.

This passage gives us a few crucial principles of desperate prayer:

Pray unreasonable prayers

ARE WE TOO REASONABLE IN YOUR REQUESTS?

Imagine Elon Musk calls you and says “I’ll give you whatever you ask for...” (worth 830 billion last time I checked)

WHAT IF WE ASKED FOR SOME THINGS ONLY HE COULD DO?

This is NOT health, wealth, or prosperity...it’s about recognizing the power of who is doing the promising

AND don’t give up

Give me bread!

Many of you once asked, but you’ve grown tired…

Be like the Widow before the unjust judge

THIS IS HOW GOD WANTS US TO PRAY…why don’t we?

If all this is true, and I think most followers of Jesus know it is, why do we pray on

average less than 1 minute per day?

Apart from needing a renewed view of God...there are two main reason:

We are too busy and too comfortable

There are two remedies:

A crisis

A deadline

Pop-Up Pod Illustration / PICTURE

We need to be putting ourselves in situations that produce “Oh this could

go horrible wrong, God, help me!” kind of prayers.

For you this might be…

Scheduling a lunch w/ a non-believing family member, colleague, or friend and PLAN on sharing the Gospel

Signing up for a missions trip in a place outside your comfort zone

Joining a local outreach where you will be expected to share your faith

If you take these kinds of risks, your motivation to pray will skyrocket...and what

God can do is amazing

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO

But ultimately, none of this is the MAIN reason we pray…

God is not a genie, and our prayers will not always be answered in the way that we

want...but by seeking Him we gain something even more valuable than re-arranged

circumstances...we get God himself

Prayer is how we cultivate that intimacy...how we get to know God.

Maybe some of you have never experienced this intimacy...even though you’ve been

part of this church thing your whole life

Or maybe you walked in here, and you’re not entirely sure why...

In either case, I want to give you an opportunity to encounter Jesus in a real way

this morning…

PRAYER:

Jesus, thank you that you love me

Thank you for dying for me

and raising from the dead

So that I could be forgiven for the bad things that I’ve done

I surrender everything to you today

And with your help, I choose to follow you for the rest of my life.