Let’s Pray

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe explores the power and significance of prayer in the Christian life. Drawing from Luke 18, he emphasizes Jesus' teaching on persistent prayer, encouraging believers not to give up even when circumstances seem dire or God seems distant. Ihfe highlights Paul's prayer for the Philippian church, demonstrating how prayer shapes our hearts and helps us see the world through God's eyes.

The pastor stresses that God is not just a starter but a finisher, who will complete the good work He begins in us. He encourages the congregation to pray together, citing Philippians 4:6-7, which instructs us to pray in every situation. Ihfe explains that communal prayer ushers us into the reality of our need for one another and brings about a peace that defies understanding. He concludes by challenging the church to be people of prayer, partnering with God in His reconciling work in the world.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, if you have your Bible with you, I invite you to open over to Luke 18. We'll be there for a couple of minutes this morning. As you're making your way there, I want to tell you about something that's coming up this week that we are excited about, the Broadway Missions Ministry. Many of you know, the last couple of years we've had three of our mission points rotate off. They have retired and kind of stepped out of that role and into retirement or into a new career, a new pursuit.

And so as a missions ministry, we invited you a couple of years ago to start praying with us to be intentional about thinking God, where is it that you're working and where are you calling us? And so this morning we want to invite you to do something with us. This next week we have launched a prayer initiative. It's beginning today. It'll last through next Sunday.

There's no magic in it being one week long. It's just the culmination of a couple of years of prayer to say. For this next week, we want to take the next seven days and focus specifically praying together as a church for what God is doing in the world. As you heard, Brock mentioned a minute ago that we might join him, we might partner with him. So we're going to take seven days and each day we'll send you a prompt if you're willing to join us in this task.

Some of you got a text, hopefully all of you did this week from Glue. That is our new Broadway number where we can communicate more regularly and maybe in some more creative ways. And this is one of those ways. In fact, if you pull your camera out now or your phone and you want to scan that QR code, it will automatically populate the message to the number. If you hit send to that, it will put you into our prayer initiative.

And each morning about 7:30 or so, you're going to receive a prompt from us for the day. Something to keep in mind as we're praying together over the next seven days. And just asking God, would you show us where you're at work in the world and where it is that you're inviting us to come alongside and join you in that work. This morning we're going to talk a little bit about prayer and why it matters and why it's important. But this is certainly one tangible way that we'd love for you as a church family that we could together search and seek God's face in his direction.

As we're thinking about our newest mission point, we are excited. If you have not had a chance to visit with any of our mission team. You're going to be hearing more over the next coming weeks as we anticipate Mission Sunday talking about where it is that God’s helping us take our next step on journey of faith with Him. But again, if you haven't had a chance to do so, we want to invite you to join us in this mission prayer. Now, if texting is not your thing, that's okay.

We can email this to you as well. So simply just contact the church office, let us know. You can put that on your connection card and just say, hey, email me those prayer prompts each morning. We'd be happy to do that as well. We are excited about what God is doing and what is happening and how he is opening doors of opportunity for us.

And many of us have had a chance to start walking through some of those and we want to do that more officially as a church. We are again very excited about the coming years and the mission work that God is doing and will continue to do and and through Broadway. As we think about prayer, One of my favorite definitions of prayers is by a guy named Robert Mulholland Jr. He wrote a book called Invitation to a Journey. And here's how he describes prayer defines prayer at least one way.

He says prayer is the act by which the people of God become incorporated into the presence and action of God in the world. This morning I wants to think a little about prayer and why we pray and how it matters to us as followers of Jesus. If you've had a chance to be in our Sunday morning Bible class, this most recent series is on spiritual disciplines and Kalee's written a great curriculum, kind of organized that for us. And one of the weeks she leads us in thinking about prayer and why prayer is a discipline and the significance of that. So I'm not going to chase some of those rabbits.

If you want to get deeper into the topic that we're talking about this morning, I invite you to find that curriculum. We've posted it online. We'd love for you to take a look at it to think about it. We'd love to hear thoughts on it. But Jesus believed in the power of prayer.

He believed and dedicated much of his life and his personal time to spending time in prayer to the Father. In fact, that's what we find him doing here this morning. In Luke 18, he's teaching his followers something about the significance of prayer. In fact, we hear it in verse one of Luke tells us in chapter 18. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Now, why do you think Luke wanted to share that with them? Why would he say, Jesus told us this parable so that we would always pray and not give up? The natural response of this because they're tempted to not always pray and to give up. Now, I don't know about you. Have you ever been tempted to give up?

Have you ever been tempted to give up and praying about something? You've been praying for a while or for a person or a situation or a circumstance that's really important to you, and yet it doesn't seem like God's really listening. Have you had those moments in your life where you feel like, my prayer just hits the ceiling and bounces back down? Now, that's not new. We all experienced that.

In fact, that's part of the life of faith. Jesus knew that. He understood that. I imagine Jesus at times struggled with this, right? We're told the Hebrew writer, Jesus struggled with every sin.

He knows it, but he was sinless to know. Jesus experienced some of the struggles that we. All the struggles that we experience. Jesus said, I want to tell you a story, guys. I want to tell you a story about why it matters that you keep praying, that you don't give up.

And then he proceeds to tell the story. And it's a little bit confusing at first, right? When Jesus tells a story about a judge and other people, we tend to kind of think, well, the judge is God in this situation. But if we read this story, as Greg did first just a moment ago, this judge doesn't sound too godly. Number one, he doesn't fear God, and he doesn't really care what people think about him or what they think about his job.

In fact, he seems mostly annoyed, mostly annoyed that there is this woman who just keeps pressing, who keeps pressing and keeps pressing in on him. She says, give me vindication. Give me justice. And the judge, he's not really moved by that. In fact, he doesn't think much about that.

He doesn't seem to care a whole lot.

He cares mostly for himself. And Jesus ends the story by saying, but because she's so persistent, even this ruthless, evil judge grants her vindication. How much more so will our great God, who is just. He is faithful. He cares deeply about his people, every one of them he created.

He wants to see justice come. Jesus says, don't give up. Don't quit. Keep praying. Then he tells the second story.

It's another kind of a formal setting, a law situation, a courthouse setting if you will. Even though it's happening at the temple. And we've talked about this parable before. There's this Pharisee and the tax collector and the Pharisee begins to argue his case by saying, God, here's what I do, here's who I am, Here are all the wonderful things that I did. Unlike this bozo over here.

Loose translation. He doesn't know you. He doesn't tithe, he doesn't spend any time. In fact, he's working for the enemy. He's laying out his case.

Why he is better than the tax collector. God, thank you that I'm not like this guy. Thank you that my life is not oriented around the same things that his life is oriented around now. I can't help but wonder if the tax collector could hear him, that he might say, yeah, he's right. That's true.

In fact, the tax collector is so convicted that he can't even look up into heaven. He knows his life has been oriented around all the wrong things. He's been chasing the wrong dream and it's left him broken and broken hearted. And so all he can do is cry out and pray for mercy. O God, have mercy.

And Jesus tells us that he is the one who actually goes home vindicated that God's justice is made right in his life. See, Jesus encourages his followers not to give up even when the world around them isn't fair. And it seems like everything in life is going in the wrong direction. And Jesus says, don't give up. Even when you have messed up your life so royally that you can't even bear to look someone else in the eye.

He says, you're God. Our God is a God of mercy who loves to redeem and vindicate his people. Keep reaching out. Keep seeking. Keep trusting.

Keep praying. Don't give up. Don't give up. In my study this week, the next passage we're going to look at, I came across Nie Wright pointed out this prayer by a guy named Sir Francis Drake. I don't know if you remember him from school.

Some of our students may recognize this wonderful picture. It looks like just a fine gentleman. Doesn't heive from 1540 to 1596. He's English. He's most well known for circumnavigating the globe.

It took him three years to do it. Kind of an interesting. There's a prayer that's been attributed to Sir Francis Drake and this is that prayer. O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavor any Great matter. Grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life for us, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Amen. It just rolls off the tongue, essentially, this prayer of saying, God, would you help us to see that whenever we start something that really matters, it's not the starting that really matters. It's the perseverance, it's the keeping up. It's the finishing of what we started that really matters. For the one who undertook an incredible thing on our behalf and finished.

Jesus Christ. Amen. I imagine that Drake, as he set off to sail three years and five ships into it, by the time he finished, there was one ship left. There were several moments along the way he could have given up, but he didn't. He persevered.

I can't help but wonder if that was maybe some of what's going on in the back of Paul's mind is he's writing to the church in Philippi. You may remember, you may be familiar with this letter or not. Paul was a man of prayer. He believed deeply in prayer. In fact, all throughout Philippians we get a sense of that.

We get a little window into his prayer life as he offers several prayers on behalf of this church, who he loved, he cared deeply about. I think he shares with his prayers with the church for a couple of reasons. Number one, he modeling to them how to pray, like what to be praying for. But I also think he wants them to know how God feels about them. That prayer is one of those ways that we get to connect with the heart of God and what he's doing in the world.

You see, Paul believed that God wasn't just a starter. He wasn't just a creator who spins things up and then steps back and hope this all works out well. Instead, he believed God's a finisher. In fact, we're going to hear that in verse three, he says, I thank my God every time I remember you, church. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Now it's right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. And whether I'm in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. And God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul's prayers are Marked by a number of things, but certainly here in Philippians, we see his prayers are Marked with joy, a joy at knowing that he has fellowship with those who are continuing to serve. A God who doesn't just start things, he finishes them.

In fact, he has started to work in that church, he says, and God's not going to quit. He's not halfway through going to get bored or distracted or tired or frustrated or just overwhelmed. But he is going to carry it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. Philippi, you may remember, is located in northern Greece. It's the first European location that got to hear the Gospel.

And Paul's writing to this young church from prison, most likely. In fact, if you want to read through a little bit of it, you can check out Acts 16. It kind of tells the story of how the Gospel arrives in Philippi. And Paul's writing back to this church, most likely from prison, which most likely in Ephesus, as he's talking to them, thanking them for the gift that they'd sent. See, when you're in prison in Paul's day, nobody took care of you, right?

The prison wasn't required to feed you or to make sure you had what you need. You had to depend on others around you in the Philippians. And Paul had such a close relationship that they gave to him to help care for him while he was in prison. And so part of the reason he's writing this letter is to thank them for that. He says, our relationship, we're partners, Verse five.

We're partners in the gospel together, but we're also partners in God's grace. Verse 7. What God's doing in the world through each of us, we get to do it together with him. His point in verse six is that God, who starts a work in you is going to finish it. He's going to complete it.

Now, why does he say that? Remember, God, who starts something in you is going to finish it. Why would he have to remind them of that? Is it possible that it's tempting to forget that God is still at work in us? Have you ever had a moment in your life where you tried to become a better version of yourself, only to find you keep messing up?

Is it worth it? I mean, is it worth it to keep this? Is it worth it? Right. Some of us on Sunday mornings, we get up and we think, is it worth it?

Sometimes we get up on Monday morning and we Think, is it worth it? Paul says, God's started something and he's not going to quit. And so don't you quit either. You see, this is a young church that's trying to find their way in a culture that largely does not believe what they believe. They don't follow who the world doesn't follow who they follow.

And we're getting to see some of that infighting and that grumbling and that complaining happened in the church. And so Paul starts with prayer. Church, don't forget God's at work. And so he prays, as he often does, that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. This is my great prayer for you, church, is that your love would grow, would expand to not just understand how you love God and are thankful for what he's done for you, but how much God loves you.

He wants their love to continue to grow in breadth. He's modeling to them how he's trying to love them. But he's also saying, I'm praying that your heart and your head would get connected, that you would grow in this depth, in this understanding. I'm praying that you'll learn to love the way that Jesus loves, that you'll see the world around you the way that Jesus does, that when you face adversity, when you're struggling against a world that's not right, or when you in your own life make decisions that just aren't wise, that are just leading to brokenness and heartache, that you'll continue to see God's love shining through, inviting you into a new way. Says, I pray that your love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you would be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

He says, I'm praying that your love will be wise. Then in the midst of your love, you'll be able to see things the way that God sees things, that you'll have a heart that will help you to discern where is God at work?

How is he inviting me to be different, to go a different way, to set a different example. Well, says, I want you to love so that you'll make wise choices. And not only that, that you'll be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Paul also says, I want your love to grow and to expand, and I want it to grow in wisdom so that you'll make wise choices. That as that love grows and expands and becomes more wise.

It begins to pour out of you in the actions that you take in the way that you live. May your love become a way of life, not just an idea and not just an emotion, but actually would come together to become a reality, an experienced reality. Love, in such a way says that leads you deeper into the way of Jesus, that righteousness, or more simply, right living, just becomes the natural outflow of your life.

See, it's amazing to me that Paul begins this challenge and this encouragement to a young church in prayer. Prayer matters, he says, it helps to shape and form us. It gives us eyes to see in ears to hear. It shapes our hearts and how we treat one another, how we see one another. And so Paul says, I begin my letter here by praying for you.

But that's not the only prayer we find in Ephesians. In fact, that's not the only prayer challenge we find in Philippians rather. But at the very end of Philippians that Paul says, I started by praying for you. Now I'm going to challenge you to pray for you. In chapter four, verse six, he says, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, again, as we often try to do, you got to bring out your West Texas translation of the Bible here. This is not a you, you individually. This is a y'all.

Don't be anxious, y'all. And by that, I think what he's trying to say is, don't put yourself in a posture where you have to control everything in everyone, because that only leads to deeper anxiety. Have you ever noticed when you try to control things, how little you control things? It feels like reaching in and trying to grab a handful of water. It just comes out.

If you've ever been in a situation where you've tried to control people, how do they respond? Thank you for controlling me. Could you be a little more stringent? Thank you, no. Most people push rebel from that.

And we know that because we're the same way, aren't we? We don't like to be controlled. We want freedom. We value that so deeply and yet so much of our life we're trying to control. Paul says church, don't be anxious.

Don't try to control everything in everyone.

You don't have to be anxious. Instead, how do we live differently? Paul, he says prayer. Notice how he points them back to prayer. How do we resist trying to Control everything and everyone in our world.

Paul says, pray, learn that habit, that discipline of prayer. Don't be anxious about anything. But in every situation it signifies a very different posture. Not of one of control me in control of everyone else, but rather, God, you are in control. I don't have the strength.

You have the strength. I don't have the resources. You have the resources. Paul says our posture in prayer is to come open. God, you are the one.

You're the one, not me. In every situation, by prayer signifies this active way we engage with God in our relationship. In this kind of prayer, as you'll see with Paul, it's not a one way street. God, let me inform you on all the things that you don't know about. Or rather we say, God, would you inform me about all the things that I don't know about?

Because what I see around me is chaos or what I see around me is devastation. Much of it my own, the cause of my own hand. God, would you help me to see things that I don't see right now? Paul says in every situation by prayer and petition, this understanding that we can't solve our own problems. And I'm crying out to you like that tax collector going, have mercy, have mercy with thanksgiving.

Again, it signifies this posture of knowing where the real help comes from. God, thank you, thank you that you know everything. Thank you that you know what's best. Thank you that I don't have to just figure it all out on my own. Thank you that you've given me a community with which I can pray.

I can come together each of these instructions. Remember, we have our West Texas translation out here. It's not you, it's y'all. Y'all, don't be anxious. But instead, y'all in every situation that y'all come into, that y'all encounter by prayer and petition or supplication with thanksgiving, y'all present your requests.

See, Paul's writing to a church, not just to address individually. Hey, church, you need to pray individual. That's an important thing. But that's not what Paul's point is here. He's saying, church, we've got to pray together.

We've got to be people of prayer. See, Paul believed that the greatest place that life change happens is in a group with other people. Life change happens best in community. We talked about that this morning. One of the most powerful things that prayer does, it ushers us into this reality that we are not just individual, isolated people, that we need each other, that God's given to us the gift of community.

He says, I want y'all to pray together in everything, in every situation, in every circumstance. And that as we begin to do so, it starts to change us individually and it changes us corporately. And that's why the missions committee said we need to pray together about where it is that God's working in the world. We want to get into contact with more folks who have more eyes and ears out in the world around, saying, where do you see God at work? And how might he be challenging us to come alongside him and pray?

You know, this seven day prayer initiative, it comes on the heels of a couple of years where we've been asking God, would you show us? Would you lead us? Would you open up doors? Would you point us in the way that we feel? Like, okay, God, how given who we are and when we are and where we are, given all the gifts that you have given to us through the people that you have brought into our community.

And as more are continuing to join us every week, God, where is it that you want us to be? At work? How can we live faithfully to that calling? Paul says, y all, if you will pray like that, something incredible is going to happen.

He says, there is this peace that's going to come. He doesn't say, and all your problems will be solved. You'll never worry again. No one will ever betray you. No one will ever disappoint you.

You'll never make another mistake. No, no, no, he says, and this peace will come. And it defies understanding.

I've told the story before, but it's seared to my mind when I read this passage of my friend Jesse out at Pepperdine when I was a freshman and the fires were around the campus much like they were earlier this year and late last year. And I'm pacing in the auditorium where we were at the time, just back and forth like a caged lion, and he's kind of looking at me and. Peaceful was not a word he would use to describe me in that moment, but it is one that I would have used to describe him.

You see, this peace can come even in the midst of chaos and fires and brokenness and devastation. Paul says, when we pray together, when we remind ourselves together that it's not our own strength that we depend on, but it's God's, that we're not responsible for this transformation process, that's God's. And so in every situation, no matter what's happening, I can trust that God is for me. I can hear those words of Jesus saying Don't give up. Don't give up.

Don't give up because there will be circumstances in your life where you feel like you are that poor widow just crying out on behalf of justice. And some of you know that cry. You're living it right now. Jesus says, don't give up because you have a father who is just and who cares and who will make things right. That as that truly begins to sink down deep into us, we discover this peace that transcends understanding.

And he says not only is there a peace, but he says there's this protection that comes that when you know it, it guards your heart. When we know we're right and someone's telling us something that we don't believe, it doesn't make us angry in the sense like when we are uncertain. But in those moments where we're sitting on the foundation, we know. No, no, no. It doesn't matter what someone else says to us.

We no, God's got this. He will take care of this. I don't know how and I'm not sure where, but the testimony of the church for 2000 years has God is faithful. He will keep being faithful. He didn't decide in this one moment to stop being faithful.

No. Hang in there. Keep praying. Keep praying. This isn't an escapist type of peace we're looking for.

It's the crazy, it's the chaos that we don't lose heart and we don't seek control. Instead we reject it. We reject the way of the world. And we embrace the heart of the Father. Oh God, may we be those kind of people.

Father, I pray that is my prayer. The same prayer that Paul offered on behalf of the Philippian Church. Got to pray it on behalf of the Broadway Church. As together we begin this morning. This initiative, this praying, seeking your face as we look forward to the work that you are doing in the world.

God, our desire, our heart's desire is to partner with you as you bring about reconciliation of the entire creation of the whole planet, of the people, the places, God, we want to see your name raised up. We want to see folks who are so far from you that to come home, to find you. We want the brokenness and the devastation to end. Thank God we are re trusting and we're believing that you will be that just judge and that one thing, one day all things will be made right. But between that day and this, God, would you teach us how to pray, to be faithful in prayer?

God, would you give us eyes and ears and minds so we can discern where you are at work in the world and we can go and join you there. Father, thank you for the men and women who for over a century in this place have been praying these kinds of prayers in every situation, offering their prayers and their petitions with thanksgiving. God thank you for the witness they are to us that you have not brought us 135 years into this world just to stop now. But God your mission is still at work in the world and you're still using the Broadway church to make a difference. God, would you continue to use us to make a difference?

So as we cry out to you this week, God would you answer us? Would you help us to see and to hear, to discern and as we anticipate getting involved with new mission opportunities in this world. Father, we thank you for the gift of prayer. We thank you for the gift of community that we don't have to walk this road alone, we get to do it together. So God would you speak to us in us through us this week we pray in Jesus name.