Sermon 8-24-08

Our Old Testament reading is a portion of Psalm 107. We, in this congregation, call this the DPDP Psalm. The first “D” stands for difficulty that comes into our lives. If the world doesn’t give us difficulty, then God makes sure that some difficulty comes. The purpose of the difficulty is so we would “P”, pray, go to God with the problem. The second “D” is for deliverance; God’s deliverance, and the second “P” is for praise - praise God for His deliverance! Psalm 107 is an entire psalm of difficulty after difficulty with people going to God in prayer, seeing God’s deliverance, and then praising the Lord. The cycle of our lives is here in Psalm 107.

Old Testament – Psalm 107:17-22 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.

Our second reading from the Book of James talks about God’s willingness to answer prayer. Whatever you need…just ask God and He will deliver!

Epistle –James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Gospel – John 2:1-11 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, through the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” This the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Sermon –

It’s an exciting time – we’re beginning a whole week of prayer! We’ve been doing it for years in this congregation, two, three, sometimes up to four times a year. And what have the results been? There were nineteen things on the prayer board for the week of prayer we had in January and twelve of them have “done” written after them. God answered, finished it off, delivered, its done! The other seven are ongoing things, like praying for our school and praying for our students and we’ve seen evidence how God is reaching down and working in each and every one of those items. God deserves a round of applause for what He is doing! This is the kind of faithful God we have! Do you have nineteen things in your life to pray about? How would you like to have a “done” behind those nineteen things in perhaps six or seven months from now? Or at least see God doing something to help the situation? Would you like that? That’s what we’re going to talk about today; you can have the same results in your personal prayer life that we as a congregation have.

Why does God want us to pray? We know why we want to pray – because we have needs and we want to bring them to God. That’s prayer from our viewpoint. But let’s look at prayer from God’s point of view. Does God need us to inform Him about our needs? No – He knows us better than we know ourselves; He knows our needs better than we know our needs. And He has proved it. Our greatest need of all is to have sin forgiven, to have reconciliation with God so that we would never have to live apart from His blessings or favor. Jesus says in Matthew 6:8, “Your father knows what you need before you ask him.” So, in light of that, it is kind of strange that God would tell us to pray. Does he tell us to pray because he knows our needs but doesn’t actually know how to solve them? No – He doesn’t need us to tell Him anything. Is it, as some people say, that your prayer releases some power so that God can act? No – God has all the power in the world; He doesn’t need any of our power to act.

So why does God tell us to pray? Strange, isn’t it? Let’s look at prayer from God’s point of view and our Gospel lesson helps us do that. In the Gospel lesson people are in need; there’s a wedding and they have run out of wine. So Mary goes to Jesus and prays; she makes a request. She says to Jesus, “They have no more wine”; she takes the problem and gives it to Jesus. Also notice how she prays. Does she tell him that she wants more Chardonnay than Merlot? Does she come up with a scheme to help Him solve the problem like “Hey, maybe you could fill those jars with water and then turn it into wine”? Does she go over and over all the details of the situation like when they ran out of wine, how many people are there and why they have to have more wine? No! All she does is take the problem and give it to Jesus. That’s it! “They have no more wine.”

The interesting thing, too, is that Mary makes it known publically that she went to Jesus with the problem. This is a big point. And she further makes it known publically because she tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you.” So the need is out there publically - they are out of wine; Mary has gone to Jesus and told the servants to do whatever He says. He tells the servants to fill up the ceremonial washing jugs with water; the servants know they put water in the jugs and all of a sudden there is wine! The servants knew Jesus had acted, it wasn’t as if someone snuck wine into those jars!

So, the Gospel Lesson concludes with “there was plenty of wine and everyone had enough to drink and everything was fine” – right? WRONG!!! How did the Gospel lesson conclude; what was the result of the whole thing? Verse 11:“He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” God was glorified; Jesus revealed His glory by answering the prayer and the people put their faith in Him. Wow!!! Do you get it??? That’s why God wants us to pray! It’s not about getting our needs met, God can do that without prayer. God wants us to pray so that His glory is revealed and so people are led to put their faith in Him. That’s what it’s all about! Look at Psalm 107, the DPDPDP Psalm, and read it this week. You’ll find it very interesting because difficulty, prayer, deliverance and praise run throughout the entire Psalm. God permitted the difficulty so that people would pray, so that He could deliver, so that people would praise Him, so that His glory would be revealed and people would put their faith in Him. That’s prayer from God’s point of view; that’s why God wants us to pray.

Or take another example - look at our Prayer Board. Why do you think we have a week of public prayer? Because we have needs. But God knows our needs, we wouldn’t have to come out each night to pray, so what’s this all about? It’s all about having our Prayer Board up here. If we don’t have our Prayer Board up here with God’s answers on it, I think we’re doing God a disservice. He tells us to pray so that His glory is revealed and so people put their faith in Him. People coming into this church need to see that the God of the Bible answers prayer so that God’s glory is revealed and people are led to trust in Him. I don’t know about you but when I walk into church and see all the “done’s” written here, its encouragement for the things I’m praying about in my life.

Remember the e-mail that I talked about a couple of weeks ago from our missionary in China, Jan Foyteck? She was swimming in a muddy lake in China and lost her glasses. She prayed that God would help her find them and then she reached down into the muddy water and pulled then out! Think about that for a minute. First of all, God could have prevented Jan from losing her glasses. But then His glory would not have been revealed and people would not have been led to trust in Christ; there wouldn’t even have been a problem. But God permitted Jan to lose her glasses, and when she prayed and found her glasses, she told others and she e-mailed you and me. God’s glory was revealed and those people in China she’s ministering to will hopefully put their faith in Jan’s God, the God of the Bible, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Their reaction needs to be, “Wow! Jan’s God answers prayer, Jan’s God even cares if you lose your glasses; you can talk to Him any time and He delivers. This is wonderful!”

That’s why God wants us to pray, that’s prayer from God’s point of view. He wants us to pray so that His glory will be revealed and people will put their faith in Him. This tells us something about prayer and is the whole point of this sermon. Prayer needs to be done in a public setting. In a public setting, people see that your prayers are out there, they have an opportunity to see that there is a difficulty (Psalm 107), that you prayed to God about it (Psalm 107), that God delivered (Psalm 107), and that you’re praising Him for what He did (Psalm 107)!

It’s so important to tell people. We spend a lot of time telling God about our problems - spend as much time telling others what God has done. Get it out there what God is doing. The staff at Trinity Christian School meets the first thing in the morning for prayer time. We could sit in our rooms by ourselves and pray God would still answer, but He wants to give a testimony, a demonstration that the God we serve at Trinity is alive, He hears, He’s not deaf, and He answers. So when we pray publicly for our class, for our situations, for our students and then we see how God delivers, His glory is revealed among us. Put your faith and trust in God for those struggles in life. If you’re using the “My Problem” card which is in the Bibles in the pew racks, make sure you take the card, or your prayer list, and put it on your refrigerator or someplace where people will see that you’ve gone to God with your situation. Then make sure you tell them how God has answered so that God’s glory is revealed and people put their faith in Him. Prayer is a demonstration, a commercial for God. I know that sounds rather crude, but prayer is an effective means of evangelism, of getting the word out that Jesus is Lord and Savior. What we’re praying for should be public, and then praise God for how He has answered.

Another example: This glass is nice and clean, I hope you can appreciate how clear it is. But no one knows what I used to clean it because I did it privately. When I was here rehearsing the sermon at 5:30 this morning, I cleaned the glass. But if I’m going to demonstrate that Windex really works, I need to do it now in front of you so that you have a public demonstration. God uses the same principle; that’s why He wants us to pray publicly. Which means you need to get your prayers out there so that people know will know you’re praying and so that when God answers people will say, “Wow, the God of the Bible is great! He did something.”

Let’s look at John Chapter 2 again and do the “What If” on this reading. What if Mary would have just privately gone to Jesus and told him about the problem and Jesus said, “OK” and all of a sudden there was more wine? The people would have thought they found some more wine in the back room. Would God’s glory have been revealed? Would people be putting their faith in Jesus? No, because they wouldn’t have seen a demonstration of God at work. And because the Master of the Banquet didn’t know that they went to Jesus for help, his response was “Well, the bridegroom is pretty tricky, he brought out the best wine last.” Christ wasn’t revealed to him; he didn’t praise God or give Him glory.

You have to get it out there in public that you’re taking your situation to God. And when God answers you need to tell about it, And God’s reputation is on the line when you pray publicly. If we had prayed for a whole week back in January and there were no “done’s”, no “doing’s” behind our needs, the conclusion would be that we just wasted a week; God didn’t do anything, nothing has been done, nothing is in process, nothing became of our week of prayer. Is Christ revealed in that? Is God glorified? No. You have to get it out there in public that you’re taking your situation to God. And when God answers you need to tell about it.

Now, the warning light is going off in the pulpit. The warning light means “possible doctrinal or biblical error”; it means further explanation is needed. Doesn’t Jesus say in Matthew 6:6 to go in the quietness of your house, in your room and pray by yourself? The answer is “Absolutely yes!” I do not want you to walk out of here and say, “Pastor says we’re not supposed to pray in private anymore.” Matthew Chapter 6 is Jesus’ dissertation on prayer to the Pharisees. What the Pharisees were doing in their dead faith was glorifying themselves, putting on a big show about how religious they were; they wanted to look better than anyone else and Jesus addressed that situation. He said in Matthew 6:5 “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners to be seen by men.” The Pharisees’ purpose in praying was to be seen; it wasn’t to glorify God, it was to glorify themselves and Jesus wanted to correct that situation. He said, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray do not keep on babbling like the pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” The whole thought behind this is that it’s ok to pray privately, but make sure you get your prayers out there publically so that when God answers He is glorified and Christ is revealed. When you look at the great prayers in the Bible, many of them were done in the public setting as a testimony, a demonstration that God is alive and that He answers prayer.

See prayer from God’s point of view. It’s not about our needs – well, it is a little bit because God wants to supply our needs – but He can do that without prayer. He could have said “You’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ. You’re headed toward heaven. I will never leave you or forsake you and, by the way, I’m going to supply all your needs - end of story – you never have to pray.” He could have done that but He didn’t. He said, “Take your needs, your difficulties, your problems, the stuff that’s bugging you, the stuff that’s on your mind and give it to Me.” See the things that come up in your life this week, the difficulties and the problems, as opportunities for God’s glory to be revealed and for people to put their faith in Christ. This is your opportunity to reveal Christ by praying publically so that everyone knows, and then by telling people how God answered.

So whether you want to have a prayer board at home with the things you’re praying about on it, or whether you want to keep a prayer list on your refrigerator, or whether you want to keep a notebook, or whether you want to pray publically, by all means let people know how God has answered and give Him the thanks, praise, honor, and glory. And you will see that your prayer life will take off like crazy and God’s purpose in prayer will be achieved. His glory will be revealed through your prayers and people will be led to put their faith in Christ. That’s what it’s all about!

Prayer –

Great God Heavenly Father, thank You for all those passages in the Bible that talk about prayer. And Heavenly Father we ask Your forgiveness because so many times we are so self-absorbed that we think prayer is all about getting our needs met. Thank You today that You have revealed to us that it is more than that. It’s about revealing Your glory; it’s about revealing Christ as Savior. Heavenly Father, this week, when those situations come up that need to be prayed about, help us to do just that, to get it out in the open what we’re praying about. Help us to see Your answers. Help us to thank You publically for Your answers so that You would be revealed, Your glory would be shown in this world, and people would be led to Christ. Heavenly Father, bless our week of prayer as we gather publically. We look forward to Your answers so that people would see that you are an alive and living God. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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