Change the world- prayer
RUMC 5/12/13
I heard the story about a man who had regularly prayed for many years and began to wonder if God heard his prayers at all.
During one of his routine times of prayer, he started this doubting pattern once again.
He stopped praying and thought for a moment. "Enough of this," he said.
He then lifted his eyes toward heaven and yelled, "Hey up there, can you hear me?"
There was no response.
He continued, "Hey, God, if you can really hear me, tell me what you want me to do with my life."
A voice from above thundered a reply, "I WANT YOU TO HELP THE NEEDY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR THE CAUSE OF PEACE!"
Faced with more of a challenge than the man really wanted, he answered, "Actually, God, I was just checking to see if you were there."
The voice from above now answered with what sounded like a twinkle in his eye: "THAT'S ALRIGHT; BUT I WAS SERIOUS"
Praying is a dangerous thing… you might end up being changed… or changing the world.
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Most fundamentally, we can define prayer as communicating with God. Sounds simple, but, just like communicating with a spouse, child, or parent; we make it a lot harder than it needs to be. I can't tell you how many lists I have seen like
· 10 keys to effective prayer,
· 5 steps to get what you pray for,
· 8 secrets of powerful prayer.
Let me tell you a secret… there are no secrets about prayer. The main reason that prayer seems ineffective, or unanswered, or not very powerful is because we don't do it… At least not much. According to the religious researchers at Barna, the average Christian spends one minute praying each day. That's the average. You might be more… or you might be less!
· Let me ask you. If you limited your conversation with your significant other to one minute per day… you know, "tick, tick, tick time up, be quiet." How long do you think it would take for them to stop calling you dear, and start calling you "Hey you." Yet, that is what the average Christian does to God.
· Let me ask you. If we limited your exercise time to one minute a day: One minute of running, one minute of walking, or aerobics, or swimming, or whatever you do. Would we stay in the peak physical condition we are in today? Yet that is how we exercise our spiritual beings.
· Let me ask you one more time. If you were to limit your personal hygiene to one minute a day: You know, for showering, deodorant, teeth, hair, and all that stuff. Do you think you would have very many friends? Probably not, yet that is all the time the average Christian spends having God clean up the sin, guilt, and shame in their lives.
o If you cheat yourself out of prayer time with God, you are simply unplugging yourself from the one who has the power to change you for the better. Then you are on your own.
o If you cheat yourself out of prayer time with God, you are simply unplugging yourself from the one who has the power to change the world. Then we are all on your own… good luck.
The second issue is that we underestimate the power of prayer. In today's gospel reading, Jesus says an amazing thing "If you had faith even the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it would move.
Have you ever done that? Neither have I. Then again, neither did Jesus. I am not sure that Jesus intended people to think that he is literally talking about the Rocky Mountains. Even though I do think if God desired, God could certainly move a mountain. In the story in question, the mountain is the boy's epilepsy. I think Jesus is telling us that if we have faith and pray God can, and will,
· forgive,
· heal,
· reconcile,
· guide,
· comfort,
· protect, and
· move even the biggest mountains in our lives. God can move all the mountains we have made from molehills.
o God is ready and able to change us… if people pray.
o God is ready and able to change the world… if people pray.
A few minutes ago, when we prayed, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Did you mean that, or did you just say the words? That is one of the most powerful prayers in the universe. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we are playing with dynamite and we don't even realize it.
Corrie Ten Boom writes,
· "When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles.
· When he stops reading the Bible, the devil laughs.
· When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. [1]
One minute a day on average? I'd say that's the next best thing to not praying at all.
· Is it any wonder our hearts are in the condition they are?
· Is it any wonder our lives are in the condition they are?
· Is it any wonder our families are in the condition they are?
· Is it any wonder our neighborhoods are in the condition they are?
· Is it any wonder our nation is in the condition it is?
· Is it any wonder that our world isn't being changed very fast?
It doesn't surprise me a bit. Actually, it shouldn't surprise any of us.
We have been talking about changing the world for 6 weeks now.
· Change the world with your love, not likely- but with God's love …that is a whole different story.
· Change the world by serving someone, not likely- but becoming a servant of God… that is a whole different story.
· Change the world by working for justice, not likely- but becoming an instrument of God's justice… that is a whole different story.
· Change the world by sharing our story with a neighbor, not likely- but sharing God's story… that is a whole different matter.
· Change the world by giving more, not likely- but being generous in the name of God… that is a whole different story.
No matter what we do in order to change the world, if we do it on our own, we will fail. If we are to change the world, we must
· pave the way with prayer,
· wrap it in prayer, and
· follow up with earnest prayer that God will use our pathetic little efforts to light a fire that will indeed change the course of history, and more importantly the course of someone's life.
Let's start with us and our church:
· If you want to change the world pray that you will move from being an average Sunday morning attender to a faithful follower- pray that you will KNOW GOD
· If you want to change the world, pray that you will move from comfortable Christianity to dedicated discipleship- pray that you will GROW IN GOD.
· If you want to change the world, pray that together we would move from comfortable community to meaningful mission - pray that we will GO FOR GOD
Every single person here can change the world. You saw that so far I have only 8 testimonies from people changing the world. That's frankly pathetic and those people can't do it alone.
I am not usually in the business of making excuses for people.
· I can imagine however that if you live by yourself, never meet another person during the week, and don't have any friends, it might be hard to change the world with love or witness.
· I can imagine if you are totally crippled up and can't do anything for yourself let alone someone else, it might be hard to change the world by being a servant.
· I can imagine how a person might get overwhelmed by big justice issues and think that little ones aren't any of their business, it might be hard to change the world by doing justice.
· If you have nothing; no possessions, no gifts, no desire to share, it might be hard to change the world by generosity.
Let's say that is true for some of you. Let's imagine there are good reasons you can't change the world with any of the other ideas we have talked about… there is still prayer; the most awesome world transforming power in heaven or on earth.
This is senior recognition Sunday. Jacob and Austin, you are in an awesome position right now. In childhood, you learned about the world and mostly watched it go by. As you enter adulthood, that all changes. You are now called to be world changers. By the way you love, and serve, and do justice, and witness, and do generosity, you can change the world…maybe. If you do all those and pray, however… If you make prayer the heart of your life, you will undoubtedly be world changers for God.
Think about this for a moment. Each and every one of us is where we are today because somebody prayed.
· Somebody prayed and you were born.
· Somebody prayed and you came to Christ.
· Somebody prayed and you found a job.
· Somebody prayed and you were healed.
· Somebody prayed and you were rescued in the middle of the night.
· Somebody prayed and your marriage was saved.
· Somebody prayed and you didn't give up.
· Somebody prayed and you made the right decision.
· Somebody prayed and you experienced God's power.
Let me say this another way: No one knows how much sin and sorrow has been avoided because somebody prayed.
No one knows how much the world has been changed because someone prayed
Please do not just tell me "nice sermon" as you leave today and walk out of here the same person who came in. Make a commitment right now… right here before God to be a world changer with love, service, justice, witness, generosity, -----and prayer.
And make a commitment that our church will be a world changing church to KNOW, GROW AND GO TO MAKE DISCIPLES FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD.
Amen
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