Video Transcript: The Prayers of God's Servants

Besides carefully attending to God's Word in Scripture, another indispensable  way we can get in touch with God's priorities and embrace them is through  prayer. But this is probably not the first thing that comes to mind in thinking  about prayer. The acronym ACTS reminds us that our prayers should involve  adoration, confession and Thanksgiving as well as supplication. But for too  many people, prayers, mainly about the last about supplication, asking God for  stuff. And so I want to look particularly at what we can learn from the Old  Testament about about prayers of supplication. I'm not saying that other kinds of prayer aren't important. They, they're very important. But how can we learn to  embrace God's priorities in our prayers of supplication? How can our minds and  hearts become more conformed to God's own heart? Consider Abraham's  prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis 18. God's coming to tell  Abraham about his plans for those wicked cities show that he was treating  Abraham as a covenant partner. And he wanted his partner to appreciate the  demands of a divine justice. And Abraham did. Although he argued for mercy,  He knew that Sodom and Gomorrah deserved to be judged by God. But  Abraham also had an eye for the righteous who would be destroyed along with  the wicked. His heart went out In compassion to them. He did not want him to  share the fate of the sinners, and this to show that he was coming to share  God's heart. After all, God Himself would so much rather forgive repentant  sinners and multiply the righteous, than he would judge the unrepentant. And so  God Welcome to Abraham's persistent prayers and was not at all displeased, at  Abraham's attempts to test the limits of His mercy. Genesis 32 Records another  prayer this one is by Abraham's grandson Jacob, on his way home after  spending more than 20 years working for his father in law Laban. Jacob had the  proper attitude for prayer, as shown here. He was desperate he was humble and persistent. But as fully as important as this was that he was wise enough to  plead the promises of God. In 32:9, Jacob prays, oh God of my father, Abraham, God, and my father, Isaac, Lord, You who said to me, go back to your country  and your relatives and I will make you prosper. And then he finishes this  reminder in verse 12. You have said, You have said, I will surely make you  prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot  be counted. What right does Jacob have to pray about his fear that Esau will  take his revenge, they certainly cannot plead innocence to the charge of taking  advantage of his brother. But he can remind God of the promises made to  grandfather Abraham and father Isaac. Promises which are supposed to be  transmitted through Jacob, promises of a homeland of many descendants, and  being a blessing to the world. What's more, Jacob can remind God of the call  that initiated his own journey home and the accompanying promise of prosperity for him. It isn't that God is forgetful. Jacob's prayer was really more for his own  benefit than for God's Jacob was the one who was reminded while He was  praying of his continuing dependence on God, and that his standing before God 

was entirely due to the grace of one who will not go back on his word. Let's look  next at Moses, one of Moses. Most desperate prayers had to have been when  he and his people were trapped between the Red Sea and the pursuing  revengeful armies of Egypt. Could it be that Moses did not share it all in the  terror that the Israelites experienced that their impending doom? To be sure  Moses gave the answer that people of faith must always give in the face of  despair. Exodus 14:13-14. Do not be afraid to stand firm and you will see the  deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, said  Moses, you will never see again the Lord will fight for you. You need only be still. But even if Moses believed this wholeheartedly, he had no idea of just what  would happen. And the only guarantee he had that God would deliver the people was faith in what God had promised he would do. So even though he may have  said it confidently Moses was all the while praying his heart out, that God would  not make him out to be a liar, but would do what he said he would do. And God  did. A little later came another crisis, this one recorded in Exodus 32. It was  occasioned by Israel's own rebellion. You see, while Moses had been up on  Mount Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, the people down below asked  Aaron to make images to bolster their flagging faith and enhance their worship.  God threatened to punish the flagrant disobedience of his law by destroying the  people. God said Moses himself could receive the blessings intended for all the  people. But rather than justice, Moses prayed for mercy for the sake of the fame and reputation of God himself. He said, basically, don't give the Egyptians an  opening to question your acts on behalf of your people. And Moses also asked  God to remember the covenant He had made with the patriarchs. He pled the  promises, just as Jacob had before. And when God relented, and said he, he  said he, but said he would not accompany the people back to the Promised  Land, Moses went back to praying. And he knew that religious institutions and  ceremonies are not enough to keep faith alive. It's only the presence of God with his people, that distinguishes them from the world, and also provides them both  the protection and power for service. And so Moses asked Exodus 33:16, How  will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people, unless you go with us. What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other  people on the face of the earth? In the Lord answered Moses in the way he'll  always answer the prayer of every true servant for his presence. He said, I will  do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know  you by name. Moses had the opportunity to go back to the Lord in prayer many  more times before he died. And each time his recorded prayer showed that what he would ask the Lord to do, was connected to God's priorities, and promises.  The next prayer and scripture I want to draw your attention to is that of Solomon  in I Kings 8, He also recorded in II Chronicles 6. Solomon's prayer at the  dedication of the temple shows his full awareness that the Almighty God cannot  be confined to inner earthly dwelling even such a magnificent one, as the temple

was. Solomon is aware, as well of God's faithfulness to his covenant despite the checkered history of Israel's faithfulness to him. It's something for which  Solomon is very grateful. And yet, knowing that his own people are likely to  forget this awesome and celebrative occasion, and, and, and to forget their God, he presumes to ask the Lord, to honor the future prayers made from this place.  He asked that when the people repent, that God will listen to their prayers and  forgive them and restore them. Nor to Solomon pray only for Israel, for he knows that God's heart for the whole world has prompted his promise that Israel will be  a blessing to the nations. And so he prays as well for God to hear the prayers of  believing foreigners. So that the whole world may come to know and fear the  LORD, from beginning to end. This prayer of Solomon isn't one that fits this  occasion and honors the Lord who made it possible. The prayers of Elijah, the  foremost prophet of ancient Israel are very instructive as well. James 5:17, the  New Testament author says Elijah was a human being even as we are, he  prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three  and a half years. What was the occasion? It was covenant disobedience in  Israel during the reign of King Ahab. And then finally, after three years, Elijah  called King Ahab to bring the leaders of Israel and the false prophets to  mountain Carmel for a showdown, as recorded in I Kings 18. The first thing that  Elijah when when he started to pray, the first thing Elijah asked for was Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac in Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Elijah wasn't asking the Lord to do something new and different here for God  had a history of revealing himself as the true God, and worthy of all praise,  adoration and obedience. And so what Elijah was asking, really, what he was  asking was that God would do it again, show himself again, not for Elijah's sake, but for God's sake, so that the people would get beyond a merely formal  understanding of God and get to know Him as their Lord. The second part of  Elijah's prayer followed from the first, he continued, and let it be known, that I'm  your servant. And I've done all these things at your command. Elijah was quite  properly praying for God to validate him, and not for personal aggrandizement,  for personal reasons, because of the importance of his work, which was to  reveal the glory and promote the honor of God only as a servant on a missiondid Elijah demand for people's attention. He wanted everyone to recognize they  were all called to be the servants of the Most High God. The third part of Elijah's  prayer was for a proper response for the people to recognize God and confess  Him. Elijah prayed, answer me, Lord, answer me. So these people will know that you Lord are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Elijah knew  that every revelation of God, whether mercy or power, demands an answer from the people who witness it, he also knew that people would not necessarily be  changed by such a revelation. And so along with the outward and visible  revelation of God and fire, Elijah prayed for an inward revelation, a change of  heart, demonstrated by repentance, and conversion. Well, Elijah's prayer was 

heard and magnificently answered by God who did just what Elijah asked, God  revealed Himself as Lord. He proved that Elijah was a faithful prophet of his, and he brought the people to repentance, and devotion. But Elijah still had one more important thing to pray for the return of the covenant blessings and specifically  the blessing of rain. This did not come automatically. But only after, as you read  the chapter, you see that only after prolonged prayer, but it did come. And with it  came an end to the physical drought to accompany the end to the spiritual  drought in Israel. Well, what an excellent prayer, Elijah's prayer is for us today.  It's a prayer that the church and world both will know that the Lord God is the  true God. God wants us to pray this way. So so we can pray this prayer with  confidence, sure, that God will answer to that he will confirm himself to his  people, as their sovereign Creator and Redeemer, and that he will also help the  unbelieving world know this truth. We can and must also pray for the Lord to  support and defend his true church as servants and agents of His saving work.  Just as the Lord confirmed Elijah in this way, we can pray for this boldly and  confidently, because God tells us that that's what he wants. God lifts up his  church, not so the church will get the glory, but to focus the attention of the world more and more on Christ. So the world will realize when it encounters God's  people, that they're dealing with God Himself. We must likewise pray that people today not only recognize God's power, but they also respond to his call to put  away their idols and come over to his side. Because there's a difference. Even  the demons recognize God's power, but they don't respond to his call. And so  we must pray for that. And once people do, come over to God's side, we pray,  we must pray that they will experience the rich blessings of the Lord. I wonder  how often our prayers are like Elijah. Of course, were invited to approach God  with different kinds of supplications with pitiful cries for help with painful prayers  of repentance, and joyful prayers of thanksgiving and praise. But also, as  partner servants of Almighty God, we need to pray the bold working prayers of  Elijah. The more we get to know the scripture in which God revealed so much of  his plans, goals and promises, the more. We can pray like this. Prayers like  Elijah's that conform to God's purposes and priorities always work. But don't  make the mistake of thinking they're unnecessary because God will do what he  wants to do anyhow. Because prayers are part of the process by which God  uses his covenant partners to advance his kingdom and fulfill his promises. Let  me go next to the book of Daniel which offers some other valuable insights  about prayer. As we see in Daniel 6 during the reign of Darius, some of Darius's  officials more concerned about power than about worship, concocted a scheme  to bring Daniel down by forcing him to choose between his service to the king  and his habits of praying to God. Well, Daniel refused to compromise and they  went on praying as usual. He knew that prayer is indispensable for those who  are truly engaged in the service of God. Well, for his disobedience, Daniel was  thrown into the lions den and you know the rest of the story God's saved him, 

and vindicated his priorities, which were God's own. Daniel's experiences with  prayer, as described in chapter nine also give us some important insights about  what stimulates prayer, about the content of prayer and about the timing of  God's answers. What stimulated Daniel in this case was that he was examining  the events of his day in the light of Scripture. And the particular scripture that  caught his attention was Jeremiah's prophecy, that the exile of Israel would last  70 years. 70 years Daniel discovered was just about up. And it was that very  truth that motivated him to plead with God for the fulfillment of God's promise.  The beautiful thing about Daniel's prayer is that the issue at stake was, was the  Lord's cause and his alone. Daniel, personally didn't have much to gain from  return to Jerusalem. He was too old to return. But he had his mind on greater  things. He knew that the exile of God's people had brought the Lord stated  purposes into question. Remember that God had set apart his people as his  special possession and, and to be a testimony to the nations of the life that was  supposed to be lived the life the way it was supposed to be lived. And so Daniel  knew that asking God to show his saving grace and complete what Jeremiah  had prophesied, was a prayer sure to be answered. For us to prayer is not just  for us to tell God what we want. God does allow it even encouraged us to ask  him for things with the understanding that it's our goal to conform our wills to his. But more than this prayer that is inspired by and consistent with scripture,  consistent with what Scripture says about God's priorities and what God wants  is the way we cooperate with God to bring his plans and purposes into reality.  Just a word here about a godly man who came after Daniel, but prayed pretty  much the same as he did. And his prayers actually resulted in leading a  contingent of exiles back to Jerusalem. I'm talking about Nehemiah. You can  read his story in the book that bears his name. But back to Daniel, after reading  about the imminent end to Israel's exile, Daniel prayed a prayer of confession.  He knew that his people were in exile because they had ignored and resisted  God. Even though Daniel did not personally commit those sins, that led Israel in  exile, he took responsibility for confessing them on behalf of his people. What  had started out as sins of neglect, led to act of rebellion against God and soon  not even God's special messengers the prophets were taken seriously. In his  prayer, Daniel made no attempt to transfer blame. He knew that although the  Babylonians of the world will not escape their own responsibility. Shifting blame  misses the point it misses the lesson that God wants to teach his people that  evil rewards always follow sin. confession of sin therefore is always a first step  in helping people regain wholeness, and helping them to make God's agenda  their own. After Daniel asked for forgiveness for himself and his people, he  asked for deliverance and restoration. He was convinced now after confession  that God would regard the restoration of Jerusalem as a matter of his own  honor. See, the Almighty God is the only one who can protect his honor and he  always does it. For he cannot be unfaithful to His promises especially where 

unconfessed sin no longer stands in the way. God has placed his name on the  heads of those He has redeemed, and he will not treat his name lightly. In our  day to we need to take care of our own relationship with God through regular  confession of sin and repentance. And then we may pray confidently for the  restoration and revival that God has promised his people. And that will make us  a blessing to our world. It may be that God sometimes acts apart from prayer  but but we don't see much evidence of that in Scripture. Quite the opposite. We  see in Daniels case what is often implied, God acts in response to godly prayer.  And he does so immediately. Gabriel tells Daniel, as soon as you began to pray  an answer was given. The Messenger of chapter 10 confirms that since the first  day, your words were heard. To be sure Daniel had to wait for God's answer,  and to receive what He prayed for. From Daniel becomes clear that God sent  Gabriel immediately, but we aren't told how long it took him to get there. In the  case of the Messenger of chapter 10, it took three weeks of spiritual warfare.  There's a connection between prayer and what happens in heaven.  communications between God and His faithful servants are so important that the demon princes of Satan will do all they can to break the connection, even even  waging war against Angel messengers of God. Our part in all this begins as we  become broken and repentant, before God on account of our sin. Everything  flows from that. All restoration, all victory, all life. God always responds to repent  in prayer. And from what we see in Daniel, it seems he responds quickly, even  immediately. As long as Satan and his partners remain active on earth, there will be hindrances and delays in the delivery of God's answers. Continuing prayer,  then is our way of cooperating with God. To make sure his answers get through.  It is certain that God will accomplish what he wants to accomplish, and that all  his promises will be fulfilled. All the same. Knowing this should lead us to pray. It did for Daniel, and it must do so for all God's people. However long this spiritual  war continues. Sometimes, way too often to our way of thinking we cannot know the details of what will best serve God's purposes. But we know the big picture if we know Scripture, we know the big picture by what God has said in his word,  and we have his promises. So it's never a mistake in our prayers of supplication  to plead the promises, as specifically as we can, and to always pray that God  will use our current difficulties and opportunities to advance his purposes and  build His kingdom. That helps keep our prayers from being self centered, and  makes them instead a way to embrace God's priorities and partner with him and  his redemptive work.