This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
Prayer Power for Busy People
Purpose of Prayer
DATE: May 2, 1999
TEXT: Revelation 3:20
Kenneth Miklos is a hard-working, ready-to-laugh guy who doesn't need help from a pillow to play Santa Claus at Christmas. Ken is an avid motorcyclist and looks like everyone's stereotype of a gentleman biker. But the power of his heart-of-gold is more than a match to the power of his Honda Gold Wing. "The times I feel closest God," Ken confided to me a couple of weeks ago while riding behind him in his passenger seat, "is when I'm on my bike. And that's how I learned to pray--with my eyes open." Ken especially delights in praying while he is on long rides.
When do you pray? What does prayer mean to you?
When I first became Pastor of Faith back in 1982, I have a confession to make; I was too busy to pray. I had too many important things to do. I had to visit hospitals. I had to visit homes helping people with some of their struggles and problems. There were those who came in for counseling. I was running the youth ministry. I was teaching confirmation. I was teaching midweek classes. My life was too crowded to pray! In the midst of that busy schedule there was emptiness. I really sensed a desire to pray and yet I didn't have time.
I don't know if your schedules get over-crowded and you find it really difficult to work prayer into your day, but what we want to do over the next several weeks ( with the exception of next Sunday when I want to talk about MOMS) is talk about some imaginative, creative, and meaningful ways to integrate prayer into our life so that it becomes a part of what we do and who we are.
As we begin our series, "Prayer Power for Busy People," today we're talking about the purpose of prayer. In a nutshell, the purpose of prayer is to develop God's friendship, to nurture, to establish that meaningful relationship that God desires to have with each and every one of us. The Bible today told us, "Listen, I'm standing at YOUR door and knocking."
Can you imagine if Queen Elizabeth drove up? She walks up to your door and starts knocking. You look out through the peephole and you can't believe it. It's Queen Elizabeth! You run and tell your family, "I don't believe it! Queen Elizabeth is knocking at our door!" So the whole family comes and they look out. Sure enough, it's Queen Elizabeth. Certainly I hope that all of us would be polite enough to open the door and say, "Your royal Majesty, come in."
Queen Elizabeth then tells you that she's in the neighborhood and wanted to come by because she wants to be your friend. Say what??? "Yes," she says, "I want to be your friend." I want to develop a relationship with you. In fact, all my royal treasuries will be shared with you and your family and friends, your work associates, your neighbors. Everything I have will belong to you including Windsor Castle. How would you feel? WOW!!
That's what God does. God comes to us and knocks on the door and tells us, "I want to be your friend. Everything that belongs to me is yours."
As we build this friendship, as we develop a meaningful relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we understand the purpose of prayer. It helps establish that relationship.
There are some things I want to share with you what I've learned through my prayer discovery that may be helpful in understanding God's desire for a friendship with you and the purpose of prayer.
1) I understand prayer to be God's initiative not ours. God initiates the relationship.
God initiates friendship. Prayer begins with the awareness that God wants to be my friend and hear my prayer. My desire to pray is because God wants that relationship. God wants that connection. God wants that communication to transpire. "So before you call," the Bible tells us, "I will answer."
God initiates. It isn't something we invent, something we create. God does.
As we learn about how God initiates prayer, for me, it's been amazing. These last few weeks have been heavy times, as most of you know. I don't really want to go into detail because Linda, as you all know is a bit on the shy bashful side. And now that she's back, I can't talk about her as freely and still expect a meal when I get home.
It would also seem obvious that we needed no urging to bow our heads in prayer when we first listened to the doctor. But that was not my first thought at least. Shock, anger, despair, even resignation sprang first to my mind. Then a still small voice said, "Commit it all to God. Let God take control. He wants to be a part of the process."
2) Secondly, as we learn about prayer, God is more willing to answer than we are even to pray.
There is a myth about prayer that we have to be good enough for God. Either we don't feel worthy to talk to God or God isn't concerned about our little world. This is not true.
We might believe that we have to stand out in the middle of a highway and flag God down. We have to put our orange vests on and get God's attention! That isn't how it works, friends, because God wants to be our most intimate friend. God answers before we call.
God wants to answer. We don't have to convince God to listen because God is there knocking. Knowing that helps us to expect something when we pray. When I know that God wants to answer when I pray then I am convinced that prayer works. I can expect an answer. Sometimes it is "no" and we were prepared for that. Sometimes it is "wait." Sometimes it is "yes." But expectation is important.
When we were expecting our son and our daughter, we were preparing during those nine months of pregnancy. We were getting the nursery ready and making all the appropriate preparations. You see, preparing ourselves to receive God's answers opens our eyes and opens our lives to what God wants to do. If we aren't expecting an answer we won't know when it comes.
3) The third discovery is that we do not have to convince God of what we want. God's toughest job in prayer is to convince us of what we need.
For years I would stand in the old fellowship hall in February and pray to God that he would remodel it. For those of you who remember when this room was built, you have fond memories of days gone past. But every time I walked in this room in the winter, I could see my breath. Advent family nights would find only a small group all huddled in sweaters. The Rotary Club of NW Summit County would meet here to pack food baskets for the poor each December. It was a running joke each year whether there would be any heat in the room when they arrived.
I remember the first vote to not only remodel but also build a new fellowship hall. When it was narrowly voted down, it seemed everyone went into a blue funk. I prayed. I just couldn't bring myself to give up. I knew we needed more room. God wouldn't settle for the secondary. God knew there would a lot of people. So instead of settling for what was merely OK, God gave us His very best. Two months later I called Bob Hartz, Judy Vernon, Bruce Lightle and several others to resurrect the project. I knew this room, needed to be redone. And here we are. This service I knew would never be if we didn't first redo this room. God said, "I know you want a new fellowship hall Stan, but right now you need a place to start a new worship service."
Has that ever happened to you? You pray for what you want and God answers by giving you what you need.
My vision for this service has always been for this hour to be an opportunity for those who do not know Jesus Christ, for those who have not been raised in a church to feel comfortable on a Sunday morning. That is why we don't use a complicated hymnal; that is why we don't use a traditional organ; that is why I don't wear long white robes; that is why the altar is in the corner. (In fact I wish it wasn't even here.) That is why we don't use the old fashioned Lord's Prayer. That is why everyone is welcome to receive the bread and wine. My friends, this service particularly is not for us; its for the people who aren't here yet, to give them an opportunity to pray to God in a way that makes sense to them.
The other two services are for long suffering churched people. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of those people around.
Today, as we wrap up there are three practical things I want to share with you to encourage you to AIM high--AIM for a first-class prayer life. It doesn't depend on you, it depends on God.
So what do we do first?
A=ascertain where you are. Where ever you are, even if you don't pray at all, start there. If you pray a couple minutes a day or if you have kind of an inconsistent prayer life, begin there. But be honest and say, "Here's where I am in my prayer life." And we're going to start from there.
The second thing in AIM is
I=imagine. Imagine what you could do. For me, I got started in prayer life when I was driving. I didn't have much time. I knew I didn't have much time. But I knew I had to drive to work so I started there. Then my imagination led to just sitting in the evening and offering a prayer. At the moment, I get up and read a chapter from the Bible and then pray on something that struck me as I read.
Finally, the M in AIM is: M=make a commitment. Today I invite you to make a commitment to share in the exciting adventure of prayer. Make a commitment to grow in that area of your life. It is an adventure worth taking! Through that adventure we discover God's deep friendship--the relationship with God as God stands at the door and knocks. As we open the door God comes in and offers us all that we need. God offers the very best.
Let us pray: Dear God, you are always there when I need someone to talk to--day or night. Just telling you what is on my mind is a great stress reliever. I promise not to let our time together be catch as catch can. Thanks for helping me to AIM high in all I do and say.

AMEN