Part 1: Time to Pray

I was in sales for many years. I started out as a Fuller Brush salesman when I was in High School. I learned to sell by watching others and trial and error. There are many things to learn when selling something. You need to know all about your product to answer any questions the potential customer has for you. You need to know about your customer, does she need what you’re selling. There are techniques for every aspect of selling. There is one aspect that is most important. It’s easy to understand but for some people it’s hard to do. It is the reason why many people fail as salespeople. Do we have any sales people here? What do you think I’m thinking of? What do you think is the most important aspect of selling, the one thing that you have to do to succeed in sales?

Take responses

You have to ask for the order.

I have had people try to sell me things over the years who did a great job explaining about their product but who never asked for the order. If I didn’t want it’s I’d just sigh in relief that I didn’t have to screw up the courage to say no. Unless you’re dying to by something, you don’t mind if a person doesn’t try to close the sale by asking for the order.

It can be hard for all of us to ask for things. Let’s say you need help moving. Is it easy or hard to ask people for help? It’s hard because you know how much work it is. People are busy. We don’t want to inconvenience them. This is true of many areas where we need help. I think about the skills people have here at our church. We have many different areas of expertise. We have people who have expertise in medicine, electrical work, painting, computers, self-defense training, social work, finance, sewing, taking care of animals, analytics, social media, and gardening. I could go on.

How easy is it for you to ask for help, say if you have a computer problem or need a wall repaired and painted?

It depends on how well you know the person, doesn’t it? If any of my sons are around and I need help, I don’t hesitate to ask, even if it’s hard and might inconvenience them. The same thing is true of good friends, isn’t it? But if my sons aren’t around or I don’t have a good friend to ask, I may just do the work myself or pay someone to do.

How many of us have heard, after the fact, of someone who paid for help when we were willing to help? More than once I’ve said, “I wish you would have called me! I would have helped!” And we mean it. For whatever reason the person didn’t ask us.

Transition:

What about asking God for help? Do you think God wants to help you? That sounds like a silly question to ask, because if we know God, we know He wants to help us, right?

But it is a legitimate question because we often don’t ask God for help. There are different reasons for this. I want to suggest that perhaps the most significant reason ask God for help is that we don’t know God well enough to be comfortable to ask Him for help anytime for anything.

Let’s shift for a moment back to asking people for things. Your car broke down at 2 am and you need a ride. You need to move heavy piece of furniture. A pipe broke and your home is flooded and you need help to clean up a huge mess. Is there a person in your life who you know you could ask for help with anything?

Do you feel that way about God? He wants you to feel that way about you and, in fact, He is waiting for you to ask.

Bottom Line: God is waiting for you to ask.

God waits for us to pray and then acts when we pray. Sometimes God only acts when we pray.

Why doesn’t God do certain things? He’s waiting for us to pray.

1. God wouldn’t heal without prayer. Genesis 20:1-18

Genesis 20:1-18 Abraham and Abimelek

Genesis 20:6–7 NIV

6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

Genesis 20:17–18 NIV

17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, 18 for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

James speaks to this. He also tells us that our words aren’t just a magic spell that causes something to happen. Our prayer has to be according to God’s will.

James 5:14–16 NIV

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Sometimes we’re sick because we’re sick. Nothing more than living in a world corrupted by sin.

Sometimes we’re sick because we’ve sinned. God uses sickness as part of His discipline. If that’s the case, we need to address the sin by confessing it and also ask for his healing.

2. God wouldn’t forgive without prayer. Job 42:7-16

Job 42:7-16 Job and his three friends

Job 42:7–9 NIV

7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

This is a profound statement. God wouldn’t forgive these people unless Job forgave them and prayed for them.

Forgiveness is important to God. Matthew 6:12; 1 John 1:9; Ephesians 4:32

Is there someone you need to forgive?

Is there someone you need to seek forgiveness from?

3. God wouldn’t allow rain without prayer. 1 Kings 17:1; 18:1; 18:41-45; James 5:17-18

1 Kings 17:1-18:46 Elijah and Ahab and no rain

1 Kings 17:1 NIV

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

1 Kings 18:1 NIV

1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

1 Kings 18:41–45 NIV

41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. 43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” 44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” 45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

In order to fully understand the role of prayer in this miraculous event we need to read James.

James 5:17–18 NIV

17 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. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

4. God won’t act without your prayer. James 4:2;

1. Pray specifically. John 14:12-13

2. Pray individually and collectively. 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 25

3. Pray faithfully. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Conclusion

Success: We see God work.

God acts and does what we pray

God changes our prayer.

Helps avoid failure:

We live in frustration because we don’t understand how God work.

Discussion questions:

1. Do you find it hard or easy to ask people for help? Why are we hesitant to ask people for help?

2. Do you find it hard or easy to ask God for help? Why are we hesitant to ask God for help?

3. Share some prayer needs with others.

Aspiration: We want God to work in our lives.

We want to be effective in our prayers.

There are things we want God to do for us and others.

Problem: We don’t see God working like He does for others.

We don’t see God answer our prayers like heroes in the Bible or people we know.

Guide: I often feel the same way. I want to be effective in my prayer.

Plan: We pray to see God work.

Pray what God wants.

According to His will

According to His leading

Pray as an intercessor.

For others

For God to work, not us

Pray in faith.

expectantly

consistently, don’t give up.

Call to action:

1. Identify what want to see God do.

2. Pray individually and collectively

3. Pray faithfully until God acts.

Success: We see God work.

God acts and does what we pray

God changes our prayer.

Helps avoid failure:

We live in frustration because we don’t understand how God work.

Related Media

Related Sermons