Reading Psalm 17:1-8 1 Song Good Morning everyone, its great to be with you this morning.

. I hope your celebrations of Christmas and new years were great and I hope you managed to find a little time to rest and reflect on the great news of Christmas, that God came to us and can indeed be found. And on that note this morning were actually starting a series on the subject of prayer that well run through January. We hope to be asking some hard and good questions about prayer, to be praying together on Sundays and weve put together a prayer guide that will follow each Sunday gathering with some prayers and thoughts on our discussions. We hope that youll pray through those, and when you do pray those prayers I hope that youre aware youre praying with one another in a sense, in doing so were bringing something unified to God. Most of all, though, what were hoping and praying (ba dum ching) is for us to have a rich understanding, but also experience, of prayer that is rooted in this reality of Gods presence to the world, and to us. It feels appropriate to start off our morning and our series on prayer with a word of prayer, would someone be willing to pray that God would bless our morning together? One of the first questions people ask about prayer is whether or not it really matters. And I think its worth mentioning that when I say questions what I mean is that most of us have wondered whether prayer changes anything. Maybe weve talked about these questions, argued about them or whatever, but largely theyre questions we only ask when we absolutely have to. And at that point were frustrated that we even have to ask the question and then were prone to get angry and maybe then we stop praying or just pray some limp prayer and kinda move on, hoping for the best. And some of you have processed this question in a really healthy way, youve prayed for things and seen those things happen. You have a vibrant prayer life and you honestly dont get why a Christian wouldnt be a super prayerful person, it makes as much sense to you as it would to meet a human who is like I actually dont like liquids. I only eat, never drink. I dont know, I just never get around to it. Saltines, coffee cake, hot wingstheyre all fine with me on theyre own. Youre thinking you dont have to let your mouth burn, you can drink some milk and cool it down, you dont have to suffer! Youre wondering how they can try to follow God without praying, it seems impossible and maybe pointless, maybe even wrong to you. And for you, be gracious. Dont judge people who havent processed questions in the same ways that you have, and for you people who can feel crippled by these questionsdont be cynical jerks who assume these other folks dont have it as hard as you or that theyre ignorant. So on that note of graciousness all around I want to ask a simple question. Have you ever wondered if prayer actually does anything? And if so, why did that question arise for you? -hard time/loss, asked God to do something and the loss still occurred -some hard reality of my life, it wont go away and I beg god to -things are still bad in the world, seems like God doesnt do anything in response -seemed like the worlds brokenness was more true than anything good about God

Lots of us may have heard this idea that what really matters in prayer is that it changes us, that regardless of whether or not every detail of the future is already fixed or not, my prayer that God would do something isnt important because it might actually mean God might do somethingit matters because I prayed-and its in that bringing to God that the real change happens. The internal change is the most important piece in this view. I like this way of thinking about the question because it sort of adds another context to it, instead of being overwhelmed and crippled by the question it encourages us to keep bringing things to God, which is great. But also I find this to be a terrible answer to the question. Its a great answer to the question does prayer change me? But what if we want the world to be different? What if I want something other than my life to be different. What I want your life to be different, to be better, to be more whole? What if I see something in the world that grosses me out, some terrible injustice? How should I pray about that? If everythings fixed already than its going to happen whether or not I pray, and if my personal growth is major end of prayer then Im going to pray for mellower things than an end to global poverty and the end of sex slavery. I had a friend in a discipleship group in high school who always asked us to pray for his cat Spicy, Spicys appetite has been down, guys. Id much rather pray for spicy if its going to do the same thing as praying for something I dont like to think about. The problem with that is that the Gospel compels us to care about hard injustices in the world, it compels us to have soft hearts towards those in need, the gospel pulls us out of a desire for comfort at any cost and gives us a strange tendency to end up in messy situations so that the peace of Jesus might be passed onto those who experience little peace. Do you see the conflict here? Prayer cant only be about you and God, prayer has to fit into this larger scheme of Gods restorative and redemptive presence in the world. Listen to this prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples, for the church in John 17. John 17: 11-21 What do you see here? -Jesus prays for people as though he needed to, as though something might happen if he didnt -Jesus prays for them in a personal way, he gets specific about struggles they might face in light of the mission Jesus called them to Im not asking you to take them out fo the world but to protect them from the evil one Lets read 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are co-workers in Gods service; you are Gods field, Gods building. Co. You see, theres all sorts of talk over the last 40 years in America about the personal, relational component of following Jesus. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? is the classic doorknocker question, and its a great one. Strangely though that isnt often applied to this

question. A relationship is something two parties are actively involved in, and there are bad relationships and good relationships. What are some components of good relationships? -Mutuality -You serve one another -Enjoy each other -Suffer through hard times together -Patient with each other -Theres some common ties between you, whether its something mellow like an interest or deeper, something beyond interests I want to read a quote for you In our efforts to pray it is easy for us to be defeated right at the outset because we have been taught that everything in he universe is already set, and so things cannot be changed. And if things cannot be hanged, why pray? We may gloomily feel that way but the Bible does not teach that. The pray-ers prayed as if their prayers could and would make an objective difference. The apostle Paul gladly announces that we are co-laborers with God that is, we are working with God to determine the outcome of events (1 Cor. 3:9). It is Stoicism that demands a closed universe not the Bible. -Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline Theres one line here that strikes me, the pray-ers prayed as if their prayers could and would make an objective difference. Now we know from the scriptures that the main plot points of the story continually point towards this world being fully redeemed, fully realized and restored to the world we all feel nostalgic for but have never quite experienced. We know the big points, and those points are important. But regardless of how detailed you believe those to be, whether you think God planned for you to park where you parked today or not, you have to see that scripture paints a picture, that the mere existence of prayer paints a picture of mutual work of restoration between god and followers of Jesus. Lets read James 5:16 Lest we forget about the personal change involved in prayer, James notes that repentance and confession to your brothers and sisters in Christ are part of our healing process. The prayer of a righteous person produces great results, which means that our personal redemption is connected to wonderful and redemptive fruit of the Gospel in the world around us. Our prayers do matter. They matter for us, to us, and they matter to God. God desires that we become part of this mission to make the world right, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus himself prayed as though his prayers mattered, he prayed for specific things for his church, for us. So dont be afraid to pray, dont be afraid of meeting God in that prayer and finding that he both changes you and maybe, just maybe, changes the shape of things to come. Would someone pray for us? Lets sing.