Confident in Prayer| Tyrone P. Jones | Book of Acts

we were here last week, so we're gonna read verses one and two and then drop down to verse five. And then we're gonna go to John 14. So Acts 12, I wanna talk about prayer today, confidence in prayer. Confidence in prayer. Acts 12, verse number one, about that time, Herod the King laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John with the sword, then down to verse five. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now, if you're gonna go back to the previous book of the Bible, the Gospel of John, gonna look at chapter 14, and we're gonna see two verses there. John chapter 14, verses 13 and 14. 13 and 14. This is Jesus talking. He says, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, "that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." So Father, reading of the word, can you say amen? Amen, you may be seated. Now, in your reading, you've probably come to know that when you get to John chapter 13 through 17, actually through 18, you know that that's the last night that Jesus is with his disciples before the betrayal.

The betrayal was actually in place, but it consummates on this particular night. It's the last night before his arrest, which of course subsequently led to the sham trial, which led to his crucifixion. And he knew that he was sending these disciples into the world after he was gone, but with a mission. He had already told them some of the things that they would do, and he had already let them know that they were gonna have some difficult times. But what he does at this particular night is that he gives them some things that will help them on the journey. He tells them that they're gonna receive the Spirit of the Lord and that the Spirit of God will guide them and give them direction, will speak truth, remind them of truth. He tells them about peace, that they're gonna have peace even in the midst of trials, they're gonna have that he was gonna give them hope. But most notably, he tells them about prayer, particularly right here in this passage and then in 17, he prays for them. It does remind me, it's like he's saying, these are the things you need. You're gonna go on a journey, but you need these things. You need the Holy Spirit, you need hope, you need prayer. It reminds me of a scene in Fellowship of the Ring, from the Lord of the Ring series

where they're getting ready to leave Elvin, the rim of Lothlorian, and head to Mordor. And they've been informed of all the troubles that they're gonna have along that journey. But then Lady Galadriel, she comes out and she gives them things. She gives them boots and they get cloaks and they get Lambus bread. And then she also gives Frodo Baggins this vile. And eventually, as you know the series, that vile came in handy when he needed it. That's similar to what Jesus is doing here. He's given things that's gonna fortify them, fortify us also for the journey that was ahead. And the greatest gift that he speaks and puts emphasis on or this great gift is this grifter prayer. Here's the thesis and this might be on the screen, not sure, but this is the thesis of my message. Prayer is the extraordinary privilege of God's children made possible through Jesus Christ, through which God works powerfully in our circumstances while transforming our hearts for his glory. That's where I'm headed in this message. I started with Acts chapter 12, because last week, of course, we dealt with that text, but you see different results of what happened in prayer. You had James, you had Peter, both taken by Herret. Church was praying for both of those. And as you know, one gets released, but the other gets beheaded.

Although the scripture says the church was earnestly praying. What I know is that all of us as believers, affect us from praying. Some of that is disappointment. We pray about certain things and we're disappointed that God does not do what we pray about. Some of it is disillusioned. Some of it is disillusioned because we do have a mindset to think that whatever we think is best, then of course God should think that's best also. He should think it's best also. But we fail to consider two things oftentimes in praying. One of them is a theological word. The other one, to be honest, is one that I'm made up, but it works. One of them is this. God is omniscience. That means that God does know all things. But also with God knowing all things. Remember this. God is, and this is the one I made up, he's omnipotent. God is all competent. He's all knowing, but he's also all competent. He knows exactly what to do and what he can do with everything that he knows. And so prayer can be a mystery because we don't know God's intent in all of our affairs until he makes them known. But yet we're commanded to pray. We're told to be constant in prayer. We're instructed in the scripture to be faithful in prayer, meaning that we go into prayer, absolutely trusting God entirely even though we don't necessarily know what he might do. I want to talk to you about what I see in John chapter 14 that I really think is, I mean, this is it on prayer. And I'll talk about those three things that Jesus teaches because he talks about the power of prayer here in the text. He also talks about the condition of prayer, which is often missed and then he talks about the purpose of prayer. Let's first talk about the power of prayer. John 14, 13 and 14 again, and there'll be words underlined. I underlined whatever you ask because I'm talking about the power of prayer. In my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son, verse 14, if you ask me anything underlined, in my name, underlined, I will do it. Now, of course, right away, you may think that he's talking about like the genie in the bottle, just rub a dub dub and the genie pops out and gives you three wishes that he'll give you whatever you want. But please hear the language here. Jesus is sending them on mission. He's sending them on mission. And he's basically saying, while you're on mission, what you ask in my name, for the glory of God, I will do that so that there's some caveats in there. And I'll talk about that, but you certainly hear what the God of the universe is saying. He's saying, you asked and I will do. James chapter 5, James picks up from 1 Kings 18, maybe 17, 18 of Elijah. And Elijah is dealing with the evil king, King Aham, the wicked king. And because of that, Elijah prayed a judgment upon the king and the land, and he prayed,

and the Lord did not, it did not reign for three and a half years. After that three and a half years, Elijah prayed again that it would reign and it began to reign. Listen to James, the latter part of 16 through verse 18. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not reign. And for three years and six months, it did not reign on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave reign, and the land produced his fruit. James picks up on that, and he says, even though Elijah is a prophet just like, sorry, is a prophet, he's a man just like us. God heard him, didn't reign. God heard him, and it rained again. So he says, prayer brings about some powerful results. John Calvin says something a little bit sarcastic, but I love it. He says, it was notable event for God to put heaven in some sense under the control of Elijah's prayers to be obedient to his request. Basically, he's saying with a little... of Elijah as God fulfilled that prayer. It's remarkable. All Austin Phelps wrote a book in the, it was the late 1800s, very old book, but he has a chapter in there on prayer and power. And he describes when a Saxon king was going to invade Wales. And so the Welsh army was set. They were in their places. The Saxon king goes up on a hill and he looks to see where the Welsh army is set up so that he can make sure that the strategy he has in place is in place. He goes up there and he's got his wingman next to him. And he saw the arm and he says, who is that group to the right that doesn't have a shield, they don't have a sword, they don't have anything. He said those are the Christians that the Welsh army brought to pray for them before they went in battle. The Saxon king said, kill them first because their prayer is powerful enough to be our biggest enemy. The Saxon king who was a heathen believes more about prayer than some of us Christians do. The Saxon king that was a heathen.

God has chosen to accomplish some extraordinary things through the prayers of ordinary believers. God is sovereign and yet he chooses to work through human prayer. He's absolutely sovereign in control of all things. And in his sovereignty he chooses to work through human prayer. So that prayer is just not some religious ritual or just some source of emotional comfort. It's a means by which God does act. And if we believe prayer was that powerful, why do we treat it oftentimes as this the last resort instead of our first response? That's the power of prayer. One thing here is the condition of prayer. And here this, again, John 14, 13 through 14, you'll see this verse several times. And I've underlined some things. Whatever you ask, underline in my name. I will do it so the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything underlying in my name, I will do it. So you see this, prayer is not dependent on just asking, but it's asking in the name of Jesus. That's the condition. And you can only ask in the name of Jesus if you're in the family of God. If you're in the family of God, if you've been born again, then your prayers have the same place of authority as Jesus is dead because you're a child of God along with the rest of the body of Christ that has the authority of Jesus Christ to pray in the name of Jesus. So you follow me? Here's what John 1, 11 and 12 says. And I'm going to ask you to do something in just a moment. And this is one of those moments, please. Will you please let me be the pastor and you do what I ask you to do? Just give me that dish time. Will you? Here it is.

John 1, 11 through 12, he came to his own and they rejected him. But to all who believed in him and accepted him, he gave them the right to become children of God. I need you to do this. I need you to do this. I need you to raise your hand if you've believed in him and accepted him. You are a child of God. You are a child of God. And so you have the authority. You've been adopted in God's family. So you pray from a place of access. You have the same access to the Father as Jesus has when he was here on earth. You've got the same rights. You've got the same inheritance. Here it is in Ephesians 2, 18. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for you. If you're a Christian, that's your privilege, that's your place of authority. The Father is open to hear you day and night. I shouldn't even go further than that. He's not just open to hear you. He wants to hear you. He's listening to hear you. It's the right and the privilege that you have to come into the name of Jesus. That's the condition of prayer. So you got the power of prayer. You ask, I'll do it. And with those two elements, here's the next one because this is where we can mess it up is because the wrong motives. The wrong motives.

To come into the name of the Lord is to have the heart of the Lord. Here's the third one, the purpose of prayer. Again, verse 13, John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, underline, I will do it so the Father may be glorified in the Son. There is the purpose of prayer, to glorify the Father, to find glory in God. The ultimate purpose of prayer is not simply to change our circumstance, but to set our hearts on the glory of God. That is the ultimate purpose of prayer. There's two ways you can go about this, two ways. There's a self-centered understanding, and there's a God-centered understanding. Here's a self-centered understanding. God exists to fulfill my desires. Here's the God-centered understanding. My desires must be shaped by God's glory. Here's the self-centered understanding, prayer is primarily about receiving. You know that. That's why you spend more time asking than thinking. I only said that to the second service because y'all ain't even, y'all are getting this. God-centered understanding, prayer is about knowing and loving God. Self-centered understanding, happiness depends on circumstances. God-centered understanding, lasting joy is found in God Himself. Yeah, self-centered understanding is unanswered prayer means disappointment. A God-centered understanding is unanswered prayer may be part of God's wise care. Self-centered understanding, I want God to give me what I want. A God-centered understanding, I want God to make me who He wants me to be. Whole different approach because you're approaching from this standpoint, it's about the glory of God. So yes, do we pray for jobs? Yes, do we pray for marriage, do we pray for health, do we pray for financial provision?

But we submit those requests to God's greater purposes because it's His glory. And if our prayers are not aligned with that, then you can't complain when it doesn't work. I read a story the other day, I couldn't believe it, then I found out there was a lot of folks who did this. I read a story where this dude in the trailer, I don't know if his stove went out, whatever the case may be, but the dude used a space heater to try to cook his breakfast, a space heater. Now, a space heater, it'll keep the place warm, but it's not designed to cook with. I think he put a piece of foil on it, put his, he burnt his trailer up. Well, of course he did. The space heater ain't aligned with cooking, so you can't expect the results based on you being out of alignment. And so the same way we approach this when it comes to prayer, the purpose of it is to be in line with the glory of God, to be in line with Him. So first John 5, 14 through 15, this is the confidence we have before Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of Him. It's actually approaching God on that basis, that all of our desires are increasingly shaped by the will of God. All of our desires, increasingly shaped by the will of God. The greatest one that illustrated this, of course, was Jesus Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 2639. You might remember this, this is again, the night before He's arrested, is shortly before He's arrested. He's in the Garden, Jesus says, I went, sorry, He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, saying, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup of God be of suffering be taken away from me. Jesus is absolutely saying, I don't want to do this, I don't like this, I know this is going to hurt, this is going to be painful, but watch what He says, yet I want your will

not to be done, not mine. Our desires get shaped by the will of God as we approach Him, seeking His Gethsemane. Now, catch this. If Jesus had not have submitted to the will of the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, none of us would have had a right and a privilege to pray. None of us would have. Because the only way we got access was based on what Jesus has done, not what we have done. And his will was shaped by the will and the glory of the Father. Yes, God understands unanswered prayers and people suffering and disappointment. But you can also trust that God even answers through all of that in a manner that brings glory to him. You got to ask yourself the question. Is the purpose of prayer to God to satisfy my desire or is the purpose of my prayer to ultimately attain, approach, and reach the glory of God? St. Augustine, he wrote a letter. You can find this letter online. He wrote it to Anesia Proba. She was a noble woman, very wealthy woman. She wrote him a letter and asked him about how to pray. In the letter, if you were to read it, there's a lot of things that he says. There's a lot of principles. But this is the one that I want to bring out for this message. He says this when she asks about how to pray. Before you ask for anything, you've got to get something settled in your mind. You must account yourself desolate in the world, however prosperous you may be. Now, let me tell you what he's saying. He's saying you've got to count yourself no matter what you've done, no matter what you've obtained, no matter what you have enjoyed, whether it be your health, your wealth, human approval, sex, romance, all of that stuff. You have to count yourself as absolutely steel yet in total dependence on God for your happiness. That it's not on those things. You're desolate in the world. You have a dependence on him. And that you understand that in prayer, it's not about you finding joy and satisfaction in those things that you desire, but it's finding love in God. Finding love in him, this same Augustine, he made a great statement. He said you made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till we find our rest in you. Those are the folks that you're dealing with. When people come new with problems and troubles and issues, they're restless because they're trying to find answers and try to figure out life and provide things for their life and fix life in their own understanding instead of settling with the God who created them. They're restless. Augustine said, "You made us so that our hearts will not find rest until we find them in you." So when you only see

God's power and you go to him in prayer just because there's power to get things and not see the glory of God, you miss out on what it means to love him for who he is, for who he is in and of himself, besides the things that he's given you, but just knowing who he is for his beauty and his greatness and the glory that God has. It's the glory of God. That's the purpose of prayer. That God is so lovely. God is so beautiful. God is someone that you want to love and know. So when you go before God in prayer, you are pursuing his glory. That's what you're pursuing and your wheel is shaped by that. And there's other things, of course. God does what he does. Health is great. Wealth is great. All of the things that you can thank God for are great. They're all good things, but they're not the ultimate things. The ultimate things is his glory, his beauty, his supreme worth. The purpose of prayer is to fix your heart so you'll know where your true joy is really found, to fix your heart so you'll know where your true joy is really found. So the purpose of prayer is not to get God to satisfy my desires, but to set my heart on the things that ultimately satisfy me and him, to know him, to please him, to promote his glory, to serve him and become the person that God wants me to be. That's the ultimate purpose of prayer. And when you pray like that... you will always pray according to his will. You will always pray according to his will because even if you say, if you pray things and you don't know what God is going to do, ultimately when you lift those things up to God, it's not those things alone and particular that you're after, you're after what God's will and purpose is. So you can never miss his will if you lay these things before him and you pursue his glory in all those things. Is that making sense to you? John Calvin, he said it best. He says, God always grants our prayers even if he does not respond to the exact form of our request.

That's actually amazing. You can just, you put it the other way. God always gives you what you would have asked for if you'd have known the right thing to ask for. He always gives you what you ask for if you know the right thing to ask for. And so you pray for his glory. I'm telling you, I'm so glad God fixes my request when they get to heaven. God fixes our request so that we don't get all jacked up with what he gives us. That's outside of his purposes and I'm glad he fixes them. You put the prayers in the hands of the Lord and watch what he does in your heart. Prayer doesn't merely change you by what you receive. It changes your desires because God's prayer is for God's glory. That's the power of prayer. That's the condition of prayer and that's the purpose of prayer. Y'all doing all right. And so this is why I'll close with this. You can pray so confidently. You can pray confidently because you know prayer has power. You know the condition of prayer and you know the purpose of prayer. That's why Matthew seven, seven, three, 11 absolutely means a lot to us. Keep on asking and you receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds and to everyone who knocks the door will be open. You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him? (congregation applauding) He's basically saying ask me. And honestly, you might ask with the wrong thing, but I am a good father that's gonna give you the good gift. I'm gonna give you the right thing. I'm gonna give you the thing that brings glory to me. I'm gonna give you the thing that shapes your desire and shapes your will. Just ask me and I'm a good father. I'm gonna give you the right thing, the good thing. And so we live in the tension of that obedience, a tension of trust, that God will give us good things. So we pray boldly because God is powerful. We pray humbly because we're dependent on them. We pray purposely because we wanna bring glory to God. We pray confidently, we don't quit, we don't stop. We don't give up. We don't give ourselves the weariness or a cynical heart or lose hope because things don't come out the way.

We've worded it. If we understand what God is shaping our will and our purposes that we bring glory to him, we are so thankful and grateful that he shaped those things. And I'm telling you, God oversees our prayers for what he knows his best. If God didn't oversee our prayers, Raiders would win the Super Bowl every year. Every year, Dodgers would be in the World Series every year. Every time I preached on a Sunday morning, everybody would walk out of here saved and speaking in tongues. And the next time I raise an offering, we'll get all 12 million to build a new builder. (congregation applauding) But God oversees our prayers for his purposes that may bring glory to him. Am I talking to the right church? And so we, sometimes we make demands of God, we try to manipulate the outcome of our prayers. And we ask God to come into our story. And we miss the fact that God is inviting us to participate in his story. That's the invitation to participate in his story. And so even when you don't see things, oftentimes God is working. I wanna close with this story, and I'll do the same preface as I did. I think the team might be ready to roll. I see him putting their cigarettes out.

(congregation laughing) So I'll close with this. And again, I'll preface it. things that's happened, prayers that was prayed, and if you've been here, the 33 of you've been here, rarely will you hear "I" in those stories, whether "I" was entered or not. I just, I do not ever want stories to bring attention to me, but this story, I am going to use, I'm going to use "I." Lady V introduced me to a lady that she had known for a few years, and this lady was married. She was pretty faithful to her church. She would go to church regularly on a regular basis, would do all the stuff, but she prayed for years that God would give her a child. And that never occurred. Her and her husband even went through the process of doing all of this stuff medically. I don't know all the terms, but all of the various things that they could do. Went through several of those kinds of things to become pregnant, and it was just disappointment, disappointment, disappointment. Until eventually she was informed, there's nothing that can be done for you to be able to be pregnant, to conceive, and to have a child. She let us know that she was angry with God. She said, "I'll still keep going to church, but I'm not praying. I'm not talking to him. I'm angry." And sure enough, she went through all the steps, but would not. She could not even be in the same room with someone that was pregnant. Relationships in her life was damaged because friends would go to baby showers, and that would affect her. She wouldn't even do it. She couldn't do it. She was angry with God. Relationships was violated.

When Virginia shared this with me about how it would become, I wanted to pray for her. I honestly wanted to pray for her that the Lord honestly would just kind of heal her heart. But as I was praying for, the Lord gave me a word, and here is the word I remembered as just like it was yesterday, that the Lord is going to fulfill the desire of your heart. It's not going to happen the way that you've been designed, but it will happen, and you're going to have more joy than you anticipated that you would have. But on top of that, God's going to give you another blessing that you had never expected. So I laid that word on her, and she moved away, moved to the northeast somewhere. During this time period, while she's away, there's another lady that Lady V introduces me to. And this young lady already had five children, and she's in a situation that she shouldn't be in and gets pregnant again. She knows that she can't. She shouldn't. She doesn't have the ability to care for that child. So she talks to Lady V about it. Lady V convinces her abortion is not the thing to do. Not only does she convince her that abortion is not the thing to do, but she actually leads her to Jesus. And so this woman decided to give the child up for adoption. While all this is going on, the lady that was in the northeast, that I gave a word to, moved back to Yuma. Guess who got the child that was put up for adoption? (Applause) And she's got so much joy when she finds out she can adopt this child. Now, while she's pro-set preparing for the adoption to go through, she's happened to be reading this book called "Grip by Hope." I know the author of that book. (Laughter) She's reading this book "Grip by Hope." And the spirit of the Lord speaks to her about something she needs to do for her life.

She was so joyful of what was happening with the process. She hadn't quite got the child yet, but she was so excited about it. But because she saw what God can do, her faith is elevated, and she says she tells her husband, "Even if this one doesn't come through, I know what God can do, and I know the joy that I can have." And so she decides, "I want to be prepared to take care of whatever child God's going to give me." She goes through all of the medical stuff, eyes. I mean everything to check her body out physically, and they find cancer. Find cancer. Of course, now that throws her into a great disappointment because of the condition of the cancer. They tell her what they need to do. it's a chance that we can It's a chance this way. So Lady V tells me, I says, we're going to go pray right now. We went right to her. I laid hands on her and I'm telling you, they were prepping everything for all of these options. When she went back to get checked, the cancer was absolutely gone. (audience applauding) Absolutely gone. She's got the joy of holding that baby right now and she's cancer free because God was working. That's bringing glory to God. God is a good God. He will accomplish his purpose. Can you say amen? Let me give you these takeaways.

Five takeaways I'll give you. Prayer in God's sovereignty are not contradictory. Prayer is a privilege of adoption. God's refusal can be an expression of his love. Prayer is an instrument of spiritual formation. The gospel is the foundation of prayer. I'm telling you, you can have a confidence in prayer. You know the power. You know the condition. It's in Jesus name. You pray what God's purpose and you watch God shape your will, shape your desires and you will embrace the glory in him. Everybody stand if you would. You've got a prayer card with you. If you didn't get one when you came in, you do not get one, everybody get one. Hold that prayer card up 'cause you're gonna read it with me. This is a prayer I pray every single morning. Every morning I pray this prayer. It has done wonders to shape my will in the Lord. I'm giving you this because I want you to put it somewhere that you'll see it every day. If it's on your dashboard, if it's on your mirror, God, hopefully you're doing devotion. It's in your Bible, but pray this every morning and I want us to pray this together out loud and listen to the prayer that you'll be praying every day that'll shape your life. Will you pray this out loud with me?

Let's go. Let me hear if you're unfailingly loved each morning. For I am trusting you. Show me where to walk. For I give myself to you. Rescue me from my enemy's Lord. I run to you to hide me.