Genesis 18:20-33

Luke 11: 5-12

Luke 18:1-8

Robert Smith

This is the first of three sermons on Prayer to coincide with the launch of our new Parish Prayer Programme in September. The theme of my sermon is ‘persistent prayer’ and as well as the three readings we have heard, I need to draw from another story. …This is about three men who were trekking through a jungle when they came across a violent, raging river. They had no idea how to cross. So the first man decided to pray: “Please, God, give me the strength to cross this river.” Immediately he grew enormous muscles in his arms and legs, and he managed to swim across the river in a couple of hours, nearly drowning twice.The second man saw this and he prayed “Please, God, give me the strength AND the tools to cross this river.” A boat appeared from nowhere, and he battled across the river in an hour, nearly capsizing twice.The third man saw this and prayed “Please, God, give me the strength, the tools AND the intelligence to cross this river.” To his surprise, immediately he turned into a woman. She looked at the map, walked upstream a hundred yards, and crossed over the bridge to the other side.This morning I want to address four aspects of prayer:

q       Can we change the mind of God?

q       Persistence in prayer

q       Being specific in prayer

q       Answers to prayer

So, firstly, can we change the mind of God through prayer? At first glance, in our Old Testament reading, Abraham appears to have changed God’s mind through his repeated petitions asking for the city of Sodom to be spared. (Gen 18:20-33.)

To give some background, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities that were condemned by God to destruction if He finds that the ‘outcry’ against them is true. Some of Abraham’s relatives (it is thought about 10 of them) lived in Sodom. They were Lot (his nephew) and his family. Abraham knew that God is a just judge and that it is in God’s nature to spare the righteous. But Abraham thought that implied sparing Sodom and was unaware of any other way around it. God indeed said that, if necessary, He would withhold His judgement to protect a righteous remnant of ten or more. However, reading on, we see that there were only 4 righteous ( Lot, his wife and 2 unmarried daughters) and God spared these anyway by guiding them out of the city.

God sent two angels to check the outcry and then destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah anyway.

So, can we change the mind of God? Isn’t it more that, by praying, we change:

q       ourselves – and our relationship with God

q       the circumstances – by being a praying church

q       our involvement in the situation

q       God’s ability to communicate with us, and work through us

q       which is the best option open to God.

eg. He can revert to Plan A (for a praying church) rather than Plan B or C (for non-praying churches)By accepting the burden of prayer we can become part of the solution.Now lets look at the importance of persistence in prayer. Abraham was certainly persistent! God did not seem to have a problem with this, although Abraham was pretty worried! In the reading from Luke 11, Jesus recommends persistence in a parable, ending:“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”And in Luke 18 he specifically says “…pray always and do not lose heart.”So how can we ‘pray always?’ Obviously this does not mean on our knees at the side of the bed! It suggests that prayer should be an on-going conversation with God alongside us. It is our relationship with God that is of most importance to God, and prayer is an essential element in maintaining it. For example, I wrote some of this sermon while mowing the lawn! I hd to stop occasionally to make some notes, but I find that I can often have a very close conversation with God whilst undertaking such a mindless occupation.Moving on to being specific in prayer, Jesus said (Luke 11:10) that we should ask for what we need. He also said:“….if two or three of you on earth agree about anything that you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 18:19)So in order to do these things we need to be specific …. and to pray corporately. Then we will recognise the answers and can give thanks.Reading Luke 11:10-13 from Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase of the Bible ‘The Message’:“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing – you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”The Holy Spirit seems to be key to our prayers being answered and often the way God answers our prayers is through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.The answers to our prayers may not be what we expect. In the OT reading for example, what Abraham actually wanted was to save the righteous. But he was not specific about his need. He tried to tell God how to achieve it. Abraham was probably surprised by the answer to his prayer -

Sodom was still destroyed! But God still answered Abraham’s actual need in His own way.

Reading again from ‘The Message’, Luke 18:6-8 Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on earth when he returns?”In Fleet, will He find us engaged in persistent faith and prayer? I pray that He will, and that it will be partly as a result of us deepening our prayer lives through this Parish Prayer Programme.The answers to our prayers may not be when we expect. As with the widow’s struggle with the unjust Judge (Luke 18), we may have to wait for the response. Whilst God’s support and care is instantaneous, the response will be in his timing. So often, when we look back, we realise that His timing was much better than ours.So, to return to the story of the 3 men crossing the river…

q       It is important to persist in prayer…and to be specific in what we ask for q       Practice makes perfectq       The answer may well differ from our expectations…but will always result in a better solution!The Parish Prayer ProgrammeToday we are launching the Parish Prayer Programme and you will be handed PPP Launch Leaflets and Prayer Diaries when you leave the church this morning. Please study the Launch Leaflet. The aims of the PPP are clearly laid out. It contains a varied menu of corporate prayer and we hope that everyone can find at least one new aspect of corporate prayer that suits them.The PPP Working Group comprised members of both P&J and All Saints congregations and those involved in the PCC as well as those not involved. This was deliberate in order to give a fair spread of experience and views. We ran a pilot scheme for the Prayer Diary for three months and also for the Prayer Hub.I must say that I am in as much need of this Prayer Programme as anyone. I need to fit prayer into a busy life; I need opportunities to learn new ways to converse with God; I need to start to give Him his correct position in my life. I hope that you will also share that need and find that the PPP helps you.

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