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Confident Prayer
Acts 4:23-31
When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit," 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed' — for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
This morning I want to talk to you about confident prayer. First of all, we need to be sure that we are praying. I admit that in my own life I need to be praying more. The older I get in the faith the more I realize the importance of prayer.
But I don’t want to just talk about prayer this morning, but confident prayer. You can’t be confident in prayer if you don’t know to Whom you are praying. With the lack of accurate theology all around us today, I wonder how many people really know Who they are praying to.
If some people who call themselves Christians deny such things as the omniscience of God and omnipotence of God, then how can they pray with any confidence? Some professing Christians don’t even know that God is all-knowing and all-powerful. If God is little better than a man, then we should have no confidence in our prayers. So knowing Who God is makes all the difference in our prayer lives. When we pray to God we are not merely having a conversation with a man, but we are communing with the Creator of the universe!
Three things we must recognize about God in our prayers:
I. |
We must recognize God as the creator of the universe |
Acts 4:24-25
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, " 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
Notice again that they were all of “one accord or the same mind.” We are in chapter 4 and they still have unity, despite their trials. They are keenly aware that God is the One who created the entire universe. The point, is that these believers knew Whom they were praying to!
In verse 25, he alludes to Psalm 2. Why would these believers remember Psalm 2 at this point and time in their prayers? Well, the context of Psalm 2 is very much like the context that these believers found themselves in.
Psalm 2 refers to David’s plight but also prophecies of the leaders rejecting Christ. So what the leaders did in David’s day was exactly what the leaders were doing to the disciples. In fact, verse 3 of Psalm 2 tells us that the leaders went on to say, “Let us break their chains... and throw off their fetters.” It happened to David, it happened to Christ, and now it was happening to these believers.
But notice that the plotting of those who oppose God is called a “vain thing.” God cannot be beaten! Remember the Madalyn Murray O’Hair story from a few weeks ago.
Remembering that God is the creator should give us great comfort.
There was a woman in Florida who was not a believer. She wrote to the local newspaper and explained that she never prayed or believed in God or prayer as she thought it was all superstition. She said that as the hurricane was approaching the town, she decided to pray and ask God to protect her house from the storm. Well the hurricane came and wiped out her house, so she said what do you say about that? The editor’s answer was pretty good. He said, “Madam, I don’t know much about prayer either, but maybe God was busy answering the prayers of His regulars.”
*Now not only must we recognize God as the Creator of the Universe, but:
II. |
We must recognize God as the sovereign of the universe |
Acts 4:26-28
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed' — for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
They continue in their prayers to draw parallels from what was done to Christ to what was being done to them. And with all that being said, God was still in control. More than God being in control, the text clearly says that this was God’s purpose.
Now we must be balanced here. This does not mean that these evil rulers were robots programmed by God to commit their evil. Surely, they chose to freely commit the evil. However, what this passage is teaching is that God, in His sovereignty, used their evil to work out His overall plan.
Instead of using God’s sovereignty as a reason not to pray, these disciples saw God’s sovereignty as a reason to pray. That is how it must be for us. There are some believers who, in my opinion, “hide” behind God’s sovereignty. What I mean by this is that some believers do not do the things that they should do because God is sovereign. I mean when we pray we are not changing God right? Yes. So why pray if God is all knowing and sovereign? Well lets look at some biblical facts:
Our minds tend to think this way:
“What can you tell a God who already knows everything?”
ANSWER: Nothing!
Jesus Himself said: Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
So, we conclude: Why pray?
But let me challenge you to look at that question another way.
“What can you tell a God who already knows everything?”
ANSWER: Anything!
God is sovereign and does not change:
Job 42:1-2
Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Psalms 115:3
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Psalms 145:13
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]
Proverbs 16:33
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
2 Kings 19:25
"Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins,
Acts 15:18
Known unto God from eternity are all His works.
Isaiah 46:9-11
remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Daniel 4:35
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"
These verses suggest three things:
| 1. | God has always known what He plans to do |
| 2. | God does not change His mind about what He planned |
| 3. |
God chooses or permits things to happen |
So then, if we are to believe these verses (and we certainly are), then why pray at all?
It seems silly to ask God for things, if He has already ordained what He is going to do.
- If my prayers tell Him nothing He doesn’t already know
- If I can’t change His mind
- If he knows what is best and
- If he is going to do what he wants anyway
Then why pray?
The fact that prayer is not meaningless even though we know what God intends to do is clearly taught in the Scripture.
3 Biblical Examples:
1. Daniel
Daniel 9:2
“in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
What did Daniel know? – He knew that the captivity would be 70 years
What did he do? (9:3ff) – When the captivity was almost ended we are told that he “set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth, and ashes.”
2. Jeremiah
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
What did He tell Jeremiah to do (Jer. 29:12)? – Than ye shall call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
3. Paul
In Romans chapter 9 Paul says that salvation does not depend on man’s desire or effort. He says that God will have mercy on whom He wants to have mercy. He even rebukes the person who might wish to tell God that this is not fair. He says that God saves only whom he wants and that He decided this before people were even born or had a chance to do anything good or bad. But what does Paul say he does in Romans 10:1?
My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
In other words, Paul vigorously taught God’s sovereignty in salvation and at the same time prayed vigorously for God to save people. For Paul, the priority of God’s omnipotence, wisdom, goodness and omniscience – the immutability of His will – seems to encourage prayer rather than make it unnecessary.
This is how it must be for us. We don’t pray because we can change God, but because God can change us!
I remember hearing the story of a little boy who was
reading a book and he was terrified of the villain in the book. He didn’t
even want to keep reading the book, because the villain appeared to be
triumphing over the hero. So this boy jumped ahead to the last chapter.
There he read that the villain was killed by the hero. The little boy then
went back and read the rest of the book with a smile on his face. He knew
who would triumph.
Do you know that you are on the winning team? Some of us need to be
reminded that Jesus has triumphed over Satan and that Jesus died for us so
that we could live a victorious Christian life!
Not only must we recognize God as the Creator and Sovereign of the Universe, but:
III. |
We must recognize God as the source of our spiritual strength |
Acts 4:29-31
And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
These disciples realized that God is the Creator and that He is sovereign. Once we realize that, then we will realize that any spiritual strength we have must come from God. Now we can also learn a lot about the hearts of these disciples by what they prayed here.
Notice they say “your servants.” This word means bondslave. Do you see yourself as God’s bondslave? These disciples did!
They desired 2 things: And notice neither of these things is selfish!
1. To express God’s word – v. 29
They prayed for more of what got them in trouble in the first place. Often we pray to get out of trouble, we should be praying to do His work in the midst of trouble. They didn’t say get us out of trouble, but rather give us boldness in our tribulation!
2. To extend God’s hand – v. 30
(cf. 5:12 = this prayer was answered)
They desired to see God glorified through works that only He could do.
When we are interested in expressing God’s word, and extending God’s hand, then we can expect our prayers to be answered:
Acts 4:31
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Prayer will do more than anything else to bring a church together. Someone has rightly said that the church is not to be wired together by organization, were not to be frozen together by formalism, were not to be rusted together by tradition, but we are to be fused and melted together by prayer.
| Conclusion: | |
| To the believer | We need to be people of prayer. Is your marriage what you want it to be? Pray! Are you often depressed? Don’t rely on medication rely on the Master, get on your knees and pray! You say, well that offends me. Yes, the Bible often offends me too! We all need to be offended by biblical truth! These disciples had a lot to be depressed about. They didn’t have any money, they were separated from their families, their leader had been murdered right in front of them, they were put in prison, they were beaten, but they didn’t have a pity party. No, they prayed to be used of God! This is how we must be. |
| To the unbeliever | You need to trust Christ as your Savior. He is the One mediator between God the Father and man! The first prayer you need to pray is to ask God to save you! |
