On Prayer: King David on Prayer
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: Prayer is always the right response to express our dependence on God and invite his miraculous intervention.
The Right Response
Dependent
Inviting the Miraculous
The Right Response
Prayer is the right response to all of life’s circumstances.
It keeps God involved.
Psalm 109:1-4 ESV
”Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.
David goes on to speak about the wickedness of his attackers and what we’ve all felt at times - that the treatment that he was receiving was undeserved.
However, David makes his appeal to God.
Psalm 109:21-31 ESV
But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me! For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads. Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it! Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad! May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak! With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.“
You should develop the habit of reading the Scripture and praying at the same time.
As you read the things that God has said, pray for him to work that part of his will into your heart, your family’s life, the life of your church, nation and the nations.
Fasting while in need should be a practice to focus our dependence on God.
Dependent
Prayer communicates dependence.
God cares about relating with you.
Psalm 63:1-11 ESV
”O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.“
Dead religion is the result of knowing about God but not relating with him.
Thus you have a “form of godliness yet deny its power.”
God cares about OUR battles.
Self-sufficiency is a key to frustration, limitation and failure in the Kingdom.
Psalm 108:1-13 ESV
”My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me! God has promised in his holiness: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter. Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph." Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies. Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.“
There are some battles that are personal and there are others that are corporate.
We see David not just praying for himself, but his people in Israel who were surrounded by nations continually threatening their existence and the worship of God.
David understood that there is no battle too small or too great that does not require God’s supernatural intervention.
*We should regularly pray for that which only God can do.
No one goes to war alone - we need to stop doing so in prayer.
Prayer meetings are a great place to learn to pray for others - just as reading the Psalms gives you a picture of Holy Spirit led prayers offered by David and others.
Some people say: “Prayer is more caught than taught.”
“Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer.”
— Charles Finney
Thanos says that he is “inevitable.”
The devil tries to give us gloom and doom reports he proclaims are inevitable as well:
There is no hope for you to overcome your sin.
Your fate will be just like your family’s
The fate of our city and nation are doomed.
Yet with one act, God can rewrite the story.
God started changing things at the cross of Christ, crescendoed with Jesus’ resurrection and poured out his Holy Spirit to continue his work through his people today!
*When we pray, both individually and with the saints, we step into God’s ability rather than man’s to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
In Avengers: End Game, Dr. Strange said of all the possible scenarios, there was only one that would lead to their allied victory.
It was Tony Stark sacrificing himself while using the Gauntlet to rewrite the history Thanos had destroyed.
Play this clip:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yu6WaM2u82I
Psalm 109:4 ESV
”In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.“
Psalm 108:11-13
“Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies. Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.“
In the same way, the only way out of the falleness and brokenness of the world around us is by coming into God’s supernatural ability through prayer where miracles can be released.
Inviting the Miraculous
Prayer invites the miraculous.
Jesus was the better David making appeals to his Heavenly Father for the miraculous.
Hebrews 5:7 NIV
”During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.“
All of Christ’s prayers had his redemptive purposes in mind.
He prayed in such a way that miracles would take place, people’s true needs would be met and God would ultimately get the glory as he brought about people’s good.
When a desperate father came to Jesus (prayer to God) asking him to deliver his son from a spirit that was repeatedly trying to destroy the boy’s life, this is how Jesus replied:
Mark 9:23 ESV
”And Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes."“
“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.”
— Charles Spurgeon
While living a life of prayer and ministry of the Word of God, Jesus released revival in his time and desires to do the same with us as we pray and preach today.
John 15:5-8 NIV
”“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.“
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher