Sunday Sermon June 2, 2024: Prayer: Jesus Cancels Silence

Prayer: Jesus Cancels Silence

PSALM 4

How’s your prayer life?

When do you pray?

Where do you pray?

How much time do you spend praying?

What do you say when you pray?

I shared this story a few years ago, but I return to it again and again because of how clear it describes genuine prayer.

A pastor from Florida told the following story about a woman he knew who showed up at church and prayed the same simple prayer. “O Lord, thank you Jesus,” she prayed week after week. The kids at church would start laughing every time she opened her mouth because they knew it would be the same prayer—”O Lord, thank you Jesus.”

Finally somebody asked her, “Why do you pray the same little prayer?” She said, “Well, I’m just combining the two prayers that I know. We live in a bad neighborhood and some nights there are bullets flying and I have to grab my daughter and hide on the floor, and in that desperate state all I know how to cry out is, ‘O Lord.’ But when I wake up in the morning and see that we’re okay I say, ‘Thank you Jesus.’ When I got to take my baby to the bus stop and she gets on that bus and I don’t know what’s going to happen to her while she’s away, I cry, ‘O Lord.’ And then when 3:00 P.M. comes and that bus arrives and my baby is safe, I say, ‘Thank you Jesus.’”

She said, “Those are the only two prayers I know and when I get to church God has been so good I just put my two prayers together, “O Lord, thank you Jesus.”

Prayers come in all shapes and forms.  

Some are elongated dissertations on the eternality and efficacy of the triune Godhead.

Others are just a simple statements that say the same thing; like, “O Lord; Thank you Jesus.”

But, one thing is for sure…

All prayers offered in Jesus Christ-centered faith are heard by God the Father in Heaven, Maker of Heaven and Earth.

That being said, the question, “How’s your prayer life?,” can bring up two totally opposite emotions or thought patterns.

The first is, “My prayer life is amazing.  I love getting up early each morning to have my coffee while I prayer for each item and person on my prayer list.  I feel so connected to God in those moments because I know he hears me and I see the answers to my prayers piling up in my life in real time.”

And, the second response is, which is my personal response, as I always try to be honest with you from the pulpit, “Prayer is hard.  I struggle to do it.  I don’t often do it. Don’t get me wrong, I want to do it more.  I want to be one of those first thing in the morning people.  But, I continually struggle to pray because I find prayer hard.”

For many of us, prayer is hard.

And, prayer is hard for many reasons.

Prayer is hard for some of us because we get distracted.

We have kids knocking on our bedroom or office door in need of help getting a snack or changing the television channel.

Or, we have cell phones at our side that are always ringing, vibrating, and giving off text alert sounds.

Prayer is hard for some of us because of busyness.

We have school buses to catch, laundry to do, groceries to buy, dinner to cook, and bedtime stories to tell.

We have 5 AM alarms, 60-90 minute commutes to work, 8-10 hour work days, 60-90 minute commutes from work, and midnight bedtimes.

We have classes to attend, homework to do, papers to write, teams to practice with, television shows to binge watch, and boyfriends or girlfriends to hang out with.

Some of us are all too familiar with the line, “I will prayer after I….” (Fill in the blank).  But, we are also familiar with the truth that the “after I….,” never comes.

Prayer is hard for some of us because of we just don’t want to do it.

We don’t think we have the time.

We think it is a waste of time.

We think our prayers fall on deaf ears.

We don’t think we know how to pray correctly.

We think it is boring.

And, for some of us, we are afraid of silence.

Prayer can make us uneasy if we aren’t use to quietness.

Regardless of how we feel about prayer, as pastor Bill Hybels famously said and then titled a book, “We are too busy not to pray!”

The German Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who served and was imprisoned during Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, highlighted the utmost importance of prayer for the Christian life.

He said, “Prayer is the heart of the Christian life.” 

He said, “Where a people prays, there is the church.” 

And, he said “Prayer is necessary for the Christian life and necessary for life together in the church.”

In this morning’s text, which once again comes from the book of Psalms, King David is praying to God asking him for help at a time when the people around him are gossiping about him and spreading lies about him.

Let’s hear about King David’s prayers and prayer life from his words in Psalm 4.

King David says to God:

[1] Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!

You have given me relief when I was in distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

[2] O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

[3] But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;

the LORD hears when I call to him.

[4] Be angry, and do not sin;

ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.

[5] Offer right sacrifices,

and put your trust in the LORD.

[6] There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”

[7] You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and wine abound.

[8] In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (ESV)

It is in this prayer of King David’s that he complains that enemies are speaking badly of him in an attempt to shame him.

After voicing the problem and naming the problem people that he is dealing with, he turns away from his problem and makes statements reminding himself (and all that would hear his prayer throughout history) that God protects the faith-filled from those who do the things that these problem people are doing.

It is true that we often find ourselves in the same position as King David.  We do have points in our lives where people try to cause problems for us.

But, how often do we find ourselves in the same position as those speaking badly of King David, their leader?

We are often quick to open our mouths and share our opinions about how terrible people in positions of power around us are.  We speak badly about our bosses, our teachers, our principals, our presidents, our elders, and our pastors.  

So, we are in the same position as King David’s enemies.

And, what position is that?

The position where our sin completely breaks our relationship with God and communication back and forth between us and God becomes impossible.

Because of sin, there is silence when we pray.  

Like King David’s enemies, we pray but do not trust God. 

Therefore, God does not respond or answer us.

We find ourselves experiencing silence from Heaven.

In June 1730, a handful of Cherokee Indian Chiefs crossed the Atlantic seeking an audience with King George II. They first appeared in court at Kensington Palace. They were there to sign treaties, to present their grievances against the French, and to petition the king for aid and support. They had to wait in the lobby for days, returning again and again until the king granted them an audience. They were finally granted their opportunity to present their petitions. Custom dictated that the king would signify his acceptance of their petition by giving them gifts. King George II gave the Cherokees clocks. 

They were fine clocks, no doubt. Any English nobleman would be honored beyond words to have such a gift, and he would be just as sure to display the clocks prominently. But these Cherokee had no idea what these clocks were and had no use for them whatsoever. It’s not even clear that they took the clocks home with them as they crossed the Atlantic on their return to the colonies. History is clearer on what became of the treaties King George II made with the Cherokee. 

How opposite is prayer to the almighty God, sovereign King of the universe. We do not need to board a ship and travel thousands of miles and wait for days in a grand entrance hall. And when we do get an audience with this King, he does not give us clocks. He graciously grants to us exactly and precisely what we need. And we know that his promises are sure. He does not break treaties. 

Bonhoeffer reminds us that the journey of prayer is actually far more costly than a transatlantic trip. Our journey of prayer into the presence of God cost the precious blood of Christ, God’s Son. Christ’s sacrifice grants us entrance to the Father’s court.

This morning, me and you have the good news that the line of communication between us and our Creator has been repaired for us.

In his first letter to his student and mentee, Timothy, the apostle Paul reminds you that the connection between man and God, that is, between you and God, that was severed and broken because of sin, has been repaired.

In 1 Timothy 2:5–6, Paul tells Timothy, and in turn through the canonization of the text, us, that:

[5] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. (ESV)

When you find yourself believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the one who lived a perfectly righteous life for you, obeying all of God’s commands for you every second of every day, as the one who gave his life over to death on the cross to forgive your sin, and as the one who defeated the power of death and sin for you by raising from the grave on the first Easter morning, 

silence is broken, 

silence is canceled, 

and your prayers fall of the loving ears of God, your Creator, who hears and responds to you in any and every moment of need.

Without Jesus, there is silence when you pray.

But, Jesus cancels silence.

Jesus cancels silence for you.

And, we can, like King David say, 

the LORD hears when I call to him.

That means that we can talk to God in prayer, whenever we want, with big words or small words, with run-on sentences, or simple statements, always trusting in the promise that God gave to his people through the prophet Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 29:12–13, God promises:

[12] Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. [13] You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (ESV)

And, we can say with confidence, alongside the psalm writer who wrote Psalm 66:

[18] If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened.

[19] But truly God has listened;

he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

[20] Blessed be God,

because he has not rejected my prayer

or removed his steadfast love from me! 

(Psalm 66:18–20 ESV)

The German Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that we heard from earlier, also said these Biblical things about prayer:

He said, “Christ is the ground and basis for prayer, Christ enables us to pray, and Christ even teaches us to pray.”

He said, “Prayer means bending our desires o God’s determinations, bringing our petitions in line with his priorities, and having the kingdom and our agenda at the center.  Simply put, prayer is the orientation of one’s life to God.”

And, he said, “prayer is about God first; then it is about us.  It’s wrong to think and pray otherwise.”

The comforting thing for us is that God knows our weakness so well that he has even safeguarded prayer for the times we pray for the wrong things and the times we neglect prayer.

In his letter to the Christians gathered in the city of Rome during the 1st Century, the apostle Paul lets them (and you by extension) know this:

[26] Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. [27] And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26–27, ESV)

Although you start out in the same position as the problem people in King David’s life, as enemies of God who hear nothing but silence when we pray because our relationship with God is cut off due to sin,…

You, by God’s grace alone, find yourself faith-filled, believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, with the silence canceled and God graciously hearing and answering you when you pray.

So, I leave you with this encouragement for the week:

[16] Rejoice always, 

[17] pray without ceasing, 

[18] give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God for you [that you have an open line of communication with him] in Christ Jesus. 

(1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.