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University SDA Church- East Lansing

The Power of Prayer

David Shin

The Power of Prayer- Part 1

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the privilege and opportunity that we have to come into your house on this Sabbath to worship you in spirit and in truth.

We pray a special blessing upon this worship service as we open the Word of God that You would speak to our hearts.

May Jesus be uplifted and Christ be seen.

For we ask these things in Jesus' precious name.

On the screen, I have a picture, or a picture is coming, of a monument that you can find in Berlin, Germany.

And it's a monument, a stack of 40 books, or it's a stack of 17 books that is 40 feet tall, and on the spine of these books are various German authors, writers, and poets like Immanuel Kant, Martin Luther, George Heigl, And this monument is not so much pointing out that these are renowned authors, but this is actually a monument to a gentleman by the name of Johannes Gutenberg.

I'm sure you remember his name from elementary school or high school history.

Johannes Gutenberg was responsible for the modern printing press.

And it was as a result of this gentleman, Gutenberg's invention, that many historians believe that Gutenberg is the most influential person of the last millennium.

Well, prior to this, the copying of books was only done through manuscripts, and as a result of this invention, Gutenberg was responsible for several revolutions that took place afterwards.

Historians and scholars believe that the impact of Gutenberg led to the foundation of these different movements and revolutions, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution and today's knowledge-based economy can all be attributed to this man's invention.

Time Life, the magazine, named Gutenberg the most influential person of the last thousand years.

1 person does an invention and the landscape of human history is?

Dramatically altered just because of what this man did now some time ago Albert Einstein was on the cover of Time magazine, and he was the person of the century.

Here Gutenberg is the person of the last millennium, the last 1, 000 years and I would argue today that your life and mine would be dramatically different if the printing press had not been invented.

We would probably not have projectors, we would not have cell phones, we would not have a car.

All of the modern inventions came as a result of this man's invention.

Now today I want to invite you to turn with me in your bulletin or open your bulletin and take out your study guide.

We're beginning a new two-part series today.

Our ushers are ready in the back to give you a study guide.

This is a brief outline of today's study and presentation.

Raise your hand and you will get all of the quotations and the study, the outline of today's presentation today.

I would venture this morning to contend that there is an individual that is not only the greatest individual of the last millennium, but the greatest individual in human history since the beginning of time.

And scholars, whether skeptics, atheists, agnostic, or believers alike, have to agree that Jesus Christ is in the conversation when it comes to the greatest influential person not of the last thousand years But the greatest influential person in human history And I have this quote here on the screen, The Impact of Jesus.

You can follow along in your study guide.

I've put and highlighted the fill in the blank that you can go through as you follow through today's presentation.

In his 5 volume work on world history, historian and religious skeptic H.G.

Wells, this individual does not believe in God, found himself devoting the most space to Jesus Christ.

He wrote, a historian like myself cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving Jesus of Nazareth the foremost place.

Here's an agnostic, a person that doesn't even believe in God, and he's looking down through the annals of time at every influential individual, and he said, at number 1, the foremost place is a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, whether you believe in God or not, it cannot be denied that the life of Jesus has made significant impact in human history, so much so, do you know the first book that was printed on Gutenberg's press?

Another quotation, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon the earth as powerfully as that 1 solitary life, Jesus Christ.

I want you to think about his life for a moment.

He only lived a little over 30 years, ministered for 3 and a half years, and when he died on the cross and was resurrected on the third day and ascended back to heaven, according to the Bible, our human history was dramatically altered to the place where you have before Christ and after Christ.

Jesus changed the landscape of human history.

And I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles as we look at the ministry of Jesus Christ here this morning in our scripture reading mark chapter 1 and verse 32 and 33 Mark chapter 1 verse 32 and 33 if using the church Bible, it is on 1552.

At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon possessed.

And the whole city gathered together at the door.

This is at the beginning of Christ's ministry.

He is healing individuals so much so that the word has gotten out and people are flocking to him from all over the countryside to find physical and spiritual healing.

The next verse I have on the screen, Mark 1, verse 34, then He healed many who were sick with various diseases.

The person that had cancer came to Jesus, He healed them.

The person that was a paralytic came to Jesus, He healed them.

The person with Ebola came to Jesus, He healed them.

The person with AIDS came to Jesus, He healed them.

Not only that, but Jesus cast out demons.

There were people that were demon possessed.

The spiritual faculties as well, Jesus healed.

He believed in a holistic approach to humanity to bring us back to where Adam was.

He did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him.

So in verse 34, we have the public persona of Jesus.

We have the image, the healer, the teacher, the great man that changed the landscape of human history.

We live in an age where individuals carefully manicure their public life to the place where you have a person that's responsible for PR.

Now many times you have an individual that is all about the externals, but their private life is falling apart and you find that in verse 35 this is a window into the private life.

So in verse 35 you have the private life, the previous verse you have the public life.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out to a solitary place, and there he prayed.

I want to pause a few moments as we look at this passage.

I'm naturally not a morning person, although I'm starting to develop into 1.

I could not understand how my dad would arise at 4 a.m.

Every single day, but I'm finding the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, if you know what I'm saying.

I'm finding that I'm becoming more and more like my dad as I get older.

Now just so that Mark could tell us that this was not late in the morning, it says, having risen, what?

This was not Sunday morning in America when people crawl out of bed at 9 or 10 a.m.

This is at a time that when we mention the time period, our hearts struggle at the very thought.

Now some scholars believe that when it says in the morning, this is attributed to the first watch, the time period between 3 to 6 a.m.

That is what scholars believe the greek equivalent is here now just so that we understand.

That's the morning having risen a long while before daylight So it tells us that this is not at the latter part of the morning period.

So Jesus was arising at a time very, very early in the morning.

He went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed.

The Power of Prayer- Part 2

On the screen I have a picture of a painting, an artist's depiction of a woman, and I would argue that this lady, this woman, is 1 of the most influential women of the 17th century.

She would, in the world's estimation, not be a significant figure, but this is a painting of a woman by the name of Susanna Wesley.

1 of her biographers wrote this, and I quote, although she never preached a sermon, or published a book, or founded a church, she is known as the mother of Methodism.

Because 2 of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children, consciously or unconsciously, as children consciously or unconsciously will, applied the example and teaching and circumstances of their home life.

I remember a quote that says, next to God, a mother's influence for good is the strongest known on earth.

And here is a woman that raised 2 spiritual giants that changed England.

She prayed for her children and she had this philosophy.

This is a quotation from Susanna Wesley herself.

She says, whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is a sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself." This is a godly woman that raised up these spiritual giants and 1 of them is John Wesley, a reformer in England.

And there's another biographer commenting on John Wesley's life.

Wesley wore plainclothes, preached 40, 000 sermons during his lifetime.

That's more than 1 a week if you do the math.

Traveled 250, 000 miles on horseback preaching.

At the age of 83, he was angry because his doctor wouldn't let him preach more than 14 times a week.

At the age of 86 written in his journal are these words, laziness is slowly creeping in.

There's an increasing tendency to stay in bed after 530 in the morning.

He was raised by a godly praying woman and he stood up in the breach at a point in England's history when England had fallen to its lowest depths of degradation and depravity.

It's out of print, a rare copy, and I was able to obtain it by the grace of God.

It's entitled, England Before and After Wesley.

England before Wesley, depraved, degradation, morality had declined to the lowest depths of any Christian nation, 1 historian had wrote.

And then Wesley comes on the scene and he was in college at Oxford University.

Him and a few of his friends got together and said, we have a burden not only for Oxford, we have a burden for England.

George Whitefield, another Reformer, was a part of that group And in that close-knit community of fellow believers, they started to pray.

They started to pray for revival and reformation.

They started to pray that ethics would return to British society.

And from that place of prayer, England was shaken to the very foundations.

Historians argue that before Wesley was on the scene, England was at a low point of morality, and after John Wesley's ministry, this is what happened.

England was revived, prisons were reformed, slavery was abolished, The educational system was rehabilitated, Christian ethics were reinserted into society, and England found its soul.

1 man stood in the gap, prayed, and England was shaken to the very foundation, and I remember this quote from Review and Herald, April 23, 1889, by your fervent prayer you can move the arm that moves the what?

And so we continue in our two-part series on prayer.

Another quotation before we get to the heart of today's message.

When Knox prayed, Scotland was refreshed.

When the Sunday school teachers of Tannenbrook prayed, 11, 000 young people were added to the church in a year.

Whole nights of prayer have always been succeeded by whole days of soul winning.

And I believe what you're witnessing today, the baptism of Phil, These things do not just happen, friends.

It's not as though someone's walking along and they fall into the baptistry.

Oh, they're getting baptized this Sabbath.

There is a series of events that took place up to this moment, and I believe that 5 years ago, when a group of individuals started to pray in this church for revival, that the fruits of what you're witnessing today came from a place of prayer.

Because at the heart of every spiritual revolution is a group of people or a person of prayer.

I'd like to talk a little bit about personal prayer this morning.

The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing.

The implication of this passage tells us that we're not only to pray in the morning, but we're to pray throughout the day.

This is not to say that we're always to be in the posture of prayer on our knees.

It's telling us that we're to be in the attitude of prayer as we go throughout the day.

Another Christian writer wrote, prayer is the breath of the soul.

It is so essential that it's like breathing physically and I want to read this quotation from Gospel Workers 254.

It says, prayer brings the heart into immediate contact with the wellspring of life and strengthens the sinew and muscle of the religious experience.

Neglect the exercise of prayer or engage in prayer spasmodically now and then as seems convenient and you lose your hold on God.

The spiritual faculties lose their vitality, the religious experience lacks health and vigor.

We know that prayer is necessary, but I find that in my personal Christian experience, especially early on, I didn't know how to pray.

Furthermore, I found that many times I would pray the same prayer.

Or sometimes I would even pray for a meal and pray twice because I'd forgotten that I'd prayed before.

Or how many of you have experienced this in the morning?

You get up and you start praying and then you fall asleep and you wake up half an hour later.

Prayer is a challenge for the Christian and here the disciples ask Jesus the fundamental question, Lord teach us to pray.

We need to be taught, instructed and today I want to invite you to turn or open your bulletin and take out your study guide.

This is a brief outline of today's presentation.

Up to this point, that was just the introduction.

So this is a study guide and I want to model for you or go through a brief outline of 1 way of praying that gives structure to our prayers.

If you don't have a study guide, raise your hand.

Sophie has 1 for you in the back, and raise your hand.

And this is not the only way to pray, but I found that this model of praying helps us get all the pieces together in our morning devotional life.

Now you'll see in your study guide that there is a model of the sanctuary.

And I want to read the first sentence right under the heading, praying through the sanctuary.

1 mental picture some have put into practice is using the various parts of the sanctuary as a way to meditate and pray.

So you can add that in if you're following along in your study guide.

For those of you that are watching online, we'll be posting a link of today's study guide so you can wait for it there.

1 mental picture some I put into practice is using the various parts of the sanctuary as a way to meditate and pray.

So here we have on the screen a picture of the sanctuary.

Now you enter the sanctuary from the right-hand side and go and proceed into the left-hand side from the right.

So you enter the sanctuary through the gate.

The first article of furniture is the article of burnt offering.

Then you go to the second part of the sanctuary and that is the holy place.

And the holy place has 3 different articles of furniture, has a table of showbread, the lamp stand and the altar of incense.

And then you go to the next compartment of the sanctuary, and that is the most holy place where you have the Shekinah glory and the glory of God, the ark with the mercy seat, and the 10 Commandments, which are in the most holy place there.

So you go from right to left and this gives us a picture of how we are to approach God.

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Series

The Power of Prayer

The Power of Prayer- Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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