Sermon - Crossroads Cowboy Church - The Importance of Prayer: As was Modeled by Jesus

If you hang around church or church people long enough you are going to hear about something called prayer. They are going to talk about prayer meetings and suggest you pray about things in your life. Prayer will probably sound like something that is really important.

Think about it for a moment, to a non-believer the thought of praying seems kind of odd. Who in their right mind is going to sit there and talk to themselves expecting this God person to actually listen. If you catch someone talking to themselves as passionately as some of us pray, you might question if they are all their, if you know what I mean.

Prayer is something that does take a little getting used to. I remember a dear bother in Christ, who had been saved for many years never felt comfortable praying out loud. I remember his son, who was our associate pastor at the time, being really excited when his father volunteered to pray during our Good Friday service. It took him years to feel that comfortable with prayer that he could do it in front of others. Sometimes it is hard for people to wrap their minds around prayer, what it is, and the importance of it.

If I think back through all the years I have attended church, prayer has always been a priority. Most services have two or three prayers in them, prayer request may be talked about, or like here at Crossroads Cowboy Church it is mentioned that the prayer request box is in the back of the room.

Talking to God ranks right up there with knowing His Word. They are absolute necessities in the lives of all who follow Jesus. I remember a couple of years ago our oldest, Chris, commented on how it seemed like every week I was reminding people how they need to read God’s Word and pray.

With as much as us pastors and church people talk about prayer, we must think it is important. But Why?

People tend to repeat something to reinforce how important it is. When you are negotiating with someone you tend to finalize the agreement by going over or repeating the main points one last time. When you are working on an outreach event, at the end of a planning meeting there is some confirming, or repeating, who is doing what. Listen to the announcements during service, some of them were mentioned last week, and some for several weeks in a row. They are repeated because they are important.

The same can be said with the Bible.  When something is repeated in it, God is telling us it is important.

Does anyone want to guess of how many prayers are listed in the Bible? There are 650 prayers listed throughout Scripture.

How about how many answered prayers are referenced in the Bible? There are roughly 450 times that prayer is answered in God’s Word.

We are going to take a look at a couple of them. Open your Bibles to the book of Genesis.

In chapter 1 we find that ‘God created man in His own image;’ and then He talks to them telling them to be fruitful and multiply.

In chapter 2 verse 16 we see God talking to His creation again telling them they can eat anything in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

So far all we see is God talking to Adam and Eve. A logical assumption would be that it was a dialogue, not just God talking… but I don’t like making assumptions when looking at Scripture.

In chapter 3 we have the first documented conversation between God and His creation. Sadly, it happens after they ate the forbidden fruit. Not quite prayer, but we are getting close. Let’s flip to the next chapter.

Genesis 4:26

“²⁶ A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of Yahweh.”

Calling on the name of Yahweh, is prayer. People calling on the name of Yahweh is the first official prayer in the Bible. Took less than 4 pages in my Bible to find out that people were praying to God from the very beginning.

Now turn to the last chapter in your Bible.

Revelation 22:20

“²⁰ He who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

The second to last verse in the Bible is a simple prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

From the very beginning of your Bible to the very end, prayer is mentioned. With 650 recorded prayers and roughly 450 recorded answers to prayer scattered throughout the Bible, Prayer must be pretty important. In fact prayers are recorded in 65 of the 66 books of the Bible. Leviticus is the only book with no prayer in it, but when you read through it you will see that God is doing a lot of the talking.

With how many times prayer is found in the Bible. I think it is safe to say that prayer is important.

If that is not enough, look at Jesus’ time here on earth. The Bible records Jesus praying 25 times. I am sure He prayed a lot more than that, but these 25 times and His other teachings on prayer are more than enough to show us what to do and how important it is.

If you read though the Gospels you will find that Jesus prayed at every major point in His life. He prayed over His own baptism, He prayed when He choose His disciples, He took time to go off and pray alone, He prayed around others, He prayed for others, prayed in the garden before He was arrested, and He prayed while hanging on the cross.

Jesus showed us that we need to pray at all times.

1^st Thessalonians 5:16-18

“¹⁶ Rejoice always! ¹⁷ Pray constantly. ¹⁸ Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer is so important that we need to make it a part of our day, every day. No matter how busy we are we need to make time for it.

Let’s take a look at a couple of times Jesus prayed.

Mark 1:35

“³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He was praying there.”

Early in the morning before the busyness of the day hits, Jesus made time to pray. Through this act He shows us that before we set forth attempting to do anything on our own, we need to pray. Go to God first and then go about your day.

Let’s skip down a couple of verses.

Mark 1:38-39

“³⁸ And He said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.” ³⁹ So He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.”

Jesus prayed and then went about His ministry in Galilee. It was a raving success with people hearing His message and demons being cast out.

We need to make time to pray before we begin our day, before we make a major decision, or take on a challenge. We need to pray first and act second.

A little later we find Jesus taking time to pray at the end of a long day.

Mark 6:45-46

“⁴⁵ Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After He said good-bye to them, He went away to the mountain to pray”

After traveling, preaching, and performing a miracle that fed 5,000 Jesus sent His disciples away and retreated to solitude and made time to pray. The Bible does not tell us what He prayed for, but I would bet it had something to do with being thankful for all that the Father allowed Him to do that day. At the end of the day, Jesus prayed.

Here Jesus is showing us that at the end of the day we need to pray. Now, in Jesus’ example He had a great day with great results. I love taking time at the end of the day praising God for the good things in my life. It is easy to be thankful when things are going good, but we need to pray regardless of the outcome.

1^st Thessalonians 5:16-18

“¹⁶ Rejoice always! ¹⁷ Pray constantly. ¹⁸ Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 34:1

“I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.”

No matter the outcome, we need to pray. You could be feeling completely wiped out from a trying day and it looks like tomorrow will be the same, the call from the doctor was not good news, you and your spouse are at each other’s throats, or you may simply feel overwhelmed. No matter how good or bad your day is, you need to make time to pray.

Jesus gave us a great example of praying during the good and bad, we need to do the same.

Let’s look at one more of Jesus’ prayers.

Luke 22:39-44

“³⁹ He went out and made His way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. ⁴⁰ When He reached the place, He told them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” ⁴¹ Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, ⁴² “Father, if You are willing, take this cupaway from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” [⁴³ Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴ Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.]”

Jesus knew what was coming, He knew that Judas was betraying Him, He knew that He was going to be arrested, He knew He was going to be crucified, and what did He do? He Prayed!

This was not some eloquent pretty prayer. He was in anguish, He was sweating, there was blood. He was pouring all that He had into this prayer, it was full of blood, sweat, and tears. It was not pretty. He was crying out to the Lord.

No different than when He cried out from the cross saying ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’

Our prayers do not need to be beautiful sounding speeches. We don’t need to use specific phrases, or repeat Jesus’ name 20 times. God wants us to speak from our hearts, our praise for the good, our cries when we are hurting, and our concern for the future.

God wants to hear how you feel. He wants to know what is breaking your heart. He even wants to hear if you are mad at Him or questioning what He is doing. He is a big God with big shoulders. He can handle whatever you are thinking or feeling. Even Jesus cried out for the impossible. Don’t be afraid to be completely honest with God.

Scripture is clear, Prayer is one of the most important things you need to do every day. There are lots of verses we could look at to support the need for prayer. There are verses that show that God desires to hear from us. There are verses that emphasize the need to cry out to God. We could look at how Paul prayed while blind after meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road or how Peter prayed and a lady was brought back to life.

650 Prayers, 450 answered prayers, all found in 65 of the 66 books of your Bible. If you read God’s Word, you will see that you need to talk to God every day. It is so important that it is not optional.

God is not looking for some fancy speech. He does not expect you to be eloquent. He simply wants to spend time with you. He wants to hear what is on your heart. The good and the bad, all of it.

God is waiting to hear from you. 

Thanks for Reading!

God Bless!

Robert