The Power and Purpose of Prayer in Silence
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"I invite you to take your Bibles and open them to the book of Revelation. If you are unfamiliar with the Bible, the book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible. So you can turn to the back of your Bible and find it. And you can scroll across those pages and find chapter 8. Today we're going to be looking at chapter 8, verses 1 through 5 today. Just a few verses to look as we see this seventh seal and what the seventh seal brings about in this transition from the seals that we've seen, starting back in chapter 6, into the trumpets that we will see in chapter 8 and following." [00:00:01]
"Have you ever wondered if your prayers make any kind of difference? At all? Maybe when you pray, sometimes, or maybe you've experienced this before, maybe you're even experiencing it now, it seems like you're just talking to the walls around you. You don't hear God's voice and you wonder, do my prayers work? You pray for good things, but you don't hear an answer. And you've been praying for a long time. But you don't hear. You don't hear an answer, really any answer at all. So maybe you stop praying." [00:03:23]
"Because prayer isn't something we can really see, is it? It isn't a program. It isn't something that we can put our hands on, and we can chart out, and we can have a statistical analysis of. And maybe you're thinking like that. That's how you kind of quantify if something works. And into that problem, John drops this transition. Between seals and trumpets. As John's Revelation transitions into the imagery of the trumpets, we get a few verses that show us a people praying. And the curtain that separates heaven and earth is slightly pulled back, and we are allowed a glimpse into the invisible reality of prayer." [00:05:25]
"John sets the scene, telling us that though judgment has not fallen yet, though you're not seeing the outpouring of God's judgment, when it comes, there will be a suddenness, an unexpectedness to it, even though now you hear nothing. And think about what we've heard at the end of each chapter so far. Songs. Almost each chapter has ended with some kind of heavenly song, heavenly announcement, but now it is as if the singing has stopped and the noise of heaven has quieted down and the angels and creatures in heaven turn in silence to see what their God is going to do." [00:08:53]
"What may seem like silence to your prayers is only God preparing and getting ready. When your prayers don't seem to be answered, know that God's silence doesn't seem to be answered. God's silence does not mean that nothing is happening. And so we should not assume that God's silence is His neglect. You know, my kids will ask me to do things from time to time, and at times I remember, but there are many times I forget. Or I can be selfish and lazy and not want to do it." [00:11:58]
"But unlike me, as a father to my children, you have a heavenly Father, who does not neglect His children, nor does He forget when they ask and when they plead from Him. You may not hear an answer yet, but that doesn't mean that your God has forgotten you. You know, I need reminders all the time. I love the technology on my phone that I can put something in in my calendar, and it will beep, and I can let it know if I need a 30-minute head start, or an hour head start, or a two-week head start. It beeps and lets me know, don't forget, don't forget, because you know what happens? I forget, and maybe you're like me. You forget those things. I need those reminders all the time. But praise God that He does not forget." [00:12:36]
"Paul tells us in the letter to the church in Rome, he says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. Anybody ever felt like that? I don't know what to pray for or how I should pray in this situation. So we know that. So how does God help? But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." [00:25:27]
"Prayer is the means that God gives to his children to accomplish his will on the earth. And we may not see that difference all the time, do we? We don't always see what God is doing and how God is working. Just like as smoke rises from a fire, it isn't something that we can grab with our hands. It rises up and goes and seems to simply evaporate into the atmosphere. And sometimes that's what we think our prayers do. But every prayer that you give rises up to God by his helpful hands and ordained angels." [00:28:20]
"And you may remember when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, they were to begin their prayers with the request that your kingdom would come. Our kingdom prayers bring about God's movement and bring about his judgment. And so when you pray that evil would end or that God would cancel cancer in this world or that he would protect his people or that he would save the lost, know that his storm will come. And it will destroy sin and Satan. And it will destroy brokenness and the enemies of the church and even sinners who are not clinging to Christ." [00:29:33]
"One day the judgment of God will fall. The half hour will come to an end. And God will usher in his kingdom through the victorious destruction of his enemies. Your prayers work. They go up to God and they are his way of ushering in the kingdom. Let's remember this. God's timing is perfect. So don't think that the delays, seeming delays on our end, mean that God isn't working through your prayers. God's timing is perfect." [00:30:36]
"There's a certain day of fix where he will bring all things to an end and bring a new heavens and a new earth. And we do not know that day or that hour. And any man who tries to figure it out is probably a fool. But we know this. He is coming. He is coming. He is coming. God's timing is absolutely perfect. Not only is it perfect in the big things, but it's perfect in the small things as well. The request that you've made known to God, his timing is perfect on those." [00:31:14]
"Lord, we thank you that even when we do not know how to pray or what we should pray for or we lack confidence in the power of prayer and we put prayer on the back burner, Lord, you invite us once again to speak to you and ask you and to call out to you and pray. Lord, we don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. throw up the perfect prayer we don't have to figure it all out before we speak we can just come to you unpolished broken confused anxious sinful and we can just come to you and and and cry out to you sometimes we're going to cry out to you and wonder what you're doing and we don't understand and we don't get it and we're at the the that place where where we're struggling and lord you are so kind and good to us in those moments and patient with us sometimes we're totally confident what we should be praying for and yet that's not what you want for us sometimes you're going to tell us to wait and trust you and know that you're good even when our prayer is not answered and so lord let us remember that we can pray and we can come to you and we can hear from you so help us to be people of prayer today but not only today help us to adapt it into our lives in your name we pray amen as our musicians come" [00:36:24]
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"Have you ever wondered if your prayers make any kind of difference? At all? Maybe when you pray, sometimes, or maybe you've experienced this before, maybe you're even experiencing it now, it seems like you're just talking to the walls around you. You don't hear God's voice and you wonder, do my prayers work? You pray for good things, but you don't hear an answer. And you've been praying for a long time. But you don't hear. You don't hear an answer, really any answer at all. So maybe you stop praying." [00:03:23]
"Because prayer isn't something we can really see, is it? It isn't a program. It isn't something that we can put our hands on, and we can chart out, and we can have a statistical analysis of. And maybe you're thinking like that. That's how you kind of quantify if something works. And into that problem, John drops this transition. Between seals and trumpets. As John's Revelation transitions into the imagery of the trumpets, we get a few verses that show us a people praying. And the curtain that separates heaven and earth is slightly pulled back, and we are allowed a glimpse into the invisible reality of prayer." [00:05:25]
"John sets the scene, telling us that though judgment has not fallen yet, though you're not seeing the outpouring of God's judgment, when it comes, there will be a suddenness, an unexpectedness to it, even though now you hear nothing. And think about what we've heard at the end of each chapter so far. Songs. Almost each chapter has ended with some kind of heavenly song, heavenly announcement, but now it is as if the singing has stopped and the noise of heaven has quieted down and the angels and creatures in heaven turn in silence to see what their God is going to do." [00:08:53]
"What may seem like silence to your prayers is only God preparing and getting ready. When your prayers don't seem to be answered, know that God's silence doesn't seem to be answered. God's silence does not mean that nothing is happening. And so we should not assume that God's silence is His neglect. You know, my kids will ask me to do things from time to time, and at times I remember, but there are many times I forget. Or I can be selfish and lazy and not want to do it." [00:11:58]
"But unlike me, as a father to my children, you have a heavenly Father, who does not neglect His children, nor does He forget when they ask and when they plead from Him. You may not hear an answer yet, but that doesn't mean that your God has forgotten you. You know, I need reminders all the time. I love the technology on my phone that I can put something in in my calendar, and it will beep, and I can let it know if I need a 30-minute head start, or an hour head start, or a two-week head start. It beeps and lets me know, don't forget, don't forget, because you know what happens? I forget, and maybe you're like me. You forget those things. I need those reminders all the time. But praise God that He does not forget." [00:12:36]
"Paul tells us in the letter to the church in Rome, he says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. Anybody ever felt like that? I don't know what to pray for or how I should pray in this situation. So we know that. So how does God help? But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." [00:25:27]
"Prayer is the means that God gives to his children to accomplish his will on the earth. And we may not see that difference all the time, do we? We don't always see what God is doing and how God is working. Just like as smoke rises from a fire, it isn't something that we can grab with our hands. It rises up and goes and seems to simply evaporate into the atmosphere. And sometimes that's what we think our prayers do. But every prayer that you give rises up to God by his helpful hands and ordained angels." [00:28:20]
"And you may remember when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, they were to begin their prayers with the request that your kingdom would come. Our kingdom prayers bring about God's movement and bring about his judgment. And so when you pray that evil would end or that God would cancel cancer in this world or that he would protect his people or that he would save the lost, know that his storm will come. And it will destroy sin and Satan. And it will destroy brokenness and the enemies of the church and even sinners who are not clinging to Christ." [00:29:33]
"One day the judgment of God will fall. The half hour will come to an end. And God will usher in his kingdom through the victorious destruction of his enemies. Your prayers work. They go up to God and they are his way of ushering in the kingdom. Let's remember this. God's timing is perfect. So don't think that the delays, seeming delays on our end, mean that God isn't working through your prayers. God's timing is perfect." [00:30:36]
"There's a certain day of fix where he will bring all things to an end and bring a new heavens and a new earth. And we do not know that day or that hour. And any man who tries to figure it out is probably a fool. But we know this. He is coming. He is coming. He is coming. God's timing is absolutely perfect. Not only is it perfect in the big things, but it's perfect in the small things as well. The request that you've made known to God, his timing is perfect on those." [00:31:14]
"Lord, we thank you that even when we do not know how to pray or what we should pray for or we lack confidence in the power of prayer and we put prayer on the back burner, Lord, you invite us once again to speak to you and ask you and to call out to you and pray. Lord, we don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. We don't have to pray. throw up the perfect prayer we don't have to figure it all out before we speak we can just come to you unpolished broken confused anxious sinful and we can just come to you and and and cry out to you sometimes we're going to cry out to you and wonder what you're doing and we don't understand and we don't get it and we're at the the that place where where we're struggling and lord you are so kind and good to us in those moments and patient with us sometimes we're totally confident what we should be praying for and yet that's not what you want for us sometimes you're going to tell us to wait and trust you and know that you're good even when our prayer is not answered and so lord let us remember that we can pray and we can come to you and we can hear from you so help us to be people of prayer today but not only today help us to adapt it into our lives in your name we pray amen as our musicians come" [00:36:24]
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