PRAYER WITH A PURPOSE
ISAIAH 56:7 b
“For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
In the name of Jesus:
Once there was a pastor who had a parrot. All the parrot would say was "Let’s pray, let’s pray." The pastor tried to teach him other things but to no avail. The pastor learned that one of his elders had a parrot. Now the elder’s parrot would only say: "Let’s kiss, let’s kiss." The pastor decided to invite the elder and his parrot over to his house. When the elder arrived the pastor put the parrots into the same cage to see what would happen. The elder’s parrot said, "Let’s kiss, let’s kiss." The pastor’s parrot said, "Thank you Lord, my prayers are answered."
You may have heard the saying: a family that prays together stays together. Why is this true? Well, as we draw closer to God in prayer, He draws us closer to Him. It isn’t magic, it is a reality. When people pray with the purpose that God intended, then God unites His people. Just look at the context of our Bible passage this morning. Isaiah preached to the exiles in Babylon that they could have hope, because God was going to do something spectacular. Now the people were in exile of their own choosing. God had chosen Israel to be His own people. They were brought to the Promised Land; King Solomon built a Temple where God would dwell and where God’s people would come to worship. Sadly, though, God’s people forgot about God. Their love of God grew cold and their interest in God’s Word waned. They lusted after the things other nations had, they wanted to be like everyone else, and had no interest in being the people of God that God desired them to be. Soon, the Temple worship was replaced by Baal worship and the worship of foreign gods, which were not real. God became fed up with the lack of devotion, so He allowed His people to be swallowed up in their own desires. Have it your way, God replied. If you want to live without Me, then your wishes will come true. The friends of Israel, the nations of Babylon and Assyrian, suddenly turned their backs on God’s people and sought their destruction. The people were taken as captive, the Temple destroyed, and the Promised Land became rubble.
Prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and others called the people to repent. Some of the prophets called for repentance even when the people were in the midst of forsaking God. Others preached repentance during the exile. Their message was simple and consistent: Turn from loving the world around them and turn in faith in God. Quit relying on anything and everything else and start relying again on God. Fear, love, and trust in God above anything and anyone else.
God showed mercy to His people. He forgave them. Oh, to be certain they were punished. There were consequences for their actions. But God had mercy in that at the right time in history, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, to suffer the consequences of sin by giving of Himself in life and in death. Christ came to do the will of the Father who sent Him, to live His live in perfect love and devotion to God’s will, to proclaim forgiveness to those who were in bondage to sin, and to defeat Satan on the cross of Calvary. Jesus was God in human flesh, the very Temple of God residing on earth, the Son of God interceding for sinners in life, death, and in His resurrection, offering forgiveness and life to all by believing in His Name. Jesus interceded for all in His high priestly prayer and on the cross through His words of forgiveness and accomplishment. God has in His Son Jesus Christ repaired and restored a relationship with Him. God wills that all be saved in Jesus Christ, in that He has put away all sins on account of Jesus. People from every tribe, race, language, and people are acceptable to God on account of Jesus’ intercessory life, death, and resurrection. Jesus has made His Church a people for Himself in the waters of Baptism. This congregation has, by God’s grace, become a House of Prayer for all who believe. This House is the Place where God speaks in His Word, the Place where God washes away sin in Baptism, and the Place where God feeds His people in His Supper. This is the Place where God dwells, where He comes in Word and Sacrament, and where all people may come to worship God, to give Him thanks and praise, and to pray for God’s grace and many blessings.
God unites in prayer because and answers prayer because of Jesus. Proud people who think that they do not need God’s help have no need to pray. Arrogant people who trust in their own efforts and works and not Christ’s see no reason to pray. Self sufficient people who rely on anything and everything but God will not pray. And so, God does not hear nor answer prayer, for their words are empty and their faith is hollow.
But God hears the person who prays in Christ. The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous person avails much before the Lord. Why is that? Simply put, the righteous person doesn’t trust in himself, or the things of the world. Righteous people are beggars, pure and simple. They place no faith in anything but Jesus.
Martin Luther said it well of our spiritual state. “We are beggars, all of us.” How true that is, particularly today as our economy has been in a recession. Economic times have not been easy, that is an understatement. Typically as Americans, we like to blame our troubles on whatever political party we don’t belong to. But to do so misses the point. Have you noticed that we are in a global recession? The problems we face others are facing around the world. This is not a problem that is unique to the citizens of the United States of America! People around the globe are being affected. The larger question, I believe, is to what end? What is God trying to tell us? What lesson is He trying to teach us? Have we not also been swallowed up in our own desires, because we have forsaken God?
Jesus talks a lot about money in His ministry. The Bible is replete with messages about finances and money. Money is a gift of God. It is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil. Jesus says you can’t serve God and Money, you will either love the one or hate the other, and you can’t serve two masters. I don’t think that this is a coincidence that people are plagued with money problems today. People have been swallowed up in their own desires because they have not sought God and have thought that they have not needed God. Money and riches have replaced a fear, love, and trust in God!
We have fallen into the trap as well. We have sinned and God calls us to repent. Just as the people in Isaiah’s day had worshipped other gods, our gods have been our retirement accounts, our bank accounts, the stuff we have accumulating in the garage, we have trusted in wealth rather than God!
So on this Rally Day God’s message is simple. It always is simple, Jesus says if you have ears to hear, and then listen. Repent. Turn from the love of the world and return to God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He does not forsake His children, but forgives them in Christ. Receive His forgiveness. Live in that forgiveness! Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The things of this present age are wasting away. Store up for yourself the treasure that Christ has and you will be blessed. You have nothing without Jesus. You are dust and will return to dust. All that you are and have depend on God’s blessings in Christ. Seek those blessings, pray for those blessings, receive and then share those blessings, for God’s house is a house of prayer, not a house of money! God’s purpose is that we rely not of self or money, but on Him. Let me repeat that to be clear: GOD WANTS YOU TO TRUST HIM COMPLETELY!
We begin our Fall Campaign in prayer. We are not parrots, rather we pray from a deprived heart and soul. We have nothing good within us. All we have is Jesus. And so we beg. We are beggars. We beg God for His mercy in Jesus. We beg God to forgive us. We beg God to feed us. We beg God to bless us. We beg God that His Word will take root and bear abundant fruit. We beg God that as we have been blessed, we too might be a blessing. The purpose of our prayer is to ask and seek the will of God. That His will be done, and so we pray, so we beg, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen
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