Vision: The Harvest is Plentiful (Psalm 67.1-7 and Matthew 9.35-38)

Introduction

About twice a year I cut the vicarage hedge. This autumn I’m doing it in three sections. After each one, I need a good lie down and the next morning I ache all over. Henry Mitchell once said “Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right moment, can be confused with paradise.” Not mine, Henry! Or maybe I just keep seeing mine at the wrong moment.

But some people absolutely love gardening - especially those who have allotments. The entrance to Preston Park allotments is right by our front gate so we see dozens of keen gardeners going there every week. These people can talk for England about potato blight, pruning, planting, protective polytunnels and picking plums. They get untold pleasure showing off tomatoes the size of tennis balls and pumpkins the size of space hoppers.

Most of us though, have nothing really to do from the actual production of the food we eat. We might hear on the radio that the price bread is going up because of an unusually severe winter in the American Midwest – but that’s about it. So the whole idea of harvest, for many of us, just doesn’t press our buttons in the way it does for those who live off the land or who spend their recreation time on it.

 

A Harvest of Food

But in an agricultural economy, like in Bible times, harvest is the most important time of the year. The three major Jewish feasts centre on the three harvest seasons in the Middle East. The Passover in April is when barley is harvested. Pentecost (about 7 weeks later) celebrates the wheat harvest. And the feast of Tabernacles (late September or early October) occurs at the time of the fruit harvest.

In the Bible the harvest was a time of reckoning, the moment of truth. If the grain, oil and wine were abundant then the nation would reap with joy, and the people would prosper and be secure. But if the yield was poor the nation would go through a downturn, much as we are in the UK today. Everyone would have to tighten their belt and watch the pennies for that year. And if the harvest failed for several years in a row the nation would plunge into prolonged and serious recession. The only reaper people would talk about then would be the grim reaper. Bad harvests were a threat to health, life, and a nation’s survival.

We tend to just accept good yields and bad yields as something of a lottery. If it’s good, fine. If it’s bad, never mind. But for the people of God, in a covenant relationship with him, the harvest was like a divine speech on the state of the nation.

Our Psalm is a celebration song for good harvests. it says:

The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. 
May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

But even if harvest might feel for some of us like a bit of a curiosity it is a really important time for us because it is the one time in the year when we set aside everything else and simply say “Thank you.” Thank you Lord for your plentiful provision, for all you pour out on us, for the abundance of your blessing, your mercies and your kindness.”

Good parents teach their children to say thank you. Sometimes it was easier to get mine to recite the works of Shakespeare than train them to say please and thank you, but they all got there in the end. God, who is our heavenly Father, wants to teach us to say thank you as well.

Why are we sometimes so slow to give thanks to God? Do you remember when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank Jesus? Nine didn’t. Why did only one return to say thank you? Here are nine possible reasons:

One waited to see if the cure was real.
One decided that he had probably never had leprosy in the first place.
One said he would see Jesus about it later.
One said he probably would have got better anyway.
One gave all the credit to the priests who pronounced him cured.
One said, "Oh, well, Jesus didn't really do anything."
One felt tired from all the emotion so he made an excuse and went home.
One said, "To be honest, I think I was already much improved."
And one just had so much else to do - so it slipped his mind.

Lord, make us a grateful people! Here’s a prayer I came across this week:

· I clutch my blanket and groan when the alarm clock rings, but thank you, Lord, that I can hear.

· I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible, but thank you, Lord, that I can see.

· The first hour of my day is chaotic, I can’t find my socks, the toast is burned, tempers are short, the bathroom’s still locked and the children are so loud but thank you, Lord, for my family.

· The breakfast table never looks like a hotel buffet or those pictures in magazines but thank you, Lord, for the food we have to eat.

· The routine of my job is monotonous and my colleagues are a nightmare (it’s not me who wrote the prayer!) but, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work.

· When I wish my life was different to what it is, thank you, Lord, for life itself.

A Harvest of Souls

So that’s why we celebrate harvest; to say thanks to God for his amazing provision.

But the Bible talks about another kind of harvest and whenever Jesus spoke this word he used it figuratively. Here’s what he says in Matthew 9.35-38.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Gardeners, allotment tenants and farmers look into the mud at slug pellets hoping to get some decent looking spuds in a few months’ time.

But Jesus looks up at vast crowds of precious people expecting that the destinies of thousands will be transformed for all eternity.

I like runner beans and courgettes – and I thank God for them, especially at lunchtime - but Jesus has a bigger vision. It’s just food. Jesus said “I have food that you know nothing about.” And it’s interesting what Jesus says he is looking for.

Think about how many people you know who are spiritually curious. Who are motivated to seek the kingdom of God. It’s not that many is it? So we might expect Jesus to say “The harvest is scarce. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send rain onto his field.”

But the harvest is not scarce, according to Jesus. It’s plentiful. From Jesus perspective, there’s been plenty of rain, the soil is fertile, the sun has shone, there have been few pests and right now the fields are white for harvest.

I went up and down Lime Road and Myrtle Road on Wednesday meeting people and giving them Alpha invitations. About a quarter were out. But in two hours I had three really good conversations about the Lord with genuinely interested people. That’s secular, post-Christian Britain. That’s just two roads. The harvest is plentiful.

One person I met was in a right state because she had just heard some traumatic news on the phone the moment I arrived. So we got talking and she shared with me the trouble she was in. I said “would you like me to pray with you right now?” She said “Oh, yes please.” So right there and then I just asked the Holy Spirit to move and I prayed into the situation as best I could, and I watched her calm down and just… settle.

When Jesus saw the crowds, that’s what he saw. They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. That’s why he had compassion on them.

· So many people just don’t know where they’re going in life. They need a shepherd to lead them.

· So many people are exhausted from looking in vain for meaning in their lives. They need a shepherd who will take them to a place of restful pasture.

· So many people are fearful of the shadow of death. They need a shepherd to protect them.

· So many people are broken hearted and hurt. They need a shepherd to bind up their wounds.

· So many people are lonely and lost. They need a shepherd to call them by name.

So Jesus says “The harvest is plentiful. The problem is that the workers are few. So ask God to send out workers into his harvest field.”

What this means is that intercessory prayer is the means of attaining a goal that will certainly be reached. We pray that God will send out workers and that the harvest will be reaped not because the outcome is uncertain if we don’t pray, but because God has appointed prayer as the means by which the world will be reached for Christ.

A Harvest of Righteousness

The Bible also speaks of a third kind of harvest. Galatians 6.7-8 (in the Message version) says:

Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others -ignoring God! - harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

God is looking for a harvest in your life and only you can determine the outcome. Basically God is saying here that you will get out of life exactly what you put into it. But if you always do what you've always done - you'll always get what you've always got.

On the allotment, if you plant cucumbers you’ll never get beetroot. And thank God for that!

If you sow responsiveness to God, if you are open to his work in your heart, he will bring about a harvest of blessing in your life. He will mould every aspect of your character into the likeness of Christ, he will increase your generosity, he will multiply your joy, and deepen your faith. And the opposite is true.

Ending

Finally this thought: who blesses the earth to give the harvest of crops? Answer; God does. Who blesses the work of evangelisation to give the harvest of souls? God does. And who blesses your life to produce a harvest of righteousness? Once again, God does.

In each case God is the Lord of the harvest. But in each case God’s blessing is dependent on what we plant.

Just as you’re never going to get a harvest without first ploughing the earth, sowing seed and watering the ground, you’ll never see God move significantly in changing hearts and lives without an investment of prayer. You just won’t.

And just as you’ll only see God move significantly in changing hearts and lives by praying for it, God's Spirit only brings about growth and health in your spirit if you open your heart to God and love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 19th September 2010

Vision: Leading our Parish to Christ (Acts 16.16-34)

Introduction

Six Irishmen were playing poker in O'Leary's basement when Paddy Murphy loses £500 on a single hand. He clutches his chest and dies of shock. O'Connor looks around and says, "Someone’s got to tell Paddy's wife." They draw straws and Fergal Riordan picks the shortest. So over he goes to Murphy's and knocks on the door. Mrs. Murphy answers and asks what he wants. Riordan says: "Paddy just lost £500 and is afraid to come home." "Tell him to drop dead!" says Murphy's wife. "OK, I'll go and tell him" says Riordan.

And the moral of the story? Words can be life giving or life sapping. And life can be short. In a week where international leaders have talked about a threat to world peace as a result of the ill-considered words and actions of one man in Florida I do not need to convince you how urgent it is for us as Christians to speak words and take actions that bring life.

Our mission statement says, amongst other things, that this church exists to share the good news of Jesus. We didn’t just make that up. We didn’t just pick that idea out of thin air and say to ourselves, “that would be nice.” It is our obedient response to the mandate Christ has given to his church “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16.15).

I think there are four things that God wants us to grasp this morning about what you might expect when you communicate the good news about Jesus to people. And it all comes from our reading in Acts. In this chapter (16) Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke, have arrived in Philippi which is significant. It was the very first time the good news about Jesus had been heard in Europe. This was breaking new ground. This was an incursion of the gospel into completely new territory. And as we break new ground by reconnecting with our parish there are four things I believe God wants to say.

1) Expect Spiritual Resistance (v16-18)

Number one: whenever the gospel advances you always get spiritual resistance. So expect it. Spiritual warfare is real. Bishop Tom in his book on Acts talks about “strange spiritual forces which seem to be stirred up by a new gospel work.” If you intentionally set out to talk to people about a relationship with God through Jesus, about how the human heart needs to be changed by grace, you will be spiritually opposed. In v16-18 Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke attract the attention of a demon possessed woman. Notice two things here.

Firstly they were going to the place of prayer. (You find exactly the same phrase in v13 by the way). That tells you something about their priorities as they set about telling Philippi about Jesus. Without continuous prayer, all Christian ministry is ineffective. “When I work, I work. When I pray… God works.”

Secondly, notice carefully that it says “we were met by a female slave who had a spirit.” Not “we met” but “we were met by…” The sense is that she made a bee line for them and began to harass them. Some people find it strange that this woman, influenced by an occult spirit, was basically telling everyone the truth about Paul and his team. Why would she want to do that? That’s not the point. The point is that she spent days, we’re told, shouting around these men. She must have come across as a bit of a nutter. Paul got cross in v18 for one very good reason. She was really annoying. She was odd.

People are never attracted to weirdness and eccentricity. When you see a loud religious weirdo in the street making a commotion do you think to yourself, “Ah, this looks interesting, I think I’ll go up to him and see what he’s got to say.”? No. If you’re like me you cringe and cross the road. She was scaring away his audience. So they dealt with the situation spiritually, taking authority in the name of Jesus.

Spiritual opposition to the gospel is absolutely real and it comes in many different forms. Unwelcome publicity is one. More common are doubts, temptations, discouragement, sudden lack of assurance, fears… We’ve had our fair share this week. On Monday, the first invitations to Alpha were delivered. I was expecting something to happen – and, right on time, the next day it did. My church e-mail was hacked into and the church Facebook group page was hijacked. As of this morning neither is working which is inconvenient and time consuming. Coincidence? This sort of coincidence always seems to occur in times of spiritual advance.

“Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood… (We’re not against people however annoying, bothersome or dangerous they are. We love our enemies and we pray for those who hate us). No, our struggle is against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Smith Wigglesworth once said “Great faith comes only from great fights, great testimonies come only from great tests, and great triumphs come only from great trials.”

So don’t be surprised when there is spiritual resistance and associated trouble when the church shares the good news of Jesus. It’s a nuisance but Jesus is bigger, stronger and mightier. If we stand in his authority we share in his ultimate victory.

2) Expect Impossible Odds (v19-24)

Secondly, there are times, living as a Christian, and especially when you tell others about Jesus, when it seems you face an overwhelming challenge and everything is hopeless.

That’s what I might feel like if I was dragged into a public square, falsely accused of a crime, attacked by a vigilante mob, stripped to my underwear, beaten with sticks and thrown into a secure cell with my feet in stocks.

What did Paul and Silas say to each other in that cell? Silas to Paul: “That’s the last time I go on one of these Oak Hall Christian holidays to Greece!” Paul to Silas: “Really? I think that went quite well.”

Hudson Taylor arrived in Shanghai in March 1854. The voyage from England took five months and he narrowly avoided shipwreck. When he finally got to China there was a civil war. He was usually badly received by the people, often leading to a public disturbance. Wherever he went he was referred to as a devil because of the coat he wore. Three of his children died in infancy. His wife died of cholera in her thirties. Their mission premises were attacked, looted and burned during the Yangzhou riot. I could go on...

Hudson Taylor once said, “In any work for God there are three stages. First it is impossible, then it is difficult, and then it is done.”

Despite the impossible situations he found himself in, in his lifetime he was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to China who opened 125 schools. Under his ministry there were 18,000 conversions to Christ in all eighteen provinces of that land. Any work for God, is impossible, then difficult, then done. So expect things to be humanly impossible from time to time. It’s why we worship Christ – because nothing is impossible for him and if we are in him – everything is possible for us.

3) Expect Praise to Change the Spiritual Atmosphere (v25-29)

Thirdly, the greatest secret of turning a setback into a comeback is praise.

In v25, in the middle of the night, at the darkest hour, at the lowest ebb Paul and Silas were lifting sung praise to God. With keyboard accompaniment or hymn book /data projector or worship band. It was praise from an overflowing and grateful soul, it was a spontaneous eruption of heartfelt worship.

This is a biblical imperative for us. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5.18).

In all circumstances! Praise God even when your employment contract expires. Praise God even when your bank account is empty. Praise God even when a project fails, when a colleague lets you down, when your heart is troubled… enter into the courts of praise and worship God in spirit and in truth. Bow down before his great majesty and watch your setback become a comeback.

“Christ is supreme in every admirable way over everything: over galaxies and endless reaches of space; over the earth from the summit of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench 36,000 feet under the Pacific Ocean. If there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.”

4) Expect the Gospel to Change Lives (v27-34)

Fourthly, expect the gospel to change lives. There is no power on earth like the power of grace. By grace a despairing prison officer on the verge of suicide in v27 becomes a converted father of a Christian family in v34. In v29 he is trembling with fear and in total anguish. By v34 he is the father of a happy, harmonious and hospitable home and he is so full of joy. That’s what the gospel does. That’s why it’s good news.

It is good news. Let me tell you something. I don’t just preach it; I really believe the saving message of Jesus Christ. I honestly think that every person I know outside the family of faith would live a vastly better, more fulfilled, life if God’s grace and redemption were operating in their hearts.

That’s why our ambition is that every household in our parish should know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to invite them to encounter Jesus Christ. It’s not like we want to go around adding religious burdens on people. That’s bad news. I’m not interested in religion, we’re about Jesus, the one they called a friend of sinners.

And notice how simple the gospel is. Bishop Tom’s translation of v30: “Gentlemen, can you please tell me how I can get out of this mess?”

It doesn’t say “Paul told him to get in touch with his inner spiritual self.” Or “You need to commit yourself to a life of prayer and good works.” He says “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

In v14 it says “the Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to believe.” Here, in v34 it says that the jailer “had come to believe.” Faith is a gift of God and it’s his work. You don’t have to push it or force it; God graciously gives faith to some when they hear the good news about Jesus.

It’s about putting your trust in the sufficiency of Christ to salvage the old you and make you new again. Jesus has turned me round and cleaned me up. He’s set me right again and given me a new heart. If anyone says “Lord, I want you to do that for me, I’m sorry for the old me, please give me a new heart,” he will and there’s a party in heaven every time it happens.

Ending

About a year after Kathie and I got married, we had a young student to stay with us for a few months. She was the first person I had a hand in leading to faith in Christ. The day she told us near the end of her stay “I’ve given my life to Christ and I’m so, so happy!” we just overflowed with joy. Seeing someone make a new start with Jesus is one of the greatest thrills of being a Christian. Several of our young people made that step this summer. I just delighted in seeing the happiness and satisfaction and pleasure on the faces of their leaders.

I believe over the next four years God wants to release that to us over and over again as we see men, women and children come to believe in God and trust in Christ.

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th September 2010

Vision: Praying for our Parish (Acts 12.1-12)

Introduction

You might think I’m exaggerating but the story I am about to tell you is absolutely true. When Kathie worked for the British Consulate in Paris, she once had to calm down a man who had left his briefcase on a train. Thankfully the man’s details were marked on a label attached to the briefcase and it turned up, unopened, several hours later. Only then did Kathie see why the man had been so distressed about losing his luggage. He opened it up in front of the Consulate staff and it was chock full of banknotes! It’s one thing for a Civil Servant to lose a computer disk with sensitive or confidential files. But just absently leaving a briefcase full of cash on a train beggars belief doesn’t it? It was a surreal moment and people would be forgiven for thinking I’ve just made it up. I haven’t.

Today’s reading from Acts 12 might also leave you scratching your head. It has a similar “did that really happen?” feel to it. Just compare the situation at the beginning of the chapter to the one where we left off and you’re left with a major incident demanding a public inquiry. Either it’s incompetence on a Keystone Cops scale or it’s a fluke with incredible odds - an extraordinary escape from a heavily guarded jail which occurs at the very moment Christians are praying. If it’s neither clumsiness nor coincidence it’s a miracle.

The Background (v1-3)

Let’s look a little closer. Verses 1-3 give you some background. “It was about this time” we’re told “that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.”

It is the year 44 A.D. King Herod Agrippa - this is not the Herod you hear about at Christmas but actually his grandson - Herod had already had James beheaded which went down well with the Jews. Why? Because, at that time, they were feeling threatened. Synagogues were emptying and churches were growing. The successful spread of the Gospel was putting the future of Judaism in peril.

Herod was a puppet king, backed by Rome. If there was civil unrest on his watch the Romans would just get rid of him and impose direct rule. So Herod had to keep the Jews on his side. He could have just put taxes down. Always popular… but that would have meant cutbacks on his own extravagant lifestyle.

A much cheaper way to keep the Jews happy was to execute a public enemy. That’s why he ordered the trophy arrest of Simon Peter and he chose the week following the Passover to do it because the place was packed with Jewish people at that time. It was a golden opportunity to seize a leading Christian and behead him, thus bumping up his popularity rating and consolidating his power base. It seems Herod knew about Peter’s previous escape in Acts 5.19, so just to make sure lightning didn’t strike twice security was stepped up.

Impossible Odds (v4-6)

The list of security measures in v4-6 is to help us understand this; that escape was against overwhelming odds. It was Mission: Impossible. For a start, Peter wasn’t even awake so any credit for the breakout was nothing to do with him. Secondly, he was situated between two guards, so any movement he made he was an arm’s length from being pulled back. Thirdly, he was shackled to each of them by a length of iron chain. Fourthly, his cell was locked shut. Fifthly, there were additional sentries stationed outside the cell, just in case. And sixthly, there was the small matter of the outer prison wall.

Verse 4 says that Herod had Peter secured by four squads of soldiers. The four sets of guards would have each consisted of four men each, making 16, and they would have rotated their watch every few hours around the clock. Herod made sure that there was no possible way that Peter would get away this time.

I think we can conclude that it was a hopeless outlook for Peter. Death by decapitation was a few days away and even Houdini and the cast of Prison Break would be hard pushed to get out of this one.

The Escape (v7-11)

But v7-11 explain, step by step, how the power of God breaks into the realm of the impossible and unlocks every door. We know that nothing is impossible for God. The love he proved by enduring the cross can melt the heart of the most hardened criminal. His voice stills the most violent storm. His power heals the deadliest disease. His authority brings down the most evil regimes. “His blood can make the foulest clean.”

Jeremiah 32.17 says “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you… Great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds… You performed signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day.”

Yes, he has! A couple of years ago, I read Brother Yun’s book, “The Heavenly Man.” Yun is a Christian from China who spent years hunted down, beaten and locked up for his faith. After serving many years of a long custodial sentence, he broke out of Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison, from which nobody had previously escaped. He describes in the book how he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to simply walk out of the heavily guarded series of prison gates. Risking being shot on the spot, he walked, heart pounding, straight past many prison guards, through several iron gates that were inexplicably standing open. He walked across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate.

Yun says that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Many have naturally expressed doubts that any such a thing could have occured, but records show that some prison guards did lose their jobs for an ‘embarrassing mishap’ at that time. The book says that an official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that “Yun received no human help in his escape.” Yun’s testimony has been also confirmed by numerous inmates who were detained at that time. To this day, Brother Yun is the only person to ever have escaped from this notorious maximum security jail.

It’s a remarkable account and, like this one in Acts 12, it bears the hallmarks of a factual report. In Acts, there is no attempt to build Peter up as a kind of mythical hero which a propaganda story might do. The way Peter is unceremoniously woken up in v7 with a thump in the ribs is rather unflattering. The account of what the angel said to do in v8 is incidental. In other words it appears that is only there because someone remembered things happening that way. In v9 Peter is again portrayed as a dithering antihero – clueless and half asleep, not a superman who singlehandedly overcame the mighty Roman Empire. Verse 10 looks very similar to what Brother Yun experienced in China, walking through doors that open in front of him one by one. It isn’t until v11 that Peter realizes he isn’t dreaming. Again, a detail that has a ring of authenticity about it.

I think it’s worth saying too that the New Testament is honest about other men who weren’t released and who died in prison. Both John the Baptist and James were executed and it says so here. If every imprisonment resulted in a miraculous release it might look artificial, but there is no attempt to hide the fact that some believers died in prison and were not miraculously released.

For all those reasons I take this as a factual, trustworthy and true account of what happened that night. Nothing is impossible with God.

Whatever pain you carry, whatever hardship you bear, whatever despair you face, whatever suffering you endure, know this; God is able.

And I want to say this, at the beginning of our four year vision that every household in our parish will know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to
. pray for them
. serve them practically and
. invite them to encounter Jesus Christ…

…that God is able… especially when Christians pray - which is what I want to turn to now.

When Christians Pray (v12)

It is our goal that every household in our parish will know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to pray for them.

While an angel was escorting a half-asleep prisoner out of jail, Christians, we’re told, were praying “fervently.” What do you think praying fervently looks like?

The Greek adverb translated “fervently” is in fact a medical term which was used to describe the stretching of a muscle to its extreme limits. This was prayer stretched as far as it could go. The same word is used in Luke 22:44 for the way Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke writes, “Being in anguish, [Jesus] prayed more earnestly, (there’s the word again - fervently) and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

The believers in Acts 12 were praying like Jesus prayed; fervently, passionately, wholeheartedly, energetically. When they prayed the answer was “yes” and that’s why Peter was released. When Jesus prayed the answer was “no” and that’s why we’re here today, because Jesus drank the cup of suffering that God did not take away, he went to the cross, he died so that sin can be taken away, and then he rose again. In both cases that stretched praying led to great release; release from jail and release from sin.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray - I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Fervent prayer... Do you want to pray like Jesus prayed? It doesn’t even mean you need great faith. Did these Christians have super strong faith? No! When Peter actually turned up they didn’t believe it was him and kept on praying!

Clearly, they were not expecting their prayer to be answered – at least any time soon. But even with a little faith, God is a great God, and when there is fervent prayer he moves.

Ending

I feel that God spoke to me when I was on holiday over the summer. I was reading a book called “Just Walk Across the Room” about which you’ll be hearing more next year. Near the end of the book the author Bill Hybels says this, and it’s such a salutary word for extraverts like me who work long hours and find it hard to slow down or switch off. Here’s what it said: “When I work, I work. When I pray, God works.” Slide 6

Pray for your neighbours. Pray at work. Pray with your children. If you live outside the parish pray for the streets as you drive through it. Pray in home groups. Pray when you can’t get to sleep at night. Pray in triplets. Pray at prayer breakfast. Pray as couples. Pray with friends. There’s no short cut to seeing God move in power – you’ve got to pray fervently or he just won’t.

Do you remember in Acts 18 when God spoke to Paul in a vision? “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

I feel the Lord would say to us this morning, “Don’t be afraid; keep praying, do not be silent. I am with you because I have many people in this parish.” Do you feel God is stirring you to pray?

This month all our evening services are going to be a space for fervent prayer for our parish as we prepare to invite every household to come to Alpha. Next month in our morning services we’re going to try and get a grip on prayer, looking at how Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and other biblical heroes prayed. If we’re going to be a powerhouse of prayer we’ve got to start by being a school of prayer.

This area is where the Lord has placed you and he has placed you here for a purpose. It is no accident that you are here at this time. God said to the exiles through Jeremiah, “Increase in number there; do not decrease. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you... Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29.7).

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th September 2010