Prayers of desperation
1 Samuel 1:1-21
Introduction-
I have titled the sermon today Prayer desperation.
Illustration-
Jim Symbala (Pastor at Brooklyn Tabernacle) was in a prayer meeting when he noticed a women praying aside of him. He noticed her because in her prayer she became a little loud and her prayer was as if Jesus Himself was sitting next to her. She said. God…you have to do something about my sons addiction, you… have to intervene. If you don’t intervene my son will die from an overdose. He cannot do this himself and I do not know what I need to do to help him. At first, he was taken back, then just as quick, he suddenly realized that is the way that we must approach God with our prayer request.
We have to be desperate- we have to acknowledge that God is in control and He is the only one that can do what is needed when the impossible is what is left.
This may seem like an odd title but when you look at society today, it should make sense. If I said to you today that prayer desperation is a movement of God, how would you interpret that?
Today more than ever we need God to intervene in our lives, our world, our everyday circumstances.
We need Him more than ever and it seems the more we need Him, the more we seem to push Him away.
I am saying this morning without any hesitation that if we are to see God do what is needed in our lives, our community, our families, we need to be desperate and sincere and intentional when we approach him.
For Almighty God to transform our city, our families, our churches, He must first transform each of us.
We are the tools He will use.
We are His people and any revival that will begin will begin in our hearts and our lives first before it will begin in the hearts and lives of those that do not profess Jesus Christ as Lord.
That has nothing to do with age but by being in His presence and experiencing God first hand and living out His love and His promises to a world that desperately needs Him.
So if you are 15 or 90 this morning, it begins in you and will go out to those that you come into contact with.
Turn with me to 1 Samuel 1-21
Elkanah had two wives- Hannah and Peniannah.
Hannah was baren and had no children and Peninnah had children.
Peninnah every year as they went to the temple to worship and sacrificed to the Lord ridiculed Hannah for not having children.
Hannah everywhere she turned was reminded that by mans standards that she was less of a person because she did not bare any children to Elkanah.
(3) Year after year… she went to the temple and was reminded of her inability to have children.
Anyone else relate to the fact that it seems like every struggle you have there is always someone that feels it is their ministry to tell you all the things wrong with you.
To point out the obvious and do it in a wrong spirit and wrong motive.
This month is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation.
Most people think that is just a “Lutheran thing”. Martin Luther turned Europe, Germany, and eventually the world upside down because of his faithfulness and his honesty for God. He wrestled with the fact that he was a sinner and God was holy. To really experience the truth God wants you to see, experience, and live you need to realize that fact. There is a holy God and you are a sinner. Once you approach God with that authority and majesty, there Is a God thing that happens... a holy God pulls you in to Himself and lets you know how much He loves you. Martin Luthers reformation had 4 very important elements to never forget about God and approaching God with our needs and desires.
(1)- Solus Christus- (Christ alone) the foundation of the Christian faith is in Jesus Christ. We have sinned and turned away from God, but God did not give up on us. He provided a way back to fellowship with Him and his name is Jesus. Our salvation rests in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
(2)- Sola Fide- (Faith alone) His struggle and most of our struggles is how can we a sinner come to a holy God? He knew that Jesus Christ was the mediator between God and man but he also saw Jesus as the great judge. He fasted, confessed his sins as often as he could. He even went to Rome and tried to see if he could find how he could be worthy of salvation. While in Rome, he was reading the Scripture Romans 1:17- “The righteous will live by faith.” Salvation is through Christ, you cannot earn it, it is a gift from God that you accept by faith! That verse changed his life!
(3) Sola Gratia- (Grace alone)- Grace is very close to faith. Grace is a gift from God to us that we accept by faith. Our shortcomings come under the death and resurrection of Christ. He died for us and he was raised for us so we could experience eternal life. The new life in Christ can be experienced and lived out now, and we do not have to fear death. The
Grace of God is free and offered to all of us.
(4) Sola Scriptura- Scripture alone is our promise from God. He battled for the reformation because there was false teaching that said that money could be given to the church for the forgiveness of your sins and he said that only God can forgive sin and it cannot be bought, it had to be accepted from God because of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
Luther considered himself a bag of worms, a beggar that comes to God. He also understood who he was in Christ.
He was the redeemed and the beloved of God.
He said that “No Protestant should call himself Lutheran but Christian because it was Christ that went to the cross and not Martin Luther.”
Why would we not approach God like that woman at the prayer meeting. Understanding that God is holy and understanding that God loves us and desires a relationship with us-
Back to the text- Hannah felt that God was a holy God but sensed that she could trust the character and promises of God.
(9-11)
“Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
That to me sounds like a desperation prayer to God.
We don’t need more religion, we need God’s presence.
In His presence is the blessings of God.
God ordains seasons of revival- we must be open and ready to receive them.
The world will never see God’s glory until Jesus Christ is lifted up in the church and then through the church to the world.
Hannah was repeating God’s words back to him- if you will give me a son, if you will remember your servant, I will give him back to you and raise him like I was told to do.
Law demanded that the first born be given back to God. Something happened to Hannah- she was intimated, she was bullied, she felt defeated by things that she could not control. Then the scripture said that she stood up and no longer was going to accept that she had no child.
We use to call it praying through-
Storming heaven with our prayers that were based upon standing on his word.
What happened? It was a God moment! We want God without God and that is not going to happen. But when we desire God and seek God, it becomes a God moment and in God moments, God does God things! Amen!
Anyone who says that they totally understand what happens in prayer is deceiving themselves. It is a God moment and God controls what happens in a prayer that touches God’s ears and heart.
One thing I know is that this was not a now I lay me down to sleep prayer! This was a heart to heart. This was a prayer of desperation seeking a God to do something impossible.
We say we want those moments with God but not many are willing to be desperate enough to pray through, to storm heaven with our petition to God and wait for his answer.
When God is reached out to in desperation, it gets God’s attention. He hears a broken heart, He hears a seeking heart. His compassion is given to the broken hearted. We just never seem to put our brokenness with the compassion of God so God can do something amazing!
Desperation on our part beings compassion from God.
Desperation creates intimacy with God.
“Create in me a clean heart o God, and renew a right spirit in me.”
Jesus says “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and dine with him, and he with me.”
Nothing is impossible when God is in it and God is allowed to be in the center of it. It is a win-win everytime.
The door has to be opened and when the door is opened, there is fellowship and transformation takes place.
We want God but we don’t let God into our lives. We cry on the wrong side of the door. Open the door.
Our desperation brings God’s hope-
Anything we go through, He desires to be with us so we do not do it alone.
Loneliness sucks and does not have to be permanent.
He takes us out of captivity and despair to transformation and hope.
Our desperation beings heaven here now
New creation now-
New hope now-
New savior that walks with us daily now.
When we have that kind of relationship with God- our prayers are God if you do not get involved, and you tell him exactly what is going on… and you wait for his answer and his direction and you press into the living arms of Jesus until you get an answer and whatever that answer is, you know in your heart that it is in your best interest and you draw close to him instead of away from him.
What are you going through this morning? Have you truly turned it over to God and allowed him to work on your behalf? Or have you not taken it to him because there is some kind of barrier that has been created and you have not heard from God about it.
The pursuit of God is costly- it will cost you a sacrifice, a sacrifice that God determines. It will cost you time- you will have to invest yourself. You will have to determine what you are hungry for and what you want from God and determine what of yourself you are willing to offer up to God.
Close,
We have all been in wilderness experiences, the thing to remember is that you cannot stay there forever. God use wilderness experiences but doesn’t want us to stay there. He desire that in the wilderness we learn lessons, we make right decisions, we draw back to Him, and then there is restoration!
Society lives today like God is not concerned about what is going on… it is breaking god’s heart.
We live like we cannot touch heaven with our circumstances because the God we have created is too busy or uncaring… that is so far from the truth.
He is waiting for His people to press in and pray through. He is waiting for someone to step into the gap between a depressed and lonely world that needs God but has no time for Him.
Who is willing to be like Hannah? To stand up and say enough! If you don’t do it Lord, it will not get done.
