Prayer - Part IV: Working in the Waiting
May 19, 2024      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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Isaiah 64:4 sets up the template - God works on behalf of those who obediently wait (in prayer) on Him. The formula is the same in Acts (at Pentecost), and the same for us today. In Luke 18, Jesus reminds us that prayer is good, hard work that requires endurance. Jonathan teaches about the problem of “perceived value” in prayer, and offers an example of choices to three children. “There is treasure in the work”. Praise the Lord He works on behalf of bruised reeds & smoking wicks like us!

Isaiah 64:1-4 (NIV
1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

God Works on our behalf when We Wait (in prayer)
God Waits when we Work

“Prayer is the disciplined refusal to act before God acts” - Eugene Peterson

Practical Example

Acts 1:3-14 (NIV)
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.
13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Acts 2:1-3 (NIV)
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Acts 2:11 (NIV)
11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

Acts 2:41 (NIV)
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Command to Wait
Promise of Power to be a witness

1) Obeyed (Returned & Waited)
2) Holy Spirit Poured Out
3) Became his Witnesses via tongues of foreigners
4) 3,000 added Day #1 (after several weeks of waiting in prayer)

Prime the Pump!!  Pray to Pray

Perceived Value

Average Life of 79 Years
28,835 Days
692,000 hours

Average Adult life (20+)
21,535 days
516,840 hours

Average Adult life NOT sleeping / working
7,178 days
172,280 hours

The Lord is known by Revelation Only

Matthew 11:27 (NIV)
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Luke 18:1-8 (NIV)
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,
5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Widow = Personification of Weakness
Victory SOLELY on the basis of her persistence

“Jesus taught that perseverance is the essential element in prayer” - EM Bounds

Prayer is difficult to maintain with the wrong mindset
Prayer is good, hard work