Effective Ministry Begins and Ends with PrayerMuskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
Sermon Series: The Ministry of Jesus
Message: Effective Ministry Begins and Ends with Prayer
Reverend Glynis Faith (705-765-3797) (muskokalakesministry@gmail.com)
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Announcements
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 Lectio Divina Thursday evenings at 8pm via Zoom. If you would like to take part contact Rev. Faith to receive a Zoom invitation.
 If you would like a ‘socially distant’ visit from the minister, please call (705-765-3797) or email (muskokalakesministry@gmail.com) to schedule.
 If you have prayer requests, please call Reverend Faith (705)765-3797 or email (muskokalakesministry@gmail.com)
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Scripture
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Mark 1:35-38 (NIV)
Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Job 42:7-9 (NIV)
Epilogue
7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.
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Message
“Effective Ministry Begins and Ends with Prayer”
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I find it interesting that God does not ask Eliphaz, Bildad or Zophar to pray for forgiveness. Instead, the Lord calls them to bring their sacrifices to Job and to let Job pray for them. God is angry with them because they have spoken against God and against Job. Despite His anger, God chooses to forgive, but He requires Job’s friends to seek prayer through the friend they have harmed with their false words.
From the story of Job we see that Job has a strong relationship with God and a deep respect for the Creator. If we went back to the beginning of the story we see that this was true from the beginning, Job regularly fasted and offered sacrifices to God, not only for himself, but for his grown children as well.
Prayer, then, is important in our relationship with God and in our relationships with one another.
We read from Mark’s Gospel how Jesus got up early and intentionally goes out to a quiet place to pray before heading out to tell people about God’s love. Jesus takes time to talk with God before heading out to talk with the people.
Prayer is vital in deeping our relationship with God and for maturing in our faith. Prayer is the gift of communication between Creator and created. It is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God.
Original communication between God and humanity was face to face, that is, until sin placed a divide between us and God. So God gave us prayer – the ability to maintain the relationship despite the separation.
Prayer is conversation – sometimes spoken aloud – sometimes spoken quietly from within our hearts. Like a conversation, prayer is about speaking and about listening. Both are necessary to maintain communication.
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Imagine your own family life without any verbal communication.
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Imagine if your children kept asking for things but never listened for your response.
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Imagine if you kept calling out to your family “I love you,” “I am here for you,” but they had their ear phones in, music turned up and were too busy running about to even notice or hear.
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Friends, God IS constantly calling out to us to tell us we are loved and we are precious - - are you listening?
God DOES hear our prayers - - are you listening to His responses?
Speaking to God in prayer is the easy part of the conversation. Listening is the difficult part!
But if we want to deepen our relationship with God and mature in our faith we must learn how to pray – to speak to God and to listen! And we must not only learn how to listen, but how to act on what we learn from God.
There is an acronym to help us with prayer ACTS. A-C-T-S ~ ~ ACTS, just like The Acts of the Apostles, the 5th book in the New Testament. First we have the four Gospels and the role model of Jesus in prayer, then we have the book of Acts with the role model of the early church in prayers. The early church learned the importance of prayer from Jesus and they took seriously the need for prayer in the lives and in their ministries. The acronym goes like this:
A – adoration
C – confession
T – thanksgiving
S – supplication, or what we often refer to as intercession

Adoration of God comes first. We exist because God created us. He created all that is and keeps everything in perfect balance. God is omnipotent, omnificent and the source of all that is good.
Confession comes next. We exist because God created us, and it is our sins that separate us from His presence. Confession of our sins restores us to God and helps us better understand the greatness of God and our dependence upon Him. It strengthens our understanding of ourselves and of God, in turn strengthening our dependence on God and your relationship with Him.
Thanksgiving – we have so much to be thankful for, both in the joys and the struggles of life, and as the hymn writer, Johnson Oatman Jr. suggests, you should take the time each day to ‘count your blessings.’
Supplication – which is our prayers for ourselves and for others – locally and globally. This is the prayer Job would have prayed for his friends (Lord, forgive them, they know not what they say) Supplication is an expression of our love for our neighbours, as we lift up our personal prayers side by side with our prayers that their needs are met too.
There are no right or wrong ways to pray, because prayer is conversation with God. If we are talking with God and listening to God, the Holy Spirit with guide us in our prayers. And the interesting thing about prayer, much like good conversation, the more often you do it, the better you get at it. Prayer can feel uncomfortable sometimes, especially if you have not really had a good heart to heart conversation with your Creator in a long time. Practice does make perfect.
Prayer was important to Jesus in His ministry, it was important to the life of the early churches and it is important to our ministry today.
The prayers of Jesus often go unnoticed in the Gospels, as we are more drawn to the miracles and teachings that follow the prayers, but if you read through the Gospels slowly, paying attention specifically to the prayers of Jesus, you will begin to notice that Jesus prayed constantly – privately, publically, intentionally and spontaneously. He prayed before and after His travels and events and He prayed throughout His ministry.
If you look at Luke 11:1, you will see Jesus was praying before He taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer. Luke 3:21, tells us that it was as Jesus was praying at His baptism that the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit descended. And before making the important decision of which disciples to designate as apostles, Jesus spent the entire night praying. When was the last time you spent an entire evening in prayer to seek God’s guidance on an important decision? What do you think might happen if you did?
Jesus prayed after he healed people and before He fed the thousands. He laid hands on the children and prayed for them. He also prayed for Himself, for His disciples and for all believers who might choose to follow. He even prayed to God forgiveness for those who hung Him on the Cross and those who called out ‘crucify Him.’
The apostles and the disciples of Jesus followed His examples, and as the book of Acts tells us, they gave themselves continually to prayer and they were of one accord. If you read through the book of Acts, which I would encourage you to do, you will read that they:
- prayed before choosing a replacement for Judas
- they gathered in fellowship and in prayers
- they had specific times for prayer
- there were prayers before laying on hands and healing
- when they prayed the Holy Spirit came upon people
- and they assembled frequently in large gatherings to lift their prayers together before God
- they committed to fasting to help them focus in prayer
- they found courage through prayer and because they were prayerful and faithful their numbers grew.
Brothers and sisters-in Christ, God sent His Son to teach us how to pray that we might draw closer to God in love and in fellowship. From the beginning until the end Jesus prayed with us and for us. The Disciples continued Christ’s ministry of prayer, praying with us and for us.
As the church – as the people of Knox, Port Carling and Zion, Torrance, we are called to a ministry of prayer, to pray with and for the people around us and for the future generations.
Friends, prayer is not a burden, it is a great priviledge, one that brings us closer to God and closer to one another. Please join me now in repeating The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thine will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. AMEN