Pastor Stewart continued his Wednesday night series on the prayer-life of Jesus last night. Here are some of my notes for the message
Sermon notes on Luke 6:12-13
"Before the Lord called the disciples, He spent the whole night in prayer. It doesn't seem likely that He was praying to know who to pick. If that was the case, what was He praying about? He was communing with the Father. Perhaps He was praying about the details of how he would minister to His disciples. In any case prayer is necessary to have God's approval on our decisions. You will question decisions not made with prayer. You don't need to question those things decided in prayer."
Sermon notes on Matthew 9:36-38
"It's interesting that we are sent into God's harvest. It doesn't say into the field. A good soul-winner is simply yielded to the Spirit, knowing that He does the work. The prayer life is a necessity in the work of the Lord. You may object and say that God doesn't have to use you or your prayers. But if He doesn't use you to do something, He is going to use someone else to do it because that is the way that He chooses to work."
Sermon notes on James 5:17
"Prayer causes things to happen that would not otherwise happen."
Personal thoughts
I have always objected to referring to prayer as a force by which we move God. It just seemed like it looked at prayer as a form of manipulating the all-powerful. I don't like that kind of thinking. I still don't like to refer to prayer as a force. However, it's hard to object to the last quotation, defended by James 5:17. God can do it without me, but I want to have a part in it.
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