Sunday 5th October 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 5^th October 2025

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Prayer – what difference does it really make?

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 20:1-7

 Today's scripture reading is from two Kings 21 to seven. In those days, Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Als went to him and said, this is what the Lord says. Put your house in order because you are going to die. You will not recover as Aki turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.

Remember, Lord how I walked, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And Aya wept bitterly before Aya had left the middle coat. The word of the Lord came to him. Go back and tell Hezekiah the ruler of my people. This is what the Lord, the God of your father.

David says, I have heard your prayers and seen your tears. I will heal you on the third day from now. You will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add 15 years to your life, and I will deliver you and the city from the hands of the King of Assyria. I will defend the city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

Then, as I said, prepare poltus of figs. They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

Thank you, Sheba. So we're continuing our look at prayer. Our sermon series is planting seeds. We're planting seeds for the future of our church as we seek the Lord. And the title of my message today, prayer. What difference does it really make? Now. With that said, let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this time.

We have to gather as your people. Lord, we've already acknowledged the power of your word. Holy Spirit, we ask and pray. Still our hearts, still our minds speak through your word to glorify Christ in us. In His name we pray. Amen. So last weekend it was official. The A FL season is over. I say, praise the Lord.

Now, as you can probably tell, I'm not at all disappointed when it comes to football. I'm a real football fan. You know the world game, the one where you kick it with your head? I thought you were from Queensland, so I thought you might've been a rugby man. There's always dispute over what's the real football.

It's the round one where you kick it with your head. Now, this past season I only watched three A FL games and it was actually two more than the previous year. So last weekend I sat down, I, I was actually free. I was preaching twice on Sunday, but I'd actually finished my messages. So I sat down, watched the grand Final.

Now, while I preferred Brisbane to win, I had no real skin in the game. So, you know, it really didn't matter either way for me. I was just able to sit there, enjoy, watch the matches and neutral without getting emotionally involved. I also watched the semi-final between Adelaide and Hawthorne, and that was something I did with Peter Christ when I actually called Sue and said, Sue, you know, you're kind of isolated a little.

Why don't I come sit with Peter? You come and actually partake of the women's dinner, which we had here a few Fridays ago. Now again, I sat there with Peter. I had no real investment in the outcome, and so there was no emotional involve involvement in, in any way from me or in the game. The third game I watched working backwards was the elimination funnel between the Dockers and Gold Coast.

Now this was a slightly different experience. You know, I'm a West Aussie, so naturally I'm hoping that the Dockers would win. Yeah, unless you're a really diehard Eagles fan. And so here we are as a family with, we're finishing dinner, we're watching the game, and the dockers are doing what The dockers do best.

They're choking, okay? They're trailing at threequarter time before mounting this last quarter comeback. Now, for those who dunno, this had been a pattern in previous Dockers games they'd be losing going into the last quarter, but then they'd, you know, they'd push through and they'd steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

So it's the start of the last quarter. The dockers are 21 points down, then they kick three goals in next to no time to move within a point. And even though we're not there at Optus Stadium, you could feel the energy rising. You know, the crowd was lifting. Momentum has shifted and it looks like the dockers are gonna go on and do it.

And so here's us. We're sitting there in front of the television and we are willing the dockers on. You know what I'm talking about? You know you're riding every bump and we're screaming at them to go. We're telling them who to kick to, who to watch out for. Even Claudia who cannot stand Aussie rules football.

She was getting into it. You know, it's been scientifically proven that shouting at the television doesn't change the course of events on the sporting field. You can sit there and you can be as excited as you like. You can jump out of your, your seat. You can scream, you can shout all you like, but it does not make any difference.

It makes no difference whatsoever. Okay. That guy about to get blindsided by a crunching tackle, he's not going to hear you no matter how loud you scream at the television set. The fact is that game is determined on the field, not in the lounge room. Yeah. Now, some people think this is what prayer is like.

God is sovereign, he's got things determined, he's got things planned out, and our prayers, they're just like shouting at the television. You know, it might make us feel good, you know, like we're somehow involved, but it really doesn't change anything. You know, some people think prayer doesn't make a difference because God is in control.

He's almighty, and his will will be done. And what difference will my weak, insignificant prayers make anyway? You ever met people that think like that God is almighty, his will will be done. What difference does my weak feeble prayer do? Now think about it. If God is an all wise God, then surely he doesn't need my, my advice on how to run the universe, does he?

And if God is an all good God, then surely he doesn't need my prompting to exercise good towards me, does he? And if God is in control, then surely he's gonna do what he's decided to do, regardless of what I might say in prayer. Yeah. Now some people can think like this. Have you ever thought these thoughts?

I think we may not explicitly say this is what we believe, but in practice, this is what our lives can reflect. We don't pray 'cause we think God has got this, God knows what we need. He's gonna do it. And we may not ascribe to what I just said explicitly, but our lives begin to reflect this. We can believe that God is this great God.

He's in control. He's all wise, he's all good. And so why do I need to pray? I don't really need to pray 'cause I trust that God is good and I trust that his thoughts are for me, not against me. I trust that he's got my best interest at heart. So what difference does prayer really make? Now check out the subtitle on this book from Philip Yancey, his book on prayer.

He asks this very same question, prayer. Does it make any difference? Now we've looked in depth at the Lord's Prayer as a church, and what we've seen is that prayer is more than simply getting what we we want. We looked at the beginning of the prayer. Jesus invites us to magnify God. He calls us to orient our lives around this reality, that he's our father in heaven and that his name ought to be hallowed.

He also teaches us to pray that our wills be aligned to him so that we begin to desire what God himself desires. But what about our own lives? Why pray? Doesn't God already know what we need? Isn't that what Jesus tells us? Our theology tells us that God is sovereign. We believe that he determines outcomes and we believe that God will do what he thinks is best.

And yet the Bible shows us time and time again that God responds when people pray. And maybe you're sitting here thinking, well, isn't this a contradiction? How can we say that God will do whatever he wants and yet somehow maintain that we insignificant, we have a part to play in all of this? Do you know?

I think the issue here is not that we understand the nature or mystery of prayer. I think the issue is that we misunderstand the nature of God himself. Think of what we heard. Now, reading today. The word of the Lord comes to Hezekiah and it's pretty clear, it's pretty definitive. The prophet speaks and says, buddy, your, your, your time's up, your number's up, you're gonna die.

Okay? It's pretty definitively worded here in this passage, the prophet speaks, he says, this is what the Lord says. The Lord is speaking. Put your house in order because you are going to die. You're not gonna recover. It's pretty clear what's gonna happen. Sought out your affairs. The end is N God said it.

That settles it. The prophet's spoken.

Now, Hezekiah could resign himself to his fate. Instead he, what he does is he weeps and he prays his very simple prayer. And God responds by doing what? By adding 15 years to his life. God speaks his clear, definitive word of judgment, and then he has a change of heart. Can I tell you, this is not the only time we see this in the pages of scripture after the incident with the golden calf.

God says to Moses, I love this. I have seen these people and they are a stiff neck people. Now leave me alone. I love that he's saying, Moses, don't bother me. Don't try to convince me otherwise about what I have determined to do. Leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.

And what happens? Moses doesn't leave God alone. Instead, Moses pushes and probes and he pleads asking him to reconsider for the sake of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And what does God do? He doesn't say, Moses, I told you to, to stop it. Leave me alone. Cut it out. No, God relents. And the very same thing happens when the Israelites refuse to enter the promised land.

God says, enough is enough. I'm gonna destroy them. But again, Moses intercedes, he appeals to God's glory and reputation among the nations. And God withholds his hand, God, if not for them, do it for your own sake, your own name, your own glory, and God responds. The reality we find in scripture is this, yes, the God we worship is sovereign and unchanging in his nature.

Yet, there are times when he's so moved by the petitions of his people that he actually changes his mind. Amen. This is who God is. Do our prayers make a difference? The answer to that question is yes. God responds. When people pray, think of it like this, the creator God of the universe, condescends. The almighty, sovereign creator God of the universe, condescends and acquiesces to the prayers of ordinary people like you and me.

This speaks volumes about the God whom we serve. There is none truly like him. Amen. Amen. Now, this a story in this book, what They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School. It's by a man named Mark McCormick. In this book, he tells the story of a Pro-Am tennis tournament. Now, for those who don't know a Pro-Am tournament, Pro-Am is where a professional gets to play alongside an amateur.

Now, in this case, we've got a weekend warrior. He's playing alongside a male professional who was ranked in the top five in the world rankings. Okay, so this guy's no slouch, and this pro comes up to this amateur and he says, Mr. Amateur, I've just got one question to ask you. And he, the amateur's like, yeah, yeah, what's that?

And the process says, well, do you wanna win this tournament or not? And the amateur's like, well, he's kind of here just to have some fun. It's his weekend. He says, well, I, you know, I suppose so. Well, good says the pro. So do I. So here's what you need to do. What you need to do is serve the ball, put it in play, then step aside, get outta my way and let me do my thing.

And what Mark McCormick does in his book, he points out that while this may be a good strategy for winning a Pro-Am tennis tournament, it's a terrible strategy for building a team and developing comradery. Yeah. Now, could you imagine if that was you? You stand there, you just kind of lob the ball up. You put it into play.

Then you just kind of step off the court, step aside, and you let this pro do his thing and then imagine you win. How unsatisfying would that be? You're standing there, you're taking these selfies, you're holding the trophy, but inside you'd feel like a fraud because you know you really didn't contribute anything.

Now understand when it comes to everything that goes on in this world, God involves us. He's not like the tennis pro who says, Hey, I don't need you. I can do this without you, so just get outta my way and let me do my thing. God doesn't do that. God wants to involve us in every single thing he does. Just think of the story of the Exodus.

Think of all the miracles. God provides the miracles, but he does them through Moses. He says to Moses, you take that staff and put it in the Nile, Moses, you're standing there in front of the Red Sea. Lift up your hands. God works in this world with and through us. Listen to what CS Lewis says. He says infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it.

You get that God doesn't need to be told what to do. He knows what to do. He's all good. He's all wise. And Lewis says, God doesn't need any of those things that are done by finite agents. He doesn't need us. He could if he chose to repair our bodies miraculously without food or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers.

Or knowledge without the aid of learned men and women, or convert the heathen without missionaries instead. Instead, he allows the muscles, minds, and wills of men to cooperate in the execution of his will. For he seems to do nothing of himself, which he can possibly delegate to his creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.

Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to speak, of God enabling finite free wills to coexist with his omnipotence. It seems to involve at every, at almost every moment, a sort of divine abdication when it comes to God's work in this world. We are not mere recipients or spectators. There's some profound words there.

C. S Lewis reminds us here of what the Bible shows us from beginning to end. God works in this world in partnership with his creatures. He chooses to involve us in the things he wants to do. And this is no more realized when we bend our knees in prayer.

Consider what Paul says in Ephesians chapter four from him. From Jesus. The whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each work, as each part does its work. What Paul is saying here is that the reason why Jesus holds us together and understand it is Jesus who holds us together.

Amen. Amen. Without Jesus holding us together, we would split us under. We are sinful human beings. Jesus himself holds us all together so that we can help build each other up and grow the body as we all play our part. He might say, well, can't God grow? So build us up himself. You know, I've got Jesus Christ.

I've got the Holy Spirit. What do I need you for? I've got God indwelling inside me. I don't need anyone else. Can I tell you? That's not the way God does things in this world. Can I invite you? Take a look around this, around this room. Look at the wonderful people seated next to you. The people you see are God's gift to you.

We are God's gift to each other so that we can all grow into, you know, the fullness of what God wants us to be. That's what Paul is saying here, and when we don't do our part, the whole body suffers. What Paul is saying in this passage is that when it comes to body ministry, we are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

Amen. We are the finite agents by which Jesus is at work right now in this world. Likewise, when it comes to prayer, God could sovereignly move, and yet we are called to be the voice by which we say, Lord, your will be done. Amen. And if it's not our voice, then who's, God doesn't want the rocks to cry out. He wants his redeem to cry out to him, Lord, your will be done.

We could sit back and say, God, you are gonna sovereignly move without us. And God says, I'd rather you cry out, Lord, you will be done. He could do it on his own, but he chooses to involve us. And just as we're called to be involved in building one another up, God also asks that we all play our part in praying in his kingdom purposes.

As CS Lewis said, we're not mere recipients or spectators. We are all meant to be on the playing field, making a difference affecting the outcome. Prayer is not shouting at the television. It's crying out to the Lord. Most high. Amen. It's a wonderful mystery. That the omnipotent creator, God responds when people pray.

Can I repeat that? It is a wonderful mystery that the omnipotent creator, God responds when people pray, just beginning to come to grips with this, just beginning to think about it should be enough to compel us to our knees to fall down and cry out. Lord, I just wanna be part of what it is you're doing in this world.

Lord, I want to join with you and participate as your good purposes unfold. I once heard it put like this, think of the image of a mother cat carrying a kitten. You can see the kitten stuck in the mother's mouth. So what it does is it takes the kitten by the scruff of the neck, picks it up and carries it to where the mother wants the kitten to be.

Okay? And the person sharing this analogy said, this is not what prayer is. God doesn't just pick us up and forcibly move us somewhere. God does not in any way ever just override who we are. He said prayer is more like a mother duck with her ducklings. As the mother starts to move, the ducklings fall in line and begin to follow, and the speaker said, this is what prayer is like.

We are called to get a sense of the way in which God is moving. God is leading us. God is directing us, but it requires that we fall in behind him and actively participate in what he's doing and where he wants us to go. Prayer is our active obedience in following God's lead. We're called to have this sense of where the spirit is moving, where he's going, and we follow him.

Now in saying all this, I wonder, have you ever had a sense of God moving you to pray? God's stirring you. He's moving you to pray, but when it comes to giving voice to it, it's like you just don't have the words. Has it ever been your experience? God is stirring you with this intensity to pray and you try to give voice and it's the voice is just not there.

I've had it. We've all had it. The Spirit births something within us. And our desire is to be actively obedient to follow God's lead, but we're just not able to. We just can't capture with the same intensity the way that Spirit has moved within us. And you think if I'm so weak in prayer, then why do I even bother?

If the spirit's doing something in me and I can't give voice to this, what's the point in even praying? I'm so weak in prayer. Now, listen to how Paul speaks into this in Romans chapter eight. Listen to how invested God is in this partnership with us. Paul writes, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans, our words cannot express.

And I love this. And he who searches our heart knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. God is so invested in this partnership with us that he's given us of himself. God has poured out God. He's with us through the Spirit. He's in us with the Spirit, but we've still got to play our part.

Yeah. Amen. We're not robots. Our part is to open our lives up to him in prayer and as we begin to do that, no matter how weak, how feebly. The spirit begins to pray those things that we are too weak to pray for ourselves. That's just how invested God is in his partnership with us. God is so invested in working with us in this world that He's given himself into our lives for that very purpose.

It's this wonderful partnership, this wonderful union. Do you know when it comes to prayer. Please don't ever not pray because you say, Hey, uh, my prayers aren't so perfect. My prayers are weak. My prayers are feeble. I love this quote from Max Liccardo. I love this. He says, our prayers may be awkward, our attempts may be feeble, but since the power of prayers in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.

God saves us. He feels our life and he begins to stir stuff within us, and then he takes those deep, heartfelt desires and he prays them for us. In those times when our own words fail us, God is for us. Amen. Now that pain you can feel as you grieve your own brokenness and the brokenness in the world around you, that despair you can feel as you agonize over that Lost loved one who still hasn't come to faith.

God searches our hearts and gives voice to these cries and groans that words cannot express. And so if God the Spirit praised them, and if God the Father knows the mind of the Spirit who prays in accordance with his will, then yes, our prayers most definitely do make a difference. I'm trying to convince you this morning our prayers make a difference.

I hope I'm succeeding. Sorry. I hope God's word is succeeding. Our prayers may seem weak and feeble. Can I tell you? It's not about us, it's about him. It is about him, the one who partners with us by indwelling us and helping us when we pray. Do you know, I remember when I first came to knowledge just over what, two and a bit years ago, I'd come to the prayer meeting and I, I think of all the prayers that were being made for Peter Christ, okay?

I'd come to these prayer meetings and, and people were praying for him. And I'm sure that Sue and other family members had been praying for him for many, many years. And after years of prayer, God moved. Now I was very late in the scene, but I had the privilege of sitting with Peter and talking through with him the ways in which God was at work in his life, and God was doing an amazing thing.

It was after about four or five different meetings of sharing and, you know, praying some, you know, general prayers with Peter that I was able to be direct. One day I was sitting in his house. I was able to be direct and say, Peter, God is laying before you a choice, and I think you know what choice you need to make.

And Peter nodded. He agreed. And so what we did is we prayed together. It was the week before Easter. At the end of our prayer, Peter said, this will be the best Easter ever. He then asked me, please, can I show you this Easter Hallelujah song? He put it on the television. We sat there, we listened to it, and we wept tears of joy.

Here's where I wanna land. In the grand scheme of things, my contribution to Peter's salvation was minuscule at best. But I felt so glad to be part of what God had done, that God had given me the opportunity to share in this, albeit in such a small, small way. And that's what prayer is like. When we pray, when we intercede on behalf of others and God moves, we get to experience the joy of having partnered with God.

We get joy in the knowledge that we have partnered with the living God in, in bringing about the accomplishment of his good purposes in this world, and that is a wonderful, wonderful experience. Now, here's the counter of that. If you don't pray, you're not gonna participate in that joy. You don't get to hold the trophy with Jesus.

This should inspire us to pray knowing that the almighty king of all creation responds. When we pray, should be enough to inspire us to pray.

Just wanna close by sharing a parable about a young girl named Jenny. It's a parable, so it's not true. The parable goes. Jenny was a cheerful five-year-old girl with bouncy blonde curls. One day she's with her mother waiting at the checkout stand at the supermarket, and it's here that she first saw them.

This was this circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. And this little girl, she says, oh, please mommy, please, can I have them? Mom checks the box and she can sees they're only, you know, they're only $2. They're plastic. And so she says, sweetie, what I can do? Is, I can give you a few extra chores and, and you can save up your money and you can buy these pearls.

And, and Jenny, that's what Jenny does. She goes home, she does some extra chores, she gets some birthday money from grandma. She goes back to the shop, she buys them, and she loves these pearls. She's wearing them all the time, even sleeping with them on. And she only takes them off to bathe or when she goes swimming, doesn't wanna destroy the plastic.

At night, her father comes to her and says, Jenny, you know that daddy loves you so much? And she says, yes, dad, I know. And he says, Jenny, would you gimme your pearls? And the little girl says, dad, take, take princess my white horse instead. You know, he's one of my favorites. The one over there on the, on the, on the bed with the, the white tail.

And Dad just says, it's okay, sweetie. I love you. And then he kisses her on the cheek and wishes her good night. A week later, he comes in and says, Jenny, you know that I love you. Would you gimme your pills? And she's like, daddy, daddy, I love those pills. Please don't ask for the pills. Anything else you want you can take.

Just kisses her on the cheek and again, says goodnight. A few nights later, when her dad comes in, Jenny's sitting on the bed, her legs are crossed. Indian style. As he draws near, he noticed that her chin was trembling and one silent tear just rolled down her cheek. What is it, Jenny? What's the matter he asked.

Jenny didn't say anything but simply lifted her little hand to her dad. When she opened it, there was the little pearl necklace and with a quiver. She finally said, here, dad, it's for you. With tears in his own eye eyes, Jenny's kind father reached out with one hand to take the dime store necklace, and with the other, he reached into the pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of real pearls, and he gave them to Jenny.

He'd had them all this time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime store stuff that, so that she could receive this genuine treasure and it's so much like our heavenly Father. Jesus said If earthly fathers though they are flawed, if they know how to give good gifts, how much more? How much more your loving heavenly Father, how much will he give?

If you ask guys, we have a good God. He's a trustworthy God. He's a faithful God, and he's a God who desires to give us good gifts. He only asks that we open up our hands to him in prayer. So why do we pray? We pray because God calls us to, we pray because God longs to commune with us and partner with us in what He's doing in this world, and we pray because God longs to provide for us to give us good gifts.

The greatest gift of which is, you know, his very presence itself. Can I encourage you? Can I exhort you our prayers? Make a difference. Last week we talked about persevering prayer. If that's you, if you're praying for a loved one, a neighbor, a work situation, can I encourage you to keep on keeping on? Could I also encourage you as we're going through the season of prayer, to constantly bring before the Lord, the needs we have as a local church.

God is faithful. God is good. God hears our prayers. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you stoop your ear and incline it to the prayers of the righteous. Father, I thank you for that beautiful vision that we see in John's revelation, the silence in heaven. That's how serious heaven takes our prayer. There is silence in heaven as the prayers of the saints come up before the throne of God, golden bowls of incense.

They are heard, they are received, and they're precious in your sight. Father, we thank you. That you partner with us. Help us to follow your lead, spirit, move, and may we be found as a local church to be obedient in following your prompting to pray the prayers you want us to pray, to meet the needs that we have for the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.