Desperately Leaning On God

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Thank you, Pastor Jonathan. There is no greater privilege than to be able to serve God and I know many of you have experienced that whether it's in a pastoral role, whether it's music, whether it's your kids at home. Whatever place God puts you in to serve and to see that God has given each one of us gifts and opportunities and open doors and that what we do literally makes an eternal difference. There's nothing greater than that, and I thank you for the privilege to be able to serve you here.

We're going to get into God's word today and we're going to start with the Angus Reid poll. Not God's word, trust me. But something that tells us something. According to the Angus Reid poll, 20% of Canadians say that they do it every day. Almost 65% do it occasionally. Being grateful for things is high on the list of reasons people do it. Looking for some help comes in as a close second. Most of you here do it probably on a regular basis. Our question this morning is how do we do it better?

As we enter this new year, the first Sunday of 2026, we're going to talk about prayer. And what we're going to discover about doing prayer has the potential of radically changing our lives and our walk with God in this coming year. James, the leader of the early church, makes a rather bold statement in James chapter 5. He says that the prayer of a righteous person has great power when it is working. There's great power. There's great power in what we do when we get on our knees. There's great power when we're driving to work and just talking to God, and there's great power when we and our spouse or we and our kids get to just at the end of the day, spend some time talking to our Father.

There's great power and there's even slogans, bumper stickers that tell you that prayer changes things. Prayer makes a difference. When all else fails, pray. And all of them just contemporize this ancient biblical truth. Prayer works. But what does it take for our prayers to have great power? To really make a difference in our lives and in our home, in our church, in our nation, with our children. Prayer is a vital part of who we are as Christians. It's a vital part of what we do. Our success or failure and our walk with Christ depends on it. It's our communication line with our Father, not just to ask him for things but also to talk with him about our lives, to thank him for what he's doing in our lives.

And that's why this morning we're going to enter into the life of one man whose prayers were powerful. From his example we're going to discover vital attitudes and actions that need to shape our prayer life this coming year. I think you probably know the man. His name was Moses. Adopted grandson of Pharaoh, the let my people go hero that leads the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea and out into the Sinai wilderness.

We're going to pick up his story this morning near the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses and the Jews have been on the road now since Egypt for about 3 months or so. They set up camp in front of this mountain and they set up the camp there because Moses has been called to go up to the mountain, to go up and to meet God on the mountain. It's time for the people of Israel to get the 10 Commandments, God's rulebook for how his people should live. And so he heads up. And he doesn't come down. The people wait at the end of the day, doesn't return. Next day, their eyes on the mountain, don't see him. Day after that, day after that, day after that, people are getting worried now. They're getting a little scared. He's the reason that they got out of Egypt. He's their leader. He's gone. They get a little more antsy. Has he abandoned them? Maybe it's time to take matters into their own hands.

And so in Moses' absence, the people get busy breaking God's commandments even before they get them. The very first of the 10 Commandments, you shall have no other gods before me. The Israelites do the exact opposite. They're so scared by themselves that they decide to melt down all their gold jewelry in order to make a new object that they could worship, a golden calf. Things go from bad to worse as that worship of this idol becomes a wild party and that's what Moses returns to. And judgment falls upon the people.

We read in chapter 32 of Exodus verse 19:

And as soon as he, Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

This is not the beginning of a good day. And it's getting worse. Verse 25:

And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose for Aaron, the high priest had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi, those were the religious leaders, gathered around him, and he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put your sword on your side. Each of you go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day, about 3000 men of the people fell.

It was a killing field, a bloodbath. 3000 hacked to pieces by those who were faithful to God. It was a fearful, bloody, terrible day, one that would never be forgotten in Israeli history, a graphic object lesson that God takes sin seriously and that sin has consequences, sometimes horrible consequences. God's judgment was swift. It was sure. But the matter is still not settled.

We begin reading in chapter 33 verse 1:

The Lord said to Moses, depart, go from here. You and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to you, your offspring, I will give it. I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the bad guys. Bad guys happen to be the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perrizites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

This is worse than that bloodbath. God is threatening to withdraw his presence to leave them. They still get the land, but God wouldn't be with them. Even the people realize how serious this is. Verse 4:

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments.

And now it's at this point of national crisis, with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance that Moses prays. He goes out to the tent of meeting, a sacred place where he could talk with God. And I want you to try as hard as you can to put yourself into sandals right now. Can you imagine what he's feeling? Can you imagine the concern, the heaviness that's pressing on Moses's heart? His people had turned their backs on God, and now God threatens to do the same with them. What can Moses say to God at a time like this?

Well, fortunately we don't have to imagine, we don't have to guess. We're told. Please stand if you're able as we honor God's word and as we read Moses' dialogue with God. And as we do that, I just encourage you to listen for the cry of his heart. See if you can identify some of the concerns that this godly leader has. And look at how God responds. Beginning in verse 12, chapter 33:

Moses said to the Lord, you have been telling me, lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, My presence will go with you. And I will give you rest. Then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name. Then Moses said, Now show me your glory.

Here is a guy who is laying it all on the line. He's holding nothing back. And as he does, we discover several vital attitudes that are found in powerful prayer. In fact, the first one is shown to us just prior to Moses' prayer. And that's where we learn that powerful prayer requires repentance.

Psalm 66, the psalmist tells us:

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

When we defy God, when we go outside God's moral or ethical or spiritual boundaries, when we do things that are contrary to the holiness and the purity of the God we serve, when we act in ways which deny God's character of love and mercy and forgiveness, what we are doing is called sin. This is the iniquity which the psalmist says will short circuit God's blessing in our lives and render our prayers powerless. And when that happens, there is only one thing that we can do. And that's repent.

What does that mean? That means seeing sin for what it is. Realizing that this sin in our lives, whatever it might be, whatever area of our daily life it touches, is a defiance of God's will and a denial of God's character. Realize that when we sin, we are literally shaking our puny little fists in the face of God. And that's why repentance requires a fundamental change in our mind about sin. That change in our attitude leads to turning away from sin, turning toward God. That results in new actions that transform way of life as God's spirit begins to work in us.

John the Baptist spoke of this as he was out there in the wilderness, talking to the people, urging them to repent. And when the religious leaders came to him and he said, you know, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, don't just say, OK, God, I'm sorry, and then go on and keep doing it. He says, your life needs to change as a result of it. And I believe that's what we're seeing here in Exodus chapter 33 in verse 4:

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned. And no one put on his ornaments.

Finally, the horribleness of this sin hit home. They repent. And friends, when that happens, when repentance comes from the heart, when there is sorrow for what we have done, when our attitude towards sin changes and we begin to see the ugliness of what we are doing and how that affects our own soul, how that affects those around us, how that brings the name of God tarnished instead of glorifying God's name. It's then that an exciting thing takes place. God hears our repentance. He forgives us. How do I know that? First John chapter one:

If we confess our sins, He, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I've had to claim that verse countless times. I've had to act on that verse as I have fallen. Powerful prayer requires repentance.

And then we continue looking at the story. And now we start listening to Moses' prayer. And we learn powerful prayer originates from a gut level dependence on God. Moses is taking God's threats seriously, and it scares the socks off of him if he wore socks back then. Way back in Exodus 3, we read of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. You may remember that story, the bush that doesn't burn up. And God tells Moses from this bush of how he's going to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt and of how Moses is going to be God's spokesman to the people. And Moses then uses every excuse in the book to try to say he's not the man for the job. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't think he can handle it. A lot like sometimes we feel. And God's response:

I will be with you.

That's it. Moses? That's all you need. All you need is me. And now finally, for Moses, that truth sinks in. He finally understands every success he has had in his short career as a leader. The plagues that finally convinced Pharaoh to let them go. The parting of the Red Sea that saved the people in the nick of time. The manna and quail that fill their stomachs every morning. Every success he has had was the result of God's blessing and God's presence. Without God, their situation had always been hopeless. And that's why God's threat is so scary to Moses. He knows that it would be their ruin.

And so Moses pleads from the bottom of his heart, verse 15:

If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

This is as real as it gets for Moses. God, we're toast without you. If you're not going to go with us and you may as well just wipe us out right now. Get it over with. Moses knows that the only thing that sets him and the people of Israel apart from the surrounding nations is that God was with them. Verse 16:

Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth?

Powerful prayer originates from a gut level dependence on God. The awareness that we're nothing without God's help. It's an understanding our utter need for God and embracing that truth that we find God's power. Peter talks about this. In 1 Peter 5, he says:

God opposes the proud but God gives grace to the humble.

To those who think they are so great and so high that they can do it all without anybody's help, not even God's help. He opposes. But God gives grace to the humble, to those who know they can't do it by themselves, to those who lean heavily upon God.

So please, let me get personal with you for a moment. Do you live each day with the understanding that you are nothing without God? Maybe you've got academic degrees and great ideas and I know you've put in countless hours and I know that you studied hard to get to where you're at, but before you pat yourself on the back and say look at how great I am, maybe consider who gave you that sharp mind. Who put you in the circumstances that allowed you that education? Or maybe you've got possessions, money, and nobody gave it to you. You earned it the hard way. Do you realize that there's plenty of people in our world who work harder than you ever will but have practically nothing to show for it because of circumstances outside their control.

Even that great religious faith that you have, that passion that burns in your heart for God, the desire you have to serve God in any way you can. Before again you look in the mirror and say, look at how great I am. Ain't I the best Christian there ever was. Do you realize that without the Holy Spirit, taking the blinders off your spiritual eyes, without the Holy Spirit helping you to understand, to respond in faith to God's offer of salvation, that you have lived your entire life totally oblivious to how much God had done for you and how much you needed him.

Friends, we need God in every arena of our lives. And it is that need, our utter dependence on Him, which drives us to our knees and brings power and fervency and passion to our prayers. And when we lose that awareness, when we forget our reliance on God, when we begin to rely on other things for our success in life, that's when our prayers begin to wither. They no longer will be powerful and effective.

One Sunday morning, Charles Spurgeon, a world renowned preacher of his day, was heard praying as he was walking up to the pulpit:

Oh God, help.

Now I don't think that meant he didn't prepare a sermon that week, you know, watched too much TV and never got around to it, and now he had to go up and preach. He knew something that we all need to know. He knew how much he needed God in every moment. He knew that getting up in the pulpit would amount to nothing without God. And that's the same for us today, folks. I don't care how great a musician, teacher, pastor, speaker, parent, counselor, spouse you might be. If your prayer isn't the same as that old preacher, oh God, help me. If you think you can be successful and make a difference for God all on your own, then you have forgotten your dependence on God.

And without God our plans will fail. My preaching this morning will amount to nothing more than mere entertainment. And I doubt it's even that. What I say in here will definitely not change anybody's heart or life. Our acts of love will be nice things that we do, but the effect will soon be forgotten. Our attempts to live for God will fall flat. Our church may grow numerically. We may pack this place out. But it won't, we won't be seeing people become passionate followers of Christ like we desire. Our prayers will just be empty words. They might sound great, but have little effect.

Powerful, effective prayer stems from a heartfelt dependence on God. And so let me ask you: Do you live each day aware of how desperately you need God's help, his guidance, his strength, his blessing, does that show in the way that you live your life? Can you hear that awareness as you pray? Verse 15:

Then Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

God, without you, it's hopeless. Is that your attitude today?

And then as we continue with Moses' prayer, we find one more attitude. That's the fact that powerful prayer results when we seek to know God more and more. Did you notice Moses's prayer? In verse 13:

If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor in you.

And then in verse 18, he expands his request:

And then Moses said, now show me your glory.

In these two verses, Moses is asking for something far more than God putting on a fireworks display to show off his glorious power. He's asking for a deeper relationship with God. That's what he's after. He's looking for greater intimacy, greater closeness, never before. Moses wants to be able to understand God like never before, to see things through God's eyes. And let me tell you, when we pray like that from the bottom of our heart, God is pleased. We're told that in verse 19 as we see God responding:

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you. I will proclaim my name, the Lord in your presence.

Now, maybe we need to step back for a minute and just pause, OK? Why, why this odd request for Moses to know God better right in the middle of a national crisis? Things are totally falling apart and Moses said, hey God, can I get to know you a little bit better? Can we maybe go out for coffee this week and, you know, just talk and get to know. To understand why and what that teaches us about a powerful effective prayer, we need to understand and grab a hold of the fact that true prayer is never twisting God's arm and trying to get God to do things against his will.

Lots of people think that's what prayer is all about. Many religions in our world approach prayer in that way. The basic idea, if I pray a certain way, if I offer certain sacrifices back then, it might be to kill an animal on the altar, or today it might be to throw an extra 100 bucks in the offering plate. If I do things in the right way, then I can exert power over God. God, because I've done these things, now you've got to give me what I want. That's not how prayer works. And it's not how God works.

Prayer is not working against God in order to get our way. It's working with God in order to see his will accomplished us hand in hand with the Almighty as we seek to accomplish His plan and His purpose for our marriage, for our church, for our children, for our world. We don't have to bust God's arm in order to get him to help us. Remember, he loves you. He loves your kids. He loves his church, he loves our world far more than you and I ever will. And he's not our enemy. He is not some grudging, miserly deity whom we have to cajole or force or trick into helping us. He is our loving Heavenly Father whom Jesus Himself describes in Matthew 7, saying:

How much more will your Father in heaven give you good gifts to those who ask Him.

Rather than prayer being our attempt to exert our will over God, prayer is our opportunity to partner with them. To work hand in hand with God in changing the world around us. And this is why it's important for us to know him. The better we know him, then the better we can understand his will and purpose in each situation. As we pray for our kids, as we agonize over some tough decision, as we grieve with a friend who has suffered a loss, as we seek God's direction for Promontory's ministry, the better we understand God's will, the better we can pray with confidence in partnership with God Himself.

Where do I get that from? Well, the apostle John tells us that one. First John chapter 5 tells us how this all works. John says:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God. That if we ask anything according to His will. He hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask. We know that we have what we asked of him.

That's not a blank check. Just ask God for anything that you want and you'll get it. Forget it. Prayer doesn't work that way. Rather, prayer is an invitation for us to partner with God. To understand what he's doing. And to pray according to his will. Can you see why it's important for us to know God better and better as the years go by?

And the exciting thing here, the most awesome thing of all is that God really wants us to know Him better. Jesus tells us that one. In John 15 he says:

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.

God wants us to be on the same page with him as we pray. He wants us to understand his heart. He wants us to see life through his eyes. He wants our prayers to be powerful and effective, really making a difference as we pray according to his will. And God has gone to great lengths in order to reveal Himself to us, to show us His glory, to teach us His ways. He does it through his word, as we see him in action and as we look at some of the godly people in the Bible and their lives and how they live for God.

On the screen are some verses right now that I would encourage you to jot down the references for. Maybe use these references this next week in your own time with God. Use one verse every week because what these verses are, they show us how we can pray for ourselves, how we can pray for others, and they're the example of people who were praying back then. So take a look at those verses, jot them down or give me a shout later if you don't have a pen, and I'll send you a text on them.

God teaches us his ways. He shows us his ways through the Holy Spirit, God within us, as he prompts us about what to pray for, as he maybe nudges our heart about something that we need to confess, as he opens our eyes to some new thing he wants us to understand. And then God directs our paths through the church. He directs our path through Christian friends as they speak into our lives. When we passionately echo the words of Moses, teach me your way, show me your glory. When our heart's desire is to truly know God so that we can partner with Him in changing our world, God is pleased. And he will honor that prayer. And your prayers will be powerful and effective.

Well, it's almost time for us to wrap things up. And as we do We're going to, I just got to wonder here, what does a 3500 year old prayer by some guy who's long dead and buried. What does that mean for us today? As we talk about that, let's get personal one more time. We've seen that powerful prayer originates from a gut-level dependence on God. OK. Is that true in your life? Again, do you live with that awareness of how much you need him? When your back is against the wall, when you're facing impossible situations, when your marriage is on the rocks or your kids are going off the rails or your finances are falling apart, or your doctor just looks at you and shakes his head. Is your reflex action to call out to God to lean heavily upon him, to trust him. Are you depending on God? And do you live like it? Or do you live like it's all on your shoulders?

We've seen that powerful prayer results when we seek to know God more and more. Do you passionately desire to know God? Do you seek to understand his will to see life through his eyes? Do you want your prayers to be in line with God's purposes? Do you spend time reading God's word, inviting the Holy Spirit to show you what you need to know?

And then we've seen that powerful prayer requires repentance. That's because sin will short circuit your prayers. Just cut the wire right there. Is your heart right with God? As we add to this new year. Is there sin right now in your life in some area, some area where you know what God wants you to do, but you want to go in another direction or do other things and you're fighting God, you refuse to change your way? If that's you, please, friend, stop going that way. There's nothing good at the end of that road. Repent. See sin for what it really is, a defiance and a denial of God. Satan's way of seeking to destroy you and your relationship with your father. Confess. Bring that to God. Seek his forgiveness. Receive that forgiveness and live for him. Don't go into this new year with some baggage in your life that's going to hold you back from God's blessing.

As we enter this new year, what do you need to do? What is God speaking to you about this morning? As we've gone through that checklist, is there one that's jumping out at you? Some area, whether it's sin, whether it's thinking I can do it all by myself, I don't really need to seek God, whatever it is, is there something that God is sort of highlighting, putting the spotlight on for you? And how do you need to respond to that?

We can come every Sunday morning to hear great sermons, but it's not going to make a difference until we ask God, so what? What do I need to do about this and allow him to show us and I invite you to do that this morning as we close. Ask God to show you what do I need to do as a result of this, what we've seen, what we've heard from Moses.

Father, here we are, your kids. And we're entering a new year and we want to live for you. We really do want to serve you. We really do want to make a difference in the world around us. We want to see our children changed, in love with you, passionately in love. We want to see our neighbors come to you and receive you as their Lord and savior. We want there to be harmony in our homes with us and our spouse and us and our kids. Father, in every arena of our life, we need you. And so Lord, I just pray this morning that You will show us. What do we need to do as a result of what we've seen in Moses' prayer? How do we need to respond? Give us the courage to respond. Give us the courage to grow this year in you. That Lord, we might be able to not just be blessed ourselves, but that we might be able to partner with you in blessing this world. And seeing people all around us come to you as their Lord and Savior. Thank you, Father. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.