What Prayer Can Do | Pastor Stephen A. Green | October 18

Main message: The sermon argues that prayer is powerful enough to change lives, deliver people, and prepare believers to give their blessings back to God. Using Hannah’s story, it teaches that desperate, honest prayer can lead to answered requests, spiritual purpose, and worshipful surrender.

Key points:

• Prayer is more than “thoughts and prayers”; it is active, transformative, and can confront violence, fear, and injustice.
• Hannah’s barrenness and distress show that prayer often begins in pain, with honesty rather than polished words.
• Hannah’s prayer was not selfish: she asked God for a son so she could give him back to God.
• The sermon emphasizes that gifts, anointing, and abilities are meant to be used for God’s glory, not kept for oneself.
• Prayer protects peace, clarifies purpose, and helps believers resist distraction and opposition.
• The story of Samuel shows how one prayed-for life can have a generational impact.

Scriptures mentioned: 1 Samuel 1:1-28, 1 Samuel 1:9, 1 Samuel 1:27-28, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, 1 Samuel 1:11, 1 Samuel 1:27