INTRO: The Campus Crusade For Christ Wheel
INTRO: One of the wheel spots is prayer. And to be quite honest, I could have gone into great detail on prayer, but since we are in the Sermon on the Mount Series at Church, and since Pastor David Martin already spoke on the topic, I felt the best way to cover it was to just go over his notes.
To be honest, it is one of the most practical sermons I have ever heard ever. Listed below is not the exact information, but a lot of it is listed below, in addition are some adds that I put in.
NOTE TO LEADERS: Okay gang, between what David Martin gave us and the stuff added, there is a ton of information here. Please use what you think is best for your group. Obviously as always, please don’t feel like you have to use all of it.
LAST NOTE: It would be totally useful and practical just to pray for people. So if you feel led to do that, that may be better than anything else you could do.
1) PRAYING IN GENERAL
Matt. 6:5-15 [NLT] “And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Give us our food for today and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
2) THE OUR FATHER (MATTHEW 6:9-13)
9“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
BROKEN DOWN
A) praise [honoring God’s name]
B) priorities [God’s kingdom]
C) provision [daily bread / needs]
D) personal relationships [forgiveness]
E) protection [deliver us from evil - evil one] / we’re in a real spiritual battle, &
F) praise again [“Yours…kingdom!”]
Then we have…
3) F.A.C.E.T.S. OF PRAYERS
A) FAITH
[verb vs. noun / not just something we believe; it’s something we do; “believing God”, not just “believing in God”; illus.]
Heb. 11:6 [NLT] “So, you see, it is impossible to please God w/out faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God / that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Jas. 1:6-8 [NKJV] “But let him ask in faith w/ no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven / tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
B) ADMISSION
(confess / agree w/ God re. our sins; coming clean w/ God)
1 Jn. 1:9 [NLT] “But if we confess [Gk. “homolegeo” = “to say the same thing”] our sins to him, he is faithful / just to forgive us / to cleanse us from every wrong.”
Prov. 28:13 [NLT] “People who cover over their sins will not prosper. But if they confess / forsake them, they will receive mercy.”
Ps. 66:18 [NLT] “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart [KJV, “regard iniquity”: “regard” lit. “to keep, hang on to”], my Lord would not have listened.” [“will not hear”, not “cannot hear”]
C) CELEBRATION
(giving thanks vs. being thankful / act of the will vs. emotions / it’s a sacrifice!)
1 Thess. 5:18 [NLT] “No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
Ps. 9:1b [NLT] “I will thank you, Lord, w/ all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.”
Heb. 13:15 [NLT] “W/ Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name.”
D) ENDURING
(the willingness to wait, to not give up / quit / throw in the towel / bail out on Christian life)
1 Thess. 5:17 [NLT] “Keep on praying.”
Lk. 18:1 [NLT] “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer / to show them that they must never give up.”
2 Tim. 2:3 [NLT] “Endure suffering along w/ me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
E) TIME
(ing) [God’s into time / timing - like a bullet hitting a bullet!)
Gal. 4:4 [NLT] “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.”
2 Pet. 3:9 [NLT] “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.”
F) SURRENDER
(of our will / interests / desires / hopes / ambitions… we give them all to God)
Jas. 4:2b-3 [NLT] “And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong – you want only what will give you pleasure.”
1 Jn. 5:14-15 [NLT] “And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line w/ his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.”
So, what is prayer? It’s conversing with God!
4) ANOTHER WAY REMEMBER TO PRAY
P: PRAISE
R: REPENT
A: ASK OTHERS
Y: YOURSELF
5) PRAYER STORIES
At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New York Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity and poignancy: "Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."
Source Unknown.
While crossing the Atlantic on an oceanliner, F.B. Meyer was asked to address the first class passengers. At the captain's request he spoke on "Answered Prayer." An agnostic who was present at the service was asked by his friends, "What did you think of Dr. Meyer's sermon?" He answered, "I didn't believe a word of it." That afternoon Meyer went to speak to the steerage passengers. Many of the listeners at his morning address went along, including the agnostic, who claimed he just wanted to hear "what the babbler had to say."
Before starting for the service, the agnostic put two oranges in his pocket. On his way he passed an elderly woman sitting in her deck chair fast asleep. Her hands were open. In the spirit of fun, the agnostic put the two oranges in her outstretched palms. After the meeting, he saw the old lady happily eating one of the pieces of fruit. "You seem to be enjoying that orange," he remarked with a smile. "Yes, sir," she replied, "My Father is very good to me." "Your father? Surely your father can't be still alive!" "Praise God," she replied, "He is very much alive." "What do you mean?" pressed the agnostic. She explained, "I'll tell you, sir. I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had not only sent me one orange but two!" The agnostic was speechless. Later he was converted to Christ. Yes, praying in God's will brings an answer.
Our Daily Bread.
Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire, told the following story. "A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded, 'Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won't feel so lonely.'
That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, 'If God sent that, I'm sure He also sent a doll!' And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child's sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies' group to include both of those specific articles."
Our Daily Bread.