Sermon Central
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#2why Should I Pray? Series
Contributed by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr on Nov 14, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: God loves for His people to pray and seek His face. Prayer is communication with our Father. May we learn to know our Father in prayer.
#2 WHY SHOULD I PRAY?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
This is part #2 of a two part series. I do part #2 in two parts.
God teach me not only to pray,
but to love those for whom I pray.
I LOVE THIS POEM:
I STAND AT NIGHT
Author Unknown
I STAND AT NIGHT,
AMID THE CITY’S THRONG,
AND I SCAN THE FACES THAT PASS ALONG.
AND READ A HISTORY OF WOE,
AND OF WANT, AND OF GRIEF,
AND MY HEART GOES FURTHER
THAN MY HANDS CAN REACH.
AND I FEEL A SERMON I COULD NEVER PREACH.
XIII. WHY SHOULD I PRAY?
PRAYER IS MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL VENTILATION.
A. We have accumulated much spiritual garbage over time.
This stress can break a persons hopes. We need to release all despair into trusting God’s plan.
B. When I was a boy my Mom often used a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker may have been the forerunner of the microwave.
C. With a pressure cooker you cook with more than heat, you harness the pressure that builds in the pot.
D. I don’t know what the thing is called on top of a pressure cooker, we called it a jangler.
E. The pressure would build up to a safe point of heat and pressure, and then the jangler would rock and rattle and let the pressure escape through the top of the cooker.
F. By slowly letting off the steam and the pressure the danger was reduced, and the pressure cooker was very safe.
G. If the pressure built to the red line area, the cooker was in danger of exploding.
H. I remember several accidents happening in kitchens when the pressure cooker did not release the pressure slowly and the pot blew up.
I. PRAYER CAN BRING GREAT RELEASE OF STRAIN, PRESSURE, AND STRESS TO THE HEART OF EVERY BELIEVER.
J. You don’t have to worry if you know how how to pray.
PRAYER IS DAILY MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL VENTILATION.
By being faithful in prayer one can help bring relief to the stress and strain of the daily menial messes of every day living.
K. Through prayer messes become messages.
Through prayer great tests become greater testimonies!
When man prays, God works!
XIV. WHY PRAY? BY TRIAL AND ERROR WE FIND GOD’S WILL IN PRAYER.
A. GOOD PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
B. PRAYER IS A DISCIPLINE.
James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
C. By daily communicating with God we can express where we are, and step in new directions.
XV. WHY PRAY? THE MORE YOU PRAY, THE MORE YOU WILL
WANT TO PRAY!
A. PRAY MUCH, LEARN TO WAIT, AND RECEIVE MUCH.
B. Exercise brings strength.
II Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
XVI. WHY SHOULD I PRAY? PRAYER GIVES POWER FOR SERVICE.
A. Seems every thing is draining our power, we must fill our energy levels by prayer.
B. Prayer teaches us to feed on what drains others.
John 14: 12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
XVII. WHY PRAY? WHAT YOU GAIN BY INTERCESSION,
YOU KEEP BY INTERCESSION!
Psalms 34: 18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Jeremiah 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.
Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
XVIII. WHY PRAY? PRAYER SHAKES WHAT WE CANNOT.
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
XIX. WHY SHOULD GOD’S PEOPLE PRAY?
GOD PROMISES TO ANSWER PRAYERS:
Psalms 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
XX.WHY PRAY? OUR NATION IS SICK, PRAYER CAN CHANGE
