Thank you, Lesley, for addressing us on such an important and Godly topic as prayer. And I thank you for being open enough to the Lord to have Him lay this upon your heart, and then your loving Him enough to act upon it.
Last week, I talked about our need to focus on church growth through revival in the church. I related the strength found in revival to a rope, and suggested that a rope is strong because it is made up of different strands, all woven together.
The strands that make the rope are all different, and some are not as strong as others, yet when the rope is pulled tight and put under a lot of pressure, the strands press against one another, and in effect, they reinforce each other so that all become stronger. Individual Christians and churches alike are all pulled closer to one another and strengthened by each other when we are pulled tight and put under pressure. Throughout history, the most church growth has been seen during times of extreme pressure against Christians and against the Christian church.
Again, the four needed elements, or strands, of revival are:
· Giving
· Praying
· Fasting, and
· Entering Communion
Even though I mentioned each of these strands last week, I spoke mainly about the strand of giving. Today, I would like to cover the strand of prayer.
We are all used to the word ‘prayer’, and most of us do pray. But many of us do not really understand prayer. Prayer is simply the most powerful weapon a Christian has; but it is also the least used weapon we have.
Jesus wants His kingdom to grow. The best place to get that continual growth is from within the local church. And, if a church is to grow, it must prepare to grow. This preparation begins with prayer. Persistent prayer is the foundation of all Christian growth, whether it be in the individual or the church.
Fervent and persistent prayer has always been of utmost importance to God’s people.
It talks about the disciples in Acts 1:14;
‘All these were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.’
They were “continually in prayer”. These men knew the importance of prayer and they devoted themselves to it.
We are reminded in 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17 to –
‘Pray constantly.’
George Barna is an expert on church administration. Just a couple of years ago, he was in Little Rock, AR., addressing a church leadership seminar. This is what he said.
“The call to prayer was the battle cry of the early congregation: it rallied the troops. These people understood the power of prayer. They actively and consistently included prayer in their services, in their events, their meetings and their personal ministries.”
It is my most fervent hope that 2006 proves to be a year where avid, in-depth prayer finds home in this church; that we come to know the need for prayer and the power found in prayer.
He also said, “culture reinvents itself every 5 to 8 years, while the church reinvents itself ever 35 to 40 years. Therefore the church is at least 75 to 80 years behind culture all the time.”
The church needs to grow for the Lord. I have heard it said many times that a healthy church is a growing church. But like I said a moment ago, if a church is to grow, it must prepare to grow. And, the foundation of this preparation is prayer. When we talk about praying, we must start at the basics, and that is; how do we start praying? There are many ways to pray, and all are correct as long as they come from a pure and seeking heart, but to for a person to develop a habit of prayer, they must start simply.
1. ONE MODULE TO HELP START A HABIT OF PRAYER
If you have never developed a daily habit of fervent prayer, you might need some discipline guidelines to help you begin. Let me give you a quick, but very effective way to set up a prayer discipline. We will use the A.C.T.S. module.
‘A’ stands for Affirmation.
We begin by affirming that God is the Creator, and as such, He deserves total adoration from His children. We simply begin praying by telling God that we love and adore Him because He is our spiritual Father and we have chosen to love Him.
Take the Lord’s Prayer, for instance. It starts out by saying, “Our Father, who art in Heaven – hallowed be Thy name.” We begin by stating that He is revered above all, hallowed, and our God.
‘C’ stands for Confession.
When we declare the holiness of God, we must then confess our sinfulness. Even though He knows how sinful we are, we still acknowledge it in prayer. This solidifies it in our minds that we are sinful, and that we do need God. We simply confess that we are sinners, and that ask His loving forgiveness for sinning against Him.
‘T’ stands for Thankfulness.
Once we ask forgiveness from our Father, that will lead us into thankfulness. We tell God that we thank Him so much for His willingness to forgive us. We thank Him for the many blessings He has given us and for the many more He will give us, and we thank Him for His powerful and righteous love. Don’t forget to also thank Him for His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent as a sacrificial lamb for all of us.
’S’ stands for Supplication.
In MATTHEW, we see where Jesus asked God to take the cup from Him, but then said "but not My will but Yours." We are told to ask God for all things that are on our hearts. We are to give Him those things we think we need and want. But after we do, know that God knows best, and He will give those things to you that He knows you need, not those things we think we need.
To summarize, we pray by affirming that God is over us; confess that we are sinners who need His glory and forgiveness; then we thank Him for all he has done and will continue to do for us; and we end with telling Him those things that are upon our heart.
I have also heard it said that ’S’ means ’SAY’. In other words, never forget to say the words of praise to Him each time you talk to Him.
God wants us to pray. And, He wants that prayer to be persistent. The followers of Jesus who prayed in the upper room kept praying until God’s power – in the form of the Holy Spirit – came down to empower them to get out and begin preaching His Word.
Every single one of us needs to develop a daily habit of praying to our Lord. Just as we cannot have a relationship with someone we do not talk to, we cannot have a relationship with God if we do not seek His attention in prayer all the time.
2. PERSISTENCY BREAKS RESISTENCY
There was once a man who stood on a street corner every day handing out Gospel tracts. You can imagine the rejection and taunting he receiving, yet he was persistent. He did this for many years. Finally, God called him to do other things for the kingdom.
One day, about two years after he quit handing out the tracts, he happened to be in that part of town and there was a younger man standing on the same street corner he used to stand on, and the younger man was handing out Gospel tracts. He started talking to the man and found out that the man used to be a member of a local gang, but about three years before, he said he received a Gospel tract on that street corner by a man he used to ridicule. He said that because the man had persistence in the Lord and kept handing out the tracts, he finally got one, and after he read that tract, he prayed to God to save him.
How many times have we had to pray the same thing repeatedly, before we finally saw it unfold before us? When you pray, be persistence in prayer and persistence in the knowledge that your prayer will be answered at the right time.
This is a true story. There was once a group of customers standing in a very slow moving line at the Post Office. One man said that grass grew faster than that line moved. It was obvious that everyone was getting very impatient, so finally, a 73 year old man began chanting, “We want service, we want service!” Within a minute, nearly 30 customers had joined it. Within three minutes, the supervisor had put two more clerks on the window to speed things up! What I wonder is whether or not that would work at the grocery store!
Praying does several things for us. One of which is to let God know what we want. We have that one down pat, don’t we? We are always telling God what we want, or what we think we need. But another benefit of praying is that the more we go into true prayer, the more we begin to listen to God, and it is at that point we start understanding what God wants from us. When we develop that habit of praying, it shows God how sincere we are to know Him, and it demonstrates our faith in His rule over our lives.
Concerning prayer, someone once said, “When you get to the end of your rope and don’t know what to do next, tie a prayer knot in it and hold on.” A church that is truly seeking the Lord in its midst will never short-change prayer. It must grow prayer on all sides. A church is like an airplane. It either keeps moving, or it falls. And to keep moving, a church needs to be in constant prayer.
Church members should be praying for every leader of the church – every day! They should be praying for other members – every day! They should be praying that God utilizes the church for His will – every day! Do you see what I am trying to say? Church members – you – should set out on a track to see your prayer life grow by making a choice to grow it. Make a decision to pray every day at a certain time, for a certain period of time, for a pre-determined list of needs. And then, DO IT!
We have talked about how to begin praying to develop a habit of prayer. We have talked about being persistent in your prayers. Now, I would like to talk to you about prayer in the church.
3. BEING A HOUSE OF PRAYER
One of the charges for a church is to become a House of Prayer for all nations. I told you two weeks ago that I take that two ways. First, that God’s house should willingly include all people who seek to worship. Secondly, we should be praying for all of God’s people.
I look forward to this year being the year that prayer becomes the dominant ministry within this church. I dream of a strong prayer ministry being started that includes many people. I have told you that I, being just one person, am limited in all that I can do. But, if anyone has the calling to see a prayer ministry formed in this church, a strong and fervent prayer ministry, I ask that you contact me. I will help you to start a viable and effective prayer ministry in this church that will bring more of God’s glory down than we have ever seen before!
If you haven’t noticed before, you soon will, that prayer holds a very special and very tender spot in my heart. If it weren’t for prayer, I would still be lost today. If it weren’t for prayer, many of our family members would still be lost today. And if it weren’t for prayer, I would not be standing here preaching to you this morning. Prayer is the foundation of my reliance upon God, through Christ. It should also be yours.
And speaking of prayer within the church, I do not want to go before my Father on the day of Judgment and try to explain to Him why I didn’t do everything within my power to promote prayer, according to His command in 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17.
So, you will notice our two new prayer alters this morning. We moved the two half pews from back in the back to up here in front of the stage so they could be used as prayer altars. Let me explain their usage.
Many churches offer these as an aid to helping their congregations go to prayer. You should feel free to use these altars before, during, or after services. We read about how the people of the Old Testament went before the altars to pray, and we think they must have been Godly people. We admire them for that, yet we have set a course in our lives where we would never do that, especially in front of others! How do you think God feels about that?
If at any time, you feel God laying it upon your heart to pray, you should feel very free to walk up here, kneel down before them and pray about whatever the Holy Spirit is telling you to pray about. Now, if you are like me, you might not always be able to kneel down, so you will notice these have cushions on them so you can sit on them and pray, too.
Some of you might have questions, like will this let our service still be orderly? Yes. You don’t come up here to bring the attention on yourself, so you will come up here and quietly begin talking to God. The attention will always stay on God in this sanctuary. But when someone is truly praying to God, they will be focusing on God, won’t they?
When you dare to walk with the Lord, the Lord might call you into prayer. And, when He does, just walk up here and start praying. Stay until you are done and then you may return to your seat.
I know that this will appear very much different at first. And, being people who have done few things different in many years, it might cause some eyebrows to raise. But if they raise, I hope the eyes are opened, too, and they start seeing the need to pursue God, even through prayer. It would be my fervent hope that prayer becomes such a part of our lives that we not only accept this notion of welcoming prayer during services, but that we embrace it, too.
I speak about church growth, but it should and will happen one way; God’s way. And His way is through His people humbling themselves enough to continually pray to Him.
We live in bad times. War is on every front page. The days where our children are safe in our own yards are gone. Everything we believe in is being assaulted and ripped from us. We see, for the first time in our nation’s history, that we could very easily be toppled and be taken over by those from within. What do we do during all this chaos and trouble?
I believe one passage that describes pretty much what is going on around us, what we should do about it, and what God will do once we do what we should do.
2 CHRONICLES 7:13-16 says,
’13- If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people,
14- and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray, and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land.
15- My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place, 16- And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My name may be there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times.’
This passage tells us that God has the ability to allow problems of all kinds come our way, including wars, violence, disease, and more. But it also tells us that if we will humble our hearts and go into prayer, and seek God and His forgiveness, He will respond. And when He responds it will be mightily. He will forgive our sins and He will heal our lands.
And then He says He will always be listening to our prayers and He will choose this temple, this church, so He will be here forever.
Do you want God’s blessings in your life? Do you want His blessings in this church? Do you want them enough to devote a portion of your daily life to prayer, or enough to allow others the chance to come before the prayer altars and cast their burdens on the Lord?
Do you want God in your life so much that you are willing to seek Him by developing your own life of prayer, or help develop prayer from within the confines of the church?
INVITATION
