Circle Makers: Think Long
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Good Morning again!
God is GOOD! (all the time!)
All the Time! (God is good!)
Amen!!!
I am so excited for today!
We have been talking about prayer… and I hope that you are experiencing the Love and Mercy of God in a new way through this time!
Pray with me: “Father God pour out Your Holy Spirit on us in a new way! Lord fill us to the brim… until we are overflowing… Father ignite a fire in us … cause us to burn with an unquenchable desire to know You… to serve You… and to share You with others. Cause us to be a people who DAILY seek Your Blessings … Your Spirit… and Your Fire… to fill our circles. Make us into a people who both Dream Big, and Pray Hard! Cause us to be a people who burn brightly with the amazing … awesome… beautiful… unstoppable fire of Your Love for us! Glorify Jesus in us, Lord … So that we will be glorified through Him....”
Well… So far… we have talked about the need to draw that circle of prayer… and we have been drawing it!
We’ve focused (at least I hope you have) on seeking God to fill that circle with His Holy Fire — His Holy Spirit — everyday!
We’ve begun to DREAM Big… and PRAY Hard!
Today, we are going to take it a step further…
You see — We need to learn to think “long-term” in our prayers.
There is a story told about Honi — the “Circle Maker”…
Honi is famous for drawing a circle in the sand and praying a prayer that saved a generation!
One day, Honi when Honi was out for a walk, He passed a man who was planting a Carob tree… (Now, a Carob tree takes seventy years to bear fruit.)
Knowing this, Honi said to the man, “Since it takes seventy years for a Carob tree to bear fruit, are you certain of living that long?”
Listen to the man’s answer: “I found the world provided with Carob trees; as my forefathers planted them for me, I likewise plant them for my descendants.”
Do we think like that?!
When it comes to prayer, we need to “Think Long”.
Sometimes, I think, we are “short-sighted” in our prayers…
We pray these quick, small, prayers for our daily needs, but… We forget the long-term impact prayer has on our families and our community.
We have the right and privilege to pray — not only for our daily needs — But for the long-term needs of our families… our church… our community…
We have been given the power to intercede for our children’s sake!
18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Are we binding the enemy’s activity here on earth? Are we binding sin, suffering, oppression, hurt…?
Are we “loosing” the blessings of heaven?!
We have been given the awesome privilege to bring the power of prayer to bear in our lives and in the lives of our families and community… Are We?
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
“But Pastor… I’ve prayed before and God hasn’t answered....”
Let me tell you: “Prayers do not have an ‘expiration date’!”
God will answer our prayers in His time… Across generations!
Look at the promise to Abraham…
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”
4 But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”
5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Scripture instructs us to offer prayers that will influence future generations… knowing that God will fulfill them.
Are we praying for future generations?
— Are we praying for our children’s future jobs? For their spouses? For their children? For their welfare and salvation?
We need to be.
20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Jesus didn’t just pray for the disciples that were following Him then… He prayed for the future… He prayed for US!!!!
Are we praying for future believers also?
Let me ask you this: “Have you ever thought that your prayers are an offering to God?”
We need to learn to pray long-term Faith-filled prayers… Because…
Faith-filled Prayers are a “memorial offering” to God.
1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called.
2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.
3 One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.”
4 He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter;
6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.”
We know the story, right? (summarize)
We are in the midst of forty days of prayer… We are building a memorial to God.
And let me tell you… God will remember our prayers long after we have forgotten them!
And He WILL answer them!
Mark Batterson confesses: “I’ve heard the still small voice of God say: ‘Mark, the prayers of your grandfather are being answered in your life right now!’”
Faith-Filled Prayers have generations in mind.
6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal; and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me.
7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him an honest report.
8 But my companions who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.
9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’
10 And now, as you see, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel was journeying through the wilderness; and here I am today, eighty-five years old.
11 I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming.
12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day; for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; it may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the Lord said.”
Do you think Caleb had been praying?
Do you think he had his future generations in mind?
— Are we praying for our future generations?
(relate the history on this church) I want to see it be that again… and to remain that!
Look back at Caleb’s story…
Five hundred years after Caleb prayed that prayer… and made his request… David was crowned king in Hebron!
God doesn’t just answer our prayers once… He answers them over and over again!
Have you ever considered that God’s blessings in your life might be answers to the prayers your ancestors prayed?!
What about those who follow after you? Will they experience God’s blessings because of your prayers?
Praying Long means that we get on God’s timeline… We give it ALL to Him… We let Him work in His Time… and we “pay it forward in prayer”!
This time of focused… intentional prayer… is an opportunity to do just that!
Faith-filled Prayers are often answered generations later.
Calebs prayers were fulfilled in David…
16 In the fifth year of King Joram son of Ahab of Israel, Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to reign.
17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
19 Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, for the sake of his servant David, since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his descendants forever.
20 In his days Edom revolted against the rule of Judah, and set up a king of their own.
Jehoram was a wicked king… He lived 117 years after David, yet…
2 Kings 8:19 (NIV)
19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
Because of David’s prayers… and His promise to David… God did not destroy Judah…
— God has a good memory. He doesn’t forget His promises… or the prayers of His people.
Are we interceding for the future generations?
Walt Winkler — “History belongs to the intercessors.”
We have the right… and the responsibility to “break the chains of disobedience… of unfaithfulness… of Sin… in the lives of our children!
Are we standing firm… and faithfully declaring “It stops here!”?
Are we praying down the blessings of Heaven on our children… our grandchildren… and our grandchildren’s children?!
Are we claiming God’s promises for their future!
We should be!!!!
And… We should be faithfully and persistently praying for God to bless our children and their children… for God to break the chains of sin… and prevent the influence of the enemy…
We should be praying for… and declaring… the blessings of God over our children, KNOWING that God is faithful to fulfill those promises!
We need to offer Faith-Filled prayers with patience and persistence.
In Luke 18, we find the story of the “persistent widow”… who sought justice from the uncaring judge…
Jesus point is this: “If a reluctant judge who neither ‘feared God nor cared what people thought’ (Luke 18:2) could be swayed for justice, how much more will our loving Father answer us when we persist in prayer?”
17 pray without ceasing,
Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing.”
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Ask… Seek… Knock”
These verbs are “present active imperatives.
— Imperative is a command… not a suggestion. We are to ask, seek, and knock.
— The present tense means that it is a continuous action… We are to ask and keep on asking… We are to seek and keep on seeking… we are to knock and keep on knocking…
— The “active voice” means that we are the performer of the action… not the recipient…
WE are to do the actions of asking, seeking, knocking, AND WE ARE TO KEEP ON DOING IT!
It is our responsibility to pray and to keep on praying… AND to NEVER quit!
Mark Batterson states it well: “It’s always too soon to give up!”
Think about it like this…
Ultimately… What can we really do about any given situation we face?
When we face hardships… dreams… desires… that are bigger than we can handle… that are “God-sized”… there are really only two options: to pray, or not to pray!
We can either choose to trust God… to seek Him… and see what He does!
Or...
We can choose to attempt to handle it ourselves… to “make something happen”…
But… we all know how that turns out, right?
Our faith is expressed in prayer.
When we “think long” in prayer, we plant seeds for future generations.
Let me ask you…
How is your prayer life?
Are your prayers self-centered? Be honest.
On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being “I give up to quickly” and 10 being “I persist in patience and perseverance in prayer,” how would you rate your prayer life?
What can you do to move one number closer to 10?
Now… What’s keeping you from it?