This Means War 7
This Means War • Sermon • Submitted
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Text: James 5.13-16
Churches that minister in Prayer
How important is faithfulness in prayer? Dr. Wilbur Chapman often told of his experience when, as a young man, he went to become pastor of a church in Philadelphia. After his first sermon, an old gentleman said to him, "You're pretty young to be pastor of this church. But you preach the Gospel, and I'm going to help you all I can." Dr. Chapman thought, "Here's a crank." But the man continued: "I'm going to pray for you that you may have the Holy Spirit's power upon you. Two others have covenanted to join with me in prayer for you." Dr. Chapman said, "I didn't feel so bad when I learned he was going to pray for me. The 3 became 10, the 10 became 20, and 20 became 50, the 50 became 200 who met before every service to pray that the Holy Spirit might come upon me. I always went into my pulpit feeling that I would have the anointing in answer to the prayers of those who had faithfully prayed for me. It was a joy to preach! The result was that we received 1,100 into our church by conversion in three years, 600 of whom were men. It was the fruit of the Holy spirit in answer to prayer!”
Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray.
Edward Payson, Preacher and Prayer, E.M. Bounds, 1907, p. 32.
Introduction:
How many of you pray every day?
How many of you pray each morning when you wake up?
How many of you pray every night before you go to sleep?
How many of you pray before each meal?
How many of you pray for yourselves?
How many of you pray for others?
How many of you pray for the Church?
Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
I. God Listens This is the heart of the Bible faith. Prayer is not first about us but about a God who hears. Prayer works because God has promised to hear. Cast away any idea of new age spirituality or old fashion paganism—where by right methods or magic words we force God to pay attention to us. Quite the opposite! Our God is a willing participant in our prayer meetings. There is no reluctance on his part. If there is any reluctance to prayer, it is on our part, not God’s.
Prayer is important to God, We saw this in Jesus Life.
His ministry commenced in Prayer (Luke 3:21) His ministry continued in Prayer (Mark 1:35-38) His ministry counted on Prayer (Luke 5:5-16) His disciples were chosen by Prayer (Luke &12-13) His miracles were consummated by Prayer (Matt.14:14-23) His ministry was concluded by prayer (Matt26:39) His ministry is continuing in prayer (Heb 7:25;7:7)
Rules on prayer
I John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Illustration: Dad with his arthritis changed the way I viewed prayer.
So when...
I began to see things differently.
Simplicity of Prayer- "if we ask" (14)
Explanation: I love the simplicity the Bible requires. The word never demands from us more than we are able to bear. John gives a prerequisite to prayer- “Ask”. James tells us the same thing when he says. “Ye have not because ye ask not.”
Argument: There is nothing difficult about prayer. The Bible just says ask. “What do I ask about?” I think you are already making it to difficult. Simply ask.
Illustration: In Sioux Falls God brought a young couple into the congregation one morning. James and Emily were a couple that had been using the worlds way of thinking to build a life and found themselves empty and broken. They came that morning to see if adding Jesus would make it better and instead they received him as their savior. My wife and a few others took James and Emily under our wings and started talking to them about salvation, marriage, being like Christ.
One night after dinner James asked me did God hear me when I didn’t say “in Jesus name”. I almost burst out laughing. Turns out one of the designated church eggheads told him that if he didn’t pray in Jesus name then God wasn’t listening.
I showed him truth from scripture and reminded him that he was saved from superstition not into it.
Which reminds me that many times we can fall into wrong thinking about prayer. Praying in Jesus name was an issue of our right before God. It wasn’t about reminding God, it was remind us.
Application: Who can't pray if all you have to do is ask. - ASK
II.Size Of Prayer - "anything" (14)
There are many that would do the same to this passage they will jump straight to “according to his will” and immediately begin whittling away at the size of prayer. Hold on - “Let us enjoy this for just a second let us thrill in “anything” really anything.
III. Sincerity of Prayer - “according to his will” (14)
Explanation: This passage in the wording and context of this passage allow us to understand that this is not speaking of prayer outside of his revealed will. Meaning that this is prayer that is aimed at his already revealed will.
II. Things Happen There is something significant about the crisis the early church faced. James had been killed and Peter was arrested. In all likelihood, Peter faced the same fate that James had. So the church prayed. No doubt they had prayed for James, too. And he had died. They knew all prayers are not answered in the manner desired. But that’s God’s decision. So they prayed for Peter. We don’t pray because we know for sure that we are going to get what we asked for. We pray because we want God to make the choice. He has asked us to pray.
R. G. Lee, a fiery Baptist evangelist of a previous generation, said it a bit strongly, but correctly when he wrote, If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will fire up,
If all the dishonest folk will fess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will smile up up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true soldiers will stand up,
If all the dry bones will shake up,
If all the church members will pray up...
Then we can have a revival!
I will add
Bodies are healed
Lost are Saved
Church houses filled
P.U.S.H. - Pray Until Something Happens
III. Mind’s Blown Maybe there is hope for all of us! Even when we fully believe in the power of prayer, we get surprised. Note how the church reacted. They gathered in a prayer meeting, petitioning the God of heaven for Peter. God heard. An angel was sent. Even Peter was surprised and had to be told by the angel what to do. When Peter went to the praying church after his release, no one wanted to believe the report. Surely, the servant girl was seeing things.
This is a bold prayer
This is interesting though because this is not a mild prayer. Lord don’t let Peter die.
They had a practice of Prayer
Acts 1:24 - Ministers Placed
Acts 2:42 - Practiced Daily
Acts 3:1 - Practice of the Leadership
Acts 4:24 - Declared God Sovereign
Acts 4:31 - The Holy Spirit shakes the place
Acts 6:4 - Declared the primary role of the Leaders
Acts 6:6 - Men set aside for ministry through prayer.
Acts 7:59 - Last words of the Martyrs
Acts 8:15 - The Holy Spirit came to the outsiders
Acts 8:24 - Repentance marked in Prayer
Acts 9:11 - Condition we found Saul
Acts 9:40 - Raised Tabitha
Acts 10:2 - Exercise of the saints
Acts 10:4 - Marked as a gift before the Lord
Acts 14:23 - Taught as the practice by Paul
Acts 16:25 - Added to singing in the prison
Acts 27:29 - Safety provided on sea
Acts 28:8 - Healing Given
God Works
Dela McGie - Hepatitis C
Had it, after a Wednesday night prayer service, took the test again didn’t have it.
Dwight Lively - Prolonged Quality of Life
Had cancer, and congestive heart failure, met with the leaders in the church, anointed and prayed God restored him no cancer - back to work for two years. Just went home to be with the Lord. Gave his family the plan of salvation through this work.
Dianne Merriman - Lupus
Couldn’t get out of bed, red blood cells were high, developed Schogriens disease, Vomiting, couldn’t be in the heat of any kind.
Met with the leaders for prayer and anointing, Was back on her feet in two weeks. Worshipped with her yesterday morning, she has come off of many of her medications.
Margie Jordan - Kidney, affecting heart, effecting eyes
Healed eyes, Reversed kidney damage, and reversed congestive heart failure.
Met with the leaders for prayer and anointing. She came back to our services a month later after meeting with her doctor. He said it was a miracle.
Restored Kidneys moved the fluid from the heart, reversing the congestive heart failure, two weeks ago they told her to stop wearing her glasses. They were getting better.
Pastor - Traveling to Texas
Mrs. Deal prayed in the middle of the night for us on the road. She was praying when we were supposed to be already at our destination. She was up praying for us. When we got home that next week we told the church how we almost rolled the van, but had kept us safe.
Fessmans - Marriage Restored
Had been disciples, walked away from God and the church. Ended up destroying their marriage. Through the prayers of a Momma and a Four year old boy God put them back together. In two weeks we are doing a surprise wedding for our church and their parents.
Eva Hall - Migraines Taken
Chronic migraines and we are weeks into another healing.
IV. Churches’ Strengthened
1. Unified
2. Faith Driven
3. Enduring
4. Out Reach Focused
5. Servant Hearted
6. Disciple Making
Argument: When it comes to praying for God’s will I encourage our congregation to pray in Specifics.
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
However one interprets Jm 5:14-16, there is no dispute over the main thrust in this passage...
Prayer and praise are very special privileges for the ChristianThere is not a time in our life when we shouldn't be doing one or the otherWe must be careful not to underestimate:
The importance of praiseThe power of prayerBut to truly benefit from these two spiritual exercises, we need to be in a right relationship with God
Which involves being open to God's Word:
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
Even his prayer shall be abomination.
And being a doer of God's will:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Proves the Validity of our Request
If we are not careful our prayers become something less than a sincere petition to a kind Father.
So much of our prayer is vague and pointless. Some cry for mercy, but do not take the trouble to know exactly why they want it. Others ask to be delivered from sin, but do not name any sin from which a deliverance can be claimed. Still others pray for God's blessing on those around them- for the outpouring of God's Spirit on their land or on the world- and yet have no special field where they can wait and expect to see the answer. To everyone the Lord says, "What do you really want, and what do you expect me to do?"
Proves the Grace of our Lord
Years from now you will look back on specific prayers answered. You will see the hand of God working on your behalf over and over in a specified way. You will have the proof that God does answer prayer. Because he answered yours - specifically.
Proves the Impact God Requires
We have specific circles of influence - Friends, family, Coworkers
We have specific circles of ministry - Cities, communities, regions
We have specific circles of responsibility Finances, Family, Memberships
So how important is it that instead of praying for the whole world. But to stop and pray for specific missionaries in specific fields. There is a need to allow our hearts to be touch by specific people and to look inside our own sphere of influence to find every need and take it to the throne of Grace.
Proves Our Faith in His Will
What about God's will. Isn't praying for a specified end disallowing the will of God. Absolutely not - praying without knowledge of his will brings us to ask for him to have his will. But praying specifically is praying by faith.
Illustration: A little' boy was saying his bedtime prayers with his mother: "Lord, bless Mommy and Daddy, and God, GIVE ME A NEW BICYCLE!!!"
Mom said, "God's not deaf, son."
Boy said, "I know, but Grandma's in the next room, and she's hard of hearing!"
Shows - Marriage Restored
Had been disciples, walked away from God and the church. Ended up destroying their marriage. Through the prayers of a Momma and a Four year old boy God put them back together. In two weeks we are doing a surprise wedding for our church and their parents.
