National Day of Prayer

This morning we will take a break from our series of the 10 commandments

And this morning I was asked to preach or give a few minutes of the sermon and talk about prayer

I was actually intending to do just that few minutes of a sermon about prayer

And then after our prayer meeting on Thursday I felt called to preach on prayer

Charles Spurgeon said, “True Prayer is neither a mere mental exercise, nor a vocal performance. It’s far deeper than that. It is a spiritual transaction with the creator of heaven and earth.”

Prayer is such a vital part of our personal relationship with Christ

Prayer is such a powerful part of being a Christian

Prayer is important

And church we have seen it in our own church

We have gathered outside of hospitals crying out to God in prayer expecting God to move in such a mighty way

And church we have seen that happen

Because it is so important and it is time for us to return to being a praying church I felt it necessary that we talk about it this morning

This coming Thursday May 4th we will celebrate the National Day of prayer

If I may share with you a brief history of how we came to the National Day of prayer

a national call to prayer was issued 1775 by our founding fathers

in 1863 President Lincoln signed a proclamation day for humiliation, fasting and prayer

in 1952 a joint resolution was signed by congress and sent to President Truman who made an annual national day of prayer

Then that law was amended by President Reagan in 1988 who made National Day of prayer the first Thursday of May each year

So it has been celebrated

The verse for this yr is

James 5:16 NASB95

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

A call to confess, and to pray for each other

But not just a one stop there

Notice that last part the effective prayer

To continue to the confessing of our sins and the praying for each other

See pray is such a vital thing for us as believers and yet church it is the most often overlooked

Because you can pray anywhere and everywhere we don’t

Because it is such accessible we don’t

We have become like the national of Israel in the Old Testament I fear because we are not praying

Sure we send out prayer requests

Sure we gather when people are in the hospital

But church we are to be praying regularly

And I know what you will say I do at home, I do in my car, I do all on my own

Church we gather together to study the Word, we gather together to worship

We should hold it was the same importance to gather together to pray

2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB95

14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Is a call to prayer for a nation

It was a call to prayer for the Nation of Israel from God in response to King Solomon

God is showing His mercy to His chosen people

This particular verse highlights the fact that if Gods chosen people will humble themselves, pray, and run after God and repent then He will heal their land

It is a call to pray church

It is a call to cry out to God

God Himself is saying that if you will pray

Church why are we not praying

Church we should be praying

It is time that we repent and run back to being a praying church

The National Day of Prayer can be the catalyst for that to happen in your personal and then in our church

It doesn't just have to be one day a year though we gather to pray

We meet regularly the last Thursday of the month to cry out to God as a body of believers

The last Thursday of this month we are meeting in similar fashion to pray specifically for our church

Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.

Charles Spurgeon

And I am told that lungs are important for the body

Church this is a call to return to being a praying church

Matthew 7:7–8 NASB95

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

These are Jesus’s words to those people sitting on the side of the mountain

And I also believe these are Jesus’s word to us this morning

We have heard this verse before and most times we glance over it

Sometimes we see people miss using the verse as a way to force the hand of God

I am asking God therefore you must give it to me God

OR God have I have been seeking you, see I have been to church for a few months so you must give me what I am asking for

Those are all flat wrong and I believe all of us here would agree that is not what Jesus is saying

Some of you might be sitting there saying but Jesus has already talked about prayer

That is right because Jesus is reminding them prayer is a central point to a relationship with God the Father

We see throughout the entire Bible that communication with God is key to a growing relationship with Him

Church if Jesus revisits prayer again in the same sermon in my line of work we call that a clue

you might want to write that down because it might be important

But Jesus is inviting those sitting on the side of the mountain once again to fellowship with God the father through prayer

One author puts it like this Richard Glover

That a child, if his mother is near and visible, asks; if she is neither, he seeks; while if she is inaccessible in her room, he knocks.3 Be that as it may, all three verbs are present imperatives and indicate the persistence with which we should make our requests known to God.

God I don’t believe is a play a big game of hide and seek rather I think you and I get very very distracted and change course without knowing it

Church I do believe that Jesus is calling us to ask God

But God will only give according to His will and for use to know his will we must be seeking him so we know what to ask

It is through prayer or knocking that we enter into this prayer relationship with God and it is through seeking him that we learn what God’s will is

Then when we learn what God’s will is we begin to ask

See this ask, seek, knock is not about change God to conform God to me but rather conforming me to God

Church we are to gather and pray, to ask, to knock, to seek

Acts 1:12–14 NASB95

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Church this is after Jesus has ascended to Heaven

They don’t go back to their normal lives before Jesus

Like the guys didn’t go back to fishing it says

They went back to what they knew to be important

They gathered back in the upper room

Church they gathered to pray

And wouldn’t you know it wasn’t just a one time thing

We can go back through the New Testament and see how the church regularly gathered to pray

It is through pray that our hearts are changed to the will of God

It is through prayer that we get closer and closer to God

Why would we not want to do that

Church we are to be going to the Lord in Prayer

Psalm 88:1–3 NASB95

1 O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You. 2 Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry! 3 For my soul has had enough troubles, And my life has drawn near to Sheol.

Church we are to go tot he Lord during our trouble times

We have experienced those and we have gone to the Lord in prayer

We continue to go to the Lord in prayer

some of you are in this place this morning

In the dark and deep places

Cry out to God in your personal life

Cry out to God as a church

But it is not just in the difficult times church we cry out to the Lord in prayer

It is not just in the difficult near death times that we need to gather for prayer as a church

Psalm 145:1–4 NASB95

1 I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. 3 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.

Church we are also to gather in prayer to praise the Lord

And church we are to share them with the next generation

So bring your kids or your grandparents to prayer time

Church this morning is call to return to prayer

Yes in your personal life but also as a church corporately

The story goes from Charles Spurgeon some people came to London to visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle the church that Charles Spurgeon was the pastor at.

They came to see and tour the church

As they were going through the church

Towards the end of the tour Charles Spurgeon ask if they wanted to see the power of the church

The people said yes and they go to the basement and I can only imagine the people thought they would be seeing a big boiler room

Anyways they to a basement room and Spurgeon opens the door and the people step in and see a group of people prayer

Spurgeon understood the importance of prayer in the church

This morning church it is a call to gather together and pray

To join us May 4th to join us each of the last Thursdays in the month to cry out to the Lord to praise the Lord as a body

CLOSING

So church maybe you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus personally

I would invite you to the front to speak with someone

Or maybe you are here and you have a personal relationship with Jesus

And you simply need to spend sometime in prayer

the altar is open