Prayer
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Its good to be with you this morning, you can open up your bibles to the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9 we will get there shortly. We have been in a series to begin this year called “Rooted” and we are digging deep this year to be rooted in Christ Jesus, to be rooted in our faith so that we can grow out and go out into North Peoria to serve, love, care for, and tell introduce them to Jesus. We believe God has positioned us for a time such as this to be a part of his desire to see North Peoria become a spiritual hub for the next great awakening. To see revival in our time, we can’t just talk about it, we must be about it, we can’t just hope for it, we must work for it, we can’t be consumers of the kingdom of God we have to be contributors to the Kingdom of God. It’s a divine calling and mandate by God to reach people where we are at, and lead them to the one who brings life. My bible says (WHERE DOES IT SAY THIS - USE THE REFERENCE) that if you are trustworthy with the small things God gives you, you will be trusted with more, and as we grow our roots deep, I believe that we are setting a foundation that will hold up what God has currently given us, and what he is about to release to us in your homes, in your neighborhoods, in this church and in this region of North Peoria. But it first starts with Prayer and Fasting, being rooted in being connected to God, for I have heard it said that “The Greatest Revivals Started in the Deepest of Prayers.” So let’s pray this morning as we begin.
We have been using this analogy of a Pendulum this series to help us gauge where we are all at when it comes to our faith, or belief, our obedience and so on. This morning as we start, I want to use it once again to gauge where you are at in your faith when it comes to prayer and fasting. Here is the main point of the message that we are going to build on its this “Prayer and Fasting isn’t Superficial its Supernatural” So where are you in the terms of prayer and fasting. Are you on one side of the pendulum where you’d say your prayers are more superficial (AND CONSUMERISTIC - SELF ORIENTED) or would you say you are praying and believing in faith for God to do the supernatural (HOT JUST IN YOUR LIFE BUT IN NOPO AND THE WORLD) ? Here is how you can answer that question it is with answering another question, “If God said yes to every prayer you prayed this week, would the world change, or just your world?” EXCELLENT!
Would your unsaved family and friends know Jesus, would your neighborhood be in revival, would there not be enough water for the amount of baptisms we will have, would God have used you to do the miraculous works, would governments be changed, hearts of people be turned to God, would the hurting be healed, the suffering be freed, the demon possessed to exorcised. Let’s get a little closer to home, would your marriage that is breaking be resorted? Would those you know who have cancer be healthy, would your prodigal son or daughter come home, would your relationship with your parents or siblings be reconciled, would people from all over flock to be in church, to be hungry for Gods will, his Prescence. That’s praying for the supernatural, that God would do only what God can do and we will do whatever he instructs, but if his people pray he will move mountains!
Then there is the superficial, so your week was filled with a lot of good days, safe trips, a lot of food went to the nourishment to your body praying that the cheeseburger we are stuffing down our gullet turns into kale when it hits our stomach. and the hands who prepared it were blessed. Your bank account may have been filled with cash. It’s superficial its surface level and before I say anything else I believe we should pray to God for good days, safe travels, (AND THE HEALTH OF OUR PETS! LOL) I do believe when we do pray those prayers God does respond and without us even knowing it he protects us from harm. But as Jesus followers that can’t be our way of praying. If we want to see God do the supernatural, we must begin praying that we will see the supernatural. Because somethings cannot happen without deep prayers and fasting.
That leads us to Mark 9 in the begging of Mark 9 Jesus, Peter, James and John went on top of a mountain where the transfiguration happened, and Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. After this the 4 of them return to see a certain sight that would make any of us pray a little harder. This is what Mark says, “14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” “
A demon had possessed this young boy and it was especially disturbing that this demon made the boy mute. Jewish belief at the time was that you could not make a demon leave unless you knew his name. But I want to pause for a moment and talk about the supernatural. It has been in my experience that most Christian’s especially in the western culture only believe what their 5 senses validates. REFER TO PENDULUM AGAIN - THIS IS ON THE SUPERFICIAL SIDE) If I can see it, feel it, smell it, hear it, and taste it. And we will only engage in conversations about the supernatural and spiritual realms or even give it a thought or believe in it if it is convenient and beneficial to me. This is what I mean, we as believers can easily accept that at one point in time there was nothing except God, and at some point God supernaturally spoke and from his words everything we see was created. We can accept and understand that sin lives in this broken world and therefore we needed a savior. That an angel from heaven arrived and spoke to Mary and Joseph about Jesus. We can see in the bible and believe all the miracles that had taken place to help heal and restore people. We can accept that God supernaturally forgave the sins of anyone who believes and follows Jesus. That in and of itself is the greatest miracle of all. We can get and accept all of that even if we don’t believe God will still do miracles and miraculous works it in our time.
But when it comes to the enemy, when it comes to Satan, demons and other dark spiritual forces that are at war with God. Friends I hate to be the barrier of bad news but Demons are just as real and daily present as angels. I want to open your eyes this morning to the fact that everywhere we look and see there is an unseen spiritual war for the soul of every human being, and for the restoration or destruction of the world. There are demons who posses, oppresses, suppress and depress those around us and we may not even know it. How do I know this Ephesians 6 the apostle Paul says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
When you read the New Testament Satan is mentioned 35 times, the devil 36 and demons 21. God is telling us to be aware and alert to the darkness in this world. In fact Jesus said this when referring to Satan “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me” What does Jesus mean, the reference to the world means the fallen godless system of humanity. Jesus says refers to the enemy as a thief when he says “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Peter gives us a warning when he says “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. We are told to be aware, to think about this things but we don’t like the idea of an enemy attacking us or scheming against us. In fact we would rather not believe that there are evil forces working against us in this world that we would pretend as if it doesn’t exist rather than face this reality. In the meantime, we live in a culture that openly embraces the doctrines of the devil so his demons don’t have to work too hard. The evil spiritual forces don’t attack you if you pretend like they don’t exist at all. But the Goodnews is that Jesus has dominion and reign over it all and if you are in Christ the Holy Spirit is in you, and 1 John 4 says “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” So what do we do? How do we fight against the devil? We pray. We pray that God would give us eyes to see. We pray that God would give us ears to hear, we pray that God would give us a spirit of power, love and self-control. We fight this fight in the power of God and we get that through prayer. We pray that God would do what only God can do and we will do whatever he tells us to do.
So Jesus is standing disputing scribes, a distracted father a demon possessed boy and defeated disciples when he says, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
I was reading this passage over this week and the word “IF” stuck out to me like a sore thumb. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. How many times in my life do I pray for God to move “if” he can. If you could help me in my finances, if you can help me in my marriage, if you can give me an encounter with my neighbors, if my kids would be healthy, if you can make the cancer go away, if you can stop this addiction, if you can let the Cardinals win the Superbowl…well maybe that last one has Gods hands tied. But church, let me tell you, God is not a God of “If” we only say “if” in our prayers so we are not disappointed if God doesn’t answer them. If infers to Gods ability, if you can do it…We don’t pray for what God can do, we pray in faith for what he will do. And if he doesn’t, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is not afraid of your bold prayers, God is not worried he can’t answer them. We have to have the faith to ask, and the will to obey. As we see in the next verse:
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting”
Jesus did what the disciples couldn’t in that moment, and he didn’t what the scribes believed couldn’t happen. The demon was casted out of the boy, he was evicted and was told he would never be able to have residence in him again. Here is the amazing thing about how this ended. You and I can read this and think, “Well if the disciples couldn’t do it…who am I? Jesus to the rescue again, but I am not Jesus how am I to combat such things. Jesus gave us the answer “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting”
Based on what Jesus said you and I can see God move in powerful ways, if we pray and fast. We believe here at Journey as I said in the beginning that God is using us and will use us to see North Peoria reached for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are crazy enough to believe that we will be a part of a move of God that not just the next generation will speak about, but the generations unknown and unborn yet. But it starts when his people pray and seek the father’s heart and obey his will. Church it is time we pray for one another, it is time to pray over our homes, our neighbors, and this city. If we want to see God move in a mighty way its time to pray. We are not praying for the superficial but we are praying for the supernatural…I know that is intimidating so I wanted to give you a quick acronym to help you get started.
How do we pray:
Praise – We praise God for who he is, his goodness, mercy, grace, love. You praise him for his provision, we thank him for his care. We praise God for what he has done and what he will do.
Repent – This is going before God and not hiding our sin, but confessing it to him, asking him to reveal other areas we are in sin. We should repent to God on a daily bias, get clean hearts before him, this is the process hating sin and loving God.
Ask – A lot of our prayers we first ask, we do this all the time. But I’m challenging you to ask for just he superficial, but be daring enough to ask in your prayers for things that God is going to have to show up for. There is no other way you can accomplish what you ask if God doesn’t move.
Yield – This is the part we lay it all at Gods feet, we place everything in his care, and as regardless if you say yes, I will abide by your will. You are in control I am just your servant.
That’s how we can begin to pray, the next is fasting. I was having a conversation this week with a gentleman who asked my what’s the point of fasting, funny enough I’m preaching on it. Fasting is not an end unto itself, but a means of focusing our minds and bodies for a spiritual reason. So here are 5 reasons why we should fast, this is not exhaustive, but these will help you as you
5 Reasons to Fast:
1: To Strengthen Prayer - Fasting does not change whether God hears our prayers, but it can change our praying. As Arthur Wallis says, “Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven.”
2: To Seek God’s Guidance - As with prayer, fasting to seek God’s guidance isn’t done to change God but to make us more receptive to his guidance.
3: To Express repentance and return to God - This type of fasting helps us to express grief over our sins and shows our seriousness about returning to the path of godly obedience.
4: To Express the needs of others – As we fast and pray we can intercede and petition for the needs of others, we sacrifice so we can supplicate. ask and beg for something earnestly or humbly on the behalf of others.
5: To Express concern for the work of God. - fasting can be a tangible sign of our concern over a particular work God is doing.
So where does this lead us all to, what’s the next step: I have two challenges for you
Prayer Rocks and Fast and Feast:
As a church we are moving from being consumers to contributors in the kingdom of God. We have two things we want you to commit to, the first is these prayer rocks. We want to surround our city and church with prayer. Autumn our Admin went all around Peoria and Got these Rock and on them are certain prayers…(say it)
The next MAKE A REGULAR COMMITMENT TO GROUP PRAYER AT JOURNEY - 2-4 TIMES A MONTH ON TUESDAYS AND/OR AT (YOU MENTION TUESDAY NIGHT LATER, BUT I THINK THEY SHOULD BE PAIRED TOGETHER SO TUESDAY ISN’T AN AFTERTHOUGHT….is our monthly fast and feast, every 4th Friday we are going to fast and pray as a community and come to the church and pray and break our fast. Here is the thing, we are going to ask you to only take a rock if you commit to joining our virtual prayer meetings on Tuesday nights and/or fasting and praying for the fast and feast events. We are moving towards action out in the lobby are cards where you will sign your name and LEAVE THEM AT THE TABLE drop them off and pick up your rock…
The last thing is we are going to pray right now for each other. I am going to push you out of your comfort zone and begin to see God move in our lives and church. So we are going to take some time to end this service in prayer and there are 3 options here:
3 Ways to pray right now:
1: Pray for your neighbor out loud
2: Pray for someone you don’t know our loud
3: If you need prayer, raise your hand and if you see a hand raised, go pray for them.