Pray Without Ceasing
Powerful Pithy Passages • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
We continue today with our “third Sunday” series on “Powerful Pithy Passages.”
Up to this point we have looked at…
Jesus Wept
Rejoice Always
Remember Lot’s Wife
Today we will be in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, with the very familiar text, but let’s read both 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing,
These two powerful pithy passages remind us that both rejoicing and praying go hand and hand.
The praying we do, naturally the more rejoicing we do, and the more rejoicing we do the more praying we will be doing.
Joy and prayer act and react with each other.
When these two merge in spiritually harmony you have verse 18.
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Getting back to our pithy passage, “pray without ceasing” I want us to ask the question first…
What This Doesn’t Mean
What This Doesn’t Mean
Non-Stop Prayer.
Non-Stop Prayer.
By that I mean this verse is not saying we must be constantly praying to God 24/7.
It this was the case we would not be able to hold a conversation with friends and family or exchange conversation with people at businesses we frequent.
God expects us to do such things and have such relationships.
24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Summary
Summary
No, this cannot be a non-stop, 24/7 concentrated communication with God.
What This Does Mean
What This Does Mean
We Are Privileged.
We Are Privileged.
What God has inspired the great apostle Paul to instruct the church at Thessalonica and us as well today is that it is possible that if needed we may pray to our God without ceasing.
There is no time when we cannot pray to our God.
We are privileged, as Christians, that we can go to our God in prayer and God will hear because the veil has been torn into removing the separation between us and God.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Summary
Summary
The dead of night is not too late for God to hear our prayers and supplications.
The early morning is not too early for our God to hear our prayers and supplications.
At noon our God is not too busy to listen to our pleas and in the even God is not to weary to listen to us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
1 Thessalonians 5:17 is a promise of privilege for Christians.
That all Christians, walking in the light, have the privilege to go before their Creator in prayer and be heard.
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.