PRAYER IS KEY
Notes
Transcript
Prayer Sermon
Prayer is mentioned between 300 and 700 times depending on what version of the Bible you are using. Prayer is our open line of communication with God, it's our opportunity to have a say in everything that's happening in our lives. It's our opportunity to reach out and help the people who won't allow us to help them in the physical realm so prayer allows us to be there in the spiritual realm!
If the inspired Word of God talks about something hundreds of times, then I think it's pretty wise for us as Christians to take it seriously!
18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
says... “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.”
Paul is talking about spiritual warfare and the armor of God in the overall context of these scriptures, and the idea is all kinds of prayer or… prayer upon prayer.
We should use every kind of prayer we can think of. Group prayer... individual prayer... silent prayer... shouting prayer... walking prayer... kneeling prayer... eloquent prayer... groaning prayer... constant prayer... fervent prayer.
We must pray and every type of prayer is needed! We must cover ourselves in prayer.
The acronym that we are going to study is Praise… Repent… Ask… Yield.
We've got to praise God for what He's done in our lives and in our friends lives and what He's still doing. Praise and Thanksgiving go together.
Then we've got to repent of anything that the spirit convicts us of. Self-evaluation and repentance go together.
After you praise God and repent, you can begin to ask God for the things that you need and/or want in your life and in your loved ones lives.
Now God is not a magic genie, but He tells us to ask Him for things, and I believe He will give us those things as long as they are within His will and they are asked from a sincere heart.
Then after we have praised God and cleared our hearts and gotten right through repentance to God, and after we have prayed and asked God whatever it is you need to ask Him, we must Yield to God. We must yield to His direction and commands.
So let's take a look at these one by one.
Praise and Thanksgiving
What do we have to thank God for and praise him for? Let's read Psalm 147
and then we will read Psalm 103:1-4
1 My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits.
3 He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases.
4 He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
… 1My soul praise the LORD and all that is within me, praise His holy name. 2My soul bless the LORD and do not forget all his benefits. 3He forgives all your iniquity; He heals all your diseases. 4He redeems your life from the Pit; He crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
There's never a second that goes by that we don't have a reason to praise God and thank God.
When we begin our prayers with praise and thanksgiving we're putting everything in perspective. God is the creator... He is the one who puts air in my lungs and pumps blood through my veins... He is the one who knitted me in my mother's womb... He is the one who sent His son to die on the cross... He is the one who loved me before the foundations of the universe... He is the one who redeemed me... He is the one who saved me... He is the one who transformed me into a godly man. So I don't know about you, but I don't ever not have a reason to praise Jesus... I don't ever not have a reason to thank Jesus, because my very existence is cause to praise Him and thank Him! The air in my lungs is reason to praise Him... the prayers others pray for me is reason to thank God... the chains that God freed me from is reason to praise and thank Jesus...
34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.
says to “Give thanks to the LORD for He is good; His faithful love endures forever.
So church begin praying with praise and thanksgiving!
Then we should repent and or do some self-evaluation!
Repentance is an action word. The closest Hebrew word to repent or repentance is translated into English as "return" which basically means "to turn around and go the opposite direction". The Greek word for repentance means to radically change one's thinking.
Matthew 3:8 say's “Produce fruit consistent with repentance”. The amplified Bible says it perfectly, “So produce fruit that is consistent with repentance” demonstrating new behavior that proves a change of heart and a conscious decision to turn away from sin.
8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.
Zacchaeus is a good example of someone who produced fruit consistent with repentance. He made restitution for the people he cheated as a tax collector.
Paul preached the faith he once tried to destroy.
So, the Old Testament Hebrew says repentance is an about face and it's a turning and going the opposite direction.
The New Testament Greek says it's a radical change of thinking. I believe that for us today repentance means both a physical turn and a mental turn and then we will see the fruit, or the proof, that repentance produced.
13 The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
says “The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy”.
I heard a saying a long time ago that said you're only as sick as your secrets... meaning as long as you keep sins a secret, you'll continue to be affected by that sin.
This verse is telling us that hiding your sins will keep you from prospering, but repenting and confessing your sins, and renouncing them, will result in mercy from God.
19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out,
says “Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out”.
God tells us that repentance plus turning away from the sin, which is a part of repentance, will result in the sin being whipped out! We know that we must continually evaluate ourselves spiritually and rely on the Holy Spirit to convict us of anything that's not right. After we praise and repent, then we move to asking God.
Asking
There's a ton of scripture on asking. Mark 11:24
24 Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
says “Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for — believe that you have received it and it will be yours”.
If you pray hard enough and really believe, God is obligated to answer your prayer, no matter what you ask.
That kind of faith is not faith in God; rather it is nothing but faith in faith... or faith in feelings. This is Jesus Himself talking, and He tells us “Believe that you have received and it is yours”, but we as Christians must read Scriptures like this one in the overall context of the Bible.
18 If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
tells us, “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me”. So you can ask all you want, but if you have a heart full of sin or iniquity, God will not hear or answer your prayers.
3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
says, “You do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures”. The word amiss means inappropriate or out of place.
So, these verses are telling us that there are guidelines for asking… we have to ask within the will of God... and we have to ask from a heart that is sanctified for God. Also we believe and have faith in what we're asking, but never tell someone they aren't being healed or getting what they are asking for because they don't have enough faith!
We must recognize that Jesus did not indiscriminately heal all the people all of the time. For example... in the scene of the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda where multitudes gathered to be healed... Jesus chose only one man to heal (John 5:1–11), and his is an interesting case.
Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well. His answer was steeped in superstition: there was no one to carry him to the pool, and he wasn’t fast enough to get into the water at the right time. This confused and needy man was healed by God’s grace. He had no faith in Jesus; he didn’t even know it was Jesus who had healed him until later (John 5:12–13).
Another example of someone who was healed before faith is the man born blind in John 9. He did not ask to be healed, but from many others, he was chosen to be healed—another example of God’s grace.
In the case of the man born blind and in the case of the man at the pool... Jesus dealt with their physical problems separately from dealing with their spiritual need. The blind man in John 9 later comes to a full realization of who Jesus is and exercises faith in Him (verse 38). Jesus’ healing of these men was not about their faith as much as it was about His will.
Everyone whom Jesus willed to be healed was healed. Sometimes He healed those who expressed their faith in Him... and He made a point of emphasizing the condition of their heart: “Your faith has made you well.” Other times, in His great mercy, He healed those who had no faith and later drew them to Himself.
Yield
And finally, after we've praised and repented and asked we have to Yield to God. See praying isn't just us talking God's ears off, we have to listen to what God is saying to us as well. When He speaks to us we have to yield to what God is asking of us. Yield... submit... surrender to God every part of our lives!
13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
RSV says, “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life... and your members to God as instruments of righteousness”.
We must yield to God, not to sin, stated here as unrighteousness. The New Living translation says it like this, “Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness to be used for sinning”.
When we yield to the flesh we are becoming a tool for wickedness, which is death... but yielding to God makes us tools for righteousness, working for God to do what He calls us to do.
Everything we've talked about is something we should do daily. We've definitely got to pray daily; I would even say hourly… but we've got to praise God and thank God every single day... and we need to self-evaluate and repent every day... and we need to ask God for His will daily… and we have to yield to God and what He is doing in our lives every single day.
By doing these things it will help us build a prayer life.
It's in my prayer life that God cleanses me from my sin and washes the iniquity of my heart away… It's in my prayer life that my eyes are open to behold the wonder of God's word… It’s in my prayer life, I get wisdom to know God's way and strength to carry out His way… It’s in my prayer life, I meet God and gaze into His face…It’s in my prayer life I am changed into His own image from glory to glory.
Each day of a true prayer life finds me more like my glorious Lord.