CONSTANTLY PRAY

-{Matthew 7}

-While my prayer is that we are a well-rounded, biblically driven church, one of the great emphases that I place upon us is being a place of discipleship where people will grow in Christ so that they can live for Christ. This drives what I have been doing on Wednesday evenings talking about the spiritual disciplines. But it’s not just what we do here in the sanctuary, but it is at the center of all our ministries—youth, children, music, etc.

-I’m convinced that our children and teens are some of the most biblically astute people that there are, and hopefully what we offer at the church and what is offered at home in spiritual instruction are reinforcing one another. So, hopefully, if we ask one of our younger people how you are able to help yourself grow in the faith, they will be able to give good answers. While they might sound cliche, consistent reading of Scripture, prayer, and other disciplines have been taught and are modeled.

-So, in conjunction with what I have been talking about the past few weeks, the younger folks know that prayer is an important aspect of our growth. But do we adults believe that as well? Just think about how much different things would be in our church and in our community and in our world if we REALLY believed that God answers prayer, and we would stick to it.

-Think about this—why are there empty seats in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings, and a whole lot more on Wednesday nights? Could it be because we haven’t prayed that God would fill those seats with people who need to hear His Word? I’m pointing to myself as much as anybody else. When was the last time that we prayed that God would pack the church and move in power within the church?

-When things are going good, we have a tendency to just ride the wave. That’s true in culture, in life, and it’s true in the church. But how much better could things be if we prayed about it—and not just prayed once, but constantly and consistently prayed? Now, yes, we need to do our part of sharing the gospel and inviting people to church, but how many of us have even prayed about even doing that? We are told that God answers prayer, but it is the persevering, constant prayer that He answers. Jesus talks a bit about this:

Matthew 7:7–11 LSB

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. 9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

-Now, the commands that Jesus gives us in v. 7 are in a certain structure in the Greek that indicates a continuous action. So, in essence, it could be translated CONSTANTLY ASK and CONSTANTLY SEEK and CONSTANTLY KNOCK. So, there are two things we note. First, prayer is something that is a staple in our lives. It is not something that we visit every once in a while, like a family member who might live hours away. We don’t visit them every day or week—just once every few months or so. Prayer is not like that. Prayer is something that is to be something we constantly and consistently do.

-And then a second point to note is to persevere in prayer. When we do not seem to be getting an answer to our prayer, we don’t just pray once and then give up or move on. Elsewhere, Jesus gives us this parable:

Luke 18:1–8 LSB

1 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a certain judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 “Now there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice from my opponent.’ 4 “And for a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice, lest by continually coming she wears me out.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 “Now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on the earth?”

-Constant prayer means that it is a discipline we frequent consistently, and we persist in it. Why? Because we know that our help comes from God alone. As Jesus said in our original text, God is the one who gives good things to those who ask Him. We realize our help cannot come from anything or anybody else—only God.

-Since we are hot and heavy in a presidential election cycle, it reminds me of a story that is equal parts amusing and equal parts disturbing. Back in the 2000 elections, Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator, offered to send people to supervise the presidential election if asked by the United States because of all the ongoing drama that was happening with hanging chads and all that stuff. So, think about that, a communist dictator offered to help in an election of a free country. That’d be like asking the Russians or Chinese to come monitor our elections in a few weeks. That’s not the kind of help we need.

-And yet, here is God saying that He willfully and joyfully answers and helps those who constantly asks, constantly seeks, and constantly knocks. God alone can help. Why are Christians so slow to approach God in prayer and ask for that help? If we know that we can trust Him, and we know He has the power and ability to help, why do American Christians suffer from the epidemic of prayerlessness?

-Jim Wilson lists two reasons why we don’t constantly pray. First, we don’t ask because we think everything is going well. When life is great, our thoughts rarely go to God because we’re too busy enjoying the pleasures and amenities of life. So people think they have all they want or need, so they don’t want or need God. That’s dangerous.

Augustine put it in perspective when he said: “God wants to gives us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.”

C. S. Lewis gives us another perspective when he said: “Do you think that we regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it?

-So, do you think that because the church is doing well that we don’t need to pray for the church, the staff, the members, etc.? Do you think that we don’t need to ask God for power upon the church because things are going pretty well? Or, are things going so smoothly in your life that you just want to keep God in the closet so you can just pull Him out in times of emergency? How silly of us.

The second reason that Jim Wilson lists is that we don’t ask because we’re too busy doing good things. Meaning, we fill up our schedules with so much stuff, even good stuff, even churchy stuff, but then we leave little time for God, especially in prayer. My calendar is just as full as yours. My family and I got stuff going on. We have to sync our calendars to try to figure out where to stuff more stuff into it. Is that an excuse?

-Billy Kim, who is a pastor of a large, 13,000 member church in South Korea, after he was elected president of the Baptist World Alliance, said, “If I had to do it all over, I would do more praying and less preaching.”

-Preaching is a good thing in general (if it’s biblical)—yet that is minuscule to the importance of prayer.

-Well, what are some of the outcomes when we constantly pray. There are many personal benefits. Tonight, I want to mention some benefits for the church if we would constantly ask, seek, and knock on behalf of the church.

-First, revival will come to the church. I want you to consider how God moved at the Brooklyn Tabernacle:

Jim Cymbala began at the Brooklyn Tabernacle as an ill-equipped, under-educated, time-strapped preacher who, at the same time, led a second congregation in New Jersey. The Brooklyn church had no money to pay him, a ramshackle building, and barely enough attendance to bother with weekly meetings.

Today, the Brooklyn Tabernacle hosts around 6,000 spirit-filled worshipers. The difference came when Jim, in a moment of desperation, set aside his planned message and called the church to pray. The weekly prayer meeting, not the Sunday worship, became the focal point of the church.

Jim’s belief that “God can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him” guides the work. It is prayer, not preaching, that brings revival.

-But then a second benefit of constant asking, seeking, and knocking on behalf of the church is that souls are saved.

There is a story that for sixty years the members of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Mount Carmel, TN, prayed for a man named Joe to come to Christ. Even though he wasn’t a Christian, he was a religious man and attended Sunday School and Church for all those years, but he never accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord.

Several church members witnessed to him, but his answer was always the same, saying, “I’m not ready yet.” No one gave up, they just kept praying for him.

Then on March 5, 2000, Joe made a public profession of his faith. The congregation wept as they watched 60 years of prayers walk down the aisle to believe in Jesus Christ. Seeing what was happening, the men in his Sunday School followed Joe down the aisle and stood with him as he made his decision.

The pastor at the time, Benny Kick, said, “I suppose fewer words will ever sound sweeter to my ears than hearing Joe say, ‘I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’”

-What wonderful things happen when we constantly ask, seek, and knock. It could completely change the dynamic of our church, our family, our nation, and our lives. Do you want to see God move in amazing ways? Then constantly pray. Are you or someone you know in a place of need? Then constantly pray.

-There’s a joke about a group within a church that wanted to change preachers. They were given some wise words when they were told, IF YOU WANT THE PREACHER CHANGED, THEN PRAY FOR HIM THAT GOD WOULD CHANGE HIM. So pray for your staff—for God’s guidance, empowerment, encouragement.

-So, tonight our prayer time is going to be a little different...

PRAY

Praise—Spend time praising the Lord. Praise Him for His character, His goodness, His grace, His gifts, and His work in people’s lives. Praise Him that He is always working in the world and exalt Him for His beautiful creation. Praise Him for His character and attributes.

Repentance—Spend time in confession, cleansing, and repentance. Unconfessed sin can hinder the effectiveness of prayers. Let God search your hearts for sin, confess, and thank Him for His forgiveness.

Ask—Make requests unto the Lord. Pray for lost people. Pray for the needs of our church. Pray for mission efforts. Pray for the nation. Pray for whatever burdens your heart.

Yield—Think about Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. As Jesus surrendered to the Father’s purposes, ways, and direction, may we do the same. Is there something the Spirit has been prodding you to follow....