Close To Thee 02 - Prayer (John [3]30)
Close to Thee - Prayer
Text: Mark 11:15-17
Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)
Date Preached - (01/12/02)
Introduction:
EXPLAIN Context of passage
Christ quotes from Isaiah...
Isaiah 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
EXPLAIN Meaning of term “House of Prayer”
Not a place where prayer is made. But a “house of prayer” – a place that is fit for prayer.
I’d like to make application of this thought in three areas this morning...
I. Our Assembly – A House of Prayer
The church is not a building, it is the people, the assembly of the saints that is the church.
Ecclesia – “Called out assembly”
The Prayer Meeting
History of the Prayer Meeting – Losing ground, yet it goes back to the Bible (Not a program of man!!)
A Few of The Greatest Prayer Meetings in History
Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Acts 4:31 & 33 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
The 100 Year Prayer Meeting
ON MAY 12, 1727, Zinzendorf addressed the community for three hours on the blessedness of Christian unity. The people sorrowfully confessed their past quarreling and promised to live in love and simplicity. Herrnhut became a living congregation of Christ.
On August 5, Zinzendorf and fourteen of the Brethren spent the entire night in conversation and prayer. On August 10th, Pastor Rothe was so overcome by God's nearness during an afternoon service at Herrnhut, that he threw himself on the ground during prayer and called to God with words of repentance as he had never done before. The congregation was moved to tears and continued until midnight, praising God and singing.
Two weeks after the revival, twenty-four men and twenty-four women of the community covenanted together to spend one hour each day, day and night, in prayer to God for His blessing on the congregation and its witness.
For over 100 years, members of the Moravian church continued nonstop in this "Hourly Intercession." They launched a missionary society in a time when Protestant missions were unknown and sent 3,000 missionaries out from among them over that same period.
The eighteenth-century revivals in America and England were influenced by the Moravian mission and prayer movements.
The Great New York Prayer Meeting of 1857
The greatest spiritual awakening known in the USA was triggered by the most unlikely of people!
On 1 July 1857, a quiet and zealous businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier gave up his business and took up an appointment as a City Missionary in downtown NewYork.
He began by distributing leaflets, inviting people to a noon prayer meeting for New York businessmen. Only six people turned up for the first one, held on the third floor of the Old Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street.
The next week brought 20; the third week was attended by between 30 and 40. The meetings were so encouraging that it was decided they should meet daily and a week later, "over 100 people, many of them not professors of religion, but under the conviction of sin and seeking an interest in Christ" were attending.
By mid-November, the two lecture rooms had to be used, and both were filled. Within six months, these noon time prayer-meetings were attracting 10,000 businessmen who were confessing sins, getting saved and praying for revival.
The Lewis Revival
The Lewis Revival of 1950 in the New Hebrides was started by two old ladies, the Smith sisters, being told by God to pray. They obeyed Him for many years with prayer, and when the preacher Duncan Campell turned up, the Spirit moved. At the meetings, the people used to leave the hall and go and bring their friends and relatives, people they meet back to the meeting. Those who came in after being refreshed repeated the process.
Two old ladies in prayer and obedience to the Word of God
What Ingredients will make this assembly a house of prayer?
A. Every Meeting Attended by Prayer
Not merely associated with prayer. Not having prayers attached to the services, but.....
1. God’s people come praying, expecting, waiting on God...
2. God’s people continue praying...
ILLUS: Spurgeon’s 300
B. Every Meeting Affected by Prayer
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
1. The place was shaken
2. Result – Spirit-filled believers
3. Bold Gospel witness
4. Souls are saved (Acts 2:47)
C. Every Member Adhered to through Prayer
EXAMPLE – Intercession of Moses
1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:
1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
Colossians 1:3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
Praying for the SICK, the WEAK, the TEMPTED, the SINNING, the SERVING
EXAMPLE – READ Prayer in Col. 1:9-11
II. Our Home – A House of Prayer
A. Establish a Family Altar
Once-a-day Minimum & Every Day prayer
You may say “I feel bad, I have failed in this”. It’s not TOO LATE!!!
Pray Together as a Family – As a Couple (Husband/Wife)
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
B. Establish Prayer as your First Resource
Believer, Your first resource in trial is prayer, not worry, not anger, not human reasoning and ingenuity!!
C. Exemplify the Life of Prayer for your Children
Let them know that you pray.
Pray with them (Meals/Bed-Time/ Family Altar)
Let them hear you pray.
D. Explain Prayer to your Children
1. Teach a correct theology of Prayer
Who do we pray to? In whose name? What will we pray for? According to His will?
Talking to God – Communion – Dependence upon God
Not a wish list, or Grocery list. God is not a Genie to manipulate.
2. What does Prayer mean to you?
How has God used and worked through prayer in your life?
How has He answered your prayers?
3. Share answers to Prayer
Rejoice together in answered prayer / Keep a prayer Journal.
4. Teach them to Pray. (ABOVE ALL ELSE)
Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
TO Pray not HOW to Pray!!
III. Our Heart – A House of Prayer
What characterizes a heart in tune with God?
It is prayer! What sort of prayer?
A. Unceasing
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Some say, “An Attitude of Prayer”
Others, “Practice the Presence of God”.
But there is more...
Acts 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
Prayer should be natural (like breathing) for the believer. It is where we are at home.
B. Never Unprepared
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
C. Untiring in Prayer
Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
D. Unhindered in Prayer
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
What hinders our prayers?
Known Unconfessed Sin – Psalm 66:18
We grieve or Quench the Holy Spirit who is our intercessor (Rom 8:26-27)
Improper relationships in the family.
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
E. Unrelenting
Luke 11:8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
PRAY THROUGH!!!
Conclusion: (Review)