Untitled Sermon

The Power in Prayer

Today’s sermon will be an interactive sermon. I want to share with you the importance of prayer and the power in prayer. We can walk around and see what’s happening in our neighborhoods, our homes, we can read the news, we can listen to the violence on television and wish it would stop. Well wishing won’t stop anything, the only thing that can make a difference in our lives and community is prayer. I know you might say, I pray all the time, and most likely you do, but do you exercise all the power that is in prayer when you pray?

! Chronicles 4:10 tabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

What was it about Jabez that God granted his request seemingly right away?

The name Jabez means "he causes pain," so we can assume that something about his birth was exceptionally more painful than the usual birth - either physically or emotionally. In Bible times, a name was very important. A name often defined a person's future - what they would become. So perhaps Jabez's mother was predicting her baby's future. It seems as if Jabez defied his hopeless name and dysfunctional beginning to become a man who believed fervently in the power of God. He prayed with urgency and vulnerability. He cried out to the Lord with boldness!

Jabez was honored because of his relationship with God. In fact, 1 Chronicles 4:9 says, "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers..." The record of the genealogy of Judah was interrupted to bring us these details about Jabez. His relationship with God must have been exceptionally noteworthy to cause the author of Chronicles to stop and elaborate on this one man's life.

W nee to come to God with boldness, recognizing he is the one that can and will grant our prayers. Praying to God is not a time to be timid. I’ts not a time to be meek, it’s a time to go boldly to the throne of Grace.Hebrews 4:16 New King James Version (NKJV)

16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Matthew 6:9-13 Our Father in heaven, allowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come. your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. [a]For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

We have been told to pray this prayer throughout our lives, and most of us recite it , but do you really hear the meaning behind the prayer. Jesus says to pray after this manner. WE are praying to our father who is in haven, we are hollowing his name, we are asking God to allow his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth just like it ‘s being done in heaven. What is God’s will, for us to praise him, love him, obey him, these are just some of the things that are being done in heaven. the angles bow before him hollowing his name, disobedience was thrown out of heaven therefore obedience is prominent,love is there because God is there and God is love. Therefore when we pray this prayer and say his will be done on earth like it is in heaven, we must live what we are praying. We ask God to forgive our debts,( our sins) as we forgive our debtors (those who have done us wrong) do we live this? are we or have we forgiven those who have done us wrong? And do not lead us into temptation. I had someone ask me about this part. because they don’t believe God leads us into temptation.

I read this when preparing this sermon.J

James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13).

That’s true. But the Bible also says, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

So God does not do the tempting—he does not put evil desires in our hearts (for he can have no evil desires in his heart)—but he does bring us into the presence of many tests and temptations. “A man’s steps are from the Lord” (Proverbs 20:24).

In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment of your life that is not a moment of temptation—a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility.

The Lord’s prayer does not teach us to pray against that kind of sovereign guidance. What it teaches us to pray is that the temptation does not take us in. Don’t lead me into temptation. Deliver me from this evil that is set before me. Today I will stand before innumerable temptations. That’s what life is: endless choices between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. But, O mighty God, forbid that I would yield. Hold me back from stepping inside the temptation.James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13).

That’s true. But the Bible also says, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

So God does not do the tempting—he does not put evil desires in our hearts (for he can have no evil desires in his heart)—but he does bring us into the presence of many tests and temptations. “A man’s steps are from the Lord” (Proverbs 20:24). In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment of your life that is not a moment of temptation—a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility.

The Lord’s prayer does not teach us to pray against that kind of sovereign guidance.

What it teaches us to pray is that the temptation does not take us in. Don’t lead me into temptation. Deliver me from this evil that is set before me.

Today I will stand before innumerable temptations. That’s what life is: endless choices between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. But, O mighty God, forbid that I would yield. Hold me back from stepping inside the temptation.For His is truly the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever, Amen which means it is so.

Jonah 2:1-10 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; et I will look again toward Your holy temple.’5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the [a]moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. 7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own [b]Mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” 10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah tried to run from God, just like some of us do, we think we can run from the creator. When he got in the belly of the whale, he realized he couldn’t run and began to cry out for his life.

Psalms 3 A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

1 Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”[b] 3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.  I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. 7 Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.  From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.

David had to be hurt and needed the Lord because his own son was trying to kill him.

1 Samuel 2:1-11 Hannah’s Prayer

2 Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn[a] is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. 2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 3 “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. 4 “The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.  Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.  “The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.7 The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. 8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world. 9 He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails; 10  those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The Most High will thunder from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” 11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.

Elkanah …. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.Hannah’s name meant “grace” or “favor.” The thing about Hannah that we know was the cause of great suffering was that she was barren. In the culture of that time, that was devastating. You see, God promised to bless his people when they were in the land, and one of his forms of blessing was children. So, if a person did not have children—if a woman did not have children--and obviously Hannah was the one at fault, because her husband had children, What do think this did for her? What do you think she felt like personally? Something is wrong with her. Rejected, certainly, by society, at least behind peoples’ backs. Failure to do her duty by her husband. What else? What about her self-esteem? And to top it off, it was compounded by this lovely rival she that she had in her house! You would think, with all of the children that Peninnah had, that she could have been gracious, wouldn’t you? Why do you think she did this to Hannah, from the passage? She was jealous of her. Why? Because Elkanah loved Hannah anyway! You see? Even with all these children—year after year she must have had a baby—she could not get her husband’s love.

Hanna desired to give her husband a child so instead of bring ing her problem to the Lord, she brought her praise.

We are going to do just what these powerful prayers did, we are going to pray in power