Prayer

Revive: Prayer

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March 3, 2019

Introduction

Illustration: Revival

We are having revival services April 7-10. Put it on your calendars. Make it a priority in your schedule to be here each night of revival.

During our revival, we want God to awaken us spiritually. We want God to renew us. We want to see the lost saved through the power of the Gospel.

Our series for March is intended to prepare our hearts for revival. The title of the series is “Revive.” Today and next Sunday, we are going to look the most popular verse in the Bible on revival: .

Before we read the passage, let’s get a sense of what is happening in 2 Chronicles. King Solomon has build the temple. He is dedicating the temple to the Lord. God tells Solomon, “Look there are times when the people of Israel will stray, and I will bring judgement. But things can change. Revival can happen. Look at what God tells Solomon in .

In that verse, we find the promise of God sent revival. There are 2 ingredients for God sent revival: prayer and repentance. We will talk about repentance next Sunday. Today, we are going to focus on prayer.

In 1857 there were 30,000 men idle on the streets of New York. Drunkenness was rampant, and the nation was divided by slavery. God raised up a praying businessman, Jeremiah Lanphier. On September 23, 1857 he began a noontime prayer meeting on Fulton Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. Out of a city of 1 million people, six people showed up a half hour late.

In 1857, a guy by the name of Jeremiah Lanphier struggled with God using him. He started passing out Gospel tracts on the streets of New York. Showing little fruit from his efforts, God led Jeremiah Lanphier to start a noon day prayer meeting for the business men of New York. Lanphier started passing out flyers.

On the day of the prayer meeting, 5 other people showed up 30 minutes late. They decided to meet again the following week. The next week, 40 people showed up for the prayer meeting. The group decided to beging praying daily at noon. Within 6 months, there were 5,000 noon day prayer groups in New York City. Within 2 years, 15,000 cities across the country were having noon day prayer meetings. This revival is known as the Fulton Stree Revival. Millions were saved from the prayers meetings of the Fulton Street Revival.

Here is the amazing thing about the Fulton Street Revival. No famous pastor led the revival. No large church made the revival happen. It started when one man started praying.

Why can’t God do that again? Why can’t God start right here in this place.

If you study the great revival through human history, all great revival can be traced back to a group of people getting on their knees and crying out in desperate need for God to bring revival.

Today, we want to focus on prayer. In , we see what effective prayer is all about. Today, we want to focus on effective vs ineffective prayer.

Illustration: Communication can effective. Communication can also be ineffective. Most churches communicate through announcements, bulletins. Most of the time communication through bulletins are effective. But some time communication through bulletins is not so effective.

Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.

GOD IS GOOD; Dr. Hargreaves is better.

Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30p.m. Please use the back door.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 p.m. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

During the absence of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.

1. Ineffective Prayer

Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t answer your prayers. Sometimes, God will answer our prayers in His timing. Sometimes, God tell us now to our prayer requests. I think about Paul. Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn in the flesh. God said, “No, my gracious is sufficient for you.” But most of the time when God is not answering our prayers, it’s not a problem with God; it’s a problem with us.

The Bible gives us some insight into why our prayers can ineffective.

A. Unconfessed Sin

(NKJV) But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

(MSG) There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.

Our sins can get in the way of God answering prayer.

(KJV) 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.

We are made righteous through the blood of Jesus. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins.

To often, we pray without confessing our sins to God. We want our prayers answered without dealing with our sin first.

Repeat (MSG)

B. Selfishness

(NASB) You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Illustration:

To often, our prayers are driven by selfishness. To often, our prayers are driven by wrong motives. Instead of praying for God’s will, we pray that our will be done. Instead of praying that God’s kingdom would be benefited, we pray that our lives would be benefited. We spend far more time praying for the physical than we do the spiritual.

C. Lack of Faith

(CSB) But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Do we doubt God? Do we doubt God will answer our prayers?

Take our building situation. We can’t do this. We can’t pay for it. When we can’t, God can. Do you believe that?

Do you pray with expectation trusting that God is going to answer your prayer?

Illustration: As a drought continued for what seemed an eternity, a small community of farmers was in a quandary as to what to do. Rain was important to keep their crops healthy and sustain the townspeople's way of life. As the problem became more acute, a local pastor called a prayer meeting to ask for rain.

Many people arrived at the church to pray for the needed rain. The pastor greeted most of them as they filed in.

As he walked to the front of the church to officially begin the meeting he noticed most people were chatting across the aisles and socializing with friends.

When he reached the front his thoughts were on quieting the attendees and starting the meeting.

His eyes scanned the crowd as he asked for quiet. He noticed an eleven year-old girl sitting quietly in the front row. Her face was beaming with excitement.

Next to her, open and ready for use, was a very colorful and extremely large umbrella, much bigger than her in fact.

The little girl's beauty and innocence made the pastor smile as he realized how much faith she possessed. No one else in the congregation had brought an umbrella.

All came to pray for rain.But the little girl had come expecting God to answer.

As we pray for revival, are we praying with the expectation that revival is going to happen in our church.

That’s ineffective prayer. Now, let’s deal with effective prayer. In , we see what effective prayer is all about.

2. Effective Prayer

A. Pray with Humility

Illustration: Perhaps we need to be more like the scientist George Washington Carver. He developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut! When he was young he asked God to tell him the mystery of the universe. But God answered: That knowledge is reserved for me alone. So he said, “God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.” Then God said, “Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.”

We need to understand our size compared to God. Pride places us on equal footing with God. Pride says we know better than God does. Pride says that we don’t need God. Pride seeks to glorify self at the same time taking away glory from God.

But teaches us that we are to approach God with humility.

E. M. Bounds: Humility is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. It must be an attribute, a characteristic of prayer. Humility must be in the praying character as light is in the sun. Prayer has no beginning, no ending, no being, without humility. As a ship is made for the sea, so prayer is made for humility, and so humility is made for prayer.

God puts a great price on humility of heart. It is good to be clothed with humility as with a garment. It is written, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." That which brings the praying soul near to God is humility of heart. That which gives wings to prayer is lowliness of mind. That which gives ready access to the throne of grace is self-depreciation. Pride, self-esteem, and self-praise effectually shut the door of prayer. He who would come to God must approach Him with self hid from his eyes. He must not be puffed-up with self-conceit, nor be possessed with an over-estimate of his virtues and good works.

A great Biblical example of of praying with humility vs pride is found in .

Effective prayer is to pray with humility.

B. Pray with Desperation.

“Seek” is often used in desperate situations in which God is the only possible hope for deliverance. (Repeat)

Illustration: Desperately Seeking Something

We are in desperate need of revival. This church is desperate need of revival. This city is in desperate need of revival. This country is desperate need of revival. God is our only possible hope. We must seek him in desperation.

C. Pray with Persistence

Praying for revival is ongoing. The idea here is persistent prayer.

The point of that parable is to no give up praying. Keep praying. Pray persistently unto the Lord.

Illustration: George Mueller, a 19th-century evangelist, tells a story about committing to pray for the salvation of five young men, every single day. He prayed for 18 months before the first one came to Christ. His response? “I thanked God, and pressed on.” He continued praying for the four, every day, until another became a believer five years later. Six years later a third came to Christ. But after 36 years of praying, as Mueller approached his death, the last two were still not believers. Mueller wasn’t phased. He said, “They are not converted yet, but they will be. I hope in God, I pray on, and I look for the answer.”

When Mueller died in 1898, the last two men still were not Christians. God, however, honored Mueller’s faith, and within a few month’s of Mueller’s death, the final two came to faith in Christ.

We need to persistently prayer. Whether it take 18 months or 36 years, we need to be persistent in our prayers. Don’t give up praying for revival in our church, city, and country.

Recap Effective Prayer

Conclusion

Prayer — the idea is about the spiritual community coming together to pray for something specific. I am asking this spiritual community to come together and pray for revival in our church and city.

Alter Call