Sermon Tone Analysis

21 Days of Prayer

Schedule on our website and digital worship program.

It will also be sent in an email.

I want to end the year and lead us to kick off new year with a message about prayer.

Prayer isn’t just the secret sauce to our Christian life, it’s the entire meal.

At the end of time, history will culminate in a great banquet (Rev 19:9), but, as we have seen, we can eat with Jesus now.

How?

Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Through prayer.

Commentators understand that Jesus’ invitation to “hear his voice” and “open the door” so he can “come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev 3:20) is an invitation to fellowship and communion with him through prayer.

Prayer—though it is often draining, even an agony—is in the long term the greatest source of power that is possible.

John 16:23-25 “In that day you will ask nothing of me.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech.

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.”

Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly (to attend constantly) in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

“No man is greater than his prayer life”- Leonard Ravenhill

1.

The Necessity of Prayer

Tim Keller says rightly, “Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us.

Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire.

It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God.

Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life.

Example: Imagine you had a disease and needed to take a pill.

Prayer will take discipline

Prayer must be THE priority of the Christian.

It is the most important thing a believer can do is develop a consistent prayer life.

There will always be something else to do.

Prayer must be priority and we must wrap our lives around prayer.

Why?

We walk by faith and not by sight.

(2 Corinthians 5:7)

Jonathan Edwards (One of the leaders of America’s First Great Awakening) says that prayer is only the voice of faith.

Anyone with real faith will desire to pray because through the Spirit, prayer is faith become audible.

Prayer is not optional.

A strong prayer life is commanded.

To not pray is sin.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Romans 12:11-12: “Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.”

Put on the whole armor of God to stand against the strategies of the devil.

Ephesians 6:17-18: “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints.”

A strong prayer life is

a sin killer

a power bringer

a victory enforcer

anxiety helper

stress reliever

and ultimately and most importantly - conforms you to the image you are praying to and trusting in - God.

2. The Supremacy of Prayer

1 Kings 8:42.

Solomon’s highest prayer was for the gift of prayer itself and hoped that those from other nations would “hear of your great name and pray toward this temple.

Based on that, we see that prayer is simply a recognition of the greatness of God.

Genesis 4 - They began to call upon the name of the Lord but it was only after God had first called out to him.

All prayer is responding to God.

In all cases God is the initiator - “hearing” always precedes asking.

Do what you promised.

Call out to the Lord for Him to do what He promised He would do.

Prayer is a response to who God is / who He reveals Himself to be.

The clearer our understanding of who God is, the better our prayers.

Prayer isn’t just an emergency flare towards “God” but a personal conversation in reply to God’s specific, verbal revelation.

For Example - Job, the more true his knowledge of God, the more fruitful his prayers became.

This should help us then:

The power of our prayers or effectiveness of our prayers then is not primarily in our effort or in any technique but rather in our knowledge of God.

And....

There is not more comprehensive, personal, and beautiful communication of God than Jesus - He is the radiance of God’s glory and nature.

There is nothing more foundational to our Christian mission than “To Know Him”

Paul prays in Ephesians 1 that would be granted a spirit of wisdom and knowledge to know God better.

Prayer is not just the sharing of ideas but also the sharing of ourselves - knowing and being known.

Prayer is of supreme importance because:

“Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and His grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.

3. How to Pray

Remember, we pray as sons and daughters

Prayer is your “doctrine of God” in practice.

What you believe about God will form your prayers or lack of.

Prayer is remembering who we are dependent on.

We are not independent creatures, we are completely dependent on the creator, our wise maker, who loves us so!

Prayer is an expression of sincere desire.

Prayer is not a means through which we get things to make us happy, for he is our happiness.

Prayer is our way of entering into the happiness of God himself.

We pray not to procure things but to know him better.

The validity of prayer is not affected by length nor repetitiveness

Prayer is to be expressed by persistence, simplicity, humility, and tenacity.

We must remember and be easier on ourselves and each other by remembering we were taught how to speak/communicate by people.

We didn’t initiate the conversation… Someone else gave you the vocabulary and language to communicate.

And so it is with prayer, we need to immerse ourselves in God’s Word.

His Word provides us with the language, priorities, the hows, the whys that are necessary to grow in prayer.

His Word teaches us the language of faith.

Our experiences and circumstances may provoke prayers but may they never condition the prayers.

And what I mean by that is:

The centrality of our prayers shall not be our kingdom but His.

The condition of our prayers shall not be my will but His.

The content of my prayers shall not be my idea but His.

Edmund P. Clowney wrote, “The Bible does not present an art of prayer; it presents the God of prayer.”

We should not decide how to pray based on the experiences and feelings we want.

Instead, we should do everything possible to behold our God as he is, and prayer will follow.

The more clearly we grasp who God is, the more our prayer is shaped and determined accordingly.

For the Apostle Paul, the most prominent Christian prayer needs are: (these should be at the top of every Christian’s prayer life and the order of importance not changed based on your circumstances… In other words what is important in prayer will be important in good times and in bad times.

My circumstances don’t change that)