What Is Prayer - Praise And Thanksgiving Series

This is only an outline. LOTS of great Scriptures and illustrations can be added to this outline.

Psalm 22:3

Ephesians 5:20

5 Types of Prayer:

1. Praise

2. Thanksgiving

3. Supplication

4. Intercession

5. Confession

As Christians we need to be praise and thanking God for the countless blessings He has given us and for the countless thins He has done for us. As children of God we need to be praying people!

Praise:

1. “God inhabits the praise” (Psalm 22:3 – “But thou art holy, O Thou that inhabit the praise of Israel.)  Some translations say the God is “Enthroned in/on the praises of Israel, or of His people.” This simply means that God dwells or lives in the praises of His people.

2. Why praise God?

a. Do you like to be praised?  Do you like it when you go in for your annual review at work, only to have the people tell you how wonderful you are doing and how grateful they are to you have working for them? Or why do you brag on your children or grandchildren? Because you love you them, they are a blessing to you, so you tell people about the most wonderful children or grandchildren in the world.

b. Do you praise God because you have believe in Him? Well why do you believe in Him? Do you simply believe in God so you don’t go to hell? Are you thankful to Him only because He can save you from eternal damnation? If so, that would be like asking a child why he likes his parents and his response is “because they buy me things.”

c. God likes to be praised! (Isaiah 6:1-3 – In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each having six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.)  In the very throne room of heaven, God is being praised for eternity. This fact makes it clear that God like to be praised by His people.

3. Reasons to Praise and Thank God: (Psalm 138:2 – I will worship toward Your temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.)

A. For who He is – Attributes of God: (explain each one and how they work together with each other)

a. Omnipotent

b. Omnipresent

c. Omniscient

d. Eternal

e. Just

f. Gracious

g. Merciful

h. Patient

i. Forgiving

j. Etc.

B. What He has done/does (blessings)

a. Jesus came and died for us

b. Gracious to us

c. Forgave us

d. Still forgives us

e. Gave us the Holy Spirit

f. Gave us His Word. (the Bible)

g. Etc.

C. *Remember: What He does flows out of who He is.*

a. We have God’s grace because He is gracious

b. When we pray, God hears us because He is omnipresent and omniscient.

c. We are forgiven because God is merciful.

d. God continues lifting us to after we fall because God is patient.

ii. *Remember: What He does flows out of who He is.*

D. Mercy is the very foundation of praising God If He wasn’t merciful nothing would matter, we would all be dead and go to hell. Without God’s mercy we would have no right pray to God, no right to ask Him to forgive our sins; we would have no relationship with God and therefore would spend eternity apart from Him. Though this is factual, there is an ever greater fact – God is merciful – He sent Jesus to do what we could not do (pay the price for our sins) and now through Him, enabled by the mercy of God, we have the right be called children of the living God (John 1:12), to praise and to thank Him for Hid mercy and for what He has done for us.

Praise and Thanksgiving are the two sides of the same coin.

We praise God for His mercy and thank Him for the blessings which flow from His mercy!

Thanksgiving:

Ephesians 5:20, "20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1. Spiritual Blessings (thanksgiving)

a. God – for Who He is

b. His Mercy

c. Grace of Jesus

d. Giving us the Holy Spirit

e. Giving us His word

f. Etc.

2. Personal Blessings (thanksgiving)

a. Lunch

b. Health (Often times we do not thank God for this until it is gone!!)