Constant Prayer

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you enjoying constant prayer?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To promote constant prayer and enumerate the items to be prayed for.

IV. TEXT:

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (Amplified Bible)

With this in view we constantly pray for you, that our God may deem and count you worthy of [your] calling and [His] every gracious purpose of goodness, and with power may complete in [your] every particular work of faith (faith which is that leaning of the whole human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness).

V. THESIS:

Constant prayer namely: (1) That GOD may count me worthy, (2) By His Power He may fulfill every good purpose of ours, (3) The LORD may fulfill every act prompted by my faith.

VI. TITLE:

Constant prayer

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 50 to 54 A.D.

C. Purpose: To correct the coming of the LORD as not having taken place yet and is still a future event for all of us living in the last days.

D. To whom written: Thessalonica church, 2nd epistle

E. Main Theme: Second Coming of CHRIST

F. Keywords: Day of CHRIST

G. Key verse:

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (Amplified Bible)

May the Lord direct your hearts into [realizing and showing] the love of God and into the steadfastness and patience of Christ and in waiting for His return.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. That GOD may count me worthy

"With this in view we constantly pray for you, that our God may deem and count you worthy of [your] calling"

Ephesians 1:18 (Amplified Bible)

By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

Ephesians 4:1 (Amplified Bible)

I THEREFORE, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,

Philippians 3:14 (Amplified Bible)

I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

GOD has already counted us worthy because of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

B. By His Power He may fulfill every good purpose of ours

"and [His] every gracious purpose of goodness,"

Psalms 34:8 (Amplified Bible)

O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.

Nahum 1:7 (Amplified Bible)

The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understands) those who take refuge and trust in Him.

Romans 2:4 (Amplified Bible)

Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

Psalms 35:27 (Amplified Bible)

Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.

Psalms 37:4 (Amplified Bible)

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.

The desire is given by GOD to give us benefits of His Goodness.

C. The LORD may fulfill every act prompted by my faith

"and with power may complete in [your] every particular work of faith (faith which is that leaning of the whole human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness)"

Act of faith not act of righteousness is our prompt or motivations that makes us do the will of GOD.

The listeners were the disciples.

Matthew 5:16 (Amplified Bible)

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

The listeners were non-disciples.

Matthew 6:1 (Amplified Bible)

TAKE CARE not to do your good deeds publicly or before men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward [reserved for and awaiting you] with and from your Father Who is in heaven.

James 2:26 (Amplified Bible)

For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.

Everything that is not of faith is sin.

IX. CONCLUSION: