If The Church Would Just Pray

Introduction:

How many of you pray every day?

How many of you pray each morning when you wake up?

How many of you pray every night before you go to sleep?

How many of you pray before each meal?

How many of you pray for yourselves?

How many of you pray for others?

How many of you pray for the Church?

Acts 12:5

Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

In the text, we find something taking place that seems to be missing in many churches today – that is church members praying for church members.

In this particular case a church member in trouble.

The Apostle Peter is on death row and all petitions to commute his sentence have been exhausted.

But I’ve come to tell you that prayer changes things.

Prayer changes people and circumstances.

When all else fails. . . pray.

In the early church, corporate prayer was the standard.

The early church is a model for the church of today.

Acts 3:1

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

In Acts 5:42 the record is that church members met day after day, in the Temple courts and from house to house.

In other words, they had old-fashioned prayer meetings.

Do you remember when the saints would come together (not for chatting and chewing) – but for the purpose of getting down on their knees in prayer for one another, their churches their families and their communities?

So often today, we find that many church people are only concerned about themselves and their own problems – and when they do visit each other’s houses the conversation is more about everybody’s business than it is about petitioning God.

But here in Act 12:5, we find a church praying “without ceasing” for one of their own.

The Bible says that, “the prayers of the righteous availeth much.”

My brothers and sisters, I want you to know that there is great power and great deliverance (possible) through prayer.

You can check the record on that for yourself.

The pages of the God’s Word are laced and lined with accounts of prayer.

Moses prayed and God spared Israel from judgment.

Joshua prayed and God caused the sun to stand still.

Hannah prayed and God gave her a baby boy.

Solomon prayed and God gave him wisdom.

Hezekiah prayed and God added 15 years to his life.

Elijah prayed and God sent fire down from Heaven.

Jonah prayed and God brought him out of the belly of the whale.

The thief on the cross prayed and God gave him eternal life.

Through Prayer:

There is no problem that cannot be solved.

There is no sickness that cannot be healed.

There is no burden that cannot be lifted.

There is no storm that cannot be calmed.

Through Prayer:

There is no sorrow that cannot be comforted.

There is no sinner that cannot be saved.

There is no hurt that cannot be mended.

There is no fallen that cannot be lifted.

Through Prayer:

There is no backslider that cannot be restored.

There is no broken relationship that cannot be mended.

There is no difference that cannot be resolved.

There is no sin that cannot be forgiven.

There are no ashes that cannot turned into beauty.

Through Prayer:

There is no heaviness that can’t be covered with the garment of praise.

There is no thirst that can’t be quenched.

There is no hunger that can’t be filled.

There is no dry ground that can’t be flooded.

Through Prayer:

There is no desert that can’t blossom like a rose.

There is no congregation that can’t be revived.

There are no church pews that He can’t fill.

There is no mess that can’t be turned into a miracle!

Matthew 21:22

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

James 5:14-18

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess 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. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

(The endless possibilities of prayer.) (Just a prayer meeting?)