Paul's Prayer Model Series

The Model Prayer of Paul The Apostle

Pastor Paddick Van Zyl

05-31-2018

Sermon Outline

Introduction:

The importance of prayer can be illustrated in the following story as told by DL Moody, a man greatly used of God:

The Praying Cripple.

‘I once knew a little cripple who lay upon her death-bed. She had given herself to God, and was distressed only because she could not labor for Him actively among the lost. Her clergyman visited her, and hearing her complaint, told her that there from her sick-bed she could offer prayers for those whom she wished to see turning to God. He advised her to write the names down, and then to pray earnestly; and then he went away and thought of the subject no more. Soon a feeling of great religious interest sprang up in the village, and the churches were crowded nightly.

The little cripple heard of the progress of the revival, and inquired anxiously for the names of the saved. A few weeks later she died, and among a roll of papers that was found under her little pillow, was one bearing the names of fifty-six persons, every one of whom had in the revival been converted. By each name was a little cross, by which the poor crippled saint had checked off the names of the converts as they had been reported to her.’*

It matters not how we pray, but THAT we pray!

Scripture Reference

Colossians 1:9-18 NKJV

Preeminence of Christ

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Theme

Praying the way Paul prayed

Sermon message

Paul prayed for the church, the body of Jesus Christ, a lot. He is our example, like Jesus was. His other prayers may be found in, Romans 1:8-10; Ephesians 1, Philippians 1:3-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3; 2 Timothy 1:16-18. What would happen if we truly prayed like Paul did, like Daniel did, like Jesus did?

In Colossians 1, our text for today, we find that Paul focuses on 6 elements in his prayer for the Colossian church:

• Pray frequently (unceasing prayer), routinely, regularly, constantly, Paul prayed consistently

• Pray for understanding (for God’s revealed will) and wisdom

• Pray for fruit (spiritual formation), growth

• Pray that the believers will know and understand and experience the sum total of God’s love

• Pray for power and strength

• Giving thanks for God’s awesome love and power and our salvation and redemption

Prayer is not about the amount of hours spent but about the content we pray (Matthew 23:14) and the discipline that we put into our prayer life.

We ought to pray for specific things (not stuff) but specific needs within the body of Christ, our fellow believers, our spiritual leaders, our country and government, our needs.

We need understanding and wisdom from God to live and fulfil God’s will for our lives. We discover what it is that God want us to do specifically and personally, by prayer.

In the words of Randal J. Brewer: “Your calling and assignment is not decided by you, it is discovered by you. Everything God creates is given a calling, purpose, and destiny and you need to quickly find out where you fit in. Don’t bounce around and do nothing for the next twenty years.” **

We need to pray for the spiritual fruit, the spiritual growth of the body of Christ, ourselves. (Matthew 7:16; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9). A healthy tree bears good and edible fruit, a tree that is not healthy, does not bear proper edible fruit. We do not all have the same kind of fruit or the same amount of fruit but we are all supposed to bear fruit as Christians (Matthew 7:18; Matthew 13:23; John 15:2). Paul prayed for believers to go from good to great!