BECOME A PRAYING CHURCH
Open In Prayer
I. Read: 1 Thess 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”
A. God wants us to become a praying church. And that is what we must do in order for our church to grow.
1. As I have told you in the past, Paul is not telling us to pray 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
2. We all now that we can’t do that. But we can remain in the attitude of prayer.
a. We should have scheduled times of daily prayer.
1) I’m sure, if we took a pole, that 98% if not 100% of us, could admit that we don’t pray enough.
II. Read: Eph 6:18
A. Praying always with all prayer and supplication, meaning: We must pray on all occasions and with all kinds of prayer; petition; humble request:
1. Public, private, secret, social, solitary, solemn and sudden;
2. With all the parts of prayer: confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgivings for favors and blessings received.
B. In the spirit: means with the Spirits help. Holy-Spirit assisted prayer
1. Does not just mean “speaking in other tongues”
a. Oft times while praying for others, the Holy Spirit will guide you with the proper Words, in your own language, to pray. He gives you the words.
C. Watching there unto: means being vigilant in this matter of prayer.
1. Keeping our hearts in a praying frame.
2. Taking all opportunities to pray.
D. With all perseverance: means continued effort
1. Even when we get tired, even when things feel or look hopeless in the flesh. Don’t give up!
2. Even when things in our outward circumstances change, we must continue to pray and not give up.
E. Supplication for all saints: means prayer and humble petitions for everyone:
1. Your family and friends, your pastors, and their families, your country, president and government leaders, other churches, etc.
F. Prayer offered in faith is man’s most powerful resource.
1. It is part of our armor in Spiritual Warfare.
2. Through prayer, given in faith, we may induce God to grant our hearts desire.
III. Read: 1 Timothy 2:1-4
A. I exhort therefore, that, first of all: Paul is exhorting Timothy to teach the saints the importance of prayer.
1. I exhort and first of all: expresses the urgency in the matter.
2. The saints of God do not pray enough!
3. The need for constant prayer has never been more urgent.
a. These are the end times, and they are not going to get any better.
b. Satan is working harder than he ever has to tear down the Church.
c. He is working harder than ever to torment and destroy you.
B. supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks
1. The importance of prayer
a. Supplications: Praying humbly with petitions to God
b. Prayers: All kinds
c. Intercessions: Praying for others
d. Giving thanks: For all things
2. The giving of thanks is not just to be a phrase at the end of a prayer.
a. But be thankful in detail for things that God has done for you near the beginning of your prayer.
b. When you give thanks, don’t always generalize everything so you can hurry up and be done but be specific in what you are thankful for.
c. Let God know how much you love and appreciate what He has done for you.
d. God does not get enough praise and worship from His children.
C. Be made for all men: this statement runs right into verse 2. And again indicates the same as Eph 6:18 to pray for all saints, but this verse goes a step further when it says to pray for all men.
1. That means, whether they have given their hearts to God or not.
a. We must pray for the unsaved.
b. We must pray for their hearts to be softened and their ears to be opened, and their minds to gain understanding.
c. We must pray for salvations.
(1.) Our duty is to fill the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. (Vs 2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
a. If we want this country to be safe from terrorism and to reap the benefits of a good Government, then we need to pray for the government leaders.
b. If we want our President to make good decisions, and protect Israel, then we should be praying for him.
c. The same for the rest of our men and women in the military.
d. We are obligated to pray for them so we can have a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
e. Not only are we told to pray, but we are given a reason why we should pray.
3. (Vs 3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
a. Praying pleases the Lord. He created us to communicate with Him.
b. Sin separated us from God. God came down and walked through the Garden of Eden talking with Adam.
(1) Sin, took that personal relationship away.
(2) God made the personal relationship available again through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(3) Now when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have that personal relationship with Him.
(4) In any relationship, in order for it to remain open, you must communicate
(5) In order to keep our relationship with Christ open, we must PRAY. (That is how we communicate with God)
4. (Vs 4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
a. It is God’s desire for all people to be saved.
(1) However, He will not force Himself on anyone.
(2) He lets people choose, themselves, who they will serve. And they must serve one or the other. God or Satan.
(3) We must pray for all the unsaved that they will make the right choice.
D. Paul has just petitioned us to become a praying church. I challenge you to schedule yourselves with 30 minute in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. Just for starters.
1. 15 min prayer then 15 min Bible reading, twice a day.
2. Then work up to 60 minutes twice a day. With Prayer, Bible reading and meditation.
IV. Read: Matt 7: 7-8
A. Ask, and it shall be given you;
1. What’s so hard about that?
2. Free of charge it shall be given to you.
B. seek, and ye shall find;
1. Seek God and you will find Him.
2. Seek and keep seeking. Don’t give up!
C. knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
1. God’s door is always unlocked, waiting for your knock.
2. When praying for direction, any door that does not open when you knock, is the wrong door.
D. Jesus, repeats Himself in verse 8. (8) For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
1. ask, seek and knock are suggesting perseverance and frequent prayer.
2. Pray and pray often, pray with sincerity and seriousness, pray and pray again. Seek diligently! Knock earnestly!
3. God promises to answer our prayer, for EVERYONE who seeks Him.
a. God is no respecter of persons. He does not limit the answered prayers to certain individuals.
V. Read: Matt 21: 22 And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
A. When we pray we must have faith, believing that God is going to answer that prayer, or we are wasting our breath.
1. God hears our prayers, and is capable of all things. We must pray in faith, believing He will answer them.
B. All things, whatsoever you shall ask:
1. God does not limit what we pray for.
2. No request is too big or too small.
C. Ask in prayer:
1. Placing humble petitions before the Lord with a sincere heart.
D. believing, ye shall receive:
1. Have FAITH when you pray, and you will receive the answer to your prayer.
VI. Read: Luke 18: 1-7 (Men ought always to pray/persistent widow)
A. Jesus spoke a parable explaining that: men ought always to pray, and not give up.
1. It is both our privilege and our duty everyday to pray.
2. We are actually sinning if we neglect our prayer life.
B. We have here a judge who did not fear God or man, he had not concern for God or himself. He was an unjust judge.
1. He had not concern for his conscience or his reputation. A man full of hate and rage.
2. He was a bad man, with a bad reputation, and rather enjoyed being that way.
C. And we have a persistent widow who had been wronged by someone and had no one in which she could turn to for help.
1. Her cry to the judge was to “do justice of mine adversary”
2. Many poor elderly widows have people who take advantage of them. They steal from them, and commit fraudulent acts against them.
3. This women did not want revenge, only justice.
D. He would not for a while: This mean and cruel judge could care less what happened to this widow.
1. But the widow would not give up.
2. The judge finally got tired of the widow troubling him, with her continual coming.
a. She was wearing him out, getting on his nerves. So he decided not to put her off any longer, but to give her justice in order to get rid of her.
E. Unlike the cruel and hateful judge, our Judge is a loving and caring Judge. Our Judge is our Heavenly Father.
1. How much more would a Heavenly Father, full of love and mercy for His children answer His children’s prayer?
a. With our continual coming, He will deal justly for us.
F. We are not to grow weary in praying.
1. Just because our prayer is not answered right away doesn’t mean God isn’t going to answer it.
2. It doesn’t mean that we should quit praying. Don’t give up!
3. We are to persevere in faith. Continual coming!
VII. Read: 2 Chronicles 7:14
A. Humble themselves: loose the pride, admit your imperfections.
1. This is one of the hardest things for Christians to do.
2. Many Christians are too proud to ask for help.
a. Especially when they are struggling spiritually.
B. Pray and seek my face: Communicate with God, find favor in His eyes, and seek to draw closer to Him.
1. We should always be seeking a closer walk in our relationship with Christ.
C. Turn from their wicked ways: Turn from sin, change your ways.
1. Changing your ways, giving up things of the world.
D. Hear from heaven . . . : Is Christ making intercession.
1. When we turn from the ways of the world and seek forgiveness of our sins, then God can forgive us.
2. Sin separates us from God.
E. And will heal their land: God will answer your prayers
1. Once our hearts are right with the Lord, then He can answer our prayers.
VIII. Read: Jeremiah 29:11-13
A. God has plans for us even before we ask. However, He is waiting for us to desire those plans. He wants us, to want Him.
1. We’ve got Him bottled up.
2. You want changes in your life, you want your life to improve.
3. It’s time to let Him loose.
B. Someone once said: "Winners devote everything to prayer...
1. Losers use prayer as a last resort."
2. Don’t wait till your losing the battle, to call upon God.
C. A lot of self-proclaimed Christians want both; things of the world, and things of Christ.
1. It’s time to get off the fence. Leave the world behind. You can’t have both!!
2. Choose you this day whom you will serve! But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord! Josh 24:15
IX. Read: John 14:13-14
A. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.
1. What do you have to do to get you problems fixed? ASK!
2. If we ask, what will He do? ANSWER!
B. That the Father may be glorified in the Son.
1. Why? Why will Jesus answer our prayers? So the Father will be glorified through the Son.
2. So that when your prayers are answered, you can give praise and thanks to God.
3. Testimonies!!!!! Praise!!!!! Honor!!!!! Glory!!!!! to the Father!
C. Jesus repeats the statement in verse 14: If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
1. Why does He repeat it? Because we are a hard-headed folk. Everything must be repeated over and over again, so we will get the message.
2. He wants us to humble ourselves and pray. He wants us to ask for His help, instead of trying to fix things ourselves.
3. He wants to answer our prayers, so that we will give praise to the Father.
D. If our prayers are not answered, it is our own fault.
1. Lack of faith. Number one reason!
a. What if it’s not His will? It is His will for us to have answered prayer. We just read it. So that the Father will be glorified.
2. We want it for the wrong reasons.
a. Many times we want things to boost our pride.
3. It is something that will harm us or our families.
a. God knows what is best for us and our families.
4. It is something that will interfere with the will of God in our lives.
a. God’s plan for our lives is better than our own plan.
5. It is not God’s time. We are impatient and must wait on His timing.
a. God’s time is the best time.
X. Lets wrap up by looking at our Directives from the Word of God:
A. I Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing
B. Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication
C. I Timothy 2:1 I exhort first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, . . . for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior
D. Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, seek, knock and it shall be given you
E. Matthew 21:22 Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
F. Luke 18:1 Men ought always to pray, and not give up.
G. II Chronicles 7:14 If my people will humble themselves, and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways then I will forgive and answer their prayers.
H. Jeremiah 29:11 . . . pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. . . . seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
I. John 14:13-14 What ever you ask in my name, I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
XI. In Tommy Tenney’s book “God Chasers,” he ask the question, “do we really know God? We know about Him, but do we really know Him?
A. Do you really know God? Do you have that personal, intimate relationship with Him? Are you were you need to be in your personal walk with Christ?
1. If you said no to any of those questions, then you need to come to this altar.
B. Do you spend enough time communicating in prayer?
1. If you said no, then you need to come to the altar.
2. Come and spend time with the Lord.
C. Do you make petitions to the Father. Prayer and supplications?
1. If you said no, then you need to come to the altar.
2. Come and petition the Father, cast your cares upon Him, let Him carry your burdens.
D. If you said no to any of these questions, then you need to come to the altar.
E. Are you hungry and desperate to know Him more?
1. If you said no, then you need to come to the altar and seek a personal relationship with Him.
2. And if you said yes to this question, then you need to come to the altar, and let Him fill you, seek more of Him.
F. Who is the church? You are the church. Become a praying church.
