SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: February 27, 2001
Date Preached: February 28, 2001
Church: BBC (PM) Wed Night
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series: Great Imperatives for the Christian Walk
Title: The Imperative of Prayer
Text: 1 Thess 5:17
“…Pray without ceasing…” [NASB]
Introduction:
Our passage tonight is translated in the NASB and the KJV as “…pray without ceasing…” The Living Bible paraphrases this verse like this, “…always keep on praying…”
What the Apostle Paul is doing in this passage is informing the Christians at the Church of Thessalonica that they should and must develop a habit of prayer…and never break that habit!
Jesus told His disciples a parable to the effect that they, “…ought always to pray and NOT lose heart…” (Luke 18:1) God is committed to those who have become part of His family, and he is committed to answering their prayers.
However, Paul is telling the Christians at Thessalonica [as well as Christians today] that it is God’s will that we develop a consistent habit of prayer and never break that habit.
Why pray? If God knows what is going to happen, and if God’s Will is what is going to happen what will my prayer do? What good is it?
Well we pray for many reasons, but 1st we pray for the good of our own spiritual lives. Our prayer is our communication with God. This is our way of ‘talking’ with God.
Our prayer life is vital to our spiritual growth and maturation in the family of God. Without prayer we cannot know God’s will and if we do not know God’s will we cannot know how we are to please Him. As Christians, pleasing [obeying] God must be our 1st priority.
However, we also pray to advance the kingdom of Heaven. We pray for wisdom and courage and strength to share the Good News of Jesus Christ everywhere that we go. We pray for the HS to proceed us in the hearts and minds of those we will be speaking with and begin to soften their hearts to be receptive to the message of Christ.
These are great and necessary reasons for prayer and Paul is merely stating in this verse that that sort of prayer must be habitual and we must learn to develop that habit in our lives.
Now this DOES NOT mean that we can assume some pious or condescending attitude because we are constantly in prayer…as if we were more ‘spiritual’ than other people. It also does not mean that we have to separate ourselves from this world and enter a convent or a monastery to fulfill this exhortation of Paul.
His exhortation to us is not to be on our knees 24/7 but that we should always be in a spirit and mindset of prayer. We should always be ready to pray when it is needed, it should always be running through our minds.
Now if we look at and study prayer we can see that prayer has two sides, the human and the divine. The human side is where we speak to the God and the divine is when He speaks back to us.
True prayer is a dialogue, NOT A MONOLOGUE! This dialogue is where we bring our confessions, our thanksgivings, our petitions and our intercessions to God. However, we must remember that the most important part of prayer is NOT when we are speaking TO God, but when we are listening for God to speak to our hearts.
You should always have a part of your prayer time that is a quiet time that you seek to hear from God. You want to hear from Him regarding His will for your life, His answers to your prayers and His guidance in matters where you are unsure.
Listening to God is possible MORE important in the prayer activity than the verbalization of your prayer to Him. Why? God already knows what you are going to ask for, however, He desires you to ask because He desires the relationship with you!
Thomas Benton Brooks once wrote that, “…if you would have God hear you when you pray, you must hear Him when He speaks…”
We must learn to develop a habit of prayer for many reasons, but tonight I want to share 2 of the most important reasons why we should develop a habit of prayer!
1st we must develop a habit of prayer because God is a God who listens to His people!
God is a God who listens and He has promised in many places in Scripture that when we pray He will answer that prayer and bestow His gifts upon His children!
God is a God who listens, but He is not a “cosmic waiter” who is there taking your order when you pray. God listens to our prayers, but He knows what is best for us and He is going to answer our prayer in the most beneficial manner for US! The gifts He bestows upon us are only gifts that are good for us. We find evidence of that in Matt 7:11 where Jesus says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
But God is a God who listens and we can find that in His answers to our prayers the gifts He bestows are in perfect harmony with His purpose for our lives.
God’s character is revealed in the way He answers prayers, and we find that character revealed to us through the pages of His Holy Word! Also in God’s answers to our prayer we begin to see and understand the gifts that He bestows as we follow the leadership of the HS.
Finally, after we become a veteran in our prayer life, we can begin to know what to expect from God when we pray! I want you to notice what I said just then… “WHEN we pray, not if or whenever we pray!” As veterans of the prayer wars we must develop this habit that Paul is speaking about in tonight’s passage… “Pray without ceasing!”
But not only is that God is a God who listens the only reason for our need to pray, the 2nd reason we need to develop a habit of prayer is because of our great need of God and His guidance in our lives.
If we look at any of the great leaders throughout the Bible we see that they were men or women that were dedicated to a prayer life. We can see this evident throughout the Bible.
In Daniel we see that Daniel formally got down on his knees and prayed 3 times a day! He knew and understood the importance of a solid prayer life. We too must realize and understand that a solid prayer life is beneficial to our walk and understanding of what God desires of us. But it is also vital because we have great needs in our lives.
But what needs am I speaking about? Preacher, what ‘great’ needs do I have in my life?
Well I can see many great needs that we have in ALL of our lives regardless of WHO we are and regardless of how much money we make and regardless of where we live…we all have these needs in our lives.
1st I see that we should always pray a prayer of confession for the sin that we have in our lives. In 1 John 1:8 the Bible tells us that if we believe that we can live our lives without sin then we are deceiving ourselves [lying to ourselves]
But the great news here is the next verse where John tells us that if we will but pray a prayer of confession (true confession and repentance) God is faithful and just to forgive us of the sin in our lives! The forgiveness of sin in our lives is a daily need for all Christians! Without the forgiveness of sin where would we be?
But not only is one of our great needs the forgiveness of sin in our lives, I also see that we need guidance and wisdom in living our daily lives.
In the book of James 1:5 the Bible tells the Christian to pray for wisdom. Wisdom is God’s insight that is given when we ask for it, and that insight enables us to see the particular course of action that needs to be taken in a particular situation.
The forgiveness of sin and wisdom are two very great needs in the life of a Christian, but as Christians we have many more! I see the deliverance from temptations by Satan as a great need of the Christian as well. As Christians we must [on a daily basis] pray for deliverance from temptation, or if not deliverance…the strength to survive and refute all temptation that comes our way.
In James 4:7-8 tells Christians that if we… “… Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” Submission to God begins with our prayers before the throne of God.
But another reason we must develop a good habit of prayer is intercession for our loved ones and brothers and sisters in Christ. James 5:13-18 tells those who are sick to call upon the church to pray for them.
We have done this very thing here in our church, and I believe that as a church we are faithful to this particular reason for prayer. Prayer is a direct conduit to God and God is the Great Physician!
Tonight my mother sits here because of the intercessory prayers of church members and loved ones. 28 years ago the doctors had all but given up hope on my mother, but because of the prayers of faithful Christians, I know that God spared her life and she lives today because of those prayers.
You never know how your prayer of intercession will affect the world. My mother has touched many people since that terrible accident some 28 years ago…without the intercessory prayers of those faithful Christian…those lives would not have been touched by my mother.
Intercessory prayer is what we do here on a weekly basis in our prayer service. We have seen God intervene and heal those in our midst. We must develop a good habit of constant and continual prayer in our walk with God so that we can be ready at a moment’s notice to intercede for those around us.
I look at intercessory prayer like this. On any football team there is a star, whether it is the running back, the quarterback or the receiver. The fans often look to that person as the ‘hero’ of the team, but if you go and interview just about any of these ‘heroes’ you will find they have heroes of their own…the offensive linemen! Although their position is not glamorous, without the linemen to block and protect…the team would not be as effective!
In the church it is the same way. Some may look to the preacher or pastor or music minister, or even the youth minister as the ‘hero’, but if you ask any minister worth his or her salt…they will tell you very quickly it is the prayers of the congregation that enable them to be the kind of minister they are! Our intercessory prayers are important and we must develop to good habit of intercessory prayer.
Also God has told us in His word that whenever we have a need of any kind that we are to come to Him in prayer. Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “…Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need…”
This prayer extends beyond our lives and the lives of those we call brothers and sisters in Christ, beyond those we call the loved ones of our lives. This prayer extends to all those around us in need. But we must be careful here. Prayer alone will NOT suffice when a need surfaces. In the book of James it tells us that if we see a need and tell them that we are praying for them and we do NOTHING about that need when we are capable of doing SOMETHING…then we are not being the Christians that we must be.
Prayer is a powerful tool for the Christian life, and the apostle Paul wanted the Christians at Thessalonica to realize that getting into the habit of continuous and constant prayer would only serve to enhance and further one’s walk with God.
We should develop the habit of prayer and not break it because God desires for our fellowship with Him. God has placed a yearning…a desire in all of His creation to fellowship with Him. Prayer is the tool that we can use to fulfill that desire and yearning. WE must learn to pray!
