Series: “A CHURCH TO CHANGE THE WORLD”
Sermon 2
TEN NATION-CHANGING WAYS TO PRAY
By
Jerry Falwell
A. INTRODUCTION
Last week I told you we need great faith if our church is going to change the world. I came to the conclusion at the end of my sermon, “We will have greater faith to change the world when we have a greater vision of God.”
I still believe that one church can change the world and can be done by a spiritual movement of God through the people. To use the current analogy, we can change the world by the “bubble-up” influence from the people, rather than the “trickle-down” influence from above. Douglas MacArthur agreed with this approach.
“History fails to record a single precedence in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economical times. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster” – Douglas MacArthur
Today, I am going to give you ten nation-changing ways to pray. When we pray these ten ways, our prayers will be answered.
B. FIVE NATION-CHANGING THINGS TO ASK—PLUS ONE
Last week I gave you five great prayer requests to change our nation, but as I have prayed over this list during the week, I want to add a sixth one. Let me quickly give you the first five requests:
1. Outlaw abortion in America.
2. Ask God to give us all the money needed to go to the Mountain.
3. Ask God to give us 50,000 students at Liberty University.
4. Ask God to give us a telecast to touch the world.
5. Ask God to help us plant 5,000 churches in my lifetime through our students.
NOW I ADD A 6TH REQUEST –
6. Send an infectious revival to Thomas Road Baptist Church that will touch the world.
We want God to pour out His spirit at Thomas Road Baptist Church that will spread to other churches across America. We want God to pour out His spirit on Liberty University that will spread to other colleges and seminaries. Remember, I have defined revival as, “The presence of God among His people.” This definition is found in the verses, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28) and “When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
C. TEN NATION-CHANGING WAYS TO PRAY
1. Pray decisively. We’ve got to pray and tell God exactly what we want. When the Early Church was threatened, they went to a prayer meeting to ask, “Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, Lord, behold their threatening; and grant thy servants with all boldness that we may speak thy word” (Acts 4:29).
Did God ever answer this prayer? They went straight to the opposition to preach. Stephen died because of his boldness. Peter was thrown in prison and Paul was stoned.
There is some tension between praying once, and praying continually. Sometimes as a small kid I would ask boldly for something once, and my parents gave it to me. I knew I was going to get it before I asked. But there is a second way; sometimes when your parents are reluctant, you keep on asking until you get it. You are bold to keep it up. You “pester” them until you get it. You “bug” them or “beg” because you really want it. There’s a place for asking once boldly and for asking continually. But, pray decisively when you ask for the things that God has commanded:
a. For souls to be saved.
b. For the Holy Spirit to convict of sin.
c. For God to open the spiritually blinded eyes.
d. For the Lord of the Harvest to provide more laborers into the harvest.
e. For the Great Commission to be carried out.
What do you think was the attitude of Paul and Silas in jail? They had been arrested, beaten, put in prison, then locked in stocks. The Bible says, “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:25). I would call this decisive praying.
2. Pray specifically. When you pray, ask God for the specific things that you want. Maybe you don’t get answers to prayer because “ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). Some of you have never asked for a soul to be saved, you’ve never asked for abortion to be stopped, you’ve never asked for God to reverse the tide of atheism and immorality in media. Let’s pray specifically for the following:
a. Lord, make abortions illegal in America.
b. Lord, reverse the trend toward immorality and free sex among our young people.
c. Lord, reverse the trend toward secularism and anti-Christianity in America.
d. Lord, stop the epidemic of AIDS.
3. Pray continually. The Bible tells us, “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17). At another place Jesus said, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). At another place Paul said, “Be instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). The New Living Bible says, “Be always praying.” Again Paul says, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18).
We can change this church if we keep praying. We can change our nation if we keep praying. We can change the world.
4. Pray persistently. When you begin to pray, don’t give up. Jesus uses an illustration to describe persistence. He tells of a man who went to his neighbors in the middle of the night to borrow bread because he had visitors in his home. When his neighbor won’t give him bread, the man keeps knocking on the door until he gets the bread. Then Jesus says, “I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Luke 11:8-10).
5. Pray obediently. When you come to pray, make sure you have obeyed everything that the Bible has told you. That means there are no obstacles between you and God. First of all, check out to make sure you have not broken any of the commandments. Then second, make sure you have carried out God’s will as fully as possible. Have you tithed, are you living holy; are you, “studying to show thyself approved unto God?” Are you fulfilling all that God has told you to do? When you are praying obediently, God will hear and answer. Praying obediently is abiding by the Word of God. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (John 15:7).
6. Pray expectantly. When I was a kid, there were things I knew that I could get from my mother that I couldn’t get from my father. So, when I asked her, I expected to get them. The same thing with my father; he would give me certain things that my mother wouldn’t. Part of being a good child, is knowing which parent to ask.
In the same way, when you go to your Heavenly Father, do you know what things you will get before you ask? Jesus said, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). When you pray expectantly, you are praying in faith. This means you believe God will answer before you ask.
There have been times when I knew that God would answer my prayers for money for Liberty University, just because I knew that what we did at Liberty University was God’s will. Since we had spent the money according to God’s will, I knew that He would meet our needs.
Only once in the Bible is the phrase used, “the prayer of faith.” This is the prayer that you know you will get before you ask the Father to give it to you. The phrase, “prayer of faith,” is used in conjunction with praying for sick people. There was a time when I knew that God would raise up Charles Hughes . . . Vernon Brewer . . . and Phil Captain. So I asked God to do what I knew He promised to do. Some people might think that I am just claiming faith after the fact, but let me remind you that I said God would heal Charles Hughes when everyone thought that Charles was going to die. I believed that God was going to raise him up, so I said publicly that he would become our graduation speaker for Liberty University that year. But don’t give me any credit, I don’t even think it was anything in me that was responsible for Charles’ healing. It was God! God gave me the “prayer of faith” and God healed Charles. Let’s give the credit to God. “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (James 5:15).
7. Pray unitedly. There is a sense in which God answers the prayers when you pray with someone else. Jesus said, “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). Why does God answer when two or more people pray together? I think there are several reasons:
1. Another person encourages your faith.
2. Another person challenges you to honesty in prayer.
3. Another person makes you more sincere in prayer.
4. Another person brings urgency to prayer.
5. Another person brings credibility to prayer.
8. Pray committedly. When you commit yourself to prayer, you are saying, “I will hang on until I get my answer.” This is what I think happens when we fast. If you have been praying for something and you don’t have an answer, fasting will take your prayer to a higher level. When the disciples couldn’t cast the demon out of the young boy, Jesus was able to do it immediately. Then the disciples asked, “Why could not we?” That’s a good question we need to ask today. “Why we don’t get our prayers answered?” Jesus gave the answer, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
9. Pray triumphantly. There is a time when we need to pray victoriously . . . successfully . . . which means triumphantly.
Let me tell you what triumphantly means. After Paul was converted in Damascus, the Bible says, “Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). I think that was a great triumphant sermon when Paul preached that Jesus was the Savior and the Messiah and then Paul went to Jerusalem. The Bible says, “He spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 9:29). As a result of his boldness, they tried to kill him.
Paul speaks about this triumphant attitude when he says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
10. Pray humbly. We are to pray boldly, but never in our own ability to pray and never in our own faith. When we come boldly to God, we must humbly recognize our weaknesses. We must humbly recognize every thing worthwhile is of God and nothing is of self. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14). Notice the phrase, “humble themselves;” God answers prayer when we humbly ask. Notice the phrase, “heal their land.” That’s what I’m talking about--prayer to change our nation and heal our land.
A little boy was making a road in his sandbox when he ran up against a large concrete block. He couldn’t get around the block, or under the block, and it was too big to move. When the daddy saw the little boy crying, he said, “What’s wrong?” The little boy said, “I’ve tried everything, and I can’t move this block.” The daddy said, “One thing you didn’t try . . .” and the father reached over to grab the concrete block and moved it. The father said, “You didn’t ask your father to move it.” That’s the attitude we need to be as a church to change the world. We need to ask our Father to do it. We need to ask our Father to do what only He can do.
SIX NATION-CHANGING PRAYERS
1. Outlaw abortion in America.
2. Ask God to give us all the money needed to go to the Mountain.
3. Ask God to give us 50,000 students at Liberty University.
4. Ask God to give us a telecast to touch the world.
5. Ask God to help us plant 5,000 churches in my lifetime through our students.
6. Send an infectious revival to Thomas Road Baptist Church that will touch the world.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
For more information on the TRBC Pastor’s Bible Class, log on to the Internet for TRBC Home page at www.trbc.org/pbc.
