SERIES: HEALTHY CHURCH!
“THE COMMUNICATION FACTOR”
MATTHEW 7:7-8
OPEN
We continue on in our series “Healthy Church.” Today we look at the communication factor – prayer.
Does anyone else here hate it when you call someplace and you get one of those computer-generated answering devices? Imagine if God operated the same way: As we begin to pray we hear...
Thank you for calling your Heavenly Father’s house. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance.
Please select one of the following options:
Press 1 for prayer requests
Press 2 for prayers of thanksgiving
Press 3 for prayers containing complaints
Press 4 for all other prayers
I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right now. However, your prayers are
important to us and will be answered in the order received, so please stay on the line.
If you would like to leave a voice mail message for:
God (The Father) Press 1 now
Jesus Christ Press 2 now
The Holy Spirit Press 3 now
If you would like to hear the King David Singers sing a Psalm while you are holding, please press 4 now.
To find out if a loved one has been assigned to Heaven, please enter his or her Social Security number
(without dashes), then press the pound key. If you get a negative response try again using area code 666.
For nagging questions about dinosaurs, the real age of the earth, where Noah’s Ark is, and any other
questions, please wait until you arrive here.
We’re but our computers indicate that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again
tomorrow. This office is closed on weekends, and any State or Federal holiday. Please pray again between
9:00 am and 5:00 pm EST Monday through Friday (except holidays).
If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed contact your local pastor.
. Jesus tells us in Mt. 7:7-8 – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Prayer is our most effective tool for both numerical and spiritual growth. The sheer magnitude of the idea that we can communicate with God should stir our souls.
Now, prayer is something that we talk about a lot when we gather with other Christians. There’s even a superficial satisfaction we feel when we’re discussing prayer without actually praying. We listen to another person’s experience and feel encouraged or uplifted. We read and study about prayer and think that knowing more about it puts us in a better place.
While it’s true that studying and discussing prayer can be beneficial, it can only be beneficial when we put that knowledge into practice. Sometimes our increased knowledge serves only to numb our sense of need for
prayer. Establishing a prayer base that bathes our ministries and our people in prayer must be a foundational priority in our operating procedure. Peter Marshall: “Forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time and help us to see that without prayer our work is a waste of time.”
THE PROGRAM OF PRAYER
If you attempt to discover the secret of healthy, growing churches and life-changing ministries by reading
the majority of mail that comes to the church, you’d believe that the secret is in discovering the right
program. Perusing the mailings that come to the church office, it’s easy to assume that there is some magic
curriculum or a perfect program that does the job. We have to remember that the kingdom of God is not defined by programs, curriculum, video libraries, or any other ministry tool that’s being offered.
What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God can be defined as “God’s rule and reign in the lives of His people.”
The kingdom of god is not a matter of human endeavor. It is a matter of spiritual power. Dann Spader writes about the kingdom of God and says: “It is the supernatural work of a supernatural God invading the natural world of our lives.”
If our desire is to see God do His kind of work in our lives and in this congregation, we have to work according to His program. Prayer is God’s ordained program. We are encouraged in scripture to “pray continually”
A.C. Dixon: “When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon
education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do,
and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely
upon prayer, we get what God can do.”
In the Old Testament, Jacob was known as a man who worked according to his own schemes. Over and over, he used humanly devised means, craftily designed as they were, to accomplish what needed to be done.
But he finally met his match. He heard that his brother Esau was on his way to meet with him. Remember how Jacob cheated Esau out of his birthright? When he heard that Esau, the mighty hunter, was coming to meet him with 400 of his men, Jacob was greatly afraid.
How did Jacob handle his fear and distress? He turned to God’s program – he turned to prayer. He spent an entire night alone; most of it devoted to prayer.
The following night God appeared to him as a man and Jacob and God wrestled. Jacob’s only desire in that encounter was to receive God’s blessing so he wrestled with God all night long.
We can try to work it all out on our own. We can be successful in many ways following that program.
However, if we want to do the work of God, we must utilize the power of God. And the only program that releases the power of God is the program of fervent prayer. Like Jacob, we have to be willing to be faithful and persistent in prayer so that God might pour Himself out upon us. Carl Wilson: “...if we do everything else right, but fail to pray, nothing significant will happen.”
THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER
To be vital and healthy as the body of Christ in Martinsville, prayer has to be a priority. When our Lord Jesus walked this earth, prayer was a priority to Him. We need to follow Jesus’ example. And if we’re going to pattern our lives and our church on the Master, we must honestly examine our practice of prayer.
If there was ever anyone who could have claimed that He didn’t need to pray, it was Jesus. He knew the Father’s will intimately. He had a deep commitment to His mission. He was accurate in discerning the needs of others. He was God in the flesh. Yet, Jesus was continually devoted to prayer.
In Mk 1 we read about Jesus’ activities on one Sabbath. His day had been long, draining, and demanding. He healed the sick and cast out demons. His ministry continued late into the night. Yet, He didn’t sleep-in the next morning. Mk. 1:35 – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” He got up early and got busy about prayer. It demonstrates that Jesus placed a high priority on prayer.
Another example is found in Matthew 14. Jesus has just heard the news about the death of John the Baptist. He tries to get away from everyone but the crowds follow Him. He takes His time and ministers to their needs. The day culminates in the feeding of the five thousand.
After such a busy and draining day, what does Jesus do? Take a nap? Hang out with the disciples? No. He spent His time in prayer. Mt. 14:23 – “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Mt. 14:25 tells us that He stayed there until “the fourth watch of the night.” That’s 3:00 in the morning
The early church was a praying church. In Acts 1, when Jesus gave His commission to His disciples, they went back to the Upper Room and held a series of prayer meetings Acts 1:14 – “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
As the church grew, prayer remained a priority. Acts 2:42 – “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
When Peter and John were released from imprisonment for preaching Jesus, the church had a powerful prayer meeting. Acts 4:31 – “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” In fact, in the 28 chapters in the book of Acts, the process of prayer is mentioned 34 times.
Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries: “No man is greater than his prayer life…Poverty–stricken as
the church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of PRAYER. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few PRAYERS. The ministry of preaching is open to few, the ministry of PRAYER- the highest ministry of all human offices is open to all.”
We can sum up this section of the message with the long-running Nike commercial: “Just do it!” Stop just talking about it. Stop just reading about it. Stop just listening to sermons about it. Just do it!
Set aside the time. Perform surgery on your schedule. Find a place. Then pray! Prayer must be something that permeates every aspect of our personal lives and our life as a congregation.
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Several years back, the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus showed the father helping Billy with his
homework. The rest of the family was there in the kitchen.
The father asks Billy, “What is the greatest power source in all the world?” In turn, everyone is pictured thinking what the answer might be. You see each of the children imagining what the answer might be. In their minds, the see high voltage power lines, speeding race cars, nuclear explosions, Niagra Falls, and other powerful things.
Mom pictures something else. In her mind, the greatest power on earth is her children kneeling beside their beds in prayer.
2 Chron. 7:14 – “If my people, who are called by my name, will 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.”
Prayer means that we humble ourselves before God. We give ourselves up to His guidance. It also means repentance. We show godly sorrow for our sins of disobedience. It also means submission. We give ourselves over to His Lordship over our lives.
There was a movie released just a few short years ago called. Jim Carey plays a guy that is upset with God because of the way his life is turning out. God (played by Morgan Freeman) summons Bruce to a meeting and gives Bruce the chance to be God for a short period of time.
While I do not necessarily recommend the movie, there is a scene toward the end that demonstrates submission to God. Jim Carey’s character kneels in prayer and says to God, “You win. I’m done. Please, I don’t wanna do this anymore. I don’t wanna be God. I want you to decide what’s right for me. I surrender
to your will.”
Our problem is that we want to have God-like control over our own lives. We keep getting it wrong and then blaming God. It’s when we submit to God’s work in our lives that we find victory.
CLOSE
I’d be very wrong today to preach on prayer and not allow us time to pray. We’re going to take some time right now for silent prayer. If you want to come to the front and ask for prayer, I’d be glad to pray with you
I encourage you to forget what anyone else thinks about you at this moment. Only consider what God thinks. If you want to kneel or stand, please do so – both have biblical precedent. Take this time to seek the face of God and His will for your life and this congregation. I will then close us with an audible expression to God then conclude this message.
Let’s pray together…
Moses practiced God’s program. It was so important to him that he set up a special tent outside the camp where he could go and pray. He met with God on a regular basis.
One day while meeting with God, he prayed a very bold and courageous prayer. Ex. 33:15 – “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
Moses is telling God that he will stay right there in the desert if the Lord does not personally lead them. He was willing to stay with the snakes, the heat, and the complaining, griping people. He had no desire for the land of promise if the God of that promise would not lead the way Himself.
How about you? Are you following God’s leadership for your life? Isn’t it about time that you did?
