Note: The introduction I got from Jim Cymbala - Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, and other sources from years ago about importance of Prayer.
Title: Prayers of a Christian
Theme:
Text:
Opening scripture James 4:6-8
James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray (Luke When you pray) you: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Introduction
The Day Jesus got Mad – Mark 11:15-18
Do you remember the day that Jesus got mad? I mean rip roaring mad. Now you are probably like me and most Christians, I like to think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. You know putting his hands around the lamb on his shoulders and carrying him to safety.
Or what about the innocent baby in the manager.
I love the story of Jesus feeding the multitude with the fish and the bread. The Bible says that he had compassion on them.
Even the love he had when he died on the cross brings me to tears.
Or the resurrection, bursting out of the tomb and meeting with the disciples.
Yet there is one picture that seems to be out of place. It is so shocking you almost wonder why God put it in his Word. Oh not just once but twice. Once in John 2 and then here as we read from
Mark 11:15-18 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; (16) And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. (17) And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. (18) And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.
The twelve disciples must have been as stunned as the crowd; notice nothing is said about them helping their master clean house. All by himself Jesus started pitching over the tables, blocking people who were carrying things, and saying,
“Get out of here with that! You can’t bring that through the courts.”
He stormed over to the merchants of oxen and sheep and doves, saying,
“Out! Get your business out of here!”
What happened to the loving Jesus? Anyone who gets that irate and physical surely must not be walking in the Spirit, right? But this was Jesus Christ. In fact, the first time he did this a couple of years before (John 2) he even made a whip out of cords. He was physically thrashing people out of the temple.
JUST DOING THEIR JOB
THE ODD THING ABOUT this event is that if Eyewitness News had interviewed any of the merchants that day, each would have vigorously defended the right to be there.
“We provide an essential service to the worshipers,” they would have said,
“How else are people going to get the required animal to sac¬rifice? If you live any distance away, you can’t be herding your sheep and cows through the streets of Jerusalem. We’ve got to help the program along....”
But, of course, they had added a gouging surcharge to the price. (“We got to make something.”)
Jesus is not terribly impressed with religious commercialism. He is concerned not only whether we’re doing God’s work, but also how and why we’re doing it.
The money changers would have said the same.
“Every¬body has to pay the temple tax, and people can’t be walking in here with Greek or Roman or Macedonian money. They’ve got to use the special coins minted here in Jerusalem. We help people with their currency problems.”
But once again, they were tacking on big-time profits. (“Man’s got to make a living.”)
Jesus is not terribly impressed with religious commercialism. Even for a good cause.
For all of us involved in preaching the gospel, performing music, publishing Christian materials, and all the rest, there is an uncomfortable message here: Jesus is not terribly impressed with religious commercialism. He is concerned not only whether we’re doing God’s work, but also how and why we’re doing it. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, his main questions for me will have to do not with the growth or the budget of the Clifton Church of God, but with why I pastored his church—in what spirit.
If you sing in a choir, the question is not just if you’re on tour note; it’s why you are singing at all. If you teach a class, are you doing it with a heart that radi¬ates God’s love for the students, or for some other reason?
The first-century money changers were in the temple, but they didn’t have the spirit of the temple. They may have played a legitimate role in assisting people to worship, but they were out of sync with the whole purpose of the Lord’s house.
“The atmosphere of my Father’s house,” Jesus seemed to say, “is to be prayer. The aroma around my Father must be that of people opening their hearts in worship and supplica¬tion. This is not just a place to make a buck. This is a house for calling on the Lord.”
What made God’s Son so agitated?
His house was being prostituted for purposes other than what was intended.
As the feathers were flying and the coins were clattering to the pavement and the businessmen were shouting for the police, Jesus said above the roar,
“This place looks and feels more like a mall than a temple. Whatever happened to Isaiah’s (Is 56:7) word about the real point of this building—to be a house of prayer for all nationalities and races? Out! Get out, all of you!”
The Aroma of Prayer
The feature that is supposed to distinguish Christian churches, Christian people, and Christian gatherings is this aroma of prayer. It doesn’t matter what your tradition or my tradition is. The house is not ours anyway; it is the Father’s. Does the Bible ever say anywhere from Genesis to Rev¬elation, “My house shall be called a house of-preaching”? Does it ever say, my house shall be called a use of music”? Of course not.
The Bible say, “My house shall be called a prayer for all nations.” Preaching, music, the reading of the Word—these things are fine; I believe in and practice all of them. But they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God’s dwelling. The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons.
Is 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
THE CHURCH’S MAIN POINT-Church was launched when they were praying.
HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED that Jesus launched the Christian church, not while someone was preaching, but while people were praying? In the first two chapters of Acts, the disciples were doing nothing but waiting on God. As they were just sitting there ... worshiping, communing with God, letting God shape them and cleanse their spirits and do those heart operations that only the Holy Spirit can do . . . the church was born. The Holy Spirit was poured out.
What does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in a prayer meeting, and prayer meetings today are almost extinct?
Let’s not play games with ourselves. Lets not divert attention away from the weak prayer life of our own churches. In Acts 4, when the apostles were unjustly arrested, imprisoned, and threatened, they didn’t call for a protest; they didn’t reach for some political leverage. Instead, they headed to a prayer meeting. Soon the place was vibrating with the power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 23—31).
The apostles had this instinct: When in trouble, pray. When intimidated pray. When
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I have been driven many times to my knees and my own conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”
One of the greatest presidents this country has ever known recognized his dependence on God. He recognized the importance of prayer in the life of a believer.
I believe that God wants to help us more than we realize. I believe that if we know how much he wants to give us direction, wisdom insight, peace, strength, we would be more prone to go to him quicker.
Maybe you are like me and have a tendency to knuckle under and bear the burden and say to God, “Lord if I can’t handle it I will turn it over to you.” I think many times the Lord looks and me and says, “Eddie, you know you carry a lot of unnecessary load, if you would just turn it over to me in the beginning.”
I wait until I get against the wall until I turn it over to him.
I. Prayer recognizes the need for God’s leadership (assistance) in our lives
A. Prayer admits that I can’t do it myself.
“When we work, we work; when we pray, God works”
B. Prayer acknowledges that God is in charge
“We may verbalize that He is in charge but when we make our plans first, and then ask Him to bless them, we are actually declaring we are in charge and hope that God approves of what we do.”
Just as we recognize this in what is called the ‘Lord’s prayer’. “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:9-13
C. Prayer recognizes that my life and all its substance belongs to God.
“God is our partner, not a silent partner, but an interested and active one”.
As a Christian I encourage you to be here on the 3rd Sunday at 9:15. During our Prayer Partner Ministry. As we bathe our church in prayer.
D. Prayer introduces a spiritual realm into our lives of health and growth.
“Books, devotionals, study groups, and other uplifting programs are great, but candidly they are worthless without the supernatural power and anointing of God.”
E. Prayer is the method that Jesus modeled to communicate
with God.
“Numerous times in scripture we read that Jesus ‘slipped away’ to pray.
II. Prayer creates opportunity for blessings as we partner with God.
A. Prayer is the link to the spiritual vitality of the Holy Spirit’s anointing.
Prayer is that channel where God can flow through you and into your life. God will not flow into you what he can’t flow through you. He doesn’t want us to be a reservoir he wants us to be a river. He doesn’t want us to be a clog he wants us to be a channel. He wants to flow through us.
The church never needs to run out of fuel just because we don’t put the link up.
B. Prayer helps us to act as a conduit to unleash the power of God.
Two ways to be used as a conduit
1. Be in tuned or aware to looking for God.
2. Be willing to set yourself or your stuff aside when God comes. (humility)
C. Prayer cultivates miracles
“When we act on our own we do small things. When we invite God to participate through prayer, we open ourselves for the miraculous.”
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32 ¶ And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
D. Prayer brings about change.
“Prayer is after all, a very dangerous business. For all the benefits it offers of growing closer to God, it carries with it one great element of risk: the possibility of change. In prayer we open ourselves to the chance that God will do something with us that we had not intended.”
“You may have heard the saying that said, ‘Prayer changes things’. Well that is not true. Prayer changes people and people change things.
E. Prayer is the avenue for personal reward.
“A Godly Christian knows that they cannot go beyond their own ability. Prayer allows us to go beyond our ability. Remember the prayer of Jabez.
“And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me,
and that You would keep me from evil,
that I may not cause pain.’
So God granted him what he requested.” 1 Chron 4:9-10
What should we pray for?
Pray for the:
1. Faith of Abraham
2. Leadership of Moses
3. Courage and Conviction of Daniel
4. Heart of David
5. Wisdom of Solomon
James “I any man lack wisdom let him ask. See the message translation.
6. Perseverance and Integrity of Job
7. Zeal of Paul
8. Faithfulness of Timothy
9. Compassion of Jesus
