Each of us have some kind of chain in our life that binds us, the chain can be physical, habitual or spiritual.
The question: What chain or chains are their in your life that need to be broken?
Have you prayed about it?
Have you asked other to pray about it?
The key to every chain that can bind us is prayer - but if we refuse to use the key - the chains will continue to bind us.
Our focus this year is Powerful Prayers and throughout the Bible there are many examples of God answering prayers.
Prayers of ordinary people that were Powerful Prayers:
Moses prayed and God spared Israel from judgment.
Joshua prayed and God caused the sun to stand still.
Hannah prayed and God gave her a baby boy.
Solomon prayed and God gave him wisdom.
Elijah prayed and God sent fire down from Heaven.
Jonah prayed and God brought him out of the belly of the whale.
Peter prayed and God raised Dorcas from the dead.
Now I know what your thinking -
those people were Powerful prayERS - I’m not like that -
I’m not like Moses or Joshua or Hannah or Solomon or Elijah or Jonah or Peter - I’m an ordinary person -
I’m not in the same category as the great heroes of the faith.
Yes you are.
You and I are ordinary people - and so were they -
but they believed and trusted in a very extraordinary God.
And you and I are also meant to trust and believe in the same extraordinary God.
The God who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
The God of the possible and the impossible.
The God who delivers, the God who saves,
The God who heals, the God who sets the captive free,
The God who can and does exceedingly more than we can ever hope or think or imagine.
We need to trust the God who loves us and cares for us and blesses us every moment of every day.
We need to trust the God who answers prayer.
So what chain or chains are their in your life that need to be broken through prayer?
What miracle do you need to pray for?
What miracle do you need the church to pray for?
I believe in the power of prayer.
I believe that when people pray God listens.
Last week my daughter was unwell with the flu, not a nice thing to have and especially bad for her with her M.E. and the demands of her studies at Cambridge.
So I sent out a prayer request via email to our church prayer chain and people prayed and God responded.
Andrea runs our prayer chain, I’m the backup when she’s not around, if you are not already part of the prayer chain, can I encourage you to participate.
Speak to Andrea after the service - your prayers,
yes your prayers, can make a difference in the lives of others.
You see, through Prayer:
There is no problem that cannot be solved.
There is no burden that cannot be lifted.
There is no storm that cannot be calmed.
There is no sorrow that cannot be comforted.
There is no hurt that cannot be mended.
There is no fallen that cannot be lifted.
There is no sin that cannot be forgiven.
There is no thirst that can’t be quenched.
There is no hunger that can’t be filled.
There is no mess that can’t be turned into a miracle!
There is no chain that can not be broken!
Let me draw your attention to Acts chapter 12 as an example of physical chains removed as a result of the church praying together in agreement.
1About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. 2He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. 3When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.)
4Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. 5But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.
6The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.
The church, God’s people, prayed and the chains fell off
God set Peter free from prison.
As God’s people we need to pray in the midst of problems.
As God’s people we need to trust God in the midst of problems.
We need to know that God can break the chains that bind us.
Satan may try and bring disruption to our lives but praise God: “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
In the midst of problems we can keep going.
In the midst of problems we can say: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1Cor 15:57)
The Church “PRAYED THROUGH” the problem
It wasn’t time to quit, to run, to hide. It was time to pray.
Not just the Prayer Warriors, not just the Intercessors, the church - everyone prayed and God answered.
The people prayed at John Mark’s mother’s house and God answered in the prison where Peter was sleeping.
They prayed at one place and God answered at another place.
Often when we pray, we can pray for something or someone that is somewhere else and we have faith that God will answer.
We pray for people who are in the hospital and we believe God will answer.
We pray for Missionaries, and we believe God blesses them.
We pray for Iraq, and we believe God will move in Iraq.
But when we pray for something closer to home, in our own everyday lives, we don’t always expect Him to answer do we... Why is that?
Why do we have faith God will do that for them over there,
out there, but lack faith that He can do the impossible, in our own lives, right here, right now?
Remember in Matthew 21:22 when Jesus said “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
That is as much a promise for us right here as it is for those we pray for elsewhere.
Yet when it comes to circumstances and situations or chains in our own lives, doubt seems to creep in doesn’t it.
Or maybe we are afraid of how our lives may change if God did move right here, right now.
Actually, we are not that different to the church that prayed for Peter.
They prayed for Peter in prison, but they were shocked and amazed when he actually showed up at the door.
Acts 12:13-15 says
Peter knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.
When Rhoda went to answer the door, perhaps the last person she expected to be there was Peter.
When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”
The people prayed, but it seems they did not expect God to answer. Their response was
“You’re out of your mind!” they said.
When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”
The people refused to believe her.
I wonder how long Rhoda pleaded with them to believe God had already answered their prayers?
The Bible says Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking.
When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.
Peter motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison.
So what can we learn from this?
Maybe we need to trust God more.
Maybe instead of thinking God can answer prayer
we need to be confident that God will answer prayer!
Maybe individually and corporately as His church, we need to have more faith in God when we pray.
More faith that God will answer.
Church we need to expect great things of God.
Circumstances and situations and problems may come and as a church we need to pray about them.
We need to pray until something happens.
God will provide the light in the darkness.
He can answer every prayer, He can break every chain.
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As I draw to a close, let me remind you that the emphasis in our ministry for eleven months has been Powerful Prayers and Powerful Pray’ERS.
Tonight, if we want to be powerful pray’ers we have a simple choice to make:
We can pray, believe and receive or we can pray, doubt and go without!
In Acts 4:23-31 there is a wonderful account of a church that chose to pray, believe and receive:
When they prayed the building shook.
When they prayed they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
When they prayed they spoke the word of God with boldness.
When they prayed they were united in heart and mind.
When they prayed God moved in power.
God’s power is released in and through a praying church.
The Early Church prayed and Prayed Often and we should always do the same.
But there is a problem in many churches today - prayer has lost its importance and the prayer meeting is the least attended activity in many church programmes.
In churches throughout this land, its hard to find more than a handful of people who are actually willing to find the time to meet together to pray.
They might find time to do something “social” but prayer is relegated far down the list of priorities.
We live in a generation that needs to re-learn the Importance of Prayer. Because to really grow in faith, to grow closer to the Lord, to listen to His voice, we need to pray.
In Acts we see what happens when the whole church really prays - we see what happens when the church is obedient to God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that says:
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 I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.
What do we pray for when we pray?
Do we really seek God’s face?
Do we really humble ourselves before Him?
Do we really repent of the things we do that are wrong in God’s sight?
Do we really expect God to hear and answer?
Do we pray for people in this community to be Saved?
Do we pray for the salvation of our friends and family?
Do we pray for the chains that bind people to be loosed?
When we pray those prayers do we believe that God will answer? Maybe...
When you pray, do you pray that God will Bless You and Make you a Blessing to others?
When you pray, do you pray for the leaders of this church?
When you pray, do you pray about the finances of this church?
When you pray, do you pray that God will build His church?
Friends,
A Praying Church is a church focussed on God.
A Praying Church is a worshipping Church.
A Praying Church is a Giving Church.
A Praying Church is a church where people grow in the Lord, and love and serve each other for God’s Glory.
A Praying Church is a church where Spiritual Gifts are evident.
A Praying Church is a church that knows God is the answer to every problem and that God can break every chain that binds.
A PRAYING CHURCH IS A POWERFUL CHURCH!
A Praying Church prays, believes and receives.
The Church in Acts proves this.
There is power in the name of Jesus,
power to break every physical, spiritual or emotional chain.
Let me encourage you tonight to pray, believe and receive.
For His honour and glory. Amen
