~ Intro: The Journal of Reproductive Medicine reports that researchers at
Columbia University conducted a study with 199 women at an in vitro fertilization clinic in Korea. Unknown to the patients and their doctors, groups of strangers from the US, Canada, and Australia were asked to pray for their success in getting pregnant.
Pictures of patients in the test group were sent to the people praying, and when the women began hormone treatment, prayer continued for the next three weeks. No one knew which group was which until the three weeks were up.
The patients in the study were all undergoing in vitro fertilization, according to the latest statistics from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the success rate of in vitro fertilization averages 22.8 percent live births per egg retrieval.
To the surprise of the researchers, the women who were prayed for ended up with a significantly higher pregnancy rate than those who were not prayed for. "About 50 percent got pregnant in the prayer group and about 26 percent in the non-prayer group," the lead author of the report, Dr. Roger A. Lobo, Columbia’s chairman of obstetrics and gynecology said on Good Morning America.
Prayer works & prayer changes things and we are that church …
a place of prayer.
We are that church … the church inbetween.
• We are to stand inbetween first and foremost through prayer.
- This includes personal & community prayers.
- We must have both or we will never by who God designed and desires us to be.
• God does not desire for us to make prayer an add-on to specific ministries or a monologue of all the things we want from him.
- God’s desire is for every ministry within the body to be prayer-saturated.
- Out of a lifestyle of communion with God, the church receives all the plans, purposes and strategies that she needs to fulfill her mandate on earth.
- Corporate prayer is the way in which God has chosen to bring about his plans and purposes on earth and also bring maturity and humility to his children.
~ Prayer is the plan of God.
~ When we work, we work. When we pray God works.
• When we don’t live out being a place of prayer we are robbing God of what He desires.
So what did God mean when He planned and said this? Why was Jesus so passionate about it and why should we be?
1. A place of prayer is for God’s people and their/our gatherings.
• There are a lot of things we think of when we think about going to church but is prayer the first thing that pops into our minds..
• Consider what 1 Timothy 2:1-8 says …
“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles. I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”
- Of all Paul’s requests of the church, it wasn’t to raise funds for church buildings, outreach projects, or poor saints. It wasn’t for more children’s church volunteers or greeters. It wasn’t for more commitment to small group Bible studies.
~ While all of those things are necessary for the church, they were not his passionate request.
- He always asked for prayer! He always gave prayer.
~ Prayer was the heartbeat of Paul’s ministry and it is meant to be ours as well.
• God’s heart is for His place of worship to be a place of prayer.
- Prayer is the ultimate way of worshipping God.
• This family, community should be built on and round praying.
- It started that way as we looked at two weeks ago (40 + days of praying together)
- Then God fulfilled His promise and gave us an awesome gift.
2. A place of prayer for all nations.(Isaiah 56:6-7)
• A place where all nations are welcome to come and pray.
- A place of racial & cultural unity.
• In the Isaiah passage, God mentions the foreigners that had yet to know Him.
- For many of us, we are those foretold foreigners that were grafted into the family of God.
• A place where all nations are prayed for.
- God’s people must remember that it is His heart for all of us to live in unity.
~ As grafted in believers, we must also remember how precious Israel is to God’s heart and that it is His will for them to be gathered again.
• The patten for praying for our world.
- It’s the same as being witnesses from Acts 1:8 … Jerusalem, Judea, Sameria, the ends of the earth.
- Start praying for where you are, then our region, nation, the world
~ Pray through your contacts (our missionaries, friends, etc.)
3. A place of prayer brings comfort & joy.
• Remember happiness is the result of outward stimulus, joy is the result of an inward condition.
- The inward condition prayer brings about is closeness with God.
- It’s easy to take for granted that the Bible tells us “in God’s presence there is joy.”
• It’s God’s desire that the church be a joyful place where all people do life together with their God and that we all share one another’s joy.
• This place is meant to be a safe place where joy and prayer grow freely.
4. A place of prayer is developed one step at a time.(vrs )
• Ask Jesus for a through cleaning.
- Let Him determine what isn’t pleasing to Him.
- Let Him clean it out.
- We can’t be a place of prayer without throwing out the greed, bitterness, unforgiveness, lust, pride or other uncleanness that live within us.
• Be willing to start off fresh.
- Forget past success or failures … or the fact you may have never tried before.
• Start with simple, humble steps of obedience.
- A spirit of pride and self-sufficiency always kills prayer.
- Regardless of how prayerful or prayerless you’ve been in the past make it your goal for the next 40 days to do something more than you’ve been doing to make this of prayer. (why 28 days makes a habit)
~ Add 5 minutes of prayer every morning, noon or at bedtime.
~ Get others as prayer partners two days a week.(text, message or call)
~ Join with others @ 10am Sundays for 10 minutes of praying for service
~ Set aside the evening of Friday, May 3rd to join us for prayer & worship
- Then watch as God filles this place with comfort, joy and changed lives.
~ Conclusion:
