Ten Marks of a Prevailing Church
Mark #10: Uncommon Prayer
Colossians 1:3-14
August 26, 2001
Intro:
A. [The Giver’s Big Hands, Citation: Brian Harris, Mt. Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand]
A young boy went to the local store with his mother.
The shop owner, a kindly man, passed him a large jar of suckers and invited him to help himself to a handful.
Uncharacteristically, the boy held back.
So the shop owner pulled out a handful for him.
When outside, the boy’s mother asked why he had suddenly been so shy and wouldn’t take a handful of suckers when offered.
The boy replied, "Because his hand is much bigger than mine!"
1. That, my friends is why we pray: Because His hand is much bigger than ours!
2. And an uncommon kind of prayer is another mark of a prevailing church.
B. Today we come to the tenth mark of a prevailing church…
1. Mark#1: Uncommon Faith
2. Mark#2: Uncommon Commitment
3. Mark#3: Uncommon Love
4. Mark#4: Uncommon Unity
5. Mark#5: Uncommon Methods
6. Mark#6: Uncommon Hope
7. Mark#7: Uncommon Worship
8. Mark#8: Uncommon Sacrifice
9. Mark#9: Uncommon Fellowship
10. And today, we come to Mark #10: Uncommon Prayer
C. If Somerset is to be a prevailing church, then we must be a people of prayer!
1. If we are going to prevail against the gates of hell, then we must be a people of prayer: both publicly and privately.
2. Prayer is needed because His hand is much bigger than ours.
3. So today as we conclude this series, I invite you to turn to the first chapter of the book of Colossians where we find seven things that we need to be praying about if we are to storm the gates of hell; first…
I. Prayer for Compelling Faith
Colossians 1:3-4, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus…
A. Paul says that he always thanked God for the faith of the believers in the city of Colossae.
1. So why do you suppose that was?
2. Why was Paul so thankful for the faith of the Colossians?
3. Because most of the letters that Paul wrote in our NT were letters written to his personal friends or to churches that he had helped start.
4. But Paul did not start the Colossian church.
5. Paul had never been to the city of Colossae.
6. Paul says that he had never stopped praying for them since he had HEARD of their faith.
7. He had never seen them or met them—he’d only HEARD of their faith.
8. Paul had been to the city of Ephesus, which was not too far away from Colossae.
9. Acts 19 tells us that that all those in the province of Asia heard the Word of God through the converts of Paul in Ephesus.
10. That would include the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae.
11. So there we get a little insight into why Paul had given thanks for their faith, because they had been saved indirectly by his preaching in Ephesus.
12. He hadn’t seen them, he’d only heard of them.
B. And what he had heard about was their faith.
1. Paul heard about their faith.
2. Now there are a lot of things that can be said of a church.
3. Some positive; some negative.
4. But if the church is going to have a reputation—what a reputation to have!
5. A church of faith!
6. Oh that Somerset would be known all over that she is a people of faith!
C. Uncommon faith is one of the marks of a prevailing church.
1. We’ve already studied about the importance of great faith in a prevailing church.
2. One of my favorite stories of faith comes from Bob Russell’s book When God Builds a Church, pp 143-145…
"I mentioned earlier that in 1983, a relocation committee reported that a twenty-acre tract of land just down the street had become available and that we could purchase it if we acted immediately. I didn’t tell you the rest of the story. The committee said, ‘In order to purchase those twenty acres, we need $215,000 in two months.’
"After the board voted to purchase the land, we had to decide how to finance it. One of our elders said, ‘Let’s come to next month’s board meeting with a cash offering and pay for it ourselves out of this leadership body. Then we’ll use that offering as an incentive to encourage the congregation to give one million dollars in the fall toward the new building. I’ve done some calculating, and there are fifty-five elders, deacons, and staff members in this room. That boils down to thirty-five hundred dollars per family next month. Are there any questions?’ There were a few timid questions. Then we voted—and the idea passed! We walked out of the meeting saying to one another, ‘What did we just do?"
"That month we had to ask ourselves whether the church was first in our lives or we were just ‘playing church.’ The chairman of the board got a few calls of concern. ‘I’m just a schoolteacher and don’t make that kind of money,’ one would say. ‘I’m retired and living on a fixed income,’ another would say. But then we began to hear reports of people canceling vacations, selling second cars, dipping into their savings accounts. At least three families borrowed ten thousand dollars each from the bank to contribute to the project.
"When we came to the meeting the next moth, the tension was thick. No one really knew what the others had done—how much they had sacrificed. One elder, Jack Coffee, came to the meeting wearing dark sun glasses, carrying a tin cup, and walking with a cane! He wanted people to know he’d really sacrificed!
"We collected the offering, and the tally committee went off to count it. When they returned with the news, we hadn’t raised $215,000—we’d raised $225,000! The room exploded with joyous celebration. Everyone exchanged high-fives and embraces. We knelt together and thanked God for His blessing.
"When the ‘Amen’ was said, someone said, ‘I’ll be outside polishing shoes.’
Bob Carpenter asked, ‘What shoes? You obviously didn’t sacrifice enough if you still have shoes!’"
D. That, my friends, is the kind of faith that is necessary in a prevailing church!
1. Be it money, or whatever—do we have the kind of faith that it takes to build a great church?
2. We need to start praying for that kind of faith don’t we?
3. We need to start praying that we will be a people of compelling faith!
4. But beware, compelling faith doesn’t not come without sacrifice!
5. If you pray for a compelling faith, its going to cost you something!
6. Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to gain a compelling faith?
7. Then I challenge you to pray for a compelling faith; and second…
II. Prayer for Compassionate Love
Colossians 1:3-4, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of … of the love you have for all the saints--
A. Paul said that he had not only heard of their faith, but also their love for all the saints.
B. Are we a church that is known for its love?
1. [Bob Russell, When God Builds a Church, pp159-160]
"If you’ve ever been in a fighting church, you’ll never want to be there again. One man who was in a church battered by division—so much so that they’d had three preachers in as many years—said to me, ‘I notice one of your slogans is, "Speaking the truth in love." We don’t have a church slogan, but if we did it would be, "If you want to fight, go to First Christian!""
2. Do they know we are Christians by our love or do they wonder whose we are?
C. Uncommon love is another mark of a prevailing church.
1. Our mission statement is: Somerset Christian Church is passionate about Christ; compassionate about people.
2. Somerset strives to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
3. And Somerset strives to love our neighbor as ourselves.
D. And in order for that to be true of us, we must be constantly praying about that.
1. I know I can’t love God like I should on my own, I need His big hands to hold me.
2. I know that I can’t love my neighbor as myself, I need His big hands to hold me.
3. I must spend lots of time in prayer in order to love the way that I should!
4. How about you?
5. Do you love the way you should?
6. How much time do you spend in prayer asking God to give you a compassionate love?
7. If Somerset is to be a prevailing church, we must be constantly praying that God will give us compassionate love; and…
III. Prayer for Confident Hope
Colossians 1:5, the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel
A. Paul said that the faith and love that the Colossians had, sprang from their hope of heaven.
B. Uncommon hope is another mark of a prevailing church.
1. We’ve already studied the hope that we have of eternal life.
2. We studied the new bodies that we are going to get at Christ’s return.
3. We rejoiced that those bodies will have no more sickness, no more disease, and no more crying.
4. We praised God together that we have the hope of eternal life.
C. And Paul is saying here in Colossians that this hope is what gives us faith and love.
1. Faith and love spring from hope.
2. The hope that we have gives us the faith to live boldly and courageously.
3. The hope that we have gives us the love that we should have for God and our neighbor.
D. And of course we need to pray that the hope of eternal life will grow stronger and stronger within us.
1. We need to pray that our hope of eternal life will grow and will cause our faith to increase.
2. We need to pray that our hope of eternal life will grow and will cause our love to grow.
3. We need to pray that God will make us more and more confident of this hope that we have within us.
4. And we need to pray that that hope will cause us to live more confidently in this life.
5. Prevailing churches consist of people who possess a confident hope.
6. We need to pray that we will be a people of confident hope.
IV. Prayer for Changed Lives
Colossians 1:6, that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
A. Paul said the gospel was bearing fruit all over the world.
1. The gospel was changing lives all over the world.
2. Paul knew this and the Colossians knew it because of how the Word of God had spread to them in the first place.
3. But Paul was going on missionary journeys all over the known world in that time and people’s lives were being changed as a result.
B. But then Paul also said that it was specifically changing the lives of the Colossians.
1. The had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and that changed their lives.
2. But not just their salvation was changing their lives.
3. They were changing daily; becoming more and more like Christ.
4. When Paul speaks of fruit being present in their lives, he’s referring to the fruits of the Spirit that he listed in his letter to the Galatians.
5. Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
6. Paul says this fruit was coming to bear in the lives of the Colossians and when these things are becoming more and more apparent in people’s lives, that means they are changing because no one naturally has all of that fruit in their life.
C. And prevailing churches certainly need to be praying for changed lives.
1. Prevailing churches pray that lives would be changed all over the world.
2. Prevailing churches pray for their neighbors lives to be changed.
3. Prevailing churches pray for other churches to bear fruit.
4. Prevailing churches pray for their own church to bear fruit.
5. Prevailing churches pray for themselves to continually be changing more and more into the image of Christ.
6. Prevailing churches are not content to simply be saved and not mature more and more into the image of Christ.
7. Prevailing churches pray earnestly for others to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
8. And prevailing churches continue to pray for the gospel to continue to change their lives after they are saved.
9. Prevailing churches are serious about this kind of prayer because they know that the eternity of men and women and boys and girls is at stake.
10. Prevailing churches don’t just hope that people are changed, they pray earnestly for those people by name because this is serious business!
11. Prevailing church pray for changed lives; and…
V. Prayer for Committed Leaders
Colossians 1:7-8, You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
A. Paul spoke of Epaphras who was his fellow servant.
1. Paul said Epaphras was a faithful minister.
2. Paul said Epaphras told him of their faith.
B. Prevailing churches know that faithful ministers don’t just happen.
1. Prevailing churches know the importance of prayer for faithful ministers, and Elders, and Deacons, and teachers.
2. Prevailing churches know how hard that Satan will work to destroy the leaders of the flock who are doing great things for God.
3. Prevailing churches wouldn’t think of letting their leaders go without prayer protection.
4. Prevailing churches know that just as Satan tempted Jesus, he will tempt every other committed leader and they won’t be as strong as Jesus was.
5. Prevailing churches know how important committed leaders are to themselves, to the church, and to the kingdom of God, so they pray earnestly for them.
6. They pray that the leaders will remain faithful to the Word of God and nothing else.
7. They pray that the leaders will remain morally pure.
8. They pray that the leaders will continue to bear fruit.
9. They pray that the leaders will continue to seek God’s guidance.
10. Prevailing churches know how important committed leaders are and how much Satan wants to destroy their work, so they pray earnestly for God’s protection, love, guidance, and encouragement.
VI. Prayer for Consecrated Lives
Colossians 1:9-12, For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
A. Paul said because of all of this, he has not stopped praying for the Colossians.
1. Paul prayed that God would fill the Colossians with knowledge, spiritual wisdom, and understanding.
2. Paul prayed that the Colossians would live a life worthy of the Lord.
3. Paul prayed that the Colossians would please God in every way.
4. Paul prayed that fruit would be present in the work for God.
5. Paul prayed that the Colossians would be strengthened with God’s power.
6. Paul prayed that the Colossians would gain endurance and patience.
7. Paul prayed that the Colossians would joyfully give thanks for all He did for them.
8. Paul prayed earnestly for the Colossians that they would live consecrated lives.
B. Prevailing churches pray just as earnestly for their people as well.
1. Prevailing churches pray that God would fill their people in the pews with knowledge, spiritual wisdom, and understanding.
2. Prevailing churches pray that the people in their pews would live a life worthy of the Lord.
3. Prevailing churches pray that the people in their pews would please God in every way.
4. Prevailing churches pray that the fruit of the spirit would be present in the work the people in their pews did for God.
5. Prevailing churches pray the people in their pews will be strengthened with God’s power.
6. Prevailing churches pray that the people in their pews will gain endurance and patience.
7. Prevailing churches pray that the people in their pews will give thanks for all God has done for them.
8. Prevailing churches understand the importance of praying that the people in the pews will live consecrated lives; and…
VII. Prayer for Continued Grace
Colossians 1:13-14, For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
A. Paul said that God had brought them out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of His Son.
B. And prevailing churches know that that is exactly what God has done for them as well.
1. Prevailing churches know that God has rescued them from kingdom of Satan and has brought them into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.
2. Prevailing churches know that it is only because of the Son’s love that they enjoy the blessings of His Kingdom.
3. Prevailing churches understand that they have been redeemed by the blood of the Son.
4. Prevailing churches understand the blessing of the forgiveness of their sins.
5. Prevailing churches understand the blessings they are receiving are because they are right with God.
C. Therefore prevailing churches earnestly pray for God to continue to bless them.
1. Prevailing churches know how much has changed because they have left one kingdom and joined another.
2. Prevailing churches know that is only by God’s grace that they are experiencing the blessings they receive in the Son’s Kingdom.
3. Prevailing churches know that they don’t deserve to receive the blessings that they receive.
4. But they also understand that they are children of the King; they are joint heirs with the Son.
5. They understand that the Father has sacrificed significantly so that they can be a part of the Kingdom.
6. And because of this they don’t shy away from asking anymore from God--they ask for impossible things.
7. We understand that our Father wants to bless in extraordinary ways.
8. Our Brother Jesus has told us that we have not because we ask not.
9. Therefore we ask and we ask for things that are humanly impossible.
10. We ask Him to heal diseased bodies.
11. He’s not obligated to answer everything the way we want, but we ask none-the-less!
12. We ask God to save the most hardened of hearts.
13. We ask God to grow the church into a church of over a thousand.
14. We ask God to give us incredible amounts of money to build His Kingdom.
15. We ask God to do humanly impossible things so that He can get the glory.
16. Our Father enjoys blessing His people and we know that we are never going to receive anything extraordinary if we never ask for anything extraordinary.
17. Therefore prevailing churches earnestly pray for God to bless them in extraordinary ways.
18. Prevailing churches pray for God’s continued to blessing.
Conclusion:
A. [God Is Just One Squeal Away, Citation: Rod Cooper, "Worship or Worry?" Preaching Today, Tape No. 108.]
(Psalms 95:6-7, Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.)
Psalms 95:6-7 always sends me back to the family farm.
We raised pigs.
We raised about a thousand pigs a year.
In one field we had two or three hundred little oinkers running around.
Every day, at four in the morning, as I’d walk into the field to feed those guys, they’d scatter.
Once a little pig came up and began to chew on my foot, so I picked him up and began to pet him.
Soon he wanted down.
I said, "No, I’ll let you down when I’m ready."
At that moment, he let out a squeal such as I had never heard.
In about two seconds, thirty mama pigs weighing five to six hundred pounds each were headed my way.
I put him down and headed for the fence.
I barely made it over, and all the mama pigs were snorting and walking back and forth, daring me to come back over and bother one of their kids.
I look back at that and realize the little rascal wasn’t intimidated.
He was out of control, but he wasn’t intimidated.
Why? Because one squeal away he had resources.
Now let me ask you something.
If God’s creatures are that sensitive to the cry of their own, how much more sensitive is the heavenly Father to the cry of His own?
Just one squeal away we have resources.
B. Friends, do you see that if Somerset is going to be a prevailing church, we must make prayer a priority?
1. It must be a priority in our personal lives.
2. It must be a priority in our fellowship.
3. It must be a priority in our ministry team meetings.
4. It must be a priority in our youth ministry.
5. It must be a priority in worship services.
6. Because if prayer isn’t important to us, then Jesus isn’t the Lord of our lives.
7. And if prayer isn’t important to our church, then Jesus isn’t the head of the church.
8. And if prayer isn’t important to us, we’re just playing games with God; going to church is therefore useless.
9. There is power in prayer and we must tap into if we are going to prevail against the gates of hell!
10. All the power in the world is just a squeal away.
11. And His hand is much bigger than ours?
C. How do you need to respond today?
