Pastor Sandy Boller...
Prayer. Care. Share. Building Bridges in Linn County. Loving our Community to Christ!
Last week, Marty introduced the Prayer.Care.Share initiative that some 30 churches in Cedar Rapids are participating in. These churches are choosing to pull our ministries together for the ONE specific purpose of Prayer. Care. Share. Building Bridges in Linn County. Loving our Community to Christ.
Marty outlined for you a schedule of some of the things that all of these churches will be doing in this effort on the same Sundays over the next 3 months. For the next 3 months we will become intentional in praying, caring and sharing with those that God has put into our lives that they will see an increase of major God activity in their lives.
Next Sunday, we’ll be choosing 3-5 names to place on our PCS Bookmarks. My job today is to help you in that preparation.
Great Evangelist Charles Spurgeon: “ There can be no reason for praying if there be no expectation of the Lord’s answering.”
Twofold call to prayer: Lord wants to raise our expectation level that He does and will answer prayer. And He want us to PRAY! Where do we start?
1 Thes.5:17 says “pray continually” Praying as a lifestyle, as you go, always, unceasingly, continually.
Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Our commission then is to pray...pray and NOT give up! If an unworthy judge who feels no constraint of right or wrong is compelled by persistence to deal justly with a helpless individual, how much more will our compassionate Father God answer prayer.
So...assuming we get it...PRAY & NOT GIVE UP.
WHO DO WE PRAY FOR? WHO does God want you to pick for your 3-5 names on your PCS BOOKMARK?
God gives us all a Circle of Influence.
Influence: to produce an affect on others both directly and indirectly. From the moment we are born we begin affecting others. We have influence or an affect on others the moment we are born.
Fact: In any average lifetime, each of us will influence 30,000 people, one at a time. Good or bad.
Whether this influence is strong, or weak, great, minimal or downright ugly, we all have circles of people that have been put into our lives. It is up to us what kind of influence we will have on them. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help we can be a better influence.
With this Prayer, Care, Share initiative we have been given a window of opportunity to get on board, participate with others to pray for those in our circles of influence. A season of being intentional about prayer for those we influence in some way or another.
Who is in your circle?
Plot out your circles. Picture concentric circles with you at the center. The first circle consists of those you have the most influence with like family. Then moves to those that you have less influence with like a neighbor.
It is not – those I absolutely love and adore, to those I like, to those I like a little, to those I can’t stand to be with. Who are you influencing? Affecting?
Here are some possibilities: (we used some "funny" pics on Power Point to make the point)
Your eccentric neighbor.
Your co-workers,
Your hairdresser or barber.
Your brother-in-law in the service.
Your long-lost relatives from the Ozarks.
Example: Kids in the neighborhood who come to your house when they are hungry. (Our daughter & son-in-law: Jenny and Sean)
So...now that I’ve picked my 3-5 names...What do I do with these people when it comes to persistent, believing PRAYER?
BE INTENTIONAL. We must be intentional about loving our neighbor. Have a plan. That’s what PCS Bookmarks are all about.
BE OTHERLY. Sisterly, Brotherly
Jesus said the greatest commandment is this: Luke 10:27 (Message)“ That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence-and that you love your neighbor as you do yourself.”
He commands us to do 2 things. Love Him and love others. We can only be otherly, sisterly, brotherly by loving Jesus first. You can’t do the second thing without doing the first. As you love Him, He gives you the capacity, the compassion to love others as yourself.
C.S. Lewis in his book “The Weight of Glory” says:
“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s own glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it.”
We tend to think too much about ourselves, our “own glory” as he states it and that gets in the way of being otherly, sisterly, brotherly.
What keeps us from being intentional & being otherly?
Failed Expectations:
I have been praying for these people for years and haven’t seen much change. I need encouragement.
Me, Myself, and I:
Life’s circumstances consume me. I can barely get my head above water, let alone think about others.
My Story: The Other( Dull) Day
A dull day. Yes, Lord, I need to pray for…. You know. One of those unloveables. Who never seems to change.
Ah yes. I know Lord. But Lord, I can hardly muster enough words today, this rather dull day to pray for so and so. That twirp.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to stop and listen to what You have in mind for this person.
Yep. Okay. Here I go on this dull day.
So I began to dribble out a few prayers. And then something began to happen. It was a subtle change. I actually didn’t realize the change in my dullness until I was almost finished praying.
And then. He quietly touched me.
I felt a sweetness surround me. I began to hear myself saying to God. “Oh what a privilege it is to be otherly, sisterly, brotherly. I don’t want to miss out on You and your agendas for the unloveables.
And my heart felt warmed again on this dull day.
1. Be intentional. 2. Be otherly.
3. PRAY BIG!
God Can Raise Your Expectations
Think big, think wild as in a big and wild God.
Ask for big, wild things to happen. Major God Activity.
Begin asking God to show you the great worth & value each person (in your circle)is to Him
CS: Lewis: “There are NO ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit- immortal everlasting splendors.”
Future kings & queens.
Keep loving God with all your passion, prayer, muscle and intelligence. And pray with His heart and compassion. Ask Him for it daily. Take this window of opportunity to participate in other people’s lives, to see major God activity show up in their lives and move them closer to the Lord.
And remember Charles Spurgeon: “There can be no reason for praying if there be no expectation of the Lord’s answering.”
DETAILS: Next week…10,000 Christians will be given a PRAYER CARE SHARE BOOKMARK. On it we will ask you to write 3-5 names of people in your circle of influence. People you’d like to see either come to Christ or move closer to Christ.
Are you ready? Have you prayed through your COI? Is God already identifying a few people for you?
Who needs Jesus?
Who needs more of Jesus?
Who would you like to see sitting with you here on Easter Morning?
Who would you like to see experience major God activity in their lives over the next 3 months?
Who would you like to see taking communion with you in three months?
PRAYER…
Show me my circle of influence.
Identify for me, 3-5 names I can PRAY, CARE & SHARE over the next 3 months.
