THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER
Part One
“Powerful Prayer”
Adapted from a message by Wayne Field
Luke 11:5-13
August 20th, 2006
Broadway Baptist Church
INTRODUCTION
At our Executive Board meeting this last Tuesday night Bro Phil gave all of us a challenge. He shared with us the fact that most of our 25 churches are platitude or declining which means most churches aren’t growing or worse yet they are slowly dying. This can be and has been blamed on a lot of things but it all boils down to one fact. We don’t have enough prayer warriors. It’s not that we don’t pray at all. The problem is to many of us have a “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer life. (Recite the rhyme) It becomes just as routine as going to work or school. It’s something we do when we get up and go to bed. On Sundays it’s something we do in church. The thought of it becoming something we do all day long is foreign to most. (Read I Thess 5:16-18) If we want to see Broadway become the place God wants it to be we need to start take our prayer lives seriously.
I. WE NEED TO PRAY WITH BOLDNESS
A. Pray like we believe God will answer
1. Most of the times when we ask God to heal a person we say, “If it be your will.”
B. Pray with humility. (Read Psalms 103:1-3)
1. The phrase, “Bless the LORD” in the Hebrew means to bend the knee. We need to come before the Lord boldly but yet humbly.
2. God will heal in His way and in His time. (Give example of Joni Erickson Tada)
II. WE NEED TO PRAY WITH PERSISTANT PASSION (Read Luke 11:9-10)
A. God wants us to tell Him what we really want. Do we really want our lost family and friends to come to know Jesus? If we do our prayers will reflect that desire.
B. Not only will our prayers reflect that desire but we will continue praying for them until they are saved. The man portrayed in our passage thought enough of his traveling friend to keep on knocking until his neighbor answered.
III. WE NEED TO PRAY EXPECTANTLY (Read Luke 11:11-13)
A. We need to pray like we believe God will answer
B. We need to ask without any doubt (Read James 1:5-8)
CONCLUSION
What about you? How healthy is your prayer life? How much time do you spend talking with Jesus? Do you pray boldly yet humbly? Do you care enough about your lost family and friends enough to passionately and persistently pray for them? It’s my prayer that all of us will begin to take our praying seriously.
