The Communication Factor Series

SERIES: HEALTHY CHURCH!

“THE COMMUNICATION FACTOR”

MATTHEW 7:7-8

OPEN

We continue on in our series “Healthy Church.” Today we look at the communication factor – prayer.

Does anyone else here hate it when you call someplace and you get one of those computer-generated answering devices? Imagine if God operated the same way: As we begin to pray we hear...

Thank you for calling your Heavenly Father’s house. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance.

Please select one of the following options:

Press 1 for prayer requests

Press 2 for prayers of thanksgiving

Press 3 for prayers containing complaints

Press 4 for all other prayers

I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right now. However, your prayers are

important to us and will be answered in the order received, so please stay on the line.

If you would like to leave a voice mail message for:

God (The Father) Press 1 now

Jesus Christ Press 2 now

The Holy Spirit Press 3 now

If you would like to hear the King David Singers sing a Psalm while you are holding, please press 4 now.

To find out if a loved one has been assigned to Heaven, please enter his or her Social Security number

(without dashes), then press the pound key. If you get a negative response try again using area code 666.

For nagging questions about dinosaurs, the real age of the earth, where Noah’s Ark is, and any other

questions, please wait until you arrive here.

We’re but our computers indicate that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again

tomorrow. This office is closed on weekends, and any State or Federal holiday. Please pray again between

9:00 am and 5:00 pm EST Monday through Friday (except holidays).

If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed contact your local pastor.

. Jesus tells us in Mt. 7:7-8 – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Prayer is our most effective tool for both numerical and spiritual growth. The sheer magnitude of the idea that we can communicate with God should stir our souls.

Now, prayer is something that we talk about a lot when we gather with other Christians. There’s even a superficial satisfaction we feel when we’re discussing prayer without actually praying. We listen to another person’s experience and feel encouraged or uplifted. We read and study about prayer and think that knowing more about it puts us in a better place.

While it’s true that studying and discussing prayer can be beneficial, it can only be beneficial when we put that knowledge into practice. Sometimes our increased knowledge serves only to numb our sense of need for

prayer. Establishing a prayer base that bathes our ministries and our people in prayer must be a foundational priority in our operating procedure. Peter Marshall: “Forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time and help us to see that without prayer our work is a waste of time.”

THE PROGRAM OF PRAYER

If you attempt to discover the secret of healthy, growing churches and life-changing ministries by reading

the majority of mail that comes to the church, you’d believe that the secret is in discovering the right

program. Perusing the mailings that come to the church office, it’s easy to assume that there is some magic

curriculum or a perfect program that does the job. We have to remember that the kingdom of God is not defined by programs, curriculum, video libraries, or any other ministry tool that’s being offered.

What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God can be defined as “God’s rule and reign in the lives of His people.”

The kingdom of god is not a matter of human endeavor. It is a matter of spiritual power. Dann Spader writes about the kingdom of God and says: “It is the supernatural work of a supernatural God invading the natural world of our lives.”

If our desire is to see God do His kind of work in our lives and in this congregation, we have to work according to His program. Prayer is God’s ordained program. We are encouraged in scripture to “pray continually”

A.C. Dixon: “When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon

education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do,

and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely

upon prayer, we get what God can do.”