SERMON OUTLINE

PRAYER   1 Thessalonians 5.17

Introduction

-Upcoming prayer: Day of Prayer; IDOP; Family Day

-Increase in present needs at Rosedale

Mark 9.29

-Powerless without prayer

-God can help faith to grow

-God is looking for intensity/seriousness from us

-More intense bondage and slavery to sin today

2 Chronicles 7.14

-God’s promise to bless the humble, confessing, praying

-The intense battle for unbelievers and believers

2 Corinthians 10.3-5

-Most powerful weapons are pray, proclaim, godliness

-Strongholds are ideas against the knowledge of God

-Take ideas captive for Christ and let them rule you

Prayer

-Requires time. Make the time in your schedule.

-Leads to intimacy, burden, fervency, faith

Conclusion

1)    Do you want to get in the battle?

2)    Will you choose to come to God in prayer?

3)    Will you let Christ rule your thoughts and your life?

SERMON NOTES

Prayer                          1 Thessalonians 5.17

-Over the next couple of weeks we are going to spend more time in prayer than our normal schedule would call for. Thursday we are having a Day of Prayer for Missions. I encourage you to become part of that Day of Prayer even if you have not participated in a day of prayer in the past. For those who are used to prayer I would encourage you to stretch yourself by taking more than one time slot and perhaps a time slot that requires a sacrifice for you to fill it.

-Then next Sunday we will be sharing in prayer as a congregation, praying for the persecuted church. We will be praying for our brothers and sisters in those parts of the world where being a believer and possessing a Bible is a crime or strongly opposed by the culture and citizens of those countries. We will be praying for the countries of Iran, Egypt and Sudan and for the believers in those countries.

-Then on November 20^th, we are going to spend a Sunday praying together for the church family. So prayer will be more of a focus over the next couple of weeks.

-Over the last couple of weeks I have been burdened to spend more time in prayer for individuals and the church and have sensed a greater burden for you as a congregation in the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of your life. This may mean that we are under spiritual attack. I may be that God is preparing us to be drawn closer to Him. Or it may be both of these things working together. I just see and sense something beyond the ordinary is happening. Because of this I believe that we need to give ourselves more to prayer as we move forward in the work at Rosedale. We need to give ourselves more to prayer both to keep what we already have in relationship to God, and to move ahead to become what God wants us to be in Christ, and to achieve what He has called us to do in Welland. These are crucial days in your individual walk with God, and in my individual walk with God, and in the future spiritual life and fruitfulness of our congregation. Personally I sense a great need to learn how to pray more effectively and with more authority, and would like nothing better than that we move forward together as a praying people.

-As I prayed about today’s message three scripture portions came to mind.

1) The first was Mark 9.29, “This kind cannot be driven out, by anything but prayer.” Some translations say, “by prayer and fasting”.

-In this story, Jesus is up on a mountain with Peter and James and John getting his final instructions for his departure from this world. Down in the valley a man brings his son who has an evil spirit to the remaining disciples and asks them to cast out the demon, but the disciples are not able to do this. They have cast out demons in the past but in this situation they are unable to cast out the demon. When Jesus descends from the mountain the man asks Jesus to cast the demon out of his son. He says to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus questions the man about his son and then says, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” The father of the son honestly answers, “I believe, help my unbelief!” Jesus then casts the demon out of the son. Later the disciples ask Jesus why they could not cast out the demon. Jesus does not put the blame on the lack of faith of the father as so many present day faith healers would do, but on the lack of prayer by the disciples.

-There are two lessons for me in this story. The first lesson is that God can help my faith to grow if I ask Him. I can believe that God is able to do something and yet still have unbelief when I pray and ask Him to do it. God will help change my unbelief to belief as I learn more to trust Him beyond my senses and reason for the miraculous and the supernatural.

-The second lesson in this story is that God is looking for me to show Him that I am serious about His work and His kingdom. The scribes who copied these verses caught the sense of the intensity that Jesus asked of the disciples and added fasting to prayer to show this intensity. Even though fasting is clearly not in the original Greek the sense of the intensity that Jesus required of the disciples is evident in the story. This was a difficult case. The evil spirit was determined not to leave this boy. The evil spirit was not going to give up his territory easily. Today the lost are held strongly in the grip of the Devil through his many lies. The blindness of men is stronger today than ever before and these lost lives will not be won for Christ without effort in prayer on our part. Addictions, abuses, dysfunctional families, depression, anxiety, sexual openness, lack of commitment, the focus on entertainment, multiple religious options, the teaching of evolution and so much more hold the lost and even believers in slavery from their freedom in Christ.

-The question is do you want to fight for the salvation of the lost and for the freedom of believers according to God’s promises or are you content with things as they are? Each one of us will choose how far we are going to press into God to see His power work in and through our lives and the local church. The results will be evident to all.

2) The second scripture verse which came to mind was 2 Chronicles 7.14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” This is God’s promise to His people. God will forgive His people and answer their prayer if they humble themselves, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways.

-Today there is an intense battle going on for the minds and souls of men, women and young people, and for families and children. The flesh we are born with along with the evil world that is under the rule of the Devil, provide for all of us what we need to destroy ourselves and to erase from our lives the image of our creator God. Today even as God’s people we fall for the lies of the world and follow the ways of the world. Most of our problems are the result of our not seeking God and not obeying God’s Word and following God’s ways. We have produced our own prisons and problems by unbelief.

-A choice to come to God in prayer is a choice to redirect our hearts and our minds and our lives in line with God and to have His Goodness and Blessing upon our lives. God wants to work in us and through us. We need to seek Him and correct those areas in our lives where we have not followed after God. This begins with prayer.

3) The third scripture verse which came to mind is 2 Corinthians 10.3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” The most powerful weapons that we possess against the world and the Devil are prayer, the proclamation of the truth, and a godly lifestyle. The strongholds we are seeking to destroy are the ideas and opinions that oppose the knowledge of God. Our goal is to take every thought captive to obey Christ. That goal of taking every thought captive to obey Christ is not only for the unbeliever but especially for the believer. How many of your thoughts are captive to obey Christ and how many of your thoughts are really captive to the way of the world. We all need to become captives of Christ in our thinking and actions by taking hold of the truth, by prayer, and by choosing to live godly lives.

-Prayer requires time. If you recognise that you need to spend more time in prayer the first thing you need to do is make time in your busy schedule for prayer. On the monthly calendars this year I have an appeal that says, “This year I will pray ____ minutes every weekday”. Will you take up the challenge? It is not easy to step into your closet each day to pray and leave the world behind, but if you consider prayer important that is what you must do.

-Through prayer you will come to know God more intimately and through prayer God will work in your life and in circumstances. Over time as you pray you will receive God’s burden for the church and for those you are praying for and for the lost as a whole and that will lead you to more fervent and specific prayer.

-As time goes on you will desire to learn more about people, countries, and gather prayer requests from many different sources.

-As you pray your trust in God to answer prayer will also grow.

-Let me close by saying that I believe that through our present circumstances that God is calling me and you and the church to more prayer and is watching to see if we will respond. Our response to this call to prayer will determine God’s response to our circumstances and to the need of the lost in Welland. Will you make the time to pray? Will you join in the battle for souls and the sanctification of believers?

-This morning I would like us to end our service with a time of silence. We will not have a closing song. During this time of silence speak with God about your present prayer life, your desire or lack of desire for God or prayer, and what you would like God to do in your life. When you are done with your personal time with God you are free to leave.