Sermon 3-20-11

“A PRAYING CHURCH IS A POWERFUL CHURCH” - part II

Colossians 4:3-4

In the previous verse Paul calls the church to be a praying church. We looked at the kind of prayer life we need to have (persistent, attentive, thankful). I told you that a praying church would be a powerful church. Today we will look at the kind of prayers we are to pray.

II. THE KIND OF PRAYERS WE ARE TO PRAY (vs. 3-4)

1. Specific People

“meanwhile pray also for us” - Paul asks the church to be praying specifically for him and his co-workers, probably the ones you find starting in verse 7.

This shows us that it is not wrong or selfish to ask people to pray for you. In fact you are being selfish if you don’t ask for it. You are not only neglecting yourself but robbing people of the opportunity to be blessed by doing something like this for you. It also shows us the need to pray specifically for people by name.

Many times our prayers go something like this: Lord, bless our missionaries, armed forces, congressmen, people of Japan (tsunami), etc. That’s not all bad, sometimes that’s all we can do. But our prayer life can be so much more effective and powerful when we are able to pray for specific people by name.

Benefits of praying for specific people by name:

- You will become more engaged and concerned for them which will lead you to pray with more perseverance, attentiveness, and thankfulness.

-You are more likely to know their specific needs which will enable you to pray more efficiently for them.

-You bless them and encourage them more than you realize. (Have you ever had somebody come up and tell you they’ve been praying for you? That’s humbling, it moves you. It blesses you.)

-You will actually know when God answers that prayer and you can then praise Him for it.

Let me put this in perspective:

I pray for my children as I suspect you do for yours [if you don’t, you picture is on the devil’s Hall of Fame in Hell!!!] With 5 kids it is real easy to just pray “Lord bless the kids today, watch over them, protect them, blah, blah, bhlah, amen.” It would certainly be quicker. But what if I took the time to lift each one up by name, and spent time praying for each one, the things I know they are struggling with, their needs, their futures, God’s call on their life, etc? Would that type of praying go farther and accomplish more than just a generic prayer? You know it would!

Luke 22:31-34 - “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”

Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”

Jesus prayed for Peter and for the times of testing he was about to experience. That’s specific! Do you know how things turned out for Peter? He had some shaky moments but he survived and went on to accomplish great things in the early church. There is great value in praying for people specifically.

Now on the off chance that anyone here would argue with this concept, maybe saying something like, “who’s got the time to pray for all this stuff for someone?” I would just respond by saying, do you really want me to answer that! Get a copy of last week’s message.

So who are some of the specific people that ought to be on your personal prayer list?

-Spouse

-Kids

-Parents

-Anyone who as asked you

-Doug and Sue Ann

-Your Pastor

-Lost People

Ezekiel 22:30 - “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in ghe gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

Lost people aren’t praying, someone needs to stand between them and God and pray specifically for them and their broken relationship with God. You ought to have at least three lost people you pray for regularly...

2. Specific Purposes

“God would open a door” - ‘door’ refers to an opportunity.

A. Opportunities to Share Jesus

Imagine all the things Paul could have requested prayer for...he is in jail right now. If he was going to pray for a door to open, wouldn’t you expect it to be the jail door!?!? What would you ask for? To be fair the early church engaged in prayer for Peter’s release from prison (Acts 12)...but Paul’s biggest prayer concern is that God would give him more opportunities to share about Jesus Christ. It was more important for Paul to be a faithful minister than a free man.

Phil. 1:12-14 - “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

When we pray for our missionaries by name like Colosse would have done for Paul, we should ask specifically for God to open doors for them to share Jesus. But let’s make this a little more personal...We need to pray and ask God to give US opportunities to share Jesus. Here is why...

FACT: 90% of all Christians rarely if ever share their faith in Jesus with a lost person. For most it comes down to either you are afraid to do it, or just don’t think much about sharing. [I don’t condemn you b/c I too struggle with this.] This is where our praying can help us become more evangelistically minded. I find that I am much more likely to witness when I have been praying for opportunities. It puts it on your mind and burns it in your heart. We need to ask daily for God to open doors for us to share and be aware of the open door so that we don’t walk past without walking in!

Don’t hide behind your prayers. Here is what I mean by that statement - It is easy to pray, “Lord help this church to reach more people for you.” What you mean is “let the AWANA’s program lead kids to Christ, help the preacher to give a good evangelistic sermon where people get saved, let the missions team or visitation team lead people to Christ.” By all means pray for these groups to be successful, but don’t neglect to pray about God using you personally to share Jesus with others. In fact if you come to me and ask me to pray for somebody you know who isn’t saved I will - and I will pray that God gives you the opportunity to be the one to reach them!

B. Courage to Share Jesus

Verse 3 deals with the opportunity to share Jesus and verse 4 is now a prayer for the courage to do it when the opportunity presents itself.

Why would Paul need courage? The answer is back in verse 3. He is in jail for sharing the Gospel. But the very thing that got Paul arrested is the very thing he wanted God to help him continue to do. Paul is eventually going to stand before some very powerful people. Some will believe because of what he says, some will consider Christ, others will laugh at him, and some will become irrate to the point that he is finally killed for proclaiming Jesus. I’d say that takes a little courage.

Most of us will not lose our lives or even our jobs because we share Jesus with others. We may lose a friend or two along the way but regardless of who we share with there is always anxiety over how will they respond, what will they think of me?

There is nothing wrong with being scared, nervous, or anxious about sharing. It could conceivably cost you something. The answer is not don’t do it, the answer is ask God for the courage to do it.

*****

Here is the simple truth that is at stake today:

When we fail to pray for specifice evangelistic purposes we will fail in evangelism. And if we fail in evangelism what good is the church? We might can continue to minister to one another but eventually we die out and who is left? You can grow through transfers but if all we do is swap sheep around...well, sheep die too.

Here are some specific prayer requests for our church I want to ask you to pray for regularly...

100 people in worship (local)

To start a new church (somewhere its needed and likely culturally different from us)

Our mission efforts in **** (to the ends of the earth)

Now you may say I thought we were supposed to make a greater effort to pray for specific people and not just stop on general requests...I did and we are. This is where we connect this message to last week’s message. After you pray for those three things go back and pray the prayer I taught you last week-

“LORD, what do you want from me? Thank you that you will stand with me as I begin to do it.” In other words what is your involvment in these prayer requests? What is God calling you to do to help make them happen?