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Praying Without Ceasing
1 Thessalonians 5:17; Eph 3:14-21 8 July 2007
Andrew Lim
Bishop J.C. Ryle once made a startling statement / He said:
“I have come to the conclusion
that the vast majority of professing Christians do not pray at all”
And Helmut Thielicke the German theologian-pastor / sadly observed
that prayer is no longer the native soil of our life
that prayer is no longer the air we breathe
And yet prayer is the one single greatest weapon God has put at our disposal
It is only prayer / that moves the heart of God
God shapes the world by prayer
God’s cause on earth advances / and makes headway
when believers give themselves to mighty prayers
Prayer is the only condition to move God’s kingdom
Go back to the Bible and you will be reminded
of great men of God / who accomplished great things
because they were such great men of prayer
Jonah became imprisoned behind the bars of the jaws of that great fish
he couldn’t breathe / for he became entangled by chocking seaweeds
And yet he was delivered on dry land
saved from the storm / the seaweeds / and the Leviathan
Because he prayed / God delivered him
When the plagues fell on Egypt
four times the Pharaoh pleaded for Moses to pray
and four times the dreadful plagues were lifted from him
Hezekiah was told: “Set you house in order for you will die and not live”
He turned his face to the wall and began to weep and pray
and God heard his prayer / and God thru Isaiah said to Hezekiah
“I have heard your prayers / I have seen your tears
You will not die / for I will add 15 years to your life”
After three years of drought / which is God’s judgment
Elijah prayed seven times / and finally the rain came
James / affirms for us
- that it was the prayer of this man that stopped the rain
- and that it was the prayer of this man / that brought the rain Jas. 5:17,18
James wants to emphasize the point that Elijah was a man
just like anyone of us here
but because He prayed / great things happened
With Elijah and Elisha
the power of prayer reached down even to the abyss of the grave
and in each case / a child was pulled out from the jaw of death
and brought throbbing into life again
Now if all this is true of prayer / then it must seem strange indeed
that we seem so slack in our praying
Imagine / we can have this mighty hold on the hand of God
and yet we’ve chosen to let go of the grip
We know that everything depends on prayer / and yet we neglect it
We know that through prayer we can have the prevailing power of God
and yet our lips are sealed and our arms hang limp on our side
and we bring poverty of our lives and leanness to our souls
And all this time God waits and waits
He is still saying: “Call unto me / and I will answer you
and show you great and mighty things which you know nothing of”
Only very few Christians have any idea of the power and potency of prayer
Only very few Christians understand
that prayer is our most formidable weapon
And if that is true
then one single most important thing I can ever do in my life
is spending time with God in prayer
When I am down on my knees praying
I am doing is the most significant thing I can ever do with my time
That / is the one single most crucial thing I can be doing in my life
- communing with God / growing intimacy with Him
Think of it this way / and you will see why praying to God
the most significant thing I can ever do with my time
In prayer / I am thinking of nothing else but what God is saying to me
In prayer / I am hearing no one else / but hearing from God
I am not thinking of anything else / but God
I have absolutely no other interest / but I am resigned to God
Now when you think of it this way / you can see that when I am praying
then / I am doing the most significant thing I can ever do in my life
Prayer is God’s appointed design
for us to come into direct contact with the Living God
- You want to touch God / you touch God through your prayer
- You want to get through to God / prayer is the means
In fact / prayer / is the one thing God most wants from you
Colossians 4:2 says “Devote yourselves to prayer”
God is saying to us here / “My will for you is that you pray to Me”
Our Lord Himself gave prayer the highest priority
He devoted Himself to prayer
Men and women of prayer is what the church most desperately needs
It was Lord Alfred Tennyson / who once said
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”
E.M. Bounds says that the Church often thinks / that it needs
more machinery / better organizations / or the latest methods
but what the church really needs
are men and women whom the Holy Spirit can use
- men and women / mighty in prayer
Bounds says that the Church is constantly straining
to devise new methods /new plans / new organizations
Then he drops this bombshell: “The Church is looking for better methods
God is looking for better people”
And Bounds is right / praying men and praying women / are God’s method
For a number of years / I made the mistake of working too hard
and seeing little substantial results / because I have prayed too little
This new church has been birthed by much prayer
it is still today / being much prayed for / very single day
and we intend to keep in praying for her / laboriously / persistently
I believe with all my heart / that it is only through prayer
that the Spirit of God moves people and grows the church
If I do not cover my study and preaching
through my own fervent prayer and through peoples’ prayers for me
then / I may impart knowledge / but I will never impart life
Eloquence / can only stimulate and inspire
It will have no spiritual anointing / to convert souls
Personally / I have never prayed so much for the church
as I am now praying for this church
I want to build this church / on my knees / relying on God alone
Through the sheer grace of God / I have been brought to a place
where I am having more delight in praying
than I have ever had before / in my entire life
And I have been hearing God say a few thing clearly to me
But it is not only about me / the preacher
This entire church / Christ Sanctuary / must be a praying church
The very source of life and power of the Church / is prayer
Without prayer this Church will be limp / and lifeless / and powerless
It is prayer / that will break down resistant hearts
and make them respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ
It is prayer / that will break down sin / addiction / demonic strongholds
and heal fractured relationships
It is prayer / that will transform this building of brick and mortar
into a holy sanctuary / where God is pleased to dwell
It is prayer / that will kindle the small pathetic glow in our hearts
into a raging holy fire for God renown / and glory
What God wants for us / we are so for from seeing it
and even much further from receiving it
It is only through prayer / that our hearts can be opened to see Him
And as your pastor / I desperately need you / to be praying daily for me
for my physical / emotional / intellectual protection
for a greater hunger in my heart for God
for a clear vision of what God wants to do here in our church
for protection over me / my family / my possessions / and my reputation
We may lack the finance / but if we have prayer
we have everything we will ever need to draw people to Him
On the other hand / you can have the most beautiful church building
but without prayer / the church a lifeless corpse
breathless and cold
If we’re a praying church / we will have God standing right in our midst
we have all the powers we need in our hands to grow His kingdom
But if we leave prayer out / we leave God out / we disengage Him
In our leadership meeting / we cover our meetings with much prayer
- we open with corporate prayers
- then as the afternoon progresses / at certain points
where we sense we needed to stop talking and start praying
we would go down in prayer
We are intentionally making it a pattern in our meeting
at various crucial points / when difficulties arise
to stop talking and to start seeking the Lord’s face
for wisdom / guidance / and oneness of mind
and we can testify that He has come to our aid
As a leadership team
- we are convicted of the effectiveness of prayer
- and we are committed to devoting ourselves to prayer
Prayer should be our first priority / not the last resort
Now our text this morning gives us a simple instruction
1 Thessalonians 5:17 / “Pray continually” / KJV “Pray without ceasing”
What does Paul mean / when he says we’re to pray continually?
He is certainly not saying / “We are always to be saying our prayers”
Didn’t Jesus say: “You will not be heard for your many words” / Mt 6:7
What then / does Paul mean when he said / “Pray continually ”
FIRST / It means praying in such a way that you know in your heart
that you are utterly / totally dependent upon God
that if God does not deliver / you will perish
The reason we don’t pray continually is partly because
we are not overly dependent on Him for any particular thing
We go to bed each night congratulating ourselves
that we’ve done quite well
and because we can mostly take care of ourselves
we’ve mostly stopped praying
The great advancement of science and technology in our time
has made us quite self-sufficient
Technology works / Every time you turn on a machine / it works
and each time it works / your faith in it increases
and your faith in God erodes
It used to be / in the early days / that people prayed a lot
Sailors out at sea / prayed day and night
so much so there was this saying
“If you want to learn to pray / go to sea”
Sailors don’t pray much these days
no longer do they sail on small little rickety crafts
they have thousands of tones of steel beneath their feet
and it would seem that there is now no need for prayer
It used to be that mothers would pray desperately
when their children contracted smallpox / bubonic plague
consumption / tuberculosis / polio / diphtheria
But modern medical advancements have put an end to those illnesses
and an end to prayers for deliverance from them / once for all
You don’t hear those prayers anymore
Modern scientific and technological advancements
are cutting off / one prayer after another
But the Word of God tells us this morning / “Pray continually”
Pray / in such a way that you know in your heart
that you are utterly / totally / helplessly dependent upon God
and that if He does not deliver you / you will perish
What are some things you are totally dependent on God for?
Just what are you totally dependent on God for?
- for the salvation of mum and dad?
- for a spouse? / a job? / deliverance from a terminal illness?
You will pray continually for what you are so totally dependent on God for
SECOND / to pray continually means to pray fervently
it is to come to God / for the same thing again and again
and not only that / but coming to God often / about that same matter
How many parents there are / who pray every day
many times a day for their unsaved child
How many evangelists there are / who pray every day
many times a day / for the person he is now sharing Christ with
How many pastors there are / who pray daily / many times a day
for the people in his flock he is most concerned over
I think it was John Piper / who says
that our default mental state / should be: “O God / please . . .”
Really / it speaks of a kind of praying that will not let go
It is praying fervently
God is looking for fervent prayers
He wants us to pray with a heart set ablaze for His cause
He looks for an ardent / earnest heart
He looks for a resolute / heartfelt / strenuous / tireless / unflagging heart
He wants us to be wholehearted
James 5:16 says / “The earnest / heartfelt / continued prayer
of a righteous man / make tremendous power available
dynamic in its working”
James uses not one but two words / “the effectual fervent prayer”
When all is said and done
it is not the length for our prayers / or the loudness of them
that makes our prayers effective
It is the fervency in our prayers that makes them effective
- coming to God again and again / with the same thing
A good archer does not release his arrow / until the bow is fully drawn
In the same way / for the arrow of our prayers to penetrate heaven
we must draw it / from a bow in full bent
Thomas Watson said
“Prayer without fervency is like a sacrifice without a fire”
When Hannah prayed in her heart in the temple
Eli observed that her mouth her lips were moving
but her voice was not heard
And Eli thought she was drunk and said to her
“How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine”
What did Hannah say in reply: “Not so my lord
I am a woman who is deeply troubled
I have not been drinking wine or beer
I was pouring out my soul to the LORD / 1 Sam 1: 15
That / is praying with fervency / pouring out my soul to God
When did you last prayed like that?
THIRD / praying without ceasing means
praying until you receive what you pray for
It means you never ever come to a point
where you give up praying for the matter
Jesus told a simple story of a guy so desperate
he would stop at nothing / to get at what he needed so badly
- the friend who knocked at midnight for bread
and would not leave / till he got the bread
And Jesus said: “I say to you / though he will not rise
to give him the bread / yet because of his persistence
he will rise and give him as many as he needs”
Now why did Jesus tell a story like that
He wants to tell us that there is a kind of desperate stubbornness
which is really a virtue
And he commended this virtue again
in the story of the poor widow who hounded the judge
until he relented / caved in / and gave her what she wanted
What did Jacob say to God / / when wrestling with Him at the well
“I will not let You go / till you bless me”
That / is the kind of praying God honors
FOURTH / praying without ceasing means
to live and move and work in an atmosphere of prayer
It means to live in such a way that you are constantly aware
that you are communing with God
It will mean that we live in an atmosphere of God-consciousness
It will mean that I share my fears / my hopes / my joy
my disappointment with God
In another words / as I move in life from dawn to dusk
I infuse my praying to my being / (living)
In this way I never cease to pray / because I never cease to live
It means you never have to say: “Lord I come to Your presence”
because you’ve never left His presence
When you live this way / the whole of your life becomes a prayer
Eugenia Price once asked the question:
“Could it be that our entire lives hold the potential of being prayer?
Could it be that prayer is also a state of being?”
Then she said: “I believe so”
There is no other way by which you can fulfill the command
to pray without ceasing except to live and move
in an environment of prayerfulness (I Thess 5:17)
Elton Trueblood once said:
“Prayer can finally be
just under the surface of consciousness / all of the time”
Francis Tyler said:
“Prayer should be the very atmosphere of one's day”
To pray without ceasing is to cultivate the practice of the presence of God
And this will mean talking to God even when I don't feel like doing so
It will mean talking to God / when I am in the pit of my sins
- when I am down and out
Some people have asked:
- when I am swamped with evil / can I still talk to God then?
- when there’s this intense fury deep inside about to explode
can I still pray?
The answer is quite simple / You can / and you should
You can talk to God in your greed
You can talk to God when your flesh burn with lust for a woman
You can talk to God when your eyes become green with jealousy
You can talk to God when you find yourself strutting with pride
You can talk to God
when your heart is inflamed / with the anger over injustice
In fact / often it is when we are in the thick of those raging battles of life
that you will be praying / your most honest prayers
I want to close very soon
And I want to close by make a call for Christ Sanctuary to be a praying church
I want this church to be built on our knees
I want for us to build our families through prayer
I want for our families to be protected from the enemy through prayer
I want for us to be supported out there in our places off work through prayer
Only through prayer / can we love and serve to the glory of God
Read the Word of God / and you will see one evidence stacked upon another
of the immense power / that prayer can unleashed
For the Scripture / tells is / that it was
prayer that divided the seas / and rolled up flowing rivers
prayer made flinty rocks gush into fountains
prayer quenched flames of fire
prayer muzzled jaws of hungry lions
prayer disarmed vipers and rendered poisons harmless
prayer stopped the course of the sun
prayer locked up the rain clouds / prayer broke the rain clouds
prayer bridled the raging passions of human people
prayer routed and destroyed vast armies of the proud
prayer brought one man from the bottom of the seas
and carried another in a chariot of fire into heaven
No human effort / could win such a war
The Word of God says / “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds”
This battle is fought and won on our knees
The devil isn’t worried about how many activities we engage in
He knows that without prayer
all the activities of the church will be rendered impotent
Because the battle is a spiritual one / there is no substitute for prayer
- work is not a substitute for prayer
- programs are a not a substitute for prayers
- an impeccable theological qualification is no substitute for prayers
- management expertise is no substitute for prayer
- money is no substitute for prayer
- charisma and charm are no substitutes / for prayer
The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods / but through human people
He does not come on machinery / He falls on the hearts of men and women
He does not anoint plans
He anoints men and women / men and women of prayer”
And here where we are / only five months into this new church
- if we would experience the power of God in our life and in our church
then we must pray
Samuel Chadwick said these great words:
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying
He fears nothing from prayerless studies / prayerless work
prayerless religion
He laughs at our toil / mocks at our wisdom
but trembles when we pray”
Mary Queen of Scots once said: “I fear the prayers of John Knox
more than I fear all the armies on the face of the earth”
The churches of God everywhere / are under attack
and blessed is the church that has intercessors / rearguards
serving as watchman on the wall / as the prophet Isaiah calls them
to ward off these attacks on the church / Is 62:6,7
The churches of God everywhere / are under attack
and blessed is the church that has intercessors / rearguards / watchman
- crying out to God
- dependent utterly on God
- praying for protection / praying for victory / praying for success
Remember / until you go down on your knees
you haven’t even yet begin to fight / Fight your battles on your knees
And here / right where we are / with so much work to be done
for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom / we must pray
Only prayer / puts Satan on the retreat
Your battle is won or lost / on the field of prayer
You cannot advance / let alone win the spiritual battle
if we are not empowered with prayer
Will you heed this call?
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