Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Lord, Teach Us To Pray Series: Part 2b - Developing a Personal Prayer Strategy

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

Series: Part 2b

Developing A Personal Prayer Strategy

gtcotr/ws092706

The model prayer was given to the multitudes in Matthew 6 and to the individual disciples in Luke 11 by Jesus. This guide to prayer, if you will, reveals the pattern of prayer used by Jesus to instruct us concerning how we ought to pray.

Matthew 6 KJV

9 ¶ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Elements of The Model Prayer

We Must:

1. Embrace A Relationship With God

* Our Father

2. Acknowledge Gods Higher Perspective

* In Heaven

3. Properly Approach God In Prayer

* Hallowed Be Thy Name

note: Many teachers of the model prayer encourage prayers to stop here and spend some time remembering, respecting and revering the names of God from the Old Testament which in fact reveal Gods nature, character and His intent. Names like:

(1) Jehovah Raah Psalms 23:1 God my Shepherd

(2) Jehovah Jireh Genesis 22:14 God my Provider

(3) Jehovah Nissi Exodus 17:15 God my Victory

(4) Jehovah Shalom Judges 6:24 God my Peace

(5) Jehovah Tsidqenuw Jeremiah 23:6 God my Righteousness

(6) Jehovah Shammah Ezekiel 48:35 God is Here

(7) Jehovah Rapha Exodus 15:26 God my Healer

There are other names and aspects of these same names which give us the nature of our Father and reveal His character and intent to us. Offering these to God in prayer casts relationship and builds faith.

4. Stick To The Purpose of Prayer

* Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

note: This is the meat of prayer. This is where petition begins. Do you know what Gods Kingdom is? It is righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever read in the Word of God just what the Will of God is? His will is good toward men.

Many times we do know the will of God, but more times than not we do. It is with faith we pray Gods will and with faith we trust Him.

It is here that I encourage prayers to stop and begin to cover their God given responsibilities in prayer. These include:

> Self

> Family

> Friends & Co-Workers

> Spiritual Leaders

> Community Needs

> Governments

> Spiritual Impressions

> All People Everywhere

5. Pray For Provision

* Daily Bread

6. Pray For Forgiveness and Grace

* Forgive us as we forgive others

7. Pray For Guidance

* Lead us not into temptation

8. Pray For Divine Deliverance

* Deliver us from the evil one

9. Give Glory To God

* Thine is

Develop and implement a personal prayer strategy using the elements of the model prayer. It was given as a guide for your daily prayer.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

The Peace of God

The Peace Of God

gtcotr/ss092406

Look at someone and say: “Guard Your Heart And Mind.”

Some of you may remember a four point message I preached some time ago. It was off the cuff but it was nonetheless effective.

1. Don’t worry about anything

2. Pray about everything

3. Tell God what you need

4. Thank Him for all He has done

Key Scriptures: Philippians 4 NLT

6 Dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

7 If you do this, you will experience Gods peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

If you do this? Yes! If we do these things we will experience a peace from God which we cannot even understand.

God’s peace will guard your heart and mind.

There is a character in the bible who evidently did not follow this program. Today we are going to use him and his story to learn how to keep ourselves in the peace of God and out of trouble.

How many of you realize that the bible does not pretend to give us all of the details of every person’s life. There is always more to the story than can be written.

Key Scripture: John 21:25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

If everything was written that Jesus did the whole world could not contain the volumes. Some details are just left out but not forgotten.

Moses wrote Genesis about 1500 BC or 2400 to 2500 years after the creation of Adam.

How did Moses know what to write? First God inspired and guided him, but also he had a credible account of these things handed down to him through the generations. More details than he could write.

You see: (don’t let me lose you here - I have a point)

Genesis 5;11;21;25;47 & 50

Name Year Born Age Son Age @ Death Yr Died

God eternal Adam God is life

Adam 0 130 Seth 930 930

Seth 130 105 Enos 912 1042

Enos 235 90 Cainan 905 1140

Cainan 325 70 Mahalaleel 910 1235

Mahalaleel 395 65 Jared 895 1290

Jared 460 162 Enoch 962 1422

Enoch 622 65 Methuselah 365 987

Methuselah 687 187 Lamech 969 1656

Lamech 874 182 Noah 777 1651

Noah 1056 500 H/S/J 950 2006

Shem 1558 100 Arphaxad 600 2158

Arphaxad 1658 35 Salah 438 2096

Salah 1693 30 Eber 433 2126

Eber 1723 34 Peleg 464 2187

Peleg 1757 30 Reu 239 1996

Reu 1787 32 Serug 239 2049

Serug 1819 30 Nahor 230 2049

Nahor 1849 29 Terah 148 1997

Terah 1878 70 Abram 205 2083

Abram 1948 100 Isaac 175 2123

Isaac 2048 60 Jacob 180 2228

Jacob 2108 90 Joseph 147 2255

Joseph 2198 ? Ephraim 110 2308

* Adam lived 930 years

* Adam was 687 when Methuselah was born

* Adam and Methuselah lived together for 243 years

* Methuselah lived 969 years

* Methuselah was 369 when Noah was born

* Methuselah and Noah lived together for 600 years

* Noah lived for 950 years

* Noah was 892 when Abraham was born

* Noah and Abraham lived together for 58 years

* Jacob was 50 years old when Shem died

* Shem outlived Abraham by 35 years

* Moses was born only 71 years after Joseph’s death

Moses reasonably had only 5 intermediaries between him and creation and only 3 intermediaries between him and the flood.

Yes Moses was inspired and guided by God to write the 2300+ years of history we call Genesis, but he also was well familiar with each story as it had been handed down to him in a very credible manner from very credible people - people who knew what they were talking about with more detail than would be written.

This is the same way it is today. We hold the written word of God to be inerrant and we also understand that it cannot contain every detail of every life represented in it.

The Jewish Rabbins not only hold the sacred book of Genesis to be the true word of the Living God, but they also teach many of the details which were not included in the writings, but were passed down from teacher to teacher through the generations. We call these traditional Jewish beliefs. They are interesting but without authority.

One such traditional belief involves the bible character I spoke of earlier. The character we are going to use this morning to learn about the peace of God and how one can get messed up without it.

Who is this character? Jewish tradition identifies of the son of the widow who fed the prophet Elijah her and her son’s last meal during the famine recorded in 1 Kings 17. Moses did not give us his name in the book of Genesis, but Jewish scholars tell us his name was Jonah. That’s right, the same Jonah Elijah raised from the dead and who would later disobey God and be swallowed up by a great fish.

I cannot know if this is absolutely true, however nothing in the word of God points to any fact which would disallow this. Anyway, lets survey the life of Jonah and look at one scripture which will show us why he seemed to have no peace in his life.

Remember the story of Jonah’s life? It reveals that:

1. Jonah disobeyed God

* Why? He had his reasons - but he had no peace.

2. Jonah obeyed God

* Why? He had his reasons - but he had but no peace.

3. Jonah never agreed with God

* Why? He had his reasons - but he had no peace.

4. Jonah had no peace

* With God

* Within himself

* With others

When the book of Jonah ends his story, Jonah is sitting on a road wishing God would bring judgment down on the people he was sent to help. He was so frustrated and depressed that he just wanted to die. He had no peace.

Why? We read earlier where peace comes from. Remember?

1. Not worrying about anything

2. Praying about everything

3. Talking to God about your needs

4. Thanking Him for all He has already done

Then: Gods peace will guard our heart and mind.

It’s God’s peace that will keep us from getting all stirred up, giving voice to our opinions, place to our frustrations, irritations and insecurities, becoming petty, selfish, depressed and self destructive like Jonah did. He was one moody dude riding the roller coaster of highs and lows … no peace with God’s path for his life.

It was not that he did not know what was right, but rather that he did not do what he knew was right. Let God be God!

In one of his clear moments of thought, after three days and nights in the belly of hell, as he put it, he states the truth of his dilemma. “I now know what my problem is!”

Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

Lying vanities - worthless idols - things we allow in our heart and mind to compete with God’s word, will or way.

If Jonah had just:

1. Not worried about it

2. Prayed about it

3. Ask God to meet his needs

4. Been thankful for what God had already done for him

Philippians 4:7 NLT

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

He would have experienced a peace that passed all understanding and that peace would have helped him keep his mind from embracing stinking thinking and his heart from getting hardened.

So, what is the conclusion?

Let us decide:

1. We will not worry

2. We will pray

3. We will depend on God for what we need

4. We will thank Him for all He has done

and …

Gods peace will guard our heart and mind.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Lord, Teach Us To Pray Series: Part 2 - Developing a Personal Prayer Strategy

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

Series: Part 2

Developing A Personal Prayer Strategy

gtcotr/ws092006

The model prayer was given to the multitudes in Matthew 6 and to the individual disciples in Luke 11 by Jesus. This guide to prayer, if you will, reveals the pattern of prayer used by Jesus to instruct us concerning how we ought to pray.

Matthew 6 KJV

9 ¶ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Last week, in our introduction of this series, we established a couple of things we want to keep in mind as we look to tonight’s teaching.

* Although we pray for many, we pray only to One: We pray to God.

* There is but one goal for all prayer: Prayer is made to God for His Kingdom to come and for His will to be done.

We do not pray to, nor do we pray at, other things, spirits, people, dead or living, circumstances or self.

There is a difference between:

* Our voice of prayer which we speak to God

* Our voice of confession which speaks to us and others

* Our voice of command which speaks to other things under our dominion and control. (From mountains to demons to our own thoughts and imaginations)

However, if we remember the basics - We pray to God for His will - then our prayers will be most effective and productive.

This is the foundation upon which we will build our personal strategy in prayer.

Developing A Personal Prayer Strategy

Dr Cho, pastor of the largest church in the history of Christianity thus far, is well known for the dedicated time he spends in prayer. I have had the privilege of visiting his church in Seoul, South Korea on several occasions.

In 1989 I attended a Church Growth conference at Dr Cho’s church which focused on cell groups as a method of keeping a growing church vital, unified and strong. During the conference Dr Cho met personally with a group of pastors and talked with us about his life and ministry practices.

One of the subjects he covered was his disciplined habit of prayer. In answer to a question concerning how he could keep his focus and stay meaningful for hours in prayer each day he discovered to us the prayer strategy he had been using for some time.

Dr Cho related how he sees himself on a journey, jogging in his prayer time. Since he feels personally responsible to cover the whole world in prayer, he said he begins by getting suited up each morning in prayer and putting on the whole armor of God. Afterward, he sets out on his prayer jog without ever leaving the room.

He told us how he first jogs around his city, visiting home after home of relatives, friends, employees and city officials as God directs his daily route. Then he sets out for other cities in his country and usually crosses the border into North Korea praying for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done in and between North and South Korea.

After that his spiritual jog usually takes him basically West to East visiting country after country in prayer, lifting up acquaintances, churches, leaders of nations and international concerns. Many times he finds himself praying for unknown situations only later to see events unfolding in the news concerning issues he has already covered in prayer for some time.

Dr Cho said that he especially covers in prayer those countries which need a breakthrough, speaking God’s will over the nations and peoples of that country. He commands the heavenlies to obey the Word of the Lord and fall prey to the will of God. He asks God for the salvation of numbers of souls in location after location. He builds up the churches and lay leaders, seeking God to send forth more laborers into those harvest fields he sees in his spirit as ripe for the picking.

Before finishing his prayer jog he completes his circle of the globe and finds himself back in the place he started from after literally hours have passed. Since he dedicated himself to prayer in the 1950‘s as a sickly young man in a war torn country with nothing but a relationship with God, God has shown him, in the spirit, things which He would shortly do and has blessed and promoted him from a nobody to a somebody, giving him favor with both God and man, making him the most influential Christian pastor of the 20th century. He is convinced that Prayer is essential to the Christian life.

Dr Cho knows and teaches the importance of following a disciplined pattern of prayer. He incorporates the elements of the model prayer in his daily jogs. He believes that there is something special, spiritual and powerful about spending long periods of quality time in prayer. Not only does he believe, practice and preach this, but he also provides opportunities for people all over the world to visit Prayer Mountain in South Korea.

Prayer Mountain is literally a mountain Dr Cho has purchased through his church and developed it with single prayer grottos which are about 1 meter by 2 meter dug outs into the side of the mountain where people come for a season of prayer and fasting. Miracles result from people dedicating themselves to one day, 3 days, a week or month or more in prayer here.

At any given time one can find hundreds, perhaps thousands of people locked away in one of these prayer closets interceding to the Father for His Kingdom to come and for His Will to be done. For almost three decades now I have called upon the Holy Spirit to raise up intercessors for certain needs from among those there on prayer mountain and impress them to stand in the gap and make up the hedge of prayer with me in some of my most difficult seasons of ministry.

In exchange for this I have offered myself to God to be available to pray at any moment for the kingdom or saints in need who require prayer support. Many times I have been awakened in the night and called to intercede for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done over the lives and in the situations I sense in my spirit, without ever personally knowing the people, places or outcomes of my prayers.

If there is anything we can learn from the model prayer it is that we must have a strategy in prayer. The model prayer gives us guidelines with which to insure we do not leave any base uncovered.

Let me give you some elements of a prayer strategy based on the model prayer.

Elements of The Model Prayer

We Must:

1. Embrace A Relationship With God

* Our Father

2. Acknowledge God’s Higher Perspective

* In Heaven

3. Properly Approach God In Prayer

* Hallowed Be Thy Name

note: Many teachers of the model prayer encourage prayers to stop here and spend some time remembering, respecting and revering the names of God from the Old Testament which in fact reveal God’s nature, character and His intent. Names like:

(1) Jehovah Ra’ah Psalms 23:1 God my Shepherd

(2) Jehovah Jireh Genesis 22:14 God my Provider

(3) Jehovah Nissi Exodus 17:15 God my Victory

(4) Jehovah Shalom Judges 6:24 God my Peace

(5) Jehovah Tsidqenuw Jeremiah 23:6 God my Righteousness

(6) Jehovah Shammah Ezekiel 48:35 God is Here

(7) Jehovah Rapha Exodus 15:26 God my Healer

There are other names and aspects of these same names which give us the nature of our Father and reveal His character and intent to us. Offering these to God in prayer casts relationship and builds faith.

4. Stick To The Purpose of Prayer

* Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

note: This is the meat of prayer. This is where petition begins. Do you know what God’s Kingdom is? It is righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever read in the Word of God just what the Will of God is? His will is good toward men.

Many times we do know the will of God, but more times than not we do. It is with faith we pray God’s will and with faith we trust Him.

It is here that I encourage prayers to stop and begin to cover their God given responsibilities in prayer. These include:

> Self

> Family

> Friends & Co-Workers

> Spiritual Leaders

> Community Needs

> Governments

> Spiritual Impressions

I once heard a news interview featuring Billy Graham. The broadcast journalist smugly recoiled from a statement the evangelist made about it being God’s will that all mankind be saved. After the statement the newsman smarted off disrespectfully saying something to the effect, ‘now surely you can’t believe that it is God’s will that everyone become a Christian, not everyone even gets prayed for’.

To this Billy Graham replied, “Yes they do!” What, you mean that every person in the world gets prayer to God for them to become a Christian? That’s not true, the reporter said. Oh yes it is said Billy. “I personally pray for every one of them every day.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

It’s been more than 20 years since I first heard this and it has helped me set a portion of my personal prayer strategy. In the big picture, after I have prayed for everyone and everything I am responsible for or am impressed for, I break the rest of the world down into two categories: The saved and the unsaved.

I pray for them all that God’s kingdom would come in their lives and that God’s will would be done in their lives on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for their salvation, their comfort, their peace, their joy, their faith and their witness. I pray for their health and prosperity, their ministry and their future. In this way, I hope to follow the example and to insure that every single person in the world has somebody praying for them. (1 Timothy 2:1)

> All People Everywhere

5. Pray For Provision

* Daily Bread

6. Pray For Forgiveness and Grace

* Forgive us as we forgive others

7. Pray For Guidance

* Lead us not into temptation

8. Pray For Divine Deliverance

* Deliver us from the evil one

9. Give Glory To God

* Thine is …

Develop and implement a personal prayer strategy using the elements of the model prayer. It was given as a guide for your daily prayer.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Lord, Teach Us To Pray Series: Introduction - The One Goal Of Prayer

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

Series: Introduction - The One Goal Of Prayer

gtcotr/ws091306

Key Scriptures: James 4 NKJV

13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";

14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."

16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Tonight we begin our series on prayer. In the few weeks we will spend on this most powerful subject we will study:

* The Model Prayer

* The Lord’s Prayer

* The Five Prayers of Paul

* The Prayer of Jabez

* Jacob’s Covenant Prayer

We will look at the difference between:

* Individual and Corporate Prayer

* Praying With Our Understanding and Praying In The Spirit

* Praying Under Authority and Praying In Authority

(The ‘not my will’ prayers; ‘Pray for’, not ‘pray against’)

* Prayer; Confession & Command

(We pray to God; Confess to ourselves; Command spirits)

(Prayer is only to God - we may voice command in Jesus’ Name to bind and loose or move mountains, but prayer is to God)

* Prayers God Hears and Prayers God Refuses To Hear

(1 John 5:14ff; John 9:31; 1 Peter 3:12)

In this series we will find that our praying should be:

* Instant

* Frequent

* Purpose-filled

* Persistent

Together we will see that There is one goal for all prayer. This will help us keep our focus and not become distracted, detoured, derailed, disillusioned, disconnected or dissatisfied in prayer.

What is that one goal? Lets see if we can find it tonight as we introduce the series: “Lord, Teach Us To Pray”

Luke 11 NKJV

1 ¶ Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."

2 So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one."

At this particular point, Jesus and His disciples had just left the house of Mary and Martha who lived in Bethany, a small village on the Mount of Olives just a short walk outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Jesus’ disciples had seen the effects of Jesus’ constant dependence on prayer and had heard Him speak to multitudes about prayer and it’s importance in daily life.

Perhaps they had forgotten what Jesus had told the crowds gathered on a hill just on the North shore of the Sea of Galilee some time ago. Maybe they were too busy assisting with crowd control or other duties to have been able to sit and listen to Jesus teach the multitudes how to pray.

So now, in this place, a long distance from the Sea of Galilee, apart from the crowds of people, they ask for themselves: “Lord, Teach Us To Pray”

Jesus immediately went back and repeated the lesson He had given on the Mount of Beattitudes. Lets turn there to hear what he said: Matthew 6.

In this passage in Matthew, on the Mount of Beattitudes, Jesus is talking about three powerful practices of a follower of God.

* Giving

* Praying

* Fasting

He deals not only with methods but also with motivations for giving, praying and fasting. Jesus reveals that results will vary depending on the motivation and method of the individual. He discourages hypocritical approaches and self interest or pride motivated prayers.

Lets look at Matthew 6 NKJV

7 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

9 ¶ "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Tonight is only introductory to the topic of prayer, however I do want to set the stage for our next lesson and give you at least one central truth concerning prayer.

Just the simplicity of reading these two accounts where Jesus instructs both the multitude and the individual disciple to pray after the same manner, gives us great understanding into the overall scope of prayer.

First: There is an evident Pattern of Prayer supported by the statements:

* Matthew 6:9 “In this manner, therefore, pray …”

* Luke 11:2 “When you pray, say …”

It’s like a plan. Remember: fail to plan, plan to fail. Having a plan removes so many elements of distraction and insures we cover all the bases. We will talk about developing a prayer strategy next week if -

The next thing we recognize is our Position in Prayer as we acknowledge our relationship with God, “Our Father”

Then there is the always important offering of our Praise to God in prayer. “Hallowed be Your Name”

Next Jesus teaches the Purpose of Prayer.

This is the central truth I want to leave you with tonight.

There is one goal for all prayer … One goal for each and every prayer. It is the Purpose of Prayer. Can you guess what it is?

The One Goal of Prayer:

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

The one goal of each and every prayer should always be connected and directed toward God’s kingdom and God’s will being advanced and enhanced in the earth as it is in heaven.

This is one reason why it is imperative that prayer warriors, intercessors and others given to prayer know the Word of God, the scriptures, the Holy Bible. Without knowing God’s word, how can one pray God’s will with understanding and faith.

And, when we are petitioning God for what we want, we must always be very mindful of our place.

Are we praying as one under authority or one in authority?

One in authority, under the authority of God but in authority over the subject of our prayer request, can rightfully petition God for whatever they desire, followed by “Not my will but Thine”.

However, one under authority both to God and to man concerning the subject of our prayer request, need be conscious in prayer, seeking the will of God while supporting the desire of the one God has placed in charge and not championing their own individual interests in the matter.

Our basic posture in prayer is a posture of petition and support. We are always instructed to:

* Pray for, not against!

We are straightly instructed not to pray even against our enemies, but rather for them.

Remember: We pray to God for His will.

Here at our church we ask all of our dedicated prayer partners and prayer groups to keep their prayer focused on the revealed will of God and the primary vision of our church: Souls

The primary aim of our prayer is that souls might be born again, freed from sin and secure for all eternity. If we can accomplish this in prayer, we have been most beneficial to God. You see, God is not willing that any perish. Salvation of souls is God’s highest will and greatest priority. This is why we have the power.

Luke 10:20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."